Chen Ying

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Chen Ying awakens inside a coffin after following a guiding light through a gathering of dead souls. He realizes that he has returned to life in someone else’s body. Wu Jie, who addresses him as her husband, explains that an evildoer scattered his souls; she attributes his unfamiliarity with his surroundings to the resulting spiritual injury 1.

The household’s apparent normality quickly unravels. Granny Chen floats through the building, ordinary food fails to interest him, and Wu Jie’s neck provokes a disturbing appetite. Unable to sleep, he encounters an old ghost offering rice that would allow it to leave in someone else’s place. Rather than eat, Chen Ying questions it about the building’s imprisoned residents 2 3 4.

Wen Ruzhi diagnoses the underlying danger: Chen Ying’s innate qi has dispersed, leaving his body hollow and liable to fail within two or three years. Outside intervention has reached its limit; internal strengthening offers a way to break his precarious balance between life and death 6 7.

His inherited family has ties to the White Lotus Sect, but the sect has severed relations with Granny Chen’s household. Granny had sought a quiet life in Hong Kong and Kowloon, where the family operates a cautious, low-risk rice business rather than pursuing conspicuous wealth 6 18.

Appearance

• Height: Nearly six feet tall 19.
• Complexion: Described as pale during his fight with Ren Gang 25.
• Early physical condition: Initially weak-legged, unnaturally cold, and unable to sleep despite exhaustion; martial training gradually restores warmth and appetite 1 4 16.
• Left eye: Becomes unusually perceptive after baleful qi passes through it during the Little Building crisis 46 50.

Personality

Chen Ying meets frightening situations with irreverence and practical curiosity. He makes small talk with a corpse-like ghost, jokes about the supernatural, and becomes comfortable enough to examine the rules behind apparently terrifying phenomena. His flippancy does not prevent caution: he refuses suspicious food, avoids unnecessary confrontations, and prepares a cap-gun decoy before the police investigate his firearm 3 12 23 25.

He is exceptionally diligent when his survival depends on learning. His early training continues without eating, sleeping, or resting, and he repeatedly seeks Wen Ruzhi’s explanations rather than pretending to understand. Under severe pressure, he becomes more focused; against the Rongyi Street demon, his overriding determination is to retain control of his own body 8 16 25 32.

His loyalty is personal rather than institutional. He repeatedly protects Hua Shanrong but rejects the idea of climbing a gang hierarchy. He also accepts responsibility toward Wu Jie: although their relationship was inherited with his new identity, he resolves to be a dependable husband if she gives him her wholehearted trust 14 16 28 36.

Chen Ying can be ruthless toward enemies. He breaks a bully’s collarbone, uses a firearm to terrorize the gang, and later shoots Mah Yau Wu. These actions coexist with careful planning: Wen Ruzhi particularly values his ability to infer a wider scheme from small details, while Chen Ying insists on certainty before moving against Young Master Wen 20 41 44 45.

Abilities & Skills

Eight Trigram Palm

His principal martial art, taught by Wen Ruzhi as both combat training and treatment for his deteriorating body 7 8.

• Uses mobile stance work, circling steps, and changing angles to avoid strength and strike weakness 9 25 32.
• Includes palm strikes, knife-hand attacks, unarmed routines, and spear techniques 16 20.
• Martial cultivation sharpens his hearing and vision to more than three times their earlier acuity 30.
• Proficiency does not make him Wen Ruzhi’s equal: Wen evades more than thirty consecutive attacks and defeats him with a light touch 29.

Coiling Python Force

The hidden strength of his Eight Trigram Palm, described as a python coiling along his spine before issuing through his arms 25 34.

• First fully manifests when his innate cold power reinforces it during the fight with Ren Gang 25.
• Supports the deliberate circulation of blood and qi and supplies the force needed for advanced techniques 29.
• Trained by keeping an iron ball weighing over two hundred jin with its water filling moving in the air 34.
• Has not reached Transforming Strength; Wen describes that future breakthrough as requiring accumulated cultivation, experience, and an external stimulus 34.

Innate Baleful Qi

An icy, tiger-like power that Chen Ying senses belongs to his transmigrated self rather than his borrowed body. Its precise origin remains unresolved 12 50.

• Protects his arm from Sha Wei’s saber without leaving a bodily wound 14.
• Reinforces his martial force and attacks the foundations of supernatural entities 25 46.
• Enables him to remove a ghost’s eye from its essential structure, rather than merely inflicting an injury it could ordinarily regenerate 46 50.
• After the Rongyi Street battle, he draws a cold current from Hua Shanrong’s arm, causing the coin-shaped sores there to fade 32.
• Its early awakenings bring overwhelming rage and killing intent that he must consciously suppress 14.

Kui Star Kicks the Dipper

A specialized kick that models celestial phenomena within the body and generates controllable baleful qi 29.

• Requires hidden strength to drive blood and qi through sixteen points while maintaining the kicking technique 29.
• Destroys the Rongyi Street demon’s foundation and later damages the ghost child in the Little Building 32 46.
• Initially proves too demanding to execute despite his existing mastery of hidden strength 29.

Supernatural Perception

His initial Night Eye and later left-eye enhancement arise at different points in his recovery 5 46.

• Night Eye: Allows him to see ghosts operating in daylight 5.
• Enhanced left eye: Sees through the black mist concealing the ghost child and remains exceptionally sharp afterward 46 50.
• Limitation: His ordinary senses can still be deceived; his first strike against the ghost child passes through an apparent body that is not actually there 46.

Through-Arm Fist

Wen Ruzhi teaches him this art as a complement to Eight Trigram Palm after his formal entry into the martial lineage 34.

• Emphasizes direct attacks through the center and meeting speed with speed 44.
• Its hidden force, Diamond Ape Arms, draws strength from the Dazhui to transform the arms 44.
• Wen explains its potential to make the arms adamantine, but Chen Ying is not shown mastering that hidden force 44.

Firearms and Tactical Planning

• Learns firearm handling and concealment as part of Wen Ruzhi’s instruction 7 23.
• Uses a prepared toy revolver to deflect an illegal-firearm investigation 22 23.
• Anticipates that the family warehouses could be targeted and discovers planted drugs before the police search 37.
• Uses a supposed next-day hiring arrangement to disguise his plan for an immediate gold-shop robbery 39.
• Provides Mak Ho-lai with investigative leads concerning missing spirit mediums and Xu Renying’s associates 45.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Ivory-gripped revolver — Given to him by Wen Ruzhi at the beginning of treatment; carried for self-defense and used during the confrontation with Brother Cheng 7 8 20.
• Toy cap gun — Prepared as a decoy and presented to investigating officers as a harmless reminder of his ambition to join the police 22 23.
• Zhongwu Type 56 submachine guns — His group obtains five from Lin Jin; Chen Ying later carries a Type 56 into Mah Yau Wu’s residence 39 41.
• Medical books — Supplied by Wen Ruzhi alongside his continued martial instruction 34.
• Compass — Obtained from Su Xiong. Chen Ying feeds it a drop of blood and follows its guidance into the Wrongful Death Ghost Market, where it helps direct him toward a desired transaction 49 50.
• Ghost Eye — Removed from the ghost child and recognized by the Ghost Appraiser as an unusually complete severance from an entity’s essence. Chen Ying trades it away rather than implanting it 46 50.
• Human Skin Paper — Acquired from a mutilated male corpse in exchange for the Ghost Eye. Its opening records a covenant involving Solomon, the Third Monarch, and the Seventy-Two Pillars; no resulting power is demonstrated in the supplied account 50.

Relationships

• Wu Jie / A-Jie — His wife-to-be, who already calls him her husband. She manages his daily needs, explains the household’s secrets, and assists him during the Little Building crisis 1 2 28 46 47.
• Granny Chen — Grandmother of his inherited identity and protector of the household. She arranges his training, deals with his attacker, and insists that he resume school 4 16 18.
• Wen Ruzhi — Initially his physician and instructor, explicitly not his master. Their relationship later becomes a formal master–disciple bond; Wen teaches without withholding martial principles 7 16 34.
• Dragon City Zhong Kui / Senior Lu — His sponsoring master. Notices publicly identify Chen Ying as his disciple, establishing a reputation Chen Ying only learns about afterward 34.
• Hua Shanrong — Friend and trusted ally. Chen Ying rescues him repeatedly and supports him before Wo On Sing’s elders; Hua chooses to stand with Chen Ying rather than abandon him 10 14 34 36.
• Uncle Qing — Chen family bodyguard and driver. Helps inspect the warehouses, carries warnings and contraband to Wen Ruzhi, and transports Chen Ying during the Little Building emergency 37 38 49.
• Fang Zhijie — Form teacher who tries to protect him from bullying and promises assistance even if he transfers. Chen Ying recognizes his genuine concern 22.
• Wen Xiu — A girl pursued by his predecessor. Chen Ying rejects her assumption that his fight with the bullies was over her, but protects her from Ren Gang 23 25.
• Mak Ho-lai — Police contact with whom he discusses Rongyi Street and exchanges investigative information 27 41 45.
• Su Xiong — Underworld figure approached for help during the Little Building crisis. Receives Chen Ying courteously and supplies the compass 48 49.
• Ghost Appraiser — Offers bargains involving the compass, baleful qi, and supernatural eyes. Chen Ying consults him but refuses his proposed eye replacement 14 16 50.
• Mah Yau Wu — Hostile Wo On Sing elder. Their confrontation precedes Chen Ying’s retaliation against his gold shop and residence, culminating in Mah’s death 36 39 41.

Story Role / Major Arcs

First Ghost Market Encounter

• Escapes a gang battle with Hua Shanrong, only to enter a mist-covered street with no visible route back 10.
• Witnesses Fat Bear’s final departure and Sha Wei pawning his heart at the Ghost Market 12.
• Receives the Ghost Appraiser’s offer of baleful-qi instruction in exchange for a compass, but ultimately prioritizes recovery through Wen Ruzhi’s teaching 14 16.

Tongwen Academy

• Returns to school after reaching Bright Strength and overturns his predecessor’s reputation as an easy target by defeating Brother Cheng’s gang 18 19 20.
• Plans to withdraw in pursuit of more useful studies, while evading a firearm investigation with his prepared cap gun 22 23.
• Encounters a looping corridor, a floating red opera robe, and a separate hair-like entity; defeats Ren Gang before fleeing with Wen Xiu 23 25 26.
• Leaves with Fang Zhijie’s assistance. Ren Gang subsequently falls dead from the rooftop, although later rumors credit Chen Ying with killing him 27 34.

Rongyi Street and Formal Discipleship

• Visits the ruined temple at 93 Rongyi Street as an assignment connected to learning Kui Star Kicks the Dipper 29 30.
• Disrupts a demon’s attempt to gain recognition as a god and kills it despite its venomous resentment 32.
• Subsequently enters Wen Ruzhi’s tutelage formally and begins training force rather than merely rehearsing forms 34.

Wo On Sing and the Warehouse Plot

• Accompanies Hua Shanrong to a hearing, confronts the elders’ treatment of him, and leaves after warning them against further provocation 34 36.
• Finds drugs planted in the family warehouses and removes them before Yan Ren’s police search 37.
• Turns to armed retaliation, planning a robbery of Mah Yau Wu’s gold shop and later shooting Mah at his residence. Yan Ren stages the aftermath as resistance to arrest 39 41.
• Continues investigating the wider conspiracy while Wen Ruzhi leaves for Lingnan to investigate Xu Renying 43 44 45.

Little Building Crisis

• Returns to find Wu Jie exhausted and the captive entities becoming harder to restrain 46.
• Repels the ghost child, enhances his left eye, and learns that the building itself is an entity that preys on other entities 46.
• Discovers that Granny Chen’s Yin Spirit cannot return to her body, which has begun becoming a living corpse. Refuses to flee and instead seeks help while a new clock counts down toward the next movement period 47.
• Obtains Su Xiong’s compass as the Void Realm draws closer to the building, then follows it into the Ghost Market and exchanges the Ghost Eye for Human Skin Paper 49 50.

Notable Quotes

“I prefer life as it is now. Three simple meals a day, practicing martial arts when there’s nothing to do, reading the paper.” 18

“I will never give up. I will not hand this body over to your control.” 32

“This fist, this step, this body—within these three feet, I am the god of this place.” 32