Ye Lingling

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Ye Lingling (叶泠泠)
Alias(es)	First Madam; addressed as “Elder Sister” by Cao Xiyu’s other partners 30 31
Gender	Female 1
Age	Early twenties when revealed on the Genius Ranking 23
Affiliation	Nine Hearts Begonia family; Ye Family Fortress 22 46
Occupation/Role	Eldest daughter of the Ye family; Nine Hearts Begonia successor; matriarch of Ye Family Fortress 1 46
Spouse	Cao Xiyu, also known as Brother Cao 1 27
Martial Soul	Nine Hearts Begonia 26
Cultivation Technique	Nine Turns Sacred Heart Art 22
Confirmed Cultivation	Level 99 Titled Douluo, also described as a Limit Douluo 22 23
Genius Ranking	First place 22
First Appearance	Chapter 1 1

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Level 99 Titled Douluo / Limit Douluo	22 23	Revealed as the Genius Ranking’s first-place cultivator in her early twenties. Her listed technique is the Nine Turns Sacred Heart Art; the supplied account does not show the breakthrough itself.
Soul ring age enhancement	93	Ye Family Fortress’s first-place Power Ranking reward grants all members an additional 50,000 years to their soul ring ages.

Background / History

Marriage and Cao Xiyu’s Concealed Identity

Ye Lingling found a jade pendant ten years before Cao Xiyu’s identity was exposed. The pendant led her to meet him and changed the course of her life; he later admitted that he had arranged its discovery 27.

Cao Xiyu married into the Ye family as its son-in-law. For roughly a decade, the couple lived together at Ye Family Fortress, playing music, reading, and writing. Because he had zero innate soul power and never left the fortress, Lingling believed he was an ordinary man unable to cultivate 1 5 10.

The repeated appearance of the Yin-Yang Reincarnation Technique on the Sky Screen unsettled her: she remembered her husband mentioning its name and noticed how confidently he predicted the ranking’s entrants. When he confessed to being Brother Cao, however, she dismissed the claim as an extravagant lie 5 9 10. She had never entered his Dream Space and could not explain how a man who stayed home could train women across the continent 17.

Genius Ranking and the Attack on Ye Family Fortress

The Sky Screen named Lingling the continent’s top genius, revealing her level-99 strength and the Nine Turns Sacred Heart Art. Unlike the other leading women, she was not listed as a practitioner of the Yin-Yang Reincarnation Technique, prompting outsiders to assume that she had no connection to Brother Cao 22 23.

Her family feared that powerful factions would covet her technique, rewards, and person. Still believing Cao Xiyu powerless, she sent him away with a Teleportation Talisman to protect him 23.

When Tang Chen and ten divine officials attacked the fortress, Lingling refused to surrender her cultivation art or defensive formation. She fought Tang Chen directly, but his experience gradually gave him the advantage; a divine official then injured her with divine light. Cao Xiyu returned, killed Tang Chen and the ten officials, and exposed his true power before her 26.

Afterward, he explained his dream-based dual cultivation, including the Dream Space’s time ratio of one year inside to one day outside. Lingling was angry about his relationships with the ranked women, but ultimately accepted him and reaffirmed their marriage 27.

Matriarch of an Expanding Household

Lingling welcomed Xiao Wu and the Zhu sisters into the fortress while making her authority as Cao Xiyu’s legitimate wife unmistakable. Their polite exchanges soon became contests over whether years of dream companionship outweighed her decade of marriage in reality 30 31 37.

As more women arrived, she approved a major expansion: ninety-nine garden-style residences for Cao Xiyu’s partners and a central manor for herself and her husband, at a reported cost exceeding one million gold soul coins 46.

Her responsibilities extended to mediating disputes between newcomers and monitoring emerging household alliances. She interrupted Lolth and Sophina’s argument and recognized the Water God, Angel God, and God of Light as a potentially influential group 61 68. By later chapters, her responses to Cao Xiyu’s other relationships had become markedly more resigned, while Ye Family Fortress’s first-place Power Ranking brought her visible satisfaction 83 93 99.

Appearance

• Hair: Water-blue; styled in a matronly bun during the gathering in the fortress’s main hall 23 46.
• Eyes: Water-blue, repeatedly compared to clear autumn water 5 22.
• Build and features: Slender, with an exquisitely beautiful face 9.
• Bearing: Elegant and dignified, particularly when receiving Cao Xiyu’s other partners as mistress of the household 30 46.

Personality

Lingling is affectionate and deeply protective of her husband. Before learning his true strength, she considered his safety more important than her own life and chose separation rather than risk his being caught in the danger surrounding her ranking 23.

Her composure does not make her passive. She refuses Tang Chen’s demands without showing fear and confronts Cao Xiyu directly about both his secrecy and his infidelity 26 27. Her anger often takes the form of pointed sarcasm rather than an open outburst 27 34 43.

Within the household, she combines hospitality with firm boundaries. She offers newcomers tea and accommodation, but treats their admission as a decision made by the legitimate wife. Challenges to her position provoke jealousy and insecurity, especially when other women invoke decades spent with Cao Xiyu in the Dream Space 30 31 37. She nevertheless remains capable of reconciliation and affectionate teasing with him 27 52.

Abilities & Skills

Nine Turns Sacred Heart Art

• The cultivation technique listed alongside her level-99 strength on the Genius Ranking 22.
• Gives her Nine Hearts Begonia martial soul offensive capabilities 26.
• Lingling describes the art as something obtained through her own fortune and refuses to hand it over to Tang Chen 26.

Nine Hearts Begonia and Combat

• Manifests the Nine Hearts Begonia martial soul with nine soul rings shining simultaneously in battle 26.
• Exchanges dozens of blows with Tang Chen on even terms before his superior experience begins to tell after roughly one hundred moves 26.
• Cannot withstand a divine official’s attack despite her Limit Douluo cultivation; a beam of divine light forces her backward and draws blood 26.

Household Leadership

• Establishes rules and precedence through formal hospitality rather than refusing Cao Xiyu’s partners entry 30 31.
• Directs the fortress’s large residential expansion 46.
• Intervenes in disputes and pays attention to alliances among the resident women 61 68.

Equipment / Items

• Jade pendant — Found ten years earlier and instrumental in her meeting Cao Xiyu. He later reveals that he arranged its discovery 27.
• Youth-Preserving Pill — Genius Ranking reward described as granting eternal youth 22.
• Teleportation Talismans ×5 — Genius Ranking rewards allowing travel to any location on the Douluo Continent. She uses a talisman to send Cao Xiyu away for safety 22 23.
• Kun-Kun Defensive Array — Genius Ranking reward covering a radius of one kilometer. Its barrier is shattered during the attack on Ye Family Fortress 22 26.
• Death-Substitution Puppet ×1 — Genius Ranking reward capable of substituting for her death once; no activation is shown in the supplied passages 22.

Relationships

• Cao Xiyu / Brother Cao — Husband of roughly ten years. His concealed power and dream relationships overturn her understanding of their marriage, but she ultimately accepts him; he repeatedly reassures her of her special place in his heart 23 27 52.
• Xiao Cui — Maid who shares her initial disbelief in Cao Xiyu’s claims, celebrates Lingling’s first-place ranking, and serves guests under her direction 10 22 30.
• Ye Lingling’s father — Worries that her apparent lack of backing will expose the family to coercion. Stands behind her with the clansmen during the fortress attack 23 26.
• Xiao Wu — Initially wins Lingling over through flattery and deference, then probes her lack of experience in the Dream Space and joins challenges to her authority 30 31 37.
• Zhu Zhuyun — Rival for household influence who questions Lingling’s knowledge of Cao Xiyu. Later considers an alliance with her because of her strength, legitimate status, and deep bond with him 31 43.
• Zhu Zhuqing — Welcomed as a younger “sister.” Less attuned to the implications of their early verbal sparring, though she later joins criticism of Lingling’s jealousy 31 37.
• Liu Erlong, Ah Yin, and Tang Yuehua — Their respectful greetings and mature conduct ease Lingling’s irritation when they arrive at the fortress 37.
• Sophina — Challenges Lingling’s appearance and status immediately after Lingling intervenes in her quarrel with Lolth 61.
• Tang Chen — Attempts to force her to surrender her art and formation. Battles her before Cao Xiyu kills him 26.

Notable Quotes

“You are my husband. In my heart, you are more important than my own life.” 23

“I spend my days and nights with my husband, sleeping beside him every night and seeing him every day. Why would I need to meet him in a dream?” 31