Ye Heping

Ye Heping was a Nightwatcher guardian who was partnered with Ye Yan three years before the start of the story. Their bond and her eventual death heavily influenced her partner's personality and beliefs.

Background
Ye Heping was a fifty-second generation Nightwatcher born to a main branch family. Her conservative father wanted one of his children to succeed him as a Nightwatcher, thus paying more attention to and favoring Ye Heping's older brother. Ye Heping eventually pursued an education abroad, where she faced prejudice due to having different beliefs than her peers. At some point, she also dated and had a boyfriend, who cheated on her with another woman, which she found out upon finding them in bed together.

Ye Heping originally wanted to become a full-time artist. However, a year before she returned to China, her older brother broke his leg in a car accident, which led to Ye Heping's father forcing her into becoming a Nightwatcher.

The day before she first encountered Ye Yan, Ye Heping returned to China after finishing her degree and jobs abroad. The next day, she somehow ended up nude-modelling for a weasel monster for free, who she promptly beat up after discovering he possessed no artistic skills and was simply a pervert. After the weasel monster she sent flying crashed into the boar monster Ye Yan was attacking, the two met for their first time. Ye Heping acknowledged Ye Yan's performance art "Nature and Natural Desire" as body art, which made Ye Yan ecstatic after finally meeting someone who understood his art. However, while Ye Heping considered the piece to be a good idea, she stated it had "too far-fetched of an action process and an exaggerated performance", calling Ye Yan an amateur and inexperienced artist. This dejects Ye Yan, who does not even notice that a gust of wind blew away the leaf covering his crotch. Seeing him exposed, Ye Heping comments that he is "well-developed", before telling Ye Yan that he is still young and should look forward to his future and walks away. Her words made Ye Yan feel embarrassed and blush, which surprised his partner Er Dan.

The next day, following an argument between Ye Yan and his uncle, the third-in-command of the Northern main branch family, Ye Heping entered the conference room just when Ye Yan was about to give up on performance art in order to appease his uncle, prompting her to make an speech about how "the moment an artist gives up his passion for life, his artworks die with it" and drew attention to herself. Upon being questioned by the third-in-command about her identity, she introduces herself as "a loner who is passionate for art" and uses Air Shock, bursting off her clothes and revealing the white one-piece swimsuit she wore underneath. This surprises and embarrasses everyone except Ye Yan, who Ye Heping commends for not viewing her vulgarly unlike the others. She is subsequently attacked by the third-in-command and head of the family, before clarifying that her words were meant for the younger people present as well as telling them she is "Little Heping" (小和平). She then gifted the two local products from abroad before announcing that she wants to partner with Ye Yan for his practice period.

After showing Ye Yan her paintings and then being impressed by Ye Yan's talent upon seeing him control eight Demon Flags, Ye Heping became Ye Yan's artist friend and Nightwatcher practice partner for the final three months of his practice period. For the next two months, the two quickly became close friends as they went on patrol and did performance art together, during which Ye Heping revealed she can make clothes and perform magic tricks. In aspects of art and life, Heping is much more sophisticated than Ye Yan, but she nonetheless respects his talent and hard work, believing he has the potential to become a great artist.

Half a month after Ye Yan decided to train at the Trial Village at the instigation of his uncle, Ye Heping joined him in his training while secretly using "dark incenses" to forcibly awaken his dark persona in order to further his progress. However, Ye Heping was also affected by the incenses, causing her to develop her own dark persona, stemming from her loneliness. On her fourth day at the Trial Village, she succumbs to her dark persona after she and Ye Yan were attacked by several monsters outside of the village, causing her to go berserk. Although she soundly defeats the monsters, while attempting to kill the last monster she breaks the barrier protecting the village, subsequently destroying the house of the little girl who gave her grass butterflies and severely injuring her mother. Ye Yan eventually defeats her after succumbing to his dark persona as well, and their battle destroys the entire village.

Ye Heping was admitted into a psychiatric hospital following the incident due to her dark persona causing her to fall into depression and madness. At some point in the next three months, her growing instability eventually led the doctors to deem her too mentally ill and thus needed to wear a straitjacket to continue her treatment. She commits suicide by slitting her wrist before they were able to do so, as she wished to "leave the world as an artist", before voicing regret that she was not able to see Ye Yan one last time. Before she died however, Heping finished working on Ye Yan's iconic mushroom costume and left it for him, along with a note that expressed her belief in his potential to become a great artist. Her legacy eventually led Ye Yan to understand how to live with his dark persona and become a Night Conqueror.

Personality
Ye Heping was a passionate artist. She was willing to model for free for artists she liked, as she appreciated the attentiveness of the artists creating their work and enjoyed the modelling process. She despises sham artists who ask her to model for them for lustful purposes.

While under the influence of her Dark Persona, Ye Heping became arrogant and emotionless. She was uncaring towards the possibility of killing innocent people while attacking the monsters, and claimed she disliked hearing opposing opinions.

Appearance
Ye Heping was a tall and slender young woman with incredibly long black hair tied into a braid and turquoise eyes. She wore a white wide-brimmed hat, grey long-sleeved shrug, white blouse, and a black dress. Accessories wise, she wore a cyan pendant necklace and three cyan bracelets on her right wrist. She was also regularly seen smoking from a kiseru smoking pipe.

For her performance art "Leaping Forward in Public", Ye Heping wore a white one-piece swimsuit.

Upon succumbing to her dark persona, Ye Heping's scleras turn black, and her eyes lose their shine and become dull, reflecting her emotionless state.

Abilities and Powers
Ye Heping was a decently talented Nightwatcher, as she was able to manipulate up to two Demon Flags and effortlessly defeated a weasel monster.

Nightwatcher exclusive techniques

 * Dark Persona (黑暗人格): After exposing herself to the scent of the dark incenses for three nights during her time with Ye Yan in the Trial Village, Ye Heping awakened her dark persona that stemmed from the loneliness she experienced throughout her life. Upon succumbing to her dark persona, Ye Heping obtained the ability to release concussive shockwaves from herself, as well as generate green energy in her hands and subsequently unleash them as destructive beams that explode on impact. Her physical strength and speed were also considerably enhanced, as shown when she broke a monster's arm in the blink of an eye and slammed another monster against the Trial Village's barrier with so much force it broke.

Equipment

 * Demon Flags (煌妖幡): A Nightwatcher exclusive weapon. It is used to capture monsters, atomize their bodies into green smoke along with their soul and enslave them as Flag Demons for eternity. Flag Demons are capable of making themselves invisible and intangible by turning themselves into green smoke, they are also able to solidify themselves to deal a surprise attack. Nightwatchers are also able to telepathically communicate with their Flag Demons within a few hundred meters. 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. Ye Heping was able to control two flags, and consequently could only have two Flag Demons.