Tang Ya

Biodata

Power Progression

Background and History

Tang Ya inherited leadership of the declining Tang Sect after the Ironblood Sect killed her parents and seized the sect’s estate. At Shrek, she and Bei Bei are the sect’s only remaining members as far as she knows. She recruits Huo Yuhao, who formally accepts her as his teacher, and later welcomes Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao 5 6 24 44.

Meeting Gu Mingyuan briefly raises her hope that another Tang Sect lineage has survived. He repeatedly refuses to join her sect, however, and establishes a separate organization under the Tang Sect name. Tang Ya confronts him at its South City courtyard; the dispute becomes a fight in which Gu defeats her, Bei Bei, Huo Yuhao, and Wang Dong. The defeat intensifies her fear that she lacks the strength to restore the sect or stand beside Bei Bei 6 38 39 41.

Shrek’s investigation establishes that Bei Bei attacked first. Yan Shaozhe rules that both sides were at fault, arranges compensation, and initially prohibits Gu Mingyuan from expanding his Tang Sect. The prohibition is subsequently rescinded after Mu En rejects the idea that the academy must preserve the Tang Sect’s name exclusively for Tang Ya because of her relationship with Bei Bei 41 43.

Gu Mingyuan subsequently reports Tang Ya’s potential life-devouring ability, stalled cultivation, and desire for revenge to Feng Ling. Recognizing both the martial soul’s potential and the usefulness of Tang Ya’s identity, Feng Ling places her on the Grade-A Watchlist under the provisional codename Green Vine. Gu is instructed to monitor her cultivation, relationship with Bei Bei, and the Ironblood Sect’s movements without alerting her 44.

As her Blue Silver Grass begins to drain life force, Tang Ya secretly leaves Shrek to investigate reports about the Ironblood Sect. She finds its headquarters—her family’s former estate—strewn with bodies and confronts its badly wounded master, Tie Li. When he still overpowers her, she drains wounded people to regain strength and take revenge. The Holy Spirit Cult had arranged the scene to provoke her transformation; its elder Zhang Peng subdues her and takes her away 56 60 61.

The Cult regards her mutated martial soul as suited to a Holy Maiden. Its leader, Zhongli Wu, orders her to accompany Gu Mingyuan to Ming Capital despite her protests and threatens to erase the memories she treasures if she refuses. At the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, Tang Ya studies Soul Tools under a disguise. When Huo Yuhao recognizes her, she denies knowing him rather than risk drawing the Cult’s attention to them both 62 87 89 98 99.

Despite her hostility toward Gu Mingyuan, Tang Ya begins relying on the cultivation resources he supplies. While he returns to the Cult’s Main Altar, he asks her to gather Soul Tool materials and promises to bring back her share of flesh and blood. After Huo Yuhao recognizes her, she reports the encounter to Gu and worries that her disciple will continue investigating 93 100 101.

Tang Ya accompanies Gu Mingyuan and Nana to the Holy Spirit Cult’s Ming Capital Sub-altar. There, Gu defeats the Second Saint Spirit and turns his skeleton into an obedient servant. Witnessing his methods leaves Tang Ya uneasy; Gu later sends her out of the underground hall while he remains with Nana 107 109 111.

Failed Rescue and Further Restrictions

Huo Yuhao’s report reaches Shrek through Fan Yu, prompting Mu En to send Xuan Zi to investigate discreetly. Bei Bei, assisted by Zhang Lexuan, prepares identifying traits and secret passcodes to help find Tang Ya 101 104.

When Xuan Zi finds her, Tang Ya asks him to remove the Holy Spirit Cult’s Brand. He discovers that it has grown into her Heart Meridian and explains that removal requires a safe location. However, Tang Ya resists returning immediately: her Soul Power is approaching level forty, and she wants more time to cultivate through devouring Life Force. Xuan Zi condemns those methods, while she pleads for him to remove the Brand before deciding whether she must return to Shrek 112.

Xuan Zi ultimately knocks her unconscious, temporarily suppresses the Brand, and carries her out of Ming Capital. Zhongli Wu and Zhang Peng intercept him, repeatedly exploiting his need to protect Tang Ya during the battle. Zhongli Wu seizes her and threatens to erase her memories of Shrek and Bei Bei. To preserve her mind, Xuan Zi agrees to suspend Shrek’s Supervisory Group’s active operations against the Cult for one year. He leaves without Tang Ya, who remains in Zhang Peng’s custody 114 115 116.

Back at the Ming Capital Sub-altar, Zhongli Wu places an additional restriction in Tang Ya’s Sea of Spirit. Leaving the Sun Moon Empire without his permission will trigger its destruction, potentially leaving her in a vegetative state. He assigns Gu Mingyuan to watch her and report any further secret contact with Shrek. Privately, he also authorizes Gu to use her to take a dangerous blow if necessary, treating her as more expendable than the Holy Son 116.

After Xuan Zi reports the failure, Shrek halts large-scale public campaigns against the Holy Spirit Cult while retaining carefully limited covert operations. Mu En also orders the Shadow Network to continue searching for Tang Ya 121 122.

Tang Sect Master Token

Before traveling to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, Gu Mingyuan demands to borrow Tang Ya’s Tang Sect Master Token. She protests that he already has his own Myriad Manifestations Sect and initially protects the token against her chest. Conscious of her Soul Restriction and her dependence on him for future cultivation and rebuilding the Tang Sect, she reluctantly hands it over. She asks him to return it because it was left to her by her parents 163.

Gu subsequently presents the token to Youyou as evidence of his connection to the Tang Sect’s legacy. Its genuine age, together with his martial arts demonstration, helps reduce her suspicion of his claim 163.

Appearance

Tang Ya is a black-haired young woman whose appearance changes as her martial soul develops and she comes under the Cult’s control 61 84 98.

• Her eyes show a purplish-red light when she first deliberately drains a person’s vitality 61.
• Later, her skin is sickly pale and a faint dark-blue glow appears in her eyes; Gu Mingyuan notices that her former liveliness is gone 84.
• She alters her appearance while attending the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, though Huo Yuhao recognizes her face, build, and manner of walking 89 98 101.
• She uses a black hooded cloak to conceal her appearance when fleeing Huo Yuhao after he recognizes her 99.

Personality

Tang Ya is warmly protective of her disciples and fiercely attached to the Tang Sect. News of a possible surviving branch moves her to tears, and she keeps trying to recruit Gu Mingyuan even after he refuses. Her attachment also makes his rival sect deeply threatening: the Tang Sect is both her parents’ legacy and the purpose she has struggled to fulfill 6 24 38.

Her stalled cultivation and desire to avenge her parents increasingly drive her to take risks alone. At the Ironblood Sect estate, anger clouds her judgment; after her capture, she remains hostile to the Cult but fears its power over her memories and those close to her. Her rejection of Huo Yuhao in Ming Capital conceals concern for his safety 56 60 61 87 99.

Her feelings toward the Cult become conflicted as its resources and devouring methods allow her to advance rapidly. She misses Bei Bei and dislikes living under constant threat, but fears that returning to Shrek will mean becoming powerless and dependent on reassurance again. This fear leads her to ask Xuan Zi for more cultivation time even when he offers to take her home 112.

Tang Ya remains deeply attached to her parents’ legacy. Her resistance to lending the Sect Master Token reflects both its importance to her leadership and its personal value as an inheritance. By this point, she has accumulated a little goodwill toward Gu Mingyuan, but his demand for the token immediately erases it 163.

Abilities and Skills

Blue Silver Grass

Tang Ya uses Blue Silver Grass vines to lash, bind, and restrain opponents 39 60.

• She can send out dozens of vines, but they cannot free Bei Bei from Gu Mingyuan’s grip or withstand Gu’s strength 39 40.
• After the martial soul mutates, its vines turn blue-black and develop sharp barbs 61.
• The mutated vines can spread across nearly an entire hall, pierce victims, and form a constricting cocoon. Their thorns are described as poisonous 61.
• When confronting Tie Li before her mutation, she has two yellow Soul Rings and one purple Soul Ring 60.

Vitality and Soul Power Devouring

Her Blue Silver Grass develops the ability to absorb vitality and Soul Power. Draining a Soul Beast loosens her cultivation bottleneck; deliberately feeding on people later restores her strength and accelerates the martial soul’s mutation 56 61.

• She can drain living victims and draw remaining Soul Power from the newly dead 61.
• Zhang Peng observes that the martial soul evolves with killing and that the process is affecting her mind 61.
• Holy Spirit Cult elders confirm that her mutated martial soul has rare potential to devour Life Force and evolve, making her an outstanding Holy Maiden candidate 62.
• Tang Ya later tells Xuan Zi that she has cultivated by devouring the Life Force of plants and Soul Beasts. Her Soul Power approaches level forty during her time under the Cult 112.

Tang Sect Instruction and Soul Tool Studies

Tang Ya teaches Huo Yuhao the Tang Sect’s secret arts and gives him a handwritten copy of the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record. She also provides him with a storage belt modeled after Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges 6 7.

At the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, she studies Soul Tools under a disguised identity and assists Gu Mingyuan by gathering materials. No specific Soul Engineer rank is established 89 93.

Imposed Brands and Restrictions

The Holy Spirit Cult’s restraints limit Tang Ya’s freedom rather than enhance her abilities 99 112 116.

• Heart Meridian Brand — Produces a piercing chill near her heart during her encounter with Huo Yuhao. Xuan Zi discovers that it has grown into the Heart Meridian and surrounding vessels; he can temporarily isolate it with his Soul Power to prevent its caster from detonating it, but does not complete its removal 99 112 114.
• Sea of Spirit restriction — Planted by Zhongli Wu after the failed rescue. If Tang Ya leaves the Sun Moon Empire without his permission, it will tear apart her Sea of Spirit; Zhongli Wu warns that even the best outcome would leave her a “breathing vegetable” 116.

Relationships

• Bei Bei — Tang Sect companion and romantic partner. He supports her leadership and searches desperately for her after she disappears; the Cult’s threat to erase her memory of him helps force her compliance 6 8 87 101. Her desire to catch up to his cultivation contributes to her reluctance to leave the Cult, even though she remains anxious about his health and circumstances 112.
• Huo Yuhao — Disciple whom she recruits, equips, and teaches. She denies knowing him when they reunite in Ming Capital because acknowledging him could endanger them both 6 7 99 109. His continued concern and report to Fan Yu lead Shrek to dispatch Xuan Zi to find her 101 104.
• Gu Mingyuan — Rival Tang Sect founder. His refusal to join her and their courtyard fight leave lasting hostility; Zhongli Wu later assigns her to accompany him against her wishes 6 38 41 84 87. Unknown to her in the initial surveillance arrangement, Gu identifies her as a valuable target for Feng Ling 44. He later supplies cultivation resources and is appointed her direct supervisor after the failed rescue. By the time he borrows her Sect Master Token, she believes that both her cultivation prospects and rebuilding the Tang Sect depend on his decisions 93 116 163.
• Tie Li — Ironblood Sect master whom Tang Ya blames for her parents’ deaths and the loss of their estate. Their confrontation leads to her deliberate use of life-draining power 60 61.
• Zhang Peng — Holy Spirit Cult elder who subdues Tang Ya at the Ironblood Sect estate and takes her into the Cult’s custody 61. He helps prevent Xuan Zi from rescuing her, carries her back to the sub-altar, and restrains her while Zhongli Wu imposes another restriction 114 115 116.
• Zhongli Wu — Cult leader who treats her as a potential Holy Maiden and coerces her obedience by threatening her memories 87. He uses the same threat to extract a one-year truce from Xuan Zi, then confines Tang Ya to the Sun Moon Empire through a restriction on her Sea of Spirit 115 116.
• Xuan Zi — Shrek elder sent to investigate her whereabouts. Tang Ya asks him to remove her Brand but resists his demand that she return immediately. His attempt to take her back fails, and he accepts a one-year halt to active anti-Cult missions to prevent Zhongli Wu from erasing her memories 104 112 114 115 116.
• Feng Ling — Holy Spirit Cult deputy leader who places Tang Ya on the Grade-A Watchlist after Gu Mingyuan’s report and orders covert surveillance under the codename Green Vine 44. She is present when Tang Ya is returned to the Ming Capital Sub-altar after the failed rescue 116.
• Nana — Accompanies Tang Ya and Gu Mingyuan to the Ming Capital Sub-altar. After Xuan Zi finds Tang Ya, Nana reports her capture to Gu 107 112.

Notable Quotes

“You destroyed my home! You killed my parents!” 61

“It's not the Soul Tools. I'm almost a Soul Ancestor... Xuan Zi, give me a little more time. Just a little more, and I'll finally be able to keep up with Bei Bei!” 112

“Remember to give it back when you're done! My parents left that to me...” 163

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