Thousand Lantern Tower
A legendary assassin organization. The world does not even know whether it still exists, or whether it fell apart with the destruction of the Old Demon Cult. In truth they are everywhere, lurking in every corner, and no one has ever seen the true face of a Thousand Lantern Tower assassin and lived to tell of it.
The Thousand Lantern Tower abducts children and raises them from a young age into cold-blooded assassins, feeding them the Corpse Heart Gu, which brings agony worse than death when it flares, keeping them obedient. What is more, they send people to watch in secret, and the moment one dies or betrays them, every trace is wiped clean.
The Tower Master is the reincarnation of the former Supreme Bliss Cult Leader, Shentu Long. Below him, rank is counted in how many sticks of incense one burns, and when exchanging the coded password they call out:
"At Wangu Temple, whose son lies buried? At Thousand Lantern Tower, how many sticks of incense burn?"
"A hundred years of life sealed in the Annals of Fame; at Thousand Lantern Tower, two sticks of incense burn."
It is known that Venerable Golden Crow is a five-stick Drill Instructor, second only to the Tower Master, and Yu Xiaomei is a four-stick, and subordinates may not defy their superiors.
Thousand-Faced Demon
Not knowing the true face of Mount Lu, King Yama passes by as a stranger; if you know the true face of Mount Lu, who will come to weep at the masterless grave?
The Thousand Lantern Tower's legendary assassin, a demon said to have a thousand faces, skilled in Face-Changing, Poison Technique, trickery, and rhetoric, and even able to bewitch the mind with the Mind-Entrancing Technique. The Formless Divine Skill they practice lets them mimic the Internal Skill traits of any sect or school, passing falsehood off as truth.
The Thousand-Faced Demon is only a title, an inherited name. As long as the Thousand Lantern Tower stands, the Thousand-Faced Demon will always exist. The known Thousand-Faced Demons are:
The first-generation Thousand-Faced Demon, the Mindless Monk, Patriarch Wuxiang.
The second-generation Thousand-Faced Demon,
The third-generation Thousand-Faced Demon, Yang Xuanqi. To hunt down the Former Wulin Alliance Leader Long Yuan, he spent three years disguised as a waiter at the Chuanquan Tavern in Meishan Town, and privately pledged himself to the Shopkeeper's daughter for life; she is already with child by him. After hearing Long Yuan out and being shown the Brocade Pouch he had obtained from the Apricot Blossom Forest, he resolved to leave the darkness for the light. The two staged a great fight to draw out the Thousand Lantern Tower assassins watching him, and arranged for this Yang's family to go to Jinxiang Palace. In the end, though, he could not escape the Thousand Lantern Tower's clutches, and was forced to join the Western Wulin's campaign against the Tang Clan.
The fourth-generation Thousand-Faced Demon, Yu Xiaomei, a Direct Disciple of the Flying Heaven Gate of the Kongtong Sect. A four-stick assassin of the Thousand Lantern Tower, she secretly sows division among the Four Gates of Kongtong, using her beauty to seduce and kill countless Kongtong talents, waiting only for the right moment to bring the whole of mighty Kongtong down by her own hand.
Notes
Cruelly renamed Thousand Roots Tower in fan works- The Master of the Thousand Lantern Tower fears above all others, calling her "so clever she borders on the demonic, surely not human."
- After the siege of Jiangling, ordered Thousand Lantern Tower assassins to attack the bases of the various sects and frame the Mud Cult. This shows that Apricot Blossom Immortal has some degree of control over the Thousand Lantern Tower.
- The Thousand Lantern Tower greatly fears the Tang Clan. The Tang Clan knows poison and can kill unseen with Hidden Weapons; if they turned from light to shadow and scattered to lurk in every corner, they would be the most terrifying assassin organization in the world.
- Although most texts call the fourth generation, she is called the fifth in front of Shentu Long, for reasons unknown.
- is scolded by Shentu Long as the worst of all generations of Thousand-Faced Demons, half-hearted in both resolve and strength.
- Zhao Huo's face is so ugly that he has been suspected of being a Thousand-Faced Demon wearing a Human Skin Mask.
- In the current story the Thousand Lantern Tower's power looks rather weak, but Bird Bear says they are a mysterious assassin organization and will not lightly show themselves before others.[1]
Q&A Collection October 19, 2024, Part 2. ↩︎