Ever since the Fei Clan split apart, Wangyue Lake was shattered into a patchwork of families great and small, and became the Xiao Family's secret hunting ground. Though no tribute was collected, every mine, spiritual spring, and blessed land on the East Bank fell under Xiao Family's grip—it had already been so for more than two centuries.
Truth be told, in the eyes of the lakeside families in earlier years, the Li Family was nothing more than a puppet, supported by the Xiao Family as it crossed the buffer territory to prop them up on the southern shore. The Li Family, acting on orders, dismantled the Yu Family's marketplace, forcing the Yu Family step by step into decline.
Viewed from the grand machinations of the realms, Xiao Chuting sacrificed little yet, with a single move, bypassed the prohibition which barred Green Pond from annexing territories across counties, causing the Yu Family to collapse at the peak of its power—a masterful stroke of calculation.
