Great Gathering of the Nine Sects

The Great Gathering of the Nine Sects is an event that occurs once every thirty to forty years, within the vast grotto-heavens of what is now known as the **Original Demonic Sect**. For Innate Realm members of the Nine Great Demonic Sects, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve breakthrough in their cultivation.

## History

Many eons ago, a group of explorers had discovered the ruins of an ancient demonic sect. Only nine people survived the ruins, and they eventually established the Nine Great Demonic Sects of the Han Empire. Over the generations, it has become a tradition for members of the demonic sects to visit the vast grotto-heavens of the Original Demonic Sect. For twenty-four hours, participants can avail a special energy known as the Original Demon Epiphany Anointment to rapidly improve their martial arts and cultivation. It is for this reason that the Nine Great Demonic Sects have maintained their status, and why no other demonic sect has been able to supplant them.

## Eligibility

**Eligibility Criteria**
 **Cultivation Realm** | Innate Realm - 1st Layer to Innate Realm - 4th Layer

## About

In the days of yore, the grotto-heavens could be accessed at any time. After so many eons, however, by the time the founders of the demonic sects had discovered the ruins, the cavern could only be accessed once every thirty or forty years, under a time limit of twenty-four hours only. After twenty-four hours, everyone will be teleported out of the cavern. Acquired Realm experts who dare to enter this place will be incinerated, while anyone whose cultivation level exceeds Innate Realm - 4th Layer cannot enter.

All nine demonic sects possess a stone that glows once every few decades, signaling the imminent opening of the grotto-heavens. On the date of the Great Gathering of the Nine Sects, the stones open teleportation portals to send participants to the cavern. Upon entering, all members will land in random locations. The layout of the grotto-heavens completely changes every time it is opened; therefore, there are no maps.

Competitors must race against time, locate the Dao Harmony Rooms hidden within the vast landscape, overcome the guardian golems, and battle other competitors to access the rooms and improve their overall strength.

## Dao Harmony Rooms

Dao Harmony Rooms are special rooms where practitioners can receive the Original Demon Epiphany Anointment that ignores cultivation hurdles and rapidly improves their martial arts. Dao Harmony Rooms are graded as follows:

**Dao Harmony Room**
 Intermediate
 Advanced

Each room is protected by a guardian golem puppet, whose strength corresponds to the grade of the room it protects. Guardian golems are robust and resistant to most Innate Realm attacks, however they can be tricked. It is not necessary to destroy the golem in order to enter the Dao Harmony Room. Each room can be used only twice, each session last for one hour. After both sessions are used, the Anointment energy in the room will be exhausted. Irrespective of their cultivation rank, each participant can absorb the Original Demon Epiphany Anointment for a maximum duration of one hour, after which their body will stop responding to the Anointment. If a session is interrupted midway, the participant can continue to absorb the energy in another room, until the cumulative duration spent in the Dao Harmony Rooms reaches one hour. When the room is being used for the first time, the entrance will emit a bright pillar of light for fifteen minutes and attract rival Innate Realm experts. The color emitted by the entrance indicates the grade of the room. Fights to the death are frequent and sessions can be interrupted anytime.

Higher graded rooms are relatively more difficult to locate than lower graded rooms. Entrance to each room is camouflaged with such flawless subtlety, that even martial arts that greatly enhance one's senses are not helpful when locating the rooms. It is common for a participant to not find even a single room and leave empty handed. Once the participant steps into the entrance, they are teleported to the location of the room where they encounter the guardian golem or rival demonic practitioners.

The Dao Harmony Rooms are full of Original Demon Epiphany Anointment energy, and the quality of the energy is commensurate with the grade of the room. Once the cultivator begins their practice, the Original Demon Epiphany Anointment will detect the Innate Realm martial art. Consequently, the True Energy will be automatically cultivated at a speed several times faster than regular cultivation. It will automatically ignore conditions that usually limit the cultivation of the martial art and the cultivator can achieve rapid progress. The Anointment can also deduce and combine martial arts, similar to the Skill Evolution Function of the system. The prerequisite is that, the martial art must trace at least one of its roots to the inheritance of the Original Demonic Sect. Any other True Energy martial art cannot be cultivated at the Dao Harmony Room.

As long as the prerequisite is satisfied, even Innate Realm martial arts that have been invented by certain practitioners can be cultivated at the grotto-heavens. For example, the Finger Of Flowery Swords created by Wen Tingyun can be cultivated at the cavern because it is based on the Secret Of Joy Technique and other martial arts of the Mo Qing Sect. The True Art Of Mara created by Xie Yan can be cultivated at the cavern because it is a combination of the Xin Mo Sect's Mantra Of The Inner Demons Of The Six Desires and other demonic arts. Although Xie Yan couldn't determine the exact conditions needed to improve the True Art Of Mara to the Innate Realm, the Anointment helped him break through the Innate Realm bottleneck, which would have been very difficult under other circumstances.

The Anointment will work on only one soul at a time. If there are two or more souls present in one Dao Harmony Room, the Anointment will halt. It is also the reason that when an intruder enters the room, the occupant will immediately wake up from the trance. This extends to spiritual bodies of other Innate Realm experts as well. Guardian spirits are exempt from this rule because they are an extension of their master's soul.

### The 4th Dao Harmony Room

Deep within the grotto-heavens exists one special Dao Harmony Room that corresponds to the 4th Layer of the Innate Realm. This is the highest ranking room in the entire grotto-heavens. The existence of this room is not well known due to the near impossible difficulty of locating and accessing its entrance. This room is protected by a unique six-armed guardian whose strength is equivalent to Innate Realm - 4th Layer. When the 4th Dao Harmony Room is used, the entrance emits a pillar of golden light. In the previous Gathering of the Nine Sects, Xin Mo Sect's Yi Daochi had cultivated in this room. During the most recent Gathering, Xie Yan and Qin Xinci had completed their Anointment in this room.