Zeng Sai

"Zeng Sai feels you... feels the pain again. So close. So close to perfect chaos, and you ended it all! Zeng Sai knows you! Knows your meddling scent! Zeng Sai will destroy you! Destroy it all!"

- Zeng Sai's ghost meeting the last living Spirit Monk. Zeng Sai, known also by the title of the Tree that Defies the Fire, is a minor villain in the video game Jade Empire. He's a long-dead warlord who threatened the Jade Empire during its early history before he was vanquished. His ghost appears in the third chapter as a boss character.

Biography
Zeng Sai belonged to the people of the Horselords that was regarded barbaric by the Jade Empire. When the Empire was still relatively young, Zeng Sai organized his chaotic people into a deadly army of bowmen. He conquered a lot of the northern and western lands from the Empire before turning his gaze to its borders. Passing through the great Wall that was built to keep the Horselords out, Zeng Sai led his army to lay waste across the Empire, intending to level the Imperial City and spread chaos.

Zeng Sai's conquest was so violent that it stirred up the attention of the Spirit Monks, servants of the Water Dragon, the goddess of rebirth. Normally uninvolved in the politics of the Jade Empire, the Spirit Monks came to the Empire's aid from their monastery in the western Land of Howling Spirits, which had been left unconquered by the Horselord army. Zeng Sai's army faced off the Empire and the Spirit Monks in a great battle that ended the Horselords' threat. Zeng Sai lost his life and was buried in the Necropolis of the Imperial City.

In the present times, the underground cave where Zeng Sai's coffin lays has been dug open by the Lotus Assassins as part of their operation to use the spirits of the dead in creating a golem army for Emperor Sun Hai. However, it was discovered that using the spirits of the long-dead to power up golems tends to result in undesired erraticness. The Assassins started to use the recently killed slaves to power up golems, leaving Zeng Sai's body and spirit untouched.

After the last living Spirit Monk infiltrates the Lotus Assassins in order to gather information about their activities, they're tasked by Master Gang to create a spirit shard for an unfinished Jade Golem. By the suggestion of their ally Sagacious Zu, a rogue Lotus Assassin, they venture in the deep cave where Zeng Sai is buried. The ghost of the ancient warlord recognizes the member of the people who played a crucial role in his downfall. Vengeful, he attacks the Spirit Monk until he's dispersed. After the fight, Sagacious Zu arrives and confesses that he sent his ally there because he wanted to judge from Zeng Sai's reaction if the last Spirit Monk truly comes from the vanquished order.

Further instructed by Sagacious Zu, the last Spirit Monk uses the Soul Extractor to create from Zeng Sai's corpse a spirit shard. Said shard is later inserted in the unfinished Jade Golem as planned. Because of Zeng Sai's chaotic nature, the Golem and all of the Clay Golems linked to it go berserk and start attacking the Lotus Assassins as well as damaging the foundations of their fortress, bringing it down.

Abilities
Zeng Sai was in life a warlord and conqueror who was able to organize his inherently chaotic people into an efficient army that came close to bringing down the Jade Empire. As a ghost, he fights with a set of two maces and the Ice Shard magic style. Like other ghosts, he's immune to weapon styles.