Li Yuanyu

Li Yuanyu is the child abducted and renamed Jiang Yan by Jiang Boqing after the Lixia Prefecture massacre. His revenge against immortal cultivators rests on a deception whose discovery destroys his trust in his master.

Biography

Abduction, vengeance and escape

Yuanyu lives with his mother, Jiang Yunu, while his absent father remains away. After he offers money to a seeming beggar, the man gives him a copper coin. During the massacre that follows, Jiang Boqing abducts him, uses that coin to claim authority over him, and shows him the slaughtered courtyard. Boqing blames the immortals for his mother’s death, renames him Jiang Yan and takes him to learn curse spells. Years later, the boy pursues vengeance through attacks on sect markets, joining his master in killing a Foundation cultivator and discovering that Azure Pond Sect itself profits from the blood resentment left by the carnage. (Chapters 160, 162, 293 and 314–315)

As Boqing’s borrowed body deteriorates, Jiang Yan suspects that the talismans nurtured inside his own body are preparations for possession. His master denies this, insisting that his remaining efforts are meant to protect him. Qing Jifang then reveals that Boqing enticed his father, caused his mother’s death and refined the boy as a talisman. The apparent rescuer and trusted teacher is implicated in the calamity that shaped his life. When Qing proposes taking them to Wu State, Boqing instead sends Jiang Yan through a rift before sacrificing himself against the pursuer. (Chapters 362–363)

The transport nearly exhausts Jiang Yan’s cultivation and leaves him inside a slave camp at Yi Mountain City. Unable to force his way through the enclosing formation, he hides among slave soldiers for half a month. During a demon-beast attack, he sees how the cultivators sacrifice the people below them. He knocks aside a wolf demon, reveals himself by escaping at extraordinary speed and finally flies toward the forest, leaving the city behind. (Chapter 375)

Appearance and personality

As Jiang Yan, he is a youth with gray-black eyes. His escape leaves him ragged, muddy and indistinguishable from the slave soldiers around him. Childhood grief becomes a desire for revenge, then suspicion of the master who encouraged it. (Chapters 162, 293, 362 and 375)

Abilities and cultivation

Jiang Yan uses shamanic arts involving blood, flesh and bone, including restraints employed during attacks on sect cultivators. Boqing nurtures a Three Nine True Talisman in his qihai and a Shamanic Blood Talisman in his Shenyang Mansion. Their origin ties his powers to the deception surrounding his parents. His ability to resist a Foundation cultivator depends on Boqing’s help; it does not establish an independent Foundation breakthrough. The emergency transport nearly drains his cultivation, but he recovers enough to strike a demon beast and fly from Yi Mountain City. (Chapters 314–315, 362–363 and 375)

Relationships

• Jiang Yunu: His mother, whose death becomes the foundation of Boqing’s deception.
• Jiang Boqing: His abductor and master, who first exploits him and ultimately sends him away from Qing Jifang.
• Qing Jifang: Reveals his master’s involvement in the massacre while attempting to capture them.

Items

The copper coin is Boqing’s pretext for abducting him. The two shamanic talismans reside within his body; a black gourd taken during the market attacks contains blood resentment. (Chapters 162, 315 and 362)