Tian Bufan

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Campus Investigation

Tian Bufan initially appears as a knowledgeable companion whose understanding of the Campus far exceeds Lin Yi’s. At the Gymnasium, he predicts exactly where Lin Yi will stop, recognizes that their memories of Mao Feiyang are disappearing, and warns against recklessly entering the shifting Teachers’ Offices 44.

He investigates the Campus’s rules, contamination, and layered geography while releasing information to Lin Yi in stages. His explanations cover overwritten cognition, dangerous escape routes, hidden buildings, and the possibility that the Teaching Building unfolds into additional floors 77 78 81. Although Lin Yi repeatedly treats him as someone with advance knowledge, Tian insists that observation and analysis remain necessary and that he is not omniscient 85 108.

His investigations are practical as well as theoretical. To enter a Teaching Building elevator occupied by night-walking species, he recruits an Athlete Student to break their sun-dried outer bodies, repeatedly exposing those underneath until the occupants are destroyed 184.

The Team’s Concealed Operation

Tian eventually reveals that the group entered the Campus with an existing plan. He directs operations, Lin Yi supplies the team’s Inspiration, and Kuai Hongji and Wei Shan handle support and combat. The team has guided Lin Yi’s experiences and intercepted threats while preparing him for its mission 544.

Mao Feiyang’s placement in the Art Building was deliberate: it opened a route into the situation while giving Lin Yi a reason to explore and adapt. Lin Yi’s memories were also altered to make him harder for supernatural beings to understand before that adaptation was complete 544. Tian describes their approach as a “relatively optimal solution” developed through extensive rehearsals and calculations, with the objective taking precedence over individual losses 550.

He later distinguishes the Authorities’ overt mission from the team’s private purpose. Their goals include freeing Difa, the Law-Crafting Master, and gathering companions for a voyage against the Root’s contamination 658 673. He explains the intended solution through the image of a burning book: rather than extinguishing the Root itself, they must tear away contaminated portions of time and dimension so that the remainder can survive 673.

Negotiations with Zero

Tian takes Lin Yi into the Forest of Bones to construct disposable Puppets and approach the Great Serpent, Zero, within a Layer Rift. Zero destroys their first vessels, but Tian treats these losses as the cost of reaching an old acquaintance willing to negotiate 593 594 595.

Their exchange reveals a history of repeated attempts and failures. Tian argues that the Principal’s breakthrough makes the current attempt their best opportunity, while Zero warns that accumulated failures can worsen the plan’s outcome through time itself 596 597.

Art Building and the Principal’s Summoning

Tian accompanies Lin Yi through the Dream Boundary into the Art Building Layer. He helps stabilize Lin Yi’s projected will, obtains concealment from the ancient being beneath the Deep Well, and guides Lin Yi’s use of the Armillary Sphere to perceive the true Starry Night 638 639 642 648.

While Lin Yi searches for the Principal’s Office coordinates, Tian takes over the defense against the High-Rank Alien Angel. The Angel contaminates his Will Body with fleshy eyes and attempts to use his cognition to attack The Starry Night. When removing the eyes proves ineffective, Tian endures the parasitism to buy Lin Yi time 651 652. The contamination subsequently reaches his sleeping body, where Kuai Hongji uses an Old Kerosene Lamp and the words “Day has come. Please open your eyes” to stop his violent struggling and wake him 677.

During the search for the Principal, Tian defends the anchor point in the Gray Fog Sea and explains Guixu’s nature as a gathering place for lost First Apostles. The Principal ultimately appears but warns them to abandon the summoning because he can no longer return 668 671.

Final Sacrifice at Guixu

As the Angel interferes with their route, Tian insists that reaching Guixu is essential: his remaining trump card cannot be used elsewhere. When the Layer Ark can no longer reach it normally, he proposes bringing Guixu to them by shaking the timeline 761.

Once Guixu draws near, Tian restores his memories and tells Lin Yi that their experiences themselves constitute the “book” he has been seeking. He absorbs Guixu’s supernatural power, bids his companions farewell, and invokes the name Supreme Heaven 762.

Tian Bufan then vanishes. The figure that emerges is explicitly the original Supreme Heaven, who had slept within Guixu—not Tian continuing under another appearance. Supreme Heaven subsequently suppresses the First Apostles and declares that their original purpose was to keep everyone alive 762.

Appearance

• Build: Muscular and nearly half a head taller than Wei Shan 575.
• During the High-Rank Alien Angel’s attack: His Will Body loses its normal facial features and develops fleshy eyes across its face and inside its mouth. These are contamination-induced mutations, not permanent distinguishing features 652.
• During his final sacrifice: Star-scar-like cracks spread across his body, exposing brilliant light before he fades away 762.

Personality

Tian places reason above impulse, insisting that rescue requires information and a workable plan rather than determination alone 44. His composure can appear inhuman: Lin Yi imagines him observing a classroom battle like an icy machine, calculating without visible agitation 79. He is openly willing to abandon a dangerous outsider or accept necessary sacrifices—including risks to himself—when the objective demands it 182 550 698.

His curiosity is intense but controlled. Lin Yi finds his desire to investigate unsettling because it resembles contaminated students’ fascination, tempered by unusual reason and focus 76. He also enjoys dry mockery, especially at Lin Yi’s expense, and teases Wei Liang about the secrets behind his relationship with Xia Lian 45 79 731.

Beneath that severity, Tian reassures Lin Yi that the team exists to share burdens and rejects attempts to accelerate his growth recklessly 552 575. His final farewell accepts that their sacrifices may remain unknown, while acknowledging Wei Liang as someone who will remember 762.

Abilities & Skills

Analysis and Tactical Planning

Tian combines behavioral prediction, field investigation, and coordinated operations.

• Predicts Lin Yi’s exact stopping place and arrival time from his habits in unfamiliar environments 44.
• Develops explanations for overwritten cognition, contamination, moving buildings, and concealed Campus Layers 77 81 185.
• Distributes investigations across the team and calibrates Lin Yi’s exposure to danger around his adaptation 544 547.
• Withholds information when disclosure could create conflicting intentions or a time-loop paradox 580.
• Explicitly denies omniscience; his conclusions still depend on available evidence 108.

Cognition and Historical Knowledge

Tian can understand dangerous material that exceeds Lin Yi’s early cognitive limits.

• Discusses the Kerosene Lamps’ ancient history without losing himself; following his impressions nearly overwhelms Lin Yi 45.
• Explains the First Apostles, the Black Moon Cataclysm, Guixu, and distortions within the Codex 551 658 663 668.
• Challenges inherited accounts, including the claim that the Law-Crafting Master killed the First Apostle 642.
• Uses carefully timed explanations to establish what Lin Yi believes he can accomplish, including Will Descent 549.

Dream Boundary and Shared Will

Tian uses the team’s shared contamination and Dreams to communicate, guide, and transfer control.

• Shares memories and information with Mao Feiyang despite his isolation in the Art Building 549.
• Summons Lin Yi through the Dream Boundary while awake; sufficiently strong Layer fluctuations can interfere with establishing contact 592.
• Allows Lin Yi to control his body and projects his own will into disposable Puppets 593.
• Joins Lin Yi’s Perception Sky-Piercing Rope and contains transformation-induced Layer ripples within three meters using the Dream Boundary 638 639.
• Descends into Lin Yi’s carapace to accompany Wei Shan while Lin Yi’s will operates elsewhere 701.

Physical Strength

His physical power is largely concealed until he restrains a berserk Wei Shan.

• Catches the head of Wei Shan’s swinging golden baseball bat 574.
• Throws and pins the enhanced Wei Shan while remaining in his normal state 575.
• Tears bone materials from the Forest of Bones despite grasping limbs trying to restrain him 593.
• Possesses a Golden Skeletal Body and ash-remade flesh comparable to Lin Yi’s physical shell 593.

Layer-Level Defense

Tian can fight and protect others beyond ordinary physical space.

• Uses a cloth banner to collect fleshy-eye mutations torn from his contaminated Will Body, though the Angel immediately regenerates them 652.
• Defends the Gray Fog Sea anchor point with torn pages and enlarged writing arranged around it; repeated impacts from Super Night-Walking Species leave the platform struggling to hold 671.
• Forces a passage through the Wooded Belt’s unified supernatural aura while leading the rescue of Wei Shan 701.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Cloth banner — Used during his defense against the High-Rank Alien Angel to receive contaminated fleshy eyes removed from his Will Body 652.
• Disposable Puppets — Vessels built by Lin Yi from materials Tian gathers, with Tomatoes and supernatural substance supplied by Kuai Hongji; used to approach Zero without risking their original bodies 593 594.
• Butcher’s spinal bone section — Obtained through the Deep Well alliance for protection from the Night Watchman; Tian later leaves his section at the Gray Fog Sea anchor point to guide the Principal 642 701.
• Digital Camera — Used for investigation; Tian reports footage of the Dormitory overturning and later destroys the device inadvertently while taking it across Layers to the Teaching Building’s fifth floor 262 549.

Relationships

• Lin Yi — Teammate and the operation’s source of Inspiration. Tian directs his preparation, shares Dreams and cultivation results with him, and ultimately entrusts him with seizing the final opening 544 593 762.
• Wei Shan — Combat teammate. Tian restrains him during a berserk episode and later leads an urgent rescue to his location 575 701.
• Kuai Hongji — Support and combat teammate entrusted with critical assignments, including Mao Feiyang’s extraction route and operational cleanup 548 575 580.
• Mao Feiyang — Teammate whose Art Building placement forms part of the opening plan. They exchange information through shared memories and alternate defensive duties during the Art Building operation 544 549 651.
• Wei Liang — Companion whom Tian addresses as Celestial Worthy Wei Liang of Fortune and Life. Tian recognizes his role in preserving the memory of their sacrifices, though Wei Liang still keeps secrets from him 597 731 762.
• Zero / Great Serpent — Longstanding acquaintance and negotiating partner familiar with their repeated failed attempts 594 596 597.
• Difa / Law-Crafting Master — Former companion whose release is one of the team’s private objectives 658.
• The Principal — His breakthrough provides new hope for the operation. Tian helps attempt his return and leaves a protective bone at the anchor point to guide him 597 668 701.
• Supreme Heaven — The original being awakened through Tian’s final sacrifice. Tian invokes this as his true name, but the narrative distinguishes the restored Supreme Heaven from the Tian Bufan who vanishes 762.

Notable Quotes

“Impulsiveness robs people of reason. Staying calm is how you solve problems.” 44

“We're a team. There are some things you don't have to shoulder alone.” 552

“Because what we experienced is that book—” 762

“Even if no one ever knows throughout all eternity, that's all right. True heroes have always been lonely and misunderstood by the world.” 762