Qi He

Biodata

Feature	Details
Name	Qi He (齐河)
Alias(es)	Alliance Leader Qi; Mr. Qi
Species/Race	Human; formerly an ordinary mortal of Boyang Village 337
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Heyang Rogue Cultivators' Alliance (leader); Boyang Village 337
Occupation/Role	Alliance leader; organizer of rogue cultivators; Ye Xiu's first direct disciple 337 637
Status	Alive; stabilized at the mid-stage Nascent Soul Realm 868
First Appearance	Chapter 304

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Foundation Establishment Realm	391	Publicly identified as a Foundation Establishment rogue cultivator while negotiating with Divine Armory.
Late-stage Foundation Establishment	481	His cultivation advances smoothly through Alliance resources; he is described as one opportunity away from Golden Core.
Core Formation Realm	627	He forcibly breaks through, then progresses through the early and middle stages and approaches the end of the late stage without encountering the expected bottleneck.
Mid-stage Nascent Soul Realm	868	His overflowing spiritual power triggers heavenly tribulation. He withstands forty-five lightning bolts with Ye Xiu's aid and stabilizes directly at mid-stage Nascent Soul.

Background and Story Role

Boyang Village

Qi He's father led Boyang Village's young men against a malignant entity hidden in the local mine after the villagers discovered a mineral vein. The campaign failed: his father and the other fighters died, the entity grew stronger, and the families connected to the failed expedition were ostracized and forced into the mine's most dangerous tunnels. 304

Determined to avenge his family and escape the village's fate, Qi He led local youths into the abandoned tunnels to investigate the evil spirit. He concealed his fear to keep the group focused and sought Ye Xiu's help in exchange for information about the entity. 305

Qi He later fought Yang Ming, an exotic beast posing as a cultivator. Though his body was badly mangled, he continued gripping his sword, exposed Yang Ming's bluff, and helped kill him. 310

Ye Xiu's Guidance

Cornered by the Young Prince and a fiend beast, Qi He initially panicked but found the resolve to resist after Ye Xiu reminded him never to lose the courage to draw his sword. He was swallowed by the beast, survived its interior realm, and destroyed it from within with Ye Xiu's assistance. 312 313

Afterward, Ye Xiu supplied Qi He with firearms. Their use allowed Qi He to expose the Yang Family's crimes and win the villagers' support against the family's remaining power. 314

Qi He refused to treat his rise as a personal escape. He organized the mining and distribution of spirit stones, encouraged villagers to cultivate, and argued that Boyang Village could not remain dependent on stronger cultivators. 316 318 319

Rise of the Heyang Alliance

Qi He recruited and trained ordinary people and rogue cultivators rather than discarding inexperienced fighters. He viewed them as equals in a shared struggle against the cultivation world's exploitation of mortals. 331

Following the capture of Heyang City, he led the Rogue Cultivators' Alliance in distributing supplies, pacifying Netherworld Road, and managing the city's resources. His role in uniting scattered forces, arming them with his own family wealth, and helping eliminate the Blood Eagle King and the Eldest Heir secured his authority despite his youth. 337

When the Wen Sheng Alliance's hostility caused members to consider leaving, Qi He faced the resulting internal crisis as the Alliance's recognized leader. 394

Trials, Industry, and Defense

Qi He attacked Pavilion Master Yan in despair over Heyang's future and the gap between his ideals and reality. Pavilion Master Yan killed him during the encounter; Qi He later awakened and learned that the trial had removed a hidden danger from him. 408 409

He subsequently pushed the Alliance to support rogue cultivator alchemists, founding a Pill-Seeking Ceremony to challenge the Divine Pill Sect's monopoly over Foundation Establishment Pills. 413 414

As Heyang faced crazed beasts and an approaching beast tide, Qi He lowered the price of spirit guns to arm the city and pursued a more militarized defense policy. 447

After killing a mountain-like aberration manifestation, he initially struggled with the panic among Heyang's cultivators. Challenged by Ye Xiu and Qi Long, he publicly defended rogue cultivators' contributions, vowed to protect the city, and promised rewards to Alliance members willing to fight. 459 460

Personality

Qi He is driven by resentment toward the system that treated his family and village as expendable, but his goal is broader than revenge. He seeks to create conditions in which ordinary people and rogue cultivators can resist exploitation rather than simply producing another hierarchy with himself at the top. 315 320

He is pragmatic and demanding as a leader. Qi He expects sincerity and reciprocal effort before committing Alliance resources, as shown when he refused to rescue Heyang Village without proof that its people were prepared to fight for themselves. 322

His composure is hard-won rather than innate. He has panicked in life-or-death situations and has acted recklessly when overwhelmed by despair, but repeatedly regains his resolve and learns from Ye Xiu's guidance. 312 408 409

As the Alliance matures, Qi He adopts a collective view of leadership: a leader must preserve dignity, opportunities, and material benefits for those who follow him. 627

Abilities & Skills

Firearms Combat

Qi He is a practiced spirit-gun user who integrates firearms into squad tactics and close-range combat.

• Commands disciplined reload-and-fire volleys against enemy cultivators. 331
• Uses firearms with an effective range of approximately three hundred zhang, allowing his forces to strike fleeing enemies beyond their own movement range. 331
• Combines a large-caliber handgun with ice-based sword techniques when attempting an assassination against Pavilion Master Yan. 408
• Can use Lord of the Clouds' predictive calculations to select firearm attack routes, though the process consumes more than half his spiritual power at once. 413

Leadership and Organization

Qi He's greatest strength is his ability to turn scattered civilians and rogue cultivators into a coordinated force.

• Armed Boyang Village and used public evidence to dismantle the Yang Family's control. 314
• Distributed mining proceeds while encouraging villagers to retain resources for cultivation. 318
• Trained inexperienced recruits instead of abandoning them as liabilities. 331
• Organized Heyang's resource management, military rewards, alchemy initiatives, and citywide mobilization. 337 414 485 469

Lord of the Clouds

Lord of the Clouds is an intelligence and combat-assistance system available to Qi He.

• Records opponents' spiritual-energy fluctuations and generates predictive combat models. 413
• Provides attack simulations after Qi He selects a direction of attack. 413
• Gives Qi He strategic confidence by supplying information and plans beyond what his own cultivation alone could provide. 399 409

Armor and Thunder Techniques

Qi He can amplify his combat ability through Divine Armory equipment.

• Power armor increases his spiritual-power output and speed. 486
• Uses a ring of lightning identified as Ninefold Thunderclap, which blocks ghost claws and harms nearby wandering souls. 486
• Pilots a fighter whose overloaded spiritual-power infusion dramatically increases its straight-line speed. 437

Equipment

• Spirit firearms — His principal weapons and the foundation of his early militia tactics. 314 331
• Ritual-style longsword — Used alongside a firearm; can create ice to restrict an opponent's movement. 408
• Power armor — Divine Armory equipment that raises his mobility and spiritual-power presence. 486
• Fighter mech — A steel combat machine capable of extreme speed under spiritual-power overload. 437
• Lord of the Clouds — Intelligence and predictive-combat assistance system. 399 413
• Verdant scaled armor and dragon-hide umbrella — Two Instruments of Authority lent by Ye Xiu during Qi He's Nascent Soul tribulation; forged from the remains of an ancient evil dragon and used to command wind-and-cloud Dao laws against heavenly lightning. 868

Relationships

• Ye Xiu / Mo Buping — Mentor and first teacher. Ye Xiu supported Qi He's rise from Boyang Village, armed his early forces, guided his political decisions, and aided his Nascent Soul tribulation. 314 337 413 868
• Boyang Village residents — Qi He's original community. He transforms their relationship from dependence on a village strongman into collective mining, cultivation, and armed resistance. 315 318
• Ping Qingyun — An old friend who first dealt with Boyang Village while distributing medicinal products; later reunites with Qi He as a Divine Armory representative. 326 431
• Qi Long — An initially tense ally. Qi Long criticizes the rogue cultivators' fear during Heyang's crisis, prompting Qi He to publicly defend the Alliance and its role in the city's defense. 459 460
• Ai Yu — One of Qi He's early companions. Qi He rebukes him for dismissing inexperienced recruits and insists that all mortals seeking resistance deserve a chance to grow. 331
• Ji Ye — Ye Xiu's second direct disciple and Qi He's junior fellow disciple. Qi He's established achievements and standing are frequently contrasted with Ji Ye's later struggles for recognition. 637

Notable Quotes

“What's this? Do cultivators who think themselves above all others feel fear too?”
—Qi He, confronting Yang Ming 310

“Rogue cultivators are by no means beyond saving. Even without the codes of conduct and rules of those great sects to restrain us, we can still unite.”
—Qi He 460