Li Tian

Li Tian, known as Patriarch Transmutation, is a fugitive Southern Domain expert who joins Yan Song’s Western Desert expedition and later turns on Meng Hao.

Biography

Western Desert expedition

Li Tian is the fourth expert to arrive for Yan Song’s expedition. He appears as an old man with peak Nascent Soul cultivation and tests the masked Meng Hao with immediate hostility before the participants settle their identities and terms. His reputation is disreputable: he has been driven from the Southern Domain after harming female disciples and has survived in the Western Desert for roughly a century under the title Patriarch Transmutation. (Chapters 389–390)

For the expedition, Li Tian contributes five rare treasures created through a secret art. Each can conceal a Southern Domain cultivator’s aura and cultivation for three years while allowing a Western Desert-style totem to appear. He withholds them until the others explain their usefulness, then chooses the Crow Fighter Tribe as his temporary destination. The disguises later work as promised, though that operation does not require Li Tian to remain present. (Chapters 390–391 and 396)

Volcanic realm and death

Li Tian reunites with the group around the volcanic realm and initially helps assess the situation. Once resources and escape routes become contested, he joins the pressure against Meng Hao. He surrounds him with other experts, demands treasures, and uses movement resembling minor teleportation to intercept him. (Chapters 428 and 430)

When the Golden Crow attacks, Li Tian loses an arm while trying to resist. A lifetime spent fleeing gives him sharp danger instincts, and he abandons the battle before the others, releasing magical items and black fog to cover his escape. The Golden Crow simply taps him and turns him into a golden statue, killing him despite all those precautions. (Chapters 431–432)

Appearance and personality

Li Tian is an old man associated with black robes and the imposing title Patriarch Transmutation. He is secretive, calculating, and accustomed to survival outside lawful sect structures. He cooperates when rewards justify it, but withholds resources until their value is clear and turns hostile when the expedition collapses. His strongest personal trait is survival instinct, although the Golden Crow exceeds anything that instinct can evade.

Abilities and cultivation

Peak Nascent Soul cultivation

Li Tian stands at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage. He can participate among renowned expedition experts, exchange attacks around the volcanic realm, and survive an initial clash with the Golden Crow at the cost of an arm. His realm is formidable by ordinary standards but insufficient against the ancient being that kills him.

Aura-transmutation treasures

His secret art creates rare disguise treasures that suppress the detectable aura and cultivation signature of Southern Domain experts for as long as three years. They also manifest a false totem, allowing the bearer to pass among Western Desert cultivators. Their purpose is concealment rather than bodily transformation, and the later narrative confirms that the disguise functions.

Minor teleportation and escape arts

Li Tian’s short-range movement is fast enough to resemble minor teleportation, which he uses to intercept opponents. When fleeing, he releases multiple magical items and spreads black fog to obstruct pursuit. These layers illustrate practiced evasion, but the Golden Crow’s attack ignores the distance and defenses on which the method depends.

Relationships

• Meng Hao: Expedition associate whom Li Tian later surrounds and attempts to rob.
• Yan Song: Organizer who brings Li Tian into the Western Desert expedition.
• Golden Crow: Ancient being that maims and then petrifies him.
• Other expedition experts: Temporary partners whose cooperation deteriorates around the volcanic realm.

Items

• Five aura-concealing treasures: Secret-art products that hide Southern Domain cultivation and create false Western Desert totems.
• Escape magical items: Unnamed artifacts scattered during his final flight.