Yu Xiaoqian

Biodata

Feature	Information
Name	Yu Xiaoqian (于晓倩)
Gender	Female
Affiliation	Yu Family; Foreign Repelling Camp; Sharp Blade Squad
Occupation/Role	Former commander of the Sharp Blade Squad; later Qin Yao's coerced mouthpiece in Yu Family affairs
First Appearance	Chapter 191
Cultivation	Blood Aperture Realm, first layer; she had only recently entered the realm at her appointment and remained at the first layer during Qin Yao's subsequent coercion of her. 191 252 316
Age	18 191

Power Progression

Chapter	Cultivation / Development
191	Newly entered the first layer of the Blood Aperture Realm when appointed commander of the Sharp Blade Squad. 191
252	Qin Yao, then far stronger than her, confirms that she is a first-layer Blood Aperture Realm cultivator. 252
316	Remains at the first layer of the Blood Aperture Realm while forced to travel and work under Qin Yao's control. 316

Background / History

Yu Xiaoqian was raised with extensive cultivation resources and her family expected her to advance through the provincial, metropolitan, and Palace Examinations before entering Imperial Capital Academy. Rather than follow this secure path, she sought a faster route to distinction after hearing of a low-born young martial artist who earned renown during a winter campaign at the Foreign Repelling Camp. 191

She was appointed commander of the Sharp Blade Squad, a hundred-man unit formed for winter warfare. Her objective was to accumulate enough military merit to enter Imperial Capital Academy through the Direct Examination. 191

To secure this command, Yu Xiaoqian leveraged her talent and future potential, persuading the Yu Family to use its Nine Suns Commandery connections and provide lavish gifts. She also obtained the right to choose elite squad members first, intending to forge the Sharp Blade Squad into the foremost unit of the Foreign Repelling Camp. 191

Personality

Yu Xiaoqian is ambitious, proud, and intensely status-conscious. She initially regards the soldiers under her command as instruments for earning merit, valuing them only insofar as they can be useful to her goals. 191

Her vanity also distorts her judgment of others. When Qin Yao offers military counsel, she assumes that his willingness to risk punishment stems from romantic admiration and treats his tactical value as a test of whether he can be a useful “blade.” 194

Her ambition repeatedly overrides caution. She dismisses Qin Yao and Mao Yuchong's objections, orders an immediate pursuit of the retreating Golden Frost Barbarians without scouting, and forcibly requisitions horses from Kele Town. 199

After her command fails, she refuses responsibility and becomes vindictive. She attempts to blame Qin Yao and Mao Yuchong for the Sharp Blade Squad's losses, then targets the families of soldiers she believes defied her. 229 230 231 232

Though her later defeats strip away her former arrogance in public, Yu Xiaoqian remains fundamentally self-serving. She submits to Qin Yao out of fear for her life, agrees to abandon the Yu Family when it ceases to protect her, and performs remorse when useful, while privately maintaining resentment and hopes of revenge. 313 314 335

Abilities & Skills

Blood Aperture Realm Cultivation

Yu Xiaoqian is a Blood Aperture Realm martial artist and, at the time of her appointment, substantially outclassed the Body Tempering Realm soldiers in her unit. 191

• Intercepted and killed an enemy commander after Qi Shilan's assassination attempt failed, causing the Golden Frost Barbarians to rout. 196
• Was later defeated and forced to flee during the disastrous pursuit she initiated. 206
• By Chapter 252, Qin Yao had surpassed her despite her status as a first-layer Blood Aperture Realm cultivator. 252
• Retained sufficient physical ability to dig a large burial pit for the Yu Family's dead elites when compelled by Qin Yao. 314

Talisman and Concealed-Weapon Use

Yu Xiaoqian possesses life-preserving resources supplied by the Yu Family and is willing to use underhanded methods when cornered.

• Escaped the Golden Frost Barbarian encirclement by activating a Cloud-Treading Talisman after throwing one of her own wounded guards into pursuing enemies as a human shield. 203
• Attempted to assassinate Qin Yao while pretending to submit, using a Scorpion Tail Golden Needle tempered with Hundred Death Ash poison. 253

Military Command

As commander of the Sharp Blade Squad, Yu Xiaoqian could direct a hundred-man unit and requisition resources in the course of military operations. 191 199

• Threatened Qin Yao with thirty strokes for speaking out of turn and designated him as the vanguard against the Golden Frost Barbarians should his counsel prove worthless. 194
• Ordered the immediate pursuit of retreating enemies to seek additional military merit. 199
• Exercised her authority through threats against Kele Town's residents and garrison soldiers. 199
• Her reckless leadership contributed to the Sharp Blade Squad's near annihilation. 229 241

Relationships

• Qin Yao — Initially considered him a merely potentially useful subordinate; their conflict escalated after her failed campaign, her retaliation against his comrades' families, and her eventual defeat and capture by him. 191 229 252 301 After Yu Yanghai and Yu Danhe's deaths, Qin Yao forces her into obedience and uses her as his mouthpiece while he covertly manipulates Yu Family affairs. Although they make a conditional blood oath, she later attacks him while he is unconscious and believes this has voided the protection of Qin Yao's oath. 312 322 324 335
• Yu Yanghai — Her father and the Yu Family patriarch. He reprimands her for her failures, later abandons her while fleeing Qin Yao, and is subsequently killed by Qin Yao. 260 299 300
• Yu Danhe — Her grandfather, the Yu Family's Mystic Gathering Realm pillar. His death leaves Yu Xiaoqian without the family's final powerful protector; Qin Yao subsequently impersonates him to control the Yu Family, with her compelled assistance. 312 314 322 325
• Mao Yuchong — Deputy commander who opposed her reckless pursuit and later publicly exposed her attempt to harm his family and her flight from battle. 199 258
• Niu Qingren — A soldier whose family and businesses she orders attacked in retaliation for perceived defiance. 231 232
• Zhao Lie — Foreign Repelling Camp general who assigns her to Kele Town, later reprimands her leadership and limits punishment because of the Yu Family's influence. 191 230
• Wang Liusun — Quartermaster's-office steward whom she orders to obtain the home addresses and family details of Mao Yuchong, Niu Qingren, and Qin Yao. 231
• Yu Zhulin — A Yu Family mole embedded among Qin Yao's men. Yu Xiaoqian identifies his corpse for Qin Yao after the Yu Family's ambush collapses. 313

Story Role / Major Arcs

Sharp Blade Squad Command

Yu Xiaoqian takes command of the Sharp Blade Squad to pursue military merit and admission to Imperial Capital Academy. During the initial fighting, she kills the opposing commander after Qi Shilan fails to do so, breaking the enemy's morale. 191 196

Her pursuit of the defeated Golden Frost Barbarians becomes a catastrophe: she rejects scouting and subordinate advice, presses forward for merit, and is defeated, leaving Qin Yao to fight using her abandoned horse. 199 206

During the ambush, she throws a wounded soldier who had become her personal guard into the attacking barbarians to create an opening, then flees with a Cloud-Treading Talisman. 203

Blame and Retaliation

Upon returning to camp, Yu Xiaoqian accuses Qin Yao and Mao Yuchong of disobeying orders and causing the squad's near destruction. Zhao Lie rebukes her, having learned the details of the battle, but cannot punish her severely because of her family's influence. 229 230

She then seeks revenge through the soldiers' families. Learning Qin Yao's relatives are protected in the Family Camp, she orders attacks against Niu Qingren's family and prepares to target Mao Yuchong's household. 231 232

Defeat by Qin Yao

Yu Xiaoqian sends five elite guards against Qin Yao, but he defeats them and captures her when she attempts to escape. He forces her to kneel and confess her wrongdoing. 252 253

She subsequently tries to frame Qin Yao for killing her guards and harming Mao Yuchong's family, but Mao Yuchong exposes her actions and cowardice before Zhao Lie. 258

Collapse of the Yu Family

Obsessed with revenge, Yu Xiaoqian begs to join Yu Yanghai's hunt for Qin Yao after being barred from returning to the Foreign Repelling Camp for her recklessness. 283

When Qin Yao destroys the Yu Family's elite force, Yu Yanghai flees and leaves Yu Xiaoqian behind. Qin Yao immobilizes but spares her, then uses her to force a confrontation with her father. 299 300

Following Yu Yanghai's death, Yu Xiaoqian begs Qin Yao to spare her. They make a blood oath not to harm one another under specified conditions, and she reveals that the Yu Family located Qin Yao through Yu Yanghai's Scent-Seeking Pigeon. 301

Yu Danhe's subsequent death removes the Yu Family's final major protector. Yu Xiaoqian, who had kicked and punched Qin Yao while he was unconscious after Yu Danhe struck him down, becomes terrified that she has violated the condition prohibiting her from provoking Qin Yao. 312

Forced Service Under Qin Yao

With her father and grandfather dead and the family elite devastated, Yu Xiaoqian chooses survival over loyalty to the Yu Family. She agrees to follow Qin Yao's orders, identifies the Yu Family mole Yu Zhulin, and helps recover Qin Yao's fallen comrades. 313

Qin Yao forces her to throw the Yu Family attackers' bodies into a pit and burn them while denouncing their crimes. She obeys outwardly, despite her horror and continued resentment. 314

After returning to Nine Suns Commandery, Qin Yao disguises himself as Yu Danhe and compels Yu Xiaoqian to act as his mouthpiece. She conveys his orders to Yu Family branches, records their contributions, and helps preserve the illusion that the ancestor remains in control. 322 324 325 334

Trivia

• Yu Xiaoqian's original ambition was to use military merit as a shortcut into Imperial Capital Academy rather than rely on the examination route expected by her family. 191
• Her pursuit of military merit directly contrasts with Qin Yao and Mao Yuchong's repeated concern for the Sharp Blade Squad's survival. 199
• She preferred being addressed as the Yu Family's “Second Miss” rather than as a general, indicating that she valued her clan status above her temporary military office. 231