Zhang Xuan

Zhang Xuan is a librarian from another world who awakens in the body of Hongtian Academy's worst-ranked teacher. The Library of Heaven's Path turns his ability to expose flaws into a foundation for teaching, cultivation, and combat, but his defining development is his gradual movement beyond that borrowed power: he becomes the World’s Teacher, creates the sentiment-driven Pathos of Heaven, and ultimately relinquishes the Library to save the Firmament.

Biography

Rebuilding a teacher's name in Tianxuan

Zhang Xuan arrives with neither prestige nor security. His body's former owner had scored zero in the Teacher Qualification Examination, misdirected a student into cultivation deviation, and died after being told that failure to recruit a student would cost him his position. Zhang Xuan initially responds with shameless improvisation, coaxing Wang Ying into acknowledging him, but the awakening of the Library of Heaven's Path changes what he can offer. Once he confirms that its records of flaws are accurate, he begins correcting his students' individual problems instead of merely protecting his job. (Chapters 1–23)

His earliest class becomes the basis of his identity as a teacher. He diagnoses Zhao Ya's incompatible cultivation, redirects Liu Yang's left-handed strength, heals Wang Ying's injured leg, works to awaken Yuan Tao's dormant bloodline, and repairs Zheng Yang's flawed spear foundation. The students' trust is earned through concrete improvement, even though Zhang Xuan conceals the Library and often wraps his guidance in bluffs. When Cao Xiong and later Lu Xun challenge his legitimacy, Zhang Xuan stakes his reputation on his students rather than abandoning them; their progress overturns the academy's judgment of him and makes the disgraced teacher a sought-after instructor. (Chapters 3–25, 196–208)

Beyond the classroom, Zhang Xuan gathers books and converts their correct portions into the Heaven's Path Divine Art, using knowledge to close the gap between his weak starting point and the kingdom's experts. He creates the elder-teacher persona Yang Xuan to answer requests that his public identity cannot safely handle, but the deception also attracts pupils and obligations that he did not anticipate. Discovering the Innate Fetal Poison already embedded in his body gives his ascent urgency: pure Heaven's Path zhenqi can suppress it, yet cannot remove it, so becoming a master teacher and reaching a wider world becomes both a vocation and a necessity for survival. (Chapters 14–18, 102–156, 194–212)

Master-teacher recognition across Xuanyuan and Tianwu

Leaving Tianxuan exposes the difference between possessing perfect analysis and possessing the power to act on it. Zhang Xuan's encounter with Yun Tao and the Gold Alloyed Panther begins with criticism of a formation, then expands into beast taming and wider professional study. He repeatedly uses observed flaws to solve problems that established guilds regard as impossible, but he still has to obtain manuals, understand the occupation involved, and secure enough cultivation to exploit what he sees. His journeys through Beast Hall, Red Lotus City, Xuanyuan, and Tianwu therefore become a sustained education rather than a sequence of effortless victories. (Chapters 236–325)

His public standing changes most sharply when the heavens acknowledge him as a Celestial Master Teacher. The recognition follows his master-teacher trials and the quality of his instruction, not a formal promotion alone; when Kong shi's will offers to accept him, Zhang Xuan declines because he intends to walk his own path. That decision alarms the local pavilions, which hide the event rather than expose a young teacher whose existence could reshape the continent. Zhang Xuan continues advancing through the conventional ranks, but from this point his relationship with the institution is unusual: he depends on its libraries and ideals while already embodying an authority that exceeds its examinations. (Chapters 326–371)

In Tianwu, Zhang Xuan adopts the identity Liu Cheng and becomes entangled with the royal struggle and the Lin Clan. His intervention is not simply a contest of strength; he chooses to protect those placed under his care, dismantles false authority by exposing its weaknesses, and makes enemies whose rank would previously have made them untouchable. His growing ability to combine cultivation, professional knowledge, and instruction turns him from a fugitive improviser into someone capable of altering the balance of a kingdom. By the time he leaves, his pursuit of the soul-oracle inheritance and the next master-teacher tournament is tied to both the poison threatening him and the need to keep his disciples progressing with him. (Chapters 372–447)

Soul inheritance and the Myriad Kingdom Alliance

The soul-oracle inheritance forces Zhang Xuan to confront costs the Library cannot erase. He learns the Heaven's Path Soul Art, separates his soul from his body, and acquires methods that greatly broaden his reach, yet soul cultivation exposes him more directly to the Innate Fetal Poison. His relationship with Lu Chong gives this danger emotional weight. Lu Chong's revenge and apparent death are not abstract teaching failures to Zhang Xuan; he expends his own soul essence to preserve the student's chance of awakening, accepting a direct threat to himself rather than treating a disciple as replaceable. Lu Chong's recovery confirms both the strength and the burden of Zhang Xuan's teacher-disciple commitments. (Chapters 448–465, 548–577)

At the Myriad Kingdom Alliance, Zhang Xuan enters a competitive system designed to compare polished master teachers from stronger powers. He does not merely overpower its trials. His Soul Depth, ability to diagnose cultivation, and Impartation of Heaven's Will make instruction itself a weapon, including persuading an Otherworldly Demon through a lecture. The tournament turns the former zero-score teacher into its defining participant, while his repeated willingness to expose institutional incompetence earns admiration and resentment in equal measure. His status rises, but his instinct remains to solve the person in front of him rather than preserve ceremony. (Chapters 503–595)

The route through Huanyu Empire also deepens Zhang Xuan's relationships beyond his original class. He protects companions, tames powerful beasts, gathers professional inheritances, and uses the Myriad Anthive Nest to carry forces that cannot openly travel with him. Luo Qiqi becomes an important collaborator in artifact and pill-related work, while Luo Ruoxin's arrival unsettles his usual composure and introduces a bond he cannot reduce to a flaw report. Repairing the passage toward Hongyuan leaves him with access to a far larger stage, but also with more people whose safety and future have become his responsibility. (Chapters 596–735)

Principal of Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy

Zhang Xuan enters Hongyuan as a student but repeatedly assumes a teacher's role. He studies occupations at extraordinary speed, wins over students from established schools, and builds the Xuanxuan Faction around the simplified cultivation and combat principles he teaches. This following is not based on his cultivation alone. He gives members methods they can actually use, corrects their foundations, and expects discipline rather than blind admiration. His lectures ultimately allow a group of academy students to challenge the specialized Combat Master Hall on the strength of coordinated learning. (Chapters 736–760, 804–895, 973–978)

His effort to save Wei Changfeng's daughter Wei Ruyan reveals the limits of his confidence. The girl's Innate Poison Body and failing soul demand a treatment that costs Zhang Xuan soul essence and lets his own Innate Fetal Poison spread. He chooses the risk because Wei Changfeng died fulfilling a duty to him and because he refuses to leave the man's child without protection. When Wei Ruyan survives and becomes his direct disciple, the relationship is grounded in obligation transformed into genuine care; her constitution later helps suppress the poison threatening his soul, but Zhang Xuan's decision precedes any benefit to himself. (Chapters 787–790, 1044–1045)

The old principal's disappearance, the academy's political conflicts, and the Otherworldly Demonic threat push Zhang Xuan into leadership. He is confirmed as Hongyuan's next principal after repeatedly resolving crises that its existing factions cannot handle. In the Subterranean Gallery he disguises himself, manipulates hostile kings against one another, rescues master teachers, and reaches the Saint Ascension Platform. These victories are frequently comic in method, but their consequence is serious: he inherits responsibility for the academy and its tens of thousands of students. Knowing he must continue toward a cure and toward Luo Ruoxin, he tries to return the title, yet the institution insists on the continuity he has created. (Chapters 889–950, 985–1090)

Qingyuan, the Poison Hall, and the Sanctum

In Qingyuan, Zhang Xuan turns the Xuanxuan Faction's training into a direct challenge to the Combat Master Hall. His goal is not to humiliate combat masters for its own sake; he wants to prove that correct foundations and teaching can close the gap between ordinary academy cultivators and an elite military institution. He also repairs Hall Master Xing's damaged meridians and earns the Combat Master Hall's cooperation. The episode shifts his influence from one academy to a model of instruction that other institutions must take seriously, even as his tendency to break rules and buildings leaves administrators struggling to contain him. (Chapters 1090–1168)

The Poison Hall and Qingtian Emperor conflicts require harsher choices. Zhang Xuan uses poison knowledge, disguises, and the reputation of his own student Wei Ruyan to navigate a hostile profession, then confronts Otherworldly Demon schemes beneath Qingyuan. He accepts Vicious as a dangerous but useful subordinate under binding restraints and repeatedly exploits the enemy's internal divisions. His actions save Qingyuan and expose the pavilion's compromised leadership, but they also reinforce a pattern that later becomes costly: he is willing to keep an overwhelming threat close if he believes he can control it and turn its power toward a necessary end. (Chapters 1169–1246)

At the Sanctum of Sages, Zhang Xuan's immediate personal aim is to gain enough standing to contend openly for Luo Ruoxin, whom he understands to be promised to the Zhang Clan's young prodigy. He teaches Zhang Jiuxiao, perfects sword techniques, receives the Sanctum Head Token, and is ultimately recognized as sanctum head. Yet the pursuit also reveals the mismatch between public identity and private truth: he is himself the missing Zhang Clan prodigy, although he does not yet know it. His rise brings him closer to Luo Ruoxin while simultaneously tightening the clan arrangements and political expectations that threaten to separate them. (Chapters 1247–1419)

The Sage Clans and the Glacier Plain Court

Zhang Xuan meets the Xingmeng Sword Saints as formidable clan figures before fully accepting them as his parents. The revelation recasts his earlier isolation: the abandoned identity he had inhabited belongs to the long-missing heir of the Zhang Clan, and his parents have been searching for him. He does not simply submit to lineage authority after learning this. His attachments were formed through teaching and travel, and he measures clan obligations against the people he has personally chosen to protect. Even so, he gradually treats Sword Saint Xing and Sword Saint Meng as family and later works to strengthen them for the dangers ahead. (Chapters 1420–1454, 1489–1523)

The engagement crisis culminates when Zhang Xuan discovers that the Luo Clan's "little princess" is Luo Qiqi rather than Luo Ruoxin. Publicly annulling the arrangement humiliates both Sage Clans, but proceeding would betray his feelings and the trust that has grown between him and Luo Ruoxin. His refusal costs him the protection of inherited status and forces the concealed Celestial Master Teacher issue into discussions with Yang Xuan. Instead of accepting Yang Xuan as a genuine master, Zhang Xuan reveals that the elder-teacher persona was his own fabrication; Yang Xuan agrees to preserve the fiction because Zhang Xuan's Celestial recognition gives the younger man a legitimacy beyond ordinary lineage. (Chapters 1489–1523)

Zhao Ya's forced removal to the Glacier Plain Court tests whether Zhang Xuan's authority extends to defending a disciple against an entire power. He infiltrates the court, restores contact with Zhao Ya, and refuses to accept a cultivation policy that treats her awakened constitution as institutional property. The rescue escalates into conflict with the court and leaves him carrying the consequences of opposing another major faction. By the close of the arc, he has recovered his disciple and asserted his own family and teacher-disciple loyalties, but the Master Teacher Continent is moving toward a crisis in which private rescues are no longer enough. (Chapters 1454–1509, 1534–1655)

The Otherworldly Battlefield and the Temple of Confucius

The invasion of the Subterranean Galleries draws Zhang Xuan, his parents, and Luo Ruoxin into the Otherworldly battlefield. He uses the Luo Tianya identity and his comprehension of spatial sealing to navigate tensions between the Zhang and Luo clans, even staging a contest between that persona and his public self. Beneath the deception is a practical motive: preserve cooperation among powers that have personal reasons to distrust him. His concern for the Xingmeng Sword Saints is now openly filial, and he seeks opportunities for them to reach Ancient Sage so that they can survive threats he can no longer contain alone. (Chapters 1656–1735)

Within the Temple of Confucius, Zhang Xuan competes with the Hundred Schools, the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe, and multiple Ancient Sage legacies for the Great Codex of Spring and Autumn. He gathers the Prime Amulet, protects companions, and uses both analysis and tactical deception against opponents whose cultivation exceeds his own. The struggle changes his understanding of Kong shi's path. Heritage is not merely a treasure to possess; its value lies in whether knowledge and opportunity are monopolized or used to let later generations advance. This conviction increasingly separates him from institutions that invoke Kong shi while guarding his teachings as private property. (Chapters 1697–1832)

When the heavens block his advance, Zhang Xuan relinquishes the acknowledgements that made him a Celestial Master Teacher. He concludes that being recognized by the heavens still places him beneath them, whereas becoming the World's Teacher requires taking the world itself as a student and assuming responsibility above its approval. The decision sacrifices immense prestige and exposes him to danger, but it opens the path to Ancient Sage. He survives the Hundred Schools' examinations, becomes the World's Teacher in substance, and reaches a realm from which he can prepare his disciples and allies to leave the Master Teacher Continent. (Chapters 1865–1913)

The Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion and the Azure

The Azure strips Zhang Xuan of the effortless supremacy he had acquired below. Even before ascending, its mercury-like spiritual energy cracks his meridians and threatens to shatter them; he can absorb it only after combining the meridian network he rebuilt during an earlier recovery with a simulated Zhenqi of Slaughter. The passage upward then leaves him badly injured and separated from most of his companions. He accepts the help of Dan Xiaotian and repays it by taking the young man as a disciple. Within the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion he conceals his strength, uses the Ethereal Hall identity I Am Low Profile, and overturns the sect's rankings. The disguise protects him from the Hall of Gods, but his instinct to teach repeatedly creates traces that powerful elders can follow. (Chapters 1912–1976)

Swordsmanship becomes the first field in which Zhang Xuan must create rather than merely perfect. He receives the conceptual impetus for a sword path beyond the Azure's heavens, begins developing the Pathos of Heaven from his own attachments, and uses it alongside weapons such as the Tongshang Sword. His victories across the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion, Myriad Beasts Hall, Sevenstar Pavilion, and Starchaser Palace secure cultivation resources and access to the passage upward. They also create new disciples and allies, proving that his central role as a teacher persists even when his formal master-teacher rank has little meaning in the new world. (Chapters 1977–2051)

The City of Collapsed Space brings him back into conflict with the apparent Kong shi and the Hall of Gods. Zhang Xuan and Zhang Xuan's Clone intervene in the ritual surrounding the Spirit God, recover the route to the Master Teacher Continent, and uncover evidence that the figure directing the Ethereal Hall is false. After returning below to gather his disciples and family, Zhang Xuan re-enters the Azure and confirms that the antagonist is Kong shi's Clone, a malevolent aspect severed from the real Kong shi rather than Kong shi himself. He defeats and seals that clone; the real Kong shi, by contrast, had left protection in the spatial passage. Learning that Luo Ruoxin has already gone to the Firmament for a life-and-death struggle, Zhang Xuan leads those closest to him through the final passage, accepting that he will again become weak in order to reach her. (Chapters 2052–2103 and 2237)

The Firmament and the sentiments of all beings

Arrival in the Firmament reduces Zhang Xuan to hunting ordinary animals for survival because the world's laws suppress his former power. He rebuilds rapidly through God Essence resources, pill forging, teaching, and the Pathos of Heaven, advancing from God to God King while tracing Luo Ruoxin's identity as God Monarch Lingxi. His methods remain recognizably his own: he turns medical and pill competitions into sources of knowledge, creates pills that transform the local economy, and uses instruction to form alliances. Yet the higher he climbs, the clearer it becomes that the Library cannot evaluate the path he is now creating; sentiment and personal comprehension must replace automatic perfection. (Chapters 2104–2225)

Reunion with Luo Ruoxin reveals the War of the Heavens. Zhang Xuan resists choosing between her and Kong shi before understanding the conflict, then enters the Flooding Sea to gain enough power to act on his own judgment. There he refuses to harvest Monarch Spirit Grass when doing so would destabilize the Firmament, a choice that marks how far he has moved from the desperate teacher who once pursued any resource that could save him. He reunites with eleven disciples who have become the Firmament's strongest Conferred God Kings and remains their teacher despite their new status, accepting their resources but not treating their accomplishments as possessions of his own. (Chapters 2226–2261)

Zhang Xuan becomes a God Monarch as the Firmament collapses, then faces Vicious after the latter absorbs the calamity's malignant energy. Power transferred from Luo Ruoxin and the revived real Kong shi, together with the stabilizing power of Zhang Xuan's own clone—revealed as the Primordial Golden Lotus of the Nine Skies—still cannot defeat Vicious. Zhang Xuan therefore asks Vicious for his strongest attack and uses its contract-severing malignant energy, together with the resurrection power in Luo Ruoxin's pendant, to separate his soul from the Library. Freed from the heavens, he comprehends that relationships and every form of feeling create the meaning of a living world. He channels those sentiments to transcend God Monarchs, kills Vicious, and returns the Library to repair the Firmament. (Chapters 2261–2264)

After the battle, Nie Tong leads Zhang Xuan to Nie Yun, Luo Ruoxin's father and the creator of the Firmament. Nie Yun reveals that one of his divided wills became the Firmament's heavens and that he deliberately sent Heavens' Order to Kong shi, a native soul, and Heavens' Imperfection to Zhang Xuan, a soul from another world, in search of someone capable of transcending the world's limit. Zhang Xuan thus learns that Nie Yun arranged his transmigration and allowed the crisis to test that possibility. He then returns to the Sky of Freedom and reunites with Luo Ruoxin. (Chapter 2264)

Appearance and personality

Zhang Xuan is consistently presented as a young man who has not yet reached twenty during much of his rise on the Master Teacher Continent. The corpus does not establish a distinctive permanent costume or an unusually conspicuous natural feature. His appearance is also deliberately unreliable as an identifier: masks, musculature control, soul methods, and disguise artifacts let him assume elderly, middle-aged, and Otherworldly Demon forms, including the identities Yang Xuan, Liu Cheng, and Luo Tianya. (Chapters 158, 358, 749, 951, and 1454)

He is adaptable, irreverent toward status, and willing to bluff when formal expectations obstruct a practical solution. This produces his reputation for shamelessness and his recurring habit of concealing overwhelming competence behind claims of weakness. The comedy does not erase a strict moral division in his behavior: he can be vindictive toward aggressors and betrayers, but he repeatedly risks his soul, body, and standing for students and companions. He values accurate teaching over ceremony, personal conscience over heavenly recognition, and chosen relationships over arrangements imposed by clans or institutions. (Chapters 1–12, 789, 1522–1523, 1865–1867, and 2250–2264)

His confidence evolves from survival tactic into independent conviction. Early Zhang Xuan depends on the Library to make assertions he could not otherwise justify; later, he accumulates real professional knowledge, accepts the limits of flaw detection, and creates the Pathos of Heaven without the Library's validation. At the end, he does not deny ambition or sentiment. He treats loyalty, family, love, joy, pain, and even hatred as forces that make life meaningful, and this willingness to act in accordance with his conscience becomes the basis of his final transcendence. (Chapters 156, 704, 2112–2113, and 2264)

Abilities and cultivation

Zhang Xuan's power develops through three overlapping foundations: the Library's diagnosis of imperfection, the flawless techniques he compiles from many imperfect sources, and the authority he earns as a teacher. These systems accelerate his progress but never remove the need for evidence, resources, or sufficient speed and strength. In the Azure and Firmament, he increasingly replaces borrowed perfection with a cultivation path rooted in his own sentiments.

Library and Book of Heaven's Path

The Library of Heaven's Path manifests in Zhang Xuan's mind after his transmigration. When he witnesses a person execute a technique, touches an object or unconscious subject, or records a proposition in writing, it can compile a book describing established information and flaws. This lets him locate weaknesses in cultivation, combat habits, artifacts, formations, illnesses, and even past conduct. He can exploit a precise opening, diagnose a student's obstruction, or test the truth of a claim, but seeing a flaw does not automatically provide its solution. Without the relevant knowledge, physical ability, or opportunity to trigger a record, the information may be unusable. (Chapters 1–18, 106, 153, and 194)

The Library also stores the contents of books he handles and later, after upgrades, written information he sees. By combining many manuals, it selects mutually correct portions and forms a new text with fewer or no recorded defects. Zhang Xuan uses this to create Heaven's Path versions of cultivation, body, soul, movement, weapon, and professional arts. Compilation depends on having enough varied source material, and separately perfected systems do not always merge cleanly; he must sometimes supply the conceptual bridge himself. The Library also cannot reliably analyze matters that are extensions of Zhang Xuan himself, powers beyond its current heaven, or Ancient Sages before its relevant upgrade. (Chapters 14–17, 704, 833, 1340, and 1906)

Gratitude from a student can form a golden page in the Book of Heaven's Path. A page can turn stored textual learning into Zhang Xuan's own functional knowledge, while later versions can manifest overwhelming binding or offensive force; because pages are earned and consumed, they are decisive reserves rather than an ordinary attack he can repeat freely. The Library grows with the level of the heavens around him, but this same origin becomes its final constraint. Pathos of Heaven surpasses what it can safely evaluate, and the Library remains intertwined with his soul until he uses Vicious's malignant energy to sever the bond. He then returns the Heavens' Imperfection to the Firmament, losing access to the Library as a personal ability while completing the world's laws. (Chapters 102–156, 832–833, 2098, 2113, and 2264)

Heaven's Path cultivation of zhenqi, body, and soul

Zhang Xuan's foundational Heaven's Path Divine Art is compiled from the correct portions of many cultivation manuals. Its exceptionally pure zhenqi supports rapid breakthroughs, healing, poison suppression, and the execution of other Heaven's Path techniques. The purity also creates demanding bottlenecks: every new realm requires enough manuals to compile a viable continuation and enormous quantities of concentrated energy. A flawless foundation can make later advancement harder rather than easier, and opponents far above his realm remain capable of moving faster than he can exploit their weaknesses. (Chapters 14–18, 169, 832, 1247, and 1618)

He extends the same method to physical cultivation and soul-oracle arts. The Heaven's Path Soul Art gives his separated soul unusual purity, size, and resistance, and repeated lightning ordeals temper it further; it can intimidate or consume ordinary spirit beings, enter bodies, and support disguise and reconnaissance. Soul separation and essence transfer nevertheless expose him to genuine harm. Saving Lu Chong and Wei Ruyan weakens him, the Innate Fetal Poison can spread when his soul is depleted, and lightning powerful enough to temper him can still threaten his body. His physical, soul, and zhenqi cultivation therefore advance as complementary defenses rather than interchangeable forms of invulnerability. (Chapters 447–577, 788–789, 1045, 1084, and 1495)

The Innate Fetal Poison is not an ability but a defining cultivation constraint. Heaven's Path zhenqi suppresses it, Wei Ruyan's Poison Soul Constitution helps contain its action, and lightning forces it to retreat, yet none of these measures initially destroys it. The need to survive beyond thirty drives Zhang Xuan toward higher master-teacher ranks and increasingly dangerous inheritances. An Empyrean Heavenly Flame ordeal first drives the poison from his soul into his physical body; only a later bodily ordeal lets him surround and eradicate it with black flame. Its removal leaves behind an indestructible black-gray residue, later identified as an accumulation tied to his use of Heavens' Imperfection, so curing the poison does not resolve the deeper danger of assimilation by the heavens. (Chapters 194, 788–789, 944, 1045, 1509, 1652–1666, and 2071)

Eye of Insight and combat analysis

The Eye of Insight is a master-teacher ability Zhang Xuan awakens as his recognition and Soul Depth grow. It lets him perceive the essence behind disguises, formations, techniques, and spatial facades without always needing physical contact, making it valuable for reconnaissance and immediate combat judgment. It can identify a disguised Otherworldly Demon, read the shifting interior of an illusion, and reveal paths through dangerous environments. Its perception is not unlimited: powerful artifacts or distant, sealed targets can exceed its range, and some disguises reveal form without disclosing cultivation. (Chapters 370, 403, 462, 577, 775, 985, and 1668)

Combined with Library records, the Eye makes Zhang Xuan exceptionally efficient at predicting habits and striking mingmen. He can defeat stronger or faster-looking opponents by forcing them into a known flaw, but the method is conditional rather than absolute. If the cultivation disparity is too large, knowing where an opening exists does not mean his body can reach it before the enemy attacks. He compensates through Heaven's Path movement, immense physical strength, spatial and temporal quintessences, soul attacks, poison, formations, and tactics that make opponents expose themselves. (Chapters 14, 18, 183, 239, 354, 1052, and 1641–1657)

Teaching authority and professional mastery

Zhang Xuan's Impartation of Heaven's Will aligns a correct lecture with the principles of the world. By expending Soul Depth, he can lead listeners' zhenqi, deepen understanding, induce trust, and help them cross bottlenecks. Its effect originally depends on listeners being weaker and on his words remaining correct; an error breaks the resonance, and obstructed hearing or sufficient resistance can reduce its influence. After he comprehends the Heart of a Teacher, the range expands beyond ordinary human cultivators to beasts, weapons, and other sentient or quasi-sentient targets. At its height, a single lecture can advance crowds in cultivation and professional skill. (Chapters 414, 575, 884–895, 1181, and 1243–1245)

His teaching is strengthened by broad professional competence rather than rank alone. The Library helps him compile correct arts in apothecary work, medicine, poison, beast taming, formation, artifact appraisal, smithing, painting, demonic tunes, terpsichorean arts, and other occupations. Golden pages and sustained study convert some copied records into genuine memory and practiced understanding, so later Zhang Xuan can operate without consulting the Library for every step. He remains fallible when he lacks an occupational basis: flaw reports alone do not tell him how to cure a condition or perform an unfamiliar art. (Chapters 153–186, 239–266, 366, 749–826, and 2175–2200)

As the World's Teacher, this authority changes in scale and principle. Zhang Xuan abandons heavenly acknowledgement because it defines him as beneath the heavens, then treats the world as the object of instruction. In the Firmament, his final understanding goes further: all living relationships and emotions form a web of sentiments that he can channel. This completed Pathos allows him to bind Vicious through the enemy's own resentment, ambition, and fear, demonstrating control over any being constituted by sentiment. Its full scope is shown only after Zhang Xuan transcends God Monarchs, so effects beyond that final confrontation remain unestablished. (Chapters 1865–1910 and 2264)

Pathos of Heaven and swordsmanship

Pathos of Heaven is Zhang Xuan's self-created cultivation and sword system. Unlike the Heaven's Path Divine Art, it is not compiled by selecting error-free lines from existing manuals; it develops from his own experiences of allegiance, brotherhood, family, teacher-disciple bonds, love, and separation. The Firmament itself rejects written records of the method, and even the Library may not be able to evaluate it, forcing him to cultivate through comprehension rather than automatic correction. Emotional understanding is therefore an activation condition and a developmental limitation: accelerated time in an isolated artifact cannot substitute for living in the environment and relationships that give a stage meaning. (Chapters 2079–2080, 2112–2113, and 2177)

Each stage produces sword intent with a distinct sentiment. Bond of Allegiance manifests as A Heart of Intertwined Threads, while Camaraderie of Brothers produces Unyielding Loyalty; later stages deepen as Zhang Xuan understands additional ties. These attacks can bind, cut, or overwhelm targets not merely through energy but through their conceptual weight. In the Firmament he uses a thin thread of sword intent to restrain a powerful pill, combines successive stages against high-level opponents, and continually strengthens earlier forms as his comprehension grows. The system also lets him surpass his physically superior clone, something the perfect Heaven's Path Divine Art alone had not achieved. (Chapters 2177, 2200–2201, 2225, and 2261)

At God Monarch level, Zhang Xuan drives Pathos of Heaven through the Crimson Heaven Sword and later his complete understanding of worldly sentiment. It interacts with his cultivation rather than replacing technique: a suitable sword, adequate zhenqi, and mastery still determine the scale of an attack. Against Vicious, even his God Monarch sword art initially fails because raw sentiment-backed power is insufficient before his transcendence. Only after severing the Library, integrating the powers given by Kong shi and Luo Ruoxin, and comprehending the sentiments of all beings does he move beyond the God Monarch bottleneck and gain the authority needed to end the battle. (Chapters 2257 and 2263–2264)

Power progression

Relationships

• Luo Ruoxin: Zhang Xuan's partner and eventual beloved. Their relationship grows from shared exploration and guarded trust into his principal personal reason for crossing worlds; learning her role in the War of the Heavens forces him to seek a resolution that preserves both her and the Firmament. (Chapters 762–839, 1,013–1,019, 1,576–1,577, 1,771–1,775, 2,232–2,267)
• Zhao Ya: One of his first direct disciples. He awakens and refines her constitution, opposes the Glacier Plain Court's attempt to control her, and continues to regard her as his student after she becomes a Conferred God King. (Chapters 3–25, 1,419, 1,913, 2,209–2,254)
• Zheng Yang: His spear-wielding direct disciple. Zhang Xuan corrects Zheng Yang's foundation in Hongtian and later entrusts him with the Dragonbone Divine Spear; their reunion in the Firmament shows that cultivation rank has not displaced the teacher-disciple bond. (Chapters 7–8, 160–231, 1,913, 2,209–2,254)
• Liu Yang: An early direct disciple whose overlooked left-handed aptitude Zhang Xuan recognizes. Liu Yang's growth into a Conferred God King is one of the clearest long-term consequences of Zhang Xuan's individualized teaching. (Chapters 59–67, 218–224, 1,226–1,246, 1,792–1,913, 2,241–2,254)
• Yuan Tao: An early direct disciple whose dormant Emperor Bloodline Zhang Xuan identifies and develops. Zhang Xuan values his loyalty beyond the defensive constitution that first made him useful. (Chapters 14–18, 194–212, 2,209–2,254)
• Wei Ruyan: Zhang Xuan risks his soul to save her after Wei Changfeng's death, then accepts her as a direct disciple and guides her Innate Poison Body without reducing her to its danger or utility. (Chapters 787–820, 889–950, 2,209–2,254)
• Lu Chong: A disciple driven by vengeance. Zhang Xuan preserves Lu Chong's soul at severe personal cost, and Lu Chong later becomes one of the disciples who helps carry his lineage into the Firmament. (Chapters 326–447, 2,209–2,254)
• Sun Qiang: His steward and the first person to serve the fabricated Yang Xuan persona. Sun Qiang's boastfulness causes recurring trouble, but his loyalty makes him part of the household Zhang Xuan brings across worlds. (Chapters 126–181, 428–473, 748–926, 2,078–2,268)
• Sword Saint Xing and Sword Saint Meng: His biological parents, the Xingmeng Sword Saints. Zhang Xuan initially has little emotional connection to the lineage they represent, but shared danger transforms the revelation of kinship into a genuine family bond. (Chapters 1,368–1,560, 1,658–1,680, 2,103)
• Luo Qiqi: His student and frequent collaborator in pill and artifact work. Her feelings for him remain largely unreciprocated, yet she repeatedly protects him, becomes the Dimension Silencer, and helps him during the Firmament's final crisis. (Chapters 448–465, 548–577, 2,217–2,267)
• Vicious: A former enemy whom Zhang Xuan binds and uses as a dangerous subordinate. Their tactical cooperation never becomes full trust; Vicious ultimately breaks the contract, threatens Zhang Xuan's companions and the Firmament, and is killed by Zhang Xuan's transcendent control of sentiment. (Chapters 568–577, 1,081–1,085, 2,261–2,264)
• Zhang Xuan's Clone: A separate body forged from the Nine Skies Lotus Embryo that shares Zhang Xuan's soul but possesses its own boastful personality and cultivation. The clone repeatedly fights beside him, often surpasses his physical combat ability, and ultimately fuses with the Nine Skies Lotus Leaf to reveal the Primordial Golden Lotus of the Nine Skies, whose power helps stabilize the Firmament. (Chapters 568–573, 1,081–1,085, 2,098–2,100, 2,261–2,264)
• Kong shi: His predecessor as Celestial Master Teacher and World's Teacher. Zhang Xuan rejects becoming Kong shi's disciple, follows and revises his path, and ultimately accepts the real Kong shi's power and judgment during the battle to save the Firmament. (Chapters 2,228–2,240, 2,264)
• Kong shi's Clone: The figure Zhang Xuan initially mistakes for Kong shi in the Azure is the malevolent aspect Kong shi severed and left within the Ethereal Hall. It seeks the Library of Heaven's Path, opposes Zhang Xuan, and is defeated and sealed without making the real Kong shi responsible for its actions. (Chapters 2,083–2,100, 2,228)

Items

• Library of Heaven's Path: The Heavens' Imperfection that records flaws and stores knowledge; Zhang Xuan ultimately returns it to the Firmament.
• Book of Heaven's Path: A golden book formed through students' gratitude, used for knowledge transfer, binding, and decisive attacks.
• Golden Origin Cauldron: A sentient cauldron associated with Zhang Xuan's forging, combat, and travel on the Master Teacher Continent.
• Dragonbone Divine Spear: An Ancient Sage-grade spear that Zhang Xuan obtains and entrusts to Zheng Yang.
• Myriad Anthive Nest: A portable spatial nest used to shelter and transport allied beasts and cultivators.
• Great Codex of Spring and Autumn: Kong shi's time-accelerating legacy, contested in the Temple of Confucius and later used as a cultivation space.
• Soulless Metal Humanoid: A soul-oracle vessel acquired during Zhang Xuan's pursuit of soul cultivation.
• Dongxu Gourd: A voracious sentient gourd whose devouring and spatial properties repeatedly aid—and frustrate—Zhang Xuan.
• Ethereal Token: Zhang Xuan's means of entering the Azure's Ethereal Hall under concealed identities.
• Celestial Amulets of Legacy: Legacy keys gathered in the contests surrounding the Sanctum and Temple of Confucius.
• Prime Amulet: The principal amulet tied to access and authority within the Temple of Confucius.
• Tongshang Sword: A sword Zhang Xuan uses during his rise through the Azure.
• Infernal Blacksaber: A powerful saber in Zhang Xuan's custody during the conflicts leading toward the Temple of Confucius.
• Sanctum Head Token: The token establishing Zhang Xuan's succession as head of the Sanctum of Sages.
• Luo Ruoxin's Pendant: A pendant containing blood connected to Luo Ruoxin's father; its power helps Zhang Xuan sever the Library from his soul and resurrect.
• Glacier Rain Sword: A sword associated with Zhang Xuan and Luo Qiqi during their earlier artifact work.