Shouyuan

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Early Life and Soul Crossing Temple

Shouyuan belonged to Soul Crossing Temple more than a thousand years before Shen Hui’s travels. He remembered an era when everyone in the temple, from its master to its servants, wore the same style of Daoist robe rather than clothing differentiated by rank 217.

According to his own recollections, he traveled widely to subdue demons and protect ordinary people. He described killing three hundred-year-old snake demons in a southern miasma forest, pursuing a jiangshi for seven days and nights before pinning it inside a dry well, and killing a Merperson that had terrorized an eastern fishing village for decades 429.

Shouyuan later ambushed Clear Wind Temple’s female martial ancestor, who killed him. His soul remained inside the Soul-Searching Gourd for over a thousand years 182 183.

Conflict Inside the Gourd

Shouyuan became an isolated adversary of the Clear Wind Temple souls confined alongside him. Shen Hui prepared offerings explicitly addressed to him, but the other souls seized the food and wine. Grand Martial Uncle kicked him away when he tried to claim them, while Shen Hui mocked his inability to escape despite knowing how the gourd worked 180 181.

News that Clear Wind Temple had recovered Soul Crossing Temple’s Ascension Register briefly convinced Shouyuan that release was imminent. He threatened revenge against the other prisoners and revealed the requirements for summoning souls out of the gourd. His triumph ended when Shen Hui reunited his three souls and seven spirits and escaped first 203 204 205.

After watching the others leave, Shouyuan withdrew into silence and refused to trust his fellow prisoners. Shen Hui nevertheless persuaded him to disclose his birth characters by promising release, then immediately admitted that the promise was a lie. Shen Hui further provoked him by impersonating “Shouyuanzi” before Liu Mengshu 213 217.

Return to the Outside World

Shen Hui eventually summoned Shouyuan into a small stone body and told him that Yuanqiu County’s inhabitants had been murdered. Later, Shen Hui found him trapped inside a walking corpse and returned him to the gourd 219 221.

When Clear Wind Temple’s survivors gathered at their new mountain home, Shouyuan remained apart from their celebration. Having seen the crimes committed by Soul Crossing Temple’s later generations, he lamented the loss of its founding purpose and legacy. Shen Hui argued that the temple’s tradition survived through Shouyuan himself, and that both temples shared the duty of protecting people and opposing evil 428 429 430.

Shen Hui refused to return the Soul-Searching Gourd, but fulfilled his offer to reconstruct Shouyuan’s body. Shouyuan’s temporary earthen shell collapsed as his soul entered the new body, leaving him astonished that his thousand-year confinement had finally ended 430.

Plans to Revive Soul Crossing Temple

Shouyuan asked permission to establish Soul Crossing Temple’s grounds inside the gourd. Shen Hui agreed, provided its disciples were not evildoers. Encouraged, Shouyuan resolved to find a suitable spirit mountain, recruit disciples with appropriate aptitude, and pass on his sect’s teachings 441.

While traveling with Shen Hui’s group, he read Daoist Yun Su’s journal and learned that she had crossed numerous dangerous regions without ever reaching Foundation Establishment. He solemnly praised her achievements despite her limited cultivation 443.

Appearance

• Elderly features: Wrinkled face, clouded eyes, withered hands, white hair, and a beard 180 203 217 219.
• Daoist dress: Wears a Mystic Yellow Robe and arranges his hair in a Daoist topknot 180 219.
• Reconstructed body: Retains his original appearance, with lean, dignified features rather than a younger form 430.

Personality

Shouyuan is proud, quick-tempered, and deeply attached to his sect’s reputation. While imprisoned, he alternates between resentful silence and open retaliation. The prospect of escape makes him boastful enough to threaten the destruction of his tormentors’ souls, even while First Senior Uncle beats him 203 204 217.

His longing for freedom repeatedly overcomes his distrust of Shen Hui. Even after declaring that he will never believe another word, he immediately supplies his birth characters when offered a way out. These deceptions leave him suspicious even when Shen Hui genuinely offers to restore his body and help revive his temple 217 430 441.

Shouyuan takes pride in his past efforts to protect people and grieves over his successors’ corruption. He also enjoys embellishing his adventures, although his companions readily challenge inconsistencies in his stories. His response to Yun Su’s journal shows that he can recognize courage and accomplishment independently of cultivation rank 429 441 443.

Abilities & Skills

Soul-Searching Gourd Knowledge

Shouyuan understands the gourd’s soul-preserving functions and the rituals used to release its occupants 204 205 430.

• Soul retrieval: Explains that summoning a soul requires its birth date and eight characters, spiritual energy, and the Soul Ferrying Art 204.
• Repeated entry: Confirms that a released soul can return to the gourd 205.
• Rebirth limitations: Warns that repeated returns to life wear down the true spirit, increasing the danger of cultivation madness or death. The gourd prolongs existence rather than granting true immortality 430.
• Limits of his knowledge: Cannot account for the absence of its previous owners’ souls 430.

Body Possession and Soul Shelter

Shouyuan knows methods of inhabiting bodies, but these do not amount to freely creating a new human body 204 430.

• Possession: States that he can seize the body of someone whose birth characters match the necessary cycle. Shen Hui understands this as matching the month, day, and hour pillars, excluding the year pillar 204.
• Temporary shell: Fashioned a shelter for his soul from sand and earth 430.
• Limitation: Acknowledges that Soul Crossing Temple lacks the Five Elements expertise needed to reshape a complete physical body 204.
• After restoration: Has lost his cultivation and cannot independently descend from Clear Wind Temple’s floating mountain 431.

Soul Crossing Temple Arts

Shouyuan lists numerous arts preserved by his sect, though his post-restoration ability to perform them is not demonstrated 431 441.

• Cloud-to-Ladder Art.
• Touchstone-to-Gold Method.
• Spirit-Binding and General-Commanding Art.
• Wind-Borne Voice Transmission.
• Drawn-Ground Prison.
• Scatter Beans, Raise Soldiers.
• Form-Shifting Shadow-Exchange 441.

He specifically claims to know Scatter Beans, Raise Soldiers, recounting how a handful of soybeans became warriors and drove away three thousand bandits. He says their duration depends on the beans’ quality, although the account is presented amid his boasting 441.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Soul-Searching Gourd — former possession: Soul Crossing Temple’s greatest treasure, originally owned by True Lord Xuanwei. It passed through two other holders before reaching Shouyuan. Shen Hui later retained it despite Shouyuan’s request for its return 430.
• Mystic Yellow Robe: His characteristic clothing, also reproduced with his reconstructed body 180 430.
• Red-coated gourd: Chose an ordinary yellow-skinned gourd costing forty copper coins, which Shen Hui paid for, then pressed him to color it red with magic 445.

Relationships

• Shen Hui — Initially his tormentor and rival inside the gourd; later restores his body and permits him to establish a Soul Crossing Temple site within it. Shouyuan remains wary of further tricks 181 217 430 441.
• First Senior Uncle — Frequent antagonist who takes his offerings, beats him for his taunts, and prevents him from disturbing Shen Hui’s meditation 180 204 205.
• Female martial ancestor — Killed Shouyuan after he ambushed her 183.
• Mao Yong — Fellow prisoner whom Shouyuan dismisses as a coward and refuses to accept as a genuine representative of Soul Crossing Temple. Mao Yong retaliates by mocking his apparently ordinary disciple robes 217.
• Jinghui — Traveling companion who challenges his exaggerated stories and takes an interest in his sect’s spells 441.
• Lu Huan — Traveling companion who suggests asking Daoist Yun Su about spirit mountains suitable for his proposed temple 441.
• Daoist Yun Su — Earns his respect posthumously through her travel journal, which records journeys he considers extraordinary for a Qi Refining cultivator 443.

Notable Quotes

“At least... I know how to get out.” 181

“That isn't a gift. It's a punishment.”
— On remaining inside the gourd forever 430

“Your master was truly remarkable.”
— To Green Bamboo after reading Yun Su’s journal 443