Gu Rong

Biodata

Feature	Information
Name	Gu Rong (古榕)
Alias(es)	Bone Douluo; Bone Grandpa, as addressed by Ning Rongrong 13
Gender	Male
Age	Over ninety years old 26
Affiliation	Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect
Occupation/Role	Sect elder; Titled Douluo
Martial Soul	Bone Dragon 48 49
Cultivation	Rank 95 Super Douluo 48 49
Soul Ring Configuration	Two yellow, three purple, four black 48
First Appearance	Chapter 22

Power Progression

Stage	Cultivation	Details
Super Douluo	Rank 95	Gu Rong's cultivation is confirmed during his confrontation with Yang Xing, placing him among the continent's foremost Titled Douluo 48 49

Background / History

Gu Rong is one of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's two Titled Douluo guardians alongside Chen Xin. He and the sect master, Ning Fengzhi, closely monitor Ning Rongrong's enrollment at Shrek Academy and react with relief when they learn she entered safely 22.

His affection for Ning Rongrong predates her enrollment. In her recollection of awakening the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda at six years old, Gu Rong and Chen Xin both smile during the sect's celebration of her innate rank-nine Soul Power 13. Alongside Ning Fengzhi and Chen Xin, he also contributes to her childhood knowledge of major Soul Master affairs, including the Clear Sky Sect's seclusion and the Blue Silver Emperor incident 84.

When a sect scout reports that Ning Rongrong accepted Yang Xing as her master—and that Yang claims knowledge of evolving the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda—Gu Rong immediately treats the situation as a possible plot against the sect. His released aura destroys a gold-inlaid chair, and he presses for decisive action against the unknown master 23 26.

Gu Rong is dispatched overnight to Suotuo City to probe Yang Xing, determine his origins, and eliminate any threat to Ning Rongrong if necessary. Although he initially dismisses Yang Xing's assertion that an immortal herb can evolve the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, he acknowledges that anyone truly capable of accomplishing it must either become the sect's ally or be dealt with 26.

Gu Rong later confronts Yang Xing personally over Ning Rongrong and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. He attempts to intimidate him with Titled Douluo pressure, then challenges him after Yang Xing reveals nine soul rings, including a hundred-thousand-year ring 47 48. The revelation overturns the sect leaders' earlier estimate that the young man might be a Soul King or Soul Emperor 48.

The confrontation becomes an aerial battle over Suotuo City. Gu Rong's spatial abilities and Bone Dragon True Body prove ineffective against Yang Xing's superior spatial control and elemental attacks. He is severely injured by Yang Xing's final attack but survives and withdraws to recover; Yang Xing judges that his injuries are nonfatal but may require months of recuperation or treatment from a healing-type soul master 49 50 51.

Before Gu Rong leaves, Yang Xing explains the events at Shrek Academy involving Ning Rongrong's mistreatment and his own retaliation. Gu Rong decides to visit the academy to address the matter. Yang Xing refuses to heal him and also demands compensation for damage to his residence 51.

Yang Xing later fulfills the claim Gu Rong had regarded as implausible when Ning Rongrong successfully evolves her Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda into the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda through the Aromatic Silk Beauty immortal herb 63 64 65. To protect the sect-threatening implications of this evolution, Yang Xing erases Dugu Bo's knowledge of the event, while Ning Rongrong subsequently conceals her evolved martial soul from Ning Fengzhi rather than immediately returning to the sect 66 68 72 73.

Gu Rong's reputation later serves as part of Ning Rongrong's protection during Shrek Academy's attempted enrollment at Heaven Dou Royal Academy. She threatens to inform Ning Fengzhi, Chen Xin, and Gu Rong about Xue Beng's treatment of her, then warns Dugu Bo that the sect's two Douluo may retaliate if he harms her. Gu Rong does not personally intervene; Yang Xing arrives to defend his disciple 193 194 195.

Appearance

Gu Rong is an exceptionally tall, skeletal man whose appearance is frequently compared to that of a corpse.

• Nearly two and a half meters tall 22.
• Withered face, deeply sunken eye sockets, sparse white hair, and long skeletal limbs 22.
• Possesses a gaunt, frightening smile and a hoarse voice likened to wind through dead leaves 47.
• His Bone Dragon True Body is a gigantic skeletal dragon with violet ghostfire burning in its eye sockets 49.

Personality

Gu Rong is fiercely protective of Ning Rongrong, referring to her as “our Rongrong” and viewing threats to her as threats to the sect itself 47 49. He is impatient, hot-tempered, and quick to suspect hostile schemes, especially where the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda's evolution is concerned 22 23 26.

Although he initially considers the prospect of a martial soul's evolution through an immortal herb to be nonsense, Gu Rong is pragmatic enough to recognize the strategic importance of such a possibility. He regards anyone capable of evolving the sect's inherited martial soul as either a potential ally or a danger that cannot be allowed to remain independent 26.

Despite his aggression, Gu Rong does not retreat when faced with Yang Xing's overwhelming strength. After suffering repeated defeats, he maintains enough resolve to leave on his own and continues to intend to address matters involving Shrek Academy 51.

His pride as a veteran Titled Douluo and his loyalty to the sect reinforce his refusal to back down. Even after discovering Yang Xing's cultivation and sensing an unfamiliar threat, he treats the confrontation as a test of whether Yang Xing is worthy of becoming Ning Rongrong's master, demanding that the young man demonstrate strength sufficient to kill him 48 49.

Abilities & Skills

Bone Dragon Martial Soul

Gu Rong possesses the Bone Dragon martial soul, which grants him immense physical presence, spiritual pressure, and exceptional spatial affinity.

• Releases a spiritual-domain-like pressure mixed with spatial fluctuations 48.
• Can traverse space, a defining strength of his martial soul 49.
• His spatial senses are highly developed, making Yang Xing's undetectable relocation of him especially shocking 49.
• His martial soul aura is cold and eerie, with a distinctive dark magnetic quality 56.
• Possesses formidable defense, allowing him to endure an elemental barrage and break free from a cage of earthen spikes through his martial soul's resilience and vast Soul Power 50.

Soul Rings and Soul Power Pressure

Gu Rong possesses nine Soul Rings in a yellow-yellow-purple-purple-purple-black-black-black-black configuration 48.

• Can release destructive Soul Power pressure without summoning his Soul Rings or activating Martial Soul Possession 47.
• His initial intimidation of Yang Xing shatters porcelain, overturns furniture, damages wall decorations, and places the residence's beams under severe strain 47.
• The pressure is described as sufficient to make ordinary people within a hundred meters faint and to intimidate Soul Emperors and Soul Sages, though Yang Xing remains unaffected 47.
• Releasing his Soul Rings adds the Bone Dragon's spiritual and spatial pressure to his aura; Yang Xing counters it with Wind Empress Qimen 48.

Bone Dragon True Body

Gu Rong's seventh soul skill transforms him into a gigantic Bone Dragon.

• Creates a massive skeletal dragon body with wings spanning dozens of meters 49.
• Greatly enhances his resilience and combat capacity in aerial battle 49 50.
• Retains the ability to use spatial traversal and launch dragon-breath attacks while transformed 50.
• His transformed body is composed of exceptionally hard bone shrouded in deep purple radiance 49.

Spatial Traversal

Gu Rong can vanish into the void and reappear at another position during combat.

• Used to evade Yang Xing's follow-up attack after being struck in the air 50.
• Can reposition himself dozens of meters away in an instant 50.
• Was outclassed by Yang Xing's spatial control, which relocated him without warning and later immobilized him in midair 49 50.

Dragon Breath

In Bone Dragon form, Gu Rong can fire a concentrated purple dragon-breath flame.

• The attack is powerful enough to severely injure an ordinary Titled Douluo 50.
• Yang Xing deconstructs the attack into its original Soul Power, nullifying it before it can explode 50.

Bone-Transformed Divine Dragon

Gu Rong's strongest soul skill allows him to regenerate after catastrophic damage.

• Activated after Yang Xing's massive light-sphere attack 51.
• Enables him to survive, though Yang Xing defeats and severely injures him afterward 51.

Combat Experience and Limitations

Gu Rong has extensive combat experience and adapts quickly after suffering an initial attack, using spatial traversal to prevent Yang Xing from repeating the same surprise strike 50.

His defeat does not result from a change in cultivation. In his subsequent assessment, Yang Xing explains that he overwhelmed Gu Rong using his ordinary rank-ninety foundation and the combined Eight Extraordinary Skills, without activating his temporary rank-ninety-nine peak state. Wind Empress Qimen surpassed the Bone Dragon's spatial abilities, the Heaven-Piercing Talisman's accumulated energy broke through his defenses, and Yang Xing's enhanced physique supplied the finishing physical blow 54.

Relationships

• Ning Rongrong — Protective elder figure. Gu Rong reacts explosively to the news that she accepted Yang Xing as her master and confronts Yang Xing to defend her interests 23 47 49. Her successful evolution to the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda ultimately verifies the possibility he had dismissed, though she later chooses to conceal this advancement from Ning Fengzhi 64 65 68 72. She affectionately calls him “Bone Grandpa,” remembers his happiness at her martial soul awakening, and later invokes his protection when confronting Xue Beng and Dugu Bo 13 193 194.
• Ning Fengzhi — Fellow leader of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. Gu Rong follows Ning Fengzhi's decision to investigate Yang Xing rather than act blindly 22 26. Ning Fengzhi addresses him respectfully as “Uncle Bone” and places Ning Rongrong's safety above all other objectives when dispatching him 24 26.
• Chen Xin — Fellow Titled Douluo of the sect. The two share concern for Ning Rongrong, though Chen Xin openly calls Gu Rong reckless 23 26. Their exchanges include mutual irritation and teasing, but they agree in initially rejecting the idea that an immortal herb could fundamentally transform a martial soul 26.
• Yang Xing — Initially regarded as a suspected enemy who plotted against Ning Rongrong and the sect. Gu Rong challenges him, but is decisively defeated in their aerial battle; Yang Xing subsequently proves his claim concerning the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda through Ning Rongrong's successful evolution 47 49 51 64 65. Yang Xing regards him as his first truly top-tier opponent and uses the battle to test his practical combat strength 54. The victory increases Yang Xing's confidence before his later encounter with Tang Hao 57.
• Tang Hao — Another Rank 95 Super Douluo. Yang Xing notes that Tang Hao possesses the same cultivation level as Gu Rong, though their auras differ greatly in nature 56.
• Dugu Bo — A Titled Douluo who recognizes the danger of antagonizing the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's two Super Douluo. Ning Rongrong explicitly invokes Gu Rong and Chen Xin as potential retaliators during her confrontation with him at Heaven Dou Royal Academy, although Gu Rong is not present 193 194.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Investigation of Ning Rongrong's Master

Gu Rong joins Ning Fengzhi and Chen Xin in receiving reports about Ning Rongrong's enrollment and her unexpected master-disciple relationship with Yang Xing. He suspects that Yang Xing's claims about the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda are part of a larger scheme 22 23 24.

Ning Fengzhi restrains the two guardians from drawing conclusions before hearing the full report, emphasizing that winning Ning Rongrong's acceptance as a disciple already makes the fortune-teller an unusual figure 24.

Investigation of Yang Xing

After hearing the report that Yang Xing identified the Aromatic Silk Beauty as an immortal herb capable of evolving Ning Rongrong's martial soul, Gu Rong dismisses the claim as implausible. Nevertheless, Ning Fengzhi sends him to Suotuo City to investigate Yang Xing's identity, intentions, and connection to Ning Rongrong 26.

Confrontation with Yang Xing

Gu Rong visits Yang Xing to demand answers over Ning Rongrong. He escalates from intimidation to a direct challenge after discovering that Yang Xing is a Titled Douluo with a blood-red hundred-thousand-year soul ring 47 48.

He makes the battle a test of Yang Xing's fitness as Ning Rongrong's master, declaring that Yang Xing must either be exposed as an empty shell or demonstrate enough strength to kill him 49.

Aerial Battle over Suotuo City

Yang Xing relocates Gu Rong over a thousand meters above Suotuo City, where Gu Rong transforms into his Bone Dragon True Body. Gu Rong withstands an elemental barrage and attempts spatial evasion and dragon breath, but Yang Xing eventually freezes him in place and leaves him severely injured 49 50 51.

The fight provides Yang Xing with a practical measure of his own abilities against an established Super Douluo. His later analysis confirms that Gu Rong's defeat required neither his temporary rank-ninety-nine state nor a prolonged struggle for survival 54.

Aftermath and Shrek Academy

After surviving Yang Xing's attacks, Gu Rong hears his account of the conflict at Shrek Academy and decides to visit the academy. He leaves the residence limping and severely injured, without receiving healing from Yang Xing, who also demands payment for the property's damage 51.

Validation of the Martial Soul Evolution Claim

Gu Rong's skepticism toward Yang Xing's claim is later objectively disproven when Ning Rongrong absorbs the Aromatic Silk Beauty and evolves her Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda into the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, fulfilling the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's long-standing goal 63 64 65.

Concealment of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda

Although Ning Rongrong's advancement confirms the result Gu Rong had doubted, the development is treated as a secret with continent-wide political consequences. Yang Xing removes Dugu Bo's memories of the event, and Ning Rongrong uses Wind Empress Qimen to continue presenting the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda while withholding the advancement from Ning Fengzhi 66 68 72 73.

Deterrence at Heaven Dou Royal Academy

Gu Rong's standing as one of Ning Rongrong's protectors becomes relevant during the dispute over Shrek Academy's enrollment at Heaven Dou Royal Academy. Ning Rongrong threatens to report Xue Beng's conduct to her father and both sect guardians, then warns Dugu Bo of retaliation from Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo 193 194.

Dugu Bo acknowledges the sect's two Super Douluo as a reason to avoid a complete rupture, but his wounded pride ultimately drives him to attack. Yang Xing, rather than Gu Rong, intervenes and subdues him 194 195.

Trivia

• Gu Rong's uncontrolled Soul Power once pulverizes a jade grandmaster's chair after he hears Yang Xing may know how to evolve the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda 23.
• He is over ninety years old 26.
• His nearly two-and-a-half-meter frame is large enough to make a gold-inlaid chair creak beneath him 22.
• His Soul Ring configuration differs from Yang Xing's: Gu Rong has three purple and four black rings, whereas Yang Xing has two purple, four black, and one red ring alongside the same two yellow rings 48.
• Gu Rong's defeat becomes a benchmark for Yang Xing's assessment of the combined Eight Extraordinary Skills and boosts his confidence before encountering Tang Hao 54 57.

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