Zuo Shang

In his youth, Zuo Shang was Soul's closest friend and fellow adopted son of Sovereign Mu. Exceptionally gifted and gentle in temperament, he possessed a composure far beyond his years, along with a depth of thought rare among his peers. Compared to Soul's impulsiveness and unrestrained nature, Zuo Shang was already remarkably steady and measured.

In his spare time, Zuo Shang enjoyed reading intelligence reports, forming his own insights into the affairs of the Wulin. His martial prowess was on par with Soul's. His movements were light and agile, his techniques graceful and refined. Even when sparring with a wooden sword, he moved with the elegance of one who rode the wind and followed the clouds.

From the days they spent together among the streets to the years they trained side by side within the Order, Zuo Shang and Soul had witnessed each other at their lowest and seen each other grow. Their bond only deepened with the passage of time... Who could have imagined that one day, they would turn their blades against each other?

Once Soul's closest friend. Now his sworn enemy.

With Aureate in hand, Zuo Shang gathers Golden Sword Energy along the blade, its radiance flowing like silk. His sword intent stretches endlessly, his strikes flowing one after another. The youth he once was has long since faded away. His movements have grown ever more unfathomable, and his mastery of the sword and Sha-Chi has reached a transcendent realm. With every swing of his blade, he uses Sha-Chi to command countless weapons, unleashing them in relentless assaults or all at once, leaving his enemies no chance to defend.

In their battle at the training grounds, Soul and Zuo Shang gave everything they had, each exchange matching the other blow for blow. In the end, at the very moment their blades crossed, each pierced the other's heart.

What the people of the Order know is this: Soul slew the former Shadow Sovereign, their adoptive father. Following the Shadow Sovereign's final wishes, Zuo Shang inherited the position of leader of the Order, becoming the new Shadow Sovereign. To avenge his adoptive father's death and give both him and the Order the answer they deserved, Zuo Shang had no choice but to cast aside their past friendship. He sent countless masters and Shadow Wardens after Soul, swearing to end his life.

But... is that truly the whole truth?

The “True Lóng” Zuo Shang commands is cast in pure gold, with a majestic Loong head and tightly packed golden scales. Through the mysteries of the Radiant Heart, it seems not only able to withstand the Blight’s erosion, but also to protect the consciousness within from its backlash.

Zuo Shang intends to use this body to control the all-devouring Blight.

Everything can serve as a piece: the rampaging Blight, the Herald’s masterful puppetcraft, and the Radiant Heart forged from Discordant Shards... Together, they form a flawless game.

Catastrophe is coming. Someone must tame the disaster and turn it into a power the world can wield. And since he alone dares to conceive of it, dares to act on it, and has the ability to achieve it, he will not squander that gift.

That is why Zuo Shang chose the Hollow Heart. His plan cannot afford to be swayed by emotion. In the struggle between the Lóng and the Blight, hesitation, pity, and personal ties would only compromise the precision of each move.

That is also why he cannot understand Soul’s choice. Soul possesses the same martial talent, yet simply takes things as they come, with no desire to uncover the source of his power or master it. To preserve his human emotions and desires, he would rather choose the Tainted Heart and live for only sixty-six days...

And if he truly lost the only opponent worthy of standing against him, Zuo Shang might find it somewhat empty... Or perhaps, from the moment he began laying his plans, he had already lost the possibility of having a “kindred spirit.”

At the end he tells Soul the Herald and the Lady were never going to succeed. The Discordance, he says, is a void the Blight has eaten, and one day it will devour the Waking Realm; a puppet body could bear the Blight, and a soul moved into it could control it. So he built himself a vessel and powers it with the Radiant Heart. Soul throws the cost back at him: he seized the Order, manipulated Soul into killing their Shifu, and the people of Pangzhen and the Village of Lu lost everything. Zuo Shang does not argue. “Every plan I set in motion has succeeded. And yet... you remain the one piece I cannot, and will not, outmaneuver... This is our final battle!”

He also says the Order hid the truth of their origins, and that he knows who he is. He calls their rivalry Lóng against Mó, his bestiary calls it the generations-long contest between the Lóng Clan and the Bastion of Mó, and his last form is a golden Lóng. The game never states his bloodline in so many words. The same bestiary says he chose the Hollow Heart, the cure that strips away all feeling, so nothing would sway his plan, and that he cannot understand why Soul kept his feelings and took sixty-six days.

How the duel ends depends on Soul’s Mysteries. With Secrets at the Heart of the Lake done but not Bloodline Awakening, beating him ends the story in Lóng’s Roar. With both done, he rises again as Zuo Shang, the True Lóng, and beating that form ends it in Final Battle. Without Secrets at the Heart of the Lake the story ends after the Lady, in Annihilation, and the last duel never comes. Whether he dies, the game never says outright.

On the 66 Days difficulty, if Soul dies with no days left, the ending is Undying Grudge, and Zuo Shang speaks over him: “You are free now... Your life was not in vain.” He has lost his greatest rival and a brother, he says, and Soul can rest there and witness the new Wulin he will create.

“This is our final battle!”

In-game dialogue