The Battle of the Supreme Bliss Cult
Some twenty years ago, the Supreme Bliss Cult of the Western Regions brought ruin and havoc to the Wulin. Their momentum was immense: they openly raised banners and mustered troops and horses, meaning to act in concert with Western Xia, catch the Hexi Corridor in a pincer, open a north-south route, seize the Great Song and the Jin Kingdom by the throat, and enslave the Central Plains.
The eminent monks of the Songshan Sect took pity on all living beings and gave their lives for righteousness, and at last moved the leaders of the Wulin's various factions to set aside old grudges. Under the leadership of the new Wulin Alliance Leader Long Yuan, they united as one and besieged the Supreme Bliss Cult.
The Ten Thousand Immortals Formation was broken by and the Tang Clan joining hands, and all Seven Immortals of the Supreme Bliss Cult were put to death. At the very end of the fighting, Lady Wen of Jinxiang Palace offered a plan that cut off Western Xia's reinforcements, trapping the Supreme Bliss Cult's leaders on Huashan and forcing them to send out their experts to fight the righteous factions to the death.
- Tang Zhongling of the Tang Clan did not scruple to swallow poison and force his Power to surge, slaying the Right Guardian with the Flying Swallow Meteor Feather, though he was left with a chronic ailment ever after.
- defeated Zhao Kui of Qingcheng and fled without a trace. Many years later he returned in force, while Zhao Kui's Daoist heart shattered, demons rose from within, and he became the Dharma King of the Hell Path in today's Mud Cult.
- Alliance Leader Long Yuan, the Celestial Cup Sword in hand and resolved to face death as a homecoming, broke the Ghost Lotus King Blade with the "Heavenly Ladle Demon-Subduing Sword". The chief of all evildoers, "", was put to death, and Long Yuan's whereabouts remain unknown.
Few witnessed this decisive battle, and its outcome is all the more lamentable. Both the Tang Clan and were gravely weakened, yet Songshan remains respected by the world, while the Tang Clan became a dog in the water that everyone beats.
The Betrayal of Prince Yi
This campaign's casualties were severe: the Supreme Bliss Cult was destroyed, and the righteous took a heavy blow. But by Long Yuan's plan, it should not have ended this way.
Long Yuan's sworn brother, the Emperor of the Jin Kingdom, Prince Yi Wanyan Xun, had promised to lead troops to the rescue, encircling Zhao to save Wei. In the end, however, he chose to watch from the far bank while the Wulin folk and the Supreme Bliss Cult fought to the death, and then reaped the fisherman's profit, later raising troops to invade the Song Kingdom.
After the war, Long Yuan sought out to demand an accounting. The Prince was indeed unjust, but Long Yuan, out of old affection, could not bring himself to strike in the end, and cut off one of his own arms as atonement on the Prince's behalf. Ashamed to face the heroes of the Central Plains, and fearing his daughter Long Xiang would be dragged in, he hid his name and mingled among the rabble of the Beggar Sect.
Notes
- There is a saying that it was not three against three back then, but five against five; for instance, Tang Zhongling's biography mentions five representatives of the righteous factions. Perhaps the early setting had four people in the Left and Right Envoys and Left and Right Guardians, and Bird Bear has said they will leave it unanswered. [1]
- The Left and Right Envoys have been contradictory in some texts, but as of v1.0.3202 it has been unified that the Left Envoy fled and the Right Envoy was killed by Tang Zhongling.
- later caused the affair that shook court and country, known as the "Baifeng Cave Uprising", and in the end died at the hands of Tang Buyi, Xie Wuchen, Xiahou Lan, and two others.
- The Right Guardian once used the rare poison "Corpse Heart Worm" to dominate the righteous Wulin folk and make them his own. The reason Tang Zhongling forced himself to act was most likely to save his , who had fallen victim to the "Corpse Heart Pill".
- A Bahamut discussion of the geography of this campaign: Link
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