Old Lord

Biodata

Background / History

The Old Lord watched Xiao Yan for years from within his Storage Ring. When Xiao Yan finally confronted him, he mistook him for Yao Chen and offered to help him obtain a new body and take revenge. The Old Lord corrected him, revealed that he knew Xiao Yan was a transmigrator, and accepted him as a disciple after judging his character sound 4.

His incarnation has grown weaker because this world cannot sustain it, rather than because he was wounded. He therefore gives Xiao Yan tools and instruction suited to his current strength instead of handing over his greater treasures 4 5.

The Old Lord’s presence draws the attention of Gu Yuan, who visits Xiao Yan after hearing of his unusual mentor. A pale-yellow ripple spreads from the Storage Ring, prompting Gu Yuan to bow and address its occupant as an ancient senior. The Old Lord does not answer his inquiry 18.

During Xiao Yan’s captivity among the Snake-People, the Old Lord praises him for retaining his composure after Queen Medusa’s rough treatment. He chooses not to intervene because Xiao Yan has not requested help, regarding limited setbacks as beneficial to his disciple’s development 41.

After Xiao Yan becomes engaged to Queen Medusa, the Old Lord refines a pill to advance her bloodline while giving his disciple a more advanced alchemy demonstration. The display attracts the Pill Tower Ancestor, but the Old Lord withdraws rather than receive him, leaving Xiao Yan to handle the visitor. The traces of his alchemy inspire reverence in the Ancestor 44 45.

In the subterranean Magma World, the Old Lord appears when Xiao Yan invokes him during the formation of a contract with Nine Nether. He pronounces terms linking their lives, realms, and cultivation 112.

Xiao Yan later summons him inside the God’s Tomb to rescue Zhu Kun. Zi Yan and Nine Nether kneel alongside Xiao Yan, surprising the Old Lord, who has not accepted them as disciples. He nevertheless agrees to help, tears open the prison space, breaks its restraints, and erases Tou She Ancient God’s remnant soul. He leaves the ancient tomb itself intact, then withdraws after warning Xiao Yan not to trouble him further 115 116.

Appearance

• Manifests from the ring as pale green smoke that gathers into an old man, often seated cross-legged in midair 4 11.
• Has a beard and carries a horsetail whisk 4 7.
• His beard is described as snowy when he appears to free Zhu Kun 116.

Personality

The Old Lord is generous with instruction but quick to tease Xiao Yan’s impatience and modest requests. He insists that mastery of the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts must come step by step, and he measures Xiao Yan’s achievements against powers far beyond the continent’s usual ranks 7 11 32.

He prefers Xiao Yan to develop his own competence rather than rely on constant intervention. He allows his disciple to endure setbacks when help has not been requested, and repeatedly taps him on the head with his whisk when he finds his questions or requests exasperating. Despite this impatience, he answers Xiao Yan’s plea to free Zhu Kun 41 68 115 116.

His view of the continent’s treasures and experts reflects his much higher frame of reference. He dismisses Xiao Yan’s cave treasures as junk, regards ordinary Dou Techniques as shortcuts beside the arts he has taught, and treats advancing Queen Medusa’s bloodline as a minor task 20 21 44.

Abilities & Skills

Cultivation instruction

• Transmits the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts to Xiao Yan, initially giving him the Vajra Art and Darksteel Staff Technique rather than its more demanding abilities 5.
• Explains that Xiao Yan must develop Qi Fire into Essence Fire and Divine Fire before uniting the three to master the complete art 11.
• Gives Ling Ying a brief explanation of Shadow Art that profoundly deepens his understanding of his cultivation 5.
• Warns that a Heavenly Soldier battle formation would require tens of thousands of carefully chosen people training as one 28.
• His instruction allows Ling Ying to advance two stages. Ling Ying later reports that his aptitude has changed and the bottleneck obstructing his progress toward Dou Zong has broken 5 6.
• Explains that the spiritual foundation developed through the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts will support Xiao Yan’s future divine abilities and allow him to rapidly absorb spiritual energy upon entering a world better suited to the technique 39.
• Adapts the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts to the Dou Qi world, allowing Xiao Yan to cultivate True Qi alongside Dou Qi despite the scarcity of suitable energy. This True Qi establishes a foundation for Heaven-and-Earth Manifestation, divine transformations, and cultivation in other worlds without starting over 68.
• Supplies Xiao Yan with battle formations and Killing Arts adapted from techniques practiced by the Heavenly Court’s heavenly soldiers. Their combined combat power exceeds that of ordinary cultivators at the same level and increases with the number of practitioners 118.

Alchemy and fire

• Demonstrates pill refining with the Eight Trigrams Furnace and gives Xiao Yan a strand of Qi Fire drawn from the Samadhi True Fire 7.
• Teaches Xiao Yan how the furnace’s eight positions provide different kinds of heat for refinement 44.
• Refines a pill for Queen Medusa’s bloodline using the enormous furnace and multiple fires. The pill develops rudimentary intelligence and tries to escape before he seals it 44 45.
• His demonstration leaves a spreading fire in the northern Tagor Desert that even Dou Emperors cannot extinguish 45.
• Can devise pill formulas suitable for the local cultivation system by examining how Dou Qi circulates, even without first studying the world’s existing formulas 7.
• Explains that Samadhi True Fire corresponds to primordial spirit, primordial Qi, and primordial essence. He initially supplies only Qi Fire because Xiao Yan’s first revolution refines form into Qi, promising the remaining fires as his cultivation develops 7.
• Teaches that Qi Fire can help subdue, control, and amplify Heavenly Flames while Xiao Yan works toward complete Samadhi True Fire 15.
• Draws spiritual energy into the Eight Trigrams Furnace and removes impurities from medicinal herbs with a sweep of his whisk 44.
• His furnace contains Six-Ding Divine Fire. Xiao Yan attributes the burning desert to a wisp of this fire escaping while he uses the Yang Banana Leaf Fan, which strengthens the flames rather than extinguishing them 44 46.
• States that complete Samadhi True Fire is strongest without additional Flame Seeds under the laws of his own world. Xiao Yan later distinguishes this principle from the Dou Qi world’s tendency for combined flames to become more powerful 75.

Perception and control

• Reads Xiao Yan’s thoughts and detects a nearby expert whom he estimates to be a Peak Dou Sheng by the continent’s ranks 5 17.
• Recognizes traces of an ancient Poison Marsh beneath Xiao Yi Xian’s valley, then gathers spiritual energy to rekindle the conditions from which a Netherworld Poison Flame forms 22.
• Exerts pressure on Ling Ying at the level of his soul, making the Old Lord appear overwhelmingly imposing. Ling Ying judges this pressure to arise from the elder’s standing rather than merely conventional strength 5.
• Can redirect the enormous tornadoes produced by Xiao Yan’s Banana Leaf Fan into the Eight Trigrams Furnace with a casual movement of his whisk 45.

Contracts and spatial intervention

• Appears as the witness to Xiao Yan’s blood-based contract with Nine Nether and declares that they will share life and death, with their realms and cultivation supporting one another 112.
• Tears open the sealed space imprisoning Zhu Kun with a flick of his whisk, despite Zhu Kun being unable to escape it himself 116.
• Breaks the invisible chains binding Zhu Kun. When replacement restraints form, a disdainful glance toward the Ancient Emperor’s tomb causes the space to shudder and the new chains to snap 116.
• Erases Tou She Ancient God’s remnant soul while freeing Zhu Kun, but explicitly leaves the ancient tomb itself undisturbed 116.

Power Progression

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Eight Trigrams Furnace — his alchemy furnace; he also gives Xiao Yan a smaller black sub-cauldron for practice 7 44.
• Mystic Staff — a smaller ruler forged by Yu the Great, given to Xiao Yan as a weapon he can handle 4 5.
• Marrow-Cleansing Pill — given to Xiao Yan to rebuild his body and establish a cultivation foundation 5.
• Rainbow Flight Art — an improved flying technique he makes for Xiao Yan using a drop of Ancient Golden Crow blood essence; it grows stronger with its user 23.
• Banana Leaf Fan — given to Xiao Yan to stoke the furnace; a single sweep produces immense winds 44 45.
• Horsetail Whisk — used to summon and manipulate the furnace, process herbs, capture pills, and break open Zhu Kun’s prison; he also uses it to chastise Xiao Yan 7 44 45 115 116.
• Nine-Turn Golden Elixir — not carried by this incarnation. He explains that its refining requirements are so demanding that the Dou Qi world likely cannot supply all the necessary materials 5.

Later use of his gifts

• The Mystic Staff obeys Xiao Yan’s thoughts to grow or shrink, expanding hundreds of meters into the sky after he reaches Dou Wang 68 69.
• Xiao Yan later enlarges the staff to crush a Fire Salamander horde and uses it to shield Nine Nether from the final strike of her lightning tribulation without damage to the weapon 111 113.
• The Banana Leaf Fan’s force can be precisely controlled to scatter weaker cultivators without injury or kill Dou Wang opponents 62.
• When used with Dou Zun-level power in the Magma World, the fan displaces enormous quantities of magma and Fire Salamanders, creating empty pockets and fissures in the void 114.

Relationships

• Xiao Yan — disciple whom he equips, trains, protects, and regularly teases 4 5 32.
• Ling Ying — Xiao Yan’s secret watcher; the Old Lord tests his intentions, then offers guidance in Shadow Art 5.
• Gu Yuan — recognizes the presence within Xiao Yan’s Storage Ring as an ancient powerhouse and respectfully addresses him as a senior; the Old Lord remains silent 18.
• Queen Medusa / Cai Lin — beneficiary of the bloodline-advancing pill he refines at Xiao Yan’s request. He also teases Xiao Yan about his popularity following their engagement 44 45.
• Pill Tower Ancestor — attracted by his alchemy demonstration. The Old Lord chooses not to meet him, regarding him as an ordinary pill that has taken human form 45.
• Nine Nether — witnesses her shared-life contract with Xiao Yan. She later kneels before him when Xiao Yan requests Zhu Kun’s rescue, and suggests that his origins extend beyond an ordinary Higher Plane 112 115 116.
• Zi Yan — kneels alongside Xiao Yan to request her father’s release. The Old Lord is surprised by her gesture and does not regard it as an established disciple relationship 115 116.
• Zhu Kun — frees him at Xiao Yan’s request and warns him not to cause trouble. Zhu Kun responds with profound gratitude and reverence 116.
• Tou She Ancient God — overcomes the restraints left in his tomb and erases his remnant soul while rescuing Zhu Kun 116.

Notable Quotes

“If you can master the Cultivation Methods I gave you, you’ll be unbeatable among your peers, perhaps even able to fight above your level.” 21

“When you go out, don’t tell anyone you’re my disciple. I’d be too embarrassed.” 32

“Shared life and death, realms supporting one another, cultivation supporting one another.” 112

“Since my disciple wants you released, I shall lend a hand just this once. Do not cause trouble.” 116

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