Goudanzi

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Zhou Bao; formally named by his father before entering the Wu Ironworks 17
Alias(es)	Goudanzi (狗蛋子), his childhood nickname; Little Leopard, used after he receives his formal name 1 17
Previous Identity	Wang Bo, a Chinese-literature PhD and civil servant who died at thirty-six 1 4
Species/Race	Human; his unusual eyes suggest a supposedly extinct bloodline to Wang She, but its identity remains unconfirmed 11
Gender	Male 1
Age	Three at introduction; eight after the four-year time skip 1 16
Family	Fourth and youngest son of the Zhou family; younger brother of Zhou Hua, Dagouzi, Ergouzi, and Sangouzi 1 16
Affiliation	Wu Ironworks, owned by the Wu Household; prospective candidate for its Selection Assembly 17 19
Occupation/Role	Blacksmith and martial cultivator; begins at the ironworks as an apprentice 17 26
Cultivation	First Rank, Skin-Training Realm—the highest explicitly documented rank in the provided chapters 29
Status	Alive; under Blood Wuya’s coercive instruction as the full-moon Demon Toad hunt approaches 50
First Appearance	Chapter 1 1

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Initial qi awareness	4	Develops a sense of qi and perceives his meridians after roughly one month of Great Strength Vajra Qigong practice. His young body, remaining innate qi, and adult memories aid his unusually early start.
Tai Chi–refined internal qi	5 6	Discovers that Tai Chi makes his qi more resilient and allows even his small reserves to nourish his muscles, bones, sinews, and meridians.
Eye awakening	10 11	Severe injuries during the black bear attack awaken extraordinary perception. He sees the bear’s movements in apparent slow motion and gains inner sight while unconscious.
Controlled eye activation	14	Learns to activate enhanced vision and precise qi control deliberately. His initial endurance limit is about fifteen minutes, though he restricts daily use to ten.
Twofold Heaven-Piercing Sword knowledge acquired	15	Absorbs Li Haoran’s soul remnant and receives the art’s complete cultivation method. Acquiring the knowledge does not make him capable of safely practicing it.
Complete conversion to Flameheart qi	16	Converts his Great Strength Vajra Qigong energy into fire-aspected Flameheart qi. Applying it to Thousand-Army-Breaking Fist produces scorching punches several times more destructive than the ordinary technique.
Improved eye endurance and enhancement	16	After four years, can maintain the enhanced state for roughly half an hour. His overall strength rises at least five- or sixfold while it is active, and he can still flee afterward.
First Rank, Skin-Training Realm	29	Reaches First Rank after half a year practicing the Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Art. Can merge internal energy into his skin and flesh and release it outside his body.
Internal-energy artifact infusion	31	Successfully channels fire-element energy into a heated kunai, improving it through artifact-refining methods.
First successful Three Realms Minor Shift	44	Uses his eyes to refine floating-light killing intent and shifts ten zhang. He crashes into a tree and exhausts his strength and internal energy.
Repeatable secret fist technique	45	Adapts Blood Wuya’s burst-power technique through precise qi control. Each controlled punch uses about one-tenth of his reserves and delivers three to four times his ordinary full-strength force.
Execution of Blood Wuya’s nine-thrust sword move	50	Following its mental method condenses his energy into sword qi and drives a devastating attack. The attempt leaves him exhausted, bleeding, and with aggravated meridian injuries.

Background / History

Reincarnation and village life

Wang Bo dies at thirty-six after choking on cold water and is reborn into a poor Zhou household in Great Jin. He retains his adult memories from birth but conceals his knowledge to avoid being mistaken for a demon. At three, he has no formal name and is known only as Goudanzi 1.

His family lives on poor farmland and occasional hunting income, with cornmeal porridge forming much of his diet. Meat is usually sold for necessities rather than eaten. Zhou Hua, his older sister, largely raises him and treats him almost as her own son 1 6.

Her marriage to Wang Tianlei changes his prospects. During the wedding, Old One-Eye attacks the bridal procession. Watching Tianlei fight with superhuman speed, leaps, and a glowing saber convinces Goudanzi that genuine internal-energy martial arts exist—and that his new life might offer extraordinary longevity 2 3.

First cultivation and the bear attack

Goudanzi uses family visits to learn martial arts and information about the wider world from Tianlei. He experiments with Tai Chi remembered from his previous life, then secretly memorizes Tianlei’s Flameheart Method. Rather than attempt uncertain qi routes, he verifies the diagrams and helps prompt the creation of village reading lessons, giving himself a cover for his existing literacy 4 5 7.

Near New Year, a black bear attacks the heavily pregnant Zhou Hua. Goudanzi charges with a woodcutting blade despite being terrified, is struck into a wall, and suffers grave injuries. His eyes awaken as he struggles to defend her. Using their altered perception, he evades the bear and drives his blade into its throat before collapsing 10 11.

He wakes after two days of fever and unconsciousness to learn that Zhou Hua has safely delivered a son. Soon afterward, Li Haoran’s scattered soul remnant enters him, leaving fragments of memory and the complete Twofold Heaven-Piercing Sword method. His family finds him unconscious again, and Old Zhou punishes him with three days locked in the woodshed without food 12 15 16.

The Wu Ironworks

Four years later, Goudanzi is eight and eager to leave the village. His increasing appetite—especially his need for meat—also strains the household. His second uncle arranges a place at the Wu Ironworks in Green Ram Market, where he arrives with the formal name Zhou Bao and the new nickname Little Leopard 16 17.

Under Old Xing, he connects hammering practice with martial principles and experiences a rare moment of enlightenment. Recognizing his fire-element qi and aptitude, Xing offers him Wu Household training and a possible route to inner-disciple status through the Selection Assembly at age ten. Passing the assembly remains a future goal, not an achieved promotion 18 19.

His forging improves rapidly, eventually earning Qin Xuanlong’s judgment that his work rivals an ordinary Master Artisan’s. A generous purchase of books from the destitute Sun Hua brings him six rare pill formulas; he subsequently develops Soul-Dazing Pills and powder as concealed tools 26 28 30.

Captivity under Blood Wuya

After finishing two kunai, Little Leopard obtains leave to visit home. A storm blocks his route, and a powerful stranger abducts him into the Vast Cang Mountains. He subsequently falls under Blood Wuya’s coercive instruction, gathering animals for the injured expert’s blood food while learning techniques from him 32 35.

During his hunting errands, he discovers an intelligent chipmunk, its protective Yellow Cloth, and cave carvings describing Three Realms Minor Shift. He drugs the creature to take the cloth and successfully attempts the movement art, but his depleted state lets the chipmunk retaliate and steal his Yellow Jade 40 41 43 44.

Blood Wuya then sends him for rare herbs and prepares to lure a Demon Toad with Elixir Perfume. Little Leopard suspects that his captor intends to expend or kill him, while Blood Wuya privately confirms his plan to silence the boy afterward. Little Leopard prepares covert drugging opportunities but postpones committing to a counterattack until he can assess the hunt 45 50.

Appearance

His childhood physique changes from somewhat malnourished to unusually sturdy as food and training become more available 1 17.

• Early clothing: Wears split-crotch trousers at three and initially relies on his older brothers’ castoffs 2 6.
• Padded jacket: Receives his first new padded cotton jacket from Zhou Hua after her marriage 6.
• Awakened eyes: Turn translucent blood-red during the bear attack, with dark pupils and faint black markings around them 11.
• Controlled eye states: Can become pale gold with black iris markings for enhanced external vision, or fiery red for inner sight 14.

Personality

Goudanzi is cautious, calculating, and adept at presenting himself as an obedient child. He uses flattery to secure meals, conceals his independent study of the Flameheart Method, and negotiates with Blood Wuya through deferential language and carefully listed practical obstacles 7 19 45.

His curiosity is strongest where martial arts are concerned. He spends hours cultivating, experiments with different Tai Chi routines, and treats ruined weapons as lessons in refining. He is also willing to stop advancing when further training could harm his undeveloped body 5 16 30 31.

Although he considers himself self-interested, his actions show strong family attachment. He risks his life for Zhou Hua, worries about his family during Blood Wuya’s flight through Cloud Province, and hesitates to escape captivity because retaliation might reach his village. He also helps Sun Hua without expecting a reward 10 26 29 50.

His adult memories leave him uncomfortable with ordinary childhood roles. He develops genuine affection for his new family but does not enjoy returning home simply to “play the child.” His private commentary remains irreverent, often drawing comparisons with novels and entertainment from Earth 6 14 25.

Abilities & Skills

Mysterious Eyes

His awakened eyes enhance perception, bodily control, and internal-energy manipulation; their connection to an extinct bloodline is Wang She’s suspicion rather than an established identification 11 14.

• Expanded vision: Pale-gold eyes provide a complete 360-degree field of view and greatly improved distance vision 14.
• Inner sight: Can examine bones, blood flow, meridians, internal qi, and metabolism 14.
• Combat perception: Sees rapid attacks as though they were moving in slow motion 11.
• Qi control: Can stop, slow, or reverse circulation within his body’s tolerances; this precision assists both ordinary cultivation and unusual arts 14 44 46.
• Limits: Activation burdens both mind and body. The eyes cannot directly copy martial techniques, despite his initial speculation 14 16.

Internal Cultivation

His training moves from basic military qigong to fire-aspected cultivation 4 16 29.

• Great Strength Vajra Qigong: Establishes his initial internal-energy foundation 4.
• Flameheart Method: Selectively refines fire-aspected energy while expelling other attributes. Old Xing identifies it as an introductory method of the Profound Fire-Worshipping Cult 14 19.
• Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Art: Becomes his preferred method because its more complete foundation offers better prospects for advancement; also supports artifact refining 29 31.
• Restraint: Rejects an early idea of combining the Nine-Dragon art’s storage method with Flameheart refining because he considers his understanding insufficient 35.

Tai Chi Fist

Remembered from an office interest class in his previous life, Tai Chi becomes an effective qi-refining practice only after reincarnation 4 5.

• Refines both Vajra and Flameheart qi and progressively strengthens his body 6 16.
• Uses Li Deyin’s simplified Eight-Form routine after the Chen-Style 18-Form overwhelms his limited reserves 5.
• Incorporates insights from the Nine-Form Hammer Technique 28.
• Enhanced perception initially disrupts his movements: understanding qi circulation does not immediately give him the coordination to control it 14.

Fist Techniques

His external training includes military techniques and a later burst-power method from Blood Wuya 16 19 45.

• Bear Demon Fist: A skin-tempering military art that Old Xing tells him to continue practicing before selection 4 19.
• Thousand-Army-Breaking Fist: Gains scorching, amplified destructive force when powered by Flameheart qi 16.
• Blood Wuya’s secret fist technique: Delivers sharply increased force through controlled bursts of internal energy. Reckless output risks ruining his hand; he estimates his meridians can withstand only a little over ten times his ordinary force 45.

Twofold Heaven-Piercing Sword

He possesses the complete method through Li Haoran’s memories, but has not safely cultivated it in the documented chapters 15 16.

• Refines two opposing varieties of killing intent into a fixed form of Sword Qi housed in the meridians 16.
• Requires meridians far tougher than his immature body can provide 16.
• Motivates his interest in investigating icy baleful energy at West Mountain Pass 32.

Three Realms Minor Shift

An unusual movement art learned from carvings in the chipmunk’s cave 41.

• Requires floating-light killing intent released from a mountain earth vein at noon and midnight 41.
• Combines internal energy and killing intent without permanently circulating the dangerous mixture through the body 44.
• His first attempt covers ten zhang; the carvings describe a fully trained range of up to one hundred 41 44.
• Poor arrival control and severe depletion leave him vulnerable immediately afterward 44.

Weapons and Movement

His practical fighting options include archery, thrown weapons, and techniques learned during captivity 16 30 35.

• Improves his archery by closely observing Wu Qinglong, without mastering that family’s ancestral art 16.
• Has an aptitude for thrown weapons and chooses kunai for their compact versatility 30.
• Receives a lightness technique and a hidden-weapon technique from Blood Wuya 35.
• Struggles with Blood Wuya’s swordsmanship lessons. Executing the nine-thrust move proves possible but dangerously damaging, rather than evidence of general sword mastery 43 50.

Smithing and Artifact Refining

His martial understanding transfers directly to precise hammering and weapon manufacture 18 31.

• Experiences enlightenment while repeatedly striking the same point on a wooden training piece 18.
• Produces weapons comparable to an ordinary Master Artisan’s work, according to Qin Xuanlong 28.
• Uses fire-element qi to improve an artifact’s purity and toughness 31.
• Forges a pair of exceptionally fine kunai, at considerable physical and mental cost 32.

Pill-Making

He develops Soul-Dazing preparations from the formulas found among Sun Hua’s books 26 28.

• His pills render the Wu Household’s guard dogs unconscious without investigators identifying the cause 28.
• Improves production sufficiently to make ten bottles of powder 30.
• Uses the powder to overcome the chipmunk’s escape ability 43.
• Prepares drugged-animal delivery opportunities against Blood Wuya, but remains unsure whether the dose can sufficiently weaken such a powerful opponent 50.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Paired kunai — Self-forged weapons made with hammer techniques and fire-element refining; one is repelled by the Yellow Cloth’s barrier during his encounter with the chipmunk 31 32 41.
• Soul-Dazing Pills and Powder — Concealed incapacitating agents used against animals and considered as a countermeasure against Blood Wuya 28 43 50.
• Six-pill formula sheet — Lists Soul-Dazing, Bone Tempering, Sinew Changing, Meridian Stabilizing, Blood Changing, and Marrow Washing formulas. Possession of the sheet does not establish that he can produce all six 26.
• Yellow Cloth — Takes the chipmunk’s protective treasure after drugging it. Its golden barrier works for the creature, but his tests with internal energy and blood do not activate it 40 43.
• Yellow Jade — Carried in his robe and stolen by the chipmunk after his first Minor Shift attempt 44.
• Blood Wuya’s manual and notes — Explain refining baleful intent and internal energy into astral energy, including its capacity to enable flight; he studies this knowledge without being shown attaining astral energy 35.
• Woodcutting blade — Improvised weapon used to kill the black bear threatening Zhou Hua 10 11.

Relationships

• Zhou Hua — Older sister and near-maternal caregiver. Gives him clothing and meals; he saves her and her unborn son during the bear attack 6 7 10 12.
• Wang Tianlei — Brother-in-law and first martial teacher. Introduces him to cultivation and the wider world; unknowingly provides access to the Flameheart manual 4 7.
• Old Zhou — Father. Arranges his future apprenticeship and later gives him his formal name, but also uses severe punishment after his unexplained collapses 5 16 17.
• Mrs. Zhou — Mother. Scolds him for staying out late and nurses him through the fever following the bear attack 6 12.
• Dagouzi, Ergouzi, and Sangouzi — Older brothers. He shares a childhood room with Ergouzi and Sangouzi; Dagouzi later conveys the family’s wish for him to visit home 7 16 25.
• Second Uncle — A cousin of Old Zhou who lives at Green Ram Market. Secures his place at the ironworks and urges him to learn the trade properly 5 17.
• Old Blind Man — Village literacy teacher. His lessons provide a socially acceptable explanation for Goudanzi’s ability to read 7 16.
• Old Xing / Master Xing — Smithing teacher and martial mentor. Recognizes his enlightenment and fire affinity, then sets him on the path toward the Wu Household’s Selection Assembly 18 19.
• Qin Xuanlong — Instructor and protective mentor at the ironworks. Praises his craftsmanship, encourages martial advancement, warns him of danger, and grants leave to visit home 28 29 32.
• Wang She — Powerful observer of his eye awakening. Recognizes a possible legendary bloodline but does not directly speak with him during the bear encounter 10 11.
• Li Haoran — Deceased Black Dragon Society Grand Elder. His unthinking soul remnant merges with Goudanzi, transmitting memories and the Twofold Heaven-Piercing Sword 15.
• Blood Wuya — Coercive master and mortal threat. Teaches valuable techniques while exploiting him for recovery supplies and planning to kill him to preserve his secrets 35 45 50.
• The chipmunk — Intelligent mountain creature whose treasure and movement art attract his interest. Their teasing rivalry escalates into drugging, theft, and retaliation 41 43 44.

Trivia

• “Goudanzi” means “Dog’s Balls.” His parents choose it instead of another numbered “Doggy” nickname to signify that there should be no more children after him 1.
• He compares his eyes to the Sharingan, then rejects the idea that he has entered the world of Naruto. Later experience confirms that they cannot copy martial techniques 14 16.
• His initial interest in the Wu Ironworks is less about becoming a prestigious craftsman than obtaining enough meat to support his training 17.