Ning Fu

Ning Fu and Pu Zhao share a childhood bond, and she has long harbored deep feelings for him. Three years before the story begins, however, soldiers of the Taibai Empire severed both her arms during a period of violent conflict, forever altering the course of her life. Left without her limbs, she and her elder sister Fu Yin wandered across the land, surviving by performing for strangers. With Yun's assistance, Ning Fu received a pair of wooden prosthetic arms. Beyond restoring her mobility, she unexpectedly discovered that the prosthetics concealed combat capabilities during a confrontation with Taibai soldiers. Driven by a fierce hatred toward the Taibai Empire, she killed numerous imperial soldiers and was consequently placed on the empire's wanted list. It was also through Yun that she learned of her sister Fu Yin's past life as Che Yun. As the story progresses, Ning Fu's views begin to diverge from those of Fu Yin. She secretly follows Pu Zhao into the imperial palace of the Taibai Empire, and upon learning that he has been working for the empire, she finds herself torn between conflicting emotions. Discovered by Emperor Long Cheng, she is subjected to the ancient water drop torture—a relentless ordeal that shatters her psyche. The trauma warps her feelings toward Fu Yin into something closer to hatred, and she comes to regard her own sister as an enemy. Later, a chance encounter leads her to kill an assassin, but the incident draws Long Cheng's attention to a piece of her jewelry, which he uses to bring her under his control. Though he treats her outwardly as a companion, she is in truth little more than a new plaything to him. He orders Pu Zhao to maintain and repair her, making Ning Fu one of the earliest test subjects for the mechanical prosthetic arm project.