Elder Yu

Biodata

Appearance

• Elderly man who wears blue robes 14 30.
• Has a beard, which he strokes while speaking with Elder Mo and Lin Jing 16 23.

Personality

Elder Yu is strict about work discipline. When he catches Ziran reading My Sword Spirit Wife at the Mission Hall, he rejects the claim that it contains profound sword teachings, confiscates it, and fines Ziran half a month’s Spirit Stones 15.

He is deeply attached to Mechanism Art and eager to find someone to inherit his knowledge. Rather than simply ordering Lin Jing to study it, he offers materials, instruction, and a personal reward to cultivate his interest. He also tells Lin Jing that lasting progress requires genuine love for the craft 22 23 38.

His concern for expenses does not prevent him from honoring his promises. Elder Mo calls him stingy, while Yu insists that his savings support mechanical-beast research. After discovering that Lin Jing and the Pineleaf Squirrel can consume the canteen’s entire food supply, he allows their free meals to continue; deliveries persist even after they enter the inner sect 16 28 45.

History

Spirit Bamboo Harvesting

At Elder Mo’s request, Elder Yu looks after Lin Jing in the outer sect. He offers him an exclusive mission to harvest spirit bamboo from Golden Pearl Ravine for the approaching Rising Dragon Festival. The reward is one Spirit Stone and one sect contribution point per ten stalks 15 16.

Yu expects the tough bamboo to limit how much a low-level Pineleaf Squirrel can harvest. Instead, Lin Jing and the squirrel nearly clear the grove’s outer perimeter. The guardian’s report leaves him wondering whether Elder Mo brought back a wood god body rather than a longevity body 15 16.

The two elders inspect the grove together. Elder Mo takes Lin Jing away and reminds Yu to pay the full reward. Left with enough material to build Foundation Establishment-level bamboo dragons, Yu resolves to make that year’s festival challenge harder 17.

Rising Dragon Festival and Private Instruction

Lin Jing and the Pineleaf Squirrel destroy Yu’s Bamboo Mechanical Dragon by attacking its internal mechanisms through its mouth. Forewarned by Elder Mo about their unusual abilities, Yu remains outwardly calm, sends a spare dragon to replace it, and summons them to his workshop 21 22.

Yu uses the highest-tier festival reward to draw Lin Jing into Mechanism Art. He gives him a Mechanism Soul Core, his Mechanical Beast-Making Insights, and the surplus spirit bamboo. He also promises one reasonable wish if Lin Jing successfully builds a moving mechanical beast 22.

Lin Jing asks for free meals at the Outer Sect Canteen. Yu agrees, assuming that feeding two additional mouths will be a minor expense. During their discussion, he tries to discourage Lin Jing’s interest in alchemy by emphasizing its extensive memorization requirements, only to discover that Lin Jing has already memorized the Outer Sect Herbology Compendium. He then tests Lin Jing’s medicinal-plant knowledge 23.

Mechanism Bamboo Gun Accident

A powerful aura from a Purple Fire Dragon Fruit experiment draws Yu to Lin Jing’s courtyard. His attention shifts to Lin Jing’s mechanical creations, and he picks up the Mechanism Bamboo Gun, aims skyward, and pulls the trigger before Lin Jing can stop him 27.

The gun expends the Pineleaf Squirrel’s stockpiled Spirit Beans Bombs. Their chain explosions uproot nearby trees and wreck the surroundings, although the house survives. Yu recognizes that the squirrel’s treasure-beast ability has given ordinary spirit bamboo a water-projectile effect without inscribed formation patterns 27 28.

To compensate them, he grants his Elder’s Token ahead of the promised reward. Lin Jing and the squirrel promptly use it to eat the canteen’s entire food supply. Warned that repeated visits could leave him personally responsible for the shortfall, Yu decides to press for an early Inner Gate Promotion Examination. He subsequently arranges meal deliveries to Lin Jing’s home 28 29.

Inner Gate Examination and Bodhi Heaven

Yu personally checks the applicants’ cultivation and oversees the examination with Elder Li Hai. Twenty disciples board his mechanical fish for a three-day survival trial in the Great Wilderness. He explicitly warns them that rescue by an elder means immediate elimination, drawing Li Hai’s criticism that such reassurance undermines the test 30.

When a pillar of light engulfs Lin Jing and the Pineleaf Squirrel, Yu and Li Hai immediately attempt to intervene. Both are repelled despite their Golden Core abilities. Yu initially fears that the Corpse Yin Sect has come to abduct Lin Jing 31.

After the disciples return safely from Bodhi Heaven, Yu is relieved to learn that nobody has been lost. Lin Jing and the others credit his Mechanism Art with helping secure two Bodhi Trees. Ziran, He Yiming, and the four Demon Hunting Hall disciples then ask to learn the craft, with He Yiming suggesting that Yu establish a peak of his own 38.

Yu recognizes a complication: Lin Jing’s exceptional firepower comes largely from materials produced by the Pineleaf Squirrel’s divine ability, not from mechanisms alone. Other practitioners would struggle to reproduce the same power and efficiency. No establishment of a new peak or formal acceptance of these students is confirmed in the provided chapters 38 39.

Abilities & Skills

Mechanism Art

• Constructs mechanical beasts and organizes the Rising Dragon Festival around a mechanical-dragon challenge 15.
• Compiles his practical knowledge in Mechanical Beast-Making Insights and provides beginner materials for hands-on study 22.
• Advocates using lifeless constructs to probe formations and explore dangerous places rather than exposing contracted pet beasts to those risks 23.
• Quickly examines the Mechanism Bamboo Gun’s workings, noticing the absence of Water-Type Array Patterns and the unusual material responsible for its water attacks 27 28.
• Limitation: Despite years of dedication, Lin Jing has heard that Yu has never built a mechanical beast whose combat strength matches his own contracted pet beast 20.

Golden Core Cultivation

• Uses divine sense to inspect disciples’ cultivation during examination registration 30.
• Draws Ziran’s book into his hand without touching it 15.
• Travels through the air as a rainbow streak 17 27.
• Limitation: His Golden Core abilities cannot stop Bodhi Heaven’s pillar of light from taking Lin Jing and the Pineleaf Squirrel 31.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Bamboo Mechanical Dragon — A festival construct at the seventh layer of Qi Refining. Its protective spirit flames resist external flying-leaf attacks, and its tail knocks He Yiming’s seventh-layer Battle Ape unconscious in one strike. Attacks entering its mouth nevertheless destroy its internal mechanisms 20 21 22.
• Mechanical fish — A large flying construct used to carry the twenty examination candidates toward the Great Wilderness 30.
• Mechanism Soul Core — A white, Luban puzzle lock-shaped core awarded to Lin Jing. It serves as the heart of a complex mechanical beast; Lin Jing’s initial watering-tortoise design is too simple to require it 22 24.
• Mechanical Beast-Making Insights — A thick book containing Yu’s knowledge of mechanical-beast construction, given to Lin Jing as part of the festival’s top reward 22.
• Elder’s Token — Grants Lin Jing and the Pineleaf Squirrel free Outer Sect Canteen meals and permission to enter the Inner Peak while still outer disciples 28.

Relationships

• Lin Jing — Junior under his care and a recipient of his Mechanism Art instruction. Yu supplies resources, rewards his achievements, and continues supporting his meals after inner-sect promotion 16 22 45.
• Pineleaf Squirrel — Lin Jing’s partner, whose synthesized materials overturn Yu’s expectations about bamboo harvesting and mechanical firepower 16 28 38.
• Elder Mo — Fellow elder who entrusts Lin Jing to him. Their exchanges include teasing over Yu’s thriftiness and arguments about special treatment 16 17.
• Ziran — Outer disciple who frequently runs errands and posts missions for Yu. After Bodhi Heaven, he asks to remain in the outer sect to attend Yu and learn Mechanism Art 15 38.
• Elder Li Hai — Co-supervisor of the Inner Gate Examination. Li objects to Yu openly assuring disciples that elders will rescue them from mortal danger 30.
• Elder Black Bear — Fellow sect member who praises the results of Yu’s instruction, prompting Yu to defend both his craft and the sect’s achievement 38.
• He Yiming and the Demon Hunting Hall disciples — Prospective Mechanism Art students impressed by Lin Jing’s constructs in Bodhi Heaven 38.

Notable Quotes

“Mechanical Beasts are beasts too.” 23

“But don't force yourselves. To go far along the path of Mechanism Art, you must love it.” 23

“What else can we do? Let them eat!” 28