Hangzhou Peak (Subtle Lotus)

**Hangzhou Peak** (杭州峰, *Háng Zhōu Fēng*) is the residence of the Hangzhou Peak Lord, Shi Yichen and his disciples.

## Description

Located high in the peerless and periless mountains that barricade Gusu and the Cloud Recesses, dwells Hangzhou Peak. Awe-inspiring mountains peaks surround the heavily warded and constantly snowing lands that make up the secluded Mountain that serves as the residence for the 4th-ranked Peak Lord. Amid the coldness and security of the mountains, one can feel a sense of wariness amongst it's residents. As Hangzhou Peak is part of the 10 Peaks overseen by Madame Wei, their residence often bustles with the vendors selling hardy foods that last the disciples many wintery nights and days, as well as other oddities to occupy their avaliable waking hours. Here aristocratic children are raised into graceful and serene sword masters that adaptely dispatch monsters in the name of the common good. Their goals are to serve the common people's interests, to remain detached from worldly or spiritual affairs of the mortals, and cultivate to reach immorality.

As one of the oldest Peaks, they have continued to produce righteous and upstanding Peak Lords

## History

### Historical Accurate Founding

Founded in an unknown period by Xue Chonghai's aunt and uncle, the rogue cultivators Xue Huoyan and Xue Baihe, those who would come to found Lianhua Peak were originally residents of the Burial Lands. After the destruction of the Burial Mounds and their degration into a land of the forbidden, filled with spiritually inpure energy, those people that survived the purgue of the Burial Mounds would flee in search of a newer home in which to settle themselves. Eventually their search would lead them into the Fenghua Diong Mountains, located in the middle of the Heavenly Alter's Pass in the middle of that is now known as Northern Gusu. Xue Huoyan became the leader of the peak that they named Lianhua Peak after their eldest child

### Falsefied Founding

Coming into being by the only aristocratic wandering cultivator of the organization that would become the 10 Peak Lords (in the future), Ming Fan, the earlier records regarding Hangzhou Peak indicated that it originally held the name of **Lianhua Peak** (莲花峰, *Liánhuā Fēng*), named so in the memory of the previous late Sect Leader (5th)'s wife Madame Lianhua who perished while defending the sect in battle against the machinations of the greedy Lanling Jin Clan. In the fifth month of the Peak's establishment, Ming Fan lost his life while defending the mountain from rampaging bandits and before the battle that would end in his death passed the succession of the Peak down to the person that would become it's first Peak Lord Lianhua Ningying.

### Era of 1st Peak Lord

With the succession secured, Ming Fan proceeded to battle the rampaging bandits for sixty-three days and night before finally sucumbing to his battle wounds on the sixty-fourth day of battle. Lianhua Ningying, the first Peak Lord to ascend of the newly created hierachy of Peak Lord, proved her mettle in battle by driving the invaiders off the Lianhua Peak and shoving them off the peak to die on the forest floor below. She was later christened as the **Lianhua Long Baohu Zhe** (莲花龙保护者, *Liánhuā Bǎohù Zhě*) by her disciples.

The era of the first Peak Lord of Lianhua Peak was considered to be a monumentous occasion because not only was the Peak Lord a slow starter in forming a golden core, she managed to do it while having had recovered from the multiple of qi deviations that she suffered as a result of starting cultivation extremely late. During this era, the oldest-known direct ancestors of Wen Mao and the Qishan Wen clan trained underneath the watchful eye of the 1st Peak Lord Lianhua Ningying who bestowed them with the Yin Metal, a metal with the ability to absorb pure spiritual energy in high concentrations. Unbeknowst to the 1st Peak Lord, the metal had actually been absorbing resentment from the countless battles that Lianhua Peak cultivators waged against the forces of the Demon Emperor since the time of her Shizun Ming Fan's tutelague underneath his own Shizun Xue Yang.

## Synopsis

Hangzhou Peak is first mentioned in-universe by a Lanling Jin Clan member that officially resigned from the clan, Jin Hana who is depicted complaining about the complex succession rituals of the Peak to a disguised Nie Huaisang, her bemoaning leading her to remark that even the Lanling Jin don't have centuries upon centuries of barely rituals to comb through for a single ceremony. Intrigued by the topic of conversation, several Lanling Jin members approach her but are restrained from questioning her further by Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian who approach her to ask their questions first. However, they are stopped from asking Hana any questions when Shi Yichen and Xiao Ling approach them to retrieve Hana.

Xiao Ling is dismayed by the drunken state in which they find Hana while Shi Yichen is amused, remarking that ordinary cultivators couldn't even consume half of the alcohol that Hana goes through in a single day.