Tao Lingluo

Biodata

Power Progression

Her exact cultivation realm is not confirmed. Fang Weiyan speculates that she is above Transformation because even her remnant soul possesses a human form; her later victories also depend heavily on her weapon rather than cultivation alone 64 129 175.

Background and History

Peach Blossom Ravine and Failed Tribulation

Tao Lingluo once lived among her kin in Peach Blossom Ravine. Unidentified people invaded and destroyed the ravine, and she was sent away. Before her failed tribulation, she devoted herself to cultivation and had no close friends she could trust to guard her 60 128.

When she failed her tribulation, she escaped death through a Divine Ability, but surrounding demons seized her body until nothing remained. Her surviving Yin soul became a target for demons seeking nourishment 47 108.

Arrival in Linbei County

Tao Lingluo came to Linbei County after divining that a koi undergoing tribulation had fallen into Fang Weiyan’s hands. She intended to eat it and seize its fortune, hoping that fortune would help her survive future dangers. She concealed this purpose both to avoid alerting Fang Weiyan and because revealing the koi’s Human Tribulation would divulge heavenly secrets and expose her fragile soul to heavenly lightning 47.

Fang Weiyan saw through her disguise, but the Earth God refused to kill her without cause because doing so would damage his hidden virtue. Fang allowed her to remain on the condition that she harmed no innocents, while forbidding her from entering his government compound 47.

Her circumstances changed when she discovered that his fertilizer strengthened her soul. She offered lifelong service in exchange for a supply, and he accepted on the condition that she obey his commands. When he later prepared to travel to the imperial capital, she readily agreed to follow 56 66.

Agricultural Work and Divine Farmer Valley

Fang Weiyan assigned Tao Lingluo to tend fruit saplings and later supervise farmland reclamation. She reported thirty mu reclaimed and fertilized, and received instructions to consult the workers about field planning. He refused her offer to perform all the agricultural labor herself because it would deprive the common people of their livelihood 60 95.

She subsequently located Divine Farmer Valley, offered fertilizer to its spirit medicines, and proposed exchanging it for medicinal rootlets. To overcome their distrust of humans, she cited Fang Weiyan’s protection of tribulation koi and persuaded Uncle Bai to accompany her back 97 98.

The arrangement developed into a continuing trade involving one hundred thousand medicinal rootlets each month. Tao Lingluo became its regular intermediary, handling fertilizer allocations, checking rootlets, and storing deliveries in Zhengluan Hall 108 127.

Relief of Yanhuai City

Tao Lingluo sought revenge against demons that had preyed on her after her tribulation, but fighting them left her weakened shortly before the campaign to Yanhuai City. Fang Weiyan granted her access to the warehouse fertilizer and told her to preserve her strength for the coming battle 108 115.

At Yanhuai City, she and the Dragon King jointly fought the centipede spirit leading the rebellion. Her lightning-struck peach wood inflicted severe injuries, but the enemy escaped as its heavenly lightning approached exhaustion 118 119 120.

After Fang Weiyan made the weapon rechargeable, Tao Lingluo tracked the centipede spirit for three days to a mountain ravine. She enclosed it in a lightning net and killed it, ignoring its offer to become her slave 124 125 129.

Immortal Peach Tree and Passage Defense

After becoming Human Sovereign, Fang Weiyan entrusted Tao Lingluo with growing immortal peach trees and promised her one as a replacement body. She extracted suitable substances from fertilizer and transferred them into the pits until they took root. Weiwei later helped the trees bloom 138 141 149.

Tao Lingluo waited for a tree to bear fruit before taking it as her body, explaining that fruiting would mark its maturity. Refining the unusual tree proved slow, and she was still only partially successful when Fang Weiyan checked on her 161 167.

She emerged from seclusion during an assault on the Jiang Kingdom’s passage to the Land of Ten Thousand Witherings. Her lightning cleared attacking Yin Gods that had overwhelmed Weiwei and her clanswomen. Although she wanted to return to tending the peach trees, she recognized the defense as more urgent and stayed to help hold the passage 175 176.

Personality

Tao Lingluo is eager to bargain for resources that aid her recovery. She offers service for fertilizer, sneaks additional portions, and even volunteers to reclaim farmland herself for fertilizer wages. Fang Weiyan’s reprimands make her anxious, particularly when she fears losing her supply. Later, despite permission to use warehouse stocks freely, she restrains herself because she knows the farmland also needs them 56 57 95 127.

Her initially self-interested arrangement develops into genuine loyalty. She defends Fang Weiyan’s character before the spirit medicines, regards him as her benefactor, and takes pleasure in praise of his care for the people. She also remains protective: she alerts the City God to an intruding rat demon and secretly keeps her strongest weapon in reserve while assessing Weiwei’s intentions 97 98 111 146 147.

She is vengeful toward her enemies and openly enjoys turning heavenly lightning—the force that devastated her—against other demons. Nevertheless, she accepts practical limits, stopping pursuit when her weapon is depleted and later remaining at the passage when its defenders need her 119 120 176.

Abilities and Skills

Fertilizer Absorption

• Circulates Demon Power to absorb substances from fertilizer, strengthening and solidifying her remnant soul 56.
• Learns from Divine Farmer Valley’s elder that the fertilizer can harmonize yin and yang, explaining its value to her deeply yin nature 56 97.
• Requires time and continued supplies to recover; access to fertilizer does not immediately restore her fighting strength 110.

Tree Forms and Body Refinement

• Takes human form and can rest in the form of a peach tree 108.
• Refines an immortal peach tree into a replacement physical body; during partial refinement, her face appears on its trunk 167.
• Expects the new body to restore and improve her strength, but the unusual tree requires prolonged refinement 138 167.

Plant Perception and Cultivation

• Extends Divine Sense into surrounding trees, using their perceptions to locate Divine Farmer Valley 97.
• Judges soil fertility and recognizes nutrient depletion in the valley’s crowded medicinal beds 95 97.
• Extracts selected fertilizer substances and transfers them into immortal peach pits that cannot initially absorb the fertilizer unaided. The process exhausts her 138.

Movement and Supernatural Techniques

• Flies and can depart as a wisp of blue smoke 97 108.
• Detects dense Yao Qi while tracking the centipede spirit and draws a large rock into her hand without touching it 129.
• Survives her failed tribulation through an otherwise unspecified Divine Ability 108.

Lightning Combat

• Shapes lightning-bearing branches into lashes or an enclosing net 119 129.
• Inflicts burns, bodily damage, and lingering heavenly-lightning pain on the centipede spirit 119 120 129.
• Disperses incorporeal Yin Gods that ordinary bullets cannot harm. Those enemies can recover, so dispersing them does not permanently end the threat 175 176.
• Has no demonstrated answer to the Corpse Sovereign: Fang Weiyan warns that her weapon is unlikely to threaten him 185.

Equipment and Items

• Lightning-struck peach wood — A charred peachwood branch containing stored tribulation lightning. Charging produces tender branches and lightning-like tendrils; attacks consume its stored power. Without sufficient heavenly lightning, its usefulness falls to dealing with lesser ghosts 119 120 124.
• Gasoline generator — Supplied by Fang Weiyan to recharge the peachwood. He teaches her its operation and refueling, allowing her to build its charge over long periods 124 125 175.
• Chemical fertilizer — Her principal recovery resource and preferred payment for work. She also uses it to cultivate immortal peach trees and conduct trade with Divine Farmer Valley 95 127 138.

Relationships

• Fang Weiyan — Master and benefactor. Their fertilizer-for-service agreement grows into a trusted working relationship involving agriculture, trade, palace security, and military defense 56 95 111 127 146.
• Uncle Bai — Divine Farmer Valley’s representative and her regular trading counterpart. She persuades him to meet Fang Weiyan and later handles their exchanges directly 98 127.
• Weiwei — Fellow peach-tree caretaker and eventual battlefield ally. Tao Lingluo initially watches her suspiciously and conceals her weapon as a precaution; she later rescues Weiwei and her clanswomen at the passage 146 147 149 175.
• Dragon King — Combat partner against the centipede spirit. His restraint creates openings for her lightning attacks 119 120.
• Centipede spirit — Enemy during the rebellion. Escapes their first battle, then dies when Tao Lingluo hunts it down with her recharged weapon 120 129.
• Fang Weiyan’s koi — Her original intended prey. They later complain to Fang Weiyan about her interest in them; she eventually cites his protection of them as proof of his trustworthiness 47 98.

Notable Quotes

“He did me a kindness too. I have come expressly to relieve the siege.” 118

“It looks like you're having some trouble holding this place, so I'll stay here and help defend it.” 176