Lingmu Sect

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Lingmu Sect (灵目门)
Alias(es)	Spiritual Eye Sect 34
Organization Type	Cultivation sect; one of Gan State’s twelve major sects 21 24
Affiliation	Gan State; follows the Way of All Things’ Primacy 23 24
Headquarters	Qingming Mountain, west of Anle City in Muzhou 21
Jurisdiction	Muzhou; most disciples originate from the region 33
Founder	Lingmu Real Person, a former rogue cultivator from Zhongshan Country 23
Sect Master	Qingling Zhenren, the third-generation sect master 23
Acting Sect Masters	Chen Shouyi and Sima Fu 31
Primary Cultivation Technique	Eye of True Spirit 24
Status	Active, but weakened by war losses and divided over succession and resources 31 40
First Appearance	First mentioned through a sect-affiliated Heaven’s Mandate Bureau inspector 6

History

Foundation and Lineage

Lingmu Sect was founded over twelve hundred years before Li Mo’s formal admission. Its founder, Lingmu Real Person, came from Zhongshan Country, between Gan State and Lu Country. He developed the sect’s inheritance by studying the Demon Race’s innate spiritual powers and combining them with Gan State’s human-centered Dao tradition 23 29.

After the founder died approximately eight hundred years earlier, Dongcha Zhenren became the second-generation sect master. Dongcha Zhenren died approximately four hundred years earlier and was succeeded by Qingling Zhenren 23.

War with Lu Country

The Tu Xing Sect’s defection to Lu Country more than a century earlier triggered prolonged warfare. Lingmu Sect, the Gan State sect closest to Lu Country, suffered particularly heavy losses, including the deaths of two Nascent Soul cultivators 23.

The decisive setback occurred thirty years before Li Mo’s arrival. Quanzhi Zhenren, a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator considered a promising candidate for Spirit Transmutation, was ambushed in Zhongshan Country by Returning Heaven True Person of the Zai Zao Sect. His death, alongside the loss of numerous elite disciples, left Lingmu Sect without adequate successors 23 33.

Succession Crisis

Qingling Zhenren became the sect’s only remaining Nascent Soul cultivator. Amid rumors that his lifespan was nearing its end, the sect concentrated its resources on helping two late-stage Golden Core disciples—Chen Shouyi and Sima Fu—advance to Nascent Soul. Both served as acting sect masters during Qingling Zhenren’s seclusion 31.

By the year-end assessment, Qingling Zhenren had been secluded for ten years. The sect’s stalled development and limited resources intensified the rivalry between aristocratic families and unaffiliated cultivators 40.

Leadership and Organization

Sect Leadership

Figure	Position	Details
Lingmu Real Person	Founder; first-generation sect master	Established the sect’s cultivation inheritance; the Ye family descends from him 23 42.
Dongcha Zhenren	Second-generation sect master	Succeeded the founder and led the next generation of the lineage 23.
Qingling Zhenren	Third-generation sect master	Nascent Soul cultivator supporting the weakened sect while cultivating in seclusion 23 31.
Chen Shouyi	Acting sect master; Ancestor Hall disciple	Late-stage Golden Core cultivator from the Chen family and a candidate for Nascent Soul advancement 31.
Sima Fu	Acting sect master; Ancestor Hall disciple	Respected late-stage Golden Core rogue cultivator and the other candidate for Nascent Soul advancement 31.
Quanzhi Zhenren	Deceased senior ancestor	Late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator whose death in a Zai Zao Sect ambush precipitated the sect’s decline 23 33.

Halls

The sect is described as having twelve halls. The named departments include elite training, inner-sect specialties, outer-sect administration, and basic disciple education 30.

Hall	Function
Ancestor Hall	Houses the sect master’s direct disciples and offers the best conditions. Admission requires exceptional aptitude, comprehension, contributions, or fortune; ordinarily no more than five disciples belong to it at once 30.
Enlightenment Hall	Provides three months of introductory cultivation, Dao instruction, and knowledge of the Shan Hai Realm 23.
Advancement Hall / Advanced Study Hall	Trains formal disciples for three years and supplies much of the sect’s routine labor 29 30.
Law Enforcement Hall	An inner-sect hall whose members participate in the enlightenment examination proceedings 29 30.
Alchemy Hall	An inner-sect destination for qualified alchemists; members may apply for private spirit fields 30 31.
Refining Hall	An inner-sect hall associated with artifact refining 30.
Talisman Crafting Hall	An inner-sect hall associated with talisman production 30 31.
Special Service Hall	Assigns cultivators to the Heaven’s Mandate Bureau as inspectors, with official ranks and state salaries 40.
Gathering Treasure Hall	Manages the sect’s commercial properties and businesses across different regions 40.
Supervisor Hall	Oversees recruitment, mining, construction, resource surveys, and flying-ship stations 40.
Four Seas Hall	Maintains an intelligence network: members live outside Muzhou and regularly report major events 40.
Scattered Leaves Hall	Named as one of the five outer-sect halls 40.

Four Great Families

The Chen, Jiang, Lü, and Ye families form the sect’s leading aristocratic clans. Each has multiple Golden Core cultivators in important positions. More than twenty smaller families sit below them, linked through intermarriage and centuries of accumulated influence 29.

Family	Documented Strength or Connection
Chen	Chen Shouyi represents the family at the highest level of the succession struggle 31.
Jiang	Renowned for artifact refining and secret techniques that control fire and refine gold. Jiang Sheng’s Three Yang Physique is especially suited to the family’s True Yang Secret Technique 42.
Lü	Specializes in beast-shaped puppets and improving particular performance characteristics. Lü Ci leads the Gathering Treasure Hall 31 33 49.
Ye	Descends from Lingmu Real Person. Its continued position is tied to the Divine Tree’s spiritual birds and the Mountain-Guarding Sacred Bird 42.

Recruitment and Disciple Training

Admission

• Annual testing: On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month—the Dragon Boat Festival—the sect sends cultivators to test spiritual roots at Heaven’s Mandate Bureau locations 17.
• Testing fee: Five hundred copper coins. Wang Ying describes spiritual-root holders as roughly one in a thousand 17.
• Anle City intake: Li Mo’s intake included fifty-one successful applicants from Anle City, including Zhou Zheng, who possessed a special spiritual physique 23.
• Transport: Successful applicants travel to Qingming Mountain aboard a flying boat 23.
• Aristocratic exemption: Clan disciples bypass Enlightenment Hall because their upbringing already supplies cultivation knowledge and preparation 24 50.

Training Requirements

Step	Requirement	Result
Enlightenment training	Learn the sect’s main cultivation method during three months of restricted residence 23.	Preparation for the admission examination.
Enlightenment examination	Reach the first level of Qi Refining and activate the Spirit Eye 29.	Successful students become formal Advancement Hall disciples; unsuccessful students return home by flying ship.
Advanced study	Complete assigned duties while studying for three years 29 30.	Access to lectures, contribution rewards, and further assessments.
Graduation	Reach the fourth level of Qi Refining within the three-year study period 25.	Meets the stated cultivation requirement for graduation.
Hall selection	Reach the seventh level of Qi Refining or higher 25.	May freely join a sect hall and take up a post.

In Li Mo’s enlightenment examination, slightly more than two hundred and fifty of over five hundred students passed 29.

Duties and Rewards

• Low-level disciples work as cooks, porters, gatekeepers, cleaners, repairers, spirit-beast tenders, lamp lighters, and timekeepers 30.
• Completed duties earn Spirit Stones and sect contributions; contributions can purchase access to lectures by higher-level cultivators 29 30.
• Li Mo’s first month of gatekeeping offered one Spirit Stone and ten contributions, plus ten free Foundation Establishment lectures as a first-task benefit 30.
• Formal disciples receive a Storage Pouch upon admission to Advancement Hall 29.
• Annual assessments include combat and specialist evaluation. Rankings bring rewards, while later assessments determine hall assignments 34 35 38 42.
• Second-year disciples commonly undertake outside commissions, gaining experience, resources, and contacts with sect elders 47.

Cultivation and Specialties

Eye of True Spirit

The Eye of True Spirit is Lingmu Sect’s sole primary cultivation technique. It develops perception as a means of understanding the tools, materials, and techniques used in cultivation 24.

• Spiritual-energy perception: Reveals spiritual currents and the energy patterns of nearby cultivators 24 28.
• Material appraisal: Helps distinguish magical artifacts, elixirs, and the properties of spiritual objects 24 25.
• Technical analysis: Exposes aspects of spell operation, spiritual power, and artifact rune-work 24 49.
• Advanced development: At high levels, the Spirit Eye is regarded as a major spiritual power. Quanzhi Zhenren was said to perceive the world’s broad trends and prevent supernatural creatures from hiding from him 33 36.
• Combat use: Zhao Liang uses a Spirit Eye spell alongside a flying-knife ambush to defeat Li Mo during an assessment 39.
• Limits: Early-stage perception is weak, and viewing spiritual phenomena can be less useful than ordinary eyesight. Zai Zao Sect’s humanoid puppets are described as countering the technique 28 49.

Dao and the Six Arts

The sect follows the Way of All Things’ Primacy, which treats humanity as the foremost of all beings and the world’s objects as tools for cultivation and Dao comprehension 23 24.

• Its studies encompass alchemy, talismans, artifact refining, spells, puppets, and rune formations 24 33.
• Unlike most Gan State sects, it develops all Six Arts rather than concentrating on a single specialty 24 33.
• Its approach uses enhanced vision to discern the essence of different arts; the Heavenly Cauldron Sect instead analyzes them through its Natal Treasure Cauldron 24.
• The cultivation method includes ascetic principles. Li Mo recognizes that habitual killing for wealth could cloud his thoughts and harm his long-term practice 47.

Headquarters and Resources

Qingming Mountain

• Mountain complex: Contains more than one hundred courtyards, including restricted areas and facilities requiring permission to enter 30.
• Dense spiritual energy: Far richer than the outside world, though less concentrated than the energy inside Spirit Stones 23.
• Protective arrays: Buildings project pillars of light into skyborne formations. Li Mo identifies the spiritual glow around courtyard walls as part of the mountain-protecting formation 23 28.
• Divine Tree Plaza: A central gathering space containing a glowing tree one hundred zhang tall, inhabited by countless spiritual birds 23 30.
• Wudao Peak: Its main peak serves Qi Refining spell practice; branch peaks house Foundation Establishment cave dwellings protected by formations 32.
• Back mountains: Occupied by Golden Core hall masters and affiliated Golden Core cultivators 32.

Spiritual Birds and Fields

• Divine Tree’s birds: Rented by outer-sect disciples and used by the Supervisor Hall in flying-boat station business 42.
• Mountain-Guarding Sacred Bird: Said to be a Celestial Rainbow Bird from the Eastern Ridge. It can repeatedly undergo self-nirvana, improve its potential, and transform into myriad birds to blend among them 42.
• Spirit fields: Under careful alchemist cultivation, herbs can gain the equivalent of two years’ outside medicinal age in one year 31.
• Rare ingredients: The sect grows thousand-year-old herbs, but its large-scale plantings cover limited varieties; unusual ingredients still require outside searches 31.

Trade and Transport

• Mountain market: One of Muzhou’s two largest cultivation markets, attracting unaffiliated cultivators and visitors from other sects 43.
• Flying-ship routes: Connect prefectural cities within the sect’s jurisdiction; the stated fare is one Spirit Stone per journey 35.
• Yuan City teleportation: Operates every Evening Moon, costs ten Spirit Stones, and forms part of strategic infrastructure supported by the royal military 35.
• Bureau services: Sect disciples can use their status to rent horses from local Heaven’s Mandate Bureau offices 43 50.

Internal Conflicts

Aristocratic and Unaffiliated Disciples

Aristocratic families occupy the sect’s best resources and benefit from inherited knowledge, connections, and a higher likelihood of children possessing spiritual roots. Unaffiliated disciples must build their cultivation and support networks from scratch 24 29.

The conflict appears in both official dealings and personal intimidation. Lü Song punishes Wang Zhu during gatekeeping duty, while Ye Xunhuan’s pursuit and threats against Zhao Huaxue provoke clashes with unaffiliated disciples 31 34 42.

• Recruitment allegations: Wang Ying claims clan disciples conceal some applicants’ spiritual roots in outlying testing centers. She advises Li Mo to test in Anle City, where concealment is harder; the claim is not independently confirmed 21.
• Official response: Supervisor Hall deputy master Xu Chen identifies himself as having a rogue background and publicly guarantees fair testing alongside the Muzhou magistrate 22.
• Fairness Society: Supports unaffiliated disciples against aristocratic oppression, with senior members assisting newer recruits 48.
• Resource gap: Wang Feng explains that aristocratic advantages become increasingly pronounced at later Qi Refining bottlenecks, when cultivation demands far greater spiritual energy 47.

Relationships

• Gan State — The sect follows the state’s orthodox Dao tradition and supplies Heaven’s Mandate Bureau inspectors who maintain public order 24 40.
• Heaven’s Mandate Bureau — Provides recruitment venues, employment for Special Service Hall members, and local services used by sect disciples 17 40 50.
• Zai Zao Sect — Sworn enemy responsible for Quanzhi Zhenren’s death; its humanoid puppet techniques also counter Lingmu Sect’s Spirit Eye 33 49.
• Heavenly Cauldron Sect — Shares Lingmu Sect’s broad pursuit of the Six Arts, but studies their essence through a different primary cultivation method 24 33.
• Li Mo — Enters through the annual testing system, becomes a formal disciple, and studies spells, alchemy, and puppetry. He comes to regard the sect as his home and fears its decline through factional conflict 22 29 33 40.
• Ding Wei — Enlightenment instructor responsible for teaching new arrivals the realm’s basic knowledge, the sect’s history, and the Eye of True Spirit 23 25.
• Chen Rong — Alchemy instructor who guides Li Mo and recommends him for the sect’s alchemy assessment 30 34 35.
• Lü Cuicui — Lü family disciple who teaches Li Mo puppet techniques and explains the sect’s history and place among Gan State’s major sects 32 33.