Chapter 3663: Sunrise in the East
According to unofficial accounts of the martial world, the Sun Moon Order had evolved from the former dynasty's Ming Cult. After Zhu Yuanzhang used the Ming Cult to overthrow the Yuan court and establish the Great Ming, its members were either absorbed into the government and given official posts, suppressed and wiped out, or forced into seclusion. As a result, the Ming Cult gradually declined after the founding of the Ming dynasty, until it finally disappeared.
Those former Ming Cult members who escaped persecution by the Ming court and resented the unfair division of the spoils had been deeply dissatisfied with the Zhu family for raising the Ming Cult's banner, successfully rebelling, and then stealing the fruits of victory. So they had brazenly raised the banner once more and rebuilt the Ming Cult!
Later, however, to distinguish themselves from the Ming court, they had split the character "Ming" into its constituent characters, "sun" and "moon," and continued their rebellion in the martial world—the same cause the Ming Cult had pursued back in the day.
Only, unlike the Ming Cult's rebellion against the Yuan court, the Sun Moon Order now rebelled against the Great Ming!
And thanks to the experience they had gained rebelling against the Yuan court, the Sun Moon Order had grown remarkably smoothly this time. No matter how often the Ming court tried to suppress them, it was useless. No matter how many times they were surrounded and attacked, they could never be completely wiped out.
So, little by little, the Ming court had no choice but to swallow its pride and invoke the principle that "affairs of the martial world should be settled by the martial world." It encouraged and incited the martial arts sects to fight the Sun Moon Order,