Little General

"Since I can catch you by myself, why should I share with my Master?"

- ——Little General revealing his plan to Xiao-Bai and Xiao-Qing.

'Note: Just like "General", Little General is also a mistranslation. He is the apprentice of General but not a military commander.'

The apprentice of General was a elegant young man. Although he served General as an assistant and bodyguard, he would take every chance to profit from his mission.

He seemed to have a distinguished birth. In the movie he wore a purple Taoist robe with golden bird embroideries, which could only be afforded by nobles in Tang dynasty. However, due to practicing General's magic arts, his cheeks began to wrinkle, just like what happened on General, so Little General always wore a silk veil to hide his defects.

Personality
Outwardly flippant and casual, Little General was actually a calculating and ruthless person. He was used to looking down on others, and didn't have any sympathy and respect for common people. In the Snake-catcher Village, he allowed his soldier to threaten villagers with their baby's life and causally commanded soldiers to search villagers' houses.

He was confident of his magic and ability and also craved more power. When he was sent to hunt down Xiao-Bai, he knew his opportunity had arrived. Since he already defeated Xiao-Bai once, in her assassination mission, he was confident that he could capture Xiao-Bai by his own. So he misled General when he found out the whereabouts of Xiao-Bai, and continued to hunt Xiao-Bai with his soldiers.

Abilities
Like his master, Little General was also an expert in Taoism's magic. In the movie, He used his magic to turn Xu Xuan's pancake into a bat, and used it to track Xu Xuan. In the fight against Xiao-Bai and Xiao-Qing, he conjured golden birds with the embroideries on his robe, and shoot golden strings from those birds as a deadly ranged weapon, which could easily punctured into the pillar.

He also displayed good close combat skills when Xiao-Bai tried to take him down in melee fight, and only began to lose when Xiao-Qing joined the fight.

Trivia

 * Little General's mount, a mysterious beast with three crane heads, was inspired by a mythical animal design commonly appeared in ancient Chinese bronzeware. In ancient China, the images of bird headed animals were often used in ritual bronze wine vessels. And the idea of three heads was from a mythical bird called “Qi-Yu” (鵸余) which said to have three heads and six tails.