Xue Baijin

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

The Xue Family guarded Great Yan’s Southern Pass for fourteen generations. Its hereditary title, Marquis Who Pacifies the South, originated three or four hundred years before Xue Baijin’s first palace visit. After Great Yan fell, her grandfather continued holding Southern Skies Mountain and hoped to restore the dynasty; that responsibility eventually passed to her 285 354 586.

Raised in an era of peace, Baijin inherited the family’s obligations without personally experiencing the wars that created them. She disguised herself as a man from childhood to gather followers for Great Yan’s restoration. However, her private convictions were not those of a blindly loyal restorationist: she felt little attachment to a dynasty that had fallen sixty years earlier, and her resistance to submission also came from refusing to bow to anyone 89 285 407.

Early in her martial career, she befriended Luo Ning, promising to teach her martial arts and help destroy Thousand Buddha Temple. Luo Ning secretly left to join her, and the two held a “wedding.” Their public marriage concealed Baijin’s sex; Luo Ning later described their bond as being as close as sisters 185 371.

Appearance

• Build: Tall, approximately Dongfang Liren’s height, with a full figure normally concealed by tight breast bindings 274 277.
• Hair: Long, ink-black hair, worn loose down her back in private 277.
• Eyes: Long, expressive fox-shaped eyes that contrast with her usually cold expression 420.
• Bearing: Upright, unsmiling, and imposing; described as possessing a heroine’s bearing that yields nothing to men 277.
• Usual attire: White robes or a white dress, often accompanied by a bamboo hat, cloak, and jade faceplate while traveling 354 450 474 483.
• Cosmetics: Normally wears no makeup; Zhe Yunli later helps apply eyeshadow and rouge for her 277 586.

Personality

Baijin is proud, self-contained, and fiercely independent. She rejects the Empress’s authority even when offered powerful weapons and protection for her people. Privately, she imagines becoming a sovereign if the world falls into chaos, or remaining an independent “empress of the martial world” if peace endures 285 354.

Her bluntness often causes friction. She criticizes Luo Ning’s abilities without tact and makes an entirely serious remark about breast bindings that Luo Ning finds insulting. As sect leader, she believes in rewarding achievements and protecting subordinates, offering Ye Jingtang instruction and proposing to retaliate personally against someone who has attacked him 277 286 309 310.

Her cold manner conceals considerable loyalty. She stays beside Ye Jingtang during his painful recovery, carries him to safety when he is incapacitated, and refuses to abandon her companions even while panicking over her pregnancy. Romance leaves her far less composed than combat: she repeatedly tries to retreat into the role of an elder despite her attachment to him 462 527 538 545.

Abilities & Skills

Twin-Mace Combat

Baijin practices twin-mace techniques inherited from Great Yan, using cold-iron weapons in place of the imperial family’s divine maces 354.

• Treats her maces as extensions of her arms, chaining deflections into close-range attacks 406.
• Uses repeated flanking movements and rapid attacks to pressure an opponent without exhausting herself 406.
• Can throw both maces with enough force to destroy much of the Left Xian King’s spear and drive him through the frozen lake surface 406.
• Faces a reach disadvantage against a well-controlled spear; exceptionally thick armor also resists her attempts at a quick defeat 406 459.

Internal Force and Unarmed Techniques

Her martial foundation is balanced inside and out, rather than dependent on a single overwhelming physical advantage 406.

• Normally keeps three-tenths of her strength in reserve, preserving stamina while searching for openings 406.
• Uses supple evasions and rapid acupoint strikes; lands twelve consecutive strikes on the Empress, although they fail to penetrate her defenses 354.
• Breaks through her longstanding bottleneck with an unarmed blow powerful enough to depress the river beneath her and scatter the rain ahead 354.
• Lacks Ye Jingtang’s extraordinary physique and the Left Xian King’s diagram-enhanced perception during their Icefield battle 406.

Dragon-Mingling Diagrams

Initially determined to reach the summit through her own martial ability, Baijin comes to value the diagrams after witnessing how healing and enhanced resilience change life-or-death combat 407.

• Possesses the Changqing Diagram and gives it to Ye Jingtang for study 371.
• Attempts to reconstruct the Flame-Rebirth Diagram without checking the original, causing a dangerous loss of control that requires intervention 420.
• Later benefits from Flame-Rebirth healing and receives the Dragon-Elephant and Jade Bones diagrams 464 474.
• Can still take a wrong qi pathway while studying unfamiliar diagrams; Ye Jingtang detects and corrects one such deviation 474.

Nine Phoenixes Facing the Sun Art and Dual Cultivation

Ye Jingtang teaches her by guiding energy through her body so she can memorize the circulation routes. Their dual cultivation forms a Greater Celestial Circuit, giving her a new awareness of qi and markedly accelerating her progress 530 531.

• Masters the first level’s strength-development method before proceeding to further diagrams 531 532.
• Progresses much faster through joint cultivation than through solitary practice 531 538.
• Finds both this art and the Dragon-Mingling Diagrams less naturally suited to her body than Ye Jingtang’s art is to his 532.
• Struggles with slow progress after leaving the island’s abundant spiritual energy 538.

Instruction and Physical Treatment

• Diagnoses Ye Jingtang’s early weakness as insufficient internal force despite abundant brute strength and strong external techniques 286.
• Warns him against arrogance and reckless experimentation with unfamiliar cultivation methods 371.
• Uses tendon-separating and bone-dislocating hand techniques during forceful massage and bone-setting 460.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Cold-Iron Twin Maces — Her principal weapons, carried at her waist or behind it. One bends under Xiang Hanshi’s palm strike 354 461 483.
• Jade faceplate — Conceals her face while traveling and fighting 285 450.
• Dragon-Mingling Diagrams — Cultivation treasures she studies, shares, and searches for throughout her travels 371 474 483.
• Longevity Fruit-stone pendant — Carved by Ye Jingtang and accepted during their departure from the island; she later keeps it close to her chest 538.
• Wooden hairpin — Gift from a mysterious female wine-shop owner, who urges her and Ye Jingtang to cherish their relationship 565 567.
• Great Yan’s State-Guarding Twin Maces — Divine weapons offered by the Empress during an unsuccessful attempt to secure her submission; distinct from Baijin’s cold-iron pair 354.

Relationships

• Ye Jingtang — Initially a protector under her command whose Imperial Court ties make his loyalty difficult for her to control. Their cooperation develops into intimacy, pregnancy, and her eventual acceptance of him as her husband 286 314 527 545 567.
• Luo Ning — Publicly her wife and privately a sister-like companion. They travel together and help raise Yunli; Luo Ning remains concerned about leaving Baijin alone after joining Ye Jingtang 185 371 408 525.
• Zhe Yunli — Her disciple, raised alongside Luo Ning. Baijin initially cautions her about Ye Jingtang’s divided loyalties, then approves their marriage and agrees to remain in the Capital City 314 525 567.
• The Empress / Yu Hu — Political opponent and martial rival who repeatedly attempts to recruit her. Their rivalry survives their cooperation in rescuing Ye Jingtang and their entry into the same household 354 420 464 586.
• Hua Qingzhi — A frequent opponent in arguments over Ye Jingtang and household precedence. Qingzhi exposes the contradictions in Baijin’s claims of having no romantic interest and pressures her to acknowledge their relationship 517 520 542.
• Fan Qinghe — Companion and healer who discovers her pregnancy by taking her pulse; later named among those who can care for her at the New Residence 545 585.
• Perfected Person Xuanji / Daoist Lu — Initially nearly fights Baijin over Luo Ning’s apparent abduction. Later learns the truth of Baijin’s disguise and becomes a teasing intermediary in her dealings with Ye Jingtang 185 370.
• Fengguancheng — The martial summit she hopes to reach. Her earlier defeat exposes the gap between them; she later makes Ye Jingtang’s victory over him a condition for giving their relationship a chance 355 536 565.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Southern Skies Mountain and Restoration

• Gives Luo Ning information about a hidden chamber beneath Chen’an Hall that might contain something capable of persuading Northern Liang to help them 77.
• Warns her to be careful in the Capital City and not to depend on Jade Void Mountain’s protection 77.
• Explains that she lacks the powerful clans’ and aristocratic families’ support needed to become empress 77.

Desert Expedition and Imperial Rivalry

• Pursues and ambushes the Left Xian King in a sandstorm before discovering ruins believed to be Great Liang’s New Capital 283.
• Finds an old Xiaoshan Fort token and suspects that the Ancestor Xiao may have hidden the Jade Seal in the fort’s Sword Pavilion 285.
• Catches Ye Jingtang kissing Luo Ning and orders them to keep their relationship secret until she reveals her own identity 285.
• Rejects the Empress’s recruitment offer and breaks her martial bottleneck during their river duel. Ye Jingtang interrupts before a result is settled 354 355.

Northern Liang Campaign

• Fights alongside Ye Jingtang against the Left Xian King on the Icefield. Both sustain serious injuries before Ye Jingtang lands the decisive strike 406.
• Keeps Zhongsun Jin occupied at Jade Water Forest while Ye Jingtang and Fan Qinghe infiltrate his manor in search of the Immortal Elixir 450.
• Escapes with Ye Jingtang after obtaining a pill and alchemy records, then helps him survive Xiang Hanshi’s pursuit 460 461 462.

Diagram Search and Island Cultivation

• Leaves Jingjie City with Yunli to seek the last three Dragon-Mingling Diagrams, whose surviving historical records offer no useful leads 474 483.
• Is badly injured when Bei Yunbian disrupts her qi during combat 525.
• Remains with Ye Jingtang through the White Lotus seed’s painful healing effects; they become intimate and subsequently cultivate together on the island 527 530 531.
• Attempts to end their romantic relationship when they leave, promising only to escort him safely back before returning to Southern Skies Mountain 538.

Pregnancy and Peaceful Submission

• Learns from Fan Qinghe that she is pregnant. Initially conceals the news and proposes returning to Southern Skies Mountain, then sending the child to Ye Jingtang after its birth 545 546.
• Agrees to give Ye Jingtang a chance if he defeats Fengguancheng. After he becomes Number One Under Heaven, she calls him husband and approves Yunli’s marriage 565 567.
• Negotiates Southern Skies Mountain’s peaceful submission in exchange for fair appointments for her people and equal treatment within the household 585.
• Returns to the New Residence and later enters the palace for the first time. Southern Skies Mountain remains her territory, now under the Imperial Court’s name 585 586.

Notable Quotes

“For the sake of the people, I can refrain from rebellion. But betraying my former sovereign to submit to the new dynasty is utterly impossible.” 354

“What people in the martial world must guard against most isn't ignorance, but arrogance and conceit.” 371

“When have I, Xue Baijin, ever needed to care what others think of my actions? Besides, I was only asking you to pass along a message, not asking for your approval.” 370