Bai Jiu

Bai Jiu is the ninth prince of the Kalise Empire and an early enemy of Shangguan Bing'er and Zhou Weiqing. He commands Kalise's Jewel Masters, leads an attempted assassination of Bing'er, and later serves as the public leader of a Kalise tournament delegation backed by the Bai Da Empire.

Biography

Assassination attempt

At age twenty-five, Bai Jiu leads a seven-person strike force to kill Bing'er near the Kalise border. He opens the ambush from a distance with Silent Arrows while five Physical Jewel Masters close in and his servant Luo Xiaoye provides Elemental support. The plan nearly succeeds, but Zhou intervenes with a fused arrow that breaks the attackers' formation and saves Bing'er. Bai Jiu correctly rejects his subordinates' fear that Admiral Zhou Shui Niu fired it, reasoning that the admiral would have killed them outright and was known to be elsewhere. From the attack's attributes, he infers that the Heavenly Bow army has acquired another low-level Heavenly Jewel Master. (Chapter 20)

Bai Jiu withdraws rather than risk the entire group and considers calling on his teacher. His conclusion is strategic: he believes Kalise must prevent Heavenly Bow from developing two young Heavenly Jewel Masters. The encounter also reveals his position within the empire. He is Emperor Kalise's ninth son, already has four Physical Jewels, and governs Kalise's Jewel Masters despite his age. Luo Xiaoye, raised alongside him as servant and bodyguard, is the subordinate with whom he speaks most freely. (Chapter 20)

Border pursuit

When Zhou and Bing'er later raid the Kalise camp and destroy its granary, Bai Jiu leads the Jewel Masters in pursuit. His Silent Arrows keep the fugitives from using their full speed, while his own Agility lets him stay with the fastest pursuers. He blocks Bing'er's Silent Tracking Arrow with a pale-green shield summoned from his fourth Jewel and continues firing through the forest. Rage over the humiliating raid reinforces his desire to kill her, but survival takes precedence once Forest Direwolves surround both groups. Bai Jiu orders his force not to injure the beasts, abandons the chase, and escapes the encirclement. Hearing Zhou's later tiger roar from afar, he mistakenly concludes that Bing'er has died to a Zong Stage Heavenly Beast. (Chapters 22–24)

Kalise's tournament delegation

Several years later, Bai Jiu meets Zhou and Bing'er at Heavenly Jewel Tournament registration. He leads the Kalise delegation, but admits that the team's Heavenly Jewel Masters are effectively Bai Da's second team. He taunts Bing'er as a defector because she is registered with Fei Li, and she rejects the accusation, maintaining her loyalty to Heavenly Bow. Zhou no longer sees Bai Jiu himself as a serious combat threat, because the prince remains a Physical rather than Heavenly Jewel Master, but he recognizes danger in the silent fighters accompanying him. (Chapter 71)

Bai Jiu does not intend to enter the arena personally and frames his value as leadership. He and Luo Xiaoye draw the team's lot, then confer respectfully with Wu Yuehan, the Heavenly Demon Sect's Little Witch, suggesting that Kalise is exploring support beyond Bai Da. They are placed in a different group from Zhou's Fei Li team, so their personal feud does not become a tournament fight within the supplied chapters. Bai Jiu's final appearance is following Little Witch away after giving Zhou and Bing'er a disdainful look. (Chapters 71–72)

Appearance and personality

Bai Jiu is a handsome young man who wears white during the assassination mission. He is twenty-five at his introduction and is still recognizable several years later. The corpus supplies no detailed account of his build, hair, or eyes. (Chapters 20 and 71)

He is proud, sharp-tongued, and quick to berate failure, but more observant than his outbursts suggest. He reconstructs Zhou's approximate cultivation and attributes from one arrow, knows when a feared enemy cannot be present, and retreats when direwolves make the pursuit too dangerous. He is also status-conscious and uses Bai Da's backing as evidence of Kalise's importance. Humiliation hardens into resentment: his later hostility toward Bing'er is explicitly tied to the failed ambush and pursuit rather than attraction. (Chapters 20, 22–23, and 71)

Abilities and cultivation

Bai Jiu is a four-Jeweled Physical Jewel Master and an Agility specialist. At twenty-five, that level makes him one of Kalise's outstanding princes, although it leaves him below the Heavenly Jewel Masters who dominate the later tournament. His speed is sufficient to lead a night pursuit and remain ahead of stronger but non-Agility Jewel Masters. (Chapters 20, 22, and 71)

Silent Arrows

His principal weapon is an unnamed bow used to fire Silent Arrows. Their lack of sound makes them especially dangerous at night: the first nearly kills Bing'er, and later shots force both fugitives to dodge rather than concentrate entirely on escape. Bai Jiu fires quickly and accurately at long range. The technique is not infallible, however; Zhou senses or evades several shots, and protective terrain reduces Bai Jiu's firing opportunities. (Chapters 20 and 22)

Defensive equipment and command

Bai Jiu's fourth Physical Jewel produces a light pale-green round shield, apparently Consolidated Equipment, which blocks Bing'er's Silent Tracking Arrow. No other personal equipment or skill is identified. His broader strength lies in organizing other Jewel Masters: he assigns targets, interprets battlefield information, directs retreat, and later fronts a team whose actual fighters are supplied through stronger allies. That dependence is also his limit—he can threaten low-level opponents through coordination, but Zhou judges him personally irrelevant once the latter's cultivation has advanced. (Chapters 20, 22, and 71)

Relationships

• Shangguan Bing'er: Bai Jiu targets Bing'er because she is Heavenly Bow's young Heavenly Jewel Master. After both assassination and pursuit fail, he carries the grievance into their tournament reunion and attacks her loyalty verbally.
• Zhou Weiqing: Zhou frustrates Bai Jiu's ambush without initially being identified, then becomes the opponent who humiliates his forces and protects Bing'er. By the tournament, Zhou has outgrown Bai Jiu as a direct combat rival but still treats the prince's allies as a national threat.
• Luo Xiaoye: Luo Xiaoye is Bai Jiu's childhood servant, Fire Elemental Jewel Master, bodyguard, and closest follower. He reports observations, accompanies the prince in both campaigns, and helps manage his temper.
• Wu Yuehan: Bai Jiu and Luo Xiaoye meet the woman known as Little Witch at the tournament and address her respectfully. Their exchange points to possible Heavenly Demon Sect involvement with Kalise, though the exact agreement is not stated.

Items

Bai Jiu uses a bow for Silent Arrows and a pale-green round shield associated with his fourth Physical Jewel. Neither item receives a proper name in the supplied corpus.