Three Nothing

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Three Nothing (三无)
Associated Identity	Yangshe Xu; Three Nothing is an evil spirit born from Yangshe Xu’s divine ability, rather than the surviving historical cultivator 102 124.
Species/Race	Divine-ability evil spirit 102 124.
Origin	Formed from Gold-Gathering Current, a divine ability of the Wandering Gold path 124.
Former Affiliation	Yangshe Xu served Later Jin as its Lord Who Held the Mysteries 102.
Occupation/Role	Cultivation adviser and manipulator seeking release from imprisonment 66 100.
Cultivation	Retains knowledge from a Purple Mansion cultivator, but the evil spirit itself has not reached Purple Mansion or fully mastered its originating divine ability 100 124.
Residence	Imprisoned within A Plea for Thirty-Six Years of Romantic Tales for at least a century 126.
Status	Refined through the book’s transformation into the Jade Pivot Thunder Canon; its Gold-Gathering Current nature becomes the basis of Gold-Pressing Thunder 126 127.

Background / History

Yangshe Xu was a Purple Mansion cultivator of the Wandering Gold path and Later Jin’s Lord Who Held the Mysteries. He cultivated two divine abilities: Edge-Raising Pool, which remained on the Yang Family’s Mount Huayu, and Gold-Gathering Current, from which Three Nothing originated 102 124.

During Later Jin’s disgrace, Yangshe Xu chose his family over sharing his nation’s humiliation. His actions cost him both body and name. Three Nothing explicitly describes Yangshe Xu as dead and himself as only an evil spirit formed from the former cultivator’s divine ability 102.

Confined within A Plea for Thirty-Six Years of Romantic Tales, Three Nothing sought a cultivator capable of anchoring Gold-Gathering Current with Li Thunder. Li Fuchan’s unusual thunder attainment made him a suitable partner, while his mysterious register qi gave Three Nothing a second object of desire 66 100.

Appearance

• No body, name, or form: These absences define Three Nothing’s condition and explain its dependence on the book as a medium for interacting with reality 66 124.
• Written communication: Its words appear as handwriting on the pages of A Plea for Thirty-Six Years of Romantic Tales 76 79.
• Mental voice: It can speak directly into Li Fuchan’s mind in a voice indistinguishable as male or female 89.

Personality

Three Nothing is patient, calculating, and determined to control its own success rather than entrust it to a weaker cultivator. Its assistance often serves several purposes at once: preserving Li Fuchan as a potential means of escape while pushing him into situations that might expose his secrets 100.

It exploits greed, fear, and unequal access to knowledge. Rather than openly violate an agreement, it presents dangerous entanglements as opportunities and protections. It also uses mockery to pressure Li Fuchan into abandoning his ambitions and accepting the Wandering Gold path 92 100.

Its confidence is not absolute. Li Fuchan’s transformation of Li Thunder genuinely shakes it, and his achievement briefly draws admiration rather than calculation. Nevertheless, Three Nothing immediately attempts to turn that admiration into another bargain for freedom and register qi 101 102.

Abilities & Skills

Wandering Gold and Gold-Gathering Current

• Originating power: Three Nothing is born from Gold-Gathering Current, one of the Five Aspects of Wandering Gold. This aspect embodies metal qi flowing freely and “wandering without settling” 124.
• Escape potential: Gold-Gathering Current is particularly suited to escape, making it Three Nothing’s intended route out of the book 66 127.
• Incomplete mastery: Being born from a divine ability grants some of its properties, not full command of it. Three Nothing would still need to cultivate its Dao Fruit anew and refine it into a divine ability 124.
• Dependence on Li Thunder: It seeks Li Fuchan’s thunder as a “nail” to anchor the otherwise unsettled Gold-Gathering Current and accelerate its cultivation 66.

Mental Influence and Memory Suppression

• Thought manipulation: Three Nothing redirects Jia Hua’s thoughts while suppressing the suspicion that would normally prompt him to examine himself 77.
• Memory erasure: It removes Li Fuchan’s memory of their spirit oath and obscures his recollection of advice about protecting himself with personal register qi 100.
• Concealed mechanism: It initially describes its influence as filling gaps in another person’s life and nature. Li Fuchan’s test on Jia Hua convinces him that the effect exceeds that explanation 77 100.
• Identifiable manifestation: An illustrated hand approaching Li Fuchan’s shoulder represents Three Nothing’s own means of influencing his mind and erasing memories 125.
• Counters: Li Thunder’s attention dispels its influence during the earlier simulation. Li Fuchan’s Embrace-Lock Crouching Cicada register qi later protects him against fate-hooking and influence at the divine-ability level 101 125.

Cultivation and Historical Knowledge

• Cultivation instruction: Explains the Hundred-Scene Profound Immortal Way, including Outer Scenery, Nature Root, Fate Root, Dao Fruits, and Inner Vision 66.
• Thunder lore: Knows Contrary Thunder’s connection to the Ancient Thunder Palace’s fall and its ability to cleave thunder and command lightning 73.
• Lineage knowledge: Supplies the Welcome Ying Isle details Li Fuchan needs to maintain a false identity under Jia Hua’s questioning 72 73.
• Ancient inheritance: Identifies the Great Zhi Pivot’s library, its bat-related access conditions, and the stone stele’s question-and-answer mechanism 90 91.
• Karmic knowledge: Explains the Five Thieves, the Four Aspects, Changze, and the danger of attracting cultivators who would exploit a successful hunter’s blessings 79 80.
• Practical guidance: Advises Li Fuchan on his Lightning-Struck Wood aspect and the cultivation of Sword Qi 68 78.

Perception and Tactical Support

• External awareness: Can perceive events outside the book and warns Li Fuchan when a Purple Mansion Lord has looked at him 79 91.
• Concealment: Hides Li Fuchan’s trail during his flight ahead of Quan Yong 86.
• Combat guidance: Acts as Li Fuchan’s eyes after an ambush impairs his senses, directing his movement and attacks 89.
• Fallibility: Misreads Li Fuchan’s killings as reckless behavior before recognizing their purpose, and insists Li Thunder has no variable shortly before Li proves otherwise 96 99 101.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• A Plea for Thirty-Six Years of Romantic Tales — Both Three Nothing’s prison and a high-order Magical Treasure through which it affects reality. Ordinary sealing measures fail because they cannot bind the treasure’s exceptionally high standing 124.
  • Story realization: Written events can become reality through arranged coincidences. Three Nothing uses the sentence “I shall take the place of what this man fears” to construct a story that exposes Li Fuchan’s feared secret and captures him 125.
  • Emergency intervention: Uses pages to save Li Fuchan during escape and releases illustrated scenes to interrupt the stone stele encounter 89 92 124.
  • Costs and restrictions: Activating the treasure requires divine-ability power and damages its foundation. A written and torn-out page cannot easily be revised 125.
  • Shared constraint: Three Nothing itself can become a participant bound by the story rather than an unrestricted author 124.
• Complete Fu Ying Contemplation and Perception Sutra — Retains the complete version of the ancient art whose incomplete library copy becomes part of its scheme against Li Fuchan 104.
• Jade Pivot Thunder Canon — The book’s later form after Li Fuchan stamps it with register qi. Its refinement of Three Nothing produces Gold-Pressing Thunder, a power directed against Gold-Gathering Current cultivators 126 127.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Bargain for Freedom

Three Nothing explains that Li Thunder can anchor difficult Dao Fruits and asks Li Fuchan to cultivate Wandering Gold. Li recognizes that Three Nothing needs him and uses the threat of his own death as leverage 66.

Their spirit oath binds Three Nothing not to actively harm Li Fuchan. In exchange, Li must switch to Wandering Gold after forming his Dao Fruit, anchor Three Nothing’s divine ability, and provide a strand of register qi. Once freed, Three Nothing is to do everything in its power to help Li reach Purple Mansion 100.

Northern Lands and the Secret Seal

Three Nothing directs Li Fuchan north, helps him impersonate a Welcome Ying Isle disciple, and influences Jia Hua into revealing Peaceful Way Abbey’s Contrary Thunder artifact. Li’s desire for the artifact draws him deeper into the abbey’s affairs and its dangerous karmic entanglements 68 72 73 95.

During Quan Yong’s pursuit, Three Nothing helps Li survive while steering him toward the Great Zhi Pivot’s forbidden domain. Inside, it uses the incomplete Fu Ying Contemplation and Perception Sutra and the stone stele to pressure him into obedience 89 90 91 92.

Exposure of the Scheme

Li Fuchan recovers the erased oath and reconstructs Three Nothing’s motive: it wants both his register qi and the secret behind his willingness to face death. Three Nothing has framed its interventions as beneficial opportunities to evade the oath’s prohibition against active harm 100.

Li breaks its influence and transforms Li Thunder. The thunder’s rejection of evil spirits removes his penalty for breaking the oath, and he identifies Three Nothing’s connection to Yangshe Xu. Three Nothing proposes a renewed alliance; Li refuses and throws the book away before ending the simulation 101 102 103.

The Bridge Story

After restarting, Li avoids the incomplete sutra to prevent renewed contact. Three Nothing nevertheless uses Gu Liuru’s apprentice and a staged lost-sword story to draw him into an encounter near Lion Tower market 104 122.

The book appears to reveal Li’s transformed thunder and drag him back through overwhelming power. Li instead tests the scene with a false body and discovers that Three Nothing is using the treasure’s prescribed story—not freely exercising all the powers the spectacle suggests. He tears the illustration apart and escapes 123 124 125.

Refinement

Unwilling to risk another alliance, Li Fuchan suppresses the book with register qi. It transforms into the Jade Pivot Thunder Canon, and Three Nothing stops responding 126.

The following chapter confirms its refinement. Gold-Pressing Thunder can subdue Gold-Gathering Current cultivators and, with sufficient cultivation, potentially strike down a Purple Mansion Lord relying on that divine ability. The “divine ability nail” Three Nothing sought is thus obtained by refining Three Nothing itself 127.

Relationships

• Li Fuchan — Prospective liberator, student, and target. Their cooperation becomes a contest over memory, register qi, and control, ending in Three Nothing’s refinement 66 100 125 127.
• Yangshe Xu — Historical source of its identity and originating divine ability. Three Nothing insists Yangshe Xu is dead and accepts its separate name 102 124.
• Jia Hua — A manipulated intermediary whose redirected judgment helps deepen Li Fuchan’s involvement with Peaceful Way Abbey 77 95 100.
• Fengci — His protective Knowledge-and-Vision Obstruction is undone as Three Nothing draws Li into the Five Thieves’ affairs 89 100.
• Gu Liuru — Serves as the means by which the book and Three Nothing enter Li Fuchan’s hands; his apprentice later participates in the bridge trap 122.

Notable Quotes

“Yangshe Xu is already dead. I am merely an evil spirit formed from his divine ability, seeking to escape imprisonment. Nothing more. I think Three Nothing is a fine name.” 102

“With my assistance, two hundred years from now, we shall make all beneath heaven tremble before thunderbolts.” 102

“I shall take the place of what this man fears.” 125