Venerable Golden Crow
One of the Thousand Lantern Tower's Five Incense, a Drill Instructor second only to the Tower Master. Before the Sect Leader subdued him, he committed every evil, and was known as the Nine-Lives Leopard.
He pretended to mend his ways and took Buddhist vows, but in truth he lurks in Kongtong on the Thousand Lantern Tower's orders, with grave designs of his own to carry out.
Deeply trusted by the Fire Dragon Immortal Monarch, who treats him as a peer. Barring any mishap, he is the next Sect Leader.
He personally trained in the art of killing, and is the person she hates most in all her life.
Personality
- Despicable. He loves to feign death and then strike from ambush, and loves to gang up on his foes.
- Cruel by nature. He has killed many famous heroes and heroines, and before taking a life he must humiliate and defile the victim, then paint their ugly death throes and treasure the picture.
- Duel trait: Bully the Weak. Deals more damage when his Qi is higher than the opponent's, and less when it is lower.
- Utterly lecherous, with a long record of violating heroines he has defeated.
- Reckless and foolhardy, yet at heart a coward who clings to life.
Martial Arts
- He has a signature art, the "Blazing Sun Hammer", also called the "Soul-Stealing Pestle", an evil technique from the Supreme Bliss Cult.
- Some texts write the Soul-Stealing Pestle as the Soul-Destroying Pestle; it may be an alias.
- Its formula runs: "One knock, and the fetal light dims; two knocks, and the spirit scatters; three knocks, and the essence disperses."
- It carries Hidden Force. Once it lands, True Qi rushes into the skull, leaving the victim dazed and muddled all day, as if drunk or dreaming, turned into a docile, mute wreck who obeys every word.
- This is the nemesis of the Soul-Stealing Gate's martial arts. sought a counter, and took his elite disciples into a mountain cave for seclusion; by the time Zhao Huo enrolled in the Kongtong Sect, it had already been half a year.
The Skin Cloak
- On the surface a fat man, he is in truth skin and bones inside a Human Skin Cloak, and when things turn sour he can slip away like a golden cicada shedding its shell.
- Most of the blood he sheds when wounded is fake.
- The source of the Nine-Lives Leopard's name is simply that he keeps feigning death.
- The Human Skin Cloak must be maintained and replaced; wearing it is stiflingly hot, and in summer he breaks out in rashes.[1]
- The Human Skin Cloak is thick and covers his cheeks and limbs, enough to withstand a fatal wound without endangering his life.
- His only weaknesses are his head and fire. Gaseous poisons should in theory work, but the story never uses them.
- Duel trait: Obese Body. He reduces damage by a percentage based on the opponent's Internal Force.
- The lower Zhao Huo's Internal Force, the less damage the Golden Crow takes.
On the Dharma Name
- Venerable Golden Crow, as the name says, is the golden crow, also called in myth the three-legged crow, the red crow, or the yatagarasu.
- The golden crow is regarded as the sun bird, and the Classic of Mountains and Seas records it.
- The Blazing Sun Hammer echoes the Dharma name.
- That he calls himself the sun bird shows how arrogant and deluded he is.
Relationships
Fire Dragon Immortal Monarch
- Fire Dragon Immortal Monarch does not know his true identity, true nature, or true purpose, and is fairly friendly toward him.
Shentu Long
- Shentu Long is the Master of the Thousand Lantern Tower. The Golden Crow is utterly deferential to him, with no thought of usurping or rebelling.
Yu Xiaomei
- Yu Xiaomei, raised from childhood as the Golden Crow's assassin, wants to resist but is bound by his control and cannot kill him; sometimes she calls him the Golden Pig.
Patriarch Wuxiang
- Patriarch Wuxiang is one of the Thousand Lantern Tower's veteran elders, whose seniority and strength could crush the Golden Crow outright; the two rarely cross paths.
Related Events
- If Zhao Huo goes to Woyun Ridge with the , he lies in ambush with on the road back to assassinate them.
- At the 's wedding he leads the Kongtong Sect in to make trouble, meaning to smear her good name and ruin the Tang Clan's reputation.
- On Mei and Zhu's story routes, he seizes Ju Dongyin's Iron Pipa Skill and stops at nothing to win the Kongtong Sect leadership.
- If he becomes Sect Leader, the Kongtong Sect will not support the Tang Clan at Fengyu Mountain.
The Death of Venerable Golden Crow
For the conditions of his death, see The Death of Venerable Golden Crow.
Notes
- Players agree he is one of the three great villains, the others being Chao He and Shi Ming; but since the story lets you kill the Golden Crow fairly early, the hatred toward him is comparatively mild.
- Because he qualifies as Kongtong Sect Leader yet is tough on the outside and hollow within, he is teased as a weak boss, and was shored up in the Kongtong Divine Might update.
- Thanks to his striking looks, ease of drawing, weak-villain status, and general deserving-of-death-ness, fan works about him are legion in every region's community, and he is even more popular than some of the handsome characters.
- Artists have made many pieces, among them the Golden Crow pregnancy picture and "Venerable Golden Crow: Crisis Moment", which even the dev team says left an impression.