Yan Bai

Biodata

Power Progression

Appearance

• Original appearance: A young man with an artistic, intellectual air 24.
• Saber-spirit manifestation: His face appears on the surface of Hanxing’s blade 38 50.
• Adopted identity: The collective soul explicitly chooses Yan Bai’s face because Hanxing had dealt with him more than with the other inhabitants of Fansha Star 38.

Personality

Yan Bai is a committed revolutionary whose ideals center on improving ordinary people’s lives. He supports equal land distribution, describes the army’s efforts to turn Fansha Star into an oasis, and remains concerned about restoring production immediately after Night Return Port falls. He later explains that land reform was meant to give people an ideal life, which makes Sunday’s promise of an effortless paradise genuinely tempting to him 25 26 29 66.

He is generous despite his limited means. After offering to cover Hanxing and Firefly’s lodging, he lends them all sixty-eight Cloud Amber Coins he has available. His hospitality also extends to protecting their chance to return home rather than needlessly exposing them to further fighting 25 27 29.

Literature and writing are personal interests, and his speeches often carry a theatrical or literary flourish. He can also be playful: he improvises enthusiastically during the Scorchsand Festival and mischievously enforces Blade’s instruction that Silver Wolf cannot have chips before dinner 28 31 57 58 98.

His legal and educational views remain shaped by his commissar background. He condemns selling one’s children as a violation of the law and objects to treating poorly educated people as inherently uncouth. Although he enjoys his undercover travels with the Astral Express, developing a sense of belonging makes him reluctant to continue deceiving them 50 64 99.

Background / History

Early Life and Revolutionary Service

Yan Bai recounts being born into a farming family and suffering under landlords and the bourgeoisie during childhood. He later joined the Kangbu Revolutionary Army and served as a political commissar until Fansha Star’s destruction 99.

As commissar of the 148th Regiment, he first meets Hanxing and Firefly during their clash with revolutionary soldiers. He orders a ceasefire and medical treatment for the wounded, then recognizes the pair as outsiders because their Paths do not fit Fansha Star’s restriction to Order and Harmony 24.

He explains the planet’s curse and learns from the visitors that Ena has fallen and been absorbed by Xipe. When Hanxing questions how an isolated inhabitant could recognize Destruction, Yan Bai attributes that recognition to Harmony’s blessing rather than knowledge of the wider universe 24 25.

Campaign Against the North Wind Government

After Wind Erosion Town is captured, Yan Bai shows the visitors the army’s land reforms and helps them find lodging. He subsequently invites them to join the Night Return Port offensive, hoping to call them “comrades.” His deployment places them with Han Chuan’s personal guard squad while he leads another unit on the front line 25 26 28.

Following the port’s capture, Yan Bai offers the pair an opportunity to leave aboard a recovered spaceship. He explains that natives attempting to depart dissolve into liquid gold because of Order’s curse. Hanxing and Firefly instead choose to help break it and accompany his troops toward Shuofeng City 29 30.

Death and the Collective Soul

During the confrontation with Basha, Yan Bai reveals that he is already an Emanator and fights alongside Firefly. Basha ultimately withdraws divine power from the entire planet, killing Yan Bai and Fansha Star’s inhabitants. Their wills merge into Hanxing’s blade 33 34.

The being encountered afterward is not simply the original Yan Bai restored unchanged. It explains that the gathered souls have merged into one consciousness and that it selected Yan Bai’s face for familiarity. It also possesses information from Basha’s memories 38.

Penacony and the Astral Express

The collective Yan Bai demonstrates control over the Blade of Ending and helps Hanxing understand why a disguise bearing his face is recognized as an invited guest: Basha had submitted the original Yan Bai’s information to Penacony 38.

Hanxing later places him in a double that accompanies the Astral Express group. Yan Bai participates in a staged clash with Hanxing, then fights beside the crew against Aventurine. Growing attached to his companions, he supports revealing the deception; Hanxing explains the soul-and-clone arrangement to Caelus 43 47 48 49 50.

In Dreamflux Reef, Hanxing creates an independent human body for him. Yan Bai compares inhabiting it to being back on Fansha Star, while acknowledging that the people who compose him were human too 51.

Scorchsand Festival and Ena’s Dream

Yan Bai enters the Scorchsand Festival with Hanxing and Firefly. He contributes improvised dialogue and physical comedy to the Acting challenge, helps repair Dream Ticker’s mind, and fights alongside Hanxing against Argenti. The trio are declared festival champions 57 58 59 60 61.

When Hanxing and Firefly leave for another battlefield, Yan Bai remains with the Astral Express group. Hanxing entrusts him with guiding everyone toward an opening in the sky when a purple meteor appears 67.

During the battle with Dominicus, Yan Bai recognizes the attempt to create a Path and shields the group when Tuning stops working. He participates in the resistance that culminates in Dominicus’s defeat and the awakening from Ena’s Dream 72.

Wedding and Stay with the Stellaron Hunters

At Hanxing’s request, Yan Bai officiates his wedding to Firefly aboard the Radiant Feldspar. Initially inexperienced, he studies a tutorial on Hanxing’s phone before conducting the vows 76.

Afterward, Elio’s script rules out Yan Bai and Jintiao joining the Stellaron Hunters, warning of a bad ending. They nevertheless stay temporarily at the Hunters’ base while the Express lacks sufficient rooms 78.

During this stay, Yan Bai helps Blade in the kitchen and accompanies Jintiao to buy groceries and coats for Kafka. On the return journey, he recounts his past after Jintiao urges him to think of himself as Yan Bai rather than carry the burden of an entire world 98 99.

Jintiao subsequently confesses that she likes him, traps him in a corridor, and releases purple gas from her Propagation armor despite his protests. Yan Bai’s attempts to use Harmony fail; the passage does not establish what happens afterward 99.

Abilities & Skills

Harmony Perception and Tuning

Yan Bai’s original blessing allows him to perceive another person’s Path 25.

• Identifies Firefly as following Destruction and Hanxing as an ordinary person during their first meeting 24.
• Recognizes when Dominicus’s interference makes Tuning unusable 72.
• His Harmony techniques fail to affect Jintiao or escape the sealed corridor during their later confrontation 99.

Light Constructs and Swordsmanship

Yan Bai creates weapons and defensive constructs from light or golden energy 43 48 49.

• Light sword: Exchanges blows with Hanxing during their staged confrontation and with Argenti during the festival 43 61.
• Energy arm: Swats aside Aventurine’s incoming chips 48.
• Golden shields: Protects allies against projectiles and powerful attacks; Argenti’s spear can pierce one 48 61.
• Offensive coordination: Wounds Aventurine’s chest while Caelus and March 7th help create an opening 49.
• Energy absorption: During the Dominicus battle, his shield draws in escaping golden light and becomes sturdier 72.

Mental Linking and Repair

Yan Bai can establish a mental connection that shares perception and supports coordinated action 59 61.

• Links Hanxing and Firefly to his view inside Dream Ticker’s heart 59.
• Reassembles Dream Ticker’s thoughts after its missing parts are recovered and Hanxing calms its turmoil 60.
• Reconnects the mental chain before fighting Argenti alongside Hanxing 61.

Saber-Spirit Control

As the collective soul within the Blade of Ending, Yan Bai can manipulate the weapon directly 38.

• Draws the blade, opens a spatial gate, and returns it to its sheath, though he describes the control as somewhat difficult 38.
• Manifests his face on the blade to communicate with others 38 50.
• Can leave the saber to inhabit a compatible vessel provided by Hanxing 43 51.

Leadership and Performance

• Military command: Directs troops, arranges frontline deployments, and briefs allies on campaign objectives 24 28 30.
• Political knowledge: Explains revolutionary land reform and invokes his commissar experience when discussing legal authority 25 64.
• Acting and public speaking: Earns approval for improvised festival dialogue and physical comedy 58.
• Ceremonial speaking: Conducts Hanxing and Firefly’s wedding after brief preparation 76.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Blade of Ending / embroidered spring saber — Hanxing’s weapon, which houses the collective soul before Yan Bai receives a separate body; Yan Bai can control it from within 38 51.
• Light sword — A conjured weapon used against Hanxing, Aventurine, and Argenti 43 49 61.
• Phone — Used for communications during the revolutionary campaign and later for payments and messages 31 99.

Relationships

• Hanxing — Revolutionary comrade and close ally. Hanxing preserves the gathered souls, provides Yan Bai with vessels, and ultimately creates his independent body 28 38 43 51.
• Firefly — Fellow combatant and traveling companion. They face Basha together, compete on the same festival team, and later take part in her wedding to Hanxing 33 57 76.
• Lie Feng — Regimental commander serving alongside him. Yan Bai’s trust helps persuade Lie Feng to accept Hanxing and Firefly as outsiders rather than spies 28.
• Basha — Enemy responsible for killing the original Yan Bai and Fansha Star’s inhabitants. The later collective soul retains information from Basha’s memories 34 38.
• Caelus and the Astral Express crew — Initially companions under false pretenses; Yan Bai develops a sense of home among them and supports revealing the truth 50.
• Jintiao — Temporary housemate and shopping companion. She encourages his individual identity and expresses romantic interest, but then confines him and advances despite his objections 78 98 99.
• Blade, Kafka, and Silver Wolf — Hosts during his stay at the Stellaron Hunters’ base. He assists with cooking, delivers drinks, and runs errands for them without becoming a member 78 98 99.

Notable Quotes

“May our flesh and blood bring a crimson dawn to Fansha Star!” 28

“In this world, there must always be those who go first and blaze the trail ahead.” 65

Trivia

• Yan Bai introduces himself to the Scorchsand Festival audience as “a young man who loves literature and writing” 57.
• He cannot pilot a spaceship; the craft used for his shopping trip with Jintiao flies automatically 98.
• His enthusiasm for a red-and-green coat prompts Jintiao to compare his fashion sense to a traffic light 99.