Kang De

Kang De is an experienced Cloud Sea hunter hired to guide Zuo Mo's party toward water cloud embryos. His brief arc establishes detailed local expertise while also showing the hard limit of that expertise when the Cloud Sea undergoes unprecedented changes.

Biography

Documented arc

Kang De joins Zuo Mo, Wei Sheng, Zong Ru, and their companions as a guide, leading them through Beak Island and into the Cloud Sea. He identifies local hunters, explains cloud grasses and cloud beasts, navigates paths learned over more than a decade, and warns against flying because ling-power vibrations attract predators. When normally gentle cloud mice attack, he correctly concludes that something deep in the Cloud Sea has changed, but Zuo Mo chooses to continue. Kang De then identifies increasingly dangerous phenomena, including Ice Breath Beasts, the Clear Cloud Python, altered paths, cloud messengers, and ice mist displaced from the deepest region. (Chapters 522–529)

Once the known road vanishes into the Ice Mist Haze, Kang De openly admits that he can no longer guide the group and is too weak to survive the next stage. Zuo Mo sends him back with a transportation seal. Kang De later arranges for a friend to carry a message, helping confirm Zuo Mo's location and survival to Turtle Island. (Chapters 529 and 536)

Appearance and personality

The corpus provides no stable physical description of Kang De. He is respectful toward his employer, proud of knowledge earned through long work, open in conversation, and prudent about danger. He can be frightened—several unprecedented beasts leave him ashen or trembling—but he continues identifying threats accurately and does not conceal when his knowledge has reached its limit. (Chapters 522–529)

Abilities and cultivation

Kang De knows the Cloud Sea's routes, seasons, resources, creatures, and survival practices. He recognizes abnormal animal behavior, reads trail marks, identifies messenger seals and forging materials, and can relocate after paths have been altered. He also gathers cloud essence from a Cloud Crystal Mist Flow with a jade bottle. (Chapters 522–528)

No cultivation realm or combat technique is named. He depends on Zuo Mo's stronger party during attacks and is explicitly too weak for the Ice Mist Haze. His expertise applies to the familiar Cloud Sea, not to unprecedented territorial displacement or its deepest forbidden region. (Chapters 525–529)

Relationships

• Zuo Mo: Kang De serves him respectfully, warns him repeatedly, and follows until honest professional limits make further guidance impossible. Zuo Mo sends him back rather than expose him to certain danger. (Chapters 522–529)
• Wei Sheng: Wei Sheng rescues Kang De during the Clear Cloud Python crisis and helps calm him afterward. (Chapters 526–527)
• He Family Brothers: Kang De recognizes them at Beak Island and uses local knowledge plus his employer's implied power to make them withdraw. (Chapter 522)

Items

• Jade bottle: Kang De uses an ordinary prepared bottle to collect cloud essence, but limited capacity prevents him from taking much. (Chapter 525)
• Transportation seal: Zuo Mo gives Kang De this seal so he can leave the Ice Mist Haze boundary safely. It is provided for the return journey rather than established as Kang De's permanent property. (Chapter 529)