Qing Tan

Qing Tan is a secretive darkness cultivator from the 3000 Beast Mountain Range whose shadow domain, growing army of defeated enemies, and talent for concealment make her one of the Trial World's most dangerous participants. She becomes a genuine friend and battlefield partner to Damien Void and Feng Qing'er, even while coercion tied to the Nox forces her to conceal a mission that will eventually place them on opposing sides.

Biography

The Trial World alliance

Qing Tan meets Damien after helping Feng Qing'er defeat the demons attacking Astoria. Already identified by the in-world 3000 Beast Record as its fifth-ranked genius, she is drawn to Damien's appetite for danger and joins him and Feng in stopping the coming attacks on human cities. At Relia, she seals a fifty-kilometer area inside her darkness domain, breaks the invading demons psychologically, and makes the survivors turn on one another. She later deploys a replenishing shadow army against a much larger demon force, captures ten defecting Demon Generals for intelligence, and kills a Commander; those victories help carry her to the Trial of Stars' White Star level. Her initial motivation is excitement and reward rather than Feng's overt sense of justice, but sustained cooperation turns the trio from opportunistic allies into friends. (Chapters 265–296)

Acier, the Apostles, and Damien's collapse

When the trio raids Acier, Qing Tan supplies the scale Damien needs to overload the city's defenses: hundreds of Shadow Captains and tens of Shadow Generals turn the fourth layer into a second battlefield, while her Commander-level shadows help shatter the barrier core and cover their escape. Against seven Apostles, she remains at the rear and uses three Shadow Commanders to divide their pressure while Damien prepares a decisive attack. The Demon God's True Voice then disperses her army and leaves all three badly injured. Qing Tan nevertheless resummons her shadow bird, evacuates Damien to Darknorth, repeatedly tries to examine his damaged body with mana and awareness, and guards him for weeks when those probes are devoured or repulsed. The crisis reveals that her guarded playfulness does not prevent deep loyalty once she accepts someone as a friend. (Chapters 305–316)

Assassinations and the Ancient Temple

With Damien comatose, Qing Tan and Feng refuse to remain passive. They lure two Apostles into a forest, where Qing Tan hides beyond even Feng's perception, corrodes Proto's dark material with fragments of shadow, immobilizes him, and kills him after a prolonged punishment for his contempt toward women. The pair then search for an inheritance site, publicize the Ancient Temple, and use the gathering it creates to draw the remaining demon leadership into its trials. Inside, Qing Tan survives a lethal thousand-glass poison trial through her darkness affinity and accepts a pair of Chaos-rank twin daggers that complement the close-range cruelty she sometimes adds to her command style. She leaves the Trial of Stars as one of only three White Star holders, but Damien's parting question shows that he has begun to recognize the allegiance she still cannot disclose. (Chapters 316–352)

Hidden allegiance and the Primordial Undying Tree

The second trial makes Qing Tan's secrecy impossible to sustain. She avoids Feng, erases her presence among the contenders, and takes a green fruit without the other peak geniuses detecting her. Rather than consuming it herself, she carries that fruit and several red fruits to her injured elder brother, Hun Fang, whose survival is the central pressure behind both siblings' actions. She heals and comforts him, then hands over the fruits he uses in the ritual that helps the Nox Demigod break free. Damien observes enough to call their conduct a betrayal, yet also sees that they are discontented, monitored, and unable to choose freely; he therefore lets them return rather than exposing or forcibly recruiting them. Qing Tan departs through a Nox portal with pity for those left behind and a private hope that Damien survives, preserving her friendship emotionally even while duty makes her act against it. (Chapters 368–405)

Imprisonment, liberation, and the universal war

Qing Tan disappears from the immediate narrative after the Primordial Undying Realm, but her arc receives a later resolution when Damien views and adjusts the war's possible timelines from the Void. His Avatar, Alexander, frees Qing Tan and her brother from imprisonment and leads them to Yong An. Joined to Yong An's Nox defectors, they cooperate with the Judgement Order against the Nox's principal forces, helping secure numerous victories with reduced losses. The outcome fulfills the possibility Damien recognized in the secret realm: Qing Tan's service to the Nox was a captivity to escape, not the endpoint of her loyalty or moral development. (Chapters 1319 and 1329)

Appearance and personality

Qing Tan is a black-haired young woman with starry black eyes. She normally wears combat clothing beneath a deep black cloak, an outfit that hides her figure and supports a fighting style built around darkness and concealment. When she suppresses her presence, observers can look toward her position without properly registering that anyone is there; when she releases her aura, the same quiet appearance becomes cold and threatening. (Chapters 265, 323, 341, 380)

Her public manner is playful, curious, and thrill-seeking. She teases Feng and Damien, treats dangerous plans as entertainment, and pays little attention to people she considers irrelevant. That levity coexists with calculated cruelty: she uses fear, sensory deprivation, and prolonged punishment rather than offering enemies a clean fight. Qing Tan is also exceptionally guarded, but not heartless. Once Damien and Feng become her friends, she risks herself to evacuate and nurse Damien, while her devotion to Hun Fang shapes even the choices she most regrets. Her later anti-Nox role confirms that coercion and secrecy, rather than indifference, lie beneath her apparent betrayal. (Chapters 265, 275, 314, 341, 391, 401, 1319–1329)

Abilities, laws, and evolution

Darkness affinity and concealment

Qing Tan's unusually strong darkness affinity is the foundation of her cultivation. She can melt into existing shadows, remove her presence from ordinary perception, and approach or withdraw without creating a readable path. During the assassination of Proto, she disappears from Feng's senses at point-blank range; during the contest for the Primordial Undying Fruits, she steals a green fruit without detection even from observers actively scanning the battlefield. The same affinity helps her resist toxins in the Ancient Temple, though she reaches her limit sooner than Damien and Feng and survives only when the trial's thousandth glass restores the remaining contestants. (Chapters 316, 340–342, 380–381)

Swamp of Darkness and domain control

Swamp of Darkness spreads a field that serves as the foundation for Qing Tan's larger techniques. In one direct display, its dome covers a fifty-kilometer radius, blocks meaningful orientation, and lets her manipulate a target's senses and perception of time until he destroys himself. In mass combat, the domain turns the ground into a staging area from which shadows rise and fallen enemies are absorbed. Its greatest value is control rather than a single destructive strike: it isolates enemies, conceals Qing Tan's position, and lets her decide where fighting occurs. It still depends on ambient mana; the Demon God's True Voice disperses the entire field and its summons at once. (Chapters 275, 288–289, 311–313)

Shadow army

Enemies killed inside Qing Tan's influence can return as shadow soldiers. Her army grows from Captains and Generals into Commander-level assets, retaining enough of their former combat character to threaten their living counterparts. She normally commands from the rear, using the army to multiply her reach, replace losses with newly fallen enemies, or hold several superior opponents while an ally prepares another tactic. Lower-ranked shadows cease to matter against Apostle-level enemies, forcing her to deploy three Commanders instead, and even those summons are support rather than a guaranteed victory. This evolution from personal dagger combat toward battlefield command is deliberate: by the Ancient Temple, Qing Tan explicitly regards her army and domain as better suited to her than constant front-line fighting. (Chapters 288–312, 345)

Her Commander-level bird is the most versatile named-by-function member of that force. It carries Qing Tan, Feng, and an unconscious Damien away from Acier; later, Feng uses it as a decoy to fix an Apostle's attention while preparing an assassination. This makes the army more than a collection of attackers: its members provide transport, deception, protection, and independent battlefield pressure. (Chapters 313, 318–320)

Shadow corrosion, binding, and weapon use

Qing Tan can separate pieces of a shadow construct and attach them to a target. Against Proto, those fragments gradually corrode his dark material, seize control of his limbs, and turn the ground beneath him into a binding marsh before he understands that the contest is already over. She can also shape darkness into a knife. The Chaos-rank twin daggers she later accepts do not replace her command style, but they formalize a close-range option for isolated enemies who have already been restrained. Her preference for preparation means the technique is most dangerous when opponents mistake her concealment and delay for reluctance to fight. (Chapters 321–322, 345)

Awareness and tactical command

Qing Tan spreads her awareness over large areas to detect movement, coordinate assassinations, and direct independent shadow units. She reads changes in enemy morale and uses provocation, bait, and reputation to make stronger opponents commit to unfavorable ground. Her planning with Feng turns Damien's unfinished assassination idea into the deaths of two Apostles and later uses a real inheritance site as a weapon against the remaining demon command. This tactical strength has a clear limit: missing information about the Demon Kings and the inheritance trials forces the pair to improvise rather than control every variable. (Chapters 290, 316–334)

Relationships

• Damien Void: Qing Tan first recognizes a fellow thrill-seeker and joins his Trial World campaign for excitement and rewards. Months of shared combat make that affinity genuine loyalty: she helps him escape Acier, evacuates him after the True Voice, and exhausts herself guarding his comatose body. Damien later detects the secret she cannot explain, but responds to her apparent betrayal with pity rather than vengeance after learning that she is monitored and coerced. His Avatar eventually frees her from imprisonment and sends her to allies fighting the Nox. (Chapters 265–314, 352, 400–401, 1329)
• Feng Qing'er: Feng is Qing Tan's closest companion in the Trial World and her principal counterweight. They bicker, tease, and compete for contribution points, but also coordinate city defenses, Apostle assassinations, Damien's care, and the search for an inheritance site. Qing Tan later avoids Feng because revealing her Nox obligation would endanger them both; the distance is a consequence of coercion, not the disappearance of affection. (Chapters 265–334, 368–380)
• Hun Fang: Hun Fang is Qing Tan's elder brother and the person whose safety most directly governs her hidden choices. She steals Primordial Undying Fruits to heal him and enable his assigned ritual, while he openly values her life above the other people the ritual may kill. Their private teasing shows a warmer sibling bond beneath their cold public behavior, but their mutual protectiveness also keeps both trapped in the Nox plan until they are later freed. (Chapters 385–405, 1329)
• Yong An: After her liberation, Qing Tan joins the defectors gathered around Yong An. Their force cooperates with the Judgement Order and becomes one of the universal war's most effective anti-Nox assets, converting her knowledge of the enemy and her coerced past into resistance. (Chapters 1319 and 1329)

Items

• Chaos-rank twin daggers: A matched pair of sentient weapons offered by the Ancient Temple. They persistently choose Qing Tan despite her initial preference for fighting through her domain and army, accept her darkness mana, and form a connection with her. They serve as tools for close-range finishing and restraint rather than the basis of her cultivation. (Chapter 345)
• Primordial Undying Fruits: Qing Tan temporarily obtains a green fruit and several red fruits from the Primordial Undying Tree. She does not keep or consume them; she brings them to Hun Fang for healing and then transfers custody to him for the Nox ritual. (Chapters 381, 385, 391–394)