Ji Zhao

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Transmigration and succession

Luo Zhao transmigrates after clearing the game’s highest difficulty and receiving a message announcing another challenge. He inherits the identity and memories of Ji Zhao, King Wu’s younger brother. Having previously cleared the game by preserving his family for more than two thousand years before taking the throne, he treats dynastic survival—not immediate sovereignty—as his central objective 1.

When the dying Ji Fa offers him the throne, Ji Zhao refuses. Publicly, he argues that succession must pass to the king’s legitimate son; privately, he knows that becoming the Son of Heaven is a losing choice in the game, because royalty bears the realm’s burdens and spends more fortune than it gains. Ji Fa instead names Ji Yun Crown Prince, appoints Ji Zhao Grand Steward and regent, and grants him lands east of the Luo River to found Luo State 1.

Establishing Zhou’s political order

After Ji Yun succeeds as King Kang, Ji Zhao summons the lords to Haojing and introduces ceremonies designed to establish the Son of Heaven as a sovereign rather than merely the leader of an alliance. He formalizes lineage-based succession, five ranks of nobility, and enfeoffments determined by kinship and merit. Titles and states can be revoked for wrongdoing, giving the royal court a means of disciplining regional rulers 2.

His arrangement makes Qi and Luo the royal house’s principal eastern allies, supported by the proposed capital at Luoyi. Enfeoffed rulers receive opportunities to expand outside the royal domain, while accepting Zhou’s ritual hierarchy. Ji Zhao also reorganizes the king’s Six Armies, reducing their numbers but improving their fighting strength 2 3.

Eastern campaign and Luoyi

The Marquises of Guan, Yong, and Bei resent Ji Zhao’s authority and spread accusations that he intends to usurp the throne. They ally with Wu Geng and numerous states in rebellion. Ji Zhao marches east with Taigong Wang, initially taking more than thirty thousand soldiers and eventually assembling sixty thousand fighters with a total force of over two hundred thousand, including slaves and transport workers 3.

The campaign culminates in the conquest of Yan State. Ji Zhao orders adult male captives killed, smaller males castrated, and women enslaved and distributed as rewards. He then compels the eastern rulers to submit and support the construction of Luoyi, leaving his eldest legitimate son to oversee the work 5.

After returning to Haojing, he presents enfeoffment as a policy for extending Zhou civilization and “turning the Yi into the Xia.” He establishes four frontier lords to coordinate regional campaigns, while maintaining the king’s superiority in ritual and political rank 6.

Returning royal authority and death

Ji Zhao spends twelve years exercising royal authority while personally training Ji Yun in government. He collects thirty percent of the gains from the lords’ campaigns for the Royal Domain Treasury and punishes rulers who appropriate royal rites. By the ninth year of King Kang’s reign, four lords have lost their titles and states for ritual violations 7.

After Ji Yun’s capping ceremony, Ji Zhao relinquishes control of royal government and moves to Luoyi with the Three Royal Armies and its first settlers. He retains the title of Grand Steward and receives authority over major military and state affairs, ranking above the four regional lords. In Luoyi, he records his governing experience, interpretations of the Rites of Zhou, and proposals for preserving royal authority 7.

Ji Zhao dies in the seventeenth year of King Kang’s reign. Ji Yun honors him as Sage King Wen and orders his burial beside King Wu with royal rites. Ji Zhao witnesses the funeral from the void before assuming his continuing role as the Luo Clan’s ancestor 7.

Appearance

Ji Zhao’s physical aging is marked by gray hair at his temples before his departure for Luoyi. His later spiritual appearance includes golden pupils and eyes capable of radiating golden light 7 25 34.

• During the regency: Stands with a sword at the right of the Son of Heaven’s throne, signifying his office 6.
• As an ancestral spirit: His gaze becomes tranquil and is compared to an ocean of light 35.

Personality

Ji Zhao is cautious, calculating, and focused on the long survival of his descendants. He rejects the throne despite its prestige, reserves his strongest artifacts for decisive crises, and refuses to spend a Heaven-tier item merely to reverse Zhou’s decline. His institutional designs balance royal authority with enough independence for Luo State to remain a viable foundation for his family 1 6 25 34.

He is affectionate and patient toward Ji Yun, teaching him through daily government work and leaving Haojing to prevent accusations that the adult king remains a puppet. This care coexists with extreme ruthlessness: he orders mass killing and enslavement after conquering Yan, and later engineers an injury that removes Luo Su’s elder brother from the succession 5 7 8.

He evaluates descendants by whether they can meet their era’s challenges rather than by whether they are merely competent. Luo Su remains his favorite descendant, while he regards ordinary talent as insufficient for the struggles of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods 10 45.

Abilities & Skills

Governance and Institutional Design

• Creates Zhou’s rites and lineage rules, then formalizes noble ranks, enfeoffment, and succession through principal wives’ sons 1 2.
• Uses titles to define standing, land to regulate the lords’ strength, and lineage rules to control succession 2.
• Balances powerful clans through royal marriages and establishes regional military appointments without abandoning the king’s superior status 6.
• Trains Ji Yun in practical statecraft and leaves written guidance for later rulers and descendants 7 20.

Military Command

• Reaches military command 90 through training and study, then 92 during the eastern campaign 3 5.
• Manages a coalition of over two hundred thousand people in orderly fashion during his first command, surprising Taigong Wang 3.
• Plans routes, camps, ambushes, and formations with attention to terrain and logistics 3.
• Acquires Borrow the East Wind, an item suited to the approaching Battle of the Luo River 4.

Fortune and Mandate Perception

• Sees gray deathly energy above Ji Fa and recognizes that the king has little time left 1.
• Distinguishes black fortune associated with danger from purple fortune surrounding future hegemonic rulers 3.
• Recognizes Bao Si as someone bearing Heaven’s fortune from her birth 28.
• Perceives a shift in the Mandate of Heaven and purple light gathering around Zao Fei after the Rong King’s death 34.

Ancestral Guidance and Blessing

• Appears to descendants in dreams; the original game rules explicitly place limits on dream visitations 1 10.
• Grants artifacts to descendants and explains how to invoke them through silent prayer 10.
• Uses Ancestors’ Blessing to influence the clan and its members, spending Fortune Points in the process 23 41.
• Strengthens the clan’s opposition to usurpation; his direct descendants cannot harbor ambitions to seize the throne under his influence 24.
• Can affect succession through blessings: Luo Su’s elder brother becomes lame after falling from a horse and loses his inheritance rights 8.

System and Soul Growth

• Earns Fortune Points and artifacts through major historical achievements, including those accomplished by his descendants 1 2 41 49.
• Uses Fortune Points for draws: one draw costs 1,000 points, and ten consecutive draws guarantee at least one Yellow-tier item 1.
• Converts increases in fortune into yellow qi that strengthens his soul 8.
• Benefits from accelerated time between major events, allowing decades to pass in moments 8.
• Has access to records of every Luo Clan member’s life, recorded continuously, as well as other records 42.
• Regards ascension to godhood as a possible completion reward, not an achievement already confirmed 8.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

Heaven-tier

• Celestial Card / Heavenly Avatar — Awarded for founding Luo State. Raises all three original attributes to 100 and grants extraordinary administrative, strategic, and command capabilities. Ji Zhao still declines to activate it during the battle outside Haojing 1 3 34.
• Celestial Observatory Platform — Awarded for establishing the lineage and enfeoffment systems. Its blueprint allows construction of a platform from which the user can regulate celestial phenomena and provide favorable winds and timely rain; it is described as protecting a state’s fortune for a hundred years 2 7.

Earth-tier

• Heart-Knot — Awarded for becoming regent. Permanently fixes trust with one selected person at its maximum value 1 7.
• Heroic Spirit Card — Drawn after the system adds a small number of Earth-tier rewards to compensate for Ji Zhao’s unusually poor luck. Preserves one descendant as a heroic spirit who can reincarnate, gradually recover memories, and gain slightly higher potential. Ji Zhao selects Luo Su as its intended recipient 10.
• Luo Su’s Heroic Spirit Card — Received following Luo Su’s death 24.

Mystic-tier

• Thousand-Li Talisman — Teleports the user instantly to a mentally visualized destination. One is awarded for Ji Zhao’s posthumous honors; he identifies escape and assassination as possible applications 7.
• Divine Striking Talisman — Its earlier description raises military strategy to 99 for four double-hours and kills the user afterward. Following the six-attribute system update, it is listed as raising martial prowess, command, and military strategy to 99 for eight hours 7 10.
• Five Thunder Righteous Law — Allows a user with exceptionally high reputation to swear upon their life and call down lightning to kill one person 10.
• Nobody Card — Received after Luo Cheng’s lifetime assessment; its effect is not described in the supplied account 42.
• Seven-Orifice Exquisite Heart — Awarded for the Sage Academy’s tenth anniversary. Raises a chosen person’s potential in military strategy and political struggle to 99, but limits their lifespan to no more than thirty years 45.

Yellow-tier and Other Items

• June Snow — Produces heavy snow at a designated time and place. Ji Zhao gives a physical snowflake manifestation to Luo Su 7 10.
• Borrow the East Wind — Summons a gale at a designated time and place, blowing in a chosen direction 10.
• Attribute Card — Adds one point to an attribute. The naturally highest attribute is capped at 90, while the others are capped at 80. Ji Zhao reserves these cards to support less talented descendants 7 10.
• Medicine Talisman — Dissolved in water and drunk to cure difficult or unusual illnesses; each talisman saves only one person 10.
• Guard — Summons ten puppet guards with martial prowess 80. Multiple cards can provide an elite assault force 10.
• Speed Is the Essence of War — Increases the marching speed of an infantry army of no more than fifty thousand by 30%, without additional stamina expenditure 10.
• Blank Items — Exchangeable for specified real-world objects from the current time and space; Ji Zhao supplies them to descendants 7 10 24.
• Sumeru Mustard Seed — Received after Luo Su’s death and later listed as an authorized item for Luo Cheng 24 25.
• Sword — Carried during court proceedings and raised when ordering the punishment of Yan’s captives 5 6.

Relationships

• Ji Fa / King Wu — Elder brother who entrusts Ji Zhao with his heir and the construction of an eastern capital. Ji Zhao is ultimately buried beside him 1 7.
• Ji Yun / King Kang — Nephew, pupil, and sovereign. Ji Zhao raises him toward personal rule; Ji Yun honors him as a father figure and grants his royal funeral 1 2 7.
• Taigong Wang — Fellow senior minister, eastern-campaign partner, and political ally. Regarded as the only contemporary minister capable of restraining Ji Zhao 2 3 7.
• Unnamed daughter of the Jiang-surnamed Lü Clan — Wife, born to her family’s principal wife. Their marriage forms part of the Ji–Jiang and Qi–Luo alliances 2 3.
• Luo Kang — Successor listed as clan head after Ji Zhao’s death 7.
• The Three Guards — Royal relatives who reject his regency, accuse him of intending to seize the throne, and rebel with Wu Geng 3.
• Luo Su — Fourth-generation descendant, personally chosen successor, and Ji Zhao’s favorite descendant. Receives ancestral guidance and divine artifacts 8 10 23 45.
• Luo Cheng — Ninth-generation descendant. Receives counsel during Zhou’s decline and Ji Zhao’s final praise as the clan’s most outstanding head since Luo Su 25 42.
• Luo Xiu — Descendant whose unusual talents and Sage Academy impress Ji Zhao. Ji Zhao adds two attribute points to help him cross the decisive threshold from 88 to 90 45.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Luo Su’s Stewardship

• Initially watches Luo Su without intervening, testing whether he will serve the king personally or protect Zhou State itself 8.
• Changes course after recognizing Xiong Dun’s exceptional strength. He names the Luo Clan guardian of the Xia states and supplies Luo Su with Guard, June Snow, and Blank Items 10.
• Gains Fortune Points from the Alliance of Qi Yan and later strengthens Luo Su through ancestral influence 11 23.
• Receives Luo Su’s Heroic Spirit Card and a Sumeru Mustard Seed after his death, then gives Luo Li a Blank Item and knowledge of the clan’s divine artifacts 24.

Zhou’s Decline and Luo Cheng’s Recovery

• Spends 300,000 Fortune Points on draws while retaining 40,000 for emergencies. Although he believes a Heaven-tier item could reverse Zhou’s decline, he chooses not to expend one 25.
• Briefly considers using his Heaven-tier treasures when Zao Fei kills the Rong King, but withdraws them after the system warns of their importance to completing the game 34.
• Recognizes the danger of the Luo Clan’s deep bond with Zhou. The loyalty of Luo’s Dare-to-Fight Warriors changes the clan’s ethos and slightly dissipates an ominous cloud above him 35 38.
• Luo Cheng’s successful All Xia counteroffensive restores all the Fortune Points Ji Zhao has spent on blessings over the preceding years 41.
• Meets Luo Cheng before his death, questions whether he would keep striving if his work ultimately vanished, and gives him the ancestral approval he seeks 42.

The Sage Academy and Qi’s Rise

• Observes Luo Xiu’s descendants and achievements, identifying his strength as innovation rather than conventional rulership. The Sage Academy earns Ji Zhao the Seven-Orifice Exquisite Heart 45.
• Benefits from the Luo Clan’s influence on Lü Xiaobai and Guan Zhong. Their undertaking to venerate the king and repel outside peoples contributes to his fortune 49.
• Receives a surge of Fortune Points when Qi destroys Lai Yi and advances All Xia’s power 49.

Notable Quotes

“The Zhou State governs all under heaven through rites and laws, not ghosts and spirits. Only your legitimate son can inherit your position.” 1

“Your Majesty, in all this vast Zhou State, I alone cannot remain in Haojing. If I stay, rumors will likely spread the very next day calling you a puppet king.” 7

“A Cheng, if everything you’re doing and striving for now were ultimately to vanish like smoke and clouds, would you still work this hard?” 42