Liu Yi

Liu Yi serves Moji, and he has always held his master's name in esteem.

He was pulled out of the cliff cages a dying man. He keeps to the ledge halfway up the mountain anyway, with one wish left: that someone bring back what Moji left behind here, for the sake of what his master stood for.

He holds the road up the mountain, and tells those who pass about the lift the Mandate once used to haul supplies to the summit. Its crank went missing when the Mandate fell to fighting among themselves; from there it is a climb on your own two legs.

He will not own Huangxing. The two are brothers, he says, and nothing alike: Moji was gentle and would not bend before Transcension, and that is what a hero looks like.

The sword was found in a cave prison held by Maskwalkers, steeped through with blood. Liu Yi knew it at once for his master's, and said the presence on it was still familiar.

To scour the blade clean he gave his body to it — only their hot blood could wash off what those things had left, and bring the light back to the steel. Then he held the sword out and said: go, take it, and kill Huangxing.