Lu Yuanyi

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Lu Yuanyi (陆元弋)
Alias(es)	Sect Master Lu 14
Gender	Male 14
Age	Over 1,000 years old; appears to be in his twenties 14 23
Affiliation	Cloud Radiance Sect 4 14
Occupation/Role	Sect Master; Zheng Ziheng’s master 12 14
Residence	Cicada Song Pavilion 16 37
Spiritual Root	Ice Spiritual Root 32
Cultivation Realm	Unknown; his current realm is not publicly established 14
Status	Alive in the present-day storyline 50
First Appearance	Sword-light rescue during the burning-village incident 4

Background / History

According to Qingli, Lu Yuanyi nearly died after being thoroughly beaten in the first match of an earlier recruitment assembly. The sect master of that time nevertheless chose him as a disciple, illustrating that tournament victories were not the sole basis for selection 38.

A thousand years before the main story, while still an ordinary Cloud Radiance Sect disciple, Lu entered Demon Clan territory alone and killed several notorious greater demons. These deeds became the foundation of his formidable reputation 14.

Around the same period, he encountered the Spirit-Testing Stone while she was sunbathing in the mountains. Qingli claims that he persuaded her to join the sect with candied hawthorn and the promise of an endless supply. She subsequently spent generations testing disciples’ spiritual roots, growing resentful that her offerings never changed 12.

Reputation

• Revered by many cultivators: His ancient demon-slaying exploits earned widespread admiration 14.
• Distrusted by others: His cultivation-induced golden eyes prompted speculation that he belonged to the Demon Clan; the passages do not confirm those suspicions 14.
• Habitually silent at formal gatherings: He occupies a place of honor without speaking, which admirers find imposing and detractors consider pretentious 14.
• An uncertain public record: Before the main story’s interventions, he reportedly had not fought for nearly a thousand years, leading skeptics to question his old achievements 14.

Appearance

Lu has a tall, straight build, handsome features, and an aloof expression. His youthful appearance contrasts with his age 14 23 46.

• Hair: Long, snow-silver hair, often left mostly loose and secured with a black jade or simple wooden hairpin 14 46.
• Eyes: Long, phoenix-shaped eyes with a dark golden hue caused by his cultivation method 14.
• Clothing: Favors white robes and blue outer garments. For the Apprenticeship Ceremony, he wears a smoky blue-green robe with subtle cloud patterns and a white jade belt 14 46.
• Voice: Slightly low, cool, and clear 14.
• Body temperature: Unusually cold, even in summer, apparently because of his Ice Spiritual Root 32.

Personality

Lu’s solemn public image conceals a dry sense of humor and a pronounced appetite. He readily joins Shen Leyan and Qingli’s competitive hot-pot meal, denies having chili oil on his robes after cleaning them with a spell, and orders seven or eight steamers of soup dumplings to sample different flavors 14 16 46.

He is unusually flexible about cultivation. Rather than compel Shen to train because of his rare spiritual root, Lu allows him to remain an ordinary Outer Sect disciple. He also upholds the sect’s obligation to compensate disciples endangered by faulty mission intelligence, selecting a cultivation art suited specifically to Shen 15 16.

His care is often expressed through practical assistance rather than open reassurance: protective artifacts, safe transport, medical treatment, and gifts. That protectiveness can become ruthless—he considers killing Ning Weimo to prevent her from exposing Shen’s role in saving the crown prince 27 36 37 44.

Lu combines demanding instruction with close supervision. He throws Shen into a cultivator brawl to force him to apply his movement technique, coaches him by voice transmission, and intervenes when an attack becomes too dangerous 24 25. During investigations, however, he favors restraint and evidence, warning Shen that premature conclusions will distort his judgment 31.

Abilities & Skills

Sword Cultivation

Lu is a sword cultivator whose precise attacks can produce overwhelming effects 4 22.

• Sends brilliant, frost-like sword light down the mountain to split and extinguish the burning-village blaze 4 10.
• Uses the Jiangxue Sword for flight and repeatedly lends it to Shen for transport 36 37 40.
• Possesses sufficient standing that, according to Lu, Mahayana cultivators throughout the Nine Realms would recognize Jiangxue and spare its bearer out of respect for him 27.

Ice-Aligned Spiritual Power

His Ice Spiritual Root supports freezing attacks, preservation, and defensive applications 25 32 36.

• Precision attack: A tiny ice needle freezes and pulverizes a cultivator’s massive stone armor 25.
• Medical preservation: Forms an ice coffin that arrests Chen Jing’s spreading black corruption while nourishing his damaged meridians and spiritual root 36.
• Handling dangerous materials: Freezes Fire-Yang Divine Wood and states that his ice-aligned power prevents it from burning him 37.
• Environmental effect: Within the Boundless Gate vision, his killing intent and spiritual power coat an entire cavern in ice 50.

The spectators who witness his ice needle assume he is a Nascent Soul cultivator. Their estimate does not establish his actual realm 25.

Hearing Shen Leyan’s Thoughts

Lu can hear Shen’s unspoken thoughts, including his knowledge of the coming Immortal-Demon War and Lu’s predicted death. He keeps this ability concealed from Shen 18.

• Uses overheard information to question whether Shen might possess an unusual affinity for divination 18 22.
• Sometimes answers the substance of Shen’s private thoughts without explaining how he knows them 22.
• The supplied passages establish access to Shen’s thoughts, not unrestricted mind-reading 18.

Spells and Memory Manipulation

• Privacy barrier: Encloses Shen’s courtyard so passersby cannot enter or overhear the conversation 14.
• Illusion: Makes his ankle appear swollen and bloodied to support Shen’s invented injury story 31.
• Invisibility: Conceals himself and Shen, but requires continued hand contact; speaking remains audible 32.
• Memory alteration: Erases the rescuing disciples’ memories of Shen’s involvement with Ji Lianyi 44.
• Mental soothing: Channels cool spiritual power into Shen to calm his anxiety 44.

Lu admits that he is not particularly skilled in spells with no combat use 32.

Divination

Lu can construct a complex fate chart using birth details and spiritual power, though he is not presented as a divination specialist 22.

• Attempts to investigate Shen’s suspected connection to Heavenly Dao divination 22.
• Shen’s chart shakes violently and shatters, cutting Lu’s fingertip; he heals the injury with spiritual power 22.
• No successful reading of Shen’s fate is obtained 22.

Medicine and Alchemy

Lu diagnoses and treats severe cultivation injuries despite Shen’s initial doubts about his medical ability 36 40.

• Identifies Chen Jing’s destroyed spiritual root and damaged meridians after his forbidden technique 36.
• Refines Fire-Yang Divine Wood and channels its medicinal power into Chen’s meridians to rebuild them 40.
• Explains that no spiritual medicine can directly heal a damaged spiritual root; its recovery depends on the injured cultivator’s fortune 36.
• Uses an alchemy furnace that maintains its own fire and automatically dispenses large batches of irregularly shaped pills 40.

Instruction in Wind Techniques

Although ice-aligned himself, Lu understands how Shen can use wind to evade and redirect incoming weapons 24.

• Teaches Shen to detect attacks through the changes they cause in surrounding air 24.
• Turns a real fight into practical training that improves Shen’s spiritual-power circulation and sensitivity to wind 25.
• Is later seen reading a scroll apparently titled “Master Wind Arts quickly with one book,” then claims he was only using it for shade 40.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Jiangxue Sword — An icy, sentient sword used for combat, flight, and protection. Its spirit can respond independently to Shen and withdraw its frost when the cold makes him uncomfortable. Inside the Boundless Gate vision, the spirit manifests as a flood dragon 21 27 50.
• Heavenheart Crystal — Given to Shen before Lu and Zheng enter a dangerous jungle area; can absorb one full-force attack from a Mahayana cultivator 27.
• Azure Shadow Profound Art — A Heaven Tier manual intended for Wind Spiritual Root cultivators. It emphasizes escape rather than offense; Lu gives it to Shen as compensation for the sect’s misleading mission intelligence 15 16.
• Cicada Song Pavilion Token — Grants Shen access through the pavilion’s formations and steadies the mind and spirit 37.
• Fire-Yang Divine Wood — A sect-held medicinal resource Lu uses to rebuild Chen Jing’s meridians 36 37 40.
• Red jade peace pendant — A modest gift Shen accepts after confirming it is neither a magical artifact nor a storage device. The elders interpret it as Lu outmaneuvering their recruitment gifts 46 47.
• Myriad-Fathom Cliff — A snowy world contained within a magical artifact, used as Lu’s secluded cultivation site in the Boundless Gate vision 49 50.

Relationships

• Shen Leyan — Outer Sect disciple whom Lu rescues, protects, and personally instructs. Lu respects his initial refusal to cultivate and later supports his determination to protect others. Although outsiders assume Shen is his disciple, no formal apprenticeship is established in the supplied present-day chapters; the Lu inside the Boundless Gate vision calls him his disciple 4 15 24 37 43 50.
• Zheng Ziheng — His first and chief disciple. Zheng handles sect business, defends Lu’s character, and reports his discovery that he can hear Shen’s thoughts. He notices Lu’s unusual warmth toward Shen 7 12 16 18 22 46.
• Qingli — The Spirit-Testing Stone whom he brought to the sect with candied hawthorn. She openly insults him, resents her longstanding workload, and competes with him over Shen’s food 12 14 37.
• Chen Jing — A sect disciple under Lu’s medical care after sacrificing his spiritual root to save others. Lu preserves his life and reconstructs his meridians 36 40.
• Elder Xuanji — Provides the prophecy of the Immortal-Demon War and Lu’s ominously flickering fate star. Lu helps him with spiritual power and questions him about unaided divination 18.
• Ning Weimo — A Confucian Dao grandmaster whose political allegiance makes her a possible threat to Shen. Lu considers killing her; afterward, she eliminates the fleeing assassins, citing Lu’s intervention and the need to protect the identity of his “beloved disciple” 44 45.
• Bai Licheng — In Shen’s knowledge of the original story, a man Lu saved who returned under the pretense of repaying him. Bai is actually a vengeful infiltrator whose betrayal enables the sect’s destruction; he confronts Lu within the Boundless Gate vision 49 50.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Arc	Lu Yuanyi’s role
Burning-village rescue	Answers Shen’s emergency transmission with sword light, breaks the burning illusion, and dispatches Zheng to investigate 4 10 14.
Shen’s spiritual-root secret	Questions Qingli, visits Shen’s courtyard, accepts his wish not to cultivate, and supplies the Azure Shadow Profound Art 12 14 15 16.
Prophecy and restaurant venture	Connects Xuanji’s prophecy with Shen’s private foreknowledge, approves Shen’s restaurant, and unsuccessfully attempts to read his fate 18 21 22.
Southwestern expedition	Joins the herb-gathering journey, trains Shen through a staged combat ordeal, and leaves him powerful safeguards before entering a dangerous area 23 24 25 27.
Glory Ancestors Village	Accompanies Shen’s investigation, arrives after becoming lost, stabilizes Chen Jing, and returns to the sect to treat him 30 31 32 36 37.
Assassination aftermath	Conceals Shen’s involvement through memory alteration and addresses the danger posed by Ning Weimo 44 45.
Apprenticeship Ceremony	Gives Shen a peace pendant, deflects the elders’ complaints, and hides Shen’s Boundless Gate screen so he can supervise the trial privately 46 47 48.
Boundless Gate crisis	The real Lu orders Shen’s trial closed early when it produces alarming heavenly phenomena. Within the vision, a weakened Lu attempts to recover while Shen and Jiangxue hold off Bai Licheng 50.

Foretold Fate and the Boundless Gate

Shen’s knowledge of the original novel describes Lu being betrayed during a crucial period of secluded cultivation, falling into madness and demonhood, and ultimately dying in Karma Fire with both body and soul destroyed. Xuanji’s independent divination confirms an approaching war and an ominous disturbance in Lu’s fate star, but does not establish that the entire predicted sequence is inevitable 15 18 49.

The Boundless Gate presents Shen with a vision of that catastrophe: demons occupy the devastated sect, while Bai searches for Lu in Myriad-Fathom Cliff. The Lu within this vision has recovered only thirty percent of his cultivation and tries to send Shen away for safety. Shen refuses to abandon him 49 50.

• Bai attempts to disrupt Lu’s recovery by describing the sect’s casualties and threatening his disciple and sword spirit 50.
• Outside the vision, the Mind-Peering Demon core panics at the battle’s effects, prompting the real Lu to order the trial closed early 50.
• The supplied chapter ends before the confrontation is resolved; Lu’s foretold death has not occurred in the present-day storyline 50.

Notable Quotes

“In studying the Dao, one should follow one's heart. There are many paths in this world; cultivation is naturally not the only one.” 15

“It's best not to draw conclusions before you've investigated matters thoroughly. It will affect your judgment later.” 31

“I'm indeed not particularly good at spells that are useless in a fight.” 32

Trivia

• Lu has a poor sense of direction. During the Southwestern journey, he reprimands Jiangxue for going the wrong way, then secretly checks the map; his later detour delays his arrival at Glory Ancestors Village 23 36.
• He admits that he has never caught one of the intelligent fish in his pond without spells, despite demanding that Shen compensate him for a fish that escaped 39 40.
• His pavilion houses a nearly five-hundred-year-old sentient man-eating flower that actually prefers vegetables 37.