Di Yang

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Di Yang (狄阳)
Alias(es)	Yang’er; Lord Yama; King of Hell 119 318 327
Species/Race	Human 308 367
Gender	Male 118 119
Affiliation	Heart-Settling Abbey lineage through Daoist Wuchen; Kindling Alliance; Underworld 119 303 315
Occupation/Role	Cultivator; Chu Mo’s disciple; founder and leader of the Kindling Alliance; leader of the Underworld 303 306 327
Origin	Eternal Night Sea 117 118
Special Identity	Child of Fortune produced by Eternal Night’s Heavenly Dao; anchor connecting Chu Mo to the realm 167 417 422
Status	Alive; bound to a Dark Banner intended to preserve his true spirit if he dies 422
First Appearance	Chapter 117 117

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
First true qi condensed	120	After failing to sense qi with Wuchen’s method, practices the Zhou Tian Qi-Gathering Method supplied by Chu Mo. Condenses his first wisp of true qi after three days.
Qi Refining perfection and Yin-Nourishing perfection	167	Explicitly reaches perfection in both systems. His raw strength slightly exceeds that of the two vengeful ghosts he fights, but attempting to capture them alive leaves him vulnerable.
Strengthened cultivation foundation	179	A streak of light enters him from a black Recording Stone, strengthening his foundation and bringing the Nether Gathering Realm within reach. Entry into that realm is not confirmed here.
Temporary rank and power enhancement through a personal seal	309	Receives a seal created through Chu Mo’s experimental Earth Foundation system. Uses its empowerment to overwhelm Daoist Mu’s soul with Yin Thunder.
Further Fate Artifact seal empowerment	315	During the Underworld’s establishment, a distinctive point of light enters his spiritual seat, causing his seal to radiate and unfamiliar scenes to enter his consciousness. No new cultivation realm is named.
Fourth tier	417 422	Confirmed to have reached the fourth tier unusually quickly. Chu Mo attributes this speed to Di Yang sharing a root and source with Eternal Night’s Heavenly Dao.

History

Ghost Attack and First Teachers

Di Yang’s entry into cultivation begins after a wandering ghost follows him home. Having forgotten the usual protective arrangement of his straw sandals, he is pinned down by an icy presence. An unseen voice—Chu Mo, observing from another world—teaches him the Yangblood Curse and instructs him to press his bloodied finger against the intruder’s brow. The curse drives it away 117 118.

Daoist Wuchen arrives after sensing evil energy. Following Chu Mo’s advice, Di Yang attributes his survival to a protective charm and accepts Wuchen’s offer of discipleship. Wuchen formally initiates him into the Heart-Settling Abbey lineage, emphasizing good character, diligent cultivation, and protection of ordinary people 118 119.

Di Yang cannot initially sense qi using Wuchen’s Profound Yin Qi-Absorption Method. Although wary of his unseen benefactor’s motives, he accepts Chu Mo’s alternative Zhou Tian Qi-Gathering Method and rapidly becomes a cultivator. His progress strengthens the connection between Chu Mo’s Dao Mansion and the Eternal Night Sea 119 120.

The Familiar Ghost and Wuchen’s Death

As his cultivation improves, Di Yang begins going out at night and searching for ghosts to offer his benefactor. An Oddity known as “Family and Friends,” also called the Familiar Ghost, approaches him in the guise of that unseen senior. Chu Mo’s warning makes him question the baseless certainty that the figure is trustworthy. Di Yang flees home without answering familiar voices and activates his Rising Sun Array 144 145.

The Oddity then appears as Wuchen inside his courtyard. Neither the array nor the Vengeful Ghost sent by Chu Mo can end the threat: each destroyed manifestation is replaced by another. Di Yang remains susceptible to the familiar face and voice even while consciously recognizing the danger 146 147.

Daoist Yin Yan intervenes with a bronze mirror and escapes with Di Yang. The mirror releases another supernatural horror, whose clash with the Familiar Ghost spreads their rules throughout Panyang City. Di Yang gives Yin Yan the Rising Sun Array diagram on Chu Mo’s advice, but remains distressed about the townspeople and his master 147 148 149.

Di Yang insists that the mirror-born figure which blocked the Familiar Ghost was the real Wuchen. Chu Mo initially interprets this as distorted perception, but Wuchen’s Life Token subsequently shatters at the moment Panyang City is destroyed, naming the city as his place of death. Chu Mo later takes possession of Wuchen’s collection and gives Di Yang an Imitation Soul-Calming Bell 148 149 151.

Meeting Youxuan and the Ghost Market

Di Yang continues collecting ghosts for his senior. While trying to capture two powerful vengeful ghosts alive, he suffers deep wounds to his chest. Chu Mo arrives, immobilizes both creatures, and introduces himself as Youxuan. Di Yang recognizes the voice immediately and bows despite his injury 167.

In the Ghost Market, Chu Mo lets Di Yang follow his instincts to test his unusual luck. Di Yang chooses an unremarkable black stone that unexpectedly strengthens his foundation. The market’s master, Shadow Daoist, takes an immediate interest in him, offers discipleship, expels Chu Mo from the market, and takes Di Yang away to consider the offer. Chu Mo subsequently verifies that Di Yang is safe, but regards his confinement as the loss of a secure route into Eternal Night 179 180.

Later, Chu Mo takes Di Yang out of the Crimson Sun Golden Vault. Having obtained a fate-based disguise from him, Chu Mo no longer needs to keep him nearby for protection and allows him to pursue his own path 198.

Founding the Kindling Alliance

Di Yang establishes the Kindling Alliance, sheltering thousands of ordinary people in a concealed valley and spreading Qi-Collecting Foundation Establishment. Its defensive grand array comes from damaged ancient-cultivator ruins. When Daoist Mu obstructs the alliance’s gold-essence supply, Di Yang welcomes Chu Mo’s return and asks for his assistance 303.

Under Chu Mo’s direction, Di Yang and alliance members retrieve six incense burners after the Urban Legend Ritual Incense consumes their keepers. The operation attracts Xi Sang’s attention, but his attempt to trace Di Yang through his name fails 306 307.

Seeking gold for alliance members’ breakthroughs, Di Yang leads an assault on the Jinming Ancient Kingdom, whose ruler serves a Taboo and sacrifices his people. He kills the king and begins evacuating mortals, but the alliance is attacked by a large force of ghosts and cultivators. Xi Sang personally confronts him; alliance members burn their souls resisting the Taboo, while Di Yang escapes through a sudden spatial fissure 307 308.

In the ruins beyond the fissure, Di Yang encounters Lu Ming, who claims an inheritance from the Ancient Underworld Bureaucracy and gives him a dark-gold personal seal. Di Yang returns and freely hands it to Chu Mo. The seal inspires Chu Mo’s own empowerment system, which Di Yang helps test against Daoist Mu 308 309.

Lord Yama and the Underworld

Chu Mo transforms the alliance’s river-valley foundation into the Underworld, with the Hall of Yama at its center, and entrusts its administration to Di Yang. As Lord Yama, Di Yang oversees its officials, congregation, and efforts to contain Urban Legends 314 315 318.

At Chu Mo’s orders, Di Yang sends Underworld officials and ghost enforcers across Eternal Night to spread belief in the King of Hell. Over five years, the institution gains more than one hundred million believers. When Xi Sang discovers Di Yang’s identity and attacks, Di Yang apologizes for endangering his teacher’s plans, unaware that Chu Mo may have deliberately exposed him to provoke the confrontation 326 327.

During the resulting crisis, Di Yang refuses to abandon territory still supporting hundreds of thousands of mortals, despite the dwindling prayer power sustaining the Earth Foundation. Chu Mo later prevents its collision with ancient ruins, orders Di Yang to organize the survivors, and returns the damaged foundation to Eternal Night 329 330 331.

The Underworld subsequently receives increasing numbers of refugees. Di Yang reports its resource shortages, learns practical production techniques from Chu Mo, and passes them on to others. After Chu Mo defeats Bitter End and disperses the remaining Taboos, Di Yang receives authorization to expand beyond North Gui across Eternal Night 367 369 392.

The Heavenly Dao’s Intended Harvest

By the time he reaches the fourth tier, Di Yang personally reviews documents from the Underworld’s expanding territories, reluctant to entrust the work to others. Chu Mo reveals that his extraordinary cultivation speed comes from sharing a root and source with Eternal Night’s Heavenly Dao, which intends to harvest him as medicine for its injuries 417 422.

Di Yang considers sacrificing himself for the realm’s people. Chu Mo explains that his death would provide only limited benefit to the Heavenly Dao, which could produce another Child of Fortune. Instead, Di Yang cooperates with a poisoned-bait scheme, surrendering some flesh, blood, and soul and leaving his name on a Dark Banner as protection for his true spirit. He also helps reassure the population while Chu Mo dismantles the Underworld’s existing foundation and transforms Eternal Night with netherworld soil 422.

Appearance

• Early physique: Described as a frail disciple when Wuchen formally accepts him 119.
• Later equipment: Appears in Ink Armor when greeting Chu Mo outside the Kindling Alliance’s grand array 303.

Personality

Di Yang’s caution develops through repeated supernatural encounters. Initially frightened of Chu Mo’s disembodied voice, he directly asks what it wants in exchange for helping him. During the Familiar Ghost incident, he recognizes that his sudden trust is unnatural and follows Wuchen’s warnings rather than continuing to approach the apparition 119 145.

His gratitude becomes intense loyalty to Chu Mo. He risks injury to capture ghosts as offerings, surrenders Lu Ming’s valuable seal without hesitation, and accepts his teacher’s instructions with little resistance. He repeatedly interprets Chu Mo’s public declarations as evidence of extraordinary selflessness, without knowing the private calculations behind them 167 309 310 422.

Protecting ordinary people remains central to his leadership. He worries about Panyang City’s doomed inhabitants, opposes rulers who sacrifice their subjects to Taboos, and refuses to preserve the Earth Foundation by abandoning civilians. His willingness to offer his own life contrasts with his later administrative tendency to handle everything personally for fear that others will do it poorly 148 307 329 417 422.

Abilities & Skills

Cultivation Methods

• Profound Yin Qi-Absorption Method: Wuchen’s introductory method for drawing yin-aspected spiritual energy and forming true qi. Di Yang initially struggles even to sense qi through it 119.
• Zhou Tian Qi-Gathering Method: Chu Mo’s replacement method; can absorb several forms of vitality, including yin qi, sunlight, and moonlight 120.
• Qi-Collecting Foundation Establishment: The cultivation path Di Yang spreads through the Kindling Alliance 303.
• Simplified True Edict of Netherworld Righteous Method: Assigned to him by Chu Mo as an experimental cultivation method 306.

Ghost-Fighting Techniques

• Yangblood Curse: Uses his own blood to repel the wandering soul that attacks him at home 117 118.
• Paper dolls: Controls them in combat against vengeful ghosts 167.
• Protective Spirit Light: Provides personal defense, but is shattered by a vengeful ghost’s claw strike 167.
• Yin Thunder: Overwhelms Daoist Mu’s soul while Di Yang is empowered by Chu Mo’s personal seal 309.
• Limits against Oddities: Conventional ghost-fighting methods cannot reliably defeat their rule-based manifestations; recognizing their behavior and escaping are often more useful 119 145 147.

Child of Fortune and Interworld Anchor

• Interworld connection: His cultivation strengthens the link between Eternal Night and Chu Mo’s Dao Mansion, allowing spiritual qi from the realm to enter the mansion 120.
• Transfer of objects: Receives a Spell Coin sent across that boundary by Chu Mo 136.
• Protection for Chu Mo: Proximity to Di Yang helps conceal Chu Mo’s outsider status and reduces his encounters with hostile Oddities 167 168.
• Exceptional opportunities: Finds the foundation-strengthening stone and escapes Xi Sang through a spatial fissure leading to Lu Ming’s seal 179 308 309.
• Heavenly Dao connection: His rapid growth is ultimately revealed to serve the Heavenly Dao’s plan to harvest him 422.

Administration and Practical Crafts

• Leadership: Organizes refugees, cultivators, Underworld officials, and ghost enforcers 303 326 330.
• Religious expansion: Spreads belief in the King of Hell to build the Underworld’s prayer-power foundation 326 327.
• Production training: Learns and shares Chu Mo’s practical techniques; within half a year, the Underworld begins producing basic yin-type medicines and pills for Qi Refining cultivators 369.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Rising Sun Array — Gifted by Chu Mo; suppresses ghost creatures but fails to exclude the Familiar Ghost. Di Yang later gives its diagram to Yin Yan 145 146 148.
• Imitation Soul-Calming Bell — Given to him by Chu Mo after Wuchen’s death 151.
• Ink Armor — Worn while leading the Kindling Alliance 303.
• Spear — Used to challenge Xi Sang and later as a support while injured in the ruins 308.
• Golden Array Command Token — Controls the alliance’s grand array; lost during his spatial escape and recovered by Xi Sang 308.
• Lu Ming’s dark-gold personal seal — Potential guide to the Ancient Underworld Bureaucracy’s legacy in the World Sea; surrendered to Chu Mo 308 309.
• Personal seal / Fate Artifact seal — Grants empowerment through Chu Mo’s Earth Foundation system, while secretly providing Chu Mo a means of controlling its bearer 309 315.
• Dark Banner bond — Established by pressing his bleeding palm against the banner; intended to preserve his true spirit if he dies 422.

Relationships

• Chu Mo / Youxuan — Benefactor and teacher. Repeatedly saves Di Yang, supplies cultivation resources, and supports his institutions; also uses his anchor connection and loyalty for research, control, and schemes against the Heavenly Dao 118 120 167 309 315 422.
• Daoist Wuchen — First formal master. Teaches ethical conduct, cultivation fundamentals, and precautions against Oddities. His Life Token records his death in Panyang City during its destruction 119 149.
• Yin Yan — Rescuer from the Familiar Ghost incident. Receives Di Yang’s Rising Sun Array diagram and invites him to the Heart-Examining Abbey, though his intervention helps spread the catastrophe through Panyang City 147 148.
• Shadow Daoist — Ghost Market master who recognizes Di Yang’s potential, offers discipleship, and separates him from Chu Mo 179 180.
• Lu Ming — Claimed inheritor of the Ancient Underworld Bureaucracy who gives Di Yang the personal seal that inspires Chu Mo’s empowerment system 308 309.
• Daoist Xu / Judge Xu — Senior subordinate and fellow administrator. Advises retreat during the Earth Foundation crisis but yields to Di Yang’s refusal to abandon civilians 318 329.
• Daoist Mu — Enemy who disrupts the Kindling Alliance’s resource collection; later serves as the target of Di Yang’s seal-empowered Yin Thunder 303 309.
• Xi Sang — Taboo adversary who attempts to trace and capture him, then attacks the Underworld after discovering his identity as the King of Hell 306 307 308 327.
• Eternal Night’s Heavenly Dao — Source of his Child of Fortune identity and accelerated growth, but intends to consume him to repair itself 417 422.

Notable Quotes

“Old dog, your granddaddy here is Di Yang!”
— Challenging Xi Sang despite being overwhelmingly outmatched 308.

“Having received your guidance and nurturing, I ought to devote myself wholeheartedly.”
— Expressing his loyalty to Chu Mo 367.