Song Que

Song Que is the firstborn Chosen of the Song Clan, a lifelong rival and eventual ally of Bai Xiaochun, and the inheritor of the Worldly Daoist's Dao Essence of Life and Death. His relentless effort to surpass Bai Xiaochun repeatedly places him in danger, but the same defiance eventually drives him to sacrifice his life for his family and return from death as a half-sovereign.

Biography

Fallen Sword World and Middle Peak

Song Que enters the Fallen Sword World as the Blood Stream Sect's number-one Chosen, already notorious for killing a Foundation Establishment cultivator while still in Qi Condensation. He recognizes Bai Xiaochun as a uniquely dangerous opponent and initially avoids a premature fight because he cannot be certain of surviving it. That caution serves a larger ambition: Song Que has secretly activated energy nodes throughout the world and intends to follow Master Limitless by completing nine Earthstring Tideflows, then use a Feng Shui compass and the resulting formation to seize the descending heavenstring energy. (Chapters 142–154)

The struggle for Earthstring Foundation Establishment turns Bai Xiaochun from a potential obstacle into the defining rival of Song Que's life. Song Que stabilizes his difficult eighth Tideflow by withering his own chest and forcing out additional power, but Bai Xiaochun's allies disrupt his preparations before he can begin the irrevocable ninth. When Bai exposes the heavenstring energy, Song Que uses his compass to split it and secure the smaller portion, then fights for the remainder despite the damage already done to his foundation. His strongest Middle Peak techniques fail to overcome Bai's defenses, and he finally sacrifices the energy, fractures his eight spiritual seas, and collapses the world's prepared nodes merely to escape. Bai takes the complete strand and attains Heaven-Dao Foundation Establishment, leaving Song Que with a powerful but permanently second-place Earthstring foundation. (Chapters 156–166)

That defeat changes Song Que's prospects inside the Blood Stream Sect. As the Song Clan's firstborn, he had been expected to acquire Heaven-Dao Foundation Establishment and then compete for the position of Middle Peak blood master; with only eight Tideflows, the succession instead falls to his aunt, Song Junwan. He remains proud of his lineage and future, but that pride makes Nightcrypt's rise unbearable. Song Junwan protects her nephew while also rebuking him when he attacks or insults the subordinate she values, forcing Song Que to confront the fact that neither birth nor reputation guarantees her political support. (Chapters 187–231)

Song Que nevertheless serves as one of Song Junwan's Dharma protectors in the blood-master trial, putting clan duty ahead of his dislike for Nightcrypt. When Nightcrypt claims the Blood Master Command Medallion and succeeds, the power of Middle Peak's legacy compels Song Que to kneel with the other cultivators. The later revelation that Nightcrypt is Bai Xiaochun makes the humiliation personal: the same rival who took heavenstring energy from him has also surpassed him within his own sect. Yet Bai's intervention prevents the Blood and Spirit Stream Sects from destroying each other, and Song Que ultimately carries his ambition into their united River-Defying Sect rather than breaking with the new order. (Chapters 242–303)

Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect and the Great Wall

Song Que accompanies Bai Xiaochun to the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect as one of his Dao protectors, but poverty in Sky City quickly makes that dependent position intolerable. He resigns and chooses to earn merit points by himself, convinced that independent promotion to the rainbow district will give him a fair route to surpass Bai. The work is grueling, and Bai's accidental success repeatedly overtakes his deliberate progress. When Bai later gives him enough merit to become a yellow-robed disciple, Song Que accepts the promotion but treats it as a debt rather than a favor: he returns on two occasions to warn Bai of danger, preserving his self-respect through repayment. (Chapters 379–406)

His cultivation advances on its own terms even while the rivalry keeps injuring his pride. Song Que reaches Core Formation through meditation, contributes to trials that raise the River-Defying Sect's standing, and joins the voyage toward the Great Wall. He accepts space in Bai's superior cabin because it improves his cultivation, then uses a shadow technique to help the passengers obtain food and counsels restraint when competition over the catch threatens conflict. These choices show a more practical side of him: he still measures himself against Bai, but he can accept useful cooperation and judge when pride is less important than collective survival. (Chapters 417–458)

The dangers beyond the Great Wall appeal to Song Que precisely because ordinary advancement has not closed the gap. He regards lethal training as an opportunity, only to be conscripted into ten years of service along with Bai and their companions. After three bitter years, he believes that hardship has transformed him and that helping two comrades survive proves his growth. His confidence collapses again when he reaches the garrison and learns that Bai is already a major general. Even so, he participates in military missions and enters the labyrinth rather than abandoning the path he chose, until its destruction teleports him away from the army and into the Wildlands. (Chapters 462–472, 525–563)

Enslavement and return from the Wildlands

Song Que's teleportation places him directly in Arch-Emperor City, where the Chen Clan captures and enslaves him. They use a brutal secret magic to force him into the early Nascent Soul stage, damaging his foundation in the process, then fill his dantian and nascent soul with black smoke that continually siphons away his spiritual energy. Restrictive spells prevent him from using that cultivation outwardly, turning his breakthrough into captivity: younger clan members use him as a living spirit stone and torture him whenever they want the forced energy circulation to accelerate. The ordeal reduces him to a starving, broken figure who would rather be killed than remain useful to them. (Chapters 766–767)

Bai Xiaochun discovers him while disguised as Bai Hao, but Song Que does not recognize his rescuer. In desperation, he invokes “uncle” Bai Xiaochun as the only threat he can offer, and Bai has him removed from the Chen Clan under the pretense of claiming him as property. Recovery requires more than release. Soul medicine and a long period of rest repair the damage caused by the forced breakthrough, stabilize his early Nascent Soul cultivation, and restore a possibility—though no certainty—of eventually becoming a deva. Believing Bai Hao to be both his benefactor and the future Hell-Emperor, Song Que attaches himself to that identity and judges Bai Xiaochun unworthy by comparison, unaware that they are the same person. (Chapters 767–817, 845–849)

The truth shatters the hierarchy Song Que has constructed to preserve his pride. Once a familiar gesture proves that Bai Xiaochun was Bai Hao, he passes out from the realization that his rescuer, supposed master, and despised rival were one person. Bai then forces him to acknowledge the underlying facts: Bai has repeatedly saved and assisted him, whereas Song Que's refusal to accept their unequal achievements comes chiefly from his own pride. Bai invites him to treat that superiority as a mountain to overturn, but demands proper behavior until he can do so. Song Que cannot abandon the rivalry, yet a respect he does not willingly admit begins to replace his grievance, and he chooses to follow Bai home. (Chapters 849–851)

The journey through the Deadmire with Bai and Master God-Diviner further tests that reluctant alliance. Supernatural influence aboard a ghost galleon disrupts Song Que's judgment and endangers his soul, while Bai repeatedly acts to free and carry his companions through the crisis. Once they reach the Heavenspan region and learn that the River-Defying Sect faces extermination, Song Que immediately races toward the battle. He assures the frightened defenders that Bai can demolish the attacking devas, not because he has become affectionate, but because his experience in the Wildlands has given him a realistic measure of Bai's strength and because he knows that confidence is what the sect needs from him. (Chapters 852–865)

War, family, and sacrifice

Back in the River-Defying Sect, Song Que returns first to Song Junwan and observes clan protocol despite having surpassed her in cultivation. His experience as a slave has tempered, but not erased, his arrogance; he offers his aunt formal respect and awkwardly conceals the worst of what happened until Bai describes the rescue. He still hates being called “Que'er,” yet he now suppresses that anger because Bai's aid is undeniable and Song Junwan's relationship with him makes their family seniority unavoidable. The resulting restraint marks genuine growth: Song Que remains competitive, but his rivalry no longer overrides gratitude, family duty, or the needs of the sect. (Chapters 865–880)

After the Heavenspan Realm's destruction and the survivors' dispersal into the Eternal Immortal Domains, Song Que lives as a lone fighter. Years of slaughter, cultivation resources, and enlightenment in a Dao of killing carry him to the late Deva Realm, while his murderous aura gives him confidence that he can fight at the demigod level. When the Vile-Prince captures River-Defying Sect cultivators, Song Que immediately heads toward Vile-Emperor City. His decision becomes even more personal when he learns that Song Junwan and the pregnant Zhou Zimo are being used to extract Bai's bloodline: his aunt is his closest relative, and her unborn child is both his nephew and Bai Xiaochun's flesh and blood. (Chapters 997–1075, 1185–1191)

Song Que storms the Vile-Prince's mansion in black robes with a spear, kills the devas blocking him, and interrupts the extraction formation at its decisive moment. Although his opponent is a demigod and he knows he cannot win, he draws on his accumulated killing aura and holds the Vile-Prince back for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. The price is mortal: he loses an eye, suffers wounds that expose bone and nearly destroy his organs, and remains upright only through will. His resistance keeps Song Junwan, Zhou Zimo, and their unborn children alive until Bai arrives. (Chapters 1190–1191)

With his task complete, Song Que frames the sacrifice through the rivalry that shaped him. He recalls every realm in which Bai beat him, then declares that this time he has finally outdone Bai because he arrived first and paid the price Bai would otherwise have borne. He dies laughing and without regret. Bai recognizes him as the true Chosen, preserves his body aboard the treasured fan, and places it on the ninth floor of the Daoist Tower of Life and Death. Resurrection is only a remote possibility—the soul has dispersed and the tower's research was never completed—but Song Que's corpse conforms to its Dao Essence more perfectly than expected. (Chapters 1191–1195)

Life within death

For decades Song Que remains unchanged while the tower protects his body, until its black and white Dao Essence begins to flow into him. The fusion reverses his movement into nonexistence and establishes him as the true successor to the Worldly Daoist's core Dao. Because the Worldly Daoist is dead and no living world has approved Song Que, the inheritance cannot make him a full sovereign; it instead brings him as close to that realm as possible. He returns to life as a half-sovereign, carrying death and abundant life force at once, with the former Worldly Daoist's mark transformed into a sigil he controls as his own. (Chapters 1194–1254, 1286–1287)

Song Que awakens when Daoist Heavenspan threatens the Eternal Immortal Domains during Bai's seclusion. He arrives aboard the treasured fan, stops an attack on the Saint-Emperor, and declares that the Dao Essence of Life and Death was created both for resurrection and to resist the Mortal Renegade's nirvanic extermination. Working with the Saint-Emperor, he uses that countervailing Essence and the fan's river, mountain, tower, archaean slaves, Archaean Luminescence, and sovereign arm to trap their opponent. Daoist Heavenspan's borrowed sovereign divine sense and corrosive techniques badly injure Song Que's soul, but Song Que repeatedly returns to the fight, finally burning his life force and Dao Essence to manifest the Worldly Daoist and help destroy him. (Chapters 1286–1291)

The Mortal Renegade's awakening immediately exposes the scale of Song Que's limit. Although he and the Saint-Emperor are half-sovereigns, they can barely move beneath the true sovereign's pressure. Song Que nevertheless ignites himself again and charges the descending hand, only to be crushed and saved from instant death by the Eternal Mother's protection. His stand cannot defeat the enemy, but it buys another moment until Bai Xiaochun emerges as a sovereign and protects the Eternal Immortal Domains. Song Que thus repeats, on a cosmic scale, the same choice he made at Vile-Prince Mansion: when victory is impossible, he fights to preserve time for someone who may still achieve it. (Chapters 1291–1294)

After the final catastrophe is reversed, Song Que is the only person who leaves the restored Eternal Immortal Domains. He takes the treasured fan to the ruins of the Immortal World and waits for life and the world's qi flow to return. His half-sovereign inheritance cannot cross the last threshold by power alone, because true sovereignty requires the approval and support of a world. Rather than accept that ceiling, Song Que chooses a long cultivation project whose success remains unresolved: once the ruins recover enough qi flow, he intends to use them as his path into the Sovereign Realm. (Chapters 1303–1314)

Appearance and personality

At his first appearance Song Que is a young man with ordinary features, dark magenta Blood Stream robes, and such intense coldness and murderous aura that other disciples leave a clear space around him; the aura even appears to distort the air. He is repeatedly grim and cold, but the narrative later calls him manly and handsome as he dies standing with his spear. During his return from death, his body is pale and carries both death and life force, one eye is black and the other white, neither has a pupil, and a sigil resembling both the Worldly Daoist and Song Que appears on his forehead. (Chapters 142–145, 1190–1191, 1286)

Pride, ambition, and defiance govern most of Song Que's choices. He is inflexible enough to endure hunger rather than remain dependent, seeks deadly assignments because ordinary cultivation cannot satisfy his rivalry, and measures nearly every advancement against Bai Xiaochun. Yet his pride also has an ethical side: he repays debts, keeps formal obligations, and would rather die than remain a living resource for his captors. Experience does not make him mild; it makes him more capable of placing sect, relatives, and reciprocal loyalty above the grievance he continues to feel. (Chapters 380–406, 462, 525–528, 767–817)

His development is therefore not the abandonment of rivalry but its transformation. Early defeats make him vindictive and humiliated; later rescues force him to distinguish wounded vanity from genuine injustice. By the Eternal Immortal Domains, he openly accepts that Bai is stronger and no longer holds a grudge, though he still believes that he can catch up. His sacrifice turns “outdoing” Bai into taking responsibility before Bai can, and his final departure shows the same relentless nature redirected toward a constructive, patient goal rather than immediate comparison. (Chapters 849–851, 1185–1191, 1313–1314)

Abilities and cultivation

Song Que's cultivation develops through several sharply different foundations: Blood Stream techniques and eight-Tideflow Earthstring Foundation Establishment, an independently achieved Core Formation stage, a forcibly produced but later repaired Nascent Soul, a killing Dao that supports late-Deva combat, and finally fusion with the Worldly Daoist's Dao Essence of Life and Death. The corpus does not name a single continuous cultivation scripture connecting these stages, so later Essence abilities should not be treated as upgraded forms of his original Middle Peak magic.

Blood Stream foundation

Even at Qi Condensation, Song Que possesses battle prowess sufficient to kill a Foundation Establishment cultivator, though the cited account does not explain the circumstances of that victory. In the Fallen Sword World he completes eight Earthstring Tideflows, one short of the legendary peak he sought. His failed contest over heavenstring energy leaves fractures across all eight spiritual seas, but they survive, preserving his Earthstring foundation. He later reaches Core Formation through his own meditation, independently of Bai's aid. (Chapters 142–166, 417–418)

The Chen Clan's secret magic forces Song Que from Core Formation to early Nascent Soul at severe cost. Black smoke drives his cultivation base to rotate and siphons the resulting spiritual energy, while additional restrictions stop him from projecting its power, demonstrating that cultivation level alone does not equal usable battle strength. After rescue, a year of rest and soul medicine repairs and strengthens the damaged foundation but leaves deva advancement only a possibility. He nevertheless later reaches the late Deva Realm through years of solitary cultivation, combat, resources, and enlightenment in slaughter and killing. (Chapters 766–817, 1185)

Blood Annihilation World and supporting techniques

Song Que's principal early legacy is Middle Peak's Blood Annihilation World, a secret magic that he could partially employ in Qi Condensation and fully unleash after Foundation Establishment. Its Inverse Blood Sword Form condenses blood qi into sword light capable of destroying an enhanced wooden sword and knocking aside the stronger Golden Crow Sword. When the strike itself fails against Bai's Undying Gold Skin, Song Que converts the weapon into numerous Inverse Blood Seals that surround the target and explode. The technique is destructive but not absolute: superior bodily defense can neutralize the sword, and disruption of Song Que's limbs can interrupt the sequence and expose his dantian. (Chapters 165–166)

His early combat style also includes blood spheres that explode across a broad area, a blood-qi restoration method that visibly withers his body while returning his power, and a neck-blurring evasion that leaves an afterimage against a killing grasp. These techniques allow him to trade injury for renewed offense, but they do not erase accumulated damage; by forcing heavenstring energy through his dantian to escape Bai, he worsens the fractures in his own spiritual seas. On the voyage to the Great Wall, he also sends his shadow from beneath his feet into the water to catch fish. Water weakens that shadow technique, and repeated exertion taxes his control, establishing an environmental limit absent from his blood arts. (Chapters 165–166, 445–447)

Killing Dao and deva battle strength

Years as a lone fighter in the Eternal Immortal Domains give Song Que a Dao centered on slaughter and killing. At the late Deva Realm, this enlightenment and the murderous aura accumulated through repeated combat make him resemble a blood-dripping sword and give him confidence that he can contend with a demigod. His attack on Vile-Prince Mansion supports that judgment only in a limited sense: he can slaughter defending devas and endure a demigod's attacks for an incense stick, but cannot defeat the Vile-Prince and sustains fatal injuries in the attempt. The feat is therefore one of endurance, lethal intent, and delay rather than equality in cultivation. (Chapters 1185–1191)

Dao Essence of Life and Death

The Daoist Tower's Essence resurrects Song Que by joining death and life rather than simply healing the dead body. He absorbs the Worldly Daoist's Dao and becomes its successor, gaining black-and-white pupil-less eyes, a sovereign sigil, and a half-sovereign cultivation base. His Essence can produce black light resembling Daoist Heavenspan's nirvanic power while directly countering its lack of true “extermination.” The inheritance had originally been designed both to resurrect the Worldly Daoist's beloved and to resist the Mortal Renegade, which explains its unusually effective interaction with Daoist Heavenspan's derived Dao. (Chapters 1252–1254, 1286–1287)

Fusion also gives Song Que orthodox control over the treasured fan's Worldly Daoist legacy. He can command its Archaean Luminescence, summon and reverse a vast river whose waters seal and restrain, call the mountain and Daoist Tower of Life and Death to crush an opponent, deploy the sovereign arm to bend space, and direct the two archaean slaves and the spirit automaton Bai Xiaochi. He can reassemble the scattered river and mountain into a giant projection of the Worldly Daoist, then strike with the combined force of his life, Dao Essence, and inherited domain. These abilities interact as a system: the river contains the target, the mountain and arm apply crushing force, and the fan supplies its stored components. (Chapters 1286–1290)

The system has severe costs and dependencies. The destruction of the archaean slaves nearly tears apart Song Que's divine soul, control of the fan becomes poorer when he is injured, and his strongest Worldly Daoist manifestation requires him to burn life force and Dao Essence. Most importantly, inheritance cannot provide the approval of a living world. Because the Worldly Daoist is dead, Song Que can reach only the half-sovereign threshold; against the actual Mortal Renegade, even self-ignition cannot meaningfully stop a single descending hand. His latest plan therefore depends on the ruined Immortal World recovering life and qi flow sufficiently to provide a path that the inherited Essence alone cannot create. (Chapters 1287–1293, 1313–1314)

Power progression

Relationships

• Bai Xiaochun: Song Que's central rival repeatedly takes opportunities he believes should have been his, then repeatedly saves him from disasters his pride cannot solve. Humiliation gradually becomes reluctant respect and acknowledged debt. Song Que ultimately dies protecting Bai's partners and unborn children, returns as an ally during Bai's seclusion, and continues pursuing the Sovereign Realm after Bai has already surpassed it.
• Song Junwan: Song Junwan is his aunt, political senior, and closest relative. She protects his prospects while disciplining his arrogance, and he serves her in the blood-master trial even after his own candidacy ends. His loyalty culminates in attacking the Vile-Prince to save her and her unborn child despite knowing that the fight will probably kill him.
• Master God-Diviner: They travel from the River-Defying Sect to the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect and later survive the Great Wall, Wildlands, and Deadmire routes as companions. Their relationship includes irritation—Song Que attacks him verbally and physically after the stolen mirror attracts the ghost galleon—but also repeated cooperation under shared danger.
• Zhou Yixing: Zhou Yixing carries the incapacitated Song Que away from the Chen Clan, oversees him while Bai maintains the Bai Hao disguise, and hides with him after Arch-Emperor City's upheaval. Song Que initially misunderstands Zhou Yixing's loyalty as evidence of Bai Hao's independent greatness; Zhou Yixing's deference later helps expose Bai Xiaochun's true identity.
• Zhou Zimo: Song Que does not claim a close personal bond with her, but he protects her alongside Song Junwan because both carry Bai Xiaochun's children. His stand prevents the Vile-Prince from completing the extraction that would have killed them and their unborn children.