Zhao Changfeng

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Transmigration and Defection

Zhao Changfeng comes from a technologically advanced modern society, but his memories of that life are largely confused. He awakens in the body of a seventeen-year-old Lingxiao Sect disciple who shares his name and resembles him by roughly seventy percent. His soul and body have become separated, and his true body lies at the bottom of a vast, mysterious cauldron 1 5.

His new body is among the Lingxiao Sect survivors held captive by Teng Kun, who is searching for the Soul-Pacifying Bead. Rather than wait for rescue, Zhao studies the captives’ behavior and identifies Song Ziyan as the likely holder. He kills Ning Luo, enlists Lu Tao and Xu Yifei against Song Ziyan, and recovers the bead from her corpse 1 2 4.

Zhao asks to join the Crippled Demon Sect but refuses Teng Kun’s demand that he kill Lu Tao and Xu Yifei, having promised to protect them. Teng Kun accepts him as a disciple anyway and permits the two survivors to leave 4.

Ruan Meizhen’s Calamity Bearer

Ruan Meizhen supplies Zhao with spirit beasts and pushes him toward the Yuanqi Stage, intending to use him as a Calamity Bearer for the toxins released during her own breakthrough. Zhao discovers her intentions, delays cultivation, and attempts to escape, but she finds him again after his first failed breakthrough and Chen Jian’s robbery 8 10 11 12.

After reaching the Yuanqi Stage under pressure from the gathered disciples, Zhao survives Ruan’s poison with help from the small cauldron inside him. He turns the poison into a weapon, learns the Blood Shadow Art from her, and helps ambush Zhang Mu. Their initially predatory relationship develops into an uneasy alliance built around survival and Ruan’s obstructed cultivation 13 15 17 19 21.

Tamu Town and Heavenly Shield City

In Tamu Town, Zhao recognizes his supposedly dead master and mistress, Song Zejun and Zhou Jin. Fearing retaliation, he brings Chen Jian to confront them over their involvement with Demon Spirits. The confrontation initially ruins his standing among the defenders, but the couple’s exposure vindicates him. Zhao then saves twenty-seven possessed City Guard Army members by drawing their Demon Spirits into himself 21 26 27 28 30.

He accepts Shi Yue’s commission to kill Chen Haoming and destroys the stronger cultivator with willpower-enhanced blood shadows. Experiencing Shi Yue’s inner-demon obsession leaves Zhao genuinely concerned for him; he offers future help investigating his sons’ reincarnation. After Xiang Lin kills Shi Yue, Zhao kills Xiang Lin in turn, provoking hostility from Tong Yi’s Primal Demon Temple group 31 32 33 35 36 37.

Learning that Tong Yi plans to eliminate the town’s witnesses, Zhao joins Chen Jian and Cui Pinyuan in plotting against him. During the ensuing disaster, Zhao kills the possessed Shen Yanrong and retreats with Ruan, Chen Jian, and Cui toward Heavenly Shield City 37 43.

Zhao’s deductions subsequently help unravel the scheme threatening Heavenly Shield City. His companions interpret his conduct as years of concealed resistance against the people who murdered his family, and Teng Kun accepts this account while praising his contribution. Before leaving, Zhao threatens to expose Chen Jian’s hidden cultivation unless he keeps Cui Pinyuan safe 47 49.

Return to the Crippled Demon Sect

Back at the sect, Zhao acquires a third-rank Blood God Saber and the Seven Tribulations Indestructible Art. He reaches great perfection of the Yuanqi Stage, but abandons an early Primordial Spirit breakthrough attempt when severe backlash and killing urges erupt 51 52 53.

He bargains with Teng Ling for spirit beasts and begins training Zheng Tong, Wu Long, Wen Jiuzhou, and Qiu Ying. His unconventional first instruction is to stop cultivating and sleep, drawing on remembered knowledge of physical recovery and mental exhaustion. Zheng Tong, Wu Long, and Qiu Ying eventually reach the Primordial Spirit Realm and become his close supporters; Wen Jiuzhou dies 53 54 58 62 68.

Zhao establishes his reputation by killing Zhang Mang, Duan Rongguang, and six further challengers at great perfection of the Yuanqi Stage. After his own Primordial Spirit breakthrough, Teng Kun discovers his Dragon-Phoenix Rank Soul Refining Talent and attempts to keep him safely inside the sect. Zhao insists on joining the Dim Swamp Forest expedition, securing protective equipment and escape arts before departure 58 59 60 64 67.

Dim Swamp Forest Expedition

Zhao avoids Huang Mengran and Wu Qingfeng’s planned ambush, then draws Chen Jian and Cui Pinyuan into the conflict. With Wu Qingfeng occupied, Zhao and his companions kill Feng Mu’s group. Zhao later acquires the God-Slaying Spear technique from Wei Gang’s belongings 73 74 75 76.

Hunting fiends supplies Zhao with turbid energy, fiend crystals, and energy for forging his primordial spirit. He also awakens the exceptional-level Soul Refining Talents of Wu Long, Zheng Tong, and Qiu Ying. Completing the fourth tribulation of his body-tempering art brings him to the middle Primordial Spirit Realm 77 78.

As the expedition encounters a larger invasion, Zhao continues cooperating with Chen Jian while preserving escape options. He reveals that he has killed Wu Qingfeng and Elder Gu’s disciples, then negotiates with Lin Ruonan for a fourth-rank fiend crystal to help Chen Jian 78 83 84.

Appearance

Zhao is tall, handsome, and lean, later developing a finely tempered physique through repeated bodily refinement 11 21 58.

• His inherited body resembles his original appearance by approximately seventy percent 1.
• He wears scarlet Crippled Demon Sect robes and conceals the Wood-Leaf Scale Armor beneath them 60 75.
• In combat, crimson demonic light and visibly surging blood accompany his Blood Shadow techniques 36 58.

Personality

Zhao is calculating, adaptable, and strongly motivated by survival. He uses deception, provocation, bargaining, and other people’s rivalries rather than treating direct combat as his only option. He also recognizes his own miscalculations: discovering that Song Zejun and Zhou Jin had not come to Tamu Town for him makes him regret exposing himself unnecessarily 2 26 31 34 73.

His brutality is not solely a symptom of cultivation backlash. During Zhang Mu’s death, he visibly enjoys the killing even after regaining control, leading Ruan Meizhen to distinguish his pleasure in slaughter from demonic possession 17.

Nevertheless, Zhao keeps promises and remembers kindness. He refuses to sacrifice Lu Tao and Xu Yifei, protects Cui Pinyuan through threats against Chen Jian, and rejects killing Lin Ruonan because she previously protected his group. Experiencing Shi Yue’s suffering through an inner-demon obsession also produces compassion beyond their original transaction 4 33 49 83.

He treats trusted companions far more generously than the sect’s prevailing culture encourages, supplying techniques, beasts, artifacts, and breakthrough assistance. This earns the wholehearted allegiance of Wu Long, Zheng Tong, and Qiu Ying 68 69 70.

Abilities & Skills

Bronze Cauldron Connection

Zhao is linked to a vast Bronze Cauldron beyond the heavens and to miniature cauldrons within his own body 5 11 14 26.

• Energy from the distant cauldron can enhance his innate capacity, including expanding his sea of spiritual qi before a realm breakthrough 11.
• The miniature cauldron helps him suppress Ruan Meizhen’s poison and use it against Zhang Mu 17.
• Two small cauldrons draw in the collapsing thoughts and will of defeated Demon Spirits 39 40.
• Clockwise rotation generates turbid energy from defeated fiends; counterclockwise rotation refines it into pure energy 77.
• The distant cauldron does not appear reliably when he needs it, and he initially cannot control or move its miniature counterpart 12 14 22.

Heavenly Heart Demon-Seeding

This art links Zhao to other people’s obsessive inner demons, allowing their experiences to appear within his small cauldrons 22 26 71.

• Inner-demon obsessions provide willpower that can strengthen his attacks 19 21.
• He experiences the subjects’ suffering personally, including Ruan Meizhen’s ordeal through Xu Lang’s perspective and Shi Yue’s bereavement 22 33.
• Within a limited range, he can pinpoint people bearing his obsession-born heart-demon brands and communicate with them through divine sense 71.
• The connection can interrupt his cultivation and force him into painful visions 22.
• His early attempt to draw out Chen Jian’s obsessive inner demons fails 26.

Essence-Devouring Demon Art

Zhao’s principal cultivation method extracts power from spirit beasts, allowing rapid advancement when sufficient resources are available 7 19.

• Before the Yuanqi Stage, it refines energy from beast blood 19.
• At the Yuanqi Stage, it can also extract qi and blood from sinews, bones, and flesh 19.
• Higher-rank spirit beasts support bodily tempering and further advancement 34 35 44.
• Rapid cultivation produces killing urges and potentially severe backlash 7 13 53.
• Absorbed beast blood qi must be refined thoroughly before combat use; neglecting this causes internal incompatibility and injury 37.

Blood Shadow Art

Zhao creates crimson blood shadows for striking, tearing, defense, and independently directed attacks 17 31 58 69.

• Willpower or turbid energy changes his attacks into especially destructive black-and-red blood shadows 19 31 75.
• He kills the late-Yuanqi Chen Haoming while still at the early Yuanqi Stage 31.
• He can form a large blood-red shield to intercept incoming techniques 58.
• After entering the Primordial Spirit Realm, a strand of divine sense can animate a shadow, linking it to his will like another body 69.
• His body’s strength limits how much turbid energy an individual shadow can contain 38 53.

Seven Tribulations Indestructible Art

A third-rank body-tempering demonic art that repeatedly reforges his physique through grueling trials 54 58.

• Increases his vitality reserves and physical durability 64 69.
• Reinforces his body against the force of major-realm breakthroughs 64.
• Allows stronger blood shadows by improving his capacity to withstand turbid energy 53.
• Completion of the fourth tribulation accompanies the formation of Primordial Spirit breastbone 78.
• Requires substantial vitality, supplied through spirit beasts 53 54 78.

Divine Sense and Talent Awakening

Zhao’s true Soul Refining Talent is Dragon-Phoenix Rank. Although he displays twenty strands of divine sense before the sect, he later possesses forty-nine 67 69.

• Controls multiple blood shadows precisely enough to suppress Wu Long, Zheng Tong, and Qiu Ying simultaneously without turbid energy 69.
• Converts turbid energy into pure energy to generate further divine sense and forge his primordial spirit 77.
• Awakens his companions’ hidden Soul Refining Talents by sending pure energy into their upper dantians 77.
• Detects concealed fiends that Chen Jian notes even Six Tribulations Realm cultivators cannot ordinarily pinpoint; an unusually powerful armored fiend nevertheless escapes his detection 77 78.

God-Slaying Spear

A soul technique acquired from Wei Gang that attacks an opponent’s sea of divine sense and primordial spirit 76.

• Condenses one spear from three strands of divine sense 76.
• Zhao successfully forms it using an obsession with slaughter as a catalyst 81.
• Turbid energy can strengthen the formed spear, although unconverted turbid energy cannot directly enter his upper dantian 81.
• Its strength diminishes inside an enemy’s sea of divine sense, where the defending primordial spirit can mobilize local divine sense against it 76.
• Particularly effective against same-realm human cultivators lacking a comparable soul-defense technique 83.

Movement and Escape Arts

• Blood Shadow Movement Technique — Accelerates his movements through circulating spiritual power and blood qi. Its early effectiveness is limited by his initially empty middle dantian 21 22 31.
• Divine Escape Art — An escape technique taught by Teng Kun before the forest expedition 67 80.
• Doppelganger Shadow-Splitting Great Art — Creates controllable blood-shadow doubles. Clothing helps disguise their incomplete internal structure and makes them more convincing decoys 80.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Blood God Saber — His principal weapon, designed for the Blood Shadow Art. He takes a second-tier version from Chen Haoming, whose internal formation doubles blood-shadow power, then purchases a third-rank replacement with a third-rank Demon Core 31 32 51.
• Wood-Leaf Scale Armor — Fourth-rank armor bestowed by Teng Kun. Concealed under his robes, it blocks Feng Mu’s poisons and miasma as well as the self-detonations of three third-rank fiends 67 75 77.
• Heaven-Crossing Boat — Flying transport used to move his companions through the Dim Swamp Forest and escape dangerous encounters; originally promised by Teng Ling as a wager prize 53 73 78.
• Boundary Ring — Stores cultivation supplies, including spirit beasts 69.
• Miasma Cloud Banner — A third-rank artifact won by killing Zhang Mang; subsequently passed to Wu Long 58 68.
• Spirit beasts — His primary consumable cultivation resource, including second- and third-rank beasts acquired through trades and agreements 34 44 53.
• Fiend crystals — Collected during forest hunts and used in bargaining for Tribulation-Crossing Pills and assistance from Chen Jian 77 78 83 84.

Relationships

• Teng Kun / Old Devil Teng — Captor turned master. Values Zhao’s contributions and talent, supplies powerful protection, and tries to isolate him from companions who might endanger his future 4 49 67.
• Ruan Meizhen — Senior sister, former would-be exploiter, and later trusted ally. Initially intends to sacrifice him as her Calamity Bearer; his survival and help with her breakthrough transform their relationship. Her inner-demon obsession remains a source of power and danger for him 8 15 19 43 44 54.
• Chen Jian — Robber turned contentious ally. Zhao secures a six-month non-killing oath from him, repeatedly draws him into dangerous conflicts, and later helps gather resources for him. Their cooperation grows despite persistent suspicion 10 34 49 78 84.
• Cui Pinyuan — Ally and beneficiary of Zhao’s protection. His gratitude and inner-demon connection allow Zhao to locate and communicate with him; Zhao also trades with him for cultivation beasts 44 49 71.
• Wu Long, Zheng Tong, and Qiu Ying — Closest followers. Zhao helps them break through, provides cultivation resources, awakens their hidden talents, and repeatedly protects them from Teng Kun 62 68 69 77.
• Teng Ling — Trading partner and collaborator in training Teng Kun’s disciples. Accepts turbid energy as nourishment and supplies Zhao with third-rank spirit beasts 53 54 60.
• Lin Ruonan — Senior sister and expedition leader. Clashes with Zhao over his methods and behavior but also protects him; he refuses Chen Jian’s suggestion to kill her because he remembers that protection 62 69 83.
• Song Zejun and Zhou Jin — Former master and mistress whose Demon Spirit connections Zhao exposes. Their schemes drive much of his struggle in Tamu Town and Heavenly Shield City 26 28 45 47.
• Shi Yue — Client who becomes an object of genuine sympathy. Zhao kills Chen Haoming for him and offers to help investigate his sons’ reincarnation; Shi Yue’s subsequent murder draws Zhao into conflict with Xiang Lin 28 31 33 35 36.
• Lu Tao and Xu Yifei — Former fellow disciples whose lives Zhao promises to protect. He refuses to kill them even when Teng Kun makes it a test of loyalty 4.
• Long Chen — Friendly fellow disciple who warns Zhao about Yang Jianqiu and later congratulates his displayed talent 62 67.