Ya Mu

Ya Mu is an Autumn Sea Tribe Soul Catcher who befriends Su Ming under the latter's assumed identity, offers him information and a map, and later survives the Eastern Wastelands calamity. He eventually marries Zi Yan and becomes the father of Ya Jiu, meeting the returned Su Ming among Southern Swamp Island's Berserkers.

Biography

Freezing Sky and the Ninth Summit

Ya Mu introduces himself as a Medial Soul Catcher and invites “Brother Mo” to drink beside an Autumn Sea Tribe bonfire. More open than most of his companions, he explains the Immortals' attraction for aging powerful cultivators and recounts the outsiders he has seen. He senses something profoundly strange in Su Ming, yet responds with caution rather than hostility. When Su Ming prepares to leave, Ya Mu gives him a tribe-restricted map and warns him about traveling alone, turning a brief encounter into practical aid. (Chapters 368–373)

After an old Shaman dies, part of the escaping white smoke enters Ya Mu and causes his cultivation to rise. The source demonstrates the increase but does not explain whether it is permanent or precisely how much power transfers. Later, amid the Eastern Wastelands disaster, he reaches the peak of the Medial stage and serves as a third-level guard of Southern Swamp Island. Pursued and unable to expose his home island, he chooses refuge among the Fated Kin, accepting the moral cost of drawing danger toward them because it offers his companion and himself their only chance to survive. (Chapters 394–498)

Arid Triad and the dying aeon

Centuries later, Ya Mu lives on Southern Swamp Island with his wife Zi Yan and their young son Ya Jiu. When an unseen stranger approaches the boy, Ya Mu immediately interposes himself; he is more composed once Bai Chang Zai determines that the visitor bears no ill will, though the overwhelming scale of power shocks him. He later joins the delegation greeting Su Ming at the God of Berserkers Palace, learning that the mysterious visitor was the old acquaintance who had returned as their lord. (Chapters 1232–1237)

Appearance and personality

Ya Mu is introduced as a smiling young man who drinks freely and carries himself without the aloofness common among Autumn Sea Tribe's stronger members. His candor is tempered by sound caution: he recognizes unfamiliar power, warns travelers about risk, and prioritizes safety when catastrophe overtakes South Morning. As a father he becomes immediately protective, but remains capable of listening to a more experienced assessment before acting.

Abilities and cultivation

Soul Catcher cultivation

Ya Mu begins as a Medial Soul Catcher and is later explicitly at the peak of the Medial Shaman stage, halfway toward Latter Shaman. The profession makes him a rare and dangerous Shaman, but the dossier does not preserve a named personal soul-catching spell or establish that he completes the next realm. (Chapters 368–498)

Spiritual perception

He can sense the qualitative difference between Su Ming's presence and ordinary Berserker or Shaman power, comparing it to the Immortals he previously encountered. This perception gives him warning rather than comprehensive knowledge: he detects the anomaly but cannot determine Su Ming's true identity or nature. (Chapter 370)

Absorbed cultivation smoke

White smoke from a dead old woman partly enters Ya Mu and makes his cultivation show signs of increasing. The transfer is externally caused and its mechanism, magnitude, and duration are not explained, so it cannot be treated as a named art under his control. (Chapter 394)

Relationships

• Su Ming: Ya Mu helps him as “Brother Mo,” later seeks shelter among his Fated Kin, and finally greets him as the returned God of Berserkers.
• Zi Yan: Ya Mu's wife and the mother of their son, Ya Jiu.
• Wan Qiu: A former Sacred Lady of Ya Mu's tribe and later fellow member of the Southern Swamp community.

Items

• Autumn Sea Tribe map: A wooden slip covering much of the Shaman lands, given by Ya Mu to Su Ming for safer travel.
• Wine pot: A habitual possession associated with his first conversation with Su Ming; no supernatural effect is shown.