Ye Yan

Ye Yan is a student from Xiahou High School who lives a double life as a Nightwatcher guardian and protects normal humans from monsters. Due to his actions and relevance in the series, Ye Yan can be considered the main protagonist.

Background
Ye Yan was born in the Northern main branch family of the Nightwatchers. When he was six years old, his younger cousin Ye Lanlan promised to marry him when they grow up, which he accepted. Due to either hard work or natural talent, Ye Yan was able to control up to eight Demon Flags and was nominated by the Northern and Southern main branch families as the new guardian to join the Department of Night in Xiahou High School. Two years prior to the start of the series, he once thought of committing suicide as a result of the Ye Heping incident. When he just turned twelve, he was able to patrol the night by himself and formed a summoning pact with the Ancient Beast, Hundun. Later on, he used psychological tactics and defeated an entire organisation of monsters by himself. He arrived at Bozhou two years later.

Personality
Ye Yan is often characterised as calm and highly intelligent. These traits are shown during his fights, where he would try to find the opponent's weakness and create strategies that appear to be random and nonsense to others but are shown to be quite effective when they succeed. His high intelligence is shown in his various battles: during his fight with the fused Double Devil, he quickly devised a strategy in order to inflict damage on their weak spot after he was informed by Ximen Guanren over the phone for barely a minute; during his fight with Lan Ling, he cleverly used her Substitution tag against her by summoning Hundun to stomp her right after she substituted herself; during his fight with Deng Yuankui, he used Che Yongtai to physically exhaust him, then swapped in and knocked Che Yongtai out before using Chi Shock while everyone else was confused, allowing Che Yongtai to wake up five seconds later and win the match due to the rules; etc.

Ye Yan is also quite hardworking, as shown when he runs out of money paying for Huang Xiaoyan's medical bills, he would take whatever job he can accept to earn money, such as participating in the wrestling contest hosted by Ximen Ruxin and the Lovers Party hosted by Deng Yuankui, and working at a maid cafe. However, a running gag in the series is how he would eventually use the money he just earned to pay for Huang Xiaoyan's medical bills again.

He has a delinquent side, as he was shown smoking on some occasions and drinking alcohol during the Dong Guan arc despite being underage.

When people call him and Huang Xiaoyan a couple, he usually acts awkwardly and quickly denies it, even though he is shown on multiple occasions to have feelings for her.

As a self-proclaimed performance artist, Ye Yan's performance art usually weirds people out, making others consider him weird, or even perverted.

Appearance
Ye Yan is a tall young man who appears to have a slender build when clothed, but actually has a lean and muscular physique courtesy of his physical training. He has long creamy blond hair and turquoise eyes, and a mole under his left eye. He bears a striking resemblance to his ancestor Ye Chong.

Ye Yan usually wears the standard Xiahou male student uniform. However, he is also shown wearing costumes on occasions for his "performance art".

During the Dong Guan Arc and Lovers Party Arc, Ye Yan wore a suit. During the School Play Arc, Ye Yan dressed up as the Princes from Snow White and Cinderella, and ultimately as Sha Wujing from Journey to the West. During the Ancient Tree of Time Arc, Ye Yan wore a black hooded jacket over a white shirt. Also during this story arc, he was reverted to his baby self and aged to his future elderly self by Yun Zhonghe's drugs. During the Sage Hunter Arc, he disguised himself as a girl and wore a maid costume. Throughout the arc. he changed his appearance twice to appear more feminine and attract costumers.

Abilities and Powers
Being a main branch Nightwatcher and having trained since he was young, Ye Yan is physically stronger than an average human as he easily pushed a metal ball 22 meters far during shot put, nearing the world record. He also has various techniques and weapons that can aid him in battle. Believing that performance art is BDSM in a different fashion, Ye Yan is also knowledgable of its practices and knows several types of play. He is considered a Nightwatcher prodigy, as he is able to control eight Demon Flags, a feat that was considered near impossible even by the main branch families.

Nightwatcher exclusive techniques

 * A few Nightwatchers throughout history have searched for and formed contracts with creatures to serve as their summoning beast. Once the contract is formed, the Nightwatcher can summon the creature by saying their name or shouting "Summon" (召唤). Once summoned, the summoning beast's existence is maintained by expending the summoner's stamina. If it were to sustain damage or exert its power, the depletion will be intensified. Once the user's stamina is completely depleted, the summoning beast will disappear. If the user wishes to continue maintaining the summoning beast even after they have no more stamina, they must sacrifice their vitality in exchange. In Ye Yan's case, his summoning beast is the Ancient Beast Hundun. Uniquely, when Ye Yan is running out of stamina to maintain Hundun, it will begin to shrink in size. Ye Yan's physical condition when he summons Hundun is also proportional to the size of Hundun when it is summoned, as Hundun was only as large as himself when he summoned it after being critically injured. If Ye Yan were to be severely injured after summoning Hundun, he would be unable to maintain Hundun's massive size due to his deteriorated condition, causing it to disappear.
 * After summoning Hundun, Ye Yan jumps into the air, allowing Hundun to "hug" him with its legs and land back onto the ground. Since Hundun is almost invulnerable to any attacks, it can shield Ye Yan from damage, allowing him to stall for time against an enemy he cannot defeat.
 * After Hundun is summoned, it stomps the ground and launches two people into the air before jumping after them and "hugging" them with its legs and falling back onto the ground. This effectively immobilizes the people it captured.
 * After accumulating enough negative emotions from experiencing grievances, a Nightwatcher can release the stored energy into their vicinity, indiscriminately knocking creatures around them unconscious before falling unconscious themselves shortly afterwards, though they will usually wake up before the others due to a temporary boost in resistance. While using this technique and before fainting, the Nightwatcher's eyes will glow. The time a person is rendered unconscious depends on the degree of their strength in comparison to the user's and their stamina: people established to be powerful and strong-willed fall unconscious for considerably less time than the weak-willed, but may faint for longer if they were exhausted beforehand. This technique cannot affect organisms that were unconscious before it was used, on organisms that were alertly focused on the user, or Flag Demons that are inside Demon Flags.


 * Timed Knockout (定时锤 Dìng Shí Chuí, lit. "Timing Hammer"): By controlling their strength and striking a person's head with a blunt object, a Nightwatcher can knock them unconscious for a certain duration. The time of unconsciousness induced in one hit can range from five seconds to an hour, but consecutive hits can extend the duration. This technique cannot affect organisms who are alertly focused on the user and can be undone if the unconscious creature takes any damage other than a Timed Knockout attack.


 * Time Guessing Pinch (掐心算点 Qiā Xīn Suàn Diǎn, lit. "Heart Pinch Calculate Time"): By pinching their fingers, a Nightwatcher can accurately calculate the time of day down to seconds, even if the environment around them has not changed. The time is usually denoted with the traditional Chinese time standard.


 * Animal Mimicry (仿生口技 Fǎng Shēng Kǒu Jì, lit. "Creature Mimicking Ventriloquism"): A basic technique learned by Nightwatchers. They can deceive and distract people by mimicking the sound of an animal.


 * Air Shock (空气震 Kōng Qì Zhèn, lit. "Air Tremor"): A Nightwatcher technique that allows the user to burst off their clothes through an air shockwave. While using this technique, the Nightwatcher's eyes will glow similarly to Spirit Shock. This technique can also be used on others by transferring it to them through touch, causing the receiver's clothes to burst off shortly afterwards.


 * Muscle Contracting Hemostasis (止血收肌法 Zhǐ Xiě Shōu Jī Fǎ, lit. "Blood Stopping Muscle Contraction Method"): By contracting their muscles around a laceration wound on their body, a Nightwatcher can stop the bleeding from that wound. However, if the Nightwatcher lacks physical strength due to exhaustion, they are unable to perform this technique.


 * Penta-Shockwave (五方烈震 Wǔ Fāng Liè Zhèn, lit. "Five Corner Violent Quake"): By slamming the Soul Mallet onto the ground, a Nightwatcher can create a shockwave strong enough to send debris flying everywhere. This move is used to create an opening for attacks or kick up debris to obscure one's position.


 * Darkening (黑化 Hēi Huà, lit. "Blackening"): A form achievable by a Nightwatcher who has invoked their dark personality(黑暗人格, Hēi Àn Rén Gé), born from their negative emotions. By succumbing to their inner darkness and forfeiting their body's control to the dark personality, a Nightwatcher can assume this special state, which is indicated physically with the blackening of their sclerae. A Darkened Nightwatcher exhibits complete apathy to everything around them and focuses only on killing other creatures. While Darkened, aside from a significant boost in strength and speed, a Nightwatcher also gains the ability to see and physically interact with souls, release concussive shockwaves from themselves, and generate destructive green energy from their hands that can be discharged as explosive beams. However, extreme emotional outbursts from their normal personality, such as embarrassment could force a Nightwatcher out of this form, indicated by their eyes returning to normal one after another. By learning to accept and live with their inner darkness instead of resisting it allows a Nightwatcher to attain the ability to transform into a Night Conqueror.


 * Mighty Soul Destroying Blast (大力灭魂炮): While Darkened, Ye Yan concentrates green energy into his hand before launching it towards his enemy with a punch, firing it as a beam that explodes or deals concussive damage upon impact, depending on the amount of energy. Disrupting the Darkening on Ye Yan, such as making him emotional, has been shown to weaken this attack's power and cause the blast to shrink in size.


 * Night Conqueror (黑夜主宰 Hēi Àn Zhǔ Zǎi, lit. "Dark Night Overlord"): The ultimate form only achievable by a Nightwatcher after conquering their inner darkness. After transforming into a Night Conqueror, a Nightwatcher's power is vastly increased. By throwing their Soul Mallets, they can create tremendous explosions at the points of impact, and completely obliterate a monster's body and soul with a direct hit. They can perform the Timed Knockout attack without the aid of objects, such as through a stomp. Additionally, while in natural darkness or darkness created by themselves, the Nightwatcher can intuitively locate and sense the movement of anything within it, even if their five senses are hampered. The abilities of their Darkening form are also accessible, such as channeling green energy. The power of a Nightwatcher while in this mode largely depends on the power of their bloodline, which is directly proportional to the number of Demon Flags they can wield. Due to the disruption of natural energy brought about by artificial lighting, the Night Conqueror transformation is incredibly unstable in modern times, requiring true darkness as a catalyst for the transformation. Even if transformed, the form is short-lived, and the Nightwatcher will lose consciousness afterwards as well as have no recollection of their actions while transformed.


 * Darkness Creation: While as a Night Conqueror, a Nightwatcher with a bloodline powerful enough to presumably control more than five Demon Flags can project darkness over an incredibly large area. While in this darkness, unless a creature has the ability to see in the dark, their vision is completely obscured. The Nightwatcher may choose to let themselves be seen.


 * True Spirit Clothing (真气化衣 Zhēn Qì Huà Yī, lit. "True Qi Clothing Conversion"): When a Nightwatcher assumes the Night Conqueror form, they don a black hooded robe with red borders around the edges either by reconstructing their clothing or manifesting it through energy. This transformation is automatic, and usually acts as an indicator of their transformation.


 * Intimidating Pressure: While as a Night Conqueror, a Nightwatcher possesses a dominating aura that can induce fear or even paralyze creatures nearby. While stronger creatures can resist the effects, they may still shiver in fear and have difficulty breathing when facing a Night Conqueror. This pressure can be amplified, affecting creatures in a wider range upwards 600 meters.


 * Temporary Demon Flag Creation: A Nightwatcher can create temporary Demon Flags using any fabric stained with monster blood and their own. In contrast to the standard Demon Flags that can store Flag Demons for eternity, depending on the amount of blood used, the Flag Demons stored in the temporary Demon Flags can live for a certain amount of time before dying. Otherwise, these Demon Flags have the same properties as actual Demon Flags and can be telekinetically controlled by their Nightwatcher.


 * Self-Atomization (雾化自身 Wù Huà Zì Shēn, lit. "Atomize Oneself"): A Nightwatcher can instantly transform their physical bodies into green fog, similar to Flag Demons, and vice versa. While in their Flag Demon form, the Nightwatcher is immune to attacks that can only affect their physical bodies since they are gaseous. A Flag Demon must be sacrificed for the Nightwatcher to transform once, and additional sacrifices are needed every once in a while to maintain the transformation.


 * Flag Demon Regeneration (旗妖大补血 Qí Yāo Dà Bǔ Xuè, lit. "Flag Demon Invigorate"): While transformed into a Flag Demon, if the Nightwatcher were to sustain non-lethal injuries, they can regenerate their bodies by sacrificing a Flag Demon.


 * Flag Demon Self-Destruction (旗妖自爆 Qí Yāo Zì Bào, lit. "Flag Demon Self-Explode"): A Nightwatcher can order their Flag Demons to self-destruct. When doing so, the Flag Demons swell up, then rupture and explode violently into a cloud of green smoke, damaging creatures nearby while destroying themselves. This explosion cannot affect other Flag Demons, or a Nightwatcher transformed into their Flag Demon form. The damage dealt persists over time and even affects the injured person's soul.


 * Flag Demon Missile (旗妖爆弹 Qí Yāo Bào Dàn, lit. "Flag Demon Bomb"): A Nightwatcher orders a Flag Demon to fly towards an enemy and self-destruct near them.


 * Flag Demon Revival: If a Flag Demon were to be destroyed, a Nightwatcher can sacrifice another Flag Demon to resurrect it.

Ye Yan's Techniques

 * Sanshou: Kick Catch Throw (散手: 接腿摔 Sàn Shǒu: Jiē Tuǐ Shuāi): After catching one of his enemy's kicks by putting his arm under their kicking leg, Ye Yan positions the foot on the same side as his arm behind the enemy's remaining foot and trips them, throwing them onto the ground.


 * Tripod Lift (霸王举鼎 Bà Wáng Jǔ Dǐng): An attack used by Ye Yan multiple times off screen.


 * Soul Shattering Thousand Hits (打更千裂破 Dǎ Gēng Qiān Liè Pò): A technique that Ye Yan used to fight multiple people off screen but was never shown.


 * Soul Mallet: Bone Crushing Hit (镇魂锤: 碎骨打 Zhèn Hún Chuí: Suì Gǔ Dǎ): Ye Yan strongly thrusts his Soul Mallet at the enemy with enough force to crack bones. However with enough strength, one can catch and hold the mallet to prevent being hurt.


 * Soul Gong Combo Hit (合击镇魂锣 Hé Jí Zhèn Hún Luó): Ye Yan throws his Soul Mallet at an enemy, seemingly intending to hit them with it. If they dodge, one of his Flag Demons will intercept the mallet with the Soul Gong directly behind them, producing the paralyzing sound to immobilize the enemy. However, the Flag Demon holding the gong will be incapacitated due to its close proximity to the sound, and will suffer reduced mobility for half a month.


 * Pencil Divination Technique (笔仙占卜之术 Bǐ Xiān Zhān Bǔ Zhī Shù): By intertwining their fingers and inserting a pencil between them, Huang Xiaoyan and Ye Yan then press their thumbs on the pencil, causing it to write out a divination.


 * Soul Shattering Palm (碎魂掌): While in his Night Conqueror form, Ye Yan channels and concentrates green energy into his palm and uses it to strike his enemies, which he claims would have completely destroyed the God Destroyer if it didn't have the ability to nullify magic.

Equipment

 * Soul Gong (镇魂锣 Zhèn Hún Luó, lit. "Soul-Reposing Gong"): A main branch Nightwatcher exclusive weapon. If struck by the Soul Mallet, it can produce a sound that either renders anyone within close proximity to the gong unconscious or temporarily immobilizes anyone who heard the sound other than Nightwatchers, who have certain levels of immunity to losing consciousness and paralysis. However, if repeatedly struck within a short timeframe, the immunity will start to weaken and eventually the Nightwatcher themselves will be affected by the sound, showing signs such as extreme fatigue and nose bleeding. Even if they are shattered, Soul Gongs can still produce the immobilizing sound if the pieces are taped back together and can be welded back together through unknown methods. The immobilizing effect only works on the receivers' bodies, therefore it can not stop someone from mentally controlling or summoning a weapon.


 * Soul Mallet (镇魂锤 Zhèn Hún Chuí, lit. "Soul-Reposing Hammer"): A main branch Nightwatcher exclusive weapon, it can be used to strike the Soul Gong to create an immobilizing sound or physical attacks. When a Nightwatcher assumes the Night Conqueror form, the Soul Mallet's power increases drastically, becoming capable of producing large explosions upon impact when thrown and destroying a monster's soul along with its body in one direct hit.


 * Demon Flag (煌妖幡 Huáng Yāo Fān, lit. "Brilliant Demon Banner"): A Nightwatcher exclusive equipment. It is used to capture monster by atomizing their bodies into green fog along with their soul and enslave them as Flag Demons for eternity, courtesy of the numerous formulae programmed into them. Flag Demons are capable of making themselves invisible and intangible by turning themselves into green smoke, or solidify themselves to physically attack. Nightwatchers are also able to telepathically communicate with their Flag Demons within a few hundred meters. Nightwatchers are also capable of telekinetically moving Demon Flags within a few dozen meters of themselves, which allows them to hide their flags around the battlefield for sneak attacks with their Flag Demons. Main branch Nightwatchers possess purer bloodlines and are thus usually able to control multiple Demon Flags. According to Wang Shengli, a Nightwatcher that can control more than four flags is able to store three Flag Demons at most in one flag. However, this is a false claim intentionally spread and perpetuated by the Nightwatchers. In reality, the number of Flag Demons a Nightwatcher can have exponentially increases depending on the number of Demon Flags they control, being equal to 2 to the power of number of Demon Flags minus 1. For example, a four-Flag Nightwatcher can have 8 Flag Demons, a five-Flag can have 16, etc..