Holy Sect

Biodata

Organization and Governance

Supreme Authority

• Sect-Presiding True Lord: The sect’s living True Lords rotate through this office in five-hundred-year terms. Desolate Halberd completed his term before Wudao assumed authority 327 328.
• Acting sect master: Oversees worldly affairs beneath the True Lords. Black Mountain held this position before Qi Yun replaced him 368 380.
• True Person deliberations: Nine bell tolls constitute the highest formal summons for the sect’s True Persons to assemble in the Great Void Hall 368.
• Internal Inspection Office: Handles disciplinary punishment. Song Kun was ordered to report there after interfering in outer-court affairs 31.
• Factional politics: Wudao tolerates changes in leadership and factional dominance so long as they do not damage the sect’s fundamental fortune or interrupt resources needed for Dao cultivation 368.

Disciples and Advancement

Notable Members

Doctrine and Culture

• Diverse cultivation: Except for the sect master’s lineage, the Holy Sect permits many paths, including spell, sword, and martial cultivation 38.
• Demonic foundations, varied appearances: Its methods remain demonic even when their outward presentation appears orthodox. This diversity makes its disciples unusually difficult to identify by their techniques or bearing alone 179 251.
• Concealed schemes: An elder contrasts the Holy Sect’s hidden traps with the more openly destructive conduct of the Great Heavenly Demon Sect and Yellow Springs Netherworld 81.
• Dangerous internal competition: Qi Yun identifies Yuan Hai’s conspicuous weakness as suspicious because a genuinely injured inner disciple would conceal that vulnerability from fellow sect members 75.
• Unequal protection: During Peach Garden’s invasion, one True Person dismisses outer disciples as expendable “human material,” while the sect commits carefully selected inner elites to the decisive fighting 104.
• Disciplined opportunism: Its raiders withdraw promptly when ordered, abandoning fresh spoils rather than allowing greed to trap them 129.
• Regulated internal violence: Sparring between fellow members is commonplace and generally unremarkable so long as nobody dies 204.

Cultivation and Military Capabilities

Broad Dao Inheritances

The sect maintains extensive branches of cultivation rather than a single uniform combat style 251.

• Disciples employ ghostfire, blood rain, soul arts, corpse-related methods, sword techniques, sound attacks, and martial cultivation 38 74 104 141.
• Inner disciples develop specialties in pill refining, artifact refining, and formations 132.
• True Persons can access Foundation Establishment techniques through the Holy Sect Treasure Market, including sword, incarnation, elemental destruction, and escape arts 207.

Elite Forces and Coordinated Spellcasting

• Inner true cultivators: During Peach Garden’s battle, Holy Sect elites surpass ordinary rivals of the same level in cultivation methods, techniques, and artifacts. Enemy numerical superiority nevertheless causes heavy losses 104.
• Spell-cultivator batteries: Dozens of cultivators operate from concealed platforms engraved with spirit-gathering and amplification runes 127.
• Lesser Five Elements Annihilation Divine Light: A coordinated strike breaches Ghost-Crying Market’s defenses despite the protection of the Ten Thousand Ghosts Netherworld Banner 127.
• True Lord protection: Desolate Halberd retaliates against those who obstruct Qi Yun’s breakthrough, returning with a Bodhisattva’s severed arm as compensation 201.

Dao Foundation Research

• Primordial Heaven Ultimate Law Dao Foundation: The sect offers Qi Yun special funding and status to complete this path 118.
• Great Luo Myriad Laws: The sect’s name for the Supreme Dao Foundation path offered to Qi Yun. All twenty-three previous aspirants failed before reaching halfway; the sect offers to supply the required Foundation Establishment Objects 187.
• Successful attainment: Qi Yun returns as a Supreme True Person, receiving congratulations from the sect’s Foundation Establishment elders 201.

Territories, Realms, and Resources

• Great Void Mirror Heaven — Contains Wuji Hall and the sect’s highest residences. The deputy leader is entitled to reside at its highest point, where the sect’s spiritual essence gathers 104 207 369.
• Great Void Hall — Central deliberation hall, constructed with ten-thousand-year-old dark iron framing and ancient nether black jade tiles 368.
• Holy Sect Treasure Market — Supplies spiritual objects and cultivation techniques; its illusory shops and stalls are constructed from divine thought 82 157 207.
• Great Void Jade Tallies — Used to receive sect information and access its services. The highest-ranked version, bearing the sect emblem, is reserved for True Lords 37 301 483.
• Mirage Thousand-Faced Realm — Assessment realm accessed through Jade Blood Hall. Entrants have ten days to obtain a crystal key and escape through a portal 37.
• Peach Garden — True Lord-level remnant realm producing Longevity Peaches. These extend the lives of the sect’s True Persons and help preserve its senior fighting strength 96 110.
• Miluoluo Mountain — Captured Buddhist remnant realm explored cautiously because its environment suppresses demonic cultivation 179.
• Green Mountain Daoist Temple — Qi Yun’s cultivation ground and preferred residence even after becoming deputy leader 303 369.
• Underground treasury and sealed remains — Beneath the sect lie thirty-three chambers containing Dao’s Lingering Calamity: True Lord bodies corrupted by malice and obsession. Other chambers hold ancient weapons, relics, and forbidden objects 446.
• Central Land ancestral vein — The sect’s later headquarters occupies a blessed land formerly shared by several righteous-path giants. Its protective formation spans tens of thousands of miles 445.

History

Disputed Destruction of the Divine Silkworm Sect

A surviving Divine Silkworm Sect apparition accuses the Holy Sect and the Northwest Devil Domain alliance of encouraging his sect’s ancient cultivation project, then destroying it once the political need disappeared. According to his account, the alliance feared both the project’s risks and the emergence of an uncontrollable True Lord. Qi Yun treats these accusations as unverified, though he acknowledges their implications if true 169.

Great Black Mountain Campaign

The Zombie Alliance seizes Holy Sect territory, cuts the direct route to its mountain gate, and occupies the important Great Black Mountain market. The Holy Sect responds by ordering disciples from all nine Outer Mansions into a mandatory campaign 10 70.

The arriving disciples encounter a prepared corpse ambush. Qi Yun and Shen Fan infer that Azure Sect intervention has discouraged either side from deploying stronger true cultivators, leaving the outer disciples to fight within that balance 71 73.

Qi Yun exposes the supposed defender Yuan Hai as an enemy impostor. The Holy Sect disciples have played along while waiting for reinforcements; their counter-encirclement and the collapse of the Nine Yin Nine Resentments Grand Array overturn the Zombie Alliance’s advantage 75.

Peach Garden Trap and Regional Raids

Guan Sihai retrieves Peach Garden from the Cold Abyss, where rival powers had previously sealed it. Three opposing sects use concealed routes to send disciples inside, unaware that the Holy Sect intends to turn their intrusion into a trap 87 96.

The operation exacts a severe cost. Outer disciples suffer mass casualties before the inner elites intervene, and the resulting battle also kills many of those elites. The Holy Sect eventually transports its disciples out as its True Persons confront the rival elders 104 107.

The campaign extends beyond the realm: Holy Sect forces attack enemy markets, resource sites, and outposts. At Teapot Valley, its True Persons dispute Yellow Springs Netherworld’s claim to the Yin Ruins while raiders strike the Netherworld’s rear 110 127 143.

Leadership Struggle

Black Mountain seeks the deputy leadership while planning to keep Southern Dipper occupied with sect affairs, preventing him from pursuing the golden nature needed for further advancement. Qi Yun enters the contest by securing Qingli’s abstention with an offer of Undying True Blood for his daughter 230.

After Wudao replaces Desolate Halberd as Sect-Presiding True Lord, Black Mountain’s faction expects its position to strengthen. Heisha prepares a formation specifically to seize Qi Yun upon his return 328 364.

Instead, Qi Yun gains authority over the sect’s worldly affairs and dismantles the faction through legally grounded dismissals, punishments, and transfers. Wudao declines to intervene, treating factional turnover as secondary to the sect’s continued prosperity 368.

Central Land Ascendancy

Under Qi Yun, the Holy Sect joins the four-sect counterattack against Central Land. When its campaign leadership is challenged, Qi Yun kills a Netherworld True Person with a gesture and forces True Person Zַhuanlun to concede his qualification 391.

Following the reversal of the righteous and demonic paths’ positions, the sect occupies a major Central Land ancestral vein. Its splendor grows more than tenfold compared with its northwestern establishment 445.

As news of the Great Tide of Time spreads, the Sword Pavilion allies with the Holy Sect. Qi Yun announces a Dao Discussion Assembly, inviting faction leaders to discuss the approaching crisis 483.

Destruction

A single full-power strike from a Dao King’s true body annihilates the sect’s vast establishment, including its mountains, buildings, and countless disciples. Its protective formations and restrictions left by generations of True Lords collapse into the resulting void 496.

External Relationships

• Zombie Alliance — Territorial enemy responsible for the Great Black Mountain occupation; later joins the intrusion into Peach Garden 70 104.
• Yellow Springs Netherworld — Ancient northwestern rival comparable in lineage and foundations. The two fight over markets and remnant realms before participating in the four-sect alliance 127 143 391.
• Azure Sect — Rival and later ally. Its suspected intervention limits escalation at Great Black Mountain; it subsequently cooperates in northwestern defense and the Central Land campaign 73 242 391.
• Phoenix Helm — Fellow member of the four-sect alliance, cooperating in regional defense and the counterattack despite competition over resources 222 242 391.
• North Sea Dragon Clan — Youquan proposes a secret arrangement in which the Holy Sect would support the North Sea Dragon Lord’s interests within the broader joint campaign 384.
• Sword Pavilion — Becomes an ally ahead of the Great Tide of Time 483.

Notable Quotes

“Though the Holy Sect doesn't act with the same utter madness as the Great Heavenly Demon Sect or the Yellow Springs Netherworld, it can hardly be called peaceable. … Whereas the Holy Sect... mostly does so in the dark.”
— The old True Person, on the sect’s methods 81

“Bullying the weak and fearing the strong, reaping without sowing. These have always been our Holy Sect's virtues.”
— Qi Yun and True Person Qianxin 222

“So long as it does not harm the sect's fundamental fortune or cut off the resources we need to comprehend the Dao, what difference does it make who sits in that position or wields that authority?”
— Wudao Extreme Dharma True Lord 368