Liu Zhigang

The original timeline gave Zhigang a striking, muscular look: dark yellow eyes set under long black hair tied into a ponytail, with thick loose strands trailing from his head like leaves off a branch. Rage or the use of his power lit those eyes a vivid yellow. His wardrobe ran to red or yellow cloaks edged by heavy black collars, completed with black pants and boots. After the Cup of Reincarnation rewound everything, the reborn Zhigang reawakened only decades on, by then aged with his hair turned fully white.

The first Zhigang was brash and itching for combat, openly griping that the Ant King had slipped beyond his reach as an opponent. He spoke bluntly too, flatly telling a Chinese reporter that Jinwoo's strength dwarfed his own and writing off doubters as fools, though he turned warm and modest toward anyone who earned his regard. The reset version holds onto almost all of that while gaining a real devotion to martial arts. His willpower runs deep: the Itarim dangled vast power before him in exchange for his body, and he refused flat out, holding back their forced attempts at possession for two straight years.

Once the Jeju Island raid had passed, Zhigang threw himself into guarding China's eastern coast, at one point felling hundreds of ants with a lone swing. When a giant out of the Tokyo S-Rank Gate began crossing the ocean toward China, he intercepted and killed it offshore before it reached land, though its power caught him off guard and he saw that Jinwoo dispatched such giants more easily than he had. Curious, he requested every public file the Korean Hunters Association held on the man. Sent as his nation's representative to the International Guild Conference, he discovered that Jinwoo's father, Sung Il-Hwan, was the chief suspect in Christopher Reed's killing, and once the event closed he sought Jinwoo out for a handshake and congratulations on the win over Thomas Andre.

Decades later, in the rewritten world, Zhigang regained his power and his place among the strongest, but with the Ruler's vessel role no longer his, the Chinese government rated him six stars rather than seven. The Itarim approached offering strength for his body; he refused and fought off forced possession for two years. Even half taken by them he kept his will through ceaseless struggle, roaming Asia and choosing field dungeons on purpose so he could vent his power where it caused the least collateral harm, a pattern that named him both his nation's pride and a berserker. He met Sung Suho in India and attacked, taking him for a criminal. Already spent, he was worn further when Suho summoned Greed; Suho pulled his punches, since Beru had told him both who Liu had once been and that the Itarim half-controlled him. Once Liu was weakened, the Forest of Echoes spring water became Suho's means of breaking that hold, setting him free. Restored to himself, Liu recovered his memories of the first timeline and pieced together that Suho was Jinwoo's son.

As a Ruler's vessel and one of the National Level Hunters, Zhigang counts among the planet's elite, having reigned as Asia's strongest until Jinwoo overtook him; one navy captain from China who had watched both fight ranked him well beyond Japan's Goto Ryuji in raw power. Even old and rated only six stars after the reset, he went toe to toe with the General-grade shadow Greed while shrugging off possession, later reclaiming his seven-star title and former might. His swordsmanship is unmatched, cleaving a giant into pieces with ease, and his speed lets him cut down enemies almost the instant a fight starts. Swinging his blades, he hurls broad, devastating energy arcs that wiped out an airborne, swarming horde of ants. He further commands Ruler's Authority for telekinetic control of objects and possesses Spiritual Body Manifestation.