Mǔ Dan

Mu Dan was of average height, with short red, flower petal hair, golden colored eyes, and possessed either a well-toned, muscular body when assuming their Yang male body or a slender, feminine build when assuming their Yin female body. He wore a dark long sleeve Taoist robe with a Yin-Yang diagram at the center, a beaded necklace with a peony flower attached at the end, baggy pants, and dark boots.

In his first appearance, Mu Dan's head was not completely formed and was instead substituted with peony flowers.

In their Kishikai form, Mu Dan had a pair of emaciated bodies representing their Yin and Yang forms that were locked together from the head. The bodies had long, elongate necks and one thin long arm. The bodies were attached from the trouser to a large, bloomed flower and were being supported by two legs that split from the bottom forming two thin sticks.

Mu Dan had a calm and carefree attitude, as he usually carried around a smile on his face, while having a blunt way of speaking. Under his carefree demeanor, Mu Dan possessed a cruel and sadistic personality towards humans, as Tao Fa noted that he was well-known within Lord Tensen for his love of toying with the race. While the main goal of Lord Tensen is to extract Tao from humans to create Tan, Mu Dan took the group's complete disregard for human life a step further by modifying the humans who venture to the island into his personal minions that he can use however he wishes, whether it's to have them fight on his behalf or merely act as his chair. He also goes so far as to not think of them as servants, rather as his toys. This mistreatment can be seen as an obsession, as Mu Dan expressed his love for tinkering as he sat on a Kyōshi and joyful thought of the ways he had planned to modify Sagiri, Senta, and Yuzuriha once he captured them.

As a Tensen, Mu Dan valued humans for their exquisite Tao and would become more delighted to come across one that showed promise. When he sensed that Yuzuriha was able to perceive Tao, Mu Dan's curiosity opened up as to how far she could go if he could teach her how to wield it properly through battle, which would benefit him since he could subjugate her to Bōchū Jutsu. In his final moments, Mu Dan became captivated by the state of Shion's Tao that leaned towards the concept of Yin-Yang harmonizing.

Like the other members of Lord Tensen, Mu Dan lacked feelings of empathy and sympathy towards even his own colleagues, as he showed no signs of pity towards Zhu Jin after they had been reduced to a weakened state and simply mocked them along with Tao Fa. Despite this, he is supportive of Lord Tensen's goal to achieve perfect immortality. 200 years ago, Mu Dan spoke with disappointment in his voice that Lord Tensen would soon fail their mission if the Hōko were to die and gave into desperation, along with Tao Fa and Ju Fa

1000 years ago on Kotaku, Mu Dan and the other Tensens were unknowingly born from the Tao of a single Tao puppet created by Rien as part of her and Jofuku's research in discovering the secrets to immortality. Together, the Tensens served as the rulers of Kotaku known as Lord Tensen and lived to serve Jofuku, who they believed was their creator and master and was secretly busy with his research alone, which forbidden the Tensens, other than Rien, from meeting him. Throughout their life, Mu Dan and the other young Tensens trained in the ways of Tao under Rien's tutelage and were each assigned one of the five forms of training in immortality; with Mu Dan being assigned in the realm of Shūten. They were also introduced to the Hōko as tools they could use to replenish their Tao. However, after 200 years passed, the Hōko began undergoing Arborification and left the Tensens at risk of dying if they were to run out of Tao. Although he was sadly willing to accept this, Mu Dan made a desperate attempt with Tao Fa and Ju Fa in trying to lure out humans from Japan as replacements by sending out an Arborifed Hōko in a boat as bait.

After several centuries had passed, the Tensens successfully managed to lure in the first group of humans to Kotaku and attacked. Since then, Lord Tensen has been turning humans that came to the island into an elixir known as Tan that could increase their life spans and gain a step closer to creating an Elixir of Life.

As a Tensen-class Sennin, Mu Dan was a very powerful being whose god-like powers could only be rivalled by his peers of Lord Tensen. Along with his status as partial ruler of Kotaku, Mu Dan had authority over the island's inhabitants, such as the Dōshi, Monshin, Sōshin and Hōko. He was able to overwhelm the combined efforts of Sagiri, Yuzuriha, and Senta, three highly formidable combatants, with the two females being Tao wielding humans as well, and take control of the first half of their battle without needing to take them seriously. Using his true power in his Kishikai, Mu Dan forced Shion to push past his limits to where the fourth ranked Asaemon could have died in battle if not for the assistance of Sagiri and Nurugai fighting alongside him.

Mu Dan had enough strength to damage a golden statue with his bare hands. He possessed incredible speed, being able to catch Yuzuriha in an instant as she tried to flee without having Sagiri and Senta notice him after bypassing the two. He was also a skilled hand-to-hand fighter, capable of taking on the combined efforts of Yuzuriha, Senta, and Sagiri with little effort.

Mu Dan possessed Earth-attribute Tao that had been greatly refined from the 1,000 years of training with his fellow Tensens. As a Sennin, Mu Dan had complete mastery over his Tao to where his usage could be seen as being god-like. With it, he was capable of sensing the presence and intent of others to anticipate and dodge attacks, demonstrated when he dodged both Yuzuriha and Senta's attacks simultaneously without the use of his eyes and avoided a sneak attack from Sagiri. Other basic usage included the ability to enhance his physical attacks to cause internal damage.

As a Sennin, Mu Dan could fire invisible Tao projectiles to attack his opponents from a distance and could use senjutsu to opt for more stronger Tao attacks. Through it, he could expel Tao from his mouth, instead of with his hands, and bombard his opponents with multiple Tao projectiles that could devastate an area. He could also use hōjutsu to either conceal his presence as a way to sneak up and attack his opponents or control the Tao in the air to give himself flight.

Tōate (遠当, Literal meaning: Distant Strike): Mu Dan gathers Tao in his hand and launches it as an invisible projectile, which is strong enough to cause internal damage from within the target's body.

Senjutsu: Tōate (仙術 遠当, Literal meaning: Sage Technique: Distant Strike): A senjutsu version of Tōate where Mu Dan expels a burst of Tao from his mouth.

Hōjutsu: Tsuchinoto no i — Yakei (方術 己の位 夜詣, Literal meaning: Hōjutsu: Earth Yin — Night Pilgrimage): Mu Dan uses his Tao to conceal his presence from his opponent's line of sight and sneaks up to make a surprise attack. This is called Hojutsu: Earth Yin Night Pilgrim in the Viz Manga.

Hōjutsu: Tsuchinoe no i — Kūkei (方術 戊の位 空詣, Literal meaning: Hōjutsu: Earth Yin — Sky Pilgrimage): By controlling the Tao in the air, Mu Dan is able to levitate, which helps him to distance himself from opponents. This is called Hojutsu: Earth Yang Sky Pilgrim in the Viz Manga.

Senjutsu: Suzusashi (仙術 錫刺, Literal meaning: Senjutsu: Stabbing Tin): Mu Dan creates multiple Tao orbs and has them bombard on his opponents. This is called Senjutsu: Tin Splinter in the Viz Manga.

As a Tensen, Mu Dan possessed the regenerative abilities of Flower Tao and greater longevity with Tan. He was able to regrow his head in mere seconds after being beheaded by Yuzuriha, along with being freed of the kunai stuck to his body, and later regenerated his upper body that was shredded by Yuzuriha's ninjutsu. He also demonstrated enough fine control over his regeneration to stop certain parts of his body from healing if he wishes. This was shown when he purposedly didn't heal his eyes to demonstrate to Senta and Yuzuriha on how Tao allows him to avoid their attacks.

Since he possessed Earth Tao, Mu Dan's regeneration could only be weakened if he were to face a Tao user with the Wood-attribute and the only known way of killing him was if the said Wood Tao user completely destroyed his plant ovule within his tanden.

In addition to regeneration like all Tensens, Mu Dan also possessed the ability to switch chis of either Yin or Yang to augment their Tao and recover any that was lost. As another result of switching in and out of Yin and Yang chi, Mu Dan's body took on the sex that matched the chi they chose to assume, which was put to use whenever they engaged in Bōchū Jutsu training.

In this monstrous transformation, Mu Dan was able to produce multiple vines with flower-shaped stingers, that when stung, or given the smallest scratch, caused his targets to undergo Arborification. He was also able to shoot multiple Tao laser beams that caused a huge amount of destruction. Since the Kishikai exerts too much Tao, Mu Dan could only hold the transformation for up to half an hour before he became reduced to a weakened body.

Mu Dan was highly intelligent in the field of science and biology, as he created the Kyōshi, humans the Tensen modified and programmed to obey his every command as if they were his "toys".

Like the rest of Lord Tensen, Mu Dan is named after a flower. "Mu Dan" (牡丹) meaning "peony".

Also, like the other members of Lord Tensen, Mu Dan shares similarities to one of the Eight Immortals, Han Xiangzi being the case. Mu Dan's name most likely references Xiangzi's ability to change the color of peony flowers. Additionally, the field of peonies that where enchanted upon Mu Dan's death also references the legend of how Xiangzi magically brought forth a bouquet of perfect peonies for his uncle before leaving on his path of Taoism.

Mu Dan ranked 29th place in the manga 1st Character Popularity Poll.

Mu Dan's moniker refers to Amoghavajra, one of the most prolific translators and writers in the history of Chinese Buddhism and one of the Eight Patriarchs of the Doctrine in Shingon Buddhism.

In Chapter 81, Mu Dan is shown in a flashback wearing the same robe as Chōbei after affiliating with Lord Tensen.

Right

September 1

Male/Female (Maintains the male gender)

173 cm - 185 cm

1000+ (Chronologically)

Red

Golden