Zhang San

Zhang San is a veteran of Seven Blood Eyes whose unassuming manner conceals experience with violence, intelligence work, commerce, and shipbuilding. He becomes one of Xu Qing’s most dependable friends, repeatedly translating Xu Qing’s dangerous gains into usable vessels while building the transport and commercial networks that support their shared life.

Biography

Seven Blood Eyes beginnings

The Captain introduces Zhang San as a former Violent Crimes constable who transferred to the Transportation Division and cultivated the appearance of an ordinary, honest middle-aged disciple. The Captain claims that Zhang San has killed many pirates and rogue cultivators, while Zhang San minimizes that past and offers Xu Qing an immortal bone from a winged fish as a meeting gift. The bone can improve a dharmaboat’s speed, establishing both his technical knowledge and his habit of investing early in dangerous people. (Chapters 55–56)

Zhang San also serves as a discreet source of harbor intelligence. When the Captain asks about unusual activity, Zhang San taps ash from his pipe into a face and written message, then waits until Xu Qing has departed before continuing the private discussion. His cautious methods and outwardly foolish smile fit a man who survives by knowing when to speak, when to conceal his strength, and when a generous gift may create a useful future alliance. (Chapter 56)

Shipwright, survivor, and harbor partner

When Xu Qing needs a serious upgrade, Zhang San reveals that he effectively runs the Transportation Division from behind the scenes and controls warehouses full of quality components. He criticizes Xu Qing’s existing boat for emphasizing rank over durability, then accepts only a fraction of the work’s value because he regards the difference as an investment. The rebuilt craft gains heavy defenses, land mobility, enlarged sails, concealed features, and a layout tailored to Xu Qing’s practical survival rather than display. (Chapters 78–79)

Zhang San later enters the Merfolk competition himself and helps bring the badly injured Captain home. Faced with the destruction of one of his best boats, he complains but immediately plans the next repair, including a future Foundation Establishment power source. Afterward, he and the Captain develop Harbor 176 with Xu Qing as a partner. Zhang San’s work turns the harbor into a continuing business whose profits remain useful long after Xu Qing leaves South Phoenix. (Chapters 127–129, 193–205)

Coalition expansion and dharmaship work

After Seven Blood Eyes relocates into the Eight Sect Coalition, Zhang San’s commercial instincts scale with the sect. He asks Xu Qing to investigate the new location because that knowledge will determine where future profit can be made, then establishes a much larger Transportation Division with extensive warehouses. He continues to treat equipment work and business placement as connected tasks: ships keep cultivators alive, while transport infrastructure gives the sect and its members a durable economic base. (Chapters 273, 276)

His most important technical project of this period is the conversion of Xu Qing’s damaged craft into a dharmaship. Working with its formations, a spirit automaton, and a captured soul, Zhang San helps integrate the vessel’s disparate powers into a controllable whole. The completed formation surpasses ordinary Foundation Establishment standards and can threaten Gold Core opponents, demonstrating that his contribution is not raw cultivation strength but the ability to make unusual materials and dangerous powers function together. (Chapters 310–311)

Sea-Sealing logistics and the spirit cruiser

As Xu Qing’s responsibilities shift to Sea-Sealing County, Zhang San’s support remains practical rather than ceremonial. He arranges for Ding Xue to administer Xu Qing’s share of Harbor 176, and the accumulated profits arrive intact after two years. That continuity shows how Zhang San protects a friend’s interests while Xu Qing is absent, using trusted people and established systems instead of requiring Xu Qing to oversee the business personally. (Chapter 542)

Zhang San also comes to the county capital with Seven Blood Eyes and directs work on Xu Qing’s new spirit cruiser. Sixth Peak elders perform the large-scale forging, but the design follows Zhang San’s planning, producing a vessel so different from the old dharmaship that it is difficult to call it the same kind of craft. Xu Qing collects it immediately before secretly leaving for Moonrite, making Zhang San’s engineering part of the expedition’s logistical foundation without implying that Zhang San accompanies it. (Chapters 550–551)

Flying-ship trade and the first dreadnaught

When Xu Qing later visits him in the county capital, Zhang San has used Harbor 176’s profits to open flying-ship dealerships. He and Seven Blood Eyes have separated their designs into cultivation vessels and commercial magical devices, turning sect expertise into a trade that spreads across nearby prefectures. Although Xu Qing’s status makes him initially formal and nervous, the two soon fall back into their old habit of squatting together while Zhang San smokes his pipe and asks what he must build next. (Chapters 725–726)

Xu Qing asks for a dreadnaught, and Zhang San immediately identifies the real constraints: he cannot complete it alone, needs the Sixth Peak’s experts, spell formations, cooperation from all Seven Blood Eyes, and an extraordinary power source. He returns to the sect, forms a team, and uses the Seazombie lands and the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure to complete the hull. The resulting project is collective, but Zhang San is the organizer who turns Xu Qing’s godly materials into a working strategic vessel. (Chapters 726, 732)

The Sageheaven Pagoda

Years later, Xu Qing brings back the ruined remains of that dreadnaught. Zhang San refuses to pretend it can be repaired and explains that Xu Qing’s current strength requires a new foundation capable of bearing high-level god flesh. When Xu Qing produces a mysterious dilapidated pagoda, Zhang San enters it, studies its naturally occurring and ancient material, and proposes refining it into a new dreadnaught with the help of the sageheaven god vines and Huang Yan’s flame. (Chapter 1009)

The work becomes a Seven Blood Eyes priority involving hundreds of thousands of cultivators, all organized under Zhang San’s direction. He adds eight controllable floors to the original structure, preserves its defensive bubble, uses Xu Qing’s vine as the spirit automaton, and concentrates the design on durability, speed, and impact rather than expendable techniques. Exhausted but delighted, Zhang San presents the star-traversing Sageheaven Pagoda as the finest work of his life. (Chapters 1009–1010)

Final defense and a wider horizon

During the later crisis facing Revered Ancient, Zhang San remains in Sea-Sealing County. Alongside Wu Jianwu, Kong Xianglong, and the county’s other forces, he helps Marquis Yao power a grand spell formation meant to resist the approaching calamity. He is not depicted commanding the defense, but his participation places his accumulated skills and strength inside the same collective infrastructure he spent his life building. (Chapter 1308)

Zhang San is among the old friends watching Xu Qing’s astonishing return, and the two later meet in South Phoenix. Once his initial nervousness fades, Zhang San explains that he intends to travel throughout Revered Ancient and expand his business across the entire mainland. Xu Qing wishes him well and sees him set sail in the rain, leaving Zhang San alive and pursuing a future chosen through enterprise rather than through proximity to his powerful friends. (Chapters 1314, 1337)

Appearance and personality

Zhang San first appears as a middle-aged man in a gray Seven Blood Eyes robe. He looks ordinary, honest, and good-natured, frequently wears a foolish smile, smokes a pipe, and rubs his hands when excited or nervous. That deliberately unimpressive presentation contrasts with the Captain’s account of his violent past and with the authority he quietly exercises over transportation and commerce. (Chapters 55–56, 78, 1009)

He is cautious, commercially shrewd, loyal, and intensely proud of excellent workmanship. Zhang San dislikes learning more than necessary about Xu Qing and the Captain’s dangerous exploits, yet he repeatedly accepts the technical consequences of those exploits. His fear is practical rather than paralyzing: he calculates risk, distributes work to people with the right expertise, and still invests labor, money, and reputation in friends whose futures he believes will justify the danger. (Chapters 78–79, 726, 1009–1010)

Abilities and cultivation

Shipbuilding and formation integration

Zhang San can diagnose structural weaknesses, rebuild dharmaboats, coordinate formation experts, install specialized mobility and weapon systems, and integrate unusual power sources or spirit automatons. His work progresses from a reinforced personal boat to a dharmaship, spirit cruiser, dreadnaught, and finally a star-traversing pagoda. The larger projects require collective support, a limitation he states openly rather than concealing. (Chapters 78–79, 310–311, 550–551, 726–732, 1009–1010)

Logistics, intelligence, and commerce

His Transportation Division position gives him access to warehouses, shipping operations, port development, and information from the docks. He communicates intelligence covertly, establishes and manages Harbor 176, places transport businesses in profitable locations, and develops commercial versions of Seven Blood Eyes flying ships. These abilities make him a strategic organizer even when his personal cultivation cannot match the people for whom he builds. (Chapters 55–56, 78, 193–205, 273, 542, 725)

Combat experience and cultivation

The Captain identifies Zhang San as a former Violent Crimes member with extensive experience killing pirates and rogue cultivators. Zhang San survives the Merfolk competition and later undertakes his own Foundation Establishment preparations, but the supplied corpus does not consistently state a final named cultivation realm for him. His most consequential achievements therefore remain demonstrated through survival, organization, and craft rather than a catalog of personal combat techniques. (Chapters 55, 127–129)

Relationships

• Xu Qing: Zhang San begins by investing in Xu Qing and becomes his trusted shipwright, business partner, and old friend. Xu Qing continues to address him as Elder Brother even after their status and cultivation diverge dramatically. (Chapters 55–56, 78–79, 725–726, 1009–1010, 1337)
• Chen Erniu: The Captain knew Zhang San before Xu Qing did, uses him as an intelligence contact, and draws him into dangerous ventures. Zhang San recognizes the Captain’s value but also understands that working with him frequently brings injury, destroyed equipment, and alarming secrets. (Chapters 55–56, 127–129, 338, 1009)
• Huang Yan: Huang Yan is part of Zhang San’s Seven Blood Eyes circle and supplies the extraordinary flame needed to refine the Sageheaven Pagoda. Zhang San mediates the project despite Huang Yan and the Captain’s mutual hostility. (Chapters 276, 1009–1010)
• Ding Xue: Zhang San entrusts Xu Qing’s Harbor 176 profit share to Ding Xue’s administration, linking his business systems to someone Xu Qing already trusts. (Chapter 542)

Items

• Xu Qing’s Dharmaskiff: Owned by Xu Qing and repeatedly built, repaired, and transformed by Zhang San. Its successive forms embody their long working relationship. (Chapters 78–79, 127–129, 310–311)
• Sageheaven Pagoda: Built for Xu Qing’s use from the dilapidated pagoda, godly materials, and a sageheaven god vine. Zhang San designs and orchestrates its construction, but custody passes to Xu Qing when the dreadnaught is completed. (Chapters 1009–1010)