Zhengui

Zhengui (珍贵 zhēnguì) is a snake-tortoise (玄武 xuánwǔ) bound to Ling Qi as one of her spirit companions. Zhengui was the first of Ling Qi's spirit companions to be bound and the one she has known for the longest, having raised him since his birth as her younger brother. In Chinese mythology the xuanwu is one of the four mythological creatures in the Chinese constellations and is also referred to as the Black Tortoise or Black Turtle. It is frequently associated with the North cardinal direction. This association is also in play in Forge of Destiny as xuanwu are associated with the Xuan ducal clan, which governs the Savage Seas, the northernmost province. They are also famed for their immovability and absurd toughness and durability, which is a quality Zhengui seems to share.

Ling Qi was able to receive Zhengui's egg from a trial that she undertook in the Argent Sect with Bai Meizhen in week fifteen of Year 43. During the course of the trial she encountered the corpse of a dead serpentine Wood aspected spirit, named Kohatu, with powerful regenerative abilities. From Kohatu she took fragments of its core, and these would come to be part of Zhengui, making Kohatu something equivalent to his Mother.

At the end of the trial with Bai Meizhen she encountered a gigantic fifteen meter tall fifth realm Volcanic Tyrant Tortoise as a gatekeeper. He poised a choice to the two girls about who would receive the final reward of the trial. Ling Qi decided to cede the final reward of the trial to her housemate and friend, Bai Meizhen, but something Ling Qi did during the trial impressed the gatekeeper enough for him to bestow a boon onto Ling Qi. The gatekeeper took the shards of Kohatu's core and formed Zhengui's egg out of them and his own energy, injuring himself in the process, taking on a role similar to Zhengui's Father before gifting the egg to Ling Qi.

The name Zhengui is a combination of Zhen, which refers to the snake head, and Gui, which refers to the turtle head. Individually, the phonetic sounds can be read as 真 zhēn and 龟 guī, which means "Real Turtle," a reference to the appellation Ling Qi gave to the final gatekeeper. However, when combined, it can refer to 珍贵 zhēnguì, which means Precious. In the setting, this is a clear pun to Zhengui's nature as a xuanwu and many characters are nonplussed when they hear of it the first time. Zhengui does not seem to mind the name however.

Zhengui's elements are Wood and Fire, which is extremely atypical for xuanwu in the Forge of Destiny setting, as most of them seem to be aligned with the elements of Water and Earth or Heaven and Mountain. Zhengui's unique nature has posed something of a challenge for Ling Qi in figuring out the best ways to help him progress. When he hatched both halves were black scaled much like his father, but a short line near the end of the fight with Chu Song indicates his scales may be lightening for some unknown reason.

Zhengui is extremely protective of Ling Qi and had a habit of referring to her as Mother initially after he started speaking, a status that Ling Qi denied given that Ling Qi believes herself much too young to be a mother. Usually he now refers to her when speaking as "Big Sister". Ling Qi cares fiercely for Zhengui as a member of her family and has introduced Zhengui to her mortal family as a brother. While neither Ling Qingge nor Ling Biyu were able to understand him, Biyu demonstrated the ability to hear him "whispering", a trait which Ling Qi once displayed on the streets.

Zhengui's personality is complicated, as there are two heads and two personalities inside of a single body. Zhen is the snake aspect and is aligned with Fire while Gui is the turtle aspect and is aligned with Wood. Zhen can be brash and arrogant while Gui can be childlike and stubborn. However, these are not isolated features and in truth these are actually harmonized aspects of the same identity.

That being said, Zhengui is less than a year old at the time of this post, and his personality is rapidly evolving as he grows. He started out small enough to be fit comfortably in both of Ling Qi's hands, but has grown to the point where Ling Qi is able to ride him when traveling inside of the Outer Sect, with his shell approximately the size of a medium sized boulder. It is expected for Zhengui to become utterly enormous as he grows through the cultivation realms, likely surpassing the size of his father the gatekeeper. How large is uncertain, but most speculations end somewhere around mountain sized.

Zhengui is currently nearing the Peak of the Yellow Realm and has now seen dedicated combat against a competitor during Ling Qi's match in the Inner Sect promotional tournament against Chu Song and her Green Appraisal spirit, Yan, which was a gigantic bear. In that fight he demonstrated his amazing resilience and recovery abilities though he had some difficulty hurting the bear.

A major focus of Ling Qi and the player base in general is making sure his combat abilities are being well developed through his training with Ling Qi. Much like Xuan Wu with the more "conventional" element spreads, Zhengui has the ability to manipulate the environment around him. At this stage, it is limited to minor manipulation of plant life and the expulsion of ash clouds, but that may develop even further as he grows.

Zhengui uses the manipulation of plant life to further his perception of his surroundings as well as to spontaneously create roots that he is able to freely manipulate, enabling him to trap or pierce opponents. However, his main offensive tool is the incredibly potent poison that his Zhen half is able to produce. It has been described as burning napalm being injected into a creature.

While Zhengui does have some potent offensive tools, his main talent lies in his armor and defensive features. Through his manipulation of wood, Zhengui is able to further increase his natural armor, repair his armor, heal himself, break spiritual effects that are affecting him or Ling Qi, draw in qi naturally from the ground, and has recently gained the ability to heal others. All of this creates a potent spiritual companion that can take large amounts of punishment before being forced off of the battlefield.

While he spends most of his time with Ling Qi, Zhengui has been able to form a variety of relationships with other spirits that exist near the Outer Sect. This includes a friendship with a childlike Ice Spirit by the name of Hanyi, a rivalry with a river dragon named Heizui, and what seems like a crush on Cui, the bound spirit of Bai Meizhen, Ling Qi's roommate. Another activity he spends much of his time doing is eating. Since he was born, his appetite has been astounding and seemingly capable of eating anything he can feasibly chew though he most enjoys spirit cores.

Because of his Xuanwu heritage Zhengui hibernates in order to breakthrough to new Realms. His first hibernation took a month and when he emerged he had grown from the Red Realm to the Yellow Realm. This corresponded to a massive size increase transforming from being approximately the size of a small dog to the size of a large cart. Based on what he said during his emergence it would appear that his unique nature means he experiences multiple visions or dreams. It is unknown how long his hibernation from Yellow to Green will be and there is not really any information available to speculate on.

Threads of Destiny
Upon reaching the Inner Sect, Zhengui quickly became exceedingly tired and needed a place to hibernate in order to break through into the Green Realm. The inner sect kindly provided a location which was suitable for Zhengui's hibernation and subsequent awakening. Zhengui's resting place was a rocky hill covered in shrubs and trees and seems to have been near a fissure given the presence of boiling water, steam and sulfur in the area.

Zhengui was asleep for over two months during which he grew even larger. His awakening was an event distinguished by plumes of ash and gouts of orange and blue fire from the top of the hill with the molten dirt and rock stopping at the bottom of the hill due to special totems designed to contain the explosion.

His shell is now a full 5 meters long, and that's not even counting Zhengui's snake half. While he is smaller than the smallest estimate given by Xuan Shi, he is extremely healthy and there seems nothing wrong with his development. It would appear that his unique nature is affecting more than simply the elements he uses.

Trivia

 * Zhengui's blood seems to be a molten material similar to burning white phosphorus.
 * Ling Qi and the player-base have occasionally joked and worried about him eating her porch or somehow eating some ridiculous amount of materials.