Su Qing

Biodata

Power Progression

Cultivation

Trial Marks and Academy Rankings

These are separate from his cultivation realm.

Background / History

Arrival and Adoption

Su Qing had lived a previous life and retained an adult’s memories after receiving a newly formed body in this world. Mu Feng and the pregnant Qing Yanjing found him in the mountains and took him home. They preserved the name left with his swaddling clothes, and Qing Yanjing adopted him before Mu Chen’s birth. Pressure from her clan forced her to leave shortly afterward 4.

Although Mu Feng openly told both boys that Su Qing was adopted, their family bonds remained close. Su Qing kept his surname out of regard for his previous-life parents but inwardly accepted himself as “Mu Qing.” Cruel childhood rumors about his parentage deepened his fear and hostility; Mu Chen, Tang Qian’er, and Mu Feng helped him gradually become more cheerful 4.

The Green Bamboo Snake

Fear of his unfamiliar world drove Su Qing into early, reckless cultivation. He studied dangerous spiritual arts and used Embryonic Transformation to give himself an older appearance while operating in the Northern Spirit Plains. At the academy he appeared refined and courteous; outside it, he earned the reputation of the Jade-Faced Butcher–Green Bamboo Snake 8.

His pursuit of strength ended in cultivation deviation when Sharp Metal Qi nearly shredded his lungs. Losing his cultivation forced him to reconsider his behavior. During recovery, his family and Tang Qian’er helped soothe his insecurity, and he began placing greater emphasis on character, spiritual discipline, and a durable foundation 4 8.

Appearance

Su Qing has black hair, black eyes, sword-like brows, and a handsome, youthful face 13 26.

• Build: Evenly proportioned muscles; later described as a well-defined, jade-hued physique 12 44.
• Hair: Wears a Daoist topknot while training beneath the waterfall 12.
• After Nirvana: His skin becomes ice-white and translucent, with a golden glimmer visible through his sinews and bones 26.
• Expression: Warm and playful with those close to him, but often cold toward outsiders 3 40.
• Clothing: Wears blue robes during Bei Ming Dragon Kun’s trial 90.

Personality

Su Qing is affectionate and teasing with his small circle of loved ones, but guarded and impatient with outsiders. Tang Qian’er recognizes that his everyday friendliness conceals a tendency to consider companions burdensome. His father, Mu Chen, and Tang Qian’er nevertheless matter deeply to him, and he reacts fiercely when they are threatened 3 38 73.

His cultivation collapse taught him patience: he willingly sacrifices short-term advancement to strengthen his foundations. In combat, however, he is ruthless, favoring decisive attacks and the elimination of future threats. He deliberately avoids underestimating even weak opponents, yet can become boastful enough to hesitate over asking Nine Nether for help 3 4 23 49.

He strongly values personal conviction and the integrity of his soul. Rather than refine a spirit beast’s soul essence for immediate strength, he chooses to cultivate his own true self. His knowledge of the original story is useful but imperfect; Liu Jingshan’s unexpectedly early emergence makes him recognize the danger of treating that knowledge as certainty 22 23.

Abilities & Skills

Golden Palace Jade Record

His principal cultivation method is a top-tier orthodox Daoist art aligned with metal, slaughter, and cutting sharpness 2.

• Cultivated through the Guiding and Pulling Method 2.
• Produces his golden, palace-shaped Spirit Wheel at Foundation Establishment 13.
• Its crucial Sharp Metal Qi cannot be safely condensed while his hidden lung injury persists 4.
• Remains highly effective even without that component 4.

Nine Breaths to Subdue Qi

A foundation-building art that Su Qing uses to nourish meridians, temper spiritual energy, and remove impurities 2 4.

• Restored damaged meridians and made them stronger than before 4.
• Allows him to suppress an available breakthrough while improving its eventual foundation 2 4.
• Requires slow, painstaking work rather than shortcuts 4.

Swordsmanship and Kunwu

Su Qing identifies himself as a swordsman and trusts his blade above other techniques when his life is at stake 15 60.

• Combines sword strikes with lightning, flames, blood markings, and golden radiance 10 24 50.
• Uses precise attacks against joints, mechanisms, and gaps in armor to dismantle three Heaven Transformation Realm Guardians 77.
• Can shatter spiritual shields and pierce the academy’s protective mechanism, as demonstrated against Shao Huanzhe and Shi Hao 48 50.
• Ten Steps, One Sword: A life-staking technique that concentrates his sharpness into a decisive attack. It killed Liu Jingshan but consumed ninety percent of Su Qing’s blood essence and damaged his meridians 24 27.

Lightning Arts

Su Qing quickly masters lightning techniques, including Mastery of the Five Thunders and the Five Thunder Art 4 67.

• Uses lightning flashes to blind opponents and create openings for close combat 3.
• Calls down powerful lightning and incorporates it into sword attacks and golden threads 19 67 87.
• Prepares thunder-patterned talismans for a possible confrontation with An Zuo 81.
• Uses “Twilight Thunder, Where Is the Worry?”, drawing Wandering Duckweed’s Thunderstorm into his sword during Bei Ming Dragon Kun’s trial 89.
• Attributes his success in that trial partly to his familiarity with lightning, rather than claiming equivalent resistance to every type of attack 90.

Strength, Movement, and Elemental Arts

His repertoire includes abilities from the Thirty-Six Heavenly Dipper Arts and Seventy-Two Earthly Fiends 8.

• Subduing Dragons and Taming Tigers: Empowers his body with immense strength 89.
• Earth-Traversing Golden Light: Enables rapid movement into striking range 50.
• Mountain-Shaking Earth-Splitting / Earth-Sundering: Shatters terrain, disrupts opponents’ balance, and injures groups 33 53.
• Wind-Reversing Fire: Uses wind to feed and direct flames 33 72.
• Five Elements Escape Technique: Allows escape through rock, but its incomplete mastery severely drains him 19.
• Also knows Shouldering Mountains and Sitting in Fire, Entering Water, and Traveling with Divine Speed 8.
• Qi-Banning Art: Partially mitigates Blood Butcher’s punch 10.

Transformation and Concealment

Su Qing uses several arts to alter his appearance or hide his presence.

• Embryonic Transformation: Temporarily gives his young body a more mature appearance 8.
• Invisibility: Conceals form and aura; at the demonstrated cultivation level, he can hide only himself, despite the art’s broader potential 17.
• Upright Shadowless: Blurs him into a nearly invisible silhouette. His use remains crude and falls short of perfect concealment 81.
• Conceals his attack intent while crippling the sleeping Elder Cui 82.

Sealing, Capture, and Storage

His techniques allow him to restrain enemies and carry objects or captives.

• Golden threads and Kunwu’s formations: Bind Nine Nether and seal her inside the sword 21 22.
• Sleeve Universe: Stores treasure, bodies, and captured enemies 27 63 82.
• Tainted Ink: Restrains opponents and isolates sound, assisting both escape and covert capture 63 67 82.
• Can seal another person’s spiritual energy 45 63.

Medicine Gathering

An art that guides and gradually refines medicinal power the body cannot naturally absorb 27.

• Converts Nine-Whisker Blood Ginseng into nourishing blood energy and spiritual energy 27.
• Refines Divine Soul Yin-Yang Ganoderma into two portions for Mu Chen and Tang Qian’er, transforming medicinal toxins into gentle spiritual energy 42.
• Understands practical uses of medicinal plants, including brewing Jade Spirit Tree leaves to nourish meridians 9.

Teaching and Practical Skills

Su Qing teaches through explanation, controlled sparring, and experience against spirit beasts 9 30.

• Taught Mu Chen hand-to-hand techniques and Tang Qian’er combat, survival, and sword skills 4 9 34.
• Uses opponents’ weaknesses and repeated practice to prepare Tang Qian’er for academy competitions 30 36.
• Knows Beast Gathering, used to draw low-level spirit beasts into a diversion 17.
• Makes smoked meat, sausages, and wontons, and can quickly chill brewed tea 2 14 61.
• Declines Spirit Array study because he considers it outside his chosen path 15.

Injuries & Limitations

• Chronic lung damage: Premature Sharp Metal Qi cultivation leaves an injury expected to require the Supreme Realm’s Body Tribulation for complete healing 4.
• Combat aggravation: Early battles worsen his internal injuries and cause him to cough blood; he sometimes conceals this from Mu Chen and Tang Qian’er 9 11.
• Borrowed spiritual energy: Kunwu’s energy initially has a slight disconnect from his own, requiring assimilation and tempering through battle 22.
• Ten Steps, One Sword aftermath: The attack against Liu Jingshan leaves him severely depleted and damages his meridians 27.
• Partial recovery: Drawing out lingering Sharp Metal Qi, undergoing Nirvana, and consuming blood ginseng improve his condition without fully resolving every injury 26 27.
• An Zuo: His speed, cultivation technique, and Spirit Artifact make a head-on victory uncertain; Su Qing sends Su Ling’er away because he cannot confidently protect her 67 81.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Kunwu Sword — A three-foot crimson sword later transformed into a blue-green, life-bound flying sword. Qing Yanjing sealed it during his childhood; Su Qing subsequently learned how to undo the seal. It also houses Nine Nether’s seal 10 15 21 22.
• Kunwu repair materials — Rare metals and unusual stones can nourish the damaged sword. Living beings’ vital essence and Thunder Domain lightning also contribute to its restoration 26 27 88.
• Copper Fragment — Recovered from Blood Butcher’s Mustard Seed Bracelet 11.
• Black Flute and Black Liquid — Taken from a skeleton after diverting the Spirit-Devouring Bees 17.
• Communication Jade Talismans — Distributed to Mu Chen, Tang Qian’er, and Ye Qingling for coordination near Ice Valley 45.
• Communication Jade Pendant — Given to Su Ling’er; supports messages, location tracking, and distress signals when normal communications are blocked 78.
• Spirit Value Token — Used to check academy prices, including the seven-million-spirit-value cost of Northern Abyss Dragon-Kun blood essence 57.
• Yinglong blood essence — Supplied to Tang Qian’er for cultivation; Su Qing describes Yinglong as a powerful water-aligned dragon from another world 57.
• Unnamed spiritual art — Obtained by overcoming three Heaven Transformation Realm Guardians and later shared privately with Tang Qian’er; its name is not disclosed in the supplied passages 77 78.

Relationships

• Mu Feng — Adoptive father. Comforted him during childhood, fought alongside him against the Liu Domain, and entrusted him with increasing responsibility 4 24 32.
• Qing Yanjing — Adoptive mother, whom he also calls Aunt Jing. Adopted him before Mu Chen’s birth and sealed Kunwu; Su Qing promises to bring her back 4 15 32.
• Mu Chen — Adoptive younger brother. Their childhood loyalty develops into close combat cooperation, playful rivalry, and mutual support 4 27 33 40.
• Tang Qian’er — Childhood sweetheart, student, and later romantic partner. Su Qing initially regards her as a little sister, but eventually kisses her and explicitly considers his heart hers alone 9 31 43 61 74.
• Nine Nether Sparrow — Initially tries to seize his body and is sealed in Kunwu. Later becomes a combat partner and beneficiary of his resources; her Nirvana transfers bloodline power to him 21 27 45 88.
• Zhou Ye — Trusted family elder and Mu Feng’s sworn friend. Watched Su Qing grow up and recognizes his ability to shoulder Mu Domain responsibilities 14 32.
• Master Mo — Instructor who supervises his waterfall breakthrough and works alongside him to train other academy students 12 13 30.
• Luo Li — Mu Chen’s partner, whom Su Qing regards as his sister-in-law. He defends their relationship and encourages them to discuss their family burdens openly 43 70.
• Sun’er and Ye Qingling — Trial companions whom he helps rescue and reunite. He subsequently travels with the Ye Gang 38 40 42.
• Su Ling’er — Former ranking rival and later mission companion. Their quarrel becomes an acquaintance through storytelling; her romantic interest is not reciprocated 60 74 78.
• Su Xuan — Entrusts Su Ling’er’s criminal-hunting mission to him. He later declines her heaven-level mission invitation and recommends Mu Chen 74 88.
• An Zuo — Dragon Demon Palace enemy. Su Qing refuses recruitment, wounds him while escaping, and prepares for another confrontation 67 81.
• Bei Ming Dragon Kun — Tests his strength with lightning and praises his performance. The encounter supplies insights for another breakthrough 89 90.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Northern Spirit Plains Training

• Defeats five Western Academy challengers before agreeing to partner with Tang Qian’er for the training expedition 3.
• Kills the Fire Spirit Ape King, helps secure Jade Spirit Fruits, and begins teaching Tang Qian’er practical combat 9.
• Defeats Blood Butcher and retrieves the Copper Fragment, attracting Liu Mubai’s suspicion and hostility 10 11.
• Uses the expedition’s resources to finish preparing for his waterfall breakthrough 11 12 13.

Black Nether Abyss and the Liu Domain

• Kills Liu Mubai and returns with his head, warning the Mu Domain party of likely retaliation 17.
• Turns a Liu Domain trap against its makers, costing them a Divine Soul Realm expert and nearly half their expedition force 19.
• Seals Nine Nether after her attempted possession and advances to the Divine Soul Realm 21 22.
• Urges preemptive action against Liu Jingshan, only for the enemy to emerge earlier than expected 22 23.
• Kills Liu Qing with Mu Feng’s assistance, then slays Liu Jingshan with Ten Steps, One Sword 23 24.
• Recovers through Nirvana, raids Mangyin Mountain, and helps stabilize the Mu Domain after the Liu Family’s destruction 26 27 32.

Five Great Academies Entrance Trial

• Wins every match in the Northern Spiritual Academy’s quota competition, including those against Mu Chen 30.
• Travels to the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy and enters its Northern Cang Realm trial 32 33.
• Reunites Sun’er with Ye Qingling and travels with the Ye Gang 38 40 42.
• Reaches a level-nine mark after defeating the factions pursuing him 47 48.
• Learns that academy officials barred him from the Spirit Road for being too bloodthirsty; his seed quota was compensation 49.
• Kills Shi Hao despite the trial’s protective mechanism, then defeats An Ran and the other senior students. Secures rewards for every entrant with a level-seven mark or higher 50 52 53.

Early Academy Life

• Supplies Tang Qian’er with Yinglong blood essence and begins using the Thunder Domain to cultivate and mend Kunwu 57 59.
• Takes first place on the Divine Soul Ranking and cripples an attacker who challenges him over Su Ling’er 61.
• Rescues Tang Qian’er from Ji Yi after killing seven men who threaten her 63.
• Refuses An Zuo’s Dragon Demon Palace recruitment offer and escapes their ensuing fight 67.
• Defeats Mu Kui after advancing to the Heaven Fusion Realm 72.

Fang Xu Mission and Spirit Treasury Clues

• Accepts Su Xuan’s request to accompany Su Ling’er on the hunt for Fang Xu 74.
• Sends Su Ling’er back to safety before infiltrating Defiled Valley and overhearing information about a Spirit Treasury 81.
• Cripples and captures Elder Cui, then obtains confessions from both him and Fang Xu 82 84.
• Later investigates a treasury entrance in Drowning Sound Valley with Tang Qian’er, recognizing signs of a damaged metal-attribute treasure repairing itself 91.

Heaven Ranking and Bei Ming Dragon Kun’s Trial

• Confronts Xu Huang over his sister’s treatment of Sun’er and Zhou Ling, defeats him, and claims fifth place on the Heaven Ranking 85 86 87.
• Accepts a suitable heaven-level mission and invites Tang Qian’er to accompany him 88.
• Cultivates in the Thunder Domain’s eighth level, where Nine Nether’s activity draws Bei Ming Dragon Kun’s attention 88.
• Faces the elder’s lightning trial without relying on Nine Nether’s power, earns his praise, and breaks through after two days of recovery and cultivation 89 90.

Notable Quotes

“My heart is not water. I will neither retreat nor evade. I shall raise my sword and cleave it.” 24

“My name is Su Qing. I’m a swordsman.” 60

“I’m simply more familiar with lightning as a force. Had it been a different kind of attack, I might not have withstood it.” 90