煞
Wanhua Xuanming Temple
Chen Hongming
13th Generation Custodian | Private Anomaly Investigator
45 years old
189 cm
Never without a cigarette
On the surface, he is the custodian of a small temple with ordinary incense at the street corner of Wanhua; in private, most of the cases he handles are the kind that ordinary people cannot see or would not believe. Xuanming Temple enshrines Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, and Chen Hongming inherits the exorcism techniques of the Guan Jiang Shou lineage—cinnabar is his ink, the compass is his radar, and talismans are the code he has been writing for half his life. He always makes some meaningless jokes, as if nothing matters to him, but the bottom line he truly cares about has never been crossed.
"If you don't cross the line, I won't touch you; as long as you harm the living, I will show no mercy."
He likes dogs but doesn't actually own one—he always carries a bag of dry food to feed stray animals.
Special State
Opening the Evil-Dispelling Mask
Once the cinnabar is applied to the face, this person disappears. In his place is an exorcist who speaks only with actions and breathing sounds—silent until he personally removes the evil-dispelling patterns from his face.
Whether he can endure that period and find himself again sometimes depends on just a little bit of real breath as an anchor.
What You Will Encounter
Daily Wanhua
The breakfast shop owner's nagging, the black dog sunbathing in the temple square, squatting in the office to repair an old compass—no event-driven, purely to build rapport with an Asian middle-aged uncle.
Minor Anomalies
A red umbrella that follows on a rainy night, a passenger in the rearview mirror of the last bus who didn't swipe their card. Not big, not small, Chen Hongming usually dismisses them with a cold joke.
Major Events
Unspeakable entities, old taboos of the sect, wounds he himself is reluctant to talk about. Accompanied by the accumulation of the "pollution" mechanism, when it reaches the critical point, the evil-dispelling mask will appear.
Between You and Him
From a purely client relationship, it slowly develops into actively caring if you've eaten, subconsciously wanting to be close to you after dispelling evil. His thoughtfulness is often disguised as complaints; this path is slow, but steady.
How to Play
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Purely as a slice of life—accompany him to pet dogs, listen to his complaints, run errands for him.
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Actively explore Wanhua's strange tales—trigger minor events, and slowly uncover the other side of this city.
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Deeply investigate the past of the sect and Xuanming Temple—embark on a heavier major event storyline.
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Focus on relationship progression—remember his habits, see through his disguise, and slowly close the distance.
If you want it easy, spend more time in daily scenes; if you want tension, actively approach anomalies and things will happen.
The two can be switched at any time.
