Fairy Li

Biodata

Background / History

Li Zijun was born with a heavenly child’s fate, which Mr. Mengfei explains would have prevented her from surviving without intervention. She was raised in a Daoist temple to escape this calamity rather than because she had chosen cultivation for its own sake. She could not resume an ordinary secular life until she turned thirty 180.

Her master, Daoist Master Fu, is Old Daoist Master Xiao’s junior martial brother. Zijun and Xiao’s disciple, Xiao Yang, entered monastic life as children and grew up studying, playing, and being punished together. Despite her temple upbringing, Zijun also attended high school and college; frequent school transfers left her with relatively few lasting classmates and friends 7 391.

Mr. Mengfei and Daoist Jin later accompanied her on a journey partly intended to help resolve the restrictions surrounding her fate. After returning, she described her decision simply as trying a different way of living after thirty years as a Daoist 180 181.

Appearance

Fairy Li has a fair complexion, large expressive eyes, and a sweet, childlike voice. At thirty, she looks young enough to pass for twenty 6 12 85 205.

• Traditional clothing: Initially wears hanfu or Daoist robes, usually with her hair in a bun 77 178.
• Secular style: Returns with her long hair loose, wearing a denim dress and canvas shoes 178.
• Hair ornament: Uses the rhinoceros-horn hairpin Su Ziyang gives her, including after changing to a more casual hairstyle 118 180.
• Bearing: Su Ziyang finds that she retains an otherworldly presence even in ordinary clothes and crowded surroundings 227.

Personality

Fairy Li is impulsive, outspoken, and fiercely protective. Early in their acquaintance, she treats Su Ziyang like a younger brother, brings him breakfast, and physically shields him when she believes Mr. Mengfei is humiliating him. Although she initially objects to Su becoming Mengfei’s disciple, she sets aside her dislike and helps arrange the apprenticeship when Su insists 6 7.

In romance, she is usually more direct than Su Ziyang. She accepts his confession without hesitation, initiates shared domestic routines, and eventually asks him to marry her. Her affection often comes with teasing, mock threats, and jealousy over attention from other women 185 188 194 220 317.

Her support is practical as well as affectionate. She cooks and cleans while Su recovers from damaged meridians, helps him bathe and apply medicine after a difficult match, and comforts him through his grief after Master Luo’s death. She also challenges Mr. Mengfei for concealing how close Master Luo was to dying 77 116 213.

Food is one of her strongest enthusiasms. She eagerly seeks out snacks, pursues precision in cooking, and accepts complimentary dishes without hesitation. Despite her spontaneous manner, she is notably punctual: Su Ziyang expects her to arrive at exactly the time she promises 196 205 328 383.

Abilities & Skills

Feng Shui and Divination

Fairy Li undertakes professional feng shui commissions, designing clients’ homes around their birth characters and Purple Star Astrology charts 196 384.

• Residential design: Produces detailed layouts on her laptop for individual patrons 196.
• Name interpretation: Explains that names carry a person’s energy and information, which can reveal potential problems 185.
• Object-related divination: Holds Su Ziyang’s wrist, closes her eyes, and recites words before identifying that his watch came from a tall, beautiful woman 188.
• Income: Some individual feng shui arrangements earn her many hundreds of thousands, and commissions continue to arrive regularly 386.

Talismans and Ritual Practice

She draws and uses talismans, employing cinnabar liquid and incantations 265 352.

• Preparation: Sets out an incense burner and dresses formally to draw talismans. Su Ziyang processes coarse cinnabar for her, which she mixes with alcohol 265.
• Restricted observation: Sometimes permits Su to watch her work and sometimes forbids it 355.
• Formation-breaking attempt: Uses a blue talisman against Qi Chu’s Bewildering Formation, but it loses its brightness without breaking the formation 352.
• Protective judgment: Recognizes that the formation is a deliberate test and readies a stronger talisman when she fears Su might suffer backlash 352.

Martial Arts

Fairy Li possesses substantial martial skill, although Su Ziyang does not know the name of her fighting style 250.

• Horsetail whisk: Sends the whisk cracking through the air and casually splits an upright brick in two with its tip 196 197.
• Power control: Su cannot reproduce her ability to channel force through the whisk 197.
• Unarmed strikes: Drives a man several steps backward with a single palm strike during the KTV confrontation 250.
• Instruction: Xiao Yang asks her to advise two junior brothers practicing Fuwa Gong 196.

Spiritual Perception and Daoist Knowledge

Her knowledge extends beyond the techniques she personally demonstrates.

• Remote sensing awareness: Detects Su Ziyang’s attempt to sense her from afar. Mr. Mengfei explains that his technique relies on a sympathetic response between yin and yang qi, not visual observation 205.
• Cultivation insight: Recognizes that Zhang Rongyi’s sword-finger demonstration involves manifested cultivation power rather than numbers alone 230.
• Ritual recognition: Identifies Qi Chu’s walking pattern as the Pace of Yu 355.
• Artifact knowledge: Identifies the Small Demon-Breaking Knife and warns Su against handling it 355.

Qin Playing

Fairy Li plays the qin, a skill Su Ziyang discovers during a visit to Xiao Yang’s temple 196.

• Performs “Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute”, leaving Su visibly entranced 196.

Cooking and Medicinal Meals

She develops considerable cooking skill through instruction and repeated practice, including visits to Liuzi’s home while Su is away lecturing 328 348.

• Shandong cuisine: Reaches a master-level standard in several dishes she frequently prepares, though she is not a professional chef 328.
• Heat control: Identifies a problem with a restaurant’s nine-turn large intestine. After adjusting the heat, the head chef thanks her and sends complimentary dishes 328.
• Medicinal cooking: Experiments with lamb congee containing seventy-year-old wild mountain ginseng, poria, jujubes, and astragalus; Mr. Mengfei praises its nourishing effects 348.
• Continued learning: Learns Mr. Mengfei’s method of collecting the nourishing surface film he calls “rice oil” from cooking congee 349.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Horsetail whisk — Demonstrated as both an exercise implement and a weapon capable of breaking a brick 196 197.
• Vermilion Bird Talisman — A self-defense gift from her master. She reveals it during the Bewildering Formation test to deter Mr. Mengfei and Qi Chu from letting Su come to harm 352.
• Ritual kit — Includes talismans, a compass, red cords, and a small copper sword packed for the mountain journey 349.
• Talisman-making supplies — Cinnabar, alcohol, an incense burner, and a collection of laboratory equipment 265.
• Heaven and Earth Yin-Yang Bracelet — A protective bracelet made from lightning-struck wood, given to her by Zhenze 235.
• Rhinoceros-horn hairpin — A valuable gift from Su Ziyang that she wears in her hair 118 180.
• Herbal cosmetic and antique container — Su’s confession gift, presented in a ceramic bottle and boxwood box. Daoist Jin subsequently confirms that the antique containers are his gifts to her 185.
• Toyota Prado — Her car, whose keys Zhang Guozhou briefly receives while she is dazed 91.

Home

Relationships

• Su Ziyang — Initially a younger-brother figure, then boyfriend and husband. Their relationship becomes official when she accepts his written confession 6 185 391.
• Su Qing — Her son with Su Ziyang, born a year after their wedding 391.
• Daoist Master Fu — Her master and childhood guardian. Their exchanges remain playful but disciplinary; he threatens to make her kneel after she forgets to order fresh poria for him 7 350.
• Daoist Master Xiao Yang / Yang Yang — Her closest childhood friend and fellow temple-raised Daoist. Xiao Yang helps arrange Su’s apprenticeship and later participates in the wedding-door games 7 391.
• Old Daoist Master Xiao — Her martial uncle, who treats her fondly and helps secure Su’s opportunity to study under Mr. Mengfei 7.
• Mr. Mengfei — Initially the target of her anger over his treatment of Su; later a trusted senior who helps with her return to secular life and frequently trades jokes with her 7 180 205.
• Daoist Jin — A senior who helps address her fate, gives her valuable gifts, and entrusts her with looking after Su before leaving for the mountains 180 185 336.
• Li Zinian and Li Zijian — Her two older brothers. Both accept Su after he promises to treat their sister well 252.
• Su Ziyang’s parents — Welcome her warmly. Su’s mother gives her a red envelope; Fairy Li later brings his mother a jade bangle and his father cigarettes and liquor 308 313.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Notable Quotes

“My master said that someone with talent but no virtue is a devil on the Dao, and he won’t come to a good end!” 7

“For example, when I’m angry, it’s for attacking. When I’m happy, it’s for keeping fit and healthy.” 197

“The master leads you through the door, but cultivation is up to you. Did you expect him to stay by your side for the rest of your life?” 349