True Man He

Biodata

Power Progression

Appearance

• White hair and a youthful face, with a rosy complexion 167.
• Clear, penetrating eyes, described as seeming capable of seeing into people’s hearts 167.
• A beard, which he frequently strokes while considering alchemical matters 168 305.
• An imposing, restrained presence: even without deliberately releasing pressure, he inspires awe among Foundation Establishment alchemists 167.

Personality

True Man He combines a gentle manner with demanding instruction. He identifies weaknesses beneath Su Bai’s impressive results and insists on rebuilding his foundations before teaching more advanced pills. He deliberately chooses the difficult Blood Burning Soul Devouring Pill as Su Bai’s introduction to second-tier refinement to prevent premature conceit 170 177.

He is protective without prying into every secret. On accepting Su Bai, he promises to shoulder some consequences of his past, provided they do not violate the Pavilion’s foundations or the Heavenly Star Alliance’s laws. When his disciple later displays unexplained improvements, he accepts that cultivators have their own opportunities rather than demanding an explanation 170 297 305.

His political caution serves the alchemists under his care. He negotiates for their standing and resources, conceals dangerous information when necessary, and seeks to free the Pavilion from dependence on individual families. His pride in Su Bai’s achievements is accompanied by a little melancholy as he realizes how little remains to teach him 167 196 259 305.

History

Early Alchemical Career

During early Foundation Establishment, True Man He encountered a senior who refined pills from sea spirit medicines. The unfamiliar method captivated him and helped set the direction of his alchemical career. Impressed by his talent, the senior gave him a second-tier low-grade Sea Spirit Pill formula 289.

True Man He successfully refined the pill but eventually set it aside because its effects were inferior to mainstream alternatives. After reaching Golden Core, he understood that the senior had been much more powerful than he had initially assumed and kept the encounter largely private 289.

Founding Alchemy Street and the Pavilion

True Man He overcame opposition to establish a dedicated Alchemy Street in Star Luo Market. Together with Qian Lu and Tong Liu, he founded the Star Luo Pill Pavilion, uniting previously scattered alchemists. He also repeatedly negotiated with the Heavenly Star Alliance’s leadership for better resources, status, and representation 167.

By the time Su Bai joined, the Pavilion had accumulated more than a century of foundations. True Man He presided over its Alchemy Competition, distributing an unfamiliar competitive formula and recording the participants’ techniques for collective study. Testing Su Bai’s talent was a substantial reason for holding that competition 167 168.

Accepting and Training Su Bai

Su Bai’s winning performance confirmed True Man He’s interest in taking him as a disciple. He valued both Su Bai’s alchemical talent and his willingness to stand against Wei Chun and the others. After learning that Su Bai had no formal alchemy teacher, he accepted him as his first and only personal disciple and announced a ceremony three days later 169.

True Man He granted Su Bai an Origin Imprint for emergency escape and devised a systematic training program. Su Bai first worked through nearly one hundred first-tier formulas, then received personal instruction in second-tier pills. By the end of this training, he could refine the second-tier high-grade Spirit Soothing Pill 170 177 178 179.

His support extended beyond instruction. He helped Su Bai develop the Lightning Origin Pill, refined a breakthrough pill that enabled his advance to late Foundation Establishment, arranged access to the Zhang Family’s Water Pavilion Secret Realm, and provided pills for his Golden Core breakthrough 205 228 231 243.

The Feng Family Crisis

True Man He, Tong Liu, and Qian Lu initially failed to refine the Nine Revolutions Purple Mansion Pill for the Feng Family Ancestor. Because the Feng Family supplied their medicinal ingredients and supported Alchemy Street, True Man He ordered the failure kept secret. He sent Su Bai and Lan Yan to obtain another set of ingredients through his Merfolk connections 183.

After the ingredients were secured, he completed ten pills and took five to the Feng Family. There, Feng Lingchen revealed that the Ancestor had died three days earlier. True Man He agreed to help conceal the death while Feng Lingchen attempted a life-or-death Nascent Soul breakthrough 195 196.

He sold three pills on the black market and maintained the appearance of success, leading observers to believe the Ancestor had survived. The protection was temporary: Xiao Ding later forced entry into the Pill Pavilion Secret Realm and pressured True Man He into placing the Pavilion under Xiao Family protection 197 199.

Preparing a Successor

After Su Bai reached Golden Core, True Man He appointed him the Pavilion’s third vice pavilion master, with an annual share of one million spirit stones. He also arranged for him to represent the Pavilion and the Heavenly Star Alliance at the South Sea Alchemy Grand Gathering 252.

True Man He then brought Su Bai before Old Ancestor Heavenly Star. The meeting secured approval for Su Bai’s eventual succession and for the Pavilion to leave Xiao Family control and become a mainstream part of the Heavenly Star Alliance 259.

Sea Spirit Pill Development

When the Demon Race severed land trade routes, Heavenly Star City’s medicinal reserves fell to roughly one month’s supply. True Man He proposed developing a new pill system from the sea’s abundant plants, drawing on the formula he had received in his youth 286 289.

With Old Ancestor Heavenly Star’s approval, he assigned Su Bai to negotiate a resource agreement with the Merfolk Race. The project later gained rare medicines through Su Bai’s agreement with the Ancient Turtle Tribe. Within the following years, Sea Spirit Pills entered circulation in Heavenly Star City, while sea spirit medicines accumulated in the Pavilion’s warehouses 287 301 345.

Transfer of Authority and Death

When Su Bai became a Nascent Soul cultivator and vice alliance leader, True Man He publicly guaranteed pill supplies for his proposed army. He then named Su Bai Pavilion Master and placed all one hundred Pavilion alchemists under his command, removing a central objection to forming the Second Alliance Army 368 369.

Su Bai subsequently incorporated the Pavilion into Starlight Academy’s Alchemy Lineage and reserved the Course Master position for True Man He 370.

Near the end of his lifespan, True Man He attempted to reach Nascent Soul. A lifetime devoted to refinement, with little experience of combat or killing, had left his Dao heart insufficiently firm. He failed and passed away in meditation, leaving the Pill Pavilion Secret Realm to Su Bai 497.

Abilities & Skills

Alchemical Mastery

True Man He is recognized as the foremost alchemist of the Demon Star Sea. His Profound Gold Pills are sufficiently prized that ordinary cultivators cannot purchase them through the open market 183 214.

• Refines third-tier pills and fourth-tier low-grade pills, including the Purple Extreme Spirit Nurturing Pill 260 304 305.
• Successfully produces the Nine Revolutions Purple Mansion Pill after an initial failed attempt with Qian Lu and Tong Liu 183 196.
• Develops the Spirit Gathering Pill to address shortages of high-grade spirit medicines 260.
• Studies the Nascent Soul Breakthrough Pill while managing the risk of his own approaching advancement 170 260.

Lingering Scent Spirit Tracing

His innate alchemy talent reconstructs a pill’s refinement process through its lingering scent, exposing details behind successful and failed steps 205.

• Helps diagnose failed pills and identify changes to ingredients or refinement procedures.
• Its usefulness depends partly on the user’s accumulated alchemical experience.
• Su Bai secretly copies the talent, but initially obtains less information from it than True Man He can 205.

Secret Realm Control and Origin Imprint

True Man He controls the Pill Pavilion Secret Realm through a central Yin-Yang Twin Fish magic array connected to its origin 170.

• Can link another person’s presence to the realm through an Origin Imprint.
• The recipient can activate Origin Recall from within the Demon Star Sea to return instantly to the realm’s central hub.
• Spatial confinement or overwhelmingly powerful experts can prevent the escape.
• Each use consumes substantial origin power, making repeated or casual activation impractical 170.

Clone Technique

• Can condense a clone to accompany and protect another person.
• States that his clone can delay a Golden Core-level Demon General long enough for Su Bai to escape; it is not presented as capable of defeating such an opponent 183.

Teaching

• Diagnoses gaps in foundational knowledge rather than judging ability solely by finished pill quality 170.
• Supplies ingredients, annotated formulas, refinement recordings, and personal guidance 170 177 178.
• Warns that prolonged refinement must not displace cultivation itself 178.
• Recognizes Su Bai’s superior ingredient purification without resentment and resolves to pass on his remaining reserved techniques 305.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Pill Pavilion Secret Realm / Illusory Fire Secret Realm — His residence, meditation site, and alchemical base. Its unusual fire principles assist refinement; he leaves it to Su Bai after his death 167 170 497.
• Jade Nectar Profound Flame Furnace — A high-grade Spirit Artifact furnace commissioned in his youth and used by him for many years before Su Bai used it. It transforms alchemy fire into Ink Green Alchemy Spirit Fire and assists in dividing the flames into nine layers 176.
• Crane-shaped spirit boat — Used to transport himself and Su Bai from the Star Gazing Platform 260.
• Profound Yellow Earth Flag — A defensive Houtian Spirit Treasure purchased with his savings and given to Su Bai before a dangerous journey into Demon Race territory 345.

Relationships

• Su Bai / Lu Jiu — Sole personal disciple and chosen successor. True Man He provides instruction, resources, protection, and political introductions before entrusting the Pavilion to him 169 170 259 368.
• Qian Lu and Tong Liu — Fellow founders and vice pavilion masters; collaborate with him on difficult refinements and the Pavilion’s affairs 167 183.
• Feng Family Ancestor — Patron and acquaintance of more than a century. True Man He works to obtain a life-saving pill for him and personally pays his final respects 196.
• Feng Lingchen — Cooperates with True Man He to conceal the Ancestor’s death while preparing his own breakthrough 196.
• Cang Mingxiao — Merfolk prince whose advancement to Demon General was aided by True Man He’s third-tier pills. That debt becomes an important connection when the Pavilion needs rare medicines 183 189.
• Old Ancestor Heavenly Star — Approves his succession plan for the Pavilion and backs the Sea Spirit Pill initiative 259 287.
• Senior Yushan — Longstanding friend. True Man He prepares breakthrough pills for him and seeks Ancestor Tian Xing’s help when his disappearance raises suspicions 304 306.
• Unnamed traveling senior — Early inspiration for his alchemical career and the source of his original Sea Spirit Pill formula 289.

Legacy

• Institutional inheritance: Su Bai inherits both the Pavilion’s leadership and, later, its secret realm 368 497.
• A lasting personal obligation: True Man He’s kindness is among the reasons Su Bai chooses not to abandon the Heavenly Star Alliance and its struggles 367.
• A lesson for the next generation: His failed breakthrough leads Su Bai to require Fan Yixin to gain combat experience alongside alchemy, hoping to prevent the same weakness of Dao heart 500.

Notable Quotes

“The fundamental purpose of the Star Luo Pill Pavilion's Alchemy Competitions is to ‘hone and polish one another, advancing together.’” 167

“Cultivation of the Dao of Alchemy is long and perilous. Only while you live can anything else be possible.” 170

“If they've cut off our routes over land, we'll make our way through the sea!” 286