Demon-Subduing City

Biodata

Geography and Appearance

• Four outer districts: The city is divided into eastern, southern, western, and northern districts. Each district is comparable in size to an ordinary blessed-land city in the Heavenly Gate. Hu Mang’s early exploration takes place in the west 67.
• Central prison: A sealed inner city at the center contains the Demon-Subduing Prison, separate from the four districts 67.
• Four gates: Gates connect the city to all four directions. Their simultaneous opening later disrupts attempts to contain the city through external formations 88.
• Storm-covered sky: Persistent thunderclouds obscure the sky, leaving little distinction between day and night, though the clouds darken further at night. Heavy rain is common 31 63 250.
• Lightning-saturated environment: The city’s exceptionally pure Spiritual Qi is also violently charged with lightning, producing a prickling sensation when Hu Mang breathes it 180.
• Ancient construction: Broken walls and scorched ruins conceal unusually advanced buildings. Nearly every building Hu Mang initially examines is a “minor blessed land,” constructed from immortal materials and spiritwood that absorb Spiritual Qi without a separate formation 17.

Notable Locations

Prison Levels

Administration and Divine Offices

Demon-Subduing City functions primarily as a prison rather than an ordinary municipality. Hu Mang notes the absence of a city lord’s manor and infers that higher authorities once sent rotating officials to administer it directly. In this arrangement, the Thunder God’s role resembles that of a Land God and demon-subduing deity more than a conventional city ruler 79.

Principal Offices

• Rank and precedence: Apart from the Thunder God, the city’s divine offices share the same formal rank. Military officials nevertheless outrank civil officials in authority, while dispatched officials take precedence over officials assigned to guard a location 76.
• Martial specialization: The Heavenly Soldier and Devil-Slaying Bladesman have the advantage in direct combat among the four principal offices 37.
• Additional officials: The city also contains an Evil-Subduing Registrar and a Mysterious Dark Water Official 58 76.
• Inheritance: Weapons, seals, chains, and other relics can carry access to divine offices. Holding an office allows its bearer to sense other Divine Dynasty remnants more clearly 30 37.
• Establishing an office: Chen Sheng states that only the Thunder God normally has authority to establish a manor and set up an office within the city 79.

Restrictions and Infrastructure

Thunder Net

The Thunder Net underlies the city’s lightning system and survives the destruction of its buildings 250 251.

• Hu Mang temporarily takes control of it through engineering work on the city’s Spiritual Power infrastructure 251.
• Even complete destruction of the city would not permanently eliminate it: as long as the Thunder Commandery Domain remains, the net will eventually regenerate 251.
• Knowledge of its “circuit breakers” allows Hu Mang to navigate and use the surviving system as a Thunder God 251.
• A hidden realm within the net contains an Ascension Platform, Chen Sheng’s corpse, a demon-subduing sword, and a coffin from the Rebirth Shrine 251.

Spiritual Power Network

• Hu Mang’s initial survey suggests seven or eight power sources, distinct from the numerous Thunder God’s Shrines 20.
• He models the Devil Suppression Tower as a first-tier node, major suppression landmarks as second-tier nodes, and shrines as power outlets 31.
• He plans to install Spiritual Power pipelines and relay stations so that suppression mechanisms can be activated selectively, rather than only through destructive emergency activation 49.
• After defeating the false Thunder God, Hu Mang can command lightning Spiritual Qi throughout the city and perceive its lightning-saturated structures through his Heavenly Eye 180.

Judgment and Suppression Rules

• Changing moral classifications: The city’s designation of “good” and “evil” changes every three days. Those classified as evil risk attacks from suppression mechanisms and other cultivators 31.
• Restricted access: “Evil people” cannot enter certain areas available to Divine Dynasty remnants 31.
• Lightning barriers: The underground route toward the moat is protected by Marsh Water Divine Lightning 20.
• Cultivation restrictions: Entry into the surrounding Thunder Commandery Domain requires sealing the three flowers and five Qi; otherwise, Heavenly Punishment Tribulation Lightning threatens the entrant 18.
• Indiscriminate emergency defenses: Activated Qianyang Devil-Subduing Nets attack Hu Mang and the Devil-Slaying Bladesman alike as outside intruders 40.
• Tribulation eyes versus thunder eyes: Surveying formation hubs can locate thunder eyes, but does not automatically reveal the tribulation eyes Hu Mang seeks 62.

History

Divine Dynasty Prison

The city survives from the Jade Firmament Divine Dynasty, a power associated with the era when the High Pure Ones ruled the world. Its prison, heavenly soldiers, shrines, and suppression sites continue functioning long after the dynasty’s destruction 20 21.

The previous female Heavenly Soldier challenges the Thunder Net and discovers a method of burning divine offices at the final moment. She leaves that method in her spear for a successor. The net subsequently devours the divine offices and goes dormant until a newly emerged false Thunder God reactivates them 98.

Treasure Opening and Entrapment

About a month before Zhou Yu explains the situation to Hu Mang, treasure light appears over the city, its thunderclouds part, and its gates open. Cultivators initially enter and leave with genuine treasures. Once several hundred have entered, the clouds close again and the city permits entry but prevents departure 21.

Daoist Yun Shuo later reveals that Zhang Zhixian deliberately activated the city’s heavenly workings and spread treasure rumors. With Zhen’ezi and Mingting, he also arranged for families of suspected devil cultivators to be thrown inside. Their presence would trigger suppression measures, drain the emerging Thunder God’s foundation, and make its divine office easier to seize 29.

Hu Mang’s Exploration

Hu Mang approaches the city as an abandoned engineering project, mapping its power sources and distribution routes. Zhou Yu guides him to a thunder pool beneath a Demon-Subduing Well, where he obtains Shattering Thunder 20 21.

After gaining the Devil-Subduing Heavenly Soldier office through the Cat Garden inheritance, Hu Mang is pursued by the Devil-Slaying Bladesman. Their confrontation at the Hundred-Well Abyss activates dangerous suppression systems and draws interventions exceeding the city’s usual limits. The resulting destruction leaves the wells badly damaged 38 40 43 180.

Transformation into a Devil City

When Hu Mang returns, devil-subduing patterns have vanished from the wells and devils openly overrun the city. Heavenly soldiers attack people, coffins stand empty, and treasured swords become corrupted 56.

The Evil-Subduing Registrar identifies the failing suppression sites as evidence that the Thunder God is gathering divine power. He warns that the god intends to devour the city’s divine order and its officials to emerge into the world 58.

Zhen’ezi suspects that the five emerging Thunder Gods are connected to a surviving fragment of the Five Thunders Devil-Subduing Great General’s consciousness. He fears that their union will create a powerful Orthodox God 74.

Conflict with the Thunder Gods

Daoist Yun Shuo shifts the city’s position within his enormous Eight Trigrams formation from Zhen to Gen, weakening lightning power. Zhen’ezi then destroys a shrine statue and rescues Zhang Zhixian from within it 84.

The following upheaval brings down Devil Suppression Towers and turns their contents into devil light that enters the clouds. The Thunder God reverses the city’s suppression restrictions, while a lethal Judgment of Righteousness and Devilry forces paired opponents to fight. Hu Mang’s group shelters at the Tempering Treasury and uses prison authority to capture attacking devils 86.

All four city gates subsequently open. Chen Sheng interprets the move as a possible attempt by the Thunder God to escape, sacrificing its defensive advantage while making external containment much harder 88.

The Immortal’s Emergence

An “immortal” reveals itself and absorbs the remaining thunderous figures. Its restoration alerts powerful cultivators across the realm, drawing Chan Master Bukong and Martial Aunt Tiangu into the conflict 101.

Hu Mang shatters the Thunder God’s true body and develops Tribulation Breaking from the insight that follows. The larger battle tears apart the surrounding tribulation clouds and shatters the void above the city; Hu Mang senses the aftermath as its sole remaining Thunder God 102 103.

Plundering and Later Use

When Hu Mang returns after the powerful outsiders have searched the city, its suppression sites have been torn open and their treasures or restrictions rendered useless. The prison levels are breached, the Tempering Treasury’s furnace is split, and even its underground fire vein has been extracted. A large unattended void formation hangs overhead 180.

Despite the destruction, the city retains resources useful to Hu Mang:

• Lightning resources and materials: Spirit Stones, Lightning Crystals, and unfamiliar materials remain scattered through the ruins 180.
• Puppet remains: Hu Mang recovers an arm from the Human Immortal lightning puppet 180.
• Cultivation facilities: The Supreme Yin Treasure Pool survives, and Hu Mang later learns to subdue the violent ambient lightning Spiritual Qi for cultivation 180 237.
• Ancient devil corpses: Surviving remains supply the souls and essence used to refine three Three Yin Life and Death Talismans 225.
• Thunder Net realm: During his later core-formation preparations, Hu Mang discovers Chen Sheng’s corpse and letter within the net. The letter describes an attempt at Corpse Liberation using the Heavenly Tribulation Register to force a thunder tribulation 250 251.
• Demonic Nature Grass: Hu Mang plants the area around a lightning eye with this ingredient of the Bone-Molding Pill. The high Spiritual Qi concentration supports rapid growth 255.