Xiao Yu

Biodata

Power Progression

Chapter entries mark where an advancement is shown or confirmed; separate characters have separate level tracks.

History

Balrog Lord and the Goblin Restart

Xiao Yu initially makes his living through free character templates, repeatedly creating new characters because he cannot afford resurrection fees. He eventually commits to the summoned-creature template's fire-elemental branch and develops a level 60 Balrog Lord. His dungeon's fire-heavy lineup repeatedly defeats unprepared adventurers, but its lack of damage variety makes it vulnerable to organized fire-resistance preparations 8 9.

When Long Ao Jiutian's party threatens to destroy his livelihood, Xiao Yu first attempts to negotiate. He ultimately uses Body-Burning Blast, killing Long Ao Jiutian but losing his own character. After more than half a month away, a message from his former subordinate Liu Fei encourages him to return 6 8.

His goblin character advances through unconventional methods, beginning with campfires used to slaughter frogs. He becomes a Goblin Diviner, develops a following, and eventually reaches a boss template. He later joins the Defias Brotherhood after encountering Dark Rod's operation and its planned attack on Stormwind City 11 22 44 53 56.

Azathoth and The Immortals

Xiao Yu invests most of his remaining funds in a mid-level boss water-elemental character. His earlier defeat shapes his interest in mutation: the Seed of Elements offers a way to escape the weaknesses of a single damage type. As Azathoth, he develops water–fire abilities and begins answering summons from Esmehalda 38 81 84 94.

Captivity in the Tower of Amalarui forces him to use Body-Burning Blast to escape. Rather than abandon the experience, he turns it into a new ambition: acquiring wind, fire, water, and earth powers, ideally by evolving into a Chaos Elemental. He also intends to return for revenge against the experimenters 104 105.

As his faction expands, he rules Hydra City, commands the Immortal Legion, and recruits adventurers into major battles. Against Agutanis, he uses summoned elementals, crowd control, warnings about the enemy's execution ability, and adventurer healing to fight from a safer position 152 171.

Battlefield Business and the Draenor Expedition

Xiao Yu trades a divine artifact for authorization to establish a permanent battlefield on Lost Island. He negotiates with Qin Shiyue's Song of the Ocean over revenue and faction participation, accepting five hundred thousand and a written promise of future assistance 190 191.

After attacking Silvermoon City, he discovers that forum users have exposed Azathoth as a player. Finding the Immortal Legion ranked thirteenth in the Demon King Rankings, he plans to improve his studio's publicity before the competition 229.

To pursue the Elemental King ritual, he arranges for Medivh to open the Dark Portal and assembles elemental troops, Scarlet Crusaders, dragons, undead, trolls, and adventurer guilds. When Elemental Will moves to intercept him, he coordinates attacks by Alliance and Horde adventurers rather than accepting a straightforward war of attrition 259 260 266 269.

Illness and the Demon King Tournament

Xiao Yu's real-world health deteriorates alongside his growing in-game power. Early fainting episodes lead to hospital contact, and he later understands that he has a terminal illness. After the Horse King battle, a doctor warns that his brain tumor has worsened and estimates that he has at most a month without treatment. Xiao Yu sets aside up to ten million for medical care 55 70 136 307.

Tournament pressure also becomes a real-world threat. Liu Wei and Zhang Haian abduct him and attempt to silence him, but an intervention saves his life. He subsequently agrees to cooperate with Shen Yuan's plan to alter the game through a hidden backdoor 346 349.

In the final against Naiser, Xiao Yu absorbs fire energy from a miniature sun while under pursuit. Ragnaros intervenes, restrains Naiser inside the sun, and ultimately self-destructs. Xiao Yu refuses Naiser's offer of money and wins the match 356.

Rebellion Against Sky Group

As an expansion boss, Xiao Yu is instructed to divide his forces so adventurers can defeat them in a satisfying sequence. Although he initially accepts the arrangement as paid work, sacrificing loyal followers leaves him increasingly guilty. Kara helps him recognize how much his in-game life matters to him, while Agnes reaffirms his followers' loyalty 385 391.

Xiao Yu rebels, seeking a truce and resource-rich territories rather than the destruction of the Alliance and Horde. He later terminates his contracts with Sky Group and leaves with more than twenty million in his account. Qin Shiyue refuses Li Mingfei's offer of continued support if she abandons him 394 402.

During a time storm, Xiao Yu discovers that he was the mysterious prisoner his earlier self refused to release from cell thirteen. A future version of himself provides an Hourglass of Time and warns that Shen Yuan has another scheme. After escaping, Xiao Yu gives Shen Yuan the hourglass containing fewer Sands of Time 316 427.

He eventually defeats the God of Holy Light and becomes the God of Elements. Faced with choosing between virtual godhood and freeing the players, he declines to remain a god; subsequent events find him in custody awaiting the outcome of his case 448 452 453.

King's Return and the Moha Religion

In War of the Gods, Xiao Yu starts again as King's Return, a former soldier revived as a skeleton. He develops sword techniques, acquires divine magic, and advances into a Skeleton General and Blasphemous Priest. He also leads the Underworld Dynasty's organized undead players against adventurers 463 466 473 504 511.

His investigations draw him toward the Earl of Monte Cristo, whom he suspects is connected to Naiser. After finding Naiser still imprisoned, he remains uneasy and decides to seek Medivh. He later mobilizes an army of forty-five thousand against the Goddess of Magic's temple in pursuit of that goal 526 532.

The Moha Religion traps Xiao Yu and Chenghong Moli in a simulated manor for months. Persistent hunger and weakness, despite plentiful food and apparent exercise, help him recognize the deception. He escapes by killing himself inside the simulation, opens Chenghong Moli's gaming pod, and calls for help 538.

Afterward, he works with the National Guard Bureau. Azathoth's data is converted into War of the Gods, where the different rules permit more natural elemental control. He prepares to oppose the Creator God's descended form, and his Power of Faith System subsequently activates 540 546 548.

Appearance

• Real-world appearance: Ordinary and somewhat weathered, as reflected in a night-elf civilian avatar scanned from his face. His recognizable likeness later exposes his identity inside Odyssey's Memory 31 500.
• Water spirit: Initially a conscious blue ball of water. After advancement, he surrounds his core with a controllable humanoid water body over two meters tall 82 83.
• Growing water elemental: Reaches more than five meters tall after spending a night submerged in a lake; both level and surroundings affect elemental size 94.
• Elemental lord: Selects a tall, muscular humanoid water form with a humanlike face, replacing his squat default proportions 152.
• Chaos Elemental: Condenses from a sphere ten meters across into a floating, two-meter humanoid made of black chaos energy. The form has no distinct facial features and constantly radiates energy 247.
• Skeleton Swordsman: His bones become smooth and porcelain-like after advancement, though his body remains visibly fragile 473.

Personality

Xiao Yu is pragmatic about gaming as a livelihood. He evaluates resurrection costs, template prices, loot shares, studio publicity, and battlefield revenue alongside combat strength. His insistence that friendship and business remain separate can make his negotiations openly threatening, even with acquaintances 9 81 191 229.

He is inventive and willing to exploit systems rather than fight on conventional terms. His methods include campfire farming, using adventurers to draw a boss's attention, spreading rumors to mobilize an undead army, and studying an enemy's limited spell resources through repeated defeats 11 171 490 498.

He also holds grudges. He admits that revenge motivates his return to the Tower of Amalarui, and memories of losing his Balrog Lord later supply the anger needed to unlock freer elemental control. Nevertheless, he can accept an old defeat and move forward rather than remain consumed by it 8 105 309.

His attachment to his followers increasingly outweighs his original financial motives. Guilt over their planned sacrifices drives his break with the company. At the same time, his powerful in-game identities encourage theatrical threats and an increasingly unabashed taste for imposing names and appearances 152 391 463.

Abilities & Skills

Boss Mechanics and Fire Magic

• Phase-based arsenal: As the Balrog Lord, uses Great Blazing Fireball and Path of Burning in the first phase, gains Elemental Gate and Flame Storm in the second, and unlocks Meteor Storm and Body-Burning Blast in the third 5.
• Body-Burning Blast: Detonates remaining health as fire damage after a five-second cast. Damage decreases with distance; its destructive power comes at the cost of the caster's survival 6.
• Boss-skill upgrades: Strengthen existing skills and prevent ordinary interrupt abilities from stopping them 44.
• Control resistance: His goblin boss template nullifies Polymorph, Fear, Mind Control, and Charm while weakening or negating other control effects 46.

Water–Fire Mutation

• Frostfire Bolt: A reliable standard attack selected instead of a boss-skill upgrade; central to his early leveling in the Water Elemental Plane 84 137.
• Frost Nova: Retained as a practical crowd-control option when rebuilding his skills 137.
• Biting Wind Protection: Hot and cold currents create violent airflow that repels approaching enemies and deflects ranged attacks. Early testing leaves him tired after roughly thirty seconds 93.
• Summon Boiling Water Elemental: Chooses an elite-template upgrade, favoring stronger summons over larger numbers of weak ones 137.
• Elemental Absorption: Restores 20% health over ten seconds, with a five-minute cooldown. Its effectiveness depends on the environment; he later uses it to absorb the miniature sun's fire energy 137 356.
• Deep Sea Maelstrom: A boss-upgraded vortex with a listed 100-yard range. Water elementals are unaffected, while underwater coverage can expand with his elemental power 137.

Unstable Multi-Element Power

• Unstable Elemental Body: After adding wind energy, his skills randomly gain or lose 1%–100% power. The elemental imbalance also prevents effective fusion skills 183.
• Witness the Power of Pure Water: Upgrades the lord skill with Frozen for Ten Thousand Li, preventing enemies frozen inside its frost barrier from thawing themselves 183.
• Annihilation: Three stacks increase skill power by 300%, allowing a roughly ten-thousand-damage Fission Orb to deal at least forty thousand. Casting also consumes substantial health 233.

Chaos Abilities and Forms

• Chaos damage: His Chaos Elemental damage skills bypass resistance, armor, and damage reduction 247.
• Chaos Barrier: Absorbs damage equal to 20% of his health and grants immunity to negative effects while active. Cooldown: sixty minutes 248 285.
• Spirit of Chaos Empowerment: Grants 33% damage reduction and immunity to negative statuses for sixty minutes; his boss upgrade applies it across an area 247 248.
• Greater Disintegration: Damages equipment durability by 100 along a straight line. It does not affect artifacts and has half effect against legendary items. Cooldown: ten minutes 247.
• Simulated Black Hole: Pulls nearby targets inward, immobilizes them, and deals continuous damage. Failed physical-toughness checks can result in lethal crushing attacks 285.
• Chaos Dragon form: Provides effective flight, Chaos Dragon Breath, Devour, Dragon Claw, and Dragon Wing Pounce. Its Draconic Majesty is equivalent to an ancient dragon's dragon might 248 304.
• Old God form: Provides an enormous body and the passive traits Old God Majesty, Fear Aura, and Multiple Casting 273.
• Time resistance: His circulating chaos power remains active during a temporal restraint, allowing him to sense that he can break free 341.

Free-Form Elemental Manipulation

• Emotional control: Strong emotions allow him to alter energy output beyond fixed skill limits. Practice lets him deliberately evoke those emotions 309 310.
• Focused attacks: Converts dispersed frost energy into a single one-ton hailstone, sacrificing area coverage for devastating single-target force 310.
• Recreated fusion spells: Simulates Frostfire Bolt, Biting Wind Protection, and other abilities no longer available through his normal template 310.
• New combinations: Creates effects including clay golems, volcanic eruptions, sandstorms, dust demons, and flame tornadoes by combining two elements 310.
• Limits: His reproductions are imperfect, Fission Orb remains beyond simulation, and he cannot yet construct three-element compound skills 310.

Command and Strategy

• Strategic Command System: The lord template grants a real-time-strategy view and direct unit orders during story campaigns. Using it prevents simultaneous real-time control of his own character 170.
• Coalition building: Recruits monster factions, adventurer guilds, dragons, undead, and conventional armies through payments, favors, quests, and shared interests 216 259 260 266.
• Information warfare: A planted rumor brings more than a thousand undead players to storm a mausoleum his own party could not penetrate 498.

Undead Combat and Divine Power

• Consecutive Sword Strikes: A two-weapon technique that greatly increases attack speed while reducing attack power 467.
• Weapon specializations: Gains Longsword Specialization through Weapon Master and later learns Dual-Wield Weapon Specialization +1 from a Dark Wanderer's Soul Fire Fragment 467 526.
• Parry Counter: Improves parrying and enables an immediate counterattack after a successful parry 473.
• Deadly Throw: A ranged weapon attack used to pin Salina's casting hand and finish her with a second thrown sword 490.
• Divine spells: Uses Blade of Curse and Bone Armor to strengthen his offense and protect himself 499.
• Soul Fire Fragments: Acquires another being's memories by experiencing them from the original owner's perspective 481.
• Divine Power Seizure: After fully defeating or killing a god, can seize faith points and domain abilities. Rewards scale with his contribution to the battle 530.
• Faith empowerment: As the God of Elements, receives power from elemental believers, including adventurers and NPCs. His later War of the Gods faith system activates after exceeding one million points 448 548.

Equipment & Items

• Tattered robe and old staff — Received from Kerrigan Big Stick after choosing Goblin Diviner 11.
• Storm Scepter — An archdruid's relic taken after the battle; replaces his inferior Goblin Chieftain's Scepter 46.
• Seed of Elements — Can advance an elemental's tier and introduce another element, producing mutation. Xiao Yu uses seeds to pursue a multi-element body 38 83 183.
• Scourge of the Ocean — An artifact granting control over the sea. Resizes into a greatsword over three meters long for him; later surrendered in the exchange for permanent-battlefield access 181 191 252.
• Magic Mirror of True Knowledge — Used to locate the Ancient Creation, a level 60, nine-skull boss 340.
• Hourglass of Time — Provided by his future self; its Time Shield allows him to escape the time storm 427.
• Scepter of All Gods — Seized after defeating the God of Holy Light, enabling his ascension as a new deity 448.

Relationships

• Long Ao Jiutian — Rival responsible for the destruction of his Balrog Lord character. Xiao Yu kills him in the same battle with Body-Burning Blast and later works to disrupt his resurrection 6 8 105.
• Liu Fei — Former subordinate associated with the Blazing Charger. Survives the Blazing Flame Temple's destruction and encourages Xiao Yu to return to the game 8.
• Liu Xiaoyu — Breakfast-shop acquaintance whom he introduces to professional gaming through a wager: she must reach a boss template within a month. He helps create her character 54 93.
• Dark Rod — Defias leader who offers him studio membership. Xiao Yu initially postpones that decision but later joins the Brotherhood 53 56.
• Esmehalda — Adventurer ally who summons Azathoth into battle and cooperates with him on later operations 94 105 110.
• Qin Shiyue — Song of the Ocean's negotiator and a major business and military partner. Supplies expedition troops and refuses to abandon him when Li Mingfei offers continued company support 191 259 402.
• Wotkud and Agnes — Loyal subordinates. Wotkud is entrusted with Lost Island's defense; Agnes's pledge strengthens Xiao Yu's resolve to reject the company's sacrificial script 259 391.
• Leah Bloodmoon — Teammate, commander, and powerful healer who supports his campaigns and tournament battles 233 301 307.
• Ragnaros — Fights under his command during the tournament and sacrifices himself to secure victory over Naiser 307 356.
• Naiser — Tournament opponent and later intermediary connected to Shen Yuan. Xiao Yu subsequently suspects a connection between him and the Earl of Monte Cristo 356 402 526.
• Kara — Confidante who helps him understand his guilt over sacrificing followers and his attachment to the game world 391.
• Li Mingfei — Company leader and contractual counterpart. Their working relationship ends after Xiao Yu rebels against the planned expansion storyline 385 402.
• Shen Yuan — Recruits Xiao Yu into a plan to alter the game. Xiao Yu increasingly distrusts him, and his future self explicitly warns that Shen Yuan has concealed another scheme 349 383 427.
• Medivh — Helps arrange access to Draenor and later becomes central to Xiao Yu's investigations in War of the Gods 259 262 526 532.
• Chenghong Moli — National Guard Bureau agent and companion. Becomes trapped with him in the Moha Religion's simulation; Xiao Yu opens her pod after escaping 506 538.

Notable Quotes

“Hey, friends are friends, and business is business. We can't confuse the two.”
— Negotiating with Qin Shiyue 191

“I'm the kind of villain the game's story needs. Whatever bad things I do, I do them openly, and I do them for money.”
— Explaining his distinction between himself and the Alliance of Sages 320

“Though I shall fall here, this world shall one day burn!”
— As the Balrog Lord, before Body-Burning Blast 6