Cloud Leopard

Cloud Leopard is a bloodline-free human cultivator, scout, and close-range fighter whose friendship with Su Chen begins during the Hidden Dragon Institute's recruitment exam. An orphan who learned to survive through street fighting, he turns instinct, speed, and extraordinary resolve into a combat discipline, follows Su Chen through successive conflicts, and becomes the first cultivator to complete the reproducible bloodline-free breakthrough into the Light Shaking Realm.

Biography

From the bitter streets to the recruitment exam

Cloud Leopard grew up as an orphan on streets filled with poverty, violence, and death. He found an absorption technique in a trash pile and used it to begin cultivating without a clan, instructor, or money. Because even low-tier Origin Skills were prohibitively expensive, he fought repeatedly for the amusement of powerful spectators and once survived five consecutive matches in a death arena to earn one. He chose “Cloud Leopard” himself rather than inherit a surname, and the constant danger of that upbringing made vigilance and combat his first education. (Chapters 120 and 186)

He met Su Chen as a dark-skinned youth during the Three Mountains Region recruitment exam. Cloud Leopard fought with feet, hands, bites, rock powder, and any other means that worked, and demanded a future rematch after Su Chen defeated him. Instead, Su Chen freely gave him the Thunder Blade manual—an act Cloud Leopard had never experienced in a life where every technique had cost blood. Cloud Leopard promised to remember him, and the exam soon established both youths among the dangerous candidates whom ordinary alliances could not readily overwhelm. (Chapters 120–125)

Friendship at the Origin Energy Tower

Life at the Hidden Dragon Institute initially deepened Cloud Leopard's isolation. He could not read well, struggled to understand classes, distrusted others, and spent most of his time hunting Vicious Beasts rather than remaining on campus. When Bai Ou's group ambushed him over the Thunder Blade, Cloud Leopard used the forest to fight six opponents head-on, killing two and gravely wounding another before reaching Su Chen with thirty-two wounds. He had not come seeking treatment; he wanted to warn the person who had helped him that the same enemies posed a danger to him. (Chapters 176, 180–183, and 186)

Su Chen healed him and offered friendship rather than repayment. Cloud Leopard's first impulse had been to kill Bai Ou on Su Chen's behalf, because action was the only language of gratitude he understood; accepting a hand freely offered required more adjustment than accepting another fight. Su Chen began helping him with lessons, while Shi Kaihuang allowed him to live in the Origin Energy Tower and learn any contemporary Origin Skill there without accepting him as a formal disciple. This support gave the self-taught fighter access to systematic instruction without separating him from the practical instincts that had kept him alive. (Chapters 180 and 186–187)

Fieldcraft and the Goldwater Ruins

Those instincts made him invaluable during expeditions. Cloud Leopard recognized poisonous fruit, detected concealed beasts, understood how predators used terrain and bait, and urged companions to maintain watches when others relaxed. His blunt warnings often offended better-schooled teammates, but their accuracy repeatedly protected the group. When Du Qing was thrown toward a Clay Giant, he redirected her in midair and accepted a severe wound across his own back. He then killed Zhong Ding by ignoring clones, tracking the real body by instinct, and continuing through poison and repeated injuries until his hand pierced the opponent's torso. (Chapters 198–218)

Su Chen tailored further growth to that style, giving Cloud Leopard the Jade Luster Body because its recovery and ability to draw life force from vegetation suited a fighter who accepted wounds and often battled in forests. Formal arena rules remained a poor fit: restricted targets, limited space, and automatic defeat after sufficient injury suppressed his movement and the Bloody Battle Scripture's injury-driven strength. Friends therefore cooperated to carry him into the top twenty for the ruins selection, where field exercises vindicated their judgment. He detected staged nighttime attacks, excelled in ruins examination, and led the only team that evaded a full-strength Demonic Beast for an entire day. (Chapters 264–281)

In the Goldwater Ruins, Cloud Leopard served as forward scout, warning of beasts and enemy counterattacks even when formations suppressed his consciousness perception. He also stood in the close-combat front line against the Ferocious Race and fought a Temple Warrior at speeds that exceeded his opponent's. His performance and perception drew the Secret Task Force's attention after graduation. Shi Kaihuang arranged for his eventual posting to Clear River, while mandatory training in intelligence-gathering, assassination, and surveillance delayed his reunion with Su Chen. (Chapters 304, 312, 318–324, 339, and 341)

The Secret Task Force in Clear River

Cloud Leopard arrived in Clear River after extra training imposed by an instructor who recognized further potential in him. His first concern was helping Su Chen against the city's Bloodline Nobility Clans, and his first proposal—fabricating a rebellion charge and bringing in the army—showed both his loyalty and the harsh directness of his official education. Su Chen rejected the plan's indiscriminate consequences. Cloud Leopard accepted that judgment, remained behind to secure Su Chen's position, and correctly inferred the secret behind Su Chen's habit of drawing power from slain beasts. (Chapter 382)

His Secret Task Force status supplied leverage that brute strength alone could not. He invoked the organization's ill-defined power to supervise officials and forced Xing Shabei to release falsely accused men from the Origin Bureau, demonstrating that his speech and understanding of procedure had improved since his student days. He also suppressed smaller disturbances while Su Chen researched and joined the official operation against a Spirit Race presence at Little South Mountain. These duties made him both Su Chen's ally and an officer whose authority caused the nobility to hesitate. (Chapters 402–403, 430, and 437)

Cloud Leopard's battlefield role remained direct. Su Chen equipped him with a barrier-piercing blade and other Origin Tools, then brought him to reinforce Jiang Xishui's Third River Army against Light Shaking Realm attackers. Though only at Blood Boiling, Cloud Leopard blocked Shen Yuanhong, drew out multiple attacks, and helped hold the line until Su Chen arrived in the Flood Dragon Emperor Shuttle. He continued through the clans' defeat, but had to complete further Secret Task Force training rather than depart with Su Chen. Their farewell exposed the affection under his usual reserve: he warned that he sensed serious danger, then embraced Su Chen and wished him luck. (Chapters 464–483, 490, 499, and 506)

Answering a distant call for help

Cloud Leopard did not accompany Su Chen's covert journey into Ravager territory. His continued service under Yue Longsha, the Secret Task Force colleague to whom he was closest, instead provided a route for Su Chen's allies to mobilize at home. When Iron Cliff needed help completing the mission that would enable the Heavenly Might Battalion's return, Yue Longsha circulated the request through her information network. Cloud Leopard joined the former students who answered despite the danger and gathered to help force a route through the Limestone Mountain Range. (Chapters 508 and 629–630)

The corpus does not give Cloud Leopard an individual battle inside Ravager lands; his contribution belongs to the external rescue effort rather than Su Chen's infiltration. When he finally found Su Chen at the newly founded Boundless Sect, he was angry that his friend had undertaken the danger alone and then waited so long to send word. Su Chen acknowledged that the Heavenly Might Battalion's return had depended on the group's efforts. Once reassured, Cloud Leopard remained with the circle gathering around the sect and accompanied Su Chen on the next journey. (Chapters 629–630 and 744–745)

A bloodline-free pioneer in the Boundless Sect

Cloud Leopard's first major fight after reuniting with Su Chen pitted his Yang Opening cultivation against Rong Zixing, a Light Shaking Realm assassin with a Demonic Emperor bloodline. Cloud Leopard used deceptive poison, an armor-piercing dagger, physical afterimages, speed, and the ability to anticipate Shadow Leap destinations to keep the stronger opponent under pressure. Rong Zixing's unrestricted Origin Energy could slow him, and one Darkness Snake Arrow consumed nine afterimages, but the realm difference still did not produce a decisive victory before Su Chen intervened. Cloud Leopard was dissatisfied precisely because he wanted to defeat the opponent alone. (Chapters 752 and 759–760)

Su Chen later implanted two captured Arcana Technique Patterns chosen to reinforce rather than interrupt Cloud Leopard's fighting method: Arcana Technique Reversal and Elemental Resistance. Soon afterward, Cloud Leopard reached the peak of the Yang Opening Realm and volunteered as the first formal subject for Su Chen's finished bloodline-free Light Shaking method. Within the supporting Origin Formation, he gathered Origin Energy, formed and stabilized a Lotus Platform, and became the first person to complete that reproducible process. His success transformed a private breakthrough into proof that other humans without bloodlines could follow the same path. (Chapters 773–774 and 790–791)

In Harpy territory, Cloud Leopard, Iron Cliff, and the Sword Servants traveled aboard Zhu Clan shuttles disguised as laborers. When staged raiders forced the convoy to reveal its hidden strength, Cloud Leopard slipped away before the others and ambushed the concealed Seventh-Ring Arcana Master Thousand Heavens. He used Arcana Technique Reversal to turn a blast that injured him into forward movement, then pursued through teleportation, slowing petals, projected beasts, and the corrosive Withered World. He accepted thousands of attacks to land one cut with Darkness Extermination, whose life-devouring effect killed the stronger Harpy. (Chapters 820–824)

That victory did not make him universally capable. Thousand Heavens initially wounded him badly and could have maintained distance by abandoning pride and focusing entirely on escape; Cloud Leopard prevailed after the Harpy hesitated and diverted power into defense. More broadly, Cloud Leopard and Iron Cliff remained specialized combatants rather than planners or interrogators, and Zhu Clan investigators handled intelligence work they were poorly equipped to perform. He nevertheless continued supporting the concealed mission through Sky City, remaining among the fighters who accompanied Su Chen and the Zhu Clan through the crisis. (Chapters 801, 823–824, and 903)

Commanding the expedition to the Abyss

As the Boundless Sect mobilized for the sea campaign, Cloud Leopard shared responsibility with Su Chen for commanding the eight great flying boats that transported its cultivators and mobile palace toward Unlimited Sea City. The fleet later joined human, Oceanid, and Blackwater forces at the edge of the Abyss. Although Cloud Leopard does not sit on the nine-member inter-faction command group named there, his earlier responsibility shows that the former street orphan had developed from solitary scout into a trusted operational leader within a mass expedition. (Chapters 924 and 938)

The Abyss also confirmed that his oldest technique remained useful. Su Chen judged that the Thunder Blade's defense-piercing basis had become increasingly counterable against stronger opponents and had fallen behind his other skills. Cloud Leopard, however, could still extract surprising power from it through the speed-focused interpretation he had cultivated since youth. The corpus does not give him a separate climactic duel during this campaign or describe a new version of the technique, so its precise late-stage ceiling remains unstated. (Chapter 938)

Golden Pill ascension and the final war

By the war against the returning gods, Cloud Leopard was close to the Golden Pill Realm, although the corpus does not individually narrate his intervening ascensions beyond Light Shaking. After the first campaign in Kun's territory, Su Chen trusted him with suppressing sacrificial activity in Long Coiling City, an assignment intended to prevent the gods from rebuilding power through worshippers and ritual deaths. The order marks a late return to the kind of security work Cloud Leopard had performed for the Secret Task Force, now on a continental rather than municipal scale. (Chapters 1144 and 1149)

When the surviving gods openly attacked, Cloud Leopard fought within the assembled human forces. After the Night Goddess fell, Su Chen divided her divine power among fourteen cultivators and calculated each share to produce an ascension; Cloud Leopard received one of those shares, and fourteen columns of light confirmed the simultaneous breakthroughs. Combined with the earlier statement that he was nearly at Golden Pill, this establishes his latest realm as Golden Pill. His individual actions after that breakthrough are not isolated in the narration, but he remains alive and active in humanity's final formation. (Chapters 1144, 1150, and 1151)

Appearance and personality

Cloud Leopard is introduced as a dark-skinned youth with a hardened street fighter's bearing. At the Institute he habitually wears a coarse grey robe and simple grass-woven shoes, leaves his right arm bare, and ties his messy hair back with a strip of cloth so it cannot block his vision. His expression is described as stalwart, and he is indifferent to making himself presentable unless appearance has an immediate practical purpose. The corpus does not provide a comparably detailed description of his older appearance. (Chapters 120, 180, and 194)

He is taciturn, stubborn, vigilant, and painfully direct. Early isolation leaves him poor at conversation and suspicious of kindness, while street life teaches him to equate gratitude with action and trust fists more readily than institutions. Yet loyalty becomes his strongest personal trait once friendship takes root: he repeatedly risks himself for companions, remembers absent friends when rewards are distributed, and responds to danger without bargaining over the cost. Training makes him capable of official speech and command, but never removes his blunt humor, dislike of books, or preference for a clear fight over elaborate social maneuvering. (Chapters 186–199, 228, 382, 402, 482, 506, 744, and 821)

His courage borders on self-destructive resolve. Injury increases rather than diminishes his fighting spirit, and he is willing to ignore clones, poison, corrosive fields, and stronger cultivation to reach a decisive target. That behavior is calculated more often than it first appears: he reads ambushes, disguises real poison behind fake poison, senses teleportation destinations, and understands when a frightened opponent will change tactics. Even so, formal stage rules and enemies able to suppress his movement or maintain distance deny him many of his advantages, and Su Chen or teammates sometimes must prevent his directness from escalating into needless harm. (Chapters 217, 267, 382, 759–760, and 822–823)

Abilities and cultivation

Cloud Leopard is a bloodline-free cultivator whose techniques are organized around close range, speed, perception, and the conversion of injury into momentum. He begins without formal instruction, later gains access to the Hidden Dragon Institute, Shi Kaihuang's contemporary skills, Su Chen's bloodline-free cultivation system, and two implanted Arcana Technique Patterns.

Cultivation progression

Cloud Leopard begins cultivating after finding an absorption technique in refuse and reaches the Qi Drawing Realm without clan support or a formal teacher. By the Clear River campaign he is at Blood Boiling, with the Jade Luster Body at large success; he later reaches Yang Opening and its peak. In Chapter 791 he forms a Lotus Platform through Su Chen's standardized bloodline-free process and enters the Light Shaking Realm, the first official subject to prove that the method is reproducible. (Chapters 120, 186, 382, 479, 752, and 790–791)

He eventually advances far beyond Light Shaking, but the individual Spirit Burning and Thought Manifestation breakthroughs are not narrated. Chapter 1144 places him just short of Golden Pill, and the divine-power distribution in Chapter 1151 gives each selected recipient exactly enough to ascend. Fourteen corresponding columns of light appear, establishing Cloud Leopard among the new Golden Pill cultivators. The corpus ends without describing his Golden Pill techniques, limits, or any later realm. (Chapters 1144 and 1151)

Speed, instinct, and close-quarters combat

Cloud Leopard's foundation is practical fighting rather than a single named Origin Skill. He uses elbows, knees, claws, grappling, thrown powder, blades, poison, feints, and attacks on vital points, moving with enough speed to leave afterimages. His Serpentine Palm comes from an ordinary martial instructor rather than an Origin Skill, yet his control makes it dangerous even against bloodline techniques. He reads immediate intent and timing so well that he can identify a true body among clones and anticipate the endpoint of a teleportation skill by instinct. (Chapters 120, 180, 215–217, 323, and 759)

His efficiency comes from narrowing a fight to the action that matters. Against Zhong Ding he ignores expendable clones and absorbs their attacks to kill the true body; against Thousand Heavens he abandons defense and forces the Harpy to divide attention among attacking, obstructing, and retreating. This method can overturn an opponent's technical superiority, but it imposes severe damage and depends on reaching a decisive target. Wide Origin Energy pressure slows him, sufficiently powerful attacks exhaust multiple evasions, and a disciplined opponent who preserves distance can deny him the close-range exchange he wants. (Chapters 217, 759–760, and 822–823)

Perception, concealment, and fieldcraft

Years of street survival and hunting develop exceptional danger perception rather than a named detection technique. Cloud Leopard notices quiet approaches, poisonous food, concealed Vicious Beasts, distant targets, staged raids, and the emergence point of spatial movement. He can conceal himself while scouting and remain motionless on watch for long periods. In ruins training, those abilities let his team evade a Demonic Beast all day through early detection, speed, traps, and coordinated ambushes rather than direct confrontation. (Chapters 180, 198–211, 276–281, and 759)

His perception is not infallible or purely supernatural. It is strongest in environments he understands, particularly forests, and works in conjunction with observation and experience. In the Goldwater Ruins, an Origin Formation suppresses the perceptiveness of his consciousness to its lowest point and sharply reduces his long-distance warning range. He can also detect location better than strength: Wu Xiao is later judged less capable at distant detection but superior at accurately measuring an opponent's power. (Chapters 277–281, 298, and 318–320)

Thunder Blade and Bloody Battle Scripture

Su Chen gives Cloud Leopard the Thunder Blade manual at their first meeting. The Bai Clan technique draws on the properties of Thunderclap Spirits, using thunderous force to penetrate defenses. Cloud Leopard develops it differently from Su Chen: instead of emphasizing the thunder's restraining sound, he drives the technique toward speed, causing rapid blows to gain an unusually sharp penetrative quality. Countless hours of repetition, rather than a new formal variant, make the simple technique effective against increasingly powerful opponents. (Chapters 120, 180, 217, 759, and 938)

Thunder Blade is neither perfectly defense-ignoring nor unlimited. Its special penetration can be countered, and its effectiveness generally declines as opponents grow stronger; broad energy pressure can also slow Cloud Leopard enough to interfere with delivery. Even late in the sea campaign, however, he draws more from the skill than Su Chen expects. The corpus does not explain a further upgrade, fixed cost, or maximum number of strikes, so that exceptional late use is best attributed to his speed-focused mastery rather than an undocumented evolution. (Chapters 759 and 938)

The Bloody Battle Scripture increases Cloud Leopard's strength as he becomes more wounded, aligning pain, killing intent, and fighting momentum. It explains why he can deliberately accept damage and become more dangerous rather than immediately weakening. This mechanism is poorly suited to regulated contests, where he can be disqualified once sufficiently injured and cannot continue attacking a defeated opponent; in genuine combat it synergizes with his willingness to trade many wounds for one fatal strike. Its source, formal activation procedure, recovery cost, and ultimate injury threshold are not stated. (Chapters 217 and 267)

Jade Luster Body

Su Chen gives Cloud Leopard the Jade Luster Body because its effects match both his environment and his risk-heavy combat. It provides rapid recovery and allows the user to absorb life force from nearby vegetation, supporting repeated all-out exchanges in forests. By his arrival in Clear River, Cloud Leopard has cultivated it to large success and can generate enough physical force to push Su Chen back during their greeting. (Chapters 264 and 382)

The technique is environmentally dependent: its advantages are greatest amid abundant vegetation and less useful on a bare arena stage. Recovery also does not prevent wounds from occurring or make Cloud Leopard invulnerable; later opponents still injure, poison, slow, and corrode him. The narrative does not specify an activation ritual, exact range for drawing life force, or whether the technique continues to progress after large success. (Chapters 264–265, 479, 759, and 823)

Physical afterimages

During his travels, Cloud Leopard acquires a technique that creates unusually substantial illusory replicas. Their physical quality allows them to misdirect a self-guiding Darkness Snake Arrow that would ignore an ordinary visual illusion. He can produce nine in a single breath, but that same attack destroys all nine before exhausting itself, showing that the replicas are expendable diversions rather than durable clones. The corpus does not name the technique, identify its teacher, or show the replicas attacking independently. (Chapter 759)

Arcana Technique Reversal and Elemental Resistance

Su Chen obtains captured Arcana Technique Patterns and selects Arcana Technique Reversal for Cloud Leopard because it passively allows local redirection of incoming Origin Energy. The technique cannot prevent the impact or its injury, but it lets Cloud Leopard choose the direction in which that force sends him—including forward into an attacker—and, with sufficient mastery, change direction in midair. During its very brief activation the redirected flow can disturb other attacks, though accidental trajectories may still strike him and his body must withstand the original force. (Chapters 773–774 and 822–823)

Elemental Resistance, the second implanted Pattern, increases resistance to elemental attacks while reducing sensitivity to the elements and thereby weakening most elemental Arcana Techniques. That tradeoff is unusually favorable for Cloud Leopard because physical attacks, not spellcasting, are his foundation. Together, the two Patterns help him resist slowing effects and preserve forward motion through magical barrages; they do not erase damage, as his internal bleeding after charging through a Seventh-Ring attack makes explicit. (Chapters 773–774 and 822–823)

Power progression

Relationships

• Su Chen: Su Chen is Cloud Leopard's first true friend, informal tutor, benefactor, and eventual sect leader. A freely given Thunder Blade manual and later medical care overturn Cloud Leopard's belief that every advantage must be bought with violence. Cloud Leopard repays that trust through lifelong loyalty, follows Su Chen to Clear River and later campaigns, challenges his dangerous decisions, remembers their other friends when rewards are divided, and becomes the first official subject of Su Chen's bloodline-free Light Shaking process. (Chapters 120, 180–187, 274–275, 341, 382, 482, 506, 744, and 791)
• Shi Kaihuang: Shi Kaihuang does not accept Cloud Leopard as a disciple, but permits him to live in the Origin Energy Tower and learn contemporary Origin Skills there. Cloud Leopard calls him “Uncle,” reflecting the close but informal relationship. Shi later uses his influence to arrange Cloud Leopard's Clear River posting after the Secret Task Force independently recognizes his perception. (Chapters 187, 228, and 341)
• Yue Longsha: Yue Longsha becomes Cloud Leopard's superior in the Secret Task Force and is described as the person there to whom he is closest. Her information network links him to Su Chen's wider circle and mobilizes the former students for Iron Cliff's rescue mission. Cloud Leopard later insists that she be included when Su Chen distributes rewards among friends. (Chapters 482, 508, and 629–630)
• Iron Cliff: Iron Cliff and Cloud Leopard are complementary close-range fighters: Iron Cliff relies on strength and defense, while Cloud Leopard relies on speed and timing. They repeatedly travel and fight together, reinforce the Third River Army, participate in the Heavenly Might Battalion rescue effort, and accompany Su Chen through Empty Mountain and Harpy territory. Their different specialties let them cover roles that Su Chen's own research-focused style does not. (Chapters 198–218, 464–483, 629–630, 745–760, and 820–824)
• Ji Hanyan: Cloud Leopard and Ji Hanyan begin as intensely competitive teammates who argue over routes, priorities, and authority. Both are stubborn, but Cloud Leopard's forest instincts justify his higher field ranking even when his social manner worsens their disputes. The rivalry matures into dependable cooperation: they serve in the Clear River Spirit Race operation and both answer the call to support the Heavenly Might Battalion's return. (Chapters 296, 312, 426–437, and 629–630)
• Wang Doushan: Wang Doushan is one of Cloud Leopard's earliest Institute companions and helps Su Chen manipulate the ranking system so Cloud Leopard can reach the ruins selection despite his weakness in regulated arenas. Their relationship combines mockery, arguments, and consistent support; Cloud Leopard later ensures that Wang Doushan is included when Su Chen decides to share wealth with absent friends. (Chapters 194–218, 267–275, 281, and 482)

Items

• Flood Dragon Emperor Shuttle: Cloud Leopard accompanies Su Chen when the shuttle is purchased and immediately recognizes it as an exceptional treasure. During the Third River Army battle, he helps delay Shen Yuanhong until Su Chen arrives with the vessel, then rides inside it during the pursuit of Wei Pei. The shuttle belongs to and is piloted by Su Chen in these scenes; Cloud Leopard is an associated passenger and beneficiary, not its established owner. (Chapters 464–466 and 479–483)
• Thunder Blade manual: Su Chen gives Cloud Leopard this manual during the recruitment exam. It is the first Origin Skill ever freely given to him and becomes the foundation of his speed-focused thunder technique. The manual itself is not tracked after he learns the skill. (Chapters 120, 180, and 217)
• Limpid Light-Splitting Blade and Clear River equipment: Su Chen buys Cloud Leopard a Grade Six blade that can bypass many fire- and water-type barriers, along with boots, a belt, and armor suited to his cultivation. Cloud Leopard uses the blade when helping restrain Shen Yuanhong, but the later custody of this equipment is not stated. (Chapters 468 and 479)
• Hidden Needle: Cloud Leopard uses this Grade Four assassination dagger against Rong Zixing. Its barrier-piercing property and real paralysis poison, combined with a falsely colored dart, let him cripple one of the stronger cultivator's arms through misdirection. The corpus does not state where he obtained it or what happens to it afterward. (Chapter 759)
• Darkness Extermination: Su Chen gives Cloud Leopard the black dagger taken from Chu Huailiang. Forged from a Dark Shark King's bone and Chaos Gold, it carries a detectable killing intent that consumes the life force of anyone it cuts. That warning makes landing a strike difficult, but one successful wound kills Thousand Heavens after Cloud Leopard's prolonged pursuit. Its custody after the Harpy campaign is not specified. (Chapters 800 and 822–824)