An

Biodata

Power Progression

• Graduation assessment: An demonstrates seventh-level wind magic at seventeen, despite having already reached eighth-level mage cultivation. This records his tested performance, not a documented loss of rank 16 18 19.
• Latest confirmed magical rank: Peak ninth level. The supplied chapters do not confirm a breakthrough to Saint-level Magus or Deity 29 46 47.

Background / History

Transmigration and Childhood

Before his transmigration, An was an ordinary office worker who read web novels. He awakens as Hogg and Lina's newborn son and recognizes the setting from the original story. Linley's previously unrecorded twin brother is his new identity, prompting him to wonder whether his arrival has changed the timeline 1.

An begins using the Heaven Rewards Diligence System during infancy, earning physical experience through rolling, sitting, and crawling. By six, he has trained every day and developed coordination and strength beyond his peers. Hillman admits him and Linley to the ten-year-old training group and later gives An his physical training notes 1 2.

Hogg explains the Baruch Clan's decline and asks An to protect his brothers, the family, and its ancestral glory. An swears to do so. Although the Dragonblood Needle confirms that his bloodline is too weak to awaken naturally, he unlocks the system's Bloodline Tempering function 2 3.

Ernst Academy

Seeing a powerful mage annihilate a mercenary squad in Wushan Town motivates An to pursue magic. At eight, his aptitude test reveals exceptional wind affinity, average fire affinity, and spiritual energy twenty times the average for his age. He and Linley receive invitations to Ernst Academy 4 5.

The brothers enter Dormitory 1987 with Yale Dawson and Reynolds. An maintains physical training alongside magic studies, meditation, combat practice, and stone carving. Vera privately teaches him wind magic; he produces forty-two blades on his first attempt at the fifth-rank Wind Blade Dance 6 7 13.

Mountain Expeditions and Bloodline Awakening

During their first expedition, An escapes an eighth-level Golden-Patterned Python while attempting to gather Blue Heart Grass in Mist Canyon. He and Linley later destroy a bandit camp, rescue Kalan, Alice, and other captives, and escort them out of the mountains. An refuses Kalan's offered reward 10 11.

After advancing to eighth-level mage, An returns to Mist Canyon with Linley and Bebe. They escape with 160 stalks of Blue Heart Grass and discover an injured young Golden Dragon. Their combined attacks overcome its defenses, and Bebe delivers the killing blow. Drinking its blood with Blue Heart Grass awakens both brothers as Dragonblood Warriors 16 17 18.

Restoring the Clan and Seeking Lina

At seventeen, An and Linley graduate and attract recruitment offers from major powers. Yale locates the ancestral saber Slaughter in the Lucas Clan's possession, and Jeb Lucas returns it without payment. The brothers take it home and reveal their awakened bloodlines to Hogg 19 20.

Hogg tells them that Lina was abducted rather than dying in childbirth. An proposes entering Fenlai's service to investigate Duke Paterson from within the kingdom's power structure. After capturing Paterson, the brothers learn that Clayde ordered the abduction; Linley kills Paterson, and they conceal the evidence 20 22.

An delays confronting Clayde until his transformed strength reaches Saint-level. The brothers then target a royal hunt to capture him. A later account confirms that they killed Clayde, but identifies the Radiant Church as the greater obstacle to avenging Lina 23 24 26 29.

Disaster and the O'Brien Empire

When magical beasts devastate Wushan Town, An clears the remaining beasts and helps rescue Hogg, Hillman, and the surviving residents. Yale and Chairman Dawson assist the refugees as they flee north 25.

An accompanies Hogg and Hillman to the O'Brien Empire while Linley returns to the mountains to train. After seven years apart, the twins reunite in Chiyan City. An has remained with the family and advanced to Saint-level in his normal form 27 28 29.

His victories over Olivier and Haydson establish his reputation among the continent's Saints. Empress Joanne names him Guardian Martial Saint and orders three days of celebration. He also supports Wharton's marriage to Nina 30 32 34 35.

After declining Hodan's invitation to leave the Yulan Plane, An secures regular blood donations from three Saint-level dragons in exchange for protection within his fief. This supplies the clan with a continuing awakening resource and enables Hogg to awaken his own Dragonblood Warrior bloodline 35 37.

Conflict with the Dark Church

An leaves home to seek insight into the Laws of Wind. In the Luo'ao Empire, he learns from Elena that the Dark Church plans to sacrifice a million people. He agrees to intervene and destroys the sacrificial formation in Shadow Valley, delaying the plan by six months 38 39.

At Eternal Night City, An destroys another formation while fighting the Church's leaders and fallen angels. Cecilia uses the city's Defensive Formation to send him outside the city, but Affleck kills her and orders An hunted. Gravely wounded, An escapes through underground caverns 42 43.

He travels north and spends fourteen years recovering and cultivating on the Arctic Icefield. Returning at the Saint-level Limit, he defeats the Churches' joint force at the Baruch Empire's magic crystal ore vein. He nevertheless postpones attacking Holy Island because its defensive formation requires God-level strength to overcome 44 45.

Preparing for the Necropolis of the Gods

Linley introduces An to a miniature space beneath the ore vein, where dense elements and proximity to the laws loosen his final Wind Dimension bottleneck. An remains short of becoming a Deity 46.

Before leaving for the Necropolis of the Gods, the brothers arrange the empire's affairs. At War God Mountain, An defeats Olivier again with a single Wind Blade and wins against Fain after the War God intervenes to stop his lethal Wind Thread. Fain agrees to cooperate with him, and Desri later warns him about the Necropolis's dangers 47 48 49 50.

Appearance

An closely resembles Linley, though observers describe him as more composed; as a child, slightly longer hair is enough for Hogg to distinguish him from his twin 1 6.

• Human form: Long black hair, dark brown eyes, sharply defined features, broad shoulders, and a muscular build. At fifteen, he stands 1.80 metres tall; at sixteen, he is described as six feet one 7 13 16.
• Dragon form: Tightly overlapping golden scales, clawed fingers, backward-curving golden horns, a spear-tipped tail, and rows of short spinal spikes 18.
• Wings: Golden wings span three metres and permit physical flight 18.
• Eyes after transformation: Initially retain dark brown coloring with golden light; later descriptions give him dark-golden slit pupils 18 22 24.
• Distinctive coloration: His pure-gold scales differ from the azure scales recorded in the clan's history and from Linley's blue-gold transformation 18 20.

Personality

An is disciplined and persistent. His training begins in infancy, and he continues exercising before dawn and after formal lessons. Strength is a means of protecting the people he cares about and restoring the Baruch Clan, rather than merely gaining prestige 1 2 12.

He balances protectiveness with restraint. He confronts Alice over her treatment of Linley, comforts his brother afterward, and watches over him during his prolonged carving trance without interrupting a crucial cultivation state. Against stronger enemies, he favors preparation and concealment over premature revenge 13 14 15 20 22.

His concern extends beyond his family: he rescues hostages, aids an elderly refugee, and refuses to ignore the planned sacrifice of a million lives. He is less comfortable with noble banquets and leaves much of the socializing after his victory over Haydson to Wharton and Hillman 11 27 34 35 39.

Abilities & Skills

Heaven Rewards Diligence System

• Converts sustained effort into experience and foundational physical improvements; higher concentration and longer training increase rewards 1.
• Grants critical-strike bonuses under particular conditions and allows diligence points to be exchanged for experience bonuses 1.
• Provides posture scoring and focus-based multipliers, including 150% experience acquisition during highly focused Qi Storing Posture training 1 2.
• Unlocks Bloodline Tempering, whose chance of increasing bloodline concentration scales with training intensity 3.
• Tracks quests, including recovering Slaughter; the stated reward for that quest is unknown 3.

Wind Magic

• Aptitude: Exceptional wind affinity; average fire affinity, although his documented spellcasting centers on wind 5 19.
• Gale Spell: Attaches wind essence to his body to increase speed 7.
• Flight Spell: Enables aerial movement from seventh-level mage cultivation onward 8.
• Wind Blade Dance: Expands from forty-two blades on his first attempt to nearly a hundred after combat refinement 7 11.
• Wind Roar: A seventh-level column of wind containing rapidly spinning blades capable of shredding steel 11.
• Wind Roar: Ultimate: His self-developed eighth-level variant compresses wind essence for a much stronger burst 17.
• Wind Binding Spell: Used during the Golden Dragon battle 17.

Dragonblood Warrior Transformation

• Uses Dragonblood Battle Qi to switch between human and dragon forms 18.
• Greatly increases physical strength and combat rank while supplying scales, claws, horns, spikes, a tail, and wings 18 23 29.
• Can seize or neutralize opponents' weapons barehanded, as demonstrated against Kenyon and Moulton 31 39.
• Is not invulnerable: coordinated Church attacks shatter much of his scales and leave him severely wounded 42 43.

Laws of Wind and Combat Techniques

Stone Carving and Spiritual Training

• Learns under Linley's influence rather than through direct instruction from Doehring Cowart 7.
• Uses complete concentration during carving to temper spiritual energy; the system increases spiritual-energy experience gain by 300% in this state 7.
• Sells carvings through the Proulx Gallery and is later recognized as a master sculptor 13 30.
• Values carving for the tranquility it provides as well as its cultivation benefits 8.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Azure Frost Sword — Also identified as the Azure Divine Sword, Azure Frost; used for sword techniques, formation attacks, and cutting into caverns during his escape 33 39 43 45.
• Flat Blade — Stone-carving tool carried with pieces of stone for regular practice 7 12.
• Hillman's Physical Training Notes — System-recognized rare item; reading and practicing its methods grants a permanent additional 30% physical-fitness experience gain 2.
• Dragonblood Codex — Contains clan history and bloodline-awakening information 6 18.
• Blue Heart Grass — Consumed before dragon blood to reduce its violent effects during awakening 6 18.
• Slaughter — Ancestral saber jointly recovered with Linley from Jeb Lucas; not established as An's regular weapon 19.
• Elena's Elder Token — Enables entry into the Dark Church branch at Blackstone Town during his investigation 38 39.
• Interspatial Ring — Stores healing pills and Magic Crystal Cores; An crushes cores to replenish battle qi while fleeing 43.

Relationships

• Linley Baruch — Older twin brother, training partner, and closest companion. They awaken together and jointly pursue the truth about Lina 1 18 20 22.
• Hogg Baruch — Father. An takes responsibility for his safety and later provides the dragon blood needed for his awakening 20 27 37.
• Lina — Mother. Her abduction and the Radiant Church's involvement drive An's long-term revenge plans 12 20 29.
• Wharton Baruch — Younger brother. An supports his marriage to Nina and assists his rule of the Baruch Empire 30 35 44 47.
• Hillman — Childhood instructor and trusted family protector; gives An systematic training guidance and accompanies him north 2 27.
• Yale Dawson — Dormitory roommate and sworn-brother figure. Helps locate Slaughter and assists the Wushan refugees through the Dawson convoy 6 19 25.
• Reynolds — Roommate and close friend who joins An and Yale in supporting Linley after Alice's betrayal 6 13 14.
• Bebe — Linley's magical-beast companion and An's expedition ally; gathers Blue Heart Grass and kills the wounded Golden Dragon 16 18.
• Vera — Private wind-magic instructor who teaches him Wind Blade Dance 7.
• Empress Joanne — Ruler who recognizes his strength and appoints him Guardian Martial Saint 30 34.
• Elena — Ally who informs him of the Dark Church's mass-sacrifice plan and supplies her Elder Token 38.
• Cecilia — Ally at Eternal Night City who enables his escape; Affleck kills her afterward 42 43.
• Rutherford — Arctic Icefield acquaintance who discusses An's Wind Dimension comprehension and the uncertainty of becoming a god 44.
• Fain — Defeated opponent who accepts An's victory and proposes cooperation in the Necropolis of the Gods 49.
• Heidens and Affleck — Enemy Church leaders. An gravely wounds both while defending the Baruch Empire's ore vein 45.

Notable Quotes

“I want to become a powerhouse. Strong enough to protect everyone I care about.” 2

“We're brothers. For life.” 14

“I won't kill you or enslave you. All I need is for you to give me some fresh dragon blood at regular intervals.” 37

Trivia

• Hogg gives An's name two meanings in the clan's ancient language: unyielding perseverance and protection 1 2.
• An knows events from the original novel, including Lina's fate and Blue Heart Grass's usefulness, but recognizes that his presence may have altered the timeline 1 6 12.
• His public seventh-level graduation result places him alongside Linley as the second-youngest seventh-level mage in the Yulan Continent's recorded history 19.
• After defeating the Churches' thirteen Saints, he is publicly counted as the sixth Saint-level Limit expert, expanding the previously recognized group of five 48.