Zhang Zhiliang

Biography

Formation mentor

Zhang Zhiliang is an established Nascent Soul formation master who selects promising Formation Repairers for the approaching Tianxuan Soul-Locking Formation project. He accepts Li Fan as a disciple, transmits formation knowledge through Soul Separation Jade Slips, and teaches the Infinite Formation as a method of combining many smaller arrays. His mentorship is selective and demanding rather than paternal: talent receives resources because the project needs capable inheritors and personnel, not because Zhang offers unconditional protection. (Chapters 137–186)

He tests Li Fan with the Intent Horse, grants him a formation crown, and nominates him for advanced Tianyu training. These choices give Li Fan the technical base behind many later schemes, but Zhang’s generosity remains tied to evaluation and use. As his realm and ambitions rise, the tests become colder and may be lethal. His position also grants access to Alliance institutions and the Tianxuan system; that access amplifies his work but is not identical to personal formation insight, which he demonstrates through design, instruction, and battlefield control. (Chapters 212–222; Chapters 268–297)

Crimson Flame gambit

In an altered cycle, Ye Feipeng’s memories warn Zhang Zhiliang that Crimson Flame will descend upon the Cong Yun Sea. Zhang reads those memories, absorbs the sea’s transformations, and reaches Soul Transformation before the decisive battle. He then deploys immense nested formation crowns and initially supports five True Monarchs against the Heavenly Spirit. The advance and preparation belong to this specific repeated-life outcome; they should not be projected backward onto every version of the Nascent Soul mentor. (Chapters 246–250; Chapters 304–310)

Once both Crimson Flame and his supposed allies have spent much of their strength, Zhang turns the Two Dimensions Formation against the other True Monarchs. He intends to control the calamity and open a path toward Dao Integration, treating former superiors and Ye Feipeng as variables inside a calculation. The gambit nearly works, but Ye’s full Kunpeng transformation swallows Zhang, Crimson Flame, and the formation battlefield before Zhang completes his plan. His analytical reserve becomes open ruthlessness when the possible reward is a higher realm. (Chapters 310–315)

Appearance and personality

Zhang Zhiliang is presented primarily through the authority and composure of an experienced formation master rather than a detailed fixed face or wardrobe. His Heaven’s Eye Dharma Domain manifests as a vast observing eye over the battlefield, but this is a technique, not a permanent anatomical feature. A representative late-cycle image can place his human figure beneath silver nested formation crowns and the enormous eye, with Crimson Flame’s red light opposing them, without inventing canonical hair, eye, or clothing details. (Chapters 137–186; Chapters 220–222; Chapters 246–250)

He is perceptive, demanding, strategic, and proud of formation craft. Zhang will sponsor talent when its growth benefits a larger project, yet he rarely mistakes mentorship for sentiment. The same habit that makes him an effective teacher—reducing a difficult problem into controllable parts—also enables his later betrayal of allies. His personal expertise remains genuine, but his greatest plans require institutional data, prepared nodes, enormous materials, and the Tianxuan system’s computation; he is neither merely an administrator nor a solitary all-powerful array master. (Chapters 137–186; Chapters 246–250)

Abilities and cultivation

Infinite Formation

The Infinite Formation is Zhang Zhiliang’s signature inheritance. It combines many small formations and portable crowns into an evolving system able to gather spiritual energy, freeze or stall targets, shift positions, and coordinate allies across a prepared field. At Soul Transformation, Zhang scales it to hundreds of thousands of nodes around the Crimson Flame battle. That scale imposes severe computational demands. He identifies the Tianxuan Mirror as an ideal central core, which shows that institutional computation strengthens the design rather than proving Zhang can personally process every node without support. (Chapters 153–186; Chapters 246–250; Chapter 315)

Heaven's Eye Dharma Domain

Zhang’s Nascent Soul Dharma Domain manifests as Heaven’s Eye, a vast observing presence that locks and freezes targets while supporting spatially nested formation control. It expands his awareness and lets prepared arrays respond as a coordinated battlefield rather than isolated traps. The Domain’s observation is not omniscience, and its control can be overwhelmed by greater power or unforeseen transformations. Its strongest confirmed use comes when integrated into the Soul Transformation trap around Crimson Flame, where the surrounding formation architecture matters as much as the eye itself. (Chapters 220–222; Chapters 246–250)

Formation crowns

Formation crowns are layered portable arrays crafted by Zhang and shared selectively with disciples. A crown can stack tens or hundreds of formations for rapid activation, while a large network turns individual crowns into the nodes of the Infinite Formation. Their modularity lets Zhang teach, delegate, and prepare battlefields in advance. Lower replicas are weaker, materials are expensive, and precise control remains necessary; possessing a crown does not grant its user Zhang’s full expertise. His personal network reaches hundreds of thousands during the altered Crimson Flame cycle, where computation and preparation become the system’s practical limits. (Chapters 246–250; Chapters 268–274)

Soul Separation instruction and Intent Horse trial

Zhang packages formation instruction into Soul Separation Jade Slips that pass knowledge to chosen students, and he uses the Intent Horse as a dangerous test and soul-strengthening opportunity for Li Fan. These tools demonstrate his ability to transmit expertise without reducing mastery to a written manual. The slips can grant foundations of knowledge, while the trial exposes resolve and mental capacity; neither guarantees that a disciple can reproduce Zhang’s large formations. Their benefits also come with risk, since the Intent Horse can overwhelm an unqualified subject and Zhang’s later standards place utility above a student’s safety. (Chapters 212–222; Chapters 268–274)

Power progression

Relationships

• Li Fan is Zhang Zhiliang’s disciple, candidate, and later beneficiary. Zhang gives him a real formation education while continually evaluating his usefulness to larger Alliance projects.
• Ye Feipeng supplies foreknowledge in the altered Crimson Flame cycle. Zhang treats him as a controllable variable, while Ye secretly plans to consume Zhang and the exhausted battlefield.
• Crimson Flame is the Heavenly Spirit around which Zhang constructs his Soul Transformation and Dao Integration gambit.
• The five True Monarch allies in the Crimson Flame battle are temporary partners whom Zhang ultimately targets through the Two Dimensions Formation once their usefulness is spent.

Items

• Soul Separation Jade Slips are teaching vessels created or transmitted by Zhang. Individual slips pass into Li Fan’s custody, so the knowledge source and the later holder should be distinguished.
• Formation crowns are Zhang’s crafted portable arrays. He gifts one to Li Fan while retaining control of a much larger personal network in the Crimson Flame cycle.
• The Intent Horse is a soul-strengthening treasure Zhang uses as a dangerous trial and reward before its benefit passes to Li Fan.
• The Tianxuan Mirror is Alliance infrastructure that Zhang accesses as a computational core and project resource; it is not his personal mirror.
• Ten Thousand Immortals Formation Flags belong to the wider formation tradition in which Zhang teaches and operates. Copies can be bought, deployed, or transferred by others and are not all his exclusive property.