Yang Jinghua

Grandfather †

Yang Zicheng (Ancestor) †

Duanmu Xi (Yangming Master)

*This entry is for the manhua character. See You Keika for the anime/donghua equivalent.*

**Yang Jinghua** (杨敬华) is one of the central protagonists of Soul Contract.

Yang Jinghua was born on **December 1** , 1993 and died in a fatal car accident on **March 28, 2017** at the age of **23**. After that he became a spirit and eventually the Spirit Shadow/ Soul Image of the 63rd Yangming Master Duanmu Xi. During the time of being the Soul Image, he took his task of being by his master's side diligently, similar to his ancestor Yang Ning also known as Yang Zicheng.

## Synopsis-Story

The manhua starts when Yang Jinghua is on the streets trying to attract customers to his fortune telling business, and as he leaves to go back home, he sees a handsome young man with white hair leave his car. One of his elder friends, a woman in her mid 20-30 asks whether she has a chance with the good looking guy who later is known as Duanmu Xi. Aside from that, he has a part time job at a computer repair shop. One day, when he is at the dumpster to find parts for repairing a broken Wacom, he encounters Duanmu Xi, the man from earlier that day, fighting an evil spirit with his supernatural powers (Though it is not shown what the spirit looks like). Duanmu Xi is surprised how Jinghua can see the spiritual power.

Later on in the evening, he gets hit by a truck and is killed. He wakes up later on in a hospital, and Xi is waiting there for him. He appears to have turned 10 years younger overnight. At first he doesn't believe it, vows revenge on the driver who killed him and tries to reincarnate himself by waiting next to the room where a woman is giving birth (only seen in the anime).

Whilst his head is stuck in a wall, he spots another spirit of a young girl and freaks out. she then commences to attack them, but is vanquished by Xi. Xi persuades Jinghua to become his soul image. (Only seen in the anime)

They encounter a bunch of spirits who bow down to Jinghua, but with the hidden motive to steal the power he has now gained. In a face off with Huayu, it is revealed that he has exorcist powers, making him a formidable enemy. It is also shown that Jinghua and Xi can communicate via their thoughts, and Jinghua proves that by cursing Xi in his head.

Soon after, Xi receives a call to pick up someone at the airport, who turns out to be Qin Shiyao/Shin Shiyou, Xi's fiancee. When they drop her off, Xi receives another call to tell her to come for dinner, so Jinghua is sent up to her apartment to tell her the news. However, the Qin Shiyao he encounters is very different to the one he saw earlier. As they are talking, they get attacked by evil spirits and are trapped in a soul barrier. Just as Qin Shiyao gets possessed by the spirits and tries to kill Jinghua, Duanmu Xi rescues them and gives Jinghua a spirit energy sword, but not before Jinghua senses the pain that Shiyao feels of being ignored by Xi, so when Xi interrogates her for why she was possessed, Jinghua covers for her. Xi decides that both of them should go to his house as it is too dangerous. when they arrive, Jinghua is shocked by the size of the grounds, and gets the feeling he was married into the family when the fabulous granny introduces herself to him.

Later that evening, he discovers that Xi is moody in bed, so he goes outside, where Huayu in her big form, goes to meet him and introduce Lord Yingzhe to him, who mocks him for his lack of power and trust that Xi has for him, however Xi interrupts the meeting and sends Jinghua to the room. Later, when Xi comes back, Jinghua asks whether he won, but is shot down. He hears that Yingzhe was Xi's father's Soul Image.

Duanmu Xi then changes into a ceremonial outfit and asks Jinghua to put on a veil-like thing for the official ceremony where they announce the contract, and Xi gives him a braided hair tie. As they are walking to the altar, Jinghua overhears some spectators talking about how powerful Xi's is, which terrifies Jinghua. He gets confused when Xi asks if he can feel anything from the Luoyue sword, but he can't feel anything. The ceremony commences. Duanmu xi shows Jinghua his eight birth date characters, and before he can read out the embarrassing vow, it is interrupted by Situ Li, but he is taken away. Xi immediately goes to bed, and Yang Jinghua gets this sense of foreboding.

Later on in the day, a butler, who is actually revealed to be Situ Li's father, apologizes for his son's rudeness and begs Jinghua to look after him. He takes a liking to this butler, as he treats him respectfully and calls him "Young Master Yang". not so soon after, he is interrupted by a loud noise, and he turns around to see Qin Shiyao being kicked out of Duanmu Xi's room. She snaps at him for being able to enter and leave as he pleases. He goes in. (Only seen in the anime)

He begins to talk to Xi and tells him he has a terrible personality. He responds by saying that the weak cling onto the strong to survive and that it's how the wold works. This triggers Jinghua and he climbs onto Xi, reminding him that he is one of the people after his power. He openly speaks about the opportunities he could get if he did take it away. Duanmu Xi unexpectedly answers Jinghua by telling him a way to curse him, by using his exact birth date. However, this comes with a catch - If Xi dies then Jinghua will be completely erased from existence. He flips out, realizing that there is basically no way to fight him.

He also figures out that Duanmu is actually 17, and underage, which infuriates him even further (he tries to get Xi to call him big brother lol). Xi sticks a spoon if the stuff that Shiyao brought for him earlier. Jinghua tries to touch it, but he passes through it, confusing him. Xi explains that he can only touch things using him as a medium, making Jinghua realize that without Xi, he can't do anything. During this conversation, Jinghua finds out that Xi is a vegetarian (Only seen in the anime). This really ticks him off, and Xi kicks him out of the room for being too noisy. Jinghua then finds himself being threatened to reveal Xi's eight characters by Situ Li.

To be continue...

## Appearance

After being killed in the car accident and becoming a spirit, Jinghua took an appearance of a young teenage boy. He initially sported a green outfit with a long vest and white pants. Duanmu Xi later gifts him another outfit, a light blue Changshan with white boots and a white hair ribbon.

In his true form, he bears a striking resemblance to Yang Zicheng, growing taller with longer hair. Even some demons who lived for a millennia were shocked by Jinghua's true form. Ironically, the exorcist he serves, Duanmu Xi bears a physical resemblance to Duanmu Luoyue.

Due to being in a modern era, Jinghua's attire is different from his ancestor. In the manhua, his attire consist of a modern dark Changshan shirt, white long pants, dark purple trench coat with arm guards and black boots. His Luoyue Sword was attached to his waist. In terms of color, his attire was mostly dark colors, in contrast to Duanmu's light colors.

In the third arc, Jinghua is seen wearing red robes with gold accents and his hair tie is now stained red. In his post-transformation stage after trying to save Xi from explosion debris, his hair is no long tied up and freely hangs below his waist. Jinghua’s wears a jet black tank top and pants. Black bandages adorn his forearms and boots and he wears a midnight blue gradient scarf with wave patterns at the ends. Similarly, the robes at his waist also share the same clothing pattern.

In his demonic form, Jinghua’s body is marred with demonic red markings and prominent fangs can be observed in his mouth. His nails are sharpened, adapting a dark purple/blue gradient.

## Personality

Yang Jinghua is a very goofy, silly character who, as he works with Duanmu Xi, matures into a loyal fighter. Because of his innocent and carefree personality, Duanmu Xi finds it easy to trust and open up to him.

However, he was proved to have a scary and ruthless side, in which he humiliates Situ Li for hurting Duamu Xi in a frightful matter by slicing off his shirt and giving a hefty punishment in the end of the battle (giving him a bald spot on the head in the manhua; sending him flying in the anime).

## Abilities

**Exorcism:** Being part of the Yang Family and descendant of Yang Zicheng, he is able to use exorcism to some extent. During his first fight with Huayu for the position of Soul Image, he shown the ability to do exorcism due to him being able to use Duanmu Xi's spiritual power.

**Swordsmanship:** At first he showed very little experience and knowledge at using swords, not being able to cut the life strings of the evil spirit without cutting Qin Shiyao and having Xi collect them. At first he used a sword formed by spiritual energy, which was later repaced be the Luoyue sword. The first time he used the Luoyue sword and showing surprisingly good abilities, was during his fight with Situ Li. When he was in danger of his soul being broken by Situ Li, he grabbed the Luoyue and somehow became 'possessed' by it (wanting more power in the anime). Because of almost killing Situ Li, Xi banned him from touching the Luoyue. Afterwars, during one of Lord Yinzhe attacks, before being outmatched by a bunch of evil spirits, he was able to get hold of the Luoyue, transforming into his true form. He transformed into someone identical to Yaang Zicheng and managed to defeat all the evil spirits with ease. In the anime, he was shown to be able to transform into his true form and use outstanding swordsmanship skills.

**Agility and Speed:** While in his true form, not only his swordsmanship skills improve, but his agility and speed. He acquires his ancestor's abilities and is able outmatch evil spirits and humans.

**Floating/Flying:** As a spirit, he is able to float or fly, shown when he was pushed out of a high level of a building and floating in mid-air.

## Relationships

### Duanmu Xi

Yang Jinghua first saw Duanmu Xi in a dumpster while trying to find spare pieces for a broken Wacom. He sees Xi performing an exorcism and mistakes him for a handsome Korean actor. After he died and awakens as a spirit, he sees Duanmu Xi and bluntly offers him to sign a contract as his soul image and spend the rest of his life with him. At first, Jinghua was reluctant to become his soul image taking it as being a type of servant, but after they were attacked by an evil spirit and Jinghua was about to be corrupted, he accepted to be Xi's Soul Image and used the rings. After becoming Xi's Soul Image, they became closer. Although at first, Jinghua was annoyed by Xi's personality, and vice versa, they came to understand each other. They became very caring of each other, wanting to protect each other no matter what. During the time where Xi was extremely weak from his injuries, Jinghua became very depressed and guilty of what he had done to Xi. Duanmu Xi also, even weak after the ceremony, he insisted on taking Jinghua to his home and gave him the ability to 'touch' things through a kiss. Also, after Jinghua's fight with Situ Li, Xi complained about Jinghua not calling for him, to which Jinghua responded that he did called and shouted, but Xi didn't heard, which made Xi flustered and even blush. Xi promised that next time, Jinghua wouldn't hesitate to cal for him and he will hear him. They swear to protect each other no matter what and never drifting apart. They cannot live without the other and refuse to abandon the other in any moment even putting their own lives at risk. Their relationship is often described as being like a 'married couple'.

## Trivia-Etymology

* **Yang** means "young, polar" (杨).
* **Jinghua** means "respectfully/respect, offer, salute/give a salute, venerate" (敬) (**jing**) and "China, flower/flowery, flora, splendid, flashy, magnificent, gray, prosperous" (华) (**hua**).

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 *Ling Qi* extra chapter after chapter 118
2. ↑ *Ling Qi* chapter 256