Zhou Zihong

Zhou Zihong is a War God Shrine disciple from Hou Fen who survives the collapse of the foreign battleground with Wang Lin. Their coerced early association becomes a lasting karmic connection, and she later preserves an eyewitness account of the period when the future Lord of the Sealed Realm still lived under Mai Liang's identity.

Biography

Surviving the foreign battleground

Zhou Zihong enters the foreign battleground against her teacher's wishes and advances to late Foundation Establishment, but the sudden appearance of wandering souls kills most of the War God Shrine contingent. She, Yang Xiong, and Lin Tao believe they may be the only three survivors. Wang Lin, occupying Mai Liang's dead body, drives the pursuing souls away. Zhou had often protected the timid real Mai Liang and had recently received one of his appearance-preserving pills, so she initially warns the transformed “junior brother” to stay close and even gives him an extra recovery pill. Her instinct remains compassionate before she understands who saved them. (Chapters 121–122 and 126)

Compelled into service

The group's relief ends when Wang Lin reveals enough power for them to realize Mai Liang has been possessed. Unlike the others, Zhou first asks whether Mai Liang was already dead when Wang Lin took the body. Only after receiving an answer does she surrender her soul essence blood, giving Wang Lin the power to kill her with a thought. The arrangement is coercive, but she remains comparatively direct: when asked to copy the War God Shrine's Divine Path, she explains that its contents vanish from memory and tells him the legitimate route through Mai Liang's battlefield contribution. Wang Lin eventually returns the leverage rather than harming her. (Chapters 123–130 and 163)

War God Shrine and the migration from Hou Fen

Back at the War God Shrine, Zhou reports the catastrophe to her teacher and protects the secret of Wang Lin's identity. Her preserved appearance and advancement mark her as one of the expedition's rare beneficiaries, even though survival came with fear and dependence. When Hou Fen's spiritual energy is ruined and its cultivators migrate into Xuan Wu, she witnesses Wang Lin slaughter hundreds of Foundation Establishment enemies under the Mai Liang identity. She later gives him a jade containing a map of the countries around Hou Fen, a small act that continues to assist him after their paths separate. (Chapters 126–138 and 210)

Reunion and partnership with Yang Xiong

Centuries later, Zhou is a beautiful late Soul Formation cultivator of the War God Temple. She and Yang Xiong share too few celestial jades for both to attempt Soul Transformation, and he asks her to advance first for the sake of Hou Fen. Zhou offers to become his cultivation partner if she succeeds, while both remember Wang Lin. Wang Lin appears, supplies enough celestial jades and pills for them, and treats the resources as a gift celebrating their union. Their relationship becomes a genuine dao partnership rather than an extension of their former forced service. (Chapter 902)

A witness in the Summoned River

Zhou later leaves planet Suzaku with her mother, Feng Luan, and enters a sect in the Summoned River. In an inn, dressed in purple, she recounts Hou Fen's migration and Wang Lin's early feats to cultivators who know him only as the Lord of the Sealed Realm. She recognizes him from a passing smile but does not expose him or interrupt his journey. By the time Zhou Wutai later reports her fate, Yang Xiong has died in a great battle. Zhou remains alive in the last direct scene, carrying both the public history of Wang Lin's rise and the private melancholy of those who survived its beginning. (Chapters 1565 and 1572)

Appearance and personality

As a young disciple, Zhou is normally sweet and notably attractive; during the foreign-battleground collapse, her hair is disordered, her spiritual power exhausted, and grief replaces that usual composure. The spirit liquid and pills associated with Wang Lin preserve her youthful appearance for centuries. By Chapter 902 she appears as a beautiful woman in palace clothing, and in the Summoned River she wears purple. Her strongest traits are compassion, stubbornness, and candor. She defies her teacher to enter danger, protects the weak Mai Liang, asks about his death before yielding to Wang Lin, and explains honestly why she cannot reproduce the Divine Path. (Chapters 121–126, 902, and 1565)

Abilities and cultivation

Cultivation progression

Zhou reaches late Foundation Establishment during the foreign-battleground trial. By the reunion in Hou Fen, she is at late Soul Formation and attempting to enter Soul Transformation through celestial-jade absorption. The corpus does not confirm whether that breakthrough succeeds, nor does it name her final realm after she moves to the Summoned River. (Chapters 121–126 and 902)

War God Shrine training

Her foundation comes from the War God Shrine's cultivation tradition. She has been permitted to view the hundred-word Divine Path, but its strangeness prevents her from retaining a copy after the supervised session. This is an important limitation: the source does not show her mastering the complete Divine Path or using a signature art derived from it. Her demonstrated expertise instead lies in disciplined cultivation, battlefield survival, travel, and the ordinary spell control expected at her stages. (Chapters 126 and 129)

Soul essence blood

Zhou can extract a drop of golden soul essence blood and hand it to another cultivator. Once Wang Lin accepts it, her life is connected to his will, creating a master-servant restraint rather than a combat enhancement. She uses the method under duress, and the loss weakens her. Its role in her story is the cost of surviving someone much stronger, not a power she habitually imposes on others. (Chapter 123)

Longevity resources

Before the collapse, the real Mai Liang gives Zhou a pill said to preserve appearance for a century; she later receives Wang Lin's spirit liquid as well. The result is that her visible age changes little even across centuries. These resources preserve vitality and appearance, but they do not substitute for her own rise from Foundation Establishment to late Soul Formation. (Chapters 122, 126, and 902)

Relationships

• Wang Lin: Zhou first knows Wang Lin as the transformed Mai Liang who saves and subdues her. He later releases the restraint, gives her resources for Soul Transformation, and becomes the historical figure whose early life she recounts. (Chapters 121–163, 902, and 1565)
• Yang Xiong: Yang survives the foreign battleground beside Zhou and eventually becomes her dao partner. He gives up first access to scarce celestial jades for her future and later dies in battle. (Chapters 121–130, 902, and 1572)
• Feng Luan: Feng Luan is Zhou's mother. They eventually leave planet Suzaku together and join a sect in the Summoned River. (Chapter 1572)
• Hou Hongfei: Zhou's War God Shrine teacher opposes her decision to enter the foreign battleground, equips her when she insists, and is visibly relieved when she survives. (Chapter 126)

Items

• Regional map jade: Zhou gives Wang Lin a jade mapping the cultivation countries around Hou Fen. He later uses it to orient himself in Chu. (Chapter 210)
• Appearance-preserving pill: The real Mai Liang gives Zhou one of the pills that keeps her apparent age from changing after the foreign-battleground time distortion. (Chapters 122 and 126)
• Celestial jades from Wang Lin: Wang Lin fills the War God Temple hall with enough celestial jades for Zhou and Yang Xiong to pursue their cultivation without choosing which one must advance. (Chapter 902)