Black Sieve Ruddy-Faced Patriarch

The Black Sieve Ruddy-Faced Patriarch, later named Murong Duo, is a senior leader and the strongest active Dao Reserve of the Black Sieve Sect. He first appears as a restrained observer of the sect's alchemy gathering, then becomes one of its principal military defenders during Meng Hao's campaign against it.

Biography

Alchemy gathering and concealed hierarchy

Murong Duo sits at the third senior table during the World Pill Division's lecture. His aura initially seems slightly stronger than Patriarch Violet Sieve's, though his true Third Severing realm is not revealed until much later. He does not interfere when Zhou Dekun, Chen Jiaxi, and the disguised Meng Hao debate alchemy. Meng Hao's completed philosophy finally makes him open his eyes, and he continues watching through the plant-identification contest and the dispute over the Primordial Heavenly Replenishing Pill. (Chapters 249–254)

When Chen Jiaxi spits out the ancient pill, Murong Duo and Violet Sieve inspect it with Divine Sense and accept its apparent poisonous nature. The episode shows the limit of their expertise: both can examine a pill at range, but neither sees through every secret built into an ancient formula. Murong Duo later waits beneath Black Welcoming Peak with Violet Sieve and the sect's Dao Protector. All three bow to the restored Minor Patriarch occupying Huang Zhongxi, demonstrating that even the visible Nascent Soul leadership answers to the Black Sieve Sect's returned discarnate ancestors. (Chapters 255–258)

Defense of the Black Sieve Sect

When Meng Hao attacks the sect to recover Xu Qing, Murong Duo is finally identified by name and realm. He stands at the center of three Dao Reserves—Third, Second, and First Severing respectively—and is explicitly the strongest. He mobilizes the sect's foundation against Meng Hao and the Blood Demon Sect, using eight white tigers and sect formations while confronting a foe whose battle power already exceeds normal Dao Seeking. (Chapters 694–700)

The defense fails. Meng Hao breaks the formations and forces the Black Sieve leadership to yield the location of Sieve Yin, but Murong Duo survives the assault and remains part of the ruined sect's strength. He later reaches the Ancient Dao Lakes with a Black Sieve contingent and again summons the eight white tigers. This time his confidence collapses as soon as he recognizes Meng Hao and understands the difference between their strength. (Chapters 699–700 and 715)

In their final confrontation, Murong Duo attempts to resist with Third Severing cultivation and the tiger formation. Meng Hao overwhelms him in roughly ten breaths: blood power forms a vortex and hand, and the descending pressure of the Ninth Mountain destroys Murong Duo's defenses before crushing his Nascent Divinity. His death in Chapter 716 ends the strongest of the Black Sieve Sect's three Dao Reserves. (Chapter 716)

Appearance and personality

Murong Duo is an old man with a ruddy face and lightning-like eyes. At the alchemy gathering he is reserved and difficult to read, preferring to observe an argument until Meng Hao says something profound enough to demand attention.

His public seniority coexists with strict obedience to the sect's hidden ancestors. In battle he is willing to place the sect's resources and his own life against Meng Hao, yet he is pragmatic enough to reveal Sieve Yin's location after the home defense collapses. At the Dao Lakes, his immediate fear of Meng Hao shows accurate recognition of danger, but recognition comes too late to save him.

Abilities and cultivation

• Third Severing cultivation: Murong Duo is the strongest of the Black Sieve Sect's three Dao Reserves. His realm is described as an ordinary or simple Dao rather than an exceptional personal path, which limits how effectively his cultivation can oppose Meng Hao's layered power.
• Eight white tigers: He can manifest or command eight enormous white tigers as a coordinated offensive formation. They increase the scale of his attack and serve as the recognizable core of his battlefield method, but Meng Hao can suppress and destroy them through superior Dao Seeking and mountain power.
• Black Sieve formations: As a senior patriarch, he directs sect defenses and fights through the accumulated foundation of the Black Sieve Sect. These protections help him survive the first stage of the invasion but cannot reverse it.
• Divine Sense examination: He inspects the expelled Primordial Heavenly Replenishing Pill without touching it and participates in judging its properties. This is a useful senior-cultivator technique, not proof of specialized alchemical mastery.
• Nascent Divinity: Like other Dao Seeking cultivators, his spiritual core can remain the decisive target after external defenses fail. Meng Hao ends the battle permanently by crushing it rather than merely damaging his body.

Relationships

• Meng Hao: First attracts Murong Duo's interest as a hidden master of alchemy, then becomes the enemy who destroys the sect's defenses and kills him at the Ancient Dao Lakes.
• Patriarch Violet Sieve: Fellow visible leader during the alchemy gathering and concealed service to the returned ancestors.
• Black Sieve Sect Dao Protector: The third senior figure who joins Murong Duo and Violet Sieve beneath Black Welcoming Peak.
• Minor Patriarch: A restored discarnate ancestor to whom Murong Duo bows, revealing the authority above the sect's public leadership.

Items

• No independently cataloged personal item is assigned to Murong Duo. His eight white tigers are manifestations or formation components of his cultivation rather than confirmed possessions.