Yu Yin

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Yu Yin (于音)
Alias(es)	Yinyin — Qi Fei’s affectionate name for her 21
Gender	Female 21 22
Affiliation	Azure Tide Sect, Outer Gate; secretly collaborated with an unnamed demonic cultivator 21 32
Occupation/Role	Outer Gate disciple; lured cultivators to the demonic cultivator in exchange for spirit stones 32
Cultivation	Fourth Qi Refining Layer; no later advancement is documented 21 35
Status	Deceased — died through a master-servant contract after the demonic cultivator’s defeat 34 35
First Appearance	Chapter 16 16

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
First–Second Qi Refining Layers	37	Retrospectively described as five difficult years shared with Han Jia. Their monthly Spirit-Gathering Pills supported only ten days of cultivation, and watering fields paid a single spirit stone.
Third Qi Refining Layer	37	Reaching this layer made team hunts against low-grade first-tier demonic beasts possible. Han Jia recalls that their cultivation stages followed closely after one another.
Fourth Qi Refining Layer	21	Explicitly reached one month before her first recorded Steward Hall confrontation with Su Jiu, which occurred half a year before the chapter’s main events. This placed her in middle-stage Qi Refining 16.

Background / History

Yu Yin entered the Azure Tide Sect alongside Han Jia ten years before Han Jia’s reflection on her death. Their aptitude and cultivation were similar, and they advanced at nearly the same pace. During their early years, limited pills and poorly paid work left them struggling to accumulate spiritual energy and resources 37.

Before Su Jiu surpassed them, Yu Yin and Han Jia had held the highest cultivation in their shared courtyard. Yu Yin also shared a dormitory with her younger sister, Yu Ying 20.

When Su Jiu first demonstrated the flying sword given to her by Elder Sun, Yu Yin was the first courtyard resident to identify it as a magical artifact. She had explained the cost of obtaining such a sword to Yu Ying, but interrupted her sister before she could repeat that explanation to Su Jiu, then took her back to their room 16.

Han Jia later recalls that the demonic cultivator’s arrangement offered a hundred spirit stones for each cultivator supplied. A thousand spirit stones for ten victims represented roughly three years of savings in Han Jia’s comparison, illustrating the financial temptation behind Yu Yin’s betrayal 37.

Appearance

• Dark red gleam in her eyes: First appears as a brief red flash after she threatens Su Jiu’s future; it becomes more conspicuous inside the cave where she betrays Yun Qiqi’s group 22 32.
• Black mark on her arm: Initially glimpsed beneath a torn sleeve and later identified as the servant’s mark of a master-servant contract 33 34.
• Blood-stained face and torn sleeve: Her appearance when she approaches Su Jiu and Mo Yan with a fabricated rescue story 33.

Personality

Yu Yin resents being surpassed, particularly by Su Jiu, whose ice spiritual root, rapid advancement, and access to resources provoke her jealousy. Rather than withdrawing after repeated setbacks, she continues provoking Su Jiu even once their cultivation gap has widened 19 20 21.

She habitually shifts responsibility onto others. After snatching missions she cannot complete, she blames Su Jiu for tricking her, refuses to contribute to the penalty, and then holds Su Jiu responsible for Qi Fei ending their relationship. Her impulsiveness is compounded by her failure to read the sect’s rules concerning private fights and mission penalties 21 22.

Her pursuit of resources becomes openly ruthless: she treats captured disciples as paid “goods” and enjoys watching their horror during soul extraction. Nevertheless, she rejects the demonic cultivator’s invitation to join the demonic path, insisting that she will attain the Great Dao and prove herself 32.

Yu Ying remains an exception to her disregard for others. While dying, Yu Yin shows fear and an unspoken plea for her sister’s safety when Su Jiu asks what will happen to Yu Ying afterward 35.

Abilities & Skills

Combat

Yu Yin has combat experience and uses a sword, but is decisively outmatched by Su Jiu 21 34.

• Attempts a surprise attack while they are both at the Fourth Qi Refining Layer; Su Jiu breaks her hand with a sword sheath 21.
• Later tries to slap Su Jiu and is again stopped with a scabbard 22.
• When forced to fight in the cavern, loses her sword almost immediately and is knocked unconscious by a single palm strike 34.

Deception and Luring

Yu Yin uses false missions and appeals to fellow disciples’ obligations to bring victims into the demonic cultivator’s lair 32 33.

• Offers Yun Qiqi’s group twice the listed mission price for Mushroom Beast materials and invents a reason to depart urgently 32.
• Tells Su Jiu and Mo Yan that a Mushroom Beast has captured other disciples, presenting herself as an escaped survivor seeking help 33.
• Invokes their duty to rescue fellow disciples and offers to accept punishment afterward; neither Su Jiu nor Mo Yan believes her story 33.
• Briefly stiffens and shows panic when Su Jiu asks about Qian Ling, despite claiming that she would avenge the dead disciple. Su Jiu notices these reactions 33.

Contract-Assisted Soul Capture

Yu Yin’s role in soul capture depends on the demonic cultivator, their contract, and external items—not a demonstrated innate soul-extraction ability 35.

• Direct seizure: Su Jiu deduces that the demonic cultivator used the contract through Yu Yin, with Concealment Jade hiding her aura, to seize Qian Ling’s soul during meditation 35.
• Limits: This method cannot seize someone whose cultivation exceeds Yu Yin’s. Each use also requires substantial divine sense and more than half a day of recovery for the demonic cultivator 35.
• Soul-Attracting Incense: Guides a soul leaving its body toward the contract mark on Yu Yin’s arm, where it may be captured 35.
• Failed attack on Han Jia: Equal cultivation gives the incense less than a fifty-percent chance of success. Han Jia had reached the fourth layer earlier, making the attempt especially unlikely to succeed 35.

Equipment / Items

• Sword — Used against Su Jiu under the demonic cultivator’s orders; knocked away during their clash 34.
• Concealment Jade — A Spirit Artifact capable of concealing both spiritual energy and demonic qi. Recovered from the cavern and linked by Su Jiu to Qian Ling’s soul capture 35.
• Soul-Attracting Incense — Used in the failed attempt to capture Han Jia’s soul 35.
• Master-servant contract mark — Located on her arm. Yu Yin believes she signed an equal contract, but the demonic cultivator reveals that she is his servant; the bond allows him to inflict pain and compel her obedience 34.

Relationships

• Yu Ying — Younger sister. Repeatedly urges Yu Yin to stop targeting Su Jiu. After Yu Yin’s death, she moves to another courtyard; Su Jiu explicitly refuses to blame her for her sister’s actions. Much later, Zhou Xing reports that Yu Ying’s Soul Lamp went out during an expedition 22 35 36 1435.
• Su Jiu — Courtyard companion and target of Yu Yin’s jealousy. Their conflict escalates from mission snatching and physical attacks to an attempted lethal ambush 19 21 22 33 34.
• Qi Fei — Former boyfriend, a Seventh Qi Refining Layer cultivator. Ends their relationship after Yu Yin refuses to help pay the penalty arising from her stolen missions 21.
• Han Jia — Fellow disciple who entered the sect with her and advanced at a similar pace. Yu Yin attempts to capture her soul; Han Jia later expresses sympathy for the deprivation behind Yu Yin’s choices without approving her actions. Zhou Xing eventually reports that Han Jia died in her room 35 36 37 1435.
• Unnamed demonic cultivator — Pays her to supply cultivators and secretly binds her as a servant rather than an equal partner. His defeat causes her death through their contract 32 34 35.
• Qian Ling — Courtyard resident whose soul was captured through Yu Yin’s involvement. By the time the scheme is exposed, her soul has been trapped too long to recover 35.
• Yun Qiqi and her companions — Fellow disciples whom Yu Yin deceives and delivers to the demonic cultivator. They are rescued by Su Jiu and Mo Yan 32 34.
• Mu Zihan — Former courtyard companion who later recalls Yu Yin’s fate while trying to persuade Xia Meng to abandon her increasingly harmful course 208.
• Xia Meng — Former courtyard companion. When Mu Zihan invokes Yu Yin as a warning, Xia Meng remembers her actions as a spark for later incidents but regards Yu Yin’s death as self-inflicted 208.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Conflict at the Steward Hall

Yu Yin’s hostility becomes physical when she attacks Su Jiu over a mission renewal. Su Jiu defends herself, and the Enforcement Hall confines Yu Yin for a month 21.

At a later encounter, Yu Yin snatches a Windfang Rabbit mission and then two more tokens that Su Jiu deliberately lets her take. The latter require materials from second-tier beasts—a Saber-Toothed Tiger and a Flame Fox—beyond their ability to hunt. When the registration deadline expires, the two missions incur a combined two-hundred-spirit-stone penalty. Qi Fei arranges payment through his stipend and breaks up with Yu Yin after she refuses to contribute 21.

Yu Yin subsequently confronts Su Jiu over the breakup. Back in her dormitory, she dismisses Yu Ying’s warning and implies that Su Jiu may not live long enough to retaliate; a red flash passes through her eyes 22.

Betrayal on Verdant Mountain

Han Jia’s terrifying dream and loss of spiritual energy lead Su Jiu to suspect Yu Yin, though she initially lacks evidence for a report. The later investigation identifies Soul-Attracting Incense as the cause 31 35.

On Verdant Mountain, Yu Yin delivers Yun Qiqi and four companions to the demonic cultivator, accepts payment, and agrees to lure another group of five middle-stage Qi Refining cultivators. She then encounters Su Jiu and Mo Yan and brings them to the cave under the pretext of rescuing captured disciples 32 33.

One of the five disciples she delivers is subjected to soul extraction, leaving four bound captives in the cavern when Su Jiu and Mo Yan arrive 32 34.

During the ensuing fight, the demonic cultivator forces Yu Yin to attack Su Jiu, exposing the true nature of their contract. Su Jiu knocks her unconscious and destroys the cultivator’s gourd. Yu Yin dies shortly afterward, and the Enforcement Hall confirms the contract as the cause 34 35.

Her betrayal leaves the courtyard increasingly desolate and prompts Han Jia’s disagreement with Su Jiu over whether deprivation can excuse harming fellow disciples 36 37.

The encounter with the demonic cultivator also leads to a sect-organized mountain patrol for middle- and late-stage Qi Refining disciples. Shu Bai explicitly connects the patrol to the demonic cultivator Su Jiu encountered 37 38.

Later Remembrance

Eighteen years after the younger courtyard disciples entered the sect, Mu Zihan sees Xia Meng’s darkened disposition and recalls Yu Yin. While confronting Xia Meng over her obstruction of Lin Miaomiao and her actions against Su Qingqing, Mu Zihan urges her to stop before it is too late and explicitly asks whether she remembers Yu Yin. Xia Meng freezes at the reminder, recalling that Yu Yin’s affair had been considered the spark for numerous later incidents, but dismisses her fate as the result of her own actions 208.

Much later, Su Jiu hears that Mu Zihan is the only surviving member of their former courtyard. Zhou Xing recounts Sun Wei’s and Han Jia’s deaths in their rooms, Yu Ying’s extinguished Soul Lamp during an expedition, and Yu Yin’s death. His retrospective account places Yu Yin’s death in the Enforcement Hall, whereas the earlier scene depicts her dying at the cavern before the Enforcement Hall confirms the cause 35 1435.

Notable Quotes

“You look down on me too? I'll attain the Great Dao and prove it to all of you.” 32

“That depends on whether she lives long enough to reach that point.” 22

---