Kou Ying

Biodata

Appearance

• Build: Scrawny, with an unhealthy-looking face 22.
• Hair: Uneven short hair with a messy fringe, described as though a dog had chewed it 22.
• Expression: Slightly drooping eye corners and a habitual look of misery 22.
• Injuries: Wears a facial bandage when arriving at the Points Competition; later suffers a nosebleed after falling during the free-for-all 34 42.
• Resemblance to Kou Cheqie’er: His dark brows, black eyes, ink-dark hair, and facial contours strongly resemble his creator. Both the River of Forgetfulness’s wandering soul and elderly figures who knew Kou Cheqie’er react to the resemblance 111 197 241.
• Later presentation: When reunited with Ye Buyu, he has impeccably groomed hair and wears a black shirt that gives him an air of nobility. His generally gentle, languid appearance can become cold and sharply defined when he concentrates 197 256.

Personality

Kou Ying places his trust in data, machinery, calculations, and planning. His persistent misfortune frustrates that outlook: even carefully prepared strategies fail to unfold exactly as intended. He recognizes the absurdity of his situation and can find some of his own accidents funny 30 40.

He is outwardly resigned but remains practical under pressure. While supplying the warship’s reactor, he continues working after crashing into a wall, dropping the materials, and cutting his finger. He also trusts Ye Buyu’s targeting instructions despite being unable to see the enemy himself 24.

His consideration for others is often understated. He leaves tissues beside the distressed Ye Buyu without interrupting his work, later protects her during the competition, and gives her half his points before she withdraws. He regards her as a classmate he gets along with 23 38 40.

His usually laid-back manner conceals considerable enthusiasm for technical challenges. While decrypting Zhu Youcai’s suspicious company plan, he displays an unusually visible fighting spirit, becoming excited as he identifies vulnerabilities and overcomes its defenses 72.

Kou Ying is deeply attached to Hold Up the Heavens. When he fears that public exposure of his [Void Order] connection might force him out, he privately considers fighting anyone responsible, disabling their Terminals, or manipulating online opinion rather than accepting separation. In competition, he introduces himself as a member of Hold Up the Heavens rather than emphasizing his position at Nini Home 242 261.

His gentleness toward his teammates does not extend indiscriminately to opponents or students who challenge him. At Ayr Academy, he responds to provocation with overwhelming force and adopts dangerous, highly realistic simulation training when ordinary instruction fails. He remains outwardly courteous throughout, earning the students’ image of him as a “Great Demon King” 193 197.

He strongly rejects the corrupted [Void Order]’s attempts to justify betrayal as idealism. Although he originally works to destroy the organization, he accepts responsibility for restoring it after discovering that some of its members have never abandoned its original purpose. His willingness to lead it contrasts with his lack of interest in becoming a planetary ruler merely for power or status 345 347 560.

Abilities & Skills

Mechanical Expertise

The Observation Group recognizes Kou Ying as an expert in operating the abandoned warship, while Lou Guanshan calls him a “mechanical genius” 23 24.

• Identifies the buried structure as an abandoned interstellar warship and locates its usable teleportation passage 20.
• Works with other examinees and the Observation Group to establish the Teleportation Channel through its password-protected systems 22 23.
• Reactivates surviving engines, surveillance feeds, and weapons systems 23.
• Uses donated materials to fuel the Energy Reactor and extend the ship’s ability to fire 24.
• Cannot locate the Wind-Thunder Cantor inside its storm without Ye Buyu’s guidance 23 24.
• Possesses Kou Cheqie’er’s inherited technological knowledge and memories. This legacy enables his work with the abandoned warship and contributes to the Great Xia Research Institute’s development and the identification of the [Void Order] Headquarters 112.
• Can repair Terminals and address signal interference in the field, making him particularly suited to maintaining a battlefield broadcast 498.
• Proposes linking two constructed teleportation arrays through established coordinates to transport materials back to the Present World, while warning that the method would require time and resources and might fail 502.
• Studies unfamiliar technology by dismantling and analyzing its mechanisms and materials, treating the prison of a technologically advanced world as an opportunity for research 694.
• Produces defensive designs that Su Wuwei later teaches to a native civilization; the group subsequently encounters a fortified settlement using those designs 727.

Hacking and Information Systems

Kou Ying belongs to the Great Xia Red Hackers and comes from the Great Xia Research Institute Center. Xiao Shuo previously lost to him in hacking and had his Terminal hacked for an entire year 71 72.

• Corporate investigation: Enters Zhu Youcai’s company systems through a manager’s account, finds suspicious financial activity, and penetrates the multiple encryption layers protecting its team-building plan. The recovered drawing helps the team identify Cloud Haze’s likely target cities 72.
• Dark Web operations: Secretly investigates and undermines the [Void Order] through the Dark Web. He maintains the network but explicitly states that Kou Cheqie’er, not he, created it 345.
• Nini Home administration: As its sole Creator, can access construction functions, generate or destroy simulated environments, import Calamity projection data, adjust sensory feedback, restore saves, and modify enemy behavior 197.
• Warship sabotage: Uses a prepared virus to disable the weapons systems of more than a dozen enemy warships. He distinguishes rapid destructive intrusion from taking control of intact ships, which would require substantially more time 508.

Shadow Manipulation

Kou Ying spreads his shadow through surrounding shade and shapes it into weapons or extensions capable of moving people 36 39.

• Area attacks: Forms blades behind approaching enemies, killing dozens of Calamities in moments 36.
• Protection: Clears nearby Calamities from Ye Buyu’s position and raises spikes to block Bajiao’s clawed hand 38 39.
• Rescue: Pulls Ye Buyu to safety with black shadows 39.
• Precision attacks: Raises a blade beneath Bajiao to strike at her arm; later sends a steel-wire-thin shadow toward Su Wuwei 40 42.
• Limit: Admits that his current abilities cannot break Bajiao’s concealment formation, despite threatening to do so 40.
• Shadow movement and concealment: Can transform into a dark shadow, move through shadows, and conceal companions with Dark Shadow. Overwhelming strength can still force him out, as Lan Huaiyu demonstrates during training 96 256 617.
• Shadow Judgment: Uses this ability together with Soul Creation daggers to overwhelm Xiao Shuo. Xiao Shuo’s Light Burst can clear away his shadows and is acknowledged as a troublesome counter 144.
• Feints: Evades Li Er’s chanting ropes with multiple shadows before placing a dagger against his throat and forcing his surrender 261.
• Restraint: Creates chains and spikes to immobilize enemies, including the eighth-tier Se Erti 346.
• Large constructs: Forms armed shadow giants and later creates an entire army of indistinct shadow figures to impersonate a large attacking force 124 355 525.
• Tethers and layered defense: Suspends himself from a ceiling shadow while rescuing Ling Wei, and uses overlapping layers of shadow to prepare to withstand the Horizon Team’s concentrated attack 304 413.

Recognition of Void Cultists

Kou Ying identifies Bajiao as a Void Cultist even though she passed an advanced identity scanner and the supervising teacher’s verification. He attributes his recognition to the cultists’ “twisted, rotten aura” 39 40.

• Remains wary of Bajiao while she poses as a wounded examinee 39.
• Shows enough familiarity with her methods to make her take his threat against her formation seriously 40.
• Later explains that Kou Cheqie’er’s inherited knowledge allows him to recognize Void Cultists and unravel their methods 111 112.

Tactical Bluffing

When Bajiao captures Ye Buyu, Kou Ying spreads shadows across her concealment formation and threatens to expose her to the Principals. Bajiao releases Ye Buyu and retreats rather than risk their intervention 40.

• The threat is a bluff: he intends to attract the Principals’ attention and stall for time 40.
• He has an unspecified trump card prepared but does not need to use it in that confrontation 40.
• Later impersonates an attacking army with his shadows while the Primordial Beginning Tower fires on them, helping stage a battle intended to buy time 525.

Soul Creation and Soul Power

During the River of Forgetfulness’s trial, Kou Ying senses the origin of his soul and creates a shadowy dagger despite having his ordinary Awakened powers sealed. He uses it to destroy the apparatus sustaining the memory scene and complete the first stage 110 111 112.

• Uses Soul Creation daggers in combat and in teaching matches 144.
• Reports that he mastered Soul Power in ten minutes, using his own progress and that of the Horizon Team as benchmarks when evaluating his students 193.
• Teaches Soul Power through crisis-driven combat. At Nini Home, he repeatedly restores students after simulated deaths against the Three Great Calamities, removing those who succeed for treatment 197.
• Is himself a living individual created through Kou Cheqie’er’s soul, a development beyond Soul Creation’s ordinary production of objects 112 345.

[Void Order] Inheritance

Kou Ying’s power originates in the [Void Order] before its transformation into a Man-Made Calamity. The organization’s later corruption also taints his inherited power with Calamity Power 97.

• Bears the [Void Order]’s aura from his creation and inherits Kou Cheqie’er’s memories and knowledge without being the same person 111 345.
• Develops a variant of Plan 003, a method of becoming a Man-Made Calamity, and supplies it to remnant souls seeking revenge 135.
• Suppresses Se Erti’s control over his own Calamity Power while restraining him. Su Wuwei explains that Kou Ying has become half a Man-Made Calamity and nearly became a Calamity Master, making him a natural counter to this eighth-tier opponent 346 347.
• Operates a Voidwalker, a Technological Manifested Entity Shared Skill that Kou Cheqie’er developed from his own skill. Its scientific principles and circuit design replace the need for the original Awakened power, allowing other people to use it 358.

Death-Related Abilities

Kou Ying comprehends a power associated with death. With Fate Fragments enhancing the power concentrated at the tip of his Shadow Blade, he inflicts a dangerous injury on [Sinful Karma], though the attack leaves him critically wounded 587 604.

When first explaining Shadow Crossing and Scarecrow, he says they probably will not work on fourteenth-tier Calamities and have little effect on stronger thirteenth-tier opponents. He later kills an ordinary twelfth-level Calamity through their combined effects, but fighting two thirteenth-level Calamities simultaneously pushes him to the brink of death 605 610 617.

Wan Lan’s True Seal of the Self prevents his abilities from interfering with her arrows during testing 605.

During a later confrontation involving Divine Realms, Kou Ying glimpses the tranquil land where souls belong within Lou Guanshan’s radiance. Lou subsequently identifies him as the God of Death 739 752.

Power Progression

Persistent Bad Luck

Kou Ying’s misfortune is severe enough to make him one of the best-known candidates of his year, alongside Mu Bingge. Compilations of his accidents circulate on the Awakened website; Chen Ze considers him the unluckiest person he has ever met 30.

• Kou Ying says his bad luck generally does not affect other people 34.
• Other examinees nevertheless give him extra space to avoid accidentally injuring him 34.
• Ye Buyu initially wonders whether he is cursed 34.
• Kou Cheqie’er explains that the bad luck is a manifestation of the [Void Order]’s Calamity Power, rather than an innate trait. He suggests that complete mastery might end it and offers destroying the [Void Order] as a more definite solution 111.
• His luck temporarily improves enough that he jokes about no longer getting things stuck in his teeth merely from drinking water 256.
• Before summoning a loyalist representative, he crushes the Lucky Pendant around his neck. His unlucky constitution has returned by the later cleanup operation 326 342.
• Even after bringing the [Void Order] under control and having it act alongside Judgment, he remains unlucky and believes the condition is worsening 514.
• Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge later connect the phenomenon to death arriving late for those he wants to save. Lou Guanshan associates it with [Death] and subsequently explains that everyone wants the God of Death to arrive late, accounting for Kou Ying’s continuing misfortune 666 752.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Mechanical staff — Used against Yan You, who catches it and throws Kou Ying into the warship wreckage 26.
• Zircon-studded alloy bracelet — Transforms to cover his entire left arm. It fires a concentrated dark energy beam from his palm, reducing Calamities in its path to ash 40.
• Abandoned warship systems — Temporarily operates its surveillance network, Teleportation Channel, and ion cannon. The cannon initially has only three shells; additional materials allow the defenders to continue firing 23 24.
• Black Dagger / Soul Creation daggers — Creates a dagger during the River of Forgetfulness trial. Kou Cheqie’er pours the remains of his soul into it before disappearing. Kou Ying later uses Soul Creation daggers alongside his shadows 111 112 144.
• Terminal — Used for hacking, investigation, Dark Web access, simulation administration, and battlefield communication 72 197 347 498.
• Lucky Pendant — Wears it around his neck before crushing it and summoning a black-robed loyalist who addresses him as Young Order Leader 326.
• Voidwalker — Operates the technological shared-skill manifestation originally developed by Kou Cheqie’er and his companions 358.
• Fate Fragments — Enhance the concentrated power of his Shadow Blade during his strike against [Sinful Karma] 587.
• Sword of Judgment — Leaves it with the Four Seats when departing for the Present World. He supplies the password, “Burn the Night, Wield the Light. Reforge the Dawn” 666.
• Translator and dictionary — Gives these to Zhu Yin so that he can understand and preserve the awakening knowledge provided by Hold Up the Heavens 474.

Relationships

• Ye Buyu — Combat ally and healing provider, though they initially belong to different teams. Kou Ying protects her, shares half his points with her, and recognizes her healing as exceptionally rare “Absolute healing” 37 38 40. They later become teammates, sympathize with one another’s misfortune, and share responsibility for their group’s dealings with Judgment and the Primordial Beginning Tower. Ye Buyu saves him from [Sinful Karma]’s lethal injury by making her own healing price take priority 256 587 757 759.
• Lou Guanshan — Helpful but physically overwhelming ally. Takes over the reactor supply work and carries Kou Ying through the first competition wave; Kou Ying appreciates the protection but also asks him to keep his distance for safety 24 34 35. They later explore the [Eternal Life] Divine Realm together under the names Da Kou and Meng Lou, escaping imprisonment and confronting its rulers 693 694 700 752.
• Mu Bingge — Fellow examinee. Kou Ying promises her and Lou Guanshan that he will look after Ye Buyu 40. As his teammate, she rescues him when he stumbles in battle and helps clean him up after an accidental exposure to the others’ ability testing 304 605.
• Su Wuwei — Fellow competitor who deliberately draws Wan Lan’s attack toward Kou Ying. Kou Ying retaliates after accusing him of using him as a shield 42. They later become close teammates. Su Wuwei admires Kou Cheqie’er’s legacy and asks Wang Jianshe and Yang You to protect Kou Ying from hostile senior figures during his teaching journey in the Americas 193.
• Wan Lan — Teammate who encourages him to confront his fear of his own power. She helps purge the corrupted [Void Order], and her crisis-driven teaching methods influence his approach to Soul Power instruction 97 193 345 347.
• Kou Cheqie’er — Creator and source of his soul, memories, and technological inheritance. Kou Ying insists that they are distinct individuals. Their first direct conversation occurs when a remnant of Kou Cheqie’er awakens during the River of Forgetfulness trial; Kou Ying thanks him for his gift and assures him that he has been treated well before the remnant disappears 111 112.
• Yingcao and Ying Shi — Ying Shi promises Kou Cheqie’er that he will find the legacy left behind, but dies before completing the search. His daughter Yingcao spends much of her life following the clues, eventually discovers Kou Ying, and brings him to the Great Xia Research Institute Center to be raised 110 112.
• Xiao Shuo — Hacking opponent and later Soul Creation student. Xiao Shuo’s year-long experience of having his Terminal hacked leaves him wary of Kou Ying; Kou Ying later overwhelms him in a teaching match despite Light Burst countering his shadows 71 72 144.
• Yan You — Enemy who captures Ye Buyu and hurls Kou Ying into the wrecked warship 26.
• Bajiao — Void Cultist whose infiltration Kou Ying detects. He rescues Ye Buyu from her and tricks her into retreating 39 40.
• Yark, Ximier, and the Ayr Academy students — Students and assistants during his teaching journey. Yark and Ximier recognize the danger beneath his mild demeanor and help heal students removed from Nini Home’s repeated-death training 193 194 197.
• Kaitis, Gerard, and Morkov — Senior figures involved in his support and training. Kaitis captures a Void Cultist at his request; all three later worry that his luck makes the intensive training potentially fatal 241 387.
• The [Void Order] idealists — Members who resist the organization’s corruption and invite him to inherit its leadership. Their loyalty leads him to pursue restoration rather than indiscriminate destruction 326 345.
• Se Erti — Corrupted eighth-tier [Void Order] member whom Kou Ying restrains and punishes as a betrayer, rejecting his claim to be acting for their ideals 346 347.
• The Four Seats — Accept him as their leader. He entrusts the Sword of Judgment to them, later invites them to accompany him and Ye Buyu to the Primordial Beginning Tower, and learns of their forebears through Yun and Merkel’s message 666 757.
• Yun and Merkel — Figures connected to his journey into the [Eternal Life] Divine Realm who later explain in a recording how they founded Judgment. Yun promises to create the enormous sword he requested and asks him to return to collect it 696 716 757.
• Wujia — Recognizes Kou Ying and the other members of Hold Up the Heavens as Teachers and the six Gods who saved his people. His testimony reveals their connection to the founding of the Primordial Beginning Tower 759.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Abandoned Warship Evacuation

Kou Ying discovers that the apparent magical-beast disaster is a buried warship with a usable teleportation passage. His report gives the Observation Group an evacuation route, and his arrow markings guide Ye Buyu’s group deeper into the vessel. Assisted by technically skilled examinees, he brings the Teleportation Channel online 20 21 22 23.

When the Wind-Thunder Cantor threatens the retreat, Kou Ying activates the ship’s cannon. Ye Buyu supplies the aim, allowing him to hit the enemy through its concealing storm. He then gathers reactor fuel until Lou Guanshan takes over. The defenders eventually exhaust the ship’s firing capacity, and the enemy’s lightning splits the vessel apart 23 24 25.

Kou Ying steps in front of Ye Buyu when Yan You targets her, but Yan You overwhelms them and throws him into the wreckage. He remains faintly conscious among the trapped students and is later present at the post-assessment discussion 26 30.

Points Competition

Initially carried through the battlefield by Lou Guanshan, Kou Ying begins earning points himself after being set down, killing dozens of Calamities with shadow blades. He pays Ye Buyu for healing and subsequently guards her while Mu Bingge and Lou Guanshan fight ahead 35 36 37 38.

His vigilance exposes Bajiao’s attack, and his bluff forces her to abandon her attempt to capture Ye Buyu. Before Ye Buyu withdraws to report the intrusion, he fires an energy beam through the Calamity horde and transfers half his points to her. The donation places her near the top of the standings 39 40 42.

Kou Ying remains for the free-for-all, retaliates against Su Wuwei’s use of him as a shield, and leaves voluntarily when Wan Lan announces her intention to clear the arena 42.

Cloud Haze Investigation

Xiao Shuo reveals Kou Ying’s connection to the Great Xia Research Institute Center and the Great Xia Red Hackers. The team turns to him to investigate Zhu Youcai’s company, where he uncovers suspicious finances and a heavily encrypted team-building plan 71 72.

The decrypted material contains a child’s drawing rather than an ordinary corporate schedule. Su Wuwei matches its markings to a world map, revealing major cities as Cloud Haze’s likely next targets. The team prepares to pass its findings to its teacher 72.

Team Training and the River of Forgetfulness

During training, Kou Ying’s teammates confront his fear of his own hidden power. He reveals his [Void Order] connection, and Lei Yue explains that it comes from the organization’s earlier existence as a guardian of the Present World 97.

Swept into the River of Forgetfulness, Kou Ying experiences a memory of Yingcao discovering him in a nutrient tank. With his Awakened power sealed, he reaches inward to the origin of his soul, recalls Kou Cheqie’er’s blessing, and creates the dagger that destroys the simulated scene 110 111.

His actions awaken a lingering remnant of Kou Cheqie’er. The creator reassures him that he was never intended as a vessel for resurrection and explains the [Void Order]’s connection to his bad luck. Kou Ying learns that he has inherited the means to recognize and oppose its members, but also that Kou Cheqie’er wants him to become himself rather than simply live as another person’s legacy 111.

Before disappearing, Kou Cheqie’er pours his remaining soul into Kou Ying’s dagger. Kou Ying thanks him, describes the friends and protection his inheritance has made possible, and then proceeds to the trial’s Thought Simulation stage 112.

Soul Power Instruction and Nini Home

Kou Ying participates in teaching matches designed to help classmates understand Soul Creation, using Shadow Judgment and precisely placed daggers against Xiao Shuo 144.

During his later teaching assignment at Ayr Academy in the Americas, his mild demeanor gives way to severe discipline when challenged. After a week of inadequate progress, he decides that theoretical instruction must be supplemented by crises that force students to use Soul Power 193.

The students choose Nini Home as the venue for a challenge, unaware that Kou Ying is its sole Creator. He takes control of its Simulation Space, imports projections of [Earthshaker], [Abyssal Erosion], and [Tempest Fiend], sets sensory feedback to ninety percent, and repeatedly restores the students after their simulated deaths 194 197.

He adjusts the scenario to give them an opportunity to learn and extracts successful students for Yark and Ximier to heal. Once everyone has more or less mastered Soul Power, he ends the training and requests the resources previously promised by the watching senior figures. The ordeal establishes his reputation as Ayr Academy’s Great Demon King 197 198.

Competition and Team Coordination

After questioning a captured Void Cultist, Kou Ying worries that exposure of his inherited identity could threaten his place in Hold Up the Heavens. His concern centers on public reaction rather than rejection by his teammates 241 242.

Reunited with Ye Buyu, he reports a temporary improvement in his luck. He later defeats Li Er through shadow feints and a dagger at his throat, then joins Ye Buyu in betting on which teammate will finish their next match fastest 256 261.

In a large team battle, he eliminates contestants from the shadows and serves as a target for the Horizon Team’s concentrated attack. Rather than immediately rescuing him, Su Wuwei and Wan Lan exploit the opening to strike He Chuan, trusting Kou Ying to withstand the attack briefly 304.

Restoring the [Void Order]

Kou Ying calls on a black-robed loyalist who addresses him as Young Order Leader and declares a willingness to fight a Level Eleven Calamity for the true [Void Order] 326.

He later explains that he is Kou Cheqie’er’s Soul Creation and has been secretly working against the corrupted organization through the Dark Web. His discovery of idealists who resisted its corruption changes his goal: after accepting their invitation to inherit leadership and learning that Man-Made Calamities can support him, he resolves to restore its original purpose 345.

With his teammates’ assistance, he purges corrupted members. He restrains Se Erti, suppresses his inherited power, and rejects his claim that betrayal was justified by idealism. The team then searches for surviving remnants and considers using Kou Cheqie’er’s legacy to draw them out 346 347.

When he discovers that enemies have preserved a Voidwalker originally intended to protect the Present World, Kou Ying insists on dealing with the situation himself while his teammates cover him. He subsequently operates the shared-skill technology developed by Kou Cheqie’er 354 355 358.

By a later stage, he has brought the [Void Order] under control and had it act alongside Judgment, although his bad luck persists 514.

Training, the Past, and the Ancient Castle

Kou Ying endures intensive group training alongside his teammates. His repeated accidents alarm his instructors, but he insists on continuing on a clear plain with fewer hazards 387.

In an open discussion with the Horizon Team, Hold Up the Heavens explains that it witnessed the Present World’s destruction and reshaping and carried major projects back into the past. Kou Ying clarifies that they transported engineers’ analyses and results rather than inventing the Artificial Sun, River of Forgetfulness, Aurora Bridge, and Doomsday Tower themselves 395.

During the Ancient Castle events, he rescues Ling Wei with a shadow tether and receives the ironically titled “lucky one” Identity Card, which has no territory, duties, or abilities beyond being lucky. He later helps the group overcome the Amusement Park performers and joins Su Wuwei in eliminating the long-armed man after he refuses Ye Buyu’s demands 413 414 418.

Navigators and the God-Feigning Plan

As one of the six Navigators, Kou Ying participates in discussions with the Primordial Beginning Tower. The group chooses an independent partnership rather than joining a faction, given its existing connections to other organizations 445.

Recognizing that six people cannot contain Calamity alone, Hold Up the Heavens adopts Ye Buyu’s God-Feigning Plan: impersonate gods, select proxies, and teach civilizations to awaken and defend themselves. Kou Ying supplies Zhu Yin with a translator and dictionary so that the knowledge can be understood and preserved 474.

Undercover Operations and War Correspondence

Wei Changming selects Kou Ying to broadcast the group’s experiences, reasoning that his technical skills can maintain the connection and his luck will make the danger especially apparent to viewers 498.

During a rescue operation, he disables enemy warships’ weapons with a prepared virus while fighting alongside Ye Buyu. The group escapes the ships’ self-destruction through Mu Bingge’s Water Mirror 508.

He later deploys a shadow army in a staged battle with the Primordial Beginning Tower. The live ammunition and his hazardous evasions turn his broadcast perspective into a frightening experience for the Present World’s audience. The deception buys time but is eventually exposed by the enemy Calamities’ superiors 525.

At the Elf Star Domain, he defeats the forces controlling [Trickery] and frees the Sky-Supporting Umbrella. After questioning a captured general about the conflict between two planets, he refuses an invitation to rule them, explaining that he has no interest in becoming a king 560.

Death Comprehension and High-Level Battles

Kou Ying concentrates his newly comprehended power onto his Shadow Blade and uses Fate Fragments to inflict a serious wound on [Sinful Karma]. Its retaliation leaves him dying and threatens to send his soul into the Karma Graveyard, but Ye Buyu intervenes by imposing her own healing price first 587.

He subsequently explains Shadow Crossing and Scarecrow to his teammates, outlining both their protective potential and their limitations against stronger Calamities. He later kills an ordinary twelfth-level opponent with the combination 604 605 610.

Against two thirteenth-level Calamities, he accepts dangerous injuries to transfer damage and uses death’s aura to worsen his opponents’ wounds. He prioritizes the faster, more perceptive long-tongued opponent, then spends his remaining strength attacking the hammer-wielding Calamity from its shadow. All three fall almost simultaneously 617.

Judgment and the [Eternal Life] Divine Realm

When the group investigates its connection to Judgment, Ye Buyu finds that Kou Ying has the strongest link. Later, he leaves the Sword of Judgment with the Four Seats, accepts their recognition of him as leader, and gives them the organization’s password 657 666.

Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan become trapped in a technologically advanced world. Arrested under the names Da Kou and Meng Lou after being framed at a garbage dump, they exploit their imprisonment to study its technology and encounter Yun 693 694 696.

They escape and attempt to avoid unnecessary escalation, choosing to send an incoming attack into the air as a warning before threatening the royal palace if the assault continues. They later join the confrontation with the world’s rulers, and Kou Ying proposes destroying the Godhead to break the emperor’s dream of eternal life 700 715.

As the group is forced to leave, Yun promises to make the enormous sword Kou Ying requested and asks him to return for it. During the subsequent struggle involving Divine Realms, he gains a further glimpse of the place where souls belong 716 739.

Judgment’s Founders and the Primordial Beginning Tower

Kou Ying and Ye Buyu open Yun and Merkel’s recorded message, learning how they founded Judgment and that they chose to face the ends of their lives. The Four Seats discover that the two once helped their forebears and agree to safeguard Hold Up the Heavens until it is needed 757.

Accompanied by the Four Seats, Kou Ying and Ye Buyu visit the Primordial Beginning Tower and awaken Wujia. Wujia identifies Hold Up the Heavens as his Teachers and the six Gods who saved his people, explaining that the Tower began as a gathering place built at their request. His account leaves the Elders struggling to reconcile their recent arrival with their role in his distant past 757 759.

Kou Ying later recognizes Ye Buyu’s difficulty adjusting to a stable environment after prolonged danger. In a subsequent appearance, his death-related power manifests as an enduring aura that withers life and creates a barrier around his passage 761 772.

Notable Quotes

“It's not that dangerous. My bad luck generally doesn't affect other people.” 34

“I've always believed data and machinery don't lie. With the right calculations and planning, I should be able to solve most problems. Yet nothing has ever worked out perfectly.” 40

“I'm not Kou Cheqie'er. My name is Kou Ying.” 111

“I... I'm doing very well. Very well.” 112

“Greetings, seniors. My name is Kou Ying, and I'm also the Creator of Nini Home who has never appeared in public. Now, would it be convenient to give me the resources we agreed upon back then?” 197

“Don't sully the word 'ideals.'” 347

“I have no interest in becoming a king or wielding power.” 560

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