If you haven't watched "Word of Honor" yet, then this is your call to do so: - it's leaving Netflix at the end of May and will then only be available through less easily accessed (from the global West) sources.
A former leader of a martial arts sect, with only a very limited time left to live, just wants to be left alone somewhere near the bottom of the social order and quietly wither away; but a very pesky young guy connected with his past makes him his business and drags him back into the jianghu and everything he wanted to leave behind...
There are all the Wuxia tropes we've come to love, skewed slightly sideways, a very sad lost love* as the hidden backstory of the entire plot, a 'bad guy' we all end up loving, and a McGuffin that comes in parts everybody is racing to collect. A wedding goes disastrously wrong, and the leader of the Evil Sect of Evil is actually a good guy desperately trying to wrangle his majorly weird underlings.
But there are also Woolong Nuts, and if you thought the MDZS cornetto thing was cringe, you definitely have another one coming...
tl;dr
Run, don't walk: - it's going away!
*both the 'Shan He Ling' (Token of Mountains and Rivers) and the Word of Hono(u)r that was given, must be kept, and drives the whole entire story, refer to the hidden RongYe pairing, not the young hero who would be the main character in a traditionally told story, nor his two martial uncles who are the main characters here; and we never even actually see Rong Changqing, not even for a split second in somebody's flashback memory. Fanon character-designed him from mere half-sentences in the original novel. Of course I went feral for this pairing; it's why my City AU even exists.
Here it is! My personal designs of the (mostly) full TYK cast!
What I mainly learned from this: TYK has a lot more characters than expected, haha.
My idea was mainly to get a clearer image, for myself, of all the people appearing or being mentioned in the book (and btw, a big chunk of the characters above died before the story even started and don't even get a line, but, you know...). One of my guidelines was, everyone has to look interesting, has to look like the main character of their own story. TYK is pretty much a story about side characters... so if noone is a main character, everyone is, no? (...does that even work? lol)
Some of these designs were inspired by SHL, because it being the first one I saw, it of course left an impression in my mind. The rest is essentially taken from the few descriptions we get in the book, and my own imagination (plus some help from pinterest for the clothing).
Rong Changqing is 100% inspired from @tbgkaru-woh depiction of him.
One noteworthy thing: the giant dog is too big. I thought it was supposed to be the size of a big horse, but it's actually the size of a pony... woops.
Now, additionally:
The protags families! Wen Ruyu and Gu Miaomiao had to look heroic because that's pretty much what their characters are about. The traditional Wuxia story heroes that marked the legend.
Conversely, the Zhou family has to be as plain and normal as possible, haha. ZZS says, in QY, that he's often called "Zhou San" (=Zhou three), which means he's the third child in his family. Since I like the idea of him being the youngest, I only gave him an older brother (who will inherit the position of head of the family and thus justify ZZS being able to leave for a shady remote sect) and an older sister.
And as another bonus:
Hehehe. So these are... let's say, the men in ZZS' life, before WKX.
- Jiuxiao, of course, because I'm convinced ZZS had feelings for him
- Huang Xu, an OC developed with Bichen (son of a HLZ supporter, whose family ZZS infiltrated for a while --as Su Yan-- to try and sway them towards HLY's cause ((Su Yan's "Yan" is the same "Yan" as in Zhen Yan, just as a little nod to SHL)))
- Zhu Ai, a magistrate OC, developed with Moose and Bichen, who's deeply infatuated with ZZS --only knowing him as that one guy who handles imperial guard watch tours and trains guards--
-and one guard I just like to imagine having a crush on him too.
I started working on some guy from WKX's childhood too, but I feel like WKX's past is such a huge can of worms, I'll save all of that for later, haha.
I have many thoughts and feels regarding what happens after Zhou Zishu has come to rescue Wen Kexing ("gather his corpse") after the battle on Mt. Fengya.....
Zhou Zishu, healthier after having taken Da Wu's medicine for 3 months, now, has been tailing the scorpions for a while, too. Infiltrated them. He's the closest to his peak that he has been in years. And Wen Kexing, who is now free, unburdened, so close to dying...
And they each have one question for each other.
"He [Zhou Zishu] looked at Wen Kexing in the eyes, and said : 'I'm asking you. Do you want to live?'
Wen Kexing silently looked back at him for a long, long time, then answered : 'Will... will you leave me?'"
They will both live, and they will both stay. Wen Kexing is then brought back into the light, to the human world. The fragility in that scene, in the both of them. How I'm also convinced that when Wen Kexing sees Zhou Zishu arrive, fight, and then come to him, when he says his famous "There's a light on you" ('你身上有光') line, he pretty much falls in love all over again. How later, then, he tells Zhou Zishu how the one thing capable to defeat a ghost is the human heart... (Gu Xiang's, Zhou Zishu's, Zhang Chengling's, his own...)
So much!! In that scene!!! I wish I can one day do way more than a few illustrations and concept arts. I wish I could do so much more to translate just how much I adore this ending (granted, what comes after is a bit rushed-- BUT! That leaves SO much space to imagine how then Zhou Zishu has taken care of Wen Kexing while he was recovering, and the following journey to Mt. Changming.... SO MUCH!! TO IMAGINE!! AND CREATE!!!)
Here are a few additional designs :
What I imagine Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu look like at Mt Fengya. Wen Kexing, in his "dark red" Ghost Valley Master robes. The sword... actually isn't there, but I liked the look. And then, Zhou Zishu, disguised as a scorpion. He kinda looks like a sith, but I really like that haha. His cheeks and frame are fuller, because I consider that on top of having been taking the meds for 3 months now, he has also been preparing for the surgery (so he's been eating more and better).
Following an idea from Bichen, I imagine the tree Wen Kexing sits under to be a giant willow tree (among other willow trees). The scorpion confrontation happens while the sun is rising. Also, isn't it poetic that it is under a <willow tree> when Zhou "Xu"'s name means willow catkin? I just really like that.
That's it for now. I'm certainly not done with this whole passage, but...
Yeah. So much to do!!! So little time!!!
Saw that someone submitted him without propaganda so here I am with propaganda!
Wen Kexing is pretty much responsible for all of the plot stuff happening in Tian Ya Ke. At the same time, he does absolutely Nothing for the duration of the novel for his massive-scale revenge scheme to work out. And that's because he set it up so brilliantly that he didn't need to lift a finger for his enemies to deliver themselves up on a silver platter.
It was genuinely a domino fall: he only created the inciting incident, and then the pieces slowly but surely fell into place. Except the pieces were people, and if any SINGLE one of them decided they didn't want the Lapis Armor - the treasure Wen Kexing baited them with - then Wen Kexing's scheme would just fizzle out on its own. BUT. None of them could give up the pursuit of power. None of them could be satisfied with what they already had. And Wen Kexing perfectly understood those people's psychology and built his scheme based on that.
He really created this poetic justice situation where his enemies walked themselves to their deaths on their own, and only because they wouldn't stop doing the things that he wanted to take revenge for in the first place.
Moreover, he set it up in such a way that he didn't need to commit attrocities while in 'the human world', and instead let his enemies expose themselves by 'not conducting themselves like human beings'. Wen Kexing only started killing when his enemies entered his world, the Ghost Valley. So it was not just poetic, it was also theater-level dramatic!
Moreover, his scheme worked so perfectly that when Wen Kexing left partway through the final battle, one of his enemies actually finished up everyone else FOR HIM. And while Wen Kexing baited everyone with Lapis Armor, he also ensured that his father's promise to 'not let it fall into wrong hands' is kept - by destroying the key to it prior to kicking off his scheme. So ultimately, even if Wen Kexing died, his revenge would still be completed, AND the last man standing would receive a big fat Nothing for all the murder and plotting they did.
And this is just about his revenge plot. He also sussed out a literal spymaster's true identity within like 11 chapters! Not to mention the whole, 'tricked a bunch of crazy murderers into thinking he was even more insane than them', which he did at age 9 (NINE!). Oh, he also staged a perfect coup within three years or less, somewhere between ages 18-21. And ruled over the Ghost Valley for 8 years when no other Valley Master before him lasted longer than 3.
Tl;dr: A LITERAL EVIL MASTERMIND! AND WE LOVE HIM FOR THAT!
He Xuan from Heaven Official’s Blessing (TGCF)
No propaganda submitted
Round 1, Match 9 - Which character is the smartest?
Wen Kexing from Faraway Wanderers
He Xuan from Heaven Official's Blessing
See Results
Voting ended onJun 23, 2025
[Anti-Propaganda is NOT allowed. Please be kind and respectful.]
If you haven't watched "Word of Honor" yet, then this is your call to do so: - it's leaving Netflix at the end of May and will then only be available through less easily accessed (from the global West) sources.
A former leader of a martial arts sect, with only a very limited time left to live, just wants to be left alone somewhere near the bottom of the social order and quietly wither away; but a very pesky young guy connected with his past makes him his business and drags him back into the jianghu and everything he wanted to leave behind...
There are all the Wuxia tropes we've come to love, skewed slightly sideways, a very sad lost love* as the hidden backstory of the entire plot, a 'bad guy' we all end up loving, and a McGuffin that comes in parts everybody is racing to collect. A wedding goes disastrously wrong, and the leader of the Evil Sect of Evil is actually a good guy desperately trying to wrangle his majorly weird underlings.
But there are also Woolong Nuts, and if you thought the MDZS cornetto thing was cringe, you definitely have another one coming...
tl;dr
Run, don't walk: - it's going away!
*both the 'Shan He Ling' (Token of Mountains and Rivers) and the Word of Hono(u)r that was given, must be kept, and drives the whole entire story, refer to the hidden RongYe pairing, not the young hero who would be the main character in a traditionally told story, nor his two martial uncles who are the main characters here; and we never even actually see Rong Changqing, not even for a split second in somebody's flashback memory. Fanon character-designed him from mere half-sentences in the original novel. Of course I went feral for this pairing; it's why my City AU even exists.
ellievsbear
tangentwithtanner
andulkaphoto
baratheonpilled
turnnoffyourmind
