Yun Huanling

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Yun Huanling (云环翎)
Alias(es)	A Ling; Heaven-Connecting Tower, his true identity 1572 1883
Species/Race	The Heaven-Connecting Tower, living in the identity and body of a cultivator 1883 1950
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Yun Household of Nameless Island; Heavenly Secret Sect 96 101 254
Occupation/Role	Hongguang’s Personal Disciple; divination cultivator and formation arts specialist 101 765
Status	His existence as Yun Huanling has ended; the Heaven-Connecting Tower has reappeared and is visited by his former master and sect elders 1950 1971

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Foundation Establishment Late Stage	254	Reached this stage at forty-seven. His uncle subsequently confined him to Nameless Island, ostensibly because his advancement was too slow, and required Golden Core cultivation before allowing him to leave.
Golden Core	302	Formed his core inside Swallowing Heaven, where advancement did not immediately trigger the Azure Realm’s heavenly tribulation.
Golden Core—additional core pattern	330	Upon returning to the Azure Realm, a tribulation lightning strike added another pattern to his core. By the seventh bolt, all his defensive magic treasures had been destroyed.
Mid Golden Core	473	Reached this stage within seven years of returning from the Spiritflight Continent, before turning sixty. His formation techniques made him difficult for same-stage cultivators to defeat despite his weak aptitude for ordinary arts.
Nascent Soul; later confirmed Early Stage	704 776	Began forming his Nascent Soul a little over ten years after returning from the Spiritflight Continent. This advancement unlocked innate abilities involving teleportation and divination 777 868.
Spirit Severing	1496	Identified retrospectively as his existing cultivation before the advancement in the spring pool. The supplied account does not describe the original breakthrough.
Spirit Transformation	1496	Advanced on Heavenly Cloud Mountain through innate origin qi flowing into his body. Because the mountain was an immortal’s magic treasure, his tribulation was deferred until he returned to the Azure Realm.

Background / History

Upbringing and meeting Su Jiu

Yun Huanling grew up in the Yun Household before being sent to the Heavenly Secret Sect to study. His early life revolved around cultivation, leaving him little experience of ordinary city life. Both his household and sect indulged him, supplied him with treasures, and regarded his divination talent as exceptional 98 1949 1971.

Despite his comfortable position, he had few genuine peers. Most sect disciples either flattered him or treated him as a fool. Su Jiu stood out because she disregarded his status and openly looked down on his shortcomings 254.

In his early travels with Su Jiu, he reported having spent roughly two months imprisoned in darkness. She agreed to escort him, while requiring him to remain beside her and provide divinations when needed. He later admitted that his interest in her extraordinary destiny had led him to divine her location using a scrap of her clothing and follow her 96 127.

Millet Village and early training

Su Jiu forced Yun Huanling to fight Demon Beasts rather than rely entirely on escape and defensive treasures. After a month, he could strike first-tier beasts instead of merely fleeing from them, although he remained frightened of combat 113.

At Millet Village, a demonic cultivator impersonating Su Jiu tempted the villagers with treasure, causing them to disregard Yun Huanling’s warning and break their protective formation. He escaped with nearby villagers using a flag, then concealed the survivors in a cellar behind a second-tier Concealment Formation. He subsequently told Su Jiu that the massacre was not her responsibility 125.

Confinement on Nameless Island

Yun Jing brought Yun Huanling home and prevented him from leaving for three years. The household even configured its Teleportation Array to block him. Although the stated reason was insufficient cultivation, Yun Huanling correctly suspected that the elders were concerned about changes to his Fate Star 254.

The family feared that Su Jiu’s unusual fate was altering those close to her and might draw Yun Huanling into opposition to the Heavenly Dao. His grandfather wanted him to distance himself from her and return to his original destined course 274.

During this confinement, Yun Huanling secretly entered the Library Pavilion to investigate Goddess Mountain. The elders watched his supposed stealth through a surveillance artifact, and his grandfather caught him examining records of ancestors who had died after visiting the mountain 258. Yun Jing later agreed that he could return to the Heavenly Secret Sect 277.

Becoming an independent cultivator

After returning from the Spiritflight Continent, Yun Huanling devoted himself to cultivation, formation studies, and combat practice. His motivation was the helplessness he had felt when Su Jiu sent him and Yun Chao away because she could not safely protect them 473.

His side story describes repeated attempts to clear the Heavenly Secret Sect’s mechanical formation using ordinary arts and swordsmanship. He eventually succeeded despite the severe limitations imposed by his divination aptitude 1949.

By the Nascent Soul Realm, he could decisively defeat Fang Dagang without using his specialized formation arts. He also challenged the sect’s habit of sheltering him, insisting that he needed practical experience and the freedom to make his own choices 777 796.

A Huan’s emergence

While investigating spatial fissures, Yun Huanling entered a sealed Hundred Ghost Grotto whose weakened boundaries had developed rifts. Its ancient vengeful ghosts nearly killed him. His determination to survive and see Su Jiu again caused a protective, violent secondary personality—A Huan—to split from his primary consciousness 1386.

The split diverted so much soul power to A Huan that Yun Huanling could not reliably reclaim control of his body. He researched the condition after returning to the sect but found no solution. Nevertheless, he did not regret the split, because it had allowed him to survive 1387.

Su Jiu eventually recognized the change in his behavior and confronted A Huan. The secondary personality revealed the ordeal despite the primary personality’s attempts to keep it secret 1386.

True identity and final fate

Before understanding his origins, Yun Huanling experienced recurring chest pain that neither his companions nor healing cultivators could explain. He also dreamed of a chamber filled with treasures and artifact spirits. Divinations of his past had yielded nothing, leading his grandfather to describe him as a new soul without a previous life 929 1210 1388.

After reaching Spirit Transformation, Su Jiu’s petal fused with him and his soul gathered anew, unlocking memories of his true identity as the Heaven-Connecting Tower. He learned that his existence as Yun Huanling was made possible by his ancestor Yun Chong 1950.

He concealed this identity to prevent Su Jiu from being accused of harboring the tower. After his capture and the reclamation of his true body, he realized that Dao Lord Qing Ci had revealed the truth to her 1883.

The Heavenly Secret Sect ultimately chose to abandon him to save the Azure Realm, while Su Jiu vowed to rescue him. Xia Jue detained him and sought his cooperation, arguing that the realm’s cultivators were running out of time. Yun Huanling knew that releasing the tower’s power would prevent him from returning to his original form 1934 1960.

His side story ends with his transformation into the Heaven-Connecting Tower and the expectation that his memories of Su Jiu would be lost. After peace returned, his former companions mourned Yun Huanling, while Hongguang and the elders repeatedly found reasons to visit the restored tower 1950 1971.

Appearance

• Exceptionally handsome: Su Jiu considered him slightly more handsome than Hu Yucheng; Shu Man and her senior sister were dazzled when they saw his face clearly 171 781.
• Bright, expressive eyes: His eyes are described as large and curious, contributing to his sunny, energetic impression 895.
• Cheerful smile: Often smiles broadly, revealing neat white teeth. In formal composure, he can display the bearing of an aristocratic young master 765 777.
• Eight Trigrams clothing: Wears a Daoist robe patterned with the Eight Trigrams during his encounter with rogue cultivators 1637.
• Bone age: Su Jiu notes that he is less than two hundred years old, despite his apparently firsthand knowledge of events from ten thousand years earlier 1748.

Personality

Yun Huanling is sunny, playful, talkative, and frequently frivolous. His emotions are easy to read: Su Jiu considers him unusually straightforward and capable of wearing every thought on his face. His jokes and antics can disrupt otherwise subdued situations 276 1254 1721.

Initially timid and reliant on life-saving treasures, he gradually develops determination and independence. He refuses to accept that a divination cultivator must remain helpless in battle, and he resents being treated only as a valuable talent who must be sheltered from danger 127 796 1949.

His love for Su Jiu is persistent and explicitly unrequited in his own account. He becomes jealous of the attention she gives others, imagines them as Dao companions, and sometimes adopts foolish schemes to win her notice. Beneath these antics, he is willing to protect her without receiving credit, including concealing the suffering that produced A Huan 846 1341 1386 1949.

Abilities & Skills

Divination and Astrology

• Uses the Nine-Bend Compass to investigate directions, birth charts, previous lives, spiritual conditions, and fate 127 349 1254.
• Determines that Yin Yin and the village girl were sisters in a previous life, probably twins, and identifies the girl’s unusually strong soul as that of a former general 349.
• Initially limited to one divination every seven days; a Nascent Soul innate ability removes this restriction 127 868.
• Risky extrapolation from unknown star maps can cause backlash severe enough to require Hongguang’s intervention 508.
• His ability is not omniscience: the compass reveals the village girl’s soul sacrifice but cannot identify whom she approached or the precise terms of her contract 349.
• By a later encounter, rogue cultivators know him as having lost the ability to perform divination. The supplied passage does not establish the cause or whether it was restored 1637.

Five Elements, Eight Trigrams, and Hidden Armor Arts

• Specializes in the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams and the related Eight Gates/Strange Gates and Hidden Armor arts 96 101 127.
• Recognizes complex layouts, concealed mechanisms, and dangerous composite formations 281 1388 1405.
• Uses second-tier formations for personal protection and concealment 125 127.
• Calculates safe steps through the Lotus Nine-Seed Formation while Su Jiu extinguishes its red lights 281.
• Commands Heavenly Secret Sect disciples from a formation eye, coordinating rotating attacks while holding a reserve Formation Disk 960.
• Constructs formations using surrounding space, plants, and trees rather than relying solely on prepared disks 852 1254.
• Limit: Diskless battlefield formations require time and can be disrupted by knowledgeable opponents; Su Jiu warns that his assassin trap succeeded because the attackers did not understand formation arts 852 853.
• Limit: Recognizing a ninth-tier formation does not establish that he can create one. His encounter with Su Jiu is explicitly his first sight of such a formation 1405.

Star Maps and Fate Techniques

• Restores a thousand-year-old star map and identifies evidence of a successful Defy-Heaven Life Reversal, distinguishing the altered fate from the concealed original 934.
• Recognizes the forbidden Heavenly Star Rotation Technique, which exchanges two people’s destinies 861.
• Explains its need for celestial conditions and mirror fragments steeped in resentful qi, then calculates a favorable time seven days ahead 861.
• Identifies an ancient carving as the sky’s arrangement during the continental upheaval fifty years earlier 1390.

Movement, Concealment, and Teleportation

• Uses the Invisibility Technique to infiltrate the Yun Household’s Library Pavilion, although the elders’ surveillance still detects him 258.
• Awakens an innate teleportation art after advancing to Nascent Soul 777 778.
• Teleportation limit: Longer distances require longer preparation. He considers the art useful against similar-level opponents but inadequate for challenging an enemy a full major realm above him 778.
• Combines Layered Phantom Images with Startled Swan Steps to evade Nascent Soul attackers 852.
• Phantom-image limit: His shallow mastery prevents continuous incorporeality; he must periodically become solid and accumulate more spiritual qi 852.
• His later escape methods are formidable enough that even a Void Refinement cultivator might fail to catch him under ordinary circumstances 1661.

Combat

• Initially has extremely poor combat ability despite being one of the Heavenly Secret Sect’s most gifted Personal Disciples 101.
• Through sustained training, becomes one of the sect’s few divination cultivators capable of attacking effectively 1324 1949.
• Anticipates Fang Dagang’s retreat routes and wounds him with a silver thread drawn from the compass, winning without using formation arts 777.
• Ordinary arts and swordsmanship remain weaknesses; his brother Yun Chao regards his sword aptitude as exceptionally poor 473 1370.

A Huan

• Shares Yun Huanling’s body and soul but possesses a separate consciousness 1496.
• Emerges to protect Yun Huanling and kill threats, favoring direct attacks over the primary personality’s dodging and formation-setting 1386 1393.
• Develops a lethal compass technique that extracts fate stars and star lines, turning golden threads into blades aimed at an opponent’s vital points 1504.
• Is ruthless enough to kill a demonic opponent before she can finish attempting to deceive him 1505.
• Does not consistently obey the primary personality or share his urgency to help Su Jiu 1386 1393.

Innate Origin Qi Compatibility

• Can receive strength from innate origin qi flowing into his body, enabling his advancement in Heavenly Cloud Mountain’s pool 1496.
• Cannot independently produce or control that qi as Su Jiu does 1496.
• Later identifies Su Jiu’s petal within himself as the means by which he can borrow her innate origin qi 1950.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Nine-Bend Compass — Superior spirit artifact associated with his divination and Heavenly Secret Sect identity. Its spirit is Little Black; A Huan also uses its star lines as lethal weapons 96 778 1504 1657.
• Formation Disks — Used for tracking missing companions and managing formations in battle 351 960.
• Defensive magic treasures — Initially central to his survival strategy. His Golden Core tribulation destroys every defensive treasure he carries 127 330.
• Ice Spike Talisman — Given to him by Su Jiu inside Swallowing Heaven because she feared he lacked an attack method. He later keeps it displayed on his wall 473.
• Su Jiu’s Message Talismans — Collects them in a box; hearing her voice sustains him during exhausting combat training 1949.
• Imitation Frost-Cold Purple Ultimate sword — Uses an imitation of Su Jiu’s weapon despite lacking the ice spiritual root needed to unleash its full potential 1370.
• Unbounded Silk — Offers it to Su Jiu as a hair ribbon and personally ties it into her hair 1705.
• Storage ring and medicines — Carries abundant spirit stones, pills, and multiple ninth-tier Nine-Turn Soul-Restoring Pills. He exploits the pills’ overwhelming medicinal strength against Nascent Soul rogue cultivators 1637 1639.

Relationships

• Su Jiu / A Jiu — Traveling companion and the woman he loves. She forces his early combat training and becomes the motivation behind his efforts to overcome his weaknesses. He trusts her decisions unconditionally; she later vows to rescue him after learning of the sect’s decision to sacrifice him 113 846 1934 1949.
• Hongguang — Master. Protects and reprimands him, treats his divination backlash, and arranges supervision during his travels. After Yun Huanling is gone, Hongguang avoids speaking of him but visits the restored tower 508 746 836 1971.
• Lan Fang Ziyi — Senior brother and frequent escort. Often exasperated by his behavior, but supports his right to gain experience and make his own choices 796 836.
• Yun Chao — Elder brother. Frequently exposes his exaggerations and is deeply skeptical of his swordsmanship 1267 1370.
• Yun Jing — Uncle and longtime guardian at the Heavenly Secret Sect. Brings him back to Nameless Island and enforces his confinement 254.
• Grandfather — Protective elder who disciplines him for investigating Goddess Mountain and fears that his connection to Su Jiu will place him in danger 258 274.
• Yun Qingge — Younger cousin, whose talent attracts Hongguang’s interest 1572.
• A Huan — Secondary personality. Saves his life but contests control of their shared body and rejects his preference for anonymous sacrifice 1386 1387.
• Little Black — Spirit of the Nine-Bend Compass. Advises him in the Ghost Domain but cannot navigate its unusual territory 1657.
• Chu Luohen — Companion with whom he repeatedly quarrels, at one point issuing a duel challenge that Su Jiu stops. Their friction coexists with battlefield cooperation and concern 1739 1824.
• Xia Jue — Initially remembered as gentle and refined; later becomes the object of Yun Huanling’s intense hostility after injuring Su Jiu and seeking the tower’s power 846 1934 1960.
• Yun Chong — Ancestor and the Yun Household’s foremost genius ten thousand years earlier. Took away the Heaven-Connecting Tower, thwarting the opening of a demonic passage, and made Yun Huanling’s later existence possible 1885 1950.

Notable Quotes

“Rather than staying cooped up in the Heavenly Secret Sect, what I need now is experience. Fourth Elder, I need to grow too.” 796

“If ten times the effort wouldn't work, what about a hundred times? A thousand?” 1949

“Once the Heaven-Connecting Tower's power is released, I'll never be able to return to my original form. Do you think I'd believe you?” 1960