Ji Chengxuan

Biodata

Background / History

Youth and Hongxiu

Ji Chengxuan was the youngest of three Ji brothers. His engagement to Yin Qiqi promised him the Snow-Bearing Sword Manual as a dowry, which interested him more than his fiancée. Although already among the strongest martial artists of his generation, he struggled to perfect his saber technique, recognizing both his impatience and his ordinary weapon as obstacles 19.

He met Hongxiu while practicing in his family's peach grove. She watched him for a month, teasing him about his temper. After Yin Qiqi fabricated a crisis involving the Sword Ghost of Yingchuan merely to summon him, Hongxiu accompanied him to retaliate against the Yin family. His father punished the resulting disturbance with two months of confinement in the grove 19.

Hongxiu continued visiting him and gave him Wind Chaser and an old saber manual. When she announced her intention to travel north of the pass, Ji Chengxuan resolved to abandon his engagement and its coveted dowry. He asked her to remain with him in Jiangnan; she agreed and informed her master that she would not return 19.

Separation and Marriage

Hongxiu bore Ji Chengxuan a daughter before they married. Their relationship ended in catastrophe: the infant was stolen and buried alive on a snowy mountain, while Hongxiu disappeared. Ji Chengxuan searched for her for twenty years, suspecting the Yin Clan's involvement 4 6 11 15.

Yin Qiqi schemed to become pregnant and force him into marriage. Ji Chengxuan accepted the marriage for the Ji Clan's reputation, despite loving Hongxiu. On his wedding night, he wept before Ji Jingsheng, who had confronted him over the marriage 11 15.

Ji Chengxuan and Yin Qiqi had two sons: Ji Zhichu, who died young, and Ji Zhiyuan, who used a wheelchair. His resentment toward the Yin family extended to Ji Zhiyuan, whom he neglected. After his eldest brother's death, however, he raised Ji Hanchu and eventually selected his nephew rather than his surviving son as his intended successor 4 6 11 15 17.

Pursuit of Red Adornment

After learning that Red Adornment possessed a brocade pouch connected to Hongxiu, Ji Chengxuan began pursuing answers about his missing lover. He later allowed Red Adornment to take Ji Hanchu from the Ji family as part of an exchange, then attempted to use his nephew as leverage for further information 4 10.

At There Is an Inn, he threatened to imprison Red Adornment until Hongxiu came for her. During their fight, Red Adornment described his daughter's death to disrupt his concentration, then cut his arm with a poisoned blade. The poison temporarily prevented him from using his martial arts, allowing her to escape with Ji Hanchu 3 4.

When Ji Hanchu faced punishment for killing Yin assassins to protect Red Adornment, Ji Chengxuan initially offered him a way to atone by capturing her and apologizing at Yin Yuanya's grave. Ji Hanchu refused to repent and subsequently left the clan 10.

Ji Zhiyuan's Rebellion

Ji Chengxuan tried to stop Ji Zhiyuan's ambush against Ji Hanchu and Red Adornment, but the death warriors obeyed his son rather than their clan head. He could not prevent Ji Zhiyuan from shooting Red Adornment with an eagle crossbow and sending her into a ravine 11.

Afterward, he severed the tendons in Ji Zhiyuan's right hand with Wind Chaser and imprisoned him for life. He ordered a ten-day search beneath the cliff for Red Adornment and remained until Ji Hanchu's condition stabilized, leaving for the Southern Frontier about a year later. Xie Liyou managed the clan in his absence, assisted by Ji Jingsheng 11.

Ji Chengxuan eventually encountered Red Adornment alive near Gusu. Mistaking her for his daughter, he obtained treatment for her, brought her medicine and malt sugar, and awkwardly asked after her mother. She rejected the misunderstanding and told him that his daughter had indeed died, her body preserved in an ice-jade coffin by Hongxiu 11.

Final Reckoning

Returning during Ji Hanchu's confrontation with Ji Zhiyuan, Ji Chengxuan deflected a potentially fatal strike against his son. Hongxiu then appeared, ending his twenty-year search, but refused to return to his side. She confirmed their daughter's death, and Yin Qiqi confessed to stealing the child 15.

When Ji Hanchu again moved to kill Ji Zhiyuan, Ji Chengxuan laid down Wind Chaser and knelt before his nephew. He admitted that his own cruelty and neglect had helped shape his son's crimes, begged for Ji Zhiyuan's life, and offered his own in repayment. Ji Hanchu could not kill the uncle who had raised him and left without taking his revenge 15.

Later Life and Death

By the later extra story, Ji Chengxuan had lost a hand, the Ji family had fallen into ruin, and both Wind Chaser and Ji Zhiyuan were missing. He saved and raised Huo Hanzhou, teaching him while remaining emotionally distant 18.

A longstanding heart ailment caused him severe suffering. At his deathbed, he stared at a closed door, waiting for someone who never arrived, and died with his eyes open. He never identified that person; Huo Hanzhou could only speculate that he had been waiting for Ji Zhiyuan 18.

Huo Hanzhou carved “My Late Father, Ji Chengxuan” into his gravestone. He later sought Wind Chaser to honor the grave and searched for Ji Zhiyuan, pursuing two matters that had remained important to his foster father 18.

Appearance

• Build: Tall 15.
• Facial scar: A blade scar, reportedly received when he slew the Sword Ghost 6.
• Expression: Habitually cold and impassive; his scar made him appear particularly fierce when silent 6 15.
• Later injury: Lost a hand before the events of the third extra story; the supplied account does not describe how 18.

Personality

Ji Chengxuan is solitary, blunt, and absorbed in martial arts. He dislikes socializing and administrative work, and he lavishes care on Wind Chaser while struggling to express tenderness toward people. In youth, his impatience and temper were more obvious; his middle-aged severity developed after his separation from Hongxiu and unwanted marriage 3 6 19.

His attachment to the Ji Clan's reputation repeatedly conflicts with his private feelings. Although he initially considered abandoning his engagement for Hongxiu, he later endured marriage to Yin Qiqi for the family's standing. His devotion to Hongxiu nevertheless persisted through twenty years of searching 15 19.

His treatment of family is sharply unequal. He favors Ji Hanchu but dismisses Ji Zhiyuan as unfit to inherit because of his disability. Ji Zhiyuan also accuses him of refusing to visit Ji Zhichu's grave and forbidding treatment for his painful legs. Ji Chengxuan ultimately acknowledges his failure as a father, abandoning his pride to beg for the son he had neglected 6 15 17.

Abilities & Skills

Saber Arts

Ji Chengxuan's saber arts are described as unmatched beneath heaven, with speed as their defining feature 4.

• Exceptional speed: Deflects Ji Hanchu's Star Pendant immediately before it reaches Ji Zhiyuan 15.
• Overwhelming advantage: His martial attainments substantially exceed Red Adornment's during their rooftop confrontation; he also captures her within a few moves while she is severely injured 4 11.
• Restraint: Holds back against Red Adornment because she is Hongxiu's junior sister and his source of information, allowing her to inflict wounds while he remains defensive 4.
• Limits: Red Adornment disrupts his concentration by describing his daughter's death and incapacitates him with poison. Ji Hanchu later claims he could defeat his uncle if he used his full strength, though that claim is not tested in the cited scene 4 12.

Internal Cultivation and Lightness Skills

• Clan-leading proficiency: After years devoted to training, he is identified as the Ji family's foremost practitioner in both internal cultivation and lightness skills 15.
• Rapid movement: Lunges toward Hongxiu upon their reunion, although she evades his grasp 15.

Martial Instruction

• Huo Hanzhou's upbringing: Saves Huo Hanzhou and teaches him as he grows up 18.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Wind Chaser: His signature saber, also rendered as Chasing Wind Saber. Exceptionally swift, it has a dark-gold, dragon-patterned blade. Hongxiu gave it to him in his youth; after he lost a hand, it passed through several owners before reaching the No Return Sect 4 15 18 19.
• Old saber manual: Given to him by Hongxiu alongside Wind Chaser 19.

Relationships

• Hongxiu — His beloved and the mother of his daughter. He searches for her for twenty years, but she refuses reconciliation when they finally reunite 6 15.
• Yin Qiqi — His wife through a coerced marriage. His resentment toward her and the Yin Clan shapes his treatment of their surviving son; she eventually confesses to stealing Hongxiu's baby 11 15.
• Ji Zhiyuan — His surviving biological son. Paternal neglect and exclusion from succession fuel Ji Zhiyuan's hatred, but Ji Chengxuan ultimately offers his own life to save him 6 15.
• Ji Zhichu — His elder son with Yin Qiqi, who dies young. Ji Zhiyuan remembers his father's refusal to attend memorial visits to his grave 15 17.
• Ji Hanchu — His nephew and intended successor, whom he raises after his eldest brother's death. Their bond prevents Ji Hanchu from killing him or completing his revenge against Ji Zhiyuan 6 15.
• Ji Jingsheng — His second brother, with whom he has a strained relationship. Ji Jingsheng confronts him over marrying Yin Qiqi while still loving Hongxiu 6 15.
• Red Adornment — Hongxiu's junior martial sister and a source of information about her. Their dealings alternate between bargains, coercion, combat, and his brief mistaken belief that she is his daughter 4 11.
• Huo Hanzhou — His foster son. Despite Ji Chengxuan's emotional distance, Huo Hanzhou mourns him as a father and seeks to recover his saber and locate Ji Zhiyuan 18.

Notable Quotes

“After everything that's happened, do you think I still care?” 4

“Hanchu, your third uncle begs you. Spare him.” 15

“I'm not a good father. I've never treated him well, but he is my child, after all.” 15