Zhong Xuezhi

Biodata

Feature	Details
Name	Zhong Xuezhi (仲雪之); he explains his name as meaning “snow in midwinter” 5.
Alias(es)	Snow God; Captain Zhong 5 33 36.
Species/Race	Human Mutant with animal-type and nature-type talents 14.
Gender	Male 18 41.
Affiliation	Team 404, an Alliance Hunting Team based in Crystal City 23 36.
Occupation/Role	Captain of Team 404 23.
Residence	A villa belonging to his adoptive mother, Professor Yin 38.
Status	Alive; serving on night watch at the Mutation Research Institute during the Zombie Fungus emergency 49 50.
First Appearance	Confronts Mu Yi over the mushroom his team has been tracking 2.

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Increased usable energy capacity	20	After drinking Mu Yi’s blood during a mutation crisis, his mutation value falls below 30%—lower than ever before. This allows him to use several more bars of energy before entering the abnormal range. It is a recovery of usable capacity, not a documented rank promotion; the mechanism remains unexplained.

Background / History

Zhong was raised by Professor Yin, a distinguished researcher. She brought home the blue floating organisms that settled in their villa’s yard, where they continued reproducing for twenty years. He still identifies her as the house’s real owner, but is reluctant to discuss her 38.

Fourteen years before the current outbreak, Professor Yin was infected during an S-rank Variant disaster and received no treatment. She stood before her adopted son and shot herself before the infection could consume her. Mu Yi estimates that Zhong was about eleven when he witnessed her death. Memories of that incident appear to distress him during Crystal City’s later emergency 45 46.

His Snow Leopard traits originated from a rare infection source; his hunting team obtained only one such source 9.

Appearance

• Build and face: Tall and broad-framed, with handsome features and gray-blue eyes 18 46.
• Hair: Wavy or partially curly hair, usually tied back 9 48.
• Snow Leopard features: Large furry ears and a long, thick tail. The tail is almost pure white, with pale-gray spots carrying a faint metallic sheen 9.
• Altered eyes and teeth: During his mutation crisis, his eyes glow blue and develop vertical pupils. Mu Yi also discovers four small fangs 18 19.
• Wings: Can manifest enormous wings from his back 2.
• Clothing: Wears combat clothing with protective openings accommodating his wings and tail. Mu Yi repairs a burned cuff with a small embroidered Snow Leopard head 13 14.

Personality

Zhong is protective, patient, and observant, but his care often comes packaged as teasing or scolding. He feeds Mu Yi while keeping him restrained, stops questioning him when he refuses to explain himself, and repeatedly supplies food, clothing, and wound care. His teammates notice that he is unusually relaxed around Mu Yi even when his mutation level is abnormal 5 14 21 29.

He enjoys provoking reactions: tying an oversized bow around Mu Yi’s injured arm, teasing him about modesty, and inventing a false registration procedure at the Mirage Wall. When that prank is exposed, he lets Mu Yi shock him rather than risk attracting the City Defense Force 8 13 33.

As captain, Zhong weighs resource costs, political consequences, and his teammates’ safety. He uses intimidation and deception to avoid unnecessary fights, but is willing to stay behind to cover a retreat. His caution frustrates Mu Yi, who sees those responsibilities as restraints on his freedom 7 22 35.

His love of ordinary life extends to cooking, flowers, gardening, seasonal wine, and providing a home for harmless mutated creatures. He interprets the changing flowers beside a hot spring as evidence of renewal and persistence, and insists that eating and sleeping properly matter even during a crisis 12 38 39 47 50.

Abilities & Skills

Ice Manipulation

His nature-type talent produces ice for combat, protection, treatment, and practical tools 8 10 14 22.

• Large-area freezing: Freezes and shatters the remaining Spine Celery colony after Du Jing’s attack 7.
• White Frost: Freezes the spore-producing mushroom and its infected healer during the Central Park emergency 45.
• Ice restraints: Keeps Mu Yi bound in cold-seeping straps that his electric flame cannot burn through at that stage 5 6.
• Pain relief: Infuses an ice ribbon with numbing cold to ease Mu Yi’s formic-acid injury. The relief fades and must be renewed 8 11 12.
• Materialized tools: Creates an ice shovel for harvesting Spine Celery rhizomes and an ice needle for sewing 10 14.
• Overhead cover: Forms an umbrella-shaped ice shield against rain; he admits the conspicuous display wastes energy 22.

Snow Leopard Mutation

His animal-type talent gives him Snow Leopard characteristics and heightened senses 9 14.

• Enhanced detection: Notices approaching looters, another threat after the warthog battle, and Ghost Spiders before the group can return home 7 18 31 32.
• Acute smell: Detects cigarette smoke on Fu Chuan even through a protective face shield 49.
• Feature control: Can manifest or retract his altered features when his mutation value is below the safety threshold. Excessive mutation can force them to remain visible 9 20.
• Transformation limits: Cannot fully transform into a Snow Leopard; he cannot produce a proper roar and instead meows 9 11.

Flight and Combat

• Flight: Uses his wings to catch Mu Yi after a cliff jump, transport him back to camp, and carry him into a cave behind a waterfall 2 11 18.
• Scythe combat: Cuts several Giant Ants apart in one sweep and beheads Grade A warthogs 7 17 18.
• Speed: Moves in a blur of afterimages when intervening in combat 17 32.
• Early strength advantage: Can block Mu Yi’s electrical attacks and prevent him from breaking free; his ice ribbon also exceeds Mu Yi’s ability to melt it at that point 8 9.

Leadership and Survival Knowledge

• Coordinates Team 404’s specialized attacks, defenses, and retreats while monitoring dwindling supplies 6 7 18.
• Identifies Giant Ant weak points, warns about infection through warthog contaminants, and explains the mental effects of their roar 8 17.
• Collects useful plant material, formic acid, food, and seeds rather than treating defeated creatures solely as crystal sources 9 10 21.
• Protects Mu Yi’s unusual abilities with a cover story and uses displays of strength to deter Team 403 without open combat 22 23.
• Is an accomplished cook and carves wooden utensils for Mu Yi while preparing dinner 24 40 47 48.

Mutation Instability

Energy overuse raises Zhong’s mutation value, limiting how much of his power he can safely use. Suppressant pills help manage abnormal readings, but he exhausts his supply during the warthog encounter 9 14 19 20.

Reading / Condition	Documented Effect
Below 60% mutation value	Classified as normal by the Identity Bracelet 19.
Above 60%	Classified as abnormal 19.
Above 80%	Critically abnormal; the bracelet instructs him to suspend energy absorption and release 19.
91–92% during the cave crisis	Mental value falls as low as 30%, while attack desire reaches 86%. He becomes aggressive, struggles to communicate, and bites Mu Yi 19.
After drinking Mu Yi’s blood	Agitation subsides; mutation value and attack desire fall while mental value recovers. He loses consciousness and later remembers nothing of the incident 19 20.

• Unresolved blood response: Mu Yi’s blood appears to soothe the crisis, but neither its mechanism nor its risks are established. Zhong later experiences unexplained thirst and fleeting recognition of Mu Yi’s shoulder marks 19 28 39.
• Emotional strain: Memories connected to Professor Yin’s death appear to prompt further Suppressant use 46.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Ice Scythe — Summoned and dismissed at will; used against Spine Celery, Giant Ants, and Grade A warthogs 2 6 7 17.
• Identity Bracelet — Provides communication, scanning, personal safety diagnostics, mission submission, and newcomer registration 10 19 34 36.
• Suppressant pills — Carried in a flat metal box to manage abnormal mutation values 14 19.
• Spine Celery sedatives — Prepared by An Beize and taken to counter the warthogs’ Tremor Roar 18.
• Storage Bags — Hold harvested plant materials and shard crystals 11 47.
• Thigh-strapped dagger — Used to extract formic acid from Giant Ant venom glands 9.
• Night-vision goggles — Lent to Mu Yi during the night raid 17.
• Protective suit — Worn during the Zombie Fungus response and institute watch 45 47 48.

Relationships

• Mu Yi — Initially a suspicious stranger whom Zhong rescues and restrains; becomes his companion, houseguest, and increasingly intimate teasing partner. Zhong safeguards his secret abilities and agrees to offer his ears, tail, and head for petting as part of their bargain. No formal romantic relationship is established in the supplied chapters 2 5 23 38 39 48.
• Professor Yin — Adoptive mother and the owner of his villa. Her death during an earlier S-rank outbreak remains a painful subject 38 45 46.
• Feng Zhengqing — Childhood friend and researcher. They coordinate quickly during emergencies, tease each other, and argue over Feng’s unhealthy work habits 34 44 49 50.
• Qiu Cai / Absolute Gun — Team 404 member and frequent target of Zhong’s sharp-tongued orders. Zhong also values his extraordinary luck as part of the team’s support strategy 5 23.
• Du Jing / Devil Vine — Teammate who worries about Zhong’s energy expenditure and offers to cover the retreat in his place 7.
• Wenren Jin / Wanderer — Teammate whose shields protect Zhong in combat. Their exchanges mix tactical coordination with irreverent jokes 6 23 45.
• An Beize / Sage — Teammate relied upon for research, medicine, and terrain knowledge. Zhong reassures him about his own condition and discourages unnecessary apologies 10 11 18.
• Qi Tianhe — Captain of Team 403 and a hostile rival. Zhong counters his attempted coercion and repeatedly outmaneuvers his squad 22 28 32.
• Zhao Qing — Team 403 specialist who antagonizes Mu Yi. Zhong shields Mu Yi from his retaliation and mocks him after his spider prank backfires 28 32.
• Fu Chuan — Fellow hunting captain. Zhong recognizes his worries about his family during the outbreak and urges him to smoke less 49.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Dread Gloom Expedition

• Confronts Mu Yi over the tracked mushroom, catches him after his cliff jump, and secures the Hallucinogenic Mushroom as experimental specimen 669 2 3.
• Recognizes Mu Yi’s unusual resistance to its spores and pursues his cooperation in research aimed at improving the Hallucinogen Antidote 3 15.
• Leads the Spine Celery hunt, then fights Giant Ants alongside Mu Yi and treats his acid injury 6 7 8.
• Suffers a severe mutation crisis after the Grade A warthog battle; drinking Mu Yi’s blood precedes an unprecedented recovery, but leaves a memory gap 17 18 19 20.

Return to Crystal City

• Conceals Mu Yi’s abilities from Team 403 and guides Team 404 through confrontations, a Red Weasel attack, and the Ghost Spider ambush 22 23 28 32.
• Brings Mu Yi into Crystal City, delivers the mushroom to Feng, submits the squad’s mission, and escorts Mu Yi to obtain a Temporary Identity Bracelet 34 36.
• Hosts Mu Yi at his villa, where shared meals, flower viewing, wine, and sleeping arrangements deepen their familiarity 38 39 40.

Zombie Fungus Emergency

• Calls Feng to investigate Team 403’s suspicious healer and freezes the emerging infection source, though some spores have already escaped 44 45.
• Negotiates Mu Yi’s return home by extending their bargain to ten days, then continues patrol work while keeping in touch and bringing supplies 45 46 47.
• Takes Mu Yi to institute night watch under three conditions: avoid strangers, use no abilities except in emergencies, and stay within three meters 48.
• Keeps Mu Yi away from the containment tank and questions his request for a portable bioelectric sensor 49 50.

Notable Quotes

“You don't need to remind me. I never go back on my promises.” 23

“A lot of the time, confronting someone openly won't hurt them much. It'll just give them something to use against you.” 35

“Your health is your greatest asset. Eat well and get enough sleep, and you'll live longer and do more research.” 50

Trivia

• He finds introducing himself as “Snow God” awkward and considers the public attention attached to that name a nuisance 5 36.
• Mu Yi initially treats him as a Beta, but later discovers that Zhong’s world has only male and female sexes, with no Alpha/Beta/Omega secondary genders 41.
• His teammates regularly stay overnight at his villa, so he keeps spare clothing in their sizes 38.
• The author explicitly states that Zhong and Mu Yi are both virgins and that this is their first love 2 36.