Master Cang Kun (苍坤上人 - Cang Kun Shangren), was a mad Nascent Soul cultivator. He was the greatest vagrant cultivator in his era.[687] Marquis Nanlong was his descendant,[704] if not his only remaining descendant.
He is often remembered as the “First Mad Cultivator of Tiannan” (天南第一狂修), is an ancient legendary figure from the Heavenly South region. Like the Vagrant of the Heavenly Mirror Cultivator, he is long dead when Han Li’s story takes place, but his actions directly kick off the massive Devilfall Valley arc.
Background
About five thousand years before Han Li was born, that mad cultivator wreaked havoc against both the Righteous Dao Alliance and Six Devil Dao Sects. With his profound abilities, he swept past many fearsome opponents in the Heavenly South Continent. Even the Great Elder of the Harmonious Bond Sect and the Righteous Dao Alliance Leader, the number one figures of both sides at the time, couldn’t defeat him. As oppose to rumours of his death in battle, Master Cang Kun managed to escape, after self detonation of two of his puppet incarnations.[687] Later, Master Cang Kun entered Devilfall Valley. There, he suffered extensive damage to his cultivation, after battling the Ancient Flame Toad. He didn’t treat deep into the center of Devilfall Valley, he simply found a few treasures around the outer area.[727] He was the very first person to make it out alive from Devilfall Valley. Not long after, he died possibly in meditation in his cave residence in Moulan Plains.[687]
----Life Story
Master Cang Kun lived roughly 5,000 years before Han Li’s era. He was widely considered the most powerful and notorious rogue/vagrant cultivator of his entire generation. He possessed a wildly arrogant, flamboyant personality and flat-out refused to bend his knee to any organized faction.
Because he ran rampant across the continent, offending everyone in his path, he single-handedly triggered a massive alliance against himself. Both the Righteous Dao Alliance and the Six Devil Dao Sects joined forces to launch a coordinated assassination squad to permanently take him down. [1, 2]
Cornered by an army of top-tier experts, Cang Kun was forced to self-detonate his powerful treasures and puppet incarnations to fake his death at a devastating cost to his own vitality. [1, 2] ----Enemies & Factions
- The Righteous Dao Alliance Leader: One of the two ultimate masters of that era who tried and failed to suppress him individually. [1]
- The Great Elder of the Harmonious Bond Sect: The demonic faction’s pinnacle powerhouse, who also could not defeat Cang Kun in a direct fight. [1]
- The Moulan Tribes: After faking his death, Cang Kun hid in the Moulan Prairies. He built a secret cave residence there because his Heavenly South enemies would never dare cross into the hostile plains to look for him. [1]
----Powers and Unique Techniques
Cang Kun was an absolute monster in combat, matching the strongest sect leaders of his era despite lacking their backing. His specialization lay in spatial traversal and high-stakes escape arts: [1]
- Thread of Ten Thousand Feet (万丈丝): A unique, highly advanced movement art he created himself. It transformed his escape light into a razor-thin, thread-like beam. This technique completely erased his spiritual aura, making him utterly untrackable, though it drained massive amounts of vital energy and true essence blood to cast.
- Spatial Rift Manipulation & Sensation: Cang Kun had a rare, profound ability to instinctively sense and safely navigate around invisible spatial rifts.
- Puppet Incarnations: He possessed top-grade lifelike puppets capable of replicating his aura, which he used as decoys to explode and facilitate his grand escape. [1, 2]
----The Devilfall Valley and Death
After faking his death, Cang Kun used his spatial abilities to do the unthinkable: he successfully breached Devilfall Valley (坠魔谷), a highly lethal, forbidden zone littered with ancient spatial tears. He became the first cultivator in history to enter the valley and make it back out alive. [1, 2]
However, his journey was tragic:
- While looting the outer perimeter, he was ambushed by an ancient Flame Toad and suffered permanent, catastrophic damage to his cultivation base.
- Worse yet, he unknowingly stepped into a trap laid by the sealed soul of an ancient Elder Devil (Bloodflame). The devil permanently embedded a fragment of its malicious soul into a scroll Cang Kun stole.
- Barely escaping the valley with his life, Cang Kun retreated to his hidden residence in the Moulan Prairies. Knowing his injuries were completely fatal, he sat in meditation and passed away, leaving his treasures behind. [1, 2, 3]
----Legacy in the Main Story
Cang Kun’s death sets up major events for Han Li thousands of years later:
- His bloodline descendant, Marquis Nanlong, eventually discovers Cang Kun’s secret map and journals.
- Marquis Nanlong recruits Han Li and other Nascent Soul eccentrics to raid Cang Kun’s hidden prairie tomb.
- Cang Kun’s specialized treasures—like the Yin-Yang Rings (which manipulate the Greatnorth Essence Light)—and his map tracking the invisible spatial rifts are the exact items Han Li uses to safely navigate Devilfall Valley later in the story