Wei Yan

Biography

A professor's cultivated image

Wei Yan enters Lair as the celebrated chief professor of the physical-combat-focused Azure Dragon Study Group. His youthful looks, war-hero reputation, money, and command of publicity make him seem an unusually desirable mentor, while Yu Jitae recognizes a demon who promoted dragon hunts in an earlier iteration. During Yeorum's violent interview, Wei Yan controls the room with calm apologies and institutional pressure, but his real interest is recruiting a dragon whose appearance and combat ability could become the study group's new public face. (Chapters 13–16)

After the dispute, Wei Yan offers places to all three cadets in Jitae's household and sells the offer through scholarships, faculty recommendations, media influence, and his connection to Lair's deputy principal. He admits that an end-of-year opportunity has made him hungry for greater standing, but disguises the planned sacrifice of cadets as ordinary professional ambition. When Yeorum rejects him and treats publicity as worthless, he moves from persuasion to a veiled threat, showing that his celebrated generosity depends on obedience and usefulness. (Chapter 17)

The entrance-declaration audition turns that injured pride into covert interference. Wei Yan backs Gong Juhee, uses her guardian and his public-relations apparatus to pressure competitors, and decides that winning justifies dirty rumours and financial leverage. Kaeul's unexpected success deprives his candidate of the central position, yet he continues smiling while asking Jitae to recommend Gong as a supporting declarer. Even when his hatred becomes visible for an instant, his exceptional self-control keeps the respectable professor's mask intact before the watching guardians. (Chapters 28–31)

Following Wei Yan after the audition reveals the structure beneath that public campaign. In an Undetectables hideout, Wei Yan disciplines subordinates, manages an unstable demon who has murdered civilians, and preserves the secrecy of an organization that treats victims as “sacrifices.” A reading of his seventh-iteration state shows outside interference concentrating the strongest weapon, connections, and luck available to his counterparts from previous iterations. Those advantages create the possibility that a demon who had never held a Seat could finally obtain one, making his academic recruitment part of a larger conspiracy rather than merely careerist vanity. (Chapter 32)

The fifth Seat that never rose

Attacks on Wei Yan's allies leave the Undetectables frightened and make his private rule increasingly punitive. He maintains his public composure during an Azure Dragon press conference, then assaults the assistant whose failures have exposed the organization to the mysterious enemy called X. As the Melissia Masquerade approaches, Wei Yan conducts an abyssal offering and receives senior demons Ysayle Khalifa and Noah. He needs their protection because the ritual is meant to sacrifice seven hundred selected cadets and create one hundred demons under him, allowing him to pass the abyss's test and become the organization's fifth Seat. (Chapters 56, 59, 72–73)

Inside the Masquerade, Wei Yan leads the Azure Dragon group toward the boss room and pushes the raid faster than its guards consider safe. When they resist, his gentlemanly manner breaks: he draws Peace Invoker, kills the guards, and openly identifies himself as a demon. He then confronts Jitae and vents years of resentment toward Yeorum, Kaeul, and Bom, blaming the household for thwarting his recruitment and publicity plans. The tirade exposes the personal rage beneath his grand scheme while also releasing the traces of Hostility that Jitae had been waiting to collect. (Chapters 75–76)

Wei Yan expects his weapon, demonic body, allies, and sealed dungeon to make Jitae the first sacrifice of his ascent. Instead, Jitae overwhelms him with a single blow, removes his communication artifact, and reveals that he is X—the hidden enemy who dismantled Wei Yan's support network. Once Wei Yan understands that the ritual has failed and rescue will not arrive, he abandons himself without hesitation and tells Jitae where to stab. His corpse is left pinned through the heart to a dimensional wall, ending both his candidacy for a Seat and the Undetectables' Masquerade plan. (Chapters 76–77)

The collapse of a manufactured hero

Wei Yan's image survives him briefly. The public first believes that he died while trying to save cadets, and the most extreme members of his fan community turn grief into a campaign against Kaeul, whom they already resented for eclipsing Gong Juhee. Their fixation grows from the persona Wei Yan deliberately maintained through flattering social-media posts, selective stories of success and failure, and emotional appeals that framed every setback as virtuous responsibility. His death therefore weaponizes the same audience he cultivated, even though he no longer directs it. (Chapters 85–86)

Lair destroys that martyrdom by releasing Jitae's recording of the command-tent murders. The footage places Wei Yan's crimson eyes, demonic speech, threats, and gunfire against the gentle voice his supporters knew, forcing the protesters to confront that their “Captain” was a demon. The disclosure shifts public attention away from Kaeul, leads to arrests among the violent demonstrators, and turns Wei Yan's fan organization into a target of ridicule. His mastery of media cannot survive direct evidence of the conduct it was designed to conceal. (Chapters 86–88)

Later investigation places Wei Yan in a still broader attack on Jitae's reality. Hostility had altered his seventh-iteration circumstances, infected investigators through the influence inside him, and used his conflict with Yeorum and Kaeul as a test of Jitae's reactions. The narrative also establishes that Wei Yan had been a demon in every remembered iteration, so this intervention did not create a separate innocent identity; it amplified and positioned the same recurring enemy. His conspiracy with the Undetectables and the outside manipulation overlap, but neither erases his own ambition, cruelty, or choices. (Chapters 66, 163, 180, 223, 370)

Appearance and personality

Wei Yan is thirty-eight, but his neat facial structure makes him look as though he is in his mid-twenties. His graceful appearance, carefully styled clothes—including a navy tuxedo at a press conference—and relaxed manner support a classy, youthful image. A soft, sweet voice, practiced smiles, expressive eyes, and reassuring gestures help him charm reporters, cadets, guardians, and a large international fanbase. (Chapters 13, 16, 59, 85)

That refinement is calculated rather than effortless kindness. Wei Yan is exceptionally patient for a demon and can continue bowing, flattering, and negotiating while privately consumed by hatred. He reads moods quickly, treats people according to their usefulness, and regards publicity as power. Rejection exposes entitlement and vindictiveness, while failure makes him physically abusive toward subordinates. When his restraint finally breaks, crimson aura fills his eyes, his speech becomes rapid and distorted, and the polished professor gives way to open contempt for humans. (Chapters 16–17, 28, 31–32, 59, 73, 75–76)

Wei Yan is ambitious, image-conscious, and organizationally disciplined. He tolerates humiliation because fame can attract larger prey, protects the Undetectables' secrecy, and seeks a Seat through a plan requiring hundreds of victims. He also shows a bleak decisiveness at the end: after recognizing that his ascent is impossible, he chooses immediate death rather than pleading or waiting for capture. That composure does not redeem him, but it shows that his public patience and private ruthlessness come from the same capacity to subordinate the present moment to a chosen outcome. (Chapters 16–17, 32, 72–73, 77)

Powers and abilities

Demonic constitution and abyssal stigma

As a demon, Wei Yan receives mana from the abyss and carries the rage, killing impulse, and predatory desire associated with his kind. By the Masquerade, his individual strength is close to disaster rank, and his reinforced body can withstand forces comparable to disaster-ranked demons. Jitae's blow still fractures his face, destroys his organs, and leaves him barely able to move, demonstrating that the constitution offers extreme endurance but no meaningful defence against Jitae's superior physical power. (Chapters 16, 72, 76–77)

His demonic aura can exert mental influence. The Azure Dragon cadets found after his death had been encroached upon by that aura for a long period, while a thirty-person special-force team developed group mental contamination after encountering the Hostility within him. The chapters establish those effects but do not show Wei Yan deliberately issuing precise mental commands, define their range, or separate his innate influence cleanly from Hostility's contamination. His latest state is death, with no demonstrated recovery or survival through the abyss. (Chapters 66, 77)

Noah attributes Black Coffer to Wei Yan's stigma and describes it as sealing time and space immediately after his death so that an attacker can be delayed. This is a posthumous explanation rather than a fully depicted technique: its activation process, area, duration, and exact effect on Jitae are not shown. It does not preserve Wei Yan's life or prevent the Undetectables' operation from collapsing, so it should not be treated as resurrection or as proof that he attained catastrophe rank. (Chapter 79)

Hostility-enhanced seventh iteration

An existence beyond the Horizon of Providence partially dislocates the seventh-iteration Wei Yan and concentrates the strongest weapon, best connections, and greatest luck held by his versions across the previous six iterations. The same interference is said to increase his strength and makes a rise to a Seat possible for the first time. These advantages are imposed circumstances rather than a technique Wei Yan learns or consciously controls, and the narrative never converts them into a formal attained rank before his death. (Chapters 32, 48, 76)

Hostility becomes most visible when Wei Yan's anger and demonic aura surge. Jitae's Vintage Clock can manually collect trace fragments from those outbursts, reaching completion while Wei Yan boasts about his plan and threatens him with Peace Invoker. The influence can also contaminate others through Wei Yan and is later interpreted as part of Hostility's attempt to test Jitae's reactions. Its central limitation is that augmentation does not grant Wei Yan awareness of the larger experiment or enough power to resist Jitae once the trap is reversed. (Chapters 66, 68, 76, 223, 370)

Peace Invoker

Peace Invoker is a high-end Level 3 mana gun given to Wei Yan by the Undetectables. He uses it in the command tent to threaten everyone who moves and then fires as the guards attempt to resist, causing their heads to explode in succession. The gun carries enough mana to feel physically weighty, but its targeting method, ammunition, range, and whether movement is an actual trigger condition are not explained. It is an equipment-derived weapon, not an innate demonic ability. (Chapters 75, 83)

The artifact is the strongest weapon associated with his previous iterations and materially strengthens his seventh-iteration position, yet it proves useless against Jitae at close range. Jitae removes it after defeating him and later gives it to BM, ending Wei Yan's access permanently. That transfer confirms that the weapon survives its owner and that none of its effects depended exclusively on Wei Yan's stigma. (Chapters 76, 83)

Public influence and conspiracy management

Wei Yan's most effective noncombat skill is the construction and exploitation of reputation. He uses faculty influence, scholarships, a public-relations team, reporters, social media, and personal charm to recruit cadets and present setbacks as proof of humility. Inside the Undetectables, he commands subordinates, cultivates officials in the International Hunter Association, coordinates sacrifices, and secures help from senior demons. His control relies on concealment and fear, however; X's attacks make him abusive and suspicious, while the released recording collapses the public trust he spent years building. (Chapters 13, 17, 28–32, 59, 72–73, 85–87)

Relationships

Yu Jitae

Jitae recognizes Wei Yan as a recurring demon and deliberately refuses to kill him until his network can be exposed at the Masquerade. Wei Yan initially sees Jitae as a guardian who can deliver valuable cadets, then as the source of repeated humiliations and finally as a random superhuman trapped for sacrifice. His discovery that Jitae is X comes only after his organization has already been dismantled. Jitae defeats and kills him, then uses the footage of Wei Yan's unmasked conduct to destroy the reputation that mattered most to him. (Chapters 13–17, 29–32, 75–77, 86–87)

Yeorum and Kaeul

Wei Yan values Yeorum as an elite fighter and marketable face, but her contempt for fame turns his recruitment pitch into a personal grievance. Kaeul frustrates him differently by defeating his sponsored candidate in the declaration audition and taking the attention he expected to control. At the Masquerade he names both sisters among the reasons he wanted to kill Jitae's household. After his death, the fan culture he cultivated carries that resentment forward by targeting Kaeul, until the recording of his crimes redirects public anger toward him. (Chapters 14–17, 28–31, 76, 85–87)

Gong Juhee

Gong Juhee is the Azure Dragon cadet Wei Yan sponsors for the entrance declaration. He arranges connections, coordinates with her guardian, and treats her success as a route to influence rather than an end in itself. When Kaeul wins the main role, he tries to preserve Gong's visibility as a supporting declarer, masking intense anger while bargaining with Jitae. Gong's later departure becomes material for Wei Yan's public display of regret and gives his fans a pretext for blaming Kaeul. (Chapters 28–31, 76, 85)

Noah and the Undetectables

Wei Yan occupies a high position within the Undetectables but remains subordinate to its existing Seats. He admires Noah, seeks the older demon's protection, and promises to serve the organization's grand plan once the Masquerade elevates him as its fifth sword. The organization gives him Peace Invoker and invests troops in his ascent, yet his death makes that entire investment worthless. Noah's later account of Black Coffer shows confidence in Wei Yan's stigma, but neither the stigma nor the senior demons can rescue him from Jitae's isolated kill site. (Chapters 32, 59, 72–79)

Items

Peace Invoker

Peace Invoker is Wei Yan's blue-flashing Level 3 mana gun and a gift from the Undetectables. He carries it into the Masquerade command tent, uses it to execute guards, and points it at Jitae during his intended first sacrifice. Jitae takes the weapon after defeating him and later gives it to BM to preserve the ranker's combat strength. Its custody therefore passes from the Undetectables to Wei Yan, then through Jitae to BM. (Chapters 75–76, 83)

Communication artifact

Wei Yan carries a long stone communication plate that can contact allies outside an isolated dungeon room. After the initial blow leaves him incapacitated, he reaches for it in an attempt to alert Noah or Ysayle, but Jitae has already removed it. The artifact's failure is tactical rather than mechanical: it could cross the room's isolation, but Wei Yan loses physical custody before he can activate it. No later custodian or further use is shown. (Chapter 77)