Liu Tao Xiang

**Liu Tao Xiang** is a leader of the Sephiroth Nightfall under the code name Beta Mulan, she is a descendant of Liu Bei from the Three Kingdoms era of AxA universe. She is also one of Jellal's lovers, later wives.

## Appearance

Liu Tao Xiang is an outstandingly beautiful and cute young woman of Chinese descent with waist length pink hair which some of her hair is tied in Odango twin tail hair style with ribbons and blue eyes. She has voluptuous breasts and slim waist similar to Guan Aisha.

## Personality

Liu Tao Xiang has immense kindness and compassion, having a sweet, polite, cheerful and childish personality. Being a natural air head, Liu Tao Xiang is quite clumsy, though she can be surprisingly insightful at times. Like her ancestor, Liu Tao Xiang has benevolent charisma stemming from her devotion towards her friends and selfless compassion towards others. Her sheer charisma and loving personality allow her to gain powerful friendship with many individuals such as Aisha, Meiya, Xue Lian, Ming Lin, Zhou Xing, Temujin and Borte who were smitten by her wisdom and courage

Due to her mother's influence, Tao Xiang has immense interest in Chinese painting and calligraphy since childhood. Even during her days training in the Wudang Mountains as a Taoist priestess, she would spent her free time in between training and meditation sessions to practise painting and calligraphy.

In addition to her passion for art, Tao Xiang is a gourmet who love to cook due to her enjoyment of delicious food. She considered cooking an art and her second greatest love after painting and calligraphy

She also love dancing, being passionately interested in Chinese folk dance and also from her mentor Longyan's influence sword dancing.

Tao Xiang is also a collector of Huishan clay figurines and was quite proud of her collection as she is shocked when Jellal disagree on them being cute.

## History

Liu Tao Xiang was born in Wuhan, Hubei province in China to a family of scholars. As a child, she enjoyed Chinese painting and calligraphy due to the influence of her mother a professional artist. One day, Liu Tao Xiang awakened her Sacred Gear which her father Liu Bei a sinologist who is well-versed in researching Chinese Taoist mythology and folklore managed to identified it as one of the Four Fiends Taowu. Hoping to help Liu Tao Xiang control her Sacred Gear, her parents left her under the care of a Zhengyi Taoist monastery in the Wudang Mountains, where she met and befriended Guan Aisha and her younger sister Meiya. As Liu Tao Xiang underwent intense physical and spiritual training as a Taoist disciple under Huang Longyan, she became extremely talented in Senjutsu and swordsmanship in addition to mastering her Sacred Gear. During a Taoist pilgrimage to Mount Longhu with Longyan and Aisha, she befriended Tao Hongjing and Zhou Ming Lin.

## Power and Abilities

**Master Swordswoman**: Liu Tao Xiang has immense talent and skills in swordsmanship with great creativity and versatility. She learnt and quickly mastered Wudang swordsmanship under Longyan's tulage and later developed her own sword style by observing and modifying Longyan's Chiyou Priestess Sword Dance to suit her own strengths and weaknessness. She can also dual wield both Sun Dragon Moon Phoenix Sword and Black Emperor True Martial Sword when using her Balance Breaker.

* **Peach Fragrance Sword Dance**: Liu Tao Xiang's personal sword style, derived from Longyan's Chiyou Priestess Sword Dance, modified to suit her personal constitution as a human.

**Master Hand to Hand Combatant:** Tao Xiang is also a skilled and versatile master hand to hand combatant due to her intensive training in Wudang Kung Fu, having mastered both Tai Chi and Baguazhang. Tao Xiang frequently incorporated quick and flexible footwork and movements of Tai Chi or Baguazhang into her fighting style to attack and evade with superior dexterity, balance and coordination. In combination with Touki and Senjutsu, she can also utilised fast and powerful punches, kicks or palm strikes in physical combat.

**Immense Speed**: Liu Tao Xiang is extremely fast and agile due to her training as a Taoist priestess. When combined with Touki, and flowing, flexible, dynamic footwork, she can move at tremendous speed, vastly overwhelming ordinary supernatural beings.

**Master Magician**: Liu Tao Xiang is highly skilled and talented in Taoist Magic. She can use magic to store away her weapons and equipment in another dimension and summon it back when she needed it. She can also use magic to fly.

* Elemental Magic: Tao Xiang excels in Taoist elemental magic, such as fire, water, earth, wind and lightning. Tao Xiang can use elemental spells for long range elemental attacks or imbued into her sword for enhanced offensive power.
* Summoning Magic: Tao Xiang can use summoning magic to summon a moon rabbit Yeyu and two Sacred Beasts, Tenghuang and Feilian

**Senjutsu Master**: Liu Tao Xiang has extraordinary talent and skill in Senjutsu which she learned and mastered through countless amount of intensive and dedicated practise of Taoist Qigong, being described by Guan Aisha to be superior to herself.

* **Breathing Empowerment**: Similar to Jellal, Liu Tao Xiang used Qigong breathing meditation as the main basis for her Senjutsu training to effectively absorb almost endless oxygen based Ki from nature to strengthen her life force and her body during breathing meditation. She has further refined her breathing technique to constantly and efficiently maximize intake of oxygen based ki within a specific breath pattern during battle to enhanced her physical prowess, life force and concentration to her utmost limits.
* **Touki**: Liu Tao Xiang covers herself in an aura of ki, increasing her strength, defense, and speed. Using her unique Qigong breathing techniques, she can momentarily enhanced her touki. Her Touki is described as delicate yet intensely powerful for a human.

**Master Artist**: Liu Tao Xiang has outstanding artistic talent in Chinese painting and calligraphy,

* **Master Painter**: Tao Xiang is an extremely rare genius painter of Chinese guohua tradition. She studied art by refering to the works of Guo Xi, Song Huizong, Tang Yin, Shen Zhou, Kun Can, Zheng Xie, Giuseppe Castiglione, Ren Xiong, Lin Haisu, Huang Binhong and Zhang Daqian. Being greatly influenced by Western art, Tao Xiang painted in a style that is a fusion of European and Chinese traditions incorporating both Chinese and Western painting techniques in her artworks. Aisha a great painter herself admitted that Tao Xiang surpassed her in terms of artistic creativity and innovation. She is an outstanding all rounder master of different genres and themes including figures, landscapes, bird and flower and is especially talented in animal paintings such as cats, dogs, tigers, deers, pandas, carps, and rabbits. Tao Xiang is also an extremely gifted master forger of Chinese paintings, having an uncanny talent to perfectly mimic the styles and brushwork of various guohua masters, and have successfully make exact duplicates of the works of many master artists including Zhao Mengfu, Xu Wei, Dong Qichang, Kun Can, Shi Tao, Wang Shimin, Fu Baoshi, Ren Bonian, Xu Beihong and Zhang Daqian, her favourite painter.
* **Master Calligrapher**: Tao Xiang is also a magnificent calligrapher of the Epistles school of Chinese calligraphy which she learned by refering to Zhong Yao and Ouyang Xun as the foundation of her calligraphy then studied the calligraphy of Su Shi, Mi Fu, Huang Tingjian, Zhao Mengfu and Zhu Yumming to improved her skills. Her specialties in Chinese calligraphy are regular script, semi-cursive script, cursive script and wild-cursive script.

**Expert Scholar:** Though not as academically talented as Aisha, Tao Xiang is a skilled scholar and sinologist, specialized in researching Chinese art and the culture and literature of the Song Dynasty .

* **Literary Expert:** Like her father, Tao Xiang is a scholar of Chinese literature particularly specialized in Song Dynasty literature. She had improved her literary knowledge by extensively reading and copying countless different Chinese prose and poetry texts while practising her calligraphy. Overall, Tao Xiang is particularly knowledgeable in the poetry of Su Shi and Li Qingzhao, Gods and demons fiction, Xianxia literature, the Dream of the Red Chamber and the works of Bing Xin, her favourite writer. As an otaku of Japanese manga, Tao Xiang is also greatly knowledgeable of manga stories.

**Master Chef:** Having learnt from her mother and mentor Longyan, Tao Xiang is a culinary prodigy and genius chef with immense talent in Chinese cuisine. Jellal even believed it is impossible for him to surpass her when it comes to cooking Chinese food. Tao Xiang is extraordinarily innovative, combine modern cooking methods and equipment such as pressure cooking and conventional oven or culinary techniques and ingredients from foreign cultures with traditional Chinese gastronomy. Zhu Zhong Feng a master cook himself who specialized in the same cuisine was so impressed by her unbelievably delicious cooking, he asked to be her disciple. She also learned many recipes of Chinese aristocratic cuisine and Chinese imperial cuisine from Gongsun Sheng who acknowledge her cooking talent. Tao Xiang’s culinary specialities are Beijing cuisine, Shanghai cuisine and Henan cuisine. Tao Xiang is also a genius in Chinese based fusion cuisine.

* **Coiled Dragon and Yellow Croaker:** A famous Chinese dish invented by Lady Sun, one of Liu Bei's wives made from yellow croaker, sea cucumbers and eggs. The recipe was passed down in the Liu Family, it is one of Tao Xiang's favourite foods.
* **Congee:** Tao Xiang is good at cooking congee using traditional Chinese recipes or new modern recipes. Some include congee with medicinal benefits.
	+ **Vegetarian Congee:** A vegetarian Chinese style congee which consist of shiitake mushrooms, black wood ear fungus, carrots, lotus seeds, tofu and bamboo shoots cooked in white rice porridge and flavoured with cinammon or salt depending on personal preference.
	+ **Chicken and Shrimp Congee:** A Chinese style congee of white rice, bite sized piece of chicken and deshelled prawns cooked in a stock made from garlic, ginger, chicken bones and prawn shells. Garnished with youtiao.
	+ **Three Eggs Congee:** A congee made of a mixture of a duck egg, a chicken egg and a goose egg beaten together and drizzle into a boiling pot of plain congee cooked until done. Garnished with spring onions and grated radish. It is simple yet rich in flavour.
* **Lotus Chicken Soup:** A soup made of lotus roots, lotus seeds, goji berries and chicken.
* **Extra Spicy Chongqing Hot Pot:** Tao Xiang's homemade Chongqing hot pot which is very spicy made using Tao Xiang's custom made mala seasoning consist of sichuan pepper, chili pepper, douban jiang, sansho, sesame seed, cloves, chenpi, garlic, ginger, lemon zest, sea salt and honey, briefly fry and simmered in olive oil and butter, beef bone broth mixed with kombu dashi, served with an assortment of seafood, meat, mushrooms and vegetables. The complex and intense spiciness have a rich flavour.
* **Chinese Style Seafood Fried Rice:** Seafood fried rice made in the Chinese tradition, Tao Xiang's version consist of sliced grass carp fillets, squid, and shrimps stir fried in vegetable oil with chopped scallions and garlic before adding salt and a ladle of huangjiu as seasoning, cooked rice and beaten eggs are added last stir fried until ready.
* Eight Treasure Duck
* Taibai Duck:
* Sweet Potato Root and Leaves Soup: A variation of patriotic soup made using both sweet potato roots and sweet potato leaves cooked in a vegetable broth. It is simple with delicate fragrance, the roots are sweet while the leaves are soft and delicious.
* Lamian: Tao Xiang is versatile and creative master in making lamian, differing from traditional Chinese methods of making lamian, Tao Xiang adapt the Japanese technique of making buckwheat soba into soft wheat lamian noodles by using Japanese menkiri knife to precisely slice wheat dough to form lamian similar to fresh soba noodles. Tao Xiang also came up with a variety of soup bases for lamian
* Baitang Chicken Soy Sauce Lamian: Chinese lamian version of tori paitan ramen Tao Xiang came up with, the soup is made by mixing broth made from pressure cooking chicken bones, conpoy and garlic, mixed with shiitake dashi and seasoned with Chinese soy sauce. Served with knife cut lamian noodles, topped with boiled carrots, shiitake mushrooms, cloud ear mushroom, and sliced poached chicken.
* Hokkien Lamian Soup: Based on the Hokkien mee of Malaysian Chinese cuisine, prawns heads and shells, garlic and ginger are first roasted in the oven then pressure cooked with pork bones to make the broth
* Mapo Tofu: Tao Xiang's homemade mapo tofu which she made an improve version of the authentic recipe, by stir frying a mixture of minced pork and beef in vegetable oil with chili oil, doubanjiang, chili flakes, plenty of sichuan pepper, sliced oyster mushroom and shiitake mushrooms. Tender tofu is added along with shiitake dashi mixed with starch and huangjiu and brought to a boil. The usage of mixing both pork and beef produce a new savoury taste, while the mushrooms also goes well with the mala seasoning further complement the fresh silken tofu.
* Gongbao Diced Chicken: Tao Xiang’s homemade Gongbao diced chicken, a slightly altered version of the original Sichuan recipe, diced deboned chicken thighs stir fried with peanuts, dried chili pepper, vinegar, tianmian sauce, doubanjiang, Shaoxing wine, spring onions, garlic, ginger and five spice powder.
* Four Substance Decotion Mutton Curry: A medicinal curry made using Four Substance Decotion as base consist of Chinese peony root, rehmannia, Chinese angelica and Szechuan lovage mixed with curry spice blend of tumeric, star anise, fennel seeds
* Stir-fried tomato and scrambled eggs with Mozzarella cheese: A variation of stir fried tomato and scrambled eggs which Mozzarella cheese and basil are added and seasoned with olive oil. This dish is inspired by Caprese salad.
* Jiaozi: Tao Xiang's homemade Jiaozi, which she have come up with several variations.
* Sun Yatsen Four Substance Jiaozi: Jiaozi made from minced pork mixed with finely sliced long yellow daylily, bean sprouts, black ear fungus and mashed tofu wrapped in dumpling skin. It can be steamed or boiled.
* Soy Tofu Cream Stew: A variation of cream stew Tao Xiang came up with, made using soy milk, chicken, mixed vegetables such as onion, carrot, potato, cabbage, tofu, cloud ear mushroom and shiitake mushrooms cooked in white roux and Jinhua ham broth
* Mirepoix Jiaozi:
* Mutton and Fish Jiaozi: Jiaozi made from mixing minced mutton and surimi fish paste, chives and lavender flowers.
* Fujian Style Seafood Soup: Seafood soup in Fujian tradition made of grass carp fillets, deshelled shrimps and oysters cooked in a fish bone broth with shiitake mushrooms and bamboo shoots
* Chinese Style Beef Stew: Inspired by French pot-au-feu, a stew made using beef brisket and chuck, Jinhua ham and Chinese sausage, sauteed vegetables such as carrots, onions, leeks and turnips are added alongside huangjiu and soy sauce with parsley, thyme and bay.
* Dim Sum: Though not at her mentor and Bailong's level, Tao Xiang is highly skilled and talented in making dim sum.

Master Brewer: Tao Xiang is also a tea master, having learnt tea brewing skills from Aisha and Lao Fu Zi a Chinese tea master from Wuyi mountain.

**Master Dancer:** Tao Xiang is an outstanding dancer, being completely self-taught in Chinese folk dance and sword dancing. She is a versatile dancer, able to dance agilely and vigorously or gently and beautifully in a soothing rhythm. Her dancing skills also extends to sword dancing, developed a personal style inspired by her mentor dance based swordsmanship, able to efficiently coordinate Qigong breathing techniques with graceful and flexible movements to significantly increase the strength and speed of her sword dancing which later became the basis for her Peach Fragrance Sword Dance.

Expert Farmer: Tao Xiang is a very proficient farmer as a hobby.

## Equipment

**Unnamed Sacred Gear**: Liu Tao Xiang possessed one of the Four Fiends Sacred Gear which carries the spirit of Taowu/Toukotsu, the Fiend of Ignorance of AxA universe which she named Xue-Lei (雪雷). It also has the power to create a large amount of electricity.

* Xiong Tian Xuannu Divine Dance: Tao Xiang's Sub species Balance Breaker, which she resonate her soul with Taowu, merging with it, taking on the form of a bipedal human/tiger hybrid with several tails. In this form, she gain immense physical strength and speed along with enormous electricity based powers which she can channeled into her tails or her dual swords to attack.

**Sun Dragon Moon Phoenix Sword** (陽龍月凰剣, *Hiryu Getsuou Ken*): Liu Tao Xiang's main weapon, one of Ou Jiang's best masterpieces of Spirit Swords, created by combining his craftsmanship with Taoist Magic using damascus steel mixed with an Eastern Dragon's scales and a Fenghuang's feathers. In addition to supernatural sharpness and durability, it is also imbued with powerful Yin-Yang abilities.

**Black Emperor True Martial Sword** (黒帝真武剣, *Kokutei Shinbu Ken*): Liu Tao Xiang's secondary weapon, another of Ou Jiang's best masterpieces of Spirit Swords created by combining his craftsmanship with Taoist Magic using a meteorite, being one of the Wu Xing series, possessing the power of the Metal Phase, Black Emperor True Martial Sword has tremendous tenacity and durability which Ou Jiang proudly claimed it can even withstand a Dragon stomping upon it without breaking or bending. It also emit a metal based spiritual aura which has the power to deflect physical and magical attacks. Its overall sharpness enhanced by its metal based spiritual aura is great enough to cut various supernatural beings with little effort.

Magic Jade Amulet Necklace: A magic Yupei jade amulet necklace Luther crafted, the jade amulet is designed after a tiger. Imbued with powerful magic which bestowed enhanced physical and magical prowess on its wearer. Luther also further improved it with healing spells for healing injuries and recovering stamina.

Magic Bracelets: A pair of Fengshui bracelets made of black obsidian beads and Pixiu shaped gold pendant crafted by Luther, enchanted with magic. It vastly enhanced physical strength and punching power when worn, allowing Tao Xiang to apply greater superhuman strength in her swordsmanship, punches and palm strikes.

**Magic Sneakers:** A pair of white sneakers adorned with a gold dragon symbol which Luther enchanted with magic. It vastly enhanced speed and kicking power when worn. Luther also synthesised monster leather and his special alchemical synthetic fabric into the shoes with alchemy, significantly improving its durability.

## Trivia

* Tao Xiang's favourite cuisines are Chinese cuisine particularly Henan cuisine and Shanghai cuisine, Japanese cuisine and Taiwanese cuisine.
* Liu Tao Xiang's favourite food are;
	+ Coiled dragon and yellow croaker
	+ Bianjing roast duck
	+ Red braised pork belly
	+ Steamed Wuchang fish
	+ Carp with baked noodles
	+ Peking duck
	+ Grass carp
	+ Peach
	+ Tofu dishes particularly mapo tofu and agedashi tofu
	+ Egg tarts
	+ Tshuah-ping
	+ Shengjian mantou
	+ Hot dry noodles
	+ Sampan congee
	+ Pork ribs soup with lotus root
	+ Chicken soup with bamboo shoots and mushrooms
	+ Beggar chicken
	+ Squirrel fish
* Liu Tao Xiang's favourite drink are;
	+ Plum juice
	+ Milk
	+ Soy milk
	+ Sugarcane juice
	+ Green tea particularly Longjing tea and Gyokuro
	+ Jasmine tea
	+ Chrysanthemum tea
	+ Oolong tea particularly Da Hong Pao and Dong Ding tea

* As a sinologist, Tao Xiang have an affinity for Song Dynasty culture.
* In addition to Liu Bei of the Three Kingdoms era, Tao Xiang is also revealed to be a descendant of the Song Dynasty Imperial Clan via her mother who is a direct descendant of Zhao Mengfu.
* As a guohua painter, Tao Xiang held immense admiration for Zhang Daqian who was hailed as one of greatest painters of China during the 20th century.
* As scholar of Chinese literature, Tao Xiang is a great fan of Song Dynasty literature particularly the works of Liu Yong, Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi and Li Qingzhao. She is also a great fan of Bing Xin whose writings she had read since childhood.
* Tao Xiang is also a huge fan of the Dream of the Red Chamber, and is particularly interested in the Red Chamber cuisine featured in the novel, which she wished to try recreate.
* Tao Xiang likes to read Japanese manga which she saw as good inspiration for her art. At first she read Chinese translations of Japanese mangas she bought from Taiwan before switch to reading Japanese manga in the original Japanese language on the internet which in the process she also self-taught herself how to read Japanese.