Yun Yueqin

Yun YueQin grew up as a beggar on the streets with his mother. She would go around from town to town looking for jobs, but eventually the burden of taking care of a child and earning a living got to her, and she developed severe depression. Deciding that death was better than the hardships, she planned to kill herself and take Yun YueQin with her, since without her there'd be no one to take care of him. She'd rather him have a quick death rather than starve to death for days on end. Using the last of her money to buy him a meat bun, she waited for him to finish the rare treat before executing her plan.

In the middle of her attempt, she was discovered by passersby from a nearby sect, and with them was the sect’s heir, Du XingTuo. Seeing the scene of a child his age getting choked by a dying woman, he ordered YueQin to be saved, and just like that, at age 5, Yun YueQin was taken into the Du sect to be XingTuo's playmate. The Du sect was infamous for their leader, XingTuo's father, since he was rumoured to always go out and have "fun", leaving all his work for the council. Most of the work piled onto Du Sect's advisor, ShuNing. XingTuo and YueQin regarded ShuNing as their father figure throughout their childhood, and XingTuo promised that when he grew up, he'd appoint YueQin as his advisor; together they would expand the power of the sect and let ShuNing retire into a peaceful life.

Unfortunately that future couldn't come to a pass, since around age 13, YueQin accidentally stumbled upon the Du Sect leader, laying in a poison-induced coma. Hiding at the sound of footsteps, YueQin witnessed ShuNing enter the room. As it turned out, the council had been keeping him in a coma so they could do whatever they'd like, and planned to mold XingTuo into a puppet leader so they could continue at living at their leisure. If that didn't work, they would just get rid of the boy all together. In the middle of it all, leading the scheme was ShuNing himself.

A beggar that was randomly picked up, or the father figure that had raised him all his life, which would XingTuo believe? Thinking that XingTuo wouldn't believe anything implicating ShuNing, YueQin wracked his brain to think of a way to save XingTuo, coming up with a plan to confront ShuNing directly. Using all his feelings of frustration in his early life as a base, he gave the performance of his life, saying he discovered the scheme, and wanted in. He said that he hated the rich, and blamed the nobles like XingTuo for forgetting their duties to the less fortunate, expressing how humiliated he felt having to wag his tail at XingTuo to have a place in the world. With this, ShuNing was intrigued, but he wasn't convinced, so he told YueQin to further prove himself, with his life on the line.

Xingtuo was then framed for his father's coma, with YueQin to act as witness to the treason. ShuNing and the council deliberated shortly, and ultimately decided to have XingTuo executed on the spot, forcing YueQin to think on the fly. He had expected them to lock up XingTuo for a while, which would give him an opportunity to sneak into the dungeons and explain himself, before running away together. Because of the time constraints, however, he opted to trip a servant instead, knocking them into a torch, which rapidly engulfed the room in flames. Taking advantage of the confusion, XingTuo managed to flee, but not before swearing his revenge on YueQin.

With XingTuo gone, there was a reduced chance of a hostage being used against him, allowing YueQin to act more freely. Under ShuNing's vigilant gaze, he stealthily built up his power, making connections outside of the sect, taking out corrupt council members one by one to replace them with his people. Slowly but surely, he was able to get to a place where he had enough power to pull a coup on ShuNing, taking him out. YueQin then had to smooth out the final details in the sect, and then find XingTuo to establish communication so he could set things straight.

Before he was able to though, the sect received news of a battalion of soldiers heading their way. Leading the troop of soldiers was none other than XingTuo himself, back to reclaim his heritage, declaring an order on YueQin’s head. YueQin’s main goal was to get to XingTuo so he could explain himself, and had almost made it, but was cut down at the last second by an enemy soldier.