Ren Qing

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Ren Qing (任青)
Alias(es)	Primordial Beginning (immortal name); Immortal Elder / Immortal Master
Species/Race	Human; corpse-liberation cultivator
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Primordial Beginning Temple (founder and master; recognized Immortal Ascension Sect branch lineage); Immortal Ascension Sect (inner disciple) 90 108 135
Occupation/Role	Daoist cultivator; formerly a coffin maker at Blessed Life Coffin Shop; seventh-rank probationary township magistrate 1 83
Status	Alive; True Immortal cultivating toward Profound Immortalhood through the Nine Violent Deaths and further development of his Primordial Beginning Dharma Body 122 132 150 161
First Appearance	The Corpse-Liberation Immortal of the Coffin Shop 1

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
First corpse liberation / first Molting	7, 8	Dies through the Liberation by Violence ritual and returns with access to his Niwan Palace, twenty percent control of divine consciousness, and talismans embedded beneath his skin.
Second metamorphosis	13	Completes a second corpse-liberation rebirth and uses the Metamorphosis Immortal Art to recover from its injuries.
Fire Dissolution	19	Achieves a leakless body, gains a lifespan exceeding a hundred years, and brings divine-consciousness control close to seventy percent.
Garment Dissolution and Coffin Dissolution	31	Returns after six days of Coffin Dissolution with over ninety percent mastery of divine consciousness and a clearly formed Primordial Spirit within the Niwan Palace.
Staff Dissolution	43, 45	Refines his Primordial Spirit through an emerald bamboo; both body and soul undergo another transformation.
Medicine Dissolution / immortal body	55	Completes the seventh Medicine Dissolution, forms an immortal body, and gains control over his vitality.
Yin Immortal	65	His body disintegrates into dust and reforms completely, marking his entry into the Yin Immortal stage.
Vapor-Feeding Immortal Art: Yin Immortal	72	Consecrates the Three Pure Ones Seal with his own Primordial Spirit and advances the Vapor-Feeding Immortal Art.
Five Elements Immortal Art: Yin Immortal	92	Advances the Five Elements Immortal Art to Yin Immortal.
Great Yin Corpse Liberation	100	Completes the ritual, gains a crescent moon within his Niwan Palace, and moves a step closer to True Immortalhood.
Primordial Spirit advancement / Dharma Eye	107	His Primordial Spirit advances again; he acquires the Dharma Eye method to better control it.
Heaven's Eye Immortal Art	111	Perfects the Heart-Eye Immortal Ascension Method using Demon Cultivator lineages, creating an immortal art that improves his perception and manipulation of heaven-and-earth aura and extends his divine consciousness.
Approaching Yin Immortal perfection	113	The Heaven's Eye accelerates his cultivation as the Metamorphosis Immortal Art approaches True Immortalhood and another Heart Demon Tribulation begins.
True Immortal	121, 122	Emerges from seclusion after surviving the Heart Demon Tribulation. Body and soul become a unified whole covered by Immortal Talismans, and the Mouse Children advance alongside him.
Three-Head Method / preliminary Dharma manifestation	131	Reworks the Three Profound Head-Replacement Method into his own inheritance, creates two auxiliary heads, and incorporates them into his Primordial Spirit. His immense manifestation destroys Three Azure Daoist.
Vapor-Feeding Immortal Art regression	132	Destroys the auxiliary heads rather than retain a three-headed, six-armed form, causing the art to regress to Yin Immortal perfection. A Heavenly Dao baptism separately strengthens his Primordial Spirit by roughly twenty percent.
Primordial Beginning Dharma Body: True Immortal	132	Uses the Six Methods of Naluo Reincarnation and Buddhist scripture insights to fuse his Corpse-Liberation Immortal Body and Heaven's Eye into the Dharma Body Immortal Art. His third immortal art reaches True Immortal.
Primordial Beginning statue: spare body	144	Refines the temple's statue into a living backup through which he can reconstruct his body and soul if disaster befalls him outside.
Nine Violent Deaths cultivation	150, 152, 157	Incorporates Buddhist artifacts into his body to reproduce violent deaths and deepen the Metamorphosis Immortal Art. The fourth artifact, Ganglin, stabilizes after days of agony; Profound Immortalhood remains a goal rather than an attained realm.
Five Violent Deaths / developing ninefold crown halo	161	Has incorporated five violent deaths. Refines three innate spiritual roots into his Niwan Palace, producing two halo rings and three Dao patterns above his Heaven's Eye. The roots have not fully merged, but his body can withstand the five deaths even while releasing the Dharma Body.

Background

Ren Qing came from a previous life in the Dharma-Ending Age, where he studied fragmentary Daoist inheritances and spent time enlightening himself in a psychiatric hospital’s Dragon Field. Having already attained immortality through corpse liberation once, he refuses to return to an ordinary mortal life. 2 19

He arrives in Water Mouth City and works at Blessed Life Coffin Shop alongside his father, Ren Shanshi. Song Baizhou’s posthumous ascension into the Yellow Mud Immortal exposes Ren Qing to the Immortal Ascension Sect and confirms that he has reached an Immortal Realm where the incomplete Daoist traditions of his old world may function again. 1 2 5

Ren Qing begins combining his former Daoist knowledge with local immortal ascension methods. His first major result is the Yellow Mud Eye, whose creation lets him perceive his Niwan Palace and establish the foundation for divine consciousness. 3

His former period of seclusion lasted five years. He remembers the psychiatric hospital fondly as a place suited to studying Daoist arts and discussing the Dao with fellow patients. Other patients reportedly accused him of drawing the entire hospital, including doctors and attendants, into cultivation. 19 32 50

Green Mountain Psychiatric Hospital later manifests as an illusion during his Heart Demon Tribulation. His consciousness returns to those former experiences after his memories of the new world are worn away, and that foundation enables him to overturn Heavenly Book Elder's attempted control. Ling Weizi interprets the manifestation as possible evidence that he is the reincarnation of a much greater being, but this remains her conjecture. 121 122

Appearance

Ren Qing is initially seen as an unremarkable young coffin maker in patched clothing, with red nose and hands from the winter cold. To most observers, he remains gentle-featured and outwardly ordinary even after becoming an immortal. 1 82

• His Fire Dissolution leaves his skin smooth and poreless, with a body described as leakless and immaculate. 19 31
• His projected divine consciousness often produces clouds, rosy light, a halo, and manifestations of the sun and moon. 16 31 72
• His Primordial Spirit wears azure robes and resembles both his present appearance and, faintly, his previous life. 31
• When his Primordial Spirit becomes unstable, immortal light can split from the back of his head and dissolve those who stare into it. 108
• His Heaven's Eye appears between his brows, while yin-yang twin fish revolve there during later displays of power. 111 130 132
• His preliminary Dharma manifestation has a jade face, golden countenance, sun-and-moon eyes, yin-yang symbols, and countless halos. Three Azure Daoist cannot withstand looking upon it. 131
• The completed Primordial Beginning Dharma Body largely preserves his usual appearance. His skin has the warm luster of jade, his hair moves without wind and carries flowing light, and his sleeves and movements follow an unusually natural Dao-like rhythm. 132
• Cultivation through the Nine Violent Deaths makes him appear gravely ill or near death to his disciples and enemies, even while he regards the suffering as productive cultivation. 157 158
• His developing crown-halo characteristic manifests as two halo rings and three Dao patterns above his Heaven's Eye. 161

Personality

Ren Qing is consumed by the pursuit of the Dao and regards immortality as the only path worth pursuing. He repeatedly insists that he follows an orthodox Daoist path, condemning demon cultivators, the Immortal Ascension Sect’s abuses, and methods that harm living people. 2 12 53 105

His self-image does not always match his conduct. He influences mortals with divine consciousness, uses enemies as cultivation resources, and privately treats Ren Shanshi’s emotional life and martial progress as “great medicine” for tempering his Dao heart. 7 29 60 105

He is cautious and highly pragmatic when danger threatens his cultivation. Ren Qing prefers surveillance, concealment, and prepared escape routes over direct exposure, but becomes decisive once he judges an opponent to be a threat. 27 39 50 100

His insistence on orthodoxy extends to revising inheritances. He removes soul-refinement content from Ling Weizi's guardian-god method and rejects Heavenly Book Elder's requirement to seize another person's Primordial Spirit. Even while unconscious, he annotates and transforms the Heavenly Book Method rather than accept its original principles. 113 121

Ren Qing strongly associates romantic entanglements with danger to his Dao heart. Pang Tianlan's marriage proposal and seductive influence lead him to regard her as an obstacle that must be eliminated, and her later affectionate letter provokes renewed disgust and killing intent. He also kills two women whose attempted seduction he treats as unwanted romantic luck. 152 156 157 161

He claims to value human relations and broad alliances, but resists social obligations that consume cultivation time. In Badu, he avoids answering invitations by declaring himself in seclusion while insisting that he has come to make friends. 141 142

He is willing to sacrifice immediate gains for a cultivation form consistent with his chosen identity. He destroys his auxiliary heads despite the resulting regression because a conventional three-headed, six-armed form does not suit his conception of Primordial Beginning. 132

His confidence can appear alarming to others. While he treats bodily torment and near-death conditions as improvements to his Dao heart, the Seven Immortals of the Temple fear that he is dying or suffering cultivation deviation. 157

Abilities & Skills

Corpse Liberation and Metamorphosis Immortal Art

Ren Qing repeatedly kills and revives himself through corpse-liberation rituals, using death as a means of refining both body and soul.

• Completed multiple Dissolutions, including Fire, Garment, Coffin, Staff, Medicine, and Great Yin Corpse Liberation. 19 31 43 55 100
• Regenerates severe injuries through the Metamorphosis Immortal Art; lost flesh and damaged organs can rapidly recover. 13 69
• Medicine Dissolution transformed his body into an immortal body with direct control over vitality. 55
• Earlier in his cultivation, his body remained a vulnerability: if destroyed before his Primordial Spirit could escape, he could not simply flee as a disembodied spirit. His later refinement of a spare Primordial Beginning statue provides a separate means of reconstructing his body and soul. 31 144
• Can absorb the life force of attacking demons to restore his own injuries, reducing the victims to drained remains. 69
• Uses regeneration to create two living heads for experimentation with the Three-Head Method. 131
• At True Immortal, further advancement requires finding a suitable method of death and rebirth rather than merely accumulating more inheritance knowledge. 122
• Develops a prospective route to Profound Immortalhood by feeding Buddhist artifacts corresponding to the Nine Violent Deaths with his own body. Each artifact inflicts sustained torment while supplying insight into corpse liberation. 150 151 152 157
• By the time he develops his crown halos, his body contains five violent deaths. Their strain initially limits him, but the spiritual-root refinement allows him to endure them while manifesting the Dharma Body. 161

Divine Consciousness and Primordial Spirit

Ren Qing’s divine consciousness is rooted in his Niwan Palace and eventually develops into a powerful Primordial Spirit.

• Senses locations, spiritual materials, Dao Children, and concealed activity at a distance. 3 9 26
• Can project his consciousness into mortals to dull worries or influence decisions. 7 12 24
• His Niwan Palace repelled invasive black qi after Bear Man’s death. 39
• His unstable Primordial Spirit releases lethal immortal light, though the resulting backlash damages his fleshly body. 108
• Repeated metamorphosis gradually adapts his flesh to heaven-and-earth aura, but unchecked Primordial Spirit growth continues to threaten his body until he develops better control and bodily reinforcement. 108 109 132
• Can reshape inheritances imposed upon his consciousness. Heavenly Book Elder's attempt to overwrite and subordinate him instead causes the elder's Dao heart to collapse. 121
• His divine consciousness overwhelms the Ten Thousand Immortals Temple during simultaneous study of its inheritances. Its jade statues and guardian deity kneel before him, while Corpse-Spirit Lord suffers severe backlash. 158

Vapor-Feeding Immortal Art and Imperial Court Scroll

Ren Qing restores the middle dantian through a human-skin painting and uses the Imperial Court Scroll to gather the breaths of heaven and earth.

• Absorbs rosy light, cloud qi, water qi, sunlight, moonlight, and other breaths to cultivate continuously. 31 76 78
• Creates the Sunrise Diagram, an illusory realm that can conceal his residence from hostile divine consciousness. 32 46
• Develops the Imperial Court Scroll into a small grotto-heaven capable of sheltering souls and cultivators. 73 101
• The art reaches Yin Immortal through the Three Pure Ones Seal. 72
• Can reproduce nourishment from Ren Shanshi's martial progress, allowing his father's external cultivation to strengthen his own body without personally practicing the same exercises. 33 76 108 137
• After his True Immortal advancement, the Small Grotto-Heaven becomes a lively miniature world inhabited by the Mouse Children. He extends it over Fortune-Life Martial Hall as an island surrounded by ocean and brands orthodox inheritances into it through the Three Pure Ones Seal. 122
• Can carry Primordial Beginning Temple away through the Scroll and establish it in a new location while concealing its aura. He uses this ability to create his Badu base in the Market Ward. 129 141
• Can divide off a fragment without damaging the art's foundation and restore the missing portion with divine consciousness. A fragment merged into Ren Shanshi's Niwan Palace stabilizes and conceals his soul and makes him appear to cultivate heaven-and-earth aura. 142
• Guides the residual souls of dead mortals into the Small Grotto-Heaven while reciting the Rebirth Mantra. He theorizes that they may eventually reincarnate there if it becomes a genuine world. 134
• Stores Dao-lineage inheritances in the Scroll so that registered disciples can comprehend them by visualization. 162

Five Elements Immortal Art

Ren Qing develops the Five Elements Immortal Art from Earth Escape and later incorporates other elemental methods.

• Uses Earth Escape to travel underground and establish concealed passages beneath his residence. 50 60
• Cultivates Wood Escape through his left arm and shares compatible methods with Mouse True Person. 60 62
• Escapes attacks and heals injuries through the Five Elements Immortal Art during the conflict over the Yin Immortal Head. 69
• Begins merging the Five Elements and Vapor-Feeding Immortal Arts, believing they may fully combine at the True Immortal stage. 93
• Assigns the elements to bodily regions: earth to the spine, wood to the left arm, fire to the right arm, metal to the shoulder-neck region, and water to the lower limbs. His initial Earth Escape is interrupted by other elements, including vegetation and metal ores. 50
• Draws upon the Nine Masses Nine Lives Mysterious Art and the Five Palaces Spirit-Refining Method to expand the art beyond escape techniques. 92
• Uses five-element aura to create landscape-like manifestations in combat against Glutton Gong Guanyin. 126
• Plans to cultivate bats as fire-element Mouse Children, broadening the temple's elemental disciples. 109

Enlightenment Divine Ability

Ren Qing can enlighten animals and transform them into Dao Children, disciples, or spirit attendants.

• His flesh can strengthen compatible Dao Children and grant them new forms or abilities. 9
• Compatibility is inconsistent; an attempt to enlighten Black Rat Dao Children through flesh caused them to die. 9
• Grants Daoist robes that protect disciples’ Primordial Spirits and allow them to conceal or summon the robes freely. 101
• Performs a second enlightenment on Sparrow Fairy, granting it a moon incarnation that can absorb moonlight and eventually affect celestial phenomena. 103
• Uses blood, enlightenment, and Daoist robes to repair the bodies and souls of Daoist Beisu, Jingfeng, Su Huo, and Li Yao after the Small Grotto-Heaven accidentally begins absorbing them. 101
• Enlightens demons, Half-Demons, zombies, and Great Medicines associated with Fortune-Life Martial Hall, improving their soul stability, intelligence, and cultivation potential. 101
• Enlightened birds and beasts show signs of becoming Dharma artifacts, whereas the humans he enlightens do not. Human souls may follow their connection back to the Scroll after bodily death. 101
• Uses the Heaven's Eye to place a Daoist robe around Ling Weizi's Primordial Spirit when accepting her into the lineage. 122
• Creates an unnamed cultivation tradition that connects practitioners to Spirit Stones and eventually manifests Daoist robes. Its practitioners unknowingly receive his enlightenment and become outer disciples of Primordial Beginning Temple. 143
• Performs further enlightenment on Ren Shanshi during the Prince's Residence incident. Cultivation of Ren Shanshi's Indestructible Vajra Body requires both abundant pure heaven-and-earth breath and enlightenment, placing the practitioner's life under Ren Qing's authority. 151 157

Painting Immortality Method and Great Dao Diagram

Ren Qing refines his own skin into a human-skin painting, recreating the middle dantian and gaining an art able to make falsehood resemble truth.

• Uses his skin painting as the foundation for the Imperial Court Scroll and Earth Immortal cultivation. 19
• The Great Dao Diagram manifests a human figure that destroys cultivators who obsess over it. 73 81
• His paintings can influence the surrounding environment, such as producing cloud, mist, and rain corresponding to the painted scene. 76

Dharma Seals and Temple Immortalization

Ren Qing refines seals through a self-created synthesis of Daoist and Immortal Ascension Sect methods.

• Gives Frog Immortal Lord an ownerless dharma seal engraved with its immortal name. 71
• Creates the Three Pure Ones Seal by consecrating it through worship of himself rather than ancestral masters. 72
• Uses the seal as a core component of Great Yin Corpse Liberation and Primordial Beginning Temple. 96 100
• Brands orthodox inheritances into the Imperial Court Scroll through the Three Pure Ones Seal to stabilize and develop its internal world. 122
• The seal later changes to recognize Ren Qing and his four principal disciples as Immortal Ascension Sect inner disciples, confirming the formation of their branch lineage. 135
• Refines the Primordial Beginning statue into a spare body capable of reconstructing his body and soul after an outside disaster. 144

Heaven's Eye Immortal Art

Ren Qing creates the Heaven's Eye Immortal Art by combining the Heart-Eye Immortal Ascension Method with former-life Dharma Eye knowledge and selected Demon Cultivator inheritances. The original Heart-Eye method requires removing both eyes and refining them into a single heart-eye, but he develops it according to his own circumstances. 107 109 110 111

• Draws upon the Thousand-Eyed Golden Light Method and Wraith Spirit Falling-Eye Arcane Art, which concern soul-piercing divine sense and the containment of wraith ghosts respectively. 110 111
• Improves perception and control of heaven-and-earth aura and assists cultivation. 111
• Allows divine consciousness to remain wherever the eye can reach instead of dissipating a few hundred meters from his body. 111
• Can see through layers of buildings and communicate orders to his disciples. 126 142
• Enables him to examine many Dao inheritances simultaneously at the Ten Thousand Immortals Temple. 158
• Becomes a foundation of the Primordial Beginning Dharma Body rather than remaining an isolated eye technique. 132

Primordial Beginning Dharma Body

Ren Qing develops the Dharma Body Immortal Art through experimentation with the Three-Head Method, the Heaven's Eye, and the Great Sun Glazed Fundamental Scripture. He ultimately uses the Six Methods of Naluo Reincarnation to overlap his Primordial Spirit and physical body through seventy-two acupoints, covering his Corpse-Liberation Immortal Body with Dharma Body Immortal Talismans. 131 132

• Rejects permanent adoption of the three-headed, six-armed form and names the resulting art the Primordial Beginning Dharma Body. 132
• Reaches True Immortal as his third immortal art and gives him an intense, naturally expressed spiritual authority. Ordinary people risk destruction of body and soul merely by looking toward its manifestation. 132
• Can scatter essence, qi, and spirit through the wind across Three Rivers Prefecture and perceive each dispersed thread, allowing him to search streets, alleys, and concealed locations. 133
• Uses Buddhist inheritance knowledge as a reference while insisting that his finished cultivation must retain Daoist principles. 129 132
• Refines a Buddha Embryo toward eventual merger with his body and soul. By his visit to the Ten Thousand Immortals Temple, only a third of it remains unmerged. 143 157
• Develops the Primordial Beginning Heavenly Venerable's “ninefold halo on the crown” as a new characteristic by refining three innate spiritual roots with talismans concerning essence, qi, and spirit. The initial result produces two rings and three Dao patterns, with further integration still required. 161

Heavenly Book Method and Dao-Lineage Synthesis

Ren Qing's exceptional comprehension allows him to alter foreign inheritances rather than simply follow them.

• Rewrites Heavenly Book Elder's soul-seizing method while unconscious, rejecting its requirement to refine another person's Primordial Spirit into a book. The elder cannot impose his original lineage and suffers cultivation deviation. 121 122
• Transforms Three Azure Daoist's intended Three Profound Head-Replacement Method into a substantially different Three-Head Method and subsequent Dharma Body foundation. 131
• Collects pill formulas, artifact formulas, and Yin Corpse Dao inheritances from Ling Weizi to develop Primordial Beginning Temple. 122
• Studies the altered inheritances at the Ten Thousand Immortals Temple as references, then deposits them in the Imperial Court Scroll for his disciples. 158 162

Combat Techniques and Artifact Refinement

• Summons the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation, surrounding Glutton Gong Guanyin with destructive Sword Qi after its defenses begin adapting to elemental attacks. 126
• Uses the Heaven-Flipping Seal through Frog Immortal Lord to crush and split the weakened Buddha Child. 126
• Works with Frog Immortal Lord to refine Pang Su's Buddha bodies into Buddhist artifacts corresponding to violent deaths. 150 151 152
• His essence, blood, bones, and flesh give the Five-Element Mouse Children's artifacts a chance to develop into magical treasures, though the temple initially lacks a suitable refinement inheritance. 137
• Delegates formation work to specialists because Formation Dao does not interest him. He permits the Seven Immortals to use forty percent of the temple's heaven-and-earth breath for their arrangements. 162

Spirit Stone Economy and Sect Administration

Ren Qing organizes his cultivation resources into an increasingly elaborate institutional and commercial system.

• Establishes separate pill-refining and artifact-refining rooms staffed by Mouse Children selected for their aptitude. 114
• Assigns formal temple responsibilities to Frog Immortal Lord, Fish Immortal, Mouse True Person, and Sparrow Fairy. 122
• Places the six shops adjoining the Badu temple under Li Yao's management. 142
• Plans a staged Spirit Stone exchange system: initially one depleted stone for one replacement, then progressively less favorable rates, followed by resource exchanges once cultivators depend on them. He intends the temple to determine their value. 143
• Recognizes that demonic qi can contaminate heaven-and-earth qi and considers expanding the Spirit Stone business to Demon Cultivator clans to accelerate the Imperial Court Scroll's cultivation. 151
• Uses the Market Ward's unexpected acceptance of posthumous corpse absorption to promote its development, while preserving his own immortal arts from disclosure when seeking outside inheritances. 157

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Imperial Court Scroll — His reconstructed middle dantian, breath reservoir, illusory realm, and developing small grotto-heaven. It later houses True Immortal Mouse Children, preserves residual souls, transports the temple, and stores inheritances accessible through visualization. 31 73 101 122 134 141 162
• Three Pure Ones Seal — A dharma seal bearing the immortal name “Primordial Beginning” and merged with part of his Primordial Spirit. Its later transformation confirms the temple's branch lineage and the inner-disciple status of Ren Qing and his four principal disciples. 72 135
• Great Dao Diagram — A human-skin painting refined from Ren Qing’s own skin. 19 73
• Yellow Mud Eye — A consumable talisman treasure used for remote observation and perception; it gradually cracked through repeated use. 3 7 12
• Daoist robes — Spirit garments bestowed upon his disciples to protect their Primordial Spirits. 101
• Primordial Beginning statue — The temple's central statue, first used with the Three Pure Ones Seal during Great Yin Corpse Liberation and later refined into a living spare body. 96 144
• Buddha Embryo — A Buddhist cultivation resource investigated after Li Yao identifies her family's jade Buddha as a possible source. Ren Qing refines it with Immortal Talismans and gold and gradually merges it with his body and soul. 135 141 143 157
• Heavenly Staff — A Buddhist artifact worn as prayer beads that reproduces the torment of hanging, one of the Nine Violent Deaths. 150 151
• Bone pestle — His second Buddhist artifact, implanted at the Zhongwan Acupoint. It causes extreme dryness and thirst while supplying Buddhist insights. 152
• Ganglin — His fourth Buddhist artifact, a cracked bone covered in Sanskrit and embedded in his spine. Its incorporation causes days of agony before his four violent deaths stabilize. 157
• Three innate spiritual roots — Materials refined into his Niwan Palace to develop the Dharma Body's ninefold crown halo. Their integration remains incomplete when the first two halo rings appear. 161
• Indestructible Vajra Body manual — Ren Shanshi's poorly written external-cultivation inheritance, submitted by Ren Qing to the Ten Thousand Immortals Temple. Despite its chaotic presentation, it is accepted as a new inheritance and exerts a disturbing influence on Corpse-Spirit Lord. 157 158

Relationships

• Ren Shanshi — His father and former coffin-shop partner. Ren Qing protects and cultivates him, but also views his emotional attachments and martial progress as a means of tempering his own Dao heart. Ren Shanshi's training feeds bodily nourishment back to him. In Badu, Ren Qing conceals his father's soul with a Scroll fragment, further enlightens him during the Prince's Residence incident, and seeks to preserve his Indestructible Vajra Body as a written inheritance. 2 12 33 60 105 142 151 157
• Frog Immortal Lord — Eldest disciple and toad Dao Child. It guards resources, refines pills, digs underground passages, and receives a dharma seal from Ren Qing. It becomes the temple's chief seat, wields the Heaven-Flipping Seal in battle, and helps refine Pang Su's Buddha bodies into artifacts. 1 50 71 122 126 150 151
• Fish Immortal — Enlightened fish disciple that transforms into a dragon-like creature after absorbing the Sunrise Diagram’s power. Ren Qing assigns it responsibility for enforcing temple discipline. It later appears as a True Dragon to Yun Niang. 24 32 122 150
• Mouse True Person — Formerly Dou Sangu; Ren Qing accepts him as a disciple after he disperses his demon cultivation. He commands Mouse Children and manages many of Ren Qing’s affairs. He becomes responsible for teaching, verifies Ling Weizi's approach, organizes investigations, and handles the temple's visitors and commercial arrangements. 46 47 101 113 122 132 142 143
• Sparrow Fairy — A sparrow Dao Child used as Ren Qing’s scout from the beginning of his time in Water Mouth City. After second enlightenment, it gains a moon incarnation. Ren Qing appoints it to ritual affairs; it safely consumes Buddha Child scriptures that assist his cultivation and gains the Buddhist title “Venerable Dixuan Yuanling.” 2 103 122 126 131 132 135
• Daoist Beisu — A cultivator repeatedly intimidated by Ren Qing’s methods. Beisu later provides a spirit talisman pointing toward True Immortal inheritance. After Ren Qing rescues him from absorption into the Small Grotto-Heaven, Beisu believes he has become an immortal elder's outer disciple and later helps refine pills and artifacts. 30 90 101 135
• Li Yao — A woman Ren Qing protects when a Buddhist scripture parasitizes her soul; he suspects her connection to the Western Regions’ Buddha Children. She supplies information about her family's possible Buddha Embryo, receives cultivation resources from him, and takes charge of the temple's six Badu shops. 102 135 142 143
• Three Flowers / Three Incense Lady — Former adversary who abandons immortal ascension methods to become a Demon Cultivator and Three Rivers Prefect; she recognizes Ren Qing as an Immortal Ascension Sect inner disciple. She supplies access to Demon Cultivator inheritances and sends Ling Weizi to assist his advancement. Ren Qing later acknowledges owing her a favor for eight Dao lineages. 108 110 113 124
• Ling Weizi — A True Immortal who approaches on Three Incense Lady's behalf and initially intends to rely on his prospective branch lineage for inner-sect resources. Ren Qing accepts her after Mouse True Person's verification, later registers her as a disciple through enlightenment, and employs her alchemical and artifact-refinement knowledge. Her guarded pragmatism develops into deep respect mixed with fear of his power. 113 122 131 135
• Yun Niang — Ren Shanshi's partner and an important member of the household. Ren Qing initially treats her presence as useful for Dao-heart tempering, later approves of her possible pregnancy, and provides Daoist recitations for the unborn child's prenatal education. He reassures her during Ren Shanshi's absence and invites her to visit the temple. 38 141 150
• Seven Immortals of the Temple / Ghost Quarter Masters — Former concealed observers who become associated with Primordial Beginning Temple. They advise on magical treasures, formations, and outside resources. Alarmed by his apparent decline during violent-death cultivation, they direct him toward the Ten Thousand Immortals Temple. 133 137 144 157 162
• Jingfeng — Rescued alongside Beisu from the Small Grotto-Heaven. She receives a clearer path toward Yin Immortalhood and reveres Ren Qing as an immortal elder, later participating in pill and artifact work. 101 135
• Su Huo — The martial artist whose Iron Body Art helps initiate Ren Shanshi's training. Ren Qing later rescues and enlightens him, while Su Huo continues maintaining Fortune-Life Martial Hall with relatively little interest in immortal cultivation. 12 13 101 135
• Shan Xin — A novice monk of Great Sun Lapis Lazuli Temple who witnesses Ren Qing defeat Glutton Gong Guanyin. Unable to perceive karmic sin on him, Shan Xin wonders whether he is a legendary Tathagata; this is an observer's speculation, not a confirmed identity. 126
• Heavenly Book Elder — An adversary who attempts to replace and control Ren Qing through the Heavenly Book Method. Ren Qing's unconscious revision of the inheritance destroys the elder's confidence and causes cultivation deviation. 121
• Three Azure Daoist — A Profound Immortal who covertly introduces the Three Profound Head-Replacement Method to exploit Ren Qing's bodily weakness. Ren Qing's reinterpretation defeats the scheme, and Three Azure Daoist disintegrates after witnessing his manifestation and declaring him “the world's only immortal.” 131
• Lord Food — A True Immortal whose brine-shop inheritances become resources for Ren Qing. He covets Ren Qing's Primordial Spirit and internal world, but is later annihilated during Ren Qing's confrontation over a Buddha Child. 91 96 129 130
• Pang Su — An imperial prince born as nine bodies sharing one soul. One corpse offers Ren Qing the position of imperial preceptor in exchange for revival and help obtaining the throne. Ren Qing instead uses the bodies as sources for violent-death artifacts, while suspecting that Pang Su's cooperation may conceal another purpose. 150 151 161
• Pang Tianlan — Great Yao's fifty-sixth imperial child. She offers marriage and imperial cultivation resources if Ren Qing helps her claim the throne. He rejects the proposal, suspects she covets his body, and resolves to kill her for threatening his Dao heart. Her later love letter renews his killing intent. 152 161
• Corpse-Spirit Lord — A cultivator who investigates him at the Ten Thousand Immortals Temple. Attempts to perceive Ren Qing cause his eyes to burst, and he later flees after suffering further backlash and involuntary absorption of the Indestructible Vajra Body manual. 158

Story Role / Major Arcs

Water Mouth City and the Immortal Ascension Sect

Ren Qing investigates Song Baizhou’s Yellow Mud Immortal ascension, discovers Zhao Xiaoliu’s connection to the Yellow Mud Immortal Ascension Method, and begins cultivating in secret beneath the coffin shop. 2 3 7

He undermines Wish-Fulfillment Abbey and its Immortal Ascension Assembly while using its members and remains to complete Garment and Coffin Dissolution. His indirect actions convince outside cultivators that a terrifying unknown power stands behind him. 26 29 30 31

Demon Cultivators and Medicine Dissolution

As Water Mouth City falls under increasing demonic pressure, Ren Qing develops the Five Elements Immortal Art and uses the demon cultivators’ White Bone Cauldron to complete Medicine Dissolution. The process kills the demons attempting to refine him into a Transformation Pill. 50 53 55

Yin Immortal and the Move to Three Rivers

Ren Qing reaches Yin Immortal, creates the Three Pure Ones Seal, survives heart-demon tribulations, and leaves Water Mouth City with his disciples for Three Rivers Prefecture. The imperial court appoints him and his disciples as probationary township magistrates. 65 72 81 83

Primordial Beginning Temple

In Three Rivers Prefecture, Ren Qing establishes Primordial Beginning Temple, seeks True Immortal inheritances, and absorbs multiple Dao lineages from Xu’s Brine Shop. He also begins shaping his disciples and temple into a distinct Dao-lineage inheritance. 90 91 93 95

After attaining True Immortalhood, he turns the temple into a more formally organized sect. Frog Immortal Lord becomes chief seat, Fish Immortal enforces discipline, Mouse True Person oversees teaching, and Sparrow Fairy manages ritual affairs. Ling Weizi joins as a registered disciple and contributes alchemical, artifact, and lineage knowledge. 122

The Immortal Ascension Sect recognizes the temple as a potential branch lineage and requires formal establishment through the Outer Sect Grand Tournament. The Three Pure Ones Seal later confirms the branch's formation and recognizes Ren Qing and his four principal disciples as inner disciples. 122 135

Great Yin Corpse Liberation

Ren Qing completes Great Yin Corpse Liberation, gains a moon within his Niwan Palace, and continues searching for the unrecorded Pure Yang Corpse Release needed to pursue True Immortalhood. 96 100 105

His increasingly powerful Primordial Spirit begins tearing open his head and releasing lethal immortal light. To stabilize it, he obtains the Heart-Eye method and Demon Cultivator eye inheritances, then completes the Heaven's Eye Immortal Art in four days. The temple resumes preparations for Pure Yang Corpse Release as the moon behind his head approaches fullness. 108 109 110 111

True Immortalhood and Heavenly Book Elder

As his cultivation approaches completion, Ling Weizi offers assistance and a guardian-god refinement method. Ren Qing removes its soul-refinement portion and passes the modified method to Ren Shanshi, opening another path for his father's external martial arts. 113

During the ensuing Heart Demon Tribulation, Heavenly Book Elder attempts to erase and replace Ren Qing's consciousness. An illusion of Green Mountain Psychiatric Hospital appears, and Ren Qing unconsciously rewrites the imposed Heavenly Book Method. The elder suffers cultivation deviation and flees. Ren Qing awakens as a True Immortal and discovers that the Mouse Children have advanced with him inside the Small Grotto-Heaven. 117 121 122

Buddha Children and the Primordial Beginning Dharma Body

Ren Qing investigates the Buddhist corruption spreading through Ghost Quarter and defeats Glutton Gong Guanyin with elemental manifestations, the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation, and the Heaven-Flipping Seal. Sparrow Fairy retrieves the scripture from its skull, supplying further Buddhist inheritance knowledge. 125 126

He continues confronting Buddha Children and opposing forces. Lord Food is annihilated, while Sparrow Fairy refines Many-Faced Guanyin's scripture. Three Azure Daoist then attempts to exploit Ren Qing's bodily weakness through the Three Profound Head-Replacement Method, but Ren Qing transforms the inheritance into a more profound technique. The resulting manifestation destroys Three Azure Daoist. 129 130 131

Ren Qing rejects a permanent three-headed form, accepts a regression in the Vapor-Feeding Immortal Art, and instead fuses his Corpse-Liberation Immortal Body and Heaven's Eye using Buddhist reincarnation methods. The completed Primordial Beginning Dharma Body reaches True Immortal and gives him a new means of regional perception. 132 133

Heavenly Immortal Encounter and the Journey to Badu

Ren Qing witnesses an enormous, incomprehensible face behind the full moon bite away one-third of Heavenly Dao's Liver. He suspects it is one of the Immortal Ascension Sect's rumored Heavenly Immortals. The encounter forces him to spend a night stabilizing his Dao heart and intensifies his desire for greater cultivation resources. 135

Li Yao identifies a jade Buddha once possessed by her father as a possible Buddha Embryo. Ren Qing plans a journey through Salt Township toward Badu, combining that investigation with a family visit for Yun Niang. In Salt Township, he gathers hundreds of souls threatened by the embryo while Ren Shanshi and his disciples defeat Ghost Infants. He concludes that the force behind the embryo must eventually be destroyed to prevent another outbreak. 135 137 141

Badu Market Ward and Spirit Stone Expansion

Ren Qing enters Badu ahead of his household and uses the Imperial Court Scroll to establish Fortune-Life Martial Hall and conceal Primordial Beginning Temple in the impoverished Market Ward. He views the district's thick foul qi as a commercial opportunity, although his Heart Demon Tribulation begins stirring again. 141

He avoids lengthy invitations from local factions by declaring himself in seclusion, assigns the temple's six shops to Li Yao, and disguises Ren Shanshi's soul and aura with a Scroll fragment. The disguise causes others to mistake his father for Primordial Beginning. 142

Ren Qing introduces a Spirit Stone-linked cultivation tradition that effectively enlightens its practitioners into outer disciples. He plans progressively less favorable exchange rates to make the temple the center of their resource economy, while refining the Buddha Embryo and converting the Primordial Beginning statue into a spare body. 143 144

Prince's Residence and the Nine Violent Deaths

Ren Shanshi becomes entangled in Pang Su's affairs at the Prince's Residence. Ren Qing investigates after sensing Buddhist cultivation resources there and begins refining the prince's Buddha bodies into artifacts representing violent deaths. Pang Su's corpse reveals the competition among nine bodies sharing one soul and offers Ren Qing imperial office in return for revival. 144 150

Ren Qing treats the Nine Violent Deaths as a possible route for advancing the Metamorphosis Immortal Art to Profound Immortal. He incorporates the Heavenly Staff and bone pestle, enduring hanging and thirst while gaining cultivation insights. He also further enlightens Ren Shanshi during the confrontation. 150 151 152

Pang Tianlan subsequently offers marriage and imperial resources in exchange for help ascending the throne. Ren Qing rejects her approach and resolves to eliminate her, believing her seductive influence and interest in his body threaten his cultivation. 152

Ten Thousand Immortals Temple and the Crown Halos

Ren Qing's violent-death cultivation makes him appear dangerously ill. The Seven Immortals urge him to seek inheritances and materials at the Ten Thousand Immortals Temple, where he submits Ren Shanshi's Indestructible Vajra Body manual rather than expose his own immortal arts. He completes the fourth artifact, Ganglin, before departing. 157

At the temple, his Heaven's Eye enables simultaneous examination of many inheritances. His divine consciousness overwhelms the statues and guardian deity, while Corpse-Spirit Lord suffers repeated backlash and flees after reading the martial manual. 158

With five violent deaths already straining his body, Ren Qing refines three innate spiritual roots to develop the Dharma Body's ninefold crown halo. The incomplete fusion produces two rings and three Dao patterns and allows him to withstand the deaths while releasing his Dharma Body. Pang Tianlan's affectionate letter interrupts his satisfaction and renews his killing intent. 161

He then deposits the temple inheritances into the Imperial Court Scroll for registered disciples, authorizes the Seven Immortals' formation work, and continues contemplating the five deaths while awaiting Mouse True Person's information about Pang Tianlan. 162

Notable Quotes

“The Great Dao is within reach.” 31

“No matter who it is, anyone who dares plot against this poor Daoist has only one road to death!!” 100

“Seizing through techniques and benefiting oneself at another's expense has already fallen into the crooked path of heresy. It is absolutely not the conduct of righteous cultivation.” 121

“One cannot travel far on the path of the Dao by fighting alone. Getting to know more fellow cultivators can only be a good thing.” 142

“With your root bone, you are certain to become a Heavenly Immortal.” — Pang Tianlan to Ren Qing. 152

“Boundless Heavenly Venerable. This person covets my flesh.” 152

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