Tang Xiao

Tang Xiao is a National Eastern University mecha student who becomes one of Lan Jue's first formal disciples and later commands a Star Division squad. He begins as a talented, overweight pilot who relies on tricks and cannot perform Oscillation despite his Sovereign First Class rating. Defeat by Lan Jue turns embarrassment into an apprenticeship. His natural Metalmorphosis Discipline then develops through deliberately punishing training rather than the artificial genetic route used for Jin Tao. By the war, he can transform himself and his mecha into mobile fortifications, drills, false alien forms, and shelters for an entire team. (Chapters 51–55, 98–129, 511–542)

Humorous interludes quote “Memoirs of the Metal Fox, Army General Tang Xiao,” presenting a future voice that looks back on his training. Those labels imply a later generalship within the framing device, but the main chronology never stages his promotion or gives its date. His last direct action is in Chapter 821, where he becomes a turtle-shaped shield to protect his squad. Star Division later joins the final defense, and Chapter 892 says all Lan Jue's former students answered the suicidal call, but Tang Xiao is not individually named there. His survival after Chapter 821 and exact epilogue position therefore remain unstated. (Chapters 54, 100, 111, 821, 892)

Biography

Fresh Meat, a humiliating loss, and an opportunity

Tang Xiao is introduced through his sister Tang Mi, who summons him into DreamNet after losing a mecha match. Under the handle Fresh Meat, he arrives with substantial credentials: he is a Sovereign First Class pilot, among the top ten students in the university's mecha combat department. His rating does not make him complete. He cannot execute Oscillation, a close-combat control technique prized even by elite pilots, and Lan Jue defeats him with it. Tang Xiao's first major limitation is therefore technical rather than a lack of raw standing. (Chapters 51–52)

When Tang Xiao discovers that the opponent is Professor Lan, he pursues him for instruction. Lan Jue initially responds with a brutal beating, partly to vent irritation but also stimulating Tang Xiao's Discipline with lightning. Tang Xiao recognizes both motives and continues calling him teacher. Their relationship begins in comedy and intimidation, yet Lan Jue later identifies sincerity, cleverness, extraordinary endurance, and a genuine desire to improve beneath the student's opportunism. Defeat causes Tang Xiao to seek the source of the skill that exposed him rather than protect his pride. (Chapters 53–55, 98, 118)

Lan Jue eventually asks Tang Xiao and Jin Tao whether they will accept training far more painful than anything so far. Tang Xiao admits fear and first checks that Lan Jue is a ninth-level Adept, but then commits. His stated goal is to join the army, surround himself with strong people, and continue improving. Lan Jue warns both disciples that any abuse of their training will lead him to destroy their powers. The exchange gives Tang Xiao ambition with an ethical boundary and anticipates his later military role without proving every future rank named by the memoir epigraphs. (Chapters 120–121)

Natural evolution under the demon drillmaster

Tang Xiao's path diverges from Jin Tao's when Lan Jue assesses their Talents. Jin Tao has almost no genetic potential and requires Fantascia Genetica to progress, while Tang Xiao's natural capacity is strong and may already be evolving. Lan Jue believes proper stimulation could eventually bring him to ninth level. Tang Xiao therefore undergoes forging through combat, pain, restorative support, and repeated pressure instead of consuming the genetic decoction. His rivalry with Jin Tao is used to keep him from becoming complacent, but the two are fellow disciples rather than interchangeable experiments. (Chapters 118–129)

Early exercises reveal his Discipline's foundation. Tang Xiao can harden his body into silver metal and manipulate metal around him, raising barriers or reshaping a suitable environment. Mika immediately reveals the weakness of simple defense: Hellfire melts his barrier and reaches him before he can respond. Lan Jue's program consequently trains reactions, durability, tactics, and Discipline growth together. A metal body can absorb or redirect some force, but heat, superior speed, and overwhelming energy remain dangerous. (Chapters 127–131)

The university and ARC training periods turn persistence into measurable advancement. Tang Xiao competes with Jin Tao, survives exhausting exercises, and continues even when his body weight makes high-gravity movement harder. Meditation during the special training produces a visible change in his Discipline, and by the An Lun trip he has reached eighth rank. His weight has a double effect: it worsens marches under increased gravity yet provides padding against some impacts. He performs best during one transport ordeal and correctly analyzes An Lun's hostile environment, showing that his development is intellectual and tactical as well as physical. (Chapters 265–300)

Tang Xiao remains a supporting observer rather than a participant in every one of Lan Jue's adventures. At the Great Adept Tournament he is directly present in the audience to cheer for his professor, while Chapter 384 merely mentions that Lan Jue has picked up one of Tang's less honorable tactical habits. These passages show influence and loyalty, but the latter is not a scene of Tang acting at the tournament. (Chapters 384, 454)

Squad Eleven and the Metal Fox at war

When Lan Jue returns to test the future Star Division, Tang Xiao reacts by turning flesh and mecha into a spiked metal ball. His response is quick but not flawless: caught away from support during the Drillmaster's lightning assault, he tries to use another combatant for cover and gets kicked away. He nevertheless volunteers for the dangerous unit. His reasoning is practical and comic—if Lan Jue cannot protect them, humanity is already doomed—but Lan Jue recognizes that practicality as another form of commitment. (Chapters 511–513)

Tang Xiao earns command of Squad Eleven through performance during Star Division's formation, not merely through his relationship with Lan Jue. His large mecha resembles him and possesses unmatched bulk within the Division. In battle, the entire assembly can compress into an orb, grow a drill, travel underground, and shelter squadmates within or behind its mass. Teammates can then attack from concealment, as when a spear erupts from below to kill a flying alien. His Discipline transforms a group into a moving ambush platform rather than serving only as personal armor. (Chapters 541–544)

Shattered Starfields operations broaden that method. Tang Xiao can disguise his hollow form as a pirate mecha so enemies unknowingly transport his squad, chase targets as a war machine, and help infiltrate Luna. These shapes are applications of Metalmorphosis and planning, not separate permanent mechas. They also require coordination: carrying allies increases the value of his bulk but makes his movement and decisions responsible for everyone inside. (Chapters 563–571)

A mature unit leader in the counteroffensive

Tang Xiao's relationship with Jin Tao remains competitive and abrasive after both become soldiers. Their quarrels include Jin Tao's interest in Tang Mi, but the rivalry no longer prevents battlefield cooperation. When the Division deploys in the counteroffensive, Tang Xiao leads at the front of his brigade and follows the larger formation rather than defaulting to his old rolling-ball charge. The narration explicitly notes that the ball was effective but slow and that his tactics have evolved. He retains humor, yet obeys structure when unit survival requires it. (Chapters 664, 741)

During a later DreamNet evaluation, Tang Xiao turns his mecha into a false alien planet to startle Lan Jue and pressure Thor. The larger team combines gravity, air, defense, camouflage, and Tang's liquid-metal attacks. He changes between a fat standard mecha, a violet orb with tentacles, and a form that manipulates the metal floor into sludge. The exercise succeeds because the combatants coordinate; none of Tang's shapes alone defeats Lan Jue. His old trickery has matured into battlefield misdirection integrated with other Disciplines. (Chapters 775–778)

The same sequence supplies careful evidence for his late cultivation. Lan Jue concludes that every member of the elite opposing team is at least ninth level, and recognizes the crafty metalmorph as Tang Xiao. Later, the final battle states that every Star Division unit leader has reached ninth level. These are group assessments that include Tang as a directly present leader, not a separate scene announcing his precise subrank. The corpus never states that he becomes a Paragon or assigns him a later mecha-pilot class beyond the Sovereign First Class rating given at introduction. (Chapters 776–778, 821)

The turtle shield and the limit of the record

Tang Xiao's final direct appearance occurs when Star Division meets armored alien troops. Enemy fire threatens his team, and he morphs into an enormous shield jokingly shaped like a turtle. The shape fits both his established defense role and his personality: he turns the alien's own motif into a practical shelter without surrendering his habit of teasing. The Division then defeats or repurposes the aliens through coordinated Discipline attacks. Tang's contribution is protective, not a claim that he personally destroys the entire wave. (Chapter 821)

Chapter 892 later reports that every one of Lan Jue's former students joins a volunteer action intended to buy time for the Banishing Strategy. That collective wording strongly places Tang's cohort in the final defense, but the chapter does not name him, describe his individual action, or resolve his outcome. The epilogue also gives no direct scene of him. The memoir headings call their speaker Army General Tang Xiao, suggesting a later life, but because the framing chronology is not explained, the safest final status is that he is alive at his last direct appearance and his subsequent career is not narrated. (Chapters 821, 892–903)

Appearance and personality

Tang Xiao is about 180 centimeters tall and initially almost as broad at the waist, with short hair, small eyes, and rounded features. Training causes him to lose weight, but he remains visibly heavy and his custom mecha preserves the same comic bulk. Other characters call him Fatty Tang, while the memoir fragments use Metal Fox, a title suited to the cunning hidden behind his appearance. (Chapters 53, 100, 269, 294, 511, 541)

He is shameless, funny, practical, and competitive. His first instinct is often to find an angle—summon a stronger fighter, use a strange shape, hide a squad inside his body, or choose proximity to the strongest commander. Yet he repeatedly accepts pain, follows demanding training, and protects others once responsibility is his. The movement from clever self-interest to clever team defense is his central development; he never loses the jokes that make that change recognizably his. (Chapters 51–55, 120–129, 513, 541–571, 741–821)

Disciplines and abilities

Metalmorphosis

Tang Xiao can turn his skin and body metallic, manipulate nearby metal, merge Discipline with his mecha, and reshape the resulting mass. Demonstrated forms include barriers, spikes, a rolling sphere, a drill, tentacled false planet, hollow transport, liquid-metal trap, and shield. Metal-rich surroundings increase his options. His transformations trade qualities rather than eliminating limits: ball forms are durable but slow, large shelters protect others but concentrate responsibility, and sufficiently hot or powerful attacks can penetrate or melt his defenses. (Chapters 127, 511–512, 541–542, 571, 741, 776–778, 821)

Piloting, endurance, and command

He begins as a Sovereign First Class pilot and top-ten university combat student but cannot initially perform Oscillation. Training improves his control and combat judgment, while Star Division gives him a squad whose abilities he learns to combine with his own. He reaches eighth rank by the An Lun period and is included among ninth-level unit leaders by the final war. Nothing in the direct chronology confirms Paragon status, god-ranked piloting, or the date of the “Army General” rank used by the memoir framing. (Chapters 52, 120–131, 269–300, 541–542, 741, 776–778, 821)

Power progression

Relationships

• Lan Jue: Tang turns a humiliating loss into lifelong discipleship. Lan Jue sees natural potential beneath his tricks and trains him through extreme pressure, while Tang eventually converts those tricks into squad-level tactics and protection.
• Jin Tao: Jin Tao is Tang's fellow disciple, rival, and later comrade. Their development paths are deliberately contrasted: Jin Tao accepts artificial genetic danger, whereas Tang is forged from stronger natural potential. Their competitive insults continue even after they learn to fight within the same command.
• Tang Mi: Tang Mi is his younger sister and the person who first summons him against Lan Jue. Tang is protective when Jin Tao pursues her, although the story does not resolve Tang Mi's relationships through Tang's wishes.
• Zhou Qianlin: Tang has an early crush on Qianlin, used by Tang Mi to manipulate him into the DreamNet match. The interest becomes a comic background detail and is not developed into a relationship.

Items

No cataloged items are directly associated with Tang Xiao. The Fantascia Genetica decoction is discussed only as a contrast with Jin Tao's treatment; Tang never possesses or consumes it.