Ling Zhantian

Biodata

Power Progression

The documented changes concern recovery and temporary enhancement; no permanent breakthrough beyond the Divine Sea Realm is confirmed.

Background / History

Dao injury and the collection of special physiques

Ling Zhantian’s forbidden imperial secret art allowed him to fight across realms but left him with a Dao injury that halted his cultivation at the Divine Sea Realm Ninth Level. He spent twenty years seeking a cure through the extraction and refinement of special physique origins. A remnant consciousness taught him the demonic formation used for this purpose 181 225 252.

While searching for special physiques, he conspired with a deputy tower master of the Blood Baleful Intent Tower to ambush a grievously wounded expert from the Vast Waves Sacred Academy. The expert died, and Ling Zhantian seized the infant accompanying them: Ling Xueyao, who possessed the Flawless Spirit Physique. He raised her as Great Qian’s princess while concealing her origins 181.

Ling Chengxuan was another child taken for his physique. According to Chengxuan, Ling Zhantian murdered his parents and slaughtered his village when he was five, then brought him to the palace. The emperor publicly presented him as a biological son previously left among the common people, while secretly intending to use his Soul Origin Spirit Physique as a medicinal catalyst 225.

Poisoning and prolonged unconsciousness

Ling Zhantian spent years unconscious from Soul-Devouring Nether Poison while the imperial family publicly claimed he was cultivating in seclusion. Poison leaking from his body contaminated his entire hall. Its mist could corrode protective spiritual power, preventing the alchemists invited by Ling Xueyao from even approaching him 97 99 113.

Ling Chengxuan later admitted responsibility for poisoning him. His cooperation with the Blood Baleful Intent Tower also extended to probing the palace to determine whether the emperor had recovered 225.

Chu Yunfei extracted the poison from Ling Zhantian’s organs, meridians, and divine soul, secretly using the Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate. Detoxification alone could not awaken him: his body required a fifth-grade restorative pill, and his soul required a sixth-grade nourishing pill 102 103.

After Ling Xueyao obtained the necessary medicines, Chu Yunfei rebuilt the emperor’s damaged body and guided the soul-restoring medicine into his sea of consciousness. During the recovery, Chu Yunfei redeployed preserved poisonous mist to mislead the Blood Baleful Intent Tower into believing Ling Zhantian remained poisoned. Ling Changkong subsequently guarded the emperor 120 122 123 124.

Awakening and rejection of Chu Yunfei

After awakening, Ling Zhantian received Chu Yunfei and correctly deduced that he possessed the Myriad Poison Tyrant Body, though he did not discover the Divine Cauldron’s involvement in his cure. He also identified the Giant Que Sword as one of three keys to the Heaven-Slaying Sword Emperor’s inheritance 156 157.

In private, he announced his intention to revoke Chu Yunfei’s imperial son-in-law status and urged him to leave the palace. He cited the danger of allowing Chu Yunfei’s enemies to turn against Great Qian and offered cultivation resources as compensation. Chu Yunfei refused, stating that he had saved the emperor only for Ling Xueyao’s sake 160 161.

Ling Changkong condemned the decision. Ling Zhantian then revealed a separate grievance: Chu Yunfei had ruined his twenty-year plan by helping Ling Xueyao reach the Divine Sea Realm. Her advancement made her less suitable for the physique-extraction process, prompting him to consider Chu Yunfei’s Myriad Poison Tyrant Body as a replacement 161 165 166 225.

When Ling Xueyao challenged him, he rejected her choice of husband and ordered her confined without permission to leave or send messages 165 166.

Failed ambush outside the capital

Disguised in black robes, Ling Zhantian intercepted Chu Yunfei outside the imperial capital. Despite altering his techniques and concealing his presence with a treasure, he was recognized through the distinctive injuries remaining in his divine soul. He intended to capture Chu Yunfei, search his soul, and seize his secrets and physique origin 175 181.

His lingering soul wounds limited his strength. Nevertheless, he pierced Chu Yunfei’s left lung with Nine Dragons Suppress the Mountain and approached to extract his divine soul. Chu Yunfei then burned part of his physique origin to force his combat strength to the Divine Sea Realm Eighth Level 176 177.

Chu Yunfei’s counterattack shattered Ling Zhantian’s golden dragon manifestation, severely damaged the Imperial Dao Dragon Sword, and hurled him through several rock walls. Ling Zhantian survived by drawing on Great Qian’s national fortune and consuming the imperial family’s sole ancestral escape talisman 177 178 180.

Escalation of the extraction plan

Returning to the palace’s forbidden cavern with shattered meridians and renewed soul injuries, Ling Zhantian ordered Ling Changkong to bring Ling Chenglie for extraction. He planned to proceed through Ling Chengyuan and Ling Chengxuan before finally taking Ling Xueyao’s origin 180 181.

He also disclosed why Ling Xueyao’s identity had become urgent: the Vast Waves Sacred Academy’s envoys were expected within half a year. He feared they would recognize her physique and expose his role in the academy expert’s death. Extracting her origin would both support his desired breakthrough and conceal the evidence. Although he promised to try to preserve her life, he accepted a procedure with only a thirty-percent chance of success in her altered condition 181.

Jade Firmament Sect massacre

Ling Zhantian and Ling Changkong attacked the Jade Firmament Sect to seize its seventh-grade Nine-Aperture Life-Restoring Pill. Ling Changkong restrained the sect’s alchemy patriarch while Ling Zhantian used his forbidden art to unleash Dao Mysterious Realm Third Layer power and slaughter the sect 216.

The stolen pill restored the Crimson Flame Berserk Lion. Ling Zhantian concealed his involvement while suspicion fell on the Blood Baleful Intent Tower, the Pill Pavilion, and Chu Yunfei 205 216.

The princes and the secret-realm trap

By the time Ling Chengxuan warned Chu Yunfei, Ling Zhantian had already drained Ling Chenglie’s Mysterious Yang Physique and recovered his peak vitality. Chengxuan disclosed the emperor’s extraction scheme and the imperial family’s hidden strength 225 227 228.

Ling Zhantian later confronted Chengxuan in the forbidden cavern. After torturing him, he cast him into the blood formation, killing him and extracting his Soul Origin Spirit Physique origin. A wisp of Chengxuan’s golden true spirit escaped unnoticed 230.

Ling Zhantian then secured Ling Xueyao’s obedience by promising to spare Chu Yunfei. Privately, he continued arranging Chu Yunfei’s death with the Heavenly Mystic Secret Realm’s remnant consciousness. Their blood-oath agreement allotted Chu Yunfei’s body to the remnant soul, while Ling Zhantian sought the inheritance key and Luo Wuxu’s sword 251 252.

Inside the secret realm, Chu Yunfei later concluded that the competition also served as a screening ground for special physiques: participants would kill one another, allowing Ling Zhantian to collect suitable corpses and extract their essences. This remained Chu Yunfei’s deduction rather than a directly witnessed collection by the emperor 305.

Appearance

Ling Zhantian appears as a thin-faced, middle-aged man with keen eyes and an imposing bearing. Shortly after awakening, he remains sickly pale despite the authority conveyed by his posture and gaze 156.

• Imperial clothing: Wears a dark dragon robe at his first audience with Chu Yunfei and a bright yellow dragon robe during a later visit to Ling Xueyao 156 251.
• Ambush disguise: Uses black robes and black mist to conceal his face, accompanied by an altered voice and suppressed presence 175.
• Golden phantom: His earlier manifestation exerts enough pressure to immobilize the assassins threatening Ling Xueyao and Chu Yunfei 78.

Personality

Ling Zhantian combines imperial authority with intense suspicion and a desire for control. He monitors the princes’ outside contacts, restricts Ling Xueyao’s movements, and becomes furious when she independently chooses to protect Chu Yunfei. His alliance with the remnant consciousness is explicitly transactional: he retains it for its knowledge while guarding against possession 162 166 252.

His past affection for Ling Xueyao is supported by her memories of him watching over her injuries, indulging her requests, and offering her the throne. Nevertheless, he ultimately subordinates her welfare to his survival, cultivation, and fear of the Sacred Academy’s retaliation. He repeatedly invokes Great Qian’s interests to justify betraying his benefactor and sacrificing those raised as his children 164 166 176 181.

Defeat intensifies his vindictiveness. After barely escaping Chu Yunfei, he conceals the humiliating circumstances from Ling Changkong and later vows to extract Chu Yunfei’s soul and mutilate his body 180 216.

Abilities & Skills

Imperial Sword Techniques

• Imperial Dragon Splits the Heavens: Releases golden dragon manifestations in a sword attack. Chu Yunfei’s five-layer sword strike cuts through three dragons and wounds Ling Zhantian’s shoulder 176.
• Nine Dragons Suppress the Mountain: A powerful imperial attack that pierces Chu Yunfei’s left lung and drives him into a crater 176.
• Fortune-empowered dragon manifestation: Combines his life essence blood with Great Qian’s national fortune to summon an enormous five-clawed golden dragon. Chu Yunfei’s final strike severs it 177.

Forbidden Imperial Secret Art

• Temporarily raises his combat power from Divine Sea Realm Ninth Level to Dao Mysterious Realm Third Layer 205 216.
• Enables him to overwhelm the Jade Firmament Sect during its destruction 216.
• Inflicts severe Dao injuries; his existing injury prevents a permanent cultivation breakthrough for twenty years 181 225.

Physique-Origin Extraction

• Uses a demonic formation taught by the remnant consciousness to strip and refine special physique origins, filling the damage caused by his Dao injury 225 252.
• Restores his soul injuries and vitality through Ling Chenglie’s Mysterious Yang Physique origin 227.
• Extracts Ling Chengxuan’s Soul Origin Spirit Physique origin through the blood formation 230.
• Requires suitable cultivation maturity: an underdeveloped origin cannot sustain the formation, while an origin too deeply fused with its owner can cause backlash 225.
• Must proceed gradually, leaving Ling Xueyao—the strongest and most important intended catalyst—until last 227.

Perception and Historical Knowledge

• Deduces Chu Yunfei’s Myriad Poison Tyrant Body from his ability to survive and remove the ancient poison 157.
• Reveals the hidden Heaven-Slaying Seal on the Giant Que Sword and explains its role as an inheritance key 157.
• Knows the Vast Waves Sacred Academy’s ten-year recruitment cycle and invitation-based selection process, but admits he does not know its location 159.
• Cannot fully discern the nature of Chu Yunfei’s Abyss-Devouring Sword by inspection 158.

Imperial Defenses and Hidden Forces

• Can employ means left behind by Great Qian’s Grand Founder that make even the Blood Baleful Intent Tower Master wary 119.
• Relies on the Nine Dragons Heaven-Locking Grand Formation, the Crimson Flame Berserk Lion, and hidden imperial forces to deter a direct assault on the capital 197 228.
• Commands secretly recruited death warriors, including a Divine Sea Realm Eighth Level cultivator 230.
• Plans overlapping measures against Chu Yunfei: the secret-realm trap, hostile sects outside it, the capital’s formation, and the restored lion 252.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Imperial Dao Dragon Sword — His longstanding weapon, used to channel golden dragon attacks. It suffers severe cracking during his defeat by Chu Yunfei 175 176 177.
• Ancient Great Spatial Shift Escape Light Talisman — The imperial family’s sole ancestral lifesaving escape talisman; consumed to flee Chu Yunfei’s finishing attack 178.
• Presence-concealing treasure — Used with altered techniques and a disguised voice during the ambush. It cannot conceal the soul injuries by which Chu Yunfei identifies him 175.
• White jade token — Grants access through nine layers of killing formations into the palace’s deepest forbidden ground 180.

Relationships

• Ling Xueyao — Adopted daughter, originally abducted as an infant. Their once-affectionate relationship deteriorates over Chu Yunfei, her confinement, and Ling Zhantian’s plan to extract her Flawless Spirit Physique origin 164 166 181 251.
• Chu Yunfei — Lifesaving benefactor turned mortal enemy. Ling Zhantian rejects him as a prospective son-in-law, covets his physique and treasures, and repeatedly plots his death 161 175 181 252.
• Ling Changkong — Imperial clan elder and powerful supporter. He condemns Ling Zhantian’s ingratitude and plans for Xueyao, yet assists in the Jade Firmament Sect massacre; he later secretly warns Chu Yunfei about the possession trap 161 181 216 261.
• Ling Chengyuan — Eldest prince. Ling Zhantian monitors his contact with the Heavenly Sword Sect and appoints him to represent the imperial family at the competition. Chengyuan expects events in the secret realm to follow his father’s plan 162 216 259.
• Ling Chenglie — Second prince. Ling Zhantian drains his Mysterious Yang Physique origin as the weakest initial catalyst for his recovery 181 227.
• Ling Chengxuan — Adopted third prince whose family and village Ling Zhantian slaughtered. Chengxuan poisons him in revenge; Ling Zhantian later kills him in the extraction formation 225 230.
• Shen Qianyue — Imperial defender entrusted with watching Ling Xueyao and enforcing her confinement 162 166.
• Zhou Xuancheng — Imperial Attendant who reports on the princes’ outside contacts and receives surveillance orders 162.
• Remnant consciousness — Distrusted partner who teaches him physique extraction and helps prepare the secret-realm trap. Ling Zhantian knows it once intended to possess him and keeps it for its usefulness 252.
• Blood Baleful Intent Tower — Both a past collaborator and a major enemy. Ling Zhantian once conspired with a deputy tower master, but later regards the tower’s growing power as an existential threat to Great Qian 181.

Notable Quotes

“But he also ruined the grand plan I had pursued for twenty years!” 161

“Xueyao’s cultivation must fall, and her spirit physique origin must become the final stepping stone for me to enter the Dao Mysterious Realm.” 181

“Because you still have value to exploit.” 252