Yinzhe

### Title

Demon King of Jingling MountainDuanmu Yin's Shadow Spirit/ Soul image (formerly)

### Aliases

Lord/Master Yinzhe (by Yin Huayu)A-Zhe (by Duanmu Yin)

## Debuts

### Manhua Appearance

Chapter 9

*This entry is for the manhua character. See Youko Sennen for the anime/donghua equivalent.*

**Yinzhe** is a thousand-year-old fox demon, known as the demon king of Jingling mountain, where the Duanmu household is located. He was the shadow spirit of the 61st Yangming Master, Duanmu Yin, who was also the father of Duanmu Xi.

   Yinzhe was born as an ordinary red fox a thousand years ago, during the time that Duanmu Luoyue and Yang Ning Zicheng lived. While he was still a cub, he was caught in a hunter’s trap, along with the rest of the litter, but the hunter left him behind since he was quite small in size and his fur color was not pure. Although the trap had broken his legs, he was fortunate enough to be found by Yang Ning who brought him to Luoyue in order to treat his injuries. Luoyue thought that it would be a pity if the little fox died for nothing, so he used his spiritual powers, along with his medical skills, to save him, even though this could turn him into a demon in the future. When Luoyue finished his treatment it was the hour of Yin (寅, 3am-5am), so he named him Yinzhe (寅 哲). The next day, the guards, who had returned from a wolf hunt, gave Yang Ning the tooth of the pack’s leader, which he decided to tie around Yinzhe’s neck, so he wouldn’t be confused with other foxes. Even though Luoyue didn’t find it a good idea to keep a wild animal, he offered to help him tie the tooth, but while doing so, Yinzhe woke up, bit Luoyue’s finger and left. Since he was stained with his blood, Luoyue knew that it was Yinzhe’s fate to return to the Duanmu family in the future. After 300 years of cultivation and 600 years of transformation, Yinzhe was revered as the demon king in a thousand mile radius around Jingling Mountain.

   At some point, Duanmu Yin befriended Yinzhe and the two of them seemed to spent a lot of time together. After Yin became the Yangming Master, he wanted to make Yinzhe his spirit shadow, as he considered him the only one who accepted him as he was. Yinzhe initially refused, but Duanmu Yin tricked him by gifting him a knife, inside which he had hidden the soul-locking rings. When Yinzhe saw the rings, he tried to flee by transforming into his fox form, but Yin caught him and forcefully put them on his front legs. Yinzhe decided to accept his fate, since Yin didn't have much time left and was actually quite fond of him as well. That way, Duanmu Yin became the first Yangming Master in history that took a demon as a spirit shadow.

Before his death on the altar, Duanmu Yin removed the soul-locking rings from Yinzhe and asked him to make one last promise to him, which was to take care of Duanmu Xi. Yinzhe honored that promise, as he valued his relationship with Duanmu Yin greatly, and often visited and chatted with little Duanmu Xi in the place he lived with his mother and adopted sister. Yinzhe, however, didn't fully understand human nature and accidentally said some hurtful words to little Xi, like that he agreed with his mother and also thought that his father didn't really want him, thus contributing to Xi's depression and despair. When Xi committed suicide at the age of 9 and his mother exchanged her soul to bring his back from hell, Yinzhe used his thousand-year-old cultivation to restore his body, which left Xi pure white and gave him the ability to heal with impressive speed. After that, Xi was brought to the Duanmu household by his great-grandmother and became the 63rd Yangming Master shortly afterwards.

About 8 years later, Duanmu Xi was sent into a junkyard to perform an exorcism, where he witnessed the death of Yang Jinghua. Due to both Xi's past with him and Jinghua's link to the Duanmu family's demonic ancestor, Duanmu Luoyue, Xi decided to convince him to become his shadow spirit in order to prevent him from disappearing. Shortly after Duanmu Xi gave Yang Jinghua the soul-locking rings, a few demons and spirits, including Yinzhe's trusted and loyal follower Yin Huayu, went to meet the new shadow spirit. As Huayu was furious for losing her dream job to a random ghost, she challenged Jinghua to a fight, which she ultimately lost. After that, she immediately went to inform Yinzhe about Yang Jinghua and together they entered the Duanmu household grounds, so that Yinzhe could meet him himself. When they got him alone on the roof of Xi’s quarters, Yinzhe began insulting and provoking him, but was interrupted by Duanmu Xi who warned him to stay away from Yang Jinghua.

As Yinzhe didn’t get any answers about why Xi had suddenly decided to take a shadow spirit after swearing not to and why he had chosen such a weak guy instead of him, he resolved to test Yang Jinghua’s power in order to see what talents he was hiding. Since he had promised Xi not to harm him, he took some of his followers, including Yin Huayu and Long Yu, and inside a barrier he had created, he managed to pass them through the Duanmu household’s own barrier and trap Yang Jinghua inside it. The demons immediately started insulting and beating him, with Long Yu temporarily cutting his hand off his spiritual body and Yinzhe punching him after Jinghua touched the sensitive subject of Duanmu Yin. All this led Yang Jinghua to unlock his true power, break Yinzhe’s barrier and transform into his powerful adult form after taking the Luoyue sword. He then killed dozens of Yinzhe’s demons with it, while the rest of them escaped. When Yinzhe saw Jinghua’s adult form he finally understood what was so special about him. As he explained to Huayu, he was actually the descendant of the one-armed swordsman, Yang Ning Zicheng, a powerful exorcist who lived a thousand years ago and was feared even by the strongest of demons.

After that incident, Duanmu Xi gave the Luoyue sword to Yang Jinghua and also removed his distance restriction. While enjoying his new freedom, Yang Jinghua wandered off in the mountain, accidentally entering Yinzhe’s territory. There, he was confronted by Long Yu, who tried to attack him but was immediately stopped by Yinzhe. Yinzhe then teased Jinghua by taking the Luoyue sword from him and began asking him about how Xi had found out that he was related to Yang Ning, since they seemed to have never met before and he wasn’t aware of anyone else close to Xi that had lived that long to remember Yang Ning. Yang Jinghua, however, was as clueless as Yinzhe.

At some point, Yang Jinghua befriended Little Stone, a jade spirit that had come to Jingling mountain hoping to meet the Yangming Master. Duanmu Xi, however, had no plans to meet him, since spirits’ intentions were usually not good. One day, while Little Stone was washing his clothes, Yinzhe found him and threw him off a cliff, despite Jinghua’s pleas, resulting in his death. Jinghua then attacked Yinzhe, and the two of them started fighting. Duanmu Xi came in time and Yinzhe lost the fight against him, but he had injured Jinghua in such a way that his soul nearly disappeared and Luoyue almost came out of his seal.

Later, Yang Jinghua complained to Duanmu Xi about not training him in anything and that he needed to become stronger so that he could at least beat Yinzhe. Duanmu Xi then thought that the best solution to this would be to let Yinzhe train Yang Jinghua, since Xi didn’t like or was good at teaching others. At first they both refused with Yinzhe just beating him all day, but after Duanmu Xi made a joint contract with Jinghua, resulting in Xi sharing the spiritual damage that was inflicted on him, Yinzhe was forced to stop bullying him so that he wouldn’t harm Duanmu Xi. From then on he began training Yang Jinghua seriously, teaching him how to make talismans, giving him homework and making him pass tests every month. Their relationship improved so much that he even started saying his name correctly, as well as giving him advice about his bond with Duanmu Xi. Yin Huayu also thanked Duanmu Xi for making him Jinghua’s teacher, as he seemed a lot happier after taking on that role.

When Shenlong Xiren ambushed the Duanmu household with his forces in order to retrieve Shenlong Zhangxuan’s body, Yinzhe and his demons tried to halt their escape by breaking their cars and blocking their way. Duanmu Xi then showed up and used the Heavenly Call spell to command the spirits and demons of Jingling mountain to stop the Shenlongs from escaping. To fight back, Xiren used the Dry Moon Mirror to suck Duanmu Xi's power and then hypnotized the spirits, causing them to succumb to their desire for Duanmu Xi's power and attack him. Yinzhe got hypnotized as well and acted on that deepest desire of his by saying that Duanmu Xi’s body and soul belonged to him and then biting his shoulder, until Yang Jinghua appeared and punched him away from Xi. Jinghua then started fighting Xiren, forcing him to leave Zhangxuan with Yu, while he would try to buy some time for them to escape with their remaining forces. Yang Jinghua, then, made a real two-way soul contract with Duanmu Xi and their combined power broke the Dry Moon Mirror, leaving Xiren defeated.

After that incident, Yinzhe went into hiding for a few months inside his mountain cave so he could recover, which he couldn't do so easily after losing his thousand-year-old cultivation. He also told Yin Huayu that he didn’t want to see anyone, especially Yang Jinghua, as he was too ashamed of himself for getting hypnotized and doing something like that to Duanmu Xi, as if he were a typical demon. During his recovery Huayu kept him informed about the affairs related to Duanmu Xi and Yang Jinghua.