Chu Cheng

Chu Cheng, better known in combat as Hades, is the inheritor of the Hades bloodline, one of the Four Divine Monarchs, and a close friend of Lan Jue. His frivolous public manner hides a life shaped by exacting family expectations. Across the story he grows from a powerful but restless young Adept into his clan's patriarch, a Paragon, and the successor to the Terminator's leadership of the Great Conclave.

Biography

Hades behind the playboy mask

Chu Cheng first appears as an easygoing old friend who supplies Lan Jue with a password and delivery box, jokes freely, and seems more interested in pleasure than responsibility. The familiarity is earned: as Hades he is one of the Four Divine Monarchs beside Zeus, Poseidon, and Prometheus. When the Taihua disaster leaves Lan Jue near death, Chu Cheng's pose drops. He travels with Hua Li to recover their friend, is shaken by the possibility that Lan Jue might die, and remains close while the Wine Master and Doctor protect the secret treatment. His response establishes that the Monarchs are a chosen family rather than merely famous pilots who once shared a title. (Chapters 10–12, 111, and 147–152)

His inherited position is more complicated than his jokes suggest. In his early twenties he can already command the Spirit of Hades, while his uncle, the Gourmet, possesses a purer expression of the same power. The Hades clan and Satan's line are hereditary enemies, and the clan's move from the West to the North forms part of that history. The Gourmet had once been regarded as the family's great hope but deliberately refused the Hades mantle, leaving the succession to his nephew because he recognized Chu Cheng's greater potential. What looks like an effortless inheritance is therefore a burden selected for him by both blood and his uncle's judgment. (Chapters 163 and 268)

Chu Cheng later explains that his nightlife and flirtation are a release from relentless training, not proof that he avoids it. His father and grandfather impose severe standards because the future of the bloodline rests on him, and he works hard enough to meet them while protecting a part of his life from their control. This tension also makes some of his casual claims unreliable: when he tells Lina that a future Paragon might reclaim the Dark Citadel for Hades, the narration explicitly leaves uncertain how much is ambition and how much is flirtation. His consistent motive is not conquest but proving that the successor others chose can carry the name without being consumed by it. (Chapters 406 and 422–423)

Cerberus and the tournament crucible

In DreamNet battles with the Divine Monarchs, Chu Cheng pilots Cerberus, a dark blood-red mecha built for explosive offense. During the Star Alliance exhibition he combines a separate cloaking gem and engine shutdown with sudden acceleration and the Hellfire Cannon to create openings for his team. The cannon's enormous charge leaves Cerberus stationary and vulnerable, and opposing tactics destroy the machine during the exhibition. Because the battle occurs in simulation, the destruction does not establish the loss of a physical machine; it instead demonstrates the risk Chu Cheng accepts when converting his firepower into a decisive team attack. (Chapters 222–224 and 270–287)

The Great Adept Tournament forces him to expose the discipline beneath his social persona. Introduced publicly as the successor of the Hades line and a respected member of the Great Conclave, he advances through the field with Hades Hellfire and an unusually natural understanding of protogenia. He has already touched the Hades Ascension, power beyond the ordinary ninth level, but does not treat that insight as sufficient. Against the Pharmacist he draws the clan's grey falchion Astrum, endures punishing attacks, and keeps forcing the contest until she reveals more of her true strength. He loses, yet his family takes pride in the resolve he displays, and his refusal to yield helps inspire Lan Jue's own next fight. (Chapters 387–424)

After the tournament, his friendships become another form of training. He spars with Lan Jue using a cold, deathly stillness that can erupt into volcanic aggression, but Lan Jue's Taiji control redirects and defeats that force. Rather than dismissing the result, Chu Cheng continues cultivating alongside companions whose growth challenges him. By the time alien war becomes unavoidable he has reached ninth level, ninth rank and treats the race toward Paragon as both rivalry and mutual pressure, measuring himself against Lan Jue without allowing jealousy to replace loyalty. (Chapters 515–520 and 665)

Finding life within the fire of death

A decisive change comes while Chu Cheng meditates after the Emberblossom pendant fuses with him. Hades Hellfire is made from the power associated with death, but he realizes that it is not death itself. In the Hades conception of the underworld, the end of death is also a passage toward life, and control of souls is therefore not identical to annihilation. The insight broadens a Discipline he had previously expressed mainly as destructive flame and strengthens the foundation on which his breakthrough will depend. His father and grandfather recognize that the heir has begun to understand the bloodline rather than merely reproduce its techniques. (Chapter 552)

Lan Qing later decides that Chu Cheng is ready to be pushed toward ascension and arranges the conditions for him to observe and undertake Paragon-level cultivation. The process remains tied to Chu Cheng's own preparation: his years at ninth rank, the insight into life and death, and the examples of his fellow Monarchs all precede the breakthrough. Before Lan Jue reaches Paragon, Chu Cheng has already crossed that threshold. By chapter 765 he is both a new Paragon and the patriarch of the Hades family, transforming the succession once imposed on him into an office he actively exercises. (Chapters 717–721, 765, and 792)

Patriarchal authority immediately tests whether he can place survival above inherited feud. Satan's final instructions provide that Mika should receive support if she claims the Dark Citadel; only if she refuses should the Hades bloodline take it. When Mika begins rebuilding the Citadel, Chu Cheng prevents the Gourmet from challenging her during humanity's existential crisis. The choice neither erases the enmity between their lines nor proves permanent political harmony. It shows that Chu Cheng will not let ancestral opportunity fracture the Adepts while the aliens threaten them all. (Chapters 806 and 835)

Command, loss, and the Great Conclave

Chu Cheng's ascent does not remove him from ordinary military responsibility. He commands forces during the northern counteroffensive, bears the effects of heavy losses, survives the retreat, and later represents the Hades family in the coalition's planning. When Tyrannosaurus needs a senior defender, he is left in command rather than sent wherever personal glory is greatest. These assignments broaden his role from specialist fighter to institutional leader: he must preserve ships and people, accept withdrawals, and remain at a post even when friends are fighting elsewhere. (Chapters 741–766)

He nevertheless enters the decisive Paragon battles when the human line begins to fail. He helps reinforce the defenders against the alien avatars and arrives beside the Terminator during the struggle with the Queen's projection. As a Reflection of Heaven and Earth Paragon, Chu Cheng is formidable but still below the strongest enemy; the Terminator must protect him and ultimately names him the North's remaining hope. The older Paragon's death turns Chu Cheng's survival into another inheritance, one grounded in wartime necessity rather than clan blood. (Chapters 829–831 and 854–876)

During preparations for the Banishing Strategy, Ultus passes among the assembled willing Paragons while seeking a compatible bearer. The blade does not choose Chu Cheng and ultimately accepts Lan Qing, so Chu Cheng never becomes its established custodian. He continues fighting with the Hades falchion instead and is one of the six surviving Paragons who attack an alien avatar during the final engagement. His survival allows the North's continuity to extend beyond the Terminator's sacrifice. (Chapters 858 and 894)

In the epilogue, Chu Cheng succeeds to the Terminator's vacant position as leader of the Great Conclave. The appointment completes the development that his early persona concealed: the young Hades who used pleasure to escape pressure becomes responsible not only for his bloodline but for the North's principal Adept institution. He remains alive and connected to the other surviving Divine Monarchs, carrying forward both an old friendship and the political order for which many Paragons died. (Chapter 903)

Appearance and personality

Chu Cheng presents himself as handsome, relaxed, flirtatious, and chronically interested in nightlife. Around Lan Jue and Hua Li he is quick to tease and compete, and that irreverence lets the Divine Monarchs interact as friends rather than ceremonial figures. The pose is partly genuine—he values pleasure and personal freedom—but it also serves as pressure relief after years of strict family cultivation. (Chapters 10–12, 111, and 422)

In combat the social warmth can vanish into cold stillness and fierce aggression. He accepts pain, defeat, and tactical risk without losing focus, especially when another person's success depends on his endurance. As he gains authority, his strongest trait becomes pragmatic loyalty: he preserves the coalition over an old blood feud, follows command responsibilities through retreat, and honors the Terminator's trust instead of treating leadership as a prize. (Chapters 423–424, 519, 741–766, and 835–903)

Disciplines and abilities

Hades Hellfire and the Spirit of Hades

Chu Cheng's Discipline manifests as Hades Hellfire, a grey-black power associated with death, souls, and the underworld. It can produce tremendous explosive force, form concentrated attacks, and suffuse his falchion. His early command of the Spirit of Hades and later insight into the Hades Ascension give him access to protogenic principles before his formal breakthrough. His realization that death contains a transition toward life deepens the Discipline's conceptual foundation, although the corpus does not define a separate restorative technique produced by that insight. (Chapters 163, 418–423, 519, and 552)

Paragon realm and martial equipment

After reaching the Realm of Protogenia, Chu Cheng advances to Reflection of Heaven and Earth. His dharma and attacks retain the identity of Hades, and his demonstrated late-war function is that of a powerful close- and mid-range combatant able to join coordinated attacks against alien avatars. Rank does not make him invulnerable: the Queen's projection remains sufficiently superior that the Terminator must shield him. His principal handheld Astrum is the Hades family's grey falchion, while Cerberus extends the same aggressive style into mecha combat. (Chapters 765, 792, 858, and 873–894)

Piloting and command

As one of the Divine Monarchs, Chu Cheng is an elite mecha pilot whose strength lies in timing bursts of overwhelming damage with allied maneuvers. Cerberus fires a heavy Hellfire Cannon, but the weapon's charge cycle creates a clear vulnerability; the concealment used in the Star Alliance match comes from an external cloaking gem rather than the mecha itself. Outside a cockpit, Chu Cheng develops into a military and political commander trusted with a planet, a bastion, his family, and finally the Great Conclave. His command record includes serious losses and retreats as well as victories, so the text presents leadership as responsibility under pressure rather than uninterrupted tactical success. (Chapters 270–287, 741–766, and 903)

Power progression

Relationships

• Lan Jue: A fellow Divine Monarch, sparring partner, and close friend. Chu Cheng helps recover him after Taihua, competes with his cultivation, and repeatedly joins battles in which their survival depends on mutual trust.
• Hua Li: Poseidon is another longtime friend and Divine Monarch. Their playful rivalry continues through training and war, while their complementary fire-and-water powers support the wider team.
• Lan Qing: Prometheus is the senior Monarch and a catalyst for Chu Cheng's Paragon breakthrough. Chu Cheng respects his strategic judgment and later fights within the coalition Lan Qing commands.
• Gourmet: Chu Cheng's uncle possesses a purer form of the Hades power but refuses the family mantle because he believes his nephew has greater potential. Chu Cheng later restrains him from reviving the clan's feud with Mika during the alien crisis.
• Mika: Mika inherits Satan's line and claims leadership of a reformed Dark Citadel. Chu Cheng's decision not to contest that claim places wartime unity above the Hades bloodline's traditional enmity.
• Terminator: The northern Paragon protects Chu Cheng in his final battle and identifies him as the North's hope. Chu Cheng later succeeds him as leader of the Great Conclave.

Items

• Cerberus: Chu Cheng's custom dark-red mecha, built around explosive offense and the high-output Hellfire Cannon. Its Star Alliance stealth comes from an external cloaking gem, and its destruction occurs in DreamNet rather than establishing the loss of a physical machine.
• Ultus: One of the Banishing Blades. It considers the assembled willing Paragons but chooses Lan Qing; Chu Cheng is not shown possessing or wielding it.