Tang Tiansong

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Childhood and Mortal Martial Arts

As a child, Tiansong rejected the Tang family’s ancestral trade of collecting flying squirrel droppings. He wanted to cultivate immortality, protect the innocent, and slay demons and devils. Although testing had not identified him as an Aperture Opener, he intended to become a mortal martial artist if immortal cultivation remained impossible 24.

Before becoming a cultivator, he spent three or four years traveling to sell five-spirit fat and helped defend Miao Household Stronghold against Western Rong incursions. Seeing cultivators destroy villages protected by skilled martial artists convinced him that martial strength alone could not safeguard his family 56 57 77.

The Demon Rat Crisis

Dangwu Village’s obligation to offer either Tiansong’s fifth or sixth brother to a demon rat forced him to seek outside help. He refused to involve his absent father: Tang Yuan had warned that excessive interference in his children’s fates could attract a worse calamity, while Tang Tianzi’s divination identified the crisis as a destined tribulation for Tianya and Tianshu 54.

Following Tang Yuan’s return and departure, Tiansong and three siblings chose immortal cultivation. Hou Fei made them Aperture Openers, and Tiansong distributed the cultivation supplies their father had left behind, including 109 Spirit Stones, manuals, Spiritual Qi, and the Seven Stars Sword 55 56.

Tiansong subsequently accompanied the hired cultivator Shen Kun to the rat’s mine. Shen Kun returned with its severed tail, claimed victory, and obtained a spirit incantation contract from him. While Tiansong buried the villagers’ remains, the still-living rat attacked, shattered his protective shield, and tore open his chest. He fled into the mine 61 62.

The family later celebrated Tiansong’s victory over the rat. He credited his siblings’ contributions rather than accepting sole praise, and prepared to assume authority over Dangwu Village as agreed beforehand 65.

Hunting and the Household’s Expansion

To fund cultivation, Tiansong hunted low-level Demon Beasts on the outskirts of Three Graves Mountain with Tang Qilang, the white lynx. Qilang scouted targets and intervened in difficult fights, saving him several times. Their repeated cooperation gradually earned Tiansong’s trust, and he eventually brought his siblings on hunts as well 69.

As his strength grew, neighboring settlements accepted his protection and acknowledged him as clan head. By 4041, he had reorganized Dangwu Village into a town administering five settlements, 30,951 people, and 3,000 full-time soldiers 75.

Tiansong deliberately accelerated his cultivation through heavy pill use and forced Spiritual Qi ingestion, despite believing that this might destroy his prospects of Foundation Establishment. He wanted enough immediate strength to secure resources that would help his siblings establish their foundations before sixty and make the household a lasting cultivation lineage 59 71.

Western Rong Campaign

After capturing Gaoxin chief Yang Yue'ao, Tiansong learned that Gu Husha was forcing Western Rong tribes eastward. He provided emergency supplies to Yang’s people and recruited him to gather intelligence in exchange for further provisions 77 78 79.

Tiansong later supported the famine-stricken Guishi Clan and used its intelligence about Gu Husha’s seclusion schedule to attack his grain stores. The campaign left Gu Husha unable to invade eastward for at least three years 96 97.

Ambush and Death

On the sixth day of the sixth month, 4042, Tiansong presided over Tang Jincan’s wedding at Iron Bridge Village. The occasion placed him in a Ye Household trap involving four Qi Refinement cultivators, who sought to remove the Tang Household before a fortuitous opportunity appeared near Gazing Dragon Lake 97 98 102.

Outnumbered by three Second Layer cultivators and one First Layer cultivator, Tiansong sent Tang Miao away to warn the family. He instructed his siblings to seek revenge only if future generations became strong enough, and insisted that his father not be told how he had died 98.

He activated Burning Life, Dream Unfinished, wounded all three Golden Yang Gate disciples, and fought the masked fourth attacker. Knowing he could not kill them, he exaggerated the Tang Household’s backing to frighten them and buy his family preparation time. He finally allowed their swords to pierce him before releasing black flames, dying upright with his sword 99.

Funeral and Possible Revival

Tang Tianzi and Tang Tiandong retaliated against the Ye Household and killed the three unmasked cultivators. Tiandong succeeded Tiansong as household head 100 102 103.

Tiansong received a small funeral without a banquet or condolence gifts. Because he had not formally married and had no recognized descendants at the time, he was excluded from the existing ancestral graveyard. His mother instead designated his burial place beneath the mountain behind Dangwu Village as a future ancestral burial ground 105.

Hou Fei retained a remnant of Tiansong’s soul. Tang Yuan later took the Mystic Spoon with him because Hou Fei claimed that the Demon Realm might offer a way to restore Tiansong to life. No successful revival is documented in the supplied chapters 101 107.

Personality

Tiansong’s childhood ambition to become a hero develops into a strong sense of responsibility as the eldest sibling. He accepts cultivation because he sees no other way to protect his family, and repeatedly gives up personal advantages: he offers to forgo techniques for Tang Tianzi, shares his cave cultivation time with Tang Miao, and risks his long-term cultivation prospects to strengthen the household quickly 24 56 59 67 71.

He is patient with relatives and reluctant to punish them irreversibly. Despite knowing Tang Jincan’s faults, he stops Tang Tiandong from killing him and insists that members of the Tang Household must not murder their own kin. Family pressure later persuades him to represent Jincan at the marriage he had opposed 57 92.

His compassion is tempered by practical limits. He refuses to overwork miners for short-term income, but also declines to promise indefinite support to the Gaoxin Tribe or accept large numbers of refugees whose backgrounds he cannot verify 75 78 84 95.

Abilities & Skills

Spirit Root and Cultivation

His Earth Spirit Root allows faster progress than his less-talented siblings 62 67.

• Cultivates under Tang Yuan’s arrangements, which provide the siblings with the upper-tier sixth-grade Spirit Pivot Sand Flow Art for the Qi Refinement stage 56.
• Supplements cultivation with pills, supplied Spiritual Qi, and Demon Beast hunting 69 71.
• Recognizes that his accelerated advancement may have permanently damaged his chances of Foundation Establishment 59 71.

Burning Life, Dream Unfinished

A three-level secret method bestowed by Hou Fei that consumes the user’s life force for a temporary increase in cultivation 56 99.

• Tiansong masters its first two levels and rises from Qi Refinement First Layer to Third Layer during his final battle 98 99.
• Gains enough speed to leave afterimages and wound three Second Layer opponents 99.
• Releases black flames in his final attack, injuring the masked cultivator and burning the other three attackers 99.
• Activation is irreversible and fatal. Merely practicing the third level would guarantee death within twenty years, even without using it; Tiansong therefore leaves that level uncultivated 99.
• His claim that the method came from the Heavenly Dragon Immortal Realm is part of his attempt to intimidate his enemies, not an established account of its origin 99.

Swordsmanship and Defensive Techniques

Tiansong combines his martial experience with cultivator weapons and protective arts 56 79.

• Practices and spars with his younger brothers, proposing swordsmanship contests without competing in true essence 79.
• Uses a golden protective shield, though the Sixth Layer demon rat breaks it while he is still a novice 62.
• Casts a soundproof barrier for private discussions 66.
• Fights his final battle with a Meridian Opening-stage spirit sword, inferior to his opponents’ Qi Refinement-stage weapons 98.

Leadership and Military Command

Tiansong organizes civilian administration, cultivation resources, and military defense 65 75 95.

• Reorganizes the village night patrol and appoints Tang Miao as captain 65.
• Distributes pills and Spirit Stones to twenty-two household cultivators and offers individual cultivation advice 95.
• Establishes an intelligence arrangement with Yang Yue'ao and directs the campaign against Gu Husha’s supplies 79 97.

Governance and Development

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Meridian Opening-stage spirit sword — Weapon used against his four killers 98.
• Burning Life, Dream Unfinished Jade Slip — Hou Fei’s gift containing the life-consuming secret method 56.
• Divine Travel Talismans — Used for swift travel and terrain surveys 58 69.
• Two Purple Lightning Talismans — Carried into the ambush but destroyed rather than deployed. Tang Tianzi later explains that concealing their power let the family catch his killers unprepared 98 102.
• Seven Stars Sword — A shared family treasure entrusted by Tang Yuan, initially handled by Tiansong and later used by Tang Tianlan 56 72.

Relationships

• Tang Yuan — Father. Supplies cultivation resources while limiting direct intervention in his children’s fates; later pursues a possible means of reviving Tiansong 55 56 107.
• Miao — Mother. Advises him that strength requires others’ support and establishes his burial site as the family’s future ancestral graveyard 65 105.
• Yu Wei — Beloved fiancée. Tiansong ends his previous engagement to marry her, and their engagement is celebrated on the ninth day of the tenth month, 4041. He dies before their planned wedding; she attends his burial dressed in festive red 67 84 92 105.
• Tang Tianlan — Younger sister. Shares responsibility for defending the household and joins the family’s cultivation and hunting efforts 56 65 69.
• Tang Tianzi — Younger sister. He supports her cultivation interests and promises not to force her into marriage; she helps avenge him after his death 59 61 102.
• Tang Tiandong — Younger brother, deputy lineage head, and successor. Tiansong counsels him on family responsibilities; Tiandong later leads his funeral 95 100 105.
• Tang Tianya and Tang Tianshu — Youngest brothers. Protecting them from the demon rat helps drive his entry into cultivation. Tianya later returns to pay respects at his grave 54 56 118.
• Tang Miao — Cousin as raised within the household. Tiansong protects his resources, shares cultivation time with him, and sends him away from the fatal ambush to warn the others 56 67 98.
• Tang Jincan — Cousin repeatedly spared and encouraged by Tiansong. Jincan’s insistence on marrying into the Ye Household brings Tiansong to the site of the ambush 57 92 103.
• Tang Qilang — White lynx and acknowledged “Seventh Brother.” Hunting partner whose repeated rescues gradually earn Tiansong’s trust 66 69.
• Hou Fei — Earth Flood Dragon who enables his cultivation and gives him his fatal secret method. Secretly considers possessing Tiansong after he reaches Foundation Establishment 56 92 101.
• Cui Xueyong — Ally and Tang Tianzi’s suitor, whom Tiansong accepts as a prospective brother-in-law 71.
• Wei Chen — Opens his Divine Pill Meridian while using an attack on him to provoke Tang Tianya’s Sword Primordial Qi 81.
• Yang Yue'ao — Captured Gaoxin chief turned intelligence source, exchanging information for supplies 77 78 79.

Notable Quotes

“When I grow up, I'll fight tyranny and protect the innocent, slay demons and exterminate devils, and be a great hero.” 24

“We of the Tang Household will never murder our own kin!” 57

“No matter how powerful the enemy, I can only, and must, draw my sword and attack!” 98