Seven-Star Chief Disciple

With the Chief Disciple at their head, the seven wield their swords as one, arrayed in the shape of the Northern Dipper, hence the name Seven-Star Formation. After Perfect Transcension, they became bound by Sha-Chi, their movements in attack and retreat perfectly synchronized.

These seven prided themselves on their integrity, devoted to punishing evil, upholding justice, and honing their swordsmanship, never seeking to contend with others. Yet the Chief Disciple fell in love with a woman from an evil sect, violating the Mandate’s rules. Though his swordsmanship was peerless and his many achievements had long made amends, the alliance still refused to promote him and repeatedly marginalized him. He merely laughed it off and bore every injustice.

He would not betray the woman he loved or his sect. Between the irreconcilable paths of "righteousness" and "evil," he sought a path he could follow with a clear conscience. Yet he often felt he owed too much to the junior disciples who had followed him all these years.

They never blamed their senior brother, instead burning with indignation over the injustices he suffered. Then that incident... shattered their last respect for the alliance’s upper ranks. They realized that meekly yielding only made them pawns to be used and trampled at will.

Consumed by resentment, they underwent Perfect Transcension. The alliance used this to expel them, making them even less known in the Wulin, especially their Chief Disciple, the foremost swordsman who led the formation.

On the high platform, three disciples catch a red thread on their sword tips and draw the Chief Disciple up with it, leaving him hanging upside down in midair. Pulled by the strings, he swings the blade in his hands, like a puppet trying to break free of its strings; like a wraith, he sprays countless razor-sharp red threads from the black hollows of his face, winding and slicing through the air like tears of blood.

He once loved a woman from an evil sect. The Mandate’s upper ranks would not tolerate their love, and with a single order, they tore the lovers apart. The Chief Disciple had known little beyond the sword formation. What did he know of schemes and intrigue? For the first time in his life, he clumsily defied his sect. In return, he could only watch helplessly as the woman he loved was tortured and left covered in wounds. Even his peerless sword formation could not protect the one he wanted to protect.

Once his heart was broken, there was little left he feared losing. He entrusted everything he had left to the strings.

And what if he looked like a puppet hanging upside down? At least the strings of that puppet would be held in their own hands.

All seven fall to Soul, who later tells the Wolf Leader he gave them an honourable end. In the final battle the Chief Disciple appears as a vision: all his life he failed the one he loved and his brothers, he says, and he fought back too late. His juniors laugh that all eight of them go together, Red included.

“I gave those seven an honorable end...”

In-game dialogue