Xuan Daozi

Xuan Daozi is a powerful Dao Realm cultivator whose pursuit of Meng Hao changes from a hired intervention into an obsessive attempt to seize insight into the Daosource.

Biography

Encounter with Meng Hao's time walk

Xuan Daozi arrives as a white-robed boy from the One Profound Sect, one of the experts recruited through Patriarch Blacksoul's faction. He attacks Meng Hao with the Essence of Time, reversing temporal flow around his palm. Meng Hao's own walking technique crosses that reversal, producing the first defeat of Xuan Daozi's Essence magic in his long cultivation. Instead of discouraging him, the failure makes his Essence boil with longing. He concludes that Meng Hao has touched the legendary Daosource and abandons any pretense that he is acting for his sect: he pursues for his own path beyond the Dao. (Chapters 1231–1232)

The chase carries him through escalating dangers. A giant nearly crushes him, forcing him to sacrifice a command medallion that turns to ash while shielding him. He then follows Meng Hao and Hong Chen into the region of the 33 Hells, where the Life-Death Hex directs waves of dead shades against them. Even Dao Realm shades make the pursuit costly, but Xuan Daozi refuses to give up the chance represented by Meng Hao's time technique. (Chapters 1233–1235)

Paying life force for the chase

Inside the death mist, Xuan Daozi uses a secret locating magic to lock onto Meng Hao. The technique costs so much life force and longevity that his body becomes skeletal, though his cultivation level remains. He counters Meng Hao's attempt to borrow the force of their clash for escape and turns their competing time arts into a vortex. When Meng Hao hides with Han Qinglei, Xuan Daozi blocks the latter but hesitates to attack because Han's status in the Eighth Mountain and Sea would create a political conflict. That delay helps the quarry escape and shows that obsession has not erased all strategic restraint. (Chapters 1236–1237)

The necropolis then traps Xuan Daozi along with the other experts. Revelations about Heaven Trampling and the Daosource intensify rather than satisfy his desire. He survives the pull into the tomb as its strongest Dao Realm intruder, still convinced that Meng Hao's Essence is worth the accumulated price. (Chapters 1238–1239)

Hunted by Greed

After Greed possesses Meng Hao, the direction of pursuit reverses. Greed targets Xuan Daozi as nourishment for his fusion with the Dao Fruit. Xuan Daozi attacks when the possessed body pauses before an ancient corpse, but Essence and natural law cannot overcome Greed. Repeated finger taps rot his body while paradoxically stimulating its life force, keeping him alive through unbearable decay. (Chapters 1242–1244)

Knowing death is imminent, Xuan Daozi attempts to self-detonate. Greed suppresses the explosion, Soulsearches him, and consumes the knowledge needed to understand the current Immortal World. Meng Hao later inherits Xuan Daozi's final memories and realizes that the pursuit was driven by the hope of reaching the Daosource, not merely by sect orders or ordinary enmity. (Chapters 1244–1246)

Appearance and personality

Xuan Daozi initially resembles a white-robed boy despite his age and Dao Realm standing. The life-costing tracking art later leaves him looking like a bag of bones. He is proud enough to introduce himself formally and initially confident in an Essence no one has defeated, but intellectual hunger dominates him after Meng Hao's time walk. He is obsessive, resourceful, and willing to spend lifespan and protective treasures for enlightenment, while still capable of hesitation before politically dangerous opponents.

Abilities and cultivation

Xuan Daozi is a Two-Essences Dao Realm expert whose defining power is time manipulation.

Essence of Time

His palm can make time flow in reverse, opposing forward movement and ordinary escape. He can also blur into the streams of time during pursuit. When Meng Hao answers with his own walking technique, the interaction churns the surrounding death mist into a vortex. The Essence is powerful but not absolute: Meng Hao's technique crosses the reversal and is precisely what awakens Xuan Daozi's desire for the Daosource. (Chapters 1231 and 1236)

Life-force tracking magic

A secret magic lets Xuan Daozi fix Meng Hao's position inside mist that defeats ordinary divine sense. The price is explicit and severe: it consumes a large portion of his life force and longevity, withering his body without directly lowering his cultivation base. This makes it useful for maintaining pursuit but leaves him physically diminished in an already hostile region. (Chapter 1236)

Dao Realm offense and defense

He can release Essence and natural law in broad attacks, contend with waves of ancient shades, and pressure cultivators below his realm. A command medallion negates a giant's otherwise fatal strike, but the item is consumed completely. His power cannot overcome Greed's decay technique, and even attempted self-detonation is suppressed before it can release. (Chapters 1233–1235 and 1243–1244)

Daosource insight

Xuan Daozi does not attain the Daosource. His achievement is recognition: the movement of his own Essence tells him that Meng Hao's walking technique points toward a level beyond ordinary Dao cultivation. Later observations in the necropolis let him connect that aspiration with Heaven Trampling. This is theoretical insight and motivation, not demonstrated mastery. (Chapters 1232 and 1238)

Relationships

• Meng Hao: Target whose time walk awakens Xuan Daozi's pursuit of the Daosource.
• Greed: Possessor of Meng Hao's body who kills, consumes, and Soulsearches him.
• Hong Chen: Fellow pursuer who accompanies him into the 33 Hells and dies before him.
• Han Qinglei: Protected Echelon cultivator whose political standing makes Xuan Daozi hesitate.

Items

• No independently notable item within the finalized manifest is directly assigned to this character.