"The southern outskirts" refers to the factory district outside the southern walls of the city of Jinping, a location in Tai Sui by Priest. These factories serve as the beating heart of Southern Wan's ever-expanding industrial output.
The southern outskirts are, as the name implies, the area at the southern edge of Jinping. This area lies beyond the city walls, separated from the city proper, and its environment is very different. The land past Jinping's southern walls is filled with countless factories of every size, and these factories churn out inumerable goods to be shipped out all across the continent. The textile industry is particularly massive, with great amounts of fine cotton yarn leaving Jinping every day.1
The workers of the southern outskirts live largely in shacks within the factory district.1
The advent of immortal master Lin Chi's Moon Plated Gold brought a great industrial revolution to the mortal world, and Jinping's southern outskirts are in many ways this revolution's seat. Although the rapid development of technology has left its mark all across Wan, nowhere is it more visible than in the innumerable factories that have swelled to fill the southern outskirts.1
Textiles and other goods made in the southern outskirts are now shipped all across the continent, largely by way of the grand canal and the Cloud Soaring Flood Dragon.1
Due to the ever-increasing population and incredbly high rent prices within the city proper, most workers in the southern outskirts cannot afford to live within Jinping's walls. They have assembled a ramshackle town of their own instead, living in shacks within the factory district itself.1
Despite this, the promise of work draws in hopefuls from all across Great Wan, and every year, especially just after the New Year, countless laborers pour into this shantytown.1
In order of appearance. * indicates a chapter in which The Southern Outskirts are discussed but do not appear physically.