It was precisely because there were so many Taoist teachings, with no overarching authority and rather lax management, that cultivators from an old-school sect like Wangwu Mountain only united in the face of foreign invasion. They lacked the central power of Penglai Xian Hua and the worldly ambitions and cohesiveness of the Mountain Heng community. They were just a group of people who gathered to cultivate together, yet among themselves, they would still harbor grudges over the competition for talented youngsters and precious resources.
The Zhang and Gu families were typical examples of local cultivation families, neighbors in the same region. Many of their disciples served in the Hengye Army and were comrades-in-arms in times of war, but in everyday life, they formed factions, often clashed, and sometimes blood was shed. However, because they were all cultivators of Wangwu Mountain, they never went to extremes.
