Li Yuanfeng
Li Yuanfeng is Xue Yue's senior cultivator and sect master, forcibly elevated to Soul Transformation through Suzaku's secret method. He pursues Wang Lin to avenge Red Butterfly, but ultimately surrenders his soul rather than let his self-destruction erase his country. (Chapters 368–403)
Biography
Retaliation for Red Butterfly
Li Yuanfeng waits for Ceng Niu—Wang Lin's public identity—with a prepared tea set and announces that Red Butterfly's defeat must be answered. His first attack combines his tea domain with Sun Tai's seal so seamlessly that Wang Lin's cultivation is suppressed and a tea-leaf mark is left on him. The encounter establishes Li Yuanfeng as more than an angry elder: his domain can take physical form and coordinate with another Soul Transformation cultivator's restrictions. (Chapters 368–370 and 381)
His apparent realm conceals a structural weakness. Li Yuanfeng cultivates in Xue Yue's Divine Snow and Ice Shrine, drawing refined energy from ice blocks, celestial jade, and formations. Suzaku's secret technique forcibly raised him to Soul Transformation, giving Xue Yue an emergency protector but ending his path toward further breakthroughs. He can use only a limited amount of celestial spiritual energy and is weaker than someone who reached the realm normally. Sun Tai's lightning badly wounds him, and he retreats to recover as his already-limited lifespan approaches its end. (Chapter 378)
The rematch
After recovering, Wang Lin deliberately seeks Li Yuanfeng rather than waiting for another ambush. Li Yuanfeng meets him with ice spheres containing traces of celestial spiritual energy. The attacks are dangerous, but every expenditure makes his body tremble because the forced breakthrough did not give him a true Soul Transformation cultivator's reserves. Wang Lin survives the attrition and drives him to reveal his final treasure: bronze bells refined with his origin soul and activated with blood. (Chapters 392–395)
The bells unseal two withered arms that release black yin fog and form combat figures. Li Yuanfeng does not know the limbs' true origin—he found them by accident—but has spent years integrating the bells into his own control. Even this last resort fails, and Wang Lin seizes the arms. Li Yuanfeng begins to self-destruct, then stops when he realizes the blast would destroy Xue Yue along with his enemy. He permits Wang Lin to extract his soul in exchange for sparing the country. His vengeance ends in a choice that values the people and land he guarded above his own survival. (Chapters 395–396)
Soul-flag remnant
Death does not immediately end his role. A fragment of Li Yuanfeng's soul remains in Wang Lin's soul flag and can be deployed among its thousand souls. Because the fragment no longer possesses full autonomy, Mei Ji's charm can briefly turn it against Wang Lin before he suppresses it. The episode is a grim coda to Li Yuanfeng's surrender: the guardian who gave up his life to preserve Xue Yue continues as a weapon controlled by others. (Chapter 403)
Appearance and personality
Li Yuanfeng appears as a middle-aged man, although his lifespan is near its end. He cultivates with the deliberate composure represented by his tea set and domain, but his pride in Xue Yue and Red Butterfly makes him relentless. His final refusal to destroy his own country shows that the vengeance driving him has a boundary: he will sacrifice himself, but not the land he believes he protects. (Chapters 368, 378, and 395)
Abilities and cultivation
Forced Soul Transformation
Suzaku's secret method pushes Li Yuanfeng beyond peak Soul Formation without completing a natural breakthrough. He can wield celestial spiritual energy and a physical domain, yet his supply is small and his future advancement has been sacrificed. Heavy expenditure produces visible trembling, while damage from another Soul Transformation cultivator overwhelms his recovery. His realm is therefore a powerful national deterrent with an inbuilt ceiling rather than a stable foundation. (Chapters 378 and 394–395)
Tea domain
Li Yuanfeng's domain manifests as tea and tea leaves instead of remaining an intangible comprehension. It can merge with Sun Tai's sealing force, suppress a target's cultivation, and leave a leaf-shaped scar that records the contact. Its physical manifestation places his comprehension beyond ordinary peak Soul Formation, but Wang Lin's later growth and preparation allow him to challenge it rather than remain permanently sealed. (Chapters 370 and 381–395)
Snow-and-ice arts
His shrine converts celestial jade through formations embedded in enormous ice blocks, matching Xue Yue's environment to his cultivation. In battle he condenses ice spheres carrying small portions of celestial energy. Their force comes from genuine higher-realm energy, but the spheres expose his central limitation: he cannot replenish or spend that energy as freely as a naturally advanced Soul Transformation cultivator. (Chapters 378 and 394)
Origin-soul bells and sealed arms
Bronze bells refined with Li Yuanfeng's origin soul respond almost like parts of his body. Blood activation cracks them open and releases two ancient, withered arms whose yin fog forms two figures to attack. The bells are a last resort rather than an expression of his own comprehension; he does not understand the limbs' origin, and losing them deprives him of the ace entirely. (Chapters 395–396)
Relationships
- Wang Lin: Li Yuanfeng hunts Wang Lin to avenge Red Butterfly. Defeat turns their conflict into a bargain: Li yields his soul and Wang spares Xue Yue. (Chapters 368–370 and 392–396)
- Red Butterfly: He treats her defeat as an injury to Xue Yue that demands retaliation and worries about what will remain for her after his lifespan ends. (Chapters 368 and 378)
- Sun Tai: Their powers combine during the first sealing attempt, but Sun Tai's lightning also inflicts the injury that forces Li Yuanfeng into prolonged recovery. (Chapters 370 and 378)
Items
- Li Yuanfeng's bronze bells are origin-soul-refined controllers for two ancient withered arms. Wang Lin captures the arms after their duel. (Chapters 395–396)