Holy Spirit Cult
[Let's start with the first seed stage, which took place ten thousand years ago, during Tang San's era.]
The Deep Sea Demonic Whale King was a marine overlord with nearly a million years of cultivation, and was killed by Tang San during the Sea God Trial.
Everyone knows that Tang San took its Soul Ring and Soul Bone.
However, one detail was overlooked at the time: after the behemoth died, its immense, almost Divine-level Soul Power did not completely dissipate. Instead, it transformed into two things: a lingering resentment and a persistent, condensed evil divine will.
This evil thought was the earliest seed of the Holy Spirit Cult.
It is not a complete soul and does not possess independent consciousness, but it contains the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King's obsession before its death: hatred for Tang San, hatred for humanity, and hatred for all living things.
This divine thought drifted in the ocean for an unknown period of time before being absorbed and fused with by the wife of the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King, who was also the self-proclaimed Soul Beast Demon Empress.
She was tempted by this evil divine thought and comprehended a method from it to rapidly increase her cultivation level by devouring souls.
He founded a sect based on this method, which specializes in the pursuit of death, destruction and the power of the soul. They increase their power by devouring the souls of others and derive a twisted pleasure from it.
This was the prototype of the Holy Spirit Cult.
It is called a prototype because the Holy Spirit Cult in its early stages was not a well-organized group. It was small in scale and loosely structured, more like a small secret society with the method of devouring as its core bond.
But its underlying logic was set from the very first day it was born: devour souls and prove the Dao through killing.
This logic has remained unchanged throughout the entire ten-thousand-year history of the Holy Spirit Cult.
One interesting point is that although the Holy Spirit Cult inherited the evil divine thoughts of the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King, its earliest followers were all humans.
The resentment of a Soul Beast became the foundation of a human cult. This cross-species hatred spread from the deep sea to the land.
[Then comes the second stage: covert preparation and rise, spanning a long period, from thousands of years ago to just a few decades ago, and even now it is still in the development stage.]
The newly founded Holy Spirit Cult quickly became a public enemy of the continent.
The reason is simple: their cultivation methods are excessive.
Normal Soul Master cultivate by accumulating Soul Power through meditation and combat, while Evil Soul Master rely on devouring the Soul Power of Soul Beast or others, and the Holy Spirit Cult directly devours souls.
The soul is not only the vessel of Soul Power, but also carries a person's memories, emotions, and vitality.
The process of devouring the soul is extremely painful for the victim, a complete destruction from body to spirit.
Followers of the Holy Spirit Cult not only devour souls, but also take pleasure in it.
This behavior crossed the line for the entire Soul Master World, including those who were also called "Evil Soul Master" but whose methods were not so extreme.
Various forces began to join forces to suppress the Holy Spirit Cult. Major sects on the continent, the Imperial military, Shrek Academy, and even some originally neutral reclusive families joined the purge.
Unable to withstand the pressure, the Holy Spirit Cult was forced to go underground.
But going underground doesn't mean disappearing from the public eye.
On the contrary, the period of dormancy became the most important stage of preparation in the history of the Holy Spirit Cult.
During this long period, the Holy Spirit Cult made two crucial moves that would later lead to its rise.
The first thing is to continuously improve and perfect the method of devouring souls.
In its early stages, the methods of acquisition were very crude, inefficient, noisy, and easy to track.
Through generations of refinement by believers, the Holy Spirit Cult has developed a more covert and efficient soul-devouring technique.
This includes how to conceal Soul Power fluctuations during absorption, how to absorb souls in batches and segments to reduce the risk of exposure, and even the research on methods to collect souls remotely through specific Soul Tool arrays.
These technologies played a significant role on the battlefield later on.
[The second thing was to infiltrate various powerful forces, the most successful and also the most deadly of which was Shrek Academy.]
The Holy Spirit Cult sent a genius Evil Soul Master to infiltrate Shrek Academy disguised as an ordinary student.
This person is extremely talented and exceptionally skilled at disguise.
He performed exceptionally well during his time at Shrek, rising through the ranks from the Outer Court to the Inner Court, and later becoming a member of the Sea God Pavilion.
The Sea God Pavilion is Shrek's highest decision-making body; everyone sitting at that table is a core figure in the academy.
During his time at the Sea God Pavilion, he used his authority to systematically acquire the treasured books accumulated by the Shrek Academy over thousands of years.
These classic texts cover all aspects of Soul Master cultivation, including Soul Power theory, Soul Skill evolution, Martial Soul Mutation, the breakthrough path to Ultimate Douluo, and even some secret techniques passed down from ancient times.
These things constituted the core foundation of Shrek, and batches of them were secretly copied and transmitted back to the Holy Spirit Cult, greatly enriching the Holy Spirit Cult's theoretical foundation and cultivation resources.
If the Demon Empress endowed the Holy Spirit Cult with an organizational structure and a goal of revenge, then he endowed it with a foundation of Holy Spirit Cult.
With these scriptures, the Holy Spirit Cult's cultivation methods rose from purely experiential exploration to a systematized stage guided by theory, significantly increasing the speed and potential for growth among its followers.
The fact that an Evil Soul Master could infiltrate the highest levels of Shrek for so many years without being discovered speaks volumes.
This illustrates the extent to which the Holy Spirit Cult could disguise itself, and also demonstrates the significant flaws in Shrek's internal vetting mechanisms at the time.
Later, the Sea God Pavilion deeply reflected on the matter and held those responsible accountable, but the stolen books could not be recovered.
He himself returned safely to the Holy Spirit Cult after this long period of infiltration, and through the knowledge he had stolen and his own cultivation, he rose through the ranks until he finally became the cult leader.
[The third stage is the full-scale rise of the Holy Spirit Cult, which is the main stage that Huo Yuhao's generation personally experienced.]
The Holy Spirit Cult has come to the forefront through several landmark events.
The first thing they did was capture and control Ma Xiaotao.
Ma Xiaotao is the leader of Shrek Inner Court and also Huo Yuhao's senior. Her Martial Soul is the Evil Fire Phoenix, which inherently carries the risk of going out of control.
After losing consciousness during a fit of Evil Fire, she was captured by the Holy Spirit Cult.
The Evil Soul Master of the Holy Spirit Cult systematically taught her, or rather, brainwashed her, shaping her into a saintess of the Holy Spirit Cult.
Ma Xiaotao was already extremely strong, and under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit Cult, she made rapid progress, becoming a sharp weapon in the hands of the Holy Spirit Cult.
Although she was later rescued by Huo Yuhao and regained her senses, during the time she served as the Holy Maiden of the Holy Spirit Cult...
She did a lot for the Holy Spirit Cult, and these things later became a difficult hurdle for her to overcome, which was also a key reason why she became increasingly disheartened later on.
Otherwise, with her talent, which is in no way inferior to Ma Hongjun's, she would at least be a Ultimate Douluo.