Sulai

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Sulai has no memories of her mother and was raised by Su Tai. He supervised her martial arts training strictly from childhood, only becoming less severe in recent years. Her upbringing revolved around the boxing gym, and she rarely attended school 42 58.

When the Black Killing Style fought the Hundred Feet Sect approximately ten years earlier, Sulai was around ten years old. Sha Lie took her to a train station, where they stayed overnight and returned home after daybreak; she did not participate in the battle 60.

She later became an instructor at the Black Killing Boxing Gym, alternating teaching duties with Songpa. Her gentler manner and patient instruction made her especially popular with students 8 10.

Appearance

• Build and complexion: An exceptionally fit physique developed through years of martial arts training, with wheat-colored skin 10 30.
• Totem tattoo: A crocodile tattoo on her calf, accompanied by two red cords around her ankle 10.
• Hair: Often wears small braids; she also adopts more elaborate hairstyles 40 60 71.
• Training clothes: Frequently wears red hand wraps. During island training, she demonstrates the secret art wearing a black bandeau top 28 30.
• Off-duty appearance: Wears a dress and light makeup during her shopping trip with Jiamin. At Cheng Sheng’s initiation, she wears a formal shirt and trousers 58 60.

Personality

Sulai teaches patiently regardless of a student’s starting ability, provided they are genuinely committed to learning. She gives individualized advice, identifying Cheng Sheng’s inadequate conditioning and Badan’s weak footwork rather than treating their sparring results as a simple matter of winning or losing 10.

Her kindness does not prevent her from imposing difficult lessons. Believing Cheng Sheng talented but flighty, she allows him to face Blue Dragon Weiji so that a setback might encourage him to train seriously. When the match appears dangerous, however, she anxiously urges Lunba to stop it 38 39.

Sulai remains intimidated by her father despite caring deeply about him. Their relationship is marked more by awe than intimacy, and she sometimes addresses him publicly as “Hall Master.” Nevertheless, she openly refuses when he announces her marriage to Ruan Xian 42 59 84.

She also has a playful side: she anticipates the recruits’ discomfort during the rough journey to their training site and smiles at their battered condition afterward. Outside the gym, romantic teasing easily embarrasses her 28 29 58.

Abilities & Skills

Black Killing Style: Spiny Skin

Sulai can activate Spiny Skin, producing grayish-brown keratinous bumps resembling crocodile hide across her arm, shoulder, and back 31.

• Greatly increases physical defense and explosive power 31.
• Demonstrates its offensive strength by smashing a hard rock with her palm 31.
• States that even three to five ordinary Body Tempering boxers without secret arts would be unfit to challenge her 31.
• Her version is less pronounced and covers less of the body than Cheng Sheng’s demon-optimized version 34.

Six Great Forms and Martial Instruction

Sulai is proficient in the Black Killing Style’s Six Great Forms; Cheng Sheng considers her technical execution better than his own 71.

• Teaches the Body Tempering method through medicinal ointment, specialized movements, and breathing exercises that guide an internal warm current 31.
• Instructs recruits in crocodile-inspired exercises, including the floating-log stance, tail whip, and stone bite 31.
• Teaches advanced fighting techniques belonging to the style’s inheritance 33.
• Her strikes lack fierce killing intent, reducing their usefulness to Cheng Sheng as realistic combat practice 71.

Balance and Footwork

• Moves across soft swamp mud while leaving barely a footprint, then hops securely onto wooden stakes forming a path through the swamp 29.

Sensitive Sense of Smell

• Has been unusually sensitive to scents since childhood 58.
• Recognizes Cheng Sheng in a shopping mall by his scent rather than his appearance 58.

Equipment / Items

• Red hand wraps: Regularly worn during training 28.
• Crescent-colored bracelet: A gift from Cheng Sheng, placed on her wrist by Jiamin. Sulai finds it pretty and later wears it in place of the red string previously around her wrist 58 60.
• Black Killing Secret Medicine: The specially prepared ointment she uses when teaching the style’s Body Tempering secret art 31.

Relationships

• Su Tai — Father and head of the Black Killing Style. He raised her strictly; she later stays at the dojo to care for him after his curse-poison injury. Their relationship reaches a crisis when he arranges her marriage without her consent 42 71 84.
• Cheng Sheng — Initially her student and later her junior brother. She personally oversees his early development, grants him leave during special training, and explains his eligibility for core discipleship. Jiamin teases them about romance, but no romantic relationship is confirmed 32 40 42 58.
• Sha Lie — Senior brother and her father’s favored successor. He protected her during the childhood conflict with the Hundred Feet Sect and treats her affectionately. Jiamin suggests him as a potential boyfriend, but Sulai shakes her head 42 58 60.
• Songpa — Fellow instructor and senior brother. He tentatively objects to her arranged marriage, only to be silenced by Su Tai 8 31 84.
• Jiamin — Friend who calls her “Susu,” teases her about Cheng Sheng, and encourages her to pursue a life beyond fighting and the gym 58.
• Zhou Wenye — Unwanted pursuer who intimidates other students to monopolize her attention. After his defeat at the assessment, he blames Sulai and discusses having her abducted before changing his immediate target to Cheng Sheng 10 29 30.
• Ruan Xian — Head of the Wunan Ruan Clan and Su Tai’s chosen marriage partner for her. Sulai explicitly refuses to marry him 84.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Cheng Sheng’s Early Training and Assessment

Sulai notices Cheng Sheng’s rapid improvement and correctly identifies his physical conditioning as his principal weakness. During the formal-disciple assessment, she tells Sha Lie that Cheng Sheng has reached this point after only eighteen days of training 10 25.

Zhou Wenye’s pursuit of her also brings conflict into the gym. Sha Lie warns him after the assessment that his intentions toward Sulai would once have earned him a brutal punishment 26.

Special Training and the Mamba Arena

Sulai takes Cheng Sheng, Mo Jiang, and Tong Huan to a swamp training site for their introductory course. There she introduces the crocodile shrine, demonstrates Spiny Skin, explains the fighting realms, and begins teaching the style’s inherited secret art 28 29 30 31.

She grants Cheng Sheng up to three days’ leave after he claims a gravely ill friend needs him, even arranging transport from the swamp. When he returns, she directs him to the Mamba Fighting Arena for live-match training 32 37.

Her attempt to discipline him through a difficult match instead reveals his extraordinary progress: Cheng Sheng withstands Weiji’s punch and displays Spiny Skin. Sulai confirms that he has mastered the secret art in less than nine days, surpassing Sha Lie’s one-month record and qualifying for core discipleship 38 39 40.

Su Tai’s Injury

Sulai waits with the other disciples for Su Tai’s return from Bangtun and is distressed by his frail condition. Watching his treatment reveals how serious his injury is, despite Sha Lie’s earlier reassurance that it was minor 59 60.

She subsequently spends much of her time at the dojo caring for him. After a teacup breaks in his room, Cheng Sheng notices redness on her foot and asks whether Su Tai splashed her with boiling water; she shakes her head and returns inside without explaining 71 79.

The Ruan Clan Marriage Alliance

Sulai tells Cheng Sheng that her father has sold gym assets and recently forbidden her to leave home or visit the hall. At the ensuing gathering, Su Tai announces that Sha Lie probably will not return from Nabang, then declares an alliance with the Ruan Clan through Sulai’s marriage to Ruan Xian 84.

Sulai refuses and attempts to flee after Su Tai dismisses Songpa’s objection. Cheng Sheng catches her wrist and leads her before Su Tai—not to endorse the arrangement, but to confront him, asking whether he has gone senile or whether the curse poison has reached his brain. The supplied account ends without resolving the marriage dispute 84.