Yuan Jiang

Yuan Jiang is the most radical of three city planners placed under Zuo Mo's command in Little Mountain Jie. His proposal to turn a settlement into a lethal trap becomes Golden Crow City's conceptual foundation, while his engineering knowledge helps convert Zuo Mo's dense formation design into a working combat city.

Biography

Little Mountain Jie and Golden Crow City

Yuan Jiang proposes that the new city should not merely resist Clear Sky Old Forefather but exploit the jindan's pride and kill him inside a purpose-built trap. Zuo Mo appoints Yuan Jiang leader of the three planners, and Yuan Jiang answers with an extreme design: a compact city for combatants, six hollow peaks linked into a gigantic Seven Star Formation, and no wasted space. Zuo Mo expands the plan into a network of hundreds of formations, while Yuan Jiang supervises construction, explains the work through a jade scroll, identifies critical materials, and professionally tests the Hard Lightning battle watchtower. He notes its excessive demand on ningmai cultivators, prompting Zuo Mo's rotating-team solution. Zuo Mo privately judges him a rare genius, but Yuan Jiang remains wary of both Zuo Mo and A Gui; he is alive when last shown, and his later fate is unstated. (Chapters 248–254, 258–259, and 262)

Appearance and personality

Yuan Jiang has a pale, white face, and his eyes shine with an almost insane intensity when he presents his plan to kill a jindan inside the city. The corpus does not provide a fuller description of his clothing, age, or build. (Chapter 248)

He is audacious, exacting, practical, and absorbed in construction. He can imagine an unprecedented city, yet he openly admits when formation expertise is needed and raises material and power-consumption problems instead of hiding them. His enthusiasm coexists with fear of Zuo Mo's coercive power and A Gui's unexplained danger. (Chapters 248–249, 251, 258–259, and 262)

Abilities and cultivation

Yuan Jiang's documented specialty is city planning and construction rather than personal combat. He understands structural layout, hollow-peak engineering, large formation integration, material requirements, and field testing. He recognizes the Earth Vein Root, Granite Steel Overgrowth, and Fire Lotus Foundation and explains the resulting city's construction in a jade scroll. (Chapters 249 and 251–254)

His work also has clear limits. He says that the original Seven Star concept requires a formation expert, and Zuo Mo's formation knowledge greatly exceeds his own. During testing, Yuan Jiang identifies that a Hard Lightning shot consumes too much power for a single ningmai cultivator but does not himself provide the final solution. No cultivation realm, spell, weapon, or combat feat is documented for him. (Chapters 249–250 and 258–259)

Relationships

• Zuo Mo: Zuo Mo recognizes Yuan Jiang's talent, puts him in charge of the planners, and radically develops his initial concept. Yuan Jiang calls him Boss and works under his authority, but remains frightened enough that Zuo Mo chooses not to approach him casually. (Chapters 248–250 and 262)
• The other two planners: Yuan Jiang leads the three-person planning group. Their individual contributions are not separated in detail, but they work together on the city under his direction. (Chapters 248–249)
• Golden Crow City workforce: Yuan Jiang acts as construction supervisor and provides the knowledge used by the people hollowing peaks, placing materials, and assembling the city. (Chapters 251–254)
• A Gui: Yuan Jiang is frightened by A Gui, whose silent presence he cannot understand. No direct personal relationship beyond that fear is documented. (Chapter 262)

Items

• Construction jade scroll: Yuan Jiang gives Zuo Mo a jade scroll explaining the city's construction. It records professional information rather than functioning as a combat talisman, and its later disposition is not stated. (Chapter 251)
• Construction materials: Yuan Jiang identifies rare components such as Earth Vein Root, Granite Steel Overgrowth, and Fire Lotus Foundation during the building process. These are Golden Crow City resources, not his personal possessions. (Chapters 252–254)