White Cloud Temple

Biodata

Power Progression

History

Foundation and Regional Rule

Zhao Qing founded White Cloud Temple and achieved Core Formation using the Return to Origin Sword Tomb’s Sword Dao Heaven and Earth Qi. The tomb became a principal foundation of the sect’s continued succession. By Shi Jian’s relocation, the temple’s legacy had lasted roughly seven or eight hundred years 77 105.

The temple governed White Cloud Commandery through local cultivation clans and collected spiritual taxes on behalf of the Upper Three Sects. Its executive elder Yunsong encountered Shi Jian while collecting the Sun Clan’s taxes. Zhao Qing later attempted to recruit Shi Jian as the temple’s guardian protector, but Shi Jian declined and presented his continued defense of Hongtian City as service to the temple 9 21 22.

Beast Tide and Succession Crisis

The Supreme Purity Sect held White Cloud Temple responsible for the beast tide originating from the Great Maple Mountain Range, a beast-raising ground entrusted to its care. True Person Luanyuan ordered the tide suppressed within three months and every Demon Beast above level three killed within six months. Yun Du then conscripted the subordinate clans for the mountain campaign 28.

Without a Golden Core cultivator holding the sect together, its authority weakened. Rogue Cultivators attacked its mineral interests, several elders died, and Devil Cultivators inflicted further losses. The founding Zhao Clan declined sharply after Zhao Qing’s death 31 37 120.

Shi Jian supplied evidence that Yan Qiu of the Fenghe Sect was working toward the temple’s collapse. White Cloud Temple acknowledged the favor and instructed him to guard Hongtian City rather than become further involved. After three years of sealed gates and heightened defenses, Yun Du successfully formed his Golden Core, securing the sect’s survival 40 41.

Integration of the Sun Clan and Demons

Sun Yao’s admission linked the Sun Clan more closely to the temple while shifting part of her cultivation expenses onto sect resources. After reaching Foundation Establishment, she became Yun Du’s personal disciple, received the title Qingyao, and was appointed an administrative elder responsible for spiritual taxes across nine counties 43 66.

Following a battle that left only eighteen Sun Clan cultivators alive, Shi Jian arranged for the survivors to enter White Cloud Temple as an independent branch. Yun Du gained Shi Jian’s Golden Core combat strength against threats such as the Fenghe Sect; Shi Jian gained access to a third-tier Spirit Vein, established trade routes, and a much larger resource base 104 105.

This arrangement gradually shifted authority away from the temple master alone. By the later eastern-front mobilization, Yun Du sought Shi Jian’s instructions on major decisions 290.

Territorial and Commercial Expansion

White Cloud Temple and Azure Light Gate cleared the Clear Wind Mountain Range of competing cultivators and developed an eight-hundred-li Beast Pasturing Mountain. Its beasts, medicines, and mineral veins became a major source of wealth, while Zhao Yanshan’s management revived the Zhao Clan’s fortunes 125 132.

Success at Heavenly Void Pass, gains from the Fenghe Sect, and other wartime spoils enabled a major rebuilding of the Cloud Sword Mountain Range. Official recognition as the Northern Protectorate enlarged the temple’s territory and administrative obligations 138 154 155 157.

Later, the Supreme Purity Sect assigned the temple to develop the Vile Muddy Marsh, promising forty percent of the territory and allowing five years of preparation. The ensuing campaign lasted thirty years. Once the region was pacified, the superior sect established Abundant Prefecture and claimed the richer south, leaving White Cloud Temple the poorer north while maintaining its four-tenths tribute obligation 237 263.

Destruction and Aftermath

Under orders to reinforce the eastern front, Yun Du departed with seventy percent of the temple’s human disciples, including Sun Chengzu and Lu Xun, while Shi Jian remained behind. Shi Jian subsequently unleashed the resident demons against the sect. Wind Rats disabled its formations by destroying their foundations and Spirit Vein nodes, allowing the bear lineages to overrun the peaks 290 299.

White Cloud Temple was destroyed within half a day. Shi Jian declared that its name and Dao lineages would be replaced by Myriad Demon Mountain. He retained the Sun and Zhao households for mundane administration and left the Yun household to White Crane 299.

After the Nascent Soul war, the Supreme Purity Sect prepared to execute Yun Du, Lu Xun, Sun Chengzu, and thousands of surviving disciples for supposed betrayal. White Crane rescued only the three Golden Core cultivators. Lu Xun and Sun Chengzu chose to serve Shi Jian; the remaining disciples were left behind 310.

The temple’s spiritual inheritance survived under demon control. White Peak Cloud Gorge became an avian holy land, and its matured Cloud Dao Qi was bestowed on Bai Ling. Yun Du was reduced to White Crane’s Human Cauldron and eventually refined into a Dao Pill 317 319 376.

Organization and Administration

Internal Factions

White Cloud Temple functioned as a coalition of cultivation clans with competing interests. Its members maintained a common front against outsiders, but access to resources and offices largely followed clan influence 120.

Notable Offices and Members

• Yun Du / True Person Yunxiao — Temple master responsible for taxation, lineage assignments, patrols, Spirit Vein planning, and long-term inheritance development 42 157.
• Shi Jian — Golden Core demon protector and later deputy protector; maintained a private Dao field and became a decisive authority over major affairs 105 133 157 290.
• Yun Tianfan — Grand elder and Foundation Establishment Late Stage cultivator who managed the temple during Yun Du’s North Sea deployment. His thirty-year development plan continued after his death 120 179 180.
• Sun Yao / Qingyao — Yun Du’s personal disciple and administrative elder overseeing spiritual tax collection across nine counties 66.
• Sun Chengzu / True Person Chengye — Oversaw recruitment, became a Golden Core cultivator, and later managed the northern Abundant Prefecture branch 132 235 263 265.
• Zhao Yanshan — Directed the mountain-range merger and Beast Pasturing Mountain development, securing the temple the largest share of the proceeds 125 132.
• Lu Xun — Led the Law Enforcement Hall before forming his Golden Core and taking over Azure Light Gate 220 282.
• Yun Ci — Senior Yun Clan cultivator responsible chiefly for maintaining the Blessed Lands 220.
• Yunsong — Executive elder who handled spiritual tax collection and invitations on the temple master’s behalf; later died during the commandery’s unrest 9 21 37.
• Song He — Second elder involved in defending the temple’s mineral interests and suppressing Devil Cultivators 37.

Recruitment and Training

• The regular disciple recruitment ceremony occurred once every ten years and used Spirit Root testing 132.
• One recruitment admitted thirty-five inner disciples, more than two hundred outer disciples, and over five hundred menial disciples. Exceptional recruits included Dual Spirit Root twins and Lightning Spirit Root cultivator Lu Xun 132 133.
• Later expansion brought the outer disciples above four thousand and the inner disciples to eight hundred 163.
• Recruitment eventually widened to diligent, clean-background Rogue Cultivators and workers with Four or Five Spirit Roots, helping bring total membership close to ten thousand 265.
• The temple invested heavily in selected talents, including commissioning a tailored Law Treasure Embryo for Lu Xun before his Core Formation 216.

Territory and Cultivation Sites

Headquarters and Branches

Blessed Lands

Abilities and Specialties

Cultivation Inheritances

• The temple developed Cloud, Sword, and Lightning inheritances alongside an increasingly extensive beast-taming tradition 133.
• Yun Du’s later planning aimed to secure recurring Golden Core succession through Sword, Cloud, Fire, and Water Blessed Lands 157.
• Heaven and Earth Qi remained a major bottleneck. Yun Tianfan and Chang He both died after attempting Core Formation without it 179 265.

Beast Taming

• Disciples tended spirit beasts’ food, injuries, and illnesses; outstanding disciples could select beasts as companions and combat partners 158.
• Shi Jian altered the inherited methods so humans could not completely control a beast’s life 158.
• The revised contracts allowed dissatisfied beasts to dissolve their bonds and choose new masters 158.
• A beast could inherit part of a deceased master’s cultivation by devouring the corpse 158.
• The northern beast population concealed substantial strength, including Golden Core bear demon Shi Pan and several exceptional bloodlines 276.

Artifact Refining and Alchemy

• Artifact refining, beast taming, and alchemy became major sources of income 265.
• Abundant ore from Evil Water Marsh improved the artifact-refining hall’s capabilities, eventually allowing it to build flying boats and warships independently 265.
• Specialized equipment could be commissioned for promising disciples, as with Lu Xun’s Law Treasure Embryo 216.

Economy and Public Duties

• Spiritual taxation: Collected taxes through subordinate clans and later administered eighteen counties and sixty-two Foundation Establishment lineages 9 155.
• White Cloud Minor Gathering: A major trading event held every five years in a valley west of White Cloud Mountain, attracting cultivators from all nine counties and neighboring commanderies 21.
• Resource extraction: Beast Pasturing Mountain supplied Demon Beasts, spirit medicines, and minerals 132.
• Wartime commerce: Yun Du stockpiled supplies and contracted artifact workshops and pill shops to serve the front. Reselling spiritual goods earned more than 300,000 Spirit Stones in two years; battlefield scrap was still more profitable 221.
• Profit distribution: Yun Du preserved the Sun Clan’s trading share despite objections that it had not contributed to the current business, citing its past service 221.
• Security reporting: County rulers had to submit monthly reports and immediately report Devil Cultivator activity using temple-issued communication talismans 12.
• Civil defense: During regional blood sacrifices, the temple strengthened patrols, activated city formations, repaired communications, and checked unfamiliar Rogue Cultivators 182.
• Spirit Vein maintenance: After a neglected vein leaked Yin Qi and caused a zombie outbreak in Heming County, temple teams destroyed the zombies, sealed the crack, and inspected mortal cemeteries 182.
• Compensation: The sect compensated families of fallen cultivators. Following Chang He’s failed Core Formation, Yun Du also ordered support for his descendants for three generations 253 265.

External Relationships

• Supreme Purity Sect — Superior sect and political overlord. It imposed military duties, recognized the Northern Protectorate, and later appropriated the richest marsh territory. After the Nascent Soul war, it sought to punish the surviving temple leadership for betrayal 28 155 237 263 310.
• Fenghe Sect — Rival whose Yan Qiu plotted to undermine White Cloud Temple during its succession crisis. The temple later absorbed its territory and relocated its spiritual resources 40 155 157.
• Azure Light Gate — Long-term ally in military campaigns and resource development. After Qingshan’s death, Lu Xun seized its leadership on White Cloud Temple’s behalf 125 138 266 282.
• Heavenly Secret Pavilion — Fellow subordinate power under the Supreme Purity Sect, with stronger foundations at the time of the earlier Kunyuan expedition. One of its cultivators openly belittled the weakened temple 71.
• Azure Wave Turtle Clan — Submitted during the marsh expansion under an arrangement allowing internal clan management while requiring obedience on major matters and shared resources 253.
• Shi Jian’s demon lineages — Initially strengthened the temple’s defenses, beast-taming resources, and military expeditions; ultimately destroyed the sect and inherited its territory and cultivation sites 133 226 299 317.