Xu Liguo

Xu Liguo is a former Tian Gang Sect cultivator whose soul is captured and refined by Wang Lin. He develops from a frightened devil into a powerful sword spirit with ancient sword intent. Cowardly, lustful, and endlessly opportunistic, he provides comic disorder without ceasing to be a useful and sometimes dangerous servant.

Biography

From cultivator to devil

Xu Liguo first appears as a Nascent Soul cultivator using a corpse puppet in the foreign battleground. Unable to afford a better body through the Corpse Sect, he attacks Wang Lin and immediately begs for mercy when exposed. Wang Lin captures his soul and begins refining him as a devil, planting divine sense within him so he can monitor and command him. (Chapters 128–129 and 165–206)

His initial status matters to his later behavior. Xu Liguo is neither a naturally formed devil nor a loyal treasure spirit; he remembers being a cultivator, resents captivity, and measures every situation by whether it offers a new body or freedom. Wang Lin's refining strips away his independent physical life but preserves enough memory and intelligence to make him far more adaptable than the ordinary devils created from other souls. (Chapters 128–129 and 165–173)

Xu Liguo constantly looks for escape, advantage, or a chance to consume a valuable soul. Wang Lin nevertheless relies on him for surveillance, infiltration, and attacks that a living cultivator could not perform. Unlike the other devils Wang Lin sacrifices in emergencies, Xu Liguo's intelligence and adaptability let him survive. (Chapters 173–208 and 277)

The divine-sense mark is the practical basis of their early relationship. Wang Lin can detect deception, inflict punishment, recall him, or send him into a target, while Xu Liguo learns to conceal intentions behind immediate flattery. This control is strong but not absolute forever: as the spirit changes vessels and gains new inheritances, he can loosen older restrictions, forcing Wang Lin to reassert authority by direct power rather than relying on the first seal. (Chapters 206, 434, and 584–587)

Sword-spirit ambitions

After Wang Lin places him in the Rain Celestial Sword, Xu Liguo becomes a sword spirit. He learns techniques from another blade spirit, gains the ability to conceal his sword aura, and pursues other sword spirits with the same shameless enthusiasm he shows toward women. The change greatly increases his speed and combat potential. (Chapters 434, 563, and 584–585)

His encounter with the Emperor's sword spirit in Sky Demon City demonstrates abilities Wang Lin does not share. Xu Liguo can perceive another spirit after it leaves its weapon, hide his own sword aura, pass through an attack as mist, and call on the “little black” blade spirit for support. His motives are absurdly personal, but the chase proves that his incorporeal senses and movement have become useful specialties rather than comic decoration. (Chapter 584)

Xu Liguo eventually loosens Wang Lin's restriction and attempts to flee with the celestial sword. Wang Lin catches and subdues him, demonstrating that the connection between them remains intact even when Xu Liguo can resist the original seal. Rather than destroy him, Wang Lin orders him to comprehend the ancient sword intent, forcing his rebellious energy into cultivation. (Chapters 584–587)

This punishment establishes a recurring training pattern. Xu Liguo avoids disciplined cultivation whenever possible, yet fear of Wang Lin keeps him in seclusion long enough to digest sword intent that he would otherwise abandon. His later leaps in strength are therefore partly inherited opportunity and partly the result of coercion. The same laziness that makes him unreliable also keeps him from becoming a self-directed rival to Wang Lin. (Chapters 586–587 and 625–641)

Ancient sword intent and service

Xu Liguo's contact with Zhou Yi and the ancient sword inheritance develops him into more than a trapped ghost. He can leave the sword, manifest as smoke or as a great blade, and summon dense fields of sword shadows. Though naturally lazy, periods of forced seclusion make him powerful enough that ordinary Ascendant and Nirvana Scryer cultivators cannot oppose him. (Chapters 625–641 and 1331–1347)

His power remains situational. As a spirit he can ignore some physical obstacles and attack through sword intent, but he depends on a vessel, stored essence, or Wang Lin's release from the bag of holding. Against beings that can seize souls, dominate treasures, or overwhelm Wang Lin himself, Xu Liguo's first response is concealment or surrender. His effectiveness comes from appearing at the right moment, not from standing openly against the story's strongest cultivators. (Chapters 808–810, 962–964, and 1428)

He repeatedly assists Wang Lin while maintaining a running performance of exaggerated loyalty. His instincts remain self-serving: he flatters whoever appears strongest, panics whenever Wang Lin looks displeased, and searches for loopholes in every order. Even so, his long service and familiarity make him part of Wang Lin's enduring circle rather than a disposable weapon. (Chapters 732, 808–810, and 962–964)

Wang Lin understands the performance and uses it rather than demanding sincere devotion. A glance can stop Xu Liguo's boasting, and a specific guard order turns his fear into vigilance. Conversely, Wang Lin does not erase him after escape attempts, because the spirit's appetite, quick reading of danger, and willingness to use dishonorable methods are exactly what make him valuable. Their stability comes from accurate mutual expectation, not moral reform. (Chapters 584–587, 808, and 962–964)

Freedom after the cave world

Xu Liguo later partners with Liu Jinbiao in deception and theft, including cheating a drop of blood from the madman that Wang Lin subsequently uses in battle. After rebirth on the Immortal Astral Continent, Xu Liguo, Liu Jinbiao, and Zhong Big Red travel between that continent and the cave world. Wang Lin leaves his aura and imprint on them for protection, permitting the group to seek its own adventures. (Chapters 1566–1569, 1693, and 1971–2080)

The partnership with Liu Jinbiao gives Xu Liguo a social form of the same survival strategy he once practiced alone. The pair flatter the madman, profit from his confusion, and are in turn deceived by him; Wang Lin punishes them without destroying the relationship. The blood they obtain later lets Wang Lin draw the Li Guang Bow one additional time, turning a confidence trick into a decisive resource against the Sovereign. (Chapters 1566–1569 and 1693)

By the end, Xu Liguo has a reborn body and enough of Wang Lin's power behind him to cross the gate between worlds. He still seeks pleasure and fraud rather than enlightenment, now accompanied by Liu Jinbiao, Zhong Big Red, and a sea dragon. This is genuine freedom compared with his origin as a captive soul, although it remains protected by the imprint of the master he once spent centuries trying to escape. (Chapters 1971 and 2080)

Appearance and personality

Xu Liguo has no stable mortal body after his capture. He first appears as a small soul-form emerging from a corpse puppet, later moves as black smoke, and can inhabit or become a sword. These forms reflect his status as a spirit rather than a living swordsman. (Chapters 128, 434, and 1428)

He is lecherous, boastful, lazy, and extremely afraid of death. He can shift from secret rebellion to extravagant flattery in a breath, especially when Wang Lin notices his schemes. Yet his cowardice is paired with quick perception and a strong survival instinct; those traits help him learn new spirit techniques and survive dangers that destroy more obedient servants. (Chapters 434, 584–587, and 808)

His personality changes in confidence rather than principle. Greater sword power makes his boasts louder and his schemes more ambitious, but desire, fear, and opportunism remain constant from the foreign battleground to the Immortal Astral Continent. The continuity of those flaws is also what preserves his identity through transformations that remove his original body and repeatedly change his vessel. (Chapters 128–129, 584, and 1971–2080)

Abilities and cultivation

Xu Liguo's power does not follow an ordinary uninterrupted cultivation path. He begins as an injured Nascent Soul, is forcibly remade into a devil, then develops again as a sword spirit. Each transformation preserves his intelligence while changing the vessel, energy, and restrictions through which he can act.

Captured Nascent Soul and devil refinement

Xu Liguo originally possesses a Nascent Soul cultivator's soul, but bodily destruction and a failed low-grade possession reduce his usable power to roughly late Foundation Establishment. Wang Lin's Ji Realm can therefore suppress him despite the nominal Nascent Soul foundation. Wang Lin wipes most of his conscious memory, leaves a strand of controlling divine sense, and repeatedly drives the emptied soul through living creatures until predatory instinct and solidity return. Xu Liguo is consequently an artificial devil made from a cultivator's soul, not a naturally born incorporeal species. (Chapters 128–129)

In devil form he can leave ordinary physical constraints, enter a target, attack or consume souls, and carry observations back to Wang Lin. The embedded divine-sense strand lets Wang Lin direct, recall, monitor, and punish him; the spirit's growing intelligence does not initially remove that control. These abilities make Xu Liguo useful for infiltration and soul-level attacks, but they also expose him to cultivators who can seize spirits, erase consciousness, or overpower Wang Lin's mark. His continued personality is exceptional among Wang Lin's early devils, several of which are expended as disposable attacks. (Chapters 165–206 and 277)

Rain Celestial Sword vessel

Once placed inside the Rain Celestial Sword, Xu Liguo becomes a treasure spirit with a stable weapon body and access to sword energy. He can emerge as a black-mist figure, flow through some material attacks without receiving an ordinary bodily wound, return to the blade, and send the sword itself into combat. He also learns to suppress the aura that identifies him as a sword spirit, which allows him to approach or observe another weapon spirit without immediately exposing his nature. (Chapters 434, 563, and 584–585)

The vessel is both an upgrade and a limitation. It supplies a durable focus and lets him manifest as a large sword or mass of sword shadows, but Wang Lin can keep the celestial sword inside a bag of holding and decide when the spirit is released. Xu Liguo eventually breaks an older communication seal and loosens part of Wang Lin's initial restriction, yet direct capture proves that freedom from a seal is not freedom from a much stronger master. The sword can also be threatened by experts capable of suppressing or taking treasures, so incorporeality does not make him untouchable. (Chapters 584–587, 808–810, 962–964, and 1428)

Ancient sword-intent inheritance

Contact with ancient sword inheritances and superior sword spirits gives Xu Liguo a power source beyond the Rain Celestial Sword's material quality. Sword intent is cultivated through comprehension rather than simple feeding: Wang Lin repeatedly forces him into seclusion, and the normally lazy spirit only begins serious study when fear or hopes of eventual escape outweigh his desire for pleasure. The inheritance lets him perceive sword spirits, condense his mist into blade forms, and produce increasingly dense fields of sword shadows whose pressure can overwhelm cultivators far above the level of his original damaged soul. (Chapters 625–641, 962–964, and 1331–1347)

His mastery remains uneven because temperament affects practice. He gains sudden strength from the inheritance and from long enforced periods of comprehension, but he does not display Wang Lin's disciplined progression or an independently named cultivation realm. The latest combat scenes therefore support a formidable ancient sword-intent spirit, not an assumption that Xu Liguo has completed every stage of the inheritance. His later reborn body and Wang Lin's protective imprint expand his freedom of movement, while the exact relationship between that body and his earlier treasure-spirit mechanics is not fully explained. (Chapters 1331–1347, 1428, 1971, and 2080)

Soul perception, infiltration, and deception

Xu Liguo can detect another sword spirit after it leaves its weapon and can hide his own sword aura from ordinary observers. Combined with mist-like movement, this makes him effective at scouting, guarding an area, and striking entities that depend on soul or treasure forms. His restraint is practical rather than absolute: when ordered to guard Wang Lin's refining site, his threatening presence helps keep intruders beyond the required thousand-foot boundary, but stronger soul-controlling enemies remain direct counters. (Chapters 584, 808–810, and 962–964)

His non-magical specialty is rapid social adaptation. Xu Liguo reads danger, changes allegiance in words, performs exaggerated loyalty, and collaborates with Liu Jinbiao in confidence schemes. The pair's deception obtains a drop of the madman's blood that later gives Wang Lin an additional use of the Li Guang Bow. This is a demonstrated tactical skill rather than a supernatural charm technique; it works through performance and exploitation of a target's confusion, and can fail or rebound when the target is more cunning than expected. (Chapters 1566–1569 and 1693)

Power progression

Relationships

• Wang Lin: Captor, master, and the person Xu Liguo fears most. Wang Lin disciplines his betrayals but also cultivates his usefulness and eventually allows him independent movement under a protective imprint. (Chapters 128–129, 584–587, and 2080)
• Zhou Yi: A vastly superior sword-spirit presence whose recognition and ancient sword knowledge deepen Xu Liguo's development. (Chapters 625–641)
• All-Seer: Xu Liguo fears the All-Seer's strength and would readily betray Wang Lin to such an overwhelming power if given the chance. (Chapters 584–585)
• Liu Jinbiao: His principal partner in fraud and wandering. They cooperate naturally because Liu Jinbiao supplies planning and performance while Xu Liguo supplies intimidation, spirit abilities, and Wang Lin's feared name. (Chapters 1566–1569 and 1971–2080)

Items

No item page in the public manifest is assigned to Xu Liguo's personal inventory.