Xia Shou

Biodata

Power Progression

Cleaner rank and Anomaly Level are separate classifications: Xia Shou is recognized as a Level Three Cleaner while his confirmed Anomaly Level remains 1 7 20.

Background / History

Xia Shou is transported from his college entrance examination into an unfamiliar study. His exam paper becomes the Death Record Notebook, and the Grudge Spirit Alice appears behind him with her hands around his neck. The notebook supplies immediate survival rules: never turn his head more than 60 degrees, and never personally open a closed door in the apartment 1.

After Alice releases a red wax figure from one of the apartment’s doors, Xia Shou experiences a crushing underwater vision. His shadow consumes the figure, giving him Death Road and enough buoyancy to rise, but not to stop sinking. He calculates that he may cross the dangerous 1,300-meter line again within two days 1 2.

The notebook directs him to the Containment Bureau. Shangguan Yan recruits and guides him while initially pretending to be Li Luo, head of Department One. Xia Shou refuses her departmental invitation because the notebook warns him against her, but the lack of available missions eventually forces him to seek her help. She offers special blood and an assignment in exchange for a month of unpaid overtime 2 3 4 5.

Appearance

• Xia Shou considers himself reasonably good-looking, though not attractive enough to explain Su Weiyu’s immediate enthusiasm toward him 20.
• He wears a Bureau uniform after joining the organization; Alice assists with dressing and grooming him 24.
• A supernatural depth gauge appears in his left-eye vision, allowing him to monitor his descent 2 19.
• Alice normally remains directly behind him, with her hands gripping his neck 1 5.

Personality

Xia Shou is cautious, analytical, and difficult to satisfy with incomplete explanations. He treats Death Road’s rewind as an intelligence-gathering tool, reconstructs the Blood Demon House as a three-dimensional maze, and weighs whether expended resources might survive a reset before committing to battle. Intriguing puzzles are particularly difficult for him to leave alone 6 13 21.

His caution does not prevent extreme risks when he considers them necessary. He deliberately lets Alice kill him to trigger a rewind and later undergoes improvised organ-removal surgery rather than transfer his disease to an ICU patient. Even while frightened or in severe pain, he continues looking for workable tactics 12 31 32 42.

He is courteous toward people he distrusts and strongly responsive to genuine help. He thanks Shangguan Yan despite his misgivings, trusts Su Weiyu after her sacrifices, and recognizes that his victory over the Blood Demon depends on the powers and final wishes of fallen predecessors rather than his own superiority 4 17 20.

Abilities & Skills

Shadow Devouring

Xia Shou mentally directs his shadow into a black, sludge-like swamp that consumes anomalies and corpses, extracting skills or remnants while supplying buoyancy 1 8 19.

• Skills and remnants: Devoured bodies can yield reusable skills or temporary, single-use remnants. Sufficient remnants can improve a skill’s benefits or reduce its negative costs 8 11.
• Consumption limits: Difficult targets can immobilize him during devouring. Moving him during such a process causes backlash 11 12 13.
• Digestion limits: Completely consuming a powerful enemy does not guarantee access to all its power; the Blood Demon is only 50% digested 19.
• Unknown origin: Xia Shou suspects the shadow is an inheritance from the notebook’s previous owner and considers the possibility that he is feeding something dangerous rather than simply using a personal ability 27.
• Secrecy: The notebook repeatedly warns that revealing the shadow’s devouring ability will bring death upon him 20 50.

Death Road

Death Road marks dangerous routes for three hours and grants one rewind upon death 2.

• Rewinds time by up to one hour, but never earlier than the skill’s activation 2.
• Requires him to follow the most dangerous route, advance at least 100 meters, and not turn back 2.
• At a lethally dangerous location, the movement requirement becomes remaining in the designated area for ten minutes 2.
• Has a 24-hour cooldown under normal conditions 2.
• Xia Shou retains memories through a rewind; Alice also remains awakened after his first reset 13.

Peak Perfection in Solitude

Acquired from the charred predecessor, Peak Perfection creates a one-minute combat window in which Xia Shou can combine his available powers without their usual negative prices 12 16.

• Refreshes Death Road, allowing another activation and rewind during the Blood Demon battle 16.
• Enhances his other abilities enough to bridge the gap between himself and the Blood Demon 16.
• Requires the destruction of designated targets within its time limit or exacts self-destruction; Xia Shou designates the Blood Demon and Tamer 16.
• Does not eliminate the danger of his increasing depth 16 17.
• Its secrecy condition is lethal: Xia Shou states that passing on information about what happened during its use would kill him 20.

Everlasting Wound

For ten minutes, injuries Xia Shou inflicts cannot heal 11.

• His own wounds cannot begin healing while an afflicted creature remains alive, even after the initial activation period 11.
• Suppresses the Blood Demon’s regeneration, making cumulative damage possible 16 17.
• Can preserve negative effects inflicted through Shared Misery, including the Ear Doctor’s loss of hearing 42.

Heal Wounds with Blood

Xia Shou uses his blood to reconstruct damaged tissue, including tissue that cannot normally regenerate 19.

• Digested food can be converted directly into blood when he is suffering blood loss 19.
• Supports his plan to remove and regenerate diseased organs, and later restores his damaged eye and ears 31 32 42.
• Every use increases his Deep-Dive Level 19.
• Its healing can be blocked by Everlasting Wound’s reciprocal cost 42.

Blood Rampage

Blood Rampage manipulates blood within a limited range. Its activation priority equals Xia Shou’s Anomaly Level plus its Limit-Breaking Level of 1 19.

• Manipulating blood inside a host requires his Anomaly Level to be at least one level higher than the host’s 19.
• Can rupture an enemy’s limbs by violently pulling their blood 31.
• Can maintain circulation through severed blood vessels or keep his own blood moving after his heart stops 39 46.
• Can spread blood across a floor to expose invisible footprints or form fine threads that detect movement through tension 39 41 42.
• Has no immediate activation cost, but deeper understanding of blood will draw trials from the unidentified entity called “He” 19 27.

Shared Misery

This incomplete skill transmits Xia Shou’s unpleasant bodily sensations to a target through physical contact 34.

• Affects only humanoid creatures of similar size 34.
• Remains active during contact and for 30 seconds afterward 34.
• Doubles Xia Shou’s own discomfort while active 34.
• Removing an injured organ does not bypass its amplified pain 42.

Combat Remnants

Alice-Assisted Abilities

Alice supplies abilities and physical assistance that Xia Shou cannot perform alone 6 16 32.

• Deprives enemies of sight, including the Blood Demon 6 16.
• Lets Xia Shou see through other people’s eyes, providing viewpoints for surgery and a substitute for lost vision 32 42.
• Uses translucent hands to restrain him and wield surgical instruments 31 32.
• Kills him if he turns to look at her directly; he deliberately exploits this rule to trigger Death Road 1 12.

Shadow Sealing

When the shadow cannot devour certain anomalous items, it can instead bind them with chains of multicolored flame 43.

• Suppresses an item’s anomalous effect without granting its power to Xia Shou 43.
• Sealing the Auditory and Eye Keys removes their sensory curses; sealing the Heart Key protects Wang Long from its effect 43 46.
• Sealed items act like additional weights: carrying more accelerates his descent 43 49.

Equipment / Items

• Death Record Notebook — His initial survival guide and a means of communicating with its resident personality by writing questions. Bureau records establish that it serves the soul inside rather than necessarily helping its holder; the personality refuses to disclose its goal 1 25 50.
• Little Mirror — Allows him to observe Alice and his surroundings without violating the rule against looking back 1 28.
• Dorian Gray’s Pocket Watch — A Sealed Anomaly that can absorb some damage for ten minutes for Level 1 superhumans. He cannot use it on his first mission because he lacks the required self-portrait 4 6.
• Shangguan Yan’s special blood — Intended to raise his Anomaly Level temporarily; its effect lasts one hour. He drinks the entire vial during his first exploration of the Blood Demon House 5 6 9.
• Employee Phone — Receives Bureau directions and assignments 4 24.
• Five sanatorium keys — Eye, Ear, Hand, Foot, and Heart Keys used to open Idrisu’s ward and subsequently stored in his shadow 43 46 49.

Relationships

• Alice — Bound Grudge Spirit and maid. Both protector and lethal restriction, she rescues him from the deep-sea trance, assists in combat and surgery, and addresses him as “Lord Xia Shou” after awakening 5 12 13 32.
• Su Weiyu — Trusted ally whom he can perceive despite her anti-memetic condition. She sacrifices herself during his first Blood Demon House attempt, protects him from the Execution Squad, and promises to preserve his deadly secrets. She later attempts to share his dormitory, but Alice’s intervention leads him to offer the room next door 9 12 19 20 48 49.
• Shangguan Yan — Recruiter and superior. Xia Shou initially avoids her, then accepts her assistance and the resulting overtime obligation. His desk is placed in her private office 3 4 5 24.
• Dr. Modis — Bureau anomaly-taxonomy researcher who advises him about low-level missions and questions him after the hospital disaster 4 48.
• Wang Long — Hospital collaborator who guides his improvised surgery and accompanies him into the sanatorium. Xia Shou seals the Heart Key to keep him alive 31 32 34 46.
• Liu Guangyao — Patient whose dreams connect the hospital investigation to the Blood Demon. Xia Shou attempts to sustain his circulation after an attack, but cannot prevent his death 26 27 39.
• Tamer — Initially an attacker, later a sacrificial battlefield ally alongside Little Black. Xia Shou credits him with defeating the Blood Demon to conceal his own powers 11 16 17 20.
• Idrisu — Hostile sanatorium entity that offers to cure his Abyssal Diving Syndrome in exchange for becoming its assistant. Xia Shou refuses; the notebook later describes Idrisu as the first probe by something that may want to consume him 38 50.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Blood Demon House

Xia Shou enters the spatially warped villa with Death Road active and gathers powers from its dead Cleaners. Meeting Su Weiyu gives him a guide to the corpses, but consuming the charred predecessor leaves him immobilized. After Su Weiyu is mortally wounded buying him time, he deliberately turns toward Alice to die and rewind 7 8 10 11 12.

On the next attempt, he optimizes his route and combines Peak Perfection with the acquired remnants. The Blood Demon’s Blood Spear Forest kills him, triggering a second rewind. With knowledge of that attack, he warns his allies, dismantles the demon’s body, and defeats it just before his combat window ends 13 16 17.

Devouring the Blood Demon restores his depth to approximately 1,100 meters and greatly slows his sinking. After surviving an Execution Squad ambush with Su Weiyu’s help, he attributes the victory to Tamer and cooperates with Bureau custody rather than reveal his shadow 19 20 21.

Hospital Closed Domain

An investigation into Liu Guangyao’s nightmares traps Xia Shou and his companions in a closed domain. When anomalous patients spread transferable diseases, he disables one with Blood Rampage and chooses organ regeneration over passing his illness to another patient 26 28 30 31 32.

The group discovers a sanatorium whose treatment system uses human beings as raw materials. Xia Shou refuses Idrisu’s offer of a cure, then fights alongside Su Weiyu to obtain the five doctors’ keys. Their battles reveal both Shared Misery’s interaction with Everlasting Wound and the shadow’s ability to suppress anomalous items through sealing 34 36 38 39 42 43 46.

After escaping, he learns that more than fifty people survived and that the Bureau intends to alter their memories and demolish the hospital 48.

Root Sea and Notebook Investigation

Xia Shou identifies the words “Sea of Unceasing Blood” after the Blood Demon battle and continues experiencing underwater dreams, including an encounter with a bleeding mermaid whose face becomes indistinct in his memory 17 23 24.

After the hospital incident, he explores the Deep Sea Dreamscape horizontally but avoids an unfamiliar dark outline. He then questions the notebook directly. It recommends devouring Blood God-blessed creatures as camouflage, warns that the hospital incident was not a coincidence, and suggests that Idrisu’s power may make remnants easier to consume 49 50.