Ku Hai

As an ascetic monk roaming the realm, he bore witness to relentless sorrow across the martial world and the harsh vicissitudes of mortal life, feeling deeply the universal truth that all sentient beings suffer.

An enlightened monk, Ku Hai excels at subduing and neutralizing an opponent's Sha-Qi through sacred chants, while sustaining himself with protective magical arrays.

Joining the Cabin of Eleven, Ku Hai retrofitted his monk staff, prayer beads, and alms bowl to absorb massive reservoirs of Sha-Qi. Behind him hung a gargantuan golden Arhat manifestation that harnessed this captive malice, unleashing devastating lethal strikes through sacred chants.

A monk's spade, prayer beads, an alms bowl, and the towering gilded Arhat statue: these four ritual vessels were reforged with Sha-Qi by Kuhai to serve as his deadly arsenal, the 'Four Implements of Karma Cleansing'.

Yet as mentioned earlier, Ku Hai did not undergo Sha-Qi modification out of bloodlust, but rather to pursue an unspoken, far-reaching ambition...

As an ascetic monk dedicated to penance, he spent his early life far from tranquil temple walls. Rather than chanting sutras and striking bells, he traversed the world on foot, offering aid to every tormented soul he encountered.

Over time, those he saved never learned his true name, but they never forgot his silhouette: a faded grey monastic robe, a woven hat, a monk's spade in hand, and prayer beads around his neck. With benevolent eyes and snow-white hair, every movement carried the quiet dignity of a master monk.

Wandering the realm brought him face-to-face with grief and human folly in every guise; each sorrow witnessed deepened his Buddhist insight, which he freely offered to guide lost travelers toward clarity.

Traveling day after day, Ku Hai noticed a toxic, violent malice poisoning the Jianghu—wanderers and martial artists would cut each other down over the pettiest slights.

Devoted to saving all living souls under an oath to harm no creature, Ku Hai nonetheless found that the suffocating malice everywhere occasionally caused unintended casualties despite his best intentions.

Continuing his relentless pursuit of the origin behind this malevolence, Ku Hai gradually uncovered the grim truth of a force known as Sha-Qi.

The joys, grudges, and tangled vendettas of mortals are merely the ebb and flow of Sha-Qi spreading across the realm. Now, an ominous malice blankets the martial world, endlessly fanning the darkest bloodlust buried within human souls.

As Ku Hai wandered across the land, he sought tirelessly to discover the true source of the dark, pervasive malice infecting the martial world.

In the second month of Year 13 of The Order, rumors of the lost Celestial Tome drew swarms of martial artists to Tianling Peak, including grandmasters and hall masters eager to lay eyes on the fabled relic.

Sensing an unnatural haze drifting across Tianling Peak, he had a grim foreboding that this ominous Sha-Qi would inevitably trigger a catastrophe.

Following the sinister trail of Sha-Qi to Tianling Peak, Ku Hai arrived far too late. The gathered heroes of the martial world, corrupted by the Killing Intent, had already degraded into mindless, bloodthirsty monsters.

An enlightened master filled with profound compassion, Ku Hai relied on his Buddhist cultivation to withstand the overwhelming Sha-Qi; yet, powerless to stop the unfolding massacre, he could only watch in despair.

His resonant voice carried the Rebirth Mantra across Tianling. As one of the few survivors on the peak, Ku Hai chanted unceasingly for thousands of fallen souls, descending the mountain forty-nine days later with a body pushed to its absolute limits.

After wrestling with his turmoil for countless restless nights, Ku Hai made his way back to Tianling Peak and pledged himself to the Council of Eleven, formed by the surviving few.

Well aware that every member of the Eleven Cabal harbored private ambitions, Ku Hai had only one goal: harnessing the Heavenly Tome to eradicate the world's deadly karma once and for all.

Drawing upon forbidden insights from the Heavenly Tome and Xuan Clan engineering, Ku Hai radically augmented his own anatomy and ritual artifacts, turning his very body into a living vessel capable of siphoning Sha-Qi.

The deeper Ku Hai's comprehension of Sha-Qi grew, the denser his own aura became. Over time, he seemed to unravel the very principles governing how Sha-Qi manifests within the Phantom Realm.

By his philosophy, the flow of Sha-Qi throughout the martial world is a closed cycle of constant volume; only by drawing it en masse into containment could the world's lingering malice ever truly be diminished.

Deep within the deserted reaches of Mount Yu, Ku Hai erected a colossal Buddha colossus. Merging advanced lore deciphered from the Celestial Tome with sacred Buddhist seals mastered over a lifetime, he channeled harvested Sha-Qi into the monument before purging it within the fiery heart of a volcano.

Dedicated to purging the realm of Sha-Qi, Ku Hai traversed the Phantom World, stripping countless martial artists of their vital energy. Though his victims were left utterly crippled, he pressed on without hesitation—all in the name of saving humanity.

By Year 30 of The Order, hostilities between The Order and the Cabinet-backed 'Mirage' reached a boiling point. Eager to monitor The Order's maneuvers and siphon more Sha-Qi, Ku Hai posed as an Order agent and journeyed alongside Envoys Xiucai, Chi Yue, and A-Fu to the pagoda at Guze Fortress, ostensibly reinforcing Soul and Zuo Shang in their mission to dismantle Mirage.

Fighting alongside the duo, Ku Hai wrestled with unbidden doubts, questioning whether his crusade truly served the salvation of all living souls.

Wrestling with turbulent thoughts, Kuhai, Soul, and their companions reached the pagoda's summit to confront its guardian, Daosha. Sensing that the losing guardian needed a push, Kuhai deliberated before secretly injecting his stored Sha-Qi into Daosha, utterly unleashing the guardian's insatiable bloodlust.

In that crucial moment, A-Fu seized Ku Hai and exposed him as an impostor claiming to be a Mortal Envoy of The Order. In truth, "A-Fu" was none other than Envoy Lei Dang, who had feigned idiocy on the Underworld Master's orders to sniff out double agents within the relief squad.

With his cover blown, Ku Hai candidly admitted his allegiance to the Pavilion of Eleven. Moved by the unyielding resolve Soul and Zuo Shang had displayed throughout their journey, he agreed to unveil the true face of Mirage before them.

At the stroke of midnight, Ku Hai guided the group to the spire's pinnacle, where the colossal "Mirage" airship finally unveiled its imposing silhouette.

After boarding the airship with the others, Ku Hai bore witness to the downfall of Mirage's master before vanishing into the chaotic inferno of the vessel's self-destruction.

Following the fall of Mirage in Year 31 of the Order, the Cabinet of Eleven officially launched their expansive 'All-Fronts Blossom' strategy.

Yet Ku Hai never marched on the cities to incite rebellion; his sole, enduring desire had always been to purge all Sha-Qi from the realm. Resolute, he chose to stay vigil beside the colossal Buddha he had sculpted, dedicating himself to purifying the world's killing intent.

While passing through the area, Blood Slaughter uncovered Kuhai's covert deeds. In response, Kuhai expressed hope that one day his young acquaintances—Soul and Zuo Shang—might finally liberate Blood Slaughter from his unending spiral of butchery and madness.