Tong Yan

Biodata

Power Progression

Appearance

• Youthful face: His exceptionally smooth skin is compared to a baby’s; even much later, his features retain an unusually innocent, youthful quality 152 983.
• Faint eyebrows and long eyelashes: His pale eyebrows are repeatedly noted, while his eyelashes cast long shadows over his face 264 559.
• Thicker eyebrows in later life: Jing Jiu notices the change after his years underground. Following ascension, they are considerably thicker, making him appear less cold and more approachable 454 914.
• Cloud-Dream Illusion incarnation: Reborn with a congenital disability, he uses a wheelchair and covers his legs with a wool blanket. This condition belongs to his illusory life, not his physical body outside the mirror 376 378 384.

Personality

Tong Yan is aloof, proud, and intensely competitive. His desire to win is visible even during the restrained atmosphere of his match with Jing Jiu. After losing, he continues practicing diligently and rejects the idea that effort can be replaced by good fortune 136 152 264.

His moral language is uncompromising: he compares his judgments to the black and white of a Go board. He engineers Luo Huainan’s death for betraying their junior sister and later insists that True Person Taiping deserves to die regardless of Green Mountain’s desire to protect him 209 504.

That certainty coexists with ruthless methods. In the Western Sea plot, he accepts deception and foreseeable deaths as part of the plan. Bai Zao directly challenges him for manipulating Tonglu and Guo Dong 356.

He is deeply protective of a small circle. He worries that He Zhan’s suffering will change his nature, and his concern for Bai Zao is so strong that Jing Jiu interprets his disabled incarnation as a subconscious wish to exchange places with her. Qing’er nevertheless criticizes his unwillingness to trust others or ask for help 373 378 454.

Tong Yan also recognizes the limits of overthinking. When Qing’er is dying, he acts without constructing an elaborate plan, explaining that calculation has never enabled him to surpass Jing Jiu and that another approach might work better 455.

Abilities & Skills

Go Mastery

Tong Yan enters the Dao through Go and uses cultivation to deepen his understanding of the game 146.

• Wins the Plum Gathering’s Go competition three consecutive times before Jing Jiu challenges him 84.
• Defeats Scholar Guo, the dynasty’s foremost national Go master, in the middle game after winning more than thirty consecutive street games 136 141.
• Influences a generation of players, including Que Niang, Shang Jiulou, and Gu Yuanyuan, whose skills surpass earlier secular and cultivation-world masters 146.
• Initially argues that intuition and the Great Dao matter more than calculation, a position Jing Jiu openly disputes 137.
• Loses to Jing Jiu at the Plum Gathering and is later described as second in the world at Go 264 487.

Strategy, Deduction, and Memory

His planning extends from individual assassinations to sect politics and interstellar operations 209 529 910.

• Psychological insight: Uses Ma Hua’s ambition and Liu S sui’s loyalty to Jing Jiu to construct the trap for Luo Huainan 209.
• Battlefield selection: Spends half a year arranging favorable conditions for Pei Baifa’s confrontation with Jian Xilai. He estimates an improvement from a forty-percent chance to fifty percent, while admitting that his cultivation is too low to calculate the outcome reliably 316.
• Behavioral identification: Studies unconscious habits before the Cloud-Dream Illusion, including how participants hold cups, stand, and arrange their hair 367.
• Exceptional memory: Reconstructs Su Ziye’s detailed map of Shaoming Island, including formations and mechanisms, entirely from memory 487.
• Information warfare: Analyzes Star Gate archives, identifies unreliable people, and proposes improving the dialogue system of Jing Jiu’s game as part of its information-gathering potential 910.
• Limit: His plans can become unnecessarily elaborate; Jing Jiu and Gu Qing criticize this tendency when reviewing his proposed operation in Yizhou 530.

Daoist Arts and Formation-Breaking

Tong Yan remains a practitioner of Zhongzhou Daoist arts even after joining Green Mountain 508 627.

• Identifies formation-breaking as his greatest specialty. After ascending, he infiltrates the Shen Household’s Grand Formation without alerting its six Night-Bearing Realm guardians 916.
• Uses mist to put spacecraft passengers and the inhabitants of the Shen Household Old Residence to sleep 916 921.
• Seals his six senses with Daoist arts to shut out Shen Yunmai’s chatter 959.
• Cannot break Jing Jiu’s personally arranged confinement formation on Hidden Peak, even with assistance from the other imprisoned cultivators 591.

Heaven and Earth Escape Method

A Zhongzhou movement art that allows him to travel rapidly through the air and evade attacks 384 675.

• Crosses clouds and reaches a high Yunmeng Mountain peak within a few dozen breaths 384.
• Evades the Profound Yin Ancestor at close range despite serious injuries 675.
• Later combines the method with a bell chime to reach Chen Ya before the surrounding immortals can react 983.
• Does not automatically bypass formations: his arrival at the Sword Prison still triggers its defensive runes 559.

Excavation and Close-Range Attacks

Years of tunneling become one of his most unusual practical specialties 414 487 983.

• Removes hard stone silently with his hands while digging beneath Yunmeng Mountain 414.
• Spends six years tunneling while avoiding detection by the Yunmeng Grand Array and Qilin 434.
• Digs through Shaoming Island to reach the chamber containing the First Child Sword without crossing its outer defensive formations 487.
• Nearly destroys Chen Ya’s exceptionally durable stone body with a palm strike, explaining the feat simply as being good at digging holes 983.

Combined Immortal Combat

His later strength draws on both Zhongzhou’s Daoist tradition and his years cultivating at Green Mountain 980.

• Defeats and captures two immortals while contending with a three-person pursuit, forcing the opposing side to negotiate 979 980.
• Uses a little bell whose keen edges contain pure Green Mountain sword intent 980.
• Accomplishes these victories at substantial cost, suffering severe injuries and nearly exhausting his immortal qi 980 983.
• Cannot withstand Shen Green Mountain’s sword intent during their final confrontation; his airborne black Go stones turn white and are cut apart 1008.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Go boards and stones — Used for practice, strategic explanations, and later supernatural techniques. He also enjoys turning stones in his palm for their sound 414 529 1008.
• Azure Sky Mirror — A Heaven-Rank Law Treasure housing Qing’er and the Cloud-Dream Illusion. Tong Yan removes it from Yunmeng Mountain to save its spirit and later brings it into the Western Sea operation 434 455 487.
• Ten-Thousand-Li Seal — Saves him from the Green Mountain assault following the heavenly thunder incident. He had previously considered using it against Wang Xiaoming but held back 500.
• Escape seal used in the Netherworld — Enables his escape after the confrontation with the Nether Master; the account calls it a Thousand-Li Seal 675.
• Ancient bell — Injures the Nether Master with its toll. Tong Yan manages two rings but cannot sustain a third and coughs blood 671 672.
• Supreme Profound Art, Supplementary Volume — Supplied during his confinement on Shaoming Island. His proposed bargain involves cultivating it before allowing the Western Sea Sword God to meet Qing’er; mastery is not confirmed in the account 487.
• Heaven and Earth as a Pot treasure — Refined from the Azure Dragon’s stomach with Qilin blood and the Zen Child’s assistance. He uses its spatial capacity to hold hundreds of Polyphase Nuclear Bombs 921.
• Firearm and Talisman Treasure — illusion only — Compensate for his illusory incarnation’s limited cultivation and together blow off one of Zhuo Rusui’s arms 382.

History

Zhongzhou Genius and the Plum Gathering

Tong Yan becomes one of the cultivation world’s most celebrated young geniuses, with cultivation talent regarded as unmatched in Central Province. His reputation as a Go player is even greater: although he rarely plays publicly outside the Plum Gathering, his recorded games establish him as the undisputed world leader 84 136.

Jing Jiu challenges both his standing and his philosophy of play. Their Plum Gathering match draws extraordinary attention; afterward, its board and stones are preserved in the Imperial Palace, and thousands of game records circulate through Chaoge City. Tong Yan leaves without entering the Dao Battle and returns to secluded cultivation on Yunmeng Mountain 137 155.

Luo Huainan’s Death and the Western Sea Plot

After the snowfield incident, Tong Yan visits Green Mountain and pays his respects at Divine End Peak. He subsequently reveals that he has helped orchestrate Luo Huainan’s capture. Rejecting Luo’s pleas and repentance, he allows the trap to destroy his Nascent Soul as punishment for betraying their junior sister 201 209.

Guo Dong later reveals that she had guided Tong Yan, Luo Huainan, and Guo Nanshan toward destroying Cloud Terrace. She then recruits Tong Yan for the effort to kill the Western Sea Sword God, with Pei Baifa serving as the necessary Heaven-Connecting Realm combatant 268 316.

The scheme fails. Tonglu dies after attempting to kill his master, while Jing Jiu disappears after rescuing Guo Dong. Tong Yan’s explanation of the plan exposes the extent to which he had manipulated his allies, provoking Bai Zao’s condemnation 356.

The Cloud-Dream Illusion

Tong Yan enters the Dao-Seeking Assembly determined to help Bai Zao obtain the Immortal Register. Inside the Azure Sky Mirror, he becomes the disabled heir of Prince Jing and spends twenty years developing political resources and intelligence networks 367 375 378 382.

He identifies Jing Jiu as Bai Zao’s greatest rival and repeatedly attempts to eliminate him. When Tong Yan begins to discern Jing Jiu’s deeper intentions, Jing Jiu refuses to let him leave the capital. Their confrontation ends with Jing Jiu killing his illusory incarnation, after which Tong Yan awakens outside the mirror 378 382 384 395.

Saving Qing’er and Joining Green Mountain

Hearing Qing’er’s plea beneath Yunmeng Mountain, Tong Yan begins tunneling toward the Earth Vein. He spends six years avoiding the sect’s surveillance, then takes the Azure Sky Mirror away because White True Person intends to freeze Qing’er until her soul dissipates. His arrival at Fruitful Accomplishment Temple helps stabilize the unconscious Jing Jiu, but Zhongzhou publicly declares him a traitor 414 434 455.

His apparent defection becomes entangled with a Zhongzhou operation against True Person Taiping. An Immortal Register is concealed inside the mirror, and Tong Yan eventually carries it to Shaoming Island, where he waits in the First Child Sword’s chamber for Taiping’s arrival 487 501.

After the resulting heavenly thunder injures Liu Ci, Tong Yan escapes the immediate Green Mountain retaliation with his seal. White True Person does not grant the mirror genuine freedom. Tong Yan’s subsequent betrayal of Zhongzhou is real: he accepts Liu Ci’s condition that he join Green Mountain together with the Azure Sky Mirror 500 502 504.

Hidden Peak and the Netherworld

Tong Yan cultivates on Hidden Peak and supplies Jing Jiu with strategic advice. Sent into the Netherworld, he meets the future Nether Emperor A Piao and later transports him through the Sword Prison to Hidden Peak, where A Piao attacks him and reveals his connection to True Person Taiping 508 529 536 545 559.

He also directs Green Mountain’s attack on the Yunmeng Grand Array. After more than a century as a Green Mountain disciple, he still lacks a formal token or sword training, causing younger instructors to mistake him for a Zhongzhou intruder when he leaves Hidden Peak during the sect-master succession crisis 617 627.

During Taiping’s plan to poison the mortal world through the Netherworld, Tong Yan attacks the Nether Master with an ancient bell. He escapes gravely injured and then uses the Profound Yin Ancestor’s attack to kill Fruitful Accomplishment Temple’s Sutra Lecture Hall Chief Seat, suffering further serious wounds himself 671 672 675 679.

Ascension and the Interstellar Conflict

After ascending, Tong Yan helps plan control of Star Gate Base and studies the intelligence potential of Jing Jiu’s game. By this period, he is identified as the Zhongzhou Sect Master, though the circumstances of his accession are not given 910 916.

He infiltrates the Shen Household Old Residence, activates Shen Yunmai’s hidden survival signal with Huang Mujin’s help, and burns the residence at the old man’s request. He then locates the Black Warship and helps restore the weakened Shen Yunmai to a mechanical body 921 923 958.

On Mars, Tong Yan captures two immortals to force negotiations and later nearly kills Chen Ya with a surprise attack. He remains active through the confrontation with the Founding Patriarch. After Shen Green Mountain’s death, he returns Shen Yunmai’s head to its robot and gathers Jing Jiu’s removed organs in case they can help repair One Sword for All Things 980 983 1014.

Relationships

• Jing Jiu — Go rival, later ally and sect master. Their competition develops into cooperation, although Tong Yan retains considerable independence and initially resists being ordered around 137 504 529.
• Bai Zao — Junior sister whom he deeply loves and protects. White True Person favors him as her prospective husband, but both initially resist the proposed match; Bai Zao later explicitly says she does not want him as her Dao companion 139 278 378.
• White True Person — Former master. Her treatment of Qing’er drives his theft of the mirror, and her refusal to grant its true freedom precedes his genuine break with Zhongzhou 435 455 502 504.
• Qing’er — Azure Sky Mirror spirit and close companion. He risks his future to save her, and she accompanies him underground and into the Western Sea 434 454 487.
• He Zhan — His closest friend, described during the illusion arc as his only friend. Tong Yan worries about the effect of repeated betrayals on He Zhan’s character 264 373.
• Su Ziye — Ally rather than friend, by Tong Yan’s own distinction. Their long collaboration gives Tong Yan detailed knowledge of his habits and methods 529 536.
• Luo Huainan — Senior brother whom Tong Yan conspires to kill for betraying their junior sister 209.
• Zhao Layue — Collaborator in Luo Huainan’s death and a later strategic partner. She continues to trust him during their interstellar operations 504 916.
• Liu Ci — Accepts him into Green Mountain despite his role in the heavenly thunder incident and expresses appreciation for him 500 504.
• Zhuo Rusui — Persistent antagonist despite their shared associations. Zhuo blames Tong Yan for Liu Ci’s death and still wants to kill him during the final conflict 536 997.
• Snow Ji — Reluctant pupil in human communication. Jing Jiu assigns Tong Yan to teach her after her uncontrolled chill injures him 465.
• Shen Yunmai — Rescued companion and interstellar collaborator. Tong Yan assists his recovery and counters his belief that he was merely manufactured by reminding him that his mother gave birth to him 923 958 960.

Notable Quotes

“Everything requires effort. Not everyone is like that fellow, able to have everything go smoothly through luck alone.” 264

“In the end, we can only be ourselves. Even after coming into the illusion and living here for twenty years, we are still ourselves.” 378

“I play Go. I see only black and white. True Person Taiping deserved to die, so I did everything I could to kill him.” 504

“I’m good at digging holes.” 983