in hindsight, it boggles me people took so long to figure out there are in fact FIVE shards of Yin iron, not four
I mean yeah, cardinal points and all (four representing death, too), but consider
FIVE CLANS with a looong history of not trusting each other, and fighting for dominance and several petty reasons.
would you really trust them with four shards of the most dangerous weapon ever built? to divide them and hide them in secret locations?? what, do you involve all the clans in hiding every shard? or give away four for secrecy and leave one of them clans out?
of course not. you shatter it in five pieces and trust each clan to hid it as well as they can, never disclosing the locations other than saying it’s a place full of spiritual power to keep the radioactive thing in check. and trust nobody’s coming to sniff around
(except the Lan do, of all people)