Not being a literature major, I’ve to remind myself that there’s a difference between villains and antagonists.

A villain is easily recognizable because he (or she) is the character with malicious intentions, evil methods, and wicked deeds. No matter how destructive and toxic his cause or actions may be, he can justify them. The opposite of the villain is the hero. He’s the obvious bad guy of the story.

An antagonist also opposes the hero like the villain, but his intentions, methods, and/or deeds may not necessarily be malicious. He can simply be misinformed, misguided, and mistaken. His morals and ethics fall on the gray zone; they’re ambiguous. They can be justifiable in some situations, but not in others.

Like the hero, he may believe that he’s truly doing something for the greater good or protecting somebody or something valuable. But the main point, however, is that he’s going about it differently from the hero.

Keeping these nuanced differences between villains and antagonists in mind, here’s their list as of Episode 10.

Villains:

1. Xu Jingfu

a. Prime Minister of Wei
b. is also the Minister of War
c. called the Chancellor at times
d. His top disciple is Chu Zhao.
e. The corrupt Yezhou Magistrate, Sun Xiangfu, is also his disciple.
f. His daughter, Xu Pingting, has a crush on Chu Zhao (looks unrequited to me). Xu Jingfu seems to approve of the match.

g. In Ep 1, he informed our hero Xiao Jue that the emperor was granting him his request to lead troops to Que City to reclaim the lost territory as atonement. However, no Wei troops would be sent with him on this mission, so he must recruit and train new soldiers in the Yezhou Garrison.

h. He’s involved in corrupt deals with the Yezhou Magistrate, Sun Xiangfu. When Chu Zhao reminded him that Mr. Sun was also his disciple, he distanced himself literally. He said, “Though he works for him, distance breeds delusions of local kingship. He’s developed improper ambitions.” He suspected Mr. Sun of keeping a ledger.

i. In Ep 4, he voiced his alarm that Xiao Jue/Huajin was thriving in Yezhou and succeeding in finding/training capable recruits in the backwoods.

j. Given that he’s Minister of War, he must be involved in the death of Gen. Xiao Zhongwu on the battlefield at Mingshui. Xiao Jue told the royal court that there must have been an intelligence leak because the Wutuo tribe successfully attacked all their defensive positions.

2. He Rufei

a. He Yan’s older stepbrother. He isn’t blood-related to her. She and her mother joined the He household when she was three years old.

b. supposedly lived in the Yuhua Temple because of his “congenital frailty”

Note: Xiao Jue came from a long line of military men. Like He Yan, he was sent to the military school instead of his older brother, Xiao Jing, because his older brother was more of a scholar than a military man. I guess they didn’t want their family’s reputation to suffer. As a result of being sent to military school at a young age, Xiao Jue became aloof. He felt distant from his family and relatives. (from Ep 5) IMO, this explains why he felt a connection with He Yan and helped her out when they were in the academy. They were kindred spirits, i.e., they were both sent away as a substitute for their older brothers. Now back to He Rufei….

c. He coveted He Yan’s prestige and rank, so he came out of hiding and took over her position (Stolen valor alert!)
d. His bodyguard/assassin is Ding Yi.
e. In Ep 4, he returned to the temple to light a perpetual candle for his stepsister. He wished that his “lamp would suppress her spirit.” His prayer didn’t work….
f. After the death of Ding Yi, who’ll protect him then? He isn’t trained in martial arts, is he? He isn’t even a great tactician; Chu Zhao easily played him to release his bodyguard to assist in Yezhou.

3. Ding Yi

a. bodyguard of He Rufei
b. almost killed He Yan in Ep 1
c. dead by Ep 9, lost in a swordfight to He Yan and killed.

4. Sun Xiangfu

a. the Magistrate of Yenzhou
b. wanted Xiao Jue dead
c. dead after Ep 10, killed by Chu Zhao’s bodyguard

5. Sun Ling

a. the son of the magistrate
b. serial rapist and murderer

Antagonists:

1. Chu Zhao

a. also called Zilan
b. the inspector of Xu Jingfu
c. top scholar in the Year 19 of Qingyuan. I believe he’s younger than our main couple.
*note: Xiao Jue and He Yan entered the Xiangchang Academy in the Year 14 of Qingyuan.

d. In Ep 4, he came up with the plan to get rid of the Yezhou Magistrate Mr. Sun (because he kept incriminating records of transactions with Minister Xu) and Xiao Jue (because he was recruiting capable men). But to avoid getting his boss, Minister Xu, involved in the takedowns, he suggested that He Rufei’s henchman do the dirty deed for them.

e. His adopted father, Lord Shijin/Chu Linfeng, pressured him to be useful to the Prime Minister. I guess the final goal is “to elevate his status” via a close relationship with the Minister so his mother, who bore him out of wedlock, could enter the ancestral hall. (from Ep 4)

f. His real mother is dead. She had him out of wedlock. But since she was a member of the Chu family, his uncle adopted him when he was born to protect their reputation. (from Ep 4)

g. Before his departure for Yezhou, he paid respect to his mother’s memorial tablet which was in his bedroom. He seems to be a filial son. (from Ep 5)

h. Has a female bodyguard/maid, Ying Xiang. She seems to be in love with him, too, but was disappointed in him when he refused to do something about the female victims of Sun Ling’s crime. (from Ep 10) His reasoning was twofold. He couldn’t be sidetracked from the “higher” goal he set for himself (which I’m guessing has something to do with seeking justice for his deceased mother) and he was counting on Xiao Jue to seek justice for the rape and murder of the women.

YX: What do we do about the bodies? Sun Xiangfu is a wolf in lamb’s skin. His son, Sun Ling, is a total animal who abducts women, assaults them, and then kills them. Death is too merciful for him.
Chu: We’re here to get the ledgers for the Chancellor. As for those murder victims, I bet Xiao Jue will do them justice. We just need to bide our time amid the chaos.

Meaning, they shouldn’t interfere because the situation would resolve itself with Xiao Jue at the helm.

YX: (not answering)
Chu: (sensing her displeasure) YingXiang. After all these years, you should know that I stop at nothing to achieve my goals. Compassion is never my thing.

And he extended his hand out in the rain. I think this gesture is symbolic. He was washing his hands of the situation; he didn’t want to be responsible for it.

YX: But Young Master, you…
Chu: (interrupting her) I willingly chose this path myself. Why bother finding high-sounding excuses to justify it?

He continued getting his hand wet.

To me, he was saying that he couldn’t afford to be compassionate because it might endanger his mission to get the ledger which would highly displease the Prime Minister. That said, he wasn’t in this game for the Chancellor. The Chancellor was only the means to his ends. His mother was his endgame.

i. For now, I’m placing Chu Zhao on the antagonist column instead of villain list because of his filial piety and respect for women. The scene at the gravesite of the unknown female victims was telling.

Cheng’s fiancée: As the saying goes, women are praised for their gentleness. But gentleness implies weakness. We can’t even protect ourselves out there.
He Yan: This isn’t about gender. Everyone grows from a fragile infant to an adult.

True; it isn’t about gender. (Lol. Do you hear the Chinese propaganda?)  Cheng’s fiancée, Cheng, and Chu Zhao (and most likely He Rufei, too) have zero swordsmanship. They can’t protect themselves in the real world.

He Yan: (continuing) If you hate being weak, you can train like men do. Although it’s harder for women, it’s better to learn than not. You might even become a female general.
Chu: Men should protect women and shelter them forever.
He Yan: I don’t believe women should entrust their lives to men. Instead of being a caged bird, it’s better to grow wings. That’s what the Commander engraved on the steel. “Roam freely with the wind.”

Then Chu Zhao had a flashback. His mom was lying on a sickbed and telling him that if there’s a next life, she’d still want to be reborn as a woman and become his mother. She promised to strengthen her wings to protect him better. He wished someone had offered his mother justice back then.

I suspect that Chu Zhao might have good motives but his execution — or his chosen method to achieve his otherwise laudable goal — might not be sound.

Let’s see how his future relationship with He Yan will influence him for the better.

2. Lei Hou

-new recruit
-seems to be the spy sent by Chu Zhao to the Yezhou Garrison

Will update as more missions come up.