Tang Buyi

First Meeting1 / 15

Flying Hero

"Junior Brother, hey, Junior Brother, hey! Hey! Junior Brother!"

The Tang Clan's Eldest Senior Brother, one of the most renowned and handsome heroes in the Jianghu, dashing and debonair, mighty in martial arts, known as the Flying Hero.

Free-spirited by nature, he often drags his junior brothers off to skip class and run wild, and has come close to angering the to death several times.

He grew up alongside the , and the bond between them is deep as true siblings'; he is on good terms with Zhao Huo as well.

The Eldest Senior Brother is a man very hard to oppose, whether physically or mentally.

Biographies

The Tang Clan Sect Leader's first and greatest disciple.
One of the most prestigious young heroes in the Wulin,
wild and unrestrained, hearty and bold, unbothered by trifles.

Once, hearing of an injustice, he went down the mountain and crossed provinces to kill a corrupt official,
opened the granaries to relieve the people, and shook out his sleeves and left when it was done;
he has also admired a beauty's fame and traveled a thousand li to see her,
and after a single brief meeting vanished without a trace, earning himself a fickle name.
He comes and goes like the wind; the Jianghu calls him the Flying Hero.

He scorns the Tang Clan's backward custom of dividing inner and outsider disciples,
and often eggs on his outsider junior brothers to slack off and play together;
he is very good at making his Master angry.

He is a frequent guest at the Flower Moon Tower, scattering silver like flowing water,
and the girls there tease him by calling him the Tower Master; even the madam dotes on him.

His fame as a hero spreads far, and so does his notoriety.
The Jianghu fears this young hero, yet has no title to use against him,
and can only keep its wives and daughters under strict watch, for fear he will steal their hearts.

He has always doted on the Junior Martial Sister as if she were his own sister,
and harbors no other thought.

He looks carefree, as though nothing in the world weighs on him,
but his true nature is deeply rebellious and stubborn.
As a boy he tried every scheme to escape the Tang Clan and flee home,
until his parents, at their wits' end, told him of his origins and sent him to meet his birth mother.

At the Flower Moon Tower he met his mother, gravely ill and no longer in her right mind,
and learned from others that she had spent her every last savings
to have someone adopt him, whitewash his origins, and send him to the Tang Clan to take a master.
All so that her beloved son would not, like her, spend his life at others' mercy, despised and cheapened.

From that day on, Tang Buyi turned over a new leaf, resolved to stand up for the women of the world.

The Return of the Flying Hero

For this achievement, see the The Return of the Flying Hero event page.

Deeds

• Before he was ten, he robbed a execution ground together with the and .
• He once traveled with Xie Wuchen, Xiahou Lan, and two sheep-herding heroic lovers from beyond the passes (possibly a deserter and a Constable), five in all. They righted wrongs as they went, acting as wandering heroes, from trading blows on first meeting to friends; they bested the Jin Dynasty's strongmen, drove back the Goryeo Demon Cult, thrashed the Lingnan Sect soundly, and at last joined forces in the Baifeng Cave Uprising to defeat the .
• The Twin Elites of Shu, Flying Heaven and Cloud Dragon. Flying Heaven is the Flying Hero Tang Buyi; Cloud Dragon is Xie Wuchen. At present Xie Wuchen has twenty-nine wins, thirty losses, and forty-seven draws. But the contests are not always martial: the Eldest Senior Brother will trick him into seeing who holds his liquor better, and right after, who spends more freely, all to dodge the bar tab.^[1]
• To settle a score, he once seized a river bandits' stronghold and held out ten days against the Imperial Soldiers led by Xie Wuchen; afterward the beat him black and blue and sent him back up the mountain to reflect. The Wulin calls it the "Mianyang Marsh Incident."
• As adults, he and Tang Zheng were once wanted by the Imperial Court for a time on a false charge.
• He traveled a thousand li to Sheng Xue's hometown of Suzhou, only to bring her back a handful of her native soil.
• On the way to the Jin Kingdom, he campaigned against the Jin's elite Iron Pagoda corps, earning Tang Clan high praise from Meng Gong.
• Before the decisive battle at Jiangling, to root out the scourge of Song-Jin war, he went alone into the Jin Kingdom to assassinate the Jin Emperor and the Marshal (he called it "pulling the firewood from under the pot"), and knocked out Zhao Huo, who wanted to come along, and left him behind.
  • On the way he first blundered into the Xiangyang battlefield and helped the Song army drive off the Jin army, then crashed the Mountain Bandits' oath-taking rally at Yingtian, Kaifeng, Henan, and Hezhong, seized the title of Bandit King, and led the bandit host in an ambush of the Jin Emperor Wanyan Xun.
  • After stabbing the Jin Marshal Pusan Anzhen to death, he was cut off by Long Xiang, who came charging in from the flank.
  • The two put on a play with Jinxiang Palace's Soft Sword (which can pierce a person without taking their life), making it look as though the Eldest Senior Brother died under Long Xiang's blade, and both escaped.
  • See Eldest Senior Brother Stabs the Jin and Master Brother Stabbing Gold for details.

Martial Arts

• He once secretly altered the Tang Clan's Secret Manual so that Tang Clan Disciples aiming Hidden Weapons would aim straight at people's coin purses, with the result that money can be picked up off the ground in group fights.
• When he has no money to pay for drink and women, he resorts to the Jianghu's most devious trick: playing dead.
  • This move was later used as his "safe Ultimate" in the Duel with Shi Gongyuan, playing dead.
• His Poison Resistance is very high; he jokes that he could drink the Tang Clan's weed-killing pesticide.

Chapter on Forgetting Form

• He has secretly practiced many other sects' martial arts, and claims that when he ambushed Nangong Shen he always used other sects' techniques.
• He tries to erase the threshold for learning martial arts entirely, so that people of later ages may all learn martial arts to defend themselves.^[2]
• Years ago he went into seclusion and brooded for half a year, and reasoned his way to the highest principle of Martial Learning, "the form of no form," but could not put it into practice himself, unable to shake off his preconceptions about Tang Clan martial arts.
  • Only with Zhao Huo, a late bloomer with not a shred of preconception, solid Internal Skill, and a well-balanced physique, could it be made manifest.
• Because he could not master the Flying Swallow Meteor Feather, he took a desperate risk and practiced the "Nine Turns Reincarnation Grand Technique" to escape his fated death.

Qinggong

• To meet , he broke into the Kongtong Sect three times, and even invented the "Cloud-Ascending Step" himself.
  • Later Xiahou Lan blended this technique with the Snow Mountain Sect's "Plum Blossom Moon-Gazing Steps" and wrote it up as the Secret Manual Ascending Cloud Step · Moon Gazing.
• Though he is the Flying Hero, he reckons his own Qinggong cannot rank in the world's top ten. He does think the 's Qinggong could rank in the world's top five.
• When hurrying on the road he never takes the usual paths; he leaps through the trees and runs the shortcuts.
• Because his pace is unlike other people's, he sincerely believes the trip to the Nangong Family takes only a dozen days or so.

Hidden Weapons

• He cannot master the Flying Swallow Meteor Feather; at full power he cannot hold back, and goes too far and kills, injuring himself with Internal Injury in the bargain.
• The Coin Darts he throws are real money. At first it was to spite the Tang family's thrifty ancestral teachings; later he grew less rebellious, but by then it had become habit.
  • Against the money-loving he switches to kicking instead.
  • One main reason for using Coin Darts is that they have a fine paralyzing effect on the body, and the damage is not fatal.
• Tang Clan martial arts excel at catching people off guard; he reckons a straight-up fight is not his forte.
• In the Duel with Shi Gongyuan:
  • If you choose the "safe Ultimate," he uses the Hidden Weapon "Formless Arrow" disguised as the Vajra Divine Spear Finger.
  • If you choose the "somewhat risky Ultimate," he adapts the Flying Stone Gang's Stone-Asking-Heaven and slips in Tang Clan Flying Locust Stone Acupoint Strikes.

Hobbies

• He loves leaf buns.
• Though the Jianghu calls him a lecher, in truth a girl's appeal is only slightly higher than a dumpling's to him right now. Give him two dumplings and he will choose the dumplings without a second thought.^[3]

Drink

• He has hidden Monkey Wine on the back mountain, in a recess three zhang up the cliff face, sheltered from wind and rain.
• On the Beyond Saving route, he treasures a bottle of fine vintage wine, said to love this wine more than his own life; when making peace with the Flying Stone Gang he gives it to .

Crosstalk

• His dream is to retire from the Jianghu and perform crosstalk; after the battle to capture Tan Badao he confesses his loathing for the tangled life of the Jianghu.
• If he is revived and has no bond with Zhao Huo, the two form a crosstalk duo and perform together for the rest of their lives.
  • This ending triggers a special bond cover on the game menu. It also gives rise to the theories that Tang Buyi is the Eldest Senior Sister and that Tang Buyi has the passion of Longyang.
• If no one pushes the Eldest Senior Brother, he will lose himself in crosstalk, going backward rather than forward until his martial arts fall into ruin.^[2:1]

Relationships

Tang Zhongling

• He was beaten by the from childhood on, and to this day still fears the Family Cane.
• In his rebellious phase he opposed the in everything; he once passed off a banana as the Tang Clan Small Sword at a weapons inspection, sending the Sect Leader into a fury.
• The jade pendant once belonged to the and ; the Sect Leader's went to the Eldest Senior Brother.^[4]
• The much admires the Eldest Senior Brother's chivalry in ridding the people of harm and his rebellious spirit, but also thinks him far too rebellious.
  • The has several times named the Eldest Senior Brother as his successor, but the Eldest Senior Brother does not want the post.

Tang Zheng

• He grew up with the , and their friendship is the longest of all.
  There was a time when they were very close; at the Monthly Exam's written test the would let the Eldest Senior Brother copy his answers.
  The 's attitude turned stern when the young Eldest Senior Brother, his training complete, ran away from home to roam the Jianghu.^[5]
  • He claims that as a child, Tang Zheng could never hide from him at hide-and-seek.
  • As a child he scribbled on the books in the Scripture Hall but signed Tang Zheng's name, though he never fooled the .
• The says he hops about like a monkey.
  • Even the dev team agrees with "Tang Clan Monkey."^[6]
• The Eldest Senior Brother and the are in fact very different in character; the Eldest Senior Brother, who loves being scolded, also wants to rope the into a crosstalk troupe.
• He and the once both secretly admired a young Martial Aunt, Tang Fang's elder sister Tang Fen.
  • When the Eldest Senior Brother and Zhao Huo talk about this, the Second Senior Brother reacts enormously, flying into a sudden rage that frightens the .
• If Zhao Huo badmouths the Eldest Senior Brother in front of the , Zhao Huo raises both the Eldest Senior Brother's and the 's favor at once.

Tang Moling

• The Tang Clan's early tradition of the may have begun with the Eldest Senior Brother.
• Because the Heaven and Earth Silent Force suppresses her emotions, the has not awakened to love, and is willing to obey the 's arranged betrothal and marry the Eldest Senior Brother.
• The Eldest Senior Brother teases the constantly, until in the end she no longer takes a word he says seriously.
  • The 's memories hold a whole string of the Eldest Senior Brother's misdeeds.
  • When the asks the 's opinion on how Zhao Huo should be punished for leaving the group and running off to Xiangyang for Yu Xiaomei's sake,
    the answers: punish the Eldest Senior Brother, who is steeped in sin, first.
    • Of the Tang Clan Meeting's members, only the honest does not support the proposal; everyone else cheers.
• The Eldest Senior Brother treats the as his own sister, and puts off the betrothal the arranged.
• The Eldest Senior Brother helps preside over the 's marriage; knowing she has not awakened to love, he proposes postponing it until she does.
• The Eldest Senior Brother reckons his martial arts are inferior to the 's.
  • When the has the watch the Eldest Senior Brother do his labor service, the Eldest Senior Brother is terrified.

Nangong Family

• Even though the Tang Clan and the Nangong Family are old family friends, he does not support pauldrons. If Zhao Huo supports pauldrons, his favor drops.
  • One reason he gives: in the past, when visiting the Nangong Family, he was often poked in the face by pauldrons.
• He claims to have masked himself and secretly beaten Nangong Shen more than once.
• As a child he wrecked a toy Nangong Shen loved, because Nangong Shen kept showing it off and poking it in his face.
  • At the Western Wulin battle he uses the Flying Swallow Meteor Feather to destroy Nangong Shen's Phoenix War Armor, on the grounds that he hates Nangong Shen always showing off his toys.

Zhao Huo

• He does not look down on outsider disciples at all. On the contrary, he dotes on Zhao Huo.
  • He often drags Zhao Huo out to fight Jianghu Villains, and covers for him.
  • Apart from Verbal Attacks on Zhao Huo's face, he hardly ever bullies Zhao Huo.
  • He often presses other sects' martial arts manuals on Zhao Huo to practice.
  • He has quizzed Zhao Huo on the Chapter on Forgetting Form time and again, and coached him on the back mountain disguised as the Man in Black.
  • Against Venerable Golden Crow and Yu Xiaomei, he always worries about his junior brother's safety even mid-fight.
• Since Zhao Huo is one of the few Tang Clan Disciples who will badmouth the Eldest Senior Brother to his face, and the Eldest Senior Brother loves being badmouthed and grows happier the more he is mocked, Zhao Huo calls him a lil' rascal.
  • Verbal Attack the Eldest Senior Brother in a Duel and he will laugh himself silly.
  • This is also why he fixes on Zhao Huo as his crosstalk partner.
• If he learns that Zhao Huo has bonded with a female companion, he may show a less-than-polite expression.
  • The official comic reused this classic expression.^[6:1]
• If he learns of Zhao Huo's death, he will find a way to take revenge; depending on the circumstances, the means need not be killing.^[2:2]

Mountain Bandits

• Since the Coin Darts he throws are real money, he is often short of cash, and when short he likes to go take some from Mountain Bandits and corrupt officials!
  • After taking money from Mountain Bandits, the Eldest Senior Brother always deliberately leaves them a way out, waits for them to recover their strength, then robs them again.
    In the later period Shu became a den of trouble, and Greenwood heroes avoided it like the plague.^[7]
• He is on very familiar terms with the Mountain Bandits; when fighting the Jin Kingdom he called up great numbers of Song Kingdom Mountain Bandits to fight for the country.
  • He also offered his own life as the price for the Jin Kingdom to release all the Mountain Bandits who had fought.
• Fighting Mountain Bandits often brought him acquaintance with Niu Changshou, which led him to uncover Niu Changshou's wrongful case, and so to propose sanctions against Tan Badao.

Pranks

• The Tang Clan's lively atmosphere is mostly the Eldest Senior Brother's doing; everyone copies his disregard for seniority and his endless nonsense talk.
• He once madly kept stuffing powder into the fireworks launcher; had it gone off, blowing the whole courtyard to bits would have been no surprise.
  As a result the launcher was sealed away for years, not seeing the light of day until the Western Wulin truce.
• While sparring with Yu Zhu, Zhao Huo brings up the Eldest Senior Brother's drunken rampages:
  • The Eldest Senior Brother drank the Earth God's offering wine until dead drunk, and in his cups carried a wooden dummy over to keep the Earth God company.
    Afterward the Disciples took turns dreaming that the Earth Goddess came to them, saying the dummy was female, had become a spirit, and was seducing the Earth God.
• Unimplemented text says:

Cooking

• He cooks whatever comes to mind, throwing whatever he catches into the pot.
• He once made breakfast in place of the absent Zhao Huo: the took one spoonful of porridge and stopped moving, though her bell rang and rang.
  The took one bite of a steamed bun and threw up on the spot, frowning that the stuff was poisoned.
• Zhao Huo on the Eldest Senior Brother's cooking: the kind where you stuff a fish up a whole chicken's rear and smear fresh-squeezed jam on the outside.

Notes

• Introduction by Bird Bear on FB: Link
• Assuming the two were 7 to 9 years old at the execution ground, and Tang Weiyuan was found the next year on a heavy-snow day, his age can be inferred at around 25 to 27.
• About 172 cm tall.^[8]
• His zodiac sign is the free-spirited Sagittarius.^[9][6:2]
• Sometimes he sleeps in the kitchen, sometimes in a tree, sometimes in a brothel. The tree on the cliff behind the Forge is his beloved tree.
• Though it cannot be seen in the standing portrait, if you spar with the Eldest Senior Brother you can spot in the attack art a jade pendant at his waist just like the 's.^[4:1]
• The Eldest Senior Brother's nickname was given by the Good Person when he was a flying thief, who changed the characters to help him wash away his bad name.^[1:1]
• Wanted Warrant folder merchandise copy:Source

  Wanted: the flying thief Tang Buyi
  Entered homes by night to steal and defile
  If a respectable household tears down this notice
  And takes this man to Chengdu Prefecture
  And reports to the yamen, a reward of silver
  One thousand taels shall be paid; any who harbor or know
  And do not report shall be punished as accomplices
  Chengdu Prefecture Yamen

Gallery

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1. Facebook — Original Bird Bear 2024/3/11 ↩︎ ↩︎

2. Bahamut — RE:【Info】Bird Bear Q&A (updated 11/2, second wave + private questions) ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

3. Facebook — Original Bird Bear 2023/1/20 ↩︎

4. Plurk — About the senior brothers' jade pendants ↩︎ ↩︎

5. Facebook — Original Bird Bear 2024/12/24 ↩︎

6. Facebook — Original Bird Bear 2025/12/3 ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

7. PTT C_Chat — [Living Hero] Long Xiang + assorted trivia ↩︎

8. PTT C_Chat — [Living Hero] The Eldest Senior Brother's height ↩︎

9. Facebook — Original Bird Bear 2023/3/24 ↩︎