Sun Moon Holy Cult

Biodata

Power Progression

The milestones below track the cult’s collective strength rather than a cultivation realm belonging to the organization itself.

History

Leadership Struggle at Blackwood Cliff

Ren Woxing was imprisoned before the cult’s early appearances. Lin Lang informed Ren Yingying that her father was alive and advised her to gather trusted allies before attempting a rescue 12.

Under Dongfang Bubai, Yang Lianting handled affairs through a curtained “Cult Leader,” while Dongfang himself stayed in the mountains behind Blackwood Cliff, embroidering. Dongfang’s personal strength was sufficient to defeat Fang Zheng, Chongxu, Zuo Lengchan, and several other righteous-path masters 47 103.

When the Five Mountains Sword Alliance, Northern Shaolin, and Wudang threatened Blackwood Cliff, Lin Lang persuaded Ren Woxing to mobilize his former followers in its defense. Publicly, he argued that the headquarters and the cult’s foundations had to survive regardless of its leader. Privately, he wanted both sides weakened so that a restored Ren Woxing would depend on him 63.

By Ren Woxing’s restoration, Dongfang Bubai had been killed. Lin Lang declined to formally join the cult, arguing that his Jinyiwei position offered better protection and access to court intelligence. He nevertheless accepted the Right Envoy token. His subsequent warning about infiltration was vindicated when eight agents were caught attempting to send messages from Blackwood Cliff 102.

Expansion and Commercial Reform

Following the destruction of the Mount Song Sect and collapse of the Five Mountains Sword Alliance, Ren Woxing planned further expansion and revenge against the cult’s former attackers. Lin Lang discouraged an immediate assault on Northern Shaolin and instead urged him to secure money, martial manuals, and sustainable employment for followers 122.

The cult destroyed the Northern Beggars’ Gang’s headquarters and several Branch Altars, but the Golden Coin Gang seized other Branch Altars before it could finish the campaign. Competition then spread to recruiting experts from the Weapons Ranking. Lin Lang recruited Yin Ku, Yin Yeku, and Blue Scorpion, while Ren Woxing killed Hu Bugui after he refused to join 136 175 180 186.

After Lin Lang killed Shangguan Jinhong and Jing Wuming, Ren Woxing destroyed the Golden Coin Gang’s headquarters. The cult occupied its Branch Altars and absorbed its businesses, becoming the foremost power in Great Ming’s Jianghu 196 197 199.

Ren Yingying’s Succession

Ren Woxing’s death at Yaoyue’s hands created another leadership crisis. Lin Lang refused the throne and installed Ren Yingying as Cult Leader. Xiang Wentian was the first senior officer to recognize her, and the existing leadership retained its posts 203.

The cult subsequently absorbed Moving Flower Palace. Four Branch Altars, several Elders, Lin Lang, and Jiang Xiaoyu helped defend the palace against Jiang Biehe’s forces from Great Song 209 210.

Northern Shaolin remained a major opponent. When it hosted a martial gathering that Lin Lang suspected would become an anti-cult coalition, he ordered a lightning raid. At the assembly, participants openly called for the destruction of the cult and Blackwood Cliff; Lin Lang and the cult’s experts confronted them, and Northern Shaolin was destroyed 258 259 263.

Mongol Yuan’s advance later destroyed eight Branch Altars and killed six Altar Masters. Fewer than thirty percent of the affected followers escaped. Cult members fought Mongol Yuan experts in the capital to avenge these losses and support Lin Lang, rather than to submit to the Great Ming court 282.

Challenges to Its Supremacy

Rumors that Lin Lang had been crippled encouraged internal conspiracies. Jiumozhi captured Elders and altar leaders plotting to seize control of the cult 319.

The Azure Dragon Society challenged the cult by slaughtering subordinate gangs, including the Giant Whale Gang. The cult retaliated against its Branch Altars, destroying ten in the initial campaign. The struggle also cost the cult additional subordinate gangs, three Elders, and five Altar Masters 389 390.

Xiong Ba exploited that conflict to expand the World Association. He later threatened to destroy the cult after killing Lin Lang, treating its Right Envoy as the central obstacle to his own supremacy 390 431.

By the late story, the cult had destroyed both Southern and Northern Shaolin, and Heaven Gate had also fallen, with Di Shitian killed. Its prominence continued to attract enemies: thousands of experts, including hundreds of peak Martial Arts Myths, eventually gathered at Blackwood Cliff demanding retribution for their destroyed sects 480 523 553.

Succession and the Nine Realms

Lin Lang chose Jiang Xiaoyu as the next Cult Leader, conditional on his reaching Land Immortal, and supplied an elixir to help him achieve it. Jiang had completed the breakthrough by the time his succession was described as imminent 559 562.

Blackwood Cliff also became the site of Lin Lang’s three-day-and-night Martial Dao lecture to visitors from across the Nine Realms. The gathering hailed him as the World’s Martial Arts Sage. By the subsequent campaign to gather divine weapons, all Nine Realms honored the cult 559 562.

Organization and Leadership

Cult Leaders and Succession

Senior Offices and Branch Structure

• Right Envoy — Lin Lang: Originally ranks directly beneath the Cult Leader, alongside Xiang Wentian and Ren Yingying. Ren Woxing’s token authorizes him to command ordinary cult members, excluding Xiang and Yingying; under Yingying, his practical authority becomes equivalent to the leader’s 102 301.
• Left Envoy — Xiang Wentian: Rallies forces, handles administration, and negotiates with court representatives. Yingying frequently leaves ongoing business in his hands 63 211 228.
• Skill-Transmitting Elder — Jiumozhi: Oversees the Martial Arts Pavilion’s second floor and later helps secure the cult against internal conspirators 228 311 319.
• Guest Elders — Nie Renwang and Duan Shuai: Both accept positions after reuniting with their sons 467.
• Four headquarters halls: Blackwood Cliff’s forces are divided into four halls; Ren Woxing plans to deploy three against the Golden Coin Gang’s headquarters 190.
• Regional hierarchy: Branch Altars are headed by Altar Masters and deputies, with Incense Masters and deputy Incense Masters also appearing among the cult’s officers 288.

Discipline and Recruitment

• Coercive recruitment: Ren Woxing uses Three Corpse Brain Spirit Pills to control experts. Lin Lang initially recruits Yin Ku through the same method, but later removes the pill from his body 123 175 259.
• Merit-based access: Entry to the martial-manual pavilion normally requires earned merit; cultivation methods are also distributed as rewards 102 362.
• Employment discipline: Lin Lang institutes rotating leave and prohibits gambling outside monthly days off. His inspections find Branch Altars operating without members bullying ordinary people 196.
• Selective admission: Lin Lang refuses membership to disreputable followers of the Heavenly Mountain Child Elder and later orders the cult to recruit only geniuses. Unsuitable disciples are returned to their own Branch Altars 234 362.
• Non-hereditary leadership: Lin Lang explicitly rejects treating the throne as an automatic inheritance. He regards sufficient strength—not descent—as necessary to hold it without renewed internal conflict 559.

Martial Arts and Training

Supreme Arts

• Star-Sucking Great Skill: One of the cult’s two original supreme arts, passed from Ren Woxing to Lin Lang. Lin Lang later develops a formula for Ren Yingying incorporating the Absorbing Power Divine Skill and Northern Darkness Divine Skill 102 228.
• Sunflower Manual: The other original supreme art, cultivated by Dongfang Bubai. The cult’s copy is incomplete and includes Dongfang’s cultivation insights 87 101 102.
• Shaolin scriptures: The cult later possesses the Muscle-Tendon Changing Scripture and Marrow-Cleansing Scripture. Lin Lang offers access to such arts as an incentive for Jiumozhi to join 224.
• Captured and acquired manuals: Five Mountains Sword Alliance techniques, Shaolin arts, Love of the Allure, and the Heavenly Cripple Divine Skill enter its holdings through Lin Lang’s campaigns and acquisitions 122 185 418 451.

Martial Arts Pavilion

• Broad collection: Holds sword, fist, palm, finger, leg, movement, saber, spear, hidden-weapon, and unusual-weapon arts. More powerful manuals are placed higher on the shelves 102.
• Initial limitations: At Lin Lang’s first inspection, its ordinary shelves contain Wulin Secret Arts but no Martial Arts Masterwork comparable to the Star-Sucking Great Skill 102.
• Separate personal inheritances: Some Elders and Altar Masters retain techniques not recorded in the pavilion, including the Peach Valley Six Immortals and Yellow River Ancestor 102.
• Specialist instruction: Jiumozhi takes responsibility for the second floor as the collection and the cult’s training system develop 228.

Elite Development

• Individualized cultivation: Members practice different methods suited to them rather than a single uniform curriculum 452.
• Supervised sparring: An Elder watches daily practice to prevent injuries serious enough to damage cultivation foundations 452.
• Generational continuity: Lin Lang and Ren Yingying prioritize talented ordinary members and younger disciples to prevent gaps between generations 228 452 524.
• Continuing weakness: Even late in its rise, the cult remains top-heavy. Apart from Jiumozhi, who is seeking Martial Arts Myth, its other Elders and Altar Masters have not reached Heaven-Man peak; its most exceptional successors are still Lin Lang’s disciples 524 563.

Holdings and Finances

Businesses

Financial Development

• Before reform: The cult owns few businesses, obtains money by “borrowing” from wealthy households, and rarely pays its followers 122.
• Commercial strategy: Lin Lang proposes escort work, property rentals, and other businesses. His proposals also include robbing merchants first so they will seek the cult’s protection; the passage presents this as a scheme, not an established operating practice 122.
• Member pay: By the court negotiations, Xiang Wentian states that every member receives at least several dozen taels per month, comparable to a sixth-rank official’s salary 211.
• Monthly revenue: Nearly two million taels from shipping, escort work, farmland, shops, and other holdings 264.
• Monthly expenditure: More than one million taels; much of the wealth Lin Lang brings back is distributed among members 264.
• Reserves: Approximately two to three million taels’ worth of goods before the full impact of Northern Shaolin’s captured wealth 264.

Weapons and Facilities

• Armory Pavilion: Produces weapons of famous-sword and famous-saber quality, reducing the cult’s dependence on outside supplies 452.
• Divine weapons: By Di Shitian’s dragon-slaying preparations, the Peerless Good Sword, Snow-Drinking Mad Saber, Peerless Sword, Greedy Wolf Sword, and Deer-Cutting Saber are all held within the cult 508.
• Heavenly Sword: Ren Yingying identifies it as her personal weapon 503.
• Intelligence network: Uses Branch Altars, subordinate businesses, and informants. In the capital, where it has no Branch Altar, information passes through Shangguan Haitang and the Imperial Preceptor’s Residence 196 483 564.
• Inter-realm monitoring: Tracks visitors who attended Lin Lang’s teachings even after they return to their respective worlds 562.

Affiliations and External Relations

Subordinate Forces

• Five Immortals Sect — Operates under the cult’s command; provides a foothold in Dali and opens intelligence-gathering medicine shops in Great Song 175 196.
• Moving Flower Palace — Absorbed into the cult, with Hua Wuque contributing to its upper-level combat strength 210 228.
• Giant Whale Gang — Becomes a subordinate shipping power; its destruction by an Azure Dragon Society attacker triggers retaliation 197 389.
• Former Golden Coin Gang forces — Members, Branch Altars, and businesses are incorporated after its collapse, although newly absorbed followers are initially considered unreliable 196 197.

Imperial Courts

• Great Ming court — Attempts to recruit the cult through amnesty and an appointment naming Ren Yingying Martial Arts Alliance Leader. The cult demands recognition from Northern Shaolin and Wudang rather than accepting an unsupported title 210 211.
• Jinyiwei — Lin Lang uses his official position to shield the cult and obtain intelligence while concealing the extent of his own authority within it 102 211.
• Great Ming Emperor after the Mongol Yuan attack — Agrees to overlook past hostility so long as the cult does not rebel. Lin Lang nevertheless rejects the idea that its participation in the capital’s defense means submission 282.
• Great Song authorities — Zhuge Zhengwo orders the Four Great Constables to escort its procession out of Great Song, fearing the consequences if Lin Lang is harmed there 319.

Reputation

• “Demon Cult” designation: Rival righteous sects emphasize its members’ crimes and encourage opposition to it. Its growing power eventually makes outsiders reluctant to use the name openly 199 211.
• Internal reputation reforms: Ren Yingying insists that commercial operations must not drive members back to their former behavior and damage the cult’s standing 228.
• Protection of affiliates: Attacks on subordinate gangs threaten both its prestige and its ability to retain their allegiance, making retaliation against the Azure Dragon Society an organizational priority 389.
• Deterrence through punishment: Lin Lang orders captured Heavenly Sect attackers executed and publicizes their fate as a warning against provoking the cult 371.