Ghost Infant Sect

Biodata

Background / History

The Ghost Infant Sect has kept a low profile in Shangjing City for decades. Its members practice ghostly spiritual arts inherited from ancient times, and the unorthodox resources required for cultivation have implicated the sect in numerous murders 17 26.

Du Xingze established its headquarters in Shangjing Garden because his Psychic Jade emitted faint resonance there, indicating that its missing counterpart was nearby. Reuniting the pair would reveal a treasure map and unlock the tomb of Tu Baili, an ancient demonic-path innate expert. Du’s prolonged search became an obsession that hindered his cultivation 31.

Organization & Strength

The sect’s documented hierarchy includes a sect master, elders, stewards, inner disciples, and outer disciples. It also maintains investigators, trackers, and a prison staff 20 31 36 50.

The force sent against Yang Yu consisted of Elder Xu, seven Human Rank experts, and fifty mortal-peak disciples. Its destruction damaged the sect’s reputation throughout Shangjing City’s cultivation community 31 42.

Abilities & Methods

Ghostly Spiritual Arts

• The sect cultivates ancient ghostly spiritual arts requiring unorthodox resources 17.
• Its resource-gathering practices are linked to numerous murders; the supplied account does not name a specific sect-wide cultivation technique 17.

Death Detection and Tracking

• Life lamps reveal when registered disciples die 20.
• Death guidance directs investigators to the location associated with those deaths 20.
• Trackers supplement supernatural methods with surveillance footage, background investigations, and government contacts 31 42 50.
• These methods locate the alley and Yang Yu’s residence, but fail to find his later hiding places for more than three months 20 31 50.

Coordinated Assaults

• Uses snipers, modified firearms, power cuts, explosive traps, and broad encirclements alongside cultivator attacks 32 33 34 41.
• Its seven Human Tier experts launch a synchronized ambush powerful enough to threaten an Earth Rank opponent 35.
• Elder Xu supplements direct combat with a gigantic purple-black palm formed from Cosmic Force 36.

Recruitment

• Seeks to befriend and recruit powerful unaffiliated cultivators 18.
• Li Dahai attempts to recruit Yang Yu after Tie San’s death, hoping the achievement will offset the loss of an outer disciple 18.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Psychic Jade — Du Xingze possesses one half of a paired, supreme-grade Mortal Shedding Treasure. Together, the pieces serve as a treasure map and key to Tu Baili’s tomb; nearby pieces resonate with one another 31.
• Strength Frenzy Scroll — Elder Xu’s reserve artifact, created by the Western Heaven Tier archmage Suo’esi. It increases an Earth Rank user’s physical strength more than threefold for half an hour and supports five uses. Three uses remain when Zhao Zixuan recovers it after the battle 38 41.
• Modified firearms and sniper weaponry — Used during the apartment assault and pursuit. The modified pistols prove largely ineffective against Giant Mantis Beast armor 32 35 41.
• Mortal Shedding Treasures — Inferior- and ordinary-grade treasures belonging to the defeated fighters are recovered as spoils 41.
• Life lamps — Used to monitor disciples’ survival 20.

Relationships

• Yang Yu — Principal enemy. His killing of four outer disciples escalates into an assassination attempt, a citywide manhunt, and his planned retaliation against the sect 19 31 42 50.
• Zhao Zixuan — Initially pursued by outer disciples while investigating a supernatural story. After identifying his connection to Yang Yu, the sect targets his family for information 17 50.
• Zhao Yuantang and Liu Yan — Zhao Zixuan’s parents; imprisoned and tortured despite having no knowledge of the fugitives’ whereabouts 50.
• Ten Thousand Layers Tower — A superior cultivation organization the sect fears provoking 18 21.
• Tongbao Antique Purchasing House — A substantially stronger faction with which the sect has poor relations. Zhou Zifeng considers helping and recruiting Yang Yu without fearing sect retaliation 43.
• Government authorities — Contacts assist the sect’s surveillance search. The sect pays a price to suppress public reporting of the battle and must avoid openly challenging state power 42.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Outer Disciples’ Deaths

Four outer disciples chase Zhao Zixuan into the spatially distorted alley leading to the abandoned Immortal Spirit Ghost Market. Yang Yu intervenes and kills Tie San, then interrogates the survivors about Shangjing City’s hidden cultivation powers 17 18.

Li Dahai offers an invitation to the sect, but Yang Yu interprets it as a trap and kills the remaining witnesses. His Giant Mantis Beasts consume their bodies to obstruct investigation. Nevertheless, the extinguished life lamps bring Steward Ning’s investigators to the alley, where they discover the market entrance 19 20.

Assault on Yang Yu

After identifying Yang Yu, Du Xingze orders Elder Xu to bring back his head and recover his market treasures for inspection. Although Du dismisses the outer disciples’ deaths as trivial, the nearby market interests him as a possible lead in his Psychic Jade search 31.

The attackers surround Yang Yu’s residence, open with a sniper shot, cut the building’s power, and pursue him into prepared wilderness ambushes. Yang Yu reverses the battle by summoning twenty Giant Mantis Beasts, which overwhelm the mortal-peak disciples and help destroy the Human Tier fighters 32 33 34 35 36.

Elder Xu intervenes personally and eventually activates the Strength Frenzy Scroll. The operation ends with Xu and the dispatched force dead; Zhao Zixuan collects their equipment while the mantises consume the corpses 38 41 42.

Manhunt and Family Captivity

The defeat becomes widely known among Shangjing cultivators. More concerned with lost prestige than casualties, Du Xingze orders dozens of elders to locate Yang Yu and bring him back dead or alive. The sect mobilizes surveillance access and government contacts, while other factions join the search for their own purposes 42 43.

Yang Yu repeatedly relocates and kills a sect scout before the scout can report his position. After more than three months without finding him, investigators identify Zhao Zixuan through footage around Yang Yu’s residence and seize Zhao’s parents. Liu Datong tortures them for half a month despite suspecting that they genuinely know nothing 46 50.

By the time Yang Yu prepares to return to Shangjing City, he considers himself capable of defeating the sect’s elders, guardians, and disciples, but still regards Du Xingze as its main remaining threat 50.