Qi Yueli

Biodata

Power Progression

Appearance

• Face and eyes: Repeatedly described as beautiful, with phoenix eyes and an imposing, often cold expression 1 2.
• Build: Long legs and a well-proportioned figure; Gu Yuan notices the resemblance between the empress and his disguised senior sister 12.
• Disguise: Uses a different face as Lin Yao and appears in white during the confrontation beneath Nine Geese Mountain 10 17 42.

Personality

Qi Yueli is proud of her martial supremacy and fiercely protective of Great Qi’s sovereignty. Initially, she treats Gu Yuan’s predictions as treasonous slander and regards the suggestion of her defeat as impossible. Her ambition is to make Great Qi unprecedentedly prosperous; immortality only begins to interest her after she reads Gu Yuan’s later assessment of her potential 1 4 46.

She can reconsider her own failures. Discovering Prince Duan’s theft of national fortune forces her to acknowledge that overwhelming strength cannot prevent enemies from dismantling the dynasty from within. Thereafter, she uses evidence, appointments, and calculated intimidation more actively at court 21 22.

Her stern public manner contrasts with her growing attachment to Gu Yuan. She becomes jealous of his visits to the Bureau of Music, disguises personal irritation as rigorous training, and repeatedly forgives misconduct intended to get him dismissed. Despite her authority, she is inexperienced in romance and fears that revealing her deception will drive him away 18 23 24 25 44.

Abilities & Skills

Grandmaster Martial Arts

• Stops and crushes Bu Liuhen’s flying sword, then repels him with a palm strike 2.
• Overpowers the red-robed ancient corpse and shatters a rock wall to reach an underground river 11.
• Suppresses a Half-Step Grandmaster’s true essence through the pressure of her higher realm 42.
• Retains overwhelming physical strength without projecting true essence, gravely injuring the black-robed dragon raiser with a punch 42.
• Limitation: Her Grandmaster cultivation does not protect her from the Sinful Dragon Pearls’ mind-corroding miasma 42 43.

Martial Instruction

• Uses controlled blows to temper Gu Yuan’s true essence and help him overcome a cultivation bottleneck 16 17.
• Teaches the Vajra Indestructible Body, one of Great Qi’s three nation-defending techniques 17.
• Teaches True Essence Weapon Manifestation, ordinarily associated with First Grade experts 28 31.
• Recognizes the Three Bodies of the Heavenly Man as a method for advancing beyond Grandmaster, but cannot recover its deliberately destroyed instructions 11.

Disguise and Concealment

• Maintains the Lin Yao identity using an altered face and a First Grade martial aura, concealing her status as empress and Grandmaster 10 17 42.
• Uses the disguise to teach Gu Yuan and stage Zhang Qiandao’s rescue from her own prison 17.
• Deliberately preserves the deception because she believes Gu Yuan would flee with his family if he learned the truth 25.

Diary Intelligence

• Reads new entries in the mysteriously appearing Gu Yuan’s Diary, gaining access to his private plans and knowledge of the original storyline 1 4.
• Uses its information to locate threats, investigate conspiracies, and follow Gu Yuan’s map beneath Nine Geese Mountain 21 26 41.
• Does not fully understand his game-related terminology, including “boss” 1 41.
• Depends on Gu Yuan writing: when entries stop, she cannot obtain a fresh update through the diary 12 39.

Equipment & Items

• Gu Yuan’s Diary — Materializes on her desk without warning. She cannot damage it even with her full strength, and she keeps its existence secret from Gu Yuan 1 44.
• Great Li Dragon Seal — Retrieves it after Gu Yuan discards it in the tomb. She channels the previous dynasty’s fortune into Great Qi’s depleted dragon vein 12.
• Onee-san Black Stockings — An artifact personally crafted by Gu Yuan. It merges with her true essence, increases it by more than ten percent, and can be concealed at will. Releasing true essence through it disrupts martial artists’ qi and blood within ten zhang; she uses this effect to break the Heavenly Dipper Grand Formation 28 34.
• Orthodox Yang Sword — Takes it from the Orthodox Yang Taoist Order and subsequently grants it to Gu Yuan for his bandit-suppression assignment 35 36.
• Cloud-Peering Mirror — A tracking artifact she gives Gu Yuan before his mission 36.

Relationships

• Gu Yuan — Imperial subordinate, martial junior, and romantic interest. She knows about his rebellion plans through his diary but repeatedly attempts to keep him close rather than execute him. As Lin Yao, she saves his life, teaches him, and eventually kisses him; he remains unaware of her double identity in the supplied passages 4 10 11 25 44 46.
• Qi Lingyuan / Princess Huai’an — Younger sister. Their relationship is initially marked by fear and estrangement. Learning that Huai’an is destined to help kill her causes Qi Yueli sorrow, yet she later agrees to help cancel Huai’an’s unwanted marriage 7 8 15.
• Zhang Qiandao — Imprisoned scholar whom she had hoped to recruit to stabilize the court. She eventually stages his escape, reveals herself afterward, and warns him that Qingzhou is preparing rebellion before allowing him to leave 4 17.
• Shangguan Weiming — Trusted commander who reports on Gu Yuan and carries out confidential investigations, including the inquiry into the Orthodox Yang Taoist Order 23 26 35.
• King of Qingzhou — Rebel threat whose plans are exposed to her through Gu Yuan’s diary. She seeks to delay open war while preparing countermeasures 1 4 28.
• Black-robed dragon raiser — An unidentified enemy claiming a past grudge against her. He engineers her exposure to evil miasma, intending to turn her into a demon whom the world will unite to kill 41 42.

History

Discovering the Predicted Downfall

A mysterious diary appears before Qi Yueli, describing an assassination attempt, a Qingzhou-backed prison break, and Great Qi’s eventual collapse. Its claim that the dynasty’s dragon vein is exhausted alarms her because she believes herself to be the only person who knows that secret 1.

Bu Liuhen’s attack confirms a specific prediction. Rather than pursuing him as the original storyline anticipated, she orders the guards to seize him and heads to the imperial prison to find Gu Yuan. She subsequently appoints Gu Yuan an armed imperial bodyguard, keeping him near despite his repeatedly stated desire to escape to Qingzhou 2 4.

The diary identifies her as the final opponent of the original “Dynasty Turmoil” storyline, destined to suffer demonic corruption and die to the combined efforts of the male and female leads. This is a predicted game outcome, not her established fate in the altered events 1 8.

The Tomb and Lin Yao Identity

After learning that Gu Yuan intends to obtain the Great Li Dragon Seal, Qi Yueli follows him into the tomb. When the red-robed ancient corpse causes a collapse, she instinctively shields the unconscious Gu Yuan from a falling boulder and suffers a severe back wound. He heals her with the Imperial Deliverance Unceasing Scripture, and she introduces herself as Lin Yao 6 8 9 10.

Gu Yuan, who previously refused to become the empress’s disciple, asks Lin Yao to teach him. Instead of accepting him directly, she admits him as her deceased master’s disciple in the Heaven and Earth Sect, making herself his senior sister. Their discovery of the Three Bodies of the Heavenly Man offers hope of surpassing Grandmaster, but the necessary inscription has been destroyed 7 11.

After their escape, she retrieves the discarded Dragon Seal and restores Great Qi’s nearly exhausted dragon vein with Great Li’s fortune. Her long-troubled mind settles, allowing her to devise clearer policies for disaster relief and bandit suppression 12.

Changing Her Rule

Qi Yueli helps Huai’an resist her arranged marriage and allows Zhang Qiandao to leave after staging his rescue as Lin Yao. Meanwhile, she continues Gu Yuan’s nightly martial instruction 15 16 17.

When Gu Yuan is imprisoned for killing Prince Duan’s heir and two officials’ sons, his diary leads her to the Dragon Transformation Array beneath Prince Duan’s residence. She destroys the array and the Desert Flood Dragon Banner, exposing collusion with the Northern Desert. The resulting evidence overturns the officials’ attempt to have Gu Yuan punished 20 21.

The affair changes her understanding of rulership: enemies need not defeat her personally to destroy Great Qi. She uses the scandal to pressure the court into cooperation and later approves Gu Ming’s appointment as minister of revenue, with the Gu residence temporarily serving as the ministry’s workplace 21 22 23.

Investigating the Heavenly Calamity Sect

Information from Gu Yuan’s diary connects attacks on provincial heirs to the Heavenly Calamity Sect. Qi Yueli secretly investigates the Orthodox Yang Taoist Order, then confronts its elders over the Heaven-Deceiving Cover. Using her new stockings artifact, she disrupts their formation and forces a fuller explanation 26 28 34.

Daoist Zhenyi states that Ren Rumo took the cover three years earlier using an edict from the already-deceased emperor. Qi Yueli takes the Orthodox Yang Sword and later equips Gu Yuan for a suppression mission. His renewed plans to cultivate provincial allies and rebel prompt her to send him against the rebels instead 35 36.

Nine Geese Mountain and Corruption

Concerned by Gu Yuan’s silence, Qi Yueli announces a three-day seclusion, delegates memorials to the cabinet, and leaves to investigate his safety. At Nine Geese Mountain, she follows him underground and uses his diary map to reach the labyrinth’s center 39 41.

There, she overpowers a black-robed man raising sinful dragons through human sacrifice. He exploits her confidence by shattering a Sinful Dragon Pearl at close range. Its miasma enters her body, disorders her true essence, and erodes her reason, apparently bringing the diary’s predicted corruption closer to reality 42.

Gu Yuan destroys the attacker with purified yang flame and catches her as she falls. Under the affliction’s influence, she reveals her feelings and kisses him. Lu Ling’s arrival interrupts their intimacy 43 44 45.

Residual Affliction

Back in Great Qi’s dragon vein, Qi Yueli temporarily suppresses the remaining corruption. She discovers that it amplifies emotions and desires and cannot be eradicated through true essence alone. Unwilling to let the Taoists learn that the empress is afflicted, she concludes that Gu Yuan is her only option 44.

She continues protecting and rewarding him despite reading fresh plans for rebellion. The murder of Jiaozhou’s heir introduces another threat of provincial revolt, while her unresolved affliction makes seeking Gu Yuan’s help increasingly urgent 45 46 48.