Impermanence Sect

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Impermanence Sect
Original Name	无常宗
Alias(es)	Grand Void Impermanence Dao Sect 353 372
Type	Immortal-path Dao sect 384 738
Founder	Impermanence Daoist, also called Wuchangzi 682 706
Age	Over ten thousand years 568
Leadership	Formerly Sect Master Yun Wuya; Cold Moon Fairy later becomes sect master of both the Impermanence Sect and Mountain-Chasing Dao 900 909
Headquarters	Formerly Great Splendor Mountain in Yuhuan Continent’s Central Region; later reestablished at Emerald Screen Mountain on Layered Mountains Continent 552 650 907 914
Status	Survives the destruction of its Yuhuan ancestral grounds and rebuilds under the identity of the Mountain-Chasing Dao 900 907 942 1050
First Appearance	Introduced through White Crane Daoist’s inherited records 58

History

Founding and Early Revival

The founding master obtained the Primordial Unity Ancient Stele by chance. According to records left by Hunyuan Zi, he comprehended the principles behind the sect’s three core inheritances from the stele and ultimately used it to ascend to immortality 682.

Before ascending, Wuchangzi left behind the Void Illusory World Mirror. Originally a supreme-grade Dao artifact, it became a Half-Immortal Artifact after he infused it with immortal Dao and a wisp of immortal qi obtained through his ascension. It thereafter served as the sect’s central foundation 706.

The sect entered a period of turmoil after its founder’s departure. Its first Primordial Unity Hall master later perfected its cultivation systems and defeated its enemies, restoring its strength 745.

Grotto-Heaven Calamity and Relocation

An attempt to open a Grotto-Heaven failed catastrophically. The backlash killed many powerful cultivators, including several True Lords, and cost the sect its ancestral land. No-Self True Lord rose during this crisis and preserved its inheritance 745 888.

Under No-Self’s leadership, the sect relocated to Yuhuan Continent, where it fought the Thunder Roc Clan for control. In the war five hundred years before the main events, it used a forbidden method to unleash a strike beyond the Celestial Phenomenon realm, shattering the clan’s Ancient Thunder Seal. The defeated demon forces dispersed, leaving the Impermanence Sect as the continent’s uncontested overlord 236 520 888 907.

Victory came at a substantial cost. Human factions were destroyed or forced to seal their mountains, and the Impermanence Sect itself withdrew to recuperate. Disciples stranded outside continued its teachings independently; White Crane Daoist belonged to the third generation of one such lineage 58 236.

Jiang Chen’s Return to the Lineage

Jiang Chen inherited the Little Formless Scripture and White Crane Daoist’s cultivation records. These preserved the wish of the outside lineage’s patriarch to return to the sect—a wish neither the patriarch nor White Crane Daoist lived to fulfill 58.

After perfecting the scripture, Jiang Chen experienced a connection to the sect’s mountain gate and an enormous stone stele hidden within mist. Daoist Yuan Gang later recruited him, offered cultivation resources, and transported him and his companions to the sect 236 353 375.

Jiang Chen’s flawless Dao Foundation made him a celebrated Dao seed. He subsequently pursued the sect’s disciple trials, became a true disciple, and eventually took charge of Primordial Unity Hall 384 385 529 586 684.

Renewed Wars

The sect demonstrated its authority after the Three Paths Mountain incident by destroying the Xia Family for collusion with the Dark Feather Cult. The Ashen Earth Sect distanced itself from the family and sent gifts to affirm its opposition to the cult 416.

A larger conflict began when Jellyfish Palace and Hollow Mulberry Valley declared war. Gu Lingxiao’s seizure of the Heaven-Supporting Mysticwood Staff from a treasury on Heavenly Mulberry Continent helped precipitate the confrontation. The sect’s True Lords suspected Flame Phoenix Immortal Palace of coordinating its enemies 576.

The Boundless Sea campaign initially devastated the sect’s frontier holdings, but reinforcements later enabled it to recover territory. Hollow Mulberry Valley was destroyed, although the sect occupied only selected strategic locations rather than attempting to govern all of Heavenly Mulberry Continent 627 632 673 735.

The victory exposed weaknesses in its administration: five hundred years of seclusion and low spiritual energy had weakened its connections with the middle and lower ranks 674.

Southern Wilderness Purge

Former Void Dao Hall master Eyeless Daoist exploited his remaining followers to suppress reports of divine unrest in the Southern Wilderness. Jiang Chen contacted Cold Moon Fairy, whose investigation identified the interference 692 693.

Cold Moon Fairy led an immortal army to destroy the hostile gods and their temples. The Peaceful Dao Alliance was spared; Jiang Chen’s connection to the Peaceful Church was already known. The True Lords subsequently approved his request to establish a sanctuary for studying immortal and divine paths 694 695 705.

The campaign brought the unrest under control after Jiang Chen captured the Sun Patrol God, though earlier purges had struggled to eliminate cautious core gods and their local supporters 714 736.

Azure Firmament Mountain and the Sect’s Collapse

Concerned that Heaven-Hanging Thunder Tamer might return through nirvana, the True Lords prepared a formation to draw Azure Firmament Mountain out of the void. Jiang Chen understood that obtaining its origin could also strengthen Great Splendor Mountain and stabilize the sect’s damaged Grotto-Heaven 706 773.

The Little Peng King repeatedly destroyed formation nodes, forcing the sect to concentrate its defenses. A later alliance of five outside True Lords breached three crucial immortal cities. Xuan Qiong nevertheless used the collapsing formation’s final reversal and a Formation-Breaking Pearl to break Azure Firmament Mountain’s protection, allowing Yingling to seize its true body and bring it into reality 720 722 816 817 819.

The expedition revealed a deeper internal threat. No-Self had secretly cultivated the forbidden Spirit Treasure Ascension Method and intended to reforge Azure Firmament Mountain, sacrificing sect cultivators to advance himself. Xuan Qiong opposed him and asked Jiang Chen to preserve a thread of the sect’s inheritance 824 888 890.

No-Self’s removal of Impermanence and Nonexistence Heaven devastated the ancestral grounds. Great Splendor Mountain collapsed, Yun Wuya died, and countless disciples were killed or injured. Cold Moon Fairy became the highest remaining authority and used the Lunar Mirror to restrain the earth-qi disaster 896 900.

Rebuilding as the Mountain-Chasing Dao

After Yuhuan Continent was divided, the former mountain gate lay in a demon-infested region where an undying illusory world overlapped reality. The sect had lost much of its True Lord strength, and its Half-Immortal Artifact had shattered 906.

Jiang Chen and Xuanji arranged a withdrawal to Layered Mountains Continent, where the original Mountain-Chasing Dao had recently been destroyed by Divine Dao Founding. The survivors disappeared from their former territories before opportunistic cultivators could locate them 907.

Cold Moon Fairy became the dual sect master. At Emerald Screen Mountain, the sect initially avoided conspicuous expansion and concentrated on recuperation. Its surviving resources and two resident Celestial Phenomenon True Lords rapidly improved the mountain’s spiritual environment 909 914.

Impermanence Sect cultivators gradually integrated into the Mountain-Chasing Dao. This also relieved pressure on the limited carrying capacity of their Blessed Land. Outsiders increasingly regarded the revived Mountain-Chasing Dao as Layered Mountains Continent’s overlord, while some informed observers eventually recognized its concealed identity 942 990 1050.

Organization

Governing Halls

Hall	Responsibilities	Notable Officeholders
Void Dao Hall	Internal administration and the sect’s everyday operations 402	Eyeless Daoist, former hall master; Cold Moon Fairy, successor. Yun Wuya also originated from this hall 402 440 693
Impermanence Hall	External campaigns, conquest, and territorial expansion 402 625	Shang Li, deputy hall master and commander of the Boundless Sea battlefront 625
Primordial Unity Hall	The most unusual and mysterious of the three halls, with little public presence before Jiang Chen’s tenure 402 687	Jiang Chen, hall master 684

• Supreme Elders are the sect’s true decision-makers. They generally leave ordinary affairs alone unless the sect’s survival or decline is at stake 402.
• The sect master and three hall masters rank immediately below the Celestial Phenomenon True Lords. Their offices provide exceptional access to Dao-art inheritances 679.
• Hall masters possess considerable independent authority; in some matters, a hall master’s power can exceed that of the sect leader 440.

Disciples and Factions

• Inner disciples organize factions and actively recruit promising newcomers 382.
• Core disciples may establish their own residences and factions. The sect permits and encourages them to gather followers to obtain merit and support cultivation 385.
• True disciples may establish manors, assemble subordinate forces, and administer resource bases. An immortal city pioneered under a true disciple’s leadership can become that disciple’s resource base 556.
• Disciple advancement involves merit and trials. Jiang Chen’s true disciple trial could be influenced by senior officials acting within the sect’s rules 385 440 529.
• Competition extends from disputes between individual disciples to struggles between Dharma lineages 382.

Rewards and Communications

• Grand Void Mirrors handle missions, disciple communications, and resource trading. Their full functions operate within sect territory; only basic functions remain available at a great distance 385.
• Merit and contribution points purchase resources and inheritances. Jiang Chen received ten thousand minor merits as an additional reward for his flawless Dao Foundation 385 707.
• The highest treasury is restricted to True Lords and individuals with exceptional contributions. It contains fourth-rank pills, ores, herbs, artifact-refining methods, and formation inheritances 707.
• Inheritance safeguards prevent unrestricted extraction of core teachings. Jiang Chen could obtain Profound Flood Dragon’s personal insights, but forcing access to the protected inheritance risked destroying it or alerting the sect 468.

Strength and Standing

Measure	Documented Strength
Historical leadership	Celestial Phenomenon True Lords presided over the sect continuously across generations 384.
True Lord strength before the collapse	Six Celestial Phenomenon True Lords; No-Self stood at the realm’s peak 706.
Purple Mansion cultivators	Nearly one hundred across its three great lineages and twelve true lineages before the major wartime losses 552.
Treasure-art collection	More than one hundred inheritances, though many were scattered or lacked a complete cultivation system 568.
Regional authority	Undisputed overlord of Yuhuan Continent following the Thunder Roc Clan’s defeat 236 372.
Strategic limit	Confident against ordinary Dao sects, even two or three acting together, but substantially weaker than an Immortal Palace 579 706.
Post-relocation foundation	Surviving resources supported rapid redevelopment of Emerald Screen Mountain, which was guarded by two Celestial Phenomenon True Lords 914.

A flawless Dao Foundation qualifies its bearer as a Dao seed. More than half of the sect’s historical Celestial Phenomenon True Lords possessed such foundations; superior-grade foundations could also reach that realm, but with lower odds 384.

Cultivation Inheritances

Three Core Inheritances

Inheritance	Documented Features
Grand Void Formless Reversal Scripture	One of the three great inheritances. Jiang Chen associated it with the mysterious illusory counterpart of the sect accessible through the Grand Void Mirror 385.
Ninefold Ascension to Sainthood Method	Cultivated by several True Lords through transformations including the Vermilion Bird, True Dragon, White Tiger, and Heaven-Bearing Black Tortoise 576.
Primordial Unity One-Qi True Explanation	Exceptionally demanding in talent, resolve, and fortune. Its first successful hall master relied partly on an unusual supreme-grade Dao artifact that enabled divided consciousness and cultivation through many lives 741.

Little Formless Scripture

The Little Formless Scripture is the cultivation method preserved by White Crane Daoist’s outside lineage 58.

• Emphasizes formlessness, freedom from fixed form and intent, and countless transformations 58.
• Requires a spiritual treasure containing true intent of transformation to establish a Dao Foundation; the Impermanence Flower is the most suitable choice identified by Jiang Chen 217 271.
• Its perfection appears to connect the practitioner with the sect’s mountain gate or a treasure within it 236.

Primordial Unity Spiritual Arts

The Primordial Unity inheritance requires six Dao Foundation spells, corresponding to six transformations of qi. Mastering all six is necessary for subsequent advancement to Purple Mansion 381.

Transformation	Spell	Function
Clarity	Clear-Sight Eye	Discerns illusions and counters illusion arts 381.
Obscurity	Obscuring Immortal Robe	Conceals cultivation, aura, and traces 381.
Ascent	Rising Dragon Intent	Temporarily increases combat strength 381.
Descent	Dustfall Curse	Suppresses an opponent’s strength and can lower their realm; sufficient cultivation can reduce a target to an ordinary person 381.
Purity	Pure Spirit Radiance	Provides defense and counters wicked techniques 381.
Turbidity	Turbid Balefire	Destroys flesh, blood, and the spiritual resonance of treasures 381.

Its core treasure art, Primordial Unity Qi, provides the foundation for three major Dao arts 771:

• All Dharmas Impermanence Treasure Wheel — Evolves phenomena to help comprehend and create methods. It is extremely difficult to control efficiently, though particularly compatible with Jiang Chen’s Yang God 771.
• Primordial Unity Qi Great Grasp — Governs killing and suppression; at its ultimate limit, it can seal phenomena and grasp the Five Elements 771.
• Primordial Unity Great Escape — A high-level escape and tribulation-avoidance art described as leaving no trace in heaven and earth 771.

Other Notable Methods

• Twelve True Methods — A major body of sect inheritances. Their quality substantially exceeds the crude third-rank ghost inheritances Jiang Chen obtains elsewhere 528.
• Thousand Hearts Shared Aperture Spirit-Taming Method — One of the Twelve True Methods, incorporating principles from two core scriptures. A historical practitioner raised hundreds of thousands of Gold-Eating Insects capable of overwhelming treasures 424.
• Life-bound demon hide — A simplified adaptation of life-bound artifact cultivation, allowing Qi Refinement disciples to possess an alternative normally unavailable at that realm 161.
• Spirit Grotto alteration — The sect possesses methods for modifying Spirit Grottos 107.
• Shed the Mortal Form and Renew the Bones — A sect-created Dao art involving fundamental bodily transformation and improvements to innate aptitude. Celestial Phenomenon practitioners can apply it only to themselves, not others 684 687.
• Myriad Forms Imitation — A Dao art capable of imitating treasures, including Dao artifacts and their mysteries 598 876.
• Grand Void Myriad-Phenomena Furnace Method — A fourth-rank artifact-refining inheritance available through the treasury 707.
• Great Splendor Sky-Supporting Method — A difficult heaven-supporting cultivation method central to the sect’s reconstruction; Spirit Lord’s mastery surpasses that of its practitioners over several thousand years 1018.

Forbidden Method

The Spirit Treasure Ascension Method uses a spirit treasure as a body to extend lifespan or potentially attain immortality. Acquired during a great calamity, it was incomplete, exceptionally difficult, and dangerous. An earlier ancestor allowed its study but prohibited its cultivation 706.

• No-Self secretly cultivated it successfully but initially required time to stabilize 706.
• Its practice gradually stripped away his emotions, contributing to his willingness to sacrifice the sect for advancement 888.

Territory and Infrastructure

• Great Splendor Mountain — Former headquarters and replacement for Azure Firmament Mountain as Yuhuan Continent’s foremost divine mountain; destroyed during the final disaster 650 781 900.
• Eight outer immortal cities — Large settlements beyond the sect’s borders where mortals, cultivators, and families connected to sect members lived together 379.
• Impermanence and Nonexistence Heaven — An incomplete Grotto-Heaven sustained by Xuan Qiong’s heaven-supporting art. His true body could not leave without causing its immediate collapse 617 742.
• Formless Palace — The True Lords’ council chamber within the Grand Peace Heavenly Realm. Existing between reality and illusion, it allows distant True Lords to project their thoughts into meetings 576.
• Jade-Green Mountain — Jiang Chen’s early residence, planted with Jade-Dappled Luminous Pines that glow at night. Pinewave Cliff occupies a spiritual-vein node 379.
• Western Region immortal cities — Defensive and supply nodes used to contain resentful ghosts, support resource development, and operate larger formations 433 472 816.
• Boundless Sea frontier — Islands and immortal cities formed defensive nodes that contained beast tides and helped seal the Great Void 632.
• Emerald Screen Mountain — Headquarters of the revived Mountain-Chasing Dao and the Impermanence Sect’s concealed rebuilding effort 914 1050.

Treasures and Formations

• Void Illusory World Mirror — The founder’s Half-Immortal Artifact and the sect’s principal deterrent. Its manifested power dispelled the Wind-Thunder Demon Emperor’s Annihilation Thunder; it later shattered during the sect’s downfall 706 758 906.
• Primordial Unity Ancient Stele — The foundation of the three core inheritances and the founder’s ascension. Later identified as an Immortal Realm treasure coveted by Gu Lingxiao 682 742 900.
• Wondrous Azure Light of Impermanence and Nonbeing — A heavenly material suited to all three core scriptures and used to forge Dao Bodies. Reserved readily for true Dao seeds because extracting it strains the incomplete Grotto-Heaven 742 743.
• Fragmentary Sky-Supporting talisman — A foundation of Great Splendor Mountain containing immortal-Dao mysteries. No-Self exhausted its remaining power, making later reconstruction much harder 1018.
• Four Spirits Patrol the Heavens Formation — A coordinated True Lord formation used for regional sealing and major attacks. Its final reversal helped draw Azure Firmament Mountain into reality 668 758 817.
• Grand Void Origin-Splitting Awl — A treasure artifact used by the sect’s Purple Mansion cultivators to combine their strength against the Cloud-Turning Bird ruins’ seal. Its lineage had attempted to elevate it into a Dao artifact 538 544.
• Nine-Twist Returning Cage — Created an illusory refuge that slowed the loss of strength and lifespan during the ruins’ sacrificial ritual 537 539.
• Lunar Mirror — Cold Moon Fairy’s Dao artifact, used to locate Eyeless Daoist and later restrain the destruction of the ancestral grounds 695 900.
• Fourth-rank treasury materials — Include Thunder Peng Dao Bone and Nine-Tribulation Undying Thundersteel, reflecting the spoils taken from the Thunder Roc Clan 707.

Notable Members

• Impermanence Daoist / Wuchangzi — Founder; established the core inheritances, ascended, and left the Void Illusory World Mirror to the sect 682 706.
• No-Self True Lord — Former strongest cultivator and restorer of the sect; later sacrificed its members and foundations for his own advancement 579 888.
• True Lord Xuan Qiong — Senior True Lord who sustained the damaged Grotto-Heaven, coordinated major campaigns, and opposed No-Self 617 706 890.
• True Lord Xuanji — Participated in senior councils and military operations; helped preserve the survivors and relocate the sect 772 784 906 907.
• True Lord Execution — Senior combatant with the Execution White Tiger Transformation; condemned Eyeless Daoist as a traitor 576 705.
• True Lord Yingling — Senior True Lord involved in Hollow Mulberry Valley’s defeat and the seizure of Azure Firmament Mountain 650 780 817.
• True Lord Wuding — No-Self’s disciple; guarded the sect gate and controlled its formation, but was later absorbed into his master’s illusory world 706 804 824.
• Yun Wuya — Sect master from Void Dao Hall; offered support to Jiang Chen after Yuan Gang’s death and died in the ancestral-ground disaster 402 673 900.
• Cold Moon Fairy — Void Dao Hall master, leader of the Southern Wilderness purge, and eventual dual sect master of the Impermanence Sect and Mountain-Chasing Dao 694 900 909.
• Daoist Yuan Gang — Jiang Chen’s recruiter and master; died during the Boundless Sea campaign 353 673.
• Jiang Chen — True disciple, Primordial Unity Hall master, and central figure in the sect’s survival and rebuilding. The Formless Palace recognized him with a seventh lotus platform before his actual Celestial Phenomenon breakthrough 684 705 784 907.
• Illusory Dream True Person — Led the sect’s Cloud-Turning Bird ruins expedition and investigated demon activity in the Western Region 501 531 538.
• Shang Li — Deputy Impermanence Hall master and perfected Purple Mansion cultivator commanding the Boundless Sea front 625.
• Gu Lingxiao — True disciple carrying an immortal inheritance; his actions helped trigger the sect’s war, while his pursuit of the ancient stele brought him into conflict with Jiang Chen 576 742 761.
• Eyeless Daoist — Former Void Dao Hall master who defected to the Divine Dao and used his sect connections to obstruct reports of unrest 692 703.
• White Crane Daoist — Third-generation inheritor of an outside branch whose records preserved its hope of returning to the sect 58.

Relations with Other Factions

• Thunder Roc Clan — Historic rival defeated during the sect’s conquest of Yuhuan Continent. Its surviving legacy and Heaven-Hanging Thunder Tamer’s possible return drove the Azure Firmament Mountain campaign 236 520 706.
• Dark Feather Cult — Persistent enemy with a network of corrupted disciples inside the sect; coordinated attacks and infiltration under the Wind-Thunder Demon Emperor 722 776.
• Jellyfish Palace — Longstanding Boundless Sea rival whose war with the sect consumed many lower-realm cultivators and devastated frontier holdings 552 576 627.
• Hollow Mulberry Valley — Wartime enemy destroyed by the sect; surviving remnants continued to contest its holdings on Heavenly Mulberry Continent 735 784.
• Flame Phoenix Immortal Palace — Higher-level power suspected of directing the sect’s enemies; later actively supported interference with its Azure Firmament Mountain operation 576 781 804 819.
• Divine Dao Founding — Rival divine-path force connected to Eyeless Daoist’s betrayal and later warfare on Layered Mountains Continent 703 907 990.
• Peaceful Church and Peaceful Dao Alliance — Jiang Chen’s associated organizations, spared during the Southern Wilderness purge. His divine-path research received the sect’s approval 695 705 738.
• Mountain-Chasing Dao — The public identity under which the surviving Impermanence Sect rebuilt on Layered Mountains Continent 909 942 990.
• Ashen Earth Sect — Sent gifts after the Xia Family’s destruction to affirm its stance against the Dark Feather Cult and preserve relations 416.