Lu Wenchuan

Biodata

Background / History

Lu Wenchuan trained under Ji Heng as a child, practicing blade strikes in the Bureau’s combat room. Ji Heng criticized his grip as resembling someone holding chopsticks and made him practice against wooden dummies 104.

At ten years old, Lu Wenchuan became a target of the Xu family and the Old Gods Society’s Gate Game. During a church fire, the Masked Man identified him as the Gatekeeper and offered him a chance to survive. Lu refused to leave the other children behind and was dragged toward the Red Door while trying to save one of them 60 61 63.

Ji Heng rescued him and altered the Society’s array. Rather than allowing a divinity fragment to turn Lu into a lock for the door, Ji Heng redirected it into his broken Fate Line to keep him alive. Ji Heng died in the process. Lu reached the exit with another child but looked back and saw his teacher being swallowed by the door 63.

Afterward, Lu joined the Special Investigation Bureau, took up Ji Heng’s blade, and continued investigating anomalous cases. The destroyed files and fifteen-year-old cold trail left him with little explanation for his teacher’s death until the investigation surrounding Xu Zhihan reopened the case 64.

Appearance

• Face and bearing: Handsome, with sharp adult features and an unruly air already visible in childhood photographs 3 61.
• Height: Half a head taller than Xu Zhihan 63.
• Clothing: Wears a black jacket on ordinary visits and a dark suit with a crooked tie at the Xu family reception 22 25.
• Distinguishing injury: An old wound on his right wrist marks his severed Fate Line. It repeatedly reopens under supernatural attacks and sometimes emits red or golden light when the fragment responds 51 63.

Personality

Lu presents himself as lazy, flippant, and difficult to embarrass, but his casual manner conceals constant calculation. His smile puts strangers at ease; people who know him recognize that it can mean he is assessing the situation more carefully. In combat and interrogations, he becomes decisive and commands the room without needing to raise his voice 3 33 64.

He admits fear rather than pretending to be fearless. When he suspects Xu Zhihan is not human, he acknowledges being afraid but distinguishes danger from wrongdoing: Xu Zhihan has protected others, whereas the Xu family deserves investigation. His caution does not prevent him from acting 15.

Lu habitually hides pain and uses jokes during serious crises. Song Zhixia recognizes that his flippancy increases when circumstances worsen. His willingness to stand between others and danger dates back to childhood, but he gradually rejects the belief that survival obliges him to sacrifice himself for everyone who helped him 61 63 103 133.

With Xu Zhihan, he is teasing and accommodating until a genuine boundary is reached. He refuses to treat Xu as merely a powerful solution to a crisis, challenges plans that would endanger him, and eventually insists that sharing a burden means neither of them should bear all the pain alone 29 63 144.

Abilities & Skills

Thunderfire

Lu channels thunder and fire through his short blade, using it against spirits, supernatural threads, and formation cores 12 34 82.

• Offensive use: Severs spectral hands, burns hostile soul-like entities, and drives back black mist 12 52 73.
• Precision: Can compress Thunderfire against the blade or send it along the floor to cut specific targets without advancing 109.
• Defensive use: Holds back pursuing shadows, protects teammates from red threads, and helps seal a collapsing doorway 53 57.
• Limitations: Destroying equipment or cutting a manifestation does not necessarily suppress the force behind it. Certain white lines resist his blade and can travel up it toward his wrist 29 124.

Blade Combat

Lu fights with a pitch-black short blade inherited from Ji Heng. He remains accurate under pressure, even while bleeding or escaping collapsing passages 12 53 64.

• Switches to his left hand when his injured right wrist cannot support the weapon 73 109.
• Uses both edge and hilt to cut restraints, break cabinets, and breach locks 72 111.
• Reacts quickly enough to intercept attacks on teammates and cut invading lines from his own skin before they reach his Fate Line 111.

Gatekeeper’s Blood

Lu’s blood can open supernatural doors and expose otherwise concealed gate mechanisms 51 82.

• Opens the door beneath the Xu Family Old Residence, allowing Xu Zhihan to retrieve the Door Bone 51 52.
• Exposes the Green Gate Core inside the real Shen Cheng’s chest 82.
• Attracts entities beyond the doors, making him a preferred target 52.
• Creates a route for hostile mist and threads to reach his damaged Fate Line through an open wound 52 100.

Divinity Fragment and Anchor

The second divinity fragment sustains Lu’s broken Fate Line. Lin Wan’s letter identifies him as the anchor keeping Xu Zhihan in the human world; removing that fragment would kill him 61 91.

• Their connected Fate Line allows Xu Zhihan to reach him during the Divine Throne’s judgment 118.
• Lu can remain conscious during a Fate Line regression and pull Xu Zhihan back out 63.
• As the anchor, he can answer once on Xu Zhihan’s behalf—a possibility the Divine Throne attempts to force him to use 124.
• The connection is vulnerable to extraction arrays, imposed Sin Lines, and attempts to turn him into the Divine Throne’s anchor 94 126 127.
• During the final confrontation, his anchor line supports Xu Zhihan against the black water rather than dragging him away from the fight 154.

Investigation and Field Command

Lu combines knowledge of anomalous phenomena with conventional investigation and evidence handling 13 23 39.

• Recognizes a Resentment-Nurturing Formation and avoids disturbing suspicious objects before examining the scene 13.
• Detects anomalies with a handheld instrument, even when he cannot hear the spirit involved 11.
• Identifies surveillance, confiscates the watchers’ phone, and orders checks on Xu Chengyuan’s contacts and online publicity channels 23.
• Secures institutional records, questions suspects, and coordinates evidence recovery during dangerous withdrawals 39 43 68 83.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Black short blade: Ji Heng’s inherited weapon and Lu’s principal means of channeling Thunderfire. Its edge becomes notched during the final battle 12 64 151.
• Anomaly detector: A small device with a blinking red light used to measure supernatural fluctuations 11.
• Student ID: Bears Lu’s name and Ji Heng’s message, “Don’t look back. Keep going.” It later serves alongside Xu Zhihan’s Silver Nameplate in the Oracle Tower trials; Lu still holds a fragment of it during the final confrontation 103 142 150 154.
• Candy and mints: Frequently offered to Xu Zhihan after medicine or difficult conversations. A crumpled mint candy helps Xu bring Lu out of judgment and remains in Lu’s hand when he awakens after the final rescue 11 23 60 118 155.

Relationships

• Xu Zhihan — Investigative ally and eventual romantic partner. Lu initially watches him with informed suspicion, then protects his autonomy and repeatedly opposes his self-destructive plans. Xu explicitly rejects seeing Lu as a tool or fragment vessel and calls him the person he chose. Their relationship is acknowledged as official by the twelfth layer; Lu declares that he likes Xu during his final rescue, and Xu kisses him in the finale 15 27 63 140 147 155 158.
• Ji Heng — Teacher and rescuer. Lu carries his blade and struggles with guilt over surviving him. Ji Heng’s surviving notes insist that the rescue was his own choice and that Lu owes the gate nothing 63 64 105.
• Song Zhixia — Doctor who treats Lu’s repeated injuries and challenges his disregard for recovery. She imposes movement restrictions, supervises the Fate Line regression, and treats him after the final confrontation 60 63 68 155.
• Xu An / Lin An — Child spirit whose death Lu investigates. Xu An later helps guide him through Level B4, identifying which lines can be cut while protecting the trapped children’s souls 13 22 78 82.
• True Shen Cheng — Ji Heng’s colleague and a victim of the Green Gate formation. Lu retrieves his Work Badge and preserves a faint remnant of his soul after destroying the core 60 78 82 83.
• Xu Chengyuan — Investigative target implicated in the Gate Game that endangered Lu as a child. Lu also opposes his attempts to control Xu Zhihan and removes Xu from the family’s custody under witness protection 27 61 64.
• Xie Wu / Fake Shen Cheng — Enemy who repeatedly attacks Lu’s Fate Line and exploits Ji Heng’s image, survivor’s guilt, and his anchor connection to Xu Zhihan 85 103 111 127 133.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Hospital and Xu Family Investigation

• Visits Xu Zhihan after the Bureau detects unusual energy at the hospital. Xu sees a shadow gnawing at Lu’s broken lifeline and predicts three years of life remaining—or six months if unlucky. Killing the attached entity outright would also kill Lu 3.
• Accompanies Xu into the family basement, discovers Xu An’s imprisonment, secures evidence, and places the residence under observation 12 13 15.
• Uncovers Xu An’s original identity as Lin An and his use as a substitute for Xu Zhihan. Later removes Xu Zhihan from the family home through temporary Bureau protection 22 23 27.
• Rescues He Xiaoyun from confinement and questions Zhou Qiliang, obtaining testimony about the deaths, medication tampering, and Old Gods Society involvement surrounding the Xu family 39 43.

Door Bone and the Church Conspiracy

• Uses his blood to open the door beneath the old residence, fights the entities beyond it, and carries the weakened Xu Zhihan out after the first fragment is recovered 51 52 53.
• Learns that his childhood church encounter was arranged rather than accidental. A recovered photograph labels him the Gatekeeper, while Xu Mingji’s testimony reveals plans to preserve him as a future “key” for Xu Zhihan’s awakening 60 61 64.
• Rejects a false image of Ji Heng at the Red Door because his teacher would never ask him to turn back 67.

Green Gate and Headquarters

• Enters Level B4 to investigate the trapped children and the real Shen Cheng. With Xu Zhihan and Xu An’s guidance, destroys the Green Gate Core and escapes with Shen Cheng’s Work Badge and remnant soul 78 82 83.
• Helps stop Fake Shen Cheng from incinerating Headquarters’ original records. Recovers the Ji Heng and Shen Cheng case files, the Green Gate Foundation list, and photographic evidence of further infiltrated identities 85.
• Retrieves the second half of Lin Wan’s letter, revealing the true significance of his fragment as Xu Zhihan’s human-world anchor 91.

Anchor-Breaking Array and Xie Wu

• Becomes the intended recipient of manipulated Sin Lines designed to corrupt his fragment and force Xu Zhihan toward the Divine Throne 94 95 100.
• Refuses the accusation that Ji Heng’s death makes him guilty, affirming that his teacher chose to save him and that he will continue living 103.
• Pursues the faceless enemy through the Old TV Tower, breaks the broadcasting-room locks, and protects the Deputy Captain. Shen Cheng’s remnant identifies the enemy as Xie Wu 109 111.

Oracle Tower Trials

• Escapes the Divine Throne’s judgment by rejecting other people’s Sin Lines and following his connection back to Xu Zhihan 118.
• Helps destroy the Anchor Extraction Platform and the Old Gods Society’s First Anchor Nail without accepting the demand to use his blood 127.
• Breaks the Seventh Layer’s Anchor Wish by refusing to offer his life as a sacrifice, including for Xu Zhihan 133.
• Challenges Xu’s intention to enter later trials alone. Together they reject severance, sacrificial choices, and the Heart-Questioning Scrolls’ attempt to make either one bear the consequences alone 139 142.

Final Battle and Recovery

• Strikes the White Bell Core on the thirteenth floor. Xu Zhihan joins him, and their combined golden light and Thunderfire shatter it, forcing the Divine Throne Shadow back 150.
• Continues supporting Xu through the anchor line during the confrontation with the Heavenly Judgment Source 154.
• Is found trapped in the Final Layer’s black water, with a white thread caught in the cavity in his chest. Xu restores his anchor, and Lu severs the thread while declaring his feelings. He awakens in the Medical Vehicle and survives into the finale 155 158.

Notable Quotes

“But being afraid doesn’t mean I have to hide. You’re dangerous, but the Xu family is dirtier. Right now, I know who I should be watching.” 15

“My life isn’t a sacrifice for anyone.” 133

“Sharing the burden doesn’t mean you block everything, or I bear all the pain.” 144