Chen Xun

Biodata

Background / History

Chen Xun’s birthplace, family, and origins are unknown. By his first appearance, he has spent two and a half years in Little River Town, where residents recognize him as the blue-robed mad scholar who reads a blank book on street corners. Even after becoming lucid, he cannot answer Old Li’s questions about his past and gives vague replies instead 1 6.

Since his earliest memories, Chen Xun has repeatedly alternated between madness and brief periods of clarity. He once searched for the cause but found no answer, eventually settling into a wandering life. Across his long existence, he has witnessed countless deaths and outlived friends and loved ones. With so little of that existence spent lucid, he regards immortality as torture rather than a blessing 4.

Madness and Lucidity

Appearance

• Youthful, handsome face: Once his hair is washed, trimmed, and combed, Li Yuan describes his features and bearing as gentle and lustrous as jade 6.
• Tattered blue robe: His characteristic clothing remains unchanged even after he regains clarity; he initially declines Li Yuan’s offer of a new outfit 3 6.
• Loose, disheveled hair: Before grooming, his tangled hair partly obscures his face 2 3 6.
• Wooden sword on his back: A battered, unevenly pitted sword is part of his usual appearance 3.
• Contrasting expressions: During madness, he often drools, laughs wildly, and wears a foolish grin. When lucid, his expression becomes calm and warm 1 4 38.
• Unusual cleanliness: Li Yuan notices that he never smells foul, although she has never seen him bathe 6.

Personality

During his mad periods, Chen Xun is impulsive, noisy, and difficult to communicate with. He may pretend to be a sapling, perform sudden somersaults, or demand an apology only to protest that he is unworthy when it is given. Eating and sleeping dominate his daily routine, though he also approaches his sweeping duties with exaggerated seriousness 3 22 23 27 34.

When lucid, he is composed, courteous, and quietly affectionate. He remains unhurried when accused of theft and reassures Old Li and Li Yuan rather than showing distress. His gratitude is practical: he hunts to repay their hospitality, leaves them a hundred gold coins, and arranges for the town lord to protect them 6 9 10 13.

His experience of repeated farewells makes him emotionally restrained, but not indifferent. He values the warmth of ordinary life and criticizes cultivators who consider themselves above mortals. He argues that experiencing mortal lives closely is necessary to pursue the Great Dao 4 13 20.

His gentleness has limits. After three hunters falsely accuse him and continue to regard him with hatred, he decides against sparing them and visits their prison cells at night 10 11 12.

Abilities & Skills

Immortality

Chen Xun explicitly knows that he lives forever and cannot die 4.

• He has survived long enough to lose count of his madness cycles and outlive numerous companions 4.
• Immortality does not protect him from the recurring loss of lucidity 4.

Cultivation and Physical Power

His exact cultivation realm is not established in the supplied chapters. Chu Ningshang identifies him as an extraordinarily powerful cultivator, while You Sha and his followers suspect the Spirit Transformation Stage after witnessing his abilities 33 40.

• Strength: His grip prevents Zhao Ting from moving his wrist and leaves it painfully reddened 27.
• Speed and precision: He moves behind two attacking guards and knocks them unconscious with knife-hand strikes 29.
• Resistance to restraint: Chu Ningshang’s Spirit-Binding Lock shatters before reaching him, causing her injury through backlash 33 34.

Movement Arts

• His figure fades from his room before he appears inside the government jail by a method the prisoners recognize as an immortal art 11 12.
• While traveling outside the Heavenly Dao Sect, each apparently leisurely step carries him a thousand li 39.

Perception and Formation Breaking

• He senses Nangong Yao’s arrival before the latter announces himself 7.
• He sees and hears demonic cultivators through a concealment formation 40.
• A light poke destroys the formation’s barrier and causes its flags to explode 40.
• He recognizes Ji Mengli despite her changed clothing and voice, and identifies her as a woman beneath her male disguise 41.

Sword Control

His wooden sword flies from its sheath and kills hundreds of demonic cultivators in a single attack, then immediately returns to his back 40.

• The attack decapitates You Sha and his followers simultaneously 40.
• Chen Xun attributes the killing to the sword’s refusal to spare them; the passage does not explain the extent of its independent will 40.

Flame Arts

Chen Xun manifests three small flames in his palm and sends them toward Da Wei, Xu Qiang, and Skinny Monkey inside their prison cells. The three prisoners subsequently die 12 13.

Dao Teaching

Even during madness, his remarks inspire Nangong Yao and the Heavenly Dao Sect’s core elders 34 36.

• Nangong Yao feels the barrier to his next cultivation realm begin to loosen after listening to him 34.
• The elders gain clarity and firmer Dao hearts, eventually addressing him as Teacher 36.

Music and Wine Appreciation

• His performance on a stringed instrument attracts birds and butterflies; Nangong Yao follows the music and praises it as celestial 7.
• He identifies the rich, pure aroma, numerous ingredients, and aging of Hundred Flavors of the Mortal World before purchasing it 40.
• He considers a hundred low-grade spirit stones a bargain for that wine 41.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Wooden sword — Carried daily in a cloth sheath on his back. He lets Li Yuan inspect it when asked, but stops Zhao Ting from touching it without permission 3 27 40.
• Wordless Book — A completely blank book that he reads with intense enthusiasm, including while wandering through the sect 1 29 33.
• Healing pills — Gives Nangong Yao two outwardly ordinary pills. One rapidly heals Nangong Yao’s grave injuries; the other is used to heal Liu Xuan Yin 48 49.
• Hundred Flavors of the Mortal World — Wine bought from the disguised Ji Mengli and later shared with her beside a lake 40 41.
• Travel bundle — Contains clothes Li Yuan insists on buying for him before his departure from Little River Town 13.

Relationships

• Old Li — Host and family-like elder. Takes him in despite the expense of feeding him; Chen Xun protects him from a black tiger and leaves him a hundred gold coins 3 4 6 13.
• Li Yuan — Old Li’s granddaughter and Chen Xun’s affectionate companion. Advocates taking him in, helps groom him, and is deeply reluctant to see him leave 3 6 11 13.
• Zhao Ting — Friend met in Clear Sky City. Secures Chen Xun’s place at the Heavenly Dao Sect, seeks help for his condition, and continues visiting despite their apparent difference in status 14 19 27 34 38.
• Nangong Yao — Heavenly Dao Sect master and informal student. Recognizes Chen Xun as a senior, listens to his teachings, and receives his healing pills 7 32 34 48.
• Chu Ningshang — Zhao Ting’s master. Initially suspects Chen Xun of infiltrating the sect, but Nangong Yao orders her not to obstruct him 33 34.
• Qian Laifu — Steward responsible for his lodging and work. Becomes anxiously attentive after learning how highly Nangong Yao regards him 24 32 34.
• Ji Mengli — Wine seller and Great Evolution Demonic Sect holy maiden. Intervenes against his would-be robbers, then confides her hatred of her sect’s cruelty 41 42.
• Ji Bochang — Little River Town lord. Clears the false accusation against him, buys his tiger, and agrees to protect Old Li’s household 9 10.
• Yu Zheng — Youth who travels to the Heavenly Dao Sect alongside him and reconnects with him three years later 19 22 49.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Little River Town

After Old Li buys him eleven bowls of noodles, Chen Xun follows him home. Li Yuan persuades her grandfather to shelter him, and over the following months his wild behavior gradually diminishes. During a firewood-gathering trip, he places himself between Old Li and a black tiger, transforming Old Li’s lingering resentment into affection 1 3 4 5.

Once lucid, Chen Xun hunts to repay the household’s kindness. Three hunters claim that his black tiger belongs to them, but his question about its fatal wound exposes their lie: the carcass has no wounds. He sells it to Ji Bochang for a hundred gold coins and asks the town lord to watch over Old Li’s family 6 9 10.

He later visits the imprisoned accusers and sends flames toward them. Their deaths remain unexplained to the authorities. Before leaving town, he ensures that Old Li keeps the money pouch, then disappears into the hills 11 12 13.

Arrival at the Heavenly Dao Sect

Chen Xun travels south for a month and meets Zhao Ting in Clear Sky City. His clarity fades again shortly afterward. When Zhao Ting is accepted by the Heavenly Dao Sect, he refuses to abandon his confused friend and persuades Shen He to offer Chen Xun a sweeping job 14 15 18 19.

Assigned a thatched hut on Servant Disciple Peak, Chen Xun disrupts the training grounds and causes a dining-hall dispute by eating an astonishing quantity of breakfast. Once his appetite is demonstrated publicly, Qian Laifu orders extra food prepared for him 22 23 24 27 28.

Recognition as Teacher

Annoyed by bells interrupting his sleep, Chen Xun climbs Heaven Mystic Peak during Zhao Ting’s investiture ceremony, knocking out the guards who block him. Despite the resulting uproar, the sect leadership lets the incident pass. Nangong Yao subsequently visits him and treats him as a revered senior 29 30 31 32.

Chu Ningshang’s failed attempt to restrain him further reveals his power. Over the next three years, Nangong Yao and the core elders regularly seek insight from his seemingly nonsensical remarks, while Chen Xun continues eating, sweeping, and sleeping in his hut 33 34 36.

Demonic Sect Conflict

At the end of another three-year cycle, Chen Xun regains clarity. Outside the sect, he exposes You Sha’s concealed ambush force and destroys its formation; his wooden sword then kills the hundreds of demonic cultivators gathered there 38 39 40.

After meeting and drinking with Ji Mengli, he returns to the Heavenly Dao Sect. Zhao Ting enthusiastically recounts the mysterious senior’s victory without realizing Chen Xun was responsible 41 42 45.

Following the disaster at White Fox Ridge, Chen Xun advises the wounded Nangong Yao not to march on the Great Evolution Demonic Sect, predicting that Ji Wucang will attack first. His two pills restore Nangong Yao and Liu Xuan Yin as the sect prepares for war 48 49.

Notable Quotes

“I'm nothing but rootless duckweed. Wherever I drift, that's where I'll stay.” 11

“You can't shut yourself away from mortals if you want to attain the Great Dao. On the contrary, you ought to experience their lives closely.” 20

“I wasn't going to hold it against you, but my sword wouldn't spare you. Nothing I could do about that.” 40