Iron Cliff

Iron Cliff is a Stoneskin who becomes Su Chen's guard, experimental assistant, battlefield companion, and most enduring personal follower. Although introduced as a discarded slave whose race is considered slow and incapable of advanced cultivation, he develops into the first Stoneskin to reach the Light Shaking and Spirit Burning Realms, leads the Hurricane Stoneskins into the Boundless Sect, and creates cultivation methods for his own people.

Biography

Blindness and the Northface struggle

Iron Cliff first encounters Su Chen in the Halcyon Gorge after losing a shipment entrusted to him by Black Hand. Black Hand expels him, warns the other merchants not to feed him, and expects the Stoneskin's enormous appetite to force him back into submission. Su Chen instead gives Iron Cliff food and work, then turns Black Hand's attempt to recover his former slave into a bargain that places Iron Cliff in Su Chen's service. The arrangement begins as a transaction, but it gives Iron Cliff a place beside someone willing to invest in him rather than merely exploit his strength. (Chapters 57–59)

Their bond is tested almost immediately in the hidden mining cave. Iron Cliff attacks Ulrich to protect Su Chen, endures flames and restraining Air Tentacles through physical force, and keeps fighting despite lacking cultivation. When asked why he risked himself, he answers simply that Su Chen is his master. He also reveals that a former female master who treated him kindly was killed by a backstabber and that he dislikes battle and killing. Su Chen persuades him that strength can prevent such helplessness and offers him both a cultivation path and the possibility of revenge; Iron Cliff then agrees to become his soldier. (Chapters 60–64)

Su Chen adapts the Dartfrog Absorption Technique to Iron Cliff's weak Origin Energy perception, teaching him to absorb energy through his skin. Progress that would be ordinary for a human requires painstaking instruction, but it raises Iron Cliff from the seventh to the eighth layer of Body Tempering and establishes that Stoneskin limitations can be mitigated rather than accepted as fate. Iron Cliff also becomes the master of the metal-eating bug after Su Chen's Enslavement Scrolls fail; even after gaining a creature stronger than himself, he kneels and reaffirms that his loyalty remains with Su Chen. (Chapters 64–66)

During later Scarlet Mountain expeditions, Iron Cliff serves as Su Chen's shield, partner, and cultivation subject. The Melted Golden Armor and Black Streak Battle Blade let him survive exchanges with a Blood Boiling expert and help deliver the killing blows, but an illusion can immobilize him and interfere with the reluctant metal-eating bug, exposing weaknesses in both consciousness defense and mobility. Su Chen later transfers his Su Clan cultivation rewards to Iron Cliff, enabling him to reach Qi Drawing, and their repeated beast hunts accelerate his otherwise extremely slow cultivation before they leave Northface together. (Chapters 82–89, 97–103, and 153)

Hidden Dragon Institute and the ruins

At the Hidden Dragon Institute, Iron Cliff remains outside the student hierarchy but becomes indispensable to Su Chen's daily life and hidden work. He guards the Origin Energy Tower, carries messages, handles captives and research materials, and accompanies Su Chen on expeditions as strength that does not count against a team's formal share. His presence also lets Su Chen confront hostile students indirectly: when Bai Yihong tries to seize the servant as retaliation, Iron Cliff accepts the challenge and breaks the noble youth's wrist with a single overwhelming punch. (Chapters 155–168, 198, and 273)

His combat path becomes deliberately narrow. Rather than trying to imitate Su Chen's broad collection of techniques, Iron Cliff brings the Flowing Wind Body Technique, Iron Mountain Shield, and Mountain-Shaking Vigor to large success. The Melted Golden Armor and Black Streak Battle Blade reinforce this role: he can block thirteen powerful blade strikes, protect Night Demon from a Thunder Explosion, and force stronger students to take his direct attacks seriously, even though his lack of speed and ranged force prevents him from winning every matchup. (Chapters 184–185 and 228)

The Falling Eagle Mountain expedition turns Iron Cliff into the first beneficiary of another major Su Chen breakthrough. After Su Chen kills a Giant Adamantine Ape and isolates both its Origin Substance and the way it circulates energy, he gives Iron Cliff Adamantine Medicine and teaches him the Adamantine Battle Body. Iron Cliff's unquestioning trust allows Su Chen to guide the painful transformation without resistance. The resulting golden defense withstands an Erupting Firebird with only a superficial wound, proving that the ape's ability can be reproduced in a cultivator and developed further through continued medicine and practice. (Chapters 198–228)

Iron Cliff's loyalty also makes him useful in plans that demand secrecy and personal suffering. During the Falling Eagle expedition he keeps Su Chen's Origin-mote absorption concealed, tears free of Zhang Sheng'an's Resentment Rope, and joins the team's counterattack. Later, when Su Chen stages the theft of Kaihuang's Heaven to turn the Zhu Clan against another enemy, Iron Cliff beats himself bloody to make the false break-in convincing. His complaint afterward is not that he was used, but that the observers failed to inspect the injuries closely enough for the effort to matter. (Chapters 203–215 and 244–245)

Su Chen later adds Stalwart Mountain and Devouring the Heavens, creating a complementary system of strength, defense, and recovery around Iron Cliff's natural physique. Iron Cliff also matures as a confidential assistant: he is among the few people trusted with Fata Morgana, helps with dissections and medicine preparation, and learns enough laboratory discipline to support the Hemolytic Totem project. His development during the Institute years is therefore intellectual as well as martial; the supposedly dull Stoneskin becomes capable of preserving secrets, recording work, and understanding why experiments must be performed precisely. (Chapters 259–265, 273, and 339)

Clear River’s underground conflict

When Su Chen takes office in Clear River, Iron Cliff helps turn a captured bandit force into a household guard. He drills them until their movements are disciplined, uses the threat of becoming research subjects to enforce obedience, and gradually converts people who once preyed on travelers into dependable subordinates. He also begins learning anatomy by dissecting a dead bandit under Su Chen's direction. These tasks enlarge his role from personal bodyguard to trainer and organizer, while his diligence reflects his awareness that education is a rare opportunity for a Stoneskin. (Chapters 342–357 and 371)

Iron Cliff's ascent to the Blood Boiling Realm is a personal milestone and a racial precedent. Su Chen takes him into West River Forest specifically to strengthen him, and Iron Cliff returns from secluded cultivation announcing that he has succeeded at an unusually young age for a Stoneskin. The breakthrough amplifies his race's innate strength and resistance to Origin Skills. In testing, he disperses Su Chen's attacks with a single punch and endures a chain of Firehawks behind Iron Mountain Shield and Adamantine Battle Body, although an Ultra Firehawk demonstrates that even his layered defense has a limit. (Chapters 382–390)

The Happiness Residing Fort battle demonstrates how Su Chen's support lets him overcome tactical counters. Ice, mud, and agile darts initially exploit Iron Cliff's poor mobility, but the metal-eating bug shields him long enough to drink several enhancement medicines. He then kills the three Blood Boiling cultivators restraining him, smashes into the larger force, and coordinates Thunderfire Balls with the Shadow Servants until the defenders' numerical advantage collapses. The victory shows both the frightening force of his specialized build and its dependence on prepared medicines, equipment, and allies when opponents can dictate range and terrain. (Chapter 397)

Iron Cliff also becomes independently deployable. Su Chen trusts him to defend a shop against the Evil Tiger Gang, where his Adamantine Battle Body lets him bulldoze through waves of attackers, and to support the campaign against Clear River's Bloodline Nobility Clans. At Jade Heart Island, his armor-piercing hammer forces the Light Shaking cultivator Shen Yuanhong to retreat and helps keep the battle in a stalemate. By the time Su Chen leaves office, Iron Cliff is no longer merely someone who interposes his body; he can train troops, hold objectives, and execute parts of a larger campaign. (Chapters 431–434, 468, 479–483, and 506)

Ravager territory and the imperial contest

During the West Laina and Swallow River period, Iron Cliff continues to fight beside Su Chen and benefits from his medicines, but Su Chen also begins testing his judgment away from direct supervision. Sent alone to delay Zhou Qingkuang, Iron Cliff initially feels lost because no one has told him how to act. He recalls Su Chen's lessons about observation, human motives, and solving problems without force, then designs a series of nonlethal disruptions that keep Zhou occupied for months. The successful mission proves that habits learned through laboratory work and watching Su Chen scheme have overcome the stereotype that Stoneskins cannot think flexibly. (Chapters 561 and 570–576)

Su Chen meanwhile pushes Iron Cliff to cultivate the True Spirit Sculpture because he suspects weak consciousness is the barrier preventing Stoneskins from reaching Light Shaking. Iron Cliff repeatedly falls asleep during the exercise, yet perseveres until his senses can extend to wind, water vapor, and ambient Origin Energy. His fast recovery from Su Chen's corrective burns illustrates the imbalance of his build: extraordinary bodily resilience paired with an underdeveloped mind. The training is tedious rather than glamorous, but it later supplies the consciousness foundation needed to break the racial ceiling. (Chapter 583)

Iron Cliff's mission to Hurricane Canyon forces him to reconcile loyalty to Su Chen with responsibility toward his own race. He finds roughly a thousand fugitive Stoneskins surviving on cliff bugs in a barren refuge and is offered a place among them if he abandons his absent master. He refuses, but he also understands their distrust of humans. Instead of simply demanding cooperation, he introduces food and improved cultivation, teaches the children patiently, and argues that isolation provides survival without dignity or advancement. His concern for the children transforms Su Chen's strategic need for a route into a broader attempt to give the Stoneskins a future. (Chapters 645–646 and 687)

When Chieftain Hadley rejects those methods, Iron Cliff challenges him according to Stoneskin tradition and wins leadership of the tribe. As chieftain, he clears a route through the Heavenly River Ancient Road for the Heavenly Might Battalion at the cost of twelve dead and thirty wounded, then asks Su Chen not for personal reward but for safe land where his people can live. After securing that future, he returns with the surviving human soldiers and tells Su Chen that the Hurricane Stoneskins can live without him, while he cannot live without his master. His choice preserves both loyalties: he becomes his people's leader without ceasing to be Su Chen's companion. (Chapters 687, 723, and 731)

Harpy lands and Sky City

At the newly founded Boundless Sect, Iron Cliff brings the Hurricane Stoneskins to Ten Thousand Swords Mountain and personally chooses a peak where they receive treatment equal to human disciples. He resumes his place beside Su Chen while retaining responsibility for his people. This arrangement turns a group of impoverished refugees into an institutional branch of the sect and gives Iron Cliff the resources to make racial advancement repeatable rather than a privilege limited to himself. (Chapters 741 and 744)

His battle against four Yang Opening cultivators shows how completely his simple combat philosophy has matured. Iron Cliff deliberately accepts the role of shield: Adamantine Battle Body stops weapons and finger strikes, Iron Mountain Shield crushes a transformed opponent, Devouring the Heavens closes wounds, and the Blood Fiend Constellation produced by his Primordial Blood power reinforces his defense. He wins through a small number of deeply practiced skills rather than tactical variety, using endurance and constant pressure until opponents at his own realm cannot overcome him even together. (Chapters 757–758)

Iron Cliff then volunteers to test the bloodline-free Light Shaking process on a Stoneskin. Because he cannot control enough Origin Energy to form a Lotus Platform, he demands that Su Chen activate four formations at once, accepting the possibility that the torrent will destroy him. His body begins to collapse before the platform is complete, and Su Chen's vitality-infused blood keeps him alive. Iron Cliff is initially disappointed that this makes the method unusable by other Stoneskins, but Su Chen identifies vitality medicine and a race-specific formation as the next steps. The successful breakthrough opens the Light Shaking Realm to the Stoneskins for the first time. (Chapters 790–791)

Later Harpy operations reveal the social and strategic reach behind that achievement. While accompanying the Zhu Clan's forces, Iron Cliff directs rescued laborers toward the Boundless Sect and explains that learning its cultivation methods is more attainable than becoming Su Chen's servant. He later infiltrates Origin Light Castle with Cloud Leopard and other companions, contacts Zhu Xianyao under disguise, and conveys Su Chen's plan to use threatened war as pressure for her release. The once-guileless slave can now recruit, deceive, and explain an international political gambit while still identifying himself simply as his master's servant. (Chapters 824 and 902–904)

The Boundless Sect and the sea campaign

Years within the Boundless Sect make Iron Cliff one of its most knowledgeable members. At Truth Peak he records Su Chen's experimental results, prepares materials, and assists with research into lifeform control, pills, and the Deep Sea Sorrow. By the sea campaign, his medical skill exceeds that of an ordinary doctor, and he can follow Su Chen's analysis of multiple Origin Substances rather than merely perform physical tasks. He remains personally subordinate, but his technical competence makes the partnership far closer to researcher and trained assistant than master and porter. (Chapters 922, 938, and 942)

Iron Cliff also begins producing original work. With only limited pointers from Su Chen, he develops a cultivation method specifically suited to Stoneskins. Their population at Ten Thousand Swords Mountain grows as news spreads, and Iron Cliff supports promising disciples with resources and instruction. Miye, one of the first children he taught in Hurricane Canyon, reaches Light Shaking and becomes the strongest Stoneskin after Iron Cliff as well as his likely successor. The result demonstrates that Iron Cliff's own breakthroughs have become a teachable path with a community capable of continuing it. (Chapters 942 and 1021)

During the campaign against the Astrals, Iron Cliff uses apparent simplicity as a trap. An Astral assumes that a Stoneskin can be controlled through soul invasion, but discovers the outline of Iron Cliff's Abundant Revolution Palace too late. Iron Cliff allows the invasion to proceed until he can absorb the intruding consciousness energy, complete the palace, and reach the Spirit Burning Realm. He openly credits years beside Su Chen for teaching him deception. The breakthrough resolves the consciousness weakness that once made advanced Stoneskin cultivation seem impossible and again establishes a racial first. (Chapter 1022)

At the same time, his fighting remains recognizably direct. In the Sky Magnet Mountains and Wanlai Caves, he breaks hidden entrances and traps with his fists, charges through frost, poison, fire, and lightning, and relies on fellow Stoneskins to handle puppets while he pursues the controlling Astral. This is not mindless aggression: he understands division of labor, baits the enemy into the chosen mental contest, and follows Su Chen's battlefield instructions. His intellectual development adds planning to the charge without replacing the durable style that made him valuable in the first place. (Chapters 1021–1030)

The returning gods and humanity’s final war

In the preparations against the Harpies, Beasts, and returning gods, Iron Cliff acts as Su Chen's most trusted near-field assistant. Su Chen discusses strategic uncertainties with him, and Iron Cliff's answers show improved foresight about enemies exploiting a major battle to spy on the sect. During the attack on Sky City, Iron Cliff alone guards the crystal coffin containing Su Chen's remote blood clone and then helps refine a deliberately flawed batch of Consciousness-Reviving Pills under extreme time pressure. These assignments place him at the junction of Su Chen's laboratory methods and battlefield plans. (Chapters 1065 and 1090)

When the gods summon their divine lands, Iron Cliff asks Su Chen how the human forces should enter a battle otherwise dominated by gods and Origin Beasts. Su Chen orders them to ignore one designated target and smash into the other divine kingdoms, committing Iron Cliff and the sect's cultivators against the worshippers sustaining divine power. Iron Cliff's role is not presented as an individual duel with a god; he helps translate the larger strategy into the mass assault that gives the human army a meaningful place in the conflict. (Chapter 1142)

When humanity adopts immortal cultivation, Iron Cliff progresses alongside its leading figures. After Amelie's death, Su Chen identifies Iron Cliff, Cloud Leopard, and Zhu Xianyao as already close to forming Golden Pills and reserves divine power to help them advance. The corpus does not directly narrate Iron Cliff completing that breakthrough, so his latest confirmed Origin Energy realm remains Spirit Burning while his immortal cultivation is described only as near Golden Pill. The distinction reflects his latest stated condition rather than assuming that intended resources guarantee a later result. (Chapter 1144)

Iron Cliff commands forces during the campaign to eradicate the gods' remaining churches. At Holy West Mountain, he offers worshippers survival if they renounce their faith and expresses regret when they refuse, showing that his early dislike of killing has not vanished. He nonetheless exposes the church's persecution of atheists, orders the temple burned, and uses Titan-Class puppets to reveal a concealed divine kingdom. Expecting the Moon Goddess but finding the God of Discipline, he adapts without hesitation and brings in the forces prepared for the stronger target. (Chapter 1146)

After Su Chen destroys the God of Discipline's kingdom, Iron Cliff is the one follower who remains when the others are dismissed for a private meeting with the Human Ancestor. He listens to their discussion of the gods' hidden plan and questions the Human Ancestor's relationship to the Dream God, continuing his long role as both confidant and sounding board. His final appearance in the supplied corpus therefore echoes his earliest one while reversing its meaning: he still stands beside a master, but now as a pioneering cultivator, chieftain, researcher, commander, and trusted witness to decisions affecting two realms. (Chapter 1147)

Appearance and personality

Iron Cliff is an exceptionally large Stoneskin with gray-white, rough skin, a broad forehead, and no eyebrows or facial hair. His size, heavy steps, and powerful musculature make him look older and more intimidating than he is; even as a young man he is addressed as “Uncle.” In battle, the golden sheen of Adamantine Battle Body and his tendency to stand directly in front of Su Chen make him resemble a moving metal wall. (Chapters 57, 184, 228, and 342)

He begins as guileless, literal, obedient, and uncomfortable with killing. Loyalty is instinctive to him rather than transactional, yet it is not emotional emptiness: the death of his kind former owner still hurts him, and his service to Su Chen deepens because Su Chen offers learning, purpose, and a future. He can be slow with abstractions and fine Origin Energy control, but patience, laboratory discipline, and repeated responsibility make him observant and increasingly shrewd. His humor and teasing grow with confidence, while his concern for Stoneskin children and his regret over unnecessary deaths persist into the final war. (Chapters 64–65, 498, 571, 687, 903, and 1146)

Abilities and cultivation

Iron Cliff's abilities are organized around the Stoneskins' innate physical power and poor Origin Energy perception. Su Chen initially builds him as a shield with a few mutually reinforcing techniques, then extends that foundation through medicine, consciousness training, and bloodline-free cultivation. Iron Cliff's later importance comes from mastering and teaching this system, not from acquiring a large catalogue of unrelated attacks.

Stoneskin physique and cultivation progression

Stoneskins possess great strength, durability, environmental tolerance, and natural resistance to Origin Skills, but perceive and control Origin Energy poorly. Iron Cliff initially requires special instruction to absorb motes through his skin and cultivates much more slowly than a human. He reaches Qi Drawing after receiving Su Chen's clan rewards, Blood Boiling in West River Forest, Yang Opening before his four-on-one battle in Flat Sky City, Light Shaking through a specially intensified formation, and Spirit Burning by completing Abundant Revolution with stolen Astral consciousness energy. (Chapters 64–66, 89, 390, 757–758, 791, and 1022)

The same imbalance shapes every breakthrough. His simple, oversized Lotus Platform requires four times the normal influx of Origin Energy, nearly destroying his body, while his Abundant Revolution depends on years of consciousness training and a carefully baited soul invasion. By the final war, he is also cultivating immortal energy and is said to be close to Golden Pill, but the supplied corpus does not directly confirm completion. His demonstrated path therefore ends at Spirit Burning in the Origin system and near Golden Pill in the immortal system. (Chapters 583, 791, 1022, and 1144)

Defensive combat system

Iron Mountain Shield manifests a broad shield of Origin Energy from his hand. It blocks boulder-sundering attacks and a rapid series of blade strikes, and at higher cultivation can absorb several of Su Chen's Firehawks before breaking. Adamantine Battle Body uses the Giant Adamantine Ape's Origin Substance and circulation method to cover Iron Cliff in a golden defensive layer; continued tempering makes his version more effective than the ordinary copies later circulated to other cultivators. Neither technique is absolute, and sufficiently concentrated power, internal shock, or control effects can still injure or immobilize him. (Chapters 184, 228, 376, 386, and 390)

Mountain-Shaking Vigor and Stalwart Mountain enhance the raw strength behind his punches, charges, and heavy weapons. Devouring the Heavens supplies recovery, closing penetrating wounds during battle, although it lacks the mobility synergy that makes the same technique especially effective for Wang Doushan. The Flowing Wind Body Technique provides a general physical improvement rather than making Iron Cliff genuinely agile. Together, these skills let him endure attacks, close distance, and win through repeated impacts, while speed, illusion, terrain control, and armor-piercing force remain practical counters. (Chapters 228, 265, 390, 397, and 758)

Primordial Blood powers

The Primordial Blood Medicine reshapes Iron Cliff's body and gives him a powerful dormant presence without imposing the advancement restrictions of an inherited bloodline. Its development begins with the accidental mixing of bloodline medicines, and Iron Cliff volunteers as the first subject despite the pain. The resulting power later supplies Blood Fiend Constellation, which turns his shed blood into an additional protective layer and combines with Adamantine Battle Body to increase his defense. (Chapters 429 and 758)

Iron Cliff also possesses a distinct form of the Primordial Blood Incarnation. Unlike Su Chen, he cannot extract and freely magnify Luo You's essence; he acts as a partial vessel, with a single intimidating eye as the principal manifested feature. This makes his version less adaptable and less fully understood than Su Chen's evolving Life Aspect. The corpus presents it as part of his broader body-enhancement system rather than a separate transformation with a fully defined duration or activation cost. (Chapters 741 and 758)

True Spirit Sculpture and consciousness

True Spirit Sculpture trains Iron Cliff to extend and strengthen his consciousness despite the Stoneskins' racial weakness in that area. Early sessions cause him to fall asleep, and Su Chen must repeatedly wake him, but he eventually senses wind, moisture, Origin Energy, and distant danger. The technique's immediate combat benefits are limited; its major importance is foundational, because sufficient consciousness power is required to form Lotus Platforms and consciousness palaces at the higher realms. (Chapter 583)

That training culminates in his Spirit Burning breakthrough. Iron Cliff forms the outline of Abundant Revolution, deliberately permits an Astral's soul invasion, and converts the invader's consciousness energy into the material needed to complete his palace. The tactic works because he is already half a step into the realm and therefore cannot be controlled as easily as the Astral assumes. The episode demonstrates both improved consciousness defense and acquired deception, but it does not establish that Iron Cliff can routinely absorb any opponent's soul. (Chapter 1022)

Combat style, equipment use, and limitations

Iron Cliff prefers fists, shields, charges, and heavy weapons. His style is intentionally uncomplicated: he accepts damage that others would evade, keeps advancing, and applies enough close-range pressure to overwhelm an opponent's defense. At Blood Boiling he can force a Light Shaking cultivator to retreat when equipped with an armor-piercing hammer and supported by allies; at Yang Opening he defeats four cultivators of the same realm. His best performances depend on matching his physical advantages to a clear objective rather than improvising a wide range of Origin Skills. (Chapters 479–480 and 757–758)

Mobility and mental interference are his recurring weaknesses. Ice, mud, distance, and agile opponents can stop him from applying force, while early illusions immobilize him and disrupt his control of the metal-eating bug. Enhancement medicines, armor, guardian creatures, formations, and teammates often compensate for these limits. Even his strongest defenses have thresholds: Ultra Firehawk burns him, armor can transmit impacts internally, and the fourfold Origin Energy torrent used for Light Shaking nearly destroys his organs. (Chapters 82, 184–185, 390, 397, and 791)

Research, medicine, and teaching

Long service in Su Chen's laboratories teaches Iron Cliff anatomy, dissection, preparation, recordkeeping, and experimental discipline. By the sea campaign he is described as one of the most knowledgeable people in the Boundless Sect and a doctor whose medical skill surpasses that of an average practitioner. He can recognize the completion of a pill batch by sound, prepare materials during battlefield refinement, and discuss experimental results, although Su Chen remains the primary inventor in their joint research. (Chapters 345, 571, 922, 942, and 1090)

Iron Cliff later creates a Stoneskin-specific cultivation method with only a few pointers from Su Chen. He teaches improved sensing and circulation to Stoneskin children, supports Miye through advancement, and helps establish a community in which multiple Stoneskins can reach Light Shaking. His teaching is unusually gentle and precise compared with his battlefield manner, and its success is the clearest proof that his personal development has become transferable knowledge rather than an exceptional result that dies with him. (Chapters 687, 791, 942, and 1021)

Metal-eating bug

Iron Cliff forms an enslavement bond with the metal-eating bug after caring for and feeding it, succeeding where Su Chen's attempts fail because the creature already trusts him. The bug can consume certain metals, refine a fraction into concentrated essence, carry Iron Cliff, and use its exceptionally hard shell as a mobile shield. In battle, however, it is reluctant and has low offensive initiative; sufficiently powerful illusion or soul interference can disrupt Iron Cliff's control and make it refuse to continue fighting. (Chapters 65–69, 82, and 397)

Power progression

Relationships

• Su Chen: Iron Cliff's master, teacher, research partner, and closest personal bond. Su Chen adapts cultivation to his limitations and repeatedly risks resources or his own vitality to help him advance; Iron Cliff answers with lifelong loyalty, battlefield protection, precise laboratory service, and a willingness to carry out missions independently. Their formal master-servant language remains even after Iron Cliff becomes a chieftain and sect elder, but the relationship grows into mutual trust and affection. (Chapters 57–66, 228, 571, 731, 791, and 1147)
• Cloud Leopard: A frequent companion from the Hidden Dragon Institute through the final war. Cloud Leopard's speed and instinct contrast with Iron Cliff's durability and deliberate directness, and the two often serve as complementary field operatives. Cloud Leopard openly believes that Iron Cliff will survive the unprecedented Light Shaking breakthrough, while both later stand among the cultivators closest to forming Golden Pills. (Chapters 198–228, 479–483, 791, 903, and 1144)
• Shi Kaihuang: Su Chen's instructor indirectly shapes Iron Cliff's entire cultivation path through the bloodline-free research project. Iron Cliff serves within the laboratory and household where Shi's methods are extended, and the Light Shaking formation that breaks the Stoneskin ceiling emerges from Shi and Su Chen's work. Iron Cliff's success provides living evidence that their principles can extend beyond humans. (Chapters 266, 475, 583, and 790–791)
• Night Demon: An early ally who fights alongside Iron Cliff during conflicts surrounding the Hidden Dragon Institute and later travels with him during the West Laina expedition. Iron Cliff shields her from Bai Ou's Thunder Explosion while she exploits the opening, an example of the protective battlefield role he repeatedly fills for Su Chen's less durable allies. (Chapters 184–185 and 507–510)
• Zhu Xianyao: Iron Cliff assists Su Chen's dealings with Zhu Xianyao, later infiltrates Origin Light Castle to contact her, and explains the pressure campaign intended to secure her release. Their interaction shows his increased confidence: he enjoys briefly deceiving her with a disguise, then accurately delivers a complex plan while preserving Su Chen's concealed identity. (Chapters 262, 561, and 902–904)
• Li Chongshan: A commander whose Heavenly Might Battalion Iron Cliff helps rescue through the Heavenly River Ancient Road. Li later becomes a Boundless Sect leader while Iron Cliff serves as both chieftain and Su Chen's assistant, placing them within the same military and institutional leadership. (Chapters 723, 727, 731, and 922)
• Miye: The son of Hurricane Canyon's former chieftain and one of Iron Cliff's first Stoneskin pupils. Miye's early success sensing Origin Energy validates Iron Cliff's teaching, and Iron Cliff later provides the resources and guidance that help him reach Light Shaking. He becomes the strongest Stoneskin after Iron Cliff and the intended future chieftain, embodying the independent future Iron Cliff sought for his people. (Chapters 687 and 1021)
• Metal-eating bug: Iron Cliff's enslaved guardian creature bonds with him through care rather than force. Its hard shell repeatedly protects him and buys time for prepared tactics, while its fear of battle and vulnerability to mental interference mean that it functions better as a shield and resource-producing companion than as a reliable attacker. (Chapters 65–69, 82, and 397)

Items

• Melted Golden Armor: Iron Cliff's principal early armor, used from the Scarlet Mountain battles through Clear River. It reinforces his shield role and withstands repeated weapon strikes, though heavy impacts can transfer through it and strong attacks can penetrate it. He later exchanges the original set for a lighter, stronger Grade Six version. (Chapters 82–83, 184–185, 390, 397, and 468)
• Black Streak Battle Blade: His early battle blade, paired with Iron Mountain Shield and used to help kill the Blood Boiling cultivator Li. Its use is direct and force-based rather than dependent on blade Qi. As Iron Cliff's cultivation and equipment needs rise, the blade is sold as refuse and replaced by a more specialized armor-piercing hammer. (Chapters 82–83, 184, and 468)
• Primordial Blood Medicine: Iron Cliff volunteers as the first subject for Su Chen's preliminary medicine, enduring a painful reshaping of his body. It gives him bloodline-like power without restricting later ascension and supports abilities such as Blood Fiend Constellation and his distinct Primordial Blood manifestation. (Chapters 429, 741, and 758)