Sima Ruiming

Biodata

Power Progression

Appearance

Sima Ruiming initially appears to be in his early twenties, with sword-shaped brows, starry eyes, and a graceful bearing. Ye Jinyu later describes him as handsome and unrestrained, though his ingrained noble bearing makes him seem arrogant 30 56.

• Water and dragon imagery: Water vapor surrounds him, forming a faint dragon-shaped apparition 30.
• Clothing: Wears black satin robes embroidered with dark-gold dragons and binds his long hair with a jade crown 42.
• Firmament pendant: Carries a jade pendant engraved with the characters for “Firmament” 30.
• Mingyang’s mark: Acquires a pale golden mark between his brows, which later burns brightly as Mingyang prepares to manifest through him 62 63.
• After confinement: Becomes almost unrecognizably thin, with sunken eyes and cracked lips. His resemblance to his father’s hawkish, wolflike features remains, while the golden mark has dimmed 70.

Personality

Ruiming maintains a courteous, composed exterior while concealing resentment. Xie Qingying warns that, despite appearing “warm and gentle as jade,” he repays even slight grudges. When rumors link her romantically to Ye Jinyu, he publicly dismisses them as harmless cooperation, orders the rumor spreaders seized, and privately expresses murderous hatred toward both of them 41 42.

His attachment to Xie Qingying is possessive. He regards their betrothal as grounds for controlling her associations and imagines making her a captive once he inherits greater power. Xie identifies his concern as wounded pride and a desire for control rather than consideration for her wishes 43 45.

He is also calculating and capable of restraint. He engineers the blood-edict conspiracy to expose Great Qi’s loyalists, then uses their destruction to intimidate the court. After Ye Jinyu humiliates his envoys, Ruiming suppresses his anger rather than immediately retaliating 43 44 52.

His defeat and subsequent confinement substantially change him. Having once despised people of humble birth, he recognizes the same cruelty when his own branch loses power and Zhengxian is persecuted. The narration explicitly notes that his formerly narrow mind has broadened during those three years 70.

History

Background and the Ruin Realm Expedition

A direct descendant of Great Jin’s imperial family, Ruiming enters the Wind Abyss Ruin Realm campaign as the foremost of the Four Nobles, alongside Chen Yi, Xie Qingying, and Wang Maohong. His father expects him to make his name, demonstrate Great Jin’s might, and uphold Firmament Heaven’s prestige 30 70.

His central assignment is to cultivate the conflict between Great Qi’s kingly way and Great Yin’s hegemonic way. Sima Huanyu intends their respective swords to be united into a sword of emperors capable of rivaling a Golden Core Law Treasure 43.

Seizure of Great Qi

Ruiming becomes Great Qi’s chief minister and de facto regent, stripping Crown Prince Li Tian of effective authority in little more than a year and a half. By the time he consolidates power, seventy percent of officials of the third rank and above have secretly pledged allegiance to him 43 46.

He deliberately allows Li Tian to issue a blood edict through an apparently loyal eunuch. The eunuch is actually working for Ruiming, and the edict draws the remaining royal loyalists into a palace ambush. Their forces are trapped and slaughtered, while Zhang Qing reveals his betrayal 43 44.

The purge extends to clans that refuse submission. Entire households are exterminated on charges of treason, and three thousand corpses are displayed on the capital’s walls. Ruiming subsequently dominates the court while insisting that its officials demonstrate loyalty to the powerless crown prince 44 46.

Conflict over Xie Qingying

Ye Jinyu deliberately spreads reports of his closeness with Xie Qingying, exploiting Ruiming’s jealousy and the longstanding hostility between their clans. Ruiming responds by sending Sima You with valuable gifts and instructions that Xie avoid associating with Ye 41 42 45.

Xie rejects both the gifts and the attempt to control her. Ye Jinyu then intercepts the returning party, seizes the treasures, humiliates Sima You, and dismisses Sima An’s threats. Although Sima An has also come to propose cooperation between their regions, the encounter instead deepens the rivalry 45 46 47.

War against Great Yin

The deaths of the Qi and Yin emperors undermine Ruiming’s confidence in his father’s supposedly certain plan. When the Firmament Luo River Mirror can no longer contact Sima Huanyu or the Cangxuan cultivators stationed outside the realm, he realizes that stronger powers may be using him as a pawn 50 52.

He nevertheless accelerates the invasion of Great Yin. With a hundred cities already captured, he orders its destruction within three months, intending to seize its fortune and make himself valuable enough to survive the larger schemes surrounding him 52.

During this campaign, Ye Jinming impersonates Ruiming using Formless Thousand Faces and leads a Ye Clan raid on Great Yin’s capital. The attack, including the slaughter of its defenders and confrontation with Yin Huan, is not carried out by the real Ruiming. Ye Jinxuan’s staged intervention helps drive Great Yin into submission to the Ye Clan 53 54 55.

After two years of war, Ruiming and Ye Jinyu oversee the fighting between Li Tian and Yin Huan. Ruiming urges Ye to reconcile in the name of Cangxuan unity, but Ye challenges him over Xie Qingying 56.

Mingyang’s Trap

Divine Lord Mingyang captures the Sima Clan’s fortune in the form of a flood dragon and pulls Ruiming into his palace. Terrified but briefly defiant, Ruiming acknowledges his family’s usurpation of Wei. A message through his mirror subsequently draws Sima Huanyu toward Wind Abyss 61.

Mingyang releases Ruiming after secretly placing a golden mark between his brows. The mark serves as an anchor for Mingyang’s future manifestation and a means of controlling him 62.

When the Greater Yin Killing Array threatens the armies, Ye Jinyu transmits the Yin-Yang Dao-Joining Sword-Sacrifice Technique to Ruiming and pressures him into performing it. With the killing array advancing and Mingyang’s mark restraining him, Ruiming sacrifices Li Tian and Yin Huan, uniting Zhanlu and Tai’e into the Mingyang Emperor Sword 63.

Sima Huanyu arrives and attempts to intervene, but Mingyang manifests through Ruiming’s body and takes full control of it. Ruiming’s terror remains visible as golden light repeatedly overwhelms his expression 63 64.

Return and Confinement

Three months later, the wounded, unconscious Ruiming falls into the strange realm where Chen Yi, Wang Maohong, and Xie Qingying are waiting. Wang covers him with a red garment and carries him away. Xie returns the Marsh Dragon Treasure Pearl that Ruiming once gave her 69.

He awakens in a damaged temporary palace in Shouchun rather than Firmament Heaven. Sima Canglan’s administration tells him to recuperate and await an appointment, but he remains confined for three years while his father’s followers are ostracized or placed under house arrest 70.

Zhengxian’s visit exposes how thoroughly their fortunes have collapsed: the former retainer has lost his post and benefits, been forced into gladiatorial combat, and had his family taken to pressure him into abandoning his former allegiance. Ruiming bitterly recognizes that his own clansmen now treat him with the contempt he once showed others 70.

A later conversation reveals that Ruiming’s location has been found and that an unidentified speaker wants Ye Zhanxin to join an effort to find him. No outcome is established in that passage 72.

Abilities & Skills

Mystic Nether Dragon Lord

Ruiming’s water-aspected Dao foundation combines Mystic Nether True Water with true-blooded flood dragon spirit essence 30.

• Produces a dragon-shaped apparition amid the water vapor surrounding him 30.
• Manifests increasingly solid flood-dragon imagery as his cultivation develops 52.
• Strengthens through the influx of fortune gained during his campaign 52.
• His birth with a water Spirit Root is presented as a rumor, rather than a confirmed fact 30.

Yin-Yang Dao-Joining Sword-Sacrifice Technique

Ye Jinyu transmits this technique directly into Ruiming’s sea of consciousness during the crisis caused by the Greater Yin Killing Array 63.

• Uses a sun-and-moon array to unite Zhanlu and Tai’e.
• Sacrifices Li Tian and Yin Huan’s souls, bloodlines, and lifelong cultivation.
• Produces the Mingyang Emperor Sword, whose emergence causes the killing array to recede 63.

Political and Military Command

Ruiming uses both institutional authority and covert manipulation to take control of Great Qi 43 44.

• Turns Li Tian’s blood edict into a trap for royal loyalists 43 44.
• Commands at least thirty Foundation Establishment Late Stage cultivators from Firmament Heaven and monitors the capital through formations 44.
• Directs Great Qi’s invasion of Great Yin and seeks to convert territorial conquest into fortune and cultivation gains 52.

Equipment / Items

• Firmament Luo River Mirror — Also called the Luo River Firmament Mirror. Left by his father; monitors Great Qi and supports communication across the Great Void and between realms. It fails to warn him when Mingyang abducts him 52 61.
• Nine-Aperture Mystic Nether Pearl — A rare water-essence treasure used to assist cultivation and purify true essence 52.
• Firmament jade pendant — Waist ornament engraved with “Firmament” 30.
• Storage ring and betrothal portrait — Keeps a portrait painted when the Sima and Xie clans arranged his engagement, depicting Xie Qingying with Ruiming watching from a distance 43.
• Marsh Dragon Treasure Pearl — Previously given to Xie Qingying; returned beside his unconscious body when the expedition survivors prepare to leave 69.
• Nine-Leaf Waterheart Lotus and Shark-Silk Cloud Garment — Sent as gifts to Xie Qingying, rejected by her, and intercepted by Ye Jinyu 45 46 47.

Relationships

• Sima Huanyu — Father and principal backer. Entrusts him with the imperial-sword plan and travels to Wind Abyss after receiving a message through his mirror 43 61.
• Xie Qingying — Arranged fiancée. Rejects his attempts to dictate her conduct and seeks enough personal strength to escape her clan’s marriage demands 41 45.
• Ye Jinyu — Political and personal rival. Exploits Ruiming’s jealousy, humiliates his envoys, and ultimately forces him to perform the sword sacrifice 41 47 63.
• Li Tian — Great Qi’s crown prince, reduced to a figurehead under Ruiming’s regency and later sacrificed through Ruiming’s array 44 46 63.
• Sima You and Sima An — Trusted envoys and subordinates. Their humiliation in the Southern Region becomes another grievance against Ye Jinyu 45 47 52.
• Divine Lord Mingyang — Captor and controller. Marks Ruiming and uses his body to manifest against Sima Huanyu 61 62 64.
• Wang Maohong and Chen Yi — Fellow members of the Four Nobles who help take him out of the Ruin Realm after his defeat 30 69.
• Zhengxian — Loyal former retainer whose persecution prompts Ruiming to confront the brutality of his own clan’s hierarchy 70.
• Sima Canglan — Sixth uncle and successor to power in Huainan. His administration confines Ruiming while dismantling the privileges of Sima Huanyu’s followers 70.
• Sima Honglin — Third uncle, formerly a generous supporter. Uses Canglan to root out Sima Huanyu’s power in Huainan 70 74.

Notable Quotes

“If you want to kill me, then do it! My family usurped Wei, and this realm belongs to my family now!” 61

“Father, this is the Sima Clan. These are our clansmen, where the weak are meat for the strong, and people flock to power and influence!” 70