Wang Qilin

Biodata

Power Progression

Background

Wang Qilin grew up in a poor farming household in Great King Village. He had six elder sisters—two married and four unmarried when he first returned home as an official. His branch of the Wang clan had produced no previous official since settling in the area 20.

Since childhood, his soul frequently visited Earth in dreams. He learned writing, exercises, stories, and other knowledge there, while the experience left him withdrawn and emotionally distant from his family. Although he never attended a government school, he became literate enough to qualify as a Wandering Star 1 2 18 20.

He also repeatedly saw a black pill furnace in his sleep. He entered the Heaven-Listening Bureau with an ulterior purpose connected to his survival, beginning work on Qingming, the twelfth day of the third lunar month in the Gengwu year 1.

Appearance

Wang Qilin is a young man who considers his face plain and unremarkable, though the narration also jokingly compares his looks favorably with the handsome Huang Liufeng 21 29.

• Facial resemblance: In his dreams of Earth, he sees similar faces associated with Yang Guo, Xiang Shaolong, and Guzai, prompting him to wonder about past and future lives 21.
• Official clothing: Wears a jet-black Bureau uniform 19.
• Investigative clothing: Uses a tight black outfit when entering the Zhang Family Medical Clinic covertly 43.

Personality

Wang Qilin is cautious about dangers he cannot assess. Before investigating the general’s estate, he insists on obtaining a suitable weapon rather than relying on enthusiasm. He also recognizes that being called righteous does not oblige him to throw his life away. Once combat begins, however, he often advances aggressively and denies opponents room to escape 22 32 39.

He objects to powerful cultivators using their abilities to bully ordinary people. His argument with Xie Hama distinguishes charity from entitlement: a restaurant owner’s refusal to give food does not justify stealing from him. His own claims of incorruptibility are frequently undercut by comedy, particularly his extravagant promise that future descendants will repay his medicine debt 14 18.

His humor is teasing, sarcastic, and sometimes self-serving. He borrows credit for Xie Hama’s food deliveries to draw the Daoist out, jokes about Heidou’s appetite, and disguises personal motives beneath official language 17 36 39.

Though awkward at expressing affection, he materially supports his family. He gives his mother forty silver zhu, shares the Huang household’s gifts, and brings his mistreated eldest sister and her son to live at the station. The Minor Seal curse frightens him partly because his death would endanger their improving future 20 35 37.

Abilities & Skills

Yin-Yang Eyes

Born with yin-yang eyes, Wang Qilin can see ghosts that ordinary people cannot perceive 24.

• Identifies and attacks Ma Qiu’s otherwise concealed gambling ghost 24.
• His supernatural sight is one of the qualifications that enabled him to enter the Heaven-Listening Bureau 24.

Furnace of Creation

Also called the Creation Furnace, this mysterious furnace appears in his sea of consciousness and can emerge to absorb supernatural remnants or take in objects 2 3 14 33.

• Spirit collection: Absorbs red smoke or smoke columns associated with ghosts and slain supernatural beings 2 13 32 41.
• Pill refinement: Combines captured infant-spirit remnants with Great Replenishing Pills to produce Heavenly Official’s Blessing Pills 14.
• Item refinement: Refines the Six-Step Qi Jade using the powerful deputy general’s spirit, producing the Twin Fish Jade Pendant 42.
• Technique learning: Wang Qilin concludes that furnace-refined techniques are engraved in his sea of consciousness, explaining his extraordinary learning speed. This remains his own explanation 47.
• Uncontrolled absorption: Takes his ghost-head saber and the Six-Step Qi Jade without his deliberate permission, creating practical difficulties 25 33.

Lunar Soul-Severing Saber

A divine saber art specialized for night battles, emphasizing extreme speed, yielding movement, and sustained attacks. Moonlight temporarily multiplies its power 3 24.

• Moonlight enhancement: Supreme yin lunar radiance strengthens the blade against supernatural opponents 6 12.
• Continuous offense: Chains slashes together to surround enemies and punish retreat 24 33.
• Saber wind: Generates winds capable of disturbing clothing, flames, and nearby objects 17 24.
• Saber radiance: Channels internal energy beyond the blade’s edge; additional pills extend this radiance during the Joined Half-Skulls battle 45.
• Weapon requirement: Without a saber, he cannot perform its techniques 14 23.
• Limits: Its full power requires moonlight. Before gaining internal energy, completing the sequence leaves him exhausted 6 41.

Internal Energy

His internal energy comes from Heavenly Official’s Blessing Pills rather than a learned internal cultivation method 14 49.

• Enhances eyesight, speed, reactions, and strength beyond those of ordinary people 14 23.
• Supports sustained saber attacks and the projection of saber radiance 32 45.
• Allows him to overpower White Tiger’s natural strength in a direct fistfight 49.
• Can be disrupted by hostile yin energy, as demonstrated by the deputy general’s chilling punch 41.

Lin Syllable Mantra

A combined Buddhist–Daoist technique pairing the Daoist Lin syllable with the Acala Vidyaraja Mudra and Vajrasattva Heart Mantra 46.

• Mental protection: Grants concentration and resistance to deception or corruption of the heart and will 46.
• Spiritual borrowing: Temporarily draws on the spiritual power of heaven and earth; Wang Qilin visibly draws courtyard spiritual energy into his body during the Bureau fight 49.
• Fourteen fundamental seals: Requires a sequence of distinct mudras rather than one hand gesture 47.
• Speed-dependent power: Slow chanting and seal formation produce little power; rapid execution unlocks stronger effects 47.
• Environmental limit: Its potential depends on the spiritual power available nearby 46.

Investigation and Improvisation

• Detective reasoning: Deduces Zhong Youfu’s reincarnation scheme and later connects the clinic haunting, suspicious portraits, and Foolhardy’s disappearance 12 43 45.
• Behavioral observation: Recognizes a false pallbearer because an ordinary man should not have reached the forest’s edge without his noticing 29.
• Deception: Uses borrowed credit to draw out Xie Hama and questioning to expose Huang Huaji’s possession 17 18 40.
• Thrown saber attacks: Throws Horse Slayer like a javelin to stop a fleeing stone figure; his joking description of this as a “flying saber technique” involves a physical throw 33.
• Cooking: Prepares mutton hot pot with sesame sauce for his family 36.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Horse Slayer — His demonic saber, marked by blood-colored rust that writhes across its surface. Used against Mountain Puppets, ghosts, and the Joined Half-Skulls; its intense cold also helps rouse him from the Wuji Pagoda’s entrancing formation 29 32 40 45.
• Twin Fish Jade Pendant — Refined from the Six-Step Qi Jade. Its black and white fish move when the Joined Half-Skulls attacks him, igniting the fiend’s hand and burning hostile cold from his body 42 45.
• Bloodwood seal — Du Cao’s former official seal, given to Wang Qilin on his promotion and used to establish his identity at the Huang residence 14 25.
• Heavenly Official’s Blessing Pills — Furnace-produced pills granting one year of cultivation each; also used during combat to supply fresh internal energy 14 45.
• Ice Plant Bead — Given by Xu Da to detect yin qi and repel evil while held in the mouth 4.
• Long-handled Miao saber — A defensive gift from Huang Huaji after their first meeting 25.
• Early waist saber — Initially borrows Xu Da’s weapon to practice. The saber used during the Zhong clan battle later shatters under alternating yin cold and yang fire 3 13.
• Chan Master Sun’s handwritten Baopuzi — A scripture received from Huang Huaji and subsequently refined through the furnace. It provides the Lin Syllable Mantra and turns into flame after Wang Qilin learns it 42 46 47.

Relationships

• Xu Da — Strongman colleague and close companion. Helps him investigate and fight, defends him against pressure, and warns that his promotion has made him a scapegoat 1 14 29 39.
• Du Cao — First superior and benefactor. Gives him his initial saber manual and saves him during the infant-spirit crisis; Wang Qilin cares for him after he loses his memory 2 13 14.
• Xie Hama — Daoist investigator and later Wandering Star colleague. Their initial dispute over stolen food develops into a working partnership, though Xie sometimes leaves Wang Qilin to face danger alone 18 39 41.
• Shi Zhoushan — Greater Seal commanding the county Bureau. Tests and promotes him; Wang Qilin later blames him for the appointment that threatens his life 14 47.
• Wang Liuwu — Father. Proud of his official appointment and brings him news of a clan-arranged marriage match 19.
• Madam Wang née Lu — Mother. Receives much of his salary and supports his decision to house Wang Qiaoniang and Heidou at the station 20 37.
• Wang Qiaoniang — Eldest sister. Returns to her parents after her husband brings home another woman; Wang Qilin subsequently offers her and her son a place at the station 35 36 37.
• Heidou — Nephew whom he feeds, teases, and encourages to study so he can become an official who helps ordinary people 35 36 37.
• Huang Huaji — Retired general whose household cases Wang Qilin investigates. Gives him weapons, household gifts, and Chan Master Sun’s scripture 25 34 42.
• Huang Qingyun — Young woman endangered by the Huang household’s supernatural troubles. Her condition draws Wang Qilin into the Wuji Pagoda investigation 29 34 39.
• Zhang Changgeng — Physician who treats Du Cao and supplies Wang Qilin with Great Replenishing Pills, partly on credit 14.
• Xiang Wei — Hostile Bureau colleague. Bullies Heidou, misleads Wang Qilin about a banquet’s timing, and becomes involved in the ensuing training-ground confrontation 47 49.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Entry into the Bureau and the Clinic Haunting

• Starts as a civil assistant under Du Cao and investigates apparently self-opening station windows, eventually traced to Du Cao’s cat, Hupi 1 7.
• Accompanies Xu Da to the Zhang Family Medical Clinic, where a qi-eating ghost possesses a dead boy and attacks them 4 5.
• Kills the ghost with his newly learned saber art during his second day of Bureau service 6.

Zhong Clan Investigation and Promotion

• Secretly exchanges a child’s haunting coin and proposes using the resulting nighttime disturbance to reach the imprisoned Zhong Erniu 9.
• Deduces that Zhong Youfu entered a fetus and imprisoned infant spirits in a Vajra Bell 12.
• Survives the spirits with Du Cao’s intervention, then succeeds him as Minor Seal after Du Cao loses his memory 13 14.
• Learns from Xu Da that the apparently fortunate promotion has placed him in mortal danger 14.

Xie Hama and the Return Home

• Investigates food disappearing from the Gathering Fragrance Restaurant and discovers that poor households are receiving it 16.
• Draws out the responsible Daoist, confronts his paper substitute, and challenges his justification for stealing 17 18.
• Returns home for a proposed marriage to Landowner Lu’s daughter; the negotiations fail 19 20 21 22.
• Agrees to help Niu Er’s family in exchange for an ancestral executioner’s saber, leading him to confront Ma Qiu’s gambling den and its luck-draining ghost 23 24.

Huang Residence and Wuji Pagoda

• Investigates threats surrounding the Huang estate and helps protect coffin bearers from Mountain Puppets 25 28 29.
• Destroys Su Xin’an’s ghost and uncovers Madam Huang née Yao’s campaign against Huang Qingyun 32.
• Pursues the thief carrying the Six-Step Qi Jade, only for the furnace to absorb the recovered jade 33.
• Enters the underground Wuji Pagoda and exposes the deputy general’s yin soul inhabiting Huang Huaji’s body 40.
• Defeats the yin soul with crucial assistance from the tower’s Buddhist chants and carries the weakened general out 41.

Painted Prisoners and the Joined Half-Skulls

• Returns to the clinic after connecting Foolhardy’s disappearance with its earlier haunting 37 43.
• Observes the supposed Zhang Yuning handling a removable face and discovers a fiend impersonating him 44.
• Defeats the Joined Half-Skulls with Xie Hama, then finds the real Zhang Yuning trapped in a portrait 45.
• Concludes that Foolhardy is probably also imprisoned in a painting, intended as the creature’s future body 45.

Auspicious County and the Minor Seal Curse

• Travels to the county seat seeking information about the curse; Hou Decai avoids answering his questions 48.
• Defeats Bureau strongmen and Wandering Stars after Xiang Wei’s deception, then forces them back into training 49.
• Raises the problem of people sealed inside paintings at the officials’ gathering. A possible connection to the Blossoming Flower Pavilion emerges, but Jihu declines to provide useful information 50.

Notable Quotes

“My fate is mine to decide, not the almanac’s!” 1

“Where do you think you’re going, demon!” 6

“So being weak makes me right, and being poor makes me entitled?” 18

“Today, you consider stealing dishes from a restaurant perfectly normal. In the future, someone stronger than you will consider robbing you of your secret manuals and magical treasures perfectly normal too!” 18