Tiger Wraith

Biodata

Background / History

Human Life and Ghost Servitude

According to Liu Qingmei, the Tiger Wraith died from drinking while alive, making wine poisonous to his soul. After becoming a ghost, he served the Tiger Lord of Green Peak Gorge and preyed on humans. He killed a previous owner of Green Bamboo Abode and accidentally learned the location of the spring supplying its water vein 22 27.

After Lu Chen murdered Liu Qingmei and discarded her body in the mountains, the Tiger Wraith captured her soul. He made her his ghost servant and abused her throughout her captivity 21 22.

He was not the Tiger Demon's only wraith servant. During his interrogation, he explained that his master had sent Tiger Wraiths to collect blood offerings to aid his recovery. Bai Yu later described the Tiger Demon as keeping five or six Tiger Wraiths; the two encountered during the subsequent Red Maple Forest hunt were separate from the servant Xu Taiping had already destroyed 27 41.

Encounter with Fairy Lingyue

Fairy Lingyue discovered him spying over Green Bamboo Abode’s courtyard wall and struck him down. He begged for mercy, claiming that the Tiger Lord had forced him to harm people. Rather than kill him and risk provoking his master while weakened, Lingyue erased his memory of the encounter with a Soul-Bewildering Spell 11 12.

He departed believing he had merely fallen. Unaware of Lingyue’s intervention, he planned to return when Xu Taiping’s spirit herbs ripened, taking both the harvest and the boy’s life in hopes of receiving a fresh heart or liver as a reward 12.

Attempts to Capture Xu Taiping

After Xu Taiping killed a Demon Wolf, the Tiger Wraith decided to lure him out personally, fearing punishment if he failed to deliver the boy’s heart and liver. He used Liu Qingmei as bait, but Xu Taiping detected the deception and shot her possessed body. The courtyard barrier then repelled her attack and forced the Tiger Wraith out 17 21.

Liu Qingmei subsequently revealed his weakness to wine. Xu Taiping reported the danger, but two Raging Wind Hall disciples demanded seventy percent of his harvest for protection and planned to let the threat pressure him into accepting their contract 22 23.

Siege of Green Bamboo Abode

The Tiger Wraith threatened to block the abode’s water supply, revealing that its irrigation ditches also powered the courtyard barrier. Impressed by Xu Taiping’s cleverness, he intended to give the boy’s flesh to the Tiger King and keep his ghost as a servant. Xu Taiping rejected both his threats and his offer to teach ghost cultivation 24.

An old man carrying a bronze longsword and wine gourd secretly observed this confrontation from the forest. Lü Daoxuan later confirmed that he had seen Xu Taiping standing on Green Bamboo Abode's roof with his bow, facing the Tiger Wraith. Xu Taiping's conduct during this early ordeal helped convince Daoxuan to teach him swordsmanship 24 113 3742.

Over nine days, Xu Taiping repeatedly attacked him near the spring while deliberately concealing his strength. The apparent failures made the Tiger Wraith increasingly confident. He eventually plugged the spring and brought three Demon Wolves to breach the weakening barrier 25 26.

Defeat and Aftermath

Xu Taiping disabled two wolves, endured the Tiger Wraith’s Sword Qi, and knocked him from his mount. Ice-infused Green Ox Fist attacks froze his possessed body and drove him into a prepared pit about ten feet deep. When his yin soul emerged to escape, Xu Taiping dropped jars of strong liquor into the pit, poisoning and trapping it 26 27.

Under interrogation, the Tiger Wraith disclosed that the Tiger Demon had been severely wounded by Seven Peaks disciples and needed another three months to recover. Xu Taiping then scattered more liquor into the pit and ignited it, destroying him. His death triggered the appearance of the Tiger King’s spectral projection and a threat of revenge 27 28.

The Tiger King's projection dispersed after apparently exhausting the power hidden within the Tiger Wraith. Xu Taiping subsequently repaired the blocked spring and restored its concealment formation 28.

Fairy Lingyue later praised Xu Taiping for defeating him unaided; she had originally expected the encounter to test whether he would hide or seek help from West Wind Pavilion 33.

Later Repercussions

While recovering, the Tiger Demon renewed his threat to turn Xu Taiping into a Tiger Wraith and torment him for harming his servant. Xu Taiping ultimately pursued the wounded Tiger Demon for seven days and nights and killed him, ending the master's threat of revenge 37 46.

Xu Taiping later told Liu Zijin that her sister had become the Tiger Wraith's ghost servant and handed over the remaining Dust-Seeking Incense exposing Lu Chen's crimes. Three years after the battle at Green Bamboo Abode, he explicitly credited Liu Qingmei's revelation of the wraith's weakness with saving his life. His gratitude was one reason he resolved to kill Lu Chen 117 170.

Much later, Lü Daoxuan recalled the confrontation with the Tiger Wraith while praising Xu Taiping for preserving his original heart. Xu Taiping, in turn, credited Daoxuan and the Azure Profound Sect with protecting his Dao heart 3742.

Power Progression

Appearance

• Corpse host: His first visible body has an iron-blue face, rotting flesh, and exposed white bones 11.
• Stature and clothing: A later possessed body stands eight feet tall and wears a dark cloak or robe 24.
• Disembodied form: He manifests as black smoke, a black whirlwind, and streams of black yin energy; he can also form a face and hands from that energy 21 27.
• Voice: His threats emerge as a shrill male roar 21.

Personality

The Tiger Wraith combines cruelty with opportunism. He enslaves vulnerable souls, threatens to use them as lamp wicks, and offers Xu Taiping survival through ghost servitude despite intending to sacrifice his flesh. When intimidation fails, he argues that righteous and evil cultivation ultimately reach the same destination 21 24.

His confidence collapses when he faces a stronger opponent. He kowtows before Fairy Lingyue and later begs Xu Taiping to save him, offering hidden treasure in exchange. His contempt for Xu Taiping also proves costly: he reveals the barrier’s dependence on water and mistakes deliberately restrained attacks for the boy’s full strength 11 24 25 27.

His submission to the Tiger Demon is reinforced by fear rather than unwavering loyalty. He initially hesitates to reveal his master's condition because he believes doing so will leave him no chance of survival, but discloses it under the threat of further liquor poisoning. Even while trapped, he returns to intimidation when he mistakes Xu Taiping's concern about the Tiger Demon for fear 27.

Abilities & Skills

Possession and Yin-Soul Manifestation

He operates through possessed bodies but can leave them as a yin soul 21 25 27.

• Possesses Liu Qingmei’s body and later uses another Corpse Wraith host 21 25.
• Travels away from the courtyard as a black whirlwind 21.
• Can abandon a trapped body, making physical confinement alone insufficient to hold him 27.
• Damage to his host can also injure his soul, as Xu Taiping deduces from his defensive reactions 24.

Swordsmanship and Ghost Qi

He precisely cuts down arrows carrying Crimson Dawn True Qi and channels ghostly energy through his weapon 24 25.

• Projects black Sword Qi more than ten feet long 26.
• Gathers ghost qi around his arm to block a punch 26.
• His Sword Qi shatters Xu Taiping’s icy protective qi, but does not injure the boy beneath it 26.
• Recognizes the exhaustion risk of Xu Taiping's continuous-punch technique and waits for his True Qi to run dry, unaware that the assault is positioning him over a pitfall 26.

Command of Servants and Demon Wolves

He uses coerced servants and demonic beasts to lure, surround, and attack victims 21 25 26.

• Forces Liu Qingmei to lure Xu Taiping outside his protected courtyard 21.
• Commands three Demon Wolves during the siege and rides one as a mount 25 26.
• Uses the wolves to repel interference while he damages the spring’s protective rock 25.

Weaknesses and Limits

• Wine: Poisonous to his yin soul because of his drinking-related death. Strong liquor fumes prevent his escape and reduce him to scattered streams of yin energy 22 27.
• Spiritual barriers: Green Bamboo Abode’s intact barrier repels his possessed host and forces him out of Liu Qingmei’s body 21.
• Soul-damaging attacks: Crimson Dawn True Qi can injure wraith souls, even before Xu Taiping reaches the Ice Formation Stage 21.
• Magic artifacts: Fairy Lingyue explains that low-level ghost cultivators cannot use them without suffering backlash, accounting for his failure to wield his short-sword artifact 33.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Longsword — Used to intercept arrows and unleash black Sword Qi 24 26.
• Axe — Used to crack the rune-covered rock protecting the water source 25.
• Short-sword magic artifact — Recovered after his destruction. Xu Taiping later activates it as a flying sword and discovers that only two uses remain 33.
• Palm-sized copper furnace — Found among his belongings; Xu Taiping initially does not know its purpose 33.
• Three hundred Merit Coins — Recovered from his remains; Xu Taiping suspects they were stolen from murdered cultivators 28 33.
• Claimed buried treasures — While begging for rescue, he offers to reveal where he buried treasures collected over the years. Xu Taiping does not accept the bargain 27.

Relationships

• Tiger Demon / Tiger King — Master. Sends him to obtain blood offerings while recovering from severe wounds and threatens revenge after his destruction 17 27 37. The Tiger Demon later dies at Xu Taiping's hands 46.
• Liu Qingmei — Enslaved ghost servant. Her disclosure of his weakness enables Xu Taiping to kill him 21 22 27.
• Xu Taiping — Intended victim and prospective ghost servant; ultimately his killer 24 27. Xu Taiping later regards surviving their battle as a life-saving debt to Liu Qingmei 170.
• Fairy Lingyue — Overpowers him and erases his memory, leaving the danger as a test for Xu Taiping 11 12 33.
• Lü Daoxuan / Old Nine — Secret observer of his confrontation with Xu Taiping. The boy's conduct during the ordeal contributes to Daoxuan's decision to teach him swordsmanship, and Daoxuan recalls the encounter much later as evidence of Xu Taiping's enduring resolve 24 113 3742.

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