Five Immortals Cult
The Miao frontier’s 5-Poison order — feared by righteous and heretical martial artists alike for a reason.
HereticalRival: YuanshanFist / Finger / Sword / Whip
Known in the Miao frontier as the 5-Poison Cult, and calling itself the Five Immortals Cult, its doctrine is extreme — every debt of gratitude and every grudge is repaid in full. Its arts of poison-brewing and insect-cultivation are the stuff of nightmares, and martial artists of every alignment, righteous or heretical, keep their distance. Based in the Yunnan–Black Water region, its arts run on the Violet Mist elemental attribute.
Five Immortals Cult is a heretical sect that won’t teach anyone whose reputation is too high, and stands opposed to Yuanshan. Its members lean toward the Rebellious stance.
Sect Philosophy
Its arts span fist, finger, sword, and a whip-based soft-weapon style — rooted in Miao frontier shamanism, unfathomably strange, with a signature insect-poison tradition that chills anyone who’s heard of it. Techniques are built on Poison aptitude, which can substitute for other, lower breakthrough requirements. Five Immortals Cult members can be asked to tutor Woodworking, Medicine, and Poison.
Full Technique Roster
| Type | 9th | 8th | 7th | 6th | 5th | 4th | 3rd | 2nd | 1st |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internal Power | Poison-Guiding Technique | Yellow Immortal Method | Scarlet Immortal Method | Black Immortal Method | Green Immortal Method | Soul-Departing Technique | 100-Evil Body Great Method | — | |
| Movement | Serpent-Crawl Technique | Mud-Pit Charge | Toad-Leap Technique | Flying Head Technique | Jade Rope Inversion | Earth-Tunneling Centipede Immortal | Heaven Serpent Flip | — | |
| Ultimate | Confusion-Insect Incense | Chaos-Passion Miasma | Red Jade 9-Fragrance Insect | Gu-Destroying Chant | Blood-Effigy Curse-Breaking Method | Soul-Loss Breath | Heaven-Silkworm Gu-Devouring | Ghost-Summoning Great Method | Heaven Serpent Bone-Exchange Technique |
| Fist | Yin-Wind Scorpion Hand | Viper 1000-Needle Hand | Blood-Leech Palm | 3-Corpse Soul-Severing Palm | Green Spider Soul-Binding Hand | Crimson Toad Poison Palm | Green-Yellow-Red-Black Divine Palm | 9-Death Soul-Departing Hand | — |
| Finger | Serpent-Gu Hand | Red-Eye Gu Descent | Chimei Gu Descent | Black-Blood Gu Descent | Heart-Demon Gu Descent | 9-Yin Corpse-Chi Gu | Jade Frost Ice-Silkworm Gu | Ghost-Devour Golden Silkworm Gu | 100-Color Green Marrow Gu |
| Sword | Green-Whisker Swordplay | Sickle-Hook Swordplay | Ghost-Hag Swordplay | Sacred Wood Exorcism Sword | Ghost-Face Soul-Chasing Sword | Sacred Ruler Demon-Slaying Sword | Green Spider Swordplay | — | |
| Whip | Yellow-Scale Whip Technique | Centipede Rope | 5 Saints Whip Technique | Soul-Hooking Bone-Crushing Whip | Chiyou’s Iron Whip | Jade-Breaking Rope | Immortal Spider Serpent-Binding Technique | Ba Dragon Divine Whip | Heaven Serpent Rope |
Favor Interaction: 5 Saints’ Secret Bath
Cures all poison in a party member, kills 3 random ordinary Gu insects they’re carrying, and reduces the survival time of any King Insect they’re hosting by 12 months.
Regional Story: “5 Saints, Poisoned Heart”
Black Water sits deep within a miasma-shrouded land few outsiders can penetrate. Various frontier peoples have lived there together for generations, each with their own customs, coexisting in relative peace.
But lately, word has spread that insect-Gu infestations are running rampant across the Five Immortals’ territory, withering the local plant life and afflicting countless villagers with suffering they cannot escape…
| Trigger | Have already used the 5 Saints’ Secret Bath facility at Five Immortals Cult, then wander the cult’s territory |
|---|---|
| Reward | Spirit Gu Shaman Book |
| Sequel unlock condition | Hold Lion Face Sect’s treasure, the Lion War-Drum |
| Sequel reward | Butterfly Mother’s Ancient Silver |
Signature Mechanic: Refine the King Insect
Completing “5 Saints, Poisoned Heart” unlocks the ability to refine King Insects — a rarer, more powerful, more versatile class of Gu insect than the ordinary kind.
Brewing process
Unlock: Use the special item “Gu Immortal” from your inventory.
Step 1 — feed the vat: Drop any number of poison catalysts into the “10,000-Gu Vat.” Each catalyst accumulates its corresponding poison type in the vat; higher-grade catalysts add more.
Step 2 — brew: Refining 1 King Insect consumes a total of 10,000 accumulated poison from the vat. Which poison types (and how much of each) get consumed — and which King Insect results — depends on the current ratio of poison types in the vat.
Cost scaling: After each brew, the requirement for your next one jumps to 20,000, then decreases by 5,000 each month until it returns to the 10,000 baseline.
Brewing requirements (ratio of poison types needed in the vat)
| King Insect | Requirement | Random weight |
|---|---|---|
| Red-Eye King | Scarlet Poison ≥40% | 12 |
| Chimei King | Gloom Poison ≥40% | 12 |
| Black-Blood King | Decay Poison ≥40% | 12 |
| Heart-Demon King | All 6 poison types between 12–20% each | 6 |
| Corpse-Chi King | Fierce + Decay + Scarlet Poison each ≥30% | 3 |
| Ice-Silkworm King | Cold Poison ≥40% | 9 |
| Gold-Silkworm King | Fierce Poison ≥40% | 9 |
| Green-Marrow King | Cold + Gloom + Illusion Poison each ≥30% | 1 |
If the vat’s ratio satisfies multiple recipes at once, one is chosen randomly among them. If none are satisfied, a King Insect is still produced, weighted randomly by the numbers above.
How King Insects work
- A character can only host 1 King Insect at a time — implanting a new one replaces the old.
- Usable 3 ways: ingest it yourself; throw it at an enemy in combat (implants on hit, not consumed on miss); or empower a matching Five Immortals finger technique in combat for +40% power (implants on hit, not consumed on miss).
- If the host has no ordinary Gu of the same family, the King Insect behaves like a fully-matured ordinary Gu of that type. If they do already have ordinary Gu of that family, the King Insect instead amplifies every one of those Gu’s effects.
- King Insects can’t be cured with antidotes — only the 5 Saints’ Secret Bath favor interaction reduces their survival time.
- When a King Insect dies of old age, it worsens one of the host’s negative traits (or grants a new one) or weakens a positive trait (possibly removing it).
- If the host dies, their King Insect remains in their grave — tomb-raiding interactions prioritize recovering it.
King Insect passive effects (summary)
| King Insect | Empowers | Downside if untamed (no matching ordinary Gu) | Effect once tamed / matched |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red-Eye King | Red-Eye Gu Descent | Sharply reduces weapon accuracy; host struggles to see, can’t study books on month-change | Boosts or reduces weapon hit chance depending on whether ordinary Gu is “bonded” to the host or not |
| Chimei King | Chimei Gu Descent | Poison flare-ups inflict Daze marks; host acts erratically, affection with up to 3 nearby people drops sharply each month | Poison flare-ups deal minor Daze damage to enemies (or self, if unbonded) |
| Black-Blood King | Black-Blood Gu Descent | Sharply weakens healing/detox/medicine effects; wounds no longer heal naturally over time | Reduces (or increases, if unbonded) the severity tier of openings/seals the host receives |
| Heart-Demon King | Heart-Demon Gu Descent | Randomly drains 2 extra Qi when host’s Qi drops (feeding the enemy Gu Lures, up to 90); host’s corruption rises faster each month | Randomly adds/removes 2 extra Qi in tandem with the host’s own Qi changes, direction depending on bonding |
| Corpse-Chi King | 9-Yin Corpse-Chi Gu | Host takes much more direct damage from breakthrough techniques; health decays each month | Alters critical-wound damage taken (better or worse depending on bonding), tied to host’s health level |
| Ice-Silkworm King | Jade Frost Ice-Silkworm Gu | Sharply extends technique/weapon lockout duration; host ages faster each month | Alters lockout chance (better or worse depending on bonding); internal power stops regenerating and drains steadily |
| Gold-Silkworm King | Ghost-Devour Golden Silkworm Gu | Devours any other Gu just implanted in combat, inflicting heavy poison; host risks corruption on every technique breakthrough | Suppresses or amplifies Purity-tier effects depending on bonding; randomly devours 1 of the host’s own mature Gu each month, inflicting poison |
| Green-Marrow King | 100-Color Green Marrow Gu | On critical wounds, may convert just-implanted Gu into bonded ones (or mature existing ones); host craves companionship and suffers random poison if alone at month-change | Temporarily flips negative traits to positive (or vice versa, if unbonded); anyone intimate with the host gets seeded with an unbonded Green-Marrow Gu |
Sequel Mechanic: Command the King Insect
Completing the sequel story unlocks one-time trigger effects for King Insects already implanted in yourself or others.
Cost: 5 Stamina + 5,000 medicinal herbs per use.
Limit: Once every 6 months per King Insect type, per character.
Choose: “Torment” (negative effect) or “Bless” (positive effect).
| King Insect | Torment | Bless |
|---|---|---|
| Red-Eye | Forces hostile action toward a random nearby character each month, for 3 months | Forces friendly action toward a random nearby character each month, for 3 months |
| Chimei | Sharply reduces affection from everyone within 1 tile; raises their internal disorder (more for higher-Purity characters) | Sharply raises affection from everyone within 1 tile; reduces their internal disorder |
| Black-Blood | Sharply reduces all poison resistance for 6 months | Sharply increases all poison resistance for 6 months |
| Heart-Demon | Corruption rises based on how many people the host loves/hates, even below the normal corruption threshold | Corruption falls based on how many people the host loves/hates |
| Corpse-Chi | Inflicts 4 layers of external + internal wounds to 3 random body parts | Heals 4 layers of external + internal wounds on 3 random body parts |
| Ice-Silkworm | +2 extra opening/seal capacity per body part for 3 months | −2 opening/seal capacity per body part for 3 months |
| Gold-Silkworm | Converts all “bonded” Gu within 3 tiles into “unbonded” | Converts all “unbonded” Gu within 3 tiles into “bonded” |
| Green-Marrow | Host instantly hates up to 3 highest-affection nearby people, affection drops sharply | Host instantly loves up to 3 lowest-affection nearby people, affection rises sharply |