Vast Heaven Sect

Biodata

Power Progression

The sect’s advancement includes increases in collective strength, improvements to its cultivation grounds, and its eventual ascension beyond the ten-great-sect ranking.

History

Foundation and Early Supremacy

The first Great Emperor Haotian came from a small mountain village without exceptional talent or a peerless divine weapon. He founded the sect through his own efforts, choosing a mountain range that initially possessed little beyond its size. The sect remained there rather than relocating as its strength increased 11 902 903.

Its decisive rise came under the tenth-generation Great Emperor Haotian. Following his victories over demonic and evil leaders, the sect claimed the position of number one under heaven and retained it for the next four hundred years 1 11.

The Medicine Saint Lu Changfeng was another peerless expert of that era. His Vermilion Bird Spirit Fire and medicine-refining skills helped the sect rise and made its medicine refining the best under heaven. He later vanished, and most of his legacy was lost 3.

The Savage Wilderness Tribes were important early allies. Their assistance helped the weaker sect survive several crises, a debt preserved in its historical records 351.

Chu Xinghe’s Arrival

Chu Xinghe initially sought expulsion because the Misfortune Compass promised him peak Martial Emperor cultivation if he left through that route. His confession during an investigation instead exposed the deaths of Demonic Shadow Sect spies. The Grand Elder rewarded him, accepted him as a disciple, and promoted him to elite status 1.

His later acquisition of the Haotian Sword Casket and access to Haotian Battle Intent established his exceptional position. Although he declined Gu Mingchao’s offer of personal discipleship, the sect master continued treating him as a personal disciple and potential successor 12 13 14 56.

The sect’s leadership repeatedly interpreted his apparently wasteful decisions as far-reaching strategies. His attempts to drain its resources consequently became associated with its growing wealth, influence, and reputation 318 320 477 478.

Expansion and Intercontinental Responsibilities

The sect sheltered the declining Savage Wilderness Tribes and supported their demon-beast research. Their eventual incorporation as the Beast Taming Palace connected an old alliance with the sect’s new breakthroughs in beast cultivation 351 428 477.

Its activities expanded beyond the Blazing Sun Continent. When Chu Xinghe became trapped on the Demon Star Continent, the sect seized control of the passage’s surroundings and refused to allow its closure. It later undertook the repair of Ghost Valley’s ancient formation to protect both continents from escaping ghosts 531 667.

Its ancient spirit temple ticket scheme assumed extra resource costs on behalf of smaller factions and Rogue Cultivators. Public praise across the three continents increasingly described it as a holy land before its formal ascension 844 851.

Ascension to a Holy Land

The revival of Spiritual Qi exposed a weakness in the sect’s ancestral grounds: the Haotian Mountain Range failed to produce a heavenly phenomenon while other factions’ cultivation sites improved. The sect rejected relocation and instead committed to reforging the range’s spiritual roots 902 903 904.

The effort consumed its treasuries, palace reserves, and members’ personal resources. When the Heavenly Dao blocked further progress, disciples, elders, miners, deacons, and stewards all contributed rather than abandon the attempt. Chu Xinghe’s final offering carried the Misfortune Compass’s power into the formation, breaking the blockade 913 914 915.

The resulting Vast Heaven Limitless Realm exceeded every previously recorded holy-land phenomenon. During the subsequent ceremony, the old “Number One Sect Under Heaven” plaque was replaced with the Vast Heaven Holy Land plaque. Martial Emperor City inherited the former title, while Vast Heaven ceased participating in the ten-great-sect rankings 916 930 931 949.

Organization and Leadership

Leadership

Palaces and Membership

• Palace system: Initially consists of eighteen palaces beneath Haotian Palace, with disciples studying under their respective elders 14.
• Haotian Palace: Reserved for the sect master’s personal disciples, who bear the title of chief disciple; it does not house ordinary elite or core disciples 14.
• Other membership categories: Include inner, outer, elite, core, and miner disciples, alongside deacons and stewards serving its enterprises 1 14 389.
• Business administration: Deacons rank below elders and can participate in important affairs. Their authority makes even stewards influential figures outside the sect 360 389.
• Later expansion: Palaces added beyond the original eighteen include the Artifact Refining Palace, home of the Ouyang Lineage; Dark Moon Palace, home of the Dark Moon Clan; and the Snake Clan’s Nether Snake Palace 765.
• Later outer-sect system: Separate outer-disciple recruitment ends. By this period, entry into the outer sect occurs through demotion from the inner sect, leaving it unusually powerful 1715.

A prospective sect master must gradually master every cultivation technique in the Technique Repository Tower and learn the organization’s public and hidden affairs 66.

Major decisions are generally discussed by senior figures in the Haotian Grand Hall. Disciples directly involved in a matter may also be invited to express their views 1458.

Headquarters and Facilities

The palaces have distinct architectural styles and colors. The mountain gate is made from black jade, with its original sect-name inscription written by the tenth Great Emperor Haotian 765 825.

Techniques and Strategic Capabilities

Cultivation Inheritance

• Haotian Battle Intent: The sect’s strongest cultivation technique in its early appearances; access is normally restricted, but Chu Xinghe receives it directly 14.
• Formless Heart Sutra: Produces a broad increase in the sect’s strength, with further improvements expected through continued cultivation 292.
• Technique restoration: An Zhi completes damaged cultivation methods and can devise techniques suited to particular disciples 292 390.
• Technique security: The Great Sage undertakes to encrypt advanced methods against theft. The Dark Moon Clan’s own techniques remain unsuitable for outsiders because of their attributes 291 292.

Demon-Beast Control and Spirit-Beast Cultivation

• Control method: Uses the Charm Art and Ancient Heaven-Reaching Talisman Art among its steps 428.
• Combat applications: Controlled beasts strengthen disciples and support research into coordinated beast battle formations 430.
• Spirit Beast Mystic Art: Enables beasts to absorb Spiritual Qi, increase their cultivation, and develop intelligence comparable to humans 473.
• Controlled distribution: The sect shares a watered-down version with friendly factions while retaining the strongest form 477 478.

Formations and Defensive Power

• Holy-land mountain-guarding formation: White Tiger designs it around the entire Haotian Mountain Range, combining 1,080 grand formations. Its stated goal is to withstand Main God-level attacks without being quickly breached 848.
• Disguise detection: The mountain-guarding formation exposes disguised Ning Clan disciples attempting to exploit the ticket scheme 855.
• Spirit Gathering Formation: Reforges the mountain range’s spiritual roots and becomes the focal point of the confrontation with the Heavenly Dao 909 913 914 915.
• Ten Thousand Ghosts Grand Formation: In Ma Liang’s hands, empowers a Ghost Emperor beyond an ordinary Martial Emperor and protects Ma Liang as its formation eye 243.

Rebirth and Public Dao Instruction

• Power of Rebirth: Chu Xinghe offers rebirth blessings, within his capabilities, to factions on good terms with the sect. Access becomes a powerful incentive for diplomatic cooperation 464 465 479.
• Extreme Realm Heaven Stele: Opened to outsiders for Dao comprehension, with the sect covering their costs. Participants gain improvements in martial cultivation or state of mind 920 924.
• Illusion-realm access: After defeating the stele’s phantom, Chu Xinghe invites challengers from all sides to enter its illusion realm at the sect’s expense. Ma Liang estimates that the annual cost could equal an entire Spirit Crane Palace’s resources 934.

Relics and Resources

• Haotian Sword Casket — The sect’s strongest spirit weapon in its early inheritance. It contains nine ancient divine flying swords and stands outside the ordinary weapon-grading system. The tenth Great Emperor Haotian obtained it but could not wield it; Chu Xinghe later does 12 13 29 74.
• Vast Heaven Sword — The combined form of the sword casket’s nine divine swords. Unlike their individual effects, its defining attribute is overwhelming offensive force, including explosive damage and piercing power 2309.
• Ten great divine swords — A famous part of the sect’s arsenal. The foremost, the Heaven-Supporting Sword, belongs to Gu Mingchao and surpasses divine grade 12 13 74.
• Haotian Mirror — Allows observation of disciples inside the Spirit Tomb and later broadcasts views of the sect’s palaces to the world 11 341.
• Spirit Pool weapons — Its stock grows through expeditions for materials and commissions to specialist forging lineages; spirit imbuement improves strength and compensates for weapon flaws 68.
• Treasury reserves — Supply nearly seventy percent of the materials required for the Ten Directions Heavenly Patrol Great Formation, compared with roughly thirty percent from all other participating powers combined 529.
• Holy-land plaque — Made from Purple Cloud Immortal Wood and presented by Cheng Xiaotian. Chu Xinghe declines the honor of inscribing it and asks Gu Mingchao to do so 930.

Recruitment and Disciple Welfare

Selection

• Annual intake: Earlier recruitment selects three thousand inner disciples. Other major sects wait outside Haotian City to recruit the rejected candidates 91 95 99.
• Personal supervision: Chu Xinghe oversees recruitment despite having joined only the previous year, an appointment that astonishes applicants 91.
• Recommendations: Allied lineages may receive first-round passage as repayment for past assistance, but the second round still tests actual ability 369.
• Strict admission: Kneeling outside the gates does not secure entry; the text states that at least a hundred people die doing so each year 91.
• Enterprise recruitment: Historically less restrictive than disciple recruitment, allowing spies to reach deacon positions and prompting tighter rules 360.
• First holy-land intake: After the Holy Ascension Ceremony, the Grand Elder announces that Chu Xinghe will examine applicants for the holy land’s first public recruitment, which plans to admit ten thousand disciples 950.
• Cross-racial recruitment: The holy land later postpones an intake until the Four Continents merge so that Evil Spirit Clan applicants can participate alongside other races 1579.

Support and Training

• Resources: By the later sect period, disciples and elders of other palaces can draw unlimited resources as needed; Haotian Palace is explicitly excluded from resource allotments 825.
• Family subsidies: Introduced for disciples from humble backgrounds. Chu Xinghe’s proposal also calls for supporting the families of disciples killed in service for generations 694 695.
• Cross-palace guidance: Wu Man, an evil spirit in Spirit Crane Palace, can seek cultivation help from chiefs and elders throughout the holy land 1453.
• Equal treatment: Its later training model gives disciples the same resources and treatment despite the instability such a system traditionally risks 1745.
• Cultivation grounds: Later reports credit its Nine-Colored Spirit Stone cultivation grounds with speeds exceeding those of ordinary Rogue Cultivators by more than tenfold 1965.
• Spirit-treasure adjustment: Ouyang Qingyan uses the Power of Chaos to perceive a treasure’s spiritual structure and adjust it to suit its wielder 1451.

Culture and Conduct

The sect prizes character and mutual assistance alongside talent. During the Spirit Tomb Gathering, the elders contrast Chu Xinghe’s willingness to help others with newcomers who treat fellow disciples as competitors. Its many palaces are described as unusually united 11.

This does not eliminate internal competition. Disciples compete over becoming the future grand elder who will assist Chu Xinghe rather than challenging his expected succession. Later accounts describe competition as healthy rather than murderous or exclusionary 475 1453.

Its reputation for benevolence coexists with ruthless retaliation. Attacks on Chu Xinghe are treated as threats to the sect’s future, while harm to disciples or their families can provoke threats of sect war 180 283.

Its administration is not presented as flawless. Enterprise officials sometimes benefit from personal connections and tolerated misconduct, while centuries of supremacy leave some disciples inexperienced in genuine life-and-death combat 142 375.

External Relations and Major Operations

Allies and Incorporated Groups

• Martial Emperor City — Friendly rival whose disciples visit for competitions and whose leaders attend major ceremonies. It becomes the number one sect after Vast Heaven ascends beyond the rankings 110 249 931.
• Dark Moon Clan — Regards Chu Xinghe as its Saint and commits itself to safeguarding his sect; supplies major combat power and technical expertise 291 292 531.
• Savage Wilderness Tribes — Early allies later sheltered and incorporated as the Beast Taming Palace 351 477.
• Formation Spirit Clan — Pledges assistance with Ghost Valley’s ancient formation and later contributes to the holy-land effort 667 913.
• Divine Wood Clan — Receives the sect’s assistance and later participates as part of its collective effort toward ascension 628 913.
• Feng Lineage — Granted Tianrun City, subordinate-lineage status, and two annual disciple recommendations after Feng Yuyan rescues Chu Xinghe 64.
• Bai Clan — Offered a protected patent arrangement for Spirit Pattern Cloth, paying the clan ten percent of each robe’s value rather than taking its formula for free 723.

Rivals and Conflicts

• Demonic Shadow Sect / Demonic Sect — Enemy factions involved in espionage, threats against the treasure vaults, and schemes to undermine the sect’s projects 1 161 667.
• White Crane Sect — Crushed after Jiang Yunhe attempts to kill Chu Xinghe. Surrendering the implicated family and resources fails to save its senior leadership 180.
• Cloud Firmament Sect — Repeatedly challenges or obstructs Vast Heaven, but retreats before threats of war and later avoids confrontation despite its own sect master reaching Martial God 283 384 531 610.
• Zhou Medical Hall — Enters a pill-price war after Zhou Fengshan’s criticism of Chu Xinghe turns a peace offering into a provocation 208.
• Ning Clan — Challenges the sect in the spirit-medicine trade, prompting an open price war. It later attempts to exploit ticket refunds through disguised disciples; its formation-exposed agents lose the invested resources 829 855.

Economic and Public Initiatives

• Lending: Supports affiliated powers with resources at generally reasonable interest and grants extensions to those genuinely unable to repay 302 311.
• Debt repayment campaign: Repays verified debts with the highest interest even when creditors have lost their IOUs or tokens. The resulting reputational pressure prompts its own debtors to repay or arrange installments 318 319 320.
• Blazing Sun Star Spirit Beast Grand Prix: Offers enormous prizes and Spirit Beast Mystic Art inheritance to the top hundred, excluding its own disciples from the rankings 493.
• Monthly open days: Allows guided tours through nearly the entire sect on two days in the middle of each month. The program openly accommodates outside investigators and uses transparency to demonstrate its strength 764 765.
• Rogue Cultivator outreach: Public Dao instruction and practical assistance inspire pledges to answer the holy land’s future calls for aid 920 924 925.

Notable Quotes

“Vast heaven shall never perish! Vast Qi shall endure forever!” 29

“Heaven blesses Vast Heaven!” 695 914

“So I, Chu Xinghe, am not the Vast Heaven Sect's future. Its future should be every one of us in the Vast Heaven Sect.” 930