Yu Chen

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Yu Chen (余琛)
Alias(es)	Head-Plucking Ghost; Ghost-Faced Man; Head-Taking Fiend 36 48 50
Species/Race	Human
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Qingfeng Mausoleum; allied with the Zhengqing Gang 1 42
Occupation/Role	Acting gravekeeper of Qingfeng Mausoleum; Book Holder of the Scripture of Deliverance 1 4
Status	Alive
First Appearance	Chapter 1

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
None	4	The Scripture of Deliverance records Yu Chen as having no cultivation, though he has already obtained the Paper Effigies and Paper Horses divine ability. 4
Innate Realm	6	Receives Bone-Forging Body-Tempering for fulfilling the old cobbler’s wish. His body, bones, tendons, organs, and blood are reforged in the Scripture’s bronze cauldron, granting Internal Force, greatly enhanced senses, and overwhelming physical strength. 6
Innate Realm, strengthened	24	A Strengthen the Foundation and Cultivate the Origin pill enriches his Internal Force and makes his formerly frail body more muscular. 24
Innate Realm, further strengthened	29	A second Foundation-and-Origin pill further tempers his body and increases the Internal Force in his meridians. 29

Background

Yu Chen is the son of former Chief Constable Yu Tiesheng and his wife. When he was about four years old, his parents were arrested, executed, and buried at Qingfeng Mausoleum; their conviction left him branded as a member of a criminal household. He remembers them as an ordinary, affectionate family, but initially accepted their supposed guilt and his own reduced circumstances. 7 26 29

He later became the acting gravekeeper of Qingfeng Mausoleum, a cemetery for poor commoners and unidentified dead. The position provides a small official stipend, supplemented by his sale of paper effigies to mourners. 1 2

After encountering the Scripture of Deliverance, Yu Chen learns that it summons ghosts with unresolved final wishes. By fulfilling those wishes and delivering the souls across the Yellow Springs, he receives techniques, treasures, and cultivation resources. 2 4

Old Mister Zhao’s diary reveals that Zhao had quietly aided Yu Chen during his orphaned childhood and arranged his gravekeeper position out of respect for Yu Chen’s parents. This discovery causes Yu Chen to question the official account of their crimes. 9

Dead Man’s Mouth later confirms that Yu Chen’s parents were framed. Yu Chen vows at their graves to uncover every person responsible. Xie Qing’s investigation and Xiao Zihua’s confession establish that the Blackwater Gang orchestrated the Chen Household Massacre, while Xiao stole Yu Tiesheng’s weapons and planted them as evidence. 29 41 49 50

Appearance

Yu Chen is a lean, handsome youth who appears frail and unthreatening in his public identity as a gravekeeper. His Innate cultivation has gradually broadened his frame and defined his musculature, though he remains less outwardly imposing than many martial artists. 1 24

• Gaunt, handsome face with little visible expression. 49
• Lean build, initially described as thin and slight. 7 19
• Uses the Infernal Ghost Mask to appear as a black-robed, ghost-faced figure. 9 38
• His Blood Aura manifests as crimson mist on his forehead after repeated killings, but can be concealed by the mask. 40

Personality

Yu Chen is reserved, observant, and difficult to read. His status as a criminal-household descendant and the memories of two lives have made him practical, patient, and resistant to fear, including fear of ghosts. He usually avoids unnecessary attention, hides his strength, and prefers indirect solutions when they are sufficient. 1 2 19

Despite his detached manner, Yu Chen is compassionate toward the dead and the powerless. He spends two months’ savings to fulfill a starving beggar’s wish, helps victims such as Sun the Old Lady and Zhang San’er, and protects Wang Hai’s surviving family even when the Scripture does not require it. 2 10 42

His morality is strongly retributive. Yu Chen is willing to frighten, coerce, maim, and kill those he considers beyond lawful punishment, especially when official corruption protects them. He feels no guilt for executing the Ji brothers or Xiao Zihua, viewing their deaths as repayment for their crimes. 36 49

Abilities & Skills

Scripture of Deliverance

The supernatural scroll resides in Yu Chen’s inner landscape and identifies him as its Book Holder. It reveals the memories and unresolved wishes of certain dead souls; completing their wishes delivers them across the Yellow Springs and earns him rewards. 2 4

• Displays Yu Chen’s cultivation and divine abilities. 4 6
• Reveals only fragments of a deceased person’s life, while details relevant to their final wish are especially clear. 9
• Can transport Yu Chen into accelerated training environments, allowing him to experience years of practice without real-world time passing. 2 6 12
• Does not generate a task for every corpse; those without unresolved desires may pass on without appearing in the Scripture. 13

Innate Realm Physique

Bone-Forging Body-Tempering transformed Yu Chen from an ordinary, physically weak youth into an Innate martial artist. 6

• Produces immense strength, enough to create a sonic boom with a punch, uproot trees, and kill the White Ghost tiger with bare-handed strikes. 6 17 18
• Enhances speed, hearing, vision, reaction time, resilience, and cold resistance. 6 10 18
• Allows him to perceive ordinary opponents’ attacks as slow and easily countered. 11 18
• Greatly increases his appetite and food expenses. 6 10
• Initially gave him strength without combat experience or martial technique. 6

Paper Effigies and Paper Horses

Yu Chen’s first divine ability allows him to craft lifelike paper people, animals, and objects, then control them through his spirit. 2 3

• Creates convincing duplicates of people, including Yu Chen himself and the dead individuals whose appearances he has studied. 2 8
• Controls paper crows for scouting through their eyes. 3
• Uses paper apparitions to terrify criminals, deceive servants, communicate information, and manipulate public perceptions. 3 5 8 32
• Paper constructs can be recalled and reduced to small effigies at will. 2
• At the time he learned the art, his creations possessed form but lacked genuine supernatural substance because he had no Qi to empower them. 2
• Consumes spiritual strength; his control weakens over distance, requiring him to stay near a remotely operated effigy. 2 3 5

Subduing Dragons and Tigers: Mortal Volume

A combat tome gained after completing Sun the Old Lady’s final wish. Yu Chen masters it through countless years of illusory training. 12

• Channels Internal Force through a complete fist-and-palm technique designed for combat and killing. 12
• Clears snow from a ten-foot radius when practiced at full force. 12
• Enables the strikes that shatter White Ghost’s claws and teeth before crushing its bones and organs. 18
• Was mastered to its pinnacle immediately upon receiving the tome. 12

Infernal Ghost Mask

A treasure received after fulfilling Old Mister Zhao’s wish for worldly repute. 9

• Conceals Yu Chen’s face, voice, breath, aura, blood qi, and Innate Realm presence. 9
• Can create a fully concealed black-robed, ghost-faced identity or merge invisibly beneath his skin. 9
• Absorbs blood splashed onto Yu Chen, leaving no visible trace after battle. 20
• Can flow across his body as a human-skin-like layer, enabling more extensive transformation. 38
• Conceals Yu Chen’s abnormalities even from the Qi Refining chief of the Aura-Observing Bureau. 47

Heavenly Eye of Minute Insight

A treasure gained for fulfilling Eldest Young Master Wang’s Eighth-Grade Mortal Wish. 20

• Grants clear sight in darkness and perception of minute details. 20
• Sees through clothing and flesh to observe meridians, Internal Force, blood qi, and vitality. 20 21
• Identifies relative martial strength, including the distinction between Postnatal and Innate practitioners. 21
• May reveal physical weak points, as Yu Chen notices diminished blood qi beneath Xie Qing’s arms. 21
• Cannot see through the Aura-Observing Bureau chief, a Qi Refining cultivator. 47

Yu Step: Mortal Volume

A movement scripture granted after Yu Chen fulfills Wang Ling’s birthday-gift wish. 47

• Also known as Treading the Dipper and Celestial Stars. 47
• Allows extremely fast, ghostlike movement that leaves no footprints in snow. 47
• Briefly channels the power of the Dipper and celestial stars through his meridians, creating a sudden surge of strength and imposing presence. 47

Spirit Ox Tears

A reward that lets Yu Chen perceive Blood Aura, the murderous presence created by taking lives. 40

• Reveals the Blood Aura surrounding people who have killed many living beings. 40
• Indicates the scale of a person’s killings but does not distinguish moral guilt from righteous or occupational violence. 40
• Exposes the corpse carrier’s extraordinarily vast Blood Aura. 40

Soul-Shaking Golden Bell

A tiny golden bell that can briefly incapacitate those who hear it. 40

• Stuns targets for a moment, creating an opening in combat. 40
• Can make a witness forget seeing Yu Chen during an infiltration. 44

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Scripture of Deliverance — Supernatural scroll that records wishes, delivers souls, and grants rewards. 2 4
• Infernal Ghost Mask — Concealment and transformation treasure used for Yu Chen’s masked identity. 9 38
• Substitute Doll — Straw effigy that absorbs one fatal injury on Yu Chen’s behalf. 36
• Paper Crows — Paper constructs supplied to Xie Qing for long-distance contact. 42
• Soul-Shaking Golden Bell — Briefly stuns listeners and can erase a witness’s memory of an encounter. 40 44

Relationships

• Yu Tiesheng and his wife — Yu Chen’s parents. Their execution made him a criminal-household descendant; he later learns they were framed for the Chen Household Massacre and vows vengeance. 26 29 49
• Old Mister Zhao — Deceased schoolteacher who fed and clothed Yu Chen as a child, then arranged his gravekeeper post. Yu Chen repays him by protecting his posthumous reputation. 7 9
• Xie Qing — Leader of the Zhengqing Gang. Yu Chen saves him from White Ghost, gives his gang public credit for the kill, and later uses his organization to investigate Yu Chen’s parents’ case. 19 29 42
• The Corpse Mover — A corpse carrier and Innate master who treats Yu Chen warmly despite their lowly professions. They clash over Xiao Zihua, after which the Corpse Mover accepts Yu Chen’s superiority and offers cooperation. 13 26 49
• Li Er — Butcher and former market bully whom Yu Chen forces to repay Sun the Old Lady’s debt and cease preying on merchants. 11 12
• Xiao Zihua — Yu Tiesheng’s former disciple and Yu Chen’s father’s betrayer. Yu Chen extracts his confession, then executes him for helping frame his parents. 49 50
• Wang Ling — Deceased woodcarver whose final wish Yu Chen reluctantly fulfills by delivering a birthday gift to Li Qiu’e’s grave. 44 47

Story Role / Major Arcs

Deliverer of the Dead

Yu Chen begins as a resigned gravekeeper awaiting exile, but the Scripture of Deliverance gives him the means to resolve ghosts’ final wishes. His first act—buying Gui Snowfish for a starving beggar’s spirit—earns the Paper Effigies and Paper Horses art and starts his path toward power. 1 2

He increasingly uses the Scripture’s rewards to aid victims neglected by society, including the murdered woman exploited by Knife-Face and Big Strong, Sun the Old Lady, Eldest Young Master Wang, and Zhang San’er. 3 10 14 36

The Masked Tiger Slayer

Yu Chen intervenes on Fanghua Mountain to prevent the White Ghost tiger from killing the Zhengqing Gang, since further deaths would endanger Young Master Wang’s wish. He defeats the beast in his first true life-or-death battle, then allows the Zhengqing Gang to claim credit in exchange for the reward silver. 17 18 19

The victory establishes his masked persona as an object of fear and awe among Weishui’s martial artists, while preserving his public identity as an insignificant gravekeeper. 19 21

Head-Plucking Ghost

When corrupt officials and powerful families evade justice, Yu Chen becomes increasingly willing to act as an executioner. He kills the Ji brothers for their crimes against Madam Zhang and later executes Blackwater Gang members, leading the public to create the legend of the Head-Plucking Ghost. 36 40

Revenge for the Yu Family

Dead Man’s Mouth’s memories reveal that Yu Chen’s parents were framed. Yu Chen commissions Xie Qing to investigate, identifies Xiao Zihua as a suspect, and captures him after Xie Qing locates his refuge. 29 41 48

Xiao confesses that the Blackwater Gang murdered the Chen Household and coerced him into framing Yu Tiesheng and his wife. Yu Chen executes Xiao, formally beginning his campaign against the Blackwater Gang chiefs and the broader conspiracy behind his parents’ deaths. 49 50

Notable Quotes

“But only today did I learn that you were framed.” 29

“Fifteen years, Xiao Zihua.” 49

Trivia

• Yu Chen carries memories from two lives, which fuel private thoughts of rebellion against the social order. 1
• He initially considered using a paper duplicate of himself to escape exile. 2
• His public identity as a gravekeeper and criminal-household descendant causes most officials and townspeople to avoid him. 1 47
• He secretly killed the White Ghost tiger whose meat was later served at the Wang Household’s public feast. 18 26