Lin Feng

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Family and Black Wind Ridge

Lin Feng belongs to the Lin Lineage, a medicinal-herb merchant family in Qingshan County. According to Wang Shi, roughly half the county’s medicinal herbs pass through the family’s hands. His father oversees trading-house business, while Lin Feng helps handle its affairs and arrange protection for shipments 29 41 48.

He has explored Black Wind Ridge repeatedly over several years. Three years before Jiang Fa seeks his advice, he drew an annotated map of the ridge that Wang Shi subsequently kept. Wang Shi considers his knowledge of the area unmatched among the inner courtyard disciples 29 30.

Two years before that consultation, Lin Feng witnessed a hunter murder his companions to seize a hundred-year-old blood lingzhi. The killer feigned injury, waited for his close friend and an Iron-Claw Savage Bear to weaken each other, then stabbed his friend through the heart. Lin Feng uses this incident to explain why fellow martial artists can be more dangerous than beasts 30.

Helping Jiang Fa

When Jiang Fa prepares for his first hunting trip, Lin Feng supplements Wang Shi’s advice with practical warnings about water sources, hostile hunters, and the limits of Jiang Fa’s strength. He marks a possible Blood-Coagulating Grass site and takes the unarmed junior disciple to the martial hall’s armory to borrow a suitable saber 30.

His guidance produces tangible results: Jiang Fa harvests sixteen Blood-Coagulating Grass plants at the indicated location and recalls Lin Feng’s warnings while navigating Ghost Gate Gully and approaching dangerous beasts 32 33 35.

Over the following months, the two spar dozens of times. Lin Feng becomes increasingly astonished by Jiang Fa’s steady improvement. When Jiang Fa touches his back with a wooden saber, he recognizes that his junior’s Cloak Saber Technique has reached Minor Achievement 40.

Recruiting an Attendant

After learning that Jiang Fa has practiced the saber for only a little over three months, Lin Feng praises his comprehension but stresses that cultivation realm must remain his priority. He also reassures Jiang Fa after Song Wan gives him a noticeably less enthusiastic invitation than the one extended to Lin Feng for Qin Xuan’s breakthrough celebration 41.

Lin Feng then offers Jiang Fa an Attendant position with the Lin Lineage for ten taels of silver per month. The arrangement requires action only when trouble arises at the trading firm and does not interfere with cultivation. He explains that he wants someone trustworthy—a brother to whom he can entrust his back—and Jiang Fa accepts 41.

Lin County Shipment

After Jiang Fa reaches An Jin, Lin Feng increases his stipend above the original ten-tael rate; Jiang Fa estimates that the pouch contains at least twenty taels. Although impressed by Jiang Fa’s unusual strength, Lin Feng deliberately avoids questioning his secrets 48.

Unable to escort an important shipment himself because of trading-house business, he asks Jiang Fa to join the convoy to Lin County. He offers an additional twenty taels personally if the job succeeds, on top of the trading house’s reward. The party includes Zhao Chuan, Xu Feng, and veteran escorts from the Weiyuan Escort Agency 48.

By the convoy’s departure, Lin Feng has already left overnight for Lin County on urgent business. Before leaving, he asks the others to look after Jiang Fa on his first escort assignment and recommends him to escort captain Xing Lieshan 49.

Appearance

• Features: Fair skin, refined facial features, and smiling eyes 11.
• Everyday clothing: A well-fitting blue robe with a silver-threaded brocade sash; he later wears a dark-blue robe with a similar belt 11 48.
• Training clothing: A navy-blue martial outfit with tightly bound cuffs during his spar with Jiang Fa 40.

Personality

Lin Feng is easygoing and slow to take offense. When Sun Yi dismisses his favorable assessment of Qin Xuan, he simply smiles and suggests watching the demonstration. His gentle manner contrasts with the open hostility of several other senior disciples 11.

His friendliness is tempered by practical caution. He emphasizes retreat over pride, warns Jiang Fa against trusting hunters too readily, and treats survival as more important than displaying courage. His concern continues after the initial advice: he calls out a farewell warning when Jiang Fa leaves and later cautions him against entering the ridge after a suspected third-tier beast sighting 30 31 41.

He recognizes potential without dismissing present limitations. He values Jiang Fa’s technique and perseverance, offers concrete financial support, and adjusts his compensation after his breakthrough. At the same time, he reminds him that superior technique cannot replace cultivation strength 41 48.

Abilities & Skills

Cloak Saber Technique

Lin Feng has reached Minor Achievement, displaying continuous, steady strokes without breaks between movements 30.

• Coordinates his body and goose-feather saber closely enough that his blade wind sweeps up fallen leaves 30.
• Uses precise sweeping attacks to obstruct an opponent’s approach 40.
• Incorporates feints, deliberately presenting an opening before attempting a counterattack 40.

An Jin and Combat Experience

A seasoned Middle An Jin martial artist, Lin Feng combines quick reactions with extensive practical experience from Black Wind Ridge 40.

• Responds to Jiang Fa’s changing angles and fast footwork without immediately yielding ground 40.
• Channels An Jin into his palm during a counter aimed at the back of Jiang Fa’s saber 40.
• Recognizes that Jiang Fa’s successful technique could have defeated him had they been in the same realm 40.

Wilderness Knowledge

His expertise covers the ridge’s terrain, resources, beasts, and human threats 29 30.

• Navigation: Maps beast activity areas, unexplored territory, an abandoned herb gatherers’ camp, and dangerous boundaries 29 31 35.
• Resource gathering: Identifies a growing site for Blood-Coagulating Grass 30.
• Terrain hazards: Warns about landslides, flash floods, and concealed water-eroded pits in Ghost Gate Gully 32.
• Beast behavior: Explains the especially dangerous death throes of Iron-Claw Savage Bears 32.
• Human threats: Identifies water sources as likely meeting points with both beasts and potentially hostile martial artists 30.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Goose-feather saber — His weapon during regular practice 30 31.
• Wooden training saber — Used for sparring with Jiang Fa 40.
• Annotated Black Wind Ridge map — Drawn three years before Jiang Fa’s expedition; includes cinnabar warnings and a red boundary at Beheading Creek marked “cross the creek and die” 29 30 31.
• Loaned plain saber — Arranges for Jiang Fa to borrow Zhou Ping’s former hundred-refined steel saber from the martial hall’s armory. Jiang Fa later returns it 30 45 47.

Relationships

• Jiang Fa — Junior martial brother, frequent sparring partner, and trusted recruit to the Lin Lineage. Their association develops from hunting guidance into paid cooperation 30 40 41 48.
• Wang Shi — Eldest senior brother, who preserves Lin Feng’s map and directs Jiang Fa to him for practical hunting advice 29 30.
• His father — Oversees the family’s trading business. Lin Feng recruits an Attendant and arranges shipment protection in support of that business 41 48.
• Qin Xuan — Gifted junior disciple whose potential Lin Feng acknowledges before his fist demonstration; he later agrees to attend Qin Xuan’s An Jin celebration 11 41.
• Song Wan — Junior martial sister who invites him to Qin Xuan’s celebration. Lin Feng notices her unequal treatment of Jiang Fa and tries to ease the situation 41.

Notable Quotes

“Once you enter Black Wind Ridge, you must guard against people even more than ferocious beasts.” 30

“Flowing water does not vie to be first; it strives to flow without end.” 41