Lu Mingyue

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Lu Mingyue transmigrated into an abandoned infant left in the snow beside Old Lu’s courtyard. Old Lu, himself an adopted orphan, rescued her and bought a nanny goat to provide milk. She came to regard him as her true grandfather, contrasting his care with the favoritism toward boys shown by her grandfather in her previous life 1 3 4.

Old Lu named her Mingyue and taught her to read and write. As she grew, she took responsibility for household chores and assisted him with corpse collection. Before discovering cultivation, she intended to inherit his trade temporarily, save enough money, obtain a travel permit, and move elsewhere 4 6.

She retains memories of her former world, including romantic experience and complicated feelings about her family. Despite their imperfect treatment of her, she wonders how they are faring and hopes that becoming a true immortal might allow her to return 30 39.

Appearance

• Facial features: Oval face, fine eyebrows, a high nose bridge, and regular features. She considers herself pretty rather than an exceptional beauty 39.
• At twelve: Has a delicate face with gradually maturing features; during the fire at her home, her figure is described as small and thin 13 18.
• Wilderness clothing: At eighteen, wears simple clothing exposing her forearms and ankles and appears disheveled after living in the mountains 20.
• Distinctive accessory: Wears the black Corpse-Wrapping Cloth folded into a belt to avoid losing it 22.

Personality

Lu Mingyue values survival over displays of power. She avoids conspicuous flight over city walls, investigates routes before traveling, and uses caravans and local rules to reduce her exposure to danger. She does not assume that transmigration guarantees another life if she dies 13 24 25 38 39.

Her pursuit of cultivation begins with practical desires: freedom of movement, protection from intimidation, and control over her own circumstances. After the Twin Blades Gang searches her home and threatens her dog, she doubles her daily practice despite its pain. She later treats corpse collection as both employment and a way to obtain the spells she lacks 7 10 11 24.

She is affectionate toward those she considers family. She tends Old Lu through illness and tries to share her first cultivation opportunity with him before discovering that she cannot transmit it. His betrayal leaves her devastated, but does not erase her concern for others: she fights to protect Meng Hai’s escorts and grieves over the five who die 4 17 18 32 35.

Her caution can coexist with ruthlessness. She kills the two men who pursue her from Yumen City, tearing off their limbs with animated branches before burning them. Conversely, she refuses to mistake Bai Zishan’s sudden romantic interest for genuine affection, relying on experience and inconsistencies in his behavior rather than flattery 23 39.

Abilities & Skills

Corpse-Wrapping Cloth Inheritance

The cloth allows Lu Mingyue to experience the lives of the dead and acquire knowledge recorded through them 3 4 18.

• Immersive memories: Experiences entire lives rather than merely observing scenes; Shen Yulang’s execution feels as though it happens to her own body 4 6.
• Cultivation inheritance: Receives the Qi-Feeding Spirit-Opening Art from Shen Yulang and the Five Elements Eternal Spring Art with three spells from Old Lu 4 18.
• Investigation: Uses Tian Youfu’s memories to identify the Zhang Family as the source of the assassination attempt against her 49.
• Knowledge of the cultivation world: Learns about Taiping City and its protections through Guo Ding’s and Yang Qin’s memories 38 39.
• Transmission restriction: Cannot speak or write the Spirit Mansion-opening art for Old Lu; attempts at writing become meaningless scrawls. She associates this with the rule that teachings must not reach “six ears” 4.

Qi-Feeding Spirit-Opening Art

This method uses the vital essence in food to temper the internal organs and develop an acquired Spirit Mansion 5 6.

• Requires substantial nourishment; medicinal baths are also part of the method’s recorded practice 4 5.
• Causes stabbing abdominal pain during her early cultivation 6 7.
• Eventually becomes familiar enough for her to circulate it while walking rather than only during seated meditation 13.

Five Elements Eternal Spring Art

Her principal Qi Refining method converts spiritual qi into five-element Origin Power. It is slow but gentle, nourishing the organs, extending lifespan, and preserving youth 20 39.

• Slow advancement: Converting qi into all five attributes takes her approximately five times longer than using a single-attribute method 20.
• Elemental bottleneck: Her wood, fire, and water powers reach an equilibrium that resists further absorption of those elements. Without metal- and earth-element spells, reaching the fourth layer becomes difficult 24.
• Longevity: Each completed cultivation layer adds several years to her lifespan 39.
• Preference over demonic arts: Rejects two higher-grade alternatives because they damage lifespan and switching methods would disrupt her progress 39.

Elemental Spells

Demonic Spell Knowledge

Lu Mingyue studies spells inherited from Guo Ding and Yang Qin without adopting their lifespan-damaging cultivation methods 39.

• Yellow Springs Nightmare: Interests her for its ability to trap victims without their noticing 39.
• Yellow Springs Ghost Coffin: Interests her as a potential killing move, even with reduced power 39.
• Netherworld Yin Soldiers: Included among the inherited spells she evaluates 39.
• Compatibility limit: Expects demonic spells to be weaker when powered by her existing cultivation method. She begins preparing a Yellow Springs spell against the second Mighty Warrior, but Bai Zishan intervenes before she completes it 39 48.

Flight, Perception, and Origin Power Control

• Cloud flight: Travels on a five-colored cloud corresponding to her five-element Origin Power. Flight becomes unsustainable when her power is exhausted 20.
• Divine Sense: Examines bodies, detects lingering spell properties, and confirms whether an enemy is dead 20 42 47.
• Enhanced senses and memory: Memorizes Meng Hai’s fight well enough to mentally revisit it as a potential source of martial instruction; this is not evidence of mastered martial arts 28.
• Temporary relief of illness: Before entering Qi Refining, channels freshly condensed Origin Power into Old Lu to ease his suffering. She cannot retain that power for long without a cultivation method 17.
• Improved control through work: Repeatedly exhausting and restoring her power while processing corpses makes her cultivation more substantial and easier to control 46.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Corpse-Wrapping Cloth: An inherited black cloth used to wrap remains and obtain memories and cultivation knowledge. Feeding it life-bound essence blood makes it her life-bound magical artifact; she repeats this at cultivation breakthroughs 18 22 35.
• Dagger: Carried from her departure from home and used to cut meat during her mountain seclusion 20.
• White Jade Token: Issued during the City Patrol Office assessment; contains the incantation for opening the corpse chamber 43.
• Origin Condensation Pill: Received from Deng Yuan and consumed to reach the fourth layer. Temporarily increases both spiritual qi absorption and her Spirit Mansion’s refining capacity 46.
• Taiping City settlement pass: Obtained after passing the City Patrol Office’s assessment 45.

Relationships

• Old Lu — Adoptive grandfather, literacy teacher, and predecessor in corpse collection. She cares for him through illness, but kills him in self-defense after he attacks her over the opportunity for immortality 1 4 17 18.
• Huahua / Xiao Huang — Her adopted yellow dog, given to her by Li Laifu. Dies biting Old Lu’s ankle, buying her time to defend herself 9 10 18.
• Zhou Biao — A constable who brings corpse-collection work to the household. Raises the subject of her marriage and later pays her to prepare the Twin Blades Gang’s second elder 11 14.
• Meng Hai — Escort chief and ally. They cooperate against Guo Ding; he later warns her about Bai Zishan, and she promises to visit him again 32 35 38 39.
• Bai Zishan — Traveling companion and rescuer whose motives she distrusts. His apparently contrived affection and reappearance after she shakes him off deepen her suspicion; his precise objective remains unknown to her 39 48 49.
• Deng Yuan — City Patrol Office steward who advises her on cultivation resources and supplies the pill used for her fourth-layer breakthrough 45 46.
• Guo Ding and Yang Qin — Hostile cultivators encountered during the escort journey. Their posthumous memories provide her with spells and knowledge of Taiping City 32 33 38 39.
• Zhang Family — The cultivation household behind the Mighty Warriors sent to assassinate her. Tian Youfu’s memories identify its young master as the person who ordered the attack 49.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Discovering Cultivation

While cleaning Shen Yulang’s remains and washing the family shroud, Lu Mingyue discovers blood-red writing on the cloth. Touching it gives her his memories and the Qi-Feeding Spirit-Opening Art. Unable to share the method with Old Lu, she begins practicing privately 3 4 6.

The struggle over the Spirit Mansion secret leads to a bloody clash involving the Shen Household, Twin Blades Gang, and county authorities. Lu Mingyue and Old Lu tend 145 bodies, then live cautiously for five years while she works toward opening her Spirit Mansion 11 13.

Old Lu’s Betrayal and Mountain Seclusion

After the second elder’s corpse returns to Yangguan City, Old Lu obtains his cultivation inheritance through the cloth. Later, while apparently approaching death, he attacks Lu Mingyue to seize the Shen Household’s immortality opportunity. Huahua dies protecting her, and Lu Mingyue kills Old Lu with a table leg as their overturned stove sets the house ablaze 16 17 18.

Wrapping Old Lu’s corpse gives her his memories, the Five Elements Eternal Spring Art, and three elemental spells. By eighteen, she has reached the third layer of Qi Refining in Old Crow Mountain, but leaves because the local spiritual qi makes further progress too slow 18 20.

Journey to Taiping City

After passing through Yumen City and Cangzhou Prefectural City, she hires the Evergreen Escort Agency alongside Guo Ding, Yang Qin, and Bai Zishan. The journey turns deadly when Guo Ding and Yang Qin attack. Lu Mingyue helps awaken and protect the escorts, but five of Meng Hai’s men die 21 24 27 32 33 35.

She continues with a larger caravan, using its numbers and Taiping City’s expected protection to avoid confronting Bai Zishan before reaching safety. During the journey, she studies the hostile couple’s inherited spells while refusing their cultivation methods 38 39.

City Patrol Office and the Zhang Family Attack

Seeking access to cultivators’ remains and reliable resources, Lu Mingyue applies to become a corpse collector. Her assessment requires removing lingering spells from nine bodies before sunset. Passing earns her employment and permission to settle in Taiping City 41 43 45.

Ten days after joining, an Origin Condensation Pill helps her reach the fourth layer. Two Mighty Warriors attack that same night. She kills the first with layered elemental spells, while Bai Zishan intervenes against the stronger second attacker 46 47 48 49.

Refusing his offer to dispose of the bodies, she uses the cloth to experience Tian Youfu’s life. His memories reveal that the Zhang Family trained him as a killer and ordered the assassination, identifying her immediate enemy without yet explaining its motive 49.

Notable Quotes

“I have to work hard and become an immortal! Hmph, then we’ll see if those bad people still dare raise their voices at me whenever they please!” 11

“Perhaps once I become a true immortal, I’ll be able to return to that world?” 30

“I did everything I could...” 35