Daoist Sect

Biodata

Feature	Details
Name	Daoist Sect (道门)
Affiliation	Jiang Prefecture’s Daoist establishment, including Lingjiang Temple and its regional network 4 73
Occupation/Role	Regional cultivation authority that suppresses strange creatures, administers local territories, and controls Agricultural Path cultivators 9 42
Status	Active; heavily committed to operations in the Horn-Sand Ancient Forbidden Land 73 82
First Appearance	Chapter 2 2

Background / History

Post-Heavenfall inheritance

After Heavenfall severed the immortal path thirty thousand years earlier, the Daoist Sect emerged as one of the powers sheltering human regions from strange creatures and calamities 2 9. Internally, Fu Yangzi reveals that more than half of the modern Eastern Daoist Sect’s inheritance derives from a single secret immortal-path legacy that survived Heavenfall 39.

The Horn-Sand Ancient Forbidden Land is believed to contain another Immortal Legacy, associated with the Gushe Immortal Sect and guarded by ancient sword formations 39 70 71. Securing this inheritance becomes the sect’s century-long priority.

Public image and rule

Among ordinary people, the sect is widely revered as a righteous protector: Daoist priests kill strange creatures, contain calamities, and guard settlements that would otherwise be overrun 9 13. This reputation is reinforced by its visible interventions, such as dispatching masters and True Persons to secure the revived territory around Dajiang County 19.

Its authority exceeds that of mundane officials. Field Steward Daoist Priests are ranked above local county magistrates and city lords, while local residents and merchants commonly maintain relations with Daoist masters through gifts and favors 42 43.

Exploitation of the Agricultural Path

Behind its public image, the sect treats Agricultural Path cultivators as a controlled resource. Farmers it can control are recruited and cultivated; those it cannot control are used to reclaim or purify dangerous land with their flesh and blood 20.

The first known wave of recruitment was devastating. Of thirty-seven Ninth Grade Farmers selected as outer disciples over five years, thirty-five had died within the sect by the time Jiang Tu reviewed the records 9. Sun Fu, the first local Eighth Grade Field Steward, was recruited as an inner disciple soon after publicly demonstrating Earth Escape and likewise disappeared 9.

In New Dajiang County, the sect uses a “Three-in-One Strategy,” selecting roughly one out of every three newly born Agricultural Path cultivators each year 40. It also scatters Field Stewards across Jiang Prefecture, weakening their concentration in New Dajiang County and placing them under direct sect supervision 41 42.

Horn-Sand escalation

As the Horn-Sand operation intensifies, the sect recalls Daoist priests from ordinary cities and sends them to the forbidden-land front line 43 73. Grand Elder Fu Yangzi directs the overall effort from Lingjiang Temple, while the sect’s twelve True Persons rotate through frontline investigations and maintain strict secrecy 73.

The sect’s rivalry with Meizhou Prefecture’s Thousand Mountains Temple escalates into infiltration, intelligence gathering, and open competition over the forbidden land 39 73 82. Its need to restore the land culminates in the gathering of more than ten thousand Agricultural Path cultivators at Lone Goose City, where Qing Shuzi begins a massacre to raise cultivation and restore the forbidden land 82.

Organization and Hierarchy

Rank / Group	Documented role
Grand Elder	Fu Yangzi directs Lingjiang Temple’s long-term strategy, including the Horn-Sand operation and secrecy measures 39 73
True Persons	High-ranking cultivators such as Dong Daozi and Qing Shuzi; they supervise disciples, investigate threats, deploy major Daoist arts, and coordinate regional policy 39 51 54
Inner disciples	Cultivators formally trained by the sect and sent down the mountain for assignments or surveillance work 4 50
Field Steward Daoist Priests	Agricultural Path cultivators placed in charge of cities and counties after the sect’s dispersal policy; their social standing exceeds local officials 42
Hidden posts and agents	Covert operatives who monitor Field Stewards, investigate suspicious activity, and maintain surveillance across cities 50 54

Agricultural Path Policy

Policy / Event	Details
Recruitment of awakened Farmers	The sect selects Ninth Grade Farmers as outer disciples and elevates promising Field Stewards as inner disciples 9
Controlled cultivation	Agricultural Path cultivators are useful for reclaiming land, producing Premium Quality crops, and supporting the sect’s broader expansion 19 20
Harvesting and land restoration	Agricultural cultivators are treated as expendable material; their deaths are used to purify earth and restore forbidden territory 20 70 82
Dispersal policy	Field Stewards from New Dajiang County are distributed throughout Jiang Prefecture, diminishing the region’s Agricultural Path concentration and spiritual opportunities 41 42
Suppression of independent groups	The sect and Buddhist forces purge Old Farmer Hall, execute exposed Agricultural cultivators, and drive survivors into Shennong Valley 24
Managed public cruelty	Qing Shuzi explicitly endorses allowing corrupt officials such as Rong Yidao to commit abuses so that the sect’s later “benevolence” appears greater by comparison 51

Inheritance and Techniques

Dao Reception

Daoist Sect cultivation is passed through receiving the Dao. Inner disciples undergo an initial Dao Reception, while a Second Dao Reception grants substantially greater power and status 4 39 74.

• Second Dao Reception practitioners can ride swords through the sky, employ Five-Thunder arts, and wield the Twenty-Four Forms of the Two Qi Dao Art 39.
• Dong Daozi teaches that a disciple’s life and death must “flow together” with the sect after receiving its Dao 69.
• Wang Congyun reports severe mental instability after his Second Dao Reception, suggesting that the sect’s inheritance may carry an unresolved danger or aberration 74 82.
• The law of Non-Coexistence of Paths prevents Daoist Sect cultivation and Agricultural Path cultivation from coexisting within one person 67 74.

Known Daoist Arts

• Twenty-Four Forms of the Two Qi Dao Art — A sect art with applications including the All-Seeing Art, which enhances vision enough to inspect minute details through a residence 50.
• Swan-Flash Daoist Art — Used by Dong Daozi and Qing Shuzi to probe the ancient sword’s pressure and glimpse the broken-sword sea within the Horn-Sand Forbidden Land 71.
• Flying-sword formations — Qing Shuzi controls thirty-three flying swords and uses True Astral Force to battle high-level specters 70.
• True Astral Force — The refined power wielded by True Persons for movement, healing, suppression, and large-scale Daoist arts 51 71.

Relationships

Senior members

• Fu Yangzi — Grand Elder who oversees the sect’s Horn-Sand strategy and initially dismisses the Agricultural Path as militarily inferior 39 73.
• Dong Daozi — True Person of Lingjiang Temple and Wang Congyun’s master; participates in Agricultural Path oversight and Horn-Sand investigations 4 39 71.
• Qing Shuzi — Cautious True Person who advocates vigilance against the Agricultural Path, supervises surveillance operations, and leads the Lone Goose City massacre 39 54 82.
• Wang Congyun — Field Steward and inner disciple who secretly rescues Agricultural Path cultivators and works against the sect from within 32.
• Li Xiaobing — Sect-nurtured Field Steward who seeks a method to break through the Third Realm by combining the power of multiple Field Stewards 19 70.

External factions

• Agricultural Path — A resource, subordinate branch, and potential threat in the sect’s view; it is cultivated, divided, monitored, and periodically slaughtered 20 39 42.
• Buddhist Sect — A rival inheritance with a shared ancient origin; Daoist and Buddhist forces compete violently over immortal-path inheritances 59 60 67.
• Thousand Mountains Temple — Meizhou Prefecture’s Daoist force, which investigates and contests Jiang Prefecture’s Horn-Sand operation 73 82.
• Snow Auspice Hall — An independent Agricultural Path organization that grows in secret while avoiding direct confrontation with Buddhist and Daoist forces 57 59 60.

Major Arcs

• Dajiang County recruitment — The sect recruits awakened Farmers into its outer and inner ranks; nearly all of the earliest recruits die after entering its custody 9.
• New Dajiang County — The sect guards and settles the revived Dajiang territory, benefiting from its extraordinarily fertile land and large population of awakened Farmers 19 20.
• Agricultural Path dispersal — Field Stewards are sent across Jiang Prefecture as local Daoist authorities, while established Daoist priests are recalled for more important work 41 42.
• Welcoming Wind City surveillance — Dong Daozi and Qing Shuzi inspect Rong Residence Agricultural Academy, then investigate Jiang Tu’s household after detecting Agricultural Path potential 51 52 54.
• Horn-Sand conflict — The sect commits its forces to recovering the Immortal Legacy, clashes with Meizhou’s Daoists, and expands deeper into the forbidden land 70 73.
• Lone Goose City massacre — Qing Shuzi leads the slaughter of gathered Agricultural Path cultivators to restore the forbidden land and advance cultivation 82.

Notable Quotes

“The affairs of the mortal world—forget the mortal world, sever the mortal world. Those of the Daoist Sect should never become entangled with worldly matters!”
— Dong Daozi 70

“Without Rong Yidao’s wickedness, how could the benevolence of our Daoist Sect’s sacred decree stand out by contrast?”
— Qing Shuzi 51