Zhou Yao

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Transmigration and the Mountain Homestead

Before transmigrating, Zhou Yao grew up in the countryside, supported by meals from many households. He learned farmwork, trained in martial arts, enjoyed reading, and practiced parkour. A failed jump between third-floor buildings caused him to fall and lose consciousness 1 2 16 29.

He awoke in the body of another Zhou Yao, a hunter who had been knocked off a cliff by a goat and caught by a tree. After recovering the hunter’s memories, he climbed to safety and accepted his new circumstances. Great Zhou was suffering prolonged drought, famine, and laws requiring men to marry at least six wives from the age of sixteen 1 2.

A black spatial ring gave him access to extensive supplies. Returning home with two goats, he found livestock, dry farmland, and a sparsely furnished stone house. Hidden valuables included gold and jade jewelry, more than one hundred taels of silver, and over two thousand copper coins. He replaced the furniture, stocked the kitchen, gathered firewood, and cultivated a vegetable plot 2 5 6.

Marriage to the Yang Twins

After Zhou Yao missed the government’s wife-selection gathering, an officer brought Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian to his home. Their next destination, if rejected again, was a military camp as forced prostitutes. Zhou Yao recognized their beauty beneath their deliberate disguises and married both sisters 7 8 9.

He supplied food, bathing water, and clean clothing before asking about their circumstances. Upon learning that the second prince had destroyed their family after their father rejected his advances toward them, Zhou Yao promised revenge. Their wedding and approaching birthdays were celebrated with red-braised pork and longevity noodles that he cooked himself 10 11 12 13 15.

Discovery of His Inheritance

A watcher sent by the second prince followed the Yang sisters to Zhou Yao’s home. Zhou Yao confronted and killed him, then intercepted a second observer who claimed to have protected him for years 17 18.

The woman, Hongxiu, subsequently addressed as Wuying, revealed that his current body was the son of Prince Zhou Shun and nephew of the reigning emperor. His supposed parents in Happiness Village had actually been martial experts assigned to protect him; both later died of illness. Wuying identified a private birthmark as evidence of her knowledge 19.

Zhou Yao inherited his father’s intelligence network and mountain-based army. He financed their recovery, renamed the intelligence organization the Brocade Guard, and reorganized the soldiers as his personal Imperial Guard. He secured the provincial intelligence chiefs’ submission by defeating all eleven together, then spent ten days teaching them rare martial arts 20 23 25 26 27.

Literary Reputation and Political Intervention

Zhou Yao initially considered writing to earn money, but later made literary prestige a deliberate political goal. With soldiers and intelligence agents already available to him, he wanted influence among scholars, officials, nobles, and wealthy readers 6 29.

Drawing on repeated readings before transmigration, he reproduced the first ten chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber in one sitting. Yan Liusheng praised the manuscript and sought exclusive distribution rights for Liusheng Bookshop. By Chapter 44, the novel had spread across Great Zhou, and Zhou Yao was dictating further chapters to the Yang sisters 29 34 44.

When Wuying reported that Chancellor Pei Yuanli had sabotaged supplies to threatened border armies, Zhou Yao ordered assassination squads to kill the officials secretly obstructing those provisions, particularly those responsible for transporting them 44.

Marriage to Qiuye and Qiuyu

During the next government wife-delivery campaign, the same officer brought another pair of petite twins, Qiuye and Qiuyu, directly to Zhou Yao. He married both, fed them, and prepared bathing water and clothing as he had for the Yang sisters 45 46 47.

The two pairs of twins recognized one another as childhood acquaintances. Zhou Yao subsequently learned that all four women had originally been betrothed to a son of Prince Zhou Shun. He suspected that intended husband was himself, although neither pair knew which son had been named 48 50.

After reassuring all four wives that they would be protected and provided for, Zhou Yao detected and killed another spy working for the second prince, destroying the evidence of his presence 50.

Appearance

• Height: 183 centimeters 13.
• Build: Lean-looking but strong, with excellent physical fitness 1 13.
• Face: Considered exceptionally handsome by the Yang sisters and by Qiuye and Qiuyu 8 13 45.
• Identifying mark: An egg-sized black birthmark on his left buttock, known to Wuying 19.

Personality

Zhou Yao is practical about survival but particular about comfort and cleanliness. He thoroughly cleans and refurnishes his house, enjoys good food, and takes satisfaction in growing vegetables himself. His enthusiasm for farming predates his transmigration 5 6.

He is affectionate and protective toward his wives, personally cooking for them and promising security after their families’ destruction. He is also openly attracted to beauty, specifically asking the marriage officer to bring him petite women or tall women with long legs 9 13 15 22.

His generosity toward subordinates is calculated as well as material. He believes soldiers must be able to feed their families before they can offer dependable loyalty. He similarly uses money, authority, and martial instruction to bind the Brocade Guard’s leaders to him, preferring capable subordinates over handling every task personally 23 26 27.

Toward perceived enemies, he is suspicious and ruthless. He threatens Wuying before accepting her identity, kills agents targeting his household, orders investigations into his father’s enemies, and authorizes clan extermination where he judges their crimes sufficiently grave 17 18 21 50.

Abilities & Skills

Martial-Arts Mastery

Zhou Yao combines his pre-transmigration expertise with a body that had also trained since childhood 16.

• Unarmed arts: Bajiquan, Xingyiquan, Half-Step Crushing Fist, Taijiquan, Eagle Claw Technique, Dragon Claw Hand, and Wing Chun 27.
• Weapon arts: Thirty-Six-Move Flying Swan Invincible Sword Technique, Tyrant Saber Technique, Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix Spear Technique, and Fifth Brother Bagua Staff Technique 27.
• Movement and conditioning: Flying Over Grass Qinggong and Golden Bell Cover Hard Qigong 27.
• Additional instruction: Teaches Wuying Lonely Nine Swords and Clear Breeze Art. The former’s Sword-Breaking Stance counters sword techniques through lightness and speed 21 27.

Speed, Perception, and Acupoint Control

His opened Governing and Conception vessels enhance both combat performance and sensory awareness 17.

• Detects distant observers watching his courtyard and distinguishes their patterns of surveillance 17.
• Approaches watchers without being noticed, including Wuying 18 50.
• Fatally overwhelms the second prince’s elderly agent after incapacitating him with a single elbow strike 17.
• Dodges eleven provincial chiefs simultaneously without allowing them to touch his clothing, then immobilizes all eleven through acupoint strikes 25.
• Can both seal and release acupoints 18 19 26.

Command and Organization

Zhou Yao builds forces intended to answer to him alone, combining financial incentives, specialized training, and restricted command authority 23 24 26.

• Military benefits: Promises three meals daily, monthly pay, bereavement compensation, and a share of future spoils 20 23.
• Mobilization security: Anyone other than Zhou Yao must present a matching command token to mobilize either military branch 24.
• Equipment plans: Promises complete weapons and armor for the army before the New Year; delivery is not shown in the supplied chapters 23.

Writing and Literary Knowledge

His reading before transmigration supplies material absent from Great Zhou’s literary tradition 6 29.

• Reproduces Dream of the Red Chamber from memory after having studied it repeatedly 29.
• Uses fiction to seek both revenue and prestige among influential readers 29.
• Dictates later installments to Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian 44.

Farming, Cooking, and Fieldcraft

• Agriculture: Waters and fertilizes a two-fen vegetable plot, harvesting greens and scallions after roughly a month 6.
• Animal husbandry: Tends cattle, goats, pigs, poultry, and a horse; uses ryegrass and other suitable feeds 2 36.
• Cooking: Prepares dishes including red-braised pork, handmade longevity noodles, twice-cooked pork, and pork-slice soup 15 22.
• Evidence destruction: Uses medicinal powder to dissolve a corpse, clothing, and footwear, leaving no recoverable body 18.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Black spatial ring — Worn on his right ring finger and accessed by thought. Contains grain, livestock, cloth, cotton, medicinal herbs, wine, warhorses, steel, iron, and other supplies; also stores his money and recovered belongings 2 3 18.
• Corpse-dissolving medicinal powder — Used to erase the remains of the elderly agent he kills 18.
• Imperial Guard command tokens — Two tokens retained by Zhou Yao, paired with the cavalry and infantry tokens held by his generals 24.
• Military manuals — Gives one each to Zhang Fei and Chen Dao for their training responsibilities 23.
• Recovered sword and waist token — Taken from the elderly watcher and stored in his ring; no subsequent use is documented 18.
• Horse and carriage — Purchases a carriage for more than one hundred taels during his trip to Stone County and returns home with the horse and vehicle 33 36.
• Mountain homestead — Stone-walled property with livestock shelters, farmland, bathing facilities, and a book-filled study. He later commissions additional houses from Damao and his brothers 2 5 6 25.

Relationships

• Yang Aijin — His wife and the elder Yang twin. Shares her family’s history with him, becomes an early reader of his manuscript, and later helps record the novel 9 12 30 44.
• Yang Ailian — His wife and the younger Yang twin. Explains the second prince’s destruction of their family; Zhou Yao promises vengeance for both sisters 12 13.
• Qiuye — His wife and the elder of the second twin pair. Describes her and Qiuyu’s background after joining his household 46 49.
• Qiuyu — His wife and Qiuye’s younger twin. Both sisters had known the Yang twins since childhood 48 49.
• Wuying / Hongxiu — His secret protector, intelligence subordinate, and martial-arts student. Reveals his royal parentage and coordinates his inherited organizations 19 20 27.
• Prince Zhou Shun — Deceased father of Zhou Yao’s current body. Leaves behind troops and an intelligence network; Zhou Yao pledges to avenge him 19 20 23.
• Zhang Fei — Appointed general and trainer of the Imperial Guard’s heavy cavalry 23.
• Chen Dao — Appointed general and trainer of the Imperial Guard’s heavy infantry 23.
• Damao, Ermao, and Sanmao — The original owner’s childhood friends. Zhou Yao shares meat with them, buys furniture from Damao, and hires the brothers to arrange new construction 3 5 25.
• Yan Liusheng — Bookseller who praises Dream of the Red Chamber and seeks exclusive distribution rights 34.
• The second prince — Enemy responsible for the Yang family’s destruction and the surveillance of Zhou Yao’s wives. Zhou Yao kills his agents and intends to take revenge 13 17 50.

Notable Quotes

“Don’t worry, I’m here for you. We’re husband and wives now. Your father is my father-in-law, too. I’ll avenge your family for you both.” 13

“From now on, the Brocade Guard answers only to me. No one else has the authority to command it.” 26

“When a dynasty rises, the common people suffer. When it falls, the common people suffer.” 32