Xiaoxiang Sects and Beast Tides

Overview

Xiaoxiang: Sects & Beast Tides is an unofficial addon for Xiaoxiang Cultivation World that turns its world into a dangerous cultivation frontier: graded spirit stone caves and herb grottos guarded by cultivating demon beasts, sects ranked lower, middle and higher with matching protection arrays, beast tides that besiege sects in three waves, generated sects that remember how you treat them and send war parties, tameable beasts you can ride, secret realms, spirit vein grottos, ancient battlefields, a bounty board, and a full player sect system with disciples, missions, buildings, a Scripture Pagoda, diplomacy, wars, sieges, vassals and tournaments. Crafting at the main mod’s cores is done by hand through minigames.

The demon beasts come from Threateningly Mobs: every one of its creatures becomes a cultivator with a realm, spells and body techniques that fit its nature.

Requirements

Installation

1. Install Forge 1.20.1.
2. Put the original Xiaoxiang Cultivation World jar, Threateningly Mobs, and the Xiaoxiang Sects jar in your mods folder.
3. Start a new world for the full experience. Caves, ore removal and sect arrays apply to newly generated land; existing chunks keep what they already have.

What the addon changes in the base game

• Only creatures that cultivate spawn on their own. Vanilla monsters and animals no longer spawn naturally; spawners, eggs, breeding and commands still work.
• Spirit stone ore and spirit vein springs no longer generate in the open world. Spirit stone ore is found only inside the caves.
• Threateningly Mobs structures (palaces, nests, altars, dungeons) no longer generate. Its creatures remain.
• Spirit vein cores and formation core plates store and supply far more qi, so sect arrays can stay running.

Compatibility

The addon hooks the main mod with small, optional mixins. If a future main-mod update changes its sect code, an affected hook switches itself off quietly instead of crashing; caves, beasts and player sects keep working.

FAQ and Known Limitations

Where do I find spirit stones now? Only in the caves (ore), cave chests, slain beasts, miners, missions, veins, vassals and trade. They no longer generate as ore in the open world.

I see no beasts. Check the Beast Tide Almanac: Wild spawning must be on. Try the Dangerous preset. Nothing spawns inside caves except their guardians.

Too many beasts? Choose the Calm preset, or lower Spawn tries per wave and Up to N beasts near you.

Why can’t I mine this ore or open this chest? A cave floor is sealed while any of its guardians lives; a secret realm’s blocks and chests are sealed until every boss in it is dead.

My alchemy core / refining core / formation plate does nothing. By design, every craft goes through a minigame. Choose the recipe and press the core’s button, then play.

My Talisman table does not seal. Finish the brush minigame with 40% or more. Spell scribing works as in the main mod.

Why are generated sect manuals so weak? Sect chests and ruins missions only hold foundation-level manuals. Higher ones come from secret realms and caves, or from stealing from a sect library.

Do I need a new world? Recommended. Caves, ore removal, sect arrays, grottos and realm layouts apply to newly generated land; the rest works in existing worlds.

Can I play the sect systems alone? Yes: alliances, wars, sieges, vassals, coalitions, champion duels and the caravan all work with the generated sects. Trades and contests need other players.

Something crashed. Send the latest.log (or crash report) so it can be fixed.

Known limitations

• Disciples in a bout must already be in the arena’s world, and the arena must be loaded.
• A bout, beast tide, siege, raid or minigame interrupted by a server restart ends quietly (a bout replays from the start; materials for an unfinished craft are returned).
• Spirit vein and core plate numbers apply to every core and plate, including player-built formations.
• If the main mod updates its sect, alchemy, refining or talisman code, the affected addon hooks switch off quietly. Report it so the addon can be updated.
• Bounty hunters, sieges and kidnappings need the player to be online.

Version History

Credits and Disclaimer

I do not own anything. Xiaoxiang: Sects & Beast Tides is an unofficial, fan-made addon. I claim no copyright and no credit for the mods it builds on.

• Credit goes to the main mod, Xiaoxiang Cultivation World, and its author. Everything this addon adds is built on their work. The addon needs the original, unmodified mod and does not include or redistribute any of its files.
• Threateningly Mobs: all credit to its author. Its creatures, models and textures are its own; this addon only changes how they spawn and fight, and does not include its files.
• This addon is not affiliated with or endorsed by either mod’s authors, Mojang or Microsoft. Minecraft is a trademark of Mojang Studios.

If anything has to be removed, I will remove it. If the author of either mod asks for this addon, or any part of it, to be taken down or changed, contact me and it will be done. Please download Xiaoxiang Cultivation World and Threateningly Mobs from their official pages to support their creators.

Spirit Stone Caves and Herb Grottos

Caves are the only source of spirit stone ore. Each one is a great open gateway in a rock hill, a stair down to three maze floors, and a huge hall where the Cave Lord waits. Every floor is sealed until its guardians are dead.

Where caves appear

• Wild caves are always Low-grade. The world is split into regions of 14 x 14 chunks; by default 40% of regions hold one cave (adjustable in the Beast Tide Almanac). About a third of wild caves are Herb Grottos.
• Sect caves: every generated sect owns exactly one cave near its grounds, matched to its rank. Wild caves never appear inside or right beside a sect.

Elements

Every spirit stone cave has one element. Its guardians share that nature and its chests favour technique and spell manuals of that element. Herb Grottos are kept by earth and water beasts only.

Layout

1. The gateway: an 11-wide, 11-tall open door framed by stone pillars and a lintel, cut into a solid rock face, with a paved forecourt.
2. The slope: a broad stair tunnel down to the first floor.
3. Three maze floors: a 6 x 6 grid of rooms joined by corridors. Each floor has many branches and dead ends but exactly one route to the stair down.
4. Stairwells: a 3-wide spiral stair around a lit pillar joins every floor to the next.
5. The Cave Lord’s hall: a domed cavern about 53 blocks across and 30 high, ringed by eight great columns, reached by the stair winding down through the open hall.

Herb Grottos look different: round earthen chambers with domed ceilings, moss and mud-brick paths, hanging roots and glow berries, spirit fields thick with pill herbs, and a great tree trunk carrying the stair.

Guardians

Guardian cultivation by cave grade:

The Cave Lord fights with boss rank, elites with rare rank, and minions and patrols at most uncommon rank (see Demon Beasts).

Seals

• A floor stays sealed while any of its guardians lives. Sealed ore cannot be mined, sealed chests cannot be opened or broken, and grotto herbs cannot be picked.
• Trying a sealed chest makes every living guardian of that floor glow for 2 minutes so you can hunt them down.
• The gateway, slope and surface are never sealed.
• Spells, fireballs and explosions hurt whoever they hit but never break cave rock, and beasts cannot dig through it.
• Nothing else spawns inside a cave: no wild beasts, no vanilla mobs, no wandering cultivators. Only the cave’s own guardians, and whatever they summon mid-fight.

Spirit stone ore

Ore is 1.8% of the rock on floor 1, 2.2% on floor 2, 2.6% on floor 3 and 3.4% in the Cave Lord’s hall. Herb Grottos hold none. The grade of each vein depends on the cave’s grade and depth; low-grade caves almost never hold anything above low-grade stone.

Treasure

• Chests: 1 on floor 1 and 2 on each lower floor, in dead ends; 2 treasure chests in the Cave Lord’s hall.
• Spirit stone caves: spirit stones (the bulk of the loot, higher grades deeper down), technique and spell manuals of the cave’s element, and pills. The hall’s chests always hold a technique and a spell, sometimes a treasure, and may hold stones a grade above the cave.
• Herb Grottos: no spirit stones. Pill herbs and their seeds, more pills, and the same element-free manuals. Herbs growing in the grotto regrow if they are destroyed while the floor is sealed.

The Sect Survey Jade Slip lists caves you have found, with their grade.

Demon Beasts

Every Threateningly Mobs creature is a cultivating demon beast with a realm, a nature, spells, body techniques and a rank. Higher ranks are rarer, born at higher realms and fight much harder.

Ranks

Fury: once per fight, when a boss falls below 40% health it roars, heals 10%, gains Strength II, Speed II and Resistance for 30 seconds, and casts faster still.

Beasts born more than 3,000 blocks from world spawn have a small chance of being a realm stronger, and the Almanac’s Danger setting adds more.

Where they live

Each beast appears only in lands that suit its nature. Kinds marked (night) appear only at night or underground.

Nibbler, Devourer and Skeleton Predator also live in the Threateningly Mobs biomes.

How wild beasts spawn

The addon spawns beasts itself, around each player, so it does not depend on darkness or the vanilla monster cap. By default:

• every 6 seconds, 2 nearby spots are tried; each can bring a whole pack;
• at night and underground the rate is 140%, in daylight on the surface 80%;
• beasts appear 24 to 56 blocks away, and stop once 14 wild beasts are within 64 blocks of you;
• a rare beast never appears within 40 blocks of another rare one, and a boss never within 128 blocks of another boss;
• wild beasts with no player within 128 blocks fade away (named ones stay).

All of these can be changed with the Beast Tide Almanac.

Spells

Beasts learn the spells of their nature as their realm rises. Rare beasts and bosses know the spells of one or two realms higher.

Stronger beasts loose more projectiles per cast (up to 4, plus 1 for rare and boss) and recover faster between spells.

Techniques, growth and aura

• Each beast tempers its body with one technique per tier its realm can hold, preferring its own element. Techniques add health, attack, armour, speed and knockback resistance, and can strengthen spells of their element.
• Beasts gather qi from the land (more in qi-rich biomes) and break through to higher realms over time, healing fully when they do.
• A coloured aura shows each beast’s realm, and its name tag shows realm and nature.
• Beasts carry the main mod’s beast cultivation, so demon cores, demon bones and sect hunting tasks work with them.

Drops

Slain beasts drop spirit stones by realm (low-grade from weak beasts, up to supreme-grade from the strongest), with a chance of a spirit vein core from Foundation Building upward (60% at the highest realms). Looting raises both. Cave guardians always drop their core; Herb Grotto keepers drop herbs instead of stones.

Beast Tide Almanac

The Beast Tide Almanac sets how often and how strong the demon beasts come. Anyone holding one can read it; only the world’s owner (single player) or an operator can change it. It cannot be crafted: take it from the creative menu or use /give @s xiaoxiang_sects:beast_almanac.

Right-click to open it. Move the sliders (hover one to see what it does), then press Apply. Revert drops unsaved changes. Settings are saved with the world.

How often

How strong

The Almanac’s bottom row also has buttons for operators and the world owner: Attack my sect and Nearest sect call a beast tide now, Stop calls off tides within 256 blocks, and Open realm tears a secret realm rift open beside you. Two status lines show the nearest tide and the open realms.

Switches

• Wild spawning: turns the beast spawner on or off. Caves keep their guardians either way.
• Cave spawns: whether beasts appear around players who are underground.
• Sea beasts: whether water beasts appear in oceans, rivers and swamps.
• Tides: whether beast tides strike sects. Turning Wild spawning off stops tides too.

Presets

A preset only fills in the sliders; press Apply to use it.

The live panel

The right side of the Almanac reads the place where you stand:

• your biome and the lands it counts as (forest, snowy, cave and so on);
• wild beasts within 64 blocks, counted by rank, against the cap;
• the time until the next wave;
• every species that can appear on that spot right now, with its share of spawns, coloured by rank (hover for its nature and whether it comes only at night), and the sea beasts if there is water;
• an estimate of spawn tries per minute by day and by night at the slider values on screen.

Beast Tides

Now and then, at dusk, a horde of demon beasts gathers against a sect and attacks it in three waves.

Which sects are struck

• Your sect: each dusk there is a chance (the Almanac’s Beast tide chance, 20% by default) if you, the master, are online in the sect’s world and the sect last had a tide at least 2 days ago.
• Generated sects: a sect within about 128 blocks of a player can be struck too, at half that chance. Defend it and it will remember.
• At most 3 tides run at once, and never two within 200 blocks of each other.

How a tide unfolds

1. Warning: a raid horn sounds and players within 160 blocks (and your sect’s master) are told. The tide strikes 30 seconds later.
2. Wave 1: common beasts.
3. Wave 2: a heavier mix of common and uncommon beasts.
4. Final wave: rare beasts, led by a named Tide Lord boss on stronger sects.

Each wave comes from one direction, which the message names, and appears 36-48 blocks from the sect’s heart. The beasts march on the centre and attack any player or cultivator within about 20 blocks. The next wave comes once three quarters of the current one is dead, or after 2.5 minutes. A red bar at the top of the screen shows the wave and how many beasts are left to everyone within 96 blocks.

Wave sizes grow with strength and with the Almanac’s Beast tide size. Rare beasts and the Tide Lord get their rank’s extra power and spells.

Winning and losing

• You win when the final wave is wiped out.
• You lose if no player stays within 96 blocks for 2 minutes, or if the tide is not broken within 12 minutes. What is left of the horde turns into ordinary wild beasts.

Companion Beasts and Mounts

Beat a demon beast down and bind it with a Beast Subduing Talisman, and it becomes your companion: it fights for you, can be ridden, grows stronger, can be bred and equipped, and lends you its spells.

Taming: the battle of wills

• Recipe (shapeless): Talisman Paper + Demon Core (tier 1) + Demon Bone + Lead → 2 talismans.
• Beat the beast below 30% health (50% if its realm is below yours), then use the talisman on it. The talisman is used up.
• The beast freezes and a battle of wills begins: a tug-of-war bar. Tap SPACE quickly to push your will toward your end; the beast pulls back, and every few seconds it surges three times as hard. Reach your end within 14 seconds and it submits; if it reaches its end, or time runs out, it resists in fury.
• How hard the battle is comes from the old taming chance: 50%, +15% per realm you stand above it (−15% per realm below), more the closer it is to death, scaled by rarity (uncommon ×0.8, rare ×0.55, boss ×0.3). A high chance means a weak pull; a low chance means a fierce one.
• A beast more than 2 realms above you cannot be tamed. Cave guardians and beasts in a running beast tide cannot be tamed.
• How many: 1 at Mortal, one more every two realms, up to 6.

Your companions

• Named YourName’s (species) in green, with their realm and evolution title. They keep cultivating.
• They follow you, attack whatever hurts you or whatever you strike, and never harm you, your sect, your allies or your other beasts.
• Left more than 28 blocks behind, they leap to your side. They never despawn.

The Companion screen

Lists every companion with realm, health, state (following, staying, stored), where it is, its traits and its spells. For each one:

• Locate: it glows through walls for a while so you can find it.
• Store / Summon: keep it in your spirit pouch (it leaves the world safely) and call it back beside you later.
• Stay: toggle stay / follow.
• Gear off: take back its armour and charm.
• Unbind: free it for good.

Evolution

Feed a companion a demon core to evolve it once it is strong enough. There are three stages above a plain beast: Awakened, Ascended and Sovereign. Each stage needs a demon core of a higher tier, raises its health and attack, and shows in its name.

Breeding

Sneak and use a demon core (tier 2 or higher) on two of your companions within 30 seconds of each other to pair them. Their young inherit a bloodline (up to 5 generations deep) that makes them a little stronger.

Beast gear

Right-click your companion with a piece of gear to equip it; Gear off on the Companion screen takes it back.

Secret Realms

Now and then a gate tears open in the world and stays open for 3 days: a tall glowing oval ringed with crackling light, coloured by its rank. Step through it to reach a realm of floating islands. Clear it before it closes, or it breaks: a beast tide pours out onto the land around it.

Gates and ranks

• When: around midday each day there is a 30% chance a gate opens 60-140 blocks from a random player (at most 2 open at once). Everyone in that world is told where. Gate Keys and creative buttons can open one beside you.
• Rank: rolled by distance from world spawn; farther out, higher ranks are likelier.
• Modifiers: some realms roll a modifier: Blood Moon (every beast one realm higher), Fog, Frenzy (beasts faster and fiercer), or Bountiful (richer caches).

The islands

A great central island where the Realm Sovereign waits at its altar, ringed by six inner islands and 2-5 outer ones (more for higher ranks), joined by plank bridges with gaps to leap and rotten boards that crumble underfoot, plus a sky shrine high above, reached only by a parkour trail of floating stones. Each island has its own biome (verdant, frost, ember, dune, fungal, crystal, blossom or sculk) and purpose:

The rules of a realm

• No flying until the realm is conquered.
• Every boss must fall. Each island has an Island Warden boss; the Sovereign holds the centre. All chests stay sealed until the Sovereign and every Warden are dead. The seal tells you how many remain.
• Nothing can be broken, built or blown up until then, except the killing-array cores and the Sovereign’s crying-obsidian eyes.
• Realm beasts never fight each other; they attack only players, their companions and sect disciples.
• The Sovereign calls its guard at two thirds health and seals the arena and rages at one third. Four crying-obsidian eyes around its altar protect it while they stand.
• Some chests are bait: opening one springs an ambush.

Loot

Caches come in four qualities: Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary, better on higher ranks and deeper in. They hold spirit stones, high-level technique and spell manuals (secret realms and caves are the only natural source of these), pills, treasures and sometimes Gate Keys.

Rune locks: even after the realm is conquered, Epic and Legendary caches are sealed by rune rings. Pick the lock (see Minigames) to open it for good; a Legendary lock may hide a Gate Key. Fail and the alarm calls guardians, and the rings reset.

Conquest and leaving

• When every boss has fallen the realm is conquered: a golden gate opens at the altar, the score is recorded (time, deaths, rank), the best clear per rank is announced to the server, and the Sovereign may drop a Gate Key (60%).
• The pale gate you arrived by always leads out.
• A Gate Key (Rank D, B, A or S) opens a gate of its rank beside you when used.

Spirit Veins

Rich wellsprings of qi surface now and then in the wild (at most 6 at once). Each is a grotto: a shrine gate on the surface opens onto a long stair (up to about 26 blocks down) into a great amethyst cavern lined with calcite and spirit stone ore of the vein’s grade, hung with crystals and lit by glowstone and sea lanterns, around a spirit pool.

Claiming and income

• Keep a one-minute vigil beside the core on its pedestal across the pool to claim the vein for your sect (two minutes to seize one another sect holds).
• A held vein pays the treasury every dawn, shown on the Finances tab.
• Generated sects covet veins: at dawn there is a 20% chance one sends a war party to the grotto’s entrance. Be there within 2 minutes and break it, or the vein is lost.
• Every block of the grotto is protected: it cannot be mined, blasted or emptied with a bucket, and nothing but a meditation cushion can be placed.

The spirit pool

• Stand in the pool or on its rim to gain Spirit Spring Infusion. While it lasts, meditating gives extra cultivation each second.
• Use a glass bottle at the pool to fill Spirit Spring Water (bottles refill each dawn). Drinking it gives the infusion for 3 minutes anywhere.
• Only the owning sect may use a claimed pool; unclaimed pools are open to all.
• The spirit stone ore in the walls (and the Golden Marrow Pool’s spring) gives off qi naturally, so the whole grotto is a good place to cultivate.

Ancient Battlefields

Cursed fields where a fallen sect’s last war never ended: coarse earth and soul soil strewn with bones, skulls, broken pillars, soul lanterns and black banners around a cracked stele.

• When: sometimes at dusk a battlefield surfaces 150-260 blocks from a player (at most 3 in the world). Everyone is told where. Battlefields appear on the Jade Slip’s Gates tab, where you can teleport to them.
• By day they are quiet ruins.
• At night spectral cultivators of the fallen sect rise (2 plus 2 per player nearby, up to 8) and attack anyone on the field, at about your own realm; one in five is a stronger Spectral Elder. They fade at dawn.
• Drops: slain spectres drop Broken Artifacts (60%), graded by their realm.
• Repair: use a Broken Artifact within 6 blocks of a Refining Core to play the forging minigame. 90%+ restores a weapon or treasure one tier higher, 60%+ of its tier, 30%+ a tier lower; below that it shatters.
• Creative: the Jade Slip’s Gates tab has a ☠ Battlefield button that raises one beside you (use /time set night to test the dead).

Sect Bounty Board

A board block that posts 5 bounties a day for whoever reads it, scaled to your realm (Low to Supreme grade).

• Recipe (shaped): planks across the top and bottom rows, Paper + Demon Bone + Paper in the middle.
• Right-click it to open the board. Take up to 3 bounties at once; new offers appear every morning.

Base rewards are 40, 150, 500 and 1,500 stones by grade. Kills by your companion beasts count. Finished bounties are claimed at any board; the stones come to you, and your sect’s treasury gets a 20% share plus 1 prestige for every 5 bounties.

Send disciple (sect masters): hunts and cave clearings can be handed to your strongest idle disciple within 64 blocks. They set out on a hunting mission; if they return successfully, the full reward goes to your treasury.

Generated Sects

The main mod’s sects are ranked Lower, Middle or Higher. Rank sets the cultivation of the sect’s leaders, the grade of its protection array, the look of its buildings and the grade of its spirit cave.

Sect ranks

Elders and disciples are scaled below their master. A sect’s name shows its rank and alignment, for example Azure Cloud Sect [Middle · Righteous]. Buildings are restyled by rank (humble, stately, grand) and alignment (righteous, neutral, demonic). On first start the addon raises the main mod’s sect spawn chance from 0.34 to 0.6, unless you have set your own value.

Protection arrays

Every generated sect has a protection array whose flags, core plate and spirit vein core are all the same grade, so the plate holds exactly what its vein core supplies. The dome’s colour shows the rank: green for lower, blue for middle, gold for higher.

A protection dome spends qi for every point of damage it turns aside, and its other flags (maze, rejuvenation) drain qi for the space they cover. The addon raises how much spirit vein cores and core plates store and supply, so arrays keep running between attacks:

An idle array runs indefinitely. A strong attacker can still break a low or mid dome, but it holds long enough for the sect to answer; supreme and immortal domes need a truly powerful cultivator. These numbers apply to every spirit vein core and core plate, including the ones you place yourself.

Sect Survey Jade Slip

Right-click to list the nearest sects with their rank, alignment and distance (your vassals show your emblem). Channel qi into a row to teleport there. Tabs:

• Sects: the nearest sects.
• Mines: the spirit stone caves found so far, with their grade.
• Gates: open secret realm gates and ancient battlefields.
• Veins: spirit vein grottos and who holds them.

In creative mode the Gates and Veins tabs have buttons to open a gate, raise a vein or raise a ☠ Battlefield beside you.

Player Sects

With the Sect Master’s Command Token you found your own sect, recruit wandering cultivators, give them ranks and duties, pay them every dawn, and send them on missions. Right-click the token to open the sect ledger.

Founding

• Founding costs 30 spirit stones carried in your inventory. Your headquarters is where you stand; move it later with Set headquarters here.
• You can lead 6 + 3 per realm disciples (6 as a mortal, 9 at Qi Refining, 12 at Foundation Building, and so on).
• The Overview tab holds the treasury: Deposit all spirit stones converts carried stones into treasury value (1 low = 1, mid = 9, high = 81, supreme = 729), and the Take buttons withdraw them. You can rename or disband the sect here; disbanding returns the treasury and storehouse to you.

Recruiting

Wandering cultivators within 32 blocks appear in the Recruit tab, or sneak and use the token on one.

• Signing gift: three days of their standard wage, paid from the treasury.
• Chance to accept: 45%, plus up to 35% for their favour toward you (minus up to 40% if they dislike you), plus 2% per current disciple (up to 15%), minus 12% for every realm they stand above you. Always between 5% and 95%.
• A refusal costs favour and they will not listen again until the next day.
• Cultivators already in a sect, hostile to you, or in special states cannot be recruited.

Ranks and wages

Promoting raises loyalty by 8; demoting lowers it by 10. New recruits start as Servants (Qi Refining and below) or Outer Disciples.

Standard daily wage by realm, in low spirit stones:

Pay and loyalty

• Payday is every dawn. Each disciple is paid their wage (standard wage x rank x their pay setting) from the treasury.
• Paid on time: loyalty +2, more for pay above 100% (up to +7), less below it (down to -3). Unpaid: loyalty -15.
• Pay -10% / +10% sets an individual’s pay from 50% to 300%. Reward pays a bonus of two days’ wage for +12 loyalty.
• A disciple whose loyalty reaches 0 deserts. Seclusion adds +3 loyalty a day.

Duties

The Storehouse tab holds 54 slots of whatever miners, gatherers and missions bring back; click an item to take it.

Orders

Select a disciple in the Disciples tab:

• Stance: Protect (defends you, their post and fellow disciples), Attack (hunts any hostile creature within 16 blocks), or Hold Fire (never starts or joins a fight).
• Stay here makes the spot you stand on their post; Use HQ sends them back to the headquarters.
• Assign bed: look at a bed, or stand next to one. At night they walk to it and sleep, waking if hurt. Escorts only sleep when you do.
• Summon brings a disciple to your side if they are loaded in the same world.
• Attack my target: aim at a creature (within 48 blocks) and press it, or simply use the token while aiming. Every disciple within 64 blocks that is not on Hold Fire attacks. Stand down calls them off.

Missions

A disciple sent on a mission leaves the world, and returns to the headquarters (or to you, if the headquarters is not loaded) with the spoils. The screen shows the reward, duration and success chance before you send them.

• Success chance: 65%, plus the mission’s difficulty, plus 15% for each realm above the grade’s realm (minus 15% for each below), plus a little for high loyalty. Between 5% and 97%.
• Success: rewards go to the storehouse, loyalty +5.
• Failure: they come back at 30% health, loyalty -4. A failed disciple can die: 3% plus 12% for every realm they stood below the grade.
• Recall brings them back early, empty-handed. Wages are still paid while they are away.

Building Your Sect

The Build tab of the ledger raises sect buildings: pick a design and a style, lay the blueprint, gather the materials it lists, and your disciples build it block by block.

Designs

The designs are the main mod’s own sect buildings. Ore blocks in them become plain stone, and their containers start empty.

Styles

Nine styles combine three grandeurs (Humble, Stately, Grand) with three alignments (Righteous, Neutral, Demonic). The style changes the stone, wood and trim, and so the materials needed.

Step by step

1. Choose a design, a style and a facing. The Materials to gather grid shows the full bill.
2. Press Preview hologram: a see-through, glowing copy of the building follows you. Walk to the spot.
3. Sneak and use the token (or press Lay blueprint here) to fix it in place. A golden outline marks the site; Hide outline switches the lines off and on.
4. Carry the materials and press Deliver materials. Matching blocks are taken from your inventory; the grid shows delivered / needed. You can still Move here, Turn or Cancel blueprint (delivered materials are returned).
5. When everything is delivered, construction starts. About 60 blocks a second go up while the site is loaded, after any dips under the footprint are filled with foundation.

Creative mode: the button reads Build now (creative). It needs no materials and builds much faster.

The Sect Arena

A 35 x 35 colosseum: a round fighting pit of smooth stone with polished rings and two fighters’ marks, a low barrier with lanterns, four tiers of stone seating, a crenellated outer wall with lantern posts, and two fighters’ gates (west and east) cut through the stands.

When it is finished, the arena is registered to your sect. Tournaments and contests hosted by your sect are fought there: fighters enter through the gates, and knocked-out fighters are carried to the front row of the north stand.

Sect Life

Your sect lives on its own: its buildings work each morning, its disciples have personalities, small dramas unfold, and every sect in the world is ranked.

Buildings that work

Each morning a finished building does its job, and the sect record notes what happened.

Personalities

Every disciple has a trait.

Dramas

On about one morning in four, something happens: a rivalry (loyalty -5 for two disciples), a betrayal (a greedy or disloyal disciple deserts with up to 10% of the treasury, at most 500), an inner demon that wounds a cultivator, a talented youth begging at the gate (recruit them with the token), or a dying wandering elder who leaves a manual to the storehouse.

Rankings and the Grand Ceremony

The Rankings view of the ledger ranks every player and generated sect. Score: prestige x10, titles x25, war kills x2, members x3, realms cleared x15.

Every 30 days at midday the Grand Ceremony is announced to everyone, and the top three player sects are rewarded:

Champion duels

From the Relations tab, challenge a generated sect you are not at war with to send its Champion (Qi Refining up to Foundation Building, Golden Core or Soul Formation by the sect’s rank, never more than one realm above you). Defeat them within 5 minutes; your disciples and beasts may help. Victory pays 200 / 800 / 2,500 stones, prestige +2 and +5 attitude. Once every 7 days per sect.

Finances

The Finances tab of the ledger shows where your stones come from and where they go:

• Expected each dawn: vein income, alliance gifts, vassal tribute and tax, interest, miners, minus the wages of every disciple.
• Today and Yesterday: every line actually booked (veins, forge sales, raids, ransoms, ceremony purses, thefts, coups and so on), with the net result.

Sparring

Select a disciple and press Spar to fight them, in your arena if you have one. Nobody dies: a bout ends when either side would fall, or after 3 minutes (a draw). One bout per disciple per day.

• You win: loyalty +8, and a lesson. After 2 + (realm / 2) lessons the disciple breaks through a realm, never past one below you (and never past Body Integration).
• They win: loyalty +3, and they teach you one of their techniques or spells as a manual.

Elder succession

If you fall in a siege or to a heavenly tribulation, your Grand Elder (or your strongest elder) becomes regent until you return.

• A regent with loyalty 40 or more keeps the sect safe and hands back the seal (loyalty +5).
• A disloyal regent stages a coup: they take 25% of the treasury and leave with up to a third of the disciples whose loyalty is below 50.

The Scripture Pagoda

A great six-storey pagoda that holds your sect’s technique and spell manuals. Disciples earn merit and spend it on manuals; each floor holds better ones and is watched by stronger guardians.

Building it

1. Craft the Scripture Altar (shaped: book / gold ingots / lectern / stone bricks; see Items and Recipes).
2. Raise the Scripture Pagoda design from the Build tab. It is 31 x 31 and six storeys tall, with tiled eaves, windows, lanterns, bookshelves, reading desks and a ladder up the central pillar.
3. Each floor has an altar at its centre. Use it to open that floor’s library.

Floors

• Record: hold a technique or spell manual and press Deposit at any altar. The manual is used up and shelved on the floor of its grade.
• Copy: any member may have a recorded scripture transcribed for themselves at its floor’s altar, paying its price in their own merit. The original stays.
• Teach: the Sect Master can assign a recorded scripture to a disciple, who pays from their own merit and learns it on the spot.
• Donate: 500 stones from your treasury buy you 100 merit.

Merit

Guardians

Assign disciples of Elder rank or above to guard a floor. Guardians stand at that floor’s post, learn the techniques of their floor’s tier, and are raised to Foundation Building plus their floor (or their own strength plus the floor, whichever is lower), so the top floors are held by the strongest.

Where manuals come from

• Generated sect chests and the Explore Ancient Ruins mission only hold foundation-level (Low) manuals.
• Higher manuals are found only in secret realms and spirit stone caves.

Stealing scriptures

Generated sects keep their own pavilions and pagodas. Sneak into one and open a chest to try to steal: a skill-check minigame opens, Dead by Daylight style. A needle sweeps round a dial; press SPACE when it is inside the white zone (the small bright zone is a great check). Several checks in a row:

• All passed: you take a manual of the sect’s rank (Lower: Low, Middle: up to Mid, Higher: up to High), sometimes stones too.
• A missed check: the alarm sounds, the sect’s attitude drops, its members attack, and your notoriety rises.
• Once every 3 days per generated sect.

Relations Between Sects

The Relations tab of the ledger lists every other player-founded sect with its master, size, prestige, arena, and your standing with it. Below them come the 20 nearest generated sects in your sect’s world, so diplomacy works in single player too (see Generated sects below).

Standings

• War score: each enemy disciple or master slain by your side counts one point, shown as ours : theirs and recorded in both sects’ records.
• Offer peace: a proposal the enemy master must accept. Both scores are recorded when the war ends.
• Surrender: ends the war at once; you pay 20% of your treasury to the other sect.
• Declaring war on an ally dissolves the alliance first.

Offers

Alliance proposals, peace offers, trades and contest challenges wait in the Offers view, incoming and outgoing. Incoming offers have Accept and Decline; your outgoing ones can be withdrawn. A sect holds at most 12 waiting offers.

Trade

1. Select a sect and press Trade.
2. Click items in your storehouse to give them, and items in theirs to ask for them; selected slots turn gold.
3. Optionally add spirit stones you pay and spirit stones you ask for, then Send offer.
4. Nothing moves until their master accepts. If either side no longer holds the goods or the stones by then, the trade fails safely and both sides are told why.

There is no trade with a sect you are at war with.

Generated sects

Each generated sect has an attitude toward your sect, from -100 to +100, shown on its row as Friendly (30+), Indifferent, Wary or Hostile (-50 or lower). It starts at +10 for righteous sects, 0 for neutral ones and -10 for evil ones, and slowly drifts back there over the days.

Bigger sects scorn small gifts: one point costs 50 stones for a Lower sect, 200 for a Middle sect and 800 for a Higher sect.

• They can declare war on you. At dawn, a sect within 3,000 blocks whose attitude is -50 or lower has a 30% chance to declare war.
• War parties. At dusk, a generated sect at war with yours has a 35% chance to send a war party instead of a beast tide: three waves of its disciples, then elders and a War Leader, glowing red. Break it for the usual tide rewards and +3 war score; if it prevails, they gain +3 and your sect is plundered like a lost tide.
• Lead a raid. At war, press Lead a raid: within 15 minutes, slay 5 / 8 / 12 of their members (Lower / Middle / Higher) on their grounds. Your master, disciples and companion beasts all count. Success sacks the sect: 400 / 1,500 / 5,000 stones to your treasury, prestige +2, war score +5. Once every 3 days per sect.
• They can sue for peace. If they are losing a war by 8 kills or more, they may give up at dawn; your sect gains 1 prestige.
• Lay siege. With a war score of 8 or more you can besiege the sect and make it your vassal (see War, Sieges and Vassals).
• Settling with one sect only clears hostility with that sect, not with the others.
• A destroyed sect drops off the list and any relation with it ends. Contests and trades are only between player sects.

Contests

A contest is a single fight between two sects, staked with stones from both treasuries.

• Choose the size (1 v 1, 2 v 2, 3 v 3 or 5 v 5) and a stake, and press Challenge. You need a finished Sect Arena: contests are fought in the challenger’s arena.
• When the other master accepts, both stakes are taken and a two-entrant tournament opens for just these two sects. Each enters a team with a Tournament Banner, and the challenger starts it.
• The pool of both stakes is split 70% to the winning sect and 30% to the losing sect.

Tournaments

A sect with a finished Sect Arena can host single-elimination tournaments of duels or group fights. Use a Tournament Banner to open the tournament board: the list of tournaments on the left, the selected one on the right.

Hosting

Press Host a tournament and choose:

A sect can host one tournament at a time.

Entering

• Tick fighters in Your fighters: yourself and any disciple not away on a mission. Ticked rows turn gold; fighters already entered show a check.
• Enter picked as a team enters up to the format’s team size. In duel tournaments, Enter picked enters each ticked fighter alone, and Enter all disciples enters every free disciple.
• A sect can enter several teams. Entries can be withdrawn before the start, and fees are refunded.

The bracket

The host presses Start once there are at least two entrants. Entrants are shuffled into a bracket of the next power of two; empty places become byes, and a bye always goes to a real entrant. Exactly one bout is fought for every entrant knocked out.

The board draws the bracket round by round, left to right: winners in gold, losers greyed, your sect’s entrants in blue, the bout in progress pulsing, and the champion at the end. Hover a name to see the team’s fighters.

Bouts

1. The host presses Begin next bout, or turns on Auto to start each bout 10 seconds after the last.
2. The arena must be loaded (someone nearby). The two sides are healed and brought to the west and east gates. Masters are brought from anywhere; disciples must already be in the arena’s world.
3. A side with nobody present loses by forfeit.
4. Nobody dies in a bout. A finishing blow knocks the fighter out instead: they are carried to the north stand with a quarter of their health.
5. Only the two sides can hurt each other: spectators cannot interfere, and fighters cannot strike anyone else. A fighter who leaves the arena (more than 40 blocks from its centre) is out.
6. A side wins when the other has no one standing. After 3 minutes the judges decide by remaining health.
7. Everyone is healed and returned to where they stood before the bout.

If the server restarts during a bout, that bout is replayed.

Rewards

• Shares go to each entrant’s sect treasury; anything left over returns to the host.
• The champion’s sect gains 3 prestige and a tournament title; the runner-up’s sect gains 1 prestige.
• Champion disciples gain 15 loyalty and a quarter of the cultivation they need for their next breakthrough. Every bout won gives a disciple 3 loyalty.
• The whole server hears who won.

The host can Cancel a tournament at any time: fees go back to the entrants and the prize back to the host (a contest’s stakes go back to both sects). A finished tournament stays on the board until the host presses Close tournament.

War, Sieges and Vassals

Sieges on your sect

When a generated sect is at war with yours, 30-50% of its dusk attacks become a full siege of your headquarters instead of a war party.

• Five waves of its disciples, elders and a War Leader.
• Array-breakers: beasts and cultivators that weaken your protection array as they reach it; break them first.
• Catapult volleys: every 40 seconds a volley of flaming shot strikes near your headquarters.
• Victory: 300 / 1,000 / 3,000 stones of spoils (Lower / Middle / Higher), prestige +3, war score +5. Some broken attackers surrender as prisoners.
• Defeat: the sect is plundered (15% of the treasury).

Besieging a generated sect

At war, with a war score of 8 or more, press Lay siege in the Relations tab.

• You have 25 minutes. A boss bar shows the phase and the time left.
• Formation nodes: stand by each glowing node for 15 seconds to seize it (or use a Formation-Breaking Talisman).
• Victory: the sect becomes your vassal, you take double raid loot, and prestige +6.
• Once every 5 days per sect.

Vassals

The ⚑ Vassals button on the ledger opens the vassal screen. Each vassal’s emblem also appears on your Survey slip.

• Tax: Light (x0.5 tribute, attitude +3 a day), Normal (x1, +2), Heavy (x1.6, -2).
• Muster troops: 200 x (rank + 1) stones per troop, up to 6. In your raids, sieges and defences the vassal sends 2 + troops / 2 auxiliaries who fight beside you.
• Governor: station one of your elders there for +2 attitude a day.
• Levy: demand a one-off payment now, at the cost of attitude.
• Release: set the vassal free.
• Rebellion: if attitude falls to -40 or lower, each dawn there is a 4% chance it rebels and declares war.

Prisoners and ransom

Broken enemies sometimes surrender (15%, or 35% for elders and leaders). You hold at most 8.

• Ransom: 100 x (rank + 1) + 60 x realm² stones, paid by their sect.
• Recruit: a 50% chance they join you.
• Trade for peace: give them back to end a war.
• Release: free them for attitude.

Coalitions

If you hold 2 or more vassals or 40 or more prestige, other sects grow afraid. Each dawn there is a 15% chance (at least 10 days apart) that up to 3 generated sects form a coalition and declare war together. The coalition breaks when 1 or fewer of its members remain at war with you; breaking it gives prestige +5.

Siege engines

Notoriety and Bounty Hunters

Crimes and wars make you famous in the wrong way. Notoriety is kept per player.

At 30 or more, bounty hunters may come for you at night. Each has a fighting style: Lin Feng (Swift Blade), Zhao Shan (Iron Palm), Mei Xue (Frost Lotus), Han Lei (Thunder Spear), Ye Ying (Shadow Step) and Du Qing (Poison Needle).

• Kill one: 150 x realm² stones and notoriety -15.
• They give up after 5 minutes.

Demonic Threats and the Spirit Caravan

Demonic threats

• Assassins: at night, Golden Core cultivators and above have an 8% chance of being stalked by demonic assassins. Each carries a purse of 30 x (realm + 1) stones.
• Kidnappings: a sect with 3 or more members may have a disciple kidnapped (6% a dawn). Their camp is 150-250 blocks away; slay the cultists and reach the cage within 5 days, or the disciple is lost.
• Tribulation aid: when the heavens send a tribulation, your companion beasts and nearby disciples take part of the lightning. Surviving gives Heaven’s Favour: regeneration, a qi barrier and strength for 5 minutes.

The Spirit Caravan

Every 4 days a Spirit Caravan Merchant arrives near a player for one day, selling cultivation goods and beast gear for spirit stones.

• Auction: the caravan carries one rare lot (a treasure or a Gate Key). Sneak and right-click the merchant with spirit stones in hand to bid. Generated sects bid too.
• When the caravan leaves, the highest bidder takes the lot; outbid players get their stones back, even if offline.

Minigames

Crafting, sealing, stealing and taming are done by hand. Each opens its own screen; the score decides the result.

Crafting gates

Normal brewing, forging and array activation are switched off: the cores of the main mod only work through a minigame.

• Choose the recipe in the core’s own screen as usual (pick the pill, the weapon or the array), then press its button. The minigame starts; the craft goes ahead only when it ends.
• Your rank matters: the higher your Alchemy or Refining rank, the easier the game (difficulty 3 at Apprentice down to 0 near Immortal), and the better the quality.

Inscribe a flag

In the Formation core screen, Inscribe a flag plays the rune game to make a formation flag (Qi Gathering, Rejuvenation, Sect Protection, Wither Growth or Flight Ban). Cost in stones by grade: 50 / 200 / 800 / 3,200 / 12,800 (Low to Immortal). A flawless score makes 2 flags (30% chance of a grade higher); 60%+ makes one; 30%+ makes one a grade lower.

Other minigames

Items and Recipes

All items appear in the main mod’s creative tab. Useful commands:

• /give @s xiaoxiang_sects:beast_almanac
• /give @s xiaoxiang_sects:sect_command_token
• /give @s xiaoxiang_sects:gate_key