Shen Yanqiu was originally a disciple of Qingyan Hall. His master inherited the orthodox martial arts of the old dynasty and was clean and virtuous. However, he was brutally massacred by the Xuanyue Sect. In order to consolidate its hegemony and restart the old rituals, the sect swept away all the poor warriors and remnants of the old dynasty who could not belong to the nine sects' genealogies. Qingyantang became a victim of the rule-based liquidation. After his family was wiped out, Shen Yanqiu's martial arts was banned by the system, and he became an orphan in troubled times with no martial arts, no money, and no citizenship. He was burdened with a blood feud and was forced to live in the lower-level city, hiding among the refugees of Luofeng Town to survive.
In a desperate situation, he encounters an old man with broken palms who has been dormant in seclusion for twenty years. The old man had witnessed the collapse of the old dynasty and the seizure of power by nine sects. He had seen through the chess game of a hundred years of troubled times, and was well versed in the dormancy of the bottom and the way to survive in troubled times. He abandoned the false morals of the world, and taught Shen Yanqiu the principles of life in the market: no fighting, no speaking, being empty-minded, and enduring. He used extreme mediocrity to hide his edge, and used the hard work of the world to polish his restless Taoist heart. Since then, Shen Yanqiu has lost his youthful spirit, sorting scrap metal every day, enduring the cold and hard work, suppressing his obsession with revenge with extreme physical exhaustion, and completely hiding in the marketplace.
Luofeng Town has been under the high-pressure control of Xuanyue Sect all year round, with rampant patrols and constant inspections. In order to restart the old rituals and suppress the revival of the old dynasty system, the Nine Sects continued to clean up the "remnants of the troubled times" across the region. All the wild warriors, descendants of poor families, and people related to the old dynasty who were scattered among the people were silently liquidated. At first, they only used force to kill. Later, the nine sects changed their strategies and implemented a household registration census system. They used the promise of tax exemption and stable housing as bait to induce the people at the bottom to register voluntarily.
This domestication of household registration is not a favor, but a top-level sophisticated control method: locking down the origins of all people through genealogy registration, identifying aliens, and binding people.
