Liu Tianning

Biodata

Feature	Information
Name	Liu Tianning (柳天甯)
Alias(es)	Liu the Half-Mad; Liu Ten Thousand Laws; Old Liu 147 229
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Great Zhou; True Self Faction; Shangluo Academy; Military Realm Inspection Department 229 346
Occupation/Role	Straw Puppet Art master; former Transportation Envoy and Three Armies Inspector; Grand Agriculture Official; leader of the True Self Faction 147 346
Status	Alive
First Appearance	Chapter 146 146

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Fifth-Rank / Pure Yuan Realm	Before age 30 229	Reached Fifth-Rank through self-cultivation and then spent roughly ninety years researching the Liu family’s Straw Man Art.
Heavenly Luck Realm — Initial Stage	293 293	Revealed this advancement following the Liang King rebellion.
Heavenly Luck Realm — Middle to Peak Stage	314 314	Progressed from early to middle stage within a year, then reached the realm’s peak by the sixth year of the Great Governance Era.
First Grade	330 330	Broke through in his early two hundreds through his own cultivation.
Reincarnation Realm	503 503	Became Great Zhou’s second Reincarnation Realm expert after Ji Che, forty-eight years after the Annihilating Star Dharma Assembly.
Early Divine General Stage	673 673	Continued developing the Four Seasons Straw Man Art and maintained over ten thousand Divine-level clones across more than a thousand varieties.

Background

Liu Tianning is a native of Taihe County and a direct descendant of Liu Zonghai, creator of the Liu Tradition Weaving Method. His lineage belongs to a long-established Great Zhou family with a history of high-ranking officials. 147 217

His reputation began early. Before reaching twenty, he had cultivated to the peak of the Seventh-Rank Earthly Fiend Realm without an official position or hereditary rank. During an investigation into corruption in Guiyuan Grotto Heaven, he killed the corrupt official and beheaded a peak Sixth-Rank camp general before three military camps. 229

During the Wu Emperor’s reign, Liu became a Second-Rank Transportation Envoy responsible for provisioning all Ten Great Imperial Armies. As Three Armies Inspector, he held the Nine Section Staff and could execute offending Military Sima Nongs below Fourth Rank before reporting the matter to the court. His Marching Hall became known as the Ten Thousand Laws Palace. 147

His extreme use of True Self Straw Puppets damaged his mental state. During the first barbarian campaign, he became known as Liu the Half-Mad; accounts attribute the deaths of over a million Sima Nongs and more than two hundred Martial Marquises to him. He was dismissed, transferred to the Creation Daoist Academy, and eventually sent to Spirit Mountain to recuperate. 147

In his later reconstruction, Liu completed the second layer of the Derivation God Art and resolved the flaws caused by the Ten Thousand Laws Straw Puppet technique. 318

Appearance

After resolving his cultivation flaws, Liu Tianning is described as handsome and spirited. Earlier manifestations carried a gloomy, manic aura associated with his unstable Fate Soul. 147 318

• His True Self Straw Puppets are made in his likeness, often bearing the character Liu on their clothing. 147
• Some clones appear incomplete or grotesque—missing limbs or heads—yet remain active. 147
• His puppet manifestations can display sharply different demeanors, including coldness, cheerfulness, foolishness, and madness. 147

Personality

Liu is intensely demanding of both himself and his disciples. He repeatedly fragments his Fate Soul to control more puppets, and his teaching style emphasizes pressure rather than reassurance; Zhao Xing characterizes him as having little tolerance for incompetence. 211

Despite his fearsome reputation, Liu is regarded as upright and uninterested in money or personal gain. He carefully repays favors that aided him when he was weak, while refusing to compromise on matters that affect Shangluo Academy’s future. 229 346

He dislikes factional infighting and does not object to Zhao Xing learning from other factions, so long as Zhao Xing continues pursuing the Ten Thousand Laws Straw Puppet path. 260

Abilities & Skills

Straw Puppet Arts

Liu Tianning is regarded as the foremost Straw Puppet Art practitioner of his era. His Ten Thousand Laws Palace contains vast numbers of autonomous straw puppets capable of reading, speaking, observing, and performing specialized tasks. 147

• Controls thousands of Ten Thousand Laws clones in combat; more than three thousand Fifth-Rank-completion clones surrounded Qin Chongwu and Huangfu Song’s forces. 231
• His clones can possess Sixth-Rank combat power without requiring his true body to enter a restricted battlefield. 209
• Developed more than a thousand clone varieties and retained over ten thousand Divine-level clones. 673
• Created Six Jia Nether Gods from Soul Capturing Straw Figures, allowing his Mountain Sealing Spell to function without formally conferred mountain deities. 216

True Self Straw Puppet Art

The True Self Straw Puppet Art is Liu’s signature inheritance and the pinnacle of the Liu family’s Straw Man Arts.

• Requires the perfect fusion of five Straw Man Arts even at its lowest level. 210
• Has no known upper limit and is treated as the ultimate technique of the Straw Man Art lineage. 210
• Can produce highly realistic puppet bodies that evade ordinary detection and move with the agility of Martial Practitioners. 146
• Its extensive use risks Fate Soul fragmentation and mental instability. 147 257

Plant Soldiers and Law Bodies

Liu employs plant-type soldiers, Law Bodies, and Pure Yuan Projection alongside his puppet arts.

• Developed seven major Law Bodies, including the Yellow Springs Law Body. 257 320
• Uses a Life Rule Domain to deploy and restore plant soldiers, while the Four Seasons Domain and Law Bodies serve as offensive tools. 327
• His dual Life and Death domains can amplify large-scale attacks such as Divine Splendor Burning Wheels and Yellow Springs-based techniques. 346
• Can field vast numbers of Fate Palace Realm clones supported by treasure-grade plant soldiers. 320

Four Seasons and Transformation of Seasons Arts

Liu combines Straw Puppet techniques with high-level seasonal transformations.

• Reportedly suppressed a giant wave with one hand and transformed nine extraregional demonic cultivators into mudskippers with the other. 229
• Uses Spring and Summer seasonal powers to turn defense into offense. 327
• His Transformation of Seasons Art annihilated thirty Battle Vajra and killed Qin Chongwu through a gray, crack-like attack. 231

Derivation God Art

Liu reconstructed his cultivation through the Derivation God Art after suffering the consequences of overextending the Ten Thousand Laws Straw Puppet technique.

• Previously held Great Zhou’s record for the fastest completion of the first layer of the Derivation God Art. 266
• Reached the second layer and gained the ability to divide his soul into five hundred thousand portions. 318
• The reconstruction ultimately removed the flaws that had made him vulnerable to the Ten Thousand Laws Straw Puppet’s backlash. 318

Equipment / Assets

• Ten Thousand Laws Palace — His mountain-based Marching Hall and center for researching, training, and deploying Straw Puppet Arts. 147 216
• Ten Thousand Laws Tower Ship — A mobile command vessel used by his exploration team. 231
• Golden Dragon Warship — His royal warship following his enfeoffment as Taihe County King. 294
• Nine Section Staff — A treasured staff granted during his tenure as Three Armies Inspector. 147

Relationships

• Zhao Xing — His sole personal disciple and inheritor candidate for the Liu family’s Straw Man Art. Liu personally trained, protected, and invested resources in Zhao Xing’s growth. 209 211 251
• Youruo Princess (Ji Anlan) — His lover. Liu risked political consequences and mobilized his forces to rescue her from a forced marriage to the Southern Barbarians. 221 319
• Xu Xing — Liu’s teacher and the senior figure whose Shangluo Academy legacy Liu inherited. 296 314
• Rahu King — A major backer associated with Liu’s exploration efforts and political influence. 234
• Pang Xianyun / Pang Yuanzhen — A Celestial Timing Faction cultivator whom Liu defeated in a single move despite fighting from a lower rank; Pang subsequently converted to the True Self Faction. 259

Story Role / Major Arcs

Zhao Xing’s Mentor

Liu took notice of Zhao Xing after Zhao demonstrated exceptional command of Soul Capturing Straw Figures during the defense against a ghost assault. Liu personally traveled to Tonghuo City to teach him the True Self Straw Puppet Art and methods for navigating high-level Bewitching Arrays. 209 210

Liu’s protection quickly became a major deterrent. His name alone caused rival exploration teams to retreat from Zhao Xing, while his intervention against Qin Chongwu and Huangfu Song demonstrated that attacks on his disciple would be answered decisively. 229 231

Rise within Great Zhou

After the Liang King rebellion, Liu advanced to the Heavenly Luck Realm and was later enfeoffed as Taihe County King while receiving the Upper Second-Rank post of Lesser Agriculture Decree. 293 294

His prestige rested on both political support and overwhelming combat ability. He won nearly all of his Dao Field battles, defeated major competitors such as Ling Tianchen and Wang Tianzhi, and established himself as an undefeated Shennong. 327 328

Shangluo Academy Succession

Liu entered Shangluo Academy intending to gain full control rather than accept a nominal position. He presented the Green Sprouts Law, demanded compliance from resistant institutes, and used Zhao Xing to defeat opposition in the Contest of the Great Dao. 295 296

He later became Grand Agriculture Official and leader of the True Self Faction, overseeing Shangluo Academy’s major institutes and directing resources toward the development of True Self Faction Shennongs. 346

Rescue of Youruo Princess

When Youruo Princess was forced toward marriage with a Southern Barbarian prince, Liu dispatched the Golden Dragon Warship and the Ten Thousand Laws Hall to reach her. Working with Zhao Xing, he defeated the Southern Barbarian royals Wan Yan and Wan Chang and brought her back to Great Zhou. 319 320