New Jin Yong Wuxia Universe: The Five Sub-Units and Major Characters

The upcoming wuxia drama, New Jin Yong Wuxia Universe, officially known as The Legend of Heroes, is a spin-off of The Legend of the Condor Heroes. 

It has 60 episodes in total and will be released in two parts. The first part is expected to air this coming February on Tencent. 

However, this newest spin-off is different as it will be divided into five sub-units, focusing on each major character per arc. 

Cast of the upcoming New Jin Yong Wuxia Universe 

It might not follow the original script of the source novel and will most likely tell the story of the new generation of great warriors taking new adventures in the martial arts world, showcasing chivalry, heroism, and friendships.

However, the name of the characters remain the same, so here, we present the description of the characters of The Legend of the Condor Heroes based on the original novel of Jin Yong. 

The following are also the five sub-units of the upcoming New Jin Yong Wuxia Universe, the number of episodes, and the main characters per arc:

1. Eastern Heretic and Western Venom. Episodes: 8

Gao Wei Guang as Ouyang Feng/Western Venom. In the original novel, Ouyang Feng is the master of the manor on Mount White Camel and is called the "Western Venom". He is one of the Five Greats of the jianghu (martial artists' community) during the Song dynasty. 

Vengo Gao as Ouyang Feng 

He is best known for his signature martial arts technique, the Toad Skill. In the Legend of the Condor Heroes, he is depicted as a ruthless villain who resorts to all kinds of unscrupulous means to achieve his goal of becoming the most powerful martial artist in the world. 

Zhou Yiwei as Huang Yao Shi/Eastern Heretic - Huang Yao Shi is the master of Peach Blossoms Island and is one of the Five Greats of the jianghu (martial artists' community) during the Song dynasty. 

He is nicknamed "Eastern Heretic" or Easter evil for being an unorthodox radical who behaves as he wishes without showing any regard for formalities or moral ethics. 

His wife is Feng Heng and they are the parents of Huang Rong, the female lead character in the Legend of the Condor Heroes.

Chen Duling 

Chen Duling as Feng Heng. She lives on Peach Blossoms Island as the wife of Huang Yao Shi. She died shortly after giving birth to their daughter, Huang Rong.

Luo Qiu Yun as Dan Min - Looks like this is the newest addition to the story as Dan Min did not appear in the original novel.

2. Southern Emperor and Northern Beggar. Episodes: 8

Peter Ho as Duan Zhixing. Duan Zhixing is the ruler of the Dali Kingdom and one of the five most powerful martial artists in the jianghu alongside Wang Chongyang, Huang Yaoshi, Ouyang Feng, and Hong Qigong. 

Peter Ho

His nickname is "Southern Emperor" and his signature skill is the Yiyang Finger which allows him to project streams of energy from his fingers. 

By the time the events of The Legend of the Condor Heroes take place, Duan Zhixing has already abdicated the throne and become a Buddhist monk under the name "Reverend Yideng". 

He appears at the end of the novel when Guo Jing and Huang Rong seek help from him after Huang Rong is critically wounded. He then uses his skills to heal Huang Rong of her internal injuries. 

Ming Dao as Hong Qigong/Jin Meng Yi as young Hong Qigong - He is best known for his most powerful martial arts (the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms and the Dog Beating Staff Technique). 

He is the chief of the Beggars' Gang and one of the five most powerful martial artists in the jianghu (martial artists' community) of his time. 

He plays a significant role in the first novel by imparting his skills to the protagonists, Guo Jing and Huang Rong who also succeeds him as the Beggars' Gang's chief. 

In The Return of the Condor Heroes, he makes a brief appearance and teaches the protagonist, Yang Guo, the Dog Beating Staff Technique before dying together with his old rival, Ouyang Feng.

Hani Kezi Omar

Hani Kezi as Yi Huo - Looks like this is a newly introduced character as she did not appear in the previous adaptations of The Legend of the Condor Heroes.

3. Duel on Mount Hua. Episodes: 6

This arc focuses on the contest of martial artists on Mount Hua where five of them emerged as winners, and thereby earned the title of the Five Greats. The duel occurs before the events in The Legend of the Condor Heroes.

Main Characters:

• Zhou Yi Wei as Huang Yaoshi
• Gao Wei Guang as Ouyang Feng
• Peter Ho as Duan Zhixing
• Ming Dao as Hong Qigong
• Yu Xiao Wei as Wang Chongyang

Wang Chongyang is a historical figure, a Taoist master, and one of the founders of the Quanzhen School in the 12th century during the Jin dynasty (1115–1234). He often appears as a character in most wuxia novels. 

In Jin Yong wuxia's series, Wang Chongyang already died before the events in The Legend of the Condor Heroes could take place.

4. Nine Yin True Sutra. Episodes: 8

• Zhou Yi Wei as Huang Yaoshi
• Meng Zi Yi as Mei Chaofeng
• He Yu as Chen Xuanfeng
• Chen Du Ling as Feng Heng

He Yu as Chen Xuanfeng is nicknamed "Copper Corpse". He is the husband of Mei Chao Feng. He fights with the "Seven Freaks of Jiangnan" and tries to hold a six-year-old Guo Jing hostage but the boy instinctively stabs him with a dagger.

He Yu

He is one of the "Twin Killers in the Dark Wind" together with Mei Chao Feng. They eloped, stole their master's copy of the Nine Yin Manual, and fled the Peach Blossom Island. 

They learn two skills derived from an unorthodox interpretation of the manual: the Nine Yin White Bone Claw and the Heart Shattering Palm. The couple are known for committing heinous crimes and are highly feared in the jianghu. 

Meng Ziyi

Meng Ziyi as Mei Chao Feng - Originally named Mei Ruohua, she is the fourth disciple of Huang Yaoshi. She is known as the Iron Corpse due to her rigid appearance. 

She, along with her husband, Chen Xuanfeng, is despised by the martial arts community for unethical behavior. 

She later became the teacher of Yang Kang and taught him the Nine Yin White Bone Claw. She was killed by Ouyang Feng while attempting to save her teacher, Huang Yaoshi.

I find this casting of Meng Ziyi a little bit weird since she played Mu Nianci in the 2017 The Legend of the Condor Heroes edition. 

5. Hot Blooded. Episodes: 30

This is where the story of The Legend of the Condor Heroes began. The four main characters will finally appear in this last arc.

Ci Sha as Guo Jing 

Ci Sha as Guo Jing/Gong Jue Rui as the young Guo Jing

He is the main protagonist in The Legend of the Condor Heroes. His father, Guo Xiaotian, was killed by a group of soldiers during a raid ordered by Wanyan Honglie. His mother, Li Ping, escaped to Mongolia where he was born. 

Guo Jing and his mother are taken in by some nomads later and become part of Genghis Khan's tribe. He befriends the Khan's children and followers and becomes a sworn brother to the Khan's fourth son, Tolui. 

He later meets the "Seven Freaks of Jiangnan" and learns martial arts from them. The Khan sees Guo Jing as a loyal subject, places great faith and trust in him. 

He leaves Mongolia to find Yang Kang, the son of his father's sworn brother, Yang Tiexin, to fulfill their father's wishes to defend their Han heritage and the Song Empire. 

Along the way, he encounters several extraordinary martial artists who teach him some of their skills. By chance, he finds two prized texts: the Nine Yin Manual and the Book of Wumu. 

The knowledge he gained from the books turned him into a formidable martial artist and skilled tactician as he gradually matured in his beliefs and ideals. 

He meets Huang Rong and they become lovers and later get married. He appears as a supporting character in the sequel, The Return of the Condor Heroes. 

He faces the arduous task of raising the playful Yang Guo, the orphaned son of his late sworn brother, Yang Kang, and guiding him on the path of goodness. 

He had previously named the boy 'Yang Guo' in the hope that the boy would redeem his family's honor, which had been tarnished by Yang Kang's villainy.

Bao Shang En

Bao Shang En as Huang Rong 

Huang Rong is the daughter of Huang Yaoshi and Feng Heng. Her mother died shortly after she was born and her father raised her all by himself on Peach Blossoms Island.

She is an intelligent child and a quick learner, so her father imparted her with all his skills and knowledge. But she flees home after a quarrel with her father and disguises herself as a beggar by wearing filthy rags.

Huang Rong meets Guo Jing for the first time in a restaurant while she is arguing with a waiter. Guo Jing feels sorry for her and decides to pay for her meal. 

Huang Rong finds him interesting and she orders all kinds of fine cuisine and shares it with him. Guo Jing even gives her some gold ingots he received from Genghis Khan. 

Since then, Huang Rong is attracted to Guo Jing as she sees him as a simple, honest, and innocent young man.

Guo Jing and Huang Rong embark on an adventure together even though Guo's teachers, the "Seven Freaks of Jiangnan", dislike Huang Rong and oppose Guo's decision to be with her. 

They meet Hong Qigong, who teaches Guo Jing the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms to repay Huang Rong's favors of preparing fine cuisine for him.

Hong Qigong initially refuses to teach Huang Rong any skills when he learns that she is the daughter of his friendly rival, Huang Yaoshi. 

However, he starts to like her for her adorable nature. He then teaches her his Dog Beating Staff Technique after deciding to pass on his position as the chief of the Beggars' Gang to her.

Huang Rong plays a significant role in Yang Kang's death although she did not kill him directly. Yang Kang attacks her with a palm strike in an attempt to prevent her from revealing the truth behind the murders he committed on Ouyang Ke, the illegitimate son of Ouyang Feng.

However, instead, he hits the spikes on the soft armor she is wearing. The armor is stained with a deadly venom from a rare snake bred by Ouyang Feng and the poison seeps through Yang Kang's wounds and kills him eventually.

Towards the end of the novel, on the summit of Mount Hua, Huang Yaoshi finally consents to his daughter's marriage to Guo Jing.

In The Return of the Condor Heroes. Guo Jing and Huang Rong play supporting roles in the character development of the protagonist, Yang Guo.  

Wang Hongyi

Wang Hong Yi as Yang Kang

Yang Kang is the antagonist in The Legend of the Condor Heroes. He is cunning, treacherous, manipulative, and greedy. 

Guo Jing is supposed to be his sworn brother due to the pact made by their respective fathers in the past, but Yang Kang refuses to cooperate with Guo Jing to defend the Song Empire.

His biological parents are Yang Tiexin and Bao Xiruo who came from Niu Family Village before they were attacked by the Jin Empire forces. 

Bao Xiruo was heavily pregnant with Yang Kang when she was taken by Wanyan Honglie, the sixth prince of the Jin Empire, and went to live with him in the Jin territory. 

She gave birth to Yang Kang, who was raised as a Jurchen noble and adopted his foster father's family name, "Wanyan". He was initially known as "Wanyan Kang" before his real identity was revealed.

Wang Hongyi as Yang Kang 

Yang Kang meets his love interest, Mu Nianci, for the first time in a martial arts contest organized by Mu Yi to find his adopted daughter, Mu Nianci,  a spouse. Yang Kang defeats her but refuses to marry her. 

He is unaware that Mu Nianci's foster father, Mu Yi, is actually his biological father, Yang Tiexin. Yang Kang discovers his true heritage when Yang Tiexin and Bao Xiruo meet again. 

Bao Xiruo tries to explain to her son that Yang Tiexin is his father. However, Yang Kang refuses to acknowledge him as his father. 

To him, Wanyan Honglie is a fatherly figure who showers love and care to him and provides him with everything he wants. 

Yang Kang and Mu Nianci eventually became lovers. However, their romance is often strained as they have conflicting views over where their loyalties lie. 

Yang Kang wants to remain a Jurchen noble and indulge in wealth, fame, and power, while Mu Nianci remains loyal to the Song Empire. She is disappointed with his treachery and refusal to acknowledge his Han ethnicity. 

She decides to leave him for good. She never saw him again. However, she is already pregnant with his child.

When Yang Kang finally meets his sworn brother, Guo Jing, the latter attempts to persuade him to take the Song Empire's side. 

Although Yang Kang initially agreed to join the Song Empire, he changed his mind later and collaborated with the Jurchens to exploit his own race. 

Yang Kang learns from Mei Chaofeng the Nine Yin White Bone Claw, an unorthodox version of the skills in the Nine Yin Manual. 

Yang Kang fights with Huang Rong to prevent her from revealing the truth behind the deaths of Ouyang Ke and the Freaks. However, his action backfired and he succumbed to the venom from a deadly breed of snakes in the armor of Huang Rong. 

Before dying, Yang Kang finally realizes his mistakes after his foster father, Wanyan Honglie, abandoned him. Guo Jing tries to save him but too late. 

Huang Yi as Mu Nianci

In the first edition The Legend of the Condor Heroes (1957), Mu Nianci is Yang Kang's love interest but not Yang Guo's mother. Yang Guo's mother is Qin Nanqin. 

Huang Yi as Mu Nianci

Qin Nanqin develops a crush on Guo Jing after he saves her. However, she is raped by Yang Kang and Mu Nianci arrives too late to stop Yang Kang. Qin Nanqin becomes pregnant and gives birth to Yang Guo. 

After Yang Kang was poisoned, Mu Nianci performs a coup de grâce on him and commits suicide to join him in death. 

However, the author, Jin Yong, felt that Qin Nanqin's role in the series was unnecessary so he merged Mu Nianci and Qin Nanqin into a single character when he revised the novel. 

Jin Yong then changed the flow of Mu Nianci's character by building her as Yang Guo's biological mother. 

Thus, in all drama adaptations of The Legend of the Condor Heroes and The Return of the Condor Heroes, Mu Nianci is Yang Guo's real mother and Qin Nanqin was no longer mentioned. 

Jin Yong also revised the way Mu Nianci and Yang Kang met. In the revised edition of The Condor Trilogy, Mu Nianci became an orphan after her parents and siblings died from the epidemic. 

Months before their deaths, her parents offered shelter to an injured Yang Tiexin who was escaping from the Jin Empire forces. After he recuperates he left their home and changed his name to Mu Yi.

He returned to the family to offer help after an epidemic swept the village. But he only found a baby girl. So he decided to adopt her to repay her family's kindness. He named her Mu Nianci.

When Mu Nianci became older, Mu Yi decided that it was time for him to find a suitable spouse for her. They travel around the land and stage martial arts contests for interested men to participate. 

The contestant must defeat Mu Nianci to win her hand for marriage but none has managed to overcome her yet. 

Mu Yi and Mu Nianci travel to the capital of the Jin Empire to stage another contest. A young Jurchen nobleman, Wanyan Kang, joins the contest for fun. He easily defeats Mu Nianci. 

But Wanyan Kang refuses to marry Mu Nianci. He is confronted by Mu Yi. Wanyan Kang turns violent and shoves Mu Yi away. 

Guo Jing, who is watching nearby, stands up for Mu Yi and chides Wanyan Kang for his behavior. Guo Jing and Wanyan Kang then start fighting.

Just then, Wanyan Kang's mother, Bao Xiruo, arrives on the scene and intervenes. Mu Yi instantly recognizes his wife. 

Bao Xiruo is shocked to see her husband, Yang Tiexin, again as she thought she had died 19 years ago. She reveals to her son that Mu Yi is his real father, but Wanyan Kang refuses to acknowledge him. 

After the revelation of his real identity, Wanyan Kang changed his name to Yang Kang. He also starts pursuing Mu Nianci. 

Yang Kang actually has fallen in love with her during the contest and just pretended he didn't care.  

But their relationship gradually becomes more complicated as Yang Kang is unwilling to give up his status as a Jurchen noble. 

Mu Nianci discovers Yang Kang's villainous deeds eventually and decides to leave him for good. They never met each other again. However, she is already pregnant with his child and still loves him despite his misdeeds. 

She gives birth to a son shortly after Yang Kang's death. The infant is named "Yang Guo" by Guo Jing, who hopes that the boy will redeem his family's honor by doing good. 

For detailed description of Guo Jing and Yang Kang's parents, read HERE

These are the descriptions of the characters of The Legend of the Condor Heroes in the original novel so let's see if they are still the same in the upcoming New Jin Yong Wuxia Universe 😄

There might be changes but hopefully the basic flow of the story is still the same. The Condor Trilogy is one of the best classic wuxia novels ever written that's why every edition becomes the most awaited. 

For detailed background of The Condor Trilogy, read it HERE