Xu Yin

Xu Yin is a pain-bound Specter carried through the crying tape and recorder. Chen Ge first encounters him as a violent manifestation of betrayal and torment, but responds to his loneliness rather than treating him as a disposable weapon. Xu Yin becomes the House of Horrors’ most dependable frontline protector, completes his heart through that loyalty, and reaches Red Specter status.

Biography

Pain preserved in the recorder

Xu Yin’s life ends in betrayal, prolonged torment, and murder, leaving his crying embedded in a tape rather than a peaceful memory. The recording preserves a young man whose anguish has overwhelmed every other motive: his first manifestations are violent, wounded, and almost eager to be destroyed. Chen Ge hears enough of that history to understand that the aggression is not random, even before he can reconstruct all the people involved in Xu Yin’s death. (Chapters 196–198)

When Chen Ge uses the recorder during later investigations, Xu Yin appears as a pale, melancholic man covered in wounds and blood. Against the spirit attacking Ol’ Zhang’s passenger, he fights with no concern for his own survival and consumes the defeated presence after repeated injury. Chen Ge stops treating that frenzy as useful by itself; he offers companionship and another way to live with the pain, and Xu Yin withdraws rather than turning on him. (Chapters 208–209, 249–254)

The Ghost Stories Society meeting and Fang Hwa Apartments turn that tentative recognition into active allegiance. Xu Yin answers the recorder, protects Chen Ge, fights beside Chen Yalin, and endures enemies above his current level. Zhang Ya initially sweeps him into her feeding attack, but Chen Ge names him as a friend and insists he be released. Being defended by the person who summons him helps distinguish his place in the House of Horrors from his earlier existence as suffering trapped on tape. (Chapters 268–277)

The incomplete red heart

Repeated combat spreads blood across Xu Yin’s clothing and repairs parts of his damaged form, suggesting that he can become a Red Specter. He hunts hostile ghosts in Coffin Village, helps hold back threats while Zhang Ya sleeps, and later confronts Han Bao’er’s child spirits. The growth is uneven: aggression and consumption make almost his whole body red, but the area around his heart remains unchanged, leaving a visible and structural barrier to full advancement. (Chapters 299–334, 364–372)

Men Nan identifies the problem more precisely during the conflict behind the Third Sick Hall and underground morgue doors. Xu Yin’s strength is tied to pain, despair, regret, and an attachment he cannot readily explain, yet something at the center of that attachment remains blocked. He tears through controlled cadavers and continues fighting Xiong Qing as his body cracks, demonstrating power near the Red threshold without receiving the black phone’s formal confirmation of a completed Red heart. (Chapters 408–410, 444–457)

While Zhang Ya sleeps, Xu Yin becomes Chen Ge’s most reliable active fighter. He warns through static, intercepts attacks, works with Bai Qiulin and the comic’s other employees, and repeatedly places himself between Chen Ge and stronger enemies. Pain increases his speed and cutting force, but the wounds and curses are genuine rather than cosmetic; his near-Red state lets him continue past ordinary limits without making him immune to disintegration or control. (Chapters 494–593, 609–651)

The shadow’s assault finally forces the unresolved heart to change. Unable to hear an order and already breaking under curses, Xu Yin still clings to the arm strangling Chen Ge and refuses to step away. The empty place in his chest turns red through that uncommanded choice, and the black phone later confirms him as a Red Specter. He returns to the recorder grievously injured, but the completed heart establishes that loyalty—not only accumulated pain—carried him across the threshold. (Chapters 650–677)

Enforcer of the House of Horrors

Inside the School of the Afterlife, Xu Yin is separated from Chen Ge and must act without constant direction. He defeats school entities, scouts hostile areas, locates or protects fellow employees, and rejoins Chen during the contest over the school consciousness. His decisions increasingly precede explicit orders, showing that the quiet man in red has become an independent guardian rather than a summoned attack that exists only when the recorder plays. (Chapters 828–906)

The Ghost Fetus investigation exposes him to curses and sins designed to corrode identity. Xu Yin restrains physical manifestations, intercepts enemies at close range, and works alongside the Red High Heels, Bai Qiulin, and other employees whose specialties complement his direct violence. He is not the highest-ranked presence in the group, but his speed and willingness to take the first impact repeatedly give Chen Ge time to reason, rescue a host, or bring stronger allies into position. (Chapters 958–1074)

His relationship with Chen Ge is tested most starkly when supernatural systems use memory and identity as weapons. Xu Yin continues to respond even when ordinary commands, objects, or explanations fail, and he joins the final effort against the Ghost Fetus before Zhang Ya devours it. By then his loyalty has become part of his own will: he protects the House of Horrors family because he recognizes it as home, not because the recorder erases his choices. (Chapters 1030–1050, 1065–1109)

The Cursed Hospital inheritance

The Cursed Hospital traps Chen Ge inside a false life and suppresses the employees who define his real one. Once memories and access begin to return, Xu Yin is again among the first protectors to answer. He fights hospital entities across the false city and joins the employees converging on the director’s domain, carrying the same pain-centered power into a conflict where curses can destroy identities as readily as bodies. (Chapters 1136–1172, 1196–1202)

During Chen Ge’s reconstruction, the remnant of his childhood self reveals how completely Xu Yin has trusted him. Xu Yin gives up everything except his heart so that Chen can escape the hospital’s final curse; the heart is placed within Chen’s mind as protection and proof of that choice. The sacrifice echoes Xu Yin’s Red Specter breakthrough: at both decisive moments, his greatest change comes from acting for Chen without being ordered or promised a reward. (Chapter 1202)

After the hospital director falls, Xu Yin absorbs much of the defeated Demon God’s residual power and begins digesting it. The inheritance positions him for another evolution, but no completed Demon God rank is confirmed before the story ends. His latest established state is therefore a Red Specter carrying an immense new reserve—still the quiet frontline protector of the House of Horrors, with future growth indicated rather than accomplished. (Chapters 1205–1207)

Appearance and personality

Xu Yin appears as a pale young man with a melancholic, almost artistic face and clothing that becomes progressively saturated with blood. Wounds cover his body when he manifests, while his hollow or bloodshot eyes and the uncolored space over his heart mark his incomplete transformation. After Chapter 676 the heart is fully red; later exertion can raise black capillaries across his hands as his cutting power intensifies. (Chapters 196–198, 254, 364, 408–410, 676, 984)

He is taciturn, lonely, and direct. Pain initially dominates him so completely that combat resembles self-destruction, but Chen Ge’s patience gives that impulse a direction and a home. Xu Yin remains ferocious toward threats while becoming calmer around Chen, protective of fellow employees, and increasingly capable of independent decisions. His rare attempts to smile or express relief matter precisely because speech and ordinary warmth remain difficult for him. (Chapters 254, 277, 364, 670–676, 834–906)

Skills and supernatural abilities

Recorder-bound manifestation

The crying tape and recorder are Xu Yin’s associated medium. Playing the recording or triggering its static lets him manifest near Chen Ge, while disturbances in the tape warn of danger even before he appears. As a Baleful Specter he depends heavily on that anchor and can flicker or be forced back into it when injured; after becoming red, the recorder remains his home and transport rather than the sole measure of his strength. (Chapters 196–209, 249–254, 408, 445, 541, 670–677, 727)

The medium gives Chen Ge access but not absolute control. Xu Yin can act before an order, ignore self-preservation, and return voluntarily when a battle or wound demands it. Static often communicates urgency more reliably than words, yet it cannot explain the exact enemy or guarantee that Xu Yin can defeat it. The deepest underground and door-world threats can make the recorder react while still exceeding his safe capacity. (Chapters 249–254, 315–318, 364–386, 641, 834–906)

Pain voice and amplification

Xu Yin’s characteristic question—“Is it painful?”—can interrupt or mentally affect other ghosts once his transformation has advanced. His own injuries also increase his speed, pressure, and willingness to attack; fingers become knife-like, blood force gathers around him, and he grows more dangerous as pain accumulates. This makes attrition favor him against weaker opponents and lets him hold stronger ones longer than his rank alone would suggest. (Chapters 254, 364, 408–410, 451–454, 651, 676)

Pain amplification is not immunity. Cracks spread across his body, curses contaminate his blood and heart, and sufficiently powerful enemies can tear him apart or force him back into the recorder. His readiness to suffer is therefore both weapon and weakness: it creates extraordinary endurance while repeatedly bringing him close to annihilation. Allies, retreat, and the completed Red heart remain necessary when he faces Greater Red Specters, Demon Gods, or specialized curses. (Chapters 275–277, 444–457, 650–677, 958–1074)

Cutting force, blood pressure, and interception

At close range, Xu Yin uses sharpened fingers, rapid movement, grappling strength, and concentrated blood pressure to tear through ghosts, cadavers, and cursed bodies. He is most effective as an interceptor: he reaches an attacker before it reaches Chen Ge, holds a limb or body in place, and absorbs the first counterattack while other employees deploy their specialties. His Red Specter state expands the scale and persistence of those direct attacks. (Chapters 254, 315–334, 444–457, 650–676, 834–906, 963–1074)

His style interacts well with allies but remains specialized. Bai Qiulin and other employees can pin or distract targets, the Red High Heels manage curses, and Zhang Ya supplies force against Demon God-level threats; Xu Yin provides immediate physical pressure and protection. He does not demonstrate Zhang Ya’s vast hair domain, gluttony, or ability to consume whole supernatural structures, so his value lies in speed, resolve, and sustained close combat rather than universal superiority. (Chapters 650–676, 834–906, 963–1109)

Residual power from the hospital director

After the Cursed Hospital director is destroyed, Xu Yin receives and begins absorbing much of the fallen Demon God’s remaining power. The transfer supplies a possible route beyond Red Specter, but digestion is still underway at the latest confirmed point. No new domain, title, or completed transformation is demonstrated, so the inheritance should be understood as an active state change rather than proof that Xu Yin has already become a Demon God. (Chapters 1205–1207)

Power progression

Relationships

• Chen Ge: Gives Xu Yin companionship and a home instead of rewarding self-destructive violence. Xu Yin answers that trust with uncommanded protection, completes his Red heart while saving Chen, and later leaves his heart to help him escape the hospital’s curse. (Chapters 249–254, 650–676, 1202)
• Zhang Ya: Stronger fellow protector who nearly consumes him during an indiscriminate attack, releases him at Chen’s request, and later rescues him from the shadow. (Chapters 275–277, 670–676)
• Men Nan: Diagnoses the emotional obstruction around Xu Yin’s heart and helps frame the difference between accumulated redness and a completed Red Specter transformation. (Chapters 408–410)
• Bai Qiulin: Frequent frontline colleague whose restraint and courage complement Xu Yin’s direct cutting force during later door-world missions. (Chapters 650–676, 834–906, 963–1074)
• Red High Heels: Handles curse-centered threats beside Xu Yin during the Ghost Fetus investigations, complementing his physical interception. (Chapters 963–1074)
• Xiong Qing: A society-made Red Specter and important early mirror for Xu Yin’s incomplete advancement; their morgue battle forces Xu Yin to endure beyond his current state. (Chapters 444–457)

Items

• Crying Tape and Recorder: Xu Yin’s associated medium, home, warning channel, and the means by which Chen Ge carries him between missions. (Chapters 196–209, 249–254, 408–410, 541, 727)