Yan Jinghong

Biodata

Power Progression

Appearance

• Face and bearing: Sword-like brows, starry eyes, refined features, and a commanding presence 3.
• Sword intent: At his introduction, his unrestrained sharpness makes him resemble a drawn divine sword; observers find it difficult to look directly at him 3.
• Sword case: Carries an unusually thick, long case taller than most of the students who witness his arrival 3.
• Later disguise: Wears a mask when resuming his work through the Mutual Aid Society 1281.

Personality

Yan Jinghong defines his chosen path as that of a Mohist hero: the school’s ideals give him direction, while chivalrous action gives those ideals practical form. His constant work is not merely an obligation he endures; he considers practicing his own Dao a source of happiness 55.

He combines personal restraint with severe treatment of wrongdoing. He honors the conditions of an agreed duel and refuses to use Profound Armor merely to avoid admitting defeat. Against heinous criminals, however, he is willing to mobilize allies and state resources, and he does not promise mercy to villains once he catches them 32 996.

His commitment to the greater good does not make him emotionally detached. Yinglan’s death leaves him deeply guilty, and accusations concerning her can disrupt his composure in battle. When forced to confront Su Yingbo, he chooses to bear responsibility himself rather than leave another executioner to become the object of his resentment 626 698 699.

As a teacher, he values perseverance, character, and a firm foundation over pedigree or shortcuts. He accepts Si Ming despite his severed meridians and later insists that their inheritance rests on one’s attitude toward people and the world, not on restricting which school’s techniques one uses. Although proud of his disciple, he deliberately maintains a strict exterior to keep Si Ming from becoming conceited 15 309 704 996.

His mature restraint contrasts with his youth. Xiao Xuan remembers him as frivolous, combative, restless, and hotheaded, though he never attacked non-martial artists. Yan’s own memories include roughhousing with fellow disciples and playing a prank that nearly killed a senior brother 143 1211.

Abilities & Skills

Scripture of Longevity and Nature

Yan Jinghong’s internal cultivation method is particularly effective at healing injuries and suppressing poison 648.

• Bears traces of Daoist teaching without belonging wholly to the Daoist School 648.
• Makes very few poisons effective against him, though it does not grant universal poison immunity 648.
• Reduces the effectiveness of Su Yingtao’s unusual poison pill to roughly half what another Spirit Transformation expert would suffer 648.
• Cannot immediately undo catastrophic injuries: after the France ambush, Yan estimates that full recovery will require at least four months 698.

Swordsmanship

Yan adapts inherited sword arts to his own understanding rather than simply reproducing their original forms. Si Ming acknowledges that his master’s understanding of the Feng and Shan Sacrifice Sword Technique exceeds his own even after defeating him in a sword match 996.

• Feng and Shan Sacrifice Sword Technique: A supreme Dinghu Sect art associated with the Yellow Emperor’s sacrifices. Its open, upright approach has no obvious weakness; its ultimate move forces an opponent to contest foundations directly 45 423 1218.
• Non-Aggression Sword Technique: Uses this elementary Mohist art to withstand Fifth Uncle’s Flower Burial Lament, demonstrating how far a basic technique can be taken 31 32.
• Hero Sword Technique: His original, initially unfinished art, characterized by fully bared sharpness and a heroic bearing 641.
  • Sword Tests All Under Heaven: Concentrates essence, Qi, and spirit at the sword tip for a decisive thrust 698.
  • Heaven and Earth Overturned, Locusts and Borers Slaughtered: Its second ultimate move; later manifests as a massive flaming phoenix against the Vulture King 701 1273.
• Juntian Sword Art — Cauldron Armor Seal: Uses blood essence to stimulate his sword’s spiritual nature and form a defensive cauldron of Sword Qi 647.
• Sword Calms Spring and Autumn: Slows surrounding Spiritual Qi and suppresses the momentum of an incoming attack. While wounded, he cannot fully overcome Shentu Chuang’s superior force despite the technique’s favorable interaction 647.
• Ten Thousand Swords Heavenly Dipper: An efficient mass-combat technique that kills at least five hundred demon beasts per use during the Tange City crisis 184.
• Weaponless Sword Qi: Can attack with his palm or joined fingers; one training demonstration parts a lake along a wall of water roughly one hundred meters long and ten meters high 35 699.

Dunjia Heavenly Movement

Yan is renowned for exceptional lightness skill, making escape from him especially difficult 31.

• Moves quickly enough to leave several apparent images before ordinary observers 31.
• Has not completely mastered the original Dunjia Heavenly Movement, whose ceiling depends heavily on mental calculation 31.
• Compensates by incorporating insights from other Mohist arts, creating a personal variant with advantages distinct from the original 31.
• Uses terrain and positioning tactically, including drawing Shentu Chuang toward a lake favorable to Ling Huanxi 647.

Martial Intent

As a Spirit Transformation expert, Yan can project his will into another person’s mind 4.

• Imprints the complete movements and variations of Hundred Birds Frolics into students’ memories during a demonstration 4.
• Can theoretically use the same faculty to inflict persistent delusions rather than teach 4.
• His visible sword intent alone exerts considerable pressure on onlookers 3.

Other Martial Arts

• Hundred Birds Frolics: Practiced daily since childhood for physical conditioning and cultivation of temperament; its movements have become instinctive 4 130.
• Kui Drum Thunder Sound: Disrupts Fifth Uncle’s killing melody and injures him through successive thunderous beats 32.
• Eagle-claw techniques: Uses the Mighty Eagle Claw Art in training and later clamps Xia Guanxue’s blade with Great Strength Eagle Claw Hand despite cutting his own hand 35 649.
• Scorched Earth for a Thousand Li: Delivers scorching force through a palm strike powerful enough to make Su Yingbo’s spilled blood boil before reaching the ground 699.
• Broad martial knowledge: Can demonstrate and assess saber, spear, sword, fist, leg, grappling, and hidden-weapon techniques, even when they are not his specialty 131 309.

Combat Judgment and Survival

Yan’s strength lies in consistent execution, adaptability, and accumulated experience rather than an overwhelming advantage in one field. Captain describes him as a methodical Spirit Transformation grandmaster without an exploitable weakness, though not among the realm’s strongest 317.

• Defensive force management: Deflects thirty percent of an attack, disperses thirty percent, redirects thirty percent, and withstands only the final ten percent directly 645.
• Composure under pressure: Becomes exceptionally calm while poisoned, wounded, and pursued 647.
• Escape craft: Uses false blood trails, retraces his route, conceals his presence, and chooses narrow hiding places to evade pursuit 647.
• Known limitation: His defensive sword circle is less efficient against Xia Guanxue’s largely deceptive, insubstantial attacks than against straightforward force 648.
• Energy limits: Three consecutive ultimate moves consume seventy percent of his power during the confrontation with Xiao Xuan; he has no inexhaustible external source of Primal Qi 1209.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Sword case — Carries swords and experimental Mohist equipment; its imposing size is a signature feature of his introduction 3 12 13.
• High-Frequency Vibrating Particle Sword — A Mohist Academy of Science weapon designed to disrupt matter at the molecular level, especially effective against body-tempering fighters and armored yao beasts. Yan lends it to Si Ming 13.
• Heaven-Soaring Armor / Profound Armor — Experimental equipment that improves his speed, aerial mobility, and attack angles 135.
  • Its Guardian Edict Circuit produces a defensive Qi barrier 135.
  • Its wings can be destroyed, as Yuwen Dongliu demonstrates 135.
  • The portable No. 2 model includes True Qi storage and a Yin-Yang Cross Crushing Cannon 13.
  • Yan separately demonstrates the Yin-Yang Spiral Piercing Kill Cannon, launching alloy balls charged with alternating yin and yang Qi 136.
• Vermilion Bird Profound Armor — Activated through a bracelet; assembles rapidly around him and uses wing-mounted heat streams for thrust 700.
• Vermilion Flame Sword — Reaches four thousand degrees during the battle against the Nether Master, whose Cultivation Body is particularly vulnerable to its heat 701.
• Moon God’s Tear — Used to pin Xiao Xuan down and seal him in ice 1208.
• Startling Rainbow Sword — Cracks during the Vulture King battle and breaks when Yan spends his blood and Qi countering Reverse Blade Thunder Punishment 1273.
• Sword seal — Gives Si Ming a seal capable of summoning the holy maiden to open a spatial rift 480.

History

Dinghu Sect and Early Companions

Yan joined the Dinghu Sect as the youngest disciple of his generation, at least eight years younger than his peers. The sect then had only about a hundred members. He fondly remembers climbing the mountain to watch the sunrise, drinking and sparring with senior brothers, and competing to leap into the sea without injury. After one prank nearly killed a senior brother, he was punished with two months of reflection; that same brother secretly brought him chicken and liquor and was eventually punished alongside him 1211.

Yan initially followed Xiao Xuan’s ideals before developing his own purpose. They helped establish Heaven’s Will Palace to gather like-minded people in service to the country, but later disagreed over how that service should be carried out 175.

Yinglan’s sacrifice became a defining wound in his life. Before dying, she encouraged him to become a great hero. Her family’s responses differed: Su Yingtao blamed him, while Su Yingbo initially defended the necessity of what had happened. Yan nevertheless accepted that reasons could not erase his own responsibility 626 649.

Taking Si Ming as a Disciple

After demonstrating Hundred Birds Frolics to students, Yan noticed Si Ming’s extraordinary progress and judged him to possess martial talent, kindness, and combat wisdom. He had previously declined to take a disciple because he had not found the right person 4 12.

Having investigated Si Ming’s background, Yan already knew about his severed meridians when he offered apprenticeship. He located the partially translated Blazing Yang Battle Art, which absorbed solar energy rather than Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, but warned that no one had practiced it before and that Si Ming must stop if he felt discomfort 15.

Yan subsequently arranged medical support, defended Si Ming’s interests, and brought forward his training in the Supreme Plain Decay True Scripture after his early awakening to a Dao heart. His national duties often kept him away, and he later admitted to feeling ashamed of his limited time as a teacher 17 82 309.

Reform and the Tange City Crisis

At Heaven’s Will Palace, Yan rejected Xiao Xuan’s proposal for violent revolution. He defended the Grandmaster’s peaceful reforms and argued that the people themselves must decide when revolution was necessary. The two recognized that their convictions might eventually bring them into armed conflict 175.

During the Tange City demon tide, Yan could kill hundreds of beasts at once but could not stop a horde approaching one hundred thousand. A proposal relayed through Doctor Pang Gang offered a way to redirect it toward a less populated villa district. After agonizing over the choice, Yan accepted the sacrifice to protect the more crowded districts 184 185.

Influential residents subsequently demanded his execution, though their pressure could cause him only political trouble. Xia Guanxue, whose parents and younger sister died, instead devoted himself to revenge 194 644 648.

France: Ambush and Reckoning

While in France, Yan visited Yinglan’s grave with her favorite wine and stood silently before it for more than three hours. Su Yingtao confronted him there, while Su Yingbo defended Yinglan’s willing sacrifice and invited Yan to drink 626.

Yan later became the target of a coordinated death trap. Exploiting his guilt and gentlemanly conduct, his enemies induced him to swallow poison before successive attacks by the Vicious Qi Evil Spider, Shentu Chuang, and Xia Guanxue. Even gravely wounded, he maneuvered enemies toward favorable terrain and resisted capture. Si Ming, Ling Huanxi, and members of the Su family helped prevent his death 645 646 647 648 649 654.

Afterward, Yan thanked Su Yingbo for saving him. Su declared their grievance over Yinglan settled and warned him not to let guilt over her draw him into another trap 654.

Their reconciliation did not prevent a later confrontation over Su Yingbo’s actions. Still operating at no more than sixty percent of his Cultivation Body, Yan fought him in the Hall of Enlightened Law. Their final exchange left Su pierced through the chest after he moved his saber away from a vital strike against Yan 698 699.

When the Nether Master attacked the exhausted pair, Su Yingbo remained alive and struck back. Yan refused to abandon him, activated his Vermilion Bird armor, and fought beside him. Their combined sword and brush attack overcame the Nether Master’s evil current in a direct clash 700 701.

His Disciple’s Maturity and Palace Conflicts

Yan continued to support Si Ming through assignments, political guidance, and access to senior figures. He arranged the Water Mirror Manor mission as a Grandmaster Trial task, credited Si Ming’s Heavenly Martial Alliance achievements toward the trial, and used a letter to identify Yuezheng Yao as an ally 309 480 595.

After Si Ming defeated him in a sword match, Yan declared his apprenticeship complete and nominated him for Heaven’s Will Palace. He abstained from voting to avoid favoritism and later brought him to Teng Baixin, whose approval secured his membership 996 1006.

Yan eventually fought Xiao Xuan directly and experienced a sword-dao breakthrough, though exhaustion prevented him from completing the decisive attack. Si Ming later encouraged his dispirited master to watch the sunrise and gave him a booklet explaining Return Evil, Turn Radiance, Shift the Stars 1207 1208 1209 1212.

When Si Ming challenged Tu Wangyue, Yan joined the senior witnesses and combatants. Although initially overwhelmed by her Void Returning-level power, he later accepted mutual injury to break her field and create an opening for Si Ming 1216 1218.

Final Stand and Return to the Martial World

Yan held a defensive line against the Vulture King to keep him from reaching a sword formation. Despite five deep claw wounds, a broken sword, and rapidly diminishing Qi, he refused to yield while he still had breath 1273.

In the aftermath, he seemed to encounter Yinglan in a vision and asked whether he had become a hero. Her affirmation released the burden he had carried for years 1274.

Yan ultimately recovered and cultivated anew. Unable to abandon chivalrous work, he returned under a mask as a Mutual Aid Society member. He and Ling Huanxi became celebrated as the “sword hero and spear heroine,” a pair of chivalrous lovers 1281.

Relationships

• Si Ming — Personal disciple and eventual successor in spirit. Yan values his perseverance as much as his talent and accepts being surpassed without demanding adherence to sect-exclusive techniques 15 996.
• Ling Huanxi — Trusted companion who defends him, fights alongside him, and ultimately becomes his partner in their masked chivalrous life. She never explicitly voices her feelings 647 1281.
• Yinglan — His sworn second sister and lost loved one. Her dying request that he become a great hero shapes his life, while guilt over her sacrifice remains his deepest vulnerability 626 649 699.
• Xiao Xuan — Sworn elder brother and former ideological guide. Their shared commitment to Mohist ideals survives their split over revolution, but does not prevent direct conflict 175 1207 1274.
• Su Yingbo — Close friend and Yinglan’s elder brother. Their bond passes through resentment, reconciliation, a deadly duel, and renewed cooperation against the Nether Master 626 654 698 699 700 701.
• Su Yingtao / Ying Tao — Yinglan’s younger brother. Blames Yan for her death but refuses to let revenge dishonor her, intervening when Xia Guanxue abandons their agreed challenge 626 648 649.
• Xia Guanxue — Enemy created by the Tange City sacrifice. Studies Yan for years and designs an attritional ambush rather than attempting an honorable victory 317 648.
• Pan De — Longstanding colleague whose attempt to compete for Si Ming as a disciple Yan immediately sees through 12.
• Jiang Zhengtai — Medical colleague whom Yan requires to observe strict boundaries around Si Ming; Yan nevertheless accepts his assurance of professional ethics 17.
• Fifth Uncle of the Yuezheng Lineage — Spirit Transformation opponent whom Yan defeats and takes into custody after countering his musical martial arts 31 32.
• Tu Wangyue — Fellow palace figure whom Yan helps confront after Si Ming exposes her concealed danger and attempted murder 1212 1216 1218.

Notable Quotes

“I’m no great sage. I merely do my utmost in whatever I undertake.” 31

“Others can’t understand me. They think my life is hard, but they don’t know that I’m much happier than they are, because I’m putting my own Dao into practice.” 55

“What matters is your true heart—that is, your attitude toward people and the world. That is the essential core of our inheritance.” 996

“I told you, as long as I, Yan, have a single breath left, don’t even think of crossing this line.” 1273