A wandering rogue cultivator who descended the same celestial mountain twice, being the third of Baoshan Sanren's disciples to leave.
The first time he left her mountain it was out of curiosity and the desire to make the world below a better place by performing acts of Good. He made a name for himself during a Night Hunt, and found himself what seemed to be his missing half in another daozhang named Song Lan, whom he occasionally traveled with. Things were going well for Xiao Xingchen, though good things never last, and disciples who leave the mountain had a tendency to be spurned by fate.
His life changed drastically when he made an enemy out of a delinquent named Xue Yang. He spent months tracking him down, and finally capturing him and handing him over to the proper authorities was supposed to be the end of it, but the whole ordeal turned into a lesson: you cannot trust the sects, nor people in power, to do what should be done. Justice was not meted out. Xue Yang was freed. The next time Xiao Xingchen met his friend Song Lan, the people of Baixue Temple had been massacred and his partner had been blinded by the delinquent in retaliation.
The second time he descended the celestial mountain was after he broke his vow to never return, bringing Song Lan with him to petition Baoshan Sanren for assistance in restoring his sight. It was a costly affair: he gave his own eyes up to restore his friend's sight, and since his friend no longer wished to see him, he was also forced to give up their partnership. Blind and alone, he wrapped his sword in white cloth to keep it from being recognized and took to wandering once more, albeit as little more than a humble daoist priest looking to help those in need where he could. There were no more grand undertakings, hunts for criminals, or the dreams and ambitions that he and Song Lan had formed together. But that was fine, at least, until it wasn't.In Modern Times, by AU or by Reincarnation - in much the same vein, he is the adopted son of a woman who took on the name Baoshan Sanren when she made the decision to forsake the modern world and found a taoist temple atop an obscure mountain. She isn't an Immortal, the mountain isn't Celestial, and neither she nor any of her adopted children are Cultivators (unless we go for modern day wuxia).
Xingchen, however, still descends the mountain out of curiosity for the modern world below, and to see if he can help make it a better place. In the robes his mother made for him he looks like a walking anachronism or a cosplayer among the hustle and bustle of every day life, and his distinct lack of knowledge and boundless eccentricities make him come off as "a kind man, but weird as fuck." He is nearsighted, but hasn't been fitted for a prescription; and his adopted mother did not believe in modern medicine, so he has none of his shots beyond what is given to a newborn baby. To top it all off, he's a tad bit gullible and impossibly naïve.
