Xiu Yuan

Biodata

Power Progression

The documented progression consists of inherited skills, training breakthroughs, changes of incarnation, and acquired divine authority rather than a single numbered cultivation ladder.

Background / History

First Lifetime: Hu Tao’s Grandfather

Xiu Yuan enters the story as a transmigrator tasked with completing nine reincarnations. His first role is Hu Tao’s grandfather, responsible for raising her until she can direct the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. He comforts her after other children call her unwanted and introduces her to playful verse 1.

Despite his gentle occupation, he fights fiercely to protect her, destroying monsters with spearwork and fire techniques. He later conceals coughing blood and declining health so she will not worry. His first lifetime ends in illness, with his appearance rapidly becoming gaunt and aged 6 8 9.

Second Lifetime: Qiqi’s Guardian

His second mission is to help Qiqi survive independently. He melts Mountain Shaper’s amber seal, tells her her name and identity, and carries her out when her stiff zombie body cannot walk properly. He then attempts to restore her mobility through exercises 11.

Xiu Yuan sells sachets to support their household and returns with food and Coconut Milk. Qiqi tells him that he makes her feel warm and promises never to forget him. As his body begins glowing, she clings to him and begs him not to leave 18.

Third Lifetime: Shenhe and the Exchange of Fate

Xiu Yuan helps Shenhe reconnect with human society and asks Jean to assist her. Their time together in Mondstadt makes Shenhe more sociable, and she begins regarding him as someone who can restrain her nature more effectively than her Red Ropes 27 28.

Although he loves her, he claims otherwise and abruptly leaves because he cannot escape the nine reincarnations. He subsequently seeks a way to replace her fate, rejecting Venti’s warning that a mortal cannot endure the power of karma. The exchange leaves him bearing Shenhe’s lone calamity fate 27 29 50 162 328.

Fourth Lifetime: Xiao’s Companion

His fourth mission is to make Xiao smile sincerely again. Xiu Yuan earns Xiao’s respect through prolonged sparring, then joins him in hunting evil spirits despite repeated warnings about karmic debt 37 38 40.

Their companionship combines relentless teasing with genuine support. Xiu Yuan rejects Xiao’s belief that he is a walking calamity and offers to accompany him when saving people. During the battle against the Demon God Amy, he works with Xiao to spring a trap and intercepts black mist heading toward him 44 48.

Fifth Lifetime: Amber’s Grandfather and Eula’s Teacher

Xiu Yuan inhabits the body of An Xiu Yuan, Amber’s grandfather. The predecessor’s memories describe a Liyue mercenary commander who joined the Knights of Favonius after their physician saved him. Xiu Yuan does not know whether the predecessor’s death was natural or caused by the system 50.

He becomes Eula’s teacher and gives her a sense of home. To buy her a Bone Whistle, he fights Hilichurls for three days and returns badly injured, concealing his wounds from her 53 54 64.

When a Demon God threatens Liyue, he asks Xiao to entrust him with his karmic debt and channels it into the Demonbane Sword. His disappearance leaves Xiao free of a thousand years of debt and makes Xiu Yuan a hero of Liyue 63 64 65.

Sixth Lifetime: Ningguang’s Elder Brother

Young Ningguang protects Xiu Yuan from the Millelith while he struggles to suppress the evil spirits inside him. He repays her assistance by buying her Mora Meat on credit and reselling it alongside advertised divination 67 68.

He comforts her, supports her education, and teaches observation through a practical demonstration of identifying and catching a thief. Ningguang comes to regard him as the best elder brother in the world and credits him with giving her a second life and home 77 79.

Seventh Lifetime: Travels with Kazuha

Xiu Yuan travels with Kazuha while developing his combat abilities. His humor repeatedly aggravates his companion: when seeking shelter, he introduces Kazuha to a homeowner as his son 90.

He later defeats a Kairagi to test his training and openly challenges the Raiden Shogun to demonstrate her renowned technique, shocking Kazuha and the surrounding witnesses 93 97.

Eighth Lifetime: Sasayuri

As Sasayuri, a tengu and Demon God retainer, Xiu Yuan intensively trains his Electro techniques. He kills the Great Serpent to protect Yashiori Island, but loses his left arm after an ambush during the subsequent battle 101 114 117 147.

He settles on Watatsumi Island to honor his promise to care for the Great Serpent’s people and to prevent resentment from developing into war. Initially hated, he tolerates insults but establishes firm limits against theft and interference. The hostility eventually subsides, and Rina’s family becomes close to him 115 117 119 120.

After another disaster, Xiu Yuan blames himself for the deaths he could not prevent despite saving most of the island’s people. He later confronts the Khaenri’ah crisis alone, returns heavily wounded and Abyss-corrupted, and uses himself as bait to draw monsters away from Narukami Island 129 130 145.

Ninth Lifetime: Liyue’s Forgotten Co-Founder

Born a Demon God, Xiu Yuan meets a younger, belligerent Morax and repeatedly defeats him. He becomes Morax’s acknowledged elder brother, teaches him practical elemental manipulation and weapon design, and introduces him to ordinary human life 151 156 163 252.

Together they raise Mt. Tianheng against flooding and establish Liyue. The villagers honor Morax as Rex Lapis and Xiu Yuan as the Dark Night King. As people begin forgetting Xiu Yuan, Morax insists on preserving his memory through the Lantern Rite 180 182 300.

Xiu Yuan also earns Cloud Retainer’s trust, protects Qiqi before her original fatal accident, and frees five Yakshas from the Dream Demon God’s control. While Morax campaigns against enemy gods, Xiu Yuan remains to guard Liyue 191 220 240 243.

His internal karmic debt eventually reveals a long-planned revenge against Heavenly Principles. After it kills her and becomes the Lord of the Underworld, Xiu Yuan receives her authority and becomes Teyvat’s supreme ruler 261 268 269.

Finale Routes and the System Revelation

The ninth-lifetime route follows Xiu Yuan’s effort to survive the Sea of Quanta and create a replacement Teyvat. He returns to the ruined original world, secures the Lord of the Underworld’s help in reviving its inhabitants, and transfers the Underworld and its gathered souls to the new world 283 302.

The Shenhe route allows him to reset his fate to happiness but remain in only one world. Before returning to Shenhe, he visits the other worlds in an incorporeal state, unseen and unheard. He reaches Xiao through dreams and bids Ningguang farewell before regaining a physical body 304 310 316 323.

He reunites with Shenhe and marries her with Jean officiating. When the Abyss later overwhelms their world, he investigates creating a refuge but discovers that an unsupported world will fall into the Sea of Quanta. Rather than decide on a permanent sacrifice without his wife, he returns to consult her. They ultimately die together, and Xiu Yuan ends his own life after burying himself beside her 324 328 338 340.

The final chapters reveal that Xiu Yuan becomes the system. He selects a firefighter on Earth, erases his memories, and sends him through another set of nine reincarnations. By manipulating this other Xiu Yuan into remaining in the ninth lifetime and recreating Teyvat, he breaks the reincarnation curse and reunites with the reborn Shenhe 341 343.

Appearance

• Early appearance: Hu Tao knows him as a gentle, handsome grandfather before illness makes his face gaunt, sunken-eyed, and visibly aged 9.
• Sixth lifetime: Ningguang describes him as a tall, handsome merchant 81.
• Eighth lifetime: Possesses tengu wings and a keen sense of smell. Loses his left arm and later forms a blue, translucent replacement through mental creation 117 145 147.
• Abyssal corruption: Returns from Khaenri’ah with extensive wounds and dark-purple corrosion on his forehead. The infection later distorts his face, which he hides behind a mask 145 162.
• Ninth lifetime: Wears a black coat and the Good-and-Evil Mask. His eyes turn red as karmic debt overwhelms him, and his black hair later turns white 243 252 254.

Personality

Xiu Yuan is gentle, patient, and protective, especially toward children and people isolated by circumstances beyond their control. He comforts Hu Tao, rehabilitates Qiqi, gives Eula a home, and helps Ningguang build confidence. He treats Adepti as individuals rather than placing them above ordinary people 1 11 38 64 79.

His warmth coexists with irreverent humor and a competitive streak. He provokes Xiao into lengthy sparring matches, boasts extravagantly, leaves him to pay for ten bowls of Almond Tofu, and embarrasses Kazuha by presenting him as his son. On matters he considers important, however, he becomes stubborn and refuses to compromise 38 40 41 90 186.

Kindness is both his greatest strength and his central vulnerability. He can smile through severe injuries if others survive, yet becomes intensely self-critical when even one person connected to him dies. He knows that others deserve happiness but struggles to believe the same of himself, particularly after inheriting the lone calamity fate 130 131.

He is not naturally bloodthirsty, and his intimidating identity partly arises from the karmic debt and Abyss within him. Despite his selflessness, he retains ordinary insecurities: he fears revealing his corrupted face and worries that he might flee rather than face loved ones while disfigured 162 187.

His eventual relationship with Shenhe challenges his habit of unilateral sacrifice. He comes to recognize that dying “for” someone may deepen their suffering rather than make them happy, and that such a decision cannot be his alone 338.

Abilities & Skills

Weapon Combat

• Spear mastery: Deflects barrages of arrows, fights through monster hordes, and matches Xiao in prolonged combat 6 38 39.
• Swordsmanship: Uses the Demonbane Sword to channel sinister energy and later develops powerful sword-drawing attacks 50 64 101.
• Unarmed combat: Uses electrically charged kicks and punches; fights with his limbs when crowded enemies prevent effective spear swings 47 93.
• Battlefield coordination: Plants his spear to set a trap for Amy and times his attack with Xiao’s positioning 48.

Fire and Elemental Manipulation

• Eight-Sided Fire: Erupts around him in an eight-trigram formation, engulfing surrounding monsters 6.
• Protective fire: Creates a flame wall to shield Hu Tao and melts the amber imprisoning Qiqi 6 11.
• Blackflame: A powerful offensive skill used during his full-strength battles with Xiao 37 38.
• Electro constructs: Conjures an Electro blade, choosing its potential to paralyze over the burning effect of a Pyro weapon 151.
• Geo manipulation: Raises stone spikes, reshapes the ground, and uses stone projectiles in combat 151 154 158.
• Elemental fusion: Combines Electro and Geo to produce Pyro 156.

Movement and Electro Techniques

• Flame Flash Body Flicker: Teleports to reposition, evade attacks, and retrieve a thrown spear 41 48.
• Lightning movement: Transforms into lightning for rapid movement and combat 93 151.
• Flight: Uses tengu wings in the eighth lifetime and moves freely through the air in the ninth 145 186.
• Thunder Flash: Great Sound of Thunder: An explosive iaido strike developed through training and used to finish the Great Serpent 101 147.
• Rakshasa Death Domain: A wide-area, indiscriminate technique whose effectiveness depends on his stamina. Exhaustion after its earlier use left him vulnerable to the ambush that cost his arm 147.

One Thought, Three Thousand

Allows Xiu Yuan to create physical objects through mental power, with the eventual potential to create a world 99.

• Creates a translucent replacement for his severed left arm 147.
• Produces complex weapons rapidly because of his enormous mental capacity 161.
• Its mental-power increase greatly improves his ability to resist karmic erosion 101.
• Creation scale depends on mental strength; in the Shenhe route, his initial limit is a small island and house 338.
• A created world needs support to avoid falling into the Sea of Quanta 338.

Planet Befall

A destructive technique completed after three years of research, manifested as a stone-bound, golden-lit cube before deployment 164.

• Its demonstrated power repeatedly overturns Morax’s understanding of Xiu Yuan’s strength 164 165.
• Xiu Yuan can manifest five Planet Befalls at once 268.
• Morax eventually learns the technique, bringing his combat prowess to a new peak 227.
• Xiu Yuan’s later displays exceed what Morax can reproduce with his available divine power 213.

Karmic Debt and Abyssal Power

• Absorbs Xiao’s accumulated karmic debt and channels it through the Demonbane Sword 64 65.
• Uses the Tranquility Mantra to suppress hostile voices and strengthen his mind 73 240.
• Through the Good-and-Evil Mask, directly controls karmic debt and Abyssal corruption 252.
• Coats his blade in evil spirit power, allowing even a shallow wound to introduce corrosion into an opponent 257.
• Excessive expenditure can overwhelm the mask’s suppression and trigger severe mental pain 235.
• The karmic debts deliberately manipulate his perceptions and force his growth to prepare their revenge against Heavenly Principles 261.

Heavenly Principles’ Authority

• External limitation: The Abyss and Lord of the Underworld do not originate from Teyvat and are not constrained by his supremacy over that world 269.
• Large-scale protection: Restores Liyue’s defensive barrier and erects powerful spatial barriers over the central regions of the other six nations 335.
• Power transfer: Grants Shenhe as much divine power as she can withstand, raising her strength to just below the Seven Archons 334.

Observation, Teaching, and Mechanical Insight

• Identifies a thief through observation, microexpressions, and body language, then uses the encounter to interest Ningguang in learning 77.
• Adapts Sasayuri’s techniques to his own Electro abilities 101.
• Guides Morax through practical weapon design, elemental combat, and understanding human society 163 198 252.
• Navigates Cloud Retainer’s mechanisms without brute force and identifies their design flaws 191.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Long Spear — His principal early weapon; also used as a repositioning point for Flame Flash Body Flicker 6 41.
• Demonbane Sword — A black blade that gains damage from infused sinister energy; carries Xiao’s thousand years of karmic debt during the defense of Liyue 50 63 64.
• Demon Qilin Garment — Made from Demon Dragon scales. Provides fire immunity, strengthens fire attacks, and offers exceptional physical defense, but does not make him invulnerable 47 48.
• Good-and-Evil Mask — Controls evil powers within his body. Using those powers also strengthens them in proportion to duration and intensity; its half-weeping, half-smiling appearance becomes fully smiling when he takes control of the karmic debt 252.
• Teacup — Associated with his daily reflection on earlier lives. A chip in the cup reawakens memories that had faded over centuries 187 253.
• Bone Whistle — A gift purchased for Eula for 35,000 Mora; produces the sound of waves 53.
• Baron Bunny doll — A gift to Amber, which she names and later remembers as a continuing source of protection 73.

Relationships

• Hu Tao — Granddaughter in his first lifetime. He raises her toward leadership of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor and protects her from monsters 1 6.
• Qiqi — Ward in his second lifetime. He frees and rehabilitates her; in the ninth, he heals her broken leg and secretly follows her home to ensure her safety 11 18 220.
• Shenhe — Wife and his principal romantic attachment. He exchanges her fate for his own, later returns to marry her, and ultimately breaks the reincarnation curse to reunite with her reborn self 162 328 343.
• Jean — Ally in helping Shenhe adapt to society; witnesses their reunion and officiates their wedding 28 324 328.
• Xiao — Rival, demon-hunting companion, and trusted friend. Xiu Yuan draws out his suppressed tenderness and later removes his thousand years of karmic debt 38 44 65.
• Amber — Granddaughter through his fifth-life identity, An Xiu Yuan. His continued presence preserves her playful childhood, and she treasures the doll he gives her 50 55 73.
• Eula — Student who comes to regard him as a parent. His teaching gives her a home and helps her find her own path 53 64.
• Ningguang — Younger-sister figure and student. She first protects him from arrest; he subsequently supports her growth and confidence 67 77 79.
• Kazuha — Seventh-life traveling companion, training partner in context, and frequent target of his teasing 90 93.
• Morax / Zhongli — Sworn younger brother, pupil, and fellow founder of Liyue. Xiu Yuan shapes his fighting style, attitudes toward humanity, and readiness to protect mortals 156 180 252 300.
• Venti — Source of information about fate and karma. Warns him against replacing Shenhe’s destiny 27 29.
• Zebu — Inazuman ruler who cares deeply about Sasayuri. Challenges his self-blame and insists that he tell her before undertaking another dangerous battle 130 134.
• Rina and her children — The family closest to him during his residence on Watatsumi Island 120.
• Cloud Retainer — Becomes convinced of his strength and intelligence after he tests and critiques her mechanisms 191.
• Five Yakshas — Freed by him from the Dream Demon God’s control; swear to follow him and defend Liyue 243.
• Lord of the Underworld — Emerges from the karmic debt’s plan, takes revenge on Heavenly Principles, and leaves her authority to Xiu Yuan. Later assists with gathering and reviving Teyvat’s souls 261 268 302.
• The firefighter / other Xiu Yuan — A man selected on Earth and forced through reincarnations by Xiu Yuan acting as the system. His successful world-saving route enables Xiu Yuan’s reunion with Shenhe 341 343.

Notable Quotes

“Besides, Little Tao still has me. How could you be an orphan nobody wants?” 1

“As long as I can help them, what does it matter if I become a puppet...” 99

“I’m truly the ultimate invincible, ridiculously super nice guy.” 41

“I’m sorry, but I can’t lose Shenhe...” 343

Trivia

• His supposed “intermittent mania” is an improvised explanation for karmic-debt episodes, not a confirmed diagnosis 68.
• The account of being a foundling with a fire-scarred face is another cover story, invented to explain his and Morax’s arrival in a human village and discourage questions about his mask 169.
• He possesses no Vision in his fifth lifetime, despite the strength he demonstrates in saving Liyue 65.
• He persuades Morax that “slacking off” means working hard, prompting Morax to announce “Time to slack off!” before concentrating on weapon-making 163.
• His daily tea ritual serves as a deliberate reminder of the people and promises from his first eight lives 187.
• The afterword explicitly explains both endings as happy: the other Xiu Yuan saves the world, while the Xiu Yuan who became the system reunites with Shenhe 343.