Mu En

Mu En is the Heavenly Bow Unit's “God Eye Scoundrel” and Zhou Weiqing's first teacher. His lessons join precision archery to social observation, deception, and an uncompromising instinct for survival, making his influence visible both in Zhou's personal methods and in the practical battlefield doctrine of the Peerless forces.

Biography

Teaching a powerless child how to survive

Admiral Zhou brings Mu En to his ten-year-old son because Zhou Weiqing appears unable to cultivate and still needs a way to survive in society. During two years together, Mu En does not teach him combat. He instead teaches him how to read people, conduct himself, escape danger, and use a rogue's shameless flexibility against stronger opponents. When Zhou meets him again at the Heavenly Bow Unit, the dirty, mischievous old man is revealed as one of the empire's elite assassins; the habits that made Zhou precocious were the civilian foundation of a much more dangerous discipline. (Chapters 29–30)

Mu En then turns that foundation into formal archery training. On a mission against an Icy Soul Heavenly Bear, he attacks from within one hundred yards with a self-created twisting-bowstring shot, injures a Zong Stage beast through its shield, disappears before its counterattack, and directs its rage toward a strategically chosen weak point. The lesson is not simply to shoot harder: Mu En shows Zhou that cultivation gaps can be overcome by studying anatomy, controlling attention, coordinating allies, and refusing the terms of a direct contest. Over the next two years Zhou learns most of his archery, while Mu En's deliberately outrageous teaching style also drills observation and adaptability into him. Their farewell exposes the affection underneath the insults when Zhou admits he does not want to leave and Mu En's joking expression freezes. (Chapters 31–34)

Rebuilding the Heavenly Bow tradition in the Peerless Battalion

After the Heavenly Bow Empire falls, Mu En and the surviving Unit members escape an ambush through an old secret tunnel and follow Zhou's returning force before revealing themselves. The reunion changes their mission: instead of preserving their techniques for a seven-person assassination unit, they agree to train the Peerless Battalion. Mu En becomes one of its god-archer instructors and imports the same survival-first thinking he taught Zhou. His “shameless tactics” reduce battlefield problems to workable vulnerabilities—for example, striking cavalry mounts and exposed lower targets rather than contesting armored riders—and he argues that an effective life-saving method is practical experience, not disgrace. (Chapters 132–158)

His contribution is also strategic. When airborne Eagle Tribesmen bombard the Peerless force, Mu En advises Hua Feng to shelter beneath interlocked heavy-infantry shields and let the limited javelin supply run out while continuing the original maneuver against the Unicorn Cavalry. The prediction proves correct and prevents the aerial threat from dictating the battle. When Zhou later returns with a new companion and faces the resentment of officers loyal to Shangguan Fei'er, Mu En publicly scolds him but privately signals that he is defusing the room on his disciple's behalf. Both incidents show the same skill: he reads pressure, identifies what an opponent or audience expects, and changes the situation before force becomes necessary. (Chapters 164–183)

Family, restoration, and an influence that outlasts training

The Peerless years also force Mu En to face a part of his own past. Hong Yu, whom he abandoned after an accidental union in youth, finds him again; he learns that Crow is their daughter. His first reaction is avoidance, but guilt and regret finally lead him to accept both wife and child. By the restoration campaign he has a family, a position in the Peerless Regiment comparable in prestige to Hua Feng's, and enough trust to bring the surviving Xiao Ru Se to Zhou. His wet eyes at their reunion connect the empire's recovery to something personal rather than merely military. (Chapters 163–164 and 207)

Mu En remains among the Heavenly Bow Empire's senior figures when Zhou returns from the XuanTian expedition. More importantly, his instruction continues to operate even when he is absent: Zhou credits Mu En's insistence on confidence, denial under pressure, understanding human nature, and survival above pride for carrying him through unfamiliar societies and later crises. The latest in-scope references still identify those instincts as Mu En's teaching, confirming that his deepest legacy is not a single shot but the way Zhou thinks. (Chapters 230, 240, 263, 764, and 846)

Appearance and personality

Mu En is short and thin, with a “tiny frame” that can disappear in a crowd. He initially presents himself as a dirty old man and later wears an older-looking mask; when the mask comes off, his actual face is clean, clear, and not unattractive. In action, a grey outfit and alert bearing replace his usual lazy appearance, and his small build becomes an advantage in quick, elusive movement. (Chapters 29–32, 163–164, and 230)

He is vulgar, acquisitive, theatrical, and almost impossible to shame. Those traits are partly genuine and partly tools: he can play weak before bandits, provoke an enemy into a mistake, or hide concern behind mockery. His ruthlessness is bounded by a practical moral logic—he kills predatory bandits after taking their money because leaving them alive would endanger later travelers—and his fiercest loyalty is expressed indirectly, through training, protective deception, and timely intervention rather than solemn declarations. (Chapters 30–34, 167, and 183)

Abilities and cultivation

Mu En is a six-Jeweled Physical Jewel Master whose Jewels combine Strength and Agility; the narration calls him a “half strength” practitioner. The Heavenly Bow Unit warns that its members should not be judged by conventional face-to-face combat: even an ordinary five-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master could defeat the group in a direct engagement, whereas preparation and archery let its assassins kill far above their nominal cultivation. Mu En's strength therefore depends on range, concealment, target analysis, and teamwork rather than prolonged melee. (Chapters 30 and 33)

Twisting Bowstring Archery

Mu En's signature technique rotates the bow so that its string twists into a spiral around the arrow. Release gives the projectile a violent corkscrew motion and explosive impact; one shot staggers and wounds a shielded Zong Stage Icy Soul Heavenly Bear, and another penetrates its head once the shield is gone. More rotations increase power, but also make the shot progressively harder to aim. Mu En can manage only one full revolution because his Strength and control are insufficient for more, while Zhou later uses his greater physique to extend the same principle. (Chapters 32, 50, and 81)

Close-range archery, agility, and fieldcraft

Hua Feng describes Mu En as “invincible within a hundred yards.” He can evade sight in snow, catch more than twenty incoming arrows, and throw them back by hand into distant archers' throats. His black Consolidated bow and gold Consolidated arrow supply the force for his signature shots, but the corpus does not give either item a formal name or describe further properties. His effectiveness falls when an enemy covers a wide area faster than he can escape, as shown when the Icy Soul Heavenly Bear King's mass attack knocks him unconscious. (Chapters 31–33)

Mu En is also an expert in tracking, concealment, human behavior, and improvised battlefield tactics. These are not supernatural Skills with defined energy costs; they depend on observation, patience, misleading an opponent, and exploiting finite resources or physical weak points. Their limit is likewise practical: bad information or an overwhelming area attack can invalidate even a clever plan. (Chapters 31–33, 132, 158, and 167)

Relationships

• Zhou Weiqing: Mu En is Zhou's longest-serving teacher and one of the people Zhou considers family. He gives Zhou archery, social instincts, and a survival philosophy, then protects his standing within the Peerless command even while disguising that favoritism as ridicule.
• Hua Feng: Hua Feng commands the Heavenly Bow Unit while Mu En supplies disruptive improvisation. Their mutual recognition during the Eagle Tribe attack shows how composed command and opportunistic cunning reinforce one another.
• Crow: Crow is Mu En and Hong Yu's daughter. Discovering this family embarrasses him and forces him to confront the harm caused by running away, but he ultimately accepts both relationships.
• Shangguan Fei'er: Mu En respects the labor she invests in building the Peerless Battalion. His intervention when Zhou returns is meant to acknowledge her grievance while preventing the officers' anger from isolating his disciple.

Items

• Purple Dawn Bow: The heavy military bow is part of the archery world Mu En helps Zhou and Shangguan Bing'er navigate. He evaluates it against Hua Feng's lighter Green Spirit Bow and oversees the stage of Zhou's training in which Zhou's own Purple Dawn Bow is replaced by a Black Dawn Bow better suited to strength-building. (Chapters 30–31)