Mingxiang

Mingxiang is a powerful Lotus Temple Maha whose loyalty to his master and junior brother draws him into the campaign against Li Zhouwei.

Biography

Drawn into the Southern Campaign

Mingxiang’s master orders him to follow his junior brother Minghui’s lead. When Minghui volunteers the Lotus Temple as the southern campaign’s vanguard, Mingxiang is startled, but accepts the assignment and takes the lead once selected. The order places him in a fight whose deeper political motives he does not fully understand, while the Lotus Temple’s standing and his master’s instructions leave little room to refuse. (Chapters 1692 and 1698)

A Loyal but Ambitious Combatant

Mingxiang enters the battle using a powerful Buddhist artifact against Li Zhouwei. When Zhouwei and Daisi clash, Mingxiang chooses his own temple’s side and waits until Daisi is struck before launching a potentially lethal blow. He later boasts that he protected Minghui and helped contain the White Qilin without forcing him to risk his life, while regretting that he failed to seize additional spirit artifacts. His conduct combines loyalty with an appetite for spoils. (Chapters 1699–1704 and 1709)

Judgment and Reassignment

After the battle, Chief Jiang credits Mingxiang with making a genuine effort, though Tianlang Zhi later says he appeared to hold back. The conflicting assessments leave his performance contested. Chief Jiang orders Mingxiang and Minghui to defend the riverbank. Mingxiang says he must first return to Jinlian to inform his master and expects to be sent to the post soon. (Chapters 1710–1711)

Appearance and personality

Mingxiang is taller than Minghui, with a broad, jade-like face that carries a faint crimson glow. He is usually composed, but his disbelief at Minghui’s sudden volunteer offer gives way to eagerness once the mission begins. (Chapters 1692, 1698 and 1709)

Abilities and cultivation

Mingxiang is the Lotus Temple’s fourth-incarnation Maha, assessed as comparable in strength to a mid-stage Purple Mansion cultivator. He fights through an immense golden dharma body and a set of Buddhist treasures. A jade vajra pestle can suppress a dharma artifact; paired with his Buddhist arts and accumulated power, it can challenge Li Zhouwei’s strength. Mingxiang says his three Dao-protecting treasures were refined in an incense burner for more than three hundred years and that, combined with his cultivation, they could defeat an ordinary mid-stage Purple Mansion opponent. (Chapters 1698–1699 and 1709)

Relationships

• Minghui: His junior brother at Lotus Temple; Mingxiang follows his lead in the campaign and protects him during the battle.
• Jinlian: His master, whose instructions shape Mingxiang’s campaign role and to whom he plans to report afterward.
• Li Zhouwei: The White Qilin and principal opponent in the southern campaign. (Chapters 1698–1704)

Items

Mingxiang uses a jade vajra pestle that can suppress a dharma artifact, and refers to three Dao-protecting treasures refined for centuries in an incense burner. He names the pestle but not the other two treasures. (Chapters 1699 and 1709)