Du Cao

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Service in Crouching Dragon Township

Du Cao served as the township’s Minor Seal, supervising Wandering Star Wang Qilin and Strongman Xu Da. Minor Seal was the Heaven-Listening Bureau’s lowest official rank; Wandering Stars and Strongmen served as assistants responsible for civil and martial affairs respectively 1.

Before Wang Qilin joined, Du Cao survived an encounter with a vicious ghost at the cost of one of his two fierce gods. Xu Da later stressed that Du Cao had once been considerably stronger and had not actually subdued that ghost 15.

Wang Qilin’s Initiation

On Wang Qilin’s first day, Du Cao assigned him case files to study. He returned that afternoon after participating in a hunt led by Shi Zhoushan and acknowledged having killed a resentment fiend. Red smoke clinging to his robe was absorbed by Wang Qilin’s Furnace of Creation without Du Cao noticing 1 2.

After dismissing Wang Qilin’s demonstrated boxing as ineffective, Du Cao gave him the Bureau’s Eight Trigrams Soul-Returning Saber manual. He later sent Wang Qilin and Xu Da to kill the qi-eating ghost at the Zhang Family Medical Clinic, treating the assignment as Wang Qilin’s initiation and an opportunity for Xu Da to handle a case independently. Du Cao stayed behind because he was visibly unwell, but instructed Xu Da to protect the new recruit 2 3.

Zhong Clan Investigation

Despite lingering weakness, Du Cao accepted Zhong Erniu’s plea to save his wife, Cui’er. He provided a protective talisman and refused to postpone the investigation, suspecting trouble because his acquaintance Zhong Youfu had died without the clan notifying him 7.

At Dismount Ridge, Du Cao recognized the children’s necklaces as haunting coins and had Wang Qilin obtain one. Their use revealed that the clan knew about the haunting and was concealing it. That night, the officers freed Zhong Erniu from the clan’s underground jail, and Du Cao drove an infant spirit out of Cui’er 9 10.

In the ancestral hall, he identified an underworld officer possessing Little Stone and exposed the basic mechanism of Zhong Youfu’s reincarnation scheme. However, he mistakenly believed Zhong Youfu’s soul remained beneath the vajra bell. Releasing the underworld officer to lift it instead unleashed numerous infant spirits; Wang Qilin then deduced that Zhong Youfu had already entered a fetus during daylight 11 12.

Du Cao summoned his remaining fierce god, but the spirits swarmed him and tore at his flesh. The god eventually broke free and exploded into yang flames, setting the spirits alight and enabling Wang Qilin to finish them. Du Cao collapsed but remained alive 12 13.

Retirement and Uncertain Amnesia

After two days unconscious, Du Cao was taken to the Zhang Family Medical Clinic. He awoke without recognizing himself or his surroundings, and Divine Physician Zhang diagnosed damage to his soul. Shi Zhoushan subsequently removed him from service, arranged his return home, and transferred his bloodwood seal to Wang Qilin for temporary use 14.

When servants later collected Du Cao’s belongings, they said he had specifically ordered them not to leave behind Hupi, his beloved cat. Wang Qilin questioned how Du Cao could remember the animal after supposedly losing all his memories. The supplied account does not resolve this discrepancy 18.

Appearance

• Build and complexion: Lean, sturdy, and middle-aged, with bronze skin visible across his back 2 12.
• Face: Stiff eyebrows, a high nose, and tightly pressed lips that give him a cold, gloomy expression 2.
• Clothing: Wears a jet-black brocade short robe when first described 2.
• Divine engraving: His remaining back tattoo depicts a blood-red, ox-horned figure with bell-like eyes, blood at its mouth, a human heart in its hands, flames around its body, and bones beneath its feet 12.

Personality

Du Cao is stern and demanding with his subordinates. He rebukes Xu Da for abandoning an assignment and immediately challenges Wang Qilin when he suspects dishonesty during the recruitment examination. Nevertheless, he praises competent work, supplies Wang Qilin with a practical martial manual, and rewards the pair’s successful ghost hunt with braised mutton 2 3 7 8.

His concern for duty outweighs his willingness to rest. Although fatigued, he refuses to delay the Zhong clan case because he fears the situation may change. He also recognizes Wang Qilin’s resourcefulness, approving both his acquisition of a haunting coin and his plan to exploit the clan’s nighttime confusion 7 9.

His occult experience does not make him infallible. He initially rejects the possibility that Zhong Youfu could act as a soul in daylight, underestimating the former patriarch’s cultivation and misunderstanding what the vajra bell contains 11 12.

Abilities & Skills

Life-Bound Fierce Gods

Du Cao’s principal demon-subduing method manifests a fierce god from a tattoo on his back. Such engravings store a wisp of divine intent within the bearer; the later explanation distinguishes his evil god from a righteous Buddhist deity 12 46.

• Invocation: Uses a hand seal and spoken formula; his eyes turn blood-red as the tattoo gains substance 12.
• Manifestation: The god emerges from his back, wielding flames and physically seizing spirits. It catches and devours an infant spirit during the ancestral hall battle 12.
• Life preservation: One of his original two gods died in his place during the previous year’s ghost encounter 15.
• Final release: His remaining god breaks free and disperses into pure yang flames that burn the infant spirits 13.
• Limits: Summoning does not prevent a mass attack from overwhelming him. Xu Da considers the god’s poor performance against the infant spirits suspicious and suggests a possible connection to the curse 12 15.

Occult Investigation

• Recognizes haunting coins and explains how their yin energy disguises living children as departed souls 9.
• Identifies infant-spirit possession and expels the spirit occupying Cui’er 10.
• Identifies an underworld officer possessing Little Stone and explains the rules governing its search for a deceased person’s soul 11.
• Recognizes the use of a haunting coin to prevent an unborn child’s intended soul from reincarnating, leaving an empty fetus available for usurpation 11.

Protective Talismans

• Leaves a Bureau-made evil-warding talisman at the Zhang Family Medical Clinic, intended to repel minor ghosts and wandering spirits. The clinic’s stronger haunting burns it away 3.
• Supplies Zhong Erniu with a talisman guaranteed to protect Cui’er for twenty-four hours. Her possession returns after its protection expires 7 10.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Saber — Used during investigations and passed to Xu Da before Du Cao summons his fierce god 10 12.
• Eight Trigrams Soul-Returning Saber manual — A basic Bureau saber-art manual given to Wang Qilin for self-defense against ordinary ghosts and monsters 2 3.
• Bureau identification token — A palm-sized wooden token used to compel passage through the Zhong clan checkpoint 10.
• Bloodwood seal — His official seal, temporarily reassigned to Wang Qilin following his retirement 14.

Relationships

• Wang Qilin — Subordinate and recipient of his early guidance. Du Cao provides training material and an initiation assignment; Wang Qilin later helps defend him and cares for him after the battle 1 2 3 12 14.
• Xu Da — Strongman subordinate of nearly a year. Despite frequent reprimands, Xu Da is deeply attached to him, rushing to protect him after his collapse and seeking Shi Zhoushan’s help when he loses his memory 2 3 13 14.
• Shi Zhoushan — Direct superior and leader of the county’s Bureau officers. Shi leads the resentment-fiend hunt and later arranges Du Cao’s retirement 2 14.
• Zhong Youfu — An old acquaintance whom Du Cao describes as someone with whom he had entrusted his life. Investigating his concealed death exposes the clan’s reincarnation scheme 7 9 11.
• Zhong Erniu and Cui’er — Petitioners he assists with a protective talisman, rescue from imprisonment, and an exorcism 7 10.
• Hupi — His cherished tabby cat. His reported insistence on retrieving Hupi becomes the basis for Wang Qilin’s doubts about his amnesia 18.

Notable Quotes

“When traveling at night, just keep walking your own path.” 10

“Your visage is fearsome, your heart is just! Green forests and dark frontiers, all obey your command!”
— Invocation of his life-bound fierce god 12