Madam Ji

Madam Ji is a feared Soul Catcher from Leaping Stallion Peak whose services are costly enough to consume a tribe's wealth for a single attack. Hired by Black Crane Tribe, she confronts Su Ming through curses, corpse control, and the Thirteen Peach Blossom Fiend. Her death leaves behind a blood-red ring whose curse principles later contribute to Su Ming's understanding of the Arid Curse.

Biography

Freezing Sky and the Ninth Summit

Black Crane Tribe recruits Madam Ji to destroy its rival, White Bull Tribe, paying so heavily that it can afford only one decisive attack. She arrives in a red robe decorated with snakes and insects, accompanied by the corpse of her husband Ji Yun Hai. Although Ji Yun Hai appears to act, later evidence establishes that Madam Ji killed him long before and uses his corpse, death aura, and associated insects as part of her Soul Catcher arsenal. (Chapters 380–385)

Her commission brings her against Su Ming. She encloses the battlefield with a blood-red ring, deploys curses and a Ghost Child, and uses Ji Yun Hai's corpse as both weapon and source of deathly power. When Su Ming survives the destruction of his apparent body by retreating into the black stone's space, Madam Ji escalates to the Thirteen Peach Blossom Fiend. Forcing all thirteen blossoms open requires her life, and the resulting lust curse pressures Su Ming severely, but does not save her. She dies and her body is later found in pieces; Su Ming takes the blood-red ring. (Chapters 386–410)

Arid Triad and the dying aeon

Madam Ji does not return to life. Her later importance is technical and posthumous: the ring and the curse principles associated with her and Ji Yun Hai become part of Su Ming's much later reflections on Curse. When he develops his understanding of the Arid Curse, those earlier encounters serve as one strand in a far larger realization. This legacy expands the significance of her attack without retroactively making her the creator or master of Su Ming's later art. (Chapters 1325–1328)

Appearance and personality

Madam Ji wears a red robe sewn with multicolored snakes and insects and initially hides her face beneath a bamboo hat. When revealed, she has fine, pearl-like skin and a scar beneath her right breast. Her reputation and high price encourage a controlled, imperious manner. In combat she is ruthless and willing to expend her puppet husband, prepared creatures, and finally her own life rather than accept defeat.

Abilities and cultivation

Soul Catcher curses

Madam Ji works through soul-affecting curses, death aura, poison, and induced desire rather than direct physical force. Her methods can obscure the true source of an attack by routing effects through Ji Yun Hai's corpse and its black beetles. Su Ming's unusual means of escape and resistance prevent these layered methods from guaranteeing a kill. (Chapters 384–389)

Blood-red ring

The ring expands into a red field and supplies a central focus for Madam Ji's Curse-based techniques. It helps destroy the body Su Ming presents within the field, but he survives through the black stone's alternate space, exposing the technique's inability to secure a target outside its effective reach. The ring persists after her death and is taken by Su Ming, making its later effects item-derived rather than proof that Madam Ji herself survives. (Chapters 386–410)

Thirteen Peach Blossom Fiend

Madam Ji's final curse manifests thirteen peach blossoms and floods its target with primal lust. Opening all thirteen greatly intensifies the effect, but she can force the complete form only by sacrificing her life. Su Ming must suppress the curse, yet endures; the technique therefore carries a fatal cost for its user without assuring the target's death. (Chapters 388–389)

Relationships

• Ji Yun Hai: Her deceased husband and corpse puppet. She killed him after decades under his curse and subsequently used his remains and death aura in battle.
• Su Ming: Her intended victim. Their clash kills Madam Ji but gives Su Ming the ring and experience that later informs his study of Curse.

Items

• Blood-red ring: Focus of Madam Ji's curse field and a surviving token of her art; claimed by Su Ming after her death.
• Ji Yun Hai's corpse: Used as a controlled combat vessel. It is a person's remains rather than ordinary equipment, and several apparent techniques derive from the corpse itself.