Supreme Bliss Cult
The Old Demon Cult that brought ruin to the Wulin twenty years ago.
The sect was formed from a fusion of Tubo's Esoteric Buddhism and Bon, and spread into Western Xia, where it has endured for a hundred years. Its teachings were not originally evil, but as they passed down through the generations, later followers twisted and fabricated them for their own desires. And because it revered the Supreme Yoga Tantra and the dual cultivation of man and woman, the Central Plains' rites and propriety would not tolerate it, and it was denounced as a Demon Cult.
According to Nangong Heng, the cult's followers were all raving madmen who acted on hot blood alone and never weighed the consequences; not one of them, high or low, was in his right mind. They not only committed every evil but openly raised troops and bought horses, meaning to enslave the Central Plains.
In the end, the leaders of the various sects united under the newly appointed Wulin Alliance Leader Long Yuan and besieged them, and so the Supreme Bliss Cult perished.
Key Figures
The Cult Leader is the Prince of Yue of Western Xia, Li Renyou, called by the Wulin "Demon Lord of Bliss," and at the same time the Tower Master of the legendary assassin organization, the Thousand Lantern Tower.
Of the Left and Right Guardians, the has deep and powerful Internal Force and practices the "Heaven-Swallowing Treasure Mirror"; the Right Envoy's blade moves are vicious and cruel, and he wields the strange poison "Corpse Heart Worm," controlling righteous Wulin figures to serve his own ends. The Cult Leader's Power surpasses them both: Nine Turns of Reincarnation, the Heaven-Swallowing Treasure Mirror, decades of demonic cultivation, unmatched in ancient or modern times. A single Ghost Lotus King Blade, once swung, makes ghosts weep and gods howl; even Wanli Pengcheng could not help but shudder at the sight.
Of the Seven Immortals of the Supreme Bliss Cult, the one known is Emei's "Strange Ape in the Wind," Yuan Chengfeng. He stole Tang Clan poison and went down the mountain to administer it, and the Emei Seniors either died or had their Meridians ruined and lost their martial arts. For this feat he was enfeoffed as one of the Seven Immortals of the Supreme Bliss Cult, and ruled as king over Emei, indulging in every excess. The other six have not yet been made public.
The Three Treasures of the Cult
The most horrifying things about the Supreme Bliss Cult are none other than the Heaven-Swallowing Treasure Mirror, the Nine Turns Reincarnation Grand Technique, and the Corpse Heart Gu. All were originally meant for righteous use, but after later followers twisted them, only an evil name remains.
Heaven-Swallowing Treasure Mirror
The evil art used by the , the horrifying Taotie True Scripture. When he strikes, he seizes the opponent's Pulse Gate, and in an instant a pressure like the collapse of heaven descends, stripping away control of their Internal Force; the Internal Force flows out without cease and is drawn into him.
The Kongtong Sect's Iron Pipa Skill is the very nemesis of the Heaven-Swallowing Treasure Mirror, and for this the schemed endlessly to destroy the Kongtong Sect. If he absorbs this skill, then at a pluck of the strings a hundred Meridians ring at once, and the Foreign True Qi he has absorbed but not yet assimilated will run out of control, rampaging through the body and causing Internal Injury.
In truth, what the "Heaven-Swallowing Treasure Mirror" originally swallowed was not the Internal Force of others, but the qi of the Great Void that mingles throughout the vast heaven and earth, sharing one breath with heaven and earth, in accord with the Daoist ideas of "the unity of heaven and man" and "accord with nature."
Nine Turns Reincarnation Grand Technique
Nine Turns of Reincarnation, through the four great tantras of illusory body, clear light, intermediate state, and rebirth, transcends the great terror between life and death and reaches the nirvana of meditation. Dying and coming back to life is only the process, not the endpoint.
It is said that with each deeper layer of Power, one faces a great pass of life and death, at which one must take the Nine Springs Pill to rise from death and be reborn anew. This pill not only has the miraculous effect of raising the dead, but is said to add ten years of Power. Long Yuan has taken the Nine Springs Pill and found it truly a Spirit Pill, and even stole the formula. Ye Yunshang's strange illness is also connected to the Nine Springs Pill.
Tang Buyi once felt his Power stagnate and practiced this technique, stolen from the , but it clashed with the Tang Clan's Internal Skill, and he suffered Qi Deviation and fell into a bottleneck. When the Flying Hero's Return is triggered, this technique gains the upper hand, knots in the dantian, and moves beneath the meridians, silent and unseen, until the Heavenly Circuit is complete; then it uses True Qi to massage the heart of its own accord, releasing the Feigned Death state and reviving through reincarnation.
Shentu Long says of himself that in his previous life Li Renyou's aged flesh had rotted away, and his soul left the body, took over another body, and was reborn as him.
Corpse Heart Pill
Used by the Right Guardian, a strange poison from India.
When this poison meets blood, it melts the wax seal, breaks out of its cocoon, and darts into the human body, where it promptly disguises itself as human flesh and blood; even the most skilled doctor finds it hard to expel. If one does not take the medicine on time to suppress it, it devours the victim's heart flesh and blood and releases a highly toxic slime, making the victim's heart blood boil as if mad, tormented until death. If the poisonous worm burrows into the brain, then without the practitioner's leave, even the thought of ending oneself is a fool's dream; it is truly the height of viciousness.
When the Supreme Bliss Cult ravaged the Wulin, countless sturdy heroes were humiliated by this poison until they were neither man nor ghost. Because of this Gu, Yuan Chengfeng ruined the Emei Seniors, Tang Lu was controlled by others, the assassins of the Thousand Lantern Tower could not defect, and so on, causing endless tragedy.
However, if it meets one whose Tang Clan Power is pure, then unless their life is in imminent danger and the worm takes advantage of the opening, the Corpse Heart Gu is killed by the Poison Skill the moment it enters the body.
Tang Zheng saw its unique ability to assimilate into human flesh and blood, and developed on his own the "Longevity Corpse Heart Pill": taken internally, it dissolves into the blood and is carried to the four limbs and hundred bones, repairing Internal Injury. Unfortunately, the pill's refining process is extremely tedious and its materials hard to obtain. The Corpse Heart Worm must be fed on human blood and poisonous herbs, with the dose increased daily to keep it from dying of the poison, and then refining it into a pill takes several years. Even where it can be used, the pill is poisonous after all, and those not of the Tang Clan find it hard to stomach.
Destruction
Please see the article The Battle of the Supreme Bliss Cult.
Resurgence
Li Renyou used the Nine Turns Reincarnation Grand Technique to be reborn as Shentu Long and joined the Qingcheng Sect. In secret he directed the Thousand Lantern Tower to infiltrate the Kongtong Sect and destroy its nemesis, the Iron Pipa Skill.
Beyond this, the cult's followers had lurked in Song for many years, working in concert and preparing fully for invasion. When the Wulin Alliance attacked the Tang Clan, the Supreme Bliss Cult seized the chance to rise, taking control of the official roads and post stations in every region, and coordinating from within with the Western Xia troops borrowing passage through the Jin Kingdom to seize Western Shu. If Venerable Golden Crow is elected 's Sect Leader, he will even guide them through the pass.
By the time the Emperor in Lin'an received word, it was already several months later, and the Shu region had long since fallen.
Secret Manuals
Notes
- In the Flying Hero's Landing event, the fire poison of the Western Fire Scorpion King was used.