Xiao XingChen
Xiao XingChen is a disciple of BaoShan SanRen who leaves seclusion to help others through independent cultivation and night-hunting.
Biography
Descent from the mountain
Xiao XingChen left BaoShan SanRen's mountain at seventeen. He and Song Lan shared the ambition of founding a sect based on common ideals rather than bloodline. After investigating the YueyangChang massacre, Xiao XingChen captured Xue Yang and brought evidence against him to Koi Tower. (Chapters 29–30)
Xue Yang retaliated by destroying Baixue Temple and blinding Song Lan. Xiao XingChen gave Song Lan his own eyes, then wandered alone, continuing to night-hunt and solve disturbances wherever he found them. He allowed A-Qing, who only pretended to be blind, to travel with him. (Chapters 30 and 39)
Yi City
Unable to see the injured man's identity, Xiao XingChen rescued Xue Yang and lived beside him for years. Xue Yang exploited Shuanghua's ability to detect corpse energy, mutilating living victims so Xiao XingChen would mistake them for corpses; the victims eventually included Song Lan. When the deception was exposed, Xiao XingChen killed himself with Shuanghua, and his soul shattered. Its surviving fragments were later carried away by Song Lan. (Chapters 39–42)
Appearance and personality
Xiao XingChen is tall and lean, wears white cultivation robes, and after giving away his eyes keeps them covered with bandages that can stain with blood. He is gentle, careful, principled, and readily helps strangers, though that trust leaves him vulnerable to deception. (Chapters 36 and 39–41)
Abilities and cultivation
Xiao XingChen is a highly trained rogue cultivator whose swordsmanship, spiritual perception, and night-hunting knowledge remain formidable after he gives his eyes to Song Lan. His methods are designed to protect ordinary communities without binding that work to sect power, but blindness creates the opening Xue Yang uses to corrupt those methods.
Shuanghua and sword cultivation
Shuanghua is a powerful spiritual sword that responds to corpse energy. Xiao XingChen can follow that response to locate hostile beings and strike accurately, allowing him to continue night-hunting without sight. His technique and reputation are strong enough that cultivators recognize the sword independently of its wielder. (Chapters 29–30 and 36–41)
The sword's response identifies corpse energy, not moral identity. Xue Yang exploits that limitation by poisoning living villagers and presenting them as walking corpses. Xiao XingChen's strikes remain technically accurate while the information guiding them has been falsified. The deception shows that refined spiritual perception can still fail when an enemy manipulates what the tool detects. (Chapters 39–41)
Blind navigation and spiritual senses
After transferring his eyes to Song Lan, Xiao XingChen relies on hearing, spatial memory, spiritual awareness, and Shuanghua. He travels, maintains a household, treats injuries, and fights in unfamiliar streets. These capabilities compensate extensively for blindness but do not reveal faces, silent gestures, or a concealed person's ordinary identity; A-Qing can observe details he cannot. (Chapters 38–41)
Night-hunting and healing
He roams without a sect, exorcising dangerous beings and helping communities that might not receive a great clan's protection. The work requires knowledge of spirits, corpses, injuries, local testimony, and ritual cleanup. He can provide ordinary treatment and shelter as well as combat. His ideal is cooperative service with Song Lan, but the massacre at Baixue Temple and Xue Yang's revenge turn that openness into a route through which guilt destroys him. (Chapters 29–30 and 39–41)
Power progression
| Stage / Realm / Ability | Chapter(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Eyes sacrificed to Song Lan | 30 | He permanently gives away both eyes, losing ordinary sight so that the blinded Song Lan can see again. |
| Death and shattered soul | 41 | He kills himself with Shuanghua, and his soul fragments so completely that it cannot return to the body or be raised as a fierce corpse. |
Relationships
- Song Lan: His closest cultivation companion and partner in the plan to found an ideals-based sect.
- A-Qing: A young wanderer whom he protects and allows to accompany him.
- Xue Yang: The criminal he captured and later unknowingly rescued, whose deception destroys his companions and sense of self.
Items
- Shuanghua: His spiritually powerful sword and the weapon through which Xue Yang manipulated his blindness.