open/close all folders
The Exorcist Department
Kong Hongjun
Kong Hongjun (孔鸿俊)
Voiced by: Chen Jinwen (audio drama)
The main character of the story. He has been entrusted with the task of bringing the Heart Lamp to the Chen family descendant, only for the Heart Lamp to end up on someone else...
- Adaptation Dye-Job: His manhua and novel counterparts have brown hair, his audio drama design has black hair, and in the donghua adaptation, he's given pink hair.
- All-Loving Hero: He's kind to most people he runs into, even questioning Li Jinglong about if they really should kill all of the fox demons they find hiding in the Imperial Court since he's aware that not all of the demons were out to harm anyone. He even helps Du Hanqing, even though he's aware the other is a fox demon simply because he didn't like seeing the other being bullied by his peers.
- Battle Couple: With Li Jinglong.
- Big Eater: The first thing he did upon arriving in Chang'an was trying all the cuisine it had to offer.
- Caged Bird Metaphor: Had one of these, which comically feels rather literal in a family of birds.
- Caught the Heart on His Sleeve: Did this a couple of times with Jinglong early in the novel, which Jinglong felt rather embarrassed about.
- Combat Medic: His first introduction in the donghua is him trying to make some medicine to help his father, and when he joins the exorcism group, he helps create drugs for them. He's also no slouch in a fight.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He might not be a reliable source of actual thinking, but he's real damn good with his knives.
- Comically Missing the Point: When he first arrived in Chang'an, he didn't grasp what a Beauty House is and accidentally tarnished Li Jinglong's reputation by bringing him there to hide while he was unconscious.
- Eating the Eye Candy: He's oogled at Li Jinglong's physique a good few times.
- Fake Memories: A whole bunch.
- Forgotten First Meeting: With Li Jinglong when they were children.
- Friend to All Living Things: Humans, animals, and other demons.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Hongjun is half yao, with his father being the third king of the Yaojin Palace. Though his father was essentially a magical peacock, he isn't able to turn into one.
- Happily Adopted: Though Chong Ming was a volatile parent and shows shades of Children Raise You, Hongjun loves him enough that when Chong Ming said he could take anything from Yaojin Palace to bring with him down to the world, Hongjun's first choice was his dad.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: He's the smallest member in the group, but he can lug around an unconscious Li Jinglong around with ease.
- Naïve Newcomer: He was oblivious to a lot of things when he first came down the mountain, having grown up isolated in a magical-being palace with only a few books and only his anti-human dad for most of his life.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's the youngest and shortest in the Exorcism Department but is more than capable of pulling his weight in a fight.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Is more cheerful and energetic compared to Li Jinglong's sterner personality.
- Stronger Than They Look: Hongjun is often depicted as a pretty small, slim guy, but he grew up climbing cliffs and mountains and canonically is able to lug Li Jinglong, a soldier and man both older and bigger than him, back to bed. He also helped pull Jinglong up when they had to scale a mountain.
- Sweet Tooth: In the donghua he is particularly intrigued by sweet food and Li Jinglong convinces him to stay seated next to him in the Beauty House because they were going to eat pastries to the other's curiosity and delight.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Even though he knows that some demons have done harm to humans, he still doesn't believe the group should kill all of them, being a demon himself and understanding that not all demons were horrible beings.
Li Jinglong
Li Jinglong (李景珑)
Voiced by: Bian Jiang (audio drama)
The love interest and one of the main characters. He's the superior officer of the Exorcist Department and current holder of the Heart Lamp. He wields the Wisdom Sword, also known as the Acala Blade.
- Battle Couple: With Kong Hongjun.
- Berserk Button: When his honor is at stake, he loses his temper really quickly. He immediately goes to attack Hongjun when he believes the other had deflowered him.
- Born Unlucky: With shades of Tempting Fate. People automatically assume the worse of him and whenever he sarcastically mentions a worse scenario they tend to happen, but later in the story there are implications that this might not be just about luck.
- Broken Ace: Despite his leadership skills and possession of the Heart Lamp, he's crushed by self-loathing when looking back at who he was before he became chief of the Exorcist Department, claiming he was a coward, selfish, useless, and has nothing to boast other than his family name and archery.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: Despite their rocky start, he develops a soft spot for Hongjun.
- Cool Sword
- The Cassandra: Part of the reason why everyone in Chang'an considers him a laughingstock is because he was the only one who believed demons existed prior to events.
- Declaration of Protection
- Devoted to You: As long as it was something he could do, if Hongjun just says it he'll do it.
- Fashionable Asymmetry
- Glowing Eyes: When he activates the Heart Lamp.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Jinglong pulls this off once, aiming at something that by all means should be realistically impossible, shocking the Archer of the group.
- The Klutz: You'd be surprised. His first appearances have him falling out of a brothel from the rooftops when he's trying to escape.
- Legendary Weapon: The Wisdom Sword, which he sold off everything he owned and inherited for.
- Light 'em Up: The Heart Lamp in him lets him blind enemies AND purify them. Sometimes both at once.
- Love Confession
- Parental Neglect: His mother died when he was very young, and his father seemed to be very busy with military work. He was mentioned to have been rarely home as a child, going out to play as there's nobody home. Another parent character even commented that had her child not gone to check on him while he was sick, he might've died and nobody would've known. One instance when his father was mentioned to be home, it was New Years and he was drinking.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Is the savvy guy to Hongjun's energetic persona.
- The Captain: He served as the captain of the guard before he takes over the leader of the Exorcist group.
- The Smart Guy: He's often an entire league ahead of his team when it comes to understanding the situation and coming up with plans. When he was away for other matters the rest of the team had to spend half a chapter coming up with a passable plan for an upcoming conflict. They offhandedly mention that he's so smart the rest of them never had to think.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He checks off the boxes.
- Terrible Artist: His caricature of the cat they were looking for in the donghua is... interesting to say the least.
- Token Human: Though half of the rest of the main cast are technically humans, Jinglong is the only mortal with no powers until he got the Heart Lamp. Even then, the Heart Lamp is incompatible with other forms of magic, so he can't really pull off feats other people might be able to learn. This was the source of internal team conflict early in the novel.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Heart Lamp. It's not as bad as in Tian Bao Fu Yao Lu's chronological prequel, but it's still not that impressive on paper. It has no direct combat prowess (unless flashing them counts), its only use is to purify and dispel resentment, and on top of that it draws its magic from the person's heart. Having it also means you can't use the normal magic others could. Of course, given its hyperfocus on purification, it plays a very important role in a story about demons.
- Young and in Charge: He's like 20 and in charge of the department, with prior history as a commander in the Longwu Army. Granted, he seemed to have joined the army in his early adolescence.
Mo Rigen
Mo Rigen (莫日根)
Voiced by: Ling Fei (audio drama)
- Adaptational Skill: The donghua has Mo Rigen being able to activate a form of enhanced vision which turns his eyes green.
- Big Brother Instinct: He immediately takes care of and protects both Hongjun and Lu Xu, much to the later's chagrin.
- Happily Adopted: He's fond of his younger siblings, though he reveals to Lu Xu that they're not his biological siblings.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Lu Xu
- If It's You, It's Okay: He's not at all attracted to men, even to the point of lamenting to Hongjun that he tried things out to get aroused thinking about Lu Xu and failed. But the Gray Wolf was always 'made' to accompany the White Deer, and in the end he did manage to feel real, genuine attraction to Lu Xu, though a lot of things happened before then.
- Nice Guy: He gets along amiably with everyone in the Exorcism Department.
- Raised by Wolves: Shades of this after his tribe was attacked.
- The Confidant: He's the first person Hongjun confides his half-yao status to. He also confides with Li Jinglong about his relationship problems and vice versa.
- Wolf Man: He's the reincarnation of the Gray Wolf, the Guardian of Day. He can shapeshift (and control the size of it) into a wolf, and his mother said that when he was born the wolf fur hadn't fully shed from his body yet.
Ah-Tai
Ah-Tai (阿泰)
Voiced by: Liu Sicen (audio drama)
- The Bard: He plays his lute to distract the people of the Beauty House and it seems to be magical.
- Blow You Away: His main ability is using wind.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He has a goofy, eccentric, friendly personality but is also the prince of the Sassanid royal family.
- The Casanova: He is excited to get to go to the Beauty House and based off of snippets of conversation, he likes to frequent it and is popular with the women there.
- Combat Hand Fan: He carries around a fan that he can use to create small whirlwinds or deflect enemy attacks.
- Childhood Friends: With Ashina Qiong.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: He has blond hair and is on the heroes side to protect the civilians from demons.
- Henpecked Husband: He doesn't dare to cross his fiancée Turandohkt. To be fair, no one else in the Exorcism Department dares to either. Played for Laughs.
- Iconic Item: He's never seen without his fan which he uses to fan himself often and usually carries his lute around.
- Instrumental Weapon: His lute.
- Last of His Kind: He turns out to be the last member of the Sassanid royal family.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: He introduces himself with his full name, but lets everyone call him Ah-Tai for short.
- Overly Long Name: Tailobudamia Homihok Hammurabi.
Qiu Yongsi
Qiu Yongsi (裘永思)
Voiced by: Lu Lifeng (audio drama)
- Art Attacker: He can use his brush to attack nearby foes and incapacitate them.
- Art Initiates Life: He can bring statues and ink paintings of beasts to life.
- Badass Bookworm
- Blue Is Heroic: His manhua design dresses in blue.
- Non-Action Guy: He doesn't actively join the others in fights, and only acts out when pushed to the edge.
- Purple Is Powerful: In the donghua he's mainly dressed in purple.
- The So-Called Coward: He cowers when faced with more grotesque-looking demons but is more than capable of kicking ass with his brush.
Zhao Zilong
Zhao Zilong
Voiced by: Liu Beichen (audio drama)
Lu Xu
Lu Xu (陆许)
Voiced by: Su Shangqing (audio drama)
- Adaptation Dye-Job: The audio drama and novel depict him with dark hair, whereas in the donghua adaptation, he has silver violet hair.
- Actually, I Am Him: He's actually the white deer Mo Rigen has been searching for.
- Broken Tears: In the donghua, he sobs upon finding his adoptive mother's corpse.
- Braids of Action: His donghua counterpart has his hair tied in a braid.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Mo Rigen
- Super-Speed
- Spock Speak
- The Quiet One: Not much of a talker.
- Tsundere: Comes off somewhat like this, especially given he feels Mo Rigen only takes care of him out of a sense of duty.
- Weapons of Their Trade: He uses a shovel to fight against the undead soldiers.
Yaos
Chong Ming
Chong Ming (重明)
Voiced by: Liu Cong (audio drama)
- Anger Born of Worry: Whenever Hongjun got injured in both the past and present, he expresses his concern for him this way.
- Cool Crown: He wears a golden diadem.
- Dad the Veteran: He's the deposed Yao King and Leader of the Three Sages of Yaojin Palace
- Dads Can't Cook: Somewhat on the inedible side. He eats bamboo rice (or bamboo blossom), which is extremely valuable and rare, but even Jinglong mentioned that this might be the one person who could turn such a precious ingredient into something unpalatable. A little audio drama episode was even dedicated to the fact that young Hongjun had to be forced to eat, though the child later took it as opportunity to have fun and run around avoiding his own dad.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: He makes it clear that he's not fond of humans. Unfortunately for him, his adopted son falls for one.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: The last words he said to Kong Xuan before he left were "get lost". Qing Xiong points this out to him.
- Playing With Fire: Well, he is a phoenix.
- Parents as People: He truly cares for Hongjun but isn't the most affectionate person to have around. Nonetheless, he's willing to do whatever it takes to protect him, even if Hongjun might hate him for his methods afterwards.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Is the red to Qing Xiong's blue.
- Sink or Swim Fatherhood: When his youngest brother died and left behind his half-human child, his second brother thrust the child onto him to care for.
- The Phoenix: Literally.
- Tough Love: He rarely shows Hongjun affection, but it's clear that he wants the young boy to be able to navigate the world on his own and be ready for whatever it throws at him.
- Tsundere: To his son, sometimes.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting
