Duanmu Xi

Duanmu Siming (Half-brother)

Duanmu Siping (Half-sister) †

Shenlong Quan (Adopted sister)

Duanmu Siyun (Cousin)

Duanmu Lian (Aunt) †

Shenlong Xiren (Uncle)

Shenlong Zhangxuan (Uncle and former bodyguard/ supervisor)

Great-grandmother

Duanmu Luoyue (Ancestor) † (body only)

Yang Jinghua (Spirit shadow/ Soul image) † (body only)

Qin Shiyao (ex-fiancée)

*This entry is for the manhua character. See Tanmoku Ki for the anime/donghua equivalent.*

**Duanmu Xi** (端木熙) is the 63rd Yangming Master/ Yangmingsi (highest ranking priest-exorcist) and the current head of the Duanmu family. He is believed to be the most powerful priest in the history of the Yangming Division, possessing seemingly inexhaustible spiritual power. He is possibly one of the youngest priests as well, as he assumed the post when he was only 9 years old.

## History

Duanmu Xi is the illegitimate son of the 61st Yangming Master, Duanmu Yin, and his supervisor Shenlong Lihua. He was conceived accidentally, before Yin's arranged marriage with Situ Lan, after Yin and Lihua had a one night stand, due to Lihua mistaking the diet pills for her contraceptive pills. Even though he was a taboo child, after a brief encounter with a young Yang Jinghua, she decided to keep him and give up her position as the head of the Shenlong family and the supervisor of Duanmu Yin in order to raise him secretly from his paternal family. After she passed the Shenlong family's power of hypnosis to her brother Xiren, she took Quan, a little orphan girl that had been serving her for years and whom she later adopted, and left the household. When she was nearing the end of her pregnancy she almost got into a car accident, causing her to go into labour prematurely. The only doctor in the area was Yang Jinghua's grandfather, who helped her birth Duanmu Xi safely on **September 9**, 1999. Since she didn't have anything to repay him with, Lihua could only ask him to name her son and he chose the name Xi, getting the idea from Jinghua's earlier recitation during their phone call. After that, she went with Quan to get baby supplies, leaving Duanmu Xi with Jinghua's grandfather. During that time, Jinghua visited him with his parents, who had brought him some things to help him settle down, since he had only recently moved there. When Jinghua's grandfather went outside to help them, Jinghua noticed there was a beautiful doll-like baby on the bed and started playing with it. When his grandfather saw him holding the baby up, he panicked and told him to put it down. Τhat was the first time Xi and Jinghua met each other.

Duanmu Xi was born with great spiritual powers that he could not control, causing damages, even as a baby. Due to that they had to move quite often with his mother and Quan. Unfortunately, he also had a special body type that made him allergic to many food ingredients, and was always weak and suffering from fever. His mother was often overwhelmed by this situation, saying hurtful things to Duanmu Xi, like that she shouldn't have given birth to him. At some point, they moved to Yang Jinghua's neighborhood, where Xi used to make sandcastles at a construction site. Yang Jinghua noticed him and decided to destroy his castles every time until he got tired of it and joined him instead. One day, Jinghua saw some kids bully Duanmu Xi and stood up for him, saying he would be under his care from now on. When Xi went back home he told his mother he had made a friend and she seemed quite happy about it. However, the parents of those kids found Duamnu Xi's mother that night and complained about the earlier fight, with one of the kids throwing a stone at Duanmu Xi's head, that sent him to the hospital. While being there, even though he didn't have anything serious, he got a blood transfusion that caused him to have a severe allergic reaction. This whole situation angered Duanmu Xi's mother who later went to Jinghua's parents and furiously asked them to keep their son away from hers. After that, they moved to another place, with Jinghua not even getting to know Xi's name.

When Duanmu Xi was about 9 years old, he was taken hostage by a random criminal, who held a knife to his throat, and Xi used that knife to commit suicide, a heavy sin that would send him to hell. In order to save him from this terrible fate, his mother exchanged her soul for Duanmu Xi's, while Yinzhe, Duanmu Yin's spirit shadow who was tasked with protecting Xi after his Yin's death, used his 1000 year old cultivation to restore his body, which left Xi pure white and gave him the ability to heal with impressive speed. Because he came back from hell, he also got the Mirror of Yellow Springs or Mirror of Huang Quan, with which he can see a soul's past using the left hand and reproduce it with the right hand. After that, Duanmu Xi was brought to the Duanmu household by his great-grandmother. On the way back home, he displayed his exceptional spiritual powers by instinctively performing a massive purification. The place he purified was where Yang Jinghua's parents had tried to perform a ritual that would prevent Jinghua from inheriting the seal of the Duanmu family's demonic ancestor, Duanmu Luoyue, when his grandfather would pass away. This resulted in Jinghua becoming a demon, causing the death of everyone in that place, as well as the accumulation of a great amount of resentment. After the purification, Duanmu Xi and his great-grandmother visited the hospital, where Xi saw Yang Jinghua in a catatonic state, as he was the only survivor of the catastrophe and, thus, deeply traumatized. Xi immediately ran to him while crying and made him a paper frog, which he left under Jinghua's pillow. Upon seeing the paper frog afterwards, Jinghua regained his consciousness. On the way back from the hospital, Xi's great-grandmother offered him the position of the Yangming Master, that had been vacant for 3 years, due to the lack of capable people in the family after the death of the last priest. Duanmu Xi accepted, since he wanted to help Yang Jinghua and other people this way, and while he was performing his first sacrifice, he met the souls of Yang Jinghua's parents, who asked him to look after their son.

When Duanmu Xi was 12 years old, Shenlong Zhangxuan was assigned to be his bodyguard and, secretly, his supervisor. They were both unaware of their uncle-nephew relationship at the time. Upon meeting him, Zhangxuan immediately understood the pure and kind nature of Duanmu Xi and told his brother, Xiren, that he was indeed a born priest. Since Duanmu Xi had taken on the heavy burden of a Yangming priest at such a young age, he made it his goal to provide him with a happy life and the respect he deserved in the household, for the little time he had left. In the following years, he took great care of Duanmu Xi, tending to his needs, securing his position in the household and turning him from a meek child into a confident and assertive young man. When Duanmu Xi was 14 years old, he became the head of the Duanmu household, the youngest in history, after Zhangxuan convinced him to demonstrate his abilities and claim the position that rightfully belonged to him. After that, Duanmu Xi asked Zhangxuan to search for Yang Jinghua, as he had never forgotten the kindness he had shown him and wished to reunite with him. When Zhangxuan finally managed to locate him, Xi wrote a letter, asking Jinghua to meet him on September 10, and sent Zhangxuan to deliver it to him. While Zhangxuan was away, Duanmu Xi was kidnapped and almost killed. Even though he managed to save him, Zhangxuan became the scapegoat of this assassination plot against Duanmu Xi and got seemingly abandoned by his family. This led him to commit suicide by shooting himself with a gun while trying to escape with Duanmu Xi, who had turned 16 years old that day. Zhangxuan did this hoping that, after his death, he would become Duanmu Xi's spirit shadow and accompany him without being bound by his family's wishes and supervisory duties. However, Siyun, along with Siming, convinced Master Ling to bind Zhangxuan's soul to his body, using the ancient forbidden soul binding technique, with which the living dead were created in the past, that resulted in Master Ling losing his eyesight. The spell was successful and Zhangxuan's body was kept to be used for blood transfusions to Duanmu Xi, since Zhangxuan's blood is the only one that can be safely mixed with his without causing an allergic reaction and can, also, be used as an antidote, due to the special body he was born with and the medicinal herbs he was fed during his childhood. Because Duanmu Xi could't find Zhangxuan's soul during the seven day limit a soul has on earth after death, he thought he was abandoned by him. After the seventh day, he cut off his hair in front of his grave and completely changed his character, becoming the cold and stern person Jinghua met in the beginning.

After Zhangxuan's passing, Duanmu Xi had trouble performing the next two rituals due to his grief. But thanks to his younger half-sister, Duanmu Siping, who assisted him with her singing, he was able to complete the rituals. Siping was given to the Zhiren house at a young age to train as a monk in order to assist her twin brother, Duanmu Siming, when he would become a Yangming Master. When she helped Duanmu Xi, however, she angered her mother, who hated Duanmu Xi for being her husband's child with another woman. To prevent her from singing for Duanmu Xi, she agreed to Situ Li's idea of giving her a poison that would cause her to permanently lose her voice. When Siping discovered their plan, she was already mute and unable to sing for both Duanmu Xi and the audience she had gained from an earlier, anonymous release of a song of hers. In a moment of despair, she drank a large amount of the poison, took Situ Li's knife and asked Duanmu Xi to kill her through a letter she had written for him. In that letter, she also revealed her mother's plots against Duanmu Xi. Since commiting suicide was a heavy sin that would send her to hell, Duanmu Xi fulfilled her wish and stabbed her heart with the knife. After everything was revealed, her mother went mad, sold her soul to the devil in exchange for the power to curse Duanmu Xi and committed suicide shortly afterwards. Despite Siping revealing everything in her letter, her family, especially Situ Li's aunt and Situ Li, still blamed their deaths on Duanmu Xi and kept trying to find ways to torture and kill him for revenge.

With both his twin sister and mother dying horribly in such a short time, Duanmu Siming had a mental breakdown and went to his brother with a knife in his hand, asking him to kill him because he was afraid of commiting suicide and going to hell. Duanmu Xi tried to take the knife from him, but Siming became violent and as a result Duanmu Siyun got cut in her eyebrow when she got involved in the fight for the knife. When Siyun's father saw her injury, he slapped Duanmu Xi, calling him unworthy. Siyun took him out and left after telling Xi that he doesn't belong in that family. All this trauma caused Xi to have a panic attack, making him unable to breath. While he was suffering on the floor, doctor Sen, who was working for the Duanmu family at the time, tossed some cigarettes on him, explaining later that their toxicity could help him feel like he was punishing himself enough to keep living.

It was probably around this time that Qin Shiyao was summoned to the Duanmu household to sign a marriage contract with Duanmu Xi. Xi, however, after everything that had happened, didn't want to drag another innocent person into this family to suffer a terrible fate like Situ Lan or Duanmu Siping. But since his family wouldn't give up on forcing him to take a wife, Qin Shiyao offered to pretend to be his fiancée, while she would travel abroad for studies to stay out of his way. Duanmu Xi agreed to do that for a year and advised her not to return earlier than that.

Sometime later, at the age of 17, Duanmu Xi took off the kun-ring and tried to run away from the Duanmu household. This act triggered the heavenly punishment, a painful curse mark on the priest's back and a curse sign over the Duanmu household, that would be activated when a priest violated any of the three main commandments of the Yangming division by 1. deceiving God irreversibly, 2. abandoning the post without authorization or 3. hurting people with spiritual powers. While he was away, he went to look for Yang Jinghua, whom he had been trying to contact during the past years. However, when he arrived at the place he used to work, he was informed that he had already left that job and was given his ID photo, which he later hid in one of his books. He thought then,that since Yang Jinghua lost everything and still didn't give up, he shouldn't lose hope so easily either. When he returned home, great-grandmother gave him the task of purifying a dumpyard as his first task after resuming his position.

On 28 March 2017, while performing an exorcism in that dumpyard, he witnessed the death of Yang Jinghua. He then decided to make him his spirit shadow, to keep his soul in this world in order to prevent the return of his demonic ancestor Duanmu Luoyue and to keep the promise of protecting Yang Jinghua, which he had made to both his parents and himself many years earlier.

## Synopsis-Story

Duanmu Xi exits his car as he searches for something. Later at night he finds it and battles the hostile spirits before becoming aware that Jinghua is also nearby.

## Appearance

Duanmu Xi bears a striking resemblance to his own ancestor Duanmu Luoyue. Coincidentally, the true form of Yang Jinghua, the soul image he chose, bears a physical resemblance to Luoyue's student Yang Ning, also known as Yang Zicheng. This causes some confusion to spirits as it seems that even in a millennia, the fate of both bloodlines still cross.

In the anime adaption his typical attire consists of a long-black hoodie, white button up shirt, black tie, black jeans, and a blue and black striped scarf draped over his shoulders. In the manhua he can be seen with several different attires.

He has white hair with silver eyes in the manhua and silver-gray eyes in the anime. In the anime his hair is slightly different with it kept short with two long bangs framing the sides of his face.

In the manhua Duanmu Xi is often shown with a cigarette and tends to smoke most of the time but this was taken away in the anime.

## Personality

Duanmu Xi is formal and calm when around others, and does not involve himself with small affairs, however when he is alone or around Yang Jinghua, he will show a softer, more gentle side of himself.

Duanmu Xi's half brother Duanmu Siming also points out that he has only ever seen the man smiling blissfully in front of Yang Jinghua.

However he can also appear to be quite heartless as shown when he fired Duanmu family's butler (in the anime adaption as this was not in the manhua), who has served them for a long time, after his son almost killed Yang Jinhua even though the butler begged him to forgive both his son and himself for the idiotic acts caused.

According to Yang Jinghua he is also quick witted and quick to solve problems. This was shown when Siming and Siyun along with the Situ family blamed Yang Jinghua for using the Luoyue sword without permission to hurt Situ Iv. He silenced all of them when he gave the sword to Yang Jingua to use it as his own.

He can seem stern, stoic and mature above his age due to the role he has to play as the master of the Duanmu household but in actuality, he is a normal teenager, and that side of himself is revealed several times in the manhua.

He is also shown as a sleepy head who is always sleeping if not eating. This seems to irritate Yang Jinghua as the former does not tend to get fat even with his lazy, inactive schedule. But the reason behind him doing so is that his life span is running out, causing him to become tired very easily.

## Relationships

**Yang Jinghua:** Yang Jinghua is the spirit shadow/ soul image of Duanmu Xi. He was chosen when he was hit by a truck and died on the spot. Duanmu Xi convinced Jinghua to be his spirit shadow when he told the latter that he will disappear within the seven days of his death or be turned into an evil spirit.

Duanmu Xi is shown to have a very gentle and caring side to Jinghua, often saying that he is the one thing that is important in Xi's life and the precious person he holds dear. He was visibly worried and unhesitatingly showed it when Jinghua told Xi that his soul was almost ripped apart by Situ Li. Xi yelled at him and told him that he should have called him. When an irritated Jinghua yelled back that he called for Xi several times in his head, Xi was flustered and even blushed at the fact.

Xi is able to sympathize with Jinghua at the fact that he knows what losing parents feels like and stated that he wanted to be Jinghua's family (in the anime).

Xi goes to great lengths to protect Jinghua. Giving him a new set of clothes to protect him from other powerful spirits (only seen in the anime, as the blue clothing is his new attire in the manhua) and sacrificing his own life to save his spirit shadow. He also cares a lot about Jinghua's feelings and emotions to the point where, while he was wounded and healing, he drove Jinghua to his home town on the seventh day of Jinghua's death, so that the boy can express his feelings and visit his friends one last time.

Xi and Jinghua's relationship is a running gag in both anime and manga as a "married couple" because of the soul contract that binds them both together for life. The ceremony for the contract is even similar to a wedding where they pledge their vows to each other.

**Qin Shiyao:** Qin Shiyao is meant to be Duanmu Xi's fiancee. They were arranged together by their family as she has a special body type that can heal Xi. Although Xi seems to be cold around her, he can also be seen caring for her in the manhua.

**Great-grandmother:** She is the grandmother of Xi. She was the one who chose Xi to be the head of the household solely because of his powerful spiritual energy and his skill that far besieged the talent of the actual two members of the Duanmu family.

**Duanmu Siming:** Duanmu Siming is Xi's half brother.

**Shenlong Zhangxuan****:** Shenlong Zhangxuan was the bodyguard and best friend of Duanmu Xi.

## Trivia-Etymology

* **Duanmu** means "end, carry, port, extremity, fringe, item, regular" (端) (**duan**) and "wood/wooden/made of wood, timber, tree" (木) (**mu**).
* **Xi** means "prosperous, ideal, splendiferous/splendid, excellent, florescent, flourishing, healthy, thriving, way-up" (熙).

## References

1. ↑ *Ling Qi* extra chapters of season 4 (after chapter 431)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 *Ling Qi* chapter 551-552
3. ↑ *Ling Qi* extra chapter after chapter 118
4. ↑ *Ling Qi* chapter 173, page 3