Half-Immortal Xu

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Sect Massacre and the Zhou Family’s Aid

Half-Immortal Xu belonged to a sect that worshipped the Nine Heavens Supreme Goddess. His late female master achieved Ghost Sealing, earning enough respect that accomplished martial artists addressed her as a high adept 9 21.

His senior brother learned martial arts and attempted to seize their master’s sealed ghost. The betrayal destroyed the school, leaving Xu as its sole survivor. The traitor failed to obtain the ghost, while Xu escaped with help from Zhou Muzhi’s grandfather. Xu later learned that his enemy was living comfortably in the commandery and feared that his martial cultivation had continued to improve 9 21.

Teaching Zhou Muzhi

Because of his debt to the Zhou elders, Xu visited the ailing Zhou Muzhi and supplied an incense candle that helped preserve his life. When Zhou later sought another, Xu initially refused. He reconsidered after Zhou lifted a millstone weighing slightly over two hundred jin and claimed to have acquired that strength in a single day 8.

Xu offered to teach Evil-Repelling Incense in exchange for killing his traitorous senior brother. Zhou negotiated access to the foundations of the craft, accepted the revenge obligation, and received Xu’s incense-making booklet. Xu also allowed him to examine the sacred statue, unknowingly giving him access to a source of Deduction Points 9.

The following day, Zhou returned with improved formulas derived through deduction. Xu initially treated his claims as arrogance, but recognized their value after hearing the technical details. Their work became collaborative: Zhou supplied advanced methods, while Xu contributed practical knowledge, answered questions, and prepared the incense 11 13.

Gathering Materials and Losing His Legacy

When the proposed ghost-controlling incense required rare materials, Xu agreed to travel with Du Wen and guards funded by the Zhou Family. Du Wen persuaded him to obtain supplies from mountain foragers whom he accused of robbery. Xu hesitated, then accepted the plan rather than risk a dangerous expedition into the mountains. He returned pleased with the successful, ruthless venture and ready to resume incense-making 26 29 30 35.

Xu completed the Evil-Repelling Incense and directed Zhou through producing two sticks of Ghost-Controlling Incense. During the final incense invitation, the Nine Heavens Supreme Goddess statue began cracking. Xu ordered Zhou to continue rather than interrupt the ritual. When the statue shattered, he declared that his path had been severed, gathered its fragments, and asked Zhou to make good use of the incense 35.

Witnessing Ghost Control

Zhou subsequently subdued the vengeful spirit and named her A-Xiang. At a tea pavilion on Youhe Street, he showed Xu the concealed ghost and demonstrated her power against men searching for Zhou Family associates. Xu regarded witnessing Ghost Control—something even his master had not achieved—as worthwhile despite his losses 46 50.

With Qian Zhen’s men targeting the Zhou Family’s associates, Zhou escorted Xu to the Zhou Residence for protection. Xu reaffirmed his reliance on Zhou to avenge him, but also warned him to retreat if the situation became impossible 49 50.

Appearance

• Build: Seven feet tall, with a stooped posture 8.
• Hair: White and tied up 8.
• Clothing: Old garments with conspicuous patches 8.
• Later appearance: Ages noticeably after losing his incense-making legacy, increasingly resembling a frail old man 50.

Personality

Xu is proud of his craft and skeptical of extravagant claims. He initially mocks Zhou Muzhi’s assertion that he improved several incense formulas overnight, but changes his judgment when the technical explanation proves sound. Despite his wounded pride, he openly admits that Zhou has surpassed him in technique 11.

He is cautious about physical danger and conscious of his limitations. He requests guards before travelling to gather materials and initially resists Du Wen’s suggestion to use supernatural methods against the foragers. Nevertheless, he can accept ruthless measures when persuaded that the alternatives are more dangerous 26 30.

Revenge shapes his investment in Zhou, but his attachment is not expressed solely through bargaining. He sacrifices his incense-making path to complete their work, worries about the possible cost of Ghost Control, and ultimately advises Zhou to withdraw rather than pursue an impossible fight 9 35 50.

Abilities & Skills

Incense-Making

• Compiles methods developed over half his lifetime in an untitled booklet 9.
• Has deeper practical foundations than Zhou initially possesses, despite the deduction panel’s low assessment of his craft 10 11.
• Can identify ingredients by scent through their oilpaper wrapping and judge their quality and freshness 21.
• Processes ingredients through specialized liquids, tools, proportions, and incantations. Once the materials for the improved Evil-Repelling Incense are assembled, he estimates one day to make it 11 21.
• Warns that interrupting incense-making after an anomaly appears can produce something worse than the anomaly itself 11.
• Loses the ability to replenish his incense after the sacred statue is destroyed 35 50.

Evil Suppression and Targeted Incense

• Supplies white evil-warding candles that buy Zhou time, but cannot permanently eliminate the spirit haunting him. Xu states that the original candle takes a year to produce 8.
• Recognizes that ordinary repelling effects may fail against a spirit determined to kill a particular person 21.
• Proposes adding the ashes of a spirit’s intimate possession and middle-finger blood from the person it hates to create a restraining effect 21.
• His tailored incense later traps and damages the vengeful spirit through its gray mist, although contact consumes the incense rapidly 45.

Ghost Control Theory

• Builds on his master’s Ghost Sealing and his senior brother’s near-success with combining martial blood and qi with sect methods 21.
• Proposes altering a ghost’s remaining memories so that its controller becomes the person most important to it, then sealing those memories within incense mist so the ghost can attach to an ordinary object 26.
• Requires information about the ghost’s former identity, personality, relationships, and interests 26.
• Cannot attempt control himself because his remaining blood and qi are insufficient; instead, he guides Zhou in making the required incense 21 35.
• The method is later validated by Zhou’s successful control of A-Xiang, not by Xu personally controlling a ghost 46 50.

Minor Spirit Methods and Ghost Sight

• Knows a summoning method capable of causing minor illness or making someone lose their way, but cannot summon anything particularly powerful 30.
• Uses incense ash on his eyelids to see A-Xiang while she is concealed. Her ghostly chill makes his eyes ache, prompting him to remove the ash quickly 50.
• Does not practice martial arts and relies on escorts for physical protection 11 26.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Incense-making booklet — An untitled, white-covered record of his methods, given to Zhou Muzhi as teaching material 9.
• Nine Heavens Supreme Goddess statue — A thirty-inch, pale-red wooden carving used to request efficacy for many sect incenses and candles. Zhou exhausts its available Deduction Points before it later shatters during the Ghost-Controlling Incense invitation 9 21 35.
• Black bead — A fist-sized, uneven bead with a strong, cloyingly sweet smell. Xu carefully scrapes powder from it for incense preparation; its material is unidentified 21.
• Specialized incense tools — Bottles, jars, processing implements, and hollow bamboo molds used in preparing and shaping incense 21 35.
• Yellow talismans and incense ash — Folded triangular talismans store the ash he uses for ghost sight 50.
• Final incense reserves — A bundle of previously made incense that remains usable after his path is severed, but cannot be replaced 50.

Relationships

• Zhou Muzhi — Student, collaborator, protector, and promised avenger. Xu provides the foundation for his incense craft and helps make Ghost Control possible 9 11 35 50.
• Zhou Muzhi’s grandfather — Saved Xu after the sect massacre, creating his longstanding debt to the Zhou Family 9.
• Late master — A respected female Ghost Sealing adept whose achievement inspires Xu’s ambition to go further through Zhou 21.
• Unnamed senior brother — Sect traitor and revenge target; slaughtered their school while trying to seize their master’s ghost 9 21.
• Du Wen — One-armed material supplier and expedition partner who persuades Xu to act against the mountain foragers 26 30 35.
• Lao Xu — Zhou Muzhi’s martial guard, a separate character. Accompanies Zhou on visits and briefly draws his saber during their first confrontation at Xu’s home 8.

Notable Quotes

“You're better than me. You've walked farther down the path of incense making than I have.” 11

“Such is cause and effect. I took this step, and the shattering of the Nine Heavens Supreme Goddess also means this path has been severed completely. Boy, I hope you make good use of this stick of incense.” 35

“If things become impossible, pull out in time.” 50