Gu Jiuge

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Seven years before Su Bai’s recruitment, Li Ming approached the adolescent Gu Jiuge on a stormy night and offered him a choice: live an unremarkable life or die gloriously and be remembered by history. Gu Jiuge immediately chose the latter and became a Grave Keeper. He later recognized the speech as a recruitment pitch, but reused it when approaching Su Bai 6 7.

Before the main events, Gu Jiuge fought the third-rank calamity Thanatos alongside Li Ming. The encounter nearly destroyed the Suzhou Squad; Li Ming severed half of Thanatos’s head, but the creature escaped. Its recovered remains were subsequently used to create the S-class alchemical items Boundless and Formless 2 16 42.

Appearance

• Build and clothing: Tall and slender, with long hair and a trench coat; his relaxed bearing is compared to a heroic swordsman’s 5.
• Weapon: Carries a long, unsheathed Tang saber at his waist 5.
• Eyes: Usually drooping and somewhat listless, but glow red when he activates his supernatural power 2.
• Voice: Slightly deep, magnetic, and pleasant 2.
• Habitual accessory: Frequently has a cheap cigarette between his lips or fingers 2 5 30.

Personality

Gu Jiuge is overbearing, confrontational, and willing to use intimidation rather than gentle persuasion. When Su Bai conceals his Oracle, Gu Jiuge has Qingxue fire an arrow into his dormitory to expose his abilities. He regards monitoring Transcendents as necessary to prevent civilian massacres and tells Qingxue that underhanded people require underhanded methods 5.

His harsh treatment coexists with a willingness to protect recruits from his own organization. After discovering Wrath, he opposes reporting Su Bai to Tianjing because he expects the authorities to confine and study him. He pressures Li Ming into keeping the secret, while joking that any consequences will be shared between them 6 7.

Gu Jiuge fears death, but fears reaching death without having truly lived even more. Despite that conviction, his everyday behavior is conspicuously unambitious: he rejects the prospect of becoming captain because of the workload and advises Li Ming against joining a special operations squad 6 16.

Gaming regularly overwhelms his sense of duty. After confiscating Su Bai’s phone, he spends several nights playing Defend the Carrot, becomes stuck on level 130, and threatens to attack its designer. By the Hunter Guild operation’s review, he has moved on to a martial-arts game 11 32.

Abilities & Skills

Karmic Fire

Gu Jiuge possesses Karmic Fire, ranked 79th among the 154 Oracles listed in the Gravekeeper handbook 5.

• Produces crimson flames that spread across a roadway and join into an enclosure around a fleeing vehicle 30.
• Uses these flames to seal escape routes; Lin Yue’s car engine dies within the enclosed stretch of road 30.
• His saber appears scarlet and wreathed in crimson flames during the interception 30.

Saber Combat and Speed

Gu Jiuge is a highly experienced close-combat fighter whose headquarters combat rating is S+ 3 32.

• Crosses a dormitory room fast enough to leave afterimages and bisects the fleeing Contaminated Novelist with one strike 2.
• Single-handedly kills Lin Yue and Han Zhe during the Hunter Guild operation 32.
• Severely wounds the fourth-rank Whitebeard, leaving him vulnerable to attacks by lower-ranked Grave Keepers 48 49.
• Few fourth-rank Transcendent creatures are said to escape his blade alive, though Whitebeard survives after Sleeping Beauty seals Star Anise Village with vines 48.

Bloodline Pressure

His fourth-rank bloodline allows him to overwhelm significantly weaker Transcendents before attacking 5 30.

• Han Zhe, a seventh-tier Transcendent, experiences pressure so intense that he nearly kneels 30.
• Lin Yue, a sixth-tier Transcendent, initially thinks only of fleeing rather than fighting him 30.

Supernatural Knowledge and Investigation

Gu Jiuge has extensive practical experience with ghosts, despite poor formal knowledge scores 3 32.

• Knows multiple methods of killing ghosts, but follows orders to drive away the Contaminated Novelist because her stories benefit supernatural research 3.
• Identifies Su Bai as a Transcendent through the Novelist’s known targeting behavior, rather than through a stated detection ability 4.
• Recognizes that Su Bai’s claimed memory Oracle is absent from the handbook and therefore fabricated 5.

Headquarters Evaluation

Following the Hunter Guild operation, headquarters gives Gu Jiuge an overall A−, despite his decisive combat contribution 32.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Tang saber — His principal weapon, carried without a sheath; used against the Contaminated Novelist and the Hunter Guild’s leaders 2 5 30 32.
• Damaged keypad phones — Uses a battered senior-oriented phone valued for its durability and battery life. Gives Su Bai a damaged Nokia as a replacement after confiscating his phone as evidence 2 6.
• Su Bai’s confiscated phone — Retained after evidence extraction and used to play Defend the Carrot 11.
• Burning bone sword — gifted — Gives Chu Ning an alchemical sword when she joins the Grave Keepers. Forged from a fourth-rank creature’s bones, it carries a burning property; Chu Ning later lends it to Su Bai 34.
• Gravekeeper handbook — issued to Su Bai — Supplies the handbook while instructing Su Bai to disguise Wrath as Red Tassel 14.

Relationships

• Su Bai — Recruit and protected teammate. Gu Jiuge exposes his concealed abilities, draws him into the Grave Keepers, and helps hide Wrath from headquarters 5 7 13 14.
• Li Ming — Captain, recruiter, and longtime combat partner. Their frequent insults accompany close cooperation, including their decision to conceal Su Bai’s Oracle 6 7 11 42.
• Qingxue — Junior teammate who calls him “Brother Gu.” She assists with his test of Su Bai and stops him when he threatens the Defend the Carrot designer 5 11.
• Chu Ning — Teammate whom he calls “Crazy Girl.” He gives her a welcome weapon, but they clash over his idleness and her ambition to join special operations 11 16 32 34.
• Sister Yan — Mission coordinator who redirects him to Star Sea Middle School and orders him to retrieve Qingxue from police custody 2.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Discovering and Recruiting Su Bai

• Star Sea Middle School: Leaves Heavenly River International on Sister Yan’s orders and cuts apart the Contaminated Novelist’s manifestation, driving her away rather than permanently killing her 2 3.
• Introducing the supernatural world: Explains Transcendents, Oracles, the blood moon, and the work of the Grave Keepers and Tomb Sweepers. Offers Su Bai either a paid confidentiality agreement or an internship contract 3 4.
• Discovering Wrath: Uses Qingxue’s arrow attack to force an honest disclosure, then chooses not to report Su Bai’s fifth-ranked Oracle to higher authorities 5 6 7.
• Recruitment: Arranges the “Jialidun University” presentation in response to Su Bai’s wish to attend university. The supposed institution operates from the squad’s office behind an adult-products-store sign 12 13.
• Concealment: Helps suppress the significance of Chu Ning’s report on Wrath and instructs Su Bai to identify his Oracle as Sequence 138, Red Tassel 11 14.

Hunter Guild Operation

• Initially visits Heavenly River International to provoke the Hunter Guild, but the Novelist incident and his gaming delay further investigation 11.
• Remains connected to Su Bai by phone for nearly eighty minutes while Su Bai’s plan exposes Lin Yue’s location 30.
• Intercepts Lin Yue and Han Zhe on Three Dragons Road, closes the route with fire, and subsequently kills both men 30 32.
• Helps explain the protective purpose of Su Bai’s inflated S evaluation after Lin Yue places a billion-dollar bounty on him 33.

Star Anise Village Operation

• Leaves Suzhou on a difficult assignment involving a fourth-rank calamity; the mission is later identified as the headquarters operation against the Monster Association’s foothold in Star Anise Village 35 47.
• Gravely wounds Whitebeard, but Sleeping Beauty’s vine enclosure prevents him from finishing the creature 48 49.
• The wider operation fails, trapping many Grave Keepers and allowing seven high-rank creatures to escape. The provided account does not specify Gu Jiuge’s individual situation after that failure 47.

Notable Quotes

“Monsters are frightening, but the human heart hidden behind the flesh is often far more frightening than any monster.” 3

“Only children have the right to choose. Adults have no choice at all. That's the way life usually is.” 12

“Let me introduce myself. Gu Jiuge, a Grave Keeper from Suzhou.
This road is closed.” 30