Gu Nian

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Gu Nian is a cultivation genius nurtured with substantial Yuanji Sect resources. As Xiao Fansheng’s disciple, she is introduced as the designated next sect head, although her succession remains formally unsettled much later. She already shoulders administrative responsibilities while still holding the status of a disciple 20 228 340 419.

Her duties include recruitment, expedition leadership, competition arrangements, and routine sect management. She worries that leaving the elders in charge for too long will cause problems. When she and Chu Yunzhe decide to enter seclusion together, she returns both their workloads to Xiao Fansheng 18 340 401 423.

Appearance

Gu Nian first appears wearing red, her garments fluttering as she flies toward Xue Fuyao 18.

• Red robes: Also worn by the Gu Nian whom Xue Fuyao remembers meeting in her previous life 20.
• Expressive face: Her first encounter with Fuyao features an enormous grin and a smile likened to a cunning fox’s 18.
• Contrasting past-life demeanor: Fuyao remembers her previous-life counterpart as solemn rather than carefree 20.

Personality

Gu Nian is exuberant, affectionate, and extravagantly generous toward Xue Fuyao. She readily hugs, carries, and fusses over her junior sister, and treats buying her expensive clothes as a pleasure rather than an obligation. This protectiveness persists even when Fuyao insists that, at fifteen, she is too old to be carried 18 340 483 491.

Her warmth coexists with a forceful temper. She leads retaliation against kidnappers, openly rebukes elders who direct their anger at Fuyao, and answers sabotage against Yuanji Sect with immediate counterattacks. Nevertheless, she restrains her speech when representing the sect: during competition negotiations, she tolerates difficult sect leaders rather than let her frustration damage Yuanji Sect’s reputation 22 340 372 493.

She respects personal boundaries despite her curiosity and concern. When Fuyao reveals hidden knowledge in the Emperor’s Tomb, Gu Nian does not demand its source. Later, she supports Fuyao’s private investigation into her family’s legacy without insisting on accompanying her. Her loyalty is equally firm toward Chu Yunzhe, whom she refuses to abandon during an ambush 114 367 369.

Abilities & Skills

Swordsmanship and Close Combat

Gu Nian fights with both a sword and her bare hands 369 491.

• Kills an attacking Marsh Crocodile with her sword 491.
• Knocks out controlled cultivators during the Mortal Realm ambush; one full-force punch sends an opponent into the ground hard enough to leave a human-shaped crater 369.
• Severely injures Ye Qinxuan and Ye Qinfei after their market attack 483.
• Limitation: Her cultivation is suppressed in the Mortal Realm and returns after she reaches the Cultivation Realm near the Dead Sea 358 373 374.

Leadership and Administration

Gu Nian manages sect business and directs disciples in dangerous situations 340 401 423.

• Orders the Qingfeng expedition to evacuate the Medicinal Garden when its barrier reappears, personally taking Fuyao out of danger 48.
• Arranges inter-sect competition schedules and takes Fuyao’s proposed alternative format to her master for approval 340 341.
• Oversees Wen Ci and Geng Xing after responsibility for them passes from Qi He to Xiao Fansheng and then to her; sends them to lead a secret-realm training team 481.
• Treats the Marsh Crocodile encounter as practical training, allowing junior disciples to handle the remaining beasts 491.
• Withdraws disciples from Mopan Town before its dangerous day-to-night transition 489.

Cultivation and Sect Knowledge

Gu Nian serves as a practical source of information for Fuyao, drawing on recruitment experience, sect records, and contact with other factions 19 106 361.

• Explains the difficulty of cultivating conflicting spiritual roots and the resource demands of different aptitudes 19 23 419.
• Briefs Fuyao on the Heaven-Questioning Stairway and recommends Elder Lingmu as a prospective master 24.
• Explains Qingfeng Secret Realm’s entry restrictions, random teleportation, unusual spiritual energy, and necessary supplies 37 38.
• Identifies Bai Xiaochun from a previous convention and alerts Xie Yichu to the Bai Family’s presence 106.
• Relates the Spirit-Extinguishing Cult’s history and its cultivation of the dangerous plant called “Ling” 361.
• Recognizes the Dead Sea from Xiao Fansheng’s description 374.

Equipment / Items

• Spirit-Testing Stone — Uses it to discover Fuyao’s Wood-element Heavenly Spiritual Root 18.
• Sword — Used to kill a Marsh Crocodile 491.
• Storage bag — Carries the Qingfeng Secret Realm map she gives to Fuyao 37.
• Qingfeng Secret Realm map — An old map provided to help Fuyao prepare for her first expedition there 37.
• Formation disks — Receives approximately a dozen from Fuyao after finding that her trapping formations are difficult to escape quickly 411.
• Half a Divine Spirit Fruit — Retrieves half a fruit from the monster beasts during the Qingfeng expedition; Xiao Fansheng considers it a significant gain 49.
• Enlightenment tea — A treasured gift from Fuyao that prompts a chase when Xiao Fansheng tries to inspect it 484.

Relationships

• Xue Fuyao — Junior sister and a frequent object of her affection and protection. Gu Nian discovers her talent, brings her toward Yuanji Sect, and continues supporting her while respecting her secrets 18 24 114 367.
• Xiao Fansheng — Master and the sect leader she is expected to succeed. She handles much of his administrative burden, complains freely about his decisions, and distrusts his claim that he only wants to “look” at her enlightenment tea 20 340 423 484.
• Chu Yunzhe — Close companion and fellow administrator. He frequently stays beside her, her ears redden when he teasingly calls her “Senior Sister,” and she refuses to leave him behind in danger. No formal Dao-companion relationship is stated 180 224 369 423.
• Xie Yichu / Elder Lingmu — Youngest martial uncle and Fuyao’s master. Gu Nian recommends him to Fuyao and supplements his sparse expedition instructions; he kills a cultivator who attempts to attack her in the Emperor’s Tomb 24 37 38 114.
• Qi He — Second martial uncle, whom she describes as gentle but socially awkward beneath his cold appearance. She teases him without fear 421.
• Wen Ci and Geng Xing — Junior disciples temporarily placed under her care. She complains about their resource costs but arranges opportunities for them to train 481.
• Pei Yu — An orphan whom Gu Nian reassures with Yuanji Sect’s protection, carries out of Wuling City, and helps bring back to the sect 400 401 402.
• Ye Qinxuan and Ye Qinfei — Hostile outer disciples who also target Gu Nian because she obstructed their revenge against Fuyao 483 484.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Cloud City Recruitment

• Approaches Fuyao after seeing her alone on a rooftop. Learning that she has no “grown-ups,” Gu Nian interprets this as meaning she has no sect affiliation and offers protection 18.
• Tests Fuyao’s spiritual root, discovers her exceptional Wood-element aptitude, and contacts her master for additional elders 18.
• After the kidnapping incident, leads the operation that captures the perpetrators and frees the imprisoned children. She gives Fuyao confiscated resources as “mental damage compensation” 22.
• Intervenes in the Wang Household’s treatment of Wang Mingyue, forcing Madam Wang to send the girl back to her room and summon a doctor 23.
• Accompanies Fuyao and fifteen other candidates toward Yuanji Sect aboard a Spirit Boat 24.

Qingfeng Secret Realm

• Prepares Fuyao for the expedition while carrying her own assignments to gather medicines, hunt beasts, and search for Divine Spirit Fruit 37 38.
• Recognizes the Divine Spirit Tree and joins the scramble for its ripe fruit 47.
• Returns battered from the pursuit, then directs medicine gathering and the evacuation from the re-forming barrier 48.
• Reports to Xiao Fansheng with guilt over failing to bring back a whole fruit. He reassures her that recovering half a fruit and substantial medicines is already worthwhile 49.
• Later suspects that the Butterfly Demon took the missing half of the fruit 482.

Emperor’s Tomb and Central Continent

• Helps identify Bai Xiaochun’s scrutiny of Fuyao during the Emperor’s Tomb investigation 106.
• Receives Fuyao’s warning that the supposed inheritance ground is probably only a chamber of funerary offerings, without questioning how she learned it 114.
• Enters the Central Continent Assembly determined to win its supreme-grade spirit vein prize 164.
• Agrees to help conceal Fuyao’s continued presence in the Central Continent while she investigates an attempt on her life, after unsuccessfully offering to remain and help 187.

Thousand-Faced Impersonation

• The “Gu Nian” who approaches Fuyao at the Blazing Sun Holy Land is an impostor, suspected by Fuyao to be Thousand-Faced—not the real Gu Nian 215.
• Fuyao later explains that the deception was exposed partly because the real Gu Nian already knew her destination and would have mentioned traveling there herself. Chu Yunzhe’s absence from the impostor’s side was another clue 224.

Mortal Realm and Longevity Aristocratic Clan

• Travels with Fuyao and Chu Yunzhe to investigate the problem involving the barrier between the realms 357 359.
• Survives an ambush by controlled cultivators while her cultivation is suppressed, refusing Chu Yunzhe’s proposal that she escape alone 369.
• Proposes using Chu Yunzhe’s sealed sense of smell to track residual spiritual energy, then helps care for him after the overwhelming scents render him unconscious 371.
• Reaches the Dead Sea and infiltrates the Longevity Aristocratic Clan while temporarily transformed into a spirit mouse by Fuyao 374 375.
• Joins the staged attack that draws away the clan’s Grand Elders, then guides her companions to its members’ private treasure stashes 381.

Eastern Continent Grand Competition

• Welcomes Fuyao after four years of seclusion and explains that Yuanji Sect has received thirty places in the competition 481.
• Subdues Ye Qinxuan and Ye Qinfei during their market ambush and orders their imprisonment and investigation 483.
• Responds to sabotage in Yuanji Sect’s assigned courtyard by assembling a retaliation party, beginning with the Bright Light Sect 493.
• At the Wushen Sect, relies on Fuyao to break the Sect-Guarding Grand Array. After the ensuing confrontation, she takes the disciples to the competition preliminaries the following morning 495.

Notable Quotes

“Forget it, Martial Uncle can be irresponsible, but she, as a senior sister, cannot be.”
— Gu Nian’s thoughts while preparing Fuyao for Qingfeng Secret Realm 37

“Seniors, my junior sister is not your punching bag. If you need to vent your anger, go find the culprit. What is so impressive about bullying a child?”
— Defending Fuyao from angry senior cultivators 372