Teng Huayuan

Teng Huayuan is the Teng family ancestor who turns Teng Li's failed robbery into collective punishment by exterminating Wang Lin's mortal family. Over the next four centuries he expands the Teng clan into Zhao's dominant network, only for the curse, imprisoned souls, and family structure he created to give Wang Lin a precise path for revenge. (Chapters 85, 102–122, and 234–245)

Biography

Curse born from Teng Li's death

Teng Huayuan places a divine-sense safeguard on his favored great-great-grandson Teng Li. When Wang Lin kills Teng Li, that safeguard activates a blood curse, shortening Teng Huayuan's lifespan but giving him a means to locate the killer within range. He enters Jue Ming Valley's aftermath seeking revenge and is alarmed by Wang Lin's apparent Nascent Soul aura, teleportation, and spiritual pressure. (Chapters 85–117)

Teng Huayuan blocks escape, employs other cultivators, destroys Wang Lin's bag and treasures, and uses Nascent Soul blood with a large soul flag to suppress teleportation. Unable to secure Wang Lin permanently through direct pursuit, he identifies the Wang family in Zhao. He kills the mortal clan, takes their souls, and uses them as leverage, forcing Wang Lin toward self-destruction while the surviving soul escapes to the foreign battleground. (Chapters 102–165)

Four centuries of clan power

During Wang Lin's absence, Teng Huayuan builds a family empire through sect placements, marriages, and a hierarchy of core descendants. Punnan Zi and Lord Shi's support brings resources that produce nine Nascent Soul members and advance Teng Huayuan from early to late Nascent Soul, nearly matching Punnan Zi. This political design makes the Teng surname dominant throughout Zhao, but it also gives Wang Lin a distributed bloodline network to trace. (Chapters 198–242)

The ancestor's ruthlessness does not mean he feels nothing for his descendants. He preserves Teng Li's memory, mourns shattered soul jades, and privately regrets separating Teng Three from a mortal woman. Those attachments sharpen rather than restrain his clan-first logic: he permits coercion and punishment in the name of preserving the lineage. (Chapters 239–242)

Extermination at Teng Family City

Wang Lin returns, seals the region so people can enter but not leave, and kills Teng branches one by one. Teng Huayuan gathers the survivors in Teng Family City but cannot stop the Ji Realm from destroying the final Nascent Soul defenders. Wang Lin uses Teng souls and a tower of heads to reproduce the helplessness inflicted on his own family. Teng Huayuan's golden soul flag and late Nascent Soul strength fail; Wang Lin kills him and recovers the Wang family souls, completing the revenge after four hundred years. (Chapters 234–245 and 365)

Appearance and personality

Teng Huayuan is presented as an increasingly old ancestor whose composure deteriorates as descendant soul jades break. He is proud, vindictive, politically capable, and willing to target mortals for one favored heir. He also possesses real familial grief. The tragedy is not that he cannot understand loss, but that experiencing it never teaches him to limit the same violence against others. (Chapters 102–117 and 239–245)

Abilities and cultivation

Late Nascent Soul cultivation

Teng Huayuan advances from early to late Nascent Soul with Punnan Zi's support, making him one of Zhao's strongest experts. He can teleport, exert large-scale spiritual pressure, and command multiple Nascent Soul subordinates. His rise depends partly on external experiments and family resources, and Wang Lin's Ji Realm later bypasses the conventional advantages of that cultivation. (Chapters 102–122 and 234–245)

Blood curse and tracking

The safeguard embedded in Teng Li produces a curse when the descendant dies. It marks Wang Lin and enables tracking within a certain range, but costs Teng Huayuan lifespan and creates a two-way karmic connection. Wang Lin eventually exploits the preserved soul-and-blood relation in reverse to identify Teng descendants, turning the ancestral protection into a map of the family it was meant to defend. (Chapters 85–117 and 234–245)

Soul flags and imprisonment

Teng Huayuan wields a soul flag containing tens of thousands of souls and later a golden flag whose gas becomes giant or numerous skulls. With Nascent Soul blood, the earlier formation can seal space and interfere with teleportation. He also confines the Wang family souls for centuries. These methods provide area control and leverage, but the Ji Realm can disperse his attacks and Wang Lin can reclaim the imprisoned souls after victory. (Chapters 112–122, 245, and 365)

Clan network as power

Nine Nascent Soul cultivators, sect alliances, marriages, soul jades, and named core positions turn the Teng family into an organized cultivation force. This network expands Teng Huayuan's reach beyond his personal realm. Its concentration around bloodline loyalty is also a vulnerability: once Wang Lin seals movement and traces the surname, each linked branch becomes a target and each shattered jade demoralizes the center. (Chapters 234–245)

Relationships

• Wang Lin: Teng Huayuan destroys Wang Lin's family after Teng Li's death, creating the blood debt Wang Lin repays four centuries later. (Chapters 85–165 and 234–245)
• Teng Li: His favored descendant carries Teng Huayuan's divine-sense protection; Teng Li's death triggers the curse and feud. (Chapters 85–103)
• Punnan Zi: Punnan Zi supplies advancement support and expects the Teng family to produce a Spirit Severing cultivator in return. (Chapters 234 and 242)

Items

• Teng Huayuan wields large soul flags, including a golden flag that releases skull manifestations, and uses them for spatial suppression and soul combat. (Chapters 112–122 and 245)