Fang Xiu

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Fang Xiu was an orphan whose benefactor’s financial support, combined with his own efforts, enabled him to enter a prestigious university. He transmigrates into a parallel-world counterpart with the same name, a similar age, and an almost identical appearance. Unlike him, this counterpart could not afford to finish high school and became a real estate salesperson 1.

The original owner’s memories contain no wife or girlfriend. Nevertheless, Fang Xiu awakens to a woman calling him her husband and a blood-red warning on the ceiling: “Never let them know you can see.” His inability to reconcile her presence with those memories leads him to question her identity, revealing that he can see her 1.

Appearance

Fang Xiu closely resembles his parallel-world counterpart 1.

• Fair skin: Blood on his face creates a striking contrast during his confrontation with Wang Ziteng 20.
• Emotionless gaze: After eighteen deaths, his eyes appear deathly still, concealing intense hatred and madness 4.
• Awakened Spirituality: A faint black light flashes in his eyes when his Spirituality first ignites 21.

Personality

Repeated deaths transform Fang Xiu from a frightened newcomer into a cold, revenge-driven Ghost hunter. His wife’s killings push him through panic, despair, and madness before hatred restores his ability to reason. His outward composure conceals an obsession with making Ghosts suffer the pain they inflicted on him 2 4 21.

He values efficiency over politeness and readily uses coercion, deception, or sacrifice to achieve his goals. After Wang Ziteng and Wu Dahai betray him, he deliberately incapacitates them so the Female Physician will kill them instead of pursuing the others. He later uses Yang Ming’s embarrassing secret to obtain Spirit Coins 6 19 20 49.

Fang Xiu recognizes that he is losing ordinary human emotions, but does not want to abandon every remaining connection. Although he says he no longer feels gratitude, he remembers Zhao Hao’s loyalty and tries to help him. That loyalty has a firm limit: he would kill Zhao Hao if his friend joined the Ghosts and urged him to betray humanity 20 46.

His refusal to join Ghosts and ambition to kill every Ghost pass the Bureau’s lie-detector assessment. Shen Lingxue interprets these answers as exceptional virtue, while his own reasoning centers on hatred and repeated attempts to find a Ghost’s weaknesses 39 40.

Abilities & Skills

Death Rollback

Fang Xiu’s death reverses events to an earlier return point while leaving him with memories of the discarded timeline. He regards it as an ability possessed since transmigration, separate from his awakened Spirituality 2 12.

• Trial-and-error survival: Repeated deaths let him identify safe routes and memorize attacks. After nine rollbacks, he can evade the Female Physician’s pursuit with movements that appear predictive 23.
• Changing return points: His initial return point is his bedroom; later returns place him beside the Female Physician, outside his front door, and at the Investigation Bureau. He theorizes that checkpoints change between events, but does not establish a definitive rule 2 16 29 45.
• Deliberate activation: He uses the Scalpel to kill himself when he needs to reset a failed attempt or escape a dream 26 45.
• Pain remains consequential: Rollback does not spare him the experience of dying. Those memories reshape his personality and supply the suffering used by his Pain ability 4 21.
• Changed outcomes: Knowledge from a discarded timeline allows him to prevent Bai Qi’s fatal ambush by warning Yang Ming beforehand 43 45 48.

Ghost Perception

Fang Xiu sees and hears anomalous beings that ordinary people—and even other Spirit Tamers—do not perceive 6 32 33 38.

• Sees Ghosts throughout the city while pedestrians remain unaware of them 6.
• Perceives Green Mountain Psychiatric Hospital before it physically overlaps with the sales office 7 13.
• Sees his wife while Shen Lingxue and Li Wenhao see only empty space 33.
• Suspects that acknowledging certain unseen Ghosts allows them to enter reality and attack. He avoids revealing his awareness until prepared to confront them 4 6 33 35.

Pain

His Heart’s Reflection Power transmits his own experienced suffering to an attacked target. His pitch-black Spirituality contains both physical pain from death and mental pain associated with negative emotions 21.

• Stored suffering: His first test carries the pain accumulated through twenty-one deaths 22.
• Potential growth: He expects the ability to become more dangerous as further deaths add to his accumulated suffering 22.
• Defense limitation: His punch makes the Female Physician roar and tremble, but her defenses resist the transmission and prevent the full effect from reaching her 22.
• Spirituality cost: That first attack exhausts his entire one-percent Spirituality reserve 22.
• Weapon synergy: He intends to use the Scalpel to pierce Ghost defenses before delivering Pain. His expectation of a one-hit kill is a strategy, not a demonstrated universal result 23.

Enhanced Senses and Body Control

Awakening Spirituality sharpens all five senses, improves thinking and neural reaction speed, and greatly increases control over his existing body 21.

• Can mobilize over eighty percent of his muscles, compared with the roughly forty percent described for an ordinary person 21.
• Retains these awakening-related enhancements after exhausting his usable Spirituality 22.
• Remains physically outmatched by the Female Physician; enhanced running speed alone cannot escape her 22.

Resistance to Fear and Mental Contamination

Repeated deaths leave Fang Xiu unusually resistant to supernatural terror and invasive negative emotions 5 7 22 35.

• The Nightmare’s fear-based dream fails to frighten him; the apparent disappearance of Ghosts instead causes despair over losing his opportunity for revenge 24 25 26.
• Withstands the resentment, bloodlust, and despair within the Scalpel while establishing a connection to its core 35.
• Remains composed under Yang Ming’s Third-Tier Spirituality pressure, which he considers insignificant beside the Ghosts above the sky 43.
• Believes the Scalpel cannot further twist his already distorted mind, but still recognizes that its strengthening function may overwhelm his body 35.

“Future Prediction” Cover Ability

Fang Xiu presents knowledge gained through Death Rollback as Future Prediction, rather than revealing how he actually obtains it 28.

• Uses the claim to increase his recruitment value and obtain resources for growing stronger 28.
• Conceals his real abilities because he fears that possessing multiple unusual powers could invite experimentation 28.
• Demonstrates foreknowledge through staff movements, personal information, Bai Qi’s ambush, and the lottery result 36 45 48 49.
• Tells Wang Dehai that prediction causes mental strain and reaches only seconds to days ahead; these are claims made under his cover identity 47.
• The Bureau accepts Future Prediction internally but describes his ability to outsiders as perception 49.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Scalpel: A Ghost Artifact taken from the Female Physician. It was used in experiments on Ghosts and carries powerful accumulated contamination 22 35.
  • Its cutting strength increases with the Spirituality injected into it 35.
  • After binding its core, Fang Xiu can draw on its contained Ghost power to strengthen himself, at the cost of substantial bodily strain and normally severe mental risks 35.
  • Without Spirituality, it fails to cut the Female Physician’s neck 22.
• Two hundred Spirit Coins: Obtained from Yang Ming in exchange for keeping his laxative prank against Bai Qi secret. Fang Xiu considers selling them to fund forum information or using them toward a small, sharp secondary weapon 49 50.

Relationships

• His “wife” — An unnamed Ghost, not a spouse recorded in his host’s memories. Her eighteen initial killings make her the central target of his revenge; his later Scalpel attack fails before he can strike her 1 4 29.
• Zhao Hao — Coworker and close friend who defends him against Wang Ziteng. Fang Xiu helps him pursue Spirituality awakening and repeatedly attempts to save him from the Nightmare 18 20 27 28.
• Shen Lingxue — Bureau investigator who initially doubts his claims. After accepting his apparent prediction ability, she is assigned to guide his onboarding and protect its secrecy 38 45 49.
• Li Wenhao — Bureau investigator who explains Ghosts and Spirit Tamer ranks, then becomes convinced by Fang Xiu’s demonstrations of foreknowledge 32 33 45.
• Wang Dehai — Director of the Green Vine City Investigation Bureau. Tests Fang Xiu’s claims, recruits him, and arranges confidentiality measures around his strategic value 38 49.
• Yang Ming — Bureau captain whom Fang Xiu warns about Bai Qi’s ambush. Fang Xiu subsequently extorts him using a secret learned in the discarded timeline 43 45 48 49.
• Bai Qi — Spirit Tamer whose death Fang Xiu prevents indirectly through Yang Ming; Bai Qi survives with serious injuries 45 47 48.
• Zhou Qingfeng — Author of a letter directing Fang Xiu to Room 520 in Building C to learn the truth about the world 10.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Escape from His Wife

Fang Xiu discovers Death Rollback after his wife kills him for seeing her. Attempts to avert his gaze, close his eyes, flee, and fight all fail. After eighteen deaths, he finally suppresses his reactions enough to ignore her and leave home. Outside, he discovers that the city is filled with unseen anomalous beings 2 3 4 5 6.

Green Mountain Psychiatric Hospital

His search for answers leads to a hospital superimposed over Hundred Willows Academy. Once its Ghost Domain becomes physically real, he guides the trapped employees through looping stairs and lethal corridors. Betrayed by Wang Ziteng and Wu Dahai, he sacrifices them to buy time, awakens Spirituality through contact with the Female Physician, and takes her Scalpel 7 10 13 17 19 20 21 22.

Repeated rollbacks bring him to the emergency exit, where the Nightmare traps the survivors in dreams. Fang Xiu identifies the deception through an inconsistency involving Li Feifei’s silicone implants. His immunity to fear protects him, but rescuing Zhao Hao requires repeated attempts and a distraction strong enough to counter the dream’s terror 23 26 27.

Investigation Bureau Recruitment

Fang Xiu markets his rollback-derived knowledge as Future Prediction. When his initial lottery prediction fails, he kills himself, returns with knowledge of the result, and repeats events carefully to avoid changing them. He also warns Yang Ming in time to save Bai Qi 28 45 48.

The correct lottery result secures his recruitment and requested benefits. Wang Dehai orders his apparent prediction ability kept confidential, selects Prophet as his codename for a planned S-rated talent report, and assigns Shen Lingxue to show him the ropes 49.

Notable Quotes

“No one gets to kill me eighteen times and get away with it! No one!” 4

“As expected, weakness and ignorance are not barriers to survival, arrogance is.” 38

“Kill every ghost in the world.” 39

“I have traveled between the future and the past countless times, witnessed death and rebirth, and experienced infinite possibilities. To me, the future is merely a toy I can observe and alter at will.” 40