Zhang Lanhe

Biodata

Background / History

Life on Guanjun Mountain

Zhang Lanhe’s earliest memories are of Guanjun Mountain. Alone among its creatures in possessing humanlike thought and speech, he often took the form of a small white snake and soaked in a stream. He adopted a snake’s appearance because snakes were the moving creatures he first saw, finding them both elegant and dangerous 77 96.

During a period of warfare, refugees entered the mountains. Zhang Lanhe helped them survive, and they identified him as a mountain spirit or snake demon—an explanation he readily accepted. Educated refugees gave him his human name, taught him to read and write, and described the world beyond the mountain 77.

Their stories inspired him to leave. Although initially attracted by the mortal world’s splendor, witnessing its suffering changed his purpose: he began saving whoever he could 77 142.

Betrayal and Imperial Service

Zhang Lanhe saved a man who subsequently brought the Daoist Wu Xianzhi to suppress him. The scheme helped the Xie clan’s ancestor ascend the throne and made Zhang Lanhe the foundation of the dynasty’s continued rule. Wu accepted the act as a sacrifice for the people’s peace; Zhang Lanhe cursed him for repaying kindness with betrayal 77 94.

His fortune sustained Great Xia, while the imperial family’s karmic burden fell upon him. His true body remained chained beneath the palace. To avoid immediately losing his mind in confinement, he separated from that body and lived aboveground as the Imperial Preceptor, though the imprisonment eventually drove his serpent body mad 77 86 111.

Centuries of coercion and accumulated resentment transformed the once-helpful mountain dweller into a ruthless court power. His authority did not represent freedom: he regarded his position, wealth, and influence as the shackles imposed upon him 77 92.

Saving the Ninth Prince

Five years before the main events, Zhang Lanhe fought rebels during a devastating succession conflict. He found the young Xie Huizhou injured and terrified amid the violence, pulled him onto his horse, and took him somewhere safe 2 5.

He later quelled the wars while the emperor lay unconscious. His resulting dominance over the court made the emperor fear that the realm answered more to Zhang Lanhe than to the Xie family 6.

Appearance

Zhang Lanhe’s human appearance combines an immortal-like elegance with unmistakably serpentine features 8 26.

• Hair: Long silver-white hair, normally bound for his formal appearance 13 61.
• Eyes: Emerald-green eyes that reveal snake pupils when his nonhuman traits emerge 18 26.
• Serpentine traits: A forked tongue, shimmering silver scales, and a snake tail that he can conceal 26 61 73.
• Clothing: Frequently wears luxurious purple robes and carries a fly whisk; during the earlier rebellion, he wore armor and rode a black horse 2 8 30.
• True body: An enormous white serpent, found wounded and bound by magical chains beneath the palace 111.
• Small form: Can become a little white snake, including when resting beside Xie Huizhou or soaking in water 127 131.

Personality

Zhang Lanhe is controlling, suspicious, and accustomed to forcing outcomes. He favors using others against his enemies and initially considers shaping Xie Huizhou into a weapon against the emperor. When his scouts fail to locate his missing partner, he orders them to receive fifty lashes 5 6 23 25.

His cruelty is tied to prolonged captivity, the dynasty’s negative emotions, and years of rejection over his unusual appearance. He has mutilated people who looked at him with disgust, yet Xie Huizhou’s genuine admiration affects him deeply. Beneath his indifference to public opinion, he fears that his beloved will find his nonhuman features or wounded body repulsive 13 30 58 73 111.

With Xie Huizhou, his possessiveness coexists with tenderness and insecurity. He threatens romantic rivals, secretly follows him through a clone, and becomes increasingly distressed during their separation. He also absorbs poison to relieve Xie Huizhou’s suffering and initially refuses to elope because he believes his own future may end in captivity or death 40 52 59 76 86.

Despite his fastidiousness and dislike of unfamiliar touch, he welcomes Xie Huizhou’s closeness. After their reunion, he carries the weed-covered prince without caring that his luxurious clothes become dirty 2 17 99.

Abilities & Skills

Dragon-Vein Nature

Zhang Lanhe is a conscious manifestation of the earth’s qi rather than a human or demon. His true identity explains why he could be exploited to establish and prolong a dynasty 95 96 97.

• Bears Earth Qi and the nation’s destiny 97.
• Has no inherently fixed appearance; his white-snake form reflects his earliest awareness and preferences 96.
• Remains physically unchanged through centuries and survives into the modern era 64 130.
• While sealed, receives karmic retribution for the reigning Xie emperor’s wrongdoing 100.

Transformation and Clones

Zhang Lanhe can assume human, serpentine, and partially transformed appearances, as well as dissolve into mistlike qi 26 59 61 64.

• Controls the small silver-snake avatar presented to Xie Huizhou as Little White 34.
• Receives sounds through the clone and can temporarily manifest beside it in human form 85 86.
• Uses the clone to accompany Xie Huizhou while remaining in Capital City 52 85.
• While suppressed, can remain manifested for less time as the distance from his true body increases 86.

Divination and Mystical Arts

Zhang Lanhe considers his inability to divine his mysterious partner’s whereabouts evidence that the person is destined for him 5.

• Performs divination and offers to read Xie Huizhou’s fortune 25 30.
• Draws a protective talisman against people with harmful intentions; it does not protect Xie Huizhou from Zhang Lanhe himself 41.
• Practices mystical arts for income over thousands of years, eventually becoming an unfathomable master with increasingly powerful divination 130.

Snake Mark and Hypnosis

The snake pattern he leaves on Xie Huizhou serves both as a supernatural connection and as proof of their earlier encounter 7 17 97.

• Sends repeated calls to Xie Huizhou through the mark 7.
• Uses hypnosis to make Xie Huizhou approach when called, then releases it after receiving a warning look 68.
• Links their fates; their intimacy allows Earth Qi to linger within Xie Huizhou and reduces the world’s rejection of him 97.

Poison Treatment

Zhang Lanhe repeatedly intervenes when Xie Huizhou’s longstanding poison threatens his life 40 80 93.

• Diagnoses the severe poisoning by checking his pulse 40.
• Draws poison into his own body through kissing, providing temporary relief rather than an immediate cure 40 59.
• Uses acupuncture and qi to suppress a poison attack 80.
• Suffers from the transferred poison himself and conceals its seriousness from Xie Huizhou 41.
• Learns that sharing life and death could save Xie Huizhou, but would make either partner’s death fatal to the other 97.

Combat and Instruction

Zhang Lanhe is a formidable swordsman whose experience includes suppressing rebellions and fighting at the border 2 6 93.

• Pursues Xie Huizhou with arrows and fights him at close quarters 17.
• Overwhelms palace guards who attempt to stop him 91.
• Teaches Xie Huizhou practical killing moves 93.
• Commands personally trained scouts and loyal agents 5 72.
• Teaches calligraphy and writes most of the couple’s wedding invitations 121.

Curses and Earth-Vein Travel

• Sends black qi into the emperor’s brain, leaving him gravely incapacitated despite the protection preventing a fatal blow 64.
• In the modern era, offers to carry Xie Huizhou through the earth veins in his true form, reducing their journey to a few minutes 132.

Weaknesses and Restrictions

• Imperial suppression: Magical chains bind his true body; ordinary weapons cannot sever them, and his own attempt injures him 86.
• Son of Heaven’s Qi: Prevents him from killing the old emperor directly, though it does not prevent nonfatal torture or cursing 64.
• Heart-protecting scale: A vulnerable point through which someone close enough could expose and remove his heart 74.
• Mental instability: Captivity, karmic burdens, and prolonged separation from his true body can overwhelm his reason 58 77 111.
• Post-release madness: Freedom does not immediately restore his sanity; he initially hides Xie Huizhou in his lair before gradually regaining control 112 113.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Sword — Used in rebellion suppression, his pursuit of Xie Huizhou, and the fight against Wuzi 2 17 93.
• Fly whisk — Carried with his formal purple robes 30.
• Silk strip — The blindfold from his first intimate encounter with the unidentified Xie Huizhou; he preserves it and ties it around his wrist 5.
• Protective talisman — Drawn for Xie Huizhou to ward off hostile people 41.
• Erotic illustrated albums — Buys the complete collection depicting him as the snake demon “Azure Lord.” The drawings reveal private details and help him identify Xie Huizhou as his vanished partner 26.

Relationships

• Xie Huizhou — Rescued child, student, destined partner, and eventual husband. Each seeks a way to save the other from an apparently fatal fate 5 23 75 77 95 127.
• The old emperor — Distrustful sovereign and adversary. Uses the Ninth Prince against Zhang Lanhe, who retaliates after learning that the antidote to Xie Huizhou’s poison has been destroyed 6 52 64.
• Xie Wangqiu — Fourth Prince and later emperor. Exploits the seal to burden Zhang Lanhe with karmic retribution and attempts to prevent his release 100 111.
• Ye Changfeng — Divine physician whom Zhang Lanhe abducts and pressures into treating Xie Huizhou, offering unusual medicinal ingredients from his nonhuman body as an inducement 51 52.
• Fang Yuanke — Distrusts Zhang Lanhe’s intentions toward Xie Huizhou and repeatedly condemns his behavior. In the alternate timeline, becomes his brother-in-law 54 67 134 136.
• Wuzi — Romantic rival whose pursuit of Xie Huizhou provokes murderous jealousy. Zhang Lanhe helps capture him alive after Xie Huizhou intervenes 72 93.
• Wu Xianzhi — Daoist responsible for suppressing him. Zhang Lanhe’s hatred outlasts Wu’s life, and the later explanation offers no compensation for the centuries he lost 77 94 95.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Searching for His Destined Partner

After an encounter in which both men have been dosed with aphrodisiacs, Zhang Lanhe searches Capital City for the unnamed youth who fled him. Having been blindfolded, he remembers the youth’s medicinal fragrance and figure but not his face. His failed divination convinces him that the stranger is his destined partner 2 5.

Xie Huizhou conceals his tracks and spreads misleading rumors, including claims of Zhang Lanhe’s sexual dysfunction. Meanwhile, Zhang Lanhe initially dismisses the supposedly pleasure-seeking Ninth Prince as entirely unlike his mysterious partner 4 5.

At the Spring Hunt, he recognizes the disguised youth’s scent and snake mark, but Xie Huizhou invokes the Eighth Prince and escapes with Shadow Guards. Zhang Lanhe later identifies Xie Huizhou himself through the illustrated albums, including a drawing of a mole only his vanished partner could know 17 18 26.

Tutor, Protector, and Lover

Zhang Lanhe takes charge of Xie Huizhou’s instruction, initially intending to forge him into a political weapon. His involvement becomes increasingly personal, from helping him dress to secretly remaining beside him through Little White 23 34 52.

Discovering Xie Huizhou’s poisoning redirects his efforts toward keeping him alive. He transfers poison into himself, recruits Ye Changfeng, and attacks the emperor after learning that the antidote has been destroyed 40 50 52 64.

The pair eventually confess their love. Zhang Lanhe proposes a grand wedding, but refuses Xie Huizhou’s carefully prepared elopement plan because he cannot escape Capital City. He then reveals the history of his suppression 73 75 76 77.

Discovering His Identity

While Xie Huizhou travels toward Guanjun Mountain, Zhang Lanhe reaches him through his clone despite the strain and time limit. He also helps capture Wuzi at the border 85 86 93.

The investigation at Qingfeng Temple finally reveals that he is a dragon vein, not a snake demon. This explains both the absence of others like him and the imperial family’s determination to possess him. He subsequently learns how their linked fates have prolonged Xie Huizhou’s life 95 96 97.

Breaking the Seal

After Xie Wangqiu takes the throne, his wrongdoing intensifies Zhang Lanhe’s karmic suffering. An invitation to a painting-viewing banquet gives Xie Huizhou an opportunity to reach the seal, though both recognize the danger 100.

They descend into the Underground Palace and find Zhang Lanhe’s chained, maddened true body. Zhang Lanhe merges with it while Xie Huizhou cuts the chains with a specially suited sword. Xie Wangqiu interrupts the rescue, but Zhang Lanhe is ultimately freed 111 112.

Still irrational, he carries Xie Huizhou into his lair rather than continuing the battle. After returning to human form and gradually recovering his reason, he apologizes and brings Xie Huizhou back to confront Xie Wangqiu 113.

Wedding and Later Life

Inspired by Fang Yuanke and Zhou Yanqing’s wedding, Xie Huizhou asks Zhang Lanhe to marry him. They prepare invitations together and gather their friends in Peach Blossom Village for the ceremony 121 122.

The later-generation extras show them still together thousands of years afterward. Zhang Lanhe supports their household through mystical work, reassures Xie Huizhou when his ancient artistic identity becomes public, and argues online with admirers who call his husband their wife 130 131 132.

Alternate Timeline: The Anping Household

In the parallel-world extras, Xie Huizhou becomes the beloved youngest son of the Anping Marquis Residence. Zhang Lanhe finds him again, while Fang Yuanke mistakes his intentions for a plan to abduct his younger brother 134.

With imperial approval, Zhang Lanhe marries into the Anping household and gradually wins over Xie Huizhou’s parents. Decades later, his devotion remains evident in small acts, including catching fresh fish after an offhand request and gathering rare pigments for a family portrait 136.

Notable Quotes

“My love for you is real. I won't lie to you about this. I never use feelings to deceive anyone. From the moment we met, my heart followed you. I'm not human, but I want to love you as a human would. I want you to be well.” 75

“None of this was what I wanted. It only came about because you forced it on me. They're merely the shackles you used to imprison me.” 92

“I'm just glad I had you with me along the way in the end.” 142