Nezha

Li Yunxiang is the main protagonist in New Gods: Nezha Reborn. Nezha's reincarnation after 3000 years of calamity between humans and gods.

Throughout New Gods: Nezha Reborn
From his past life in three thousand years ago, the world was in reign of chaos as the humans and gods encountered great calamities. Nezha killed the third prince Ao Bing of the Dragon King of East China Sea for causing trouble and the Dragon King of East China Sea led the heavenly soldiers to sin against the people of Chentang Pass, facing the sufferings of the Dragon King and all the heavenly soldiers. Forced, Nezha who had lost his Astras, he had no choice but to draw his sword and kill himself. Nezha's soul escaped from his death before being punished by the Heaven and reincarnated from one life to another.

In his reincarnation as a mortal, he lives in symbiosis with Li Yunxiang, a young man who loves locomotives in Donghai City and the man never discovered his true reincarnation of Nezha. However, the dragon clan’s grievances towards Nezha did not give up until he is dead. Li Yunxiang, a young man with Nezha's soul, could not escape the fate of being sought revenge by the dragon clan and other enemies.

At the beginning, he was introduced by the locomotive race. Yunxiang drove the locomotive modified by himself to win the race as the female racer about to touch the finishing lane. After the race, Kasha greeted Yunxiang and teasing him about impressing the female racer. He lays his eyes on the woman who tried to win the race named Su Junzhu and quickly attracted to him. He seemed to have some thoughts about her even though he said to her that her driving skills were intense which Su Junzhu responded to him that shortcut was smart to win the race. She glanced at Kasha who was waiting impatience for him, thinking Li Yunxiang has a girlfriend which he denies it then she rode on the motorcycle as Yunxiang was about to call out to her that he was looking forward to see her again and felt a little lost for flirting the driver. Kasha taunted him for his poor flirting, declaring that he still has her. Before he was leaving, he met the Masked Man who owned the motorcycle race. The Masked Man wanted him to modify his bike. He did not agree with him and then drove Kasha away from here as Masked Man shouted to him by coming over his place when he has the free time. Li Yunxiang has returned to the Speedy Couriers, doing the smuggling business to get all the water coins to survive in the wasteland without water. During the delivery, he saw that people in Donghai City needed water coins to collect water every day, and water resources were also limited. Donghai City has not rained for a long time, leaving the whole area dried up and causing many people dehydrated. All the water has to be bought, and even limited by the rich. The civilians cannot buy it if they have money. The poor people beg, deceive, and fight for their lives for a mouthful of water, while the rich plant water and water flowers are unknowingly grown. Buildings, fountains, etc., are wasted at will, and the man behind all these evils is the East China Sea Dragon King who controls the water. Under the curtain of night, Yunxiang destroyed the main switch lever from De Water Industry, causing a large amount of water to gush out from the sluice gates and the people looted the spilling water.

He found a kitten abandoned by the former owner in his work, so Yunxiang planned to release it, but eventually took it in and leaving a kitten into the world is a bit harsh. Yunxiang went into the nightclub called the Palace of Happiness, watching to see his childhood friend Kasha who performed as the lounge singer. After bringing Kasha from the night club, he ran into the De family's son named Ao Bing on the way home who taken interesting on his bike and he complimented back at the Third Prince of the East Sea who has a nice car. Ao Bing wanted to buy it in a exchange for the price. Yunxiang was unwilling to sell it, so he rushed out with a full throttle between the loading trucks. He and Kasha went to Old Li (Li Yunxiang's father)'s house despite he had an argument with him before saying he didn't want to see him again and had an unpleasant dinner. Old Li then told Li Yunxiang that his courier job has honor unlike certain others that never end wells which made Yunxiang angrily bolt right up and saying he was full. After dinner, his brother Li Jinxiang persuaded him not to hate his father not before he said the Anti-Smuggling Bureau needs a new guy like him. On the way back, Li Yunxiang and Kasha met Ao Bing again and followed him. The young man wanted to snatch Yunxiang’s car and ran into a rampage. Using the power of his primordial soul, Ao Bing nailed Yunxiang with the icicle spears. On the ground, Kasha's leg was severely injured during the robbery. Yunxiang saw Kasha unconscious, and witnessed the kitten being killed by the son of De Clan and was angered. He suddenly awaken Nezha's soul which rushed towards to punch Ao Bing only for hurting his left wrist with the dragon scales on it as it's burning and the Third Prince retreated from him while the henchmen followed after him. Yunxiang then passed out on the ground as the Masked Man watched him from afar before he brought him into the Ciji Hospital.

Li Yunxiang waken up, seeing that he was on the bed at the Ciji Hospital and recognized Su Junzhu as the doctor who was on duty to check on him. Li Yunxiang had suddenly recalled the incident events from his memory which leaded him to check Kasha's condition and rushed into Kasha's wardroom to see her left leg was amputated that the motorcycle crushed on it. Dr. Su said that she is out of danger and couldn't even saved her leg as Yunxiang sniffed in grief. He walked out of the hospital as Jinxiang arrived and surprised to see him fully recovered until the group from De Clan arrives along with Mr. De, the chairman of the De Group and his advisor Yaksha. Mr. De have kindly apologized on the behalf of his son and told him to forgive him for his foolish actions, he know what happened in the factory. He ordered his men to returning his motorcycle to Yunxiang along with the box of golds and the De Clan's membership card before persuading him to accept their apology before moving on for now. As his brother about to take a offer but Li Yunxiang knocked the card out from Yaksha, unaware the card was burnt. He takes his bike before lost his temper to give Ao Bing's leg to him and drives off as Jinxiang followed him in his car. During their arguments over Kasha and the De Clan, Ao Guang dispatched the bounty hunters to assassinate Yunxiang and caught him up onto the other side of the under construction zone of the road bridge. The two bounty hunters are the female jellyfish and the anglerfish demons, a jellyfish demon wrapped around him with her tentacles and stung him. Before the anglerfish demon bashed Yunxiang with a chain ball, he unleashed his fiery powers to burn the jellyfish demon and blocked the attack. But not before the anglerfish demon finished him off, the Masked Man appeared out of nowhere and saved him after killing it only with the long metal screwdriver. Yunxiang is about to find out who's sending the assassins to kill him but the Masked Man scolded him that he's forgetful after he called him Nezha which made him puzzled. Masked Man then left, dragging the dead anglerfish for his dinner meal all the way back to the factory.

Yunxiang rushed into the hospital, bringing Jinxiang to Dr. Su and other nurses to the surgery. His head is hurting again as he remembered the place where the Masked Man lives and heading towards to his water tower as his home. He met the little monkeys lived in the tower until he noticed the Masked Man before questioning why the Masked Man called him 'Nezha'. Because the Masked Man knows Nezha for the very long time before asking him to know about the story of Nezha and the Dragon King which Li Yunxiang answered that he already heard it. Then the Masked Man crazily laughed as he talked about Mr. De who is actually the Dragon King of the East Sea and his son, Ao Bing the Third Dragon Prince before explained to him everything about Nezha's primordial spirit and his powers. But Li Yunxiang couldn't even controlled his primordial spirit's power, he decided to leave from the Masked Man's water tower with asking himself about his uncontrollable godly powers.

On the next day, he visited to see Jinxiang who was still in his condition as his father Old Li before told his son to leave and thinking Li Yunxiang was the one responsible as he left, leaving Dr. Su with her worried look. He is about to fix his motorcycle until he noticed his left wrist that has scar on it, having some of the visions from his past life as Nezha and the flames bursts from his body to set a fire on the bike. Yunxiang figured out that his fire powers aren't controlled so he went back to the Masked Man's tower to teach him to control the fire and exchanged to make a bike for him which the Masked Man accept his offer.

Couple of days have passed, Yunxiang learned that if he couldn't controlled his Truth Fire properly, his inner fire was burning his heart and skin then he will be burned to death until his next reincarnation over and over. So then he find a way to channel his inner fire by constructing the battle armor that was salvaged from the scrap metals. He succeeded himself before his final part of training with the Masked Man and won a fight as the mask fell off from his face, revealing to be the Six-Eared Macaque and Yunxiang also heard about the demon monkey is the trickster, not always the good person. His response made the Masked Man berating at him for his countless crimes and murders, causing Li Yunxiang loses his temper and the primordial spirit of Nezha appeared behind him as the Masked Man greeted to see him again before the god's spirit vanished. He tried again to make his primordial spirit summoned but it didn't work because he hadn't united with Nezha's spirit. The Masked Man told that Nezha has been reborn many times before and many times after, his past lives are Zhang Yunxiang, Zhao Yunxiang, Wang Yunxiang, Sun Yunxiang, etc., but until now, none of Nezha's reincarnations has been worthy of his name and since they are failures, not even Nezha enough. He also said that Astras that belonged to Nezha if Li Yunxiang controlled the power of a god and getting his weapons back before mentioning the Sky Ribbon and the Cosmic Ring. The masked monkey checked to see his armor pieces are bit rusty and considering him to have a good luck with that.

On the way back to his courier business, he was modding every piece of his battle armor as his friend Six who was amazed at him. Dr. Su arrives in her same motorcycle suit, telling him that his brother Jinxiang was now in the mend and he have to come to visit to see him. Hearing the good news, Yunxiang thanks her as Su Junzhu told him when he had a time to mod her bike which he responded to do that and he never win another race with her. Su Junzhu then left until Li Yunxiang spotted one of the De Clan's henchmen who was about to toss the spear behind her and saved the doctor. Many of the henchmen beats every smugglers including the boss, then he met Yaksha who revealed to his true form as the monstrous frog and readied his long green-crystallized mallet as they fought each other. As Yaksha did beaten him to the ground, he launched his long tongue to kill him but Yunxiang utterly summoned Nezha's primordial spirit which caught both Dr. Su and Liang surprised to see that. He quickly finished him off, but Dr. Su called out to him to turn back to see his friends were hurt he didn't want to see them get killed and told the henchmen to get out as they quickly leave along with defeated Yaksha.

At the Ciji Hospital, Yunxiang looked worried to see his smugglers were badly injured as Dr. Su would take his place to look after him and told him to go see to his brother. Just before he entered into Jinxiang's wardroom, he eavesdropped his father's encouragement to his brother with a soft tone, thinking back to the old memory about his deceased mother and the young Yunxiang who became the troublemaker as he need to be a good person and knocked out his senses. He gripped on the doorknob before burning it and bleeding in his right hand before he walked away in depression.

He stayed outside from Kasha's wardroom as Dr. Su telling him that his friends were out of danger and not to feel worry about them which Li Yunxiang nodded in response. Dr. Su noticed his right hand was bleeding so she takes off her blue hair tie and tying around it as the bandage. Su Junzhu then explained about how she is going to become a doctor since she was little, thought she could helped everyone that way and she do it to save their lives. Until she understood later, that some people cannot be helped by the doctor but she responded to Yunxiang who will saved them by himself and he said that he's only caused the troubles. Then Su Junzhu assured him that it wasn't him who hurt anyone before the first time she met him, she knew he wasn't like the others and being impressed by Yunxiang's actions as a hero with the fiery powers that she already witnessed what happened. Then they saw Kasha who walked out from the wardroom in jealous when she heard their conversation as Su Junzhu told her not to leave from the bed but she said she's fine and she have to walk on her own, leaving the two in concern.

The catapult monster attacked with the isopod bombs at the Ciji Hospital, hurting people inside as Li Yunxiang donned his armor before he saved some patients and the staffs from the isopod bombs. He uttered to summon his primordial spirit to destroy the bombs but the screw with a nut loosened and pops out, causing him lose a control of his inner fire powers. Yunxiang shouted at Nezha's spirit to stop the bombs from destroying the hospital but the god didn't act in response before he disappeared, he was shocked why Nezha didn't saved everyone from danger. Then he rushed forward at the truck, getting rid of the shooting-isopod monster and the henchmen. Shortly after, he encountered a merciless assassin named Caiyun, a disciple of Demoness Shiji Niangniang who swore her vengeance against Nezha for killing her sisters-in-arm and made an effort as he burnt on her left bionic mechanical prosthetic arm and tossed her over the cliff not before she threw the three steel knives at him but he blocked them, turning back to see Caiyun and thinking she was falling to death.

He hurriedly back to the hospital, finding out that his father was stabbed by the big piece of steel that pierced on his left side of his body and begged Dr. Su to save him but she couldn't do it for him. Old Li muttered back at his son but with a weak kind smile, realizing that Yunxiang was saved many lives despite being dispute to him and promising that he will not scolded him anymore. Li Yunxiang pleaded to him that he was in hospital, they could helped him. Old Li was now blessed with such an amazing son with the godly powers and telling him to live on with his brother, friends and others before he died. Li Yunxiang cried over to his father and hugged him in his dead body before he swears his revenge at the Dragon Clan of the East Sea and going after them to kill them all.

Li Yunxiang has arrived in Mr. De's mansion, killing all of the henchmen before he attacked Ao Guang who quickly used one of Nezha's Astras, the Sky Ribbon to bind him but it won't hold him longer as he managed to break free from restraining. Then Ao Bing challenged him to have his revenge as well before they fought against with their primordial powers until he transformed into the white dragon and continued to fight. Yunxiang tried hard to fight Ao Bing as the Third Prince hits him with the supporting beam which the bolts were loosing again, causing him to unleash his anger to summon up Nezha's spirit before he managed to punch him several times and rip out his dragon steel spine, killing Ao Bing in his dragon form. Caiyun showed up to kill but stopped by the Masked Man who barely escaped from binding Sky Ribbon, blocking her attacks and disarmed her by holding her on the floor. Li Yunxiang questioned who is the woman which the Masked Man answered that she is the disciple of Demoness Shiji. Then Caiyun berating him as Nezha's reincarnation for bringing various disasters wherever he goes, playing his master's bow and arrow to amuse himself and accidentally killed her friend from 1,000 miles. As Li Yunxiang has recovered the memories of his past life self, decided to tell the Masked Man to let her go which he reluctantly agrees but Caiyun rebuked him for everything never changes and retreated back to Ao Guang's palace in the East Sea.

Li Yunxiang said himself that he is the monster but wondered why the Masked Man helped him but he scoffed he was helping Nezha. The Masked Man then give a small history lesson about the First Goddess patched the sky along with five-coloured stones that left them behind, making Li Yunxiang think that one of the stones was Six-Eared Macaque who chuckled at this. He removed his mask, waved his hands over his six ears that turned them into a single pair of ears after using his bit of hair to conjure a disguise of Six-Eared Macaque and revealing himself as the Monkey King, Sun Wukong before utterly summoned his majestic avatar version of himself. Then he explained back before he stole the sutras from Heaven, seeing that how useless to end the world's suffering but Yunxiang protested that he is the greatest god ever live, known as the Great Sage's Heaven Equal and he knows what to do to save countless lives. The Monkey King bragged about the East Sea's misfortune due reign of the Dragon King before mentioning the Order of the Gods which messed everything along the path so he fixed it for thousand of years but didn't changed anything which turned he turns out he was useless just like Li Yunxiang and Nezha and added to the point about losing his Golden Staff. He then threw the dead dragon body of Ao Bing into a hole which leads the palace of Ao Guang in the East Sea where he captured the river dragons to harness their strength the create dragons pearl by stealing water to live when the water qilins were forced to obey by the Dragon King of the East Sea. Yunxiang understood that why the De Clan steals water from Donghai, then Sun Wukong telling him that Nezha only appeared when Li Yunxiang felt murderous despite saving the people from hurt and gloating him that he's not Nezha enough before he leaves the mansion.

Yunxiang walked back to the Ciji Hospital as he looked to see his brother Jinxiang who awoke and cried over his dead father while Liang accusing him for letting that happen to let all people died or wounded before revoking that he was walking disaster until Kasha showed herself and confronted that he murdered Six in his bed. As Liang pretended to question what Kasha was talking about, she lashed him out when she saw him killed Six and sabotaged Yunxiang's battle armor which made Li Yunxiang and others realized that Liang was the traitor, helped by the De Clan. Before Liang was about to get away, he grabbed Kasha with a small knife and warned that he killed a girl if anyone take one more step to them, still blaming Yunxiang for proving to be hero and asking himself about the others that can be killed. Then Kasha hurts Liang by breaking free from his restraint as he grabbed her behind but Li Yunxiang and Dr. Su saved her as Liang fell off from the hole and crashed onto the rocks near the sea, dead. Li Yunxiang looked back at the gold bar, knowing that De Clan using him to mess his head and becomes guilty of his reckless actions.

Another day, Li Yunxiang, Su Junzhu, Kasha and Jinxiang were visiting Old Li's grave where his body buried in the cemetery that located on the land cliff above the Ciji Hospital and he puts the three incense sticks onto incense bowl holder. He then drank a wine that he will cheered to his deceased father as he felt guilty-ridden that he didn't saved everyone to change anything and it was all for nothing and Dr. Su comforting him while Kasha sings in Mandarin song from her work career as the lounge singer but in sad. Su Junzhu said that delaying the inevitable, the patients will still die some day. But if she treats them successfully they’ll live a bit longer or they’ll have a better quality of life to spend more time with their loved ones. Eventually the outcome is the same, patients will die, but from those peoples perspective what she does change and improve their lives. Kasha agreed with her point, replying that Yunxiang was not useless or the bad person, she thinks he's the hero giving him a smile slightly as she and Jinxiang left the graveyard. Li Yunxiang builds his determination to save Donghai by giving the water back to everyone as he left on his own to prepare for the final showdown, leaving Dr. Su unaware that she was captured by Caiyun and took her to the Dragon King's palace.

In the De Clan's mansion, he called out to Nezha's spirit appeared before him, Li Yunxiang told him that he doesn't need a help from him and hide whatever he want as he walked through the avatar who given no response and vanished into thin air. He went through the obstacles including some sea creatures that guards the entrance to the palace and ride onto a mechanical shark which leaded him to it. Once he arrives, he sees the two water qilin-like beasts summoning the water into containment device which contained the river dragons to power up the Dragon Pearl. Before he went to break the chains from them, Ao Guang revealed himself on top of the stairs before he mentioned to the special guest, Dr. Su who was been held by Caiyun in efforts to mess his head. As he tried to save her, Ao Guang zapped him with his electrical powers before trapped him with his black water and keep torturing him while he saw Su Junzhu falls which giving him a shock and Caiyun appeared behind him with her broken right arm, gave a cold laughter at him. His rage intensified to give him enough strength to unleash his inner fire to break free and throws his spear at Caiyun's neck, killing her as she fell off the platform. Ao Guang tried to block against his fiery powers but Li Yunxiang proved himself to push his limits to beat him as he deformed into the puddle of water.

Yunxiang was badly injured as well as the fire burnt his skin, the female water qilin used her water to heal him before she was killed by Ao Guang's bionic right arm as his waters formed into the large black dragon made out of water and swallowed the Dragon Pearl without a choice. The river dragons were escaping from the containment to create the tidal waves to drown the people of Donghai because of Yunxiang. Ao Guang then blasted the electrical beam at Li Yunxiang, giving him more agony and the hero tried to use the Sky Ribbon sash to keep the containment close from preventing the river dragons but Ao Guang pushed it out of the way and the Sky Ribbon was teared apart as the containment collapse on the ground. Ao Guang then gloated at him in his human form, taking Nezha's soul back to the Heaven before he punched through Yunxiang's heart with his prosthetic arm, electrocuting him as he cried in pain taunting him to give up and that Yunxiang was never Nezha, but at his near death state, Yunxiang grabs the dragon kings arm preventing him from taking it out of Yunxiang’s chest, he then tells Ao Guang that his life is his own and he has no right to tell him who he is. Using the remaining power of Nezha, he burns the Dragon King and showed him who he truly is. Ao Guang cried out in anguish pain, shifting back into his dragon form as the flames killed him and faded into the ashes. But Li Yunxiang was not going to live much longer as his heart was already damaged.

Su Junzhu rushed over to Yunxiang, putting all the pieces of his armor onto his body in desperation to save him but she knew Li Yunxiang was dying but as he died, Su embraced him, sobbing. She didn't want to lose him and she truly loved him, but it was too late.

In his death, he saw Nezha's spirit before telling him about the floods were drowning the people from Donghai and saying to him to find the next incarnation as he left him. But due to Li Yunxiang's inspiring pure heart and courage, Nezha's primordial spirit emerged with him as all pieces of armor melded into his body as he encased of the fire lotus and restoring the Sky Ribbon as well. In his rebirth, the fire lotus bloomed out as Li Yunxiang was not only revived, but now he has unlocked his full power as Nezha, and used the Sky Ribbon to stop the river dragons before sending them back to the sky and bringing out the rains to the people.

He managed to get out from the East Sea with his ribbon sash along with Dr. Su and the young water qilin pup that survived after it’s parents were killed. They confronted to see the Monkey King, Li Yunxiang told him he got the Astra back and he's Nezha enough which made Sun Wukong nodded in approval before giving the key to him to let Yunxiang drive his motorbike and telling to bring it back after he returned home. He drives back to his home with Dr. Su and the water beast pup to celebrate the victory.

With the De Clan destroyed, the city is now peaceful and the water returned to the people, thanks to Yunxiang. Li Yunxiang was settling in his father's home as he hides his Sky Ribbon underneath his right sleeve and headed outside until he sees Su Junzhu in her motorcycle outfit, promising to have another match as Kasha drove Dr. Su's motorcycle who becomes the fast learner. He still kept a pup as a pet which Kasha adores him and carried him. Yunxiang and Kasha bid farewell to Li Jinxiang who happily nodded to them before three of them drive out from home and riding through the road from the city. Li Yunxiang is now Nezha, with his newfound primordial powers, he will do anything to protect many lives in the Donghai from approaching threats as his eyes were glowing by the aura of flames.

In the post credits scene, Li Yunxiang was seen driving his motorbike until he stopped by a dog and turned towards his owner who is assumed to be another god, Yang Jian, who adjusted the tip of his hat and smirked at him in satisfaction.

Physical Appearance
As Nezha’s reincarnation three thousand years later, he has a look similar but different from Nezha, but he has grown into an adult body. Li Yunxiang is a mature young adult, he has a black hair with a bun, fair skin and brown eyes with a stiff and rich hook-shaped sword eyebrows. In the rebirth, Nezha's primordial spirit (Yuanshen) melded Yunxiang's own battle armor into energy, turning it into a fire lotus tattoo engraved on the center of his chest, and since then, a symbolic mark has been added to his body.

Attire
He wears a coffee red-brown (chocolate) leather jacket with a large collar. The left chest of the leather jacket has a red blood-like print on the left chest, which is angular. He wears gray short sleeves, black and blue half-finger gloves, a pair of dark blue denim trousers on her lower body, a tan belt around her waist, and dark brown lace-up boots. When riding, he occasionally wears a maroon scarf mask, sun goggles, and helmets rarely. The whole contains a trendy pull style, matching cowboy style, and has a strong and cool oriental punk flavor, and a proper street racer appearance. It also highlights Li Yunxiang's faint courier career. After getting the Sky Ribbon (Red Armillary Sash), Yunxiang wrapped this weapon around his right wrist as a wristband ribbon.

In his combat form, only for his leather jacket is taken off, and he is wearing a crimson steel armor, bracers, and a waist band up to his thigh. There is a white traditional Chinese character "云" (Cloud) on the left pec of the armor. This armor is red, brown, and black. There are vents on both shoulders. When the body is used, the armor on the upper body has a fire-breathing effect. The flames wrap around the body, domineering and cool and masculine. Handheld Flame-throwing fire-tip spear usually disassembled into two pieces and tied to your back, which can be taken down and assembled into a single long spear in battle). A style that resembles an ancient warrior, confronts the enemy with the swords of the martial arts style during the battle. Later, due to the damage of this armor, Nezha's primordial spirit have been forced by turning it into a lotus fire print on Yunxiang's chest.

Primordial Spirit
When emotionally enraged, a huge, fiery red three-headed six-arm Nezha Yuanshen Dharma (that is, the traditional Nezha shape, the appearance of a seven-year-old child) will appear behind him, a natural killer, a hand-made fire-pointed spear, a circle of heaven and earth, Sky Ribbon, the appearance of the spirit is similar to Yunxiang, constantly exuding bursts of flames and aura, air and domineering, the lower body is a circular disc similar to the magic circle, powerful in all directions. At present, the Nezha Yuanshen has only a half body, without a complete lower body. Only after Yunxiang gathered Nezha's magic weapons, Nezha's Yuanshen is in the form of a full-length image.