Black-Robed People

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Black-Robed Man on the Spirit Road

Mu Chen and his companions encounter a black-robed man in a sealed hall beneath the ruins. He emerges from a black sphere whose rune-covered chains were created through the sacrifice of ancient cultivators. Damage to those chains allows evil spiritual energy to escape. The man declares that he intends to break the seal, claim the Spirit Road, and make all living beings submit to him 29.

He overwhelms the cultivators until Mu Chen activates a guardian statue, whose light disperses his tendrils and drives him back. He then draws additional power from the sphere, but the remaining three statues create a shield that temporarily blocks his scythe. Tan Qingshan later refers to Mu Chen having defeated the black-robed man; the supplied account does not show the final resolution of the seal 30 34.

Attacks on Mu Chen’s Clan

The clan-attacking Black-Robed People have no confirmed connection to the Spirit Road individual in the supplied account. Their origins remain unknown to the clan’s chief and elders. During Mu Chen’s absence, they repeatedly damage the compound, kill or injure its members, and search important locations. The elders suspect that they seek an ancestral treasure or confidential information, but neither possibility is confirmed 31.

After returning, Mu Chen follows corrupted footprints to a nearby cave and discovers black-robed figures conducting a ritual around a sinister stone platform. One claims that they have come to reclaim something belonging to them. During the ensuing battle, Mu Chen discovers that the platform links their spiritual energy. Destroying it causes a severe backlash, allowing his squad to capture the surviving attackers for questioning 31 32.

Reinforcements and Siege Preparations

A larger attacking force is repelled by the clan’s newly trained squads, despite its leader’s powerful black-skull attack. Stronger reinforcements arrive shortly afterward, fighting in orderly formations. Mu Chen kills their bell-wielding support member, weakening the army’s attacks, but other leaders deploy spatial rifts and summoned creatures. The clan eventually withdraws behind its fortifications 35 36 37.

The Black-Robed People continue watching the compound while preparing another assault. Clan scouts uncover guarded camps, hidden strongholds, rune-covered crates, and research into a weakness in the defensive barrier. Further reconnaissance confirms that the attackers are testing a method to disrupt a barrier node and can arrange their black boxes into a corrosive-ray formation 37 39 40.

Defeat by the Secret Weapon

Their continuing threat prompts Mu Chen and his companions to awaken the clan’s ancient secret weapon and train the defenders to coordinate with it 41 42 43 44 48 49.

When the Black-Robed People return to the territory’s border, Mu Chen uses the weapon and the clan’s linked spiritual energy to break their collective shield. He cuts apart several of the leader’s summoned skulls, traps the leader in a spiritual energy vortex, and directs a concentrated attack against him. The wounded leader escapes and orders the remaining forces to retreat. Mu Chen treats the victory as temporary rather than the end of the threat 50.

Appearance

• Black robes and concealed faces — The clan attackers cover their faces and surround themselves with black mist 31.
• Dark spiritual aura — Their bodies are shrouded in surging black spiritual energy; the stronger reinforcements have noticeably thicker mist and more oppressive energy fluctuations 36 50.
• Reinforcement spokesman — One leading member is tall and speaks in a low, hoarse voice 36.
• Leader’s revealed face — The leader has a pale face, exposed when the clan’s attacks tear his robe during the final counterattack 50.

Personality

The attackers are ruthless toward the clan, causing deaths and injuries while pursuing their objective. The cave group reacts to Mu Chen with greed and viciousness, then threatens to show no mercy when he rejects its ownership claim 31.

Their leaders display contempt and overconfidence, but also recognize unfavorable battles. One underestimates the young disciples before ordering a withdrawal; the later leader mocks the secret weapon despite visible unease, then shows terror and despair when trapped. Their retreats demonstrate that they are willing to preserve their surviving forces rather than fight to annihilation 35 50.

Abilities & Skills

Corrosive Black Spiritual Energy

Their spiritual energy damages both living targets and spiritual defenses 31 32 40.

• Wounds inflicted on clan members are difficult to heal and gradually disrupt the victims’ spiritual energy 31.
• Attacks take the form of arrows, weapon-generated blades, large energy spheres, wind blades, and coiling streams used to restrain opponents 31 32 36.
• The black-box formation fires rays capable of corroding spiritual energy defenses 40.
• Mu Chen’s star-infused attacks disperse the mist guarding the ritual cave 31.

Formation Combat and Collective Defense

The group coordinates attacks through formations and shared spiritual energy 32 36 50.

• The cave group forms an encirclement supported by spiritual energy connections through its stone platform 32.
• Reinforcements coordinate varied spiritual techniques into sustained barrages 36.
• Members pool their energy into a black Spiritual Energy Shield, with their leader reinforcing it directly 50.
• The cave formation suffers catastrophic backlash when its platform is destroyed; the later collective shield breaks under the secret weapon and the clan’s combined assault 32 50.

Bell-Based Enhancement and Soul Attacks

A specialist uses a black bell to strengthen allies while attacking enemy souls 36.

• Shaking the bell increases nearby black-robed fighters’ spiritual energy and emits a soul-disrupting force 36.
• An incantation allows the wielder to fire black soul arrows from the bell 36.
• Killing the wielder immediately weakens the surrounding army’s attacks 36.
• Tang Qian’er’s team develops a soul-defense formation and treasures that emit a frequency capable of interfering with items such as the bell 37.

Leaders’ Specialized Techniques

Different leaders demonstrate distinct offensive abilities; the account does not establish that every member possesses them 35 36.

• Black skulls — Wand-assisted incantations create enormous skulls. The attack used against the young disciples corrodes the ground and appears to devour surrounding spiritual energy 35 50.
• Spatial rifts — One reinforcement leader creates black rifts with powerful suction 36.
• Creature summoning — Another reinforcement leader summons numerous batlike dark creatures from beneath the ground 36.
• Rapid close combat — The leader confronting the secret weapon closes the distance to Mu Chen almost instantly and strikes with his wand 50.

Spirit Road Individual’s Mist Manipulation

The black-robed man emerging from the sealed sphere shapes his mist into offensive and defensive forms 29 30.

• A mist barrier blocks Mu Chen’s Wrath of the Starry Firmament and the other cultivators’ strongest attacks 29.
• Barbed tendrils bind victims, pierce their skin, and rapidly erode their spiritual energy 30.
• Absorbed sphere energy enables him to form a giant black scythe that releases spiritual energy storms 30.
• Stellar power loosens his tendrils, while the guardian statues’ light disperses them and temporarily holds back his attack 30.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Rune-covered black saber — Wielded by a powerful defender of the ritual platform; its swings release waves of black spiritual energy 32.
• Black wand — Used by attacking leaders for skull-summoning incantations and direct combat 35 50.
• Black bell — Carried by the reinforcement specialist and left on the ground after his death 36.
• Ritual stone platform — Holds strange objects bearing the same energy fluctuations as the clan attackers and serves as the cave group’s spiritual energy connection point 31 32.
• Rune-covered black boxes/crates — Transported into hidden strongholds and arranged into an attack formation 39 40.
• Sealed black sphere — The Spirit Road individual’s source of additional evil power; originally restrained by sacrificial, rune-covered chains 29 30.

Organization & Bases

• Leader-dependent command — Mu Chen identifies their reliance on powerful leaders as a weakness and proposes disabling those leaders to disrupt the offensive 37 40.
• Protected specialists — Numerous guards surround the bell wielder and prevent Tan Qingshan from reaching him immediately 36.
• Guarded camp — Their camp has layered checkpoints, spiritual energy alarm barriers, and patrolling guards 39.
• Hidden strongholds — Several concealed sites surround the clan and appear to be connected by spiritual energy passages 39.
• Barrier-breaching research — They experiment with temporarily interrupting spiritual energy flow through a particular defensive node 40.

Relationships

• Mu Chen — Principal opponent; destroys their ritual platform, kills their bell wielder, and leads the secret-weapon counterattack 32 36 50.
• Mu Chen’s clan — Repeated target of raids, searches, and planned large-scale assaults 31 39 40.
• Tan Qingshan — Frontline enemy who cuts through their ranks and helps Mu Chen confront the bell wielder 35 36.
• Tang Qian’er — Enemy support cultivator who strengthens the clan’s fighters and develops counters to their soul attacks and special items 35 37 50.
• Lin Feng — Scout who infiltrates near their camp and overhears their planned all-out assault 39.
• Su Yao — Scout who discovers their hidden strongholds and black crates, then escapes their pursuit with intelligence 39 40.

Notable Quotes

“We've come to take back what belongs to us.”
— A black-robed figure confronting Mu Chen at the ritual cave 31

“Hmph, did you think you could drive us back so easily? Today is the day your clan meets its end.”
— A reinforcement leader 36

“Hmph. You think a new weapon will let you defeat us? How naive.”
— The Black-Robed People’s leader before the secret-weapon counterattack 50