Xumi Ruo

Xumi Ruo is white-thorn monster, a member of Sun, and the older cousin of Xumi Luo.

## Background

Xumi Ruo was born as a white-thorn monster from the White Thorn Family, one of the earliest monster tribes to assimilate into human society. He had a loving relationship with his younger cousin to the point where he would keep a photo of them together on his person at all times. Since childhood, Xumi Ruo was taught by his parents to treat Wang Shengli with respect, due to the secretary's personal respect and praise for the tribe. Years ago, he was evicted from the Flower House, the main residence of the White Thorn Family, after being ostracized by the clan for being "dangerous", and lost contact with his cousin since then. Xumi Ruo eventually joined the organization countering the Department of Night, Sun, after its leader treated him with respect and trust, in contrast to his clansmen.

## Personality

Xumi Ruo dislikes being called "Number Two" (老二) by anyone, believing that the title belittled him for not having the ability to become the "Boss" (老大), and prefers to only be called "Two" (二哥, *Literally meaning*: Second Brother). This causes him to clash regularly with Wu Fengyun, who believes he is undeserving of being called her superior simply because he joined the organization earlier than her. Liu Damao, the leader of Sun, respects this and calls him by his surname "Xumi" instead.

Xumi Ruo deeply loved Xumi Luo, his younger cousin from his mother's side, to the point where he is reminded of her every time he seems a young girl. He is incredibly forgiving of her, calling her "naughty" after Spinach revealed she was involved in drugs. His behaviour caused Gu Xiaohua to consider him a "siscon". After receiving news of her death from Spinach, Xumi Ruo was extremely saddened, to the point of uncontrollably shivering and crying.

As Xumi Luo and Liu Damao were the only two people who treated him with trust instead of suspicion, Xumi Ruo wanted to never disappoint these two, which was one of the motivations he had when completing the mission of swapping out Yan Wen's Heaven Crystal fragment. The possibility of the mission failing caused visible distress and depression to Xumi Ruo, to the point where he erased all methods of communication with Liu Damao and almost abandoned Sun, believing he disappointed Liu and had no honor of facing him again.

Xumi Luo is also an adept liar, being able to lower the guard of Wang Shengli despite the latter's cautious demeanor through lies and praise, and even formed a friendship with him.

## Appearance

Xumi Ruo's true appearance is a mutated white-thorn monster with ash-grey skin. He appears heavily malnourished, severely lacking muscle mass and possessing a bloated stomach. Thorny vines resembling hair sprout from his head, and his right arm is replaced with thorn tendrils. His lower body consists multiple thick thorny tentacles, with dark purple petals covering him from the waist down.

Xumi Ruo's human disguise resembles a tall and well-built man with dark-colored eyes and faintly purple long hair that parts above his forehead. His hair has shoulder-length bangs that frame his face and the rest reaches his upper-back, with some of his hair tied into a thin ponytail. He has two red streak-like markings on his left cheek and a single black streak on his right, the former is a trademark characteristic of monsters from the White Thorn Family while the latter is a birthmark, as claimed by Xumi Ruo himself. Xumi Ruo wears a black double-breasted tuxedo over a black suit, complete with a white tie, a white overcoat he drapes over his shoulders, and a pair of black pants.

During his attempt to infiltrate Xiahou High School, Xumi Ruo disguised himself as a cleaning operative and wore a blue oversuit.

## Abilities and Powers

Being a white-thorn monster, Xumi Ruo is theoretically capable of all the abilities associated with his tribe, which his cousin displayed, such as creating and controlling large poisonous white thorns, absorbing other plant-type monsters into bloodstones to boost his power, and regenerating his body from damage.

### Equipment

* Soul-Swapping Capsules
* Sensory Seeds
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* **Soul-Swapping Capsule** (换魂胶囊): Capsules made from Xumi Ruo's own blood. By simply looking at his intended target, then crushing a single capsule, Xumi Ruo is able to swap his soul with the target's and possess their body. This item can also be used by others, as seen when Li Lingbiao's soul was swapped with Xumi Ruo's after making eye contact with an unconscious Wang Bo, whose own soul was overshadowed by Xumi's at the time, and crushing a capsule with his body. These capsules are a prerequisite in order to perform the **Exchange** method of the Soul-Shifting Technique.

* **Sensory Seeds** (感应之种): Three colored seeds that are directly connected to Xumi Ruo's mind. These seeds allow Xumi Ruo to communicate with his allies in a limited way while his Soul-Shifting Technique is in progress. During the mission to switch out Yan Wen's Crystal 3 fragment with Crystal 4B, the messages conveyed by each seed were the following:
	+ **Red**: Danger. If Xumi Ruo were to be met with trouble while swapping the Heaven Crystal fragments, he would telekinetically squeeze this seed. The moment Wu Fengyun notices the seed is crushed, she must carry his unconscious body and flee, no matter what situation she is in.
	+ **Yellow**: Emergency. If any unmanageable accidents were to happen on Wu Fengyun's side while Xumi Ruo's soul is swapped (e.g., the possibility of being discovered and exposed), she must squeeze this seed. Xumi Ruo would then telepathically receive the message and immediately cancel the Soul-Shifting Technique, returning to his original body in order to deal with the emergency.
	+ **Green**: Success. If the mission was successful, Xumi Ruo would telekinetically squeeze this seed. The moment Wu Fengyu notices the seed is crushed, she must be prepared to awaken him a minute later.

### Xumi Ruo's techniques

* Soul-Shifting Technique: Exchange
* Soul-Shifting Technique: Domination
* Xumi Ruo (as Li Lingbiao) regenerating from wounds
* Black thorn flower
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* **Soul-Shifting Technique** (移魂大法): Through two methods, **Exchange** and **Domination**, Xumi Ruo can take possession of a target, enabling him to freely manipulate the victim's body at will. There seems to be no time limit on how long this technique lasts, and no matter what method is used, Xumi Ruo can cancel the effects of the skill and return his soul back to his body by snapping his fingers. However, if this technique is used multiple times, as seen when Xumi Ruo used Domination on Wang Bo but later involuntarily used Exchange on Li Lingbiao, the user must cancel each soul-shift separately and in exact order (i.e., Xumi Ruo must first cancel the Exchange between him and Li Lingbiao, then cancel the Domination on Wang Bo). Forcibly cancelling all the effects at once is possible, and will return all swapped souls back to their original bodies, but will also result in detrimental consequences to Xumi Ruo himself, such as spitting out large amounts of blood and falling unconscious.
	+ **Exchange** (换魂): By crushing a Soul-Swapping Capsule while looking directly at his target, Xumi Ruo is able to swap his soul with that of the target's and inhabit their body. However, the target's soul would also possess Xumi Ruo's own body, posing a potential threat to his operation if they were awake; as such, Xumi Ruo usually requires an ally to knock him unconscious right after he exchanges souls so the target would remain unaware of their situation during the entire process. While his soul is swapped, Xumi Ruo only carries half of his actual power and strength with him into the target's body, somewhat restricting his abilities. After he completes his actions, Xumi Ruo can manually disable the technique by snapping his fingers, causing his soul to return to his body and his target's to theirs. His ally can then awaken him through any means, usually by throwing cold water on him.
	+ **Domination** (夺舍): Using his Black Thorns to wound his intended target and infect them (which causes a black streak-like marking to appear on their palm), Xumi Ruo can forcibly dominate the target's soul with his own ten minutes later, giving him complete control over the victim's body while robbing his target of consciousness, removing the need to erase their memories after the process. Although convenient, there are a few drawbacks to this method. Xumi Ruo can only retain one-tenth of his actual power while inside another's body, significantly weakening his strength and supernatural capabilities. The ten-minute waiting process also hinders the speed of completing a mission. Additionally, Xumi Ruo can also invade his target's consciousness and attack their spirit by destroying the contents behind "doors" in their **Inner World** (内景世界), which represent memories and knowledge.
* **Black Thorns** (黑荆棘): Xumi Ruo possesses the unique ability to create and manipulate black-colored thorns in places suitable for plant growth. These thorns can take the form of a thorn stem or a thorny flower with an eye for the flower head, the former is used as a prerequisite for Domination, while the latter can be used to aid the Exchange initiation by allowing Xumi Ruo to see and hear whatever is within the flower's field of vision and vicinity. While using a black thorn flower to see, Xumi Ruo's irises and pupils disappear, leaving only the white sclera in his eyes.

### White Thorn Family exclusive techniques

* **Regeneration**: Like all monsters from the White Thorn Family, Xumi Ruo is able to regenerate damaged parts of his body through the usage of his white thorns. He has been shown to survive two deep cuts to the head caused by large axes and regenerate from them.