Sun Clan

Biodata

Power Progression

The clan’s growth is reflected in its members’ breakthroughs and the forces it supports.

History

Hongtian City and Shi Jian’s Takeover

The Sun Clan originally shared Hongtian City with the Ye and Lin clans. Its specialty was pill refining, while the Ye Clan made talismans and the Lin Clan forged artifacts. Sun Hangchun brought Shi Jian back from Mingqiu Mountain after the bear demon killed the rival clans’ ancestors 2 3.

Shi Jian ordered the defeated clans’ resources transferred to the Sun Clan. Their cultivators and descendants were bound by Slave Seals, and the Sun Clan became Hongtian City’s sole dominant lineage 3 5.

The spoils intensified existing inequalities between the Sun Clan’s three branches. The first and second branches controlled the profitable businesses, while the third branch was expected to supply Shi Jian’s tribute without receiving a comparable share. Its leader, Sun Bo'an, sought Shi Jian’s backing 5 6.

Shi Jian promised Sun Bo'an leadership in exchange for half the clan’s income. With the bear demon suppressing resistance, the third branch killed the first and second branches’ cultivators. Sun Bo'an personally executed Sun Hangchun. The official account blamed outside enemies and a second-branch conspiracy, concealing the actual seizure of power 6 7 8.

Reorganization and Regional Expansion

Under Sun Bo'an, the surviving branch absorbed the defeated clans’ remaining households, encouraged childbirth, and rebuilt its cultivation population. Shi Jian subsequently supplied organized inheritances and a contribution-point system, replacing the clan’s loosely managed distribution of resources 8 17 18.

The clan invested in auction purchases, craft training, and materials recovered from abandoned Demon Beast lairs. Sun Bo'an quietly sold part of the mountain expedition’s haul for five thousand low-grade Spirit Stones and additional supplies. Marriage alliances tied eight subordinate clans more closely to Sun authority 23 32 35.

Sun Yao’s admission to White Cloud Temple strengthened the clan’s protection outside Hongtian City. After Sun Bo'an reached Foundation Establishment, he established the Autumn Cry Merchant Alliance, extending the clan’s commercial network across nine counties 43 45 46.

Destruction During Shi Jian’s Breakthrough

Sun Bo'an was ambushed and killed while traveling. His attacker destroyed his soul and turned his body into a living-flesh puppet, allowing an enemy to impersonate him within the clan 93 104.

During Shi Jian’s Core Formation attempt, the puppet wounded Sun Mao and destroyed a formation disk. More than a dozen hostile Foundation Establishment cultivators entered through the resulting breach and attacked the clan grounds, killing cultivators and mortals alike 95.

Only eighteen Sun Clan cultivators survived. Five senior elders died defending the formation, fifteen members of Sun Mao’s generation were killed, and Sun Caiya survived with injuries that greatly shortened her lifespan. The clan exhausted its reserves and could no longer sustain its former territory or support Shi Jian independently 104.

Shi Jian arranged for the survivors to enter White Cloud Temple as an independent branch retaining their name and inheritance. They surrendered Hongtian City and relocated to the Cloud Sword Mountain Range 104.

A Faction Within White Cloud Temple

The Sun Clan became White Cloud Temple’s beast-taming faction, ranking below the ruling Yun Clan. Shi Jian’s protection gave its members privileged standing, but limited manpower constrained its share of sect resources 120.

Sun Mao managed clan affairs while Sun Lin developed influence in the formation and talisman peaks. Sun Yao’s deployment to the North Sea front was treated as part of the clan’s obligation to serve Shi Jian. Competition with the Zhao Clan prompted further investment in Sun Chengzu and expensive offerings intended to preserve the ancestor’s favor 110 120 125 126.

The clan later controlled the lucrative pill and formation halls and had nearly one hundred disciples within White Cloud Temple. Its members also received responsibilities in the Northern Mountain Range’s spirit-beast husbandry and agricultural development 158 163.

Decline and Sun Chengzu’s Restoration

Sun Lin and Sun Qiyan died in the Kunyuan Secret Realm. Sun Yao then failed Core Formation and died through Dao Dissolution. These losses devastated Sun Mao, whose health deteriorated before his own death 218 219.

Sun Chengzu inherited a clan whose businesses were shrinking and whose treasury could no longer comfortably cover its obligations. Although it still had more than one hundred cultivators, fewer than thirty were fit to fight, and he was its only remaining Foundation Establishment cultivator 219.

When an elder proposed asking Shi Jian to obtain assets for them, Sun Chengzu killed him. He then purged entrenched elders and younger dependents, appointed new managers, and rejected the assumption that the ancestor should solve every clan difficulty 219.

After reaching Golden Core, Sun Chengzu placed most of his congratulatory gifts in the clan treasury and received two hundred thousand Spirit Stones through Yun Du’s approval. He purchased five Foundation Establishment Pills at cost, restored the clan’s Foundation Establishment ranks, and recruited outside talent while strictly punishing abuses of its renewed influence 239.

Allegiance to the Myriad Demon Domain

Following the Nascent Soul war, Shi Jian stated that he had spared the Sun Clan. Sun Chengzu chose to remain loyal, acknowledging that the original two-hundred-year agreement had long expired without ending the clan’s gratitude or allegiance 310.

Sun Chengzu later participated in the five great clans’ adoption of the Heavenly Demon Sainthood Transformation Instruction. Their transformed personnel formed the Heavenly Demon Guard. By the seventh generation, Sun descendants such as Sun Xingtian had been born and raised within the Myriad Demon Domain 338 339.

Organization and Governance

Original Three Branches

• Single-branch rule: After the purge, Shi Jian declared that the Sun Clan would have only one branch 7.
• Tribute obligation: Sun Bo'an’s agreement assigned half the entire clan’s income to Shi Jian. The clan also remained responsible for the imperial spirit tax 6 8.
• Contribution points: Work, teaching, guarding posts, and submitting spiritual goods earned points exchangeable for resources. Members without points received only basic rations 18.
• Formal equality in distribution: Contribution-based allocation applied regardless of legitimate or concubine birth and inner or outer status 18.
• Retainer contracts: Under Sun Chengzu, sponsored disciples owed thirty years of service after reaching Foundation Establishment or could repay an equivalent value to leave 239.

Generations and Recruitment

• Birth incentives: Sun Bo'an offered spirit rice for children and additional Spirit Stones, rice, and resource priority when a child possessed a Spirit Root 8.
• Mortal marriage network: Large-scale intermarriage with other cultivating lineages helped produce thirteen third-generation seedlings in five years 53.
• Mortal population: At that stage, the clan had more than eighty thousand mortal members within a Hongtian City population exceeding eight hundred thousand 53.
• Continued recruitment: Seven children from the clan’s mortal branch entered White Cloud Temple during one recruitment ceremony 132.

Cultivation and Specialized Skills

Cultivation Inheritances

• Azure Wood Everlasting Spring Art: The clan’s original primary method; a wood-attribute inheritance emphasizing vitality recovery and prolonged combat, with average offensive power 4.
• Withered Wood Meets Spring Technique: A wood-attribute spell capable of stimulating plant growth and drawing out vitality 4.
• Thick Earth Essence Cultivation Instruction: A Foundation Establishment inheritance taken from the Lin Clan and supplied to Sun Bo'an’s agricultural branch 6.
• Organized Jade Slip inheritances: Shi Jian standardized cultivation methods, techniques, craft knowledge, and clan rules. The pill, artifact, and talisman paths extended to the second tier 17.
• Heavenly Demon Sainthood Transformation Instruction: Used demon Essence Blood to produce powerful half-demons; Sun Chengzu applied it to ten deathsworn 338.

Craft and Administrative Specialists

Beast-Taming

• Bear lineages: The clan raised orphaned cubs recovered by Shi Jian; its bear population later developed into five lineages 32 92.
• Spirit dogs: Tracking specialists supported scouting and pursuit, while stronger dogs served as battle beasts, Dao-Protecting Hounds, and guards 92.
• Foundation Establishment guardians: Shi Mo and Shi Yin had both reached Foundation Establishment by Sun Mao’s breakthrough 92.
• Contract protections: Shi Jian later revised White Cloud Temple’s methods to allow spirit beasts to dissolve contracts, inherit cultivation, and perform combined attacks with human partners 158.

Holdings and Commerce

Autumn Cry Merchant Alliance

• Foundation: Established through three prime White Cloud Market storefronts granted ten years of rent exemption 46.
• Terms: Participating households supplied goods through the alliance, with the Sun Clan taking ten percent of sales 46.
• Distribution: An annual caravan connected the nine counties and coordinated requests for urgently needed supplies 46.
• Reach: Eventually handled two-tenths of the low-grade pill, talisman, and Spirit Plant trade across three surrounding commanderies 92.

Cultivation Resources

• Spirit fields: At the time of Sun Bo'an’s reforms, sixty enslaved cultivators from the Lin, Ye, and Fang families tended three hundred mu under confinement and supervision 18.
• Auction acquisitions: Included a formation plate, spirit seeds, refining materials, and the Beast Essence Pill Formula 23.
• Lightning infrastructure: A costly orchard expansion and twelve-thousand-Spirit-Stone second-tier Lightning-Guiding Clan-Protecting Grand Array supported Shi Jian’s cultivation 67.
• Lightning pool: Sun Lin’s formation condensed Lightning Spirit Liquid and shortened the Thunder Essence Fruit Tree’s fruiting cycle from five years to three 69.
• Upgraded Spirit Vein: Heavy investment raised the Hongtian estate’s vein from low-grade to mid-grade second-tier; its pool subsequently produced second-tier Lightning Spirit Liquid 92.
• Northern Mountain Range: Received a share of the range’s eighteen second-tier spirit mountains and responsibilities for spirit beasts, herb gardens, fruit groves, and medicine fields 158.

Relationships

• Shi Jian — Patron, guardian, and effective overlord. His oath guaranteed the clan’s survival for two hundred years, not the security of every branch or its political independence 7 104. The clan remained loyal after that term expired 310.
• White Cloud Temple — Initially its regional superior and protector; later absorbed the clan as a named branch retaining its inheritance 16 43 104.
• Yun Clan — White Cloud Temple’s ruling faction. Its dominance limited Sun influence, although Yun Du later approved substantial resources for Sun Chengzu’s restoration 120 239.
• Zhao Clan — Rival faction competing for sect influence and Shi Jian’s favor. Zhao Yanshan nevertheless recognized Sun Mao’s political calculation 125 126.
• Lord Rat / Wind Rat Line — Longstanding intelligence and beast allies. Cooperation reached a new peak after Sun Chengzu’s Core Formation, supported by increased Sun investment 5 239.
• Eight vassal clans — Paid tribute and supplied manpower. Marriage alliances helped bind their management of mines, mortals, and outlying businesses to Sun interests 35 92.
• Ye and Lin clans — Former Hongtian rivals whose properties were seized and whose surviving populations were enslaved or incorporated into Sun households 3 8.
• Lu Xun — Sun Lin’s disciple. He remained at White Cloud Temple partly to protect the weakened Sun faction rather than abandon his benefactors 228.

Notable Quotes

“From this day forward, the Sun Clan has only one branch.”
— Shi Jian, after the ancestral-hall purge 7

“The Lineage is in decline, and you still want the old ancestor to step in and wrest benefits for you. The Sun Clan has truly fallen.”
— Sun Chengzu 219

“The Sun Clan once made a two-hundred-year agreement with Old Ancestor. Those two hundred years have long since passed, but the Sun Clan has never dared forget Old Ancestor's kindness.”
— Sun Chengzu 310