Zhao Wanqing

Biodata

Background / History

Zhao Wanqing and her younger brother, Zhao Zhengyang, are full siblings from the Zhao family’s direct line. Their parents contracted a fatal illness shortly after Zhengyang’s birth. On her deathbed, their mother asked that both children live well—a wish Wanqing later regarded as a promise she had failed to keep 36.

Wanqing began cultivating not long after her mother’s death and spent much of her life away from her brother, maintaining contact through occasional letters. She returned in recent years, took a post at the Demon-Suppression Bureau, and became acquainted with the grown Zhengyang. She wanted him in her own squad, but he refused and joined the second squad instead 36.

When Zhengyang returned gravely injured from a missing-persons investigation in Wang Family Village, Wanqing opened an independent inquiry. She initially considered whether someone in the Bureau had attacked him to retaliate against her, but the mission records and the veteran squad leader’s unknown fate led her to rule that out 32.

Appearance

Zhao Wanqing is a tall beauty with long black hair and cool, aloof features 37.

• Wears a Demon-Suppression Bureau uniform and carries a short saber at her waist 32 36.
• Usually has a confident, faintly arrogant expression, which fades under the strain of her brother’s condition 32 36.
• During her investigation, suffers deep wounds to her arms and right thigh; the leg injury noticeably affects her movement 36 38.

Personality

Wanqing is normally cold, self-possessed, and difficult to approach. She understands aristocratic etiquette, treating her wounds and changing clothes before requesting help from a Golden Core cultivator. Asking for assistance is uncomfortable for her; she says she has not done so since growing up 32 36.

Her brother’s injuries destabilize that composure. Driven by guilt over their mother’s final wish, she persists despite repeated injuries and the danger posed by Central Province evil cultivators. Nevertheless, she refuses to send Qi Refining officers into an investigation she considers almost certainly fatal, and she accepts retreat when her injuries prevent her from continuing safely 36 39 43.

Chu Xingchen’s system records the following traits 37:

Abilities & Skills

Saber Combat

Wanqing fights with a short saber reinforced by spiritual energy 39.

• Can release multiple arcs of saber energy to hinder an advancing opponent 39.
• Uses spiritual energy defensively to resist physical blows and invading blood qi 39.
• While already wounded, she is overwhelmed by the stronger black-robed evil cultivator and survives his lethal attack only through Li Xingtian’s intervention 39.

Blood Qi Sampling

Wanqing can collect hostile blood qi for examination, but she is not a professional physician 32.

• Draws blood qi toward spiritual energy introduced through a small opening in a meridian, then seals a sample inside a talisman 32.
• Can deal with blood qi itself, but cannot safely remove it from her brother’s severely damaged meridians without risking further injury 32.
• Blood energy lodged in her own wounds slows her recovery until Li Xingtian extracts it 38.

Investigation

Wanqing has years of casework experience and knows Yuzhou City’s streets by heart 36.

• Reviews duty records, tests possible motives, and follows ritual sites to nearby villages 32 38.
• Correctly identifies a sacrificed village’s center as the likely formation eye and the best place to search for evidence 39.
• Recognizes that the perpetrators may leave once their objective is complete, making delays especially dangerous 36 37.
• Has limited familiarity with smuggling networks and initially fails to understand their value as sources of information 41 42.

Equipment / Items

• Short saber — Her principal weapon; also used to obtain the blood qi sample from Zhengyang 32 39.
• Blood qi talisman — Holds the sample she gives Yaoqin to identify 32.
• Squad captain’s badge — Establishes her Bureau authority when questioning smugglers at the Canal Gang dock 41.
• Emergency pill — Taken after the village confrontation to keep her injuries from worsening 40.
• Blood Qi Spirit Stone — Recovered from Guan Quan’s corpse and brought back as evidence of the evil cultivators’ activities 44 45.

Relationships

• Zhao Zhengyang — Younger brother. His devastating injuries drive her independent investigation and her determination to avenge him. By Chapter 45, he is out of immediate danger and expected to awaken, though his long-term recovery is not established 32 36 45.
• Yaoqin — An acquaintance whom Wanqing trusts. Yaoqin examines her blood qi sample, introduces her to Chu Xingchen in exchange for a favor, and later offers to pay her spirit-stone debt 32 36 45.
• Chu Xingchen — Hired Golden Core assistance. Wanqing offers up to four hundred spirit stones for his help and comes to trust his investigative judgment, unaware that he stages the wharf confrontation 37 41 44.
• Li Xingtian — Investigative partner assigned by Chu Xingchen. He removes blood energy from her wounds, saves her from the black-robed attacker, and brings her to his master for treatment 38 39.
• Li Yingling — Welcomes Wanqing into the courtyard and encourages her to accept Chu Xingchen’s healing medicine 37 40.
• A Nian — Bureau physician who treats Zhengyang and examines Wanqing’s recovery. Wanqing repeatedly prioritizes the investigation over A Nian’s advice to rest 32 41.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Independent Inquiry and Recruitment

• Collects blood qi from her unconscious brother and asks Yaoqin to trace its origin 32.
• Encounters early-stage Foundation Establishment evil cultivators whose blood-enhanced techniques rival middle-stage attacks, leaving her badly wounded 36.
• Seeks Golden Core support because the Bureau chief is occupied elsewhere and other squad leaders have urgent assignments. Yaoqin directs her to Chu Xingchen, who sends Li Xingtian with her that night 36 37.

Village Sacrifice and Treatment

• Leads Li Xingtian toward secluded villages after finding a cleared ritual site. He discovers a disorientation formation and guides them out to a massacred village 38.
• Searches the village’s formation eye and is attacked by a black-robed evil cultivator. Li Xingtian drives him away and retreats with her rather than risk further combat 39.
• Takes Chu Xingchen’s iron-wok medicine. Despite an intensely unpleasant bodily reaction, it heals her internal injuries; by the next morning, A Nian finds her deep hand wound eighty percent healed and no sign of poisoning 40 41.

Smuggling Docks and the Spirit Evil Cult

• Accompanies Chu Xingchen to the smuggling docks, where questioning Guan Quan reveals purchases of Ritual Foundation Stones and a grand mystery stone for a major ritual 41 42.
• Learns that the buyers belong to the Spirit Evil Cult and came from Central Province. Their mortal sacrifices appear to conceal plans to sacrifice nearby sects 42 43.
• Returns to the wharf as bait and witnesses Guan Quan’s killing. She believes Chu Xingchen then drives away an evil cultivator, but the attacker is actually Li Xingtian in disguise and the fight is staged 43 44.
• Finds a genuine Blood Qi Spirit Stone on Guan Quan’s corpse. Its quality leads Chu Xingchen to suspect that a sect has already been sacrificed, prompting her to return to the Bureau and arrange checks on small sects 44.

Escalation Beyond Her Authority

• Recognizes that the case has grown from an attack on Bureau members into village and sect sacrifices, exceeding her ability to handle it 44.
• Shares the recovered stone with Yaoqin. The matter is reported to Central Province, with specialists expected in about half a month; Yaoqin tells Wanqing to stop investigating 45.

Notable Quotes

“Even if I get nowhere, I still have to investigate.” 43