Zhang Lexuan

Biodata

Power Progression

The post-transformation ring changes belong to Ming Zhao’s Ghost Bride Martial Soul, embodied by Zhang Lexuan; they are not stated to be independent cultivation breakthroughs for her.

Background / History

Shrek Inspection Corps

Zhang Lexuan was the strongest student of Shrek Academy’s current Inner Court and was respectfully addressed as Eldest Senior Sister. After Ming Zhao killed an earlier Inspection Corps squad of three Soul Kings and two Soul Emperors, she led eleven other Inner Court elites into Departed Soul Mountain Ravine to eliminate him. Xuan Zi accompanied the mission as its designated protector 1.

The mission was not her first experience of losing a team. During the ambush, she recalled an earlier occasion when she had watched the teammates under her leadership die without being able to save them 3.

Departed Soul Mountain Ravine

Ming Zhao’s mental attack undermined the squad’s reason before they could mount an effective defense. Although Zhang Lexuan remained conscious of the danger, the mist dulled her thinking and distorted her perception. She knocked four disciples unconscious to stop them attacking one another, but wedding and funeral processions then surrounded the group 1 2.

Her attempt to escape by carrying two unconscious students into the air failed. Phantom coffins and bridal sedan chairs imprisoned the other eleven disciples; when she tried to break the apparitions, her attacks passed through them and struck two juniors, hastening their deaths. She was forced to watch the entire squad perish 3.

Blaming Xuan Zi for his absence, Zhang Lexuan activated her Martial Soul Avatar and Blood Moon. The attack vaporized the surrounding ghosts and reduced the vegetation within a hundred meters to ash. Believing she had avenged her teammates, she collapsed with her Soul Power depleted—only for Ming Zhao to approach her 3.

Death and Forced Transformation

Zhang Lexuan refused Ming Zhao’s demand that she serve him and attempted to self-destruct, but he interrupted her. Red silk dragged her into a ghostly bridal sedan, where human-fat candle flames consumed her flesh and soul. Her incorporeal form merged with the existing Ghost Bride, which took on her appearance. She then addressed Ming Zhao as her husband and disappeared with him 4.

Xuan Zi arrived after the transformation. He had left the students unattended to drink, assuming their combined strength would be sufficient against a Soul Saint. Shrek subsequently treated Zhang Lexuan and the others as dead, with no bodies recovered, and issued its highest-level kill order for Ming Zhao 4 6.

Service as Ghost Bride

As Ghost Bride, Zhang Lexuan helped Ming Zhao absorb Li Ya’s Soul Ring. She later consumed the resentful soul of Dongyang City’s lord and joined Li Ya in collecting Soul Bones from the sea after the city’s destruction 14 18 19.

At the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, she occupied the position above the fire spring while Li Ya stood above the ice spring. Together with Ming Zhao, they formed a vast taiji-shaped vortex. During the subsequent Skin Marries Bone ritual, the two women separated Ming Zhao’s existence into skin-and-flesh and bone-and-spirit forms, participated in the wedding rites, and reunited the divided forms 25 26.

Ming Zhao later considered replacing Zhang Lexuan and Li Ya as his Martial Souls’ embodied forms with the Dragon Kings’ remnant souls. This remained a proposal: he also judged Zhang Lexuan talented enough to retain a place among his hundred ghosts even if she were replaced 28 29.

Appearance

Zhang Lexuan has a tall, slender yet curvaceous figure, a beautiful face, and silky black hair 3 4 51.

• Inspection Corps attire: An ink-black outer robe over a white dress, with a monster mask. Blood Moon left the robe in tatters and destroyed the mask 3.
• Bridal attire: Scarlet wedding robes embroidered with golden phoenix patterns, a translucent red veil, and red embroidered shoes 4 51.
• Hair ornaments: Gold phoenix-shaped ornaments, tassels, and gemstones 4 51.
• Makeup and accessories: Exquisite bridal makeup, crimson eyeshadow, and a red embroidered ball tied with a silk bow 4 51.
• Ghostly features: Sharp, blood-red fingernails; her hands can become illusory and carry concentrated Ghost Qi 18 26.

Personality

In life, Zhang Lexuan was protective of her juniors and determined to fulfill her responsibilities as their leader. Even while affected by the mental attack, she focused on saving the squad rather than abandoning it. Their deaths left her devastated and drove her to expend her remaining strength on revenge 2 3.

She was openly defiant toward Ming Zhao, condemning his killings and choosing an attempted self-destruction over submission. Her later affection and obedience as Ghost Bride are explicitly enforced by her nature as his Martial Soul, rather than presented as a voluntary change of allegiance 4 14.

After her transformation, she often appears dignified, serene, and poised. This demeanor contrasts with her savage expression during the Skin Marries Bone ritual and her arrogant, disdainful gaze toward Yu Mengdi 26 28 51.

Abilities & Skills

Martial Soul Avatar and Blood Moon

Her strongest demonstrated living attack combines her Seventh and Eighth Soul Skills 3.

• Seventh Soul Skill — Martial Soul Avatar: Activated immediately before Blood Moon.
• Eighth Soul Skill — Blood Moon: Replaces her visible form with a scarlet moon that burns and melts surrounding ghosts.
• Demonstrated effect: Destroyed the wedding and funeral processions and incinerated vegetation within a hundred meters in roughly half a minute.
• Cost: Left her Soul Power depleted and her body too weak to resist Ming Zhao.

Retained Abilities and Ghost Form

Zhang Lexuan retains her memories and some abilities from life, including her Hundred Thousand Year Soul Skill 14.

• Pierced Dongyang City’s lord with her fingernails and consumed his soul 18.
• Used illusory, Ghost Qi-covered hands to help divide Ming Zhao’s existence during the Skin Marries Bone ritual 26.
• Helped channel the energy of Li Ya’s Soul Ring into Ming Zhao 14.
• Remains subject to Ming Zhao’s mental connection and control over her thoughts, existence, and destruction 14.

Ghost Bride’s Eighth-Ring Skills

Li Ya’s Soul Ring added two mental attacks to the Ghost Bride Martial Soul embodied by Zhang Lexuan 14.

• Soul-Seizing Strike: An eye-fired mental beam that strikes the soul directly. Once the target is mentally locked on, it cannot be dodged; it has 30% mental penetration.
• Soul Scream: A mermaid song that produces a wide-area storm of mental impacts.

Ice-and-Fire Resonance

At the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, Zhang Lexuan’s presence resonated with Ming Zhao, Li Ya, and the surrounding elemental forces 25 26.

• Occupied the fire-spring side of their formation.
• Helped control the well’s elemental power and form the red-and-blue taiji vortex.
• Participated in the ritual that divided and recombined Ming Zhao’s existence.

Relationships

• Ming Zhao — Her killer and the master of her Ghost Bride form. She resisted him in life, but after transformation he gained complete control over her and could destroy or replace her 4 14 29.
• Xuan Zi — The senior protector assigned to her final mission. She blamed his absence as her squad died; he later accepted responsibility for the disaster 3 4 38.
• Li Ya — Fellow embodied Martial Soul, serving as Ming Zhao’s Water Vengeful Spirit. They worked together in treasure collection and the Skin Marries Bone ritual 14 19 25 26.
• Shrek Inner Court disciples — Her juniors and Inspection Corps teammates. She tried to protect them and unleashed Blood Moon to avenge their deaths 1 2 3.
• Yu Mengdi — Zhang Lexuan’s beauty and disdainful bearing contributed to the envy Ming Zhao exploited to corrupt Yu Mengdi 51 52.

Notable Quotes

“Save them, I have to save them!” 2

“Since you're incapable and I can't rely on you, I'll do it myself.” 3

“Even if I die, I'll never bow to you!” 4