Demon Suppression Division

Biodata

Organization

Recruitment and ranks

• The Division visits counties to select personnel. Xiangyun County’s selection is highly competitive; under its customary rules, applicants must be younger than twenty, and those at the sixth stage of Body Forging have a realistic chance of selection 1 2.
• Recruits below the Qi Gathering Realm begin as Patrol Soldiers, Brawny Guards, or Scouts, performing patrols, support work, and mission assistance 37.
• Qi Gathering practitioners may take the Captain examination. Successful candidates become Demon Suppression Guards eligible for missions outside the city; newly appointed Captains receive one free cultivation-manual selection 37 38.
• Deputy Generals can command guards assigned to them, potentially including several hundred Captains. Yang Xiao receives the rank after the Guanlan River campaign 64 69.
• Demon Suppression Generals direct major regional operations and exercise authority over subordinate officers. Pei Xuance commands the Guanlan River blockade, while Lu Changgeng judges officers accused of neglecting their duties in Longwind Commandery 51 118.

Shen Qingyang describes realm, merit, and survivability as the measures that matter within the Division, rather than a recruit’s family background. High-level manuals, pills, and weapons generally require Merit earned through service; breakthrough arts specifically cannot be claimed without it 37 39.

Facilities and records

• Qingzhou headquarters — Contains guard residences, training arenas, archives, and mission facilities. Its Demon Subduing Stele names fallen guards and records 103,712 deaths in the line of duty since the Qingzhou Division’s founding 37 38.
• Merit Hall — Registers newcomers, issues identity tokens and Merit Booklets, and settles Merit 37.
• Task Hall — Posts mission bounties and registers teams. New guards cannot take field missions alone; a team must have at least two members 40.
• Cultivation Manual Archive — Holds martial and cultivation methods, with access restricted by rank and Merit. The Division also maintains a Pill Archive and Forging Pavilion 37 69.
• Demon-Slaying Battalion — Qingzhou’s elite force of Deputy Generals, responsible for missions against demons too powerful for ordinary guards. Its members usually operate separately and assemble for major disasters or Demon King hunts 73 86.
• Qi-Gathering Bottles — Hold demon aura used to document Battalion kills and calculate Merit. Corpses, cores, and witness testimony can also help verify kills when aura was not collected 96 133.

History and major operations

Xiangyun County recruitment

The Qingzhou Division is asked to reinforce Xiangyun County against demons beyond the county yamen’s strength. Flag Officer Shen Qingyang arrives with ten elite guards, intending both to address the outbreaks and recruit local personnel. After learning that Yang Xiao has gone alone to Three-Demon Mountain, Shen orders the group to search for him 6 31.

Yang Xiao returns having killed the bull demon. Shen finds that the county’s recorded threats have already been dealt with, then selects three people for the journey to Qingzhou. Yang Xiao’s place is assured by his achievement 35 36.

Guanlan River campaign

After River Inspection Envoy Jiang Chen’s collusion with the Flood Dragon Lord is exposed, General Pei Xuance mobilizes Guanlan Prefecture’s guards to seal hundreds of miles of river. Qingzhou sends reinforcements, including Yang Xiao. Division forces restrain the Flood Dragon Lord with nine Demon-Subduing Chains, while Pei rejects its claim that keeping other demons away excuses its attacks on humans 51 61.

Qingzhou investigations

• Heishui County — Yang Xiao and Xu Qingshan investigate disappearances linked to a Painted-Skin Demon after earlier Division guards vanish on the case 41 46.
• Golden Buddha Temple — Yang Xiao leads Captains to investigate reports of disease and exploitation. After finding a ledger of victims and evidence of blood-based cultivation, he orders the mountain surrounded before confronting the temple 75 79 80.
• Mystic Bone Sect — Battalion officers respond to a siege by powerful demons. Yang Xiao kills Bear Mountain Lord, ending the immediate crisis 86 96.
• Azure Mist City — Division officers fight the Seven Demons of She Mountain and subsequently clear the battlefield and rescue civilians held near the City Lord’s Residence. Evidence of an outsider Demon King prompts an investigation into the silence of Longwind Commandery’s reports 99 109.
• Black Miasma Ravine — Yang Xiao recovers badges belonging to fallen Division members and kills the Nine-Poison Scorpion Lord. He asks that the deaths be recorded and the guards’ families compensated 114 115 116.

Notable quotes

“Your realm determines your starting point, your merit determines your resources, and how hard you are to kill determines whether you can stay alive long enough.” — Shen Qingyang 37

“Demons may exist, but they may not prey on humans.” — Pei Xuance’s position in his confrontation with the Flood Dragon Lord 61