Jin Shanyao

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Ancient Debt and Mortal Obligations

During a tribulation several thousand years earlier, Jin Shanyao was injured and saved by a wild woman. The woman watered her, banked soil around her roots, cared for her daily, and gave her the name Jin Shanyao. She promised to repay this kindness after taking human form. Taishang Laojun later reminds her that this karmic debt remains unresolved 1.

Her obligation in the mortal world includes a promise to Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci’s mother: she will raise both children to adulthood and teach them to stand independently and protect themselves. Although initially focused on completing that duty and obtaining her divine position, she becomes deeply attached to them 60 455.

Raising the Meng Siblings

In Little River Village, Jin Shanyao supports the children through mountain foraging and hunting, teaches them to read each evening, and confronts people who mistreat the household. Her success provokes resentment among villagers who cannot find the same food supplies, while her confrontational behavior leads some families to shun them 2 14.

She learns that providing food and protection is not enough. Lu Chi challenges her to consider human feelings, relationships, and the demands of Meng Anci’s intended official career. His own persecution convinces her that the children will also need wealth and influence to withstand powerful enemies 72 79.

Anzhi Hall and the Herb Business

Jin Shanyao earns money by locating missing people and objects, assisting investigations, and practicing medicine. After helping the county authorities locate a murderer, she receives fifty taels and attracts a crowd seeking readings 22 26 27.

She buys a shop in the county town and registers it in Meng Anzhi’s name, reasoning that she will eventually return to Heaven and has no personal need for a house. Her business expands into medicinal herb cultivation, sales contracts, and an agreement to supply the imperial court 46 86 103.

At Lush Mountain, she establishes First Manor, including a residence, herb-drying yard, and warehouse. By the Jing’an investigation, her holdings comprise six mountains, three shops, and two estates, with a medicinal herb business extending across the Sheng Dynasty 110 313.

Supernatural Conflicts and Investigations

Xuanxin targets Jin Shanyao after concluding that consuming her will grant him longevity and enable him to cultivate into a god. She defeats his Karmic Slaughter Grand Formation, overwhelms his Law Techniques, and destroys the talisman he attempts to use for escape 93 95.

Her claim to Hat Mountain initially brings her into conflict with its confined mountain god, Xie Chao. She defeats him, breaks his barrier, and pressures him to accept herb cultivation on the mountain. Their hostile beginning eventually develops into a friendship sustained by food, gifts, and visits 122 123 124 197.

In the capital, she exposes Master Ji’s use of an array to steal his descendants’ allotted years. She also uses plant memories during the Jing’an investigation to witness killings committed years earlier at the Cloud Brocade Workshop 183 184 320.

Frontier Journey and Godhood

Old General Fu pays Jin Shanyao to help the souls of the frontier’s dead. After his death, she travels with Fu Congzhao to Dengzhou Prefecture, where the Fu Household Army guards the coast against wokou raids 422 424.

Her deliverance of the dead transforms her cultivation. Golden Merit remakes her from within, elevating her beyond her earlier loose-immortal state into a high god who has attained the Dao by enduring and resolving suffering 428 455.

Final Ascension

As her Merit and mortal worship increase, Taishang Laojun presses her to return to Heaven. She agrees to leave after Meng Anci’s fifteenth birthday 449.

Before departing, she tells the siblings that she has fulfilled her promise to their mother, urges them to protect their bond, and leaves handmade New Year clothes in their wardrobes. Her body dissolves into golden dust, and their ginkgo-leaf necklaces disappear as Laojun takes her and her companions away 455.

In Heaven, Yuanshi Tianzun names her Mysterious Clarity Divine Lord of the Ginkgo. Her responsibilities encompass the Azure Nether Realm’s mountains, rivers, vegetation, and the fortunes of its living beings. She formally acknowledges Laojun as her master, then persuades him to furnish her new immortal abode with fine possessions 456.

Appearance

• Human form: Appears to be eighteen or nineteen, with delicate features and a tall, slender figure; Lu Chi discovers that she is nearly his height 22 61 105.
• Seasonal hair: New hair grows in spring, thickens in summer, and yellows and falls in autumn. Detached hairs become ginkgo leaves 36 103.
• Cherished accessory: Regularly wears a polished wooden hairpin carved with a ginkgo leaf and two droplets of water, a gift from the Meng siblings 60.
• Mortal clothing: Wears a purple sable cloak during a capital visit and sometimes changes into men’s clothes for work 177 261.
• Divine attire: After investiture, wears a pale green dress edged in light apricot yellow, with faint ginkgo-leaf patterns on its flowing sleeves 456.

Personality

Jin Shanyao initially understands human behavior through a tree’s instincts rather than social convention. She struggles to argue, mistakes gatherings for challenges, and applies animal mating behavior to a marriage proposal. Lu Chi eventually recognizes that her apparent disregard for rank often comes from innocence and a preference for direct action 2 82 340 341.

She believes books can answer virtually any problem. This drives her to study law, household intrigue, farming, etiquette, and courtship, but literal interpretations and poorly understood instructions frequently lead her astray. She is willing to seek human instruction when reading alone fails her 14 24 53 97 128.

Her enthusiasm for money coexists with practical generosity. Though known for expensive divinations, she charges impoverished clients as little as one copper coin. Her larger business ambitions are also tied to protecting the children from people whose wealth and status could otherwise overwhelm them 33 79 148.

Her affection for the Meng siblings gradually outweighs her impatience for ascension. Their first gift makes her reconsider whether obtaining her divine position sooner truly matters. Later, despite the pain of watching Meng Anci struggle in officialdom, she restrains herself from intervening because he must learn to walk that road himself 60 405.

Abilities & Skills

Plant Communication and Memory Reading

Uses Spiritual Power to communicate with vegetation and examine what plants have witnessed 30 66.

• Tracks people and objects through networks of grasses, roots, and trees 30 230.
• Reads pine trees’ memories to locate stolen tribute and an old poplar’s memories to investigate events five years earlier 66 320.
• Plants trees around First Manor specifically to serve as informants 110.
• Searches can take longer in winter, when many plants are withered or dormant 30.

Spiritual Perception and Remote Observation

Extends her awareness across towns, mountains, and distant properties 104 271.

• Searches all of Willow and Poplar County almost instantly for the recently kidnapped Shiyan without consulting plants 104.
• Observes events through Meng Anci’s necklace and tracks him through his wooden hairpin 39 213 405.
• Checks distant estates and medicinal mountains through Spiritual Power traveling along earth veins 271 411.
• Detects sinister presences and recognizes supernatural dangers around the children 39 40.

Growth and Medicinal Cultivation

Describes the growth of living things as her true specialty 59.

• Infuses transplanted ginseng with Spiritual Power to keep it alive 82 103.
• Nourishes an entire mountain’s vegetation, causing seeds and saplings to take root and sprout 93.
• Maintains dormant trees and removes dead plants remotely 271.
• Produces medicinal ginkgo leaves from shed hair and white fruit sought for its ability to cure poisons 97 103.

Medicine

Her medical skill comes from long experience treating mountain animals after taking human form 31.

• Practices pulse diagnosis and acupuncture while teaching Meng Anzhi 59 111.
• Safely delivers Qiao Qingran’s twins with Meng Anzhi assisting 111.
• Identifies a plague case at her estate and gives Su Wenqian a prescription for wider distribution 158.
• Predicts possible drought from inadequate winter snowfall and recommends drought-resistant herbs and a year’s grain reserve 276.

Combat and Law Techniques

Combines overwhelming physical strength with Spiritual Power and a jade-green whip 95 105.

• Immobilizes Zhang Banxian when he attempts to flee 86.
• Crushes Xuanxin’s formation and prevents his talisman-assisted escape 95.
• Defeats Xie Chao and erases his Spiritual Power barrier with a sweep of her hand 122 124.
• Crushes stones by hand and accidentally breaks a household gate despite holding back 202 341.
• Seals roof leaks and repairs damaged furniture with supernatural techniques 15 430.

Ghosts, Talismans, and Soul Deliverance

Can perceive spirits, exert pressure on them, and intervene in their affairs 120 164.

• Commands ghosts to haunt Su Wenqian and frighten him into reciting prescribed texts 120.
• Draws talismans purchased by Old Madam Su for her family 158.
• Speaks with Old Madam Su’s soul and offers to guide her if the Underworld’s gates remain closed after forty-nine days 164.
• Delivers the frontier’s dead, earning the Merit that completes her transformation into a high god 428 455.

Restrictions

• Taishang Laojun forbids her from repaying kindness through unrestricted Divine Abilities. Her attempt to summon a mountain’s game triggers Lightning Punishment that penetrates her Spiritual Power shield 15.
• Laojun also warns her not to use Spiritual Power around the metropolitan examination results, lest she create unnecessary trouble 367.
• Spiritual Power does not substitute for practical knowledge: her attempt to make ordinary fertilizer burns shallow-rooted vegetation 97.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Jade-green whip — Restrains opponents, destroys talismans, and serves as a rescue line when she pulls Wu Shaoyang from a river 95 105 302.
• Ginkgo-leaf wooden hairpin — The Meng siblings’ first gift to her, commissioned with their savings. She coats it in Spiritual Power to preserve it 60.
• Ginkgo-leaf necklaces — Protective items worn by the siblings for eleven years; also enable remote observation. They vanish at her departure 40 430 455.
• Record of Admonishing Evil — A book she studies while preparing to argue against scholars 14.
• Self-written rules-for-life book — Consulted when dealing with difficult customers and when restraining her own responses 196 197.
• Ox cart — Remains her preferred transport despite her extensive commercial wealth 313.

Relationships

• Meng Anzhi — Her ward and medical disciple. Jin Shanyao buys the first shop in her name and eventually entrusts her with managing people and business affairs 46 111 411.
• Meng Anci — Her ward and nephew, whose education and official career she supports. She learns to let him confront political challenges independently, while he promises to protect her in return 14 79 405.
• Taishang Laojun — Enlightener, teacher, disciplinarian, and heavenly backer. Their relationship combines arguments and irreverence with genuine gratitude; she formally calls him her master after investiture 15 122 456.
• Lu Chi — Purchased as a servant to teach the children the six arts. He advises her on law and human relationships; she later destroys his deed of sale, leaving him distressed that she might no longer want him around 48 53 72 103.
• Old Madam Su — Close friend and teacher in household intrigue. Jin Shanyao receives her burial-site request and continues speaking with her soul after death 88 128 164.
• Su Wenqian — Patient, official contact, and eventually Meng Anci’s master. Their cooperation is punctuated by her provocations, including ghostly harassment that contributes to his refusal to receive her after sunset 86 120 158 222.
• Xie Chao — Rival turned friend and herb-growing associate. She brings him food and a jade lingzhi, performs shadow puppetry for him, and promises to visit after leaving Qingzhou 122 132 197.
• Dahuang and Xiaoli — Companions who help guard the children, remain with the household during her frontier journey, and accompany her final ascension 40 405 422 455.
• Old General Fu — Entrusts her with helping the frontier’s dead and provides money for the undertaking before his death 422.
• Fu Congzhao — Witnesses her defeat an assassin and later escorts her to Dengzhou Prefecture 183 424.
• Shopkeeper Wang — Neighbor and frequent conversation partner. She replaces his broken ice lantern and later returns to Qingzhou eager to resume their chats 201 336 411.

Notable Quotes

“True repayment is neither servile nor overbearing. You repay the debt standing tall, with dignity. If someone gives you a hand, you reach out when they stumble.” 218

“If you're always comparing yourself with others, then when you look back at the end of your life and see nothing but their shadows, wouldn't you have lived in vain?” 256

“It's already mine. It's not going to run away, is it? I'm a divine lord now. I have to be dignified.” 456

Trivia

• Her first-ever gift is the siblings’ wooden hairpin. She treasures it so much that sleeping carefully to avoid damaging it gives her a stiff neck 60.
• Barefoot contact with the earth is both practical and comforting: she channels power through her feet and sometimes grows rootlets into the soil when distressed 93 261.
• She understands animal speech, including an argument between her ox and a palace cat 420.
• Despite her divine strength, she reaches Heaven with frost on her face because she neglects to use a protective Spiritual Power shield 456.