Yao Lao

Yao Lao, whose personal name is Yao Chen, is the master alchemist whose spirit inhabits Yao Lao's Black Ring. After accidentally draining Xiao Yan's Dou Qi, he accepts the youth as his disciple and teaches him cultivation, combat, and medicine refinement. Their initially practical bargain becomes a familial bond that survives Yao Lao's exhaustion, capture by the Hall of Souls, bodily restoration, and rise as a leader of the Central Plains resistance. (Chapters 8–9, 264, 660–662, 1222, 1284–1285, 1648)

Biography

The Fallen Genius and the Hidden Teacher

Yao Lao first survives without a body inside the black ring left to Xiao Yan by his mother. For three years he unconsciously takes the boy's Dou Qi as nourishment, causing Xiao Yan's fall from clan prodigy to public disgrace. When he finally manifests as a transparent, wrinkled elder, he admits the cause rather than inventing an excuse, but also makes clear that he needs Xiao Yan's continued shelter. (Chapters 2, 8–9)

Xiao Yan initially throws the ring away in fury, so Yao Lao must persuade someone he has harmed to retrieve and protect him. He offers a concrete form of restitution: the chance to become an alchemist and recover strength under expert direction. He also promises not to take further Dou Qi without permission. Their arrangement therefore begins as an exchange between mutually suspicious dependents, not as instant affection or unquestioned reverence. (Chapters 8–9)

Once Xiao Yan performs the formal disciple's salute, Yao Lao treats the relationship seriously. He withholds distracting details about his origins but evaluates the boy's unusually firm foundation, provides a gentler medicinal training method, and later teaches Octane Blast through precisely measured punishment that stops short of lasting injury. The discipline reveals both his severity and his care: pain is acceptable to him only when controlled toward growth and followed by recovery. (Chapters 9, 18–19, 24)

Clan Recovery and the Marketplace War

As Xiao Yan approaches Dou Zhe, Yao Lao shifts from repairing the damage he caused to designing a long-term cultivation path. He refines the Qi Gathering Pill and presents Flame Mantra as an extraordinary but dangerous choice whose success rate he cannot guarantee. Instead of disguising uncertainty as authority, he explains that its evolution depends on swallowing rare flames and allows Xiao Yan to choose the risk for himself. (Chapters 53, 60, 63–68)

Yao Lao then teaches medicine refinement as a system of soul perception, flame control, ingredient sequencing, and cauldron management. He makes Xiao Yan locate the trace of wood affinity within his body, regulates the early refining exercises, and corrects failure rather than performing every batch himself. His goal is not merely to produce pills; it is to make his disciple capable of diagnosing and controlling a process that can explode when concentration or temperature fails. (Chapters 72–77)

During the Xiao clan's marketplace conflict, Yao Lao lends the authority of an unseen senior alchemist while keeping Xiao Yan's identity protected. Formulas, storage space, and selective direct refinement let the boy bargain with the Primer Auction House and undermine the Jia Lie clan's medicinal advantage. Yet Xiao Yan performs the commercial planning and increasingly handles refinement, showing Yao Lao beginning to transfer an independent profession instead of preserving dependence on his own reputation. (Chapters 89–90, 96, 105)

Trials in the Magic Beast Mountain Range

Outside Wu Tan City, Yao Lao turns travel into controlled exposure to lethal risk. He evaluates cave treasures, identifies a fragment of the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame Map, and demonstrates Flame Splitting Tsunami with the Heavy Xuan Ruler. The demonstration establishes the Di-class technique's scale, but his training under the waterfall forces Xiao Yan to build the physical control required to reproduce it rather than mistake observation for mastery. (Chapters 108, 118, 120, 122)

Yao Lao repeatedly decides whether intervention would preserve his disciple or merely arrest his development. He helps when the Amethyst Winged Lion and other opponents exceed Xiao Yan's survivable range, yet otherwise lets the youth negotiate, retreat, and judge the Little Fairy Doctor and Yun Zhi for himself. This calibrated restraint changes his teaching from the delivery of techniques into supervision of decisions whose moral and strategic consequences cannot be solved by raw strength. (Chapters 130–131, 139, 147, 151)

When the Little Fairy Doctor loses consciousness after consuming poison, Yao Lao recognizes the Woeful Poison Body and stops Xiao Yan from touching her before explaining its danger. He later supervises the refinement of Amethyst Lion Birth Essence into Purple Flame, helping Flame Mantra make its first improvement. Both episodes show the breadth of his expertise, but also its limits: diagnosis can warn of a constitution's path, while it cannot decide the affected person's future. (Chapters 154–159)

The Desert Hunt for a Heavenly Flame

The Green Lotus Core Flame gives Yao Lao the first realistic chance to test whether Flame Mantra can fulfill its promise. He identifies traces of the flame, uses spiritual power to help Xiao Yan and Qing Lin survive the magma region, and recognizes from a seven-colored scale that the flame has already been taken. His disappointment does not become recklessness; he restrains Xiao Yan's anger and redirects the pursuit toward evidence rather than wounded expectation. (Chapters 162, 179, 194–200)

Yao Lao specifies the protections required to bring a Heavenly Flame into a human body: the Blood Lotus Pill, Ice Spirit Cold Fountain, Acceptance Spirit, and the Green Lotus Platform as a final safeguard. During absorption he seals the cave with spiritual strength and warns that even he may be unable to save Xiao Yan from an internal eruption. His guidance reduces known risks without pretending that preparation can make the act safe. (Chapters 171, 218, 224, 226–232)

After Xiao Yan succeeds, Yao Lao lends the Bone Chilling Flame during the desperate conflict over Qing Lin. Xiao Yan's improvised fusion of two unlike flames produces a devastating lotus, but the backlash consumes Yao Lao's remaining spiritual strength. He enters deep sleep only after leaving a recovery program for his injured disciple, making the consequence of his protection explicit: the bodiless teacher risks his own continued existence to keep Xiao Yan alive. (Chapters 235, 262, 264–265)

The Capital Contest and the Three-Year Duel

Yao Lao spends much of the imperial-capital period dormant, leaving Xiao Yan to pursue the Seven Magical Green Spirit Saliva through the Alchemist Grand Meeting and treatment of Nalan Jie. When the medicine reaches the ring, Yao Lao's spiritual power briefly erupts strongly enough to strike a hidden observer while deliberately passing around Xiao Yan. The response proves that he remains present, but his subsequent silence shows that raw recovery has not restored sustained consciousness. (Chapters 264, 327–329)

Xiao Yan's effort to wake him reverses the apprenticeship's earliest dependency. Formerly, Yao Lao supplied remedies for a youth who could not retain Dou Qi; now that youth competes, bargains, and refines to preserve the damaged spirit who taught him. Yao Lao must accept that his survival depends on skills he transmitted, while Xiao Yan learns that repayment is not a single debt but continuing responsibility for another person's vulnerability. (Chapters 264, 327–330)

He recovers enough to lend limited spiritual strength during the confrontation at Misty Cloud Sect, but cannot erase every danger created by the institution surrounding Nalan Yanran's duel. Hai Bodong and Ling Ying share the protective burden that once belonged almost entirely to him. The constrained return changes his role from absolute hidden safeguard into one adviser among a growing network of allies around Xiao Yan. (Chapters 329, 342, 351)

Misty Cloud Retaliation and Exile

When Yun Shan's Dou Zong power threatens to overwhelm Xiao Yan during the renewed Misty Cloud conflict, Yao Lao takes control of his disciple's body. He channels the Bone Chilling Flame, wields the Heavy Xuan Ruler, and contests techniques Xiao Yan could not survive unaided. Possession grants a temporary increase in combat ability, but incomplete control of another body and earlier spiritual expenditure impose a strict duration that Yun Shan recognizes and attempts to exploit. (Chapters 366–369)

Yao Lao responds to that limit by prioritizing escape instead of turning pride into a hopeless duel. He evaluates Medusa's unwillingness to risk a dying Dou Zong's counterattack, attacks the sect formation with cold flame, and then returns bodily control so Xiao Yan can use the flame lotus that only its creator can manage. Their different capabilities become complementary rather than interchangeable, with Yao Lao supplying judgment and an opening instead of claiming the victory. (Chapters 366–371)

During the flight, he refines recovery medicine, interprets the Skyfire Three Mysterious Change, and explains that the Hall of Souls operates on a scale beyond the Jia Ma Empire. These disclosures connect Xiao Zhan's abduction to the force that helped destroy Yao Lao's former body. By sharing the enemy he had concealed, Yao Lao makes exile an entry into their common history rather than merely the consequence of Xiao Yan's local revenge. (Chapters 368–371, 377, 380–381)

Across the Black-Corner Region to Jia Nan Academy

The Black-Corner Region confronts Xiao Yan with auctions and predators beyond ordinary imperial rules, and Yao Lao acts as an informed restraint on both fear and appetite. He assesses rare lots, supports acquisition of Three Thousand Lightning Movement, and helps distinguish valuable techniques from traps or needless provocations. His presence lets the journey remain strategically productive without promising that knowledge can remove the danger of offending stronger bidders. (Chapters 383, 392–404)

At Jia Nan Academy, Xun Er and new companions become active partners in Xiao Yan's decisions. Yao Lao does not compete with those bonds; he recedes into a specialist role, offering technical instruction while allowing peer rivalry and cooperation to shape his disciple. The adjustment matters because successful mentorship now requires accepting that Xiao Yan's social world cannot remain organized around a secret elder whom almost no one else can see. (Chapters 409, 418, 429, 433–434)

He continues transmitting combat knowledge, including movement and sonic techniques, but observes Xiao Yan build the leadership required to unite freshmen during the Fire Energy hunt. Yao Lao's earlier method of measured hardship has become something his disciple can apply socially: pressure is not removed, yet people are equipped to resist it. The academy group consequently reduces both Xiao Yan's isolation and Yao Lao's need to be his sole counselor. (Chapters 418, 429, 433–434, 458)

Pan's Gate and the Inner Academy

Pan's Gate expands the scale of Xiao Yan's responsibilities from his own advancement to medicine supply, faction defense, and the training of other students. Yao Lao advises on bulk refinement and treasure assessment without taking public control of the organization. This arrangement lets his alchemical inheritance sustain a community while keeping the student responsible for allocation, promises, and the political consequences of success. (Chapters 458–475)

Yao Lao also guides Three Thousand Lightning Movement practice, ruler comprehension, and use of Core Quenching Body Milk. He treats Zi Yan's ability to find ingredients as a partnership to manage rather than an excuse for careless consumption, and he allows Liu Qing and academy elders to impose trials appropriate to Xiao Yan's current rank. His interventions increasingly answer technical questions instead of replacing the experience that makes those questions meaningful. (Chapters 481, 485, 505–521)

Preparation for the Fallen Heart Flame becomes the arc's hidden priority. Yao Lao directs the gathering and refinement of a Ground Spirit Pill, recognizing that the tower's flame offers both an opportunity for Flame Mantra and a threat greater than the earlier beast flame. By the Strong Ranking tournament, Xiao Yan supplies the leadership and execution; Yao Lao's achievement is the disciple's ability to act from transmitted principles rather than constant commands. (Chapters 532, 538–541, 545–553)

The Fallen Heart Flame Catastrophe

The tower catastrophe exposes Han Feng as the former disciple who helped destroy Yao Lao's body. Yao Lao's concern is therefore both strategic and deeply personal: the Sea Heart Flame and invading alchemists threaten Jia Nan Academy, while Han Feng embodies an inheritance severed from loyalty. By identifying him to Xiao Yan, Yao Lao finally turns a concealed trauma into shared history and lets his current disciple understand why the betrayal matters beyond factional rivalry. (Chapters 540, 594, 599, 609–610)

When Xiao Yan is trapped with the Fallen Heart Flame, Yao Lao cannot simply rescue him. He helps sustain the struggle and merger where possible, but the prolonged contest ultimately has to be survived through Xiao Yan's own consciousness and Flame Mantra. This enforced absence demonstrates the limit of even devoted mentorship: Yao Lao can supply knowledge and prior preparation, while the disciple must endure the transforming danger alone. (Chapters 612, 619, 638, 641)

Xiao Yan later destroys Han Feng's body and spends a month refining the Spiritual Recovery Purple Pill to wake Yao Lao. On returning, Yao Lao first protects his unconscious disciple from Cai Lin, then recognizes how independent Xiao Yan has become. He explains Han Feng's Hall of Souls connection and the materials needed for a replacement body, transforming the old betrayal from private shame into a concrete rescue and restoration campaign. (Chapters 653, 659–662)

Return and the Misty Cloud Reckoning

Back in the Jia Ma Empire, Yao Lao resumes counsel while Xiao Yan assembles forces against Misty Cloud Sect. He no longer treats the young man as someone who must be kept away from every superior opponent; instead, he evaluates the coalition, lends spiritual support, and lets Xiao Yan direct the campaign. Their reunion thus restores intimacy without undoing the independence developed during Yao Lao's sleep. (Chapters 669, 673, 697, 709)

Protector Wu enters the final battle to harvest strong souls, forcing Yao Lao to confront the Hall directly. He fights with the Bone Chilling Flame and spiritual techniques even after his protection is broken. A spirit without physical flesh is especially vulnerable to the enemy's self-destruction and soul methods, yet he continues because withdrawing would expose Xiao Yan and the other defenders to an organization he understands better than they do. (Chapters 712, 718–721)

The strain leaves Yao Lao too weak to prevent Protector Wu from sealing him in a soul bag. His capture turns the protector into the person requiring rescue and removes him from active mentorship for years. Nonetheless, the formulas and instructions stored in his ring remain available to Xiao Yan, so his teaching continues to shape medicine refinement and planning even when the teacher himself is imprisoned beyond ordinary reach. (Chapters 720–723, 730)

The Death Soul Rescue and Falling Star Recovery

In the Hall of Souls branch hall, Yao Lao is chained among harvested spirits and pressured to serve the organization because of his alchemical skill. He refuses despite knowing the Hall's power and the physical impossibility of overpowering his guards in a depleted spiritual state. His resistance is deliberately patient: survival preserves the possibility that Xiao Yan and Feng zun-zhe can act, whereas a futile gesture would surrender the knowledge and relationships his captors want to exploit. (Chapters 1012–1013, 1209, 1215)

When Xiao Yan reaches him, Yao Lao's first response is pride that the boy has grown strong enough to breach the prison. He identifies the Lock Soul Chains and warns that hidden experts remain, even as Xiao Yan's new Heavenly Flame burns through the restraints. He then enters the ring during the escape rather than insisting on fighting while weakened, accepting temporary dependence because preserving the rescue party matters more than performing his old authority. (Chapters 1219–1222)

At Falling Star Pavilion, recovery remains incomplete: years of draining have left his spirit too damaged for immediate reconstruction, and Xiao Yan himself needs prolonged healing after the rescue. Yao Lao accepts Feng zun-zhe's protection and watches the disciple awaken stronger from his own injuries. Their roles are now reciprocal without becoming identical—Yao Lao remains mentor and judge, while Xiao Yan has become the agent capable of securing his teacher's future. (Chapters 1228–1232)

Ancient Remains and Yao Chen's Restoration

The ancient remains provide the Dou Sheng bones needed for a replacement body, and Xiao Yan refines the vessel from exceptionally powerful materials. Yao Lao must then merge his soul with a body he did not grow, a process so demanding that even after the physical form is complete he remains sealed in meditation. Restoration is therefore neither instant healing nor resurrection without risk; it depends on alchemy, compatibility, and his own ability to control the new vessel. (Chapters 1272, 1276–1278)

Hall forces attack the Star Realm before the merger appears complete, making the first use of Yao Lao's restored body an act of defense. He emerges as the pavilion's position is collapsing and reveals that the reconstruction has carried him beyond his former peak to Ban Sheng. He neutralizes an enormous ice attack and wounds the retreating Tianzuns, immediately converting personal recovery into security for the people who sheltered him. (Chapters 1282–1284)

The title Saint Yao brings influence as well as power. Yao Lao recognizes that the Hall can still threaten a shallow institution, so he accepts the administrative work of attracting trustworthy experts and strengthening Falling Star Pavilion despite disliking factional affairs. He also returns the black ring's accumulated knowledge to Xiao Yan and offers away the Bone Chilling Flame, treating restoration not as a reason to reclaim every possession but as a chance to finish transferring his legacy. (Chapters 1284–1285)

Gu Realm Rites and the Heavenly Tomb

Xiao Yan's invitation to the Gu Realm exposes him to ancient-clan politics that Yao Lao cannot solve through alchemy or reputation. Yao Lao explains the eight clans, assesses the invitation, and helps prepare spiritual training before sending him east. The decision reflects confidence rather than abandonment: he recognizes when another lineage and Xun Er's own family context must teach what his experience cannot provide. (Chapters 1313–1316)

While Xiao Yan enters the Gu Realm and Heavenly Tomb, Yao Lao remains responsible for Falling Star Pavilion. He cannot accompany the disciple through every test without turning an independent relationship into renewed dependence, and his restored public position creates obligations to people beyond Xiao Yan. The separation marks the mentor's parallel development from private guide into a leader whose restraint protects the institutional base to which Xiao Yan can return. (Chapters 1314–1316, 1324)

Xiao Yan later returns with the Xiao bloodline inheritance and far greater cultivation. Yao Lao receives that growth without jealousy or an attempt to reinterpret it as his own teaching. The old master understands that Xiao Xuan and the Gu clan have become parts of his disciple's formation, demonstrating that his paternal pride rests on Xiao Yan's flourishing rather than on exclusive ownership of the young man's accomplishments. (Chapters 1324, 1372)

Northern War and the Bodhisattva Tree

Falling Star Pavilion expands rapidly under Yao Lao's reputation, and Xiao Yan is recognized as its junior chief. Yao Lao builds the long wormhole to the northwest, dispatches knowledgeable elders to aid the Yan Alliance, and personally remains behind when Hall deception is possible. These choices balance family support with institutional defense, refusing to concentrate every powerful figure in the most emotionally urgent theater. (Chapters 1372–1375)

He also accepts Xiao Xiao as a grand-disciple and granddaughter in practice. After learning of her birth, Yao Lao examines her fire-and-wood affinity and powerful Spiritual Strength, then offers to cultivate her alchemical potential. The scene broadens his relationship with Xiao Yan into a family line chosen through teaching: a man without spouse or children can transmit care and craft without reducing the child to a continuation of his own prestige. (Chapters 1391–1392)

At the spatial trade fair and during the retreat from the Ancient Wasteland, Yao Lao helps acquire the last map fragment, interprets its secret, and confronts stronger enemies as a strategic equal. He warns that the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame exceeds Xiao Yan's present safety margin and treats the Bodhisattva Tree as a route toward Dou Sheng. Experience now functions as coalition planning rather than private tutelage, though protecting Xiao Yan remains central to it. (Chapters 1395–1403, 1432–1433)

The Star Realm Siege and the Sky Mansion Alliance

The Hall of Souls and Profound Sky Sect allies pressure Falling Star Pavilion while Xiao Yan attempts a critical breakthrough. Yao Lao deliberately contracts the pavilion's overextended territory, links defensive cities by wormholes, and rejects surrender when the invaders reach the Star Realm. His objective is not to preserve every possession; it is to keep a balanced core alive long enough for the institution and its secluded junior chief to survive. (Chapters 1434–1437)

During the siege, Yao Lao fights two Ban Sheng opponents and continues even as the defenders approach collapse. Xiao Yan's emergence and Angry Buddha Reincarnation reverse the battle, repaying the many earlier moments when Yao Lao's intervention created an escape. The rescue does not diminish Yao Lao's authority; it confirms that their bond has matured enough for either person to bear the decisive burden when the other's limit is reached. (Chapters 1437–1444)

Afterward, Yao Lao turns victory into structure by approaching the Flower Sect, Burning Flame Valley, and Pill Tower. Their leaders accept him as chief of the Sky Mansion Alliance because his alchemical reputation, Ban Sheng power, and long relationships provide a trusted center. He uses that prestige to coordinate distinct factions rather than absorb them into Falling Star Pavilion, making shared governance the answer to an enemy no solitary patron can contain. (Chapters 1445–1453)

Tribal Allies and the Hall Counteroffensive

With the alliance established, Yao Lao directs a systematic investigation of Hall branch infrastructure. His firsthand memory of imprisonment helps distinguish the important Disha and Tiangang halls from disposable sites, while Xiao Yan and Zi Yan provide field strength he does not need to monopolize. The campaign changes his position from a fugitive reacting to capture into a strategist able to target the system that once harvested him. (Chapters 1485–1488)

The attack on the Man Hall joins Yao Lao's knowledge to a multi-faction force. He fights Saint Gu You and gains the upper hand after advancing to one-star Dou Sheng, while other allies destroy guards and free the accumulated soul essence. His objective is broader than vengeance against one jailer: dismantling the collection site denies the Hall resources and prevents future captives from enduring the condition he survived. (Chapters 1488–1492)

Xiao Yan absorbs the liberated essence and reaches the Perfect Heavenly soul state. Yao Lao supports the opportunity while recognizing that such spiritual pressure now exceeds what most of the pavilion can comfortably bear. The result again exceeds the teacher's own path, yet he welcomes it because the alliance gains a stronger protector. His mentorship has become the architecture of opportunities that another person can carry farther. (Chapters 1491–1494)

The Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame Realm

When the demonic flame realm opens, Yao Lao mobilizes alliance experts and enters despite the danger its illusions pose even to Dou Shengs. He formally meets Xun Er, resolves her old suspicion of the hidden presence around Xiao Yan, and openly recognizes her as his disciple's partner. That humor closes an early secrecy-born tension and places her within the family structure Yao Lao has come to embrace. (Chapters 1495, 1498–1500)

Inside the realm, Yao Lao helps resist fire slaves and supports the Tianluo sealing formation. The flame's internal fire can invade even his restored body, and without the Bone Chilling Flame he must depend on Xiao Yan's protection to expel it. His participation is therefore consequential but bounded: he can fight and coordinate at Dou Sheng level without possessing the special flame compatibility needed to decide the realm's central contest. (Chapters 1502–1510)

Yao Lao leaves when the final refinement seals Xiao Yan and Xun Er away, then waits with the survivors for more than a year without certainty that they remain alive. Their eventual emergence gives Xiao Yan the flame and makes the partnership with Xun Er explicit. For Yao Lao, the outcome expands paternal responsibility from protecting one disciple to trusting the chosen family that can now protect him in return. (Chapters 1518, 1520, 1522–1523, 1528)

The Yao Clan Ceremony and the Hun Clan Revelation

The Yao clan's Medicinal Ceremony requires Yao Lao to return to the institution that expelled him. He accepts the invitation without surrendering his self-respect, enduring Yao Wangui's hostility and the reminder that clan officials still describe him as abandoned. Bringing Xiao Yan makes the visit a test of the living lineage he chose, rather than a plea for the bloodline establishment to restore his status. (Chapters 1560–1565)

Xiao Yan competes under his teacher's name and demonstrates an alchemical inheritance the clan cannot dismiss. Yao Lao watches the vindication with complicated restraint: public success answers old contempt, but it does not undo the loss that shaped him or make institutional approval the source of his worth. His disciple's loyalty matters precisely because it was chosen after Yao Lao had no body, title, or clan protection to offer. (Chapters 1563–1570)

The Hun clan assault turns ceremonial grievance into a struggle for survival. Yao Lao helps protect survivors and responds to Yao clan deaths with sorrow rather than satisfaction, even though the institution had rejected him. He ultimately retreats when remaining would only burden Xiao Yan's higher-ranked resistance. The decision shows both moral growth and tactical honesty: he aids his birth clan without pretending that blood erases its wrongs or his own limits. (Chapters 1572, 1576–1580)

The Ancient Jade Crisis and Burial Sky War

As the Hun clan gathers the Tuo She Ancient God Jade pieces, Yao Lao helps maintain the Sky Mansion Alliance and joins emergency planning with Gu Yuan and the other ancient-clan leaders. His role is no longer that of a hidden adviser whispering to one youth; he speaks as the leader of a coalition whose cities, experts, and intelligence must remain coordinated while Xiao Yan seeks greater spiritual power. (Chapters 1594–1603)

At Burial Sky Mountain, Yao Lao joins the coalition campaign while Xiao Yan presses toward Xiao Zhan's rescue. Their old teacher-student hierarchy no longer determines command: Yao Lao contributes experience and institutional continuity, while Xiao Yan's Di-state soul and greater combat strength make him the operation's central decision-maker. Accepting that shift lets Yao Lao support the family rescue without converting pride into interference. (Chapters 1603, 1611–1612)

The coalition frees Xiao Zhan, but the Hun clan escapes with the completed jade. Yao Lao helps steady the alliance after a victory that fails to prevent the larger disaster. When leadership must be consolidated, he supports Xiao Yan as alliance chief because reputation alone cannot substitute for the power now required. His willingness to yield primacy protects the organization he built from becoming dependent on his title. (Chapters 1611–1614)

The Ancient God Mansion and the Dou Di War

The opening of the Ancient God Mansion places Yao Lao among a coalition that cannot match the future Dou Di by ordinary cultivation. He supports the campaign and helps preserve cohesion while Xiao Yan pursues Tuo She's inheritance. The situation completes the inversion of their first years: Yao Lao can no longer act as the final hidden safeguard, and must instead trust the disciple he raised to reach a realm beyond his own. (Chapters 1615–1625)

When Hun Tiandi reaches Dou Di before Xiao Yan returns, Yao Lao remains with the defenders facing continental destruction. His strategic responsibility is to keep the alliance functioning and its surviving experts committed long enough for another outcome to remain possible. Endurance rather than a decisive personal technique defines his contribution, because the corpus establishes that no existing Dou Sheng can settle the war against a Dou Di. (Chapters 1625, 1635, 1639–1644)

Xiao Yan returns as Flame Di, defeats Hun Tiandi, and later relinquishes day-to-day command. Yao Lao resumes leadership of the Sky Mansion Alliance, teasing his disciple for becoming a hands-off chief while accepting the civic work peace still requires. His story closes with neither solitary glory nor restoration to the Yao clan, but responsibility for a chosen institution and pride in a disciple who has decisively surpassed him. (Chapters 1644–1648)

Appearance and personality

As a spirit, Yao Lao appears as a transparent, wrinkled elder with a beard, an aged face, and a form that can become faint when his strength is depleted. Recovery makes that spiritual body more substantial, but Hall techniques can still reduce it almost to invisibility because it lacks physical protection. After Xiao Yan refines a replacement body, he retains his elderly appearance while gaining an independent material existence. (Chapters 8–9, 264, 660, 720–722, 1276–1284)

Yao Lao combines pride in his craft with playful irreverence. He mocks celebrated alchemists, teases Xiao Yan, and dislikes being drawn into ceremony, yet he is exacting about the formal responsibility between teacher and disciple. His training can be harsh, but the measured blows, recovery medicines, and repeated warnings about unknown risks show that severity serves preparation rather than cruelty. He is also willing to admit when a mechanism or success rate is uncertain. (Chapters 9, 18–19, 66–68, 1285)

Betrayal makes him secretive and initially wary, especially concerning Han Feng, the Hall of Souls, and anyone who might endanger Xiao Yan. Nevertheless, he does not allow suspicion to harden into permanent isolation. He trusts Feng zun-zhe, accepts Xun Er and Cai Lin as members of Xiao Yan's family, aids the Yao clan that rejected him, and converts personal reputation into a coalition. His strongest pride is ultimately paternal rather than possessive. (Chapters 660–662, 1217–1222, 1391, 1452–1453, 1528, 1560–1580)

Abilities and cultivation

Yao Lao's capabilities combine high-level Dou Qi cultivation, exceptional soul strength, master alchemy, the Bone Chilling Flame, broad technical knowledge, and strategic leadership. His effectiveness changes sharply with embodiment: as a spirit he can refine, attack, teach, and temporarily control Xiao Yan's body, but spiritual expenditure and soul-binding techniques threaten his existence. His reconstructed body restores full cultivation and eventually supports advancement from Ban Sheng to one-star Dou Sheng. (Chapters 72–79, 264, 366–369, 720–722, 1276–1285, 1491–1500)

Dou Qi, embodiment, and cultivation progression

Before losing his body, Yao Lao had reached the peak of the Dou Zun class. His ring-bound spirit retains knowledge and formidable power, but cannot express that cultivation as freely as a living expert: he depends on stored spiritual energy, Xiao Yan's body, or direct soul techniques, and extended intervention can force him into sleep. The Hall exploits this weakness with restraints and attacks specifically effective against spiritual bodies. (Chapters 122, 262–265, 366–369, 661, 720–722)

Xiao Yan reconstructs him using a refined Dou Sheng skeleton and other high-grade materials. Yao Lao must personally complete the soul-body merger, after which the unusually strong vessel carries him beyond his former peak to Ban Sheng. He can then manipulate space, suppress attacks from peak Dou Zuns, and shatter a massive ice technique with little visible effort, although he states immediately after awakening that his new foundation is not yet stable. (Chapters 1272, 1276–1285)

Later evidence identifies Yao Lao as a high-level Ban Sheng and then as a one-star Dou Sheng. At that level he defeats or pressures other Saint-class opponents, builds very long-distance wormholes, and survives operations in the demonic flame realm. He remains below Xiao Yan and the strongest ancient-clan combatants, a limitation he acknowledges when higher-ranked enemies make retreat more useful than symbolic resistance. (Chapters 1373, 1432–1438, 1469, 1491, 1500–1511, 1579)

Soul power and spiritual manifestation

Yao Lao can manifest outside the ring, perceive qualities hidden from ordinary senses, transmit techniques directly into a disciple's mind, and manipulate objects or medicinal ingredients with spiritual force. As his spirit recovers, he can release spiritual ripples powerful enough to injure a concealed observer while consciously sparing Xiao Yan. His high soul perception also lets him diagnose constitutions, inspect flame and cultivation changes, and evaluate alchemical control with unusual precision. (Chapters 8–9, 18, 72, 154–155, 328–329, 661)

He can place his spiritual strength into Xiao Yan's body and temporarily direct it, giving the youth access to Yao Lao's experience, flame control, and combat output. The technique is not possession without constraints: Yao Lao cannot perfectly control another person's body, earlier expenditure reduces its duration, and Xiao Yan must resume control for abilities dependent on his own practice. This makes the method a dangerous bridge across rank differences rather than a permanent substitute for cultivation. (Chapters 366–371)

Soul form also creates serious vulnerabilities. The Angry Buddha Lotus Flame's backlash exhausts him into sleep; Protector Wu's soul methods injure and capture him; Lock Soul Chains restrain and drain him in the branch hall. After acquiring a body he no longer depends on the ring for survival, while his soul reaches the Heavenly state and supports Saint-level alchemy. The corpus demonstrates these effects without specifying every internal mechanism of spiritual persistence. (Chapters 264–265, 720–723, 1012–1013, 1222, 1284, 1315)

Alchemy and medicinal knowledge

Yao Lao is established as one of the continent's foremost alchemists. He can refine without an ordinary physical body, control multiple ingredients in smooth succession, assess cauldron structure, and design medicines for cultivation, healing, spiritual recovery, poison constitutions, and bodily reconstruction. His practice depends on soul perception, controlled flame, formula knowledge, and precise balance; neither a powerful flame nor expensive ingredients can replace those requirements. (Chapters 60, 72–79, 368, 538–541, 660–662)

Teaching is a demonstrated extension of that mastery. Yao Lao begins with cauldron outlets, the relation between fire and wood affinity, temperature regulation, and ingredient extraction, then leaves formulas that let Xiao Yan continue after his capture. He also develops a demanding spiritual-enhancement method used during the Pill Gathering. Xiao Yan's later tier-eight achievements show the transmission's success, but they result from continued personal refinement rather than instant inheritance of Yao Lao's rank. (Chapters 72–79, 723, 1120, 1188)

After restoration, his reputation attracts elite cultivators to Falling Star Pavilion and makes alliance-wide medicine production possible. He refines pills to strengthen Cai Lin and other experts, prepares Bodhisattva-related resources, and supports breakthrough attempts. Social influence is not treated as magical compulsion: people answer because rare medicine, demonstrated skill, and prior favors make cooperation valuable, while Yao Lao still has to select recruits and organize their contribution. (Chapters 1284–1285, 1375, 1392, 1434–1435, 1452–1453)

Bone Chilling Flame and fire control

Yao Lao acquired the Bone Chilling Flame after a difficult search in a dangerous region. The Heavenly Flame appears as a dense white fire that combines searing destructive power with cold and ice-like manifestations. He uses it for medicine refinement, protection, direct attacks, and techniques such as the fire-coated ice mirror against Yun Shan. Its precise temperature behavior is demonstrated through those effects, while the corpus does not reduce it to ordinary elemental ice. (Chapters 72–79, 122, 366–369, 1184)

As a spirit, the flame is both weapon and defense. Yao Lao can lend it to Xiao Yan, coat attacks or barriers with it, and use it to oppose powerful techniques, but maintaining it consumes spiritual strength. Soul-targeting attacks can breach its protection, and its loan contributes to the exhaustion surrounding Xiao Yan's first flame lotus. These limitations explain why possessing a Heavenly Flame does not make his bodiless state invulnerable. (Chapters 262–265, 366–369, 718–722)

After gaining a new body, Yao Lao removes his spiritual imprint from the Bone Chilling Flame and gives it to Xiao Yan. The severance makes him pale and the flame still resists immediate refinement because of their long association. Once surrendered, Yao Lao no longer has its protection; demonic fire later invades his body in the Purifying Flame realm until Xiao Yan expels it. His latest abilities therefore do not include permanent control of the flame. (Chapters 1285, 1502–1503)

Combat techniques, instruction, and tactical judgment

Yao Lao demonstrates refined ruler combat through Flame Splitting Tsunami, generating force capable of dividing a waterfall and teaching Xiao Yan the physical preparation needed to reproduce it. He also supplies Octane Blast, movement arts, sonic techniques, and numerous formulas or skill assessments. These are not all his signature personal attacks; many matter because he understands their requirements well enough to select and teach them for Xiao Yan's developing system. (Chapters 18–19, 122, 394, 429–434)

His tactical strength lies in matching intervention to circumstance. Yao Lao can restrain an opponent, expose a formation's weakness, conceal traces, appraise a treasure, or identify when escape is the only rational outcome. He sometimes misjudges unknown phenomena, including the full potential of Flame Mantra, but updates his conclusions after observation. This combination of experience and acknowledged uncertainty makes his advice adaptable rather than omniscient. (Chapters 66–68, 200, 227–232, 366–371, 661, 1400–1403)

At his latest state, his most consequential application of power is institutional. He constructs wormholes, organizes defenses, recruits experts through medicine and reputation, and coordinates the Sky Mansion Alliance's intelligence and attacks. Leadership does not replace combat—he still fights Saint-class enemies—but it lets his craft and judgment affect several fronts while Xiao Yan handles opponents beyond his rank. (Chapters 1373–1375, 1434–1453, 1485–1492, 1611–1616, 1648)

Power progression

Relationships

Xiao Yan

Yao Lao's relationship with Xiao Yan begins in wrongdoing and mutual need: he has consumed the boy's Dou Qi, while Xiao Yan needs the expertise only he can offer. Formal discipleship develops into paternal attachment through training, sacrifice, separation, and rescue. Yao Lao regards Xiao Yan as the son he never had, and his pride survives being surpassed because the relationship's purpose is the disciple's growth, not preservation of the teacher's superiority. (Chapters 8–9, 19, 264, 660–662, 1222, 1391, 1528, 1648)

Han Feng

Han Feng was the abandoned child Yao Lao raised and taught before Han Feng conspired with the Hall of Souls to destroy him. Yao Lao conceals this betrayal for years, and its revelation makes Han Feng a moral contrast to Xiao Yan: both receive rare alchemical knowledge, but only one treats inheritance as a bond carrying reciprocal duty. Even after Han Feng's defeat, Yao Lao's sorrow shows that betrayal does not erase the parental attachment that made it devastating. (Chapters 540, 594–610, 661, 1433)

Feng zun-zhe

Feng zun-zhe remains Yao Lao's loyal friend through his disappearance and captivity. He helps assemble the Death Soul rescue party, shelters the depleted spirit at Falling Star Pavilion, and protects the body-merger process. After restoration, the two divide work according to temperament and skill: Feng handles much of the pavilion's administration, while Yao Lao supplies alchemy, strategic authority, and the reputation around which stronger coalitions can form. (Chapters 1217–1222, 1272–1285, 1452–1453)

Xiao Yan's family and partners

Yao Lao initially treats Xun Er and Cai Lin as possible dangers he must evaluate around his hidden disciple. Later, he accepts Xun Er as Xiao Yan's partner, works with Cai Lin as an alliance leader, and embraces Xiao Xiao as a granddaughter and prospective alchemist. This widening circle shows his movement away from the secrecy imposed by betrayal: protection comes to mean trusting a family of capable people, not keeping Xiao Yan dependent on one guardian. (Chapters 18, 660–661, 1391, 1435, 1498–1500, 1528)

Items

• Yao Lao's Black Ring is his spiritual refuge, storage space, and the medium through which he remains with Xiao Yan. It holds the formulas and knowledge that continue guiding Xiao Yan after Yao Lao is captured; once restored, Yao Lao takes it back while acknowledging that his disciple has already learned most of its inheritance. (Chapters 2, 8–9, 723, 1285)

• The Bone Chilling Flame is Yao Lao's Heavenly Flame and a principal source of his refining and spirit-form combat power. He lends it to Xiao Yan during early flame fusion, uses it against Yun Shan and Hall enemies, then permanently removes his imprint and transfers it after bodily restoration. (Chapters 72–79, 262–265, 366–369, 718–722, 1285)

• The Black Demon Cauldron is Yao Lao's eighth-ranked Heavenly Cauldron. He paid a great price to acquire it, retains its spiritual imprint while Xiao Yan stores it, and summons it for demanding refinements. Its durability and auxiliary value do not replace the user's flame control, soul perception, formulas, or knowledge of ingredient transformations. (Chapters 238, 538–541)

• Yao Lao identifies and helps assemble fragments of the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame Map, interprets the completed map's hidden message, and uses his experience to warn Xiao Yan about the flame's danger. The map guides the expedition but does not itself subdue the sentient flame or remove the need for Dou Sheng-level preparation. (Chapters 120, 176, 1395–1403, 1495–1502)