Cangyun Sect

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Power Progression

Organization and Members

Leadership

Notable Disciples and Associates

• Zhou Qingyu — Qingyun Peak’s eldest senior brother and the sect’s foremost prodigy, known as the Cangyun Little Sword Immortal. His Sword Dao talent makes him both a source of prestige and a target for rival sects 4 14 16.
• Ye Tianyi — A personal disciple of Qingyun Peak and Lu Changsheng’s second senior brother; selected to compete in the Dynasty War 1 43.
• Lu Changsheng — Qingyun Peak’s youngest junior brother. Secretly the Nighttime Madman, he trains fellow disciples, constructs the sect’s powerful defensive formation, and saves it from invasion 8 22 41 42.
• Luo Xianling — Luo Tian’s daughter. Her acceptance into a Divine Firmament Sect supreme elder’s lineage is expected to give Cangyun powerful outside protection 14 27.
• Ning Yuxin — A daughter of the Ning Household who comes to cultivate on Qingyun Peak. She refuses to leave when the sect faces danger over the Azure Cloud Map 5 38.
• Lin Po — A senior sect member who discusses its disciples and prospects, explains Luo Xianling’s new backing, and speaks for Cangyun during disputes with visiting factions 1 27 33.

Territory and Facilities

Cangyun Secret Realm Access

• Age restriction: Only those under thirty may enter; Luo Tian warns that older entrants will be obliterated 28.
• Sect participation: Disciples are required to enter to increase the chance of recovering the Azure Cloud Map 27.
• Outside access: Long-standing agreements allow certain outsiders to explore in exchange for benefits received by the sect 27.
• Discovered loophole: Zhao Yang carries an older expert’s soul and part of his cultivation inside him through the Soul-Splitting Technique, circumventing the age restriction 34.

Defenses and Resources

Military Strength

• Nascent Soul patriarch: The patriarch’s body cultivation gives him vigorous Blood Qi despite his age. During the invasion, he overwhelms and ultimately kills the Profound Heaven Patriarch 25 41 42.
• Peak Masters and elders: Form the sect’s senior fighting force. Lu Changsheng attributes their improved combat strength to nearly ten years of his covert tempering 40 41.
• Hidden protector: As the Nighttime Madman, Lu Changsheng possesses Nascent Soul cultivation and ninth-layer Sword Dao by the invasion’s aftermath; his true identity remains unknown to the leadership 42 43.
• Emergency response: The sect uses a distress signal to summon elders and an azure-light warning to mobilize against beast tides 7 8 13 14.

Qingyun Peak Formation

• Creator: Secretly built, reinforced, and improved by Lu Changsheng over ten years 41.
• Coverage: Initially protects Qingyun Peak, then expands to envelop the entire sect when attacked 40.
• Offensive power: Releases killing attacks capable of easily destroying ninth-layer Core Formation cultivators and threatening Nascent Soul experts 41.
• Limit: The Divine Firmament Sect attacker’s upper-grade spirit-tier artifact weakens its advantage. Combined attacks from him and the Thousand Net Sect Master eventually shatter it 41.
• Leadership’s knowledge: Neither Luo Tian nor the patriarch knows of the formation beforehand; the patriarch suspects Qianjun created it 41.

Treasures and Cultivation Supplies

• Azure Cloud Map: The sect’s long-lost sect-guarding Law Artifact. Lu Changsheng finds it inside the secret realm, but its whereabouts remain unknown to the leadership. Its supposed king-grade or divine-grade classification is speculation rather than a confirmed appraisal 27 28 37.
• Spirit-grade Law Artifacts: At the time of the beast tide, the sect possesses one low-tier and one high-tier spirit-grade Law Artifact 17.
• Cultivation provisions: Disciples and elders receive resources including spirit rice, pills, and Spirit Stones 1.
• Competition support: The sect supplies its Dynasty War candidates with resources to improve their chances of selection by stronger sects 45.

Rules and Practices

• Core Formation registration: Core Formation cultivators entering Cangyun territory must report their presence. Unreported entrants may be treated as enemies and attacked without regard for their survival 6.
• City patrols: Elders lead disciples on rotating monthly guard duty in Cangyun City 6.
• Civilian protection: Beast-tide expeditions serve both as disciple trials and as a defense of the mortal population 14 15.
• Protection of disciples: Luo Tian and the patriarch reject outsiders’ attempts to bully, soul-search, or take Cangyun disciples hostage 24 25 36.
• External advancement: Talented disciples are encouraged to join stronger sects through the Dynasty War. Their success brings better opportunities for themselves and protection for Cangyun 13 25 45.

History

Origins and Decline

The Cangyun Sect has occupied its mountainous home for thousands of years. Once a major regional power, it gradually declined after an earlier period when the Azure Cloud Map served as its sect-guarding treasure. By the opening of the story, it remains one of Cang Province’s three great sects 1 6 27.

The Nighttime Madman

For nearly ten years, the Nighttime Madman repeatedly beats members of the sect, earning widespread resentment. The Peak Masters nevertheless acknowledge that no one appears to have suffered lasting injury and that his harassment indirectly pushes them to cultivate. Unknown to them, he is Lu Changsheng, who also helps younger disciples resolve questions about cultivation, Sword Dao, talismans, and pill refining 8 33 36.

Beast Tide and Assassination Attempt

When a beast tide approaches, Luo Tian leads the sect to intercept it near the Hundred Thousand Mountains while leaving experts behind to guard its home. The Profound Heaven Sect ostensibly assists, but its representatives secretly regard Zhou Qingyu’s talent as too dangerous to tolerate 14 15.

During the battle, a puppet attacks Zhou Qingyu with the Thousand Net Tower. Lu Changsheng secretly stops the artifact and identifies the attacker as a Core Formation puppet. He suspects an attempt to provoke conflict between Cangyun and the Thousand Net Sect 17.

Azure Cloud Map Crisis

The secret realm’s opening draws visitors seeking the Azure Cloud Map. Its actual appearance sparks a struggle in which rival disciples try to seize Lu Changsheng and Ye Tianyi as leverage against Zhou Qingyu, who is guarding a Cangyun inheritance site 27 29 30 35.

Afterward, Luo Tian and the patriarch demand answers for the hostage plot. Although the leadership does not know that Lu Changsheng possesses the map, outside factions suspect that either Cangyun or the Nighttime Madman has obtained it. The sect strengthens its patrols as hostile forces gather 36 37.

Invasion and Regional Supremacy

Xuan Mei brings the Profound Heaven Sect’s forces against Cangyun, joined by other factions and a Divine Firmament Sect Nascent Soul elder. Luo Tian fights Xuan Mei while the patriarch confronts the Profound Heaven Patriarch. Lu Changsheng’s hidden formation initially shields the sect, but the Thousand Net Sect Master helps break it 39 40 41.

Lu Changsheng intervenes as the Nighttime Madman and turns the battle. The Cangyun patriarch kills his rival, Luo Tian kills Xuan Mei, and the invading Profound Heaven forces suffer a crushing defeat. Disciples’ resentment toward the Nighttime Madman gives way to gratitude 42.

Cangyun mobilizes against both rival sects, only to discover that Lu Changsheng has already devastated their bases and taken their stored resources. With both rivals eliminated, Cangyun becomes the province’s sole overlord; Luo Tian continues campaigns against the remaining hostile factions 42 43.

Dynasty War

The sect prepares candidates from its direct and outstanding inner disciples for the Dynasty War. Zhou Qingyu is considered a strong prospect for the Divine Firmament Sect, while Lu Changsheng is compelled to participate through an irreversible mark imposed by the patriarch. Luo Xianling has separately arranged an opportunity for him through her new backing 43 44.

Luo Tian eventually leads thirty selected participants toward the Yue Kingdom’s royal capital. The Ning Household travels with them aboard its warship and hosts them at its capital manor 50.

External Relationships

• Profound Heaven Sect — Former peer and principal enemy. Its plots against Cangyun culminate in an invasion, the deaths of its leaders, and its destruction 6 14 39 42.
• Thousand Net Sect — Former regional rival. Its sect master invokes the missing Thousand Net Tower as a pretext to intervene in the invasion and plunder Cangyun; its base is subsequently devastated by Lu Changsheng 41 42.
• Divine Firmament Sect — Both a source of opportunity and a threat. Luo Xianling’s new lineage offers backing, but Zhao Jing and another elder attack Cangyun over personal grievances and the Azure Cloud Map. The Divine Firmament Sect later offers compensation 27 40 43.
• Ning Household — Maintains ties through Ning Yuxin’s cultivation on Qingyun Peak and cooperates with the sect’s journey to the Dynasty War 5 50.
• Yue Kingdom Royal Family — Invites Zhou Qingyu and Ye Tianyi to a Genius Exchange Conference after the delegation reaches the capital 50.

Notable Quotes

“Repel the beast tide! Make this your trial, and keep the people safe!”
— Luo Tian 15

“Don’t worry. I’ll definitely give you a satisfactory resolution to today’s matter. Disciples of my Cangyun Sect won’t put up with this kind of crap!”
— Cangyun Sect Patriarch 25