Duan Yuxian

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Duan Yuxian (段语仙)
Alias(es)	Su Xian — an assumed identity used while claiming membership in the Carefree Sect 88 107
Species/Race	Human cultivator 55 80
Gender	Female 55 60
Affiliation	True Martial Hall 51 55
Occupation/Role	True Martial successor; the Hall’s finest young disciple; incoming Chang’an University student; later works in milk tea preparation and food delivery 55 66 97 107
Master	Nandou, Hall Master of the True Martial Hall 55 108
Cultivation Realm	Foundation Establishment 81 109
Residence	Originally the True Martial Hall’s inner sect; temporarily stays in a tent above Zhou You’s apartment in Chang’an 55 62 98
First Appearance	Mentioned in a cultivation-forum debate 51; appears in person 55

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Qi Refining	51	Introduced as a True Martial inheritor whose strength is frequently compared with Su Tingxue’s. Her earlier breakthroughs are not described.
Late Qi Refining; sword qi attained	79	Explicitly identified as having comprehended sword qi before Foundation Establishment, earlier than even sword prodigies normally do. Uses it to dismantle Su Tingxue’s talisman attacks.
Foundation Establishment	80 81	Breaks through during her duel with Su after reaching an independently achieved state of mental stillness. Gains afterimage-producing speed and proficient, thought-directed sword qi; both duelists subsequently need to stabilize their cultivation.

Background

Duan Yuxian grew up in the True Martial Hall and cultivated from childhood. As the Hall Master’s disciple and inheritor of the True Martial legacy, she received extensive sword training and read the sect’s entire scripture repository. Her upbringing nevertheless left her unfamiliar with ordinary experiences such as public buses and pitching a tent 51 55 62 89.

She is the same age as Su Tingxue but began school a year earlier. She passed the entrance examination for Chang’an University specifically to make visiting Su easier. Her master preferred that she remain in the mountains cultivating; she secured his agreement to university by arguing that she needed contact with society to avoid falling behind the times 55 88.

Before her stay in Chang’an, Duan dominated the Sword Cultivator Tournament. Elite Giant Qu Gate disciples could not withstand three moves, while their eldest senior brother fell in fewer than ten. Watching her helped Sun Cheng overcome his faltering confidence, but also sparked his one-sided infatuation with her 66.

Appearance

Duan’s public image emphasizes an aloof, striking swordswoman, while her everyday disguises conceal her identity rather than her conspicuous bearing 51 60.

• Height: Nearly 170 centimeters, with a tall, straight posture 60.
• Hair: Long, jet-black, and described as smooth as silk 60.
• Eyes: Bright and expressive; Zhou You finds them recognizable even when most of her face is masked 60 107.
• Voice: Soft and pleasant, even when she is swearing at game teammates 55.
• Typical accessories: A face mask and large guitar case containing her sword; she adds a sun hat when concealing herself during a commission 60 88.
• Clothing: Practical sportswear for her duel with Su; a bright yellow uniform while delivering food 76 107.

Personality

Duan is confident in her swordsmanship and actively seeks worthy opponents. She initially considers Su Tingxue the only member of their younger generation worth fighting, though she reassesses their relative strength after learning that Su’s Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye has evolved. Her confidence does not prevent her from accepting defeat or recognizing another cultivator’s talent 55 64 65 81.

Her cold public persona contrasts with her private enthusiasm for games, snacks, and comfortable surroundings. She uses a voice changer while gaming, complains bitterly about the Hall’s poor connection, and eventually declares an ambition to become Hall Master so she can bring reliable internet to the sect 55 84.

Pride makes her reluctant to disclose embarrassing mistakes. After losing her living allowance, she avoids asking Su or fellow disciples for help and repeatedly asks Zhou You to keep her circumstances secret. At the same time, she insists on repaying her thousand-yuan debt and finds ordinary work rather than continuing to depend entirely on his hospitality 61 62 94 97.

Her compassion becomes decisive during the Guoguo case. Outraged by Yu Haochen’s exploitation of the child, she commits to lethal combat for the first time. The experience leaves her exhausted and shaken enough to request a break from commissions 92 93 94.

Abilities & Skills

True Martial Sword Art

Duan’s principal inheritance combines fluid, graceful movements with lethal sword attacks. Her understanding deepens both through cultivation advancement and her first life-or-death battle 64 92 109.

• Defeats elite sword cultivators of her level in very few moves 66.
• Adapts her techniques during combat with Yu Haochen, recognizing the importance of decisive killing intent 92.
• Destroys Yu’s Sheling Evil Thunder with a single powerful sword strike 92.
• Her strongest performance has a substantial physical cost: she collapses after defeating him and requires restorative pills 93.

Sword Qi

Duan comprehends sword qi at Late Qi Refining, before the realm at which sword prodigies usually attain it 79.

• Cuts fireballs into tiny fragments that dissipate before reaching the ground 79.
• Counters varied elemental talismans with sword qi rather than an equally broad collection of spells 79.
• Releases sword qi at will as she advances to Foundation Establishment 80.
• Severs Yu Haochen’s arm and uses lingering sword qi to obstruct its healing 92.

True Martial Breathing Technique

A breathing discipline used in conjunction with her combat techniques 80.

• Supports her pursuit of Su Tingxue during their duel 80.
• Helps steady her nerves while concealing her private familiarity with Zhou You 75 76.
• Her breakthrough’s profound mental stillness is achieved independently, rather than produced by the technique 80.

Black Emperor Treading Heaven Step

A movement technique Duan combines with True Martial breathing to close distance on an opponent 80.

• Initially allows her to pursue Su faster than Su can retreat 80.
• After her breakthrough begins, her speed exceeds Su’s ability to respond despite Su anticipating her movements 80.

Sword Flight

Duan first uses Sword Flight after the Guoguo commission, carrying Zhou You home after public transport has stopped running 94.

• Learns to balance with a passenger during the flight 94.
• Zhou eventually stands on her shoulders to make their shared ride workable 94.
• Reaches his building faster than a taxi would 94.

Martial Instruction

Duan develops her own broadly applicable methods of generating force, separate from the True Martial Hall’s protected inheritance 65.

• Teaches Zhou coordinated breathing, posture, and the transfer of force through the body 65.
• Chooses unarmed instruction because a few hastily learned sword moves would be more likely to hinder him than help 65.
• Her teaching supports Zhou’s later close-combat attacks and his adaptation of those techniques to Soul Projection 65 67.

Supporting Magic and Knowledge

• Remote manipulation: Draws her phone through the air with a curled finger and pulls bedding toward herself with a suction-like effect 55 62.
• Defensive astral energy: Shields herself from a Heavenly Thunder Talisman, although absorbing the blow consumes considerable spiritual energy 80.
• Flame spells: Burns a body with an unusual cold flame and heats food with magic 93 101.
• Innate body: After Foundation Establishment, can sustain herself on spiritual energy without eating and rarely sweats 101 109.
• Cultivation knowledge: Explains the historical Demon Calamity and recognizes advanced techniques such as Sheling Evil Thunder. Despite reading the Hall’s scripture repository, she has never encountered Zhou’s method of Soul Projection at Qi Refining 75 89 92.

Equipment & Items

• Spirit Sword — A three-foot blade decorated with phoenixes: two are engraved beside its spine, and another forms part of the hilt, with its beak gripping the guard 61.
• Guitar case — Conceals and transports her Spirit Sword 55 61.
• Phone and power bank — Used for games, QQ, and cultivation-forum browsing; she charges both before leaving her hotel 55 63.
• Mask and sun hat — Used to avoid recognition by admirers and other cultivators 60 88.
• Rooftop tent and bedding — Provided by Zhou You after she loses her accommodation budget; the tent proves uncomfortable in summer heat and leaks during heavy rain 61 62 69.
• Ghost-Seeing Glasses, borrowed — Chu Xiaoyao lends them to her before the duel, allowing her to see Nuomi 76.

Relationships

• Zhou You — Host, student, and commission partner. He shelters her after the Poverty Ghost spell exhausts her allowance, protects her identity, and learns martial techniques from her. Their familiarity grows through shared meals, private conversations, and mutual help; no formal romantic relationship is established 61 65 88 107.
• Su Tingxue — Longstanding friend and favored sparring rival. Duan chooses Chang’an University partly to be near her, but hides her financial troubles and residence with Zhou. Su ultimately defeats her in their Foundation Establishment duel 55 62 81.
• Nandou — Master and Hall Master of the True Martial Hall. Duan respects his authority while manipulating his limited understanding of phones to leave the sect early. His resistance to internet access is a persistent source of frustration 55 84 108.
• Martial Uncle Pudu — Sect elder responsible for outside affairs. Handles the leaked duel footage; Duan asks him not to disclose her breakthrough to her master 84.
• Chu Xiaoyao — Meets Duan as a duel witness and lends her Ghost-Seeing Glasses. Later encounters her under the “Su Xian” identity and notices inconsistencies in the supposed neighbor’s familiarity with Zhou 76 107.
• Nuomi — First becomes visible to Duan through borrowed glasses. Duan is fascinated by the ghost’s cooling presence 76.
• Sun Cheng — An admirer whom Duan inspires at a sword tournament. His possessiveness leads him to challenge Zhou; his later order of 520 milk teas unintentionally drives Duan out of her first job 66 97 98.
• Yu Haochen — Apparent commission client turned enemy. Duan defeats him after discovering his exploitation of Guoguo; he survives her apparent killing blow through a Witchcraft Puppet and is later killed by Lian Yi 88 92 93.
• Guoguo and Fang Qi — Victims whose suffering moves Duan to act. She helps Zhou reunite mother and daughter and bury their remains together 92 93.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Leaving the True Martial Hall

Su’s challenge gives Duan an opportunity to escape a summer spent cultivating without reliable internet. She persuades Su to send a misleadingly urgent invitation, deletes their arranging messages, and obtains her master’s permission to depart early. Her luggage and train ticket are already prepared 55.

The Poverty Ghost Demonstration

Curious about a spell Su mentions, Duan secretly seeks Zhou outside his school. She mistakes his warning about having enough money for a request for payment. After several demonstrations, she demands full power; the spell makes her buy one million copies of Einstein’s Brain for 100,000 yuan, exhausting her semester’s living allowance 58 60 61.

Unable to reverse the purchase or explain it to her master, she accepts Zhou’s offer of a rooftop tent with Wi-Fi. Heat soon drives her into his air-conditioned bedroom, beginning a concealed living arrangement that both try to keep from Su and Zhou’s mother 61 62 63 69.

Training Zhou You

Discovering that one of her fans intends to fight Zhou, Duan offers practical instruction. His rapid progress impresses her enough to invite him into the True Martial Hall, but he refuses to abandon the Carefree Sect. He later credits her teaching with helping him win 64 65 69.

Duel with Su Tingxue

Duan and Zhou rehearse pretending to meet for the first time before Su introduces them. Duan adds a thousand-yuan wager, hoping victory will let her repay her debt 75 76 77 80.

Su’s midair talismans and short-term foresight push Duan into a breakthrough; Su advances immediately afterward. Su ultimately pins and immobilizes her with a talisman. An official forum announcement records Su’s narrow victory and both women’s advancement 80 81 83.

A bystander’s recording threatens to expose cultivation to ordinary viewers. Pudu’s publicity team works to make the footage look fabricated, but posts identifying Duan’s location still draw admirers to Chang’an 83 84 88.

The Guoguo Commission

Using “Su Xian” as a cover identity, Duan accompanies Zhou to investigate a haunted apartment. The commission reveals Yu Haochen’s use of Guoguo’s ghost domain to trap cultivators and harvest negative emotions 88 92.

Duan defeats Yu in her first life-or-death battle, then helps Zhou uncover Fang Qi’s remains and reunite her with Guoguo. The emotional aftermath leads her to pause commission work and seek an ordinary summer job instead 92 93 94.

Ordinary Employment

Duan quickly learns the procedures at a herbal-medicine milk tea shop, but Sun Cheng’s enormous order leaves her exhausted. She quits after one day, receives only twenty yuan, and brings two heavily topped milk teas back to share with Zhou 97 98.

She later works in food delivery. When she meets Zhou and Chu Xiaoyao at the mall, she reuses “Su Xian” and presents herself as Zhou’s newly arrived neighbor, preserving the secrecy of her actual identity and living arrangement 106 107.

Notable Quotes

“It's not that I suck! My connection's terrible!” 55

“So what?” — Her response to Yu Haochen’s Sheling Evil Thunder 92

“I won...” — After her first life-or-death battle 93

Trivia

• Habitually sleeps in and normally needs at least half an hour after waking before her mind clears 63.
• Played Street Fighter with Su three years before their Chang’an duel; her sudden comeback from almost no health later inspires Su’s combat misdirection 80.
• Uses Nandou’s account to purchase cultivation mystery boxes. Her previous results include worthless Spirit Stone fragments and a gold bar, rather than useful treasures 108.
• Continues enjoying food after attaining an innate body that no longer requires it, and invokes her Foundation Establishment cultivation to assure Zhou she will not leave crumbs on his bed 101 107.