Xu Shiji

Xu Shiji is the Great Zhou's Divine General of the East and the father of Xu Yourong. He is a capable soldier whose authority is magnified by his daughter's status, and his efforts to protect that status repeatedly turn family decisions into political calculations—first against Chen Changsheng, then in accommodation with him, and finally across the fall of the Divine Empress's government. (Chapters 1–2, 47, 681, and 1140)

Biography

The Betrothal and the Orthodox Academy

Xu Shiji inherits a marriage contract created when Chen Changsheng's master saved his father, but regards the unknown youth from Xining as a threat to the far more advantageous match between Xu Yourong and Qiushan Jun. To prevent scandal and preserve his daughter's prospects, he pressures academies to reject Chen, uses his cultivation to intimidate him, and considers killing him if he cannot be induced to leave quietly. Chen's entry into the Orthodox Academy and unexpected protection from the palace limit those options, making Xu's attempt at private control into a public conflict he can no longer settle through household authority. (Chapters 1–6, 47, and 58)

At the Ivy Festival, Xu tries to silence Chen before the marriage contract can disrupt the southern proposal, but Luoluo, Mei Lisha, and Mo Yu prevent his soldiers from acting. He later helps contain pressure around the reopened Orthodox Academy as commander of the City Gate Department, though his relationship with Chen remains hostile and status-conscious. The conflict exposes the weakness inside his formidable public position: his military title gives him force, but Xu Yourong's will and the competing authority of palace and Orthodoxy determine how far he can use it. (Chapters 58, 67, 97–98, and 466)

Recalculating after the Grand Examination

Xu attends the Grand Examination as a military representative and watches Chen repeatedly exceed the expectations that justified dismissing him. When Chen wins first rank of the first banner, Xu reverses his manner, invites him to a family dinner, and speaks as a prospective elder despite admitting that he never felt benevolence toward him. This is not a sudden affection: Chen has become a politically viable son-in-law, and Xu now treats the same engagement as a possible protection for Xu Yourong if the struggle between the Divine Empress and the Orthodoxy changes direction. (Chapters 144–187 and 485)

He consequently stops intervening as a father and sends word that Chen and Xu Yourong must settle the engagement themselves. Yet he still misunderstands both young people, assuming that reputation, sectarian alignment, and the expected confluence of north and south govern their choices. Their reunion and mutual understanding on the Bridge of Helplessness surprise him because they make the relationship personal rather than a transaction he can optimize. Xu's development is therefore tactical rather than moral: he yields control when circumstances make control impossible, but continues evaluating the marriage through advantage and risk. (Chapters 187, 510–522, and 548)

Changing Courts

As one of the Divine Empress's trusted generals, Xu commands the City Gate Department and fights Orthodoxy forces while the capital approaches the coup. Unlike Xue Xingchuan, however, he does not appear during the decisive night; he arrives at the Mausoleum only after the Empress has died and Shang Xingzhou has prevailed. Xu later justifies this prompt accommodation as a sacrifice made for his daughter, arguing that it preserved her Holy Maiden position. The new regime rewards the decision through the Prince of Xiang's favor, but Chen forces its moral cost into the open when Xu invokes an imperial decree against burying Xue Xingchuan, his former colleague and friend. (Chapters 599, 623, 632, 666, 681, and 683)

Xu continues surviving by avoiding commitments that could place him on the losing side. His troops cannot move against the five Ivy Academies when they obstruct the City Gate Department, and years later he describes his own relationship with Xu Yourong as that of subject and lord when generals demand that he restrain her. When competing factions propose him as commander of the final northern expedition, one letter from his daughter makes him shut his gates and plead illness. The refusal costs him a prestigious command but protects him from responsibility for a coalition whose direction he cannot control, leaving him alive and politically relevant without ever becoming its trusted center. (Chapters 697, 700, 1068, 1140, and 1163)

Appearance and personality

Xu Shiji is a tall, sturdy middle-aged man whose body is compared to a mountain. To a distant observer he looks ordinary, but his presence carries a cold, harsh, faintly bloody aura strong enough to frighten animals and inexperienced cultivators. His expression is habitually stern or unreadable, and his carefully ordered estate—with straight trees, silent servants, and a military atmosphere—extends his personal discipline into domestic space. (Chapters 1–2, 47, and 506)

He is controlled, proud, cautious, and intensely sensitive to political standing. Xu can read danger and adapt quickly, but habitually recasts each reversal as righteous concern for his daughter. His love for Xu Yourong is therefore real yet possessive: he wants her protected, but assumes her status is a family asset he should manage. He becomes most severe when someone exposes the gap between his public loyalty and private survival, as when Chen asks why a friend of Xue Xingchuan did not bury him. (Chapters 47, 485, 623, 681, 683, and 1068)

Abilities and cultivation

Xu Shiji is a veteran of the northern battlefield and a powerful military cultivator, but the corpus does not state his exact realm or name a personal cultivation method. His bloody Qi can directly accelerate an ordinary youth's circulation, lock the body, and threaten unconsciousness without a physical strike. This pressure is effective against the then-uncultivated Chen, yet the narrative later places Xu far below figures such as Han Qing and gives no evidence that he approaches the Divine Domain. (Chapters 47, 157, and 623)

Martial pressure and battlefield experience

Xu uses presence as a weapon: a brief sentence backed by violent Qi constricts Chen's heart and blood vessels, demonstrating fine control as well as raw force. His experience also lets him recognize old military and Orthodox techniques during the Grand Examination. In the later clash between the City Gate Department and the Orthodoxy, blood at his lip and three injured cardinals show that he can fight important clerics without remaining untouched. The corpus does not isolate his weapon style or describe a decisive duel, so the mechanics beyond aura, experience, and direct cultivation remain unknown. (Chapters 47, 144–179, and 623)

Command and political calculation

As head of the City Gate Department, Xu controls cavalry, city security, and access to the capital, while his estate is administered with military severity. He can assemble troops and sustain a standoff with the Orthodoxy, but command is limited by divided loyalties: provincial princes have followers inside his department, palace decrees can reverse his priorities, and organized academy students can immobilize his cavalry without a battle. His political calculation compensates for these limits by detecting when to yield, change patrons, or refuse office, though each retreat further damages his reputation for loyalty. (Chapters 1, 623, 632, 683, 700, 1068, and 1140)

Relationships

• Xu Yourong: Xu's authority and status are inseparable from his gifted daughter. He tries to control her engagement to secure her future, then adapts when her own power makes that control impossible. By the final campaign, a single letter from her is enough to make him reject a command desired by several court factions. (Chapters 1–2, 47–67, 485, 510–522, 1068, and 1140)
• Chen Changsheng: Xu first humiliates and threatens Chen as an unsuitable fiancé, then courts him after his Grand Examination victory. Their later exchanges expose rather than resolve that opportunism: Chen no longer fears his military dignity and repeatedly confronts him with principles that cannot be reduced to decrees or family advantage. (Chapters 1–6, 47–58, 179–187, 485, 623, and 683)
• Tianhai Divine Empress: The Empress's trust makes Xu a Divine General and commander of capital forces. He is described as absolutely loyal before the coup, but does not defend her at its decisive moment and quickly presents his accommodation with the victors as necessary to preserve Xu Yourong's position. (Chapters 2, 98, 599, 666, and 681)
• Xue Xingchuan: Xue and Xu are fellow generals entrusted with the Imperial Guard and City Gate Department. Xu helps escort the wounded Zhou Tong to safety, yet after Xue's death he enforces the decree forbidding burial; Chen's reminder of their friendship leaves him unable to provide any answer beyond obedience. (Chapters 98, 623–624, and 681–683)
• Prince Chen Liu: Xu cautiously cultivates contact with the prince while the Divine Empress still rules, reasoning that the relationship can be explained through southern family interests. His willingness to keep multiple political paths open foreshadows his later survival under a restored Chen imperial government. (Chapters 47 and 55)

Items

• Half jade pendant: One half of the token supporting Chen and Xu Yourong's inherited marriage contract. Its appearance in Xu's study forces him to confront an obligation created when Chen's master saved his father, and it becomes the material proof behind the engagement he first tries to erase and later accepts. (Chapters 1–2)
• Marriage contract: Xu's household attempts to recover this document before the southern proposal, but Chen produces it publicly at the Ivy Festival. Xu later stops interfering and leaves any annulment to the two people named by it. (Chapters 1–2, 58, and 187)