Houtu

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Houtu (后土)
Title	Ancestral Witch of Earth; also addressed as “Lady Ancestral Shaman” 1 20
Species/Race	Witch Race, also called the Shaman Tribe 1 9
Gender	Female 1
Affiliation	Twelve Ancestral Witches; Houtu Tribe 1 22
Occupation/Role	Leader of the Houtu Tribe; Gungun’s keeper 1 28
Residence	Mount Buzhou; uses Pangu Hall for seclusion 1 25
Status	Alive and active; has recognized a connection to reincarnation but has not attained that Dao in the supplied chapters 12 25 45
First Appearance	Chapter 1 1

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Established Ancestral Witch	1	Introduced as one of the Twelve Ancestral Witches. Her exact cultivation realm is not stated.
Unexplained thought-hearing manifests	1 2	Begins hearing Gungun’s inner voice without using a mind-reading technique or detecting magical transmission.
Recognition of the Dao of Reincarnation	12	Observes Gungun cleanse demon souls and give them new lives as Soft-Bone Rabbits. Senses that the resulting merit is connected to her own Dao, revealing a possible path to attainment.

Background

Houtu took the first Iron-Eating Beast as her battle pet, named him Gungun, and also used him as her mount. Their companionship has lasted more than a hundred thousand years. She selected him for his exceptional origins and comprehension, not merely his appearance 1 2 18 25.

Gungun later portrays his adoption as a rescue from a miserable childhood, but Houtu remembers otherwise: she found him comfortably sleeping beneath a tree, eating an ice pop while subdued lesser demons fanned him. Her efforts to nurture him through scripture, blood essence, Dao comprehension, and combat practice repeatedly met with avoidance 18.

Appearance

Houtu has a slender figure, a beautiful face described as serene and noble, and long black hair reaching her delicate waist 1.

• Clothing: Cream-colored gown 1 3.
• Hair: Ink-black tresses compared to a waterfall 1.
• Features: Delicate hands and brows; bare feet described as jade-like 1 3.

Personality

Houtu is stern with Gungun, using threats, reprimands, and physical discipline to counter his laziness. Her demands are rooted in concern: she repeatedly urges him to become strong enough to survive a war in which she may not always be able to protect him. She also adjusts her teaching when she learns that the scripture and blood essence she supplied do not suit him 1 2 8.

Her attachment to Gungun makes attempted recruitment especially provocative. She becomes furious when Taiyi seeks to make him a mount and immediately rejects Zhunti’s proposal to take him west. Beneath her severity, she checks his health, strokes his fur, and comforts him when his condition is genuine 16 21 25 27 40.

Houtu combines factional loyalty with practical restraint, though she can act impulsively when angered. She attacks Ao Yue over his allegiance to the Demon Race, then ends the confrontation when Meng Zhang’s arrival makes victory uncertain. The deaths of billions of rabbits force her to confront collateral damage she had initially overlooked; she subsequently protects an injured survivor 19 20 21.

Her compassion does not override the interests of her tribe. Although embarrassed by the stripping of Penglai’s resources, she permits it after learning that Hou Yi and Xingtian consider the materials compensation for fallen Witch warriors 45.

Abilities & Skills

Hearing Gungun’s Thoughts

Houtu receives Gungun’s inner monologue involuntarily; the mechanism remains unexplained 1 2 28.

• Hears him without spoken words, telepathic transmission, or detectable magical fluctuations 1.
• Receives his thoughts despite his mastery of the Law of Silence, which should make unnoticed mental eavesdropping difficult 2 27.
• Uses what she hears to uncover deception, anticipate recruitment attempts, and investigate his knowledge of future events 16 17 25.
• Cannot hear him during a battle when he is roughly ten thousand li away, establishing a demonstrated distance limitation 19.
• Conceals her awareness successfully enough that Gungun concludes she is not listening to his thoughts 27.
• Suspects his predictions may involve seeing the river of time, but does not establish their source 6 28.

Law of Earth

As the Ancestral Witch of Earth, Houtu commands the earth’s power for combat, defense, and restoration 20.

• Healing: Draws power from the ground to treat Ao Yue’s injuries and later heals the surviving Soft-Bone Rabbit 4 21.
• Barriers: Attempts to raise a mountain between Kunpeng and his captives; creates a huge stone shield against Ao Yue’s lightning 5 32.
• Constructs: Creates and restores rock giants to attack Ao Yue 19.
• Land repair: Restores shattered terrain across a million li after the grassland battle 20.
• Body reconstruction: Forms an earthen body for the Eastern King and reunites it with his surviving primordial spirit. Its exterior becomes flesh-like, but it remains an earth body in essence 41.
• Limit: Repairing land is straightforward for her; returning dead creatures to life is much harder. She does not revive the rabbits killed by the battle 20.

Spatial Movement and Concealment

• Seizes Gungun through spatial power and sends him through a spatial tunnel 8.
• Returns him directly to Mount Buzhou with a sweep of her hand 29.
• Hides in the void to observe his handling of the demon souls 10 11.
• Conceals Gungun’s aura, although Taiyi still notices it 13.

Combat

• Uses powerful palm strikes and earth-supported punches in close combat 4 5.
• Defeats Kunpeng after his battle with Ao Yue, Gungun’s surprise attack, and her own initial strike have weakened him. The text explicitly states that Kunpeng is not inherently weaker than her 5.
• Has no confidence that she could defeat a fully recovered Ao Yue 15.
• Is slightly stronger than Meng Zhang, but cannot overcome him quickly enough to reach the Eastern King 37.
• Remains unaffected by the Chaos Bell’s freezing of space and time while her feet are planted on the earth in the Mount Buzhou encounter 6.

Restoration and Leadership

• Replenishes Mount Xiaoyu’s spiritual energy and damaged plant life after Gungun removes its resentment 12.
• Summons the other Ancestral Witches through her ancestral power 6.
• Commands the Houtu Tribe and delegates army mobilization to Hou Yi 28 29 31.
• Treats the million-year prohibition on major Witch–Demon warfare as preparation time, ordering Hou Yi and Xingtian to train their armies 45.

Relationships

• Gungun — Battle pet, mount, and long-term companion. Houtu supplies food and cultivation resources, disciplines his evasiveness, and protects him from recruitment. His hidden knowledge increasingly influences her decisions 1 18 25 27 43.
• Dijiang — Eldest brother and foremost Ancestral Witch. She follows his instructions to reinforce Penglai and accepts his advice to discipline Gungun 6 8 28.
• Gonggong — Fourth elder brother and fellow Ancestral Witch. They fight Ao Yue together, but disagree over the danger of continuing and the importance of the rabbits killed in the fighting 19 20 21.
• Zhu Jiuyin — Elder brother associated with time. His ability to perceive the river of time provides Houtu with a possible explanation for Gungun’s predictions 6 8.
• Xuanming — Fellow Ancestral Witch who teases Houtu about her “adorable” battle pet 8.
• Hou Yi — Strongest Great Shaman of the Houtu Tribe and her battlefield right-hand man. She entrusts him with reinforcements and accepts him as Bai Yu’s caretaker despite initial reservations 22 28 31.
• Xingtian — Great Shaman involved in the Penglai expedition. Houtu allows him to claim treasures and later orders him and Hou Yi to prepare for the coming war 40 43 45.
• Ao Yue — Former rescue recipient who becomes a political and military opponent. His gratitude restrains some of his actions against her, but his loyalty to Taiyi places them on opposing sides 4 19 20 37.
• Eastern Emperor Taiyi — Rival whose rescue of Ao Yue strengthens the Demon Race. His repeated attempts to recruit Gungun deepen Houtu’s hostility 6 16 25.
• Kunpeng — Opponent defeated while weakened. He vows to collect the karmic debt created by her interference 5.
• Meng Zhang — Ao Yue’s protector. His intervention ends the grassland confrontation, and he later prevents Houtu from rescuing the Eastern King 19 36 37.
• Bai Yu / Jade Rabbit — Injured survivor Houtu heals and takes under protection after the grassland disaster. Hou Yi becomes her caretaker and renames her Jade Rabbit 21 22 23.
• Eastern King / Donghua — Rescue recipient and prospective ally. Houtu reconstructs his body, accepts his refusal to rebuild the Immortal Court, and accompanies him to Zixiao Palace 41 42 44.
• Zhunti — Addressed politely as “senior brother,” but firmly refused when he proposes taking Gungun west as a disciple 27.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Gungun’s Training and the Mount Buzhou Battle

Houtu’s unexplained access to Gungun’s thoughts first changes her training methods: she withdraws the Witch God Scripture and gives him her own blood instead. His prediction that Taiyi will rescue Ao Yue then prompts her to intervene against Kunpeng, hoping to prevent the Demon Race from gaining a powerful ally 1 3 4.

She treats Ao Yue and defeats the weakened Kunpeng, but cannot prevent Taiyi from arriving and taking the dragon to the Heavenly Court. Taiyi’s appearance confirms a prediction she had heard only in Gungun’s thoughts, making his unusual knowledge a serious concern 4 5 6.

Mount Xiaoyu and Reincarnation

Houtu brings Gungun to Mount Xiaoyu, where resentful demon souls have formed a Ghost Race that attacks nearby Witch settlements. She secretly observes his solution: cleansing the souls, removing their memories and power, and sending them to be born as Soft-Bone Rabbits 9 10 11 12.

The merit generated by those rebirths reveals a connection to her own Dao. However, later seclusion produces no clear method of attaining reincarnation. Gungun mistakes her silence for an imminent transformation into the Underworld deity Pingxin; she instead leaves seclusion still unchanged 12 25.

Ao Yue’s Return and the Grassland Disaster

When Ao Yue returns with gifts for Gungun, Houtu watches from hiding and contacts the other Ancestral Witches. His effort to recruit her companion becomes a confrontation: Houtu and Gonggong attack him, but Meng Zhang’s arrival forces her to reconsider 15 16 18 19.

She ends the battle rather than risk fighting both dragons. After discovering billions of rabbit corpses, she repairs the land, heals an injured survivor, and arranges for the child to be raised within the Witch Race 20 21 22.

Penglai Campaign and Aftermath

Following Dijiang’s order, Houtu goes ahead to Penglai while directing Gungun to have Hou Yi mobilize the tribe. She drives back Ao Yue and Meng Zhang on arrival and shields the Eastern King from a star-powered lightning attack 28 29 31 32.

Meng Zhang then occupies her while Ao Yue concentrates the Lesser Stellar Formation on the Eastern King. Unable to break through quickly, she witnesses his apparent destruction. She nevertheless remains to contest Penglai, though the retreating demons escape with much of the Immortal Court’s wealth 36 37 40.

Once the Eastern King’s surviving primordial spirit reaches her, Houtu rebuilds his body. He adopts the identity Donghua and declines her proposed alliance. She accepts that choice, pursues Gungun’s suggestion of appealing to the Dao Ancestor, and later permits her tribe to remove Penglai’s remaining resources while preparing for the eventual Witch–Demon war 41 42 43 44 45.

Notable Quotes

“Every bit stronger you become will make you that much safer when the great war comes. I... may not always be able to protect you. Do you understand?” 8

“No. You must leave Mount Buzhou's territory immediately. This is the homeland Father God left to our Witch Race!” 5