Li Fuchan

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Li Fuchan (李伏蝉)
Alias(es)	Li Yaoshi; Red Serpent Lord of Great Black Mountain; the supposed brothers Fuchan Li and Chanli Fu 12 51 136.
Species/Race	Human; a transmigrator occupying a body with its own memories 1 2.
Gender	Male 1.
Affiliation	Ning Family guest elder and retainer. His claimed connections to Welcome Ying Isle and Peaceful Way Abbey are disguises, not confirmed memberships 29 32 72 151.
Occupation/Role	Cultivator of ancient arts and Li Thunder; thunder-arts instructor 18 32 83.
Cultivation	Outer Scenery; his Nature Root is fully replenished, but his Fate Root remains unfinished at the latest explicit assessment 130.
Status	Alive; his true body remains concealed while Quan Yong pursues his false bodies 149 151.
First Appearance	Awakens as a captive in Flying Earthworm Cave 1.

Power Progression

• Simulation distinction: Death Advance lets Li Fuchan experience possible futures and claim their gains. Some breakthroughs occur within simulations; later chapters revisit earlier circumstances rather than continuing a single uninterrupted timeline 1 4 104 134.

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Golden Light Mantra	1	Mastered during the first month of his initial death simulation by cleansing the innate destiny tribulation. The simulated practitioner begins losing his memories.
Bright Light Mantra	1	Mastered during the simulation’s second month by cleansing mortal karma; the simulated practitioner loses his memories completely.
Treasure Light Mantra / False Outer Scenery	1	Completes the third purification stage and unites the Three Lights. Li claims the simulation’s cultivation, retaining his mind because the gains are filtered through Death Advance.
Outer Scenery	4	Uses the Light-Devouring Method in a simulation to feed Golden and Bright Light to Treasure Light. Its power of perfection repairs his cultivation; the resulting assessment no longer includes “false.”
Li Thunder cultivation	18	Forms a thunder script in his qi sea after enduring thunderfire. Preserves the Three Lights by moving them into Brow Peak before the new method burns them away.
Lightning-Struck Wood Yang Image	27	Grasps the image through a natural lightning strike, substantially deepening his magical power. Redirects Li Thunder’s destructive purification into an unmanifested death scene to protect his mind.
Manifestation of Lightning-Struck Wood	36	Brings the Yang Image to full mastery through demon-slaying and rescue work in the Southern Border. Can manifest his Outer Scenery and draw upon thunder without laboriously refining the Three Qi through his apertures.
Wudu Seven Marquis Military Strike Art acquired and strengthened	86	Obtains the art from Gao Huan, kills an Outer Scenery Ming Beast in close combat, and incorporates its Three Qi into the technique.
Wudu Military Art — second marquis	88	Advances after killing more than a dozen Outer Scenery Ming Beasts over five days.
Transformed Li Thunder / Muffled Crow in Ambush	102 104	His formerly conspicuous thunderfire becomes inward, dark, and concealed. The new aspect requires him to gather strength secretly and strike evil amid larger conflicts.
Minor attainment of Outer Scenery; Yang Aspect “form” completed	115 117	Killing Hu Shan and Li Hua completes the concealed form of Muffled Crow in Ambush.
Embrace-Lock Crouching Cicada; Yang Aspect “intent” completed	117	Refines the White Cicada destiny with two strands of tribulation qi. The register deepens his concealed aspect, opens his six apertures, and converts his Three Qi into pure dharma power.
Life Treasure cultivation begun	119	Uses a Nascent Infant Pill after completing form and intent, beginning the work needed to replenish his Nature Root.
Nature Root fully replenished	130	Emerges from seclusion with a completed Nature Root. More than half the Infant Pill remains available for replenishing his Fate Root; entry into Inner Vision is not yet documented.

Background / History

Captivity in Flying Earthworm Cave

Li Fuchan awakens among youths held by a predatory “sect.” Its supposed cultivation teaching, the Three Lights Purifying Tribulation Curse, makes disciples suitable for consumption while stripping away their memories, emotions, and judgment. Recognizing that the missing Second Senior Brother has likely been eaten, Li uses a vision of his own death to obtain cultivation without immediately losing himself 1.

He bargains with Huaqing for cultivation methods and a cave map, then steals ingredients connected to the Old Flood Dragon’s transformation. His caution is imperfect: Huaqing’s Illuminating Light suppresses his awareness, and Hua Hong overwhelms him despite his superior cultivation. During a later simulation, he seizes and refines the ingredients himself, obtains a Nascent Infant Pill, and rejects the dragon’s authority 3 5.

Black Mountain and bodily restoration

After the Flying Earthworm ordeal, Li discovers that Black Mountain is isolated within a ring of clans and sects. Suspecting a deliberately maintained forbidden zone, he abandons the mountain despite damaging his foundation. His attempt to impersonate its lord backfires when Xu Sansheng and the village elders sacrifice themselves to attack the supposed demon with poisoned offerings and blood baleful intent 12.

Li places his Yang Vessel inside a Resurrection Clam to regrow a physical body. Jia Hua tries to turn the clam into leverage, but Li survives through a prepared decoy and damages Jia Hua’s manifested spirituality. After restoring his body, Li works for overseas clans, learns more about the forces obstructing him, and returns with a newly forged flying sword 14 15.

Thunder cultivation and the Ning Family

Jia Hua gives Li the Purple Firmament Thunder-Script Treasure Register, intending to destroy his Three Lights and make him dependent on Peaceful Way Abbey. Li preserves the lights in Brow Peak and later solves the method’s mind-eroding effects by locking its purification force inside a chaotic death scene 18 27.

Seeking protection, he joins the Ning Family using demonic cultivators’ heads and a copy of the thunder manual as offerings. He serves as a guest elder, advises Ning Xiufu, and teaches Ning Xiuqing thunder arts. His search for a compatible sword brings him to Gu Liuru and Six-Rank Studio, where he acquires Awaiting Light 29 32 34.

The Fei Household and Huici

The Fei Household approaches Li hoping to escape Flying Light’s exploitation. Li is tempted by its Wandering Gold inheritance and spiritual material, but discovers that Fei Cai has maneuvered him into a confrontation. He counters with false bodies, takes the household’s possessions and the spiritual treasure, and escapes Flying Light’s pursuit 38 40 43 46 47.

Huici subsequently recruits him to capture Flying Light. With Huici suppressing the monster’s special abilities, Li succeeds. He also carries Huici between monster lairs to rescue trapped mortals and receives instruction on Li Thunder’s destructive and life-nurturing nature 50 52 57.

Three Nothing and the simulated Northern Lands

Li’s growing urge to abandon thunder cultivation for Wandering Gold proves unnatural. He confronts the being hidden in A Plea for Thirty-Six Years of Romantic Tales: Three Nothing, also called Sanwu. The being needs Li Thunder to anchor Gold-Gathering Current and escape confinement. Li forces negotiations and a spiritual oath rather than allowing it to occupy the gaps in his nature and life 64 66 67.

In the Northern Lands, Li poses as a Welcome Ying Isle cultivator, hunts Ming Beasts, and becomes entangled with Peaceful Way Abbey and the Five Thieves. Three Nothing manipulates his pursuit of the Contrary Thunder artifact and eventually traps him in a secret seal. During Quan Yong’s assault, Li remembers that Three Nothing erased his memory of their oath, exposing the concealed terms that still bind it 72 86 92 95 99 100.

Concealed thunder and independence

In a later simulation, Li develops the hidden aspect Muffled Crow in Ambush. He draws Li Hua and Hu Shan into an encounter, destroys Hu Shan’s Three-Passage Gu, and kills both men with concealed lightning and Sword Qi. Refining the White Cicada destiny then produces Embrace-Lock Crouching Cicada, further shielding his power and presence 104 111 114 115 117.

He investigates a gateway connected to the Flood Serpent destiny but destroys it rather than accept its uncertain opportunities. He also becomes unwilling to rely casually on Death Advance, recognizing that divination accumulates tribulation qi and can misrepresent people and events 118 120.

Three Nothing nevertheless captures him through overwhelming divine power. By the time Li finishes refining the Jade Pivot Thunder Canon, Gold-Gathering Current—and the evil spirit born from it—has been refined into Gold-Pressing Thunder 122 127.

Return as Li Yaoshi

After completing his Nature Root, Li returns north using Li Yaoshi, an identity designed to obstruct divination. He kills Jia Hua to pressure Quan Yong and pursues the Contrary Thunder artifact, the Great Moth Pivot Secret Seal, and his Mountain-Smiting, Temple-Breaking undertaking 130 136 143.

He then sends false bodies to demand tribute from the Gao and Yuchi households while posing as a Peaceful Way Abbey disciple. Quan Yong recognizes the deception but cannot locate the true body through the Yuchi encounter: Yuchi Yuanqing’s Three Qi Lightening disperses the false body before Quan can kill it with turbidity. Quan subsequently considers cooperation with Li as a possible solution to his own problems 149 151.

Appearance

• Youthful appearance: Jia Hua remarks on how young he looks despite his advanced Three Lights cultivation 17.
• Eyes: Gray-black, with golden-crimson lightning briefly visible in their depths before his thunder transformation; later, dusky lightning flashes through them 27 114.
• False-body presentation: One manifestation wears black robes and has long, waterfall-like hair and narrow, coldly gleaming eyes 99.
• Later bearing: Embrace-Lock Crouching Cicada makes his aura shadowy and restrained while his face appears gentler 117.
• After completing his Nature Root: Wears wide-sleeved, voluminous robes and gives off an unusual sense of completeness 130.

Personality

Li treasures his life and prefers concealment, preparation, and avoidance to unnecessary combat. He is not concerned with proving courage or maintaining a higher cultivator’s dignity. When cornered—or when a substantial benefit is available—he can become ruthless without hesitation 36 40.

His habitual suspicion is practical rather than passive. He memorizes names and connections, bargains for terrain information, checks himself for hidden influences, and tests apparent allies. Repeated manipulation makes autonomy central to his ambitions: he refuses to become a weapon for another cultivator, institution, cause, or even his own cultivation aspect 3 16 70 82 104.

His moral boundaries coexist with opportunism. He extorts wealthy households and takes advantage of careless promises, yet refuses to cultivate the Wudu military art with another person’s bodily Three Qi. He also rejects Li Hua’s offer of renewed servitude because of the demonic cultivator’s predation and cruelty 30 104 115 151.

Li’s outward coldness does not erase attachment. His memories of Ning Xiuqing’s death disturb him, and he later constructs a plan that may disrupt the fatal Gu curse. He eventually acknowledges that his simulated future did not fully capture Xiuqing’s genuine gallantry 105 111 120.

Abilities & Skills

Death Advance

A supernatural ability that lets Li enter scenes of his future death and claim what he would possess at that moment 1.

• Offers choices involving consciousness, cultivation, and treasures; his initial use grants cultivation from ninety-one simulated days 1.
• Manifested scenes represent specific fatal calamities; unmanifested scenes contain uncertain calamity qi 27.
• Each use multiplies future death paths and accumulates tribulation qi, creating risks beyond the immediate simulation 1 120.
• Visions are not perfect representations of reality or character; Li increasingly chooses independent judgment over repeated divination 120 143.

Three Lights

The Three Lights provide combat power, spiritual perception, and the ability to repair cultivation 1 2 4.

• Golden Light: Forms cutting attacks, including a golden-light saber and piercing beams 3 151.
• Bright / Illuminating Light: Conceals body and breath, reveals hidden principles, sharpens awareness, and disrupts an opponent’s spiritual faculties 2 52.
• Treasure Light: Remedies flaws, supports rapid comprehension, and helps perfect cultivation 4 40.
• Limitation: The underlying purification erases the practitioner’s humanity. Li initially relies on Turbidity-Linking and later redirects Li Thunder’s erosion into death scenes 1 5 27.

Li Thunder and Muffled Crow in Ambush

Li Thunder combines heaven’s killing force with earth’s life-nurturing power. Its original manifestation uses golden lightning and crimson fire; Li’s transformed aspect hides that force in dark clouds and silent attacks 57 63 104.

• Suppresses blood-consuming cultivators’ dharma power and burns away blood qi 115.
• Counters evil beings who conceal their blood qi, rather than relying on visible demonic signs 115.
• Supports rapid flight, recovery, and weapon empowerment 18 36 78.
• Cultivation requirement: Muffled Crow in Ambush grows through concealed preparation and decisive intervention in dangerous conflicts; peaceful withdrawal alone cannot complete its Dao Fruit 104 143.

Thunder Escape Sword Art

A sword technique included in the Purple Firmament thunder manual 18.

• Its swift first movement is Answering Lightning, Flying Thunderlight 78.
• Later attacks require Sword Qi; Li uses lessons from earlier simulations to develop it 72 104.
• Combines concealed lightning and Sword Qi in the defeat of Li Hua 115.

False bodies and transformation arts

Li uses ancient arts, including the Myriad Transformations at Will Register, for escape, combat, and trapping opponents 83.

• False bodies act as decoys, carry out attacks, and let him intervene while his true body remains hidden 14 51 99.
• Flood Serpent Movement grants a false body some qualities of the true body, but cannot provide a qi sea; its dharma power remains limited 99.
• Repeated destruction with turbidity can expose the true body’s location 149 151.
• Techniques that strip away the Three Qi can disperse a false body directly 151.

Destiny and register refinement

Li refines destinies with tribulation qi to produce talisman registers 117.

• Jiao-Driving Lightning: Produced from the stolen Flood Serpent destiny; remains unchanged after his thunder transformation, suggesting the stolen destiny retains a fixed course 117.
• Embrace-Lock Crouching Cicada: Produced from the White Cicada, which Li believes to be his own destiny 117.
• Seals qi inside his body, preserves his Three Qi through injury, absorbs hostile energy, and gradually refines foreign qi and his body 118.
• Strengthens concealment and resistance to outside influence 117 120.
• Limit: Register qi can obstruct life-fishing and divination, but does not block every direct Purple Mansion divine ability 122 135.

Wudu Seven Marquis Military Strike Art

An ancient combat art that strengthens through battle and the incorporation of Three Qi 83 86.

• Enables forceful close combat against Outer Scenery Ming Beasts 86.
• Advances rapidly through Ming Beast hunting 88.
• Li refuses to use human bodily Three Qi and temporarily sets it aside when suitable beasts are unavailable 104.

Names, divination, and strategy

Li practices a name-aspect method and treats names as clues to identity, destiny, and karmic relationships 65.

• Constructs Li Yaoshi with layered medicinal and thunder associations to frustrate divination 136.
• Uses the name’s hidden Fifth Aspect connection as cover, declining opportunities to claim Changze that would attract powerful investigators 143.
• Recognizes that protected personal identity does not erase traces left on associates; Quan Yong can investigate those connections indirectly 135.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Brow Peak — Refined treasure used to shelter his Yang Vessel and preserve the Three Lights during his conversion to thunder cultivation 12 18.
• Coughing Thunder — Flying sword forged from Golden Duke and spirit iron. Its thunderous name disguises an invisible, silent killing attack 15.
• Awaiting Light / Deceiving Light / Light-Deceiving — Sword acquired through Gu Liuru. Feeding it a tribulation talisman transforms it into a Lightning Serpent at great completion of Outer Scenery, approaching Inner Vision. It resides around Lightning-Struck Wood in his qi sea and assists lightning control and refinement 34 37.
• Twenty-Month Azure Fish Ring — Outer Scenery artifact taken from the Fei Household. Stores metal and qi and condenses fire qi into Fire Essence; its three stored motes provide a major destructive reserve 47 78.
• Nascent Infant Pill — Obtained during the Demon Cave ordeal; later used in Life Treasure cultivation and replenishing his Nature Root, with a substantial portion remaining for his Fate Root 5 119 130.
• Ancient pills — Combine stored Three Qi into dharma power for a false body, extending its limited ability to act 99.
• Jade Pivot Thunder Canon — Refines divine abilities into targeted thunder. Refining Gold-Gathering Current produces Gold-Pressing Thunder, potentially capable of restraining that path’s Dao Fruit with sufficient cultivation. Both the Canon and the resulting thunder require a divine ability to activate 127.
• Flying Firmament — Aperture Opening robe demanded from the Gao Household; permits brief wind-riding without dharma expenditure. Quan Yong’s turbid water swallows it when Li’s false body dissolves 149.
• Contrary Thunder Spirit Artifact — sought, not confirmed acquired — Peaceful Way Abbey’s thunder-countering artifact and a major target of Li’s Northern Lands plans 18 143.

Relationships

• Flying Earthworm / Old Flood Dragon — Predatory master responsible for preparing him as pill material. The stolen Flood Serpent destiny remains a source of suspected hidden danger 1 5 117 118.
• Huaqing / Green Snake Boy — Transactional ally who supplies methods and recruits him to steal ingredients; her spiritual interference compromises his awareness 3.
• Hua Hong — Cave enforcer who breaks his limbs; Li later fights her while refining the stolen ingredients 3 5.
• He Liuhun / Gao Huan — Fellow captive whom Li considers useful and later gives an ancient cultivation text. He declares himself Li’s disciple; Li subsequently recognizes him under the name Gao Huan and obtains the Wudu military art from him 2 15 82 86.
• Jia Hua — Manipulator and recurring enemy who tries to control him through thunder cultivation. Li eventually kills him to pressure Quan Yong 14 18 72 136.
• Quan Yong — Principal Northern Lands opponent. Hunts Li and targets his thunder cultivation, but later considers enlisting him as an ally 95 99 149 151.
• Three Nothing / Sanwu — Dangerous adviser bound by a spiritual oath. Manipulates Li’s choices and memories while seeking his register qi and the secret behind his willingness to face death 66 67 100.
• Gu Liuru — Sword-refining contact and apparent scholarly companion; becomes a channel for the book spirit’s influence and pursuit 34 119 120.
• Ning Family — Source of shelter and resources, with mutual suspicion beneath formal cooperation 29 32 104 105.
• Ning Xiufu — Family intermediary who seeks Li’s cultivation advice and discreetly observes his activities 32 104 105.
• Ning Xiuqing — Thunder student and effectively a disciple. His death in a simulated future affects Li deeply and motivates a later attempt to disrupt the Gu curse 32 105 111 120.
• Li Hua — Demonic cultivator turned attendant. Their opportunistic arrangement ends when Li condemns and kills him 29 30 114 115.
• Hu Shan — Gu cultivator linked to Ning Xiuqing’s fatal curse; Li destroys his Three-Passage Gu and executes him 111 114 115.
• Fei Cai and the Fei Household — Would-be allies who maneuver him into confronting Flying Light. Li retaliates by taking their possessions and spiritual material 43 46 47.
• Flying Light — Monster deceived by Li’s false bodies and later captured with Huici’s assistance 51 52.
• Huici — Powerful recruiter and teacher whose influence Li initially distrusts. His flower also shields Li from Three Nothing’s interference 55 57 67.
• Fengci — Adviser who offers warnings and temporary protection, but refuses to keep Li at Wangci Mountain because of the entanglements surrounding him 55 63 64.

Notable Quotes

“If you want a good cheat, you have to make it yourself.” 27

“You're allowed to scheme against a thunder cultivator, but a thunder cultivator isn't allowed to scheme against you?” 46

“No matter what, I cannot become the puppet of a person, a cause, or even an exalted seat.” 104

“Scheming with every last ounce of my mind, watching the people I plot against step into the snares I lay for them time after time—it really is addictive. But I seem to have become too engrossed. That isn't good.” 151