Zhou Chen

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Zhou Chen (周辰)
Species/Race	Human
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Zheng Family Martial Arts Hall; trained under Master Zheng's three-month special trial 4
Occupation/Role	Fish seller; martial-arts disciple
Status	Alive 18
First Appearance	Chapter 1

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Fish-Cutting Saber Technique — Major Accomplishment, 2560/3000	1	His pre-martial skill, developed through his work preparing and selling fish.
Skin Tempering Realm — Initiation, 1/1000	6	Learned the Stake-Standing Exercise and successfully displayed his first cultivation progress.
Skin Tempering Realm — Initiation, 3/1000	6	Reached after a morning of painful Coiling Python Stance training.
First-Rank Skin Tempering Realm — Initiation, 8/1000	7	Advanced through food-supported training over the afternoon.
First-Rank Skin Tempering Realm — Initiation, 208/1000	7	Burned one foot of Mist Incense, gaining 200 proficiency points and a major physical enhancement.
First-Rank Skin Tempering Realm — Initiation, 613/1000	12	Reached after roughly a month and a half of relentless training and consuming Black Meat; his skin had become cowhide-tough.
First-Rank Skin Tempering Realm — Initiation, 623/1000	15	Continued accumulating qi, blood, and Mist Incense while approaching the three-month deadline.
First-Rank Skin Tempering Realm — Initiation, 628/1000	16	Prepared to force a breakthrough by lighting accumulated Mist Incense.
First-Rank Skin Tempering Realm — Initiation, 999/1000	17	Reached the threshold without encountering a Realm Barrier.
First-Rank Skin Tempering Realm — Minor Accomplishment, 1/2000	17	Officially became a First-Rank Martial Artist; awakened Copper Skin and greatly increased physical strength.

Background / History

Zhou Chen transmigrated into a Black Mist-corrupted world after a previous life as an orphan. Though his new family lived in poverty, he came to value the warmth and care of his father, mother, and younger sister as his own blood family. He and Zhou Tian spent years selling and processing mutated fish to save for martial-arts tuition, seeing martial cultivation as their only route out of the Outer City's dangers and deprivation 1.

His family's savings were stolen by his grandfather and uncle to secure a position for his cousin Zhou Ping in the Feng Household. When Zhou Yu offered to sell herself to the predatory Chen Residence so he could continue training, Zhou Chen refused and resolved to protect her instead. Zhou Tian then entrusted him with a lump of strange flesh recovered from a Mist Monster battle 2.

He brought the flesh to the Zheng Family Martial Arts Hall, where Master Zheng identified it as Black Taisui, a supreme-grade treasure reportedly worth more than a thousand gold in the Inner City. Although Zheng judged Zhou Chen's bone aptitude to be lower-middle grade, he granted Zhou three months of Direct Disciple-equivalent treatment to reach the First Rank; failure would leave him only a steward at the hall 4.

While training, Zhou secretly exploited the Divine Statue within his mind. He purchased heavily contaminated Black Meat to generate Mist Incense, tested its varieties, and found Eye Meat particularly efficient for growing the incense root 7 11. His training was driven not only by ambition, but by the need to protect his family from gangs, starvation, Miasma Poison, and Mist Monsters.

After overhearing Zhang Mingfei's plan to abduct Zhou Yu, Zhou murdered Zhang and four Greenhide gang members. The killings removed an immediate threat, but also marked a shift toward calculated ruthlessness: Zhou chose to kill one gang member even after witnessing him care for his wife and daughter, deciding that survival required becoming someone capable of “eating people” before others consumed his family 9 10 11.

His growing qi and blood later saved him from an Echoing Wraith, a low-grade Mist Monster that attempted to lure him outside through a dream of his former workplace. The experience made his need for strength more urgent 11 12. He eventually used Mist Incense to break into the First Rank, gaining Copper Skin immediately upon his breakthrough 17.

Appearance

Initially described as thin and frail, Zhou's body rapidly changed after using Mist Incense to advance his cultivation. By his First-Rank breakthrough, he had grown several inches taller and could display a dark bronze sheen across his Copper Skin 7 17.

• Wears the Zheng Family Martial Arts Hall's black-and-gray training uniform when attending the hall 4.
• Carries a date-red Zheng Martial Arts Hall token, which grants him visible status and protection in Qingtian District 4 8.
• His fully activated Copper Skin gives his body a dark bronze luster and metallic resilience 17.

Personality

Zhou is practical, ambitious, and sharply aware that poverty offers no lasting protection. He does not romanticize martial arts: to him, cultivation is a way to secure food, safety, status, and a future for his family. He carefully listens to instruction, measures the value of food and resources, and conceals his Divine Statue rather than relying on public recognition 5 7 11.

His strongest attachment is to his immediate family. He refuses to let Zhou Yu be sold to the Chen Residence, tends to his injured father, and treats his family's small successes as motivation to continue advancing 2 9 16. This protectiveness can become extreme; when Zhang Mingfei threatens his household, Zhou resolves to kill rather than tolerate a continuing risk 9 10.

Zhou is also increasingly strategic and ruthless. He absorbs Master Zheng's lesson that survival favors concealment, surprise attacks, decisive force, and escape. Against Ma Pengcheng, he avoids an open fight he cannot yet win, intending instead to act only once he holds overwhelming superiority 14 18.

Abilities & Skills

Divine Statue

A mysterious statue located within Zhou Chen's mind, visible only to him. It purifies Miasma Poison accumulated from contaminated food and converts it into Mist Incense.

• Prevents Miasma Poison from accumulating in his body, protecting him from mutation and its associated shortened lifespan 1.
• Converts purified poison into Mist Incense, allowing contaminated Black Meat to become both food and cultivation fuel 1 7.
• Burning one foot of Mist Incense grants 200 proficiency points toward a displayed skill or realm 1 7.
• Displays his cultivation stage and numerical progress, letting him track advancement precisely 1 6.
• A short piece of Red Incense appeared after he killed Zhang Mingfei and his men; Zhou suspects, but cannot confirm, that it may be generated through killing 17.

Skin Tempering and Coiling Python Stance Technique

Zhou learned the Zheng hall's internal Stake-Standing Exercise, the Coiling Python Stance Technique, to build qi, blood, and physical strength.

• Uses stance training and nourishment to increase his First-Rank Skin Tempering cultivation 5 6.
• Can sustain unusually severe training because Black Meat supplies both nutrition and Miasma Poison for the Divine Statue 12 16.
• His vigorous qi and blood broke the Echoing Wraith's dream-lure before he could open his door 11 12.
• His lower-middle bone aptitude makes ordinary training inefficient; before using Mist Incense, a full morning produced only two additional proficiency points 4 6.

Copper Skin

A superior form of skin tempering achieved immediately upon reaching First-Rank Minor Accomplishment.

• Far exceeds the standard Iron Skin commonly attained by First-Rank martial artists 17.
• Greatly increases his skin's durability and his physical strength 17.
• Gives his skin a dark bronze sheen when he circulates qi and blood at full force 17.
• May allow him to pursue Golden Skin if he obtains sufficient resources 17.

Fish-Cutting Saber Technique

His principal pre-martial skill, refined through his work as a fish seller.

• Reached Major Accomplishment at 2560/3000 proficiency before he began formal martial training 1.
• Allows him to rapidly gut and process grotesquely mutated fish 1.
• He deliberately avoided spending Mist Incense on it, believing martial cultivation would offer a greater future than becoming a better fish cutter 1.

Improvised Combat Tactics

Zhou adopts Master Zheng's pragmatic approach to combat: conceal his strength, ambush opponents, strike decisively, and flee if necessary.

• Used ash to blind Zhang Mingfei before crushing his skull with a stone 10.
• Keeps a fish-killing knife concealed in his clothing when traveling through dangerous alleys 3.
• Collected pufferfish poison sacs to make concealed poison pouches from powdered toxin, ash, dirt, and fish bladders 14.
• Avoids fighting Ma Pengcheng openly because Ma's longer cultivation and more advanced fist art currently make him the stronger combatant 18.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Fish-killing knife — Work tool and concealed defensive weapon 3.
• Zheng Martial Arts Hall token — Date-red status token that deters local thugs and identifies him as a hall disciple 4 8.
• Pufferfish poison sacs — Collected as ingredients for blinding and disorienting poison pouches 14.
• Mist Incense — Divine Statue-generated incense that converts accumulated Miasma Poison into cultivation progress 1 7.

Relationships

• Zhou Tian — Father; a fisherman who endured injury and poverty to secure Zhou Chen's chance to train. He entrusted Zhou with the Black Taisui and continues supporting his ambitions 2 9.
• Zhang Fang — Mother; works alongside the family, worries over Zhou's future, and repeatedly sacrifices food and comfort for his training 2 9 16.
• Zhou Yu — Younger sister; Zhou's most immediate protective concern. She offered to sacrifice herself for his tuition, which Zhou fiercely rejected 2 9.
• Zhang Ying — Cousin and meat seller; generous, hot-tempered, and supportive of Zhou's martial path. She gives him Gray Meat despite her own household's financial strain 8 11.
• Master Zheng — Master of the Zheng Family Martial Arts Hall; accepted the Black Taisui fairly and granted Zhou a three-month opportunity despite his poor aptitude 4.
• Lian Taoze — Eldest Senior Brother and Zhou's primary instructor; teaches him the Zheng hall's cultivation system and consistently treats him with warmth despite his background 5 6 16.
• Ma Ge — Hall gatekeeper acquainted with Zhou through fish deliveries; helped bring him before Master Zheng and tried to protect him from humiliation 3 4.
• Du Song — Fellow poor disciple and genuine friend; remains supportive when other disciples distance themselves from Zhou over Ma Pengcheng 12 18.
• Zhang Mingfei — Local thug tied to the Clear River Gang who targeted Zhou Yu; Zhou killed him after discovering the planned abduction 1 9 10.
• Ma Pengcheng — Senior Ordinary Disciple who repeatedly pressures Zhou to surrender his Qi-Blood Soup; Zhou considers him a future threat to eliminate once stronger 17 18.

Notable Quotes

“Ambush, strike, run.” 14

“Whoever dared touch his family had to die!” 10