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[hider=Appearance][b]APPEARANCE[/b] [indent]A rather tall young man, standing at 175 cm and 60 kg.[/indent][img]https://i.pinimg.com/736x/a6/df/22/a6df22c59f2b7c1e8e52d6a5bd035d1a.jpg[/img][/hider]
[b]NAME[/b]
[indent]Sun Yuzheng 孫钰铮[/indent]
[b]AGE[/b] 
[indent]18[/indent]
[b]RANK[/b] 
[indent]Second Class Disciple[/indent]
[b]ALLEGIANCE[/b] 
[indent]The Heavenly Demonic Cult[/indent]
[b]PERSONALITY[/b] 
[hider=...][indent]Of the corner of passersby's eyes is when one might catch Yuzheng in his best light. He's stolid in the way he carries himself, heavy-lidded & his chin high. He city hops, hardly ever stalled in one for more than a night or two. The seeming vagrant jingles in a crowd, small gems sometimes falling behind him to mark his trail, the only assurance of him being more than a mirage. An illusive sight perhaps worthy of poem, but the mystery dies quickly over brief conversation. In truth, Yuzheng is only a youth with a penchant for decorating his person & a poor fate of being unable to raise his voice past that of a mouse.

Having spent the better half of his life within the infamous cult, its beliefs are his own & his mind is too narrow to change this, which sometimes comes at the discontent of those he's only just met. When his status as such a cultist becomes known, those who mean him genuine harm and those who simply find themselves at a loss for words become indistinguishable in his eyes; he'll find injustice where there is none & willfully rile himself up accordingly, without so much as the slightest regard for repercussions, legal or otherwise.

Yuzheng would love nothing more than to mind his own business & be spectator to the lively cities he visits, but his own pride keeps him. Yuzheng means no harm as he's a bit unworldly in his disposition; without his realizing, altruism & the well-being of those around him always finds a place to reside in his mind. Even in battle, his attacks are never so debilitating that his opponent can give up on recovery; though he's young, he's been in his fair share of engagements & his death toll remains zero even still. On a lighter note, he truly is genuine, although a bit brutish about it; if someone's mood can be improved & they'll allow him, trust him to try, though his solution might be odd.

Yuzheng relies on his actions to speak for him, as his weak voice is not able to & he hasn't bothered to train it. As a result, what often comes out of his mouth is simpleminded, sometimes inappropriately so, and often put too bluntly; his understanding of nuance & social graces is underdeveloped too. Only recently did he first breakthrough in his training, so his confidence is newly inflated. To him, it's not a matter of whether he'll come out of conflicts unscathed but, rather, how.[/indent][/hider]
[b]HISTORY[/b]
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Up until his recent breakthrough in his martial training, Yuzheng had kept his head down & away from the public aspect of his clan, never really speaking out besides to those who had a part in raising him & focusing on his own growth above all else, as he tended to tunnel vision in his training, viewing anything else as a distraction. He was so withdrawn that it wasn't until recently that peers he'd studied with for so many years became aware of his existence; for a while, the few fellow cultists he's since become acquainted with thought he was a late transfer, despite having been born into the clan.

His young mother was a devoted cultist, dedicating her life to her people. His mother was only a minor member & without many friends, so when his mother died giving birth in the company of her only friend, a fellow cultist, the situation of the surviving child became precarious. This friend would mourn over the body of her friend, conflicted as he held the only breathing thing that remained of her. As this friend was only a girl then too, the friend saw only one thing when he gazed upon this child: her dearest's friend's murderer. Out of obligation to Yuzheng's mother, the friend set aside her training to raise the baby, but only to the day that Yuzheng's gait didn't totter. When Yuzheng could barely pour tea without spilling, his then-guardian effectively walked out of his life & put him to work as a servant within the The Heavenly Demonic Cult under the pretense of socializing the boy.

It wasn't until he fostered an interest in cultivating his body did he see his guardian again. By this time, Yuzheng had spent his entire childhood a servant, within a demonic cult no less. One fateful week, Yuzheng stole a moment away from his duties to informally apply in front of one of the most important-seeming elders he knew at the time.

When he could, he'd sneak off to listen to the elder's teachings & watch in awe as he led his disciples in practices. Thinking back now, Yuzheng's rejection was understandable but hindsight couldn't help him then. The frustration of having been surrendered to such a fate, doomed to watch others cultivate themselves while he could only wait on them, pushed him over the edge. Barely a teen at time, he committed to running away, as the worst thing his young mind could fathom.

It must've been only a week that he was on his own, but his form was worn as though it'd been a year. In his attempt to cultivate, the process backfired severely as a result of his lack of instruction. Most of that week he spent trying to recover, but his best efforts only made his condition worse.
As though a higher power were looking over the boy, rescue came in the form of a familiarly disgruntled woman, drenched from a spring shower that fell upon the mountain the last day of that miserable week. The memory of watching this figure drudge up to little Yuzheng, hair stuck to the figure's face, was traumatic enough to instill within Yuzheng a fear of ghosts.

With a strike & a scolding, Yuzheng returned home with the woman who once abandoned him long ago; he didn't forget. Yuzheng was in no shape to return to his old duties as a manservant, so the woman begrudgingly took it upon herself to teach the little boy how to repair his body. His guardian's teachings would stagnant as his condition improved, so Yuzheng would take it upon himself to get into another scrap & compel his guardian to further develop him in order to repair himself.

As his guardian's teachings progressed to the point of redundancy, Yuzheng was formally introduced to the cult as an aspiring disciple & reluctantly taken in as a result of the guardian's credence. With this began his journey under a formal master & has now led him to where he is now.

It was only recently that Yuzheng made his first major breakthrough in the way of his cultivation. With this newfound strength & freedom from being a young adult, he's now taken to using it to enact his personal means of justice. Though he dared not admit it at the time, he truly hated his brief time as a servant as it showed him the petty side of men; he'd be called for the most menial or impossible things & expected to carry out the task with a smile.

When he walked through cities, it was no different; servants waited on petty men without shame & it angered him to see. As a means to enact personal amends, he would rob these nobles at night & spend it on the poor or working in the following afternoon. What was left over, he would spend on himself, buying himself little jewels to embed into his clothes.
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[b]BODY ENHANCEMENTS[/b] 
[indent]Damaged Dantian - As a result of an early deviation, Yuzheng doesn't heal well. Average recovery time is doubled for him, even through cultivation. Additionally, he can't project his qi past himself & struggles to handle ranged opponents without closing the distance. Combined, this all results in him having a generally low durability; he's a glass canon. 
Despite this, his self-preservation is lacking; blindly puts himself into the fray of things if he believes enough in a cause.[/indent]
[b]EQUIPMENT[/b]
[indent]— Cheap jewel-embedded clothing
— Dual blades[/indent]
[b]CULTIVATION BASE[/b]
[indent]Yuzheng's base has been developed with a focus on healing from a young age, since his early deviation. He prioritizes the use of qigong to strengthen the energy within himself by meditating in natural areas & performing slow, meditative movements. In more intense exercises, he'll endure a great trial, like forgoing eating or meditating in the cold, to strengthen himself.

He's found that his qi stagnates while remaining still; during sleep & in the mornings, after rising, is when he's at his weakest.

Additionally, he consumes qi-dense plants in an attempt to reintroduce energy into his system. In a pinch, it's not uncommon for him to crush his gems for a small boost.[/indent]
[b]TECHNIQUES[/b]
[indent]Qinggong Expert - Yuzheng is exceptionally light & nimble compared to his peers. His skill in manipulating & controlling his body to scale buildings or evade obstacles are near prodigious. He definitely has an affinity for acrobatics.

Hand-to-hand Combat: Hand-to-hand combat is Yuzheng's most developed method of fighting. Without the use of qi, his style is focused on redirecting his opponent's weapon or strength. 
[list][*] Debilitating Strike - Utilizes one's knowledge of the body's acupoints against an opponent to disrupt their meridians and obstruct their energy flow. Receiving a blow like this can numb an ordinary person's limbs or even freeze their movements.

[*] Reinforced Palm - Releasing a great amount of qi in one burst, Yuzheng's strikes can send an opponent flying or break rock at a given point of contact. As this technique expels energy, it should also be used sparingly.[/list]

Dual Blades - While less developed, Yuzheng also possesses the skill to wield dual blades; the reason this isn't his preferred method of battle is because he can't project his qi past his fingers or through his blades.

Burning Body — Yuzheng can direct an abundance of qi to a given point in his body to create a surface similar to a burning stove for his target. This technique should be used sparingly, unless one has cultivated themselves to a point where they are able to withstand strong temperatures. In Yuzheng's case, though he's developed a tolerance through repeated use, burns are not uncommon. 

A lesser form of this skill can be used to keep warm. Developing this skill further, flame instead can be conjured, far from his cult's characteristic demonic fire, but a fire nonetheless. It'll be a while before Yuzheng gets to that point.[/indent]
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