Xu Baocai — A Will Eternal

Xu Baocai is a cultivator and intelligence specialist whose failed attempt to displace Bai Xiaochun from the Ovens develops into a long friendship, making him a recurring source of information, organization, and loyal support across several sects. (Chapters 2–8, 35, 390, 906–907, and 1313)

Biography

The Blood Notice and an Unlikely Friendship

Xu Baocai first appears as the servant whom the Ovens crew had expected to fill its final vacancy before Bai Xiaochun arrives. The position matters enough that he has lived frugally and saved spirit stones for seven years to bribe the honor guard for it. Discovering that a newcomer has taken the place turns that lost investment into fury. He issues Bai Xiaochun a challenge to the death, writing an extravagant blood notice covered with the character for “die,” but Big Fatty Zhang’s protection prevents him from settling the matter at the Ovens gate. (Chapters 2–3)

The rivalry persists because Xu Baocai refuses to accept the loss quietly. At the second level of Qi Condensation, he can control a wooden sword strongly enough to pierce a tree, and his pursuit frightens Bai Xiaochun into months of intense cultivation. Xu Baocai later returns with servants from the Supervisors’ Department, using his connections to offset the Ovens crew’s numerical and physical advantage. The plan fails when Bai Xiaochun’s enhanced sword destroys his own and wounds him; after being beaten unconscious, Xu Baocai avoids his former target rather than continue a feud he can no longer win. (Chapters 5–9)

Becoming an Outer Sect disciple on Fragrant Cloud Peak gives Xu Baocai a reason to change course. Bai Xiaochun is already famous there, so Xu Baocai offers an earnest apology, warns him about Chen Fei’s continuing grudge and Qian Dajin’s position in the Hall of Justice, and chooses practical cooperation over pride. Their conversation reveals his unusual command of sect news, including the identities of prominent Chosen and the significance of Foundation Establishment. That information reignites Bai Xiaochun’s pursuit of longevity, while the reconciliation changes Xu Baocai from a defeated rival into a welcome visitor and adviser. (Chapters 35–36 and 46)

Xu Baocai develops that advisory role through deliberate record-keeping. He carries a small notebook filled with tiny writing about matters large and small, observes promotion tests, and records new developments even when they overturn his assumptions about Bai Xiaochun. He attempts the journeyman-apothecary promotion test himself, although the corpus does not state whether he passes. More consistently, he monitors threats, relays news about Chosen battles and Foundation Establishment Holy Lands, checks locations for Bai Xiaochun, and supplies the praise that his friend enjoys. His early flattery is self-protective, but his grief at Bai Xiaochun’s apparent death and enthusiastic support after the rescue show that the relationship has acquired genuine attachment. (Chapters 42–46, 64, 68, 81–87, 95, 106, 140, and 173)

War and the Dao Protector Appointment

When Bai Xiaochun returns from the Blood Stream Sect, Xu Baocai interrupts a planned trip to share exclusive information and joins the crowd welcoming him home. The reunion quickly places him under a heavier responsibility. By then he has reached the great circle of Qi Condensation and become an Inner Sect disciple, so the Spirit Stream Sect assigns him to the third wave deployed against the Blood Stream Sect. He accepts the possibility of death, spends his last evening revisiting old embarrassments with friends at the Ovens, and then helps power a battlefield formation. Bai Xiaochun’s intervention prevents the two sects from destroying each other, leaving Xu Baocai alive to enter the unified River-Defying Sect. (Chapters 267–279 and 310)

Life in the River-Defying Sect restores the familiar social world in which Xu Baocai operates best. He recognizes Bai Xiaochun’s practiced public poses, envies the love letters sent to the junior patriarch, and accompanies him to inspect the admirers who have become the center of sect gossip. Xu Baocai is also infatuated with Chen Manyao, which deepens his frustration that Bai Xiaochun attracts the women he likes. That jealousy makes him celebrate the news that Bai Xiaochun must leave as a hostage-disciple, only to discover that Bai Xiaochun intends to take him along specifically for his intelligence skills. Faced with a patriarch’s command medallion, he cannot refuse. (Chapters 314, 346, 350–352, 361, and 375–376)

Xu Baocai responds to forced participation with familiar self-preservation. He recommends Master God-Diviner as another Dao Protector partly because an old romantic rivalry makes him eager to share the burden. Once the group reaches the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect, its money and food rapidly disappear, and Xu Baocai becomes thinner than anyone else. He pleads for permission to leave rather than starve, then joins Master God-Diviner in using provisions they had secretly conserved. His unease about abandoning his formal duty shows that the choice is not presented as courageous, but it also marks his first attempt to establish himself without relying entirely on Bai Xiaochun. (Chapters 376–381)

Intelligence Chief of Sky City

Independence proves much harsher than Xu Baocai expects. He tries to earn a living by gathering and selling information, but months of effort yield little, and he is eventually dragged before the disguised Bai Xiaochun after being beaten and humiliated. Seeing the Azure Dragon Society’s wealth makes him regret leaving immediately. Bai Xiaochun accepts him back despite the desertion, and Xu Baocai answers by vowing to become more important than Master God-Diviner. The promise gives his competitive instincts a productive target: rather than challenge Bai Xiaochun again, he makes himself indispensable to the organization Bai Xiaochun has built. (Chapters 388–390)

As the Azure Dragon Society’s intelligence chief, Xu Baocai gathers information, directs rumor campaigns, and counters hostile propaganda with every method he knows. Master God-Diviner manages daily affairs while Xu Baocai shapes what Sky City hears, allowing Bai Xiaochun to withdraw from operations as the society’s Fantasy Pill business expands. Xu Baocai’s status, health, and clothing improve with the organization’s fortunes, and he helps process defeated enemies, negotiate with the Celestial Sky Society, and manage the transition to the Live Forever Tavern when pill sales are prohibited. His value comes from persistence and social maneuvering rather than combat authority, and setbacks expose how closely his comfort depends on Bai Xiaochun’s protection. (Chapters 389–398)

His loyalty to the wider group becomes clearest during Big Fatty Zhang’s failed Core Formation breakthrough. Xu Baocai and Master God-Diviner stand guard for a month, seek Bai Xiaochun when the cultivator’s aura begins to fail, and pour life force into him while stronger help is found. Xu Baocai then follows Bai Xiaochun’s desperate climb through the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Superstars trials, but declines to attempt the ranking himself because finishing outside the top thousand would be humiliating. The contrast is characteristic: he will perform sustained support for a friend, yet remains keenly aware of danger, reputation, and the limits of his own cultivation. (Chapters 431–440)

Before Bai Xiaochun leaves for the Wildlands, Xu Baocai investigates the soul-hunting expedition, explains the three stated paths to Nascent Soul cultivation, and pieces together the military purpose of the Great Wall from scattered reports. He is not qualified to accompany the expedition, so he remains behind. Later testimony establishes that he and Big Fatty Zhang manage Bai Xiaochun’s inn, deepen their network of contacts, and advance in cultivation while their absent friend is presumed dead. The separation turns Xu Baocai from an assistant inside Bai Xiaochun’s active organization into one of the people responsible for preserving it without him. (Chapters 441–443, 446, and 905)

Imprisonment and the Heavenspan War

Bai Xiaochun’s disappearance also removes the protection that had kept older enemies cautious. Li Yuansheng seizes the inn and injures Xu Baocai so badly that Big Fatty Zhang must save him from death. Zhao Tianjiao subsequently looks out for both men, while Xu Baocai makes careful friendships and avoids powerful enemies rather than pursuing direct revenge. He reaches early Core Formation but never becomes a Starry Sky Dao Polarity Superstar. When Big Fatty Zhang defeats Li Yuansheng for a top-twenty ranking, the rival uses clan influence to frame and imprison them both, turning an official sixty-year sentence into the price of their continued loyalty to Bai Xiaochun’s faction. (Chapters 899–905)

Their confinement lasts about a year before Bai Xiaochun returns as a deva and forces the Li Clan to release them. Xu Baocai emerges healthy only because the clan hurriedly treats his injuries, clothes him richly, and gives both captives extensive compensation. He and Big Fatty Zhang decline to demand more, reasoning that they were not placed in mortal danger and have already received resources worth far more than the time lost. The decision ends the immediate dispute. Once Xu Baocai realizes the scale of Bai Xiaochun’s new authority, he eagerly accepts an official decree empowering the two former prisoners to recruit a faction of their own. (Chapters 900–907)

Xu Baocai and Big Fatty Zhang use the contacts accumulated during their difficult years to assemble a powerful organization around Bai Xiaochun, including nine Nascent Soul elders and many Core Formation and Foundation Establishment cultivators. Xu Baocai continues to turn new information into action: he warns Sky City residents to flee Bai Xiaochun’s medicine concocting, compiles a detailed report on the Celestial’s search for a fifth apprentice, and uses his elevated standing to pressure former competitors. His success demonstrates that his notebooks and gossip have matured into institutional intelligence, although he still gains much of his leverage from acting under a stronger patron’s name. (Chapters 906–914)

The war between Heavenspan and the Wildlands ends that prosperity. Xu Baocai fights because his cultivation is high enough for battlefield service, but years of death burn away his fear and leave only exhaustion. A merciful opponent stops short of killing him, yet wounds him so badly that his Core Formation cultivation falls to Foundation Establishment and seems permanently damaged. Bai Xiaochun’s return heals him and restores his Core, after which Xu Baocai immediately supplies a detailed strategic report about the River-Defying Sect’s forced vanguard position. That intelligence helps send Bai Xiaochun toward the final confrontation, but the Heavenspan Realm is destroyed soon afterward and Xu Baocai is scattered into the Eternal Immortal Domains. (Chapters 989, 993–994, and 1033)

Return to the Arch-Emperor

Xu Baocai’s location and circumstances after the destruction are not described until he reappears in the Saint-Emperor Dynasty. Learning that Bai Xiaochun has become Arch-Emperor convinces him both that loyalty should bring him home and that his old connection may improve his fortunes. He tries to recruit Master God-Diviner, then poisons, binds, and transports him when the diviner hesitates to abandon his family and businesses. Xu Baocai presents the captive as proof of devotion, but the argument exposes his more comic motives as well: he had accepted more than one hundred women as supposed bribes while conducting the operation. Bai Xiaochun resolves the dispute by welcoming both men and allowing the diviner’s household to follow. (Chapter 1215)

In Arch-Emperor City, Xu Baocai returns to Bai Xiaochun’s trusted household circle. He boasts to friends, celebrates the births of Bai Xiaochun’s children, and supplies enthusiastic approval when the emperor proposes unusual names. He later joins the Heavenspan survivors who accompany Bai Xiaochun through a reconstruction of the Spirit Stream Sect, where the old blood notice has become a shared comic memory rather than a grievance. The supplied epilogue states that Xu Baocai eventually becomes a celestial, finds a Daoist partner, and lives happily. It does not identify that partner or explain his breakthrough, mature Celestial abilities, office, or later intelligence work. (Chapters 1218–1220, 1281, and 1313)

Appearance and personality

Xu Baocai is introduced as a sallow-faced young man, but the corpus supplies few stable physical details beyond that first impression. Poverty in Sky City leaves him beaten, disheveled, and near starvation, whereas renewed membership in the Azure Dragon Society gives his face a healthy glow and covers him in glittering treasures. The Li Clan later dresses him in sumptuous garments while trying to appease Bai Xiaochun. These changes reflect circumstance rather than a fixed costume, and the source does not establish his height, build, eye color, hair style, or distinctive facial features. (Chapters 2, 380, 389, 392, and 904)

Ambitious, talkative, observant, and strongly self-protective, Xu Baocai tracks the social value of information almost as carefully as the information itself. He can be vindictive, opportunistic, jealous, and extravagantly flattering, especially when romance or a powerful patron is involved. Those qualities coexist with real persistence and loyalty: he supports friends through war and cultivation crises, preserves Bai Xiaochun’s organization during long absences, and repeatedly returns to the same chosen family. His judgment is not infallible, and his gossip sometimes reproduces rumor rather than fact, but he is willing to revise his position quickly when evidence or power shifts. (Chapters 3–9, 35, 42–46, 86, 267–274, 350–390, 431–442, 904–914, 993–994, and 1215–1220)

Abilities and cultivation

Xu Baocai’s most distinctive capability is not a named combat art but the collection, analysis, and tactical use of information. His cultivation progresses from ordinary Spirit Stream Sect sword control to the Celestial Realm, although the corpus leaves most breakthrough methods and his later combat techniques unexplained.

Cultivation progression

At the second level of Qi Condensation, Xu Baocai practices the Violet Qi Cauldron Control Art and can direct a wooden sword with incantation gestures. The sword pierces a tree and carries enough force to threaten an inexperienced servant, but Bai Xiaochun’s enhanced weapon destroys it and exposes Xu Baocai’s inferior cultivation and object control. He subsequently reaches the third level, passes into the Outer Sect, and attempts a journeyman-apothecary test. His participation establishes some study of plants and medicines, but the result of the test and any medicine he personally concocts are not recorded. (Chapters 5–8, 35, 42, and 106)

By the sect war, Xu Baocai is an Inner Sect disciple at the great circle of Qi Condensation. He is assigned to help power a large spell formation rather than operate as an individual battlefield specialist, and he survives the campaign without a named personal technique. Improved Middle Reaches spiritual energy advances his cultivation further, but the corpus does not identify when or how he reaches Foundation Establishment or forms a Gold Core. He is explicitly at early Core Formation after Bai Xiaochun returns from the Wildlands, below Big Fatty Zhang’s late Core Formation and outside the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Superstars ranking. (Chapters 274–279, 310, 354, 376, 440, and 905)

Xu Baocai’s Core Formation cultivation qualifies him for the Heavenspan war, where severe injuries drive him back to Foundation Establishment. Bai Xiaochun heals him with an infusion of warm energy and restores the Core stage, demonstrating recovery supplied by a stronger cultivator rather than a technique Xu Baocai controls. The epilogue later establishes that he becomes a celestial, but gives no account of his intervening Nascent Soul or Deva progression, breakthrough resources, tribulations, realm stage, combat performance, or signature Celestial power. His maximum demonstrated personal battle ability therefore remains far below his final stated rank. (Chapters 989, 993–994, and 1313)

Intelligence gathering and analysis

Xu Baocai’s intelligence practice begins with a handwritten notebook in which he records sect events in minute script. He cultivates sources across mountain peaks, distinguishes important developments from ordinary gossip, and can provide detailed explanations of sect law, Chosen, promotion tests, Foundation Establishment Holy Lands, and hidden institutional relationships. He also interviews returning disciples and combines their accounts into reports. The method is social and documentary rather than supernatural: the corpus never attributes his results to divine sense, divination, a secret technique, or a special item. (Chapters 35, 42–46, 72, 81–87, 140, and 173)

In Sky City, information becomes an operational weapon. Xu Baocai gathers intelligence for the Azure Dragon Society, propagates favorable rumors, counters hostile stories, briefs leaders on economic threats, and helps handle negotiations. Years of careful friendship-building later let him and Big Fatty Zhang recruit a faction with numerous high-level members under Bai Xiaochun’s decree. These successes demonstrate persistence, social recall, and the ability to convert networks into institutional strength. They do not establish that Xu Baocai can compel cooperation without patronage, and his failed first attempt to sell information shows that knowledge alone does not guarantee income or safety. (Chapters 389–398 and 905–907)

His strongest reports connect scattered facts to immediate strategic consequences. Xu Baocai reconstructs the purpose of the Great Wall from information about the soul-hunting expedition, rapidly compiles news about the Celestial’s new-apprentice selection, and explains the Heavenspan war from both front-line experience and current intelligence. Some limits remain visible: he repeats false rumors about Nightcrypt, does not uncover every secret behind the Celestial’s trial, and can only speculate about the Great Wall before receiving confirmation. His expertise is therefore broad and useful rather than omniscient, with reliability highest when he can compare multiple sources or draw on direct experience. (Chapters 267–269, 441–442, 914, and 993–994)

Organization, propaganda, and influence

Xu Baocai repeatedly turns information into coordinated action. For the Azure Dragon Society he directs rumor campaigns, processes the aftermath of attacks, participates in negotiations, and helps stabilize an organization large enough to challenge Sky City’s established power. Later, he and Big Fatty Zhang draw on those experiences to recruit Bai Xiaochun’s prime-elder faction at remarkable speed. He can also mobilize people informally, as when his warnings about Bai Xiaochun’s medicine concocting persuade hundreds of cultivators to evacuate before the worst consequences. The corpus does not define a formal leadership title, salary, chain of command, or independent organization that he controls after Bai Xiaochun’s departure. (Chapters 390–398, 906–912)

His influence depends heavily on performance and association. He understands when flattery will motivate Bai Xiaochun, when a threat to reputation will deter him from taking a trial, and when a patriarch’s decree will open doors that personal cultivation cannot. Conversely, poverty, Li Yuansheng’s attack, and clan imprisonment show how quickly his social power collapses when separated from an effective patron. Xu Baocai’s mature strength lies in recognizing that dependence and using it openly: he supplies intelligence and recruitment skill in exchange for protection, resources, and the authority needed to make his network consequential. (Chapters 35, 86, 389–398, 440, and 899–914)

Relationships

Bai Xiaochun: Xu Baocai’s first enemy becomes his patron, friend, and chosen-family connection. The blood-notice feud pushes Bai Xiaochun toward intense cultivation; after reconciling, Xu Baocai serves him as an adviser, Dao Protector, intelligence chief, recruiter, and wartime informant, while Bai Xiaochun repeatedly protects and restores him.
Big Fatty Zhang: A long-term partner in Bai Xiaochun’s circle. They manage the Sky City inn, build networks, endure imprisonment, and recruit a new faction together. Big Fatty Zhang also saves Xu Baocai from Li Yuansheng’s potentially fatal attack.
Master God-Diviner: A colleague and comic rival whose competition with Xu Baocai includes romantic jealousy, status within the Azure Dragon Society, and mutual attempts to shift danger onto the other. Xu Baocai later poisons and kidnaps him to Arch-Emperor City, but both remain members of Bai Xiaochun’s household circle.
Chen Manyao: A fellow Dao Protector with whom Xu Baocai travels to the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect. He is infatuated with her, but the corpus does not show that she reciprocates or that a relationship develops.
Li Yuansheng: An enemy inherited through the struggle over Bai Xiaochun’s Sky City holdings. Li Yuansheng takes the inn, nearly has Xu Baocai killed, and later uses clan power to frame and imprison him.
Zhao Tianjiao: A senior Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect cultivator who protects Xu Baocai and Big Fatty Zhang after Bai Xiaochun is reported missing, limiting their vulnerability during Li Yuansheng’s retaliation.