Zhou Dekun

Zhou Dekun is a senior East Pill Division Furnace Lord. He begins as Meng Hao's rigid alchemical rival, becomes a sincere colleague during their mission to the Black Sieve Sect, and disappears when Black Lands cultivators ambush them.

Biography

Debate at Alchemy Day Valley

Zhou gives a long lecture asserting that pill formulas provide the rules of alchemy. Irritated by Meng Hao's interruption and yawn, he demands a public explanation of Meng Hao's doubts. Meng Hao derives new formulas on the spot and exposes the plant in Zhou's hand as Blue Dawn leaf rather than Seven Leaf clove. The humiliation and Meng Hao's claim that his Dao is flawed leave Zhou coughing blood and questioning a path that has not advanced for sixty years. (Chapters 243–244)

Black Sieve Sect mission

The East Pill Division sends Zhou and Meng Hao to the Black Sieve Sect, Zhou as lecturer and Meng Hao as pill concocter. Their shared confrontation with World Pill Division alchemists Chen Jiaxi and Li Yiming repairs their relationship. Zhou gives Meng Hao a jade slip containing a century of practical alchemy experience, and Meng Hao acknowledges the value of his precision and high success rate. Zhou incorporates Meng Hao's insights into his own lecture, then gratefully yields the debate when Chen Jiaxi corners him. (Chapters 245–251)

Zhou witnesses Meng Hao crush Chen Jiaxi in plant knowledge and formula scrying, repeatedly intervening when Chen's wagers become unreasonable. Afterward he serves as Meng Hao's Dharma Protector and ingredient assistant while Soul Refining Pills are made for the Black Sieve Sect. He also takes advantage of the arrangement to request rare medicinal plants for himself. (Chapters 252–259)

Disappearance

On their return journey, Zhou teaches Meng Hao how Furnace Lords build relationships with cultivator clans and profit from pill sales. At the Barren Mountains teleportation hub they enter a Black Lands ambush. Meng Hao saves him from the opening attack, and Zhou uses his Furnace Lord robe to teleport away. A pudgy azure-masked Core Formation cultivator pursues him. Later reports say the Violet Fate Sect recovered all its missing alchemists except Zhou Dekun; his fate remains unresolved by Chapter 313. (Chapter 260)

Later cultivation journey

In Holy Snow City, Zhou Dekun's inflated reputation collides with Meng Hao's real pill craft. He first claims credit for Meng Hao's pill aroma, then confesses, but Yan Song mistakes every retreat for hidden mastery and carries him away. Zhou later appears as the Cloud Sky Tribe's revered Grandmaster. During the Black Lands migration he forces the Battle Tribe into action under the pretext of persuasion, commands ten thousand neo-demons, and joyfully reunites with Meng Hao. (Chapters 357–365), (Chapters 499–503), (Chapter 510), (Chapter 512), (Chapter 515)

Appearance and personality

Zhou is a white-haired old man who wears the East Pill Division's black robe with violet trim. He is proud, verbose, conservative, and sensitive about never becoming a Violet Furnace Lord. Beneath that vanity he possesses genuine professional discipline and loyalty. Once he accepts Meng Hao as a colleague, he shares his lifetime of experience freely and supports him without hesitation.

Abilities and cultivation

Late Foundation Establishment

Strong enough to survive the first massed attack at the teleportation hub, but dependent on escape rather than defeating the Core Formation pursuer. (Chapter 260)

Formula-centered alchemy

Zhou treats formulas as the reproducible rules of pill craft and has a century of accumulated practical refinements. Meng Hao exposes the danger of treating those rules as absolute, prompting Zhou to incorporate adaptive derivation without discarding his precision. (Chapters 243–251)

Exceptional consistency

His recorded experience supports a success rate near eight batches in ten. This reliability makes him valuable as lecturer and production alchemist even when Meng Hao surpasses him in original insight. (Chapters 245–259)

Teaching and ingredient work

Zhou lectures, prepares ingredients, protects a working refiner, and records techniques in jade. These support skills improve another alchemist's output without making Zhou the creator of Meng Hao's Soul Refining Pills. (Chapters 245–259)

Furnace Lord robe and medallion

Sect clothing supplies defensive screening and limited emergency displacement. It lets him escape the opening ambush, but a Core Formation enemy can pursue after the teleportation. (Chapter 260)

Neo-demon command

As Cloud Sky Grandmaster he later commands ten thousand neo-demons through tribal authority. The force reflects his adopted status and surrounding tribe, not a newly demonstrated personal Dragoneer art equal to Meng Hao's. (Chapters 499–515)

Relationships

• Meng Hao: Initial debate opponent, then respected junior colleague and fellow traveler.
• Chen Jiaxi: World Pill Division rival who tries to humiliate him publicly.
• Li Yiming: Another hostile World Pill Division alchemist.
• Patriarch Violet Sieve: Host who receives him with honor and employs his lectures.

Items

• Furnace Lord robe, medallion, and experience jade: Profession-linked tools and record; no separate finalized item article is assigned.