Wang Yan

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Wang Yan (王岩)
Alias(es)	“Ba” — a false surname used to mock Lü Zijun 34
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Formerly the Wang Household’s main family; later an independent cultivator and guest of Ye Family Stockade 3 16 47
Occupation/Role	Rogue cultivator, demonic-beast hunter, and apprentice in Immortal Card refinement 17 47 48
Immortal Roots	Water, fire, and metal; his fire root is the purest, while his water root is the most mixed 3 9
Cultivation	Major completion of the Cultivation Realm 48 50
Status	Alive; cultivating at Ye Family Stockade 50
First Appearance	Chapter 1, “Miracle at the Bottom of the Lake” 1

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Entry level, Cultivation Realm	3 9	After three or four years of training, remains below minor attainment. His earlier cultivation was substantial for an entry-level disciple, but poor instruction, injuries, and lack of resources delayed him.
Cultivation lost	7 8	Wang Ziling pierces his dantian with his own short sword. Wang Yan loses his magical power and believes further cultivation is impossible.
Fire cultivation re-established	10 11	Card Fairy creates a suitable fire-type method. Wang Yan successfully stores newly gathered magical power in the Immortal Card Artifact instead of a dantian.
Minor attainment, Cultivation Realm	14 15	Breaks through after sustained training in summer heat. Gains improved senses and physical condition, stronger movement, and the ability to release shaped magical power outside his body.
Minor attainment — further growth	23	Cultivating in the Fang Bear Beast’s Fire Spirit Stone-lined lair increases his magical power by roughly 20–30 percent over seven or eight days and helps him recover from his injuries.
Minor attainment — further growth	24	Uses looted pills and the cave’s remaining spiritual energy. After more than half a month, his cultivation has increased by roughly 50–60 percent; no new stage is reported.
Major completion, Cultivation Realm	48	Breaks through at Ye Family Stockade using Spiritual Energy Pills and fire-type Spirit Stones after two failed attempts. Has also mastered the first level of the Heart-Control Art.

Background / History

Wang Yan was born into the Wang Household’s main family, but both parents died in the year of his birth. Sent to live among recruited outsider disciples, he was rejected by both groups: outsiders bullied him, while his blood relatives refused to acknowledge him as one of their own. Without an elder’s guidance, pills, or dependable support, his cultivation lagged despite years of effort 2 3.

His parents left him the name Yan, meaning “rock.” He interprets its character—a mountain above a stone—as their wish that he stand tall, remain strong, and endure without ostentation. Remembering that wish helps him resist despair and continue training 3.

As the only main-family disciple participating in the Back Mountain Trial, Wang Yan had to risk his life for resources that better-connected relatives received without entering. Other participants stole his beast cores and herbs, forcing him to climb a dangerous peak for replacements. There, he fought Wang Ziling and resisted surrendering the possessions that represented his chance of entering the inner clan 3 4.

Although Wang Yan discarded Ziling’s suspicious medicinal pill, he later followed the promise of herbs into a drugged-mist trap. Ziling robbed him, destroyed his dantian, and threw him from a cliff into a lake. Card Fairy saved him by embedding an incomplete Immortal Card Artifact in his abdomen, giving him a way to cultivate without a dantian 5 7 8 9.

Learning about Resurrection Cards gives Wang Yan a purpose beyond status or revenge. He resolves to restore his parents and an unnamed woman whose death left him with enduring guilt. Because such a card requires the complete artifact, finding its scattered pieces becomes part of his long-term goal 13 14.

Appearance

• A boy with an ordinary, slightly pale face 2.
• During the Back Mountain Trial, wears a blue-gray disciple’s robe and carries a short sword on his back 2 3.
• After Card Fairy saves him, has a small red triangular metal plate embedded in his abdomen; he cannot remove it 8 9.
• Covers his face with gray cloth when attacking Ma Family cultivators who might recognize him 31.

Personality

Wang Yan is stubborn, proud, and exceptionally persistent. He refuses to surrender hard-earned resources even when injured and nearly out of magical power. His willingness to risk mutual destruction makes Wang Ziling retreat from their first direct confrontation 4. Card Fairy later comes to value his endurance and his ability to judge his own strengths and weaknesses more than his limited cultivation aptitude 14 18.

He is suspicious and quick-thinking, but not consistently cautious. He handles Ziling’s offered pill with his sword, avoids touching it directly, and eventually throws it away. Yet hatred repeatedly drives him into dangerous fights, while his teasing of Fairy Purple Mist nearly gets him killed. His confidence often conceals anxiety about his weak cultivation and the consequences of exposing the Immortal Card Artifact 5 31 33 48.

His attitude toward killing changes sharply. Early in the trial, he is horrified by murdered disciples and cannot bring himself to kill even former bullies. Later, he kills wounded enemies, uses corpses as bait or distractions, and frames rivals to provoke conflict. His hostility toward the Ma Family is particularly intense, though the full cause remains undisclosed 6 19 21 26 42.

Despite this hardening, Wang Yan retains a capacity for attachment. He warns a young vendor to leave a dangerous marketplace, offers payment rather than simply taking Ye Shisan’s valuable staff, and eventually helps Shisan cultivate. Being called a genuine “friend” affects him unexpectedly after years of isolation 36 43 46 50.

Abilities & Skills

Fire Art

Card Fairy creates this unnamed method specifically for Wang Yan; he casually calls it the Fire Art 10 14.

• Uses a simple route through twelve meridians to improve absorption at his cultivation level 10.
• Matches his relatively pure fire immortal root better than his former water-based method 9.
• Absorbs magical power several times faster than the Water Spirit Art and causes much less discomfort 11.
• Initially produces only sparks, sufficient to light a cooking fire; minor attainment allows flames and magical power to extend beyond his fists 11 15.

Immortal Card Artifact

The incomplete artifact replaces his destroyed dantian as a store of spiritual energy 9.

• Its surviving red piece accepts only fire-type spiritual energy. Attempting to use his old water method fails and causes pain 9.
• Two internal channels allow him to direct energy into it 9.
• Drawing power from it is slow at his low cultivation level, creating a disadvantage against ordinary cultivators 15.
• Enables unusually effective suppression of his magical aura, but cannot deceive a nearby Core Condensation Realm cultivator 41.
• Allows access to Immortal Cards; restoring its missing pieces is necessary for his hoped-for Resurrection Card 14.

Immortal Card Spellcasting

Immortal Cards let Wang Yan cast sealed spells without personally learning them. They require little power to activate and release spells faster than ordinary chanting, hand seals, or talismans 13 14.

• Reusable: Cards hold magical power and can be recharged rather than consumed after one use 13.
• Fireball Spell Card: At minor attainment, releases fireballs comparable to an all-out attack by a cultivator of that stage. Rapid consecutive attacks allow him to exploit openings that would close during normal spellcasting 18.
• Water-Fire Blast Card: Combines cold blue flames and scorching red flames into an explosive attack. His first test blasts a crater nearly ten feet across a cliff 16 22.
• Energy cost: At minor attainment, one Water-Fire Blast consumes about half his reserves, limiting him to approximately two uses 16.
• Card switching: At that stage, he can activate only one card at a time; changing cards during combat leaves him unable to use both attacks immediately 21.
• Recharge time: Fully replenishing the Fireball Spell Card takes more than a day during his early beast hunts 18.
• Power recovery: He can recover roughly 70–80 percent of the magical power from a released card spell, unlike an ordinary cultivator who cannot easily retrieve a cast spell 31.

Martial Arts and Swordsmanship

Wang Yan’s diligent martial training makes him dangerous even without magical power 4.

• Catches a thrown medicinal pill on the flat of his sword with precision that impresses Wang Ziling 5.
• Uses close combat against a Ma cultivator whose protective ice armor hampers movement 31.
• Defeats Shi Nu by disarming him, kicking him into a wall, and holding a sword to his throat 45.
• Can catch fish without relying on cultivation 11.

Hunting, Traps, and Ambushes

Wang Yan compensates for inferior strength through preparation, terrain, and attacks on exposed weaknesses 17 18.

• Lures a White-Headed Wolf into a prepared pit and strikes its vulnerable belly with fireballs 17.
• Uses a falling log and vine snare to suspend a Black-Furred Ape, exposing its protected underside 17 18.
• Conceals his scent, blinds the Fang Bear Beast with ape blood, and attacks its open mouth using Water-Fire Blast 22.
• Defeats a Lü Household pursuer with a sleeping decoy, then cripples his feet before finishing him at close range 40.
• Uses a dead pursuer’s body to distract two other Lü cultivators before attacking their faces from behind 42.

Heart-Control Art

Card Fairy translates and adapts a jade slip containing about one-third of this ancient mental cultivation technique 24.

• Intended to steady the mind, resist inner demons, and develop intelligence and spiritual sense 24.
• Mastery of its first level improves Wang Yan’s concentration and helps him understand formation fundamentals quickly 48.
• The art has twelve levels; only the first is documented as mastered 48.

Formation Arts and Refinement

Wang Yan studies formations, talisman crafting, and artifact refining because all three are prerequisites for making Immortal Cards 12 48.

• Learns the eighty-one basic formation characters and successfully inscribes a luminous rune 48.
• Begins material refinement with demonic-beast hides, bones, and tendons. After repeated failures, he produces several refined pieces of hide 18.
• Must improve artifact refinement and combine two formation characters into paired runes before learning to make the Spell Collection Card 48.
• Remains unsuccessful with the Spell Collection Card after four further months of practice, exhausting his remaining fire-type Spirit Stones 50.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Immortal Card Artifact — Red triangular artifact permanently embedded in his abdomen by Card Fairy 8 9.
• Fireball Spell Card — Made by Card Fairy from his demonic-beast-hide wristguards while she controls his body 12.
• Water-Fire Blast Card — Obtained through the Lottery Cube as a reward following his minor-attainment breakthrough 15 16.
• Original short sword — Low-grade magic artifact bought with nearly all his savings for the trial; stolen and used against him by Wang Ziling 4 7.
• Bone knife — Ground from a particularly hard demonic-beast bone; used for butchering beasts and killing enemies 18 19 21.
• Fire Spirit Sword — Used during his confrontation with Shi Nu 45.
• Storage Bags — Acquired from slain Ma and Lü cultivators after Ziling steals his original bag. He gives one to Ye Shisan to conceal the valuable staff 22 40 42 44.
• Thousand Spirit Arrow — A Spirit Artifact taken from a Ma cultivator. Compatible with magical power of any attribute, but requires at least the advanced stage of the Cultivation Realm to activate 23 34.
• Moon-Embracing Purple Mountain Map — Beast-hide map taken with the Ma cultivators’ belongings; its importance to the Ma Family becomes leverage in his scheme against Ziling 23 26.
• Heart-Control Art jade slip — Ancient Clerical Script fragment deciphered by Card Fairy 24.
• Purple-Spotted Bamboo Brush — Prepared with pills and beast blood, then used for formation-rune practice 39 48.
• Crafting supplies — Buys roughly three dozen talismans and four boxes of homemade cinnabar from a young vendor for fifty Spirit Stones 36.

Relationships

• Card Fairy — Savior, mentor, and constant companion. She is bound to him after absorbing his blood essence, and their fates are interdependent. Their argumentative exchanges gradually develop into familiarity and mutual appreciation 8 12 17 18.
• Wang Ziling — Former fellow disciple and principal rival. His theft, deception, and destruction of Wang Yan’s dantian prompt both direct revenge attempts and schemes to turn the Ma Family against him 7 26 29 31.
• Old Meat — Martial-arts teacher and Wang Household gatekeeper. Their rough banter conceals familiarity; he feeds Wang Yan, shares information about Ziling, and warns him to leave 27 28.
• Parents — Both died in his birth year. Wang Yan has no remembered image of their faces and hopes to resurrect them 2 14.
• Unnamed deceased woman — A deeply missed loved one whose loss causes lasting guilt. Restoring her is a central reason for pursuing the Resurrection Card 13 14 31.
• Fairy Purple Mist / Purple Smoke — Powerful marketplace acquaintance whom he briefly passes off as his senior sister. Her status secures favorable prices for his goods, though she warns him against further provocation 33 34.
• Lü Zijun — Hostile Lü Household scion. Wang Yan mocks him during their meeting and later suspects him of ordering the attack at the cave 34 39 40.
• Ye Shisan — Rescued companion who calls him “Big Brother.” Wang Yan initially exploits his gratitude to seek black mother iron, but later helps him with cultivation by providing the Earthforce Art 42 43 44 50.
• Ye Mingtian — Shisan’s father and Wang Yan’s host at Ye Family Stockade. Offers cultivation refuge while protecting the stockade’s secrets and testing Wang Yan’s motives 47 50.
• Shi Nu — Stockade guard who attacks him over the settlement’s secrecy. Wang Yan defeats him but stops the confrontation when Ye Mingtian intervenes 45 46.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Independent Beast Hunting

• Chooses not to return to the Wang Household after reaching minor attainment, expecting that continued service there would reduce him to hired muscle 16.
• Hunts demonic beasts for combat experience, card materials, and resources, relying on traps rather than direct contests of strength 17 18.
• Kills a recently advanced Core Condensation Realm Fang Bear Beast through an ambush. Card Fairy stresses that it was already wounded and depleted; the victory does not mean he could defeat a healthy beast of that realm 21 22.

Revenge Against the Ma Family and Wang Ziling

• Kills two wounded Ma cultivators after their failed beast hunt, then takes their equipment and discovers the Thousand Spirit Arrow, map, and ancient jade slip 19 20 21 23.
• Alters his Wang Household identity token to bear Ziling’s name, planting evidence intended to implicate his rival in the missing map 26.
• Sells information about Ziling to the Ma Family, exaggerating his importance to intensify resentment toward the Wang Household 28 29.
• Ambushes the Ma party, kills two members, and deliberately leaves a wounded survivor after impersonating Ziling 31.
• Finally accepts Card Fairy’s advice to postpone vengeance and prioritize cultivation and resurrection 31.

Lü Family Marketplace and Escape

• Uses the Lü marketplace to avoid recognition at Wang or Ma trading sites. Selling beast materials and unwanted loot leaves him with more than three hundred Spirit Stones 32 34.
• Purchases supplies for refinement, but recognizes signs that Lü Household men are watching him 36 39.
• Escapes the inn, lures a pursuer into a cave ambush, and leaves the marketplace region 39 40.
• Intervenes against three more Lü cultivators, saving the youth later introduced as Ye Shisan 41 42 43.

Ye Family Stockade

• Follows Shisan to the stockade after learning that his staff’s rare black mother iron came from local ore 43 44.
• Gains entry after defeating Shi Nu and explaining his rescue of Shisan, but remains wary that the residents may prevent him from leaving 45 46.
• Accepts Ye Mingtian’s offer to cultivate in the valley’s rich spiritual energy while concealing his interest in the ore 47.
• Reaches major completion and advances his study of mental discipline and formation runes 48.
• Declines a weapons-escort assignment presented as an invitation but intended to test his interest in the stockade’s Black Iron Divine Weapons. He avoids investigating the mine while continuing cultivation and card-refinement practice 50.

Notable Quotes

“I have to succeed... I have to...” 2

“Good! In this lifetime, I will definitely refine that Resurrection Immortal Card!” 13

“Using your weaknesses against an enemy's strengths would just be asking for misery, wouldn't it?” 18

“All right! I've decided. I'll leave that damned Wang Ziling alone for now! I'll focus on cultivating first!” 31