Old Woman

Biodata

Background / History

The Old Woman came with the Hu Family to Great Sheep Village, where she spent roughly twenty years walking ghosts and helping residents with illness and hauntings. She treated poor villagers without charge and sometimes gave them herbs. Despite this, many avoided her, fearing she might take their lives to save Hu Ma 5 26 38 76.

After Hu Ma was gravely harmed, she worked to bring him back to life. Her treatment initially frightened him: she restrained him, fed him Blood Ganoderma, burned talismans, and chanted through the night to keep evil spirits away. When the ancestors at the Old Fire Pit did not acknowledge him, she arranged for him to learn protective skills from Second Master 1 5 7 10 31.

She entered Old Yin Mountain to confront a threat connected to the Meng Family, an enemy of the Hu Family. During the fight, she used Yin Thunder against a possessed pagoda tree but spared the innocent tree and the infant spirits attached to it. Hu Ma found her severely injured in a cave and rescued her from attacking spirits 31 33 34.

Before her death, she told Hu Ma that he still had to complete his recovery and entrusted him with Xiao Hong Tang’s birth-date sticker, Taisui, and the Qingyuan Hu Clan’s Talisman Suppression Book. She asked him to keep her and the Hu Family out of conversations with outsiders. Second Master brought her body back to Great Sheep Village, where neighbors contributed cremation wood in recognition of her help 35 37.

Years later, Hu Ma learned that a wisp of her Bodyguard Soul had remained at the Old Fire Pit through an unresolved obsession. After he settled the matter of Widow Village—whose spirits she had once sealed—he understood that she had left for the Hu Family ancestral shrine. He eventually met her there 111 534 779.

Appearance

In life, she appeared to be in her seventies or eighties, with a back bent so severely she could not straighten it 26.

• Hunched figure and messy hair 1 2
• Cloudy, sunken eyes and a withered, bony hand 34
• Seen leaning on a cane when taking Hu Ma to the Old Fire Pit 5

Personality

She could be stern and frightening toward Hu Ma, but her actions were consistently directed at keeping him alive. She recognized that he had changed from the grandson she knew, yet accepted him and was moved when he came to find her. Her mercy toward the possessed pagoda tree also came at a serious cost to herself 2 33 34.

Abilities & Skills

Ghost Walking

• Spoke with the dead and worked as a Ghost Walker in Great Sheep Village 76 779.
• Used chanting, talismans, and incense while treating Hu Ma and protecting him from evil spirits 7 31.
• Maintained an incense signal that allowed her ghost servant Xiao Hong Tang to find her way home 27.

Spirit Suppression

• Destroyed a vengeful coffin-board spirit 1.
• Summoned Yin Thunder against a possessed pagoda tree, deliberately striking only half of it to spare the innocent spirit 33.
• Sealed the malevolent dead of Stone Box Village rather than dispersing them, intending to send them away once their resentment faded 111.

Healing

• Gathered Blood Ganoderma for Hu Ma’s recovery and treated villagers’ illnesses, including cases involving evil spirits or harmful Taisui 5 34 38.

Equipment / Items

• Cane — carried when accompanying Hu Ma to the Old Fire Pit 5.
• Qingyuan Hu Clan’s Talisman Suppression Book — entrusted to Hu Ma before her death 35.
• Jar of Taisui and Xiao Hong Tang’s birth-date sticker — included in the bundle she left Hu Ma 35.

Relationships

• Hu Ma — her grandson; she devoted herself to his recovery and accepted him despite recognizing a change in him 31 34 35.
• Xiao Hong Tang — a young ghost she found, fed, and nursed back to health; Xiao Hong Tang served her and regarded her as family 3 27 863.
• Second Master — helped arrange Hu Ma’s training, searched for her in Old Yin Mountain, and carried her body home 10 34 37.
• Meng Family — enemies of the Hu Family whose actions threatened Hu Ma and drew her into battle 26 31 35.
• Great Sheep Village — its residents often feared her in life but mourned her and contributed to her funeral 5 37 38.