Li Ya

Biodata

Power Progression

Appearance

Li Ya retains her mermaid appearance after becoming a Water Vengeful Spirit 14.

• Hair: Long, silky, sea-blue hair that drifts without a breeze in her spirit form 51.
• Tail: Nearly two meters long, with scales shading from sea blue to pinkish purple 51.
• Build: Elongated proportions, a slender waist, and a curved upper body 51.
• Face and skin: Fair, delicate skin and a strikingly beautiful face combining innocence with allure 51.
• Spirit manifestation: Sits sideways atop the Ghost Coffin with her tail hanging below it; can also float through the air as though swimming 14 51.

Personality

In life, Li Ya avoids harming other creatures except when hunting for food or fighting enemies. She is curious about humans, enjoys watching them, and sometimes sings for them. Even after injuring Ming Zhao during their battle, she initially offers to forgive him if he leaves 11 12 13.

She regards the aquatic creatures traveling with her as friends and companions, not servants. Their deaths provoke grief and a vow of revenge, but their reanimated bodies and accusations overwhelm her. Unable to bear their suffering, she apologizes and abandons her defenses 13 14.

Her behavior changes fundamentally after becoming Ming Zhao’s Martial Soul. Although her memories remain intact, her loyalty is enforced by their connection: he controls her thoughts, existence, and destruction. Her subsequent affection and obedience—including her willingness to help him target her family—occur under that control 14 16.

Abilities & Skills

Spiritual Perception and Defense

Li Ya specializes in the spiritual attribute and can sense approaching danger 12.

• Feels persistent unease before Ming Zhao’s ambush, though she does not locate him 12.
• Creates a spiritual barrier against the procession’s mental attacks 12.
• Her barrier is pushed toward collapse by the procession’s continuous assault 12.

Mermaid Song

Her singing can shift from soothing music to destructive mental attacks 11 13.

• Peaceful singing: Her performances on floating ice inspire generations of coastal “sea sprite” legends 11.
• Combat singing: Produces visible sound waves carrying successive mental impacts 13.
• Mermaid Duet: Shatters ordinary water ghosts and female ghosts, damages their spirit bodies, and opens fine cracks in Ming Zhao’s fusion-skill domain 13.
• Effect on Ming Zhao: Her attack gives him a bloody nose; he identifies purely mental attacks as one of the few methods capable of genuinely harming him 13 14.

Mental Suggestion and Concealment

After her transformation, Li Ya uses her knowledge of the Ice Sea and Mermaid Clan methods to protect Ming Zhao 15 17.

• Redirects sea creatures that approach his hiding place through mental suggestion 15.
• Can make Dongyang City appear to be the location of her death, providing a false trail for her family 15.
• Interferes with Lijing’s senses during the siege, concealing Ming Zhao’s harvesting of the battlefield’s flesh and souls 17.

Water Vengeful Spirit Form

Li Ya’s soul replaces the previous appearance of Ming Zhao’s Water Vengeful Spirit 14.

• Retains her memories and some abilities from life 14.
• Increases Ming Zhao’s underwater movement speed and guides him through familiar waters 14.
• Shares a mental connection with him that ensures complete obedience; he can detect attempted betrayal and destroy her 14.

Soul Ring and Soul Bone Legacy

Li Ya leaves a red Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring and an azure left arm Soul Bone. Ming Zhao absorbs the ring into his Ghost Bride Martial Soul, while her soul becomes his Water Vengeful Spirit 14.

Background / History

Life in the Ice Sea

Li Ya belongs to the Sea Princess Clan. Unlike her older sister Lijing, whose bloodline is silver, Li Ya possesses a golden bloodline that allows her to grow into the next Sea Princess 16.

She travels through the Ice Sea with aquatic companions and visits the coast every few years to observe humans. Fishermen preserve accounts of her songs, feeding grounds, and travel routes. Ming Zhao obtains this information by slaughtering coastal villages and coercing their inhabitants 11.

Ambush and Death

Ming Zhao selects Li Ya as the source of his Eighth Soul Ring and as a prospective incarnation of his Water Vengeful Spirit. Following the fishermen’s information, he searches waters roughly four hundred nautical miles northwest of the coast. His ghosts find her singing on an iceberg on the second day 10 11 12.

After confirming that no other Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts are nearby, he surrounds her with Red and White Colliding Calamities and Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts. Li Ya retaliates with her mental song, destroying lesser ghosts and damaging his domain 12 13.

While she fights the procession, Ming Zhao kills her companions, fouls the surrounding sea, and raises their bodies as evil spirits. He uses their pleas and accusations to torment her before they swarm and tear at her. Li Ya stops resisting, and Ming Zhao engulfs her and her companions in the filthy water, killing her 13 14.

Service to Ming Zhao

Li Ya immediately reappears as Ming Zhao’s Water Vengeful Spirit. She leads him to a secluded underwater cavern and protects him while he absorbs her Soul Ring and Soul Bone. The ring raises him to level eighty-two; the bone brings him to level eighty-three 14.

Her mother launches a search across more than half the Ice Sea, but Li Ya guides the searchers away from Ming Zhao. She then helps him establish a false trail at Dongyang City, drawing her family’s retaliation toward the city 15.

Lijing leads the resulting beast tide. During the siege, Li Ya masks Ming Zhao’s presence from her sister, allowing him to consume the dead unnoticed. Afterward, she and Zhang Lexuan retrieve Sea Soul Beast Soul Bones from the water. Lijing leaves believing she has avenged Li Ya, while the true killer remains unidentified 16 17 18 19 20.

Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well

At the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, Li Ya occupies the ice spring while Zhang Lexuan takes the fire spring. Together with Ming Zhao, they form an enormous red-and-blue taiji vortex; Li Ya stands at the eye of its yin fish 25.

During the Skin Marries Bone ritual, the two spirits divide Ming Zhao’s existence. Li Ya merges with his skin and flesh—the portion with form but no spirit—and becomes a bride in red gauze. Zhang Lexuan merges with his bone and spirit and becomes the groom. Their ritual bows draw in the springs’ energy before the divided portions reunite 26.

Afterward, Ming Zhao considers replacing Li Ya and Zhang Lexuan as his Martial Souls’ embodied forms with the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings’ remnant souls. No replacement is shown, and Li Ya later appears beside the Ghost Bride when he confronts Yu Mengdi 28 51.

Yu Mengdi’s Corruption

Ming Zhao displays Li Ya and Zhang Lexuan before the terrified Yu Mengdi after killing her teachers and teammates. Their beauty intensifies her jealousy, which he exploits to turn her into a fallen angel bearing the sin of envy 51 52.

Relationships

• Ming Zhao — Her killer and subsequent controller. He takes her Soul Ring and Soul Bone and binds her soul as his Water Vengeful Spirit 14.
• Sea Princess matriarch — Her mother, a Sea Soul Beast with 620,000 years of cultivation. She launches a widespread search after learning of Li Ya’s death 12 15.
• Lijing — Her older sister, a 200,000-year mermaid with a silver bloodline. Leads the attack on Dongyang City to avenge her, unaware that Li Ya is helping conceal Ming Zhao 16 17 18.
• Aquatic companions — Friends who travel with her through the Ice Sea. Ming Zhao reanimates them and uses them to break her resistance 13 14.
• Zhang Lexuan — Ming Zhao’s Ghost Bride and Li Ya’s counterpart among his two embodied Martial Souls. They retrieve Soul Bones together and perform the Skin Marries Bone ritual 19 25 26.

Notable Quotes

“They weren’t my followers or my lackeys! They were my friends and companions!” 13

“I will fight for you.” — After becoming Ming Zhao’s Water Vengeful Spirit 14