Xue Yang

Xue Yang is a demonic cultivator whose crimes against the YueyangChang Sect and manipulation of Xiao XingChen, Song Lan, and A-Qing culminate in the tragedy of Yi City.

Biography

YueyangChang case and Jin protection

Xue Yang becomes notorious in Kuizhou while still young and is identified as the culprit behind the destruction of the YueyangChang Sect. Xiao XingChen captures him and brings him before the cultivation clans, but the LanlingJin Sect protects and later employs him. In Jin robes, he works alongside Jin GuangYao, including on experiments involving fierce corpses and the Stygian Tiger Seal. (Chapters 30, 49–50, and 118)

His violence grows from grievance but is never limited to the person responsible for it. A childhood injury involving Chang CiAn becomes the rationale for exterminating an entire clan, turning remembered powerlessness into a rule that unrelated lives can pay for one offender. Jin protection rewards that escalation by giving him materials, status, and access to demonic research instead of imposing the sentence Xiao XingChen sought.

Deception in Yi City

After the blinded Xiao XingChen unknowingly rescues him, Xue Yang lives with him and A-Qing in Yi City under a concealed identity. He exploits Shuanghua's ability to detect corpse energy, tricking Xiao XingChen into killing living people poisoned to resemble corpses. He later reveals Song Lan's identity only after Xiao XingChen has struck him down, then drives Xiao XingChen to suicide with the truth of what he has done. (Chapters 39–41)

The household gives Xue Yang something close to the companionship he previously treated with contempt, but he tries to preserve it through ownership and deception rather than change. He accepts Xiao XingChen's food and care while repeatedly engineering murders that corrupt the cultivator's purpose. When exposure becomes unavoidable, hurting Xiao XingChen matters more to him than keeping the life he claims to value.

Final confrontation

Years later, Xue Yang impersonates Xiao XingChen to draw Wei WuXian into repairing the shattered soul he has kept in a Spirit-trapping Pouch. Once exposed, he uses Shuanghua, corpse-poisoning methods, control nails, and the restored half of the Stygian Tiger Seal against the investigators and juniors. Lan WangJi wounds him fatally and severs an arm; an unknown gravedigger removes his corpse and the seal from Yi City. (Chapters 37–43)

His demand that Wei WuXian restore Xiao XingChen reveals the limit of his technical confidence. Xue Yang can preserve fragments, manipulate corpses, and imitate another cultivator, but cannot reconstruct a soul that refuses or is unable to reform. The piece of candy found in his severed hand condenses that contradiction: he preserves a small gift while destroying the giver and then seeks a technique that would let him avoid the consequence.

Appearance and personality

Xue Yang retains childlike features into youth and has a handsome face, bright eyes, and a small canine tooth visible when he smiles. This youthful appearance masks habitual cruelty, contempt for others, and a talent for switching quickly between charm, mockery, and violence. (Chapters 37, 39, and 49)

Abilities and cultivation

Xue Yang is a capable sword cultivator and demonic practitioner whose methods center on deception, corpse alteration, control nails, poison, and the reconstructed half of the Stygian Tiger Seal. He is dangerous because he combines technical understanding with a willingness to test it on living communities.

Swordsmanship, Jiangzai, and stolen Shuanghua

Jiangzai is Xue Yang's own spiritual sword, but in Yi City he often carries Shuanghua to sustain his disguise as Xiao XingChen. He can fight Lan WangJi in dense fog, change weapons and rhythm, and exploit opponents who hesitate around a sword associated with a friend. His skill is substantial, yet Lan WangJi pressures him once the disguise is exposed, forcing Xue Yang to rely on corpses, fog, and escape rather than win a clean duel. (Chapters 37–38 and 41–43)

Corpse poison and control nails

Corpse-poisoning powder contaminates living bodies with corpse energy, producing symptoms that can worsen toward transformation or death. Xue Yang scatters it in enclosed streets and uses poisoned victims to divide the rescuers' attention. A prepared cultivator can identify and treat the poisoning, as Wei WuXian does with congee and appropriate ingredients, so the powder is most effective when victims do not understand the exposure. (Chapters 35–37)

Skull-piercing nails suppress consciousness and permit control of a living person or fierce corpse. Xue Yang uses them on Song Lan and related victims, turning capable cultivators into weapons while preserving enough of the body to mislead observers. Removing the nails can restore independent consciousness, which shows that the technique imposes control rather than erasing identity permanently. (Chapters 40 and 43)

Stygian Tiger Seal and corpse command

Xue Yang reconstructs part of the Stygian Tiger Seal and uses it to command large numbers of corpses throughout Yi City. The artifact amplifies control beyond what ordinary flute or talisman work would permit, creating both an army and a screen behind which he can move. The restored half is incomplete, and his command can be disrupted by Wei WuXian's superior understanding of the Seal and by eliminating the controlling practitioner. (Chapters 41–43)

Deception and imitation

For years Xue Yang manipulates Xiao XingChen's blindness, marks living villagers as corpse targets, and imitates the social shape of a household he previously destroyed. This requires patience, voice control, knowledge of night-hunting practice, and an ability to predict how compassionate people interpret evidence. It fails when A-Qing's observations survive him and Empathy gives Wei WuXian access to them. His most elaborate technique is therefore also limited by witnesses he considered powerless. (Chapters 38–42)

Power progression

Relationships

• Xiao XingChen: The cultivator who captures him and later unknowingly shelters him; Xue Yang deceives him into killing innocents and afterward tries unsuccessfully to restore his shattered soul.
• Song Lan: Xiao XingChen's companion, whom Xue Yang turns into a controlled fierce corpse.
• A-Qing: A witness who sees through his deception and continues opposing him even after death.
• Jin GuangYao: His LanlingJin patron and collaborator, who protects him while his technical abilities remain useful.

Items

• Jiangzai: Xue Yang's sword.
• Stygian Tiger Seal: The damaged artifact he restores and uses to command corpses.