Daoist Sect

Biodata

Feature	Details
Name	Daoist Sect
Affiliation	Great Chu cultivation world; one of its three foremost sects alongside the Great Grain Sword Palace and Brahma Sound Temple 196 263
Occupation/Role	Daoist cultivation holy land renowned for talismans, formations, and the manipulation of Primordial Qi 19 263
Status	Active, but rebuilding after severe internal strife and the loss and recovery of its Dragon Vein 659 663
First Appearance	Chapter 11 11

Background

The Daoist Sect was regarded as the highest-ranking sect in the Great Chu Dynasty; for the previous century, only the Great Grain Sword Palace had been considered comparable to it. Though both sects withdrew from public activity for roughly a decade, their reputations endured 18.

Its main strength lies in Daoist arts, particularly talismans and formations. Daoist talisman arts are described as unrivaled, with techniques such as Purification and Primordial Breath treated as untransmitted secrets of the tradition 19. The sect's scale is vast: its disciples and branches are spread throughout the land, making individual oversight difficult even under strict leadership 259.

The sect's ancient core is Heaven's Origin Mountain and its Celestial Origin Mystic Realm, which has existed since the sect's founding a thousand years earlier. The realm preserves precious inheritances from an era when the Daoist Sect possessed multiple Heaven-Human Realm experts 601.

Cultivation Tradition

Daoist realm	Function
Foundation Establishment	The second realm. Cultivators sense and store Primordial Qi, establishing the basis for later Daoist cultivation 11 48.
Qi Manipulation	The third realm. Daoist cultivators manipulate Primordial Qi and commonly condense a natal artifact 11.
Core Formation / Grotto-Heaven	The fourth realm. A Dao Fruit Seed is used to form a Grotto-Heaven in the dantian; when it matures fully, the cultivator naturally achieves a Nascent Soul 48.
Yin Spirit	Advancement requires the condensation of a personal Dao Principle; the realm contains twenty stages 233 291.
Yang Spirit	A major threshold for the sect's senior cultivators. Dao Domains require sufficient divine-soul strength and comprehension to develop toward a Great Dao 546.

Daoist cultivation is identified with the path of cultivating Dao: comprehending Great Dao meaning to enrich one's inner Grotto-Heaven. This differs from the Great Grain Sword Palace's cultivation of Essence and Brahma Sound Temple's cultivation of Qi through the body 554.

Organization

The Daoist Sect is divided into seven principal branches, referred to in different accounts as Pavilions, Sanctuaries, or Halls. Their public ranking and influence are unequal: the All-Under-Heaven Pavilion is consistently first, while the Incense Offering Pavilion is last 288.

Branch	Known specialty or role	Known figure
All-Under-Heaven Pavilion	The sect's highest-ranked branch; excels in combat, killing arts, talismans, and formations 109 609	Tang Fengshu
Jade Purity Sanctuary	Teaches women both Daoist arts and swordsmanship; its sword inheritance derives from the Great Grain Sword Palace but is incomplete 229 307	Shu Ning; Shang Yi
Supreme Sanctuary	A powerful but increasingly isolated branch whose disciples became entangled in conflicts with Xie Xuanyi 288 294	Li Chen; Fang Hang
Incense Offering Pavilion	Specializes in talisman drawing, formation diagrams, celestial observation, and Aura Observation 109 122	Candle Daoist
Longevity Hall	Practices fate- and fortune-related arts; its techniques include Righteous Heart Lightning 197 497	Perfected Person Xuanzhi
Myriad Mysteries / All Wonders Hall	A senior branch associated with guarding Heaven's Origin Mountain and sect rules 563 600	Yǎn Wēi Zhenren

Leadership

Figure	Position and significance
Master Xiaoyao	Sect Leader. He entered Astral Projection, leaving his physical body in the void while his soul traveled the long river. The loss of the Daoist Sect's Dragon Vein deprived him of the waypoint needed to return 657.
Grand Master Chongkan	Former acting ruler during Master Xiaoyao's absence. He enforced strict precepts, diverted the sect's Luck/Auspicious Qi, and secretly gave its Dragon Vein to the Ren Shou Palace. An eighth-level Yang Spirit, he ultimately died after his defeat 260 600 618.
Junshan Zhenren	Reincarnated Adept and influential senior of the Jade Purity lineage. He opposed Chongkan's rule, worked to expose the Dragon Vein scheme, and later helped guard the restored Daoist Sect Dragon Vein 307 600 663.
Tang Fengshu	All-Under-Heaven Pavilion Master and one of the sect's strongest younger-generation cultivators. After advancing to Yang Spirit, she was considered the natural candidate to act as Sect Leader, but did not return to the sect 82 659.
Perfected Person Xuanzhi	Longevity Hall Master. His long seclusion on Qingnang Mountain concealed extraordinary cultivation; he broke through six realms in one morning to reach Yang Spirit Sixth Heaven, then challenged Chongkan over the missing Luck/Auspicious Qi 565 566.

Key Locations and Assets

• Heaven's Origin Mountain / Tian Yuan — The Daoist Sect's foundational Mystic Realm and the site of its Dragon Vein. Its security and accumulated Yuan Qi make it the sect's most important stronghold 600 657.
• Celestial Origin Mystic Realm — An ancient sealed realm within Heaven's Origin Mountain, containing immense spiritual energy, Daoist patterns, and relics preserved since the sect's founding 601 603.
• Shadow Wall Grotto-Heavens — Stone Grotto-Heavens used to imprison powerful demon captives. In earlier times, outstanding disciples could enter to attempt to tame these demons as guardian spirit beasts 601.
• Tian Yuan Grand Formation — A vast formation entrusted by Master Xiaoyao to Deng Baiyi. Within Heaven's Origin Mountain, she can use it to mobilize the realm's accumulated Yuan Qi and act as an incarnation of Master Xiaoyao 658.
• Qingnang Mountain — The sect's spiritual paddy fields became a measure of its fortune: abundant harvests signify flourishing Daoist Sect Luck/Auspicious Qi, while withering fields signify decline 564.

History

Rise to prominence

The Daoist Sect rose to become the world's number one sect during a prosperous era in Great Chu. Its standing was reinforced by generations of exceptional cultivators, vast blessed lands, and abundant cultivation resources, though comprehension of Dao Principles remained dependent on individual fortune 108 225.

The sect maintained a long-standing competitive relationship with the Great Grain Sword Palace. Their strongest figures frequently emerged as rivals in the same generation, including Tang Fengshu and Xie Xuanyi 271.

Chongkan's administration

After Master Xiaoyao entered seclusion, Chongkan became the sect's effective ruler. He prioritized its public reputation and imposed increasingly severe rules, including the lightning punishment and confinement of Tang Fengshu over her relationship with Chen Jingxuan 260 271.

Under his rule, disputes among the seven branches intensified. The sect's ideals of purity, detachment, and naturalness came into conflict with Chongkan's pursuit of authority and control 555.

The Luck/Auspicious Qi crisis

Xuanzhi discovered that Qingnang Mountain's spiritual fields had withered because the sect's Luck/Auspicious Qi was no longer flowing there. Chongkan refused to reveal where the accumulated fortune had gone and instead revealed his ambition to advance beyond the Yang Spirit Realm 564.

Xuanzhi challenged him, triggering a Yang Spirit Tribulation and rapidly reaching Yang Spirit Sixth Heaven. Despite resisting Chongkan's eighth-level Yang Spirit power, Xuanzhi and the green ox were later imprisoned in Heaven's Origin 565 566 572.

Fall of Chongkan

Junshan Zhenren infiltrated Heaven's Origin Mountain with Deng Baiyi to expose Chongkan's diversion of the seven branches' Luck/Auspicious Qi and his plan to gamble away the sect's millennium-old foundation for the Ren Shou Palace 600.

Chongkan's crimes included extracting the Daoist Sect Dragon Vein and offering it to the Ren Shou Palace. His death ended his rule, but left the sect's mountain gate damaged, its branches weakened, and its internal order fractured 618 659.

Restoration

Master Xiaoyao's projection returned to Heaven's Origin Mountain after Chongkan's death. His mere manifestation forced the Hall Masters to submit; Candle Daoist was incinerated after attempting to take Junshan hostage, while Yǎn Wēi Zhenren, Li Chen, and Shu Ning accepted responsibility for their inaction 645 646.

The Dragon Vein was eventually returned, though it had been severely drained. Junshan Zhenren and Deng Baiyi became its guardians, while the Tian Yuan Grand Formation remained the sect's principal safeguard during Master Xiaoyao's continued Astral Projection 659 663.

Relationships

• Great Grain Sword Palace — Long-standing rival and fellow great sect of Great Chu; the two sects have repeatedly produced the era's foremost cultivators 18 271.
• Brahma Sound Temple — Fellow member of the world's three major sects. Its revival and the growth of its Buddhist heirs were viewed as a challenge to Daoist Sect prestige 196 338.
• Ren Shou Palace — Chongkan secretly offered the Daoist Sect Dragon Vein to this faction, endangering Master Xiaoyao's return from Astral Projection 600 657.
• Great Chu Dynasty — The sect holds immense influence within Great Chu, though it operates as an independent cultivation power rather than a court institution 18 263.
• Great Grain Sword Palace's Jade Screen Peak — Holds the missing half of the Jade Purity Sanctuary's swordsmanship inheritance 307.

Trivia

• Daoist Sect disciples often wear veiled hats or black gauze while traveling, both as a customary appearance and as protection from unwanted attention 211.
• The sect's main formation was personally forged by Master Xiaoyao and had remained intact for centuries before the internal Yang Spirit conflict damaged it 571.
• Deng Baiyi's mastery of talisman patterns allowed her to operate the Tian Yuan Grand Formation despite her comparatively low cultivation realm 658.