Cold Crow Devil Lord

Biodata

Background / History

Feud with the Plain Robe Pavilion

Cold Crow Devil Lord’s hostility toward the Plain Robe Pavilion began when its medical cultivators saved someone he intended to kill. His reputation was dangerous enough that Nan Gurong’s master warned her to flee immediately upon encountering a black-robed cultivator accompanied by a crow 30.

Human Experimentation

The Scarlet Snake Clan brought Cold Crow Devil Lord into its dealings with Luo Fengyuan, the lord of White Foothill City. His demand for more human medicine subjects prompted Luo Fengyuan to expand an existing abduction operation to Listening Willow Village, concealing the disappearances behind a fabricated “demon wedding” 48.

He tested medicines on captive young women while seeking a treatment for Luo Fengyuan’s scarred daughter, Luo Min. The city lord would not allow him to administer medicine directly to her, restricting his trials to the captives instead. His experimental drugs left the women with poisoned facial scars that could continue spreading until their faces rotted away 39 43.

He also secretly constructed a passage beneath his residence to investigate Luo Fengyuan’s secrets and stole a Pill Formula. According to Luo Min, the city lord had retained one pill capable of granting Spirit Roots for Cold Crow Devil Lord to study after destroying the others because taking them caused excruciating pain 49.

Although Sang Ying and Nan Gurong initially believed him to be the mastermind behind the abductions, their subsequent encounter with another group of attackers revealed that the operation extended beyond him. The attackers’ tree-bark-faced leader disparaged Cold Crow Devil Lord as a lowly Devil Cultivator and claimed that only his mastery of poison justified accepting his orders 37.

Pursuit of the Rescuers

When Nan Gurong and her fellow Plain Robe Pavilion disciples attempted to free the captives, Cold Crow Devil Lord blocked the dungeon entrance. Sang Ying opened another escape route through the ceiling, allowing the rescuers and prisoners to flee 30 31.

He pursued them with venomous creatures, poisoning several disciples. Sang Ying led the party into a cave containing a fallen expert’s Sword Qi, then separated from the others to draw him farther inside. He recognized their deception but followed her deliberately because he wanted a young female cultivator as a human test subject 31 32.

After examining Sang Ying’s blood, he discovered her single Ice Spirit Root and decided she was the exceptional “medicine person” he had long sought. He sealed the exit with a poisonous barrier and fought her through a mist-filled trapping array, first using a black whip and later a flag that released human-faced black smoke 33 34.

Guided by Gu Wangchuan’s sentient Sword Qi, Sang Ying wounded him repeatedly. After he shattered her spirit sword, she used a branch to unleash Frost Chills Fourteen Provinces, sweeping him out of the cave and rendering him unconscious. He escaped before she could finish him off 34 35.

Sang Ying did not pursue him because the strike had depleted most of her Spiritual Qi and she feared that a Nascent Soul cultivator might still possess powerful life-saving Law Artifacts. After learning how difficult his victims’ poisoned scars were to treat, she regretted not capturing him 35 39.

Death and Aftermath

Cold Crow Devil Lord fled toward White Foothill City with damaged internal organs. His injuries were not immediately fatal, but they left him vulnerable even to a Golden Core cultivator. A group of Sound Killing Sect disciples killed his scouting crow and intercepted him before he reached the city 36.

Despite possessing several life-saving Law Artifacts, he died under their combined assault. Liu Yuzhi delivered the final blow and subsequently received public credit for supposedly defeating him alone. The group disposed of both his corpse and Storage Bag, fearing the latter might contain dangerous poisons 36 40 41.

Even in his wounded condition, he gravely injured several of the disciples who fought him. Their medicinal pills ensured that none of those injuries proved fatal 36.

His death did not end the wider conspiracy. Sang Ying later helped the Plain Robe Pavilion obtain a medical inheritance that enabled them to cure the surviving test subjects, while Si Jing exposed Luo Fengyuan’s involvement in the village abductions 39 40 48.

The search for his possessions also brought trouble to Liu Yuzhi. After news of the killing spread, threatening letters appeared beside Liu Yuzhi’s bed demanding Cold Crow Devil Lord’s belongings or corpse and warning him against seeking help. Luo Min’s steward hoped to recover useful material from the dead cultivator’s possessions, and Liu Yuzhi was subsequently imprisoned at the city lord’s residence while insisting that he had obtained nothing. He attempted to redirect suspicion toward the person who had originally wounded Cold Crow Devil Lord 41 43.

Nan Gurong was confined in his former courtyard when Luo Fengyuan forced her to work on treating Luo Min. Bottles of his poison pills remained there after his death. Luo Min later expressed relief that he had died before revealing the secret of the Spirit Root-granting pill and its stolen formula 43 49.

Appearance

Cold Crow Devil Lord is a tall, gaunt man dressed in black, first encountered surrounded by chilling Evil Qi 30 31.

• Clothing: Black robes and a hood that partially conceals his face 30 32.
• Hands: Blue-black fingernails, used in clawing attacks 34.
• Companion: A glossy-feathered, pitch-black crow commonly perched on his shoulder 30 36.

Personality

Cold Crow Devil Lord is cruel and contemptuous of mortals, questioning why Sang Ying would risk herself for them while treating her unusual aptitude as a resource to exploit. He initially prolongs their pursuit for his own amusement and later offers to spare her only if she serves as his medicine person for thirty years 32 33 34.

His confidence in his Nascent Soul cultivation makes him dismissive of danger: he enters the Sword Qi cave despite sensing something unusual and underestimates Sang Ying until her final attack. Nevertheless, he is perceptive enough to recognize the rescuers’ diversion and abandons restraint when her resistance threatens him 31 32 34.

His interest in Sang Ying reflects a longstanding desire to obtain a gifted young cultivator for experimentation. He had struggled to find a suitable subject because cultivators with exceptional Spirit Roots were usually protected by their sects and accompanied by capable fellow disciples when traveling 33.

Power Progression

Abilities & Skills

Poison Arts

Cold Crow Devil Lord is renowned for poison-making, and his body and cultivated Devil Qi are poisonous 30 33.

• Creates barriers whose poison clings to a victim’s Spiritual Qi upon contact 33.
• Concocts complex experimental medicines; unknown ingredients and additional doses make his victims difficult to treat 39.
• Possesses toxic blood that chars nearby vegetation when spilled 36.
• Deliberately withholds poison during parts of his fight with Sang Ying to preserve her usefulness as a medicine subject 33 34.

Control of Venomous Creatures

He commands swarms of venomous creatures to pursue and overwhelm opponents 31 32.

• Uses creatures including venomous spiders to follow fugitives through confined passages 32.
• His swarms poison several Plain Robe Pavilion disciples during the pursuit 31.
• The cave’s sword winds destroy many creatures but cannot initially stop their advance; Sang Ying’s freezing strike ultimately kills those remaining outside 32 35.

Close Combat and Weapons

His physical attacks and weapons allow him to threaten Sang Ying even without directly poisoning her 33 34.

• Claw attacks: Inflicts deep wounds with his fingers and shatters her damaged spirit sword 33 34.
• Whip techniques: Strikes hard enough to gouge stone, tear enchanted clothing, and split flesh 33.
• Black smoke manifestations: Releases human-faced smoke from a flag. These manifestations reform after being dispersed and help him locate Sang Ying through her trapping array 34.

Blood Examination and Mist Movement

• Identifies Sang Ying’s single Ice Spirit Root by examining her blood 33.
• Flees in a mass of black mist, reverting to his visible body when his injuries force him to the ground 36.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Glossy black whip — His principal weapon during the early cave battle 33.
• Small black flag — Releases regenerating, human-faced black smoke 34.
• Life-saving Law Artifacts — Several are confirmed in his possession, but none saves him from the Sound Killing Sect disciples 36.
• Storage Bag — Disposed of after his death because of the suspected poison risk 41.
• Poison pills — Several bottles remain in his former courtyard after his death 43.
• Stolen Pill Formula — Obtained by secretly investigating Luo Fengyuan’s activities; connected to the secret of pills capable of granting Spirit Roots 49.

Relationships

• Sang Ying — Intended medicine subject and opponent; her rare Ice Spirit Root attracts his interest, and her freezing sword strike leaves him vulnerable to his eventual killers 33 34 36.
• Plain Robe Pavilion — Longstanding enemy because its cultivators saved an intended victim 30.
• Nan Gurong — Plain Robe Pavilion disciple whose rescue party he obstructs and pursues. After his death, she helps cure his surviving test subjects and is later confined in his former courtyard to treat Luo Min 30 31 40 43.
• Luo Fengyuan — Collaborator and host who supplies human subjects but restricts his access to Luo Min; Cold Crow Devil Lord secretly steals a formula from him 43 48 49.
• Luo Min — Intended beneficiary of his treatment research; she regards his failure and death with frustration. She later considers his death fortunate because it prevented him from revealing her father’s secret 41 49.
• Scarlet Snake Clan — Introduces him into Luo Fengyuan’s experimentation scheme 48.
• Liu Yuzhi — Delivers his fatal blow after a group assault and takes public credit for the victory. The subsequent search for Cold Crow Devil Lord’s possessions leads to threats against Liu Yuzhi and his imprisonment 36 41 43.
• His crow — A companion raised for many years and used to scout ahead. Known by reputation as the “Bird of Ill Omen,” it is killed shortly before its master 31 36.

Original Storyline

• In the original novel known to Sang Ying, Cold Crow Devil Lord encounters Liu Yuzhi’s training party while still at full strength and kills everyone except Liu Yuzhi 36.
• He pursues Liu Yuzhi into the cave, where the remaining Sword Qi severely wounds him and allows Liu Yuzhi to kill him 31 36.
• Sang Ying’s intervention reverses that sequence: she wounds Cold Crow Devil Lord first, and Liu Yuzhi’s companions survive their subsequent encounter with him 36.
• The original novel does not describe Nan Gurong and her companions’ fate. After saving them, Sang Ying wonders whether they, too, had originally been destined to die at Cold Crow Devil Lord’s hands, but this remains her speculation 40.

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