Sunshine Sect

Biodata

Background

Despite its limited territory and resources, the Sunshine Sect possesses numerous powerful cultivators and is described as substantially stronger overall than the Flame Magnificence Sect. This imbalance drives its attempts to seize its neighbor’s land and wealth 4.

The hostility dates back more than a century. When Great Emperor Yanhua overthrew the former tyrannical regime, the Sunshine Sect exploited the upheaval to invade and massacre numerous cities. These atrocities left an enduring hatred among the Flame Magnificence Sect’s people 8.

Organization and Members

The sect includes outer disciples, elders, senior combatants, and higher-ranking authorities. Elders occupy its middle ranks, while family connections can exempt a disciple from frontline service 15 19.

• Qiu Li — Commands the raiding force sent toward Heavenly Peak City. A Body Tempering Eighth Stage cultivator nearing the ninth layer, he is crippled during his encounter with Lin Fan and subsequently sentenced to be fed to a War Behemoth 9 10 15.
• Jin Luo — Earthly Dipper Realm combatant who fights Lu Daosheng. Practices the forbidden Corpse Demon Soul Yuan Art and kills the disciples who report his younger brother’s death 22.
• Liu Zhenhao — Outer sect genius who voluntarily fights on the front line to temper himself through slaughter. His uncle is a sect elder; Lin Fan kills him during the renewed offensive 19 20.
• Liu Zhenhao’s uncle — Unnamed elder whose position ordinarily allows his nephew to avoid frontline combat 19.
• War Behemoth controllers — Two experts assigned to direct the deployed beast. Both are killed when it breaks free of their control 20 21.

Discipline and Conduct

• Punishment for failure: The higher-ups condemn the crippled Qiu Li to become War Behemoth feed rather than grant his request for another chance 15.
• Battlefield reputation: Flame Magnificence Sect disciples fear Sunshine Sect fighters for their cruelty and willingness to die while dragging opponents down with them 7.
• Joint sect regulations: Some defeated disciples invoke the Sect Joint Covenant’s protections for surrendering combatants. Jin Luo, by contrast, openly dismisses joint sect regulations as rules imposed by the strong upon the weak 11 22.

Military Strength and Techniques

Cultivator Forces

• Body Tempering disciples: The Heavenly Peak City raiding party numbers at least two thousand, including several fifth- and sixth-stage fighters under Qiu Li’s command 9 10.
• Earthly Dipper experts: Senior cultivators engage the Flame Magnificence Sect’s experts separately from the main disciple battle; neither side initially gains the upper hand 18 22.
• Nine-Ring Consecutive Slash: An unnamed fourth-stage disciple has mastered this saber technique, although Lin Fan defeats him in one exchange 9.
• Wind Travel Pill: Qiu Li uses one to escape pursuit after the raiding force collapses 11.

War Behemoths

War Behemoths are weapons unique to the Sunshine Sect, created by extracting and combining essences from demonic beasts 20 21.

• Construction and control: Internal formations allow designated cultivators to direct the otherwise irrational, destruction-driven creatures 20.
• Appearance: The deployed beast has enormous feet, bone spurs along its back, and blood-red eyes 20.
• Combat power: Cultivators below the Earthly Dipper Realm are ordinarily no match for them; even eighth- and ninth-stage Body Tempering disciples avoid approaching the rampaging beast 20 22.
• Control failure: Qiu Li’s desire for revenge awakens within one behemoth, causing it to kill its controllers and pursue Lin Fan through both armies 20 21.

Corpse Demon Soul Yuan Art

• Practitioner: Jin Luo cultivates this forbidden art to its eighth level, claiming to have tortured tens of thousands of people to achieve it 22.
• Prohibition: Lu Daosheng explicitly identifies its practice as a violation of joint sect regulations 22.

History

Attempted Raid on Heavenly Peak City

The Sunshine Sect divides its forces between an attack on the Flame Magnificence Sect’s position and a resource-plundering raid against Heavenly Peak City. Lu Daosheng assigns one thousand volunteers to intercept the raiders and hold them for six hours until reinforcements arrive 7.

Anticipating an interception on the main road, Qiu Li’s raiding party takes a smaller path and encounters Lin Fan. Qiu Li offers to spare him if he defects and supplies useful information, but orders his death when the exchange fails. Lin Fan kills numerous disciples with Torrential Rain Pear Blossom Needles, then tricks Qiu Li into activating a grenade disguised as breakthrough medicine 8 9 10.

The explosion cripples Qiu Li and kills several stronger disciples. When the Flame Magnificence Sect volunteers arrive, the numerically superior raiders lose cohesion and flee. Qiu Li escapes with a Wind Travel Pill, but his own sect subsequently condemns him to be fed to a War Behemoth 10 11 15.

Renewed Offensive

The Sunshine Sect launches another major attack, committing its disciple army while Earthly Dipper experts fight separately. During the melee, Lin Fan pursues and kills Liu Zhenhao after Liu stabs a junior disciple who shields Lin Fan 17 18 19.

The sect deploys a War Behemoth, initially inflicting heavy casualties on the Flame Magnificence Sect. However, Qiu Li’s hatred takes hold within the beast, which kills its controllers and fixates on Lin Fan. Its pursuit carries it through Sunshine Sect formations, crushing its own side and collapsing the disciple lines 20 21 22.

Lin Fan ultimately kills the behemoth by entering its mouth and detonating a grenade. The Sunshine Sect’s forces are driven back, although Lu Daosheng is left severely injured after the experts’ battle 22 23.

Peace Negotiations

News subsequently reaches the wartime camp that the two sects have negotiated peace. The terms are not disclosed, but the agreement ends the war and allows the Flame Magnificence Sect’s deployed disciples to return home 24.