Ai Qing

Biodata

Feature	Details
Name	Ai Qing 4 56
Alias(es)	Yin Qing (birth name) 310
Species/Race	Human
Gender	Female
Affiliation	Astronomical Society; Unified Bureau's Phantom Agency / Void Floor; temporarily assigned to the Pioneer Society's T1 Sequence 13 1406 1652
Occupation/Role	Inspector; investigator; supervisor of the Void Floor's Current Realm Secret Operations Handling Department; Head of the Void Floor 1467 1652
Status	Active 1691
Condition	Has impaired mobility and commonly uses a wheelchair or cane; later employs experimental support frames and implanted origin-essence alloys 4 33 87 1518
First Appearance	Chapter 4

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Ether-class Ascendant	14	Arrives during the Nue incident and assists in defeating the creature with sniper support. 14
Ascendant / origin-essence liberation	312–313	Liberates her origin essence and uses Divine Grace to kill Yin Liangji; the event is subsequently described as her becoming an Ascendant. 312 313
Sequence Candidate	1471	Obtains formal Sequence Candidate qualification and transfers permission for the Abyssal Threshold. 1471

Background

Ai Qing was born Yin Qing, the daughter of a Yin Family member with abundant origin essence and a renowned cellist. Her mother removed her from the family and took her to Xinhai so she could live normally, away from the Yin Family's ambitions. Ai Qing inherited both her father's origin-essence potential and her mother's musical talent. She initially studied cello before switching to piano, where she accumulated awards rapidly. 310 479

As a child, she was close to Huai Shi. Their connection ended after the Huai Family went bankrupt because of a broken promise by her grandfather. She later reveals that the Yin patriarch—her great-grandfather—was ultimately responsible for driving the Huai Family to ruin. 5 73

A car accident left Ai Qing with lasting physical damage and steel implants. Her family treated her disability and future as assets to be managed; when she later returned after seven years away, Yin Liangji suspended her, attempted to arrange her marriage, and demanded that she serve the family. 1518 308

Ai Qing rejected the Yin Family's authority and built her own career through the Astronomical Society and Unified Bureau instead. She insists on the name “Ai Qing,” rejecting attempts by relatives to define her through the Yin family. 56 214

Appearance

Ai Qing is a slender, pale young woman with long hair, a reserved expression, and a preference for sharp formal clothing. She is frequently seen in a wheelchair or leaning on a cane, though she can stand and fight through painful mechanical assistance. 4 33 87

• Usually carries or requests a blanket, particularly in cold weather. 4 320
• Her hands and complexion are often described as pale, with visible blue veins. 33
• Uses women’s suits, boots, and long dresses depending on the operation. 4 419
• The experimental support frame runs along her legs and allows her to stand, but causes bleeding and severe strain. 87
• Surgical scars and origin-essence alloy implants are concealed beneath her body. 1518

Personality

Ai Qing is composed, skeptical, and exceptionally difficult to intimidate. She distrusts easy explanations, prefers evidence over speculation, and will openly state suspicion even without proof. Her bluntness often takes the form of dry mockery or cutting remarks, especially toward Huai Shi and Liu Dongli. 92 1471

Her most valuable trait is an intuition that functions in complex, chaotic circumstances. Rather than supernatural foresight, it gives her an approximately sixty-five percent chance of reaching the right conclusion—enough to earn an A+ talent rating and distinguish her among tens of thousands of candidates. 40

Ai Qing values independence above comfort or acceptance. She refuses to return to the Yin Family despite Yin Ya's offers of protection, and regards attempts to control her as intolerable. Her pursuit of revenge is initially cold and methodical, but she eventually recognizes both her own pride and her attachment to Huai Shi. 214 320 1533

Abilities & Skills

Intuition

Ai Qing possesses an unusually effective investigative intuition, particularly when processing complicated and disordered information.

• Correctly identifies patterns in complex situations at an estimated sixty-five percent accuracy rate. 40
• Uses it alongside meticulous document analysis, surveillance, and intelligence gathering. 40 64
• Her intuition helped her notice anomalies in the Regeneration Plan and confirm an unknown presence within the command system. 1502 1513

Eye of Liberation

Ai Qing's Soul Ability is the Eye of Liberation, a power associated with liberation, transformation, and the manipulation of origin-essence materials. 1477

• Used to kill Dark Wind while defending a safe house from the Hyena Squad. 1477
• Can release furnace-like heat through her hands. 1518
• Reorganizes source-quality and soul structures; she used it on Huai Shi after he transformed himself through the Hand of Confinement. 1525
• Can direct Soul Dissolving Gold into a soul-eroding mist that consumes souls and origin essence. 1478

Investigation and Command

Ai Qing is a high-level investigator and political operator rather than a conventional frontline combatant.

• As an Astronomical Society inspector, held authority to temporarily conscript Ascendants. 13
• Built cases against Qi Wen, the Yin Family, the Savior Society, and multiple smuggling organizations. 40 64 1406
• Took control of the Heavenly Eye system during the Regeneration Plan, gaining full access to operational intelligence. 1506
• Used Phantom Agency intelligence as leverage to form an alliance against Solomon. 1491 1503
• Her Regeneration Plan participant mark could issue compulsory commands, forcing Huai Shi to sit before she clarified that it was a participant seal rather than a general governance system. 1474

Combat and Augmentation

Ai Qing compensates for her mobility limitations through weapons, preparation, and experimental technology.

• Draws and fires a gun instinctively under threat. 122
• Used a divine dagger to banish Faust back to Hell. 56
• Tested an emergency-response support frame that enabled standing combat at the cost of injury and nervous-system risk. 87 92
• Concealed an Axe of Fury constructed from origin-essence alloy implants within her body. 1518

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Wheelchair and cane — primary mobility aids. 4 33
• Emergency response support frame — experimental leg-mounted apparatus for short-term standing and combat. 87
• Firearm — carried during investigations and emergencies. 122
• Divine dagger — used against Faust. 56
• Soul Dissolving Gold — deployed as a soul- and origin-essence-eroding mist. 1478
• Origin-essence alloy implants / Axe of Fury — concealed within her body as a combat contingency. 1518

Relationships

• Huai Shi — Childhood friend, later her confidential secretary and subordinate. Ai Qing protects him politically, admits to using him during her escape from the Yin Family, and ultimately accepts his confession. 5 33 320 1691
• Liu Dongli — Initially serves as her muscle and bodyguard. Ai Qing never fully trusts him, but he provides medical aid and sniper support during her conflict with the Yin Family. 8 92 313
• Yin Liangji — Her great-grandfather and Yin Family patriarch. He seeks to use Ai Qing for the family; she kills him after being named his successor. 308 312
• Yin Ya — A Yin Family relative who attempts to persuade Ai Qing to return and offers to protect her, but later gives her a brief head start before sending assassins after her. 214 313
• Ai Ting — Her mother, a celebrated cellist and Huai Shi's teacher. Ai Qing is fiercely protective of her memory and well-being. 202 479 482
• The Professor — Information broker and collaborator who supplies intelligence on the Savior Society, Qi Wen, and the Yin Family. 40 64
• Director Fu — Special Affairs Department director. They frequently clash over Huai Shi's treatment, though he eventually respects her decision to protect him. 42 73
• Ms. X — Ai Qing's superior and the former controller of the Void Floor. Ms. X later leaves the Void Floor's highest authority to Ai Qing. 1467 1652
• Karl Heinz Schweiger — Void Floor official whose surveillance of Huai Shi brings him into conflict with Ai Qing. He later delivers the documents revoking her positions. 1348 1628

Story Role / Major Arcs

Xinhai Inspector

Ai Qing leads investigations into Ascendant crimes, border abnormalities, and the Savior Society's activities in Xinhai. She recruits Huai Shi as her confidential secretary after using a freshly forged employment contract to free him from Special Affairs Department custody. 33 40

Qi Wen and the Yin Family

Ai Qing investigates Qi Wen's connections to the Yin Family, smuggling, trafficking, and the Savior Society. The investigation reveals links between Qi Wen's businesses, the Huai Family bankruptcy, and a Hell-mutated virus incident. 56 64

After returning to the Yin Family, she refuses Yin Liangji's control, kills him with Divine Grace at his birthday banquet, and escapes with Huai Shi and Liu Dongli's support. She later surrenders to the Astronomical Society to face judgment. 308 312 313 320

Unified Bureau and Void Floor

Ai Qing later operates within the Unified Bureau, conducting inspections, undercover missions, and high-level intelligence work. She confronts smuggling networks in Seoul, challenges a Pioneer Society investigator who targeted Huai Shi, and receives temporary T1 Sequence authority. 419 943 1406

Regeneration Plan

During the Regeneration Plan, Ai Qing uncovers internal anomalies, forms an alliance against Solomon, and uses the Phantom Agency's intelligence network to force competing departments into action. She repeatedly refuses to treat physical elimination as her first option, saving Camilla despite Camilla's attempt on her life. 1502 1503 1522

She is later restrained by the Office of the Director after Solomon's defeat, but remains central to the plan's eventual success. 1523 1533

Head of the Void Floor

After Ms. X's departure, Ai Qing accepts the highest authority of the Phantom Agency and becomes Head of the Void Floor · I. All current-realm records identifying her as Ai Qing are erased, leaving only her codename and office. 1652

Notable Quotes

“Lastly, please remember clearly, my name is Ai Qing.” 56

“I'm using you, Huai Shi.” 320

“Don't touch my things!” 1406

“Because you're not a flower in someone else's garden, Huai Shi. And neither am I.” 1534