Patriarch Wuxiang
"Ten miles of soldiers on campaign, cold iron gleams; a hundred years of life sealed on the Annals List. A thousand feet deep lie nameless bones; in Wangu Temple is buried—whose son?"
Once the Asura King's spear-wielding scout before his horse, now the Thousand Lantern Tower Master's trusted general, the Thousand-Faced Demon, Patriarch Wuxiang. His martial arts are formidable, not far below those of the in his day.
His true name is Wu Xiang. After Marshal Yue's death he returned to his hometown and was taken for a deserter. He found that his beloved had married his elder brother, and only then learned that his sister-in-law despised him for his ugly face—that she had urged him to the battlefield to win glory only in the hope that he would die. He killed his own brother, sullied his sister-in-law's good name, then ruined his own face and wreaked havoc across the Jianghu for over a hundred years, and no one has ever seen his true form.
Wu Xiang has no home—where is my home? Wu Xiang has no face—whose son am I?
Story
Common
The mastermind behind many events. He takes the form of the Lingnan Sect Leader and leads that sect astray to ruin; takes the form of the Qingcheng Sect's Iron Crown Daoist and takes Duan Zhixiu as a disciple; takes the form of the Songshan Sect's Juexing and deepens the demonic obstruction in Shi Ming's heart; takes the form of the Kongtong Sect's Soul-Stealing and, on routes where the Kongtong struggle never happens, lifts Venerable Golden Crow up as Sect Leader.
On the Western Wulin route, when the Flying Hero returns, he takes the form of Juexing and watches the Battle of Meishan alongside Shentu Long. Seeing that the Cult Leader no longer clings to the Jianghu, his mind is thrown into disorder, and Tang Buyi catches him off guard and severs the tendons of his arm. Tang Zheng takes the chance to poison him, and once the poison takes effect, Tang Buyi strikes him down.
The Kongtong Struggle
He takes the form of the Soul-Stealing Sect Leader Yao Buzhiming and leaves seclusion before the Sect Leader Election, stopping Yu Xiaomei from assassinating Venerable Golden Crow at Colorless Square. In the battle at Banyu Terrace he blocks Xiaomei as she tries to take the Golden Crow with her in death, and as the Thousand Lantern Tower's Patriarch he gives an order that robs her of her reason, decreeing she may not wake until she has killed with her own hands everyone she holds dear; Fire Dragon Immortal Monarch protests to his face and asks, "You're not Yao Zhiming, are you?"—and he does not deny it. On Xiaomei's route Painting Immortal exposes his identity, and in the end he gives up and leaves at Soul-Stealing Forest. See Yao Buzhiming for details.
Ye Yunshang's Route
While studying at Qingcheng, he takes the form of Iron Crown Daoist and discovers the Nine Springs Pill's aura on Ye Yunshang, meaning to seize her as a Human Pill to offer to the . He strikes on the day of Tang Moling's marriage selection, is stopped by Zhao Huo and Duan Zhixiu, and falls to the bottom of the Tang Clan valley. In the ten days at the valley bottom, though alive, he does not lift a hand, and instead ships Zhao Huo and Ye Yunshang as a couple, saying outright that true love really does exist in this world.
Seeing Zhao Huo, ugly of face yet unflagging in effort, disgusts him deeply; he believes Zhao Huo denies the very meaning of his existence, and the two are irreconcilable. He appears at the Battle of the Western Wulin, eager to kill him. In the end he is defeated by Zhao Huo, Zou Bo, and Zhao Kui together.
Notes
- Only on Ye Yunshang's route does Zhao Huo recognize him; on Yu Xiaomei's route he learns from Painting Immortal that the Soul-Stealing Sect Leader is him.
- The ten-mile poem is mocked by a scholarly Zhao Huo for its faulty meter and rhyme, and he cannot stand to hear it. He says the poem came from the battlefield and describes the cruelty of war, so it was never polished with much leisure.
- If Zhao Huo carries the Liquan Small Sword, he flies into a rage and roars at his audacity.
- He is suspected to have some connection to the Apricot Blossom Forest.
- The one Wuxiang impersonates in the Soul-Stealing Gate is the who went into seclusion, not the Soul-Hooking Elder. Soul-Hooking Elder is only the Acting Sect Leader.
- He does not acknowledge the Fourth-Generation Thousand-Faced Demon; even mentioning it in his presence is taboo.