Wei Xun

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Old Chen, also known as Chen Shigu and the Mound-Raiding General, bought Wei Xun as a child and forced him to learn tomb raiding. His upbringing included repeated beatings; Wei Xun later jokes that he developed his lightness skills to run fast enough to escape his master. Despite being younger than most of the disciples, his exceptional martial ability established him as their eldest senior brother 3 4 35 36.

When Chen Shigu died, he passed his mantle to his second disciple. Wei Xun showed no interest in inheriting it and departed alone with his protective dagger. Thirteenth Son, the youngest disciple, caught up with him and insisted on following him to keep watch during his raids 3.

Wei Xun’s years of searching ancient graves were driven by his congenital cold affliction rather than a desire for riches. He sought a legendary elixir formula but never found it. Having lost hope, he decided to abandon tomb raiding, accept his approaching death, and make Princess Wanshou’s tomb his final venture 3 34.

Wei Xun later explains that his parents were starving when Chen Shigu bought him for ten coins. According to his master’s account, his mother spent one of those coins on malt candy to coax him into leaving. He no longer remembers his parents, but remembers the candy as the sweetest thing in the world. Chen Shigu’s motive was not charity: he recognized in the child the same rare bone structure that made him exceptionally suited to martial arts 81.

Raised at the Setting Sun Courtyard, Wei Xun has no hidden aristocratic ancestry or established household identity. His name originated in his master’s command rather than a family genealogy. Although he ordinarily regards names and birth as unimportant beside demonstrated ability, his love for Baozhu eventually makes him painfully aware of the privileges of men who possess recognized lineage and can openly seek marriage with her 81 191.

Tanlin identifies Chen Shigu as a former successful Presented Scholar Examination candidate and recognizes Wei Xun as his successor through their shared temperament, martial inheritance, and possession of Fish Intestine. Wei Xun also learns that his foundational internal art came from his grandmaster, the Barefoot Daoist 84 88.

Appearance

Wei Xun is a young, lean man whose plain clothing contrasts with his sharp eyes and unrestrained bearing 5 8.

• Build: Upright and graceful, with a narrow waist and nimble, leopard-like movements rather than the heavy build of Baozhu’s former guards 8.
• Eyes: Long, narrow, and piercing; described as shining like lightning 5 36.
• Clothing: Often wears inexpensive green or blue-green cloth, which gives rise to his Green-Robed Wanderer epithet 8 14.
• Complexion and temperature: Frequently pale, with an unnaturally cold body and ice-cold wrists before his cure 35 36 45. After recovery, his temperature remains slightly below ordinary people’s, but he is no longer cold, stiff, or deathlike 217.
• Wedding attire: Wears a vermilion silk-gauze attendant’s robe, a gold-inlaid belt engraved with flowers, and black leather cloud-patterned boots. Baozhu praises the bright color for making his complexion look healthier 51.
• During Baozhu’s abduction: Days without sleep leave his hair loose and tangled, his hands repeatedly stained with blood, and his green robe filthy. His appearance becomes almost unrecognizable beside his former carefree bearing 159.
• Later scars: Suffers extensive torture injuries, including severed hand tendons. After treatment and renewed cultivation, the scars on his forearm are barely visible 210 217.

Personality

Wei Xun is irreverent, proud, and resistant to authority. He openly criticizes the emperor, disregards aristocratic formalities, and dismisses ghosts and gods. His caution does not prevent him from investigating things others fear: inside Wanshou’s tomb, he restrains his anger at the human sacrifices long enough to examine their arrangement before opening her coffin 4 5.

His usual manner is teasing and easygoing, but he becomes cold and threatening when confronting enemies. He takes pride in his lightness skills and refuses to let a grudge survive overnight. Wealth rarely interests him: he ignores priceless grave goods, rejects lucrative offers from fellow tomb raiders, and refuses Qiao Shi’s horses 4 9 14 28 30.

Initially oblivious to romance, Wei Xun develops an attachment to Baozhu that unsettles his confidence. Discovering that he injured her while unconscious leaves him frightened and remorseful. He cannot bring himself to abandon her, and her safety repeatedly takes precedence over pursuing enemies or reclaiming his independence 34 37 50.

His apparent casualness conceals extraordinary discipline, concentration, and resolve. He can master techniques within days that others fail to equal after lifelong practice, and continues training through the night even as his illness approaches its terminal stage 35 185.

Wei Xun regards his promise to escort Baozhu as more important than his own life. He initially suppresses his love because acting on it while she depends on his protection would, in his eyes, exploit her distress. For the same reason, he conceals her possible connection to the Phoenix Embryo rather than let his escort promise appear conditional on receiving a cure 71 188.

His romantic insecurity frequently takes the form of retreat, embarrassment, or exaggerated restraint. When a drunken Baozhu tries to kiss him, his trained reflexes cause him to strike her acupoints unconscious before he can consciously respond. He is horrified by his own reaction and remains torn between desire and the conviction that he must safely return her to her family 141 142.

Baozhu’s abduction exposes a far more desperate side of him. Sleeplessness, rage, and fear drive him to search Luoyang like a madman, yet he can still exercise restraint for her sake: after finding the man responsible for her suffering, he suppresses his urge to kill him because Baozhu has demanded vengeance by her own hand 159 172 176.

After his recovery, he struggles with the desire to take Baozhu away and keep her forever. He eventually recognizes that she neither likes nor is accustomed to a wandering life, while he does not like her aristocratic world. Their later reconciliation rests on honesty about his past, the Phoenix Embryo, and the reasons for his disappearance 210 214 220.

Abilities & Skills

Mirage Step and Lightness Skills

Wei Xun’s Mirage Step supports exceptionally fast, precise movement, including in complete darkness 9.

• Carries the exhausted princess away from Zhongnan Mountain without audible footsteps 4.
• Penetrates the guards around the twenty-zhang Many-Treasures Pagoda 30.
• Crosses rooftops so quickly and silently that he accidentally loses pursuers during a planned diversion 37.
• Carries Baozhu to a second-floor window while supporting their combined weight with one hand hooked beneath the eaves 37.
• Avoids carrying a longsword because it would obstruct running and jumping; he also states that he does not know how to use one 48.
• Is described as peerless in hiding his tracks and concealing his presence; even the guarded imperial palace cannot prevent his coming and going 161.
• Moves around Abbess Duanchen’s defenses so quickly that only supreme experts can barely follow his afterimages 172.

Internal Power and Acupoint Techniques

His internal power is exceptionally profound, and he practices the Mysterious Qi Primordial Art, also described as the Mystic Qi Innate Skill, the foundational method inherited from the Barefoot Daoist through Chen Shigu 27 31 84 210.

• Circulates qi to clear cold-paralysis blockages from his meridians during recovery 27.
• Sustains Baozhu’s remaining breath after rescuing her from the tomb 5.
• Seals servants’ sleep acupoints and immobilizes Huo Qilang with an acupoint strike 28 34.
• Controls his pulse to bewilder visiting doctors 32.
• Carves writing into a wooden tabletop with his finger while reproducing memorized stroke order 31.
• Embeds soft silver coins in a wooden door and copper coins upright in stone paving through barehanded throws 54.
• Forces seven poisoned darts from his back and expels most of their poison. Subsequent treatment requires him to avoid using true qi for two or three days 56.
• Presses a three-inch broken blade silently into a stone pillar while responding to Guanchuan’s unspoken martial challenge 85.
• Revives Thirteenth Son’s stopped heart with carefully moderated palm force, then transmits qi continuously while carrying him at a run—an unusually dangerous feat requiring exceptional control 150.

Close Combat and Dagger Work

Chen Shigu’s lineage trains to kill an enemy in a single stroke. Wei Xun is acknowledged as its strongest martial disciple 12 32.

• Uses his dagger with extraordinary speed and precision, whether preparing food or killing an opponent 12 39.
• Delivers a palm strike that leaves Tuoba Sanniang’s blood and qi in turmoil even after she receives only half its force 50.
• Detects a throwing knife by sound and intercepts it with a bronze mirror before it reaches Baozhu 50.
• Teaches Baozhu to use a stick because her archery alone cannot protect her once an attacker closes the distance 14.
• Has previously gravely injured Tuoba Sanniang when she challenged his position. He permits any fellow disciple capable of defeating him to become eldest senior brother and take Fish Intestine 58.
• Cuts through soldiers’ armor with Fish Intestine and slits more than a dozen throats in moments during the Chengde ambush. Nevertheless, coordinated rotating crossbow volleys prevent even his lightness skills from keeping him uninjured 198.

Sunset Mist-Waves Palm and Remnant Lamp Hand

Chen Shigu created Sunset Mist-Waves Palm, Mirage Step, and Remnant Lamp Hand as his three supreme arts. Every disciple learned at least one of the latter two, but only Wei Xun mastered the profound and obscure palm art 84.

• Sunset Mist-Waves Palm: Contains thirteen forms with innumerable variations. Its force is exceptionally gentle and pure, and its shifting attacks combine with Mirage Step to produce countless approaches 172.
• Mirror Flower, Water Moon: The gentlest palm form. Wei Xun uses two precisely controlled strikes, from the front and back of Thirteenth Son’s chest, to clear blocked meridians and restart his heart 150.
• Eternal Separation of Light and Darkness: Used to threaten Huiding’s throat and draw another member of the White Camel Temple formation into protecting him 172.
• Remnant Lamp at Sunset: A transition into finger-and-claw work that allows him to seize and crush Huijue’s hand, breaking the formation 172.
• Remnant Lamp Hand: A fierce hard finger-and-claw art shared among the Seven Supremes. Wei Xun uses it against the Luoyang kidnappers, departing from his better-known method of killing and taking heads with his dagger 149.
• Emotional resonance: His despair during Baozhu’s disappearance matches the grief and madness in which Chen Shigu created the arts, enabling him to bring them to their utmost pinnacle 172.

Prajna Repentance and Recovery

Prajna Repentance is a Buddhist internal art attributed to Kashyapa. Chen Shigu obtained it after killing a Brahmin monk, but Wei Xun only begins practicing it after losing his martial arts to catastrophic injuries 84 210.

• Thirteenth Son writes the method from memory and explains it line by line while secretly tending Wei Xun during his wake 210.
• Even initial practice strengthens the body and accelerates healing; deeper cultivation can transform tendons, cleanse marrow, and remake the body 210.
• Wei Xun’s prior training and extraordinary comprehension let him progress far faster than an ordinary beginner 210.
• Combined with Zhou Qingyang’s treatment, it helps restore his damaged body and martial power, allowing him to cultivate it alongside Mysterious Qi Primordial Art 210.

Tomb Raiding and Investigation

Wei Xun combines burial knowledge, spatial calculation, stealth, and close observation 4 30 35.

• Infiltrates the imperial craftsmen to learn Wanshou’s burial chamber’s exact shape and position, then tunnels upward into it 4.
• Uses thrown stones and echoes to assess the chamber and locate its crossbow traps 4.
• Recognizes the servants’ bodies as a deliberate ritual formation based on the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches 4.
• Reads qi to pinpoint burial sites, an ability his fellow raiders try to recruit him to use 9.
• Reconstructs a killing from blood patterns and traces on a ceiling beam, helping expose Luo Chengye’s staged death 30.
• Tracks matching hemp paper to the craftsmen’s camp and notices that a supposed funeral lacks genuine mourning 35 36.
• Searches Baozhu’s temple lodging for tunnels, hidden chambers, and mechanisms before allowing her to rest there 80.
• Estimates a corpse’s time of death, recognizes probable drowning, and identifies signs of a painter’s occupation through deformed fingers and pigment beneath the nails 89.
• Recognizes straw concealed in a donkey’s hoof-worn hollow as evidence of a kidnapping decoy, then locates Baozhu’s rouge marks on an upstairs window and deduces that she was taken across the Luo River by water 168.

Breath Control and Suspended Animation

Years of underground work make Wei Xun exceptionally skilled at holding his breath. He can remain without breathing for the time taken by two or three incense sticks to burn, which helps him escape poisonous smoke 55.

His normally slow pulse, pale skin, and icy body make him convincing when he pretends to be a corpse. After the siege-crossbow wound and torture, these same traits obscure the fact that he has entered turtle-breath suspended animation rather than died. Thirteenth Son discovers his survival during the fourth day of the wake and revives him through chest compression and acupoint stimulation 210.

Literacy and Practical Skills

Wei Xun can read but initially cannot write. Baozhu offers writing lessons in exchange for instruction in Spring Code Cant 28.

• Memorizes a poem’s stroke order after watching Baozhu write it 31.
• Understands literary passages quickly despite lacking a formal education 47.
• Has read medical texts and learned enough principles to exploit physicians’ expectations 32.
• Melts identifiable imperial jewelry into gold, keeps meticulous purchase accounts, and selects a bow suited to Baozhu’s dimensions and strength 8 19.
• Mends Baozhu’s torn clothing 44.
• Begins formal brush practice under Baozhu, initially breaking a brush before she guides his grip and assigns a line of poetry to copy one hundred times 61.
• Learns personal grooming through observation. After Baozhu’s captivity, he helps apply and remove her makeup and attempts to comb and arrange her hair for the first time 180 182.

Cold Affliction

• Origin: Initially described as congenital; Wei Xun has suffered attacks throughout his life. Later treatment reveals poisoned blood throughout his body, and the eventual explanation of his cure involves Chen Shigu’s Phoenix Embryo scheme 34 210 220.
• Symptoms: Extreme cold, agonizing pain, numb limbs, paralysis, and unconsciousness 25 27 34.
• Worsening condition: The interval between attacks has shortened, forcing him into hiding before he can finish addressing threats to his companions 27.
• Danger during unconsciousness: His defensive reflexes can injure anyone who touches him. When Baozhu checks his forehead, he seizes her wrist; Thirteenth Son deflects enough force to prevent damage to her bones and tendons 25 34.
• Temporary relief: Warmth, qi circulation, and Baozhu’s pepper-heavy porridge assist his recovery. By the doctors’ visit, his power has returned to seventy or eighty percent 27 28 32.
• Sought cure: He searches for the legendary Penglai Elixir formula. Thirteenth Son later suggests that Baozhu may be the Phoenix Embryo needed to cure him, but at that stage no cure is confirmed, and Wei Xun recoils from treating a living person as medicine 34.
• Poison-related risk: After the wedding ambush, prolonged exertion threatens to drive the remaining toxins deeper into his meridians and trigger cold paralysis 60.
• Zhou Qingyang’s intervention: Near Ye County, his senior martial aunt diagnoses him as close to death. She warns that the potent medicine he has taken merely stirs restless heat, then gives him a phoenix embryo said to prolong his life by another year 185.
• Secrecy toward Baozhu: He withholds the connection between her and the cure because he does not want her to believe that his promise of protection is coercion or a bargain for her body. He later openly objects to the premise that someone of the Li family should be used as medicine 188 196.
• Survival mechanism: His many wounds force poisoned blood from his limbs and bones. Stored medicinal potency from Shangdang Ginseng spreads from his Qihai when he loses control of it, sustaining his last breath and contributing to suspended animation. Zhou Qingyang distinguishes these explanations for his survival from the still-unexplained disappearance of his terminal illness 210.
• Confirmed cure: During his recovery, Zhou Qingyang finds that the fatal cold illness has vanished. By his reunion with Baozhu, his body is only slightly cooler than normal rather than deathly cold 210 217.
• Phoenix Embryo explanation: Baozhu concludes that Chen Shigu concealed an antidote inside a Kṣitigarbha statue at Sweet Spring, a water source used by generations of the Li imperial family. This accounts for the family’s Phoenix Embryo effect without requiring an inherently special bloodline. Wei Xun accepts her explanation after examining the statue and discussing the evidence 220.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Ancient dagger / Fish-Intestine Sword / Rhinoceros Illumination — A roughly eight-inch, gray-black blade with flowing patterns, a rhinoceros-horn hilt, and a bronze-script inscription. Chen Shigu excavated it from a Spring and Autumn or Warring States tomb and shortened the original sword by three inches. Wei Xun describes it as meteoric iron capable of slicing gold and severing jade 7 12 34. Initially unidentified by Wei Xun, it is subsequently established as Fish Intestine, the weapon associated with Zhuan Zhu’s assassination of King Liao. Possession of it carries the symbolic weight of their master’s authority among the disciples 58 84 88 181. Baozhu names it Rhinoceros Illumination when he lends it to her 61.
• Dieliexie Belt — A broad leather belt with hanging straps, rings, and clasps for his dagger, handkerchief, flint pouch, and other necessities 8.
• Tomb-working tools — Uses an iron or steel rod for probing and levering, along with a fire striker and candle for underground exploration 4.
• Ancient bamboo and wooden slips — Keeps a collection filling half a room at Green Micro Temple, estimated by Baozhu to weigh over a thousand jin. He leaves it behind when they depart 8.
• Separate eating knife — Purchased at Baozhu’s insistence so he will stop using his killing dagger to prepare meals 48.
• Groomsman’s clothes — New silk garments supplied by Pang Liangji for his wedding 45.
• Seven-Treasure Glazed Glass Box — Gives this box to Baozhu with the first sprig of osmanthus to bloom that year concealed inside, then pins the blossom in her hair 101.
• Ten gold coins from Baozhu — Presented as payment to buy him back and jokingly called his betrothal gift. He is so moved that he accidentally squeezes the coins out of shape, then carefully wraps and preserves them rather than spending them 140.
• Chen Shigu’s Lacquer Box — Produces his master’s ornate box before Luoyang’s assembled faction leaders during the search for Baozhu, immediately drawing their attention 161.

Relationships

• Baozhu / Princess Wanshou — The princess he rescues and escorts toward Youzhou. Their quarrels develop into trust and affection: she helps treat his illness, forgives his accidental injury to her wrist, and stands ready with her bow to cover his escape during the prison break 4 7 27 37. He suppresses his feelings rather than take advantage of her dependence, but ultimately declares that he loves her for herself, not her imperial status 71 197. She calls them lovers and shares a bed with him, although his restraint means that the intimacy she initially assumes has not actually occurred. He comforts her through nightmares of her captivity 188 189 206. After surviving his apparent death, he conceals his recovery and tries to leave her to her restored life; they later reunite, reconcile, and deepen their love through complete disclosure about the Phoenix Embryo 210 217 220. She subsequently undertakes to pay his debts to his fellow disciples 222.
• Thirteenth Son — Youngest fellow disciple and loyal companion. Follows Wei Xun after their master’s death, keeps watch during raids, cares for him during illness, and mediates his reconciliation with Baozhu 3 25 34. Wei Xun chooses to attempt to save him after his heart stops during Baozhu’s abduction, delaying his pursuit to revive and sustain the boy 149 150. Thirteenth Son later discovers Wei Xun alive during his wake, teaches him Prajna Repentance, secretly nurses him, and carries him to Zhou Qingyang for treatment 210.
• Chen Shigu / Old Chen — Deceased master who bought and trained him, subjected him to beatings, and gave him his dagger 3 4 12 36. Bought him for ten coins after recognizing his extraordinary martial bone structure. Wei Xun inherits his supreme arts and Fish Intestine, although the formal tomb-raiding mantle goes to the second disciple 3 58 81 84.
• Huo Qilang / Huo Qi — Seventh fellow disciple. Helps investigate the paper trail and free Xiagui’s prisoners; Wei Xun is openly impatient with her teasing 34 35 37. Baozhu later proposes sending Huo Qi to serve her brother in Youzhou 72.
• Yang Xingjian — Initially mistakes him for a wicked servant abducting Baozhu. Wei Xun later acknowledges Yang’s loyalty and thanks him for protecting her, though their mutual dislike and class differences persist 21 29. They continue traveling together; Wei Xun’s relationship with Baozhu repeatedly alarms Yang’s sense of propriety. Yang is killed by a cavalryman during the Chengde ambush 189 197 198.
• Pang Liangji — Expelled former sixth disciple and an old acquaintance. Calls in an unspecified debt to secure Wei Xun’s service as his groomsman 44 45.
• Tuoba Sanniang — Third senior sister, known as the Pipa-Tone Demon. Attacks him and Baozhu; Wei Xun explicitly denies any romantic history and describes their relationship as enmity 50. She previously challenged his supremacy and was gravely injured, but later participates with the other disciples in the Luoyang investigation 58 168 172.
• Qiu Ren / Ghost-Hand Vajra — Fourth fellow disciple and physician. Stitches Wei Xun’s poisoned dart wounds, warns him against using true qi during recovery, investigates the Luoyang kidnappers, and helps search for Baozhu 56 149 153.
• Xu Baozhen — Second fellow disciple, who publicly defers to Wei Xun’s judgment during the wedding investigation. Wei Xun warns Baozhu that Xu is calculating and pursues fame and profit, and tells her not to reveal her imperial identity to him 59 61.
• Zhou Qingyang — Senior martial aunt and physician. Gives him a temporary life-prolonging treatment, later repairs his broken bones and severed tendons, and oversees his recovery in the Taihang Mountains. Their exchanges retain his characteristic irreverence even after she saves his life 185 210.
• Tanlin — Abbot who recognizes his master’s weapon and martial inheritance, warns him of Foolishness Poison, and compares his temperament to Chen Shigu’s. Wei Xun initially resents the monk’s insight but accepts that he genuinely knew his master 84 88.
• Guanchuan — Chan’guang Temple’s Karmadana, whom Wei Xun suspects of having been the martial expert Qiu Jiancheng. Their mutual assessment develops into a dangerous confrontation while Wei Xun is wounded and poisoned 85 88 97.
• Liu Mao — Xiagui underworld leader who accuses him of stealing the pearl. Wei Xun holds him responsible for reporting the accusation to the authorities 19 28.
• Bao Lang — An enemy who threatens Baozhu and the party. Wei Xun ultimately kills and decapitates him 35 39.
• Cao Hong — Confesses to abducting the Guanyin Attendants and provokes Wei Xun into a furious attack. He offers no resistance to the fatal palm strike, deliberately using Wei Xun to bring about his death and leaving behind no usable lead 172.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Rescue at Zhongnan Mountain

• Enters Princess Wanshou’s tomb seeking a mysterious object, but abandons the search upon discovering that she is alive 4.
• Carries her to Green Micro Temple and nurses her back to consciousness 4 5.
• Retrieves her after guards assault her at Anhua Gate. His provocative talk with Thirteenth Son helps interrupt her resolve to kill herself 6.
• Agrees to escort her to her elder brother in Youzhou, arranges supplies, and leaves his collection of ancient slips behind 7 8.

Journey through Guanzhong

• Arranges checkpoint passage without requiring Baozhu to accept a slave identity 10.
• Helps expose the staged haunting at Fang Family Mansion and pursues the thief responsible 10 12 13.
• Rejects Qiao Shi’s gifts and begins teaching Baozhu practical close-range defense 14.

Xiagui Pearl-Theft Case

• Disappears during an attack of his cold affliction and is falsely implicated in the pearl theft and Luo Chengye’s apparent murder 18 19 25.
• Returns after recovering enough strength, then investigates the pagoda and murder scene with Baozhu 27 30.
• Locates Luo Chengye alive at Lotus Flower Temple and helps uncover his murder of Monk Miaoxing and staged death 32.
• Traces the theft’s paper trail to Chen Yu and the craftsmen’s camp 34 35 36.
• Frees Thirteenth Son and the other prisoners with Huo Qi, using painted white snakes and a rooftop spectacle to divert the authorities 37.
• Kills Bao Lang, then leaves Xiagui with the party. He gives Baozhu the craftsmen’s lacquer box and crushes the supposed luminous pearl to reveal its counterfeit glass core 39 40.

Lingbao and Jade City

• Reunites with Pang Liangji and agrees to serve as his groomsman in repayment of an old favor 44 45.
• Enjoys hunting with Baozhu and Thirteenth Son, visiting a tomb for pleasure rather than planning to rob it 48.
• Fights Tuoba Sanniang and intercepts a knife aimed at Baozhu. Rather than pursue the fleeing attacker, he stays to reassure the terrified princess 50.
• Intimidates wedding obstructionists by throwing coins into wood and stone. His public identification as the Green-Robed Wanderer astonishes the assembled martial artists 54.
• Faces an ambush in which hidden weapons threaten both the newlyweds and Baozhu. He is subsequently left with seven poisoned darts in his back, expels them, and receives treatment from Qiu Ren 54 56.
• Presides over a gathering of Chen Shigu’s disciples to investigate the disruption of Pang Liangji’s wedding and the bride’s abduction 58 59 60.
• Reluctantly accepts Baozhu’s demand that he rest while she investigates. Lends her his dagger and begins brush-writing lessons under her instruction 61.
• Helps Baozhu reconsider her apparent death as the possible result of harsh medicine, dehydration, and frightened attendants’ failure to care for her, while the haste and ritual details of her burial remain unexplained 72.

Chan’guang Temple

• Protects Baozhu’s lodging by exchanging her assigned room and checking it for concealed dangers 80.
• Tells her about his sale as a starving child, the origin of his name, and the lack of any secret noble lineage 81.
• Receives Tanlin’s warning and a fortune poem containing the names of Chen Shigu’s three supreme arts. Baozhu burns the poem rather than accept its mournful prediction 84.
• Investigates the floating corpse thought to be Wu Guancheng, drawing on physical evidence to establish the dead man’s occupation and probable drowning 88 89.
• While affected by poison, confronts manifestations of Baozhu that expose his buried desire, fear, and violence. A six-armed Heavenly Demoness wearing her face identifies herself as his inner demon 95 97.
• Faces Guanchuan despite wounds, poison, blurred vision, and diminished night sight, concluding that protecting Baozhu requires fighting through the opposition 97.
• After Tanlin’s death, leaves the temple with the others. Gives Baozhu the first blooming osmanthus sprig of the year as they continue toward Luoyang 101.

Luoyang and the Guanyin Attendants

• Receives Baozhu’s ten gold coins as a joking betrothal gift and preserves them as a treasured possession. Defends her when an official’s procession humiliates her in the street 140.
• Rescues her from traffickers posing as an old woman and a pregnant daughter-in-law, declaring her to be his Guanyin 141.
• Accidentally knocks her unconscious with an acupoint strike when she attempts to kiss him while drunk, then struggles with remorse and his growing desire to keep her beside him 142.
• Returns from pursuing a food vendor to find the courtyard devastated, Yang Xingjian injured in the well, Baozhu missing, and Thirteenth Son without breath or pulse 149.
• Chooses to revive Thirteenth Son rather than immediately pursue Baozhu. Restarts his heart and carries him while transmitting qi, but loses crucial time and is misdirected by the abductors’ prepared decoys 150.
• Searches Luoyang’s major factions, steals their guarded treasures, and confronts their leaders at Golden Wave Pavilion. Exposes Wei Xiangrong’s attempt to poison his wife and produces Chen Shigu’s Lacquer Box 159 161.
• Uncovers the straw-filled felt decoy and Baozhu’s rouge marks, concluding that she was carried across the Luo River rather than through the South Market 168.
• Breaks through Abbess Duanchen and the White Camel Temple elders when Cao Hong’s confession and claims provoke him. Fatally strikes Cao Hong, only to discover that the man intended to die and has left a blood-soaked, unusable note 172.
• Rejoins Baozhu at the Prince of Qi’s Residence. Respects her demand to take revenge herself, then breaks open locked gates so imprisoned courtesans and slaves can escape 176.
• Nurses her after captivity and revenge, helping with makeup, daily tasks, and her first attempt at having him arrange her hair. Recognizes that the deeper danger lies in her psychological wounds rather than an external attacker 180 182.

Journey toward Youzhou and the Phoenix Embryo

• Continues escorting Baozhu despite worsening illness and secretly trains through the night. At her urging, seeks Zhou Qingyang’s help near Ye County 185.
• Receives a phoenix embryo that can extend his life for another year, then explains to Baozhu why he concealed her possible connection to his cure 185 188.
• Shares a bed with Baozhu at her insistence but maintains his restraint. Comforts her through nightmares of her captivity, placing tenderness above his own desire 188 189.
• Becomes increasingly conscious of the social gulf separating them and privately wishes that the road to Youzhou would never end 191 192.
• Rejects the idea that her bloodline makes her an acceptable medicinal ingredient and openly declares that he loves Baozhu herself, not her title 196 197.
• Fights hundreds of Chengde soldiers in a coordinated ambush. Yang Xingjian is killed, Thirteenth Son is struck down, and Baozhu is captured. Wei Xun takes an officer hostage but discovers that he is a decoy; a concealed siege crossbow fires through both men 198.

Apparent Death and Martial Rebirth

• Is laid out for a seven-day wake after catastrophic injuries and torture. On the fourth day, Thirteenth Son discovers signs of life and revives him from suspended animation 210.
• Asks Thirteenth Son to conceal his survival from Baozhu, believing she should return to her own world and release her attachments 210.
• Begins Prajna Repentance during the wake. Thirteenth Son secretly tends him inside the coffin when Baozhu insists on taking it to Youzhou 210.
• Is carried to Zhou Qingyang in the Taihang Mountains, where she repairs his bones and tendons and confirms that his cold illness has disappeared 210.
• Recovers for two months, reopens his meridians, and begins combining his original internal art with Prajna Repentance. Leaves the mountain with Thirteenth Son, torn between releasing Baozhu and taking her away again 210.

Reunion and Resolution of the Phoenix Embryo Mystery

• Follows Baozhu and her brother from Youzhou to Chang’an, spending months overcoming the desire to steal her away from her restored life 214.
• Returns intending to make a proper farewell. Baozhu examines his arm and confirms both his survival and his physical recovery 217.
• Reconciles with Baozhu and tells her everything about Chen Shigu’s plot and the Phoenix Embryo. Their shared adversity and honesty strengthen their relationship 220.
• Meets her during the winter holidays at Huaqing Pool, then examines the Kṣitigarbha statue at Sweet Spring. Accepts her explanation that a hidden antidote in the imperial water supply created the Phoenix Embryo effect 220.
• Exchanges kisses with Baozhu among the apricot blossoms as they return toward Chang’an 220.
• Invites his fellow disciples to collect debts that Baozhu has decided to pay on his behalf, teasing them into entering her elaborate curtained enclosure despite their suspicions 222.

Notable Quotes

“Robbing tombs already carries a death sentence. I have no parents or family for him to punish along with me. What can he do, kill me twice?” 5

“I wear green because green cloth is cheapest. I spend every day burrowing through grave dirt and drinking dead people's wine. What's pure about that?” 14

“If rescuing one person won't do, we'll simply release every prisoner. Stir up such a huge mess that they won't have time to worry about anyone.” 35

“You are the only Guanyin in my heart.” 182

“In my eyes, that title of Princess only dims her brilliance. I love her for herself, not for her bloodline or status!” 197

---