Yu Zhi

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Life as Cannon Fodder

Before arriving in Zhang Qiling’s world, Yu Zhi had been forced through the plots of more than a dozen small worlds. The Cannon Fodder System made him provoke protagonists and perform coercive romantic roles rather than live freely. In one cultivation world, his rapid advancement to Nascent Soul was intended to turn his equipment, innate constitution, and body into resources for the protagonist 2 4.

He eventually killed systems and obtained the space he brought into his new life. Although he retained considerable experience, he wanted to use his own body rather than inhabit someone else’s again 1 18.

Escape from Golmud Sanatorium

Yu Zhi entered the world in 1971 with the identity of a Golmud Sanatorium test subject. After drawing qi into his body, he hid in his space to avoid the staff. He then discovered Zhang Qiling restrained to a laboratory bed and impulsively stored both the man and the bed before escaping into the mountains 1.

Only afterward did he recognize Zhang Qiling as a character from a novel he had read. Discovering the extent of the experiments and injuries changed his attitude from detached observer to active protector. He began treating Zhang Qiling with spiritual power and sheltered him inside the space 1 2.

The pair traveled toward human society while Yu Zhi cultivated at night. He sold a hundred-year-old ginseng for fifty thousand yuan, escaped would-be robbers, and eventually settled with Zhang Qiling in a run-down Beijing courtyard purchased for ten thousand yuan 3 5.

Changing Zhang Qiling’s Future

After more than half a year together, Yu Zhi shared notes about Zhang Qiling’s history, the Nine Gates’ betrayals, and the future scheme that would send him behind the Bronze Door for Wu Xie. He admitted that his initial rescue had been motivated by attraction, but that he could no longer watch Zhang Qiling be manipulated 5.

Yu Zhi introduced Zhang Qiling to cultivation and formed the One Heart Contract with him. He also began learning combat techniques from Zhang Qiling and planning ways to address his Heavenly Bestowal–related memory loss 6 7.

Their Guangxi expedition brought them into conflict with a mutated Corpse-Scented Konjac. Later, after Zhang Qiling and Hei Xiazi were injured in the Zhang Family Ancient Tower, Yu Zhi rescued and treated them and recovered the Black Gold Ancient Saber from the lake 7 10.

Daoist Green Jade and the Zhang Inheritance

At the Zhang Family ancestral home, Yu Zhi investigated a black storage ring and became trapped in an encounter with Daoist Green Jade. Recognizing the supposed offer of discipleship as a possession attempt, he used the false name Zhang Haiyue while gathering information 15 16.

Yu Zhi fought the intruder inside his own body. Zhang Qiling’s Qilin Blood disrupted the ghost’s secret art, allowing Yu Zhi to destroy him. Absorbing his soul and memories raised Yu Zhi to the Qi Refining Eighth Layer and supplied a compatible cultivation method, the Azure Nether Creation Art 16 17.

Afterward, Yu Zhi and Zhang Qiling confessed their feelings. Yu Zhi also used the acquired memories to provide Zhang Qiling with cultivation techniques, ultimately identifying the Ice and Fire Qilin Art as the Zhang Family’s lost Qiling inheritance 18 19.

Tomb Expeditions and the Bronze Door

Yu Zhi recruited Hei Xiazi as an ally and helped him use the Soul-Devouring Primal Spirit Art to consume the ghost possessing him. The three then traveled to the Palace of the King of Lu, where Yu Zhi recognized encounters resembling the original novel as possible plot correction 22 24.

During the expedition, he refined the Nine-Headed Serpent Cypress into his dantian and collected the tomb’s treasures with his companions 28.

In July 1977, Zhang Qiling’s compulsion to guard the Bronze Door became unbearable. Yu Zhi accompanied him to Changbai Mountain despite his objections. Along the way, he saved six trapped expedition members from giant centipedes after demanding five million per life 29 34.

When King Wannu attacked, Qi Yu died shielding Yu Zhi. Unable to heal a decapitation, Yu Zhi preserved Qi Yu’s soul in the cypress. He and Zhang Qiling subsequently formed a soul-imprint contract and entered the Bronze Door together 36 37.

Hell, Separation, and Marriage

Beyond the door, Yu Zhi and Zhang Qiling cleared monster-filled levels of hell and earned merit. Yu Zhi initially endangered his mind by devouring resentment and baleful energy, then adapted by consuming monsters Zhang Qiling had already killed. He reached Foundation Establishment during this campaign 39 40.

The False Queen Mother of the West later separated the pair and demanded that Yu Zhi reincarnate as Wu Xie. Yu Zhi pretended to cooperate, and the encounter ended with his body apparently dead and Zhang Qiling believing his soul had entered the Wu Family’s newborn son 42.

That account did not reflect Yu Zhi’s actual situation: his consciousness was subsequently present inside Zhang Qiling, and he restored Zhang Qiling’s memories by showing him his own. His body was preserved in the Jade Cocoon while they concealed the truth and investigated their enemies 43 44 46.

After Zhang Qiling confessed his fear that Yu Zhi might disappear without anyone knowing they had been lovers, Yu Zhi granted him companion access to the system and agreed to marry immediately. Their wedding took place before Nine Gates guests, with Zhang Qiling carrying Yu Zhi’s body and Yu Zhi answering through a jade figurine. They planned a grander ceremony after his return to his body 48 50.

Appearance

• Features: High, straight nose; deep-set brows and eyes; peach-blossom eyes; petal-shaped lips; fair, clear skin 3.
• Overall impression: Handsome and reassuring. Hei Xiazi describes him as clean-cut and mild-mannered, resembling a young scholar 3 12.
• Apparent age: His youthful appearance conceals the time he has lived across multiple worlds 18.

Personality

Yu Zhi’s experiences as cannon fodder left him reluctant to interfere in other people’s destinies. He preferred observing events and regarded others’ choices as their own responsibility. Zhang Qiling became the exception: his integrity and suffering persuaded Yu Zhi to try changing the future 7.

Affectionate and intensely possessive, Yu Zhi initially mistakes his attachment for admiration of a favorite character. His jealousy eventually extends even to Zhang Qiling’s relationships in fictional and parallel versions of the world. Despite this possessiveness, he explicitly wants Zhang Qiling to retain friends and brothers rather than depend on him alone 15 18 21 28.

He is pragmatic, sarcastic, and willing to manipulate others. When forming the One Heart Contract, he initially conceals its shared-life-and-death condition and later withholds his control over wound transfer to discourage Zhang Qiling from shedding blood recklessly 6.

His confidence often collapses around romance. Despite his accumulated years, he has little practical romantic experience and repeatedly becomes flustered—or develops a nosebleed—when Zhang Qiling smiles at or embraces him 17 18 30.

Abilities & Skills

Wood-Element Healing

Yu Zhi circulates spiritual power through another person’s meridians to restore strength and treat injuries 1 2.

• Gradually removes most of Zhang Qiling’s hidden ailments 5.
• Restores Zhang Qiling’s breathing after his near-drowning and supports his recovery with energy absorbed from a spirit stone 10.
• Detects the excessive yin energy damaging Hei Xiazi’s eyes and the ghost draining his life force 13.
• Limits: Early treatments exhaust his small spiritual reserves; he cannot revive Qi Yu after decapitation 2 36.

Azure Nether Creation Art

Acquired from Chen Qingyu, also known as Daoist Green Jade, this wood-compatible art combines righteous and demonic aspects. It is an earth-rank technique approaching heaven rank 17 19 28.

• Refines the Nine-Headed Serpent Cypress and draws its true form into his dantian 28.
• Supports devouring monsters and their energy during the hell campaign 39.
• Destroys the imitation Zhang Qiling created during the False Queen Mother of the West’s trap 42.
• Limits: Excessive consumption of resentment and baleful energy can overwhelm his mind. Consuming monsters already killed by Zhang Qiling proves safer 39.

Divine Soul and Spiritual Sense

His retained Nascent Soul–level divine soul supports techniques beyond what his current cultivation would normally permit 1 6 7.

• Detects the invisible Corpse-Scented Konjac 7.
• Provides the power needed to establish an advanced contract despite insufficient spiritual energy 6.
• Alters Zhang Qiling’s apparent facial features to conceal his identity 24.
• Shares remembered images directly with Zhang Qiling 43.
• Limits: The Heavenly Dao suppresses his spiritual force outside the space. At the Qi Refining Second Layer, his investigative range is only about ten meters 2 7.

System Space

Yu Zhi’s portable space serves as a refuge, storehouse, and cultivation environment. Within it, his divine soul is not subject to the same Heavenly Dao suppression 1 6.

• Initially transports people only through a loophole: they must be supported by an object with their feet off the ground 2 4.
• Absorbs Chen Qingyu’s storage ring, expanding into a large area of black soil and introducing aura registration for visitors 18.
• Later merges with the Qilin Ring and can travel through time and space, upgrade, and evolve 44 45.
• Allows Zhang Qiling companion access after Yu Zhi authorizes him 48.
• Limits: Yu Zhi does not fully understand its origin, evolution, or tendency to consume storage treasures 45 48.

Contracts and Soul Bonds

• One Heart Contract: An equal Dao Companion Contract binding Yu Zhi and Zhang Qiling to shared life and death and mutual non-betrayal. Yu Zhi can control the transfer of wounds 6.
• Primordial Spirit Imprint Dao Companion Contract: Established by exchanging wisps of their souls after the King Wannu encounter, intended to prevent them from truly dying apart 37.

Other Techniques and Training

• Elemental techniques: Lesser Fireball Technique, Water Purification Formula, and Water Control Art; uses water control to dry hair and clean himself 3 4 28.
• Wind Binding Technique: Immobilizes Hei Xiazi 12.
• Light Body Technique: Helps him escape pursuers through the mountains 3.
• Spiritual-power shaping: Forms an arrow and detonates it inside the Corpse-Scented Konjac’s flower 7.
• Jade-slip creation: Records cultivation methods and makes Voice-Transmission Jade Slips for his companions 19 25.
• Combat training: Learns fighting techniques from Zhang Qiling, with particularly strong improvement in evasion 7.
• Plot knowledge: Remembers important events and secrets from the novel, though his knowledge is incomplete and does not explain every mystery 5 13 20.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Nine-Headed Serpent Cypress — Refined plant stored in his dantian. Its vines crush enemies, consume corpses and coffins, and preserve Qi Yu’s soul 28 34 36 40.
• Jade Cocoon — Preserves his original body after his separation from it 44.
• Jade figurine — Houses his answering consciousness during the wedding ceremony 50.
• Low-grade spirit stones — Portable cultivation resources; he absorbs one to replenish the energy used to heal Zhang Qiling 7 10 45.
• Golden light of merit — Earned by killing hell’s monsters. Grants Heavenly Dao protection and can resist a heart-demon tribulation 39 41.
• Ghost Seal — Entrusted to him by Zhang Qiling to prevent detection by the yin soldiers during their passage through the Bronze Door 37.
• Plot notebooks and papers — Records of remembered history and future events, used to inform Zhang Qiling and recruit Hei Xiazi 5 12 13.

Relationships

• Zhang Qiling — Husband, cultivation partner, and soul-bound Dao companion. Their relationship develops from rescue and caregiving into mutual confession, shared expeditions, and marriage 1 6 18 37 50.
• Hei Xiazi — Ally, patient, and fellow cultivator. Yu Zhi initially distrusts his Nine Gates connections, later helps him devour his possessing ghost, and accepts him as part of their household and investigative plans 11 13 21 22 46.
• Qi Yu — Dies shielding Yu Zhi from King Wannu. Yu Zhi preserves his soul and later connects Wu Xie’s premature birth with Qi Yu’s reincarnation 36 40 46.
• Daoist Green Jade / Chen Qingyu — Would-be body thief. Yu Zhi destroys his primordial spirit and acquires his memories, spiritual power, and cultivation knowledge 16 17.
• False Queen Mother of the West — Enemy who captures Zhang Qiling and attempts to force Yu Zhi into a reincarnation scheme 42 43.
• Nine Gates — Distrusted for manipulating Zhang Qiling. Yu Zhi uses his knowledge against their plans but sometimes preserves their members to avoid losing the advantage of a recognizable plot 5 26 31 34.

Notable Quotes

“My name is Yu Zhi. Your name is Zhang Qiling. I know you. Don’t be afraid. I’ll take you somewhere safe.” 1

“Zhang Qiling is my fiancé.” 36

“Good or bad, I want to be involved, involved in every moment of your life!” 48