Chen Changsheng

Biodata

Power Progression

• Cultivation discrepancy: Chapter 47 calls him a sixth-level Core Formation cultivator despite the ninth-level reveal in Chapter 45; no regression is described 45 47.
• Puppet strength is separate from his own realm: His formations raise Core Formation puppets to pseudo-Nascent Soul strength, while his tournament puppets are described as comparable to Nascent Soul cultivators. Later upgrades bring ordinary puppets to approximately eighth-level Nascent Soul before the Array Ancestor’s enhancement enables Soul Departure-equivalent puppets 15 46 47 208 292.
• Incarnation and realm distinction: Possessing the Array Ancestor’s Immortal Remains does not make Chen’s original body an Immortal. At that point, he remains a Nascent Soul cultivator whose Divine Soul has not transformed into a True Spirit or been anchored to the Dao 287 288 289.

Initial Status Panel

Background / History

Chen Changsheng survived for more than a decade after an apocalypse descended in his previous life, eventually dying with his cultivation extinguished. Rebirth gave him another chance to preserve what he had lost, reach the world’s pinnacle, and avoid the reckless decisions that could endanger his survival 6.

In that future, Zu Yuan became the Devil Race Sacred Emperor and one of the apocalypse’s principal perpetrators. He killed everyone Chen knew, including Ouyang, who had repeatedly protected Chen and was still urging him to escape at the moment of his death. Chen’s obsession with revenge drove him into cultivation deviation, but he remained powerless against Zu Yuan, who had become an Immortal 18.

His memories also include humanity’s resistance: Xiao Feng, his former idol, held the Devil Race at bay for ten years as Humanity’s Great Emperor. After rebirth, Chen discovers that both Xiao Feng and the future Ten Thousand Demons Empress, Hu Tutu, have become his junior disciples 6 34.

Later revelations establish that Chen reached Tribulation Transcendence in his previous life. After fleeing the Azure Cloud Sect, he wandered through a world of cruelty before Xu An guided him to the Myriad Laws Sect. He spent ten years deciphering its Runic Gate, survived the Xiantian Talisman’s Endless Illusion, and received the Array Ancestor’s complete Immortal inheritance. That inheritance also exposed him to a prolonged struggle against the Immortal’s True Spirit for possession of his body 79 85 283 286 287.

Hu Yun was his master in both lives. Chen remembers Hu Yun sacrificing himself against the invading Devil Race to save him and Ouyang, a memory that makes his master one of the people he most desperately wants to protect 168.

His rebirth preserves his previous-life Divine Soul and mutates it so that severed fragments can grow into complete Divine Souls. His apparent gifts therefore combine future knowledge, inherited expertise, and an abnormal soul rather than simply reflecting his current cultivation realm 79 191 288.

• Previous-life duration discrepancy: The early account describes survival for more than a decade after the apocalypse, while Chen’s later first-person account says he endured it for over a hundred years and was among its last survivors 6 459.
• Hidden burden of rebirth: His Divine Soul carries the resentment of beings who died in the future. This burden distorts his understanding of himself and eventually becomes central to the future wronged souls finding a home among the Wu Clan 655 685.
• Limits of disclosure: Chen later states that Heaven and Earth seem aware of his identity and prevent him from telling Ouyang that he has been reborn, although Ouyang already recognizes his situation 77 459.

Appearance

Chen’s true face is exquisitely handsome, matching his Charm score of nine, but his composed smile can carry a chilling menace 4 45.

• Clothing: Purple Daoist robes embroidered with azure clouds in white thread 45.
• Mask: Carries a silver-white mask and fights masked during the Sect Grand Competition 45 46.
• Puppet doubles: Creates replicas identical to himself; their convincing appearance makes his real body difficult to distinguish 4 15.
• Domestic attire: Wears an apron while cooking on Little Mountain Peak 34.
• Unmasked departure: Leaves the Azure Cloud Sect openly showing his handsome, slightly gloomy face and smiling at fellow disciples. Their surprise reflects his established reputation as a masked, mysterious, and unsmiling Holy Son 460.
• Zu Yuan’s body: After changing bodies, bears Zu Yuan’s face; later descriptions emphasize visible demon patterns, scarlet eyes, and an eerily beautiful appearance 470 484 643.
• Ancestral Shaman appearance: The Twelve Demon Gods’ powers and Ouyang’s power of life reshape Zu Yuan’s body into Chen’s own. He subsequently stands on the Twelfth Grade Black Lotus in purple-and-gold robes, with soft, feminine features and an expression of compassion 684 685.

Personality

Chen is exceptionally cautious, habitually retreating behind others and using puppets even within his own cultivation grounds. Ouyang’s system describes him as having “severe persecutory delusions,” while his preparations include numerous concealed trump cards and extensive alterations beneath Little Mountain Peak 4 15 27.

His caution is especially apparent in how he calculates risk. When he gives himself an optimistic forty-percent chance in the Sect Grand Competition, he means successfully killing Zu Yuan despite intervention by the elders and Sect Master and several possible enemy power-ups—not merely winning a match 27.

Beneath that defensive behavior, Chen is fiercely loyal to Ouyang and determined to protect his fellow disciples. His hatred of Zu Yuan briefly overwhelms his judgment, but Ouyang’s command restores enough clarity for him to stop attacking. He later acknowledges that killing a fellow disciple without exposing his identity could have destroyed his own future 6 16 18.

He also refuses to treat another person’s life as an acceptable experiment. Chen initially rejects the proposed divine-beast transformation for Xiao Feng because failure would be irreversible, agreeing to reconsider only after Xiao Feng’s plea and Bai Feiyu’s explanation of an ancient precedent 35.

That concern coexists with a willingness to use extreme preventive measures. He secretly prepares possession paper figures against fellow disciples, excluding only Ouyang, and even considers killing Ling Feng merely to remove a possible danger. His use of a Divine Soul art on Hu Tutu exposes the harm that his fixation on future threats can cause in the present. Ouyang’s reprimand forces him to confront the difference between protecting someone and violating a fellow disciple’s trust 73 79 80 179.

His previous life leaves him with profound distrust, a hidden sense of inferiority, and fear of losing everything again. Even after becoming far stronger than his former self, he initially approaches the Great Calamity with the mentality of an ordinary survivor. Public gratitude from Azure Cloud disciples begins to broaden his ambitions from safeguarding Little Mountain Peak to accepting responsibility for the world 307 459.

Chen is also meticulous and domestically attentive. Before leaving for the Myriad Laws Sect, he washes and mends clothes, stores six months of food, arranges Hu Tutu’s care, and leaves Ouyang a detailed household ledger. The same record-keeping reveals a petty streak: he remembers offenses and has used meals to punish Leng Qingsong for a rude remark 241.

His stubbornness remains a defining trait even after attaining sagehood. Once he recovers his memories of Ouyang, guilt over a million years of forgetting makes him both desperate to reunite and afraid to approach. Later, he begins considering the wider consequences of karmic intervention rather than trying to sever every unwanted bond by force, and eventually accepts the modest act of teaching Ouyang’s reincarnation to cook 725 755 762 765.

Abilities & Skills

Living Puppet Technique

Chen’s exclusive skill produces lifelike doubles and combat puppets far stronger than his own cultivation would ordinarily suggest. Later passages identify his soul-based method as the Divine Soul Puppet Technique, learned from Xu An in his previous life 4 15 46 279.

• Convincing substitutes: His doubles can fool even Ouyang’s system; Ling Feng senses the attacking replicas as living, breathing people 4 15.
• Mass control: Commands hundreds of puppets simultaneously, overwhelming the tournament’s other 399 contestants 46 47.
• Coordinated combat: Puppets unleash Sword Qi, surround targets, and form killing arrays 16 47.
• Regeneration: Divine-soul puppets reconstruct themselves after being shattered. They can theoretically revive indefinitely while their divine souls remain unharmed 48.
• Confirmed soul source: His fellow disciples initially suspect that the puppets use fragments of his own soul. Later passages confirm that he tears their cores from his Divine Soul, with his mutation allowing those fragments to grow into complete Divine Souls 36 48 208 288.
• Remote presence: Can converse and contemplate treasures through a false body while his true body remains in Little Mountain Peak’s secret chamber 73 188.
• Shared energy reserves: Draws True Essence from his numerous puppets to sustain formation work that repeatedly exhausts his own supply 213.
• Ordinary puppet limit: Puppets lacking subjective consciousness cannot independently comprehend Dao Resonance, leaving their strength capped around eighth-level Nascent Soul despite repeated upgrades 208.
• Array Ancestor enhancement: His Immortal incarnation supplies formation Dao Resonance to the puppets, raising them to Soul Departure-equivalent strength 289 292.
• Soul recall: Can withdraw the Divine Soul fragments from all his puppets, rendering their bodies inert while concentrating his soul for a major undertaking 283.

Formation Mastery

With a formation aptitude of 10+1, Chen manages Little Mountain Peak’s defensive and concealment formations 4 15.

• Conceals the heavenly phenomena caused by Bai Feiyu’s breakthrough, though the subsequent sword duel pushes his formations close to their limit 7.
• Activates mountain-wide formations that generate wind, fire, thunder, lightning, rain, and sword attacks while empowering his puppet doubles 15.
• Uses a formation to conceal the Heavenly Pivot and mask every aura on the mountain during Xiao Feng’s transformation 38.
• Limit: The Heavenly Dao eventually detects the transformation and shatters his concealment formation 38.
• Inherited expertise: His formations derive from the Myriad Laws Sect’s arts and the Array Ancestor’s complete Immortal inheritance, which he mastered in his previous life 279 283 287.
• Human-Formation Unity: Creates formations directly in his palm and assimilates a portion of Zhang Zixiang’s formation into his own control while still in Nascent Soul 280 281.
• Xiantian Three Talents Formation: Deploys an innate Three Talents Formation personally and through hundreds of puppets. His proficiency makes Zhang Zixiang unwilling to claim certain superiority over him in formations alone 282.
• Runic Gate access: Enters the Myriad Laws Sect’s Runic Gate without triggering its formations, drawing on knowledge acquired during his previous life 283 287.
• Sever Heaven and Earth: A formation he spent years establishing to protect the Azure Cloud Sect from catastrophe. It can kill a careless Tribulation Transcendence expert, absorb attacks, and return them with twice the force. Chen can act as its formation spirit to transform it from an acquired formation into a Xiantian one 292.
• Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams: Envelops opposing demon cultivators and Leng Qingsong in a restraining golden formation. Leng Qingsong subsequently breaks free of its control while remaining within its area 350.
• Layered deployment: Rapidly surrounds his companions with enhancement, defensive, and slaughter formations when he recognizes Devil Race demonic qi 423.
• Zhou Tian Grand Array: Manifests beneath him during his confrontation with the other Supreme Sages before the Underworld 726.

Divine-Soul Manipulation

Chen understands divine-soul techniques normally associated with Soul Departure or higher despite initially remaining in Core Formation. His rebirth preserves a Tribulation Transcendence Divine Soul and grants it an unprecedented capacity for division and regeneration 36 48 79.

• Extraction and reconstruction: Draws Xiao Feng’s soul out of his body, tears it apart, and reshapes two fragments into miniature versions of Xiao Feng 38.
• Soul transfer: Places those fragments into the Azure Dragon and Vermilion Bird before their consciousnesses fully awaken, helping suppress their resistance 38.
• Tracking imprint: Marks Zu Yuan when three doubles are destroyed, allowing him to locate his enemy even if he flees far away 18.
• Soul-infused arrow: Pours his Divine Soul into an arrow that attacks Zu Yuan’s soul as well as his flesh. Chen designs it so that blocking the physical attack will not stop the soul assault 49.
• Unlimited soul growth: A fragment severed from his original Divine Soul can grow into a complete Divine Soul. He consequently possesses thousands upon thousands of souls rather than the single Divine Soul ordinarily possible for one being 79 288.
• Distributed souls: Houses Divine Souls within his 365 major acupoints and uses them to support the recovery of severed Nascent Souls 288.
• Immortal True Spirit consumption: Uses his countless Divine Souls and a prepared formation trap to devour the Array Ancestor’s True Spirit, resolving a confrontation that had tormented him throughout his previous life 283 286 287.
• Nascent Soul division: Recreates Hu Yun’s method of separating his unusual Nascent Soul, placing one portion in the Array Ancestor’s Immortal Remains. His original body is left with one ordinary Nascent Soul 168 188 288.
• Initial possession limitation: Despite his extraordinary soul, Chen initially cannot perform the Soul Seizure he associates with Zu Yuan. His later animation of the Immortal Remains uses a divided Nascent Soul and a body whose original True Spirit has already been destroyed 79 287 288.
• Dao Resonance limitation: His mutated Divine Soul can sense the Dao but cannot retain Dao Resonance in his body unaided. His Array Ancestor incarnation offers borrowed power through belief as a workaround 289.

Rituals, Talismans, and Divine-Beast Preparation

Chen combines painting, ritual implements, and formation materials to help restore Xiao Feng’s ability to cultivate 35 37 38.

• Prepares the Five Directional Divine Beasts: Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, and Qilin 35 36.
• Grinds spirit stone essence into thousands of fragments, embeds them deep in Xiao Feng’s flesh, and activates their primordial qi 37.
• Conducts soul-extraction rites using a Peachwood Sword, yellow talismans, incantations, and blood essence 38.
• Provides Ouyang with the Eye-Painting Brush and instructs him to awaken the Azure Dragon and Vermilion Bird simultaneously 38.
• Supplies a Speed Talisman that Ouyang uses to return to Little Mountain Peak 3.
• Helps prepare Hu Tutu’s medicinal body-tempering bath with spirit herbs and a trace of Hu Yan’s essence blood; later manages her daily medicinal baths 92 241.
• Creates an extensive yellow-talisman summoning formation that develops traces of Dao Resonance and draws a response from a severed head 213.
• Keeps Paper Substitutes ready even when visiting his master in his true body; these provide an emergency means of leaving Little Mountain Peak or the Azure Cloud Sect instantly 168.
• Survives Purple Firmament Divine Thunder through a substitution ruse, emerging unharmed after an apparent body is destroyed 183.

Curses and Possession Puppetry

Chen’s preventive preparations include paper figures linked to their targets through bodily materials. These arts become a source of conflict with both his fellow disciples and the sect’s leadership 73 293.

• Possession Puppetry Technique: Controls another person’s actions through a paper figure containing their hair. Chen believes he can secretly kill Azure Cloud disciples below Soul Departure and wound stronger cultivators before a battle begins 73.
• Scope of precautions: Keeps paper figures even for Little Mountain Peak’s fellow disciples, with Ouyang the sole exception 73.
• Nail-Head Seven Arrows Book: Secretly fashions a paper figure resembling Ling Feng and employs this deadly curse as a precaution before traveling to Sword-Forging City 108.
• Material collection: Secretly retains hairs from Hu Yan and takes scraps from Zhao Qiansun’s palm during a handshake 92 399.
• Sage-Version Nail-Head Seven Arrows Book: Displays cursed paper figures against Leng Qingsong and Bai Feiyu, forcing both Supreme Sages to hesitate before the Underworld 727.
• Protective conversion: Ouyang later returns Chen’s hexes to Azure Cloud disciples as life-saving treasures, turning a source of suspicion into gratitude toward their Holy Son 307 460.

Future Knowledge and Tactical Planning

His previous-life memories let him recognize future allies, anticipate enemies’ methods, and prepare specialized counters 6 34 47.

• Counters Zu Yuan’s Myriad Transformations Demon Image by recording every entrant’s appearance and eliminating contestants one by one when direct soul scanning fails 47.
• Keeps Zu Yuan surrounded while dealing with Hui Zhi, refusing to assume that the Devil Race Sacred Son lacks escape methods 48.
• Aims his final arrow at the right side of Zu Yuan’s chest, exploiting knowledge of his concealed heart position 49.
• Swordsmanship weakness: Bai Feiyu calls his Sword Dao terrible and offers instruction; Leng Qingsong’s disagreement interrupts the lesson 27.
• Recognizes Leng Qingsong as the future inheritor of Li Taibai’s Sword Immortal legacy, but admits that he never personally entered that secret realm in his previous life and does not know its trials 87 103.
• Infers the Array Ancestor’s true name, Zhen, from an Immortal’s mistaken identification of his summoning art, enabling a prepared ambush during his return to the Xiantian Talisman 287.
• Uses Little Bie San’s repeated tapping against his chest as an external reminder that he is inside the Endless Illusion 286.
• Records the history of Great Tang’s uprising and fall and Great Zhou’s founding in a substantial volume for Ouyang, while withholding the exact extent of his own involvement 407.

Incarnations and Borrowed Immortal Power

Chen’s independent incarnations differ from his ordinary puppets: they possess individual consciousness and cannot simply be treated as disposable remote bodies 168 288 289.

• Little Bie San: Hu Yun restores the damaged wooden monkey and grants it life with part of Chen’s Nascent Soul. The monkey identifies itself as the Great Sage Equal to Heaven 168.
• Array Ancestor incarnation: Chen animates the Array Ancestor’s Immortal Remains with a separated Nascent Soul after destroying the original True Spirit. The resulting self declares that he is both Chen Changsheng and the Array Ancestor 286 287 288.
• Connected but independent minds: Chen and the Array Ancestor are mentally connected, but Chen cannot freely inspect the incarnation’s thoughts 289.
• Belief-based power: By becoming his own incarnation’s believer, Chen can borrow the Immortal’s Dao Resonance and Power of Laws, bypassing limitations imposed by his unusual soul 289.
• Immortal movement restriction: During the Mortal World crisis, the Runic Gate’s restraints prevent the Array Ancestor from accompanying Chen’s true body there 430.
• Human Progenitor connection: Ouyang later gives the Human Progenitor’s identity to the little monkey so that Chen will have a legitimate place in the present rather than being erased or returned to the ruined future 655.

Spatial, World, and Sage Powers

• Spatial Leap: Uses repeated Spatial Leaps while at Body Integration, astonishing Xu An because the method is normally associated with Tribulation Transcendence experts 465.
• Teleportation formations: Opens a formation to return Ouyang and the others to the Azure Cloud Sect 399.
• Twelve Demon Gods’ powers: Collects and combines twelve powers within the Black Lotus. Their combined force can reshape his body and threaten the River of Time 640 641 684 686.
• Demon Realm integration: Plans to become the Demon Realm’s Heavenly Dao and permanently prevent war with the Cultivation World, accepting that doing so would erase his individual self 640.
• Death’s power: In grief over Ouyang, releases a force capable of threatening the River of Time and attempts to destroy it along with himself. A familiar breeze stops him and strips that power away 687.
• Sage perception: As a Supreme Sage, can inspect his own timeline and locate Ouyang’s approaching reincarnation across the Myriad Worlds 689 725.
• Sage arrows: Forms two arrows from his Sage fortune, the world power of the Medium Thousand Worlds behind him, and the Wu Clan’s fortune. Firing them would make him fall from sagehood and perish under Heaven and Earth’s backlash 727.
• Sage intervention: Sends the Twelve Demon Gods’ power into the shattered Three-Life Stone as the Heart Ape’s emergence approaches 706.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Great Sage puppet — A palm-sized wooden monkey that grows over ten meters tall. Two yellow talismans transform it into a stone pillar that pierces Hui Zhi’s Great Compassion Palm. Its design comes from a story Ouyang told Chen in his previous life. Hu Yun later restores it as the independently living Little Bie San 48 168.
• Peachwood Sword — Ritual implement used to direct soul extraction, transfer, and suppression 38.
• Yellow talismans — Used for formation activation, soul rituals, and empowering the Great Sage puppet 38 48.
• Longsword — Wielded during his first attack on Zu Yuan and later used for sword flight into the tournament space 16 46.
• Contestant records — Papers containing names, portraits, and identifying features, prepared to expose Zu Yuan’s disguise 47.
• Silver-white mask — Taken out before the Sect Grand Competition; remains part of his usual concealed appearance until his unmasked departure from the sect 45 430 460.
• Paper Substitutes — Emergency escape implements that he keeps ready even in apparently safe circumstances 168.
• Possession and curse paper figures — Linked to targets through hair or other collected material; used for remote control, preventive curses, and later Sage-level threats 73 108 727.
• Xiantian Talisman — The Myriad Laws Sect’s sect-guarding Dao Treasure and Chen’s former trump card. After defeating the Array Ancestor’s True Spirit, he takes it for personal protection while his incarnation remains to contemplate the Formation Great Dao 279 283 286 289.
• Array Ancestor’s Immortal Remains — An Immortal body comparable to a Dao Treasure, bearing the Formation Great Dao. Chen turns it into an independent incarnation 287 288.
• Household ledger — A massive record of Little Mountain Peak’s routines, expenses, past events, and others’ offenses, left with Ouyang before Chen’s journey 241.
• Mortal World historical record — A detailed account of Great Tang’s upheaval and Great Zhou’s establishment, supplied to Ouyang 407.
• Twelfth Grade Black Lotus — Houses the Twelve Demon Gods’ powers and becomes central to Chen’s attempt to integrate with the Demon Realm and his subsequent awakening as Ancestral Shaman 640 641 684.
• Sage bow and arrows — Used to bar Leng Qingsong and Bai Feiyu from approaching Ouyang; the arrows embody resources whose expenditure would destroy Chen himself 726 727.

Relationships

• Ouyang — Eldest senior brother and the person Chen vows to protect with his life. Ouyang sheltered him during the previous apocalypse and, after rebirth, restrains his revenge, treats his exhaustion, and supports his tournament preparations. He repeatedly assures Chen that Little Mountain Peak remains his home, supports his choices without demanding disclosure, and ultimately preserves a place for him in the present. After Ouyang vanishes from memory, Chen forgets him for a million years; recovering those memories brings overwhelming guilt. He later approaches Ouyang’s reincarnation and begins teaching the boy to cook 6 18 46 183 220 655 687 725 762 765.
• Leng Qingsong — Second senior brother. Disarms Chen on Ouyang’s orders, then attempts to pursue Zu Yuan because Chen’s oath places his life at risk. Also guards Xiao Feng’s transformation. Chen sometimes envies Leng’s closeness to Ouyang, spars and argues with him, and reassures him after the sword spirit’s killings. The rewritten timeline makes Leng their eldest senior brother, a position Chen later repudiates when Ouyang’s memory returns. Their confrontation before the Underworld ends with both kneeling after Daji intervenes 16 18 38 87 141 437 687 726 728.
• Bai Feiyu — Fourth junior brother. Helps restrain Chen, offers sword instruction, and provides the ancient body-cultivation precedent needed for Xiao Feng’s transformation. Later becomes one of the three Supreme Sages alongside Chen and Leng Qingsong; Chen initially bars both from seeing Ouyang before lowering his weapons under Daji’s rebuke 16 27 35 689 727 728.
• Hu Tutu / Daji — Junior sister whom Chen recognizes as the future Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox and Ten Thousand Demons Empress. He hopes to establish a good relationship early and warns her to shelter from the transformation’s thunder. His later use of a Divine Soul art on her causes a serious breach of trust, though he subsequently helps with her medicinal baths and reassures her of his affection. As Daji, she rebukes and slaps him for threatening their fellow disciples, prompting him to lower his bow and kneel beside them 6 38 79 80 92 241 727 728.
• Xiao Feng — Junior brother and Chen’s previous-life idol. Chen helps create the divine-beast cultivation path that will support Humanity’s Great Emperor 34 35 40.
• Zu Yuan — Mortal enemy responsible for Ouyang’s death and much of Chen’s previous-life suffering. Chen swears a Heavenly Dao Oath to kill him and fulfills it during the Sect Grand Competition. He later reconstructs and inhabits Zu Yuan’s body to take control of the catastrophe’s source. Zu Yuan’s remnant soul confronts him in their shared Consciousness Space and raises the possibility that Chen himself is responsible for the Great Calamity 16 18 49 188 470 603.
• Ling Feng — Opposes Chen to protect Zu Yuan. After Zu Yuan’s death, he addresses Chen coldly as Holy Son and asks permission to bury his junior brother. They later contemplate the Azure Cloud Secret Treasure together and travel to the Tang State, but Chen remains suspicious and secretly curses him as a precaution. Chen briefly takes encouragement from Ling’s professed ambition to create an equal world, while continuing to suspect manipulation 15 49 73 108 155 183 191.
• Dongxu Zi — Sect Master who recognizes Chen as a Bearer of Great Fortune and later appoints him Holy Son after Zu Yuan’s exposure and death. Chen confronts the sect over Ouyang’s disappearance and rejects a hundred-year wait, setting a ten-year deadline. Ouyang withholds from Chen the truth of Dongxu Zi’s role in orchestrating the Dao-Demon War. Before leaving the sect, Chen requests an audience with Dongxu Zi but receives no answer 20 49 293 430 460.
• Hui Zhi — Tournament opponent whose future crimes Chen remembers. Chen defeats him with the Great Sage puppet rather than becoming further entangled with Buddhism 48.
• Hu Yun — Master in both lives and, after Ouyang, one of the people closest to Chen. Restores the wooden monkey with part of Chen’s Nascent Soul and warns that changed causes produce changed consequences. Chen later learns that Hu Yun has died dispersing his Dao to help Ouyang reach Foundation Establishment and mourns him with tears and kowtows 168 639.
• Hu Yan — Hu Tutu’s Dao Protector. Condemns Chen for using a Divine Soul technique on her and throws him out. Chen later apologizes, though he secretly retains some of the fox’s hairs 79 80 92.
• Little Bie San — Independent monkey incarnation created from his damaged Great Sage puppet and a portion of his Nascent Soul. Helps preserve Chen’s awareness during the Endless Illusion, worries over his departure, and later vows to retrieve him from the Devil Race even after Ouyang chooses not to interfere 168 286 460 510.
• Xu An — Myriad Laws Sect cultivator who taught Chen the Divine Soul Puppet Technique in his previous life. In the present, Chen returns that guidance without revealing its source, leaving Xu An impressed and grateful 279 283.
• Zhang Zixiang — Myriad Laws Sect Master who initially challenges Chen over his knowledge of the sect’s secret arts. After witnessing his formation mastery, decides that Chen should become the sect’s future master, despite Chen’s lack of interest 279 280 282.
• Array Ancestor / Zhen — Immortal whose inheritance advanced Chen in his previous life while his True Spirit fought to possess Chen’s body. Chen destroys that spirit after rebirth and animates the Immortal Remains as another independent self, creating an ally whose belief-based power overcomes his own Dao limitations 283 286 287 288 289.
• Chongming — Former Demon Venerable whose assistance helps Chen collect the Twelve Demon Gods’ powers. After attaining the Dao, Chen acknowledges the resulting karmic debt 704.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Life on Little Mountain Peak

Chen supplies talismans, maintains the peak’s formations, and prepares meals while frequently substituting puppets for himself. His domestic mishaps expose that habit: after burning the millet porridge, he removes a scorched finger and replaces it 3 4 6.

His household responsibilities later expand into clothing repair, food storage, medicinal-bath preparation, and exhaustive record-keeping. Before traveling in his true body to the Myriad Laws Sect, he leaves Ouyang supplies and instructions intended to keep the peak functioning during an absence of at least two months 241.

First Attempt to Kill Zu Yuan

Upon seeing Zu Yuan, Chen activates every protective formation and deploys his puppet army, abandoning his usual restraint. Ouyang stops the assault before Ling Feng and Zu Yuan are killed. Chen then swears to kill Zu Yuan within ten years or be slain by humans, gods, demons, and devils; thunder and lightning confirm the Heavenly Dao’s acceptance 15 16 17.

After collapsing from exhausted true essence and anger-induced injury, Chen awakens from a nightmare of Ouyang’s death. He reveals his tracking imprint and asks whether killing Zu Yuan could avert the apocalypse. Ouyang rejects the idea that removing one person can prevent an inevitable catastrophe 18.

Creating Xiao Feng’s Cultivation Path

Chen recognizes Xiao Feng as humanity’s future defender and reluctantly joins the attempt to rebuild his cultivation through divine beasts. His formation work and soul manipulation help Xiao Feng fuse with the Azure Dragon and Vermilion Bird, though Ouyang must intervene when the Heavenly Dao unleashes punishment. Success leaves Chen elated that the future Great Emperor’s path has taken shape through his own hands 34 35 38 39 40.

Sect Grand Competition and Holy Son Appointment

Chen enters the Mustard Seed Space with hundreds of puppets, systematically removes the other competitors, defeats Hui Zhi, and forces Zu Yuan to reveal his Devil Race identity. His soul-infused arrow kills Zu Yuan’s Nascent Soul, fulfilling the oath and ending the urgency that had haunted him 46 47 48 49.

Dongxu Zi declares him the competition’s winner and Azure Cloud Sect Holy Son, stating that standing before Chen is equivalent to standing before the Sect Master. The appointment publicly distances the sect from its exposed devil disciple. Chen does not want the position—held by Zu Yuan in his previous life—and wonders whether the worldline has diverged. The tournament ends without a separate appointment ceremony 49 50.

Preventive Schemes and the Harm to Hu Tutu

While a puppet contemplates the Azure Cloud Secret Treasure beside Ling Feng, Chen’s true body remains hidden on Little Mountain Peak. His suspicion extends to maintaining hair-linked paper figures capable of controlling or harming fellow disciples. Ouyang warns that his fixation on events that have not yet occurred could become a heart demon 73 77.

Alarmed by news of a possession technique resembling Zu Yuan’s, Chen visits Hu Tutu at night and uses a Divine Soul art on her. Hu Yan intervenes and drives him away. After a night of self-questioning, Chen is slapped and reprimanded by Ouyang, who insists that fear for the future does not justify harming a fellow disciple 79 80.

Chen later apologizes to Hu Yan and helps prepare Hu Tutu’s medicinal bath. His intended apology to Tutu remains unspoken when she declares that she likes him best and he answers that he likes her best as well 92.

Sword Sect Journey and the Plan to Become Zu Yuan

Chen accompanies Ouyang and the others toward the Sword Sect’s Immortal Secret Realm, secretly applying the Nail-Head Seven Arrows Book to Ling Feng before their departure. His memories identify Leng Qingsong as the future inheritor of Li Taibai’s legacy, though he lacks firsthand knowledge of the realm’s trials 87 103 108.

After Ouyang frees Leng Qingsong from a possessing sword spirit, Chen counts 108 dead cultivators and argues that their abandonment of their own Dao to pursue another’s inheritance made their deaths deserved. His explanation eases Leng Qingsong’s guilt 141.

Hu Yun’s restoration of the wooden monkey reveals a way to create independent life from a divided Nascent Soul. When Chen concludes that killing Zu Yuan has not eliminated the approaching catastrophe, he considers rebuilding Zu Yuan’s body and animating it with another portion of himself: if he cannot stop the catastrophe from arriving, he will become the one expected to unleash it 168 188.

Chen survives a Heavenly Tribulation through a ruse and seeks Ouyang’s support. Later, in the Sea of Flowers, he fears that becoming Zu Yuan will force him to inherit disastrous karma and commit an enormous wrong. Ouyang assures him that he will remain Changsheng and promises to take him home even if the world condemns him 183 220.

Myriad Laws Sect and Immortal Slaying

Chen travels to the Myriad Laws Sect in his true body to reclaim the Xiantian Talisman and recover his greatest trump card. Zhang Zixiang initially challenges his knowledge of the sect’s secret arts, but Chen invokes his Azure Cloud affiliation and then demonstrates Human-Formation Unity. His formation prowess convinces Zhang and the elders that he should become their future sect master, a plan they pursue without his enthusiasm 278 279 280 281 282.

After returning Xu An’s previous-life instruction in the Divine Soul Puppet Technique, Chen enters the Runic Gate and recalls every puppet’s soul fragment. The Endless Illusion reconstructs a version of Little Mountain Peak in which Ouyang becomes Holy Son. Knowing that escape requires killing the illusion’s Ouyang, Chen strikes him down and endures imprisonment, torture, and repeated forced reenactments of the killing 283 284 285 287.

Little Bie San’s tapping keeps him aware of the illusion despite its emotional assault. Chen refuses to surrender to the false world, escapes, and springs a decade-long trap against the Array Ancestor’s True Spirit. His countless Divine Souls devour the Immortal, ending the struggle that had plagued his previous life 286 287.

Chen then divides his remaining unusual Nascent Soul and places one portion in the Array Ancestor’s Immortal Remains. The resulting incarnation is both another Chen Changsheng and the Array Ancestor. It proposes that Chen become its believer to borrow formation Dao power, overcoming the original body’s inability to retain Dao Resonance. Chen takes the Xiantian Talisman and prepares to return home 288 289 290.

Confronting the Sect and Accepting Responsibility

Ouyang’s absence in the Nine Hells drives Chen to deploy Sever Heaven and Earth, a formation originally prepared to defend the Azure Cloud Sect, alongside Soul Departure-equivalent puppets. Rather than wait a century for Ouyang, he gives Dongxu Zi ten years before he will overturn the realm to find his senior brother 292 293.

Peak masters demand his execution for threatening the sect through formations and curses. Chen dismisses the formation, calls his paper figures harmless prayers for blessings, and is surrounded as Chunyang Zi draws his sword. Leng Qingsong’s emergence from seclusion interrupts the confrontation 293.

After Ouyang returns and recasts the hexes as protective treasures, the disciples thank Chen sincerely. He pledges to live and die with the Azure Cloud Sect. Their gratitude awakens a broader sense of responsibility, and Ouyang and Leng Qingsong physically and emotionally support him as he considers saving the world rather than merely surviving its destruction 307.

Mortal World Crisis and Departure

Chen monitors the Mortal World’s political transformations and gives Ouyang a detailed history of Great Tang and Great Zhou. As events involving Chang Xiaoyue, Ling Feng, and the Devil Race Seal unfold, he remains unaware of the full schemes behind the Dao-Demon War 407 408 430.

The appearance of Devil Race demonic qi triggers memories of the apocalypse. Chen deploys layered formations and sends his true body toward the crisis, intending to intervene more decisively than his restrained puppet can. Ouyang threatens to sever their senior-junior relationship unless he returns, forcing Chen to turn back. He then enters a secret chamber containing Zu Yuan’s cross-legged corpse and resolves to enact his second plan 423 430.

After reflecting on the fear that has governed his rebirth, Chen puts Little Bie San to sleep and leaves Little Mountain Peak. He walks openly through the sect without his mask, exchanges greetings, unsuccessfully requests an audience with Dongxu Zi, and departs alone. His subsequent journey includes carefree acts he had denied himself since rebirth, though Ouyang’s absence diminishes their pleasure 459 460 461.

Taking Zu Yuan’s Body and Entering the Devil Race

Chen exchanges his original body for Zu Yuan’s, taking his own life at the site he has prepared. Later, he returns there to bury his purple robe and bloodstained blade in an unmarked mound, acknowledging the path as his own choice. While inhabiting Zu Yuan’s body, he reaches Body Integration and uses Spatial Leap 465 470 725.

Ouyang recognizes that Chen has chosen a path toward the Devil Race and declines to stop him. Knowing more of the higher-level schemes behind the apparent calamity, Ouyang hopes that Chen will find a way to save himself rather than only the world. Little Bie San refuses to remain passive and vows to bring him back 510.

Within their shared Consciousness Space, Zu Yuan’s remnant soul questions why Chen killed him and recounts Zhuyin’s claim that he was destined to save the world. The suggestion that Chen himself may have caused the Great Calamity shakes him, but his experiences with Ouyang and the others allow him to withstand the confrontation rather than surrender to his former despair 603 604 606.

Demon Realm Sacrifice and Ancestral Shaman Awakening

Reunited with Ouyang in the Demon Realm, Chen learns that Hu Yun died dispersing his Dao to help Ouyang reach Foundation Establishment. He mourns before a fire while Ouyang burns paper offerings, then questions whether his efforts to change fate have merely left the people closest to him dead or crippled 639 640.

His proposed solution is to collect the Twelve Demon Gods’ powers within the Twelfth Grade Black Lotus and merge with the Demon Realm as its Heavenly Dao. By making his will the realm’s will, he intends to prevent another Dao-Demon War permanently, even though the process would erase his individual existence 640 641.

Ouyang instead preserves a possibility for Chen to remain in the present, assigning the Human Progenitor’s identity to the little monkey. Chen later awakens from a vision of himself as the calamity, lifted by the Twelve Demon Gods’ powers and Ouyang’s power of life. Zu Yuan’s body becomes his own, the Black Lotus blooms, and the Devil Race bows before him. He renames them the Shamans and declares himself their Ancestral Shaman 655 684.

The future wronged souls within Chen’s Divine Soul finally find a home through the Wu Clan. His awakening therefore addresses not only the Devil Race’s future but also the unresolved resentment he carried from the destroyed timeline 685.

Ouyang’s Erasure and Supreme Sagehood

Overwhelmed by Ouyang’s apparent death, Chen attacks Leng Qingsong and Bai Feiyu with the Twelve Demon Gods’ powers. His grief escalates into an attempt to destroy the River of Time and himself with Death’s power. A familiar breeze halts him, but he falls into the river begging Ouyang to take him away 686 687.

The River of Time rewrites the disciples’ memories, replacing Ouyang with Hu Yun and making Leng Qingsong their eldest senior brother. Chen subsequently achieves supreme sagehood and appears to have fulfilled his purpose by helping avert the apocalypse. Nevertheless, an inexplicable pain and stubborn sense of something missing drive him to wander his own timeline repeatedly 687 689.

As a Sage, he acknowledges his debt to Chongming for assistance in gathering the Twelve Demon Gods’ powers and later intervenes at the Three-Life Stone in connection with the Heart Ape’s emergence 704 706.

Recovering Ouyang and the Underworld Confrontation

While inspecting the day he became Zu Yuan—the point where his timeline broke and became bound to his fellow disciples’—Chen notices a fleeting blue-green figure. His memories of Ouyang return, restoring the missing part of himself while bringing devastating guilt over a million years of forgetting 725.

Chen locates Ouyang’s approaching reincarnation but cannot bring himself to face him. Instead, he bars Leng Qingsong and Bai Feiyu from the Underworld, refusing to let the other Sages approach the senior brother whose suffering he believes sustained their achievements. He threatens mutual destruction with Sage-fortune arrows and a Sage-Version Nail-Head Seven Arrows Book 726 727.

Leng Qingsong and Bai Feiyu kneel and plead for one meeting. Daji arrives, slaps Chen, and condemns his willingness to aim weapons at his fellow disciples. Chen lowers his bow and kneels beside them 727 728.

Caring for Ouyang’s Reincarnation

Chen gradually adopts a less coercive approach to karmic ties, recognizing that attempts to tear them apart by force only tighten them. Even so, preparing dinner for Ouyang’s reincarnation exposes how little he has forgiven himself: he hides his animated cookware and watches the boy from afar, afraid that gentle forgiveness would make his guilt worse 755 762.

When Ouyang’s can rolls to his feet, the boy asks him to kick it back. A subsequent encounter with the boy’s folding fan lets Chen recognize the Mountains and Rivers State Boundary Diagram, a major Divine Dao treasure 762 763.

Chen eventually stops treating his remorse as a reason to remain distant. He helps the boy tidy the kitchen and teaches him to cook, reversing the image of Ouyang once guiding him through cultivation hand in hand 765.

Notable Quotes

“Senior Brother Ouyang is our eldest senior brother, and our only eldest senior brother.” 6

“With the Heavenly Dao above as witness! Within ten years, I, Chen Changsheng, will kill Zu Yuan! If I fail, let humans, gods, demons, and devils join together to slay me!” 16

“You think I haven't considered everything you can think of?” 48

“Protecting everything I cherish is my Dao! No matter how I achieve it, no matter how great the price!” 191

“I, Chen Changsheng, will always be Chen Changsheng!” 220

“Today is the day I, Chen Changsheng, slay an Immortal!” 286

“If I cannot change the catastrophe's arrival, wouldn't becoming the one who unleashes it be enough?” 188

“You're already a sage, yet you're still like a little child. You really haven't amounted to much!” 765

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