Dao Master

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Dao Master (道主)
Affiliation	Demonic Cult / Sacred Cult
Occupation/Role	One of the Demonic Cult's eight supreme powerhouses
Status	Several Dao Masters survived or re-emerged after the Cult's destruction. The Flesh Dao Master was killed by Zhang Chu; the Poison Dao Master, Ding Yi, later appeared alive; the Medicine Dao Master's whereabouts remain unknown following a Cicada Slough. 159 233 244
First Appearance	Mentioned in Chapter 7

Overview

The Eight Dao Masters were the foremost figures beneath the Demonic Cult's Cult Master. Each commanded factions among the Cult's hundreds of branches, great and small. Their martial arts were characterized as ultimate skills of comparable standing, while their followers often used weaker simplified versions. The Cult and its eight Dao Masters were believed to have been annihilated fifty years earlier by Lu Yuanjia and Imperial Advisor Illusionary Pupil, though surviving lineages and Dao Masters later re-emerged. 7 36

Dao Master	Known information
Flesh Dao Master	Created the Heaven Swallowing Earth Swallowing Blood Sea Six Storehouse Scripture; its simplified version was distributed to strengthen subordinates. He cultivated an evil technique by devouring a small neighboring country and possessed extreme regenerative abilities. A veteran Daoist Scripture Realm expert, he later used God Worship to become a Divine General before Zhang Chu killed him. 7 36 232 233
Dao Master of Emotion	Commands the Twelve Red Dust Envoys and created Mountain Cries Earth Resents Mortal World Silk Thread Cut. 35 38
Prison Dao Master	Identified as Wuchang; her ultimate technique can seal an opponent's martial arts. 58
Medicine Dao Master	Created the Three Flowers Technique and refined humans into Medicine Persons. The Medicine Dao Master vanished roughly sixty years earlier after undergoing a Cicada Slough and was later identified with Lady White Bone, who sought to usurp Authority. 114 158 166 191
Star Dao Master	Jiang Yao's strict master, who taught her martial arts, literacy, astronomy, and survival in the Jianghu. 181
Poison Dao Master	Ding Yi, a surviving Dao Master who spent decades in hiding and later sought an alliance with Zhang Chu. He is a veteran Daoist Canon expert who has half a foot in the Extreme of Strength Realm. 244
Deathly Dao Master	Listed among the Eight Dao Masters. 244
Heavenly Secret Dao Master	Listed among the Eight Dao Masters. 244

Power Progression

Chapter(s)	Dao Master	Advancement or demonstrated power	Notes
57–58	Prison Dao Master	Revealed as an Upper Three Realms expert capable of using Seal Yin Lock Soul.	The art seals internal strength and locks Gang Qi, rendering conventional martial arts unusable. 57 58
166, 170	Medicine Dao Master	Demonstrated the culmination of the Medicine Dao through the creation of Medicine Persons.	Medicine Persons can persist indefinitely on sufficient vital blood and Spiritual Power, making the Gray-eyed Man a living form of the Medicine Dao Master's inheritance. 166 170
232	Flesh Dao Master	Revealed as a veteran Daoist Scripture Realm powerhouse and became a Divine General through God Worship.	His Divine General power granted extraordinary regeneration and an effectively undying body. 232
233	Flesh Dao Master	Used Great Merit Explosion before being slain by Zhang Chu's Decomposition Attribute.	The Decomposition Attribute negated his Divine General regeneration and erased his body after decapitation. 233
244	Poison Dao Master	Confirmed as a Daoist Canon veteran with half a foot in the Extreme of Strength Realm.	Ding Yi's survival after decades in hiding establishes him as one of the active surviving Dao Masters. 244

History

The Demonic Cult was led by its Cult Master and the Eight Dao Masters. Fifty years before the main events, the Cult was reportedly destroyed, with its branches purged by martial artists across the land. 7

The Flesh Dao Master had joined the Demonic Cult roughly three hundred years before his final battle with Zhang Chu. Despite his apparent death in the earlier purge, he survived and continued cultivating in secrecy, eventually attaining the power of a God Worship Divine General. 232 234

Despite the Cult's presumed destruction, its legacies remained active. Simplified forms of the Flesh Dao Master's art surfaced in Linjiang, while the Dao Master of Emotion's followers infiltrated the Sword Forging Manor incident. 6 35 38 39

The Medicine Dao Master disappeared around sixty years before the main events. Their former cultivation ground and Cicada Slough site were later exploited by the Heavenly Evil Cult, which obtained access to Medicine Dao legacies and used them for abductions, poison production, and human refinement. 159 166

Later revelations identified Lady White Bone as the Medicine Dao Master after a Cicada Slough. The Medicine Dao Master's objective was not merely to preserve their inheritance, but to seize Authority and become a god. 191

The Flesh Dao Master later confronted Zhang Chu in the Sea Regions as a Daoist Scripture Realm veteran empowered as a Divine General through God Worship. His regenerative body and Great Merit Explosion nearly killed Zhang Chu, but Zhang Chu defeated him with the Decomposition Attribute and emerged carrying his head. 232 233

After the Flesh Dao Master's death, the Poison Dao Master Ding Yi emerged from hiding. Rather than seeking revenge, Ding Yi approached Zhang Chu to seek cooperation and protection, fearing the dangers surrounding the surviving Dao Masters and the approaching upheaval. 244

Abilities & Skills

Ultimate Arts

Each Dao Master possesses an ultimate skill regarded as comparable in overall level to those of the other eight. Their techniques are considered sinister, abnormal, and difficult for conventional martial artists to understand. 36 39

• Simplified derivatives can be granted to subordinates.
• These derivatives retain unusual effects but are inferior to the original arts.
• Dao Masters and their direct lineages are associated with Evil Techniques. 36 38 39

Heaven Swallowing Earth Swallowing Blood Sea Six Storehouse Scripture

The Flesh Dao Master's true ultimate art; the commonly encountered Six Storehouse Scripture is only a simplified version. 36

• Absorbs internal energy and Gang Qi.
• The simplified version can grant temporary immunity to damage after absorbing energy.
• The Flesh Dao Master's cultivation grants extraordinary regeneration and an effectively unkillable body. 29 39 232

Mountain Cries Earth Resents Mortal World Silk Thread Cut

The Dao Master of Emotion's ultimate skill, identifiable through fine, thread-like marks cut into metal. 35

• Its simplified form, Thread Play, produces numerous puppet-like clones.
• The Dao Master of Emotion's lineage includes the Twelve Red Dust Envoys.
• A Grandmaster-level user cannot remotely control numerous avatars from a thousand miles away; this limitation helped Zhang Chu expose Yuan Shidu's hidden true body. 38 39 56

Seal Yin Lock Soul

The Prison Dao Master's ultimate art, used by Wuchang to directly sever an opponent's connection to their cultivation. 57 58

• Seals internal strength and locks Gang Qi.
• Its effects are described as capable of restraining even ghosts, gods, Buddhas, and Arhats.
• Zhang Chu resisted it only through the completed Ninefold Metamorphosis of his Yellow Court Inner Strength, relying on physical power after his martial arts were sealed. 57 58

Three Flowers Technique and Medicine Persons

The Medicine Dao Master's Evil Technique centers on refining living humans into Medicine Persons and reversing chaos and yin and yang. 114 166 170

• Medicine Persons can become neither fully human nor ghost, existing without ordinary food or drink.
• Their continued existence depends upon sufficient vital blood and Spiritual Power.
• The Gray-eyed Man was transformed into a Medicine Person sixty years earlier and used as the true core of the God Burial Great Array. 166 168 170
• The Medicine Dao Master's inheritance was ultimately a living inheritance rather than merely a manual or alchemical formula. 170

God Worship and Great Merit Explosion

The Flesh Dao Master used God Worship to become a Divine General, gaining undying and inextinguishable power. 232

• Yang Pole: Blood Explosion — a self-detonation technique prepared when he feared Zhang Chu's Decomposition Attribute. 232
• Great Merit Explosion — his ultimate technique; it nearly killed Zhang Chu before being countered. 233
• God Worship allowed the Flesh Dao Master to reconstruct himself after his flesh and blood were destroyed, an ability beyond ordinary cultivation techniques. 233

Known Affiliates

• Cult Master — Leader of the Demonic Cult and superior of the Eight Dao Masters; described as broad-minded and responsible for uniting factions branded as demonic into the Sacred Cult. The Cult Master was Dugu Weiwo, a peerless talent who entered the Daoist Canon at twenty-five and created the Weiwo Dao Technique. 7 181 182
• Twelve Red Dust Envoys — Direct subordinates of the Dao Master of Emotion, each wielding strange Evil Techniques. 38
• Four Heroes of Demonic Rock — Four peak Dark Strength quadruplets linked to the Demonic Cult attack on Sword Forging Manor. 36
• Ever-Changing Demon Lord — Demonic Cult attacker who sought the Divine Sword Embryo using the Thousand Illusions Demonic Art. 36
• Coffin Guardians — Servants guarding the Medicine Dao Master's Dao Child cultivation ground. 114
• Gray-eyed Man — A Medicine Person created by the Medicine Dao Master sixty years earlier. He served as the true core of the God Burial Great Array and was manipulated into guarding the Medicine Dao inheritance. 166 168
• Lady White Bone — The identity assumed by the Medicine Dao Master after undergoing a Cicada Slough; sought to steal an Evil God's remains and usurp Authority. 191
• Ding Yi — The Poison Dao Master, who survived in hiding for decades and later became Zhang Chu's temporary ally. 244

Title Usage

“Dao Master” is also used as an honorific for Zhang Chu after he becomes known as the Yellow Court Dao Master. This title is distinct from the Demonic Cult's Eight Dao Masters. 43 215 244

By the later Sea Regions events, Zhang Chu's title had become known throughout the Jianghu, where it was associated with his positions as Marshal of the East Sea Sky Patrol Guard and one of the Daoist Sect's Mountain Masters. 226 304

Trivia

• The complete names of all eight Dao Masters were preserved in Daoist Sect records, while Sky Patrol Guard archives contained little information about them. The Imperial Court had deliberately obscured much of the Cult's history after its destruction. 244
• The Dao Master of Emotion is described as the most peculiar of the eight. 38
• The Flesh Dao Master's defeat proved that God Worship's Divine General power, though capable of granting apparent immortality, could be overcome by a sufficiently powerful Attribute. 233