Duke Long

Duke Long is a foundational Heavenly Court combatant, the creator and first member of the dragonman race, and the former master of Red Lotus Demon Venerable. His formal cultivation remains peak rank eight, but ancient accumulation, Heavenly Dragon's Last Stand, and a conditional inheritance from Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable bring his battle strength close to the venerable threshold. He devotes that power to restoring Fate Gu, even after the same loyalty requires him to exterminate his dragonman descendants.

Biography

Founder of the dragonmen and master of Red Lotus

Long before the great era, Duke Long combines refinement-, transformation-, qi-, and human-path principles into Humans Alike Dragons, a lifespan-extension method that transforms humans into dragonmen. He uses it on himself after already becoming a powerful cultivator, making his body the origin of an entire variant-human race. The method prolongs life and gives dragonmen natural advantages, but it also binds the race's origin to the ancestor who can later design a species-wide countermeasure. (Chapters 1227, 1363, 1844, and 1849)

He also teaches the young Hong Ting, whose talent and losses eventually produce Red Lotus Demon Venerable. Duke Long treats obedience to fate as the foundation of human prosperity, while his disciple comes to see fate's decrees as intolerable chains. Their disagreement becomes a wound Duke Long carries for the rest of his life: he accepts blame for failing to guide his disciple, yet never accepts Red Lotus's conclusion that Fate Gu must be removed. (Chapters 1676–1678, 1744, 1942, and 1950)

When Fate Gu's revelation changes from human supremacy to “dragonmen reign supreme,” Duke Long chooses Heavenly Court's human mandate over his own bloodline. He develops Dragonman Extermination from the same source as the lifespan method and kills the dragonman race, including his descendants. The decision is not presented as emotional indifference: he counts it as a sin and a sacrifice, but regards personal affection and even an entire offspring race as subordinate to humanity's assigned future. (Chapters 1797 and 1844–1849)

Awakening and the war against Shadow Sect

Fairy Zi Wei awakens Duke Long from Heavenly Court's immortal graveyard when Shadow Sect and the sovereign immortal body threaten Fate Gu's recovery. He emerges withered and close to death. At Hidden Dragon Cave, however, he activates the formation suppressing Di Zang Sheng, extracts ten years of the beast's life essence, and restores his imposing body and peak rank-eight aura. The extension is a finite loan, not a cure for his exhausted lifespan. (Chapters 1228 and 1301)

Duke Long then becomes Heavenly Court's decisive field commander against Shadow Sect. His qi-path movement closes distances almost instantly, his dragon body absorbs attacks, and chaotic dragon fist disrupts the thoughts needed to sustain wisdom-path combat. Against Purple Mountain True Monarch, those tools combine with superior accumulation rather than a formal rank-nine breakthrough; the narrative classifies the result as quasi-rank-nine battle strength while continuing to identify him as rank eight. (Chapters 1363–1372)

The victory reinforces his conviction that the court can repair fate if its members accept sufficient costs. Duke Long subdues threats, retrieves inheritances, and presses Fairy Zi Wei to prioritize Fate Gu over limited lives or short-term losses. His authority comes from both personal force and institutional memory: he is an ancient survivor who understands venerable arrangements, but that same certainty makes compromise with attacks on fate nearly impossible. (Chapters 1372, 1465, and 1689–1713)

Dragon Palace and the fatal countdown

Duke Long enters Heavenly Dragon's Last Stand when his remaining lifespan is nearly exhausted. The irreversible killer-move state continually increases his strength as death approaches, but burns away the very lifespan it uses and prevents later lifespan methods from saving him. It turns his final campaign into a controlled countdown: delay benefits his growing combat output only while it also brings him closer to unavoidable death. (Chapters 1713, 1732, 1837, and 1936)

In Eastern Sea he pursues Dragon Palace, the rank-eight house created by his dragonman descendant Wu Shuai. The contest forces him into dream realms that expose the history of the dragonman purge and confront him with the pain his descendants experienced. Dream-path methods are a genuine limitation—he admits that even he lacks effective answers to them—yet the revelations do not reverse his decision. He continues to regard extermination as the duty that preserved humanity. (Chapters 1796–1797 and 1834–1846)

When Fang Yuan, disguised as Qi Sea Ancestor, contests his plans, Duke Long can bargain pragmatically, offering parts of Primordial Origin's inheritance and delaying conflict to protect Heavenly Court's priorities. This flexibility has a hard boundary: negotiations, Dragon Palace, and individual lives are means, whereas the restoration of Fate Gu and humanity's rule are ends. (Chapters 1846–1847 and 1884)

The Fate War and death

During the Fate War, Duke Long defends Heaven Overseeing Tower against attacks from multiple regions while Last Stand raises his power minute by minute. He fights Di Zang Sheng, Feng Jiu Ge, Fang Yuan, and enemy Immortal Gu Houses in succession. His goal is not simple battlefield survival; it is to preserve the refinement of Fate Gu long enough for Heavenly Court's plan to become irreversible. (Chapters 1936–1949)

After an attack apparently decapitates him, Primordial Origin's arrangement reattaches his head and reveals the true Triple Qi Retraction. Within Heavenly Court, the move draws enormous human, earth, and heaven qi into Duke Long, turning it into dao marks and restoring or amplifying his power. The empowerment is environmental and inherited: it can repeatedly exploit Heavenly Court's three qi, but it is not Duke Long's personal ascent to rank nine and cannot erase Last Stand's lifespan cost. (Chapter 1950)

Red Lotus ultimately distributes fate among the world's people, preventing Fate Gu from again serving as heaven's centralized instrument. Duke Long breaks through the last obstruction and reaches Fang Yuan with his aura at an unprecedented limit, but his lifespan expires one step away. His death completes the logic governing his life: he carries guilt for disciple and descendants, never abandons Heavenly Court's interpretation of human duty, and spends his final breath charging toward the person who overturned it. (Chapter 1966; later death confirmations in Chapters 1970 and 2181)

Appearance and personality

Duke Long's dragonman body is tall and imposing, with horns, scales, claws, and long purple hair. Immediately after leaving the immortal graveyard he is shriveled by age; borrowing life from Di Zang Sheng restores the muscular, majestic form associated with his peak condition. Last Stand makes his aura increasingly violent and overwhelming without changing the fact that the body is running out of life. (Chapters 1228, 1301, 1363, and 1950)

He is disciplined, commanding, and capable of both negotiation and ruthless sacrifice. His deepest trait is not lack of feeling but a hierarchy of obligations: humanity and Heavenly Court stand above disciple, descendants, reputation, and life. This lets him acknowledge guilt without changing course, making him dependable to the court and terrifying to anyone placed below its mission. (Chapters 1844–1847, 1950, and 1966)

Abilities and cultivation

Qi path and transformation path

Duke Long cultivates qi path primarily and transformation path secondarily. His dragon body supplies exceptional physical defense, strength, recovery, and lifespan, while qi-path methods provide movement, ranged force, and battlefield control. Chaotic dragon fist does more than strike the body: it disorders an opponent's thoughts, making sustained calculation and killer-move control harder. These advantages reflect ancient accumulation, not an unrecorded rank-nine aperture. (Chapters 1363–1372 and 1944)

Humans Alike Dragons and Dragonman Extermination

Humans Alike Dragons transforms a human into a dragonman to extend lifespan, using several paths in combination. Duke Long's knowledge of its source lets him derive Dragonman Extermination, a killer move whose effect propagates through the race created from that method. Its reach makes ordinary distance and defense inadequate, but later refinement work can alter a dragonman body and soul to become immune to Duke Long's version. (Chapters 1227, 1797, and 1844–1849)

Heavenly Dragon's Last Stand

Last Stand is a persistent, irreversible state that exchanges remaining lifespan for escalating strength. The closer Duke Long is to death, the greater its amplification; once active, lifespan Gu and ordinary extension methods cannot reverse the expenditure. It therefore rewards fighting to the final instant but has an absolute limit, demonstrated when his aura peaks and his life ends before he can land the decisive blow. (Chapters 1713, 1732, 1837, 1936, and 1966)

Triple Qi Retraction

The ordinary sequence attacks human qi, earth qi, and heaven qi, with later stages becoming difficult to stop after the first connects and potentially shattering an immortal aperture. Primordial Origin's hidden arrangement adds a different use inside Heavenly Court: the surrounding three qi gather into Duke Long as dao marks, heal him, and amplify all aspects of combat. The repeated boost depends on Heavenly Court's extraordinary environment and combines with Last Stand rather than replacing it. (Chapters 1372 and 1950)

Limits and latest state

Dream-path attacks can trap Duke Long despite his overwhelming conventional battle strength, and his bargains show that strong rank-eight opponents can still impose strategic costs. More decisively, all final amplifications remain attached to a rank-eight body with finite lifespan. He dies in chapter 1966; later chapters consistently treat him as dead and show no resurrection through chapter 2334. (Chapters 1796, 1846, 1944, 1966, 1970, and 2181)

Power progression

Relationships

Red Lotus Demon Venerable

Red Lotus Demon Venerable is Duke Long's disciple and greatest personal failure. Duke Long remembers the young Hong Ting with affection but regards his rebellion against fate as a calamity that must be corrected. Their final opposition turns a master-disciple bond into the ideological center of the Fate War. (Chapters 1676–1678, 1942, and 1966)

Fairy Zi Wei and Heavenly Court

Fairy Zi Wei awakens Duke Long and becomes the strategist who converts his power into Heavenly Court operations. He trusts her deductions yet overrides caution when Fate Gu or humanity's mandate is at stake. Their partnership expresses the institution's two main instruments: her planning and his willingness to carry any resulting burden. (Chapters 1228, 1301, 1465, and 1689)

Fang Yuan

Fang Yuan is both a battlefield enemy and the variable Duke Long cannot fully contain. Duke Long can negotiate with his Qi Sea disguise and respect sufficient strength, but Fang Yuan's attack on Fate Gu places them beyond durable compromise. Duke Long dies one step short of stopping him. (Chapters 1372, 1846, and 1936–1966)

Wu Shuai and the dragonmen

Wu Shuai is Duke Long's descendant and the dragonman leader whose history exposes the cost of the ancestor's human-first loyalty. Duke Long's connection to the race gives him unique leverage over Dragon Palace and the extermination method, while Wu Shuai's resistance makes the sacrifice concrete rather than abstract. (Chapters 1797 and 1834–1849)

Items

• Fate Gu — the rank-nine heaven-path Gu whose restoration Duke Long makes the central duty of his final life.
• Dragon Palace — Wu Shuai's rank-eight enslavement- and dream-path Immortal Gu House, which Duke Long pursues but does not securely recover.