Li Family

Biodata

Background / History

Founding and Military Legacy

The Li Family’s ancestral line begins with a Founding God General who helped a former Great Yu emperor carve out the dynasty’s territory. Its Ancestral Hall preserves the spirits of powerful forebears from that founding generation and roughly a dozen subsequent generations 33.

By Li Hao’s birth, the family is celebrated for producing nine generals in one household. Six of its Nine Sons have already died in service. The youngest, Li Junye, died at nineteen after breaking through fifteen cities and slaying a hundred demons during a campaign in Cang Province 1.

The Yu Emperor honors Junye by naming the newborn Li Hao and bestowing a Dragon Blood Jade pendant upon him. The imperial recognition places expectations on the child to inherit the fallen hero’s aspirations 1.

Northern Yan Campaign

During Li Hao’s hundred-day celebration, Prince Pingcheng’s rebellion draws Marquis Xingwu, Li Tiangang, back to Northern Yan. Ji Qingqing accompanies him, while the family’s women take responsibility for their infant son. Northern Yan is already a long-standing Li Family military posting, with terrain and enemies its army knows intimately 2.

The conflict extends through Li Hao’s childhood. After demons arrange an assassination attempt against him, the residence screens its servants and strengthens security. Li Tiangang sends his trusted aide Li Fu to protect the boy, and the Li Family Army destroys a demon stronghold in retaliation 15.

Li Tiangang returns after fourteen years of campaigning. Qingzhou’s residents welcome the soldiers with food and cheers, but fewer than a hundred wounded survivors remain from his original five-hundred-man force 85.

True Dragon Dispute and Li Hao’s Departure

Li Hao’s revelation as a fourteen-year-old Fifteen Li Realm cultivator makes him a leading candidate for the next True Dragon. The news brings public celebration, court scrutiny, and anxiety among relatives who had previously considered him incapable of meaningful cultivation 88 89 90.

The selection gathers outside supporters as well as family members. Li Qianfeng returns with powerful figures from Boundless Mountain, while Liu Family officials and nobles demonstrate their support for him 101 102.

At the banquet, Li Hao defeats Qianfeng with a chopstick using the family’s Boundless Sea Sword Art. Qianfeng then activates power bestowed by his Buddhist master and attacks again, suffering severe injuries before Lin Wujing intervenes 106.

The dispute develops into a violent confrontation between Li Hao and Li Tiangang. Relatives attempt to intervene, but the fight exposes both Li Hao’s extraordinary power and the damaging consequences of the family’s heart oaths. Liu Yuerong’s poisoning of Li Hao is later identified as the spark behind his break with the household 109 110 267.

At Heaven’s Gate Pass, Li Hao begins writing advanced versions of dozens of techniques learned from the Listening Rain Pavilion, intending to repay the family and sever his obligations. He later sends Nine Beast Cauldrons filled with Demon King blood as a further repayment 122 158.

Qing Prefecture Crisis

A major demon offensive devastates the family’s home territory, destroying or occupying more than a hundred cities. Faced with two Great Peace Dao Realm enemies, the household prepares to commit its descendants, ancestral spirits, hidden treasures, and military formations to a final defense 256 257 260.

The Ancestral Blood Summons calls Li-blooded descendants throughout Great Yu back to the residence. Li Tiangang arranges secret routes beneath the Huai River Mountains to receive the returning reinforcements 258 259.

Li Hao returns and defeats the demon leaders, but refuses reconciliation. The elders confirm that he has removed every trace of the Li bloodline from his body. He preserves personal friendships with those who treated him kindly while rejecting renewed family membership 262 265.

The ancestors offer him the True Dragon position and their remaining soul power. He declines both, and they appoint Li Xuanli acting True Dragon. The family’s army subsequently moves to recover lost territory with support from Li Hao’s battle flags and the slain Demon Kings’ heads 265 267.

Later Contact with the All Heavens

Sages later bring Li Family members through the Immortal Gate, alongside the Yu Emperor and Xia Linglong, to help persuade Li Hao. At Tianyuan Sacred Land, they meet Li ancestors who had previously entered the Lands of the Saints and learn how far Li Hao has risen beyond the mortal world 409 410.

Organization & Leadership

The True Dragon

• Purpose: The selected heir receives ancestral support that can strengthen cultivation beyond ordinary limits, while assuming responsibility for the family’s legacy and likely future leadership 76.
• Authority: The governing True Dragon’s decisions cannot simply be overridden by older relatives. Li Tiangang invokes this authority when Li Muxiu attempts to dictate Qianfeng’s future 115.
• Selection priorities: Talent takes precedence when the difference between candidates is overwhelming. Character and connections become decisive when candidates are otherwise closely matched 105.
• Outside influence: Boundless Mountain’s connection to Qianfeng is valuable, but cannot justify making the Li Family dependent on another power 105.
• Excluded contenders: He Jianlan publicly withdraws her children, Li Mingguang and Li Sibei, from competition despite their cultivation and military achievements 102.
• Later appointment: Li Xuanli becomes acting True Dragon after Li Hao refuses the ancestors’ offer 267.

Household Hierarchy

• Direct descendants receive superior status and cultivation resources at the Martial Arts Arena 13.
• Concubine-born and collateral descendants train alongside the direct line, but generally receive lower-grade foundation-establishment and blood-fusion resources 13.
• Exceptional concubine-born children with seventh-grade aptitude receive special investment approaching direct-line treatment 13.
• Senior attendants do not automatically gain access to core family secrets. Even Li Fu, Li Tiangang’s trusted confidant, is barred from entering the Listening Rain Pavilion 20.
• Collateral military branches serve in the family’s armies. During a retreat, a collateral general sacrifices his battalion to protect Li Xuanli and preserve the wider defensive command 183.

Ancestral Rules and Heart Oaths

• Impartial love is an ancestral teaching, and character is explicitly tested because blood relationship does not prevent succession struggles 107.
• Heart oaths bind family members against harming Li descendants. Li Tiangang and Li Muxiu suffer backlash when striking relatives 109 257.
• Ancestral safety can constrain intervention: Li Qingzheng withdraws from the father–son fight rather than risk the Ancestral Shrine by breaking his oath 110.
• Imperial law still applies: Liu Yuerong’s status as an Imperial Order Lady complicates punishment; severe family-law penalties require Li Tiangang’s approval 115.

Notable Members

Cultivation & Training

Childhood Training Sequence

The residence’s standard schedule is refined through centuries of study. Formal cultivation is delayed to protect growing bones; children with poor aptitude or slower development may start later than six 3 197.

Martial Arts Arena

• Trains direct-line, concubine-born, and branch-family children together 13.
• Holds sparring matches and competitions to encourage cultivation 13.
• Grants Bian Ruxue direct-line treatment because of her betrothal to Li Hao 13.
• Can raise even poorly gifted direct descendants to seventh-grade battle bodies through resources under normal circumstances 117.

Resources & Strongholds

Listening Rain Pavilion

• Seven-story martial archive, counted among Qingzhou’s three famed martial holy lands 6.
• Houses manuals across numerous disciplines, including body refining, swordsmanship, qi circulation, and meridian opening 6 20 27.
• Restricts access according to family status and household permission 6 20.
• Keeps top-tier manuals in glass cabinets on the Seventh Floor to slow deterioration 27.
• Receives new techniques from outside experts, including the Dragon Cicada Vacuum Body supplied by Sword Wudao 20.
• Its collection remains limited in some specialties; Li Hao later finds it lacks many brutal demon body-refining methods 125 201.

Ancestral Shrine

• Preserves memorial tablets and surviving Heroic Souls of the family’s ancestors 33 36 260.
• Offers descendants powerful Soul Inheritance opportunities; shared blood makes inheritance easier 33.
• Allows ancestral spirits to lend power to living descendants during a crisis 264.
• Serves as the gathering point for every surviving ancestral Heroic Soul during the final defense of Qingzhou 260.

Military and Emergency Assets

• Li Family Army — Long-standing frontier force with its own battlefield reports and intelligence network 2 15.
• Secret Vault — Holds resources reserved for extreme emergencies, including a Sacred Heart Heavenly Treasure 257.
• Secret communication arts — Carry intelligence into the besieged household 256.
• Ancestral Secret Passage — Used to receive reinforcements beneath the Huai River Mountains 259.
• Ancestral Blood Summons — A bloodline-wide call used only when the lineage faces annihilation; invoking it consumes an ancestor’s Heroic Soul 256 257 258.

Relationships

• Great Yu Imperial Clan — Recognizes the family’s military service and protects it from politically motivated accusations. Jiang Xian’er, Li Junye’s fiancée, remains with the household even during its threatened destruction 1 90 257.
• Wang Family — Another Divine General Residence connected through marriage. Wang Zhenping attempts to rescue his daughter during the Qing Prefecture crisis but prevents his grandchildren from joining the dangerous return 90 258.
• He Lian Family — Long-standing rival Divine General Residence. He Lian Boya and allied officials criticize the Li Family’s military expenditure and accuse it of concealing Li Hao’s talent 90.
• Boundless Mountain — Maintains long-standing but not especially close ties with the family. Qianfeng’s status as a personal disciple could deepen that relationship, but interference in the True Dragon selection provokes Li Muxiu’s opposition 105 115.
• Sword Hermitage — Takes Bian Ruxue as a disciple; Sword Wudao also contributes a body-refining manual to the family’s archive 20 26.
• Tan Palace Academy — Educates several young Li descendants, who must compete for resources rather than rely on household provision 39 44.
• Ancient Ji Family — Connected through Ji Qingqing’s marriage. Its restrictions on outside marriage lead to her imprisonment and place Li Hao’s maternal heritage at the center of a later conflict 224.
• Northern Yan Demons and Saint Palace — Military enemies whose attacks extend from the frontier to assassination attempts against family children 15 59 90.
• Feng Boping — Personally connected to Li Hao and Li Muxiu. He rejects Li Tiangang’s treatment of Hao and argues that the family’s accumulated enemies made the boy’s departure especially dangerous 215.

Dragon City Fallen River

• Nature: A Mo River sustained by Li Tianzong’s obsession, not the ordinary history or present-day household 197.
• Recreated family: Li Hao lives as the invented tenth son, Li Shilang, among younger versions of relatives who occupy different positions in his real life 194 197 200.
• True Dragon selection: Within this setting, Li Hao becomes True Dragon at ten and swears a family heart oath that does not bind him outside the Mo River 202 203.
• Defense of Dragon City: The recreated family fights for civilians during a demon siege. The deaths of its Nine Sons affect Li Hao despite his knowledge that the household is artificial 205 206.
• Outcome: Li Hao and Li Xiaoran emerge with Li Tianzong, who is granted only enough time for one final journey home 215.

Notable Quotes

“Since you bear the Li name and enjoy this heaven-high wealth and privilege, you ought to shoulder that responsibility.”
— Li Fu, explaining the obligations attached to the family name 20

“Those of the Li Family’s blood live and die together. Cultivation has nothing to do with it.”
— Xiao Yujing, during the Qing Prefecture crisis 257