Ziling

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Ziling (紫菱)
Alias(es)	Painting Venerable; Heavenly Horse Master 459 1030
Species/Race	Human; identified as one of the twelve Ancestors of the Ancient People 389 1188
Gender	Female 25 459
Affiliation	Li Fan’s disciples and the Unique Leisurely Courtyard; later joins the Moon Court 30 36 1180
Occupation/Role	Painter, Painting Dao cultivator, and Li Fan’s disciple 25 30 139
First Appearance	Chapter 25, “Two More Little Fangirls” 25

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Nascent Soul Realm — Peak	25	Gains profound insight and rapidly advances after viewing Li Fan’s Myriad Mountains Gather Dragon Diagram.
Immortal Dao attained	75	Li Fan’s brief guidance enables her to achieve the Immortal Dao; Nan Feng explicitly recognizes the breakthrough.
Profound Immortal — Eighth Level	108	Reaches this level through daily practice painting sunsets and developing their divine charm.
Golden Immortal	139	Paints a red sun that appears alive, drawing inspiration from Li Fan’s destruction of the King of Immortality.
Golden Immortal — Ninth Heaven	143	Her cultivation rises while she learns to control the figures captured in her painting.
Primordial Unity Golden Immortal	143	Converts nine captured Primordial Unity Golden Immortals into Painting Slaves under Li Fan’s guidance, then crosses into their realm.
Immortality proven	200 207	Chapter 200 records her proving immortality; afterward, her paintings are credited with suppressing more than a dozen Immortal Lords.
Saint King	391	Completes a battlefield painting and creates seven replicas to counter seven attacking Quasi-Emperors.
Great Sage	392	Li Fan’s calisthenics release accumulated Saint Dao origin energy; the leg-lifting exercise triggers her breakthrough.
Spirit Transmutation — Ninth Heaven Perfection	469	Eats the surviving Primal Divine Grape at Li Fan’s instruction. Her advancement is described as a Sole Venerable breakthrough, granting enduring superiority among peers. The peach tree stops her from immediately becoming a god and advises further comprehension.
True God	495	Comprehends Phoenix Dao principles and manifests a Phoenix through her painting, destroying the True God War Drum.
Divine Monarch	637	Advances during the feast of Venerable flesh. A vast painting unfolds behind her, with the firmament as its canvas and stars as its ink.
Chaos Realm — Spiritual Spring, Middle Stage	755	Enters the Chaos cultivation system after receiving its cultivation method from Li Fan.
Spiritual Rainbow — Third Realm	783	Is listed among the disciples who have broken through following Nan Feng’s advancement to the Spiritual Rainbow Realm.
Ascension Path	987	Her scroll-like Dao Landscape manifests a Great Dao formed from interwoven colors, confirming her ascension.
Divine Moon attainment	1180	Reproduces the highest attainment associated with the Moon Illumination Scripture by drawing the moon. She states that she never studied the scripture; this is a technique attainment rather than a clearly identified overall cultivation realm.
Supreme Great Dao attained	1252	Uses her proven Great Dao to imprison at least five hundred dark supreme beings and block the Absolute Dark Domain with a Heavenly Waterfall.

Appearance

• Purple clothing: Usually depicted in a purple dress or skirt, including during major battles and her arrival in the taboo world 391 459 1053.
• Features: Exquisite facial features, bright eyes compared to clear autumn lakes, and skin described as creamy jade 459 970.
• Figure: Described as curvaceous and strikingly beautiful 459.
• Artist’s accessories: Carries a painting board or drawing board and uses a brush as her principal tool 25 1053.

Personality

Ziling is lively, cute, pure, and innocent—a disposition explicitly contrasted with the battle-hardened dominance of the Taiyin Empress’s statue. Her innocence also accompanies an instinctive connection with the Heavenly Horse 402 452.

Her kindness does not make her passive. She condemns the Yang Wei Imperial Dynasty for killing Yin Realm inhabitants and demands that Zhan Chonglei apologize to Mu Rantian and return stolen property. With ghosts, she combines mercy with restrictions intended to prevent further wrongdoing 453 459.

She is deeply loyal to Li Fan and protective of her fellow disciples. When Dark Li Fan tries to deceive her, she trusts what she personally witnessed rather than his resemblance to her master. She confines her corrupted companions to keep them from reaching Li Fan, despite apologizing for having to act against them 1215 1216.

Ziling is also unassuming about her own strength. She is pleasantly surprised by her first major battlefield victory and later tells the Moon Court’s disciples that she is “not very good at fighting,” immediately after defeating Yue Weilan 142 1180.

Abilities & Skills

Painting Dao and Painting Worlds

Ziling’s paintings can contain living beings, reproduce powerful figures, and become spaces in which real battles continue 142 391 814.

• Battlefield capture: Draws enemy forces into her artwork, removing them from the outside world 142 389 984.
• Combat replicas: Creates seven figures with techniques identical to those of seven Quasi-Emperors, allowing the replicas to defend her 391.
• Painting worlds: Transfers an entire battlefield into her artwork; afterward, retrieves treasures from the destroyed painting world 814 816.
• Protective barriers: Draws a barrier over the Pale Scroll Painting to protect its captives while observing the Painting Venerable’s brushwork 970.
• Realm-scale effects: Working with the Painting Venerable’s evil corpse, paints strokes that halt calamities and transform the True Ancestor Realm 976.
• Observation cost: Painting exceptionally powerful armies consumes substantial origin energy and strains her eyes. Su Baiqian’s eye drops help her observe the ten-billion-strong Gray Mist Sea army 985.
• Documented limits: Cannot capture the already-Supreme Xin Ning during the confrontation with Dark Li Fan; later remains unable to paint Li Fan successfully 1216 1254.

Painting Slaves and Life Laws

Li Fan teaches Ziling that the figures in her paintings can have their souls controlled, becoming Painting Slaves 143.

• Soul control: Converts nine Primordial Unity Golden Immortals into slaves after capturing them 143.
• Redeployment: Releases one hundred million captured troops to attack the Emperor Clan allied forces 389.
• Powerful captives: Enslaves Mo Quan, whose consciousness is left crippled, and later gathers dark supreme beings as followers 1194 1253.
• Blood as ink: Uses blood collected during an earlier war to draw deceased True Ancestors back to life as her slaves 1030.
• Life-law authority: Her painted True Ancestors defend her against their counterparts, demonstrating control over True Ancestor life Laws 1030.

Spatial Manipulation

Her brushwork alters space to redirect attacks and rescue allies 390 391.

• Repeated rescues: Keeps her companions alive through otherwise fatal encounters with Quasi-Emperors, letting them continue fighting and gain insights 390.
• Spatial relocation: Moves Yun Yinchen out of the path of a divine silver needle into another space; observers cannot track how she performs the switch 472.
• Formation intervention: Replaces Yue Weiyang at the center of a formation to prevent her from taking a Heavenly Heart Imprint 1186.

Phoenix Fire and Divine Manifestation

Through her Phoenix Feather Brush and her understanding of Phoenix Dao principles, Ziling produces powerful flames and painted manifestations 460 495.

• Phoenix True Fire: Incinerates hostile vines in the Great Wilderness, causing the remaining vines to retreat 460.
• Phoenix painting: Turns her depiction of an “Old Mother Hen” into a Divine Bird manifestation that destroys the True God War Drum 494 495.
• Ghost suppression: Her brush is described as a supremely Yang divine object, capable of burning even a Ghost King’s hide 592 593.
• Combat restraint: Retracts her fire when Dark Li Fan redirects the danger toward her corrupted fellow disciples 1215.

Written Restrictions and Blessings

Ziling writes short phrases on ghosts that function as restrictions, guidance, or blessings 453 527.

• “Be a good ghost”: Marks Gui Qi and the Dark Ghost Lord to regulate their behavior 453 466 527.
• Renewed inscriptions: Rewrites words at the Dark Ghost Lord’s request after he comes to regard them as a source of hope 527.
• Other phrases: Works with Yunxi to grant requested inscriptions such as “May you prosper” and “May fortune shine upon you” 527.
• Spiritual transformation: Writes “I am the sweetest” on Mingzhi’s head; after his initial humiliation, he experiences an awakening and resolves to improve the ghost realm 589.

Supreme Great Dao

Her later Great Dao can contain supreme-level enemies on a mass scale 1252.

• Mass imprisonment: Makes at least five hundred dark supreme beings disappear from the battlefield 1252.
• Heavenly Waterfall: Creates a silver barrier that temporarily blocks the Absolute Dark Domain 1252.
• Later limitation: Leads more than a thousand enslaved dark supreme beings toward the Nirvana Black Sea, but the attempt fails 1253.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Phoenix Feather Brush — Her principal divine brush, personally crafted by Li Fan from courtyard chicken feathers. One of only three such brushes in the courtyard, alongside Dugu Yuqing’s Phoenix Heaven Brush and Lin Jiuzheng’s Fire God Brush 854.
• Painting board and rice paper — Tools used to construct her paintings, capture enemies, and depict battlefield techniques 25 984 1215.
• Spring sunrise painting — A work by Li Fan that she takes from his study before attending the God Worshipping Festival. It frightens Gui Qi and later dispels gray mist and heals Yun Qianshan’s wound 448 452 466.
• Ghost teeth — Collects them for their heat-dispelling properties and considers giving them to villagers as small toys 453 523.
• Small hoe — Takes the portable tool on her Great Wilderness expedition with Yunxi and Mu Wanqing 457.
• Pale Scroll Painting — A painting left by her past incarnation. Ziling protects its captives and later works on it with the Painting Venerable’s evil corpse 970 976.

Relationships

• Li Fan — Master and central object of her loyalty. His paintings, instruction, and brush-making shape her cultivation; she later resolves to protect him and refuses Dark Li Fan’s attempts to impersonate him 25 30 139 1049 1216.
• Nan Feng — Senior sister and close companion. Ziling is happy that accepting Li Fan as their master allows them to remain together; Nan Feng worries about her limited combat experience 25 30 142.
• Yunxi — Close friend and frequent travelling partner. They explore the Great Wilderness, collect ghost teeth, and write inscriptions for ghosts together 457 466 527 589.
• Mu Wanqing — Ally who accompanies her to the God Worshipping Festival and the Great Wilderness 448 457.
• Heavenly Horse — Recognizes Ziling as its master. On meeting it, she instinctively recalls it as her former “best companion”; Li Fan permits her to raise it 452 457.
• Dugu Yuqing — Fellow disciple and fellow brush user; shares friendly competition with her over their new brushes 139 854.
• Lin Jiuzheng — Junior fellow disciple. Ziling rescues him from attacking Gray Mist Sea troops and cooperates with him against the darkness’s creation scheme 984 985 1188.
• Su Baiqian — Junior fellow disciple who supplies eye drops for her battlefield observation. They remain together while defending Li Fan against their corrupted companions 985 1199 1215.
• Dark Ghost Lord — Initially subdued and made a ghost-tooth supplier; later seeks renewed inscriptions from her and treats her words as guidance 466 527.
• Painting Venerable’s evil corpse — Remnant of Ziling’s past life, not a separate unrelated painter. Ziling helps her recover a lost image through their work on the Pale Scroll Painting 970 976.
• Zhou Mingshi — Moon Court elder who defends her appointed place in the Star Formation against attempts to replace her 1180.

History / Major Arcs

Meeting Li Fan

Ziling and Nan Feng encounter Li Fan painting on a mountain peak. Viewing his finished landscape transforms Ziling’s understanding of painting and cultivation. Both women subsequently accept him as their master 25 30.

When Sacred Land elders confront the courtyard, Ziling hangs Li Fan’s “Unique Leisurely Courtyard” calligraphy on the gate and stands up to Elder Tie Ming after witnessing her teacher’s power 36.

Defending the Heavenly Realm

Li Fan sends Ziling to assist against the Diming Realm invasion and makes a new brush for her. She captures the invading army in a painting, returns to the courtyard, and learns how to turn its figures into Painting Slaves 139 142 143.

During the conflict with the Emperor Clan allied forces, she converts one hundred million troops into slaves and repeatedly saves her fellow disciples from Quasi-Emperor attacks. The enemy recognizes her support as decisive and sends all seven Quasi-Emperors after her 389 390 391.

Heavenly Horse and Great Wilderness

Representing Li Fan at the God Worshipping Festival, Ziling gains the Heavenly Horse’s recognition and subdues Gui Qi. Her display of power prompts Eastern Wasteland sects to offer allegiance to her master 448 452 453.

She then travels into the Great Wilderness with Yunxi and Mu Wanqing. There, she clears the strange aura around an ancient vine, buries ancient corpses, obtains the surviving Primal Divine Grape, and makes the Dark Ghost Lord a ghost-tooth supplier 457 466.

Past Life and the Pale Scroll Painting

An earlier statue in Devil Suppressing City resembles Ziling, though its dominant, battle-hardened bearing differs from her cheerful personality. Later, the Pale Scroll Painting brings her face-to-face with the Painting Venerable’s evil corpse, explicitly identified as her past-life self 402 970.

The corpse had lost an important memory before death. Ziling guides her hand as they repaint the missing image; their work halts the True Ancestor Realm’s calamities and produces a human face whose eyes remain unfinished 970 976.

Gray Mist Sea Battles

Ziling turns more than a million Gray Mist Sea soldiers into Painting Slaves and helps Lin Jiuzheng and Su Baiqian hold back a ten-billion-strong army. Her subsequent completed work accompanies her entry onto the Ascension Path 984 985 986 987.

In a later confrontation, she reveals painted versions of deceased True Ancestors made with their blood. Their intervention breaks the enemy’s morale, and she kills Feng Tiangu despite his attempt to empower himself with taboo immortal bone powder 1030.

Moon Court and the Path of Creation

After reaching the taboo world’s Taiyin Continent, Ziling senses that the Origin Lamp lies within the inaccessible Kunlun Sacred Realm. She joins the Moon Court because the Path of Creation offers a means of opening it 1180.

Her moon paintings reveal darkness contaminating the Osmanthus Tree in the Vast Cold Palace. She warns the Moon Emperor through a painting and insists on joining the Star Formation to address the danger. When challenged, she defeats Yue Weilan with a full-moon manifestation and retains her place 1180.

Ziling and Lin Jiuzheng subsequently interfere with the Heavenly Heart Imprints to expose the darkness’s arrangements. Mo Quan falls under her control as a Painting Slave, and the Moon Emperor recognizes her connection to the Ancient People’s Painting Dao ancestor 1186 1188 1194.

Dark Li Fan and the Long War

Ziling and Su Baiqian accompany Li Fan to a mountain beyond ordinary time and karma. Because they witness him enter a painting, they recognize Dark Li Fan’s claim to be their master as false 1199 1215 1216.

When their corrupted companions attack, Ziling paints them into a scroll to prevent them from approaching Li Fan. Xin Ning remains outside because her Supreme-level strength exceeds Ziling’s capture ability at that point 1215 1216.

During the later Great War, Ziling’s Supreme Great Dao temporarily blocks the Absolute Dark Domain. She continues gathering dark supreme beings as slaves, though her attempt to reach the Nirvana Black Sea fails. Back in the courtyard, she tries unsuccessfully to paint Li Fan 1252 1253 1254.

Notable Quotes

“I... I was with you before... You were my best companion...”
— Her instinctive recollection upon meeting the Heavenly Horse 452

“Moon Illumination Scripture? Never learned it. I just like to draw pictures of the moon when I’m bored.”
— Explaining her Divine Moon attainment 1180

“Whether you are the remnant left by Master, or his past... it doesn’t matter. Master is still in the painting!”
— Rejecting Dark Li Fan’s deception 1216

Trivia

• While examining her Spirit Platform, Ziling discovers divine fire but no three souls or seven spirits, prompting her to wonder whether she and the others are dead 912.
• Her Dao Landscape doubles as storage for seasonings, which she uses on enemies roasted by the Painting Venerable 979.
• Li Fan promises to teach her horse riding after she admits that her strong rapport with the Heavenly Horse does not mean she knows how to fully use its potential 457.