Old Zhao

Biodata

Power Progression

Old Zhao’s later cultivation combines recovery of his former strength with advancement along the ghost-cultivator and artifact-spirit paths.

Background / History

Former Life

Zhao Guangzheng was an accomplished demonic cultivator who rose to Integrated Body Peak Stage over tens of thousands of years. Restrictions were his foremost specialty, and his Soul-Refining Restriction Banner formed the foundation of his reputation as an opponent nearly invincible below Great Ascension 406 623.

His activities in the Nine Provinces included covertly eliminating prodigies from the Seven Kingdoms of Arid Province over a thousand years. His most recent operation nearly wiped out an entire generation of their prodigies, contributing substantially to the region’s decline within the Nine Provinces cultivation world 434.

Choosing the Banner

While accompanying Li Qingyuan, Zhao taught him the Forbidden Banner Technique. When offered the possibility of obtaining a body, he instead volunteered to become the new banner’s Main Soul and artifact spirit. He possessed a ghost-cultivator secret art that would let him cultivate through this arrangement, and regarded Li Qingyuan’s future as his best opportunity to pursue immortality 334 417.

The decision tied his growth to the banner: strengthening it nourished him, while his restriction expertise and command of its souls increased its effectiveness. Eventually, the banner became inseparable from his divine soul and spirit, functioning as his replacement body 417 657.

Campaigns with Li Qingyuan

Zhao served as both a battlefield trump card and an adviser. He defended Li Qingyuan against Five Yuan King, helped capture and refine Long Xiao, and defeated the two Black Water Crocodile Dragon Demon Emperors. These campaigns supplied powerful souls for the banner and resources for his recovery 523 633 634 646.

During the Immortal Ancient Continent campaigns, he repeatedly harvested enemy souls while fighting alongside Ji Kun and the Wind Thunder forces. He later extracted Hua Zhufang’s history from Hua Yuenu’s soul and guided Li Qingyuan’s army to Hua Zhufang’s secluded cultivation site 787 819 820 841.

His duties also extended beyond combat. Li Qingyuan entrusted him with most of Wind Thunder Peak’s visiting delegations, gifts, and official courtesies because he handled people more skillfully than Ji Kun or Diana 1090.

Immortal-Realm Activities

Li Qingyuan selected Zhao and Ji Kun to accompany him on a tempering journey from the Creation Immortal Sect. By this period, Zhao had developed Blood and Slaughter Principle techniques and was working on clones built around captured True Spirits 1235.

Repeated battles made him proficient with his True Spirit Clone and Blood Sea Grand Formation. He later helped encircle a Peak True Immortal and refined First Imperial Prince Tianzhao’s captured true spirit, gaining a Quasi-Heavenly Immortal-level True Spirit Clone. Tianzhao’s remains were expected to provide enough nourishment for Zhao’s next cultivation breakthrough 1273 1309 1312.

He also assisted in recovering Tianzhao’s hidden treasure, using an Alligator Dragon scale to reveal the Alligator Dragon Yin and Yang Armor 1359.

Appearance

• Ghostly form: Appears half-human and half-ghost, floating in midair while holding the Myriad Souls Banner 899.
• Eyes and aura: During his Void Refining recovery, his eyes shone emerald with soul light, surrounded by surging demonic energy 643.
• Manifestation: Can emerge from the banner or project his head from its surface 657 767.
• Immortal-era attire: Wears blood-red Daoist robes; when preparing to consume Huo Zhuo’s True Spirit, his expression is described as sinister and bloodthirstily excited 1251.

Personality

Zhao is calculating, adaptable, and strongly motivated by immortality. His decision to abandon rebirth was a deliberate gamble on Li Qingyuan’s potential rather than a rejection of further cultivation. He later called following Li Qingyuan the wisest and luckiest choice of his life 417 958.

He retains a demonic cultivator’s appetite for souls and valuable opportunities. Li Qingyuan sometimes restrains these instincts, instructing him to avoid needless slaughter and abandon the habits of bandit and demonic cultivators 736 767.

Despite his ruthlessness toward enemies, Zhao is attentive to his master’s wishes and skilled at anticipating orders. He refused the Golden Thunder Bamboo Worm’s offer of a million Heavenly Chosen divine souls, declaring loyalty to Li Qingyuan instead 623 658.

He is also socially perceptive and mischievous. He readily calls the stronger Ji Kun “Brother Kun,” teases him about his blunt speech, and privately enjoys misunderstandings surrounding Li Qingyuan’s romantic encounters 770 787 871.

Abilities & Skills

Restrictions and Forbidden Banner Technique

Restrictions are Zhao’s strongest specialty, described as a field in which his talent is peerless 406.

• Taught Li Qingyuan the Forbidden Banner Technique 334.
• Creates sealing barriers and restrictive killing formations through the soul banner 552 646.
• Helped Li Qingyuan secretly alter the Sky Binding Formation’s restriction runes, preserving an escape route through its barrier 733.
• Reinforces defensive formations with his Blood-Ban Slaughter Realm 1051.

Great Method of Devouring Souls and Refining Ghosts

His principal cultivation method extracts spiritual essence from souls to nourish his ghost body and strengthen the banner 776 819.

• Consumes divine souls, Primordial Spirits, Nascent Souls, and eventually True Spirits 819 958 1251.
• Refines captured souls into banner servants rather than merely destroying them 634 776.
• Can seal excess nourishment and digest it while fighting or pursuing other opportunities 958.
• Benefits directly from the banner’s advancement because it serves as his vessel and artifact-spirit body 996 1040.

Soul Capture and Illusion Arts

The banner’s Soul Capture power directly attacks an opponent’s divine soul, destabilizing it and interfering with resistance 623 632.

• Can affect cultivators across a battlefield spanning ten thousand zhang 623.
• Writes an opponent’s name onto the banner to direct Soul Capture and mind-controlling illusions against them 632 688.
• Extracts and shares memories from refined souls, as demonstrated with Long Xiao and Hua Yuenu 634 841.
• Stronger opponents can resist by circulating their cultivation methods and stabilizing their divine souls 623.

Slaughter Domain and Ghost Domains

His Slaughter Artistic Conception develops into a domain and later into Slaughter Law 523 632 823.

• Suppresses enemy power while enhancing Zhao and his allies 523 632 688.
• Combines with the banner to form the Soul Banner Killing Realm 688.
• Uses the Myriad Souls Ghost Domain in direct combat, including an evenly matched battle against a Late Body Integration insect king 868.
• After returning to Body Integration, spread Slaughter Law across ten thousand li while drawing fleeing cultivators’ souls toward him 823.

Ghost Annihilation Blade

A killing technique that channels the banner’s souls into destructive blades 523.

• Can produce thousands of individually controlled light blades through Core Formation and Nascent Soul servants 523.
• Can concentrate its power into a single blade capable of overwhelming Void Refining Demon Emperors 646.
• At its strongest before his return to Body Integration, a myriad-soul-powered strike could threaten an Early Body Integration cultivator 822.

Yin Demon Sword and Earth Marsh Sword Array

The Myriad Souls Banner can transform into the Yin Demon Sword, wielding Extreme Yin Ink Sword Intent 1040.

• Supplies the moon and Yin aspect of Li Qingyuan’s Earth Marsh Sword Array, complementing the Green Wood Heavenly Sun Sword’s sun and Yang aspect 997 1042.
• Their combined sword intents generate a World of Swords encompassing day and night, the seasons, the five elements, and other principles 1042.
• Zhao’s cultivation must keep pace with Li Qingyuan’s sword to avoid limiting the formation’s full power 767.
• Used moonlit sword rays to halve the force of an initial Mahayana tribulation bolt 1040.

Blood and Slaughter Dao Techniques

Zhao received an ancient Asura inheritance through True Immortal essence blood, later identifying its owner as an inheritor of the Slaughter Dao Blood Divine Scripture 996 1235.

Knowledge and Social Skills

• Advises Li Qingyuan on cultivation opportunities, including the Taicang Baptism and soul crystals 582 589.
• Recognizes races and explains their cultivation advantages, particularly the Witch and Barbarian races 767 770.
• Handles diplomatic receptions and official exchanges for Wind Thunder Peak 1090.
• His experience has limits: neither he nor Yun Yan the Elixir Master could decipher the mysterious writing on a recovered armor plate 812.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Myriad Souls Banner — Also called the Soul Refining Banner and Soul-Refining Restriction Banner; Zhao jokingly presents it as the “Human Emperor Banner.” It is his vessel, principal weapon, soul repository, and source of cultivation feedback. It can also become a spear or demonic sword 406 632 646 657 1040.
• Xuanming Needle — A needle weapon whose manifested sharpness unsettled even Late Nascent Soul Great Cultivators 441.
• Blood Sea Divine Needle — Refined and merged into the banner, transforming it into a Quasi-Dao Venerable law treasure and helping trigger Zhao’s Second Great Heavenly Tribulation 996.
• Asura True Immortal essence blood — Supplied Slaughter Dao inheritance, ancient secret techniques, and Five Elements origin power 996 997.

Notable Banner Souls

Weaknesses & Limitations

• Lightning vulnerability: His ghost-cultivator body is naturally countered by heavenly lightning and suppressed by thunder methods. Protective restrictions, Thunder Dao runes, and the Golden Thunder Bamboo Worm mitigate this weakness 862 1040.
• Soul-dependent advancement: His cultivation requires suitable souls and spiritual essence; even consuming Peak Void Refining Yang Min did not immediately carry him beyond Middle Void Refining Stage Perfection 767.
• Digestion time: Powerful nourishment can require extended refinement. Fully digesting the two Quasi-Dao Venerables captured for him was initially expected to take thousands of years 958.
• Technical limits: Despite his former Integrated Body Peak Stage cultivation, he could not condense Top-grade Spirit Stones 334.

Relationships

• Li Qingyuan — Master, patron, and principal combat partner. Zhao stakes his pursuit of immortality on him, supports his sword array, and manages social duties on his behalf 417 958 1042 1090.
• Ji Kun — Frequent battlefield partner, addressed as “Brother Kun.” Ji Kun supplies captured Nascent Souls, while the two also exchange teasing remarks 787 871 962.
• Li Xianhuang — Allied combatant; joins Zhao and Ji Kun in defeating Long Xiao 632 633.
• Bing Ling’er — Initially an opponent, later a fellow member of Li Qingyuan’s forces. Zhao fights alongside her in the Wind Thunder army 613 820.
• Zhenxing — Fellow attendant of Li Qingyuan; both witness his rapid advancement in alchemy and are later left to defend the Wind Thunder Immortal Sect 334 483.
• Zixiao — A mysterious cultivator Zhao recognizes from an ancient encounter during his former life. Her apparent age and changed cultivation leave him astonished 698.

Notable Quotes

“To be frank, this old man has seen limitless possibilities in Master. I want to take a gamble.” 417

“I, Zhao Guangzheng, place loyalty and righteousness above all else. Whatever my master commands, I shall accomplish even at the cost of my life.” 658

“Following Master was the most correct and luckiest choice Zhao Guangzheng has made in this life.” 958