Chen Xiuyuan

Biodata

Power Progression

Cultivation, martial-art mastery, and limit-breaking accumulation are recorded separately. Improving one does not automatically advance the others 17 19 31.

Background and History

Arrival on the Xuanhuang Continent

Chen Xiuyuan arrives in an unfamiliar wilderness immediately after transmigrating. Injured and pursued by a gray wolf, he cuts free of his trapped bag and climbs onto a ledge. Elder Shi drives the wolf back with a stone, lends him a short blade, and shows him how to uncover concealed stone steps 1.

The two later escape a shelter threatened by a Fang Wolf. Chen Xiuyuan cuts the rope releasing a stone slab onto the beast, then helps the injured Elder Shi down the slope. They reach the Bloodstone Tribe at dawn 3.

At the gate, Chen Xiuyuan identifies Qin Chuan as a missing companion and asks the patrol to watch for him. Shi Qiren permits him to stay temporarily with Elder Shi while his origins are checked. Chen Xiuyuan learns that he is on the Xuanhuang Continent, but cannot identify a route home 4.

Work and Early Training

Chen Xiuyuan begins helping in the medicine shed and finds work processing beast meat. Elder Shi teaches him bandaging, knife maintenance, and how to separate sinew without wasting flesh. Shi Yuan lends him a narrower knife better suited to the work 4 6.

He takes up the Savage Elephant Great Strength Art while his calf heals. Its nutritional demands make paid work and medicinal food essential to continued practice. When the medicine shed runs short of scarlet whisker root, he learns to distinguish it from brown thread root and catches the latter concealed in a medicinal bundle 8 9.

Broken Stream Ambush and Investigation

On his first herb-gathering trip, Chen Xiuyuan discovers knife cuts on the ropes of a broken bridge. The group subsequently finds beast lure on a recovered rope and faces armed men across the stream. He retrieves usable rope from beneath the bridge and proposes dragging an herb basket as a decoy, allowing Shi Lei to wound an exposed archer 10 11 12 13.

All five travelers return to Blood Stone, although Ge Ping and Shi Duo are injured. The ambush prompts Chen Xiuyuan to seek formal saber instruction rather than rely on the cutting skills he has learned at work 15 16.

He later helps trace a broken arrow, a suspicious herb shipment, and a burned wooden tag. Workshop testimony, delivery details, and exchange accounts connect the adulterated medicine batch to the Du Family, but do not establish who fired the arrow. When Du Huai offers discounted medicine in exchange for ending the investigation, Chen Xiuyuan challenges him about the attack at Broken Stream 20 21.

Defense of Blood Stone

When a medicine cart returns at night under suspicious circumstances, Chen Xiuyuan notices inconsistencies in its route and driver. He then discovers that someone has cut the narrow gate’s alarm cord 28.

Working with Shi Yuan, he holds the entrance against a saber wielder and an axeman. He uses the confined passage, higher steps, controlled withdrawals, and water to prevent the attackers from reaching the evacuees or burning the grain store. After the gate is secured, he intercepts a third intruder approaching the witnesses’ room and blocks the attacker while they relocate 28 29 30.

Following the attack, Chen Xiuyuan receives compensation and official registration as a Blood Stone resident. He chooses to remain with Elder Shi and keeps his old work tally. The search entry for Qin Chuan remains active, despite the patrol having found no trace of him 31.

Beyond the Original Saber Method

After reaching Great Perfection, Chen Xiuyuan discovers that complete mastery of the inherited saber technique does not let his short saber cut through hard armor. He begins comparing similar armor sections to separate improvements in technique from differences in material, weapon quality, and strength 26 27 32.

His research produces Blade-Adhering Force Redirection, which allows him to sever ironback hide using the same old saber and the same amount of Qi and blood as a comparison strike. He then teaches the revised path to Elder Shi and Shi Lei, while continuing to work on its transitions against moving opponents 33 34.

First Escort Work

Chen Xiuyuan volunteers to guard Auntie Sang’s herb shipment. At Red Sand Small Market, they reject Lu Yong’s low offer and sell part of the stock to Zhu Qinghe, who separately negotiates an escort assignment to East Slope 34 36.

During the journey, Chen Xiuyuan cuts Meng Cheng free from a damaged cart. The party survives an Armored Mane Beast attack, repairs the cart, and carries the remaining medicine to the destination. Zhu Qinghe pays the agreed escort wages and gives Chen Xiuyuan basic medicinal-food notes. Back in Blood Stone, Elder Shi requires him to identify and sort the ingredients before attempting the recipe 38 39.

Appearance

• Unusual clothing: His arrival clothes attract attention from Blood Stone’s children and are recorded, alongside Qin Chuan’s similar attire, in the inquiry into his origins 4 31.
• Arrival injuries: He enters the tribe with a wounded calf and scraped hands; the leg injury initially restricts his stance, turns, and weight-bearing 4 16 17.
• Right-arm scar: The wound sustained during the gate defense heals into a faint red scar. His shoulder scrape also heals before Elder Shi clears him for normal training 29 32.

Personality

Chen Xiuyuan is persistent and methodical, often asking to repeat a movement or isolate the point where it fails. His eagerness can lead to overtraining, but he learns to separate work, cultivation, medicine preparation, and saber practice rather than force them through fatigue 8 16 17 24.

He is careful with evidence and unwilling to claim more than a witness knows. He asks the porter to describe only firsthand observations, avoids promising protection he cannot guarantee, and stops an onlooker from leading a child into identifying someone the child did not clearly see 20 21.

His concern for others appears in practical decisions: supporting Elder Shi during their escape, adjusting his blade around a fleeing civilian, and guarding witnesses despite an injured arm. He remains attached to his distant family, remembering his mother’s habit of packing supplies for him and wishing he could tell them about opening his first meridian 3 14 19 29 30.

Abilities and Skills

Attainment Retention and Progress Panel

Chen Xiuyuan can view numerical progress for cultivation arts, meridian accumulation, and limit breaking 8 16 19.

• Retained achievements: Verified learning does not regress because of missed practice, failed experiments, or injury 24 27 31.
• Separate progression: Cultivation and different arts retain their own records without displacing one another 16 17 32.
• No automatic strength: Initiating the saber technique provides neither unfamiliar moves nor power from nowhere; it confirms what he has actually learned 17.
• Physical limits remain: Fatigue, injuries, nourishment, and the weapon’s properties still determine what he can execute 8 17 26.
• Limit-breaking restriction: Each version of an art can undergo limit breaking only once. Further advancement requires substantially expanding it into a new art and mastering that version; merely renaming it does not qualify 8.

Savage Elephant Great Strength Art

His first cultivation art, taught by Elder Shi through posture, breathing, and force-circulation diagrams 8 19.

• Mobilizes Qi and blood and supports Heavenly Meridian accumulation 8 19.
• Requires adequate food and restorative nourishment as training increases 8 17 18.
• Does not remove the need for recovery or correct breathing after exertion 17.

Bloodstone Saber Technique

An inherited method taught by Shi Lei and Elder Shi. Its six main blade paths are downward chop, diagonal slash, horizontal cut, rising slash, straight thrust, and hooking return 16 24.

• Emphasizes keeping space to withdraw, guard, and continue after a strike 24 25.
• Can be adapted to short and heavy sabers, but each weapon requires different grip, force, and distance 26.
• Supports controlled fighting in confined spaces; Chen Xiuyuan applies it to the narrow gate defense 18 29.
• Great Perfection does not guarantee victory over stronger opponents or penetration of harder materials 26 27 31.

Blade-Adhering Force Redirection

A development beyond the original saber method, acquired through its completed limit break 33.

• Follows sloping surfaces while coordinating the edge, elbow, waist, and feet to avoid becoming trapped 32 33.
• Yields to resistance and retrieves the blade into the original technique’s returning stroke or guard 33.
• Cuts through ironback hide where the original method fails under comparable conditions 33.
• Cannot yet sever thicker black armor; forcing the attempt would risk his wrist 33.
• Still requires additional transitions against opponents who withdraw, feint, or grab him 34.

Practical Skills

• Meat processing: Removes sinew along its natural direction and adjusts blade choice to the task 6.
• Herb identification: Distinguishes scarlet whisker root from brown thread root by crowns and rootlets, setting uncertain specimens aside 9.
• Basic medical assistance: Bandages wounds under Elder Shi’s supervision and recognizes the need to address Ge Ping’s bleeding during retreat 4 13.
• Investigation and records: Draws routes, preserves fragile evidence, compares accounts, and separates observation from assumption 15 20 21 30.
• Improvised tactics: Uses a basket decoy, narrow passages, familiar shortcuts, and unstable objects to create openings or protect others 12 13 29 30.

Equipment and Items

• Short blade from Elder Shi — Used during the wilderness escape; Elder Shi lets him retain it afterward 1 3.
• Borrowed short saber — Returned and repaired after the Broken Stream trip, then lent to him again for edged-weapon training 15 16 24.
• Wooden saber — Used for supervised drills, sparring, and exercises around carts and obstacles 16 25 35.
• Heavy blunt-edged saber — Borrowed from the hunting shelter to test and refine his control with a differently balanced weapon 25 26.
• Leather wrist guards — Worn during the night attack; one is torn over his right-arm wound 28 29.
• Reporting bag and devices — Arrives with a broken camera, old notebook, and damaged voice recorder. He also retains a phone that he can no longer turn on whenever he wishes 4 19.
• Herb-identification booklet and diagrams — Keeps plant notes, route information, and comparative saber drawings; protects the booklet with oilcloth 9 14 19 32.
• Wooden work tally — Records earned food and other allotments. He keeps it after becoming an official resident 16 18 31.
• Medicinal-food notes — Receives basic preparation notes and a practice recipe from Zhu Qinghe, subject to Elder Shi’s corrections 39.

Relationships

• Elder Shi — Rescuer, host, cultivation teacher, and medical mentor. Chen Xiuyuan later teaches him his revised saber path 1 4 8 31 34.
• Shi Lei — Saber instructor, sparring partner, and expedition companion. Helps test Chen Xiuyuan’s discoveries and learns the new technique from him 10 16 33 34.
• Shi Yuan — Work supervisor and ally. Provides suitable tools, tracks earned rations, assists the investigation, and helps defend the gate 6 16 20 29.
• Shi Qiren — Authorizes his temporary stay, oversees inquiries into his origins and the ambush, and later registers him as a resident 4 15 31.
• Auntie Sang — Herb-gathering guide and trading companion. Helps investigate adulterated medicine and travels with him to sell surplus herbs 10 21 36.
• Ge Ping and Shi Duo — Companions in the Broken Stream escape; both return wounded. Ge Ping helps Chen Xiuyuan retrieve rope and descend toward safety 12 13 15.
• Qin Chuan — Missing traveling companion. Chen Xiuyuan repeatedly asks that the search for him continue 4 31.
• Zhu Qinghe — Herb buyer and escort employer. Pays the agreed wages after the East Slope accident and supplies medicinal-food notes 36 39.
• Meng Cheng — Fellow traveler whom Chen Xiuyuan frees from a damaged cart during the East Slope assignment 38.
• Du Huai — Figure confronted during the investigation into the suspicious medicine shipment; attempts to secure an end to the inquiry through discounted medicine 21.

Notable Quotes

“I’ll find work I can do as soon as possible.” 4

“I’ll find where I went wrong first.” 24

“What you’re learning now is where you don’t need to push so hard.” 34