Er Chun

Er Chun is XuanTian Palace's representative in W'Batu City and the judge of the local XuanTian Trials. He exploits the Palace's supremacy to sell selection places, then reverses course when Zhou Weiqing's displayed craft convinces him that the apparent applicant is a God Tier Consolidating Equipment Master who could determine his future.

Biography

Corrupted trials and a strategic retreat

Er Chun opens the W'Batu trials by raising the minimum cultivation requirement without notice, dismissing weaker independent cultivators because he does not want to spend time testing them. His later rounds use his own nine-Jewel strength as a supposedly neutral standard, but he varies the force so three bribing families' sons will pass. Shangguan Bing'er's seven-Jewel cultivation is too conspicuous to exclude, and Zhou unexpectedly withstands even attacks meant to remove him. Faced with four survivors for three purchased places, Er Chun invents another contest and rigs its draw so the three clients can attack Zhou together. (Chapters 237–238)

The scheme collapses when Zhou kills all three and turns Er Chun's promise of protection against the judge himself. Er Chun attacks in anger, then immediately stops when Zhou's God Protective Aura and claimed profession suggest a background far above a local applicant. Zhou produces a master-level scroll almost instantly, and Er Chun changes from accuser to facilitator. He returns the bribes, refuses the bereaved fathers' demand for revenge, gives Zhou and Bing'er their final qualifications, and reports the discovery to XuanTian Palace. The reversal is self-protective rather than moral reform: he fears what the Palace would do if a valuable master complained about him and sees long-term profit in attaching himself to the newcomer. (Chapters 238–239)

Er Chun offers a pair of thousand-year golden pearls, admits that greed corrupted his judgment, and asks Zhou to overlook the trial. Once the gift is accepted, he personally escorts the couple to Heavenly City with W'Batu's best available guards, a comfortable carriage, rapid changes of mounts, and careful provisions. The successful delivery earns him the achievement he sought and removes him from Zhou's later admission process; by the next summons he is no longer present and may already have returned to W'Batu. The broader account of XuanTian governance later explains why he could act so freely: regional Palace representatives outrank local governors while the headquarters exercises only loose oversight. (Chapters 239–240 and 242)

Appearance and personality

Er Chun is an elderly man in a blue robe embroidered with a silver crescent, the emblem marking his XuanTian Palace rank. He habitually carries himself with his hands behind his back and cultivates an aloof, superior manner before local officials and applicants. The corpus gives no more detailed description of his face or build. (Chapter 237)

He is arrogant toward people without institutional backing, corrupt, and skilled at making biased decisions look procedural. He reads a crowd well enough to avoid openly excluding Bing'er and repeatedly invents plausible rules when Zhou disrupts the fixed result. That adaptability becomes submission as soon as the balance of status changes. Er Chun is frank enough in private to admit greed, but his gifts, escort, and warning to the bribing families all serve survival and future advantage rather than restitution to the applicants he excluded. (Chapters 237–240)

Abilities and cultivation

Er Chun is a nine-Jeweled Upper Level Zong Stage Heavenly Jewel Master. The level lets him overwhelm ordinary five-Jewel trial participants and gives him substantial status in a regional branch, but it remains below the Heavenly King threshold associated with XuanTian Palace's elders and God Tier Consecrates. Zhou's concealed nine-Jewel body and Saint Energy render that apparent advantage meaningless. (Chapters 237–239)

Ice attacks and controlled force

His demonstrated combat power uses cold and ice. Er Chun can concentrate an icy aura around a fist so tightly that spectators do not easily see the Stored Skill, vary the percentage of Heavenly Energy behind otherwise similar blows, and release a palm attack that lowers the surrounding temperature and condenses snowflakes. These features make his cultivation suitable for manipulating a trial: he can knock chosen applicants from the stage while allowing clients to remain. The same concealment is also a limitation against a knowledgeable superior, because Zhou recognizes the hidden increase in force and resists it without exposing his own full power. (Chapters 237–238)

Er Chun can step through the air for a showy entrance and reacts quickly enough to recognize a God Protective Aura and the professional implications of a rapidly made scroll. No named movement skill or Consolidated Equipment of his own is supplied. He explicitly lacks God Tier Consolidated Equipment, one reason Zhou's equipment immediately convinces him that continuing the fight is dangerous. (Chapters 237–239)

Relationships

• Zhou Weiqing: Er Chun tries to eliminate Zhou from a sold trial, attacks him after the bribers' sons die, and then becomes deferential when Zhou demonstrates high-level equipment and craft. He secures forgiveness with gifts and an escort, while Zhou uses the corrupt official's fear to advance his infiltration.
• Shangguan Bing'er: Bing'er's obvious seven-Jewel cultivation forces Er Chun to grant her an extra place rather than risk exposing the trial's bias. He later treats her as the wife of a God Tier master and escorts her to Heavenly City with Zhou.
• Sang Tan: The W'Batu governor pays Er Chun to secure a place for his son and defers to him as XuanTian Palace's representative. After the son's death, Er Chun returns the payment and warns Sang Tan that survival matters more than revenge against a supposed God Tier master.

Items

No distinct notable item is retained by Er Chun. He gives Zhou two thousand-year golden pearls as an inducement to overlook the corrupted trial, transferring them rather than keeping them as part of his own inventory.