Ling Xiao

**Ling Xiao** is Ling Lan's father and Lan Luofeng's husband. He is the youngest and most talented God-Class Operator in the history of the Huaxia Federation.

## Personality

In public, he displays a fake, bright persona with a smile that makes even men blush. Secretly, he is calculating. In front of his family, however, he is doting, protective, and slightly foolish. He is a "Twenty-four Filial Exemplars Dad", which basically means he sees everything his daughter does as perfect. He is an extremely low-key person, deeply hiding his true strength and abilities, only showing what he wants to the outside world.

## History

### First death's legacy

Before the events of the story, he was sent on a mission to destroy a planet of tactical importance, Planet Zuojing, in which he went missing and was declared dead while travelling through a meteor field tunnel, leaving behind his pregnant wife. The Federation declared that his death was set up by the Twilight Empire, causing the fighting between the two countries to escalate. It was later revealed that Twilight held such a deep grudge against Ling Xiao due to the fact that their secret newly-advanced God-class mecha operator, Gongteng Yuanwang, was killed by him, as he was on Planet Zuojing when Ling Xiao destroyed it. Ling Xiao was not aware of this.

In the eyes of the public, he is a role model for every soldier of the Federation and is heavily worshipped by them. This is partially due to the fact that after his "death", the government released the information that he was a God-class operator (prior to that, the information had been kept under wraps) to increase morale. There are people in the high ranks of the Federation that are out to kill him due to his political ambitions and influence in the military. He has also been noted to be very handsome.

In the eyes of most in the military, his affiliation is with the First Marshal. However, he actually isn't part of the First Marshal's faction.

### Legacy space

Ling Xiao's legacy space, containing a spiritual memory-entity in his image, was left in Doha Central Scout Academy's virtual world. Ling Lan eventually discovered it during her stay there, and, after passing its tests, inherited some of Ling Xiao's techniques from it. She also became more familiar with Ling Xiao, although it was a memory entity.

### Return

Ling Xiao eventually returned to the Federation after escaping from the other dimension that he had gone missing for 17 years. Upon returning, Ling Xiao was also promoted to the rank of General and given command of the 23rd Division. Before reuniting with his family, he ensured that Ling Lan would be enrolled in First Men's Military Academy, ruining Ling Lan and Lan Luofeng's plan to reveal Ling Lan's identity as a female upon graduating (at the time, Ling Xiao believed Ling Lan was a son as he had only seen documents on Ling Lan).

During Ling Lan's stay in First Men's Military Academy, Ling Xiao stayed in the 23rd Division to develop it, although he occasionally visited Ling Lan. During Mission Nestling, Ling Xiao returned to First Men's Military Academy and saved Ling Lan and most of the students from Twilight mecha operators who had been sent to kill the Federation's talents.

After Ling Lan joined 23rd Division, Ling Xiao supported her in the background, but it was primarily her own merits and actions that got her rank and status.

### Re-ignition of war

After the uprooting of foreign spy organizations, including the Twilight Empire's, in the Huaxia Federation's military, outrage was sparked and the Federation declared war on Twilight, using Ling Xiao's name as part of it since one factor was the already dismal public opinion of Twilight in the Federation due to their scheme resulting in his disappearance.

During the war against Twilight, Ling Lan and her Lingtian Independent Army on Base Nebula were cornered by one of Twilight's Three Mecha Lords, Lord Jindao. Despite knowing this was a trap, Ling Xiao came to her rescue and killed Lord Jindao. However, the Caesar Empire, which had not officially entered the war, sent God-class operators to kill Ling Xiao. Caesar sent their Profound God-class operator, Monarch Fury. Meanwhile, Supreme Dragon noticed Ling Xiao's ability as a Pseudo Profound God-class, and set off to help, as a talent that could potentially reach Profound God-class would be invaluable to the Federation. Ren Feiyu also arrived, but did not help Ling Xiao, as he had other plans. Ling Xiao was unable to defeat Monarch Fury on his own and self-destructed in the view of Ling Lan.

Ren Feiyu then used a talent-replicating device to copy what he believed to be Ling Xiao's only innate talent, Duplication. However, he copied Ling Xiao's Devour talent instead, resulting in Ling Xiao's Devour core devouring his consciousness and taking over his body.

The news of Ling Xiao's death caused widespread sorrow in the Federation.

## Abilities

### Innate talent

* Duplication - This innate talent of Ling Xiao was like a cheating device, greatly shortening the time needed to acclimatize. As long as Ling Xiao wanted a skill, just observing it once would do.
* Devour

### Domain

When Ling Xiao advanced to domain, he activated a dual-domain. One of the domains is described as gentle and warm like a spring breeze which makes the opponent lethargic and weakens his will to fight. The other domain is described to be a force with an edge of sharpness to it.

## Equipment

* Belief: A god-class mecha. Specifically tailored with features for his spouse. Has a powerful force field and an ability to spread 12 wings, with each wing spread the mecha gets stronger.

* Virtual World:
	+ A few God Class and Imperial Mechas
	+ <Wind’s Shadow>: Super-fast, all around, Imperial Mecha. (This is the worst Mecha Ling Xiao owns in the Virtual World.)

## Relationships

### Ling Lan

As Ling Lan is Ling Xiao's daughter, he is extremely loving and doting towards her. Compared to their fathers, as stated by Ling Lan's little gang, Ling Xiao is a real father while theirs picked them off the street. Despite this doting, Ling Xiao truly wants Ling Lan to progress and can be very strict and serious when teaching her.

### Lan Luofeng

Lan Luofeng is Ling Xiao's spouse, and he fell in love with Lan Luofeng when she was a JMC.

## Trivia

* As he is also Mu Shui-qing's disciple, he can be considered Ling Lan's senior brother despite them being father and daughter.
* He named his mecha "Belief" because he loved Lan Luofeng, who wished to see a world flourishing, with beautiful scenery. In order to make Lan Luofeng's dream become a reality, he configured the mecha so that when she entered his mecha, she would be in the virtual world, and see beautiful scenery, flourishing with life.
* According to Ling Lan, he has a "voice kink", as that was what attracted him to his now-wife, Lan Luofeng (who was, at the time, 16 years old, while he was 20+).
* He is the only God-Class Operator who operates a balanced-type mecha.

## References

1. ↑ Chp 269
2. ↑ Chp 445
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 114
4. ↑ Chapter 1213
5. ↑ Ch445
6. ↑ Chapter 199
7. ↑ Chp 104
8. ↑ Chp 460