Xuemei

Xuemei, whose full name is Du Xuemei, is Patriarch Limitless's daughter and a dominant Blood Stream Sect Chosen whose campaign for the Middle Peak blood-master position is complicated by a temporary substitution that causes Du Lingfei to be mistaken for her. (Chapters 173, 187, 239–259, and 310–312)

Biography

Devilwitch of the Blood Stream Sect

Xuemei emerges as one of the two expected claimants to Middle Peak's blood-master title. She is Patriarch Limitless's only daughter, a feared Chosen who reaches the peak of Earthstring Foundation Establishment with nine Tideflows in the Lone Hell Pocket Realm and acquires the name Devilwitch after slaughtering competitors. That foundation, her father's backing, and her position on Ancestor Peak make her both a sect celebrity and a political threat to the Song Clan's traditional hold over Middle Peak. She embraces an overbearing style because the sect has long accepted it from someone of her status, and she commands a network of Dharma protectors prepared to advance her claim. (Chapters 161, 173, and 186–191)

Her first direct conflict with Nightcrypt begins when he occupies her specially prepared Middle Peak residence and drains its concentrated blood qi. Xuemei orders him killed, then personally breaks the defenses of his replacement cave with a blood-qi plum blossom. Song Junwan intervenes and uses Middle Peak's full formation to turn Xuemei's attack aside; although Xuemei has the higher-quality foundation, Song Junwan's greater accumulated cultivation forces her to retreat after their clash. The encounter transforms an insult over resources into an open contest between the two women and places Nightcrypt firmly within the Song faction. (Chapters 199–212)

The Blood-Master Trial

Xuemei enters the succession trial with twenty formidable Dharma protectors, counterpart to Song Junwan's group. She helps open the successive stages with her command medallion, directs her followers, and competes personally with Song Junwan while their supporters fight for access to the Ancient Blood Path. Her planning includes three counterfeit medallions and defectors embedded among the opposing ranks, a violation she expects the title's authority to eclipse if she wins. Injured by Song Junwan's blood sword, Xuemei nevertheless reaches the transition to the Ancient Blood Path with her advantage intact. (Chapters 239–255)

At that transition, the identity presented under Xuemei's mask changes. The woman on the Ancient Blood Path appears suddenly healed, uses a life-force-consuming Golden Touch, and is unmasked as Du Lingfei when fighting Nightcrypt. Bai Xiaochun initially concludes that Xuemei and Du Lingfei are the same person, but later evidence disproves that conclusion: the real Xuemei still bears the scar from the wound sustained before the transition, resembles Patriarch Limitless, and has no knowledge of Bai's private connection with Du Lingfei. The replacement therefore belongs to Du Lingfei's storyline; it does not make Xuemei an alias, incarnation, or later identity of Du Lingfei, and the Golden Touch is not one of Xuemei's demonstrated abilities. (Chapters 255–259 and 310–312)

Defeat, Rescue, and Clarification

Because Nightcrypt obtains the blood crystal, Xuemei loses the title she had organized her faction to secure and withdraws to Ancestor Peak. She does not participate in the Spirit–Blood confrontation, but rejoins the combined armies on the Heavencraft Continent, where her peak Earthstring power makes her an important Blood Stream combatant. Poisoned and surrounded by Profound Stream cultivators seeking revenge and merit, she continues fighting even as her father and other elders are pinned elsewhere. Bai Xiaochun leads Middle Peak forces across the battlefield to save her, after which she collapses with mixed emotions rather than treating him simply as the rival who defeated her. (Chapters 259–290 and 300–302)

While Xuemei recovers, Bai Xiaochun tears off her mask in search of Du Lingfei and wrongly accuses her of being an impostor. Her visible resemblance to Patriarch Limitless and the scar on her hand establish the truth of her identity, while the healed substitute from the Ancient Blood Path remains a separate mystery. Xuemei recognizes that Bai's grief concerns whoever replaced her and responds with a sigh rather than pursuing the misunderstanding. The clarification restores her own identity without resolving how or why the temporary substitution occurred. (Chapters 310–312)

Defense of the River-Defying Sect

Xuemei continues into the River-Defying Sect and fights at full strength in its campaigns. Much later, she stands beside Song Junwan and Patriarch Limitless when the sect is under attack, seriously injured but helping preserve the remaining Middle Peak blood sword and save retreating disciples. Song Junwan orders rescuers to treat Xuemei before herself, showing that their former succession rivalry has given way to mutual defense. (Chapters 315, 331, and 862–865)

Her latest scene finds her weak and injured yet alive beside her father as Bai Xiaochun restores hope to the sect. Xuemei looks back on the misunderstandings of the Blood Stream years and sighs emotionally; the source does not specify whether this reflection concerns the succession conflict, the mistaken Du Lingfei identity, or both, so her precise interpretation remains uncertain. (Chapter 871)

Appearance and personality

Xuemei wears a crimson gown and a blood-colored mask decorated with a plum blossom. She has long hair, phoenix-like eyes, a curving figure visible even beneath a voluminous robe, and facial features similar enough to Patriarch Limitless to make their parentage evident. Her face is not Du Lingfei's: that appearance belongs only to the temporary substitute encountered during the trial. (Chapters 186, 191, 200, and 310–311)

She is proud, domineering, cold toward people she considers beneath her, and willing to use factional influence and prohibited stratagems to reach the blood-master position. She is also disciplined and exceptionally resilient, recovering from shocks quickly, competing despite injuries, and continuing to defend the sect long after her political defeat. Her later conduct is less vindictive than her early reputation suggests: she accepts rescue from Bai Xiaochun, sees the pain behind his false accusation, and fights beside Song Junwan for their shared disciples. (Chapters 191–212, 239–259, 300–312, and 862–871)

Abilities and cultivation

Xuemei's demonstrated power comes from a nine-Tideflows Earthstring foundation, Blood Stream blood-qi methods, and plum-themed techniques. Any ability shown only after the Ancient Blood Path substitution must be assigned to Du Lingfei unless the corpus separately demonstrates Xuemei using it.

Nine-Tideflows Earthstring Foundation

Xuemei reaches the peak of Earthstring Foundation Establishment with nine Tideflows, a feat that makes her one of the eastern Lower Reaches' strongest young cultivators. When fully released, nine vortexes form around her like enormous tornadoes. The quality of this foundation lets her contend above her nominal stage, but she initially remains at mid Foundation Establishment and has less accumulated power than Song Junwan at the great circle of the realm. The corpus does not directly name Xuemei's later Core Formation stage. (Chapters 173, 186–187, and 208–212)

Blood-qi and plum-blossom arts

Xuemei can draw upon Middle Peak's ambient blood qi and shape it into a gigantic blood-colored plum blossom. The manifestation overwhelms a local cave formation, descends as a crushing attack, and can be resummoned through incantation gestures, although Song Junwan's fuller control of the peak-wide formation disperses it. Xuemei also forms a smaller plum-blossom symbol in battle to destroy an enemy clone while poisoned and badly wounded. These applications establish both formation-assisted and personal variants without explaining their exact names or costs. (Chapters 208–212 and 301)

She is also proficient in shared Blood Stream methods. During a sect rite, she resists the blood-eye's mental pressure, absorbs blood qi into her body, and is the first of nine Chosen to transform it into the required blood offering. In the succession trial she uses the blood-master command medallion to bypass entry restrictions and link with the Blood Ancestor's internal stages. Her post-transition substitute demonstrates the Golden Touch, but Xuemei herself does not; its life-force cost and golden manifestation belong to Du Lingfei's temporary impersonation. (Chapters 239–240, 242–247, and 255–258)

Command and battlefield experience

Xuemei commands twenty late-Foundation Establishment Dharma protectors, coordinates infiltrators and counterfeit access medallions, and personally contests Song Junwan while her team seeks the trial's keys. In open war she can fight multiple attackers while poisoned, counter a clone, and continue until near unconsciousness. Her exact later cultivation and whether her trial-era network persists in the River-Defying Sect are not stated. (Chapters 242–257 and 290–302)

Relationships

• Patriarch Limitless: Xuemei's father, political sponsor, and fellow defender of the later River-Defying Sect. Their similar features are decisive evidence that she is the genuine Xuemei rather than Du Lingfei.
• Song Junwan: Her principal rival for the Middle Peak blood-master position. Their conflict includes direct combat and competing factions, but they later fight side by side, and Song Junwan prioritizes Xuemei's treatment during the River-Defying Sect's retreat.
• Bai Xiaochun: Initially Nightcrypt, the intruder she tries to punish and the unexpected winner of the succession trial. He later saves her life, then wrongly treats her as Du Lingfei before evidence forces him to recognize that she is a separate person.
• Du Lingfei: The woman who temporarily appears behind Xuemei's mask during the final succession stage. The corpus establishes substitution rather than identity continuity; its mechanism, authorization, and Xuemei's awareness remain unknown.
• Master God-Diviner: An admirer who becomes her eager informant against Nightcrypt and later serves among the rival succession forces.

Items

• Xuemei's Plum-Blossom Mask: Xuemei's signature identity-concealing mask. Du Lingfei temporarily appears beneath it during the blood-master trial, but that substitution does not make the two women the same person.