Chen Heng

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Previous life and rebirth

In his previous life, Chen Heng spent six years bedridden in a hospital after being abandoned by his parents. He died on the night before Lunar New Year’s Eve and awakened in another world, bringing with him the Golden Cicada he had found as a child 1 2.

His new body belonged to a young man of the same name from the Chen Clan. Despite being born outside a formally arranged marriage, the original Chen Heng received a wealthy upbringing, instruction from renowned teachers, and fine horses and clothing. His beauty made him famous throughout the Rong Kingdom 2.

The original Chen Heng’s captivity

Yan Zhen of the Mysterious Truth Sect tried to make the original Chen Heng her kept lover. When he refused, she used the sect’s power to pressure his family. He attempted suicide by throwing himself into a well, but servants rescued him. Yan Zhen then stationed two hundred Daoist warrior retainers at the Chen estate and placed him under constant supervision 2.

Chen Ze proposed exploiting Chen Heng’s devotion to his chronically ill mother. Yan Zhen gave her pills that appeared to restore her health, persuading Chen Heng to accompany her to Little Sweet Mountain. The pills actually forced her remaining vitality into a temporary recovery; she died three months later. After learning of her death, Chen Heng became despondent and was watched closely to prevent another suicide attempt 2.

Yan Zhen appointed him Chief Musician of the Hall of Joyful Virtue, a position and institution created specifically to please him. Despite his honored status, he remained confined and subject to her whims 1.

Inheriting a dying body

Xu Sai, the Rogue of the Western Sea, killed Yan Zhen during an ambush. Chen Heng’s older clan cousin pushed him aside and saved him from the fatal sword strike, but Cold Dipper True Qi still invaded his organs. Yan Zhen’s father, Yan Feichen, subsequently sentenced him to one hundred days in a freezing water prison 1 2 11.

The original Chen Heng died after two months of imprisonment. The reborn Chen Heng survived the remaining forty days and emerged determined to preserve his life, escape Yan Feichen’s reach, and pursue immortality 2.

Appearance

Chen Heng is a tall, exceptionally beautiful youth whose bearing is repeatedly compared to jade and a banished immortal 2 8 20.

• Complexion: Skin described as brighter than snow 20.
• Eyes: Dark, still, and habitually indifferent, lending his beauty a distant quality 13 20.
• Hands: Long, slender, jade-like fingers, shaped by playing the zither since childhood 6 12.
• Clothing: Wears a moon-white robe and a black-and-gold crane cloak at the Earth Abyss briefing; later appears in a dark robe 4 20.
• Voice: Clear and tranquil, compared to the mellow notes of an ancient zither 35.

Personality

Chen Heng’s central ambition is to attain eternal life. His previous illness and the vulnerability of his inherited body drive him to cultivate relentlessly. He favors a firm foundation over gambling on exceptional luck, and regards wealth as expendable when it can strengthen his cultivation 1 2 25 34.

His discipline is extreme. Within the One True Dharma Realm, he repeatedly destroys and restores his mind image to eliminate fatigue, test dangerous methods, and correct mistakes. He finds satisfaction in repetitive practice that others would consider intolerable 18 39.

He is calculating and willing to deceive enemies. He breaks a promised hand-to-hand contest by attacking Deng Zhongzhi with lightning, allows Rong Tuo to mistake him for a great-sect disciple, and feigns severe injuries to discourage betrayal and lure Zhou Chuyu into attacking 32 41 48 49.

His ruthlessness does not extend to indiscriminate killing. He refuses Xiao Yu’s demand to slaughter everyone on Blazing Mountain, distributes wealth to abducted women and impoverished disciples, and protects mortal soldiers from a futile confrontation with Tong Gaolu 17 46 47.

Abilities & Skills

Golden Cicada and the One True Dharma Realm

The Golden Cicada grants Chen Heng access to a training realm that reproduces his body, cultivation, and carried items as a mind image 5.

• Accelerated practice: One day outside corresponds to ten days within the realm 5.
• Safe experimentation: Death of his mind image does not injure his real body or consume its blood and qi 5.
• Condition reset: Replacing a dead mind image removes its hunger, fatigue, and injuries 18.
• Transferred understanding: Insights gained inside can be transmitted to his real body 5.
• Simulated opponents: Can reproduce other cultivators as tireless combat partners; Xu Zhi’s shed blood enabled Chen Heng to simulate him 6.
• Limit: Activation draws upon Chen Heng’s vital essence. Initially, he needs Small White Sun Pills to make entering the realm safe 5.
• Exclusivity: Only Chen Heng can see or touch the Golden Cicada and enter its realm 45 50.

Great Secrecy Radiance Concentration

This Dharma Realm function displays cultivation records and identifies the arts and treasures associated with a simulated individual 6 18.

• Reveals an opponent’s cultivation methods and learned scriptures despite their attempts at concealment 6.
• Records Chen Heng’s own mastery levels, cultivation, and artifact grades 18 25 37 45.
• Allows defeated mind images to drop Origin Spirits containing learned arts 6.
• Limit: Drops are random and may contain mundane skills or arts he already knows 45.
• Limit: Identifies his inherited Dipper Talismans without explaining how to activate them 37.

Primordial Beginning True Origin Scripture

Inherited among his father’s belongings, the Primordial Beginning True Origin Scripture Expounded by the Divine House Pivot Splendor Dao Lord becomes Chen Heng’s principal cultivation method 13 19 37.

• Refines spiritual qi regardless of attribute, encompassing all 129,600 kinds described in the cultivation system 34.
• Gives him substantially greater embryonic-breath reserves than ordinary cultivators at the same Qi Refining layer 37.
• Enables him to command several talisman artifacts simultaneously, provided the battle is not excessively prolonged 37.
• Allows him to detect Zhou Chuyu’s concealed qi presence despite the unusual properties of her cultivation method 49.
• Limit: Requires enormous resources; draining Blazing Mountain and spending all his Talisman Coins only brings him to the third layer 37.
• Limit: His reserves remain finite and can be strained by consecutive battles 49.

Cold Dipper True Qi

Originally a lingering injury inflicted by Xu Sai, the Cold Dipper True Qi causes freezing pain and damages Chen Heng’s body. After mastering its extraction, he turns it into an offensive weapon 1 2 39.

• Plants it in Tong Yi to freeze Tong Gaolu when father and son make contact 39 48.
• Freezes Zhou Chuyu’s embryonic breathing before killing her with the Thunderfire Thunderclap Bead 49.
• Requires precise circulation and repeated experimentation to control safely 39.

Defensive and Substitution Arts

• Qi Armor Technique: Forms protective layers of circulating air. At minor mastery it contains the bead’s separate fire and lightning attacks, but fails against its full combined strike 25.
• Major-mastery Qi Armor: Withstands Zhou Chuyu’s Flowing Firmament Ruler briefly before beginning to fracture under sustained pressure 45 49.
• Blood Armor Technique: A second defensive Dao art, cultivated to minor mastery 22 45.
• Golden Man Substitution: Lets Chen Heng evade Zhou Chuyu’s killing blow. Only one golden man can exist at a time; another can be created after the previous one is destroyed 45 49.

Martial and Supporting Skills

Tai Su Jade Body

Chen Heng obtains this divine ability from Tong Gaolu’s Origin Spirit. By Chapter 50, he has examined its requirements and successfully tested whether the Golden Cicada can serve as its anchoring object; no completed cultivation stage is documented 49 50.

• Refines the human body as heaven and earth and can increase in level through absorbing spiritual qi 50.
• Requires immense spiritual-energy supplies and an anchoring object protected against divination 50.
• Chen Heng selects the Golden Cicada because others cannot perceive or touch it 50.
• Its three major realms—mystery, origin, and beginning—face “resounding boil” and “thunder shock,” requiring protection from a powerful cultivator 50.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

The following items are documented possessions or tools. Chen Heng later detonates six or seven talisman artifacts against Tong Gaolu’s body, but the passage does not identify each artifact destroyed 49.

• Golden Cicada — Treasure carried over from his previous life; grants access to the One True Dharma Realm and is selected as the Tai Su Jade Body’s anchoring object 2 5 50.
• Inherited scripture — Appears to Chen Heng as a cultivation scripture, but to Tu Shan Ge and the other foxes as the Compendium of the Blood River Cart Treasure Wheel’s Complete Formation 28.
• Thunderfire Thunderclap Bead — Mid-grade talisman artifact taken from the Mount Yang Daoist. Releases fire and lightning; its strongest attack launches the bead wrapped in both, consuming substantial embryonic breath 17 18 25.
• Six-Stone Bow and arrows — Used against Wang Duanbao and the Mount Yang Daoist 12 13 16.
• Iron longsword — Used for sword practice and life-and-death experiments inside the Dharma Realm 5 6 18.
• Green Bamboo Thorn — Low-grade, needle-like attacking artifact taken from Tong Yi; difficult to track in motion 37.
• One Qi Essence Jade — Low-grade defensive talisman artifact taken from Tong Yi 37 45.
• Cloud-Piercing Flying Boat — Low-grade transport artifact taken from Tong Yi 37.
• Heaven and Earth Bags — Storage artifacts acquired from defeated cultivators, including the Mount Yang Daoist and Tong Yi 18 37.
• Solid-Sinking Inkstone — Low-grade defensive artifact formerly owned by Tong Jizhen 45.
• Dipper Talismans — Secret treasures inherited from his predecessor’s father; their activation method remains unknown to him 37.
• Small White Sun Pills — Restore his weakened body and suppress the Cold Dipper True Qi during his early cultivation 3 5 25.
• Message-Carrying Jade Tablet — Given by Yu Wanchou so he can call on her for help in the Earth Abyss 4.
• Bamboo-and-wood mask — Conceals his recognizable face during negotiations with the Rong imperial family 40 41.

Relationships

• Xu Zhi — Senior sect brother, mentor, and ally. Teaches him Daoist principles, supplies swordsmanship and medical texts, escorts him home, and helps confront the Mount Yang Daoist 3 6 11 14.
• Yan Zhen — Deceased captor of his predecessor. Created the Hall of Joyful Virtue for him while denying him freedom; her treatment of his mother contributed to the predecessor’s despair 1 2.
• Yan Feichen — Hostile sect elder and Yan Zhen’s father. His punitive imprisonment kills the original Chen Heng and makes leaving Little Sweet Mountain a priority for the reborn Chen Heng 2 10.
• Chen Zhan — Uncle who helped raise his predecessor. Defends Chen Heng’s ownership of his father’s relics against the clan leadership 2 12.
• Chen Ze — Clansman who proposed using Chen Heng’s mother to force his submission to Yan Zhen; rewarded with admission to the Mysterious Truth Sect 2.
• Unnamed mother — The predecessor’s widowed mother. His devotion to her was exploited by Yan Zhen; she died after taking vitality-depleting pills 2.
• Unnamed father — Deceased cultivator whose relics include the concealed scripture and Dipper Talismans. Their unusual nature prompts Chen Heng to question his background and death 11 28 37.
• Unnamed older clan cousin — Saved the predecessor during Xu Sai’s attack. Chen Heng brings his body home to fulfill his dying wish 10 11.
• Chen Ying — Protects him from Yuan Xing and secretly coaches him to refuse the Refining Master’s ring. Both experience a stirring of their blood; Chen Ying suspects Chen Heng may also be Jade Pivot’s son, but this kinship is not confirmed 9 10.
• Tu Shan Ge — Fox cultivator subdued by Chen Heng who becomes his attendant, sparring partner, and source of information about major sects 20 22 25 26.
• Tu Shan Ningning — Young fox who brings him food; he gives her a grape during their encounter 25.
• Rong Tuo — Transactional ally against Tong Gaolu. Mistakes Chen Heng for a great-sect disciple and signs a Spirit Contract promising cultivation resources in return for his help 41 43 48.
• Tong Gaolu — Seventh-layer Qi Refining opponent defeated through Chen Heng’s cooperation with the Rong Clan. His Origin Spirit yields the Tai Su Jade Body 41 48 49 50.
• Zhou Chuyu — Ambusher whom Chen Heng deliberately lures into close combat and kills 48 49.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Survival and Departure from Little Sweet Mountain

• Accepts an Earth Abyss assignment despite its dangers because the distributed pills and Talisman Coins offer a way to survive the Cold Dipper True Qi 3 4.
• Uses the Golden Cicada to attain Embryonic Breathing through repeated life-and-death experiments 5 6 7 8 9.
• Is examined as a possible Yin Celestial and rejected, then avoids becoming the Refining Master’s intimate companion with Chen Ying’s covert help 10.
• Requests leave to return his older clan cousin’s body to the Rong Kingdom 10 11.

Chen Clan and Blazing Mountain

• Defeats Wang Duanbao through archery and reclaims his father’s belongings from the Chen Clan 12 13.
• Replaces the frightened Chen Xi in bridal disguise to infiltrate Blazing Mountain, then kills the Mount Yang Daoist 14 16.
• Claims the mountain as a cultivation ground, shares its wealth with victims and poor disciples, and refines the Thunderfire Thunderclap Bead 17.
• Subdues Tu Shan Ge, gains three Dao arts, and begins investigating why others see a different text in his inherited scripture 20 22 28.

Qi Refining and the Rong Imperial Alliance

• Defeats Tong Yi’s forces, kills Deng Zhongzhi, captures Tong Yi, and completes his Qi Refining breakthrough 31 32.
• Discovers his method’s unrestricted spiritual-qi absorption and reaches the third layer 34 37.
• Masters the extraction of Cold Dipper True Qi before approaching the Rong imperial family about eliminating Tong Gaolu 39 41.
• Secures a Spirit Contract for one thousand Talisman Coins, five days in the Jade Womb Mother Pool, and Tong Gaolu’s cultivation resources; also memorizes the Rong Clan’s library 43.

Tong Gaolu’s Defeat and Tai Su Jade Body

• Uses Cold Dipper True Qi hidden in Tong Yi to immobilize Tong Gaolu, allowing the allied cultivators to kill him 48.
• Feigns severe injuries, draws Zhou Chuyu into an ambush, and defeats her using Golden Man Substitution, Cold Dipper True Qi, and the Thunderfire Thunderclap Bead 48 49.
• Obtains the Tai Su Jade Body from Tong Gaolu’s Origin Spirit and identifies the Golden Cicada as a suitable concealed anchoring object 49 50.

Notable Quotes

“He saved my life, so I'll fulfill his dying wish. That's all.” 11

“I am the Great Void! First empty the body; once the body is empty, there is the true void...” 19

“This Rong Kingdom is not my realm. Surely you don't expect me to fight to the death for it?” 41

Trivia

• Chen Heng adds a beginner category before the traditional minor, intermediate, and major mastery grades in his personal Dharma Realm records 6.
• Before his predecessor entered Little Sweet Mountain, portraits of him could command a thousand gold pieces and were sought after by noblewomen 41.
• Tu Shan Ge considers him a cultivation prodigy because of his rapid mastery, despite the poor aptitude attributed to his inherited body 2 26.