Cheng Sheng

Biodata

Power Progression

Cheng Sheng develops his warlock inheritance alongside the Black Killing Style’s martial system. His confirmed warlock rank is Forbidden Apprentice; opening the Book of Warlocks’ second page requires advancement to Demon Summoner, which is not confirmed in the provided chapters 28.

Background / History

Transmigration and the Black Book

Cheng Sheng was a thirty-five-year-old, single man who lived alone and played games before dying suddenly. He transmigrated only a few days before the opening chapter and quickly accepted his second life, including his new responsibilities as a son and older brother 1.

His host had failed the major entrance examination and received substantially more family support than his accomplished twin sister, Cheng Yue. Their parents operated Roaming, a six-person travel agency whose work frequently kept them away from home 1 7.

Videos of a Black Tide monster and the Sucha Street killings gave Cheng Sheng a strong sense of danger. He began training at the Black Killing Boxing Gym while studying the Book of Warlocks, despite the nausea, pain, and nosebleeds caused by reading it 3 9.

Entry into the Black Killing Style

Sacrificially acquired reactions and strength helped Cheng Sheng advance rapidly through the gym’s assessment. He defeated the trickster fisherman and Zhou Wenye, earning a formal discipleship and a reputation for going from beginner to official disciple in eighteen days 24 26 28 31.

During introductory training, he obtained leave by claiming that a dying friend in Balai needed to see him. His actual purpose was to collect a crocodile for his third sacrifice. The ritual completed his Body Tempering and improved the Black Killing secret art beyond its normal form 32 34.

Returning to Qingsha, he joined the live-fighting portion of training at Mamba Fighting Arena. Lunba named him “School Uniform Fierce Tiger,” and his victory over Blue Dragon Weiji upset spectators who had bet against him. He subsequently won five of six matches and earned over two hundred thousand 37 41 43.

Assassination Attempts and Retaliation

Zhou Wenye hired two Ruan Clan Nurturing Sha fighters to kill him. Cheng Sheng survived by separating them, exploiting their differing weaknesses, and accepting a stab wound while disabling the stronger attacker. After winning, he killed the incapacitated men without hesitation 44 45.

Ruan Wen later confronted him over her missing subordinates. Cheng Sheng eventually killed the Body Sha expert with Hell Plague Flies and also killed Zhou Wenye. Learning that Zhou’s father, Zhou Hongtu, controlled a major telecom-fraud compound, he planned to eliminate that remaining threat rather than leave the feud unresolved 50 54 57.

Red Ba Gang and Expanding Resources

Cheng Sheng repeatedly intervened for Song Cai, first rescuing him from extortion and later paying off the high-interest loan he had taken out for his family’s factory and his father’s operation 17 19 65.

After Red Ba Gang members threatened his own family, Cheng Sheng attacked their warehouse with an Abyss Imp. His fight against Hei Cha exposed the gap between his overwhelming physical development and his limited experience against veteran fighters. He subsequently bound Jia Wa through Blood Contract 65 68 70.

Jia Wa took over surveillance of the old school campus, sacrificial procurement, fly breeding, and loan matters. This freed Cheng Sheng to concentrate on cultivation and supernatural investigation. By the later chapters, he was prioritizing the Black Tide, his Primordial Mark, and introductory Void Realm perception training 71 83.

Appearance

Cheng Sheng initially has slender brows and eyes, an unexceptional face, and a calm bearing beyond his apparent age. Repeated sacrifices and his intermediary demon’s refinements make him progressively taller, more muscular, and more striking 11 34 59.

• Height: Approximately 1.8 meters during his early arena career; close to 1.85 meters after the fifth sacrifice 43 57.
• Refined physique: The intermediary demon compresses his exaggerated muscles into a slender, well-proportioned build 59 61.
• Core-disciple tattoo: Chooses the right side of his chest, hoping a visible target will draw attacks away from his heart 60.
• Combat alterations: Spiny Skin produces black keratinous armor; Elephant Soul enlarges his limbs and roughens his skin; Crocodile Bones creates prominent ridges beneath the flesh 34 57 78.
• Later features: Shoulder-length black hair and, in his compressed combat state, black Sha Light markings extending across his neck and face 78 79.

Personality

Cheng Sheng is pragmatic about both danger and personal responsibility. He initially trains to survive rather than out of devotion to martial arts, and he regards warlock cultivation as his foundation. He admits that his natural fighting aptitude is ordinary; sacrificial rewards account for much of his apparent genius 9 32 57.

He is protective of friends and family, but his efforts do not always repair damaged relationships. He repeatedly helps Song Cai, provides money to his parents, and attempts to offer Cheng Yue gifts despite her hostility 17 48 65.

His growing power brings out ambition, vanity, and enjoyment of public recognition. He acknowledges liking the spectators’ shocked attention after arena victories. Against enemies, he becomes increasingly ruthless, accepting lethal retaliation and sacrifices as practical means of securing his future 19 40 45 54.

His training discipline is uneven. Songpa criticizes his short-lived enthusiasm and lack of focus, while Cheng Sheng openly prefers Sulai’s gentler instruction. Nevertheless, he endures painful transformations and blood baths when they offer meaningful progress 42 56.

Abilities & Skills

Dark Sacrifice and the Book of Warlocks

The Book of Warlocks teaches rituals that exchange offerings with demons in the Abyss of Taboo for power 3.

• Physical enhancement: Sacrifices improve strength, speed, constitution, and martial cultivation 21 34 56.
• Secret-art optimization: Demonic assistance improves all three Black Killing secret-art layers beyond their ordinary versions 34 79.
• Traits and spells: Rewards include Sparrow Spirit, Elephant Soul, Blood Contract, and Control Shadow 14 57 70 75.
• Specific requests: Can request particular benefits, including secret-art improvement, physique refinement, and supernatural guidance toward a target 34 58 68.
• Costs and uncertainty: Rituals consume mental strength; valuable offerings do not guarantee a separate trait 34 56.

Primordial Mark

The Primordial Mark guides Cheng Sheng toward evil spirits and grows through supernatural absorption and sacrifices 28 35 75.

• Leads him to spirits at Pongwara Grand Theater, the abandoned school campus, and a remote coastal pier 35 61 80.
• Pulls the theater’s hanging woman into his glabella and absorbs her 35.
• Must be strengthened to complete Forbidden Apprentice cultivation and open the book’s second page 28.

Sacrificial Traits

• Sparrow Spirit: Grants extraordinary reactions, allowing instinctive evasions, rapid counters, and safe training beneath falling coconuts 14 16 24.
• Power of the Ram: Briefly multiplies force through punches, elbows, knees, and grips. Later completely overwritten by Elephant Soul 21 44 45 57.
• Elephant Soul: Enlarges and transforms his body, grants tremendous strength, and can thicken his Sha Light to nearly a foot when combined with his later secret arts 57 79.
• Elephant Soul limits: Produces destructive impulses and places heavy strain on his heart and body; cannot be maintained too long or repeatedly used within a short period 57.

Black Killing Style

Cheng Sheng combines demonically optimized hard-body techniques with the Six Great Forms 43 79.

• Spiny Skin: Black keratinous protection that allows barehanded strikes against masonry. Its earlier version can still be pierced by specialized weapons and Body Sha attacks 34 43 44.
• Crocodile Sinews: Reinforces joints against twisting and pulling while storing and releasing force like springs 64.
• Crocodile Bones: Strengthens his skeletal structure and completes the three-layer foundation needed to fully express the six killing moves 78 79.
• Sha Light: Tangible martial energy with unusually great thickness following the elephant sacrifice 43 56.
• Crocodile Breath: Regulates overheated Qi and blood and helps restore stamina after exertion 64.
• Technical limitation: His experience and execution initially lag behind those of veteran Body Sha fighters despite his superior physical enhancements 68 70.

Hell Plague Flies

Cheng Sheng cultivates Hell Plague Flies using a pit, repeated spellcasting, and fresh innards, later expanding production through Jia Wa’s eight-tank factory 47 48 71.

• Uses them to kill Ruan Wen, a Body Sha fighter 57.
• Discovers that eerie mist causes a fly to absorb it and form a sturdy cocoon 61.
• Experiments with larvae in the Black Tide rather than immediately absorbing the tide himself 80.
• Finds that all twenty-one flies have undergone unexpected changes after a later Black Tide 81.

Abyss Imp

Cheng Sheng commands an Abyss Imp whose rapid healing and obedience he tests 65.

• Deploys it against Red Ba Gang members during his warehouse assault 68.
• Later delegates feeding the next batch of imps to Jia Wa 71.

Blood Contract

Blood Contract binds a designated person as Cheng Sheng’s slave 70.

• Uses it on Jia Wa to obtain a loyal administrator and access to the Red Ba Gang’s personnel and resources 70 71.
• Delegates surveillance, procurement, investigations, and breeding operations to his contracted subordinate 71 75.

Control Shadow

Control Shadow manipulates Cheng Sheng’s shadow through the Primordial Mark and mental power 75.

• Concealment: Covers him in a thin black veil that blends into surrounding shadows without obstructing movement or vision 75.
• Physical manipulation: Creates a shadow tentacle capable of seizing and overturning a desk 75.
• Limit: Sustained testing consumes substantial mental power 75.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Book of Warlocks / Black Book — Source of his warlock inheritance, ritual instructions, and mentally strengthening reading practice 3 10 28.
• Sacrificial arrays — Prepared ritual formations used to offer creatures, corpses, implements, and luxury goods to demons 56 58 75.
• Bee Sting — Bladed weapon recovered from the nose-ringed assassin and used to finish the defeated attackers 45.
• Tranquilizer gun — Supplied by Nalong with elephant-strength sedative darts; used to keep Sangni subdued during the fifth sacrifice 56.
• Wang Shan’s belongings — Acquires a notebook, bone whistle, wooden box, talisman-covered jar, and wallet. Sacrifices the bone bells and gives the wallet to Jia Wa for investigation 75.
• Motorcycle — Used for travel around Qingsha and Black Tide investigations 65 80 81.

Relationships

• Cheng Yue — Younger twin sister. Resents the family’s favoritism toward him and rejects his attempts at concern and reconciliation 1 17 48.
• Wu Li — Mother in his current body. Supports his training financially and worries about his safety; he responds to her warning about trouble at home by immediately returning 16 28 65.
• Cheng Shuisheng — Father in his current body. Initially disappointed in him but openly pleased when Cheng Sheng contributes money to the household 48.
• Song Cai — Longtime best friend. Cheng Sheng repeatedly rescues and financially helps him, though their growing distance leaves him feeling that their old friendship cannot simply be restored 17 19 65.
• Sulai — Senior sister and early instructor. Accompanies his introductory training, arranges his arena participation, and receives a bracelet from him. He later stops sparring with her because he cannot fight freely and finds her attacks insufficiently lethal 28 37 58 71.
• Songpa — Strict instructor who teaches him the Six Great Forms and imposes blood-bath training to cultivate killing intent 42 43.
• Nalong — Helpful senior brother. Assists with obtaining Sangni and resolving Song Cai’s loan, and praises Cheng Sheng’s apparent talent 55 56 65 75.
• Su Tai — Black Killing Style master. Cheng Sheng notices his preference for Sha Lie and receives little acknowledgment from him even while demonstrating rapid progress 60 75 76.
• Sha Lie — Senior disciple whose praise helps establish Cheng Sheng’s reputation. Personally administers his core-disciple tattoo; Cheng Sheng initially considers him beyond his ability to defeat without spells 31 60 64.
• Mo Jiang — Fellow disciple who resents Cheng Sheng’s reputation and competes against him intensely. Cheng Sheng recognizes his exceptional dedication to training 31 32.
• Intermediary demon — A succubus who repeatedly teases him during demonic transformations and later refines his physique in exchange for luxury offerings 34 58 59 61.
• Jia Wa — Blood-contracted subordinate who manages gang resources, compensates Cheng Sheng’s parents, and organizes his supernatural operations 70 71.
• Zhou Wenye — Assessment opponent turned enemy. Hires assassins after losing to Cheng Sheng and is later killed by him 26 44 54.
• Ruan Wen — Ruan Clan Body Sha fighter who investigates her missing subordinates; killed by Cheng Sheng’s Hell Plague Flies 50 57.

Notable Quotes

“What if I told you my talent was like a volcano, erupting in bursts... would you believe me?” 32

“It doesn't matter whether I'm satisfied. What matters is making sure my parents are satisfied.” 70

Trivia

• His celebrated “eighteen-day” rise is a reputation spread by Badan and other trainees, not evidence of exceptional natural martial aptitude 31 32.
• He angrily refuses Lunba’s offer of extra money to fight in a girl’s sailor uniform 50.
• After destroying a corpse fiend, he jokingly attributes his victory to “Datuk Gong’s blessing” when questioned by Black Curse Society apprentices 81.