Xu Qingyang

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Xu Qingyang (徐轻扬)
Alias(es)	White Tiger King — a concealed identity used while wearing the White Tiger Mask 30 31.
Gender	Male 1.
Affiliation	Xu Clan of Heavenly Martial City; Azure Waves Academy 1 36 37.
Occupation/Role	Xu Clan young master; master of the Desolate Tower; appointed dean of Azure Waves Academy. As the White Tiger King, he also accepts the academy’s honorary presidency 2 4 36 37.
Family	Son of the Desolate Sky Sword Master; grandson of Xu Juren; elder brother of Xu Qingying 1 33.
Cultivation	Last explicitly named ordinary cultivation stage: middle Golden Core. He subsequently receives a breakthrough whose resulting stage is not specified 36 44.
Status	Alive; caught in Mu Qingyu’s formation ambush after leaving God-Burial Mountain 50.
First Appearance	Chapter 1, “Awakening a Martial Soul! (1 / 2)” 1.

Power Progression

Cultivation, combat strength, Tower-granted modes, and temporary enhancements are distinguished below; they are not interchangeable.

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Emperor-rank Sword Martial Soul	1	Awakens a five-colored sword on his thirty-sixth attempt. The Desolate Tower immediately absorbs it, making him its master.
Restored Sword Martial Soul; two additional martial souls	2	Uses the Tower’s source patterns to restore his sword with a stronger aura, then awakens Vermilion Bird and True Dragon martial souls.
Infinite comprehension mode	2	The Tower upgrades after recognizing his connection to the Ruthless Empress.
Foundation Establishment, seventh level	4	Reaches this level after absorbing a breath of spiritual energy through the Great Dao Primordial Chaos Art. His sea of consciousness opens one realm earlier than normal.
Peak sword intent; early Golden Core combat strength	9	Masters the first nine Wordless Sword Art moves within a few breaths while remaining at seventh-level Foundation Establishment.
Invincibility below Grotto-Heaven	14 15	Tower protection nullifies enemy attacks below Grotto-Heaven and retaliates. His family assesses his displayed combat strength as peak Nascent Soul.
Immovable Wisdom King Divine Body	15 16	Revealed after the Tower activates myriad-eternal divine physique mode in response to Qingying’s Ice Phoenix Physique awakening.
Blood Moving, middle stage	16	His current realm before studying the second page of the Great Dao Primordial Chaos Art; the preceding breakthrough is not shown in the supplied passages.
Blood Moving, peak	16	Refines heavenly-sun power within a few breaths using the Tower’s safe absorption mode.
Grotto-Heaven invincibility mode	21	Unlocked against dozens of early Grotto-Heaven Azure Profound Guards; enables him to defeat them and their combined formation.
Golden Core, middle stage; half-step Spirit Transformation combat strength	24	Refines the Azure Lotus Demonflame over an hour. He judges that using the flame would let him kill an early Spirit Transformation expert.
Early Spirit Transformation combat strength	28	Consumes roughly eighty to ninety percent of his collected heavenly treasures. His combat strength rises, but he fails to reach late Golden Core.
Unspecified cultivation breakthrough	44	Monk Yixing’s final gift advances all four companions; Xu Qingyang’s resulting stage is not named.
Peak Grotto-Heaven aura; Inscription-level combat strength	45	A temporary Human World Stele enhancement lets him destroy an early Inscription ancestor manifestation.
Sword Martial Soul beyond Emperor Rank	47	Manifests as a golden sword that draws surrounding Sword Mound weapons toward it. Qin Guanyu identifies it as having surpassed Emperor Rank; its exact rank is unnamed.
Spirit Transformation Invincible Mode	49	The Tower upgrades upon Xue Qinglu’s appearance. Xu Qingyang kills the Immortal Hall expert with one sword strike.

Background / History

Xu Qingyang’s parents vanished when he was three. He trained for years to become strong enough to find them and reunite his family, enduring thirty-five unsuccessful martial-soul awakenings before succeeding on his thirty-sixth attempt 1.

Before gaining cultivation, he already contributed to the Xu Clan’s standing through planning and advice. Xu Juren cites those achievements when defending his grandson’s position as young master, arguing that martial strength alone does not determine his suitability 4.

His father is the Desolate Sky Sword Master, whose rise shook the Holy Domain. During a visit to the clan’s Ancestral Grounds, Qingyang learns that Xu Village was renamed Desolate Village in his father’s honor. His father also left powerful safeguards for the Xu Clan, including its Clan-Protecting Formation 17 33 34.

Appearance

Xu Qingyang is described as a handsome young man with an upright bearing. On arriving at the Boundless Mountains, his movements convey a mysterious, noble air that causes onlookers to compare him to a prodigy raised by a major power 6 16 18.

• Clothing: Appears in blue robes during the Boundless Mountains expedition 18 25.
• Disguise: Wears the White Tiger Mask when acting as the White Tiger King 30.
• Divine-body manifestation: Radiant light and an Immovable Wisdom King phantom covered in ancient, intricate inscriptions 16.
• Sword-soul manifestation: Initially five-colored; later golden, with surrounding swords gathering beside it 1 47.

Personality

Perseverance is his defining trait. His repeated awakening failures do not end his efforts, and the Ruthless Empress regards those years as the tempering of unusually strong willpower. Even after discovering his divine body, he teaches Qingying that innate gifts cannot replace resolve and the heart of a true expert 1 2 16.

He deliberately conceals his strength and intentions. His proposed resignation as young master is a test of clan loyalties, and he later invents a story that the White Tiger King once served his father to prevent others from discovering his disguised identity. His caution also extends to treasure hunting: he notices Ye Feng’s suspicious invitation and stops Qingying from touching apparent treasures in the Buddhist Pagoda 4 37 40 43.

He is affectionate and generous toward those close to him, but ruthless toward persistent enemies. Injuries to Qingying and Su Zilian provoke immediate retaliation. He explains that sparing Qi Qin would merely leave an enemy alive to kill him later, treating decisive violence as necessary self-preservation 5 6 10 21.

His confidence often appears reckless to his allies. He dismisses threats from the Qi and Ye families and pursues a notoriously untamable Sky-Devouring Peng as a mount despite Luo Qianyu’s warnings. Nevertheless, he also acts from a wider sense of duty, volunteering to seal the Fierce Sword Burning Heaven because its escape could threaten Jiannan City and his hometown 15 38 39 49.

Abilities & Skills

Great Dao Primordial Chaos Art

The first Heavenly Book teaches a cultivation method centered on the Great Dao, promising rapid advancement with minimal resources and spiritual-energy stars capable of supporting combat beyond the practitioner’s realm 3.

• Refines spiritual energy rapidly enough to take him directly to seventh-level Foundation Establishment 4.
• Its second page permits absorption of devil, ghost, evil, desolate, and other energies, as well as power from the sun, moon, mountains, seawater, and thunder 16.
• Turns the Sea of Fire’s flames into cultivation fuel and instantly refines Demon Spirit’s demonic flowers 24 47.
• His divine body places heavy demands on resources: most of his mountain treasures fail to produce a late Golden Core breakthrough 28.

Three Martial Souls

• Sword Martial Soul: Restored through source patterns after being absorbed by the Tower. Its later manifestation surpasses Emperor Rank and attracts swords from the Sword Mound 2 47.
• Vermilion Bird Martial Soul: Produces Vermilion Bird fire, resonates with the Red Sparrow Sword, and awakens the Vermilion Bird War God Will sealed inside it 9 10 28.
• True Dragon Martial Soul: Awakens alongside the Vermilion Bird soul; its blood-qi ring contains surging waves and a majestic dragon silhouette 2.

Swordsmanship

The Great Dao Sword Scripture, the second Heavenly Book, contains the Heaven-Covering Sword Lord’s Wordless Sword Art and Sword-Controlling Technique. Xu Qingyang masters the first nine sword moves almost immediately and attains peak sword intent 9 16.

Move	Name
Sword One	One Sword Controls the Dragon 9.
Sword Two	Two Forms Swallow the Four Symbols 9.
Sword Three	Three Thousand Great Daos 9.
Sword Four	Immortal’s Salute from a Lone Boat 9.
Sword Five	Twin Heavens of Wind and Fire 9.
Sword Six	Sixty Years Defy Samsara 9.
Sword Seven	Battle Every Celestial in Heaven 9.
Sword Eight	Great Dao of the Desolate Heavens 9.
Sword Nine	A Sword Reaches Eighty Thousand Miles 9.

• The scripture describes the art as extending through Sword Twenty-Three; the supplied account explicitly shows him learning its first nine moves 9.
• Sword One shatters Qi Qin’s weapon and seriously wounds him 10.
• Sword Two swallows an Azure Profound Guard’s black palm attack 21.
• Sword Four manifests an immortal phantom that overwhelms Demon Spirit’s Heavenly Demon Pattern and wounds her 47.
• The wind-moving Sword-Controlling Technique allows flight on the Red Sparrow Sword, including carrying Su Zilian 16 26.

Heaven-Slaying Art

The third Heavenly Book, the Forbidden Arts Heavenly Book, contains this forbidden technique and its single move, the Sword-Slaying Stance 11.

• Requires an ever-forward fighting spirit and unbreakable will, both of which Xu Qingyang possesses 11.
• Consumes spiritual energy but causes little backlash; the Sky-Swallowing Pattern can handle recovery 11.
• He masters it in half an incense stick’s time by using the consciousness in his sea of consciousness to cultivate 11.

Dragon-Elephant Prajñā Fist

The fourth Heavenly Book contains Master Wuxin’s eighteen-punch art, with a thousand variations per punch. Understanding the Great Dao matters more than memorizing its movements 29.

• Dragons Beneath Heaven: A Grotto-Heaven technique that manifests a gigantic azure dragon and shatters a highly durable boulder 29.
• Divine Elephant Battles Heaven: A Spirit Transformation technique whose first practice collapses the Xu Clan’s best cultivation chamber 29.
• He cannot initially turn to the art’s second page, limiting his accessible instruction to the first two punches 29.

Immovable Wisdom King Divine Body

His physique manifests the phantom of the Immovable Wisdom King, a legendary cultivator said to have attained godhood in a thousand years 16.

• The narrative describes it as superior to demon, Five Elements, chaos, and reincarnation bodies 16.
• Combining its power with Vermilion Bird fire lets him take control of the Heavenly Abyss’s divine formation 28.
• Xu Qingyang treats the physique as an aid rather than a substitute for discipline and willpower 16.

Desolate Tower and Source Patterns

The twelve-floor Desolate Tower imprisons forbidden beings who must kill its master to escape. It initially offers protection in exchange for recovering its lost treasures, then repeatedly upgrades in response to Xu Qingyang’s connections and dangers 2.

• Source patterns: Blood-Coagulating, Martial Soul, Qi-Gathering, and Sky-Swallowing 2.
• Comprehension and training: Infinite comprehension, safe heavenly-sun absorption, and Sword-Controlling Technique modes accelerate his development 2 16.
• Combat protection: Successive modes provide invincibility below Grotto-Heaven, within Grotto-Heaven, and at Spirit Transformation 14 21 49.
• Strongest palm technique mode: Unlocked against Ye Qing’s hundred-thousand-jin palm strike 21.
• Treasure hunting: Omnidirectional treasure-hunting mode guides his successful Boundless Mountains expedition 19 24.
• Other upgrades: Dao companion attraction mode activates upon meeting Su Zilian; myriad-eternal divine physique mode follows Qingying’s physique awakening 7 15.

Formations, Inscriptions, and Buddhist Dao

Tower upgrades grant Xu Qingyang powerful specialized means of overcoming supernatural defenses 22 39 43.

• Inscription invincibility: Allows him to produce any inscription and overpower opposing inscriptions. His Heavenly Punishment Inscription destroys Bai Fengliu’s Annihilation Inscription and kills him 22.
• All-purpose formation mode: Enables him to seal the Fierce Sword Burning Heaven with the Great Sun Locking Formation, Silent Moon Tiger King Formation, and Earth Treasury Life-and-Death Formation 39.
• Invincible Buddhist Dao mode: Removes the Buddhist Dao power from Ksitigarbha’s formation, which he then destroys with the Formation Spear 43.
• Heavenly Abyss authority: Uses divine chains from the prison’s formation to restrain and annihilate Xuanyuan Haotian’s projection; this is not the destruction of Haotian’s true body 28 29.
• Law cultivation: Obtains the Space Law. He also seeks the Sword Dao Law to strengthen himself, restore the Tower, and improve control over its prison formation 36 49.

Azure Lotus Demonflame

Xu Qingyang subdues the demonflame’s crimson-dragon manifestation with the Red Sparrow Sword and Vermilion Bird War God power, then refines it 24.

• Strengthens his cultivation and adds enough offensive power for him to judge an early Spirit Transformation opponent killable 24.
• Stabilizes the Tower’s first floor, but testing it also disrupts the Heavenly Abyss’s suppression formation and exposes Xuanyuan Haotian’s projection 28.

Divine Soul Mark

Xu Qingyang places a Divine Soul Mark in Tuntun’s consciousness after forcing the Sky-Devouring Peng to submit 50.

• He states that the mark can kill the creature instantly if it betrays him 50.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Twelve Heavenly Books: Golden volumes written by the master of the Great Dao Diagram and given to him by the Ruthless Empress. Access is initially restricted and expands as he cultivates 2 3.
• Red Sparrow Sword: A broken fifth-grade sword formerly belonging to the Vermilion Bird War God. Purchased from Shi Xiu for three thousand spirit crystals, discounted from five thousand; contains the War God’s sealed will 9 10.
• White Tiger Mask: Used for his White Tiger King identity 30.
• Human World Stele: Formed from eight steles describing the Eight Dragon Tribes. Can boost combat strength up to seven times 43.
• Formation Spear: Used to shatter Ksitigarbha’s formation after its Buddhist Dao power is removed 43.
• Dragon Orb: Acquired from Yi Qiushui and later given to Qingying to accelerate her cultivation 22 28.
• Hundred Flowers Palace Holy Token: Given by Yi Qiushui, who says it permits free spending in the Holy Domain 23.
• Dharma Staff and Śarīra: Taken from the Buddhist Pagoda after Monk Yixing’s apparition disappears 44.
• Divine Tree of Life seedling: Offered by Tuntun as an “Ancient Tree of Life,” then identified by the Tower as the rarer Divine Tree of Life. Can rapidly restore grievous injuries 50.
• Slow Yangzhou Tea: Spiritual tea he serves to Xu Jinhong, whose cultivation immediately rises to sixth-level Foundation Establishment 5.

Relationships

• Xu Qingying — Younger sister. He cures her cold poison with the Cold Nether True Art, helps awaken her Ice Phoenix Physique, gives her the Dragon Orb, and arranges academy access for her 15 16 28 37.
• Xu Juren — Grandfather and clan leader. Defends his succession rights, kills Xu Taichong to protect him, and refuses to surrender him to hostile families 4 8 34.
• Desolate Sky Sword Master — Missing father. His legacy shapes the clan’s ancestral village and provides its inherited defenses 1 33 34.
• Ruthless Empress — Protective relative and cultivation mentor; the exact familial relationship is unspecified. Gives him the Heavenly Books and teaches him to control the Heavenly Abyss formation 2 3 28.
• Desolate Tower — Bound artifact and guide. Provides source patterns, specialized modes, and warnings while relying on him to recover its treasures 2 38.
• Xu Jinhong — Close clansman and loyal follower. Refuses to covet his position, supports him through his apparent decline, and later chooses an independent journey to Longevity Valley 5 6 37.
• Su Zilian — Fiancée. Abandons plans to end their engagement; their mutual protection during the mountain expedition develops into genuine affection 7 18 21 26.
• Qin Guanyu — Su Zilian’s master and academy recruiter. Offers the White Tiger King an honorary presidency, secures Qingyang’s deanship, and accompanies him through God-Burial Mountain 36 37 40.
• Shi Xiu — Artifact Pavilion master. Discounts the Red Sparrow Sword and shields him from Qi Tian inside the pavilion 9 10.
• Yi Qiushui — Hundred Flowers Palace cultivator. Gives up the Dragon Orb under pressure, then seeks to recruit him and supplies a Holy Token 22 23.
• Luo Qianyu — Companion during the later secret-realm expedition. Warns him about Demon Spirit and the Sky-Devouring Peng, then accompanies him to confront Mu Qingyu 47 48 49 50.
• Tuntun — Sky-Devouring Peng mount. Submits under threat and a Divine Soul Mark; Xu Qingyang promises to help it reach eighth rank 50.
• Monk Yixing — Buddhist figure whose legacy Xu Qingyang refuses. Accepting his final boon creates a karmic obligation to investigate the sealed gods 44.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Awakening and Xu Clan Succession

• His unprecedented sword awakening appears to become another failure when the Tower absorbs it. Inside the Tower, he instead gains three martial souls, a powerful mentor, and the Heavenly Books 1 2 3.
• He conceals his first cultivation breakthrough and proposes resigning as young master to test the clan. Xu Juren refuses 4.
• After Xu Pan injures Qingying, Qingyang destroys his dantian with one punch. Xu Pan and Xu Taichong then plot to steal his supposed opportunity 5 6.
• Xu Juren kills Taichong; Jinhong kills Xu Pan, but not before Pan spreads rumors about Qingyang’s gains 8 9.

Qi Family Conflict and the Boundless Mountains

• Defeats and kills Qi Qin in the Artifact Pavilion arena. Qi Tian also dies at his hands, drawing retaliation from patriarch Qi Tai’a 10 14.
• Tower protection lets him survive Qi Tai’a’s attack and kill him; he subsequently cripples Qi Taicang 14 15.
• Enters the Boundless Mountains to gain experience and retrieve the Azure Lotus Demonflame. With Su Zilian, he secures treasures, kills Ye Qing and the Azure Profound Guards, and defeats Bai Fengliu 17 21 22 24.
• Returns from the Sea of Fire and later kills Ye Xingchen at Su Zilian’s request, intensifying the Nanyang Ye Family’s hostility 25 26.

White Tiger King and Defense of the Xu Clan

• Adopts the masked White Tiger King identity to confront Ye Tian over his alliance with the Qi Family. Ye Tian’s death makes the disguised swordsman a celebrated figure 30 31.
• The Qi Family and Five Elements Monastery spread accusations against Qingyang. He enters the Ancestral Grounds while planning to intervene under his concealed identity 32 33.
• As the White Tiger King, he rescues the Xu Clan from the Ye Family assault, kills Ye Huaixian and Ye Jianli, and leaves the remaining attackers for his clan to eliminate 34 36.
• Accepts an honorary academy presidency as the White Tiger King to obtain access to laws and resources. A joking remark later results in Qingyang himself being appointed dean, despite his reluctance to take on responsibilities that interfere with cultivation 36 37.

Jiannan City and God-Burial Mountain

• Seals the Fierce Sword Burning Heaven before entering God-Burial Mountain with Qin Guanyu, Su Zilian, and Qingying 39 40.
• Gains the Human World Stele, breaks the Buddhist Pagoda’s formation, and accepts Monk Yixing’s final cultivation boon. The companions undertake an obligation to investigate the gods’ sealing a hundred thousand years earlier 43 44.
• Destroys Ye Feng’s ambush and the Ye ancestor’s Dharma manifestation, then exposes the route to Great Nether Mountain 44 45.
• Identifies the supposed True Spirit Bead as a Blood Demon Pearl and deduces Mu Qingyu’s manipulation of Qin Guanyu. He fights Demon Spirit and reveals his Sword Martial Soul’s rank advancement 47.
• Obtains the Space Law, kills Xue Qinglu after hearing his admission of Heavenly Court–Devil Race collusion, and subdues Tuntun 49 50.

Return to Mu Qingyu’s Estate

• After leaving the secret realm, Qingyang joins Qin Guanyu and Luo Qianyu in confronting Mu Qingyu rather than departing immediately for Azure Waves Academy 50.
• Mu Qingyu traps the group with formations and appears with armed allies. Qingyang urges Qin Guanyu to hold back long enough to learn the truth about Mu’s Devil Race connections; the confrontation remains unresolved in the supplied account 50.

Notable Quotes

“Qingying, a divine body may be powerful, but without strong willpower and the heart of a true expert, you’ll ultimately drown in the long river of history!” 16

“The moment Qi Qin tried to steal my opportunity, the Qi Family and I became enemies. If I hadn’t killed him, he wouldn’t have been grateful. He would have killed me instead. Naturally, I couldn’t let him go!” 10

“Sealing a vicious sword like Burning Heaven that threatens our human race is a duty we cultivators must never shirk!” 39