Xiangliu Fang
Xiangliu Fang is the ancient Hydraga Fiendgod assigned to protect Youngflame Nong. His strength keeps the Youngflame expedition alive inside the Witchriver Immortal Estate, but his obedience also makes him the chief enforcer of Nong's attempt to kill Ji Ning and the companions who defend him.
Biography
Guardian of Youngflame Nong
Fang has protected Youngflame Nong since childhood and is the only direct Youngflame retainer permitted to accompany him on the clan's trial. Nong addresses him as “Uncle Fang,” reflecting a relationship older and more personal than an ordinary hired bodyguard. Fang nevertheless treats the young master as his superior: his role is to absorb dangers Nong cannot survive and carry out orders even when those orders involve mass slaughter. (Chapters 254–258)
That responsibility becomes decisive inside the Witchriver Immortal Estate. When tens of thousands of monstrous Dao-soldiers attack, Fang places his body between them and the Goldspirit Halo carrying Nong's party. Once Nong moves away, Fang assumes his full nine-headed Hydraga form and fights the army alone. He is outmatched by the combined formations' raw power, but his enormous body, agility, and endurance let him continue long enough for the expedition to reach the palaces. (Chapters 258–269)
Fang repeatedly adapts as the estate's defenders escalate. He identifies how the Azurewood Godbolt formation operates, endures its lightning on his hands, and tears the formation apart. He captures Qiongqi golems rather than merely destroying them and can divide his body while fighting multiple targets. These successes make Nong increasingly confident that every danger can be transferred to his guardian. (Chapters 273–276)
Recognition of the Windwing Evasion
Fang's knowledge of the Youngflame clan's campaigns changes the expedition's internal conflict. He recognizes traces of the Windwing Evasion beneath Ning's attempt to disguise the technique with wings. Fang confirms that the clan reconstructed the art after destroying the Yuchi clan and identifies Ning as a likely surviving descendant. His conclusion gives Nong a clan-based justification to abandon their cooperation and order Ning's death. (Chapters 275–276)
Fang follows that choice without challenging its morality. He blocks Ninelotus, Yu Wei, Mu Northson, and Adept Vastriver with a single transformed hand while Nong engineers a fight between Ning and Xue Hongyi. When Ninelotus uses a precious lotus petal to freeze and shatter part of his arm, Fang immediately regenerates it and strikes her down. He then defeats Ning's strongest direct attack with one hand, proving that the group cannot overcome him through ordinary combat. (Chapter 277)
Death in the Witchriver Palace
Fang's physical victory cannot protect him from the Soulslayer Loop. The black loop attacks the soul rather than trying to destroy his resilient divine body. It devours and extinguishes the souls of Fang, Youngflame Nong, and the Redscale Salamander, killing all three despite Fang's superior combat strength. Patriarch Arcanum later reconstructs the battle through Temporal Inversion and confirms what happened. (Chapters 278 and 282–285)
His death leaves the Youngflame heir without the guardian on whom the expedition's confidence depended and makes Ning the target of the clan's retaliation. Later uses of Fang's appearance through transformation are imitations, not a return to life. (Chapters 283, 330, and 424)
Appearance and personality
In humanoid form Fang is a black-skinned man. His true Hydraga body is more than three thousand meters tall, with a human upper torso, a gigantic serpent's lower body, and nine serpentine heads—one central head and eight additional heads emerging around it. He carries two enormous black awls in that form. (Chapter 258)
Fang is calm, observant, and confident in dangers that terrify younger cultivators. He analyzes formations while under attack and rarely wastes motion or speech. His loyalty to Nong is absolute in practice, but not mindless in perception: he checks whether Nong intends to break a promise before obeying. Once the order is clear, however, he does not refuse it, even when it requires killing the people who helped the expedition. (Chapters 268 and 273–277)
Abilities and cultivation
Fang is a natural Hydraga Fiendgod at the Primal level. Despite that cultivation stage, the exceptional body of his race gives him combat power comparable to a peak Loose Immortal. His strengths are transformation, durability, regeneration, speed, and sustained close combat. (Chapters 258 and 277)
Hydraga body and regeneration
His true form expands beyond three thousand meters and supplies tremendous physical force. Fang fights with hands, a massive serpent tail, nine heads, and two black awls. His body can endure repeated strikes from massed Dao-soldier formations, and wounds do not incapacitate him as easily as they would a Ki Refiner. When Ninelotus freezes and shatters his arm to the elbow, he regrows it almost immediately. (Chapters 258–269 and 277)
That lifeforce has limits. A sufficiently large formation can tear his flesh and keep him at a disadvantage, even if it cannot finish him quickly. More importantly, regeneration of the body does not defend his soul: the Soulslayer Loop kills him by devouring and extinguishing it. (Chapters 258–269 and 278)
Shapeshifting and reach
Fang can enlarge his whole body or transform individual limbs. His fingers become giant serpents hundreds of meters long, allowing one hand to restrain several cultivators across a hall. He can also split into two bodies while handling multiple golems, then merge them again. The corpus demonstrates these changes but does not establish whether the divided bodies each possess his full independent power. (Chapters 275–277)
Windwing Evasion
Fang has trained in the Windwing Evasion and uses it more precisely than Ning does at this stage. The technique lets him move with the sweeping acceleration of a giant Roc, crossing the hall and returning almost instantly. Its source is the version reconstructed by the Youngflame clan from the destroyed Yuchi clan; the text does not establish that Fang possesses a separate original manual. (Chapters 275–276)
Formation analysis and endurance
Fang understands enough about formations to identify the Solar power, Wood guidance, and Azurewood Godbolts of the Witchriver Palace defense. He correctly distinguishes a sentient golem's partial control from an Immortal supplying elemental ki, absorbs the lightning on enlarged hands, and physically disrupts the formation by seizing its structure with his serpent-fingers. This is informed combat analysis rather than proof that he is a formal formation grandmaster. (Chapter 273)
Fang also trains as a Ki Refiner only to the Zifu level. Natural Fiendgods are poorly suited to that path, and he stops after gaining enough ki cultivation to use storage-type magic treasures. His meaningful combat strength continues to come from the Fiendgod body rather than Zifu-level techniques. (Chapter 285)
Relationships
- Youngflame Nong: Fang protects Nong from childhood, carries out his orders throughout the estate expedition, and dies beside him to the Soulslayer Loop. (Chapters 254–282)
- Ji Ning: Fang recognizes Ning's Windwing Evasion, helps expose his Yuchi descent, and overwhelms him in direct combat. Ning's Soulslayer Loop bypasses Fang's body and kills him. (Chapters 275–282)
- Ninelotus: Fang restrains Ninelotus when she tries to protect Ning, regenerating after her lotus petal destroys part of his arm. (Chapter 277)
- Immortal Duohe: Duohe's united monster army can overpower Fang in a head-on exchange, but Fang's interference creates openings for Nong's party to advance. (Chapters 266–269)
Items
- Two black awls: Fang uses these enormous weapons in his Hydraga form against the estate's Dao-soldier armies. Their rank and later disposition are not established. (Chapters 258–269)
- Storage treasures: Fang's limited Zifu Ki cultivation lets him carry storage-type treasures. Ning recovers their contents after Fang's death. (Chapter 285)