Grand Heavenmaster

The Grand Heavenmaster, whose personal name is given as Situ, is the dominant statesman of the Wildlands' Arch-Emperor Dynasty and later the principal architect of Bai Xiaochun's independent Arch-Emperor Dynasty. He first uses Bai Xiaochun as a political weapon against an entrenched aristocracy, but eventually chooses to serve him as the leader capable of preserving and reuniting the people of the Heavenspan Realm.

Biography

Regent of the Wildlands

The Grand Heavenmaster rules from behind a weakened imperial house. He has ordered the reigning Arch-Emperor into secluded meditation, controls the Son of Heaven, and is the only person besides the emperor whose authority reaches every official in the dynasty. He normally issues commands under the Arch-Emperor's name, preserving the formal legitimacy that obliges even the four heavenly kings to comply. This arrangement makes him the effective ruler without requiring him to seize the throne, but it also leaves him balancing a resentful imperial clan, distant kings, and noble families powerful enough to resist any careless move. (Chapters 579, 674–675)

His opening of the Necromancer Kettle demonstrates how he manages those competing powers. The pocket realm belongs to the imperial clan, and the Giant Ghost King offers a major favor for exclusive access, yet the Grand Heavenmaster refuses to grant it to one faction. He restricts entry to Nascent Soul cultivators and declares the Ghost King Orchid available to whoever destiny favors. The decision undercuts both royal ownership and the kings' private bargaining while presenting the result as an impartial public opportunity, strengthening the central administration at the expense of every potential rival. (Chapters 675–689)

The Grand Heavenmaster also watches for threats that exist outside ordinary politics. He can observe the Kettle through a remotely delivered mirror, recognizes the Hell-Emperor Fist when Bai Xiaochun uses it, and understands that only someone approved by the Hell-Emperor should possess that legacy. The possibility unsettles him despite his near-peak demigod cultivation and command of the dynasty. Instead of acting immediately, he continues observing Bai's flame conjuring and the signs surrounding him, trying to determine whether the disruptive outsider is Bai Xiaochun and what the Hell-Emperor intends to accomplish through him. (Chapters 698–743)

The inspections commissioner

An internal loyalty crisis gives the Grand Heavenmaster a use for the man calling himself Bai Hao. The reigning Arch-Emperor is becoming politically active, and the Grand Heavenmaster needs to identify which nobles remain loyal to the throne rather than to his regency. He refuses demands that Bai be killed and instead appoints him inspections commissioner, granting him a command medallion and a corpse-trooper force while asking whether he dares to investigate the aristocracy. The choice exploits Bai's existing enemies: because so many clans already hate him, he can act as a blade with little independent constituency among those he is ordered to cut. (Chapters 747–760)

Bai's investigations and shakedowns begin with heavenly marquis clans, and the Grand Heavenmaster permits action on clues rather than requiring conclusive proof. This makes the office terrifyingly effective while still preserving an appearance of legal process. The commissioner exposes crimes, confiscates wealth, and destroys resistant power bases, and observers understand him as a razor-sharp knife in the Grand Heavenmaster's hand. At the same time, the Grand Heavenmaster keeps the true limits of the office obscure and retains the authority to stop or discard its holder, ensuring that delegated violence cannot openly become a second center of government. (Chapters 760–780)

The relationship nearly ends once the initial purge has produced stability. The Grand Heavenmaster views people as useful or useless pieces and feels no guilt about casting Bai aside when a sharp political knife is no longer needed. Bai instead proposes the Proclamation of Universal Grace: noble resources and succession rights will be divided among every eligible blood descendant rather than concentrated in one heir. The Grand Heavenmaster accepts because the measure fractures each clan internally, recruits previously excluded children to his side, weakens hereditary rivals without exterminating them, and raises his popular prestige. What begins as Bai's effort to remain useful becomes the most consequential domestic reform of the regency. (Chapters 781–793)

Bai then attacks the Zhou Clan without permission while the Proclamation is at its most delicate stage, provoking the united heavenly marquises and dukes to demand punishment. The Grand Heavenmaster is genuinely angry at the timing and hesitates over whether to protect him. Bai changes the balance by successfully conjuring eighteen-colored flame in Heavenmaster Hall and becoming an earthly necromancer, a public status so important to the Wildlands that killing him would threaten revolt and damage the dynasty's foundation. Remembering Bai's services and recognizing his new value, the Grand Heavenmaster dismisses the charges, addresses him with the respect due a grandmaster, and sends him to the Underworld River Restricted Area while continuing to wonder why the Hell-Emperor selected him. (Chapters 795–817)

Foreign threat and the Hell-Emperor succession

When Ghostmother, the banesoul using Gongsun Wan'er’s body and name, endangers the Wildlands, the Grand Heavenmaster responds as a national defender rather than a factional ruler. He immediately summons the heavenly kings and dukes, personally arrives at the forefront, and joins their coordinated attempt to destroy an entity capable of consuming demigods. His enormous layered sealing mark is the strongest opening blow, and he controls its destructive force tightly enough to localize most of the damage. The attack shatters her blood form but cannot eliminate it, revealing both his superiority to ordinary demigods and the limit of the Wildlands' native power against an archaean-derived enemy. (Chapters 825–833)

The failed attack leaves the Grand Heavenmaster struggling inside Gongsun Wan'er's sound-based archaean divine magic, though his defensive shield allows him more movement than the other trapped experts. The gravekeeper's intervention and Bai Xiaochun's appeal to him as Master reveal that the Hell-Emperor has taken a direct interest in Bai. The Grand Heavenmaster responds by persuading the four kings to conceal Bai's identity, placing respect for the Hell-Emperor and the Wildlands' stability above the political advantage that exposure could provide. The crisis also unifies previously hostile demigods and gives him a reason to continue Universal Grace while preparing the population for war. (Chapters 833–845)

The Hell-Emperor succession overturns even the conclusions of the dynasty's best-informed leaders. The Grand Heavenmaster expects Bai Xiaochun to be the likely successor, only to see the spirit Bai Hao receive the title instead. He accepts the gravekeeper's decision, bows with the four kings, and recognizes the new Hell-Emperor's authority. Soon afterward, as open war with the Heavenspan forces approaches, he formally returns control of the empire to the reigning Arch-Emperor and helps mobilize the Wildlands. Relinquishing the regency does not repair their hostile relationship, but it shifts the government from internal consolidation to a unified wartime command under the imperial office. (Chapters 846–847, 983–1003)

Collapse of the old order

The assault on Arch-Emperor City places the Grand Heavenmaster inside the system he spent millennia preserving. When the apparent death of the new Hell-Emperor spreads despair, he shares the other demigods' hope for a force capable of reversing the battle and is driven back with them by the enemy's power. Bai Xiaochun's return carrying the aura and inheritance of the Arch-Ancestor supplies that missing legitimacy. The Grand Heavenmaster kneels after the Arch-Emperor and the kings, his eyes filled with respect and emotion, accepting Bai not as a useful subordinate but as the ancestral leader of the Wildlands and its people. (Chapters 1017–1027)

The destruction of the Heavenspan Realm then strips away the offices through which he exercised power. Scattered into the Eternal Immortal Domains, he survives by concealing his identity and moving through Saint-Emperor territory as an unremarkable old man. News of Bai's survival and celestial advancement produces relief, happiness, and renewed determination rather than envy. His earlier attention to Bai now appears prescient, but the later revelation is also personal: the statesman who once assessed Bai chiefly as a pawn begins seeking him as the only leader around whom the dispersed people of Heavenspan can plausibly reunite. (Chapters 1037–1075)

When the Grand Heavenmaster finally meets Bai again, he immediately offers the respect due a celestial and suggests that his old title be replaced with his name, Situ. He has already inferred the conflict between Bai and Celestial Aged Spirit from political traces in the capital, but his loyalty is no longer a bid to recover his own throne-like authority. Seeing how Bai's power and temperament have matured, he decides that Bai is someone he is willing to assist without personal gain. He nevertheless preserves formal distance because he understands that treating a ruler as a child or former subordinate could eventually produce political disaster. (Chapters 1110–1111)

Three strategies and an independent homeland

The Grand Heavenmaster diagnoses three connected problems: Bai lacks a secure base in the second immortal domain, the scattered Heavenspan survivors risk assimilation into other dynasties, and Bai has no specific political direction. His solution is staged rather than openly revolutionary. First, Bai should gain popular support; second, the survivors should seek practical independence in a territory of their own; third, they should postpone any final political break until Bai reaches the Archaean Realm and has the strength to protect it. The plan turns Bai's personal status into a long-term state-building project. (Chapters 1110–1111)

His first tactic forces Celestial Aged Spirit into an unwinnable choice by having Bai propose that every official's stipend be doubled at the capital's expense. Refusal would produce public anger, while acceptance would spend Aged Spirit's resources to increase Bai's reputation. After that succeeds, the Grand Heavenmaster becomes vice-preceptor of Plumflower Prefecture and uses appointments, alliances, and pressure to isolate its preceptor within three months. This apparent provocation is part of a concealed compromise between the celestials: Aged Spirit orders the Grand Heavenmaster and Giant Ghost King north, giving Bai's faction legal cover to occupy territory both sides want them to take. (Chapters 1111–1113)

Once the northern campaign succeeds, the Grand Heavenmaster and Giant Ghost King turn Mistysea Prefecture into the gathering point he envisioned. He handles administration while Bai provides celestial deterrence, takes a hard line in negotiations, and promotes Bai as the Eternal Immortal Domains' “Ultimate Enhancer.” Spirit enhancement becomes the basis of financial independence and trade, allowing the prefecture to build influence without immediately declaring political secession. He even encourages Bai to form a closer personal bond with Gongsun Wan'er, reasoning that an additional celestial ally would make the Heavenspan community harder to erase, though Bai resists being treated as an instrument of diplomatic marriage. (Chapters 1113–1130)

The state's administrative preparation matters when the corruption from the Mortal Renegade reaches the north. The Grand Heavenmaster detects the crisis spreading from Murknine, reports events during Bai's absences, and keeps the prefecture orderly while its leader pursues threats. When the expanding spiderweb makes physical defense impossible, he and the other officials issue evacuation orders. Because his organization has neglected no district, virtually the entire population can be transferred into Bai's Greatsword of the North before the prefecture is consumed. His political program therefore achieves its most immediate purpose even before independence: it gathers people into a structure capable of preserving them through another catastrophe. (Chapters 1133–1148)

Founding the new Arch-Emperor Dynasty

After Bai's long disappearance and return, the Grand Heavenmaster resumes leadership without waiting to be asked. He organizes the surviving immortal domain, directs construction of a central imperial city, and treats the addition of Gongsun Wan'er as a national gain rather than allowing private tensions to dominate the court. His ability to redirect attention, integrate defecting demigods, and coordinate former Wildlands and Heavenspan leaders turns a coalition of survivors into a functioning state. Bai provides unmatched authority and force, but the Grand Heavenmaster supplies the governmental design needed to make that power durable. (Chapters 1201–1212)

The debate over rulership ends with Bai accepting the title of Arch-Emperor, vindicating the Grand Heavenmaster's work since their reunion. Unlike the old Wildlands puppet government, the new arrangement rests on Bai's overwhelming cultivation and his own lack of interest in administration. The Grand Heavenmaster divides responsibilities among senior figures, stabilizes the dynasty, develops spirit-enhancement trade after peace with the neighboring empires, and manages court protocol and security around Bai's partners and children. He again governs much of an empire in practice, but now does so as an acknowledged adviser to a ruler whose authority he accepts rather than one he has deliberately neutralized. (Chapters 1213–1220)

Years of state business had kept the Grand Heavenmaster at the great circle of the Demigod Realm. Once the dynasty is stable, Bai Xiaochun and Gongsun Wan'er press him to give cultivation priority, support him during the attempt, and provide immortal pills from the treasured fan. He succeeds and becomes a celestial, the first native Heavenspan cultivator after Bai to hold that level in the Eternal Immortal Domains. The advancement strengthens the dynasty militarily, allows him to assist during conflicts that no longer have to fall solely to Gongsun Wan'er, and lets him help other demigods pursue their own breakthroughs. (Chapters 1222–1223)

The final catastrophe and succession

When Bai is absent, the Grand Heavenmaster shares responsibility for national affairs with the imperial family and other senior leaders. He identifies an organized rumor campaign in the Vile-Emperor Dynasty, warns that Bai must appear publicly before enemies interpret his absence as weakness, and helps send experts to search when the threat becomes credible. His intelligence and political instincts remain useful, but the approach of the Mortal Renegade eventually creates a problem no scheme can solve. Even the Grand Heavenmaster visibly ages under the helplessness of confronting power far beyond a celestial state. (Chapters 1251–1271)

He nevertheless continues preserving morale and institutions. He helps Bai Dabao administer and eventually assimilate the former Vile-Emperor Dynasty while Bai Xiaochun pursues his own Dao, joins the experts guarding Bai's seclusion, and prepares to fight to the death when Daoist Heavenspan breaks through the defensive formation. During the final war he and the people of the Eternal Immortal Domains pray for sixty years, contributing their faith and life-centered will to Bai's struggle. His role at this scale is no longer to command the decisive force, but to keep a civilization coherent enough to support the person who can. (Chapters 1281–1306)

After the Mortal Renegade is defeated and the catastrophe to the Eternal Immortal Domains is reversed, Bai Dabao becomes the new Arch-Emperor. The Grand Heavenmaster is very old, but he has not lost his appetite for government. He and the Giant Ghost King assist the new ruler, carrying the administrative continuity of both the old Wildlands and Bai Xiaochun's dynasty into another generation. The outcome completes his development from a regent who controlled a weak emperor for the state's survival into an elder statesman who willingly supports a legitimate successor. (Chapters 1312–1314)

Appearance and personality

The Grand Heavenmaster is an elderly man with white hair and a wrinkled face. In the Eternal Immortal Domains he often wears a nondescript green robe and stands tall and straight, appearing tranquil enough to pass as an ordinary old cultivator when his aura is concealed. His eyes undermine that disguise: they are repeatedly described as intelligent, incisive, wise, and capable of making potential enemies abandon hostile thoughts. When he releases his power or assumes command, the ordinary bearing gives way to the presence of someone accustomed to shaking an entire realm with a decision. (Chapters 674, 831, 1110–1111)

He is ambitious, ruthless, patient, and unusually free of sentiment when exercising power. During his regency he classifies people by usefulness, manipulates formal legitimacy, and accepts reforms chiefly because of the leverage they provide. That severity is paired with genuine state responsibility: he avoids a ruinous world war when alternatives exist, acts without hesitation against foreign threats, and repeatedly favors arrangements that preserve the greatest number of people. His later loyalty to Bai is not a loss of political intelligence but a reassessment of where legitimate strength and the survival of Heavenspan now reside. (Chapters 755–810, 831–845, 1110–1118)

The Grand Heavenmaster's humor and warmth become more visible after he no longer needs to defend his own supremacy. He can smile at Bai's tricks, take pleasure in the new dynasty and its children, and join old companions in revisiting their past. He remains careful about protocol and loves the exercise of power even in old age, but his final service is not built on secretly imprisoning an emperor. He derives satisfaction from institutions that endure under Bai and Dabao, suggesting that the desire to govern ultimately matters to him more than possession of the imperial title itself. (Chapters 1110–1111, 1212–1223, 1281–1282, 1313)

Abilities and cultivation

The Grand Heavenmaster combines high-level Wildlands cultivation with exceptional statecraft, intelligence gathering, and administrative control. The corpus names his stages and demonstrates a major sealing technique, perception at vast distance, aura concealment, and several forms of remote communication. It does not identify his underlying cultivation scripture, explain the source of his sealing art, or show a distinct personal combat repertoire after his celestial breakthrough.

Cultivation progression and defenses

During the Wildlands period, the Grand Heavenmaster is very near the peak of the Demigod Realm and radiates an aura that places him ahead of the four heavenly kings. By the Eternal Immortal Domains he is explicitly at the peak or great circle of that realm and can conceal his aura so effectively that only an actively probing celestial can determine his level. Against Gongsun Wan'er's archaean sound magic, he produces a glittering defensive shield that allows difficult movement even while devas are helpless and other demigods are heavily suppressed. The defense does not negate the technique, and speaking or moving under its pressure remains costly. (Chapters 720, 831–833, 1110, 1216)

After the new Arch-Emperor Dynasty stabilizes, immortal pills from Bai's treasured fan and direct support from Bai and Gongsun Wan'er help him cross the barrier into the Celestial Realm. The breakthrough makes him one of the dynasty's top defenders and enables him to aid other demigods, but the narrative does not describe the tribulation, the internal mechanics of his new cultivation, or a named celestial divine ability. His latest explicitly stated cultivation is celestial; age is noted by the ending, but no loss of that cultivation or later advancement is established. (Chapters 1222–1223, 1251–1313)

Layered sealing art

The Grand Heavenmaster's clearest signature combat ability begins as a gigantic sealing mark larger than Gongsun Wan'er's sea of blood. He steps out from within the mark, pushes down with one hand, and creates more than 100,000 afterimage layers, all of which descend with enough force to shatter multiple blood-colored arms and the sea beneath them. He can localize the resulting destruction despite an impact that sends a shockwave across tens of thousands of meters, showing precise control over both the target area and the release of demigod power. (Chapters 831–832)

The technique is most effective as the final component of a coordinated attack. The Giant Ghost King first restricts the enemy's movement, while the War Champion King and Nine Serenities King occupy her defenses; only then does the Grand Heavenmaster deploy the sealing layers. Bai identifies it as the deadliest blow and the Grand Heavenmaster's strongest attack, but it still fails to destroy an opponent who can absorb the incoming power and reconstruct herself from blood. The scene therefore establishes overwhelming force against ordinary demigod-scale defenses, not efficacy against true archaean power or inexhaustible regeneration. (Chapters 831–833)

Perception, concealment, and remote action

From Heavenmaster Hall, the Grand Heavenmaster can open his eyes and direct his perception across vast distances to the Hell-Emperor Stele, the Giant Ghost Legion, and Bai Xiaochun's activities in Arch-Emperor City. He detects the Hell-Emperor Fist's resemblance to its legacy source and follows major fluctuations involving spirit enhancements. He also uses a secret magic to send a mirror into the Necromancer Kettle so that senior agents can observe events there, although three people must supply power to operate it locally. The corpus does not clarify whether these feats share one sensory technique or depend on separate formations and court resources. (Chapters 674, 704, 720–743)

His concealment is demonstrated separately in the Eternal Immortal Domains. While wearing an ordinary robe, he hides a peak-demigod aura from nearly everyone and watches the capital without attracting attention. He supplements direct perception with messages, spies, and reports rather than treating supernatural awareness as omniscience; several later threats reach him through intelligence networks, and uncertainty remains when Bai enters areas that block observation. His strength lies in joining cultivation-based senses to organized information, not in knowing events automatically. (Chapters 1075, 1110, 1125–1146)

Statecraft and administration

The Grand Heavenmaster's most consequential capability is political design. He preserves legitimacy by issuing commands through the Arch-Emperor, delegates dangerous enforcement to an inspections commissioner, and weakens hostile clans by redistributing inheritance rights rather than fighting every patriarch directly. His stipend proposal similarly creates a dilemma in which either response benefits Bai, while his takeover of Plumflower Prefecture uses appointments and social isolation to secure real control beneath nominal Saint-Emperor authority. These methods operate through institutions, incentives, reputation, and superior personal power; without enforceable authority, they would be clever proposals rather than effective policy. (Chapters 674–793, 1110–1113)

His later administration links territory, population, and trade. By presenting spirit enhancement as a commercial specialty, he pursues financial autonomy without prematurely declaring political independence. He organizes Mistysea Prefecture thoroughly enough to evacuate almost its entire population during a sudden existential threat, then applies the same skill to building Arch-Emperor City, allocating government responsibilities, receiving refugees, and integrating conquered territory. His political planning cannot solve sovereign-level catastrophe, a limitation he openly confronts near the end, but it repeatedly ensures that the people and institutions Bai must protect remain organized enough to survive. (Chapters 1113–1148, 1209–1217, 1251–1285)

Power progression

Relationships

• Bai Xiaochun: The Grand Heavenmaster first suspects Bai's identity and uses him as inspections commissioner, alternately protecting and preparing to discard him according to political need. Bai's service, Hell-Emperor connection, Arch-Ancestor inheritance, and later celestial power transform that relationship. In the Eternal Immortal Domains, the Grand Heavenmaster voluntarily makes Bai the center of a plan for Heavenspan independence and becomes the chief administrator of his dynasty.
• Giant Ghost King: They begin as political counterweights whose interests frequently conflict, although both defend the Wildlands against external threats. After the Heavenspan Realm's destruction, they become close partners in the northern campaign, government of Mistysea Prefecture, founding of the new dynasty, and final service to Bai Dabao.
• Chen Manyao: Chen Manyao is one of his personal apprentices and acts within his political network during the Necromancer Kettle conflict. He demands her return from Giant Ghost City and later confines her, but after she reaches the new Arch-Emperor Dynasty he deliberately avoids introducing her into Bai's already difficult imperial household.
• Ghostmother: As an enemy, Ghostmother’s blood form survives his strongest demigod sealing attack and her archaean sound magic nearly immobilizes him. Much later, he welcomes her—still using the name Gongsun Wan’er—as the new dynasty's second celestial, tries to bind her more closely to Bai for strategic security, and receives her aid during his own celestial breakthrough.
• The reigning Arch-Emperor: The Grand Heavenmaster makes him a puppet and uses the throne's legitimacy to govern, creating lasting hatred while preventing the weak imperial government from fragmenting. He returns formal control during the Heavenspan war; both later kneel to Bai Xiaochun as the inheritor of the Arch-Ancestor.
• Bai Dabao: Bai Xiaochun's son becomes heir apparent and assumes increasing administrative responsibility during the final crisis. After Dabao becomes Arch-Emperor, the elderly Grand Heavenmaster remains at his side as an adviser, continuing the dynasty's institutional memory into the next reign.