Ghost Valley Ridge lay in southern Longdong, on the northern bank of the Han River, a southern offshoot of the great Qinling Mountains.
Until five hundred years ago, this place had remained utterly obscure; no one had even known such a place existed. Only after True Person Zhang Sanfeng ascended did a married pair of demonic practitioners emerge from nowhere, establish their sect here, and found the Red Heart Cult.
In their founding proclamation, the two fiends publicly declared that this place had originally been called Ghost Valley Ridge and had been the sanctuary of the pre-Qin Immortal Guiguzi. They had inherited Guiguzi's spells and sanctuary, revered him across the ages as their Dharma-transmitting Patriarch, and honored the formless, aspectless Heavenly Demon as the true progenitor of their sect's founding purpose. Taking "Red Heart Primordial Beginning, Red Heart Desire Contemplation; Human Nature Is Inherently Evil, The Human Heart Can Be Manipulated" as their doctrine, they threw open their gates and recruited disciples far and wide.
At first, people naturally held these claims in considerable contempt.
Across the vast Divine Land, the long river of history had produced far too many legendary figures whose names had shaken their times. Some had passed down Dao Traditions that survived to this day, enjoying incense offerings through countless generations, such as Jiangnan's six great Manifest Dao Immortal Sects.
Others had also passed down Dao Traditions, but problems in succession had severed their Dao Lineages, and their sanctuaries had long since changed names and masters. Tianzhu Mountain in Qingzhou was one example. During the pre-Qin era, it had transmitted the Fate-Mandating True Lord's Dao Tradition. By the Han dynasties, that tradition had died out, and the Immortal Zuo Ci came there to transmit the Dao of Alchemy. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Daoists and