Zhao Tianjiao

Zhao Tianjiao is the first-ranked Starry Sky Dao Polarity Superstar, a battle-tested cultivator whose reserve conceals fierce loyalty to Chen Yueshan and to the few people he accepts as brothers.

Biography

First-Ranked Superstar and the Heavenspan Voyage

Zhao Tianjiao begins as the foremost name on the Superstar rankings and a contender for the soul-hunting expedition’s opportunity to reach Nascent Soul. He arrives late because he has spent a year pursuing the killers of a missing sect disciple, presenting the heads of three Nascent Soul cultivators as proof of the result. On the voyage, the other Core Formation disciples instinctively look to him when a corpse reveals an unseen threat aboard the ship; he examines it, warns everyone to remain vigilant, and assumes responsibility in the absence of the senior cultivators. (Chapters 417, 428, and 441–447)

That intimidating public role contrasts with his private inability to approach Chen Yueshan. Because he has loved her for years, Zhao Tianjiao humbles himself before Bai Xiaochun, vows that she will be his only Daoist partner, and follows Bai Xiaochun’s often embarrassing courtship plans with complete commitment. When the ship’s real white shadow attacks, however, his protection is not an act: he confronts it before it can reach her, accepts the risk of a soul attack, and helps force it to retreat. His sincerity finally reaches Chen Yueshan, whose later-revealed affection predates the voyage, and his confession establishes their partnership; it also turns his gratitude toward Bai Xiaochun into a close friendship that he treats as lifelong brotherhood. (Chapters 449–460)

Beyond the Great Wall

Approaching the Wildlands, Zhao Tianjiao shares restricted information with Bai Xiaochun because he fears his new friend will pursue an impossible path or enter danger unprepared. His own ambition is not merely to obtain a deva soul: he wants experience beyond the Great Wall, admission to the Hall of Steel Veins, and military distinction. He brings Bai Xiaochun into his traveling group, steers them around lethal hazards, and openly argues that cultivators owe a duty to defend their sect and the Heavenspan world. After seeing the war at the wall, he leaves its safety with Chen Yueshan, choosing dangerous field training over remaining behind its defenses. (Chapters 461–471)

Years of fighting transform Zhao Tianjiao and Chen Yueshan from relatively untested Chosen into the sole survivors of the team they assembled outside the wall. Zhao Tianjiao bears a scar earned while saving her from a necromancer, and their campaign yields a deva beast soul, but their intended return to serve in the five legions is interrupted when Chen Hetian orders them to investigate a black pillar. Fleeing enemy soul cultivators, they trigger a restrictive spell and are pulled into the vast ghostly labyrinth; Zhao Tianjiao manages to transmit one alarm before contact is cut off. He and Chen Yueshan ultimately survive the labyrinth’s trials, though the experience leaves their earlier plans unresolved in the immediate aftermath. (Chapters 520, 535, and 552–562)

Brotherhood, Defiance, and the Deadmire

By Bai Xiaochun’s return, Chen Yueshan is explicitly Zhao Tianjiao’s Daoist partner, and the friendship forged on the first voyage has become a loyalty strong enough to set him against his own master. Feeling guilty over the River-Defying Sect’s plight, he and Chen Yueshan first beg Chen Hetian to abandon the attack. When refused, Zhao Tianjiao declares Bai Xiaochun innocent, calls him his brother, and races to stand beside him despite knowing he cannot personally stop a deva. He later arrives with Bai Lin and the Hall of Steel Veins forces; witnessing Bai Xiaochun defeat three devas shakes his sense of his own progress and sends him back toward secluded cultivation. (Chapters 876 and 883–894)

Zhao Tianjiao subsequently appears among the eastern Nascent Soul cultivators who sail to Heavenspan Island for the Celestial’s trial by fire, confirming that he has crossed the threshold he had once pursued as a Superstar, although the corpus does not describe the breakthrough itself. The trial isolates its entrants amid lethal environments, and his search for the reported exit ends with him badly injured and supported by Big Fatty Zhang. He nevertheless survives the escape into the Deadmire, endures the bone galleon’s departure and return, and is last seen safely back among the eastern cultivators, watching Bai Xiaochun confront the northern powers. (Chapters 915–955)

Appearance and personality

Zhao Tianjiao is tall and slender, with long black hair and an initially cold expression. He carries a greatsword on his back and has a strong, muscular physique beneath his robes. His years in the Wildlands leave a scar running from the right corner of his mouth to his ear and replace his earlier trace of immaturity with a more composed, battle-hardened bearing. (Chapters 441, 444, 453, and 520)

In public, Zhao Tianjiao is proud, aloof, intensely serious, and imposing enough that other disciples are reluctant to approach him. In personal matters he is far less assured: Chen Yueshan later remembers him as inarticulate in ordinary life but ferocious in a crisis. He trains obsessively, has few friends, and gives deep loyalty once he accepts someone, as shown by his willingness to protect Chen Yueshan and defy Chen Hetian for Bai Xiaochun. (Chapters 448–460, 461, and 883)

Abilities and cultivation

Zhao Tianjiao’s cultivation is distinguished less by a fully explained lineage than by repeatedly demonstrated power above the normal limits of his stage. The corpus does not name his cultivation method or explain the origin of his lightning and movement arts.

Gold Core and Nascent Soul progression

At his introduction in person, Zhao Tianjiao is at the great circle of Core Formation, having previously advanced from the mid Gold Core stage. He ranks first among the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Superstars and can defeat Nascent Soul opponents while still in Core Formation; his year-long pursuit of three such enemies ends with all three dead. His cultivation fluctuations resemble those of a Nascent Soul cultivator even before his breakthrough, although the white shadow demonstrates that unusual soul attacks can bypass a simple comparison of cultivation levels and put him in mortal danger. (Chapters 441, 444, 456–457, and 487)

After Chen Hetian returns to the ship, Zhao Tianjiao’s aura indicates that he could advance once he obtained the required Nascent Soul-forming resources. By the Heavenspan Island expedition he is included among the eastern Nascent Soul cultivators. The source does not state which soul or method he used, nor does it demonstrate a later cultivation stage, so his exact Nascent Soul quality and subsequent progression remain unknown. (Chapters 460 and 915)

Minor teleportation

While still at Core Formation, Zhao Tianjiao can perform genuine short-distance teleportations. Repeated shifts make his approach blur until he is intermittently impossible to see, giving him movement beyond Heretic’s Wind Dash and helping establish his superiority among the ranked Superstars. The text specifies the short range but does not state the art’s name, activation conditions, cost, or whether it changes after his Nascent Soul advancement. (Chapter 444)

Lightning arts

Zhao Tianjiao activates his principal demonstrated combat art through incantation gestures, drawing numerous lightning bolts around himself and compressing them into paired, one-meter spheres in his palms. The lightning changes from silver to gold before release, and its impact can drive back and dim the ship’s white shadow even though that enemy’s soul-focused power destroys the spheres and injures him. This encounter shows both the art’s direct force and its limitation against an incorporeal opponent able to divide and attack the soul. (Chapters 455–456)

When the divided shadow reforms into a sword aimed at his forehead, Zhao Tianjiao prepares a dangerous counterattack rather than retreat. Bai Xiaochun briefly arrests the sword with control power, creating the opening for Zhao Tianjiao to invoke Lightning Detonation: golden lightning fills his eyes and erupts outward, breaking apart the sword and prompting the shadow to withdraw. The source establishes this explosive discharge and its successful interaction with Bai Xiaochun’s restraint, but does not explain its power source, duration, cost, or whether Zhao Tianjiao can use it without such an opening. (Chapter 456)

Formations and battlefield judgment

Zhao Tianjiao can construct layered spell formations and select special materials intended to restrain illusory spirit entities, though the staged attackers reach Chen Yueshan before those preparations demonstrate a decisive trapping effect. More consistently, he applies experience through leadership and threat assessment: disciples defer to him during the shipboard deaths, he recognizes that the white shadow has isolated their battlefield, and he warns against pursuing it into the night where it could divide the group. These are demonstrated tactical competencies rather than a named supernatural ability. (Chapters 447 and 455–457)

Power progression

Relationships

• Chen Yueshan: Zhao Tianjiao’s long-standing love and eventual Daoist partner. His reserve prevents him from recognizing her earlier affection, but their relationship becomes mutual after he protects her from the white shadow and openly confesses; they later campaign together, survive the Wildlands, and jointly oppose Chen Hetian’s action against Bai Xiaochun.
• Bai Xiaochun: Zhao Tianjiao first seeks his romantic advice, then comes to regard him as one of his few true friends and a brother for life. He shares sensitive guidance, worries about Bai Xiaochun’s safety, and ultimately chooses to stand beside him even against his own master.
• Chen Hetian: Zhao Tianjiao’s master and Chen Yueshan’s father. He respects Chen Hetian’s authority and follows his orders during the Wildlands mission, but his loyalty to Bai Xiaochun eventually leads him to plead against—and then openly disregard—his master’s course.
• Bai Lin: A fellow veteran and ally who shares Zhao Tianjiao’s loyalty to Bai Xiaochun. They bring the Hall of Steel Veins forces to the River-Defying Sect, later join the Heavenspan Island expedition, and survive the Deadmire ordeal.
• Heretic: Zhao Tianjiao’s closest-ranked Superstar rival. Heretic holds second place and initially views the soul hunt as a contest between them for the chance to reach Nascent Soul.