Zhang Hongxing

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Zhang Hongxing (张红星) 9
Alias(es)	Almighty Hongxing; Great God Hongxing; Shark Knight—public appellations associated with his feats 70 100
Species/Race	Human; later becomes effectively one with Earth, which subsequently exists within his mind 87 143 152
Gender	Male 2 159
Age	Legally sixty after returning to Earth; experienced fifteen thousand years in the cultivation world 1 18
Affiliation	Zhang family; Xia Kingdom; Shimen County Research Base; Huaxia City 2 43 157
Occupation/Role	Cultivator, pill refiner, medical master, research director and academician; later city lord of Huaxia City 14 43 58 96 157
Status	Alive; leading Huaxia City and strengthening the Earth within his mind through the Divine Realm’s power of rules 161
First Appearance	Returns amid the demolition of his family home 1

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Immortal Venerable — original cultivation	1 87	Reaches this realm during fifteen thousand years in another plane before finding a route back to Earth.
Cultivation exhausted	2	Expends all his cultivation breaking through the dimensional barrier. Retains a body capable of surviving a direct hit from an ordinary bomb.
Late Qi Refining	3	Documented starting point of his overnight recovery at Sincerity Hotel.
Foundation Establishment, second level	3	Absorbs Earth’s scarce spiritual energy overnight; decides to use electricity for faster recovery.
Golden Core	16	Cultivates through the night using electricity from hotel outlets before visiting Zhang Bing at the border. Ordinary rifle fire no longer poses a serious threat.
Early Foundation Establishment — regression	18 24	Loses a realm of cultivation and expends essence blood to create the Heaven-Earth Grand Formation around the border garrison.
Peak Golden Core	25	Recovers through intensive electrical cultivation, consuming more than 50,000 kilowatt-hours over several days.
Nascent Soul	36 37	A lightning-assisted breakthrough shatters his Golden Core and forms a miniature self above a newly manifested purple thundercloud.
Soul Separation	37	Continues breaking through while absorbing the lightning overhead.
Divided Spirit	37	Reaches this realm during the same uninterrupted series of lightning-powered breakthroughs.
Human Immortal	37	Completes the breakthrough sequence. His full strength rivals a high-yield hydrogen bomb; flight speed matches a fighter jet.
Heavenly Immortal	72 73	Absorbs electricity during his trip to Cherry Blossom Country and advances before returning home.
Great Golden Immortal	87	Documented realm immediately before entering the underwater beast-head gate; the intervening recovery is not detailed in the supplied passages.
Peak Immortal Venerable	87	Rises from Great Golden Immortal to this realm within seconds of entering the gate.
Approximately Heavenly Immortal under the revised system	137	The Primordial Human Cultivation Compendium reveals that his old peak Immortal Venerable strength corresponds roughly to an incomplete Heavenly Immortal. This is a reassessment, not a stated loss of power.
Planetary level 1	143	After his body is destroyed, he survives as an existence effectively united with Earth. Cannot yet manifest himself or speak to his family.
Planetary level 2	143 150	Requires Earth to increase tenfold in volume and nurture ten qualifying Great Golden Immortals. His advancement occurs when a Shushan disciple supplies the final qualifying breakthrough.
Strength Rule — usable	157	Uses the rule beneath his feet to perform a flash step while stopping Xiao Jiu.
Strength Rule — fully mastered	161	Establishes a closer connection with the Earth inside his mind and discovers that it can devour the Divine Realm’s rules.

• Before regaining his original Immortal Venerable strength, Zhang describes his apparent advancements as recovery 72.
• The revised cultivation system places True Immortal, Taiyi True Immortal, Mysterious Immortal, Taiyi Mysterious Immortal, Golden Immortal, and Taiyi Golden Immortal between Heavenly Immortal and the true Great Golden Immortal realm 137.
• His purple-lightning attacks lead other Immortal Venerables to speculate that he has crossed into a higher realm, but no such breakthrough is confirmed there 88 89.

Background / History

Disappearance and Return

Zhang disappears from Earth in 1991 through a spacetime rift. He spends fifteen thousand years cultivating in another plane, reaches Immortal Venerable, and uses an acquired treasure to locate and breach a weak point in Earth’s spatial barrier. He returns in 2021, finding that only thirty years have passed at home 1 87.

His arrival coincides with Boss Pan’s crew demolishing the family house. Zhang rescues Li Xiuying and Zhang Jun from the collapse, defeats the crew, and meets his daughter-in-law Yan Mei and five-year-old grandson Zhang Le. Jun stops him from openly killing the attackers, though Zhang secretly leaves delayed, potentially fatal force inside several of them 2.

The displaced family initially stays at Sincerity Hotel. Zhang accepts Yan Mei’s suggestion that he pose as a relative from the west to explain his youthful appearance. He then earns money through flower sales, restores Xiuying’s health, and helps the family purchase a 1.8-million-yuan residence containing a mulberry tree surrounded by powerful yin energy 3 5 6.

Medicine, Family Protection, and Public Fame

Zhang reconnects with Physician Xu Qinian at Jade Treasure Hall. Xu remembers him as the young man who brought in a stranger suffering from a stroke thirty years earlier, and later becomes his nominal disciple. Through Xu and Lin Kui, Zhang is asked to treat Professor Yang Weiguo; he administers a Life-Extending Vitality Pill despite hospital doctors challenging his credentials 9 13 14.

At the Xia–Buddha Country border, Zhang rescues Zhang Bing’s badly outnumbered squad, catches incoming bullets, and returns them with true qi. Father and son reconcile after Bing confronts him about his long absence. Zhang discovers Bing’s exceptional cultivation aptitude and subsequently sacrifices cultivation and essence blood to shelter the garrison from snow and wind 16 17 18.

Wenwen’s disclosure of domestic abuse sends Zhang to Capital City. After witnessing Qin Dagang attack Zhang Ying, he removes Ying and Wenwen from the household. He later admits killing Qin, provoking a dispute with Ying over his refusal to consider divorce or imprisonment instead. Zhang apologizes for acting without consulting her; their reconciliation comes later, when she thanks him for protecting her 14 20 29 30 66.

His fighting career makes him a national celebrity. He defeats Banjo Ichito with a spinning, one-handed “Human Helicopter” performance, then faces twelve champions simultaneously on April 5. Despite beginning with one hand and both feet bound, he overwhelms the fighters and forces the survivors to surrender 24 25 26.

Formation Research and National Development

Requests to reproduce his weather-changing formation lead Zhang toward scientific collaboration. He insists that the work remain in his hometown so he can stay near his family. At the Shimen County Research Base, he teaches formation principles and directs researchers to reproduce their effects with electricity rather than true qi 28 43.

After thousands of experiments over a month, Zhang produces a stable electrically powered Levitation Array, scaling it from batteries to a truck and then a thirteen-car freight train. Working with nuclear scientist Qian Zhong, he helps build the first nuclear-powered engine and prepares a maglev trial on the Xinzhou–Nanping railway 44 48.

During the family’s Egret Island vacation, his shark-riding and subjugation of the Deep-Sea Behemoth Nana attract worldwide attention. He publicly attributes these feats to Xia’s unusual energy technology rather than cultivation. His reputation also brings him into negotiations with Treasure Island leader Jiang Guozheng, whom he invites to inspect the nuclear-powered maglev train 56 57 61 65 68.

Earth’s Hidden Defense and the Eternal Life Society

Nana’s underwater home leads Zhang to the beast-head gate. There, One Sword Immortal and Mo Qianchou explain that Earth’s defenders deliberately opened spacetime rifts, hoping displaced people would return with enough strength to help fight invading beasts. Zhang initially resents having his life manipulated, but his anger fades when he sees thirty-seven Immortal Venerables enduring an exhausting defensive battle 87 88.

He fights without rest for a month and a half, then returns to Earth seeking nuclear and hydrogen bombs. He later protects Xia personnel during a nuclear test against the invading beasts, demonstrating the practical value of modern weapons on that battlefield 89 96.

Zhang’s investigation of the Eternal Life Society begins with the Black Knife Daoist’s intrusion at his home. After interrogating and killing the Daoist, he sends the recorded information to the government through Zhang Jun. He eventually exposes the Society president’s soul-collecting murders, destroys the organization and Lofu Palace, and secretly removes the engines and weapons from General Huo’s interstellar battleship 30 113.

The seized equipment goes to the Shimen research base. Zhang also supports Deng Jia and Qian Sen’s study of modern technology and moves with his family to Zhang Bing’s Super Farmstay, where biotechnology and cultivation are being combined in experimental farming 114.

Revised Cultivation and Planetary Transformation

On Mars, an unidentified giant grievously injures Zhang and implants the Primordial Human Cultivation Compendium in his mind. Long Aotian, Qian Sen, and Deng Jia rescue him. During a six-month coma, Zhang studies the text and discovers that his understanding of cultivation substantially overstates his actual standing under the new system 137.

After recovering, he gives the Ten Grand Elders thousands of cultivation recordings and books, leaving their administration to the government. Later, his physical body is destroyed, but he survives as an existence effectively united with Earth. Seeking planetary evolution, he fragments and absorbs the Moon after allowing lunar researchers to evacuate 139 143.

Zhang monitors promising cultivators whose growth can help fulfill Earth’s evolutionary requirements, including Emei’s disciples and Mo Bufan. A foreign Minotaur does not count toward the required ten Great Golden Immortals; a Shushan disciple’s breakthrough finally triggers his next advancement 144 150.

Divine Realm and Huaxia City

In the Divine Realm, Zhang initially struggles to grasp even the Strength Rule. He trains his body and hunts for food while discovering that Earth and its universe exist uniquely within his mind. Mo Bufan and Chu Yunxuan subsequently arrive from Earth, where Zhang has become a legendary figure believed to have vanished ten thousand years earlier 152 154.

As Huaxia City’s lord, Zhang publicly executes Xiao Jiu for attempting to assault a native woman and refuses Bald Brother Li’s request for a private settlement. He declares equal treatment under the city’s rules, regardless of origin or cultivation status 157.

His wife, children, daughters-in-law, sect members, and powerful beasts later join him, strengthening the city and reuniting the family. As Huaxia City develops electricity, networks, and simple aircraft, Zhang discovers that Earth can absorb the Divine Realm’s rules, restoring Earth-born cultivators’ distinctive powers. When the Demon Lord and Divine Lord dispatch elite armies, he removes all limits on that absorption 159 161.

Appearance

• Looks approximately thirty despite being legally sixty after his return 14 18.
• Resembles his old photograph closely enough for Xiuying, Zhang Le, and Physician Xu to recognize him after thirty years 1 2 9.
• Initially wears the same clothes in which he disappeared in 1991 3.
• Returns amid lightning, but later loses his original physical body during his planetary transformation 1 143.

Personality

Zhang places extraordinary value on ordinary family life after millennia of violence in the cultivation world. He enjoys meals together, school runs, and outings with his grandchildren. His initial reunion leaves him awkward and overwhelmed, while Xiuying’s aging forces him to confront the years his family endured without him 1 2 8 29.

His protectiveness is affectionate but frequently ruthless. Threats to relatives provoke beatings, covert retaliation, and killing; he also tortures dangerous opponents for information. Ying’s objection to Qin Dagang’s death makes him acknowledge that protecting someone does not justify ignoring their wishes, and he apologizes rather than insisting on unquestioned paternal authority 2 29 30 75.

An unwavering Xia patriot, Zhang accepts personal costs to help soldiers and promotes research that ordinary people can use. He considers science more broadly beneficial than cultivation, which favors a talented minority and encourages competition over scarce resources. Nevertheless, he later shares advanced cultivation methods when they become useful to humanity’s survival 18 43 54 139.

He dislikes bullying officials, intrusive publicity, and attempts to exploit family connections. His restraint is selective: he leaves a staged school confrontation rather than escalating it, and warns away an opportunistic suitor without violence, but responds harshly to insults and serious abuse 19 44 65 77 100.

Abilities & Skills

Electrical Cultivation and Energy Recovery

• Absorbs electricity as a cultivation resource, overcoming Earth’s limited spiritual energy 3 16.
• Uses lightning during breakthroughs and a nuclear generator to replenish energy during prolonged combat 37 119.
• At peak Immortal Venerable, restores his immortal essence in less than five seconds after a major attack; explains that sufficiently dense energy can restore him in under a minute without binding him to Earth’s defensive array 89.
• Energy recovery does not eliminate every cost: essence blood is finite, and certain formations can still reduce his cultivation 28.

Purple Thundercloud and Lightning Punch

• His newly formed Nascent Soul rests above a purple thundercloud absent from his earlier cultivation 37.
• Combines its purple lightning with concentrated Immortal Essence Power for a punch that annihilates large numbers of mutant beasts 88 89.
• Requires roughly half an hour before repeating a purple-lightning strike of that magnitude 89.
• Without the lightning, his attacks are comparable to other peak Immortal Venerables and somewhat weaker than their artifact-assisted attacks 89.
• Uses the inner thundercloud to imprison the Eternal Life Society president’s soul 113.

Formation Mastery and Engineering

• Possesses knowledge of thousands of formations and adapts their runes and activation methods for technological use 18 43.
• Creates illusion-based defenses capable of trapping intruders for days 13 29 30.
• Uses concealment formations to hide himself, demonstrate invisibility, and infiltrate General Huo’s battleship 43 100 113.
• Creates the Heaven-Earth Grand Formation, producing springlike conditions across a one-li radius at the border garrison 18.
• Develops electrically powered levitation and collaborates on nuclear-powered propulsion 44 48.
• Builds autonomous aerial maglev routes at Super Farmstay using mature Spirit-Control Formation technology 121.

Medicine and Pill Refining

• Performs Meridian Cleansing and Marrow Washing, making Xiuying younger-looking and healthier 6.
• Refines Beauty-Preserving Pills, each preserving youth for five years 10.
• Produces nine Life-Extending Vitality Pills in three days from mulberry wood essence and a peony; each adds fifty years to an ordinary person’s life and restores youth and vitality 14.
• Uses Immortal Essence Power to repair Ziyue’s severe injuries, restore the Nine-Tailed Human-Faced Fox’s heart, and protect a poisoned woman’s heart meridians 51 75 119.
• Teaches Xu Qinian, whose later medical achievements are credited to Zhang’s instruction 13 58.

Combat, Movement, and Defense

• Retains bomb-resistant physical durability even immediately after exhausting his cultivation 2.
• Catches bullets and returns them with true qi 16.
• Performs acrobatic, one-handed fighting displays and defeats twelve champions while heavily restrained 24 26.
• At Human Immortal, flies at fighter-jet speed and estimates he can survive in space for more than seven days, longer with an energy supply 37.
• Learns the Cloud-Riding and Mist-Riding Art from the new compendium; later regains its use as Earth absorbs Divine Realm rules 137 161.
• Uses the Strength Rule for instantaneous movement and eventually masters it fully 157 161.

Beast Taming, Sealing, and Interrogation

• Subdues Nana and inscribes a Beast-Taming Formation that compels her obedience even against her wishes 61 87.
• Heals the Nine-Tailed Human-Faced Fox before attempting to bind her, describing the formation as “insurance” rather than enslavement 119.
• Secretly seals Ziyue’s power as a precaution despite Zhang Bing’s trust in her 75.
• Uses soul interrogation, spiritual pressure, and threats involving a Soul-Eating Insect to extract information 30 113.
• Can conceal his appearance and assume another person’s identity, as when he disguises himself as Taro Kamishima 71.

Planetary and Rule-Based Power

• As Earth’s united consciousness, fragments the Moon and draws its pieces into Earth’s core for absorption 143.
• Quietly applies pressure to Mo Bufan’s training without appearing before him 144.
• In the Divine Realm, can cancel Mo Bufan’s Blade Force; suspects he could take everything Mo possesses, but deliberately leaves that possibility untested 154.
• Earth’s absorption of Divine Realm rules strengthens both the planet and Zhang while weakening restrictions on Earth-born people 161.
• His authority over Earth-born power is not a universal answer to enemies: he explains that the ability used on Mo Bufan is rarely useful against opponents 154.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Spatial Ring — Stores the engines and weapons removed from General Huo’s interstellar battleship 113.
• Mulberry wood essence — Used for pill refining and as the inscribed medium for a Concealment Formation 14 43.
• Radiation Rocket and seized spaceship weapons — Used alongside allies’ artifacts against the Nine-Tailed Human-Faced Fox 119.
• Nuclear generator — Recharges his power during the fox battle 119.
• Formation Basics — Distributed to Shimen researchers as the foundation of their formation studies 43.
• Primordial Human Cultivation Compendium — Implanted by the Mars giant; contains thousands of methods, including the Eight-Nine Mysterious Art, White Tiger Body-Refining Art, and Cloud-Riding and Mist-Riding Art 137.
• Dragon Pearl — Entrusted to him by Long Aotian and delivered to Nana 89 90.
• Emei and Shushan tokens — Received from Mo Qianchou and One Sword Immortal; delivers Emei’s Buddha-Hand Horsetail Whisk to Mo Bufan, restoring access to the Twelve Transformations of Heaven and Earth 89 93.

Relationships

Family

• Li Xiuying — Wife. Waits thirty years for his return; he restores her health and youth, publicly affirms his love for her, and later recognizes the sacrifices behind her demanding cultivation 1 6 65 159.
• Zhang Jun — Eldest son. Helps keep the family afloat during Zhang’s absence, restrains his violence, and deliberately uses humor to help him fit back into the household. Zhang directs him toward scientific research 2 76 121.
• Zhang Ying — Daughter. Her abusive marriage prompts Zhang’s intervention; his killing of Qin causes a rift, followed by an apology and eventual reconciliation 20 29 30 66.
• Zhang Bing — Youngest son. A border soldier with exceptional cultivation aptitude; Zhang rescues and teaches him, then decides he needs serious training rather than continued dependence on paternal protection 16 17 76.
• Yan Mei — Daughter-in-law, Jun’s wife. Suggests the cover story for Zhang’s appearance and grows more comfortable with him after seeing Xiuying’s transformation 3 6.
• Ziyue — Bing’s partner and later one of Zhang’s daughters-in-law. Zhang saves her but initially distrusts her account and secretly seals her power; he later recognizes the promise of her biotechnology work 75 114 159.
• Zhang Le / Lele / Keke — Grandson. Immediately embraces him at their first meeting; Zhang regularly handles school visits and family outings 2 8 36.
• Wenwen — Ying’s child, identified as Zhang’s granddaughter in later passages. Her disclosure exposes Qin’s abuse, and she places strong trust in her grandfather’s protection 14 20 56.

Disciples and Allies

• Xu Qinian — Nominal disciple and physician at Jade Treasure Hall. His referrals draw Zhang into treating Professor Yang, and he credits Zhang for his medical mastery 13 58.
• Lin Kui — Wolf Fang Special Forces officer. Arranges travel, legal identification, and help investigating Zhang’s children’s circumstances 13 16 18 19.
• Chu Yunxuan — Capital City contact and assistant. Helps Zhang investigate Ying’s marriage and supports him during his electrical cultivation; later reunites with him in the Divine Realm 19 25 154.
• Wang Desheng — Foreign Affairs Minister. Coordinates formation research and access to scientific resources while accommodating Zhang’s wish to remain near his family 28 44.
• Huang Sheng — Mayor and research supporter. Helps establish the research base and approves the railway closure needed for the maglev trial 36 48.
• Qian Zhong — Nuclear scientist and collaborator. Combines nuclear expertise with Zhang’s formation knowledge to build the nuclear-powered engine 48.
• Nana — Subdued Deep-Sea Behemoth. Serves as a mount and brings Zhang to the beast-head gate, but remains emotionally devoted to Long Aotian 61 87 90.
• Long Aotian — Dragon-blooded Immortal Venerable and Nana’s former boss. Becomes a battlefield ally and helps rescue Zhang from Mars 88 89 137.
• Deng Jia and Qian Sen — Immortal Venerable allies. Study modern weapons, fight alongside Zhang, and protect his heart meridians during his rescue 114 119 137.
• One Sword Immortal and Mo Qianchou — Earth-born defenders who explain the rift program. Later support Zhang as guards, teachers, and military allies in Huaxia City 87 157 159 161.
• Mo Bufan — Emei leader and later Divine Realm companion. Receives his ancestral whisk through Zhang, benefits from his quiet guidance, and becomes the subject of Zhang’s tests of Earth-linked power 93 144 154.

Notable Quotes

“Now that I'm back, I'll take over and settle everything.” 2

“We're all people of the Xia Kingdom. Doing this little bit is nothing.” 18

“Our goal is not for you to inscribe formations using True Qi. It is to use electricity to achieve the same effects as True Qi.” 43

Trivia

• Zhang introduces “Hongxing” as meaning “shining red star”; repeating that introduction helps Physician Xu recognize him after thirty years 9.
• His household registration was never canceled during his disappearance. Lin Kui regularizes his documentation before the border trip rather than creating an entirely new legal identity 18.
• The UFC invents the claim that its challenger is the soldier in Xia’s border footage—accidentally identifying the correct person 25.