Mo Chen

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Mo Chen (莫沉)
Alias(es)	Old Mo; Mo Xiaoyi, his fictitious nephew; Bai Weishuang, a borrowed identity used at Cloudrain Market 6 7 83 178
Species/Race	Human, born to mortal parents; villagers falsely accused him of being a monster or ginseng spirit 1 50
Gender	Male 1 6
Affiliation	Wenyuan Pavilion; formerly the Twin Crane Sect; later an Elite Disciple of Emerging Cloud Peak and a disciple of Chen Jin 1 3 63 216
Occupation/Role	Library copyist and scripture-repository worker; cultivator, talisman-maker, and swordsman 1 7 107 217
Origin	Hidden Immortal Valley, Great Qian 1 2
Age	Eighty at Wenyuan Pavilion; 240 after his long seclusion near Maozhou 1 18
Cultivation	Rebuilds the Flame-Drinking Art through the ninth layer of Qi Refining; subsequent Foundation Establishment attempts fail 105 170 183
Special Trait	Endless lifespan and an unchanging youthful appearance 1
Status	Alive; living and training with Chen Jin and Huo Yuci near Hongfeng Mountain in the latest supplied chapters 217 218
First Appearance	The library tower 1

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Mortal with innate longevity	1	His appearance stops aging in his youth. At sixteen, he tests going five days without food or water while continuing farm work without tiring.
Spiritual-energy perception and entry into cultivation	2	After fifty years studying the Black Turtle Breathing Method, he perceives five-colored spiritual energy and senses activity within ten paces.
Qi Refining, third layer	2	Understanding Lu Canghai’s Vast Sea Blade Intent helps advance his cultivation; he subsequently leaves the capital to seek the cultivation world.
Qi Refining, fourth layer	5 6	Attained during his decades of Scripture Pavilion work. By the identity-change operation, he is at the fourth layer’s peak and deliberately suppressing further advancement.
Qi Refining, fifth layer	6	Stops suppressing his cultivation and advances with the Black Turtle Breathing Method to support his deception of Zhou Ping.
Fifth layer consolidated	10	Forty-five painful circulation cycles of the Flame-Drinking Art stabilize his cultivation and reveal Fire-Sitting and Firebird.
Late-stage Qi Refining; eighth-layer threshold	18 19	More than seventy years of secluded cultivation bring him to the eighth-layer threshold. His divine sense reaches twenty-four zhang.
Qi Refining, eighth layer, approaching ninth	44	A month of cultivation amid summoned flames, tailored to his Fire in the Furnace resonance, brings rapid progress before the martial tournament.
Qi Refining, ninth layer rebuilt	105	Disperses his unstable cultivation and retrains the Flame-Drinking Art from its first through ninth layers in nearly two months, encountering no bottlenecks.
Foundation Establishment attempts unsuccessful	170 178 183	Cannot reach the divine fire needed for his desired foundation. A later attempt in Fire Spirit Valley fails amid a disruption he traces to demonic power in sect-provided meat.
Cultivation rebuilt after failed breakthrough	184	Uses two Ember Seeds, spirit liquid, and the earthfire fissure’s natural furnace environment to recultivate in one day; no successful realm advancement is stated.
Initial mastery of martial force	216	Chen Jin’s stance training and repeated Dripping Water Thrusts produce a faint whistle from his wooden sword, indicating an initial grasp of force.
Three sword arts integrated	217	After four years, combines Dripping Water Pierces Stone, Startling Swan Illuminates Shadow, and Green Mountain Immovable Sword. He believes his martial skills alone can hold an eighth- or ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivator to a standstill.
Sword Qi begins taking shape	217	Entering his fifth year of training, gathers sharp energy at his sword tip from his own essence, qi, and spirit. Chen Jin predicts he could nurture Sword Intent within forty years; he has not yet achieved it.

Background / History

Hidden Immortal Valley and Wenyuan Pavilion

Mo Chen’s agelessness first makes him an object of suspicion rather than admiration. After he tells childhood acquaintances that he does not become hungry or thirsty, villagers accuse him of stealing their vitality. By twenty-five, officials and nobles are offering rewards for him, and his blood is reportedly worth its weight in gold. A local advisor conspires with bandits to capture him and cut him apart for soup 1 6.

He escapes Hidden Immortal Valley and reaches the capital after three years of hardship. Using his father’s token, he becomes a copyist’s apprentice at Wenyuan Pavilion. There he arranges shelves, repairs books, copies damaged texts, and serves visiting dignitaries while concealing his longevity 1 6.

A female cultivator, later identified as Jiang Jiuyao, gives him the Black Turtle Breathing Method. He studies it with a dictionary and practices nightly for fifty years before sensing spiritual energy. To remain at the pavilion, he periodically ages his disguise, stages his death, and returns under forged papers as the previous copyist’s distant nephew 2 10.

His anonymous gift of a saber manual to an impoverished boy eventually returns to him as Lu Canghai’s Vast Sea Blade Intent. After Lu’s death, Mo Chen masters the work, reaches the third layer of Qi Refining, and leaves the capital. Before seeking cultivators in the mountains, he returns home and destroys the surviving enemies and descendants associated with his family’s persecution; most original perpetrators have already died 2 165.

Twin Crane Sect and Flight to Maozhou

Mo Chen approaches the Twin Crane Sect disguised as an unsuccessful middle-aged rogue cultivator and spends decades working in its Scripture Pavilion. When his elderly identity becomes inconvenient, he invents a nephew, Mo Xiaoyi. An illusion allows “Old Mo” and the nephew to appear together before Zhou Ping, securing the replacement appointment 3 5 6 7.

After learning that water and wood are unfavorable to his fate chart, he replaces his original method with the incomplete Flame-Drinking Art. Jiang Jiuyao then recognizes him from ninety years earlier and pursues the secret of his longevity with an elderly prince. Mo Chen attempts to flee with valuable repository texts and eventually kills Jiang, condemning her for knowingly giving him an unsuitable cultivation method 8 9 10 11 15.

Following the monster uprising at Flowing Cloud City, he spends fifty relief spirit stones on the cheapest available teleportation fare, to Maozhou. He establishes a secluded mountain cave, grows medicinal plants, and cultivates for more than seventy years. At 240, he regards Foundation Establishment not only as greater power but as a way to explain his unchanged appearance without further disguises 17 18.

Emerging Cloud Peak Recruitment

A mysterious old man transports Mo Chen far from his homeland. In Tongwu City, he learns that Great Qian is roughly five hundred million yojanas away. He investigates admission to Emerging Cloud Peak while concealing an intention to steal its Sky-Climbing Vine—a goal later connected to breaking his Spellmark 31 62 109.

He fails the written examination because it requires practical knowledge of sect politics, then succeeds in the martial tournament through adaptable combinations of spells, talismans, martial techniques, and Ghost Shadow Step. Six preliminary victories, five against Wu Household disciples, bring him unwanted fame 44 48 49 50.

Wu Zhengxin arranges his abduction, seals his spiritual power, and has him abandoned near Remnant Folk Hamlet to prevent his participation in the finals. Mo Chen nevertheless returns in time, after confronting Yu Hongyi and becoming involved with the Xiang family. He defeats Wu Zhengxin, then fights Bai Weishuang and is subsequently escorted into Emerging Cloud Peak as an Elite Disciple 51 58 60 63.

Sect Missions and the Half-Limit Secret Realm

On a mission in Gaoyou City, Mo Chen investigates disappearances and an epidemic, protects a vulnerable girl, and encounters a suspicious fortune-teller. His intervention with an antidote ruins a plot to transform the city’s inhabitants into refined corpses. He later kills Liu Song and leaves the dispute over the spoils rather than remain among covetous survivors 69 73 80 83.

The Half-Limit Secret Realm’s rewards, together with his agreement to gather materials for Zhu Shengxia, persuade him to join its expedition. He prepares for months, rebuilds his cultivation, and stocks offensive, defensive, and restrictive talismans. During the journey, he gradually comes to trust Gu Dongfeng and agrees to mutual assistance 90 105 107 110.

Inside the realm, he cooperates with Gu Dongfeng, helps Bai Weishuang defend his refinement of the Dragon Scale, and repeatedly fights or escapes stronger opponents. His spirit beast Feiyi advances to the Foundation Establishment-equivalent Initial Form Stage; Mo Chen names him Candle Shadow. The beast becomes a major advantage, although its stronger cultivation destabilizes Mo Chen’s ownership mark and causes dangerous backlash 116 137 138 146 147 159 160.

Mo Chen and Wen Rongxue develop a dependable partnership during their escape through Apricot Blossom Shoal. She achieves Foundation Establishment, while his own attempts repeatedly fail. At Fire Spirit Valley, he identifies demonic power in his body and attributes it to tampered expedition provisions. He plants his sword in the rock and vows not to draw it until he finds the perpetrators and cripples their cultivation 163 164 165 170 178 183 184.

He survives the expedition and receives a Scheduling Token worth ten thousand low-grade spirit stones, medicinal pills, and substantial service-chip rewards. The windfall gives him time away from sect missions but publicly attracts envy and greed 201.

Zhu Shengxia’s Disappearance and Martial Apprenticeship

After returning, Mo Chen searches for Zhu Shengxia and learns that Li Suling has abducted her and intends to force her into marriage. He finds the injured Zhu patriarch, provides food, medicine, and protection, and promises a rescue. Old Zhu entrusts him with three jade slips containing the family’s talisman-making knowledge 204 205.

Mo Chen travels to the Li Residence under disguise and prepares to act covertly. The supplied later passages show him injured and rescued near the Fuchun River, but do not establish the rescue operation’s outcome. He recuperates at Chen Jin and Huo Yuci’s tavern without usable spiritual power 205 207 208 215 216.

Chen Jin recognizes his martial foundation and formally accepts him as a disciple. Over four years, Mo Chen integrates three sword arts and begins developing Sword Qi. When marauders enter the town, he drives seven away with a precise strike that cuts their clothing over their hearts without killing them, earning his master’s approval for using strength with restraint 216 217 218.

Appearance

Mo Chen’s true appearance remains that of a handsome youth around seventeen to nineteen, despite centuries of life 1 2 6.

• Fine brows, clear eyes, and smooth skin: His face lacks wrinkles and the weathering expected from years of outdoor labor 6.
• Straight bearing and delicate features: Villagers consider him too refined-looking for a farmer; later townspeople still describe him as a handsome young man 6 217.
• Composure beyond his apparent age: At eighty, he looks barely twenty but carries himself with unusual calm 1.
• Frequently altered exterior: Disguises include a weathered middle-aged rogue cultivator, a limping elderly clerk, a beggar, and a middle-aged visitor to the Li Residence 3 6 98 205.
• Unremarkable clothing: Common outfits include a gray clerk’s robe, sect-issued enchanted robes, and coarse cloth while living with Chen Jin 1 145 217.

Personality

Mo Chen is patient, secretive, and willing to spend decades on incremental progress. He forges identities, understates his strength, hides conspicuous valuables, and prepares escape routes before committing to danger. His caution is not infallible: social pressure draws him to the banquet where he is drugged, and his confidence in prepared defenses does not prevent Jiang Jiuyao’s ambush 2 11 31 50 137.

He values freedom more than longevity alone. Although he initially survives by remaining obscure and outliving threats, repeated encounters with stronger cultivators convince him that retreat cannot guarantee safety. By his secret-realm preparations, his goal is to live on his own terms rather than remain at others’ mercy 17 18 98 106.

His compassion coexists with severe vindictiveness. He protects vulnerable strangers, comforts the dying, keeps promises, and buries neglected corpses, but treats attacks on himself or his family as causes demanding repayment. Having discovered that most childhood enemies died before he could confront them, he resolves to punish future enemies within their own lifetimes 2 58 69 95 100 110 165 205.

He is restrained about romance because an endless lifespan could leave him grieving a partner who cannot advance far enough to remain with him. Nevertheless, his time with Chen Jin and Huo Yuci deepens his appreciation of affection, ordinary kindness, and power used to protect rather than dominate 217 218.

Abilities & Skills

Innate Longevity

• Possesses an endless lifespan and an unchanging face before entering cultivation 1.
• Can go without food or water; imprisonment without provisions does not threaten him in the usual way 1 56.
• Longevity does not make him invulnerable: he suffers poisoning, sealed spiritual power, damaged meridians, and severe physical injuries 51 61 183 216.

Spiritual Roots and Five-Note Resonances

Mo Chen’s fate chart has a yang-wood day master and the Hai birth month. Water and wood are adverse, while fire, earth, and metal are favorable 123.

Resonance	Advantages	Drawbacks / Conditions
Fire in the Furnace	Improves cultivation in enclosed fiery environments, supports soul cultivation, and strengthens charged burst spells 19.	Cultivation is slower in open spaces 19.
Spring Water	Continually replenishes magical power while some remains 19 41.	Complete exhaustion halts natural recovery; may increase vulnerability to heart demons 19.
Ocean Water	Provides unusually large magical-power reserves 19.	Prolonged reliance on one method can stall cultivation; water-rich surroundings weaken his combat performance 19.
Earth on the City Wall	Strengthens his soul, modestly improves body tempering and earth defenses, and enhances magic when an associated object connects with the soil 19 62.	The connection can be attacked or disrupted, as an opponent attempts by digging around his planted staff 116.

• Earth-energy anchoring: Plants a flying sword or iron staff in the ground to improve power circulation, spell strength, and casting speed 62 116.
• Pill Furnace phantom: Spontaneously comprehends a resonance spell that absorbs a Great Forest Wood cultivator’s conjured wood energy and returns it as Dharma Power 185 186.
• Furnace limits: The phantom does not affect the attacking spirit artifacts in the same battle; long-flowing water spells can extinguish its fire 186.

Flame-Drinking Art

• Cultivation and body tempering: Swallows fire and circulates it through his body, repeatedly scorching and healing his meridians to strengthen and expand them 9 10 18.
• Fire-Sitting: Protects him from ordinary flames 10.
• Firebird: Initially creates five firebirds at the fifth layer; later deploys eight and then nine 10 60 138.
• Fire Serpents and charged casting: Uses serpents for attack and containment; learns to let a Fire Serpent gather power while he performs other actions 23 138.
• Divine Flame Armor: Provides both offense and protection comparable to late-stage Stone Armor, but at full strength lasts only about two incense sticks before accounting for other combat expenditures 102.
• Recovery without ambient spiritual energy: During his convalescence, the art circulates autonomously and uses blood and vitality to repair bodily damage 216.
• Poison refinement: Uses heartflame to refine bee venom in his meridians, painfully strengthening them while removing just under half the poison 61.

Disguise and Illusion

• Disguise and Bone-Shrinking Art: Perfected sufficiently to simulate gradual aging, enabling repeated identity changes 2.
• Disguise and Form-Change Formula: Restores or alters his outward appearance, including the youthful Mo Xiaoyi persona 6.
• Shallow Afterimage Illusion: Reproduces appearance, movement, expression, and gait for roughly fifteen minutes. Its phantom cannot act independently or touch objects 6.
• Combat decoys: Uses a non-attacking phantom within divine-sense range to misdirect opponents while repositioning 159.
• Nameless Illusion: Disguises a Fire Serpent as an Ice Bolt by concealing its appearance and heat; requires exceptionally rapid hand seals 105.

Movement and Escape

• Five Elements Escape: Uses elemental routes to evade attacks; Wood Escape allows him to cross a water barrier by exploiting elemental relationships 11 163.
• Wind-Riding and Divine Movement: Uses both for travel and rapid repositioning 19 58.
• Ghost Shadow Step: A non-Five-Elements movement art fueled by yin energy or blood essence. His early practice achieves an instantaneous movement of up to six paces 43.
• Restriction bypass: Escapes Wu Zhengxin’s Movement-Sealing Talisman because Ghost Shadow Step operates outside the Five Elements 60.
• Cost: Repeated use of his own blood essence is expensive enough that he considers studying ghost cultivation for an alternative fuel source 143.

Martial Arts and Swordsmanship

• Vast Sea Blade Intent: Memorizes and comprehends Lu Canghai’s legacy; later combines it with Object-Manipulation and true qi to deflect Bai Weishuang’s held blade 2 63.
• Dripping Water Pierces Stone Sword: Concentrates continuous penetrating force at a single point 216 217.
• Startling Swan Illuminates Shadow Sword: Supplies fluid movement and delicate control; his training includes touching a bird’s wing without injuring it 217.
• Green Mountain Immovable Sword: Provides rooted stability. With body tempering and the Green Mountain stance, even an ox cannot dislodge him 217.
• Sword Qi: Begins generating sharp energy from his own essence, qi, and spirit, independently of external spiritual power 217.
• Precision and restraint: Uses a branch to cut seven marauders’ clothing over their hearts without killing them 218.

Divine Sense and Combat Tactics

• Divine sense expands to twenty-four zhang by his eighth-layer threshold 19.
• Combines flying weapons, elemental spells, talismans, close-range strikes, and terrain rather than relying on one fighting style 49 60 116.
• Favors control and disruption spells that prevent an opponent from acting effectively 107.
• Layers traps and formations, sometimes preparing a backup for an existing backup 95 137.
• Can detect concealment unusually well, but keeps the ability’s explanation secret 177.
• His control of a second-tier Wind Blade Talisman extends only within his divine-sense range 95.

Talisman-Making and Resource Refinement

• Decades of copying give him brush control superior to that of many Qi Refining talisman cultivators 147.
• Better Zhu household paper substantially improves his Fire Serpent talisman success rate 90.
• Prepares 150 offensive talismans, 150 defensive talismans, and additional support talismans before the secret-realm expedition 107.
• Receives three jade slips preserving the Zhu family’s centuries-old talisman-making knowledge 205.
• Refines a slain cultivator’s remaining spiritual energy into two fire-aspected Ember Seeds and wood-aspected Azure Radiance Dew using flame and careful manipulation of the corpse’s meridians 182.

Spirit-Beast Control

• Learns a spell from the Compendium of Unorthodox Spells that rewrites and deepens a beast’s mastery mark, potentially transferring ownership under specific conditions 20.
• Controls Candle Shadow through a master-servant mark, but the beast’s higher cultivation can destabilize the seal and cause backlash 159.
• Reinforces the weakened ownership-transfer seal in roughly two incense sticks, relieving the resulting headache 160.
• Also commands Nine-Autumn Mantises and uses a Chestnut Horse spirit-beast pouch 152 201.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

Weapons and Defenses

• Red-Tailed Sword — An early flying sword purchase; used to kill Jiang Jiuyao 10 15.
• Black Gold Flying Sword — Used in the killing of Liu Song and later secret-realm combat 83 116.
• Black iron staff — Looted from an attacker and retained for anchoring his Earth on the City Wall resonance 116.
• Ge-halberd — A middle-grade spirit artifact whose attacking power Mo Chen judges comparable to upper-grade equipment 159.
• Azure Mystic Protective Talisman — Purchased alongside the Red-Tailed Sword and used during his escape from Jiang 10 11.
• Strife Iron Armor — Sect-issued defensive treasure that produces a rotating barrier; also used to wedge open a demon fish’s mouth 106 112.
• Golden Light Umbrella — Valuable spirit artifact returned by Wen Rongxue, later tested during his journey to the Li Residence 177 205.
• Soft Spirit Pearl — Produces restrictions capable of sealing a cultivator’s Dharma Power; later detonated in combat 137 180.
• Second-tier Wind Blade Talisman — Recovered from Jiang Jiuyao’s possessions and expended to kill three ambushers 18 95.
• Pear-wood sword — Chen Jin’s first weapon for his new disciple, intended to teach the application of martial force 216.

Travel and Concealment

• Windlike Token — Carries six people and reaches roughly seventy percent of a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s flying speed 90.
• Twinflight Wings — Body-integrated Synchronized Artifacts with a wingspan exceeding thirteen feet. Gliding costs no spiritual power; the wings have no offensive or defensive function 204 205.
• Dustless Plain Beizi / Cape — Enhances movement through a Wind-Riding Rune; one garment is ruined by Jiang Yantai’s knives 95 145 205.
• Divine-sense-blocking veiled hat — Given by Chen Shuangyu to conceal him and his valuable possessions 204.
• Ten-League Thought Talisman — Sect-issued emergency teleportation talisman with an uncertain travel distance 106 138.
• Storage bags and spirit-beast pouches — Carry his accumulated equipment, cultivation resources, and beasts 18 152 201.

Manuals and Unidentified Objects

• Core reference works — Flame-Drinking Art, Vast Sea Blade Intent, Sixty Na Yin Compendium, Compendium of Unorthodox Spells, and Three Flames Foundation Condensation Essentials 2 9 20 68 182.
• Fourteen Void Sword Moves — A sword-technique jade slip given to him by Bai Weishuang 178.
• Indestructible black sphere — Xiang Su’an’s gift; withstands Mo Chen’s flames, but its nature remains unknown 58.
• Dim disc — Recovered after breaking a tower’s wards; Mo Chen suspects it was a formation core but cannot identify it 152.

Relationships

• Lu Canghai — Former impoverished boy helped anonymously with a saber manual. Returns sixty years later with Vast Sea Blade Intent, unaware that the apparent elderly clerk is his original benefactor 2.
• Jiang Jiuyao — Gave him his first cultivation method, later hunted him for his longevity. Mo Chen kills her and accuses her of deliberately obstructing his cultivation with an unsuitable method 10 11 15.
• Zhou Ping — Former Scripture Pavilion superior. Mo Chen exploits his laziness to renew his identity; they meet again after the Flowing Cloud disaster 5 7 17.
• Gu Dongfeng — Fellow sect disciple and secret-realm partner. Two months of conversation build trust, and they coordinate against masked attackers 107 110 116.
• Bai Weishuang — Initially a hostile tournament opponent whose name Mo Chen borrows. Later becomes an ally; Mo Chen guards his Dragon Scale refinement, and Bai shares sword teachings and concerns about failed breakthroughs 61 137 178.
• Wen Rongxue — Ally from Cloudrain Market who becomes a reliable companion through repeated battles and escapes. Returns his Golden Light Umbrella and explicitly acknowledges a life-debt 83 159 165 177.
• Candle Shadow / Feiyi — Powerful serpentine spirit beast. Mo Chen gives him a name and proposes a more equal rapport; Candle Shadow protects him independently and reassures him about a regenerating severed tail 147 159 201.
• Wu Zhengxin — Enemy responsible for Mo Chen’s drugging, spiritual-power sealing, and abandonment. Mo Chen defeats him in the tournament and attacks him again in the secret realm 58 60 165.
• Zhen Yulu — Unreliable temporary companion who slows others to aid her own escape, but later contributes power and a dangerous talisman to the group’s flight 163 164.
• Zhu Shengxia — Talisman supplier and trading partner. Mo Chen agrees to gather secret-realm materials for her and later commits to rescuing her from Li Suling 90 147 205.
• Old Zhu — Zhu Shengxia’s injured patriarch. Mo Chen provides care and protection; the old man entrusts him with the family’s talisman-making secrets 205.
• Xiang Shibai / Mad Xiang — Brief friend and gifted musician whom Mo Chen buries and commemorates with a carved poem 58.
• Xiang Su’an and Mei Zhongrui — Mo Chen helps Xiang Su’an and comforts his dying mother by answering as the grandson she mistakes him for. Xiang Su’an gives him the black sphere 56 58.
• Chen Jin, courtesy name Yinshan — Caretaker turned formal swordsmanship master. Mo Chen regards him as the first sincere, capable mentor to properly guide him 216 218.
• Huo Yuci — Chen Jin’s wife and Mo Chen’s supportive elder. Presents him to townspeople as a distant grandnephew and shares the history of her escape from royal marriage 217 218.

Notable Quotes

“A hundred years in the mortal world is nothing but one great dream.” 2

“I lied.”
“I kill my benefactors too!” — Before explaining why he condemns Jiang Jiuyao’s supposed kindness 15

“As long as everyone is unharmed.” — After driving the marauders from town without killing them 218

Trivia

• His father asked the village teacher to name him from the lines, “Behind the mica screen, candle shadows deepen; the River of Heaven slowly sinks, and dawn stars descend.” Mo Chen later draws Candle Shadow’s name from the same verse 147.
• His claimed age changes with the disguise: he introduces himself as eighteen during one expedition and seventeen before fighting Wu Xing 36 49.
• His tournament victories become the subject of a profitable tea-stall attraction, charging one spirit stone to hear accounts of his battles with the Wu Household 50.