Ninth Lady

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Ninth Lady was an unwanted child found at the foot of Jining’s city wall by the Nuo Opera Troupe’s master. He took her in partly to find an heir for his ancestral Nuo Mask, but she remembers that he treated her well. She grew up traveling with the troupe, practicing opera by day and cultivating the Nuo Mask Spirit at night 14 20 39 42.

The troupe master taught her ritual methods preserved through his ancestors’ instructions, despite being unable to perform them himself. He explained that practitioners require a special, inborn soul capable of communing with Nuo Masks. Life in the troupe gave her a home, although its complicated relationships and the difficulties she faced as a woman later influenced her willingness to serve Jidu Shrine 29 32.

After becoming the shrine’s Chief Sacrificer, she formally bid farewell to the troupe. She gave the master silver ingots, packed the belongings she needed, and distributed useful possessions among her companions as keepsakes 39 41.

Appearance

• Face and bearing: A strikingly pretty young woman with a fair face, thin lips, and an ethereal air; ordinarily gentle and graceful 14 20.
• Hair and eyebrows: Long hair and willow-shaped eyebrows 19 21.
• Build: Slender arms and legs that conceal considerable fighting strength 19.
• Feet: Unbound, as Cui Jiuyang explicitly notes 27.
• Ritual equipment: Carries a Treasure Bag behind her waist and later wears the Water Palace seal 29 43.

Personality

Sober, Ninth Lady is soft-spoken, bashful, and conscious of propriety. She initially hesitates to stay overnight at the merchant guildhall because gossip could damage her reputation as an unmarried woman. Her experience performing in public also makes her wary of unwanted advances; she accepts Cui Jiuyang’s early flirtation partly because she knows he helped Sister Wang 14 18.

Drinking makes her markedly more outspoken and combative without clearly depriving her of reason. She boasts about tying the Malevolent Flood Dragon into a knot and repeatedly considers confronting dangerous guardians directly. Even before drinking, she is willing to fight the giant softshell turtle, though she follows Cui Jiuyang’s warning to leave it alone 21 23 25.

She is tenderhearted but decisive when someone she loves is endangered. She weeps while leaving the troupe and tending Cui Jiuyang, yet immediately accepts lifelong confinement to save him. As their relationship develops, her shyness gives way to teasing, including deliberately embarrassing him while he dresses 37 39.

Abilities & Skills

Nuo Mask Ritual Arts

Her ritual talent depends on an inborn soul capable of communicating with Nuo Masks 29.

• Hundred-Unheard: A blue-faced, fanged mask. During the Divine Attendants’ attack, her mask fires white light from between its fangs and destroys an attendant’s head; Cui Jiuyang must still burn the headless body 25 26 27.
• “Deaf to All”: She judges this mask insufficient against the giant softshell turtle 21.
• Leaping the Dragon Gate: Propels three people into an underwater cave to escape the turtle 22.
• Liquor offerings: She feeds wine to her masks, which can drink without spilling despite their hollow openings. Leaping the Dragon Gate becomes visibly pleased when she drinks alongside it 22.
• Limits: Invocations can disorder her aura and exhaust her. Her battle with the Demon Horned Imperial Guard also leaves her struggling to maintain her strength 22 33.

Ji River Hundred Ghosts

The inheritance contains 108 Nuo Masks, from Flower-Blade Carp to Ghost-Mask Chi Dragon. Once it recognizes her, individual masks can enlarge from thumb size, while their iron storage box shrinks and returns to her Treasure Bag 29.

• Soul bond: Accepting the first mask binds her soul to the Ji River for life; after death, her soul must return to Jidu Shrine 29.
• Flower-Blade Carp: Touching the first mask triggers the vision through which she receives the inheritance 29.
• Drum-Thunder Sink: Contains Sudden Rain Rush, Wind and Cloud Roll, and Vajra Reversal. Only Sudden Rain Rush is demonstrated: its amplified drumbeats torment the Malevolent Flood Dragon until it breaks through the cavern ceiling 29.
• Shark-Silk Mist: Modeled on a Pearl-Weeping Merman, it grants exceptional agility and produces white silk that she uses to bind the Demon Horned Imperial Guard. The guard eventually tears the silk apart 33.

River-Swallowing Alligator

The 103rd Ji River Ghost Mask gives her a crocodilian face with iron-like scales and enormous jagged fangs. She uses it against the Malevolent Flood Dragon while receiving power from the shrine’s formation 35.

• Current-Severing Bite: Manifests an immense maw, ninety feet wide; the dragon evades it behind a towering wave 35.
• Turbid Waves Strike the Sky: Sends a vast surge of water and yellow sand upward, obscuring the sky 35.
• Dragon Tail Slash: Forms a bladed alligator-tail phantom around her sword. It mangles the dragon’s tail, but the collision badly injures her and shatters the mask 36.

Ghost-Mask Chi Dragon

The final mask is jet-black, with gilded dragon-scale patterns, crystal eyes, and fine whiskers. Its superior chi-dragon aura immediately unsettles the Malevolent Flood Dragon 36.

• Inverse-Scale Fury: Condenses a dragon phantom around her sword and pierces the flood dragon’s belly 36.
• Soul-Cleansing Rain: Releases a sky-filling downpour of sword energy that breaks its scales and riddles its body with wounds 36.
• River-Cutting Chant: Shatters its demon core and delivers the killing sword beam 37.
• Limit: Its documented manifestation requires Cui Jiuyang’s extreme, life-threatening amplification of the Heavenly Cycle Formation 36.

Chief Sacrificer’s Authority

Her appointment grants knowledge of the Ji River’s divine institutions and access to the Water Palace’s resources 34 35 37.

• Spiritual perception: Recognizes the Land God’s nonhuman nature through her position as a Water Palace sacrificial official 42.
• Water Palace treasures: Can withdraw the Dragon-Transformation Wall to save Cui Jiuyang 37.
• Formation use: Can retrieve the flood dragon’s corpse into the Grand Formation, but the Turtle Chancellor tells her to study formations under Cui Jiuyang 38.
• Aquatic summons: Uses the Water Palace seal to try to summon fish. The giant turtle’s lingering aura prevents them from approaching the explosive charges beneath the Water Gate 43.
• Judgment and lifespan: Sentences Lu Zhongqian to six months of remaining life and grants his remaining twenty years to Yang Xiaowu. She later clarifies that these added years come from the Water God, not an independent ability of her own 38 41.

Martial Skills

• Fishing spear: Wields it with force compared to the Six Harmonies Spear, snapping a solid sandalwood railing during the guildhall pursuit 18 19.
• Swordsmanship: Combines the Autumn Rainbow Sword with her masks to nearly dismantle the Demon Horned Imperial Guard and later slay the Malevolent Flood Dragon 33 35 36 37.
• Wound treatment: Treats Spirit Medium Wei after a fire-marked beetle bites her aboard the salvaged ship 17.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Three-Foot Autumn Rainbow Sword — Taken from the Water God’s offering platform and used in the shrine battles and the flood dragon’s execution 26 33 37.
• Ji River Ghost Mask iron box — Holds all 108 masks; decorated with aquatic motifs and river worshippers. Automatically shrinks after recognizing her 29.
• Treasure Bag — Stores masks, their box, wine gourds, and ritual offerings 22 29 32.
• Celadon Porcelain Gourds — Carry liquor for mask offerings and shared drinks 22 23 44.
• Water Palace seal — Worn at her waist and used in an attempt to summon fish 43.
• Fishing spear — Her weapon during the nighttime guildhall raid 18 19.
• White Lotus Root and black pearl — Offered at Jidu Shrine in pursuit of the Chief Sacrificer’s office; the pearl is supplied by Cui Jiuyang 32.

Relationships

• Cui Jiuyang — Adventuring partner and romantic interest. His efforts to carry her out of the collapsing tomb deeply move her; she later sacrifices her freedom to save him. She openly confesses her feelings and asks him to return with a Numinous Treasure 30 37 45.
• Turtle Chancellor — Grants her the Ji River Ghost Masks, guides her shrine service, and explains both the cost of saving Cui Jiuyang and the temporary means of leaving the shrine 29 35 37 38.
• Nuo Opera Troupe master — Adoptive guardian and ritual instructor. Although he sought an heir for his ancestral mask, she remains grateful for his care 29 39 42.
• Jishui Qingyuan Water God — Divine lord she willingly serves as Chief Sacrificer, despite uncertainty over whether his surviving spirit can be restored 32 37.
• Spirit Medium Wei — Fellow investigator. Ninth Lady treats her beetle wound; Wei protects Ninth Lady’s reputation by arranging a rehearsal explanation for their overnight guildhall stay 17 18.
• Mama Liu — Companion in the underwater expedition. Ninth Lady helps release her into Lake Taibai after Toad Boy saves her by transforming her into a tadpole 22 25.
• Old Man Xiang — Fellow Jining practitioner whose courage she comes to admire. She attends his funeral with Cui Jiuyang 39.
• Abe and Togo — Japanese occult adversaries who frame her and Cui Jiuyang in the Water God’s tomb and oppose them at Jidu Shrine 26 33 34.
• Lu Zhongqian — Subject of her judgment for stealing Yang Xiaowu’s pearl, breaking his vow, and siding with the Japanese 37 38.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Iron Rhino Investigation

• Assists Cui Jiuyang’s paper revelation with a breath of pure air and helps identify the Iron Rhino’s corruption through an outside evil and blood sacrifice 14.
• Investigates the salvaged ship with him, treats Spirit Medium Wei’s injury, and later fights the guildhall’s nighttime intruders 17 18 19.

Lake Taibai and the Water God’s Tomb

• Joins the underwater search, escapes the giant turtle using Leaping the Dragon Gate, and becomes trapped with Cui Jiuyang and Mama Liu when the cave entrance collapses 21 22.
• Takes the Autumn Rainbow Sword during the Divine Attendants’ attack and pulls Cui Jiuyang back into the palace when the awakened flood dragon dives at him 26 28.
• Receives the Ji River Hundred Ghosts and helps drive the dragon out of the cavern. Left exhausted by the spell, she must be carried by the already injured Cui Jiuyang during their escape 29 30.

Jidu Shrine and the Flood Dragon

• Offers sacred relics to become Chief Sacrificer, willingly accepting a future devoted to the Water God 32.
• Battles Abe and the Demon Horned Imperial Guard, then receives the shrine’s divine recognition and knowledge 33 34.
• Fights and kills the Malevolent Flood Dragon through the Heavenly Cycle Formation. When Cui Jiuyang collapses, she authorizes the removal of the Dragon-Transformation Wall to repair his shattered meridians 35 36 37.

Temporary Freedom and Farewell

Removing the Dragon-Transformation Wall leaves the shrine short of a Numinous Treasure, requiring Ninth Lady to remain there to sustain its spiritual power and keep the Water Lord’s spirit from fading. The Turtle Chancellor explains that refining the flood dragon’s corpse can support a leave of a little over half a month; a suitable replacement treasure could remove the confinement 37 38.

During that leave, she personally nurses Cui Jiuyang, attends Old Man Xiang’s funeral, and explores Jining with him. They also recruit Little Huzi to fish explosive charges from beneath the Water Gate after her attempt to summon fish fails 38 39 40 43.

Their final outing ends at a canal-side eatery. Ninth Lady confronts Cui Jiuyang about her feelings and his concealed, dwindling lifespan, then returns to Jidu Shrine with the Turtle Chancellor. Cui Jiuyang promises to come back after she asks him to bring a Numinous Treasure and free her 44 45.

Notable Quotes

“I'm willing.”
— Accepting confinement to Jidu Shrine so Cui Jiuyang can be saved 37

“You know perfectly well I have feelings for you. Why do you pretend you don't?”
— Confronting Cui Jiuyang during their farewell 45

“Don't die. I'll wait at the Jidu Shrine for you to bring a Numinous Treasure and take me out!”
— Her parting request 45

Trivia

• Although she claims she only dared confess after drinking, Cui Jiuyang later discovers that her half-finished “wine” gourd contains water 45.
• Her initial trust in Cui Jiuyang comes from knowing that he saved Sister Wang. The troupe’s courtyard stood directly opposite the Wang household 14 41.