Di San Xiang
Di San Xiang of the Soul-Stealing Gate, together with Danxiazi of the Flying Heaven Gate, "White-Browed Tiger" Meng Chen of the Iron Fist Gate, and the Danqing Rakshasa Yan Luosheng of the Mystic Skill Gate, were known together as the Kongtong Four Talents, and were seen as contenders for the position of Sect Leader.
He was originally a disciple of the Snow Mountain Sect. Xiahou Lan looked down on him as an orphan and mocked him at every turn. In the decisive battle between Snow Mountain and Kongtong, he was struck down into the Snow Valley but survived by luck. He later slipped into Kongtong to rescue Xiahou Lan, and the two fled together. Huyan Ju caught them, and since he could not beat her he stayed, enduring hardship and training hard until he became a top disciple of the Soul-Stealing Gate.
One day, Tang Buyi and two others broke into Kongtong. Di San Xiang was set upon and beaten, and Xiahou Lan was carried off to roam the Jianghu. Later, while Xiahou Lan was away traveling, Di San Xiang and Huyan Ju pledged themselves to each other. When Xiahou Lan returned, Di San Xiang suspected her of an affair with the man she had traveled with, and to prove her innocence, Xiahou Lan and Di San Xiang became husband and wife.
Some days later, while Di San Xiang and Huyan Ju were meeting in secret, a scheme of Yu Xiaomei's brought Xiahou Lan and Yan Luosheng upon them. In the chaos that followed, Huyan Ju shielded Xiahou Lan from Yan Luosheng's Judge's Pen and died, and Di San Xiang killed Yan Luosheng.
The affair alarmed the Sect Leader, who came with the Four Sect Leaders, subdued Di San Xiang and Xiahou Lan, and imprisoned them on Soul-Stealing Peak, to be executed according to the mountain's law on a chosen day. But the Sect Leader took all the blame upon himself, saying that his own failure of virtue had set them at each other's throats. He summoned a distant relative, Wei Ju, to succeed his daughter as Leader of the Mystic Skill Gate, then dispersed his inner strength at the Flying Heaven Gate and ascended as an immortal.
The moment Xiahou Lan was released from prison, she challenged Di San Xiang to a duel, and lost. Di San Xiang agreed to meet her seven years later at the Snow Mountain Ruins for a final battle to the death.
Notes
"Di San" is an extremely rare surname, descended from the Tian Clan of the Warring States period. When Han Gaozu brought them to Guanzhong, they were renamed from the first to the eighth family according to the order of their arrival. Once the Liu clan lost the empire, they all changed their surnames back to Tian, or else to "Wu".
The clever wordplay in the name Di San Xiang