Lü Zhengxian

Biodata

Background / History

Qin Island massacre

Fifteen years before the investigation, Lü Zhengxian and his wife, Li Xiumei, murdered three members of Du Yuwei’s family on Qin Island. Police identified both perpetrators but failed to capture them. The victims were smothered with white cloth despite a knife being left at the scene; the case files also recorded that Du Yuwei’s mother had been sexually assaulted before her death 18 40.

Du Yuwei, then approximately five years old, survived and was adopted by the couple. A blurred family photograph later provided the first connection between the missing child and the ghosts haunting Chen Mo and Meng Yifan 18 27.

Investigators discovered that Li Xiumei’s impoverished family had received ninety thousand yuan shortly before the massacre, enabling treatment for her seriously ill younger brother. Chen Mo and Song Xiaotian interpreted this as payment for the murders. Li Xiumei’s mother subsequently confirmed that an unnamed man from the city had supplied the money and instructed her daughter to kill 40 41 48.

The employer was eventually identified as Chen Guowen, Chen Mo’s father. In a farewell confession, Chen Guowen explained that he and Chen Mo’s grandfather had arranged seven deaths to save Chen Mo from a fatal illness. He had met Lü Zhengxian online and hired him when Lü Zhengxian and his wife desperately needed money. According to the confession, Lü Zhengxian targeted his landlord’s family to steal their money and valuables, committing the Qin Island massacre while carrying out the murder commission 105 118.

Flight to Lanjiang City and Li Xiumei’s murder

According to Chen Mo’s father’s initial account, after the massacre the couple fled to Lanjiang City and bought an apartment registered under his name. They paid him fifty thousand yuan. Later, Lü Zhengxian claimed that Li Xiumei had returned to her hometown to rest during pregnancy and paid another five thousand yuan for help selling the apartment. Chen Mo’s father sold it to a man surnamed Ding and handed Lü Zhengxian the sale proceeds. His later confession revealed that their connection was much deeper than this initial account suggested 16 40 118.

Li Xiumei had actually been murdered and sealed inside an apartment wall. During a spirit summoning, her ghost identified Lü Zhengxian as her killer and denied that the massacre itself was the reason for her death. Seventh Master Zhao explained that her tongue had been cut out and her mouth filled with cement to silence her 16 23.

Chen Mo connected the killing to Lü Zhengxian’s attachment to Du Yuwei, who had witnessed the murder. He later concluded that Lü Zhengxian had developed romantic feelings for the adopted girl and removed Li Xiumei because she opposed them. This motive is presented through Chen Mo’s deductions; Li Xiumei’s mother later reported a dream in which her daughter named both Lü Zhengxian and the unnamed employer as her killers 25 33 48.

Du Yuwei’s diary later provided a memory of Lü Zhengxian strangling Li Xiumei while the First Case Offender covered the young girl’s eyes. This placed the employer at the murder rather than leaving his involvement dependent only on the reported dream 66.

Assumption of Du Ruhai’s identity

Finding Du Yuwei’s corpse dressed as Du Ruhai’s bride led Chen Mo to conclude that Du Ruhai was Lü Zhengxian. He proposed that Lü Zhengxian had possessed the real businessman’s body, explaining how a wanted murderer could inherit the Weihai Group and become a wealthy public figure 33.

Seventh Master Zhao identified the necessary supporting ritual as the Seven Deaths Life-Swapping Art. Their initial theory linked the Qin Island massacre directly to this possession. Later evidence suggested a different sequence: the Qin Island killings had been commissioned by another person, while seven unsolved suffocation murders in Lanjiang City might have enabled Lü Zhengxian’s own takeover. Song Xiaotian emphasized that no direct evidence linked him to those seven murders 33 40 41.

Chen Guowen’s confession subsequently established that, after fleeing to Lanjiang City, Lü Zhengxian demanded that Chen Mo’s grandfather teach him the ritual. Fearing that the murderer would turn on their family, the grandfather passed it on. Zhao Laoqi later explained that the version Lü Zhengxian learned had been deliberately altered, allowing possession but leaving a critical dependency on his original body and the real Du Ruhai’s soul 114 118.

The possession was ultimately confirmed rather than remaining only Chen Mo’s theory. In the basement, the real Du Ruhai was shown trapped in Lü Zhengxian’s original body, confined to a wheelchair and capable of little outward response beyond tears. Lü Zhengxian, occupying Du Ruhai’s body, taunted him in front of Chen Mo and Zhao Laoqi 115.

Du Yuwei’s death and attempted resurrection

Du Yuwei died in a traffic accident three months before Chen Mo’s investigation. Under Du Ruhai’s identity, Lü Zhengxian married her after her death. Her preserved corpse, bridal room, and the two urns beneath the bed led Seventh Master Zhao to conclude that another seven-death life exchange had begun, apparently intended to resurrect her 27 33 34.

Chen Mo and Meng Yifan feared that they were intended sacrifices. Du Ruhai’s wealth and local influence also made exposing the ritual dangerous: Seventh Master Zhao warned that reporting the room could allow its contents to be removed before the investigators themselves were imprisoned 33 34.

His attachment to his original family also became a point of leverage. When Song Xiaotian threatened to have Lü Jun and his family crippled if Chen Mo or Meng Yifan were harmed, Du Ruhai’s reaction convinced Chen Mo that his relatives were a genuine weakness. Du Ruhai maintained his public composure and argued that a criminal’s relatives should not be implicated 59.

The first ritual and Li Fuguang

Du Yuwei revealed that the first Seven Deaths for a Life had been performed to save the seriously ill son of the man who hired Lü Zhengxian and Li Xiumei. She remembered spending three happy days with Li Fuguang, an abducted eleven-year-old boy, before Lü Zhengxian took him away. He became the seventh sacrifice 92.

Chen Mo later recovered Li Fuguang’s memories of the crime. Lü Zhengxian had seized the boy after knocking his mother unconscious against a tree, while Li Xiumei drove the abduction van. He beat the boy for crying and kept him in the same house as the young Du Yuwei, whom Li Fuguang knew as Xiao Jing. After three days, Lü Zhengxian took him to the ritual site and slit his throat to drain his blood for Chen Mo’s life extension 151.

These memories overturned Chen Mo’s understanding of himself: he recognized himself as the sacrificed Li Fuguang rather than simply the child who benefited from the ritual. Lü Zhengxian’s crimes therefore formed a direct part of Chen Mo’s own recovered past 151.

Club confrontation and Du Ruhai’s death

When An Ning was abducted, Chen Mo concluded that Du Ruhai intended to lure Du Yuwei into a trap. Despite believing the attempt might be fatal, he recruited Li Xiumei’s ghost and accompanied Du Yuwei to the club to rescue her. Both ghosts possessed him as he drove into the club’s entrance 146.

Du Ruhai’s defenses included the Eighteen Venerables, whose arts suppressed Yin Souls. During the rooftop battle, one struck Li Xiumei out of Chen Mo’s body and another destroyed her with a Vajra Pestle. Du Ruhai scattered spirit money and mocked her refusal to reincarnate, blaming her destruction on her determination to take revenge against him 148.

During the final struggle, Du Ruhai survived a stab through the heart because the Evil Buddha was sustaining him. He then stabbed Chen Mo through the shoulder and pinned him down. After recovering Li Fuguang’s memories and witnessing Du Yuwei’s disappearance, Chen Mo attacked him with his teeth and bit him to death before freeing An Ning 151.

Return as Du Yunting

Du Ruhai’s death did not end Lü Zhengxian’s existence. Chen Mo later told An Ning that he was still alive and now used the name Du Yunting. This was another soul-possession identity: Du Yunting was the biological son of Du Rushan, the real Du Ruhai’s younger brother 195 597.

The deaths of Liu Jing and Feng Gang raised suspicions about another ritual. Both victims, like Lü Zhengxian, had been born on the Ghost Festival. After examining the Yin-Gathering Talismans used against them, Seventh Master concluded that Wang Guofu had magically induced their suicides and that Lü Zhengxian had completed another Seven Deaths for a Life, probably with Wang Guofu’s assistance 195 198.

Seventh Master later reasoned that the organization had brought Lü Zhengxian back because Du Ruhai’s sudden death had interrupted its plans to take over Weihai Group. Continuing through Du Yunting allowed the company to pass into the new identity, but left Lü Zhengxian indebted to the organization and increasingly vulnerable to its control. This explanation is presented as Seventh Master’s analysis of their relationship 376.

Conflict with the organization

Although Lü Zhengxian had originally cooperated with the organization, its growing penetration of Weihai Group threatened his wealth and independence. Qingyuan treated him contemptuously and denied that Lü Zhengxian had the standing to give him orders 370 376.

Lü Zhengxian nevertheless rescued Chen Mo from the organization. Seventh Master interpreted the rescue as self-preservation rather than goodwill: keeping Qingyuan’s other enemy alive could obstruct the organization’s efforts to strip Lü Zhengxian of his company and status. Chen Mo explicitly rejected the idea that this made them friends 376.

The conflict became open when Qingyuan retrieved the Sin Domain Map. Qingyuan claimed that almost everyone inside Lü Zhengxian’s company had been replaced by his people and offered Chen Mo the opportunity to kill him. Du Yunting then arrived with more than fifty men, offered a million for Qingyuan’s death, and ordered his men to kill everyone except Chen Mo 398.

Lü Zhengxian later became the subject of a separate hostage rescue after Huang Wenlong captured and tortured him. Du Rushan received video evidence that Du Yunting was alive but badly injured and hired Chen Mo’s group to rescue him in Chongqing, sending more than fifty bodyguards with them. Chen Mo suspected that Huang Wenlong intended revenge and would use the Huang family old residence for the exchange 437.

Public charity and final death

By the time of his university speech, Du Yunting was confined to a wheelchair and publicly presented himself as a charitable Buddhist. He told students that genuine good deeds sought no reward and discussed karma and past lives. Chen Mo and his companions regarded this public image as deeply hypocritical given Lü Zhengxian’s responsibility for numerous deaths 557.

Later, the Ghost Festival birthdays of Xie Guangming’s four quadruplet nieces prompted Chen Mo and Song Xiaotian to suspect another Seven Deaths for a Life plot. They considered Du Yunting a possible perpetrator but could not rule out the organization; the suspicion was not itself confirmation that he had targeted the sisters 590.

Lü Zhengxian’s final confrontation ended with him held at crossbow point by an organization operative. The operative described him as a former collaborator who had turned against those who helped him and then attempted to play the saint. Chen Mo confronted him over his murders, including his manipulation of Chen Guowen into arranging Fang Man’s death and his responsibility for Du Yuwei’s soul scattering 597.

Knowing that death was imminent, Lü Zhengxian asked Chen Mo to tell Du Rushan the truth and convey an apology. Before he could finish speaking, the operative shot a bolt through his neck. Chen Mo stood beside him until he stopped breathing. Du Rushan subsequently collapsed in grief over the body, unaware that both his brother Du Ruhai and his son Du Yunting had been victims of Lü Zhengxian’s possession 597.

Appearance

Descriptions distinguish Lü Zhengxian’s original appearance from the Du Ruhai and Du Yunting bodies he subsequently inhabited 115 195 597.

• Square face — described by Xiao Qing after seeing Li Xiumei’s memories and corroborated by his old ID photograph 25 26.
• Large mole on the right earlobe — another identifying feature from Xiao Qing’s vision; it was not discernible in the black-and-white photograph 25 26.
• Left-handed — a childhood friend recalled that he both ate and wrote with his left hand 50.
• High, protruding cheekbones — Chen Mo later recalls this feature of his original face 363.
• Wheelchair use as Du Yunting — during his university appearance, he described having gone from an able-bodied person to someone confined to a wheelchair 557.

Personality

Song Xiaotian describes Lü Zhengxian as smart, cunning, utterly ruthless, and someone who trusts only himself. His childhood friend remembered a well-behaved boy and expressed surprise that he had become so vicious 50.

His attachment to Du Yuwei is portrayed as obsessive rather than parental. Chen Mo uses that attachment to explain both Li Xiumei’s murder and the later marriage to Du Yuwei’s corpse. At the same time, Du Ruhai’s charitable support for Lü Family Gully suggests that Lü Zhengxian retained an attachment to his family and hometown 33 49 50.

Lü Zhengxian’s own account of his childhood contradicts the benign impression recalled by his friend. He claimed that, at six years old, he cut off another child’s finger after the child refused to share food. According to him, his father praised the attack as evidence that he would become a real man 115.

His cruelty extends to psychological torment. He kept the real Du Ruhai alive in his original body and mocked the helpless man, while his treatment of Li Fuguang included violence intended to stop an abducted child from crying. Chen Mo later recalled that Lü Zhengxian’s lack of restraint and apparently limitless willingness to harm others had been central to his terrifying presence 115 151 423.

After Du Yuwei’s disappearance, his obsession shifted to her identical twin, An Ning. Chen Mo observed that he tolerated repeated humiliation from An Ning without anger and instead displayed an almost slavish devotion, interpreting this as a fixation on the sisters’ shared face 376.

His behavior became more restrained after returning as Du Yunting. Chen Mo and Seventh Master describe a man who, having suffered major setbacks and become vulnerable to the organization, was learning to act more calmly and plan for the long term. His overriding concern remained the preservation of his wealth, status, and independence rather than gratitude toward those who had restored him 376.

Despite his public Buddhist rhetoric, he remained intensely afraid of death. At the final standoff, he trembled and panted while awaiting the crossbow shot, although he understood that his fate was effectively settled. His last request concerned an apology to Du Rushan 557 597.

Abilities & Skills

Soul Possession

Chen Mo initially identifies soul possession as the explanation for Lü Zhengxian’s transformation into Du Ruhai; later discoveries confirm that he took over the businessman’s body 33 114 115.

• Allows him to occupy another person’s body while retaining that person’s socially established identity 33 597.
• Requires the Seven Deaths Life-Swapping Art to support it, according to Seventh Master Zhao 33.
• Initially remains an investigative conclusion that Chen Mo cannot readily prove to police or a court 50.
• His incomplete version requires his original body and the real Du Ruhai’s soul to remain alive. Zhao Laoqi identifies returning Lü Zhengxian’s soul to his own body as a way to bring him to justice 114.
• The real Du Ruhai’s confinement in Lü Zhengxian’s original body demonstrates the continuing existence of both bodies and souls after the takeover 115.
• After Du Ruhai’s death, he continues through possession of Du Yunting, giving him a second stolen identity within the Du family 195 597.

Seven Deaths Life-Swapping Art

Also called the Seven Deaths Life-Exchange Art or Seven Deaths for a Life, this dark ritual sacrifices seven people to compensate for flaws in the fate pattern caused by soul possession 40 122.

• Seventh Master Zhao reasons that Lü Zhengxian must have successfully used it to possess Du Ruhai 33.
• The two urns beneath Du Yuwei’s bridal bed suggest that a new ritual already has victims 34.
• Chen Mo initially suspects the original employer taught Lü Zhengxian the complete procedure. Later revelations establish that Chen Mo’s grandfather taught him an incomplete, deliberately altered version after being intimidated by him 41 114 118.
• His first commissioned series of sacrifices was intended to extend Chen Mo’s life, whereas his later personal use produced soul possession. Both outcomes derive from incomplete versions of the broader art 118 122.
• The shared Ghost Festival births of Lü Zhengxian, Liu Jing, and Feng Gang lead Seventh Master to identify another completed ritual, with Wang Guofu probably acting as an accomplice 195 198.
• Later investigations continue to use Lü Zhengxian’s ritualistic killings as a comparison for possible new forms of Seven Deaths for a Life 646.

Evil Buddha

The Evil Buddha provides supernatural support during the club confrontation 151.

• Sustains Lü Zhengxian in Du Ruhai’s body even after Chen Mo stabs him through the heart 151.
• Can lend power to its summoner, but its own continued manifestation also depends on the summoner. Chen Mo observes it fading as Du Ruhai approaches death 151.
• Does not prevent Chen Mo from ultimately killing Du Ruhai’s body 151.

Wealth and Influence

As Du Ruhai, he has resources that make conventional investigation hazardous.

• His position in Lanjiang City makes efforts to expose him seem overwhelmingly unequal to Song Xiaotian 39.
• Du Ruhai funded new houses and a road in Lü Family Gully, where villagers praised him as a benefactor 49 50.
• His regular stays at Lü Jun’s house elevated the family’s standing with village officials 50.
• His private club provides a base for meetings, confinement, occult activity, and armed defenses 83 114 115 146 148.
• His defenses include the Eighteen Venerables, whose abilities can suppress and destroy attacking Yin Souls 148.
• Qingyuan claims he employs nearly a hundred hired thugs, though only thirty-odd are particularly capable. Du Yunting brings more than fifty men to the confrontation over the Sin Domain Map 398.
• His control over Weihai Group is not absolute: the organization infiltrates the company, and Qingyuan claims to have replaced almost everyone inside it with his own people 376 398.

Power Progression

Relationships

• Li Xiumei — Wife and accomplice in the Qin Island massacre; later his murder victim. Later passages also call her Li Yujiao. Her ghost repeatedly seeks revenge, but she is ultimately destroyed by one of the Eighteen Venerables while attacking his club 16 23 40 118 148.
• Du Yuwei — Adopted daughter and survivor of the massacre; became the focus of his obsession and his posthumous bride. Her memories and diary help reveal his crimes. Chen Mo ultimately holds him responsible for her soul scattering 27 33 66 92 597.
• Lü Jun — Father. Du Ruhai regularly stays with his family. Whether Lü Jun recognizes him as his son initially remains unresolved; Zhao Laoqi later claims to have found confirming letters, but that supposed evidence is exposed as fabricated. Lü Zhengxian’s reaction to threats against the family nevertheless reveals their importance to him 49 50 59 83 86.
• The real Du Ruhai — The businessman whose body and public identity Lü Zhengxian takes over. His soul remains alive in Lü Zhengxian’s original body, confined in the basement and subjected to mockery 33 114 115.
• The real Du Yunting — Du Rushan’s biological son and Lü Zhengxian’s second confirmed possession victim. Lü Zhengxian continues under his name after Du Ruhai’s death 195 597.
• Du Rushan — Younger brother of the real Du Ruhai and father of the real Du Yunting. He arranges efforts to rescue Du Yunting without understanding that Lü Zhengxian occupies his son’s body. Lü Zhengxian asks that an apology be conveyed to him shortly before dying 437 597.
• Chen Guowen / First Case Offender — The initially unnamed employer who hired Lü Zhengxian for the first seven-death ritual to save Chen Mo. He is also implicated in Li Xiumei’s murder. Chen Mo later states that Lü Zhengxian tricked him into arranging Fang Man’s death 40 41 48 66 105 118 597.
• Chen Mo’s grandfather — Helps arrange the original life-extension ritual and later teaches Lü Zhengxian an altered Seven Deaths Life-Exchange Art out of fear of him 114 118.
• Chen Mo / Li Fuguang — Investigator and enemy. Lü Zhengxian abducted and sacrificed Li Fuguang, whose memories Chen Mo later recovers. Chen Mo kills his Du Ruhai body; they subsequently oppose the organization at the same time without overcoming their mutual enmity 151 376 597.
• Meng Yifan — Investigates the connected hauntings alongside Chen Mo and fears that both of them are intended sacrifices in the attempted resurrection ritual 25 33.
• Song Xiaotian — Investigates his identities and challenges his influence. Song Xiaotian uses threats against Lü Jun’s family to deter attacks on Chen Mo and Meng Yifan 50 59.
• An Ning — Du Yuwei’s identical twin and another focus of his obsession after Du Yuwei disappears. She hates him for what happened to her sister; he abducts her during the club conflict and later displays unusual tolerance and devotion toward her 146 195 376.
• Zhao Laoqi / Seventh Master Zhao — Occult adviser whom Du Ruhai employs for resurrection-related matters. Although he appears to betray the investigators, he later explains that he had been working to exploit the flaw in Lü Zhengxian’s possession 86 114.
• Wang Guofu — Feng shui practitioner suspected by Seventh Master of helping Lü Zhengxian complete another seven-death ritual by inducing suicides with Yin-Gathering Talismans 195 198.
• The organization and Qingyuan — Former partners whose assistance in restoring him as Du Yunting increases their leverage over him. Their infiltration of Weihai Group turns the relationship into open conflict 370 376 398.
• Huang Wenlong — Captures and tortures Du Yunting, prompting Du Rushan to organize a rescue in Chongqing 437.
• Fang Man — Chen Mo’s former girlfriend and Song Xiaotian’s sworn younger sister. Although Chen Guowen arranged her death, Chen Mo ultimately identifies Lü Zhengxian’s manipulation as the cause behind it 118 557 597.

Investigation and Major Revelations

---