Zhou Zishu/Novel

Zhou Zishu in S2

**Zhou Zishu** (周子舒, *Zhōu Zishū*) is the former master of Tian Chuang who left through drastic measures in order to leave his past behind, and enjoy the rest of his limited days travelling in jianghu.

**NOTE:** *This page discusses the characterisation and plot of Zhou Zishu in Faraway Wanderers/Audio Drama. For Zhou Zishu in Word of Honor, see here.*

## Appearance

* Normal
* Disguise

### Lord Seventh

As the shadow of the crown prince, Zhou ZIshu is described to look indistinctive, as someone who wouldn't stand out much and easily forgettable, and not much of a beauty. At the time of the novel, Zhou Zishu is a young well built man who has a high bridged nose, bony and sharp cut-profile, hair tied up in a ponytail, thick eyelashes and thin lips, his eyes are bright like rich ink. He wore the turquoise robes of Tian Chuang.

### Faraway Wanderers

After nine years of service to Helian Yi, Zhou Zishu now looks like he's in his late twenties, he looks drastically different than a year before because of the Nails of Seven Apertures for Three Autumns. Zhou Zishu's skin is sickly and has no colour to it, looking very pale and on the verge of passing out, he has very deep hollows under his eyebrows and the sharpness of his face are too deep to be considered healthy. Zhou Zishu's previously well-built body now became shrivelled and cold, the seven nails completely fused with his flesh at this point.

However, it is noted by Wen Kexing that whenever he laughs, his sharp expression ceases and his brows relax, and faint colour comes to his lips.

In the Audio Drama art, Zhou Zishu's hair is tied into a loose ponytail, and mostly wears blue robes.

#### General

Having learnt the disguise skills from Qin Huaizhang, Zhou Zishu believes that the key to blending in is to look like the most ugliest and unbearable person to look at, therefore no one will bother to take notice of him. By this belief, all of Zhou Zishu's disguises are anything but pretty, disguising as men with yellowish-green face with sleazy features.

#### "Zhou Xu"

Having left Tian Chuang, Zhou Zishu dressed up as a beggar with serious illness, having extremely pale skin, dull eyes and spotted face. He wears a plain set of clothes he conveniently stole from a farmer’s house by the road. He carries an old flask tied around his waist, half-full with unfiltered rice wine. After ten days since his department, Zhou Zishu looks deteriorate further, looking more wretched, with sallow, skinny hands and a sallow, skinnier face. His emaciation, wine-reeking clothes and an untamed bird’s nest hair completes his "beggar" look.

#### Other

Some other disguises of Zhou Zishu include looking like a creepy middle-aged man with strabismus and taking on the appearance of a Scorpian agent.

## History

### Childhood

Zhou Zishu was born as the third child from an influential family in jianghu, he was transferred into Siji Manor under Qin Huaizhang training. At some point, his master "threw" Liang Jiuxiao at him to be his junior brother, while initially Zhou Zishu did not like this arrangement, he grew fond of Liang Jiuxiao and became protective of him. Zhou Zishu becomes the leader of Siji Manor at fifteen.

### Leader of Tian Chuang

At eighteen, Zhou Zishu meets with his cousin, Helian Yi, and pledges his service to the crown prince, in which he becomes his shadow and handles the dirty business concerning the imperial court. At twenty three, he builds Tian Chuang with the sole purpose of helping Helian Yi ascend the throne against his brothers, Helian Pei and Helian Qi. He then lived neither as a man nor ghost in those ten years, and his name could not be recorded in the annals. During the novel, Zhou Zishu has set a domino chain of plans in order to wipe out any threat or corruption to Helian Yi's throne, in the process, he used cruel and inhumane methods and paths, including the orchestrated rape and murder of Zhang Tingyu and the massacre of the Jiang family.

Liang Jiuxiao had visited Zhou Zishu in the imperial court to see his senior brother help the country, only to witness Zhou Zishu's vicious methods and become distraught, this fractured the relationship between him and Liang Jiuxiao severely, causing both of them to spiral.

### Final Battle

During the battle of the Northern brutes attempt invasion of the Central Plains, Zhou Zishu guarded the Chengwu Gate with his life, not budging a single inch, however, he intended to send Liang Jiuxiao away so he would not be hurt. This proved futile as Liang Jiuxiao fought beside the princess and died in the process. The death of Liang Jiuxiao was the final nail to Zhou Zishu's slipping sanity, which had driven Zhou Zishu into leaving Tian Chuang and leaving all of his past actions behind to be buried, and enjoy his remaining three years.

While Zhou Zishu lives as an ordinary man starting from *Faraway Wanderers*, he is the reason why the nation of Daqing can gradually recover from the winds and storms, and the thousand holes riddled into it to show a hint of liveliness. He managed it all single-handedly back then.

## Effects of The Nails

* **Limited Life Span** - He have only around two to three years left to live. However, Wu Xi might have a "cure" for him. He proposed Zishu to consider ridding himself of his own martial ability. Even then, there is still only a fifth of chance that his life can be saved.
* **Halved Martial Arts Strength** - Due to the effects of the Nails, his martial arts strength is reduced by half.
* **Periodic Pain** - He suffers from prickling pain in his chest when the Nails are acting up. It is not the kind of pain that mangles one's body, or the slow, simmering kind as seen with internal injuries. It is one that feels like someone is cutting his meridians apart one by one. After more than a year of suffering he had well adapted to the pain, and nothing showed on his face anymore.
* **Sleeping Schedule** - The Nails will always raise hell after midnight, so he usually makes sure to sleep early in order to gather enough strength when the torment hit. The agony only subsides when the sun rises. If his schedule is broken and he is unable to go back to sleep; all he could do now was gritting his teeth and bearing it. By then he felt like he was almost paralysed. Thus, morning is when he is at his weakest.
* **Withered Meridians** - Even Ye Baiyi doesn't know of a way to treat his Nail injuries. According to the former, his meridians have almost withered completely, like an ancient tree without roots. Even removing the poison inside you won’t help. In fact, channelling more energy into himself will break his dying meridians, and he can only perish.

## Abilities

* **Master Disguise** - He has an unspecified amount of human masks on himself that he use to disguise himself. He has learned the technique from his former master, Qin Huaizhang. It is said to be impossible to recognize him the moment he joins a crowd. He is able to conceal himself, going from the most frightening individual in the palace to a free-spirited, miserable-looking wanderer riding a thin horse, gnawing a straw in his mouth while humming folk songs takes that place. He becomes the first to actually get away from the Tian Chuang network just like that.
* **Limitless Invisibility** **(无际无痕, *Wújì Wú Hén*) -** A move restricted to to the disciples of Siji Manor, an swift evasion tactic, it was taught to him by Qin Huaizhang.

* **Flute Craftsmanship & Playing** - He demonstrated them when fighting back against the musical (zither) skills of “Enchanted Song” Qin Song. He made a flute during the journey out of boredom with very poor craftsmanship. The notes are not right and the tuning is all over the place, thus he never got around to using it. A big crack appeared in it after a single use. His flute playing is described to be "an ear-piercing noise". However, normally flutes would never make sounds that sharp, so sharp to the point it felt like they could tear something apart.
* **Medicinal Skills** - He himself states that he wouldn’t call himself an expert in medicine-related matters. He might not possess an intensive knowledge about the field. However, he had seen enough to know that there had yet to exist a poison that could cause hallucinations for a certain long period of time.
* **Enhanced Hearing** - His hearing is retained due to the secret of the Nails Punishment. He could hear Gu Xiang, and didn’t miss a single word. Even though the former was a noisy road away, and her voice was at a medium volume.
* **Bad Swimmer** - He is not good at swimming. The best he can do is hold his breath for a long time underwater.

## Skills and Weapons

* **Baiyi (白衣)** - A whip sword (软剑, *Ruǎn Jiàn*) that was made by Ye Baiyi and given to Qin Huaizhang as a gift. It is later passed onto Zhou Zishu as an ancestral weapon. The sword has its name *Baiyi* carved on it. Zishu himself once thought it was some kind of mysterious motto, however it turned out to be a symbol of Ye Baiyi himself.