Lin Shan

Biodata

Power Progression

Heart Light’s numbered stages are Lin Shan’s own subdivisions of progress within Sequence 9, measured through the golden transformation of his heart—not separate Sequences 27 30.

Background / History

Crossing into the Ash Fog Universe

Lin Shan studied medicine on Earth before crossing into the unfamiliar world. During the group’s search for water, he recognized that the Purple Soul Flowers carried by some survivors were responsible for their spontaneous combustion and shouted for everyone to discard them 2 11 35.

In a mysterious hall, he followed black lines visible only to him and acquired the Specter Physique, Parchment, and Quill. An altar then transported the eleven survivors into a barren region surrounded by Ash Fog, where their jade scroll established a protective golden barrier 4.

Becoming the First Transcendent

After surviving an anomaly that feared fire, Lin Shan exchanged twenty years of lifespan for the Heart Light ingredient locations and preparation guidance. Harvesting ash from the Specter Thread Fish left him cursed, with only thirty-seven days to survive unless he became Transcendent 6 9.

An encounter with the Red Lantern worsened his condition to ten days. He paid another five years of lifespan for instructions to control it, then used his blood as lamp oil. With the lantern’s aid, he obtained Ashatu’s Horn and continued toward the Purple Soul Flower Forest 11 12.

Near the forest, an uncanny old man overwhelmed the lantern’s defenses. Lin Shan survived when the darkness and old man vanished after a woman’s voice sounded. He completed the Heart Light potion and entered a golden cocoon; although the expedition felt brief to him, more than five months passed before his return 13 14 16 17.

Helping the Other Pioneers

Lin Shan returned with a rooster and hen for Xia Xuan to raise and offered to gather the ingredients needed for his companions’ advancement. He kept the Parchment secret while recounting his experiences 15 17.

He collected more Specter Thread Fish ash and escorted seven companions to the Purple Soul Flower Forest before departing alone. The Human Race’s later historical records credit him with helping all seven attain Transcendence 21 23 37 47.

Seeking Blood Wing

Unable to advance to Sequence 8 before digesting Heart Light, Lin Shan pursued his second pathway instead. He paid forty years of lifespan for the Blood Wing formula and another forty for ingredient locations 19.

His journey included the ruins of Blue Prosperity City, where he fought a mysterious fox girl before sparing and feeding her. A middle-aged man subsequently destroyed his body with spiritual pressure. Lin Shan’s body and soul reassembled over roughly an hour, revealing the extraordinary persistence of his Specter Physique 25 26.

He obtained Sikatini’s core, traveled to the mountain anomaly Ninety Thousand Li, and gathered spirit herbs before confronting Blood Wing. Although the anomaly destroyed his body, he continued fighting without it and forced Blood Wing into dormancy. Rebuilding his body took a month; he then absorbed the anomaly and completed his second Sequence 9 advancement 28 29 30 32 33 34.

Cat Clan Conflict and Human Migration

Returning to Human territory, Lin Shan initially registered as an ordinary medical student and learned the community’s history alongside newcomers. Jin Tianzong then explained that the Cat Clan was repeatedly slaughtering humans, apparently to harvest clan fortune 35 36 37.

Rather than exhaust himself against the Cat Clan’s pseudo-transcendent army, Lin Shan followed its retreat into enemy territory. He infiltrated Proud Meow City, killed a high-ranking official, and took books and valuables. Shashali approached him with a proposal to spare her pro-cooperation branch if humanity eventually retaliated; he agreed only to pass her request to the others 37 38 39.

Using the expected pause in attacks, Lin Shan ordered humanity’s relocation. He gave Yan Ruxin the captured books, intercepted message-carrying butterflies, killed a human spy, and led approximately fifty thousand people toward the Purple Soul Flower Forest while carrying the Clan Artifact 39 40 41.

During the migration, a Sequence 8 specter enveloped thousands of people in darkness. Lin Shan held open an escape route despite his bones shattering, then poured Specter Physique essence into the Red Lantern to keep the darkness burning long enough for survivors to flee 43.

Inner Space and Return to the Settlement

After the migration, Lin Shan left administration to the other Pioneers and resumed pursuing greater power. A two-headed bird drove him into a house that served as an entrance to Inner Space. Unable to tear open space himself, he waited near an anomaly and escaped through the fissure it eventually created 44 45 46.

Back in the settlement, he moved into the Clan Hall library and examined the Jade Tome’s records of his achievements. He later gave Chen Liyun materials providing a route to Transcendence and entered seclusion to accelerate his own potion digestion with spirit medicines 47 49 50.

When tiny humanlike figures were discovered growing in soil, Lin Shan identified one as a human who had died and become a plant. He instructed Si Zhennan to investigate missing people and locate the source 50.

Appearance

• Unnaturally cold skin: His touch carries an eerie quality strong enough to make Shashali recoil during a handshake 8.
• Post-Heart Light transformation: Emerges from his first cocoon with smooth, jade-like skin, a bald head, and no eyebrows. Golden Spiritual Power covers his skin when manifested 14.
• Blood wings: Initially span more than three meters; become larger and patterned after his Specter pathway reaches its second stage 34 45.
• Black blood: After absorbing Blood Wing, his blood is an ink-black manifestation of supernatural power rather than ordinary blood 43.
• Clothing: Wears green silkworm garments; his later, more luxurious green robe attracts attention in the developing Human settlement 35 48.

Personality

Lin Shan pursues Transcendence because he refuses to remain helpless before powerful beings. His determination is tempered by caution: he prepares torches before confronting anomalies, avoids wasteful frontal attacks, and eventually limits Parchment transactions after recognizing the danger of feeding it too much lifespan 8 21 28 37.

He is protective of humanity but uninterested in governing it. He risks severe injury to save people during the migration, yet leaves internal administration to others and rejects the idea that Pioneers should be sheltered as symbols. In his view, they should continue taking the lead in dangerous work 43 44 49.

His compassion is selective rather than unconditional. He spares the frightened fox girl after her behavior changes and buries his dead horse, but also kills an enemy official and a human spy when acting for humanity’s survival 24 26 39 41.

Abilities & Skills

Dual Pathways

The Parchment-bestowed Specter Physique exists alongside Lin Shan’s natural Life Physique, allowing him to carry both Heart Light and Blood Wing 6 19.

• Heart Light: Uses Spiritual Power 14.
• Blood Wing: Grants anomaly-like supernatural power 34.
• Advancement requirement: Heart Light’s Sequence 9 potion must be fully digested before advancing that pathway to Sequence 8 19.
• Accelerated digestion: Spirit herbs and medicines temper his regenerating heart, though consuming them can cause collapse or unconsciousness 30 50.

Heart Light

Lin Shan shapes pale-golden Heart Light into weapons, protective layers, and practical tools 14 24 27 39.

• Weapon creation: Forms spears, blades, and swords; considers the spear his most natural and offensively effective weapon shape 24 27.
• Spinning spear: Rotates a spear at high speed to increase its penetrating power—his strongest developed attack at that point 28.
• Protection: Keeps Heart Light around his body and uses it to repel water or intercept attacks 14 29.
• Utility constructs: Creates a shovel for burial and a sack for carrying captured goods 24 39.
• Sword flight: Initially travels five kilometers in twenty minutes. At his second stage, forty minutes of continuous flight would exhaust his spirituality 28.
• Physical enhancement: His first advancement roughly doubles his pre-curse physical capabilities, with maximum punch force exceeding a ton 14.

Specter Physique and Regeneration

Lin Shan’s Specter Physique and soul are one, allowing him to survive the destruction of his physical body and continue wielding Spiritual Power without it 26 33.

• Reassembly: Reconstitutes his scattered body and soul after being crushed by spiritual pressure 26.
• Limb restoration: Reattaches an arm severed during the Sikatini battle, at the cost of pronounced weakness 28.
• Bodily reconstruction: Rebuilds himself from shattered bones over a month, consuming much of his remaining essence 33.
• Lantern empowerment: His essence can awaken the Red Lantern’s red figure and strengthen its supernatural flames 33 43.
• Limit: Prolonged disembodied activity risks loss of consciousness and transformation into an instinct-driven supernatural entity 33.
• Higher-Sequence damage: Even brief contact with Sequence 8 power causes decay that his essence can repair only slowly 46.

Blood Wing

Absorbing Blood Wing gives Lin Shan blood manipulation, fast flight, and limited spatial traversal 34.

• Blood manipulation: Bursts a Cat Clan woman’s blood vessels and destroys ordinary venomous insects across a hundred-meter area 38 42.
• Flight: Travels as a streak of red light; at ten thousand meters, he avoids the Fallen and anomalies encountered at lower altitudes 34.
• Spatial jumps: Each jump initially covers at most one thousand meters; fewer than five would exhaust his current supernatural reserves 34.
• Shared-source interaction: Can manipulate the supernatural “blood” of the lake where he advanced because it shares Blood Wing’s source 34.
• Altered physiology: No longer requires ordinary sleep, food, or water; his supernatural black blood supplies his body’s energy 45.
• Resource limits: Large-area attacks remain costly. Clearing one wave of insects consumes one-fifth of his supernatural power 42.

Survival and Fieldcraft

• Uses fire, perimeter torches, and the Red Lantern together to harvest Specter Thread Fish ash and break its illusion 9 21.
• Precisely senses gains and losses in his spirituality, allowing him to reserve enough power for defense while traveling 28.
• Discovers that transcendent snake meat slightly increases his spirituality capacity and speeds recovery 29.
• Determines through repeated attacks that roughly thirty meters is a comparatively safe flight altitude in the Fallen territory he explores 29.

Documented Potion Recipes

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Parchment and Quill — Acquired with his Specter Physique. Provide information, formulas, and location guidance in exchange for lifespan. The Parchment is not omniscient: racial fortune can block its answers, and an unknown being’s gaze damages it 4 6 19 23.
• Red Lantern — A Spectral Object whose casing is human skin; Lin Shan suspects its framework is human bone. Fueled with his blood, it provides nearly two hundred meters of visibility through Ash Fog and creates red silhouettes whose touch ignites targets. Blood Wing later allows him to control it fully and prevent power leakage 11 12 43.
• Torches — Restrict the Specter Thread Fish’s movement; four burning pieces help him escape its illusory space 6 21.
• Green backpack — Given by Huang Ying with two sets of clothes for his journey 21.
• Willow branch and twigs — Uses a branch to bind Blood Wing during their battle and retains the twigs afterward 32 34.
• Jade Tome / Clan Artifact — Temporarily carries it during humanity’s relocation. Later reads its historical records in the Clan Hall 41 47.

Relationships

• Zhang Zhonghua — Fellow Pioneer and administrative collaborator. Explains clan fortune and physique distinctions; entrusts Lin Shan with the Clan Artifact during migration 17 41 44.
• Zhao Xiao An — Close Pioneer companion. Cries upon his return from his first long absence and later repeatedly invokes his strength while serving as a general. Lin Shan supports her right to undertake dangerous expeditions 16 39 49.
• Jin Tianzong — Fellow Pioneer who helps rescue him with torches, offers him lodging, and briefs him on the Cat Clan’s exploitation of humanity 6 17 37.
• Wu Wang — Fellow Pioneer and friend who enthusiastically welcomes him back and later sets aside work to visit him 17 50.
• Yan Ruxin — Fellow Pioneer and recipient of captured Cat Clan books. Uses Lin Shan’s home to accommodate children; recognizes the technological value of the documents he brings back 40 41.
• Shashali — His first Cat Clan acquaintance. Later claims to have supported cooperation and asks him to spare her political branch; he remains distrustful but agrees to relay her proposal 7 8 39.
• Si Zhennan — Fellow Pioneer who arranges his Clan Hall lodging and receives his instructions concerning the human figures growing in soil 47 50.
• Chen Liyun — Decorated human fighter whom Lin Shan supplies with a path toward Transcendence. Their conversation exposes differing views on whether Pioneers should be protected from risk 49.
• His parents — Remain a concern after his crossing. The Parchment cannot locate them because they have not yet crossed; Lin Shan later thinks of them while seeing families devastated by war 6 40.

Notable Quotes

“...I've gone bald, but I've gotten stronger too.” 14

“You may have misunderstood what it means to be a Pioneer. Pioneers aren't people to be kept under protection. Taking the lead on the front line in everything is what a Pioneer should do.” 49