Ancestor Danyang

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Ancient Career

Danyang stood at the pinnacle of alchemy in his era and was among the few ninth-grade alchemists remembered by history. Under his leadership, the Lu Clan developed into a power that other factions could not rival; Saint King experts willingly served it in hopes of obtaining ninth-grade pills 18 31.

The Alchemists’ Guild invited him to become an elder. Although later recognized as its Supreme Elder, he used the position chiefly to secure benefits and resources for the Lu Clan. He also left his self-created Scarlet Yang Alchemy Method to his clan rather than the guild. The method was subsequently lost as the Lu Clan declined 21 24 25.

Awakening

More than 10,000 Lu clanspeople welcomed Danyang when he emerged from the ancestral shrine. He praised Ancestor Tianyan, Lu Qingshan, and the three elders for their efforts to rebuild the clan 18.

Despite his expertise, the clan lacked both suitable ingredients and a furnace. Danyang doubted that its resources could support even a seventh-grade pill and urged an early return to Central Province. While Tianyan led the migration, Danyang traveled separately with Lu Qingshan to the Alchemists’ Guild 18 19 21.

Appearance

• Hair and face: White hair and a youthful face despite his elderly appearance 18.
• Clothing: A long crimson robe 18.
• Bearing: Upright, accompanied by a fresh pill fragrance upon his emergence 18.
• Historical likeness: His resemblance to surviving portraits helped Dan Changkong recognize him 24 25.

Personality

Danyang places the Lu Clan above institutional loyalties. His ancient guild appointment served the clan’s interests, and after awakening he again used his reputation and expertise to obtain teachers, resources, and opportunities for his descendants 24 26 34.

He is warm toward hardworking juniors and willing to share his knowledge, but proud of his standing as an alchemist. He becomes impatient when Miaoyan mistakes his offer for an application to join the guild, and is furious when he learns that enemies may attack despite his ninth-grade status 18 22 26 34.

His confidence in the clan’s ancestral safeguards is firm. When Lu Guangyao questions whether the Blood Dao Ancestor might have forged a Lu bloodline, Danyang rejects the suspicion: an outsider could not have entered the Ancestral Land to sleep 46.

Abilities & Skills

Ninth-Grade Alchemy

• Standing: Identified as the Cangxuan Continent’s only ninth-grade alchemist at the time of his guild visit 22.
• Specialty: The Nine Revolutions Yang Restoration Pill, which he privately estimates he has a 60% chance of successfully refining 23 24.
• Tribulation refinement: Completes the pill through Pill Tribulation, stabilizing a cracking furnace with additional ingredients before the furnace ultimately explodes 25.
• Resource limits: Requires rare materials and suitable equipment; expertise alone cannot overcome the Lu Clan’s initial poverty 18 23.

Scarlet Yang Alchemy Method

• A self-created technique thought lost before his public return 24.
• Uses scarlet flames to refine numerous materials rapidly and fuse them into the pill furnace 24.
• Its recognizable movements provide evidence linking the visiting alchemist to the historical Danyang 24.

Pill Fire

• Manifests a dense ball of crimson Pill Fire in his palm 21.
• Uses it to demonstrate his alchemical qualifications to the guild’s gatekeepers 21.

Yellow Pill Grotto-Heaven

• Places the recovered secret realm inside the Lu Clan’s small world 27.
• Its ten-million-mu expanse contains abundant ingredients and Yellow Pill Soil, which is especially suited to growing alchemy materials 27.
• Its resources make the clan self-sufficient in alchemy materials, replacing his original plan to borrow ingredients from other factions in exchange for refining pills 27.
• Its alchemy laws can strengthen his refining abilities rather than turn him into a combat specialist 27.

Instruction and Spiritual Strength

• Offers guidance to visiting guild alchemists in exchange for their wholehearted instruction of Lu Clan members 26.
• Recognizes Lu Xiangyang’s exceptional alchemy talent despite the youth’s ordinary cultivation aptitude 28.
• Possesses powerful spiritual strength that allows him to cultivate, tend ingredients, refine pills, and answer students’ questions with little rest 44.

Combat Limitations

• His pill-supported cultivation does not translate into equivalent fighting ability; the narration explicitly describes him as no fighter 18 21.
• Can nevertheless exert Sage King pressure, protect Chen Yue from an exploding furnace, and move people off an alchemy platform with a wave 22 23 24.
• Can send an avatar to attend discussions while his main body continues refining pills 34.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Elder Yan Rong’s lifebound furnace — A borrowed purple furnace taller than a person, used for the guild demonstration and destroyed during the successful refinement 23 25.
• Murong Clan-supplied furnace and materials — Provided for a later Nine Revolutions Yang Restoration Pill; the Lu Clan retains the unused ingredients 34.
• Alchemy insights in a storage ring — Given to Dan Changkong to support his pursuit of ninth-rank alchemy 26.

Relationships

• Ancestor Tianyan — A junior ancestor who treats Danyang with marked respect. Together they coordinate the clan’s return to Central Province and its rebuilding 18 27.
• Lu Qingshan — The clan patriarch and Danyang’s companion during the guild visit. Qingshan uses Danyang’s public demonstration to introduce the Lu Clan to Central Province’s factions 19 24.
• Dan Changkong — The guildmaster who recognizes him as Supreme Elder. Danyang exchanges guidance and recorded insights for the dispatch of guild alchemists to the Lu Clan 25 26.
• Ancestor Xuanzhen — A younger-generation ancestor specializing in arrays. Danyang supports his defensive preparations with the clan’s newly abundant resources 27 34.
• Yu An — A seventh-grade alchemist spared by Tianyan partly to assist Danyang. Danyang intends to meet him after learning of his placement in the Alchemy Pavilion 21 27.
• Chen Yue — A young alchemist whom Danyang saves from a furnace explosion after identifying his unstable temperament as an obstacle to his craft 23.
• Lu Xiangyang — A young clansman singled out for Danyang’s praise because of his alchemy talent 28.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Recognition at the Alchemists’ Guild

• Offers to refine a ninth-grade pill without a fee if the guild supplies materials and grants one request. Initially, the elders suspect that he is merely an admirer of the historical Danyang 22.
• Publicly refines the Nine Revolutions Yang Restoration Pill, attracting factions seeking friendship with the Lu Clan and access to his services 24.
• Rejects competing offers reaching three billion spirit stones, honoring his arrangement by giving the pill to the guild 25.
• Secures approximately 100 guild alchemists, including a seventh-rank elder, to teach the Lu Clan’s members 26.

Rebuilding the Clan’s Alchemy Foundation

• Discovers that Tianyan has recovered the Yellow Pill Grotto-Heaven, a realm Danyang had sought unsuccessfully in his original era 27.
• Becomes the clan’s principal publicly known Sage King expert while Tianyan and Xuanzhen remain out of the spotlight. Visitors bring gifts in hopes of obtaining pills 28.
• Refines the pill exchanged for 30 Lu Clan youths’ places in the Murong Clan’s Time Blessed Land. The youths subsequently emerge at the Divine Palace Realm 31 34.

Suspicions About His Longevity

• His return after more than 800,000 years leads outsiders to speculate that he possesses a lifespan-extension pill or another extraordinary method. These are outside theories, not confirmed abilities 31.
• Those suspicions make him a target: a hidden master takes over his disciple’s body and attacks as a One-Tribulation Quasi-Emperor to capture him. Ancestor Dali confronts the intruder 41.
• Despite his seniority among the first three awakened ancestors, Danyang knows nothing of the upper realm until an older ancestor’s will explains the clan’s connection to the Yuan Realm 39.

Notable Quotes

“This old man is an alchemist. I got all this cultivation by popping pills, so naturally it's somewhat watered down.” 18

“I hope that when you teach my clan members, you too will not hold back in sharing your knowledge.” 26