Ma Fan

Ma Fan is an early Vermillion Bird Camp officer who develops from a solitary sword xiu into one of Mo Cloud Sea's first-class battle generals. His incomplete sword scripture makes him a natural long-range ambusher, but Gongsun Cha's training teaches him to create openings for a unit rather than merely preserve himself. After leading Sky Peak Platoon, he builds the heterogeneous Black Turtle Camp around small-unit tactics, attrition, and prepared formations. His later mastery of jinzhi defense lets his battalion defeat two marshal-led forces and establishes him as a commander whose effectiveness rises sharply when he has time to construct and control a defensive line.

Biography

From solitary sword xiu to Vermillion Bird core

Ma Fan first appears fighting with a small group in the collapsing Little Mountain Jie. He has survived as a roaming xiuzhe by keeping opponents between fifty and one hundred zhang away, using the remains of a nameless sword scripture, and escaping through an illusory movement method whenever danger becomes too great. The scripture preserves only three sword moves, but those fragments and his ningmai second-stratum cultivation make him one of the stronger men in his group. When Zuo Mo's Golden Armor Guards interrupt the fight, Ma Fan immediately recognizes that he cannot outrun them and surrenders. His capture places a man who avoids commitment inside the troop that will give his skills a larger purpose. (Chapters 209–213)

Gongsun Cha identifies the combination of Ma Fan's movement method and undetectable killing move as ideal for an ambusher, then imposes demands Ma Fan cannot initially meet. Illusory Shadowless Sword of Destruction must be released while moving, at least three times in fifteen minutes and seven times in an hour; Ma Fan can initially cast it only four times, only while stationary, before he must recover. Forced to train past exhaustion, he becomes the first selected fighter to meet his target. The result changes more than his endurance. Success gives him confidence that his previous self-preserving habits had never allowed to develop, while Gongsun Cha begins teaching him battlefield rhythm, target selection, and when an attack should create an opening for comrades rather than attempt a kill by itself. (Chapters 213–217)

The new system earns Ma Fan concrete rewards and gradually earns his trust. After Gongsun Cha's first victory, Ma Fan receives first choice of the spoils and selects a fifth-grade movement method rather than a conspicuous weapon. Once he learns Void Movement, his approach becomes less dazzling and more difficult to notice. He simplifies his sword attacks, suppresses his presence, and moves through crowded fighting with short, efficient sword energies; by the Nan Sheng Village battle, he can defeat several opponents before they realize he has attacked. What began as compliance through fear becomes respect because Gongsun Cha repeatedly leads the captives to victory and structures the troop so cooperation materially improves their chance of survival. (Chapters 217, 219, 227, and 247)

Ma Fan's first independent command begins as an unwanted “babysitting” assignment. Gongsun Cha sends several veterans to lead inexperienced platoons while disrupting Clear Sky Sect's pursuit. Ma Fan volunteers before the others can be selected, then predicts the enemy's approach, coordinates information by paper crane, and helps turn scattered ambushes into a broader delaying campaign. He later becomes part of Sky Peak Platoon, the sword-essence specialists at the front of Vermillion Bird Camp. In the decisive breakout from Little Mountain Jie, Ma Fan and Xie Shan lead the charge through a much larger force: Ma Fan's afterimages and concentrated sword essence drive enemies aside, but the breach succeeds because Sky Peak and the following six divisions maintain their assigned sequence rather than seeking individual duels. (Chapters 248–263, 283, and 295)

Sky Peak leader and the defense of Turtle Island

The move through Sky Water Jie shows that Ma Fan now regards the troop as a source of hope rather than another temporary alliance. He leads Sky Peak Platoon in clearing scouts from a concealed night route and teaches its members the hidden-movement methods that once served only his own survival. He reflects that he had wanted a stable life and never sought authority, yet the security and trust of the people behind him have made continuous training tolerable. When Xie Shan reaches jindan and leaves Sky Peak to serve as a personal guard, Ma Fan is relieved that his partner remains with the faction and succeeds him as platoon leader, with Lei Peng and Nian Lu as vice-commanders. (Chapters 320, 324–325)

On the journey to Cloud Sea Jie, Ma Fan's trio remains a compact assault team as well as a scouting unit. Trapped inside the Thousand Gem Illusory Disk, they cannot overpower a sixth-grade talisman directly. Nian Lu locates a stable structural point, Lei Peng supplies the principal strike, and Ma Fan adds his grey sword energy to their Three Section Wave attack. The episode shows how far his role has moved beyond his original single killing move: he recognizes the formation tactic, coordinates specialists, and contributes to a combined attack whose result none of the three can produce alone. Later, on Turtle Island, he spends three days concealed near a Tian family storehouse, maps its formations, and leads a sabotage mission motivated by the group's failure to prevent an earlier attack on Zuo Mo. (Chapters 451 and 457)

Gongsun Cha then forces Vermillion Bird Camp's officers to plan the Tian family's destruction without his direct command. Ma Fan and Wei Ran devise a plan to admit the attackers, close the island formation, and prevent escape. When six jindan lead the enemy charge, Ma Fan scatters his force, separates the fastest experts from their supporting troops, and draws two jindan into a coordinated sword-energy ambush. The operation kills both, though the narration calls the result lucky and nonrepeatable. Its importance is developmental rather than proof that Ma Fan can routinely defeat jindan: the success removes the officers' timidity in Gongsun Cha's absence and demonstrates that their planning, timing, and unit coordination can carry a battle. (Chapters 470–473)

After Ma Fan, Lei Peng, and Nian Lu form their jindan cores, Zuo Mo assigns Ma Fan to organize Turtle Island's local recruits into Black Turtle Camp. He accepts reluctantly, recruits several silver battle generals to help with the mixed force, and applies the same severe training standards that once transformed him. Black Turtle Camp is not initially ready for a major war; Gongsun Cha estimates it requires about a year, and its members come from incompatible schools with different spells and equipment. Ma Fan therefore uses veteran cores, repeated formation drills, and punitive sword formations to create discipline rather than pretending the new camp has Vermillion Bird's uniform offensive ability. (Chapters 479, 510–516)

Building a defensive command

Command forces Ma Fan to abandon some of his cultivated laziness. He admits that his battle-general level is limited and responds by studying details, designing separate small-area tactics for teams built from sword xiu, dhyana xiu, roaming cultivators, and other specialists. Sky Peak veterans stabilize each team, while Black Turtle Camp as a whole is trained for attrition and defense instead of imitation of Vermillion Bird's massed sword charges. Golden Crow Camp engraves formations into the unit and helps perfect Ma Fan's designs. His willingness to build around the force he actually possesses, rather than the one he wishes he had, becomes the foundation of his mature command style. (Chapter 576)

That design receives its first severe test when a Xuan Kong Temple battalion enters Cloud Sea Jie. Ma Fan knows Black Turtle Camp is inexperienced and initially aims only to delay the enemy until Vermillion Bird Camp arrives. Seeing that his fresh troops have caught exhausted opponents at rest, he instead attacks, drives the fight into small-unit attrition, and uses experienced tactical cores to steady the recruits. When the enemy reorganizes into Bodhisattva's Raging Lotus, he deploys the Arcing Rainbow Battle Formation: thirty-six precisely layered arcs absorb and stop the charge, turning the attackers' powerful technique into backlash. The formation succeeds, but Black Turtle is also nearly exhausted and still depends on arriving reinforcements, a limit Ma Fan recognizes immediately. (Chapters 577–580)

Ma Fan then volunteers to defend Orchid Home Jie rather than join Gongsun Cha's expansion. He argues that Black Turtle Camp, the remaining Guard Camp, prepared formations, and access to reinforcements can hold the chaos rift if he refuses offensive temptation. Gongsun Cha gives him command of Black Turtle and Guard camps, with Green Dragon Camp under his orders. When Gongye Xiao Rong attacks, Ma Fan's patrols prevent surprise, his forces fall back on a doubled formation belt, and he maintains a strictly defensive posture even after severe losses. Black Turtle loses roughly half its members and must absorb Green Dragon reinforcements, while Guard Camp is needed to stabilize the line. Nevertheless, Gongye Xiao Rong ultimately withdraws because Ma Fan will not leave the fortified position and offer him a mobile battle. (Chapters 601, 637, and 671)

The Orchid Home defense changes Ma Fan's interests as well as his reputation. Experience with forts leads him to spend extensive time studying seal formations and jinzhi at Golden Crow Cloud Island. He learns their strengths, weaknesses, and large-scale placement instead of treating them as static walls. This specialization remains conditional: later assessments say his achievements outside formation defense are only average, while a prepared defense line can double his effective strength. His career thus advances through a narrower but deeper expertise, combining the patience of an ambusher, the battlefield perspective of a former tactical core, and Mo Cloud Sea's industrial capacity to build the terrain he needs. (Chapters 772 and 778)

A first-class battle general in the great wars

By the campaign against the great sects, Ma Fan sits among Mo Cloud Sea's main commanders and receives opportunities to operate outside Gongsun Cha's shadow. He is later identified as a gold battle general commanding Green Dragon Camp, with Lei Peng as the troop's forward striking power and Nian Lu as its detail-oriented second-in-command. Under Bie Han, he helps construct a jinzhi line and is ordered to hold the retreat against enemy reinforcements. He obeys despite recognizing that two approaching marshal-led battalions are beyond anything his formation has yet faced, an assignment that tests his specialty under its hardest conditions rather than assuming the title of gold battle general removes uncertainty. (Chapters 729, 743, 752–753, and 758)

The enemy attacks Ma Fan's smaller force from six positions and initially gains ground. Ma Fan uses the jinzhi groups to vary pressure, lets one battalion enter a deliberate opening, and launches Lei Peng and two hundred elites from inside the defensive “shell.” Lei Peng kills one mo marshal in a direct collision but suffers severe wounds and tears a five-li gap in the defense; Ma Fan immediately withdraws him, repairs his orders around the damage, and exploits the resulting fall in enemy morale. The surviving account cannot say exactly how the second marshal dies amid the trapped battalion's collapse, so the victory belongs to the coordinated defense rather than to a personal Ma Fan attack. Both commanders and their forces are nevertheless defeated. (Chapters 769–772 and 774)

The battle makes Ma Fan famous, but the assessments that follow remain precise. Gongye Xiao Rong calls him a first-class battle general and uses his development as evidence of Gongsun Cha's ability to train commanders; he does not call Ma Fan a top battle general. Shi Dong likewise says that Ma Fan deserves the recognition because a formation defense line makes him terrifying, while his results in other fields are ordinary. During the following decade, even Xue Dong compares his own students unfavorably with Ma Fan and the other Mo Cloud Sea commanders, but Ma Fan continues to serve within the larger system rather than replacing Gongsun Cha or Bie Han. (Chapters 774, 778, 877, and 902)

In the final campaign against Kun Lun, Ma Fan's battalion is mobilized behind Mo Cloud Sea's three top battalions as part of the first-class force destroying Kun Lun's productive interior. When the operation turns into a defense against Kun Lun's massed army, Ma Fan is present in the command discussion and proposes using Mo Cloud Sea's pseudo god-level experts before Wei Sheng explains the travel constraint. The exchange is his latest direct scene. No death or departure follows, so his final supported status is alive and active in the campaign, still contributing practical suggestions within Gongsun Cha's command rather than receiving an independent terminal duel. (Chapters 910–911)

Appearance and personality

Ma Fan's features are described as ordinary enough that he becomes harder, not easier, to pick out of a crowd as his skill improves. His early illusory movement produces obvious afterimages, but Void Movement and his habit of suppressing presence let him resemble smoke or an unnoticed shadow. When channeling a combined attack, his ling-power flame is grey and flickering. The source does not give him a consistent hair, eye, armor, or named-weapon description; his most recognizable visual habit is instead chewing a stalk of grass while lying or standing with an apparently lazy, unconcerned manner. (Chapters 209, 247, 249, 283, 451, and 770)

He repeatedly calls work “troublesome,” avoids unnecessary personal danger, and initially wants only a steady life. These traits make him cautious rather than cowardly. He learns plans quickly, sees the value of discipline before most of his fellow captives, and becomes willing to fight once a shared troop gives him trust and hope. Command replaces some of his carelessness with patient attention to detail, though his dry insults, cunning, and lazy surface remain. He also knows his limits: he does not claim to be an outstanding general, does not expect an untested camp to defeat elite sect troops outright, and builds methods around the mixed strengths actually available to him. (Chapters 209, 213, 217, 249, 320, 470, and 576–580)

Abilities and cultivation

Ma Fan begins at ningmai second stratum and later forms a jindan core together with Lei Peng and Nian Lu. The corpus does not state a higher conventional cultivation realm for him. His later progression is expressed through sword essence, third-stage sword cultivation, the fifth-grade Clear Sky Sword Scripture, and his advancement to gold and first-class battle general.

Nameless sword scripture and concealed sword attacks

The damaged scripture Ma Fan finds before his introduction has no surviving name and contains only an illusory movement method and three sword moves. Its ideal attack range is fifty to one hundred zhang. The strongest surviving move, Illusory Shadowless Sword of Destruction, releases a powerful attack without noticeable ling-power ripples, making it suited to ambush. Its early limitations are explicit: Ma Fan must stop moving, can cast it only four times before resting, and has rarely risked using it in real battle. Gongsun Cha's training raises that capacity and integrates the strike with movement, but no source says its energy cost disappears. (Chapters 209 and 213–214)

Ma Fan is ranked first in Vermillion Bird Camp for sword talent and comprehension, and his sword essence is described as unusually pure even though Xie Shan has deeper cultivation. His attacks can create several false afterimages around each real sword energy, forcing enemies to react as if every point threatens them. He eventually favors shorter and simpler energies instead of repeatedly using his expensive killing move. Together with the fifth-grade Void Movement method selected as a reward after Gongsun Cha's early victory, this change removes conspicuous motion and lets him attack efficiently inside a crowd. The progression increases stealth and repeatability; it does not turn his individual sword into the large-area power of Xie Shan's Rainbow Mirage Light. (Chapters 219, 227, 247, and 295)

His later sword path centers on the fifth-grade Clear Sky Sword Scripture. Ma Fan is the first person in Vermillion Bird Camp to cultivate it to sword-essence manifestation, but an early strike against a fiend soul beast consumes enough power to leave him pale, preserving the high-cost limit of his strongest attacks. By the third stage of sword cultivation, he creates a transparent ripple attack by merging Illusory Shadowless Sword of Destruction into Clear Sky Sword Scripture. This is a developed synthesis of his incomplete original inheritance and a later scripture, not merely the unchanged use of either one. (Chapters 401 and 435)

Tactical-core method and combined attacks

Gongsun Cha trains Ma Fan as a mobile tactical core with no fixed position. He must move between teams, suppress his presence, identify the pause after an enemy's strong technique, choose important targets, and attack in ways that expose openings for allies. The role demands continuous battlefield awareness rather than a sequence of personal duels. Ma Fan's later scouting, route clearing, and leadership of Sky Peak Platoon all grow from this foundation, as does his ability to teach stealth techniques to other sword-essence cultivators. (Chapters 214, 217, 247, 295, and 320–325)

He can also contribute to the Three Section Wave Killing Charge, but the method is a coordinated formation rather than his invention or a solo technique. In the Thousand Gem Illusory Disk, Nian Lu first locates a stable structural point, Lei Peng releases the main Deep Abyssal Chop, and Ma Fan and Nian Lu add their sword energies to enlarge it. The combined strike damages the sixth-grade talisman's structure, while none of the three is presented as capable of the same result alone. (Chapter 451)

Battle formations and micro-tactics

Black Turtle Camp's varied composition drives Ma Fan toward small-unit design. He places a veteran or Sky Peak member at the core of each team and builds different tactics around the spells and equipment of that group. This makes the camp resilient in chaotic attrition because inexperienced soldiers can orient themselves around a trusted core. It also limits large-scale uniform offense: Black Turtle cannot initially reproduce Vermillion Bird's synchronized sword waves, and Ma Fan openly considers his own generalship limited. Discipline, intensive drilling, and reinforcement by more experienced camps remain necessary. (Chapters 511–516, 576–579)

Arcing Rainbow Battle Formation is his principal early defensive creation. Thirty-six differently colored arcs must be released and layered with exact timing; a single malformed arc can disrupt the entire construction. Golden Crow Camp helps perfect the design, so it is not solely a product of Ma Fan's technical work. In its first battle, twenty-seven layers are enough to stop Bodhisattva's Raging Lotus and turn the offensive formation's force back on its users. The feat nearly empties Black Turtle Camp's reserves, and Ma Fan waits for Vermillion Bird reinforcements instead of claiming the formation permits endless defense. (Chapters 579–580)

Jinzhi defense and command limits

After Orchid Home Jie, Ma Fan specializes in arranging and actively controlling jinzhi defense lines. He studies at Golden Crow Cloud Island, learns how different formations support or interfere with one another, and divides the line into groups whose attack pressure can be raised, delayed, or weakened to shape enemy movement. The defense functions as a shell around an offensive reserve: Nian Lu supplies calculation, while Lei Peng and the elite strike from a deliberately opened gap. Against the two mo-marshal battalions, Ma Fan notices their imperfect coordination, draws one force inside, and converts the death of its commander into a wider morale collapse. (Chapters 637, 671, 758, and 769–774)

This command style is powerful but conditional. It needs time, formations, materials, trained jinzhi groups, scouts, and a force capable of counterattacking from the protected line. Black Turtle Camp suffers severe casualties against Gongye Xiao Rong, and Lei Peng's duel destroys part of Ma Fan's own prepared defense. Later evaluation says a defense line doubles Ma Fan's effectiveness but calls his achievements elsewhere average. His gold and first-class ranks therefore recognize a genuine specialization, not universal superiority over other commanders in mobile offense or unprepared terrain. (Chapters 637, 752, 772, 774, and 778)

Power progression

Relationships

• Gongsun Cha: Gongsun Cha captures Ma Fan's group, recognizes the value of his incomplete scripture, and turns him into Vermillion Bird Camp's first tactical core through demanding, quantified training. He later forces Ma Fan to plan independently, gives him Black Turtle Camp, and creates opportunities for him to mature as a gold commander. Ma Fan fears his punishments, admires his calculation, and ultimately justifies his confidence. (Chapters 209–217, 247–249, 470–472, 511–516, 576–580, 601, 743, and 752)
• Zuo Mo: Ma Fan first addresses Zuo Mo as the dangerous “zombie elder” who captures him, but later calls him Boss or Daren and treats the security of Zuo Mo's faction as his own. Zuo Mo's resources and assignments allow his sword and command careers to develop; Ma Fan responds by investigating threats after Zuo Mo is ambushed, training Black Turtle Camp, and defending Turtle Island and its connected jies. (Chapters 209–211, 219, 320, 457, 487, 510–516, and 577)
• Xie Shan: Xie Shan is Ma Fan's early offensive partner and contrasting sword xiu. Xie Shan possesses much deeper ling-power reserves and spectacular area attacks, while Ma Fan excels at concealment and battlefield efficiency. Repeated paired charges produce close trust; Ma Fan worries during Xie Shan's jindan breakthrough and is visibly relieved when he chooses to remain with the group. (Chapters 239, 247, 283, 295, 320, and 324–325)
• Lei Peng and Nian Lu: The three become Sky Peak's leadership core and remain Ma Fan's principal command team. Nian Lu handles detail, reconnaissance, calculation, and formation cruxes; Lei Peng supplies the direct power hidden inside Ma Fan's defenses. Their best results—from the combined attack on the Thousand Gem Illusory Disk to the defeat of the marshal-led battalions—depend on differentiated roles and long familiarity rather than interchangeable ability. (Chapters 325, 451, 470–472, 479, 511–516, 576–580, 752, and 770–774)
• Wei Ran: Wei Ran is Ma Fan's fellow Vermillion Bird officer and planning partner. Together they devise Turtle Island's response to the Tian family, though their temperaments differ: Ma Fan is regarded as clever and cunning, while Wei Ran is trusted for steadiness and grows into a more rounded general. Their friendly competition continues as both receive independent camps and Gongsun Cha's attention. (Chapters 470–472, 561, 576, and 580)
• Bie Han: In the great-sect campaign, Ma Fan operates under Bie Han and is assigned to build and hold a defensive line while Sin Battalion attacks the reinforcements. Ma Fan is alarmed by Bie Han's willingness to face two marshal-led forces, but obeys the narrow order to guard the retreat. His ensuing victory helps make Bie Han's larger, distributed operation possible without making Ma Fan an equal co-commander of the campaign. (Chapters 752–758 and 769–778)

Items

• Grey-butterfly beast service card: Gongsun Cha gives Ma Fan a beast service card holding a grey, nondescript butterfly. Ma Fan ties the jade card to his wrist and can summon the finger-sized butterfly onto his hand; its exact function is rare enough to surprise observers, but the early scenes do not fully explain it. The corpus does not document the card's later custody or fate. (Chapters 227–228)
• Flying sword: Ma Fan consistently channels his nameless scripture, sword essence, and combined attacks through a flying sword. The source never gives the weapon a personal name, grade, special provenance, or final transfer; his signature abilities are attributed to cultivation and tactical use rather than to a uniquely identified sword artifact. (Chapters 209, 213, 295, 451, and 487)