Xueyi

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Kou Xueyi (雪宜) 70
Alias(es)	Fairy Meixue; Plum Soul, used during her recovery as a plum tree 404 456
Species/Race	Plum-blossom spirit of ice and snow; possesses both water and wood affinities, with wood predominating 102 335
Gender	Female 70
Affiliation	Four Seas Hall, Shangqing Palace 70 105
Occupation/Role	Cultivator and disciple of Zhang Xingyan; insists on serving as his attendant despite his objections 105 334
Spouse	Zhang Xingyan 460
Birthplace	An icebound peak on Mount Luofu 102 435
Residence	Initially Thousand Birds Cliff; later a secluded marital home on Horseshoe Mountain 70 460
Status	Alive following resurrection; restored to human form and married to Xingyan 457 460

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Survival of a five-hundred-year tribulation	102	Recounted retrospectively: lightning destroyed her plum tree, but she survived. Her serpent protector told her that someone else had borne the tribulation for her.
Study of Shangqing Daoist teachings	105	Receives instruction from Xingyan and treasures the restricted Daoist texts Ju Ying brings to Four Seas Hall.
Flight demonstrated	110	Qingming questions how she learned to fly, prompting Lingyi to supply a protective explanation for her presence and abilities.
Refinement through spiritual qi	114	Xingyan suspects her increasingly captivating appearance reflects exposure to pure heaven-and-earth qi during his cultivation; this is his interpretation rather than a stated realm breakthrough.
Improved spirit-staff power	146	After her victory over Luo Ziming, Xingyan explicitly praises her increased power and the greater magnificence of the staff’s spirit flowers.
Awakening of Ice Plum Battle Armor	331 332	Manifests her innate armor while confronting Su Shui Ruo’s freezing attacks; combines its protection with staff-generated blossoms and evasive movement.
Nourishment by the Heart of Water	335	Receives Shui Ruo’s accumulated water essence. Its nourishment strengthens her ability to bring snowfall, which she uses to fulfill Shui Ruo’s obligation to Emerald Li Village.

Background / History

Origins and concealed purpose

Xueyi originated as a plum blossom on an icebound peak. After lightning destroyed her tree, a speaking serpent sheltered her and explained that she had survived a five-hundred-year tribulation. Hoping to learn cultivation and escape future tribulations, she planned with him to approach the young Four Seas Hall master, Zhang Xingyan 102.

Xingyan subsequently killed the serpent she called “Brother Snake.” Xueyi concealed her resentment and intended to learn Shangqing’s genuine Daoist arts before killing Xingyan in revenge. Hearing him summon beasts to listen to scripture and speak sincerely changed her resolve: she realized that she could no longer avenge her elder brother 103 334.

Life at Four Seas Hall

Xueyi settled in the hall’s side quarters and began cooking, explaining that she disliked eating among strangers. She treated household work as fulfillment of her promise to serve Xingyan, although he tried to dissuade her. She and Qiong Rong mostly ate fruit, leaving him to enjoy the prepared meals 70 71.

During Xingyan’s absence, Zhao Wuchen repeatedly harassed Xueyi and eventually forced his way into her home. She restrained him with summoned vines. Zhao then accused her of being a monster and demanded control over her, using her resistance as justification for his accusations 100.

Xingyan defended her publicly, claiming that he had taught her the binding spell. After driving Zhao away, he privately demanded her true identity. Xueyi confessed her origins and initial deception, explaining that she had stayed rather than flee because escaping might implicate him. He chose to protect her and asked her to maintain their cover story 100 101 102.

With Ju Ying’s arrival, Xueyi gained companionship and greater access to instruction. Xingyan explained the borrowed Daoist texts, while Ju Ying helped teach reading and writing. His attempt to establish formal disciple seniority failed partly because Xueyi insisted that she was merely a maidservant 105.

Travels and the Water Spirit mission

Xueyi accompanied Xingyan and Qiong Rong when they left Luofu to find the missing Water Essence of Highest Clarity. The companions traveled at an unhurried pace, enjoying the countryside while gaining experience beyond the mountain 124.

At Yangshan, she fought Luo Ziming after confronting him over his admission that he had burned people in a temple. Her fire-resistant armor defeated his Soul-Chasing Crimson Lotus, and she killed him with the Sacred Azure Jade Spirit Staff. Her victory secured the second winning bout for Xingyan’s side 145 146.

She later helped Xingyan escape a mountain peak hurled at them by Qiong Rong’s mysterious adult form. Carrying him through the air, she contributed to shattering the peak and shielded him from falling fragments, sustaining blows herself 153.

The search eventually led to Su Shui Ruo, the missing Water Spirit, who was under an ancient tree demon’s control. Xueyi confronted Shui Ruo while Xingyan pursued the demon. When its death ended the controlling spell, she supported the exhausted Water Spirit and helped escort her back to her village 331 332 333.

Shui Ruo chose to remain with her mortal husband rather than return to Luofu. She entrusted Xueyi with her Heart of Water and asked her to bring the snowfall needed to lift the village’s curse. Xueyi fulfilled that request, then carried the essence back to Shangqing and released it into the Water Pole Four Symbols Spirit-Gathering Formation 335 340.

Sacrifice and death

Shortly before the South Sea assault on Luofu, Xingyan again told Xueyi that she was not his servant and asked her to stop treating him as a master. Their discussion remained unresolved when the companions hurried back to defend the mountain 348.

During the battle, Meng Zhang targeted Xingyan with his lightning whip, Heavenly Flash. Xueyi pushed Xingyan away, shielded him, and took the lethal strike herself. Her final command was “Go!” Meng Zhang carried her body away and kept it on an ice bed in the South Sea’s Cold Chill Grotto 348 373.

Her death became a central grievance in the campaign against the South Sea. Meng Zhang dismissed Xingyan’s stated wish to avenge her as a disguise for ambition, while Nangong Qiuyu’s grief over her death remained visible months later 373 404.

Resurrection and marriage

After Meng Zhang’s defeat, Xi He explained that Xueyi’s scattered soul lay beyond her own ability to restore. She directed Xingyan toward Western Kunlun’s Elder Princess, who governed reincarnation. Xingyan retrieved Xueyi’s body and placed it beneath the ice cliff at her birthplace, protecting it with barriers and formations before seeking help 434 435.

Xingyan returned with Kunlun’s Returning Soul Elixir. Its administration restored Xueyi’s vitality but transformed her into a plum tree rather than immediately reviving her human form. He tended her patiently, preparing the surrounding terrace and spending his nights playing flute beneath the tree 445.

A mysterious cup of fragrant tea preceded their reunion. Once Xueyi regained human form, she learned how much danger Xingyan had endured to avenge and restore her. Overwhelmed, she wept privately and worried that he had paid too high a price for someone she considered insignificant 456 457.

Xingyan arranged their marriage, informing his sect and consulting Lingyi’s family because he already had a verbal marriage agreement with her. After the wedding, Xueyi diligently cared for his parents, gathering medicinal herbs to prolong their lives. The elderly couple eventually urged the newlyweds to establish a separate home on Horseshoe Mountain, though Xueyi continued visiting them regularly 458 460.

Appearance

• Complexion and build: Snow-white, jade-like skin and a graceful, slender figure 126 142 145.
• Hair: Dark, often gathered beneath a headcloth when traveling in disguise 126 334.
• Fragrance: Possesses a distinctive natural scent that Qiong Rong readily recognizes 129.
• Usual clothing: Frequently wears white; also travels in blue Daoist robes and a small cap to conceal her conspicuous beauty 126 129.
• Battle attire: Her fire-washed snow armor has a pearly sheen, white wing-like ornaments above her brows, and a gold-thread belt fastened by an interlocking sea-kun clasp 145.
• Innate armor: Features silver-and-gold feathered plates resembling plum sepals, with five-petaled blossoms covering the front. She can thicken the surrounding snowy radiance when others are present 332 333.

Personality

Xueyi is gentle, reserved, and sparing with words around outsiders. Within her household, she expresses affection through practical care: cooking, washing, sewing, gathering medicine, and tending to Qiong Rong. She is also a diligent learner, resolving to improve her calligraphy and understand profound scriptures even when she envies Qiong Rong’s unexpected talent 105 106 119 334.

Her serenity conceals a persistent sense of inferiority about being nonhuman. She longs for ordinary human experiences but initially believes they are beyond her. Xingyan’s repeated insistence that she is not a servant does not remove her fear of being dismissed or her determination to repay his kindness 334 458.

Her gentleness does not prevent decisive violence. She calmly confronts Luo Ziming’s cruelty and kills him, fights without panic against Shui Ruo’s ice attacks, and ultimately acts without hesitation to save Xingyan. Her devotion can become unsettlingly self-sacrificial: she once tells him that, if she dies, he should refine her body to aid his cultivation 145 332 334 348.

Abilities & Skills

Innate Pure Qi Art

Xueyi possesses her own cultivation method rather than simply copying Xingyan’s practice 128.

• Studies Shangqing scriptures and receives explanations from Xingyan 105.
• Has compatible water and wood affinities, allowing her to receive Shui Ruo’s Heart of Water 335.

Ice, Snow, and Spiritual Blossoms

Her supernatural abilities combine cold with plum-blossom manifestations.

• Summons snowfall; earlier snow-making could be accomplished with Xingyan’s Water Dragon’s Chant and Wind and Water Chant 335.
• Sends flying spirit flowers from her staff to shatter incoming ice blades and pressure opponents 118 332.
• Generates a flower-colored tempest that helps destroy a hurled mountain peak 153.
• Naturally withstands icy cold, but is vulnerable to blazing fire without suitable protection 138.

Wisteria Binding

• Summons vines to restrain Zhao Wuchen when he attacks her 100.
• Maintains Xingyan’s claim that she learned the spell from him, concealing its connection to her spirit identity 102.

Flight and Combat Movement

• Flies independently and carries Xingyan through the air during their escape from the falling peak 110 153.
• Uses supple, evasive movement to avoid dense volleys of ice weapons 332.
• Teaches that staff combat requires clearing distractions and advancing without hesitation so that wielder and weapon become one 147.
• Her magical power can be restrained by Demon Rings placed around her ankles 211.

Dance

• Performs an extraordinary dance at Bai Shijun’s banquet, captivating the guests and moving even experienced officials close to tears 172.

Household and Medicinal Skills

• Cooking: Prepares meals at Four Seas Hall and later makes distinctive dishes from the mountain produce available at her marital home 71 460.
• Needlework: Mends Qiong Rong’s clothing and embroiders shoes that Xingyan’s mother praises for their meticulous stitching 334 336.
• Herbal care: Collects a night-blooming herb for Qiong Rong’s split lip and brews calming tea for Xingyan 114 159.
• Care for elders: Gathers rare medicinal plants from difficult mountain terrain for Xingyan’s parents 460.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Sacred Azure Jade Spirit Staff — An immortal weapon formed through the resonance of extreme ice qi and a pure plum soul. Its form and power respond to its wielder’s cultivation. At its public revelation, it has a calyx-shaped tip; Ling Xu estimates that Xueyi has possessed it for roughly eight hundred years. She stores it as a hairpin 118 146.
• Fire-Washed Snow Armor — Given by the South Sea Wave God Fan Chuan to compensate for her vulnerability to fire. Completely protects her from Luo Ziming’s crimson-lotus flames 138 145.
• Ice Plum Battle Armor — Her innate spiritual armor, awakened against Shui Ruo; distinct from Fan Chuan’s gift 332.
• Heart of Water — Shui Ruo’s accumulated water essence, temporarily entrusted to Xueyi for transport and spiritual nourishment. Later released into Shangqing’s spirit-gathering formation 335 340.

Relationships

• Zhang Xingyan — Initially her intended target for revenge, then her teacher, protector, beloved, and husband. His sincerity changes her resolve; her sacrifice and his efforts to resurrect her bring their long-unspoken affection into the open 103 348 435 457 460.
• Brother Snake — The serpent who sheltered her after her tribulation. Xingyan’s killing of him initially drives her revenge plan; she later accepts the loss and prays for his favorable rebirth 102 103 334.
• Qiong Rong / Qiong Tong — Beloved younger-sister figure and fellow member of Four Seas Hall. Xueyi helps with her studies, clothing, medicine, and daily care; after revival, she sincerely wishes her success in Kunlun despite missing her 106 114 334 335 457.
• Ju Ying — Friend and fellow resident who teaches her literacy, brings valuable Daoist texts, and exchanges cooking and laundry experience with her 105.
• Lingyi — Protects Xueyi’s identity by claiming that she placed her at Four Seas Hall to supervise Xingyan’s cultivation. Xueyi is deeply grateful for the intervention 110.
• Su Shui Ruo — Initially an opponent under magical control, later an ally who entrusts her with the Heart of Water and the village snowfall mission 332 333 335.
• Nangong Qiuyu — Falls in love with her after their misty mountain-path encounter and grieves deeply after her death 114 117 404.
• Zhao Wuchen — Harasses and attacks her, then exploits her spirit identity to demand power over her 100 102.
• Meng Zhang — Kills her while attacking Xingyan and subsequently keeps her body in the Cold Chill Grotto 348 373.
• Xingyan’s parents — Warmly welcome her, admire her needlework, and later cherish her as their daughter-in-law 336 460.

Notable Quotes

“...If my hall master does not praise me, who else would call me fair?” 114

“Xueyi does not feel any hardship. I deceived you back then, Hall Master, yet you never regarded me with suspicion because I was of another kind.” 334

“Go!” — Her final command as she saves Xingyan from Meng Zhang’s strike 348.

Trivia

• “An Ode to Xueyi, Part One,” attributed to Guan Pingchao and Luan, portrays her through cold spring water, fragrant blossoms, icy dew, and sorrow. Its publication note states that it previously appeared in Volume Five, Chapter Six 258.
• Her first embroidered gifts to Xingyan’s parents were two pairs of blue cloth shoes bearing pale-yellow “longevity” characters. Qiong Rong supplied the calligraphy 336.
• Shui Ruo and Su Afu consider naming their unborn child Nianyan or Qiongxue in honor of the companions who helped them 335.