Chen Yi

Biodata

Power Progression

The panel accelerates martial training by investing stored true qi or true essence. The training years it describes are simulated cultivation, not elapsed story time 3 4 8.

Background / History

Before entering the game world, Chen Yi spent much of his after-work time playing Beyond the Heavens. He completed one playthrough, studied the game’s encyclopedia, and prepared a second save built around a “perfect villain-route opening” in the Capital City. Exhausted after working overtime, he awoke inside that second save while his character was preparing to leave the capital and join an orthodox sect 1 33.

His optimized opening relied on corruption, bribery, fraud, and political patronage. Following a walkthrough, he claimed descent from the Chen Clan of Jin, attracted Grand Secretary Lin’s attention, and received a Western Depot Hundred Household post after an audience in which Empress An made him drink a medicinal decoction 5 20 21.

The save also made him Yin Tingxue’s enemy. He had broken her Longevity Bridge during the confiscation of the Xiang Prince’s Residence. She later became the Bright-Dark Divine Sect’s holy maiden, devastated the Western Depot, and hunted him for seven days and nights. After methodically severing his meridians, she killed him 1.

Chen Yi then returned to the beginning of the save, restored to his game-created appearance and original official position. His panel revealed an exotic poison and only three years of remaining life. When he approached the Xiang Prince’s Residence again, he chose to assess Yin Tingxue before deciding whether to kill her or keep her alive 1.

Appearance

Chen Yi has the handsome appearance he selected during character creation, which grants ten innate charm points 1.

• Clothing: Black official robes, with his hair bound beneath a secured cap 1.
• Weapon: Usually carries an Embroidered Spring Saber at his waist 1 30.
• Build: Described as strong and fit, with a manner neither servile nor overbearing 42.

Personality

Chen Yi is calculating, opportunistic, and accustomed to treating decisions as problems of game optimization. He exploits foreknowledge, political rivalries, and other people’s emotions to secure resources and protect himself. His impersonation of Song Shengbao includes convincing displays of religious fanaticism, while his dealings with the two Depots deliberately encourage others to mistake self-interest for righteousness 5 9 11 12 17 18.

He is possessive and coercive toward the women around him. He threatens Yin Tingxue’s mother to force a lifelong contract, repeatedly intimidates Yin Tingxue, and uses unwanted intimacy and humiliation to provoke negative emotions. He recognizes that he is not a good man, rather than regarding these actions as orthodox conduct 4 12 17 36 37.

His attachments nevertheless become more than tools for cultivation. He risks his life to rescue Yin Tingxue, tends to her recovery, and cannot accept an immortal path that requires forgetting her. His ruthlessness also extends to officials who enable abuse: after surviving the Infant Tower ambush, he orders the children rescued and those responsible arrested 14 22 26 27 30 31.

Abilities & Skills

Game Knowledge and the Panel

Chen Yi combines detailed knowledge of Beyond the Heavens with a panel that displays techniques, true qi reserves, lifespan, and negative emotions 1 3 33.

• Accelerated training: Invests true qi to improve ordinary martial arts almost instantly 3 4.
• True essence conversion: Thirty years of true qi condense into one unit of true essence. Transcendent-grade arts require true essence for panel-assisted advancement; reaching minor attainment in Grudge Yin-Yang Art requires five units 1 8.
• Foreknowledge: Knows cult passwords, hidden identities, reward locations, and the origins of supernatural enemies 4 11 33 43.
• Limits: Yin Weiying’s unexpected appearance exposes gaps in his experience. Her apparent “Heavenly Eye” explanation for his knowledge is incorrect; Chen Yi explicitly denies possessing that ability in his thoughts 30 33.
• Conventional practice: Eventually realizes that panel infusion is only a shortcut and that techniques can also be cultivated normally 45.

Grudge Yin-Yang Art

A transcendent-grade art that converts foreign true qi into Chen Yi’s own cultivation and grants rewards through emotionally charged interactions 1 3 5.

• At beginner level, refines thirty percent of absorbed foreign true qi into usable personal true qi 5.
• Rewards him for provoking negative emotions in Yin Tingxue, Min Ming, Min Ning, and Yin Weiying 3 5 19 34.
• Its first activation responds to both Yin Tingxue’s hostility and his own mixture of hatred and pity 3.
• Can ease the strain of foreign true qi, but its circulation also produces a powerful urge that complicates his control 7.

Star-Absorbing Great Method

An incomplete Bright-Dark Divine Sect cultivation art obtained from Yin Tingxue’s memory 3.

• Absorbs an opponent’s true qi through contact; Chen Yi drains Song Shengbao during his death 4.
• Can force foreign true qi into another person, rupturing their meridians or body 7.
• Absorbed qi remains dangerous until refined. Excessive intake batters Chen Yi’s meridians and nearly causes him to burst, prompting him to delay further advancement 7 8.

Saber Techniques and Movement

Chen Yi specializes in combining refined saber work with movement arts 8 35.

• Jiao-Slaying Saber Technique: Targets vulnerabilities with forceful, decisive strikes; initially learned from Min Ning’s manual 4.
• Eagle-Fall Art: A lightness technique taken from Song Shengbao and perfected through panel training 5 8.
• Sea-Overturning Saber Technique: His fusion of Eagle-Fall Art and Jiao-Slaying Saber Technique, combining movement and saber attacks 8 35.
• Wind- and Rain-Scattering Saber: Min Ning’s strike, developed beyond its original form through his comprehension of changing seasons and true intention. It severs Deng Ai’s manifestation’s arm and nearly cuts through Feng Ying’s spear 39 44 48.

Cangshan Fist

A high-grade unarmed art entrusted to him by Director Wu, originally left in Wu’s care by Min He 18 19.

• Supplies a close-range option when a long saber is difficult to wield 24.
• Its fist intent strengthens his body and brings his qi and blood into a unified whole 24.
• Delivers the punch that incapacitates Wang Gu and, when supported by Jiang Wei’s portrait, cracks the Ghost General’s armor 26 44.

Defensive and Supporting Arts

• Copper Bone Art: Hardens his body against attacks, but cannot withstand Huang Liuqing’s powerful saber technique 35.
• Acupoint-Sealing Art: Listed as proficient on his initial panel 1.
• Shangqing Heart Method: A transcendent-grade method associated with mental clarity, sharpened senses, and slowed perception. He obtains it from the Shangqing Dao priests and begins practicing it directly 6 45 47.
• Cultivation obstacles: His exotic poison causes burning internal pain during Daoist practice. Existing martial true qi also occupies the apertures needed for Daoist cultivation, limiting his progress 47.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Embroidered Spring Saber — His regular weapon. Huang Liuqing cuts a half-inch-deep notch into it during their duel 1 35.
• Official waist tokens — Identify his Western Depot rank; he still wears a Western Depot Thousand Household token when visiting the Eastern Depot 1 24.
• Red-Gold Sarira — Obtained after resolving the Asura encounter. Its Buddhist radiance repels baleful energy and allows him to fight Deng Ai’s manifestation without suffering the full supernatural effects of its attacks 33 44.
• Jiang Wei door-god talisman — A peachwood charm purchased before the Huai River Village expedition. He uses it alongside the sarira to suppress Deng Ai’s manifestation 40 43 44.
• Cangshan Fist manual — Min He’s martial legacy, entrusted to Chen Yi by Director Wu. Min Ning initially refuses his offer to give it to her without repayment 19 27.
• Purple Medicine Pill Compendium — An alchemy manual extracted from Yin Weiying as compensation. Yin Tingxue later reads it at home 36 47.
• Death Contract — A lifelong contract he forces Yin Tingxue to sign under the name Yin Jiaoyu 12.

Relationships

• Yin Tingxue — His killer in the previous timeline and his coerced concubine after the reset. Their relationship mixes revenge, intimidation, dependency, and his growing attachment to her 1 12 14 30 37.
• Min Ning — Initially his disapproving superior; later his partner in investigations and combat. He manipulates and pressures her, while she teaches him Wind- and Rain-Scattering Saber and works with him to investigate her grandfather’s death 5 12 36 39 48.
• Min Ming — Min Ning’s elder sister. He captures and drains her during her investigation, then later spares her after discovering a poisoning attempt when Yin Tingxue intervenes 5 22 24.
• Zhou Yitang — His life-saving benefactor and swordsmanship master in his first save, later turned enemy. He still calls her his only master and remembers her vow to pursue his death even through reincarnation 36 37.
• Wu Qingsheng — Western Depot director and superior. Mistakes Chen Yi’s past misconduct for patient concealment of righteous ambitions and entrusts him with Cangshan Fist 17 18 19.
• Grand Secretary Lin and Lin Yan — Political patrons who helped secure his original post, then pressured him toward the Eastern Depot directorship. Chen Yi seeks to distance himself from their faction 18 20 21.
• Empress An — Grants him his initial appointment and later asks him to shoulder the Eastern Depot’s acting directorship 21.
• Yin Weiying — A contentious acquaintance who initially mistakes him for Min Yuechi and proposes becoming Dao companions. After his identity is exposed, their exchanges involve resentment, teasing, bargaining, and reluctant cooperation 30 33 34 36 45 46.
• Prince Jing — Political enemy connected to the Ding’an faction and Jade Elegance Estate. Plans Chen Yi’s death and orders another trap after the estate raid 26 34 49.
• Huang Liuqing — Fifth-grade White Willow Sect expert sent against him. Outmatches Chen Yi in their first duel, though Chen Yi escapes 34 35 36.
• Daoist Xuanzhen — Shangqing Dao priest whose party Chen Yi saves at Huai River Village. Repays the debt by arranging instruction in the Shangqing Heart Method and assistance with soul-summoning 43 45.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Disrupting the Demonic Cult–Depot Alliance

After acquiring the Star-Absorbing Great Method and mastering his first saber technique, Chen Yi kills the infiltrator Song Shengbao and later poisons protector elder Li Shengling. He uses Song’s identity to infiltrate another cult gathering, then engineers suspicion between the Bright-Dark Divine Sect and the Eastern Depot so neither side can safely cooperate against him 3 4 7 11 12.

When Yin Tingxue falls into the Eastern Depot’s hands, he rescues her and fights through a rain-soaked alley while carrying her. He kills twenty-one men that night. Subsequent investigators attribute the wider confrontation with Director Xue to an unidentified cult master rather than connecting it to Chen Yi 14 16 17.

Eastern Depot Appointment and Infant Tower

Chen Yi initially rejects the Lin faction’s attempts to place him in charge of the Eastern Depot, but subsequently agrees to undertake the responsibility before Empress An 18 21.

At the Infant Tower, Wang Gu and fourteen guards attack him. Chen Yi defeats them, severs Wang Gu’s left arm, and sends him back with a warning for Prince Jing and the Ding’an faction. He orders the children taken to the Foundling Hall and everyone involved in building the tower arrested 26.

Demon-Quelling Day

Yin Weiying attempts to persuade Chen Yi to abandon worldly ties for immortality. He refuses after realizing he cannot forget Yin Tingxue, then challenges whether cultivation should produce an immortal or an unfeeling stone 30 31.

During the prematurely arriving Demon-Quelling Day, his game knowledge allows him to resolve an Asura encounter and obtain the Red-Gold Sarira. Yin Weiying reveals Prince Jing’s plan to kill him, and Huang Liuqing attacks soon afterward. Chen Yi escapes, secures Yin Weiying’s alchemy manual, and later perfects Min Ning’s saber strike 33 34 35 36 39.

Huai River Village and the Min Family Investigation

Responding to a Do Not Use Tower request, Chen Yi and Min Ning investigate Huai River Village. Inside its ancestral hall, they find children prepared as sacrifices and become trapped with Shangqing Dao priests in a ghost domain 39 42 43.

Chen Yi identifies the Ghost General as a manifestation of Deng Ai and defeats it using the sarira, Jiang Wei’s portrait, Cangshan Fist, and Wind- and Rain-Scattering Saber. In repayment, he requests the Shangqing Heart Method and help summoning Min Ning’s grandfather’s soul to investigate the Chancellor Case 39 43 44 45.

Raid on Jade Elegance Estate

After a threatening letter warns Min Ning to stop investigating the Chancellor Case, Chen Yi decides to shut down Jade Elegance Estate, a suspected Five-Stone Powder trafficking site backed by Prince Jing 37 46.

He and Min Ning lead a raid and defeat Feng Ying and Feng Luo. Chen Yi kills Feng Ying, cripples Feng Luo to prevent retaliation, and secures the accompanying officials’ support for his account. Prince Jing responds by ordering Huang Liuqing to prepare another killing trap 48 49.

Notable Quotes

“I’ve got cheats on.” 4

“Let you live? Then who will let me live?” 4

“This punch holds forty-nine years of training.” 24