Shi Zhao

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Reincarnation and adoption

Shi Zhao is born into Martial King Manor during Chaotic Antiquity. After recovering memories of a previous life, she recognizes the world and the disasters awaiting its inhabitants. With both biological parents dead, she initially relies on her own household and the clan’s support 1.

Her performance at the medicinal-bath baptism draws Shi Zhongtian’s attention. He adds valuable resources to her bath and instructs Shi Ziling and Qin Yining to treat her as their own daughter. Qin Yining subsequently guides her cultivation personally 2 3.

Attempt to prevent the Supreme Bone tragedy

Knowing the danger surrounding Shi Hao, Shi Zhao tries to influence Shi Yi without condemning him for events that have not happened. She gives him an ordinary childhood alongside his cultivation, encourages confidence in his double pupils, and teaches him to form his own principles 1 3 4.

When Shi Ziling and Qin Yining leave to search for Shi Zhongtian, she becomes Shi Hao’s principal caretaker. She moves him into Fourth Grandfather’s secluded residence and keeps him there, away from Shi Yi’s mother. Shi Hao learns to call her “sister” before he learns to address his parents 5.

Her precautions fail after his parents return. Shi Yi’s mother abducts the boys and extracts Shi Hao’s Supreme Bone. Shi Zhao later awakens with an incomplete Supreme Bone forcibly implanted in her own body; although physically unconscious during the grafting, her spirit witnesses it. She resents having her wishes ignored and resolves never again to be so powerless 6 8 11.

She directs Shi Hao’s parents toward the true Ancestral Land, believing it can provide both recovery and a safe upbringing. Remaining at Martial King Manor, she gains access to the royal Scripture Temple and turns her attention toward cultivation 8 9.

Wilderness travels and Stone Village

Before leaving the capital, Shi Zhao meets Shi Yi again. He accepts responsibility for his mother’s remaining karmic debt and proposes a future battle. Shi Zhao insists that the dispute between him and Shi Hao belongs to the two boys, then takes him exploring the Void God Realm 13 14.

After traveling through the Stone Kingdom and surviving more than a hundred wilderness battles, she visits the Second Ancestral Land. She names its adopted, previously unnamed child Shi Qingfeng and takes him away with her. Accompanied by Qingfeng and A Man, she reaches Stone Village and reunites with Shi Hao 15 16.

She chooses not to bring Shi Hao back to the capital. Instead, she settles in the village, teaches Bone Text, prepares medicinal baths, and helps him develop his techniques. She also recognizes the village’s five Ancient Alchemy Recipes as a priceless clan inheritance 17 19 20 23.

Defense of the village and the Mountain Treasure

Shi Zhao kills Bei Village’s Old Warg after its people injure Stone Village hunters. Later, when visiting clans threaten Shi Hao and the village, she fights alongside the Willow Deity, killing fleeing leaders and remaining attackers 20 24 26.

During the wilderness calamity, the Willow Deity sends her away with the Black Cauldron and relocates Stone Village. Shi Zhao abandons her plan to wait for the competing Venerables to exhaust themselves when the Heaven-Swallowing Sparrow threatens to devour tens of millions of people. Fighting as a detached Primordial Spirit, she attacks its sea of consciousness and forces it to flee, though the battle weakens her own spirit 28 29 30.

She subsequently obtains the Mountain Treasure and opens it to discover the Supreme Hall’s legacy, including the Six Paths of Reincarnation Heavenly Art. On her journey home, she finds the crippled, memoryless Zhu Yan and brings him to Shi Hao as a gift 32 33 34.

Return to the Stone Kingdom

After reaching ten Cave Heavens, Shi Zhao studies how to reshape them rather than immediately advancing to the next realm. She returns to the Stone Kingdom with A Man and Qingfeng, administers precious medicines to Qingfeng’s aged grandfather, and later brings him to the Imperial Capital 34 38 44.

In the Void God Realm, she steals Lord Bird’s Five-Colored Bird temporarily and sets a long-distance running record while being chased. She also completes the Primordial Furnace Spirit-Tempering scripture and tricks Lord Bird and the old Essence Jade man by weaving a story around their former identities 40 41.

After Rain Clan members approach the Second Ancestral Land, she disguises herself and raids the clan’s frontier holdings. In the capital, she exchanges the complete Ancient Alchemy Recipes for the medicines needed to exceed the Cave Heaven Realm’s limits. The Stone Emperor offers adoption and the throne, but she declines to become Empress 42 43 44 45 46.

Her conflict with the Rain Clan escalates after an auction. She holds Yu Zimo captive, confronts the clan’s rescuers, and has the Imperial Guard imprison those attacking her. After reconnecting with the Sixteenth Princess, she leaves A Man and Qingfeng to cultivate and goes to investigate Shi Yi’s arena 47 48 49 50.

Appearance

• Childhood: Fair, delicate features compared to carved jade or a porcelain doll; initially has silky, ear-length hair 1.
• Later appearance: Long, lustrous black hair, large bright eyes, long upturned lashes, and a tall, slender figure. Before turning ten, she already resembles a girl in her teens 13 15.
• Distinctive mark: Seven tiny red, birthmark-like spots in her left palm, capable of moving into a star formation 1 10.
• Cultivation effects: Crystalline flesh, bones glimmering with starlight, and eyes described as resembling a river of stars 11 12.
• Documented clothing: A pale jade-green dress embroidered with small runes during her visit to Cloudsurge Town 15.

Personality

Shi Zhao is playful, irreverent, and fond of teasing younger companions. She pinches Shi Yi’s cheeks, drags him into fishing and nest-raiding adventures, and treats his prodigious status with little ceremony. Their bond develops partly because she treats him naturally rather than flattering or fearing him 1 3.

Her affection does not mean indulgence. She dotes on Shi Hao but refuses to let him neglect cultivation, encourages independent exploration of techniques, and exposes him to the wilderness’s dangers when she realizes that excessive sheltering would hinder him 20 22.

The Supreme Bone incident makes her more composed and intensely self-demanding. She accepts painful training and repeated injuries as the price of gaining control over her life. Her ambition eventually extends beyond personal advancement to creating a new cultivation path 8 9 11 34.

Her compassion is selective but genuine. She normally helps strangers only when she can avoid needless danger, yet intervenes when the Heaven-Swallowing Sparrow threatens mass slaughter. Against enemies, she can be cold and lethal, though she stops short of indiscriminate killing after eliminating the key attackers 22 26 28.

Abilities & Skills

Seven Stars in the Palm

The seven-star mark originates from the Tattered Cloth in her sea of consciousness rather than being an independent bodily trait 1.

• Draws mysterious power from heaven and earth, particularly starlight, to strengthen her body 3.
• Assists rapid absorption of medicinal essence during baptism 2.
• Produces star-associated radiance and force; her palm shatters beams released by Shi Yi’s awakened double pupils 5.
• Large-scale starlight refinement is dangerous enough to tear through sinews and bones 11.

Primordial Spirit and spiritual perception

Her Primordial Spirit greatly exceeds what her physical cultivation would normally support. Even in the Blood Moving Realm, it approaches tangible form 6.

• Perceives nearby surroundings without relying on eyes or ears and gradually nourishes her physical body 9.
• Can leave her body and fight independently, with the Tattered Cloth stabilizing it 28 29.
• Possesses power comparable to a Venerable’s spirit, but lacks the matching cultivation realm needed to sustain an equal prolonged fight 29.
• Enters the Heaven-Swallowing Sparrow’s sea of consciousness to attack its spirit directly 30.
• Uses the Primordial Furnace Spirit-Tempering scripture to purify spiritual sense; development toward a heavenly eye is documented, but its complete opening is not 41.

Primordial Spirit Cave Heaven

Her unusual first Cave Heaven opens within her sea of consciousness and connects to the Tattered Cloth’s technique-imprint world 12.

• Allows a portion of her spirit to battle manifested beasts and study the essence of their Precious Techniques 12.
• Serves as a gateway during her spirit battle with the Heaven-Swallowing Sparrow 30.
• Remains nascent after her Cave Heaven Realm reconstruction; further perfection requires later cultivation 46.

Bian Precious Technique

A kingdom-guarding divine ability of the Stone Kingdom. The royal record lacks some runes, but her studies and the Tattered Cloth yield the supreme heaven-tier technique 9 10.

• Manifests a golden Bian for direct attacks 10 13.
• Resonates with Stone Village’s bloodstained Ancestral Artifact, enabling her to kill the Old Warg 20.
• Combines with the Bian Battle Spear to break the Heaven-Swallowing Sparrow’s demonic feather furnace 29.

Suanni Precious Technique

Shi Zhao possesses the flawless, pure-blooded Suanni method rather than merely the descendant technique displayed in the royal temple 9 10 30.

• Generates and controls powerful lightning 22 30.
• Damages an enemy’s Primordial Spirit through lightning attacks within its sea of consciousness 30.
• Gives her confidence against the Rain Clan’s comparatively inferior lightning techniques 43.

Six Paths of Reincarnation Heavenly Art

Recovered from the Mountain Treasure, this heavenly art governs the use of other techniques rather than functioning as an ordinary Precious Technique 32.

• Activates six techniques together, merging and stacking their power 32.
• Successfully combines five ferocious-beast techniques with the Grass Character Sword Art 36.
• Initially exceeds what her low realm can fully comprehend; later, the Willow Deity praises her rapid mastery 32 35.
• Its combined attacks can exceed her body’s tolerance, leaving her badly injured 36.

Grass Character Sword Art

One of the Supreme Hall’s prized inheritances and one of the world’s three greatest sword arts. It is her first acquired Precious Technique of the Ten Fiends 35 36.

• Manifests nine silver, sword-like grass leaves 36.
• Releases exceptionally sharp sword light capable of cutting a deep fissure through the earth 36.
• A combined strike using it and the Six Paths art erases a mountain forest, but badly wounds her arm 36.

Other techniques and practical skills

• Peacock Precious Technique: An early specialty taught by a Martial King Manor elder; produces colored wings for flight and Five-Colored Divine Light for attacks 6 9 16 22.
• Immortal Silkworm Precious Technique: Conceals her presence sufficiently to infiltrate guarded Rain Clan holdings 43.
• Sacrificial Spirit Dance: Taught by the Willow Deity as a means of calling upon her; later evolves within one of Shi Zhao’s reshaped Cave Heavens 36 46.
• Additional technique repertoire: Her reconstructed Cave Heavens also evolve True Hou, Azure Luan, Bifang, and Golden Cicada techniques 46.
• Disguise and formations: Reshapes her bones, flesh, appearance, and bearing; conceals her aura with runes and establishes soundproofing formations 42 44.
• Medicine and teaching: Prepares high-potency medicinal baths, heals injured villagers, identifies valuable ingredients, and teaches Bone Text 19 20 23 38.
• Primitive True Understanding: Studies the village’s treasured bone to deepen her understanding of cultivation and Cave Heaven reconstruction 22 38.
• God-Striking Stone traces: Finds remnants in the Imperial Palace, but they are insufficient to reconstruct even a fragmentary move 50.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Tattered Cloth — Mysterious fragment in her sea of consciousness. Bears the seven star marks, strengthens and stabilizes her spirit, records technique imprints, and unlocks a beast-combat training world 1 10 12 29 35 47.
• Incomplete Supreme Bone — Forcibly implanted in her body. She deliberately prevents complete merging and uses its painful effects to temper herself; Fourth Grandfather fears it is consuming her blood essence 8 11.
• Bian Battle Spear / Golden War Spear — Divine Artifact refined from a Bian horn, secretly bestowed by the Human Emperor and blessed by the Willow Deity 28 29.
• Suanni-bone Magic Sword — Divine Artifact left by the Stone Emperor during her Cave Heaven baptism, complementing her Suanni method 46.
• Purple-Gold Great Hammer — Fourth Grandfather’s weapon; used in her defense of Stone Village 21 24 26.
• Big Peng Treasure Bow and Roc Feather Arrows — Used to kill Purple Mountain Marquis and the old wolf as they flee the Willow Deity 26.
• Black Tortoise Shield — Protective artifact bestowed by her clan; blocks the Rain Clan’s lightning attacks 21 43.
• Black Cauldron — Used for medicinal baths, sheltering her body while her spirit fights, carrying companions, and transporting the Mountain Treasure 23 28 32 44.
• Royal Medicine Cauldron — Used for preparing food and medicine; an ancient treasury cauldron later helps brew her Cave Heaven Realm baptism medicine 19 21 45.
• Black-Gold Short Knife — Used to extract the old Suanni’s treasure bone 23.
• Mountain Treasure Bone Box — Contains the Supreme Hall’s inheritance, including the Six Paths art and the beast hide concealing the Grass Character Sword Art’s silver metal page 32 35.
• Six Paths Reincarnation Disk fragment — Enters her sea of consciousness but cannot approach her spirit; instead settles in one of her Cave Heavens 33.
• Starstone — Acquired at the Bone Gu Auction House 47.

Relationships

• Shi Hao — Younger brother through her adoptive family and the child she raises during his parents’ absence. She seeks him out after his exile, teaches him, and becomes the most important person in his early life 2 5 16 20 34.
• Shi Yi — Younger cousin whom she regards as a brother. Their childhood affection survives the Supreme Bone incident, though the resulting debt and family divisions complicate their relationship 1 3 13 14 48.
• Shi Ziling and Qin Yining — Raise her as their daughter at Shi Zhongtian’s request. Qin Yining teaches her cultivation; their failure to protect Shi Hao and disregard for her wishes during the bone grafting cause deep hurt 2 3 6 8.
• Shi Zhongtian / Fifteenth Master — Early benefactor who provides baptism ingredients, cultivation resources, and a family to care for her 2 4.
• Fourth Grandfather / Fourth Great Elder — Guardian and protector after the Supreme Bone incident. Supports her training and travels, lends resources, and worries about her position between the two boys 8 11 14 15 48.
• A Man — Attendant and trusted traveling companion. Accompanies her into the wilderness and remains emotionally close to her 1 16 23 34.
• Shi Qingfeng — Child she names and takes from the Second Ancestral Land. Travels with her and receives her protection and cultivation support 15 16 38 50.
• Shi Yunfeng — Stone Village’s chief and her ally in caring for its children. Entrusts her with the village’s Ancestral Artifact and the Primitive True Understanding 19 20 22.
• Willow Deity — Protector and mentor who recognizes her unusual existence, blesses her weapon, heals her, and teaches her the sacrificial dance 18 29 36.
• Stone Emperor / Human Emperor — Royal patron who names her Princess Zhaoyang, supplies medicine and Divine Artifacts, and offers her the throne. Later sends the Imperial Guard to intervene in her Rain Clan dispute 11 29 45 46 49.
• Sixteenth Princess — Familiar younger companion whom she affectionately calls “little Sixteen” and teases when they reunite 50.
• Shi Yi’s mother and the Rain Clan — Sources of hostility surrounding Shi Hao’s bone theft. Shi Zhao opposes the mother’s influence and later raids and confronts the Rain Clan 4 5 6 43 49.
• Yu Zimo — Rain Clan prodigy held captive during Shi Zhao’s capital confrontation. Shi Zhao proposes keeping her as a servant, but later instructs A Man to refuse a Rain Clan woman seeking to follow her 48 49 50.
• Lord Bird and the old Essence Jade man — Targets of her Void God Realm pranks and deception. Her references to their former identities appear to stir genuine memories 40 41.

Notable Quotes

“Karma was nothing to fear, and destiny was nothing to put faith in. Having lived again, she ought to follow her heart!” 1

“Yes, at first it was deliberate. But afterward, I came to regard you as my own little brother. There was nothing false about that.” 13

“The karma between you two is yours to settle. That child will return sooner or later. When that day comes, I'll watch the battle.” 14

Trivia

• Her measured strength of 129,600 jin matches the number of years in one cosmic cycle 11.
• She recalls being three years older than Shi Yi, who is himself three years older than Shi Hao 1.
• The Willow Deity questions whether she belongs to the current ancient history, but qualifies the observation rather than giving a definitive explanation 18.
• Despite teaching her the sacrificial dance, the Willow Deity postpones teaching her own method until Shi Zhao is strong enough to learn it 36.