Zhou Cheng

Biodata

Power Progression

The system’s martial-arts skill level and Zhou Cheng’s actual true-qi cultivation do not initially advance together 6.

Background / History

Zhou Cheng comes from Earth and knows Joy of Life through repeated viewings of both television seasons and several readings of the original novel. His anger at a drama’s treatment of its villain leads the Film and Television Villain System to bind itself to him. The system mistakes his startled response for permission to begin its trial and transports him into Qing’s imperial palace 1.

His Earth memories merge with eight years of memories belonging to Li Chengcheng, Emperor Qing’s third son. His birth mother, Noble Consort Li, has little family influence, and his movements are tightly restricted by palace rules. This leaves him struggling to find a route to Grandmaster cultivation before Fan Xian enters the capital 2.

At the temple-rites banquet, he deliberately makes himself appear foolish, but Cen Dansheng instead praises his sincerity and chooses him as a pupil. Emperor Qing refuses his request to pursue martial arts alone and uses his mother’s responsibility for disciplining him as leverage. The emperor’s anger also activates the system functions that make Zhou Cheng’s cultivation possible 3 4.

After coming of age, he receives the title of Prince Cheng and establishes his own household. Because Prince Cheng was the late emperor’s title before ascending the throne, outsiders interpret it as a sign of imperial favor. Zhou Cheng sees it instead as another device for making the princes compete under their father’s control 4 5.

Appearance

• Childhood: Initially appears in an eight-year-old prince’s body, with a distinctly childish face 1 2.
• Later appearance: Described as handsome after losing his childish facial softness; has long hair and firm back muscles 4 18.
• Formal clothing: Wears an ivory brocade robe with subtle silver patterns and a white jade waist pendant at the poetry gathering 26.
• Everyday clothing: Appears in ordinary indigo robes during the Capital Prefecture confrontation 36.
• Disguises: Uses coarse hemp clothing and a bamboo hat when leaving Great Eastern Mountain secretly; wears night clothes and a ghost mask during his encounter with Wu Zhu 8 10.

Personality

Zhou Cheng’s apparent frivolity is often calculated. He cultivates an embarrassing public reputation, spreads rumors about himself, and provokes powerful people because their resentment becomes a resource. His bluntness, teasing, and shameless explanations make his intentions difficult for others to read 6 14 33 43.

He strongly resents being controlled. His early confrontation with Emperor Qing teaches him how little freedom an imperial son possesses, while Fan Xian’s willingness to resist authority earns his admiration. Nevertheless, Zhou Cheng readily uses hostage-taking, threats, and coercion against others, including Teng Zijing’s family and Li Yunrui 4 12 29 33.

His devotion to cultivation is genuine rather than merely an excuse to avoid politics. Small improvements in true-qi strength and control give him satisfaction, and he actively seeks dangerous opponents to overcome his weaknesses. Despite his confidence, he recognizes that reaching Grandmaster does not make him equal to the established masters 8 10 19 41.

With Sang Wen, he shows a more protective and affectionate side, allowing her greater freedom within his residence and defending her against public humiliation. He also expects her to assert the status of his consort rather than continue treating herself as a lowly performer 19 22 23 26.

Abilities & Skills

Film and Television Villain System

The system converts hostility toward Zhou Cheng into usable resources and supplies missions, an attribute panel, notifications, item draws, and storage 1 4 7 43.

• Negative-emotion absorption: Collects resentment, anger, and other negative feelings directed at him. Self-spread rumors produce millions of points over several years 6.
• Experience conversion: Converts negative-emotion points into experience for a designated skill at a 1:1 ratio 5.
• Designation limit: Only one skill can be designated for experience conversion in each screen world 7.
• Post-maximization restriction: After maximizing his martial-arts skill, points from ordinary people are saved for the next world; original plot characters remain sources of usable emotional value 7 23.
• Notification filtering: Suppresses small gains from people outside the original cast. Notifications also help him detect an ambush and identify its leader 6.
• Item draws: Can retrieve only objects he previously owned 7 43.
• Storage: Time stands still inside it, allowing him to preserve his phone’s remaining battery while stored 43.
• Failure stakes: Time lost through the trial reduces his real-world lifespan 1.

Hundred-Forged True Qi

Zhou Cheng selects this balanced, mild cultivation method after collecting techniques from a hundred schools. Its natural ceiling is the eighth rank; the system forcibly raises it to Grandmaster level 8.

• Energy manipulation: At Grandmaster level, surrounding Heaven and Earth Vital Energy responds to his will. Great Eastern Mountain’s lingering radiation supplies abundant cultivation energy 7.
• Protective true qi: Renders the Chen brothers’ eighth-rank attacks ineffective and protects him from serious injury while fighting Wu Zhu 8 10.
• Sword qi: An ordinary iron sword releases a strike that opens a roughly three-hundred-foot trench in the sea, briefly exposing the seabed 8.
• Limitations: His initial sword strike disperses more than intended. He considers himself the weakest Grandmaster and judges Hundred-Forged True Qi inferior to Overlord True Energy 8.

Precision True-Qi Control

His control improves substantially through practical training, particularly repeated bouts with Wu Zhu 10 11.

• Concealment: Maintains an approximately sixth-rank aura in ordinary life; even Emperor Qing would struggle to determine his true strength without seeing him fight 11.
• Internal protection: Places a condensed strand of true qi around Teng Zijing’s heart meridians. It later protects Teng from Cheng Jushu’s attack, and reclaiming it wakes him 34 50.
• Immobilization: Injects a tiny strand into Ye Linger’s wrist, preventing her from moving her hand until he retrieves it 50.
• Assisted breakthrough: Guides Ye Linger’s cultivation and uses his true qi to force her breakthrough from the sixth to the seventh rank 50.
• Everyday applications: Dissipates carriage jolts through minute bodily adjustments, propels a boat with a qi-infused bamboo pole, and evaporates water from his and Sang Wen’s bodies 6 8 19.

Combat Training and Perception

• Enhanced senses: Upon becoming a Grandmaster, perceives individual dust particles and distant conversations with extraordinary clarity 7.
• Practical development: Spars with Chen Quan and Chen Bao while suppressing his cultivation, although their fear of injuring or angering him eventually limits the training’s usefulness 8.
• High-level sparring: Initially suffers a decisive disadvantage against Wu Zhu. After two months of repeated bouts, progresses to holding his own 10 11.
• Close-range superiority: Disarms and throws seventh-rank Teng Zijing despite being held at dagger-point 34.

Foreknowledge and Political Manipulation

His familiarity with the original story provides information unavailable to most people around him 1 14.

• Identifies Si Lili as a Northern Qi spy and knows her descent from Qing’s former imperial family 16.
• Recognizes that Fan Xian’s “Drumstick Girl” is Lin Wan’er before Fan Xian understands the connection 30.
• Uses knowledge of future events to prepare for Teng Zijing’s infiltration; Chen Quan mistakes this foresight for an almost supernatural Grandmaster ability 33.
• Seeks an independent intelligence network because foreknowledge alone cannot reliably track changing events in the capital 14.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Ordinary iron sword — Used to test his Grandmaster sword qi against the sea 8.
• Ivory-ribbed folding fan — A recurring accessory used while visiting the Drunken Immortal Residence and attending social gatherings 14 23.
• Overlord True Energy text — Obtained from Fan Xian and subsequently returned. The supplied passages do not establish that he completes a switch to this cultivation method 11.
• Ghost mask — Worn during his fight with Wu Zhu; appears intact again after being badly cracked, without an explained mechanism 10.
• Rose-gold iPhone 6 — A working phone retrieved through system draws. He uses it to listen to music, but receives no charger 43.
• Childhood Monkey King mask — A cheap red-and-gold plastic mask originally bought outside his elementary school for one yuan 43.
• Other drawn possessions — Include toilet paper, nail clippers, Mayinglong hemorrhoid ointment, and a still-hot takeout meal 43.

Relationships

• Emperor Qing / Li Yunqian — Father in his Qing identity and ultimate mission target. Zhou Cheng conceals his cultivation from him and rejects the role of a controllable succession-game pawn 2 5 11 41.
• Noble Consort Li — Birth mother of his host body. Her safety and position are an early vulnerability that Emperor Qing exploits to compel his obedience 2 4.
• Cen Dansheng — Appointed tutor; values Zhou Cheng’s apparent authenticity despite the prince’s attempts to avoid scholarly instruction 4.
• Chen Quan and Chen Bao — Eighth-rank guards originally assigned as Emperor Qing’s observers. Swear exclusive loyalty to Zhou Cheng after his breakthrough 6 8.
• Li Yunrui — Imperial aunt, political collaborator, and coercively entangled intimate partner. Their cooperation remains unstable, with mutual manipulation and resentment 12 14 41 45.
• Sang Wen — Performer brought into his residence as a concubine and intended secondary consort. Becomes a trusted confidante whom he trains to manage the inner household 18 26 45 50.
• Fan Xian — Younger half-brother, valued prospective collaborator, and frequent target of provocation. Zhou Cheng admires his resistance but also arranges attempts on his life and threatens his family to secure cooperation 21 29 39.
• Wu Zhu — Powerful sparring partner whose initially overwhelming advantage accelerates Zhou Cheng’s combat development 10 11.
• Teng Zijing — Coerced informant assigned to monitor Fan Xian. Zhou Cheng holds his wife and child while also secretly placing protective true qi in his body 33 34 50.
• Ye Linger — Imperial fiancée. Initially wants the engagement canceled, but becomes interested in his martial guidance after experiencing his superior true qi 41 46 50.
• Li Chengze — Second elder brother and political rival. Their antagonism intensifies after Li Chengze’s attempt to embarrass him through Si Lili 30 36 41.
• Li Chengqian — Crown Prince and elder brother; repeatedly targeted through pointed references to Li Yunrui and exposure of his political maneuvering 14 37 38.
• Li Hongcheng — Younger cousin and Prince Jing’s heir. Their outwardly friendly exchanges coexist with Hongcheng’s anxiety about being drawn into another prince’s faction 17.
• Si Lili — Northern Qi operative whose network he hopes to borrow. He lets her leave after predicting that she will eventually seek his protection 16.
• Lin Wan’er — Cousin whose engagement to Fan Xian becomes part of his contradictory matchmaking and political schemes 40 43.
• Fan Ruoruo — Fan Xian’s sister; Zhou Cheng threatens to request marriage to her as leverage against Fan Xian 39.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Great Eastern Mountain and the First Mission

Zhou Cheng asks Li Yunrui to help secure an assignment overseeing temple repairs at Great Eastern Mountain, using the work and the rehabilitation of his reputation as pretexts for cultivation. During the journey, he detects an ambush, orders its leader crippled, and suspects that the attackers’ claim to serve the Second Prince is intended to frame him 4 6.

At the mountain, he reaches Grandmaster and forces his imperial guards to choose between him and Emperor Qing. After testing his strength, he recognizes that the breakthrough alone is insufficient to defeat his father and secretly leaves for Danzhou to seek a stronger cultivation method 7 8.

Danzhou Training

In Danzhou, Zhou Cheng obtains access to Fan Xian’s Overlord True Energy and trains repeatedly with Wu Zhu. In exchange for the sparring, he answers a question about Ye Qingmei’s death, saying that the person closest to her betrayed her. His deliberately incomplete answer leaves Fan Xian suspecting Fan Jian 11.

He returns to Great Eastern Mountain before Emperor Qing’s temple ceremony, concealing his real cultivation. The emperor’s proposal of a Ye-family marriage brings him back to the capital and into the succession struggle 11.

Capital Maneuvering

After returning, Zhou Cheng confronts Li Yunrui over the assassination she arranged against him. He also pursues independent intelligence resources, brings Sang Wen into his household, and takes Teng Zijing’s family into custody to obtain an informant beside Fan Xian 12 14 16 18 33.

His defense of Sang Wen escalates into punishment of Guo Baokun and a palace-service recommendation that results in He Zongwei’s castration. At the poetry gathering, Fan Xian unsuccessfully tests whether Zhou Cheng is a fellow transmigrator 22 23 26.

In the Capital Prefecture courtroom, Zhou Cheng slaps Li Chengze, pressures witnesses to keep silent, and exposes Mei Zhili’s assistance to the Crown Prince. He then orders Mei’s courtroom death reported as an accident. Afterward, he openly admits responsibility for the assassination attempts against Fan Xian 36 37 38 39.

Betrothal and Preparations Against Emperor Qing

Emperor Qing formally betroths him to Ye Linger after the assault on Li Chengze. Zhou Cheng sees the match as a plausible excuse to leave the capital, seek stronger opponents, and contact other Grandmasters. His proposed strategy is to have outside allies weaken Emperor Qing before challenging him personally; it remains a plan rather than a completed achievement 41.

Meanwhile, he reunites Fan Xian with Lin Wan’er while delivering Fan Xian’s Engagement Cancellation Letter to Li Yunrui, leaving both sides confused by his intentions. During his meeting with Ye Linger, he reveals enough power for her to mistake him for an upper-ninth-rank expert, then helps her reach the seventh rank without disclosing his Grandmaster status 41 43 50.

Notable Quotes

“Father gave me the name Cheng, meaning sincerity. I imagine he wanted me to be sincere and upright, honest and true, so I only tell the truth. I don't lie.” 2

“The courage to fight back is something precious indeed.” 29

“The more despicable and ruthless I am, doesn't that show just how seriously I take him?” 33