Nan Gurong

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Sect Leader Meng brought Nan Gurong to the Plain Robe Pavilion and took her as a disciple when she was little. Having grown up under her care, Nan Gurong came to regard her master as her own mother 51.

Listening Willow Village Rescue

While investigating the disappearance of girls from Listening Willow Village, Nan Gurong rescued Lin Niansheng’s younger sister. She then used an appearance-changing Law Artifact to impersonate the girl and infiltrate the dungeon where the captives were held 39.

After escaping her cell with Sang Ying, she returned with Plain Robe Pavilion disciples to free the prisoners. Cold Crow Devil Lord blocked their departure, forcing her to order a retreat. Recognizing him from her master’s warnings, she realized that her Foundation Establishment cultivation and her juniors’ Qi Refining cultivation were insufficient to oppose him 30.

Sang Ying blasted open the dungeon ceiling, allowing the group to escape. Nan Gurong left last, then attempted to send the rescued women ahead while she and a few disciples drew away their pursuer. When venomous creatures overwhelmed them, she followed Sang Ying’s suggestion to seek shelter in a cave containing powerful Sword Qi 31.

Inside the cave, Sang Ying offered to lure the Devil Lord deeper while the others searched for another exit. Nan Gurong reluctantly agreed, gave her all the remaining insect-repelling powder, and promised to return with help 32.

The escaping party was subsequently ambushed by masked attackers. Nan Gurong suffered a serious palm strike and narrowly avoided execution when Sang Ying intervened. During their reunion, she promised to invite Sang Ying to the Plain Robe Pavilion if they survived. Elder Chanyi later rescued the group 37 38.

Receiving the Medical Inheritance

At the Pavilion’s White Foothill City waystation, Nan Gurong worked to treat the rescued girls’ poisoned facial wounds. Her medicine could temporarily control the damage, but she could not devise an antidote without knowing the ingredients in Cold Crow Devil Lord’s experimental drugs 39.

When Sang Ying asked what she would do with a unique medical canon, Nan Gurong said she would share it with benevolent medical cultivators so that more people could be saved. Sang Ying subsequently left Immortal Lord Fusheng’s inheritance at her window. Nan Gurong discovered the Complexion Renewal Pill formula and immediately resumed preparing medicine 39.

Using the new pills, the Plain Robe Pavilion cured the girls’ facial injuries. The successful treatment drew the attention of White Foothill City’s ruler, Luo Fengyuan 40 41 42.

Captivity and the Underground Palace

Luo Fengyuan’s agents abducted Nan Gurong and brought her before him. He demanded her pill formula and ordered her to treat his daughter. When his steward threatened Sang Ying to force her cooperation, Nan Gurong retaliated by warning that his young lady would remain sick if Sang Ying was harmed 42 43.

During a fire at the manor, Sang Ying found Nan Gurong attempting to save medicinal plants despite shackles that prevented her from using spiritual power. After freeing her, Sang Ying followed her into a hidden tunnel beneath the bed—a passage Nan Gurong had discovered when her hairpin fell underneath it 44 45.

The pair overheard Luo Fengyuan conspiring with a Demon Cultivator and entered an underground palace. Nan Gurong found a Jade Slip recording his agreement to hand the people of Listening Willow Village over to the Red Snake Tribe. Discovering wounded captives in cages, she urged Sang Ying to escape with the evidence and expose his crimes 45 46.

Luo Fengyuan intercepted them and nearly killed Nan Gurong with his whip, but Si Jing stopped the blow. As the ensuing battle destabilized the palace, Nan Gurong lent Sang Ying her Spiritual Qi to help freeze the incoming river water. She then supported the exhausted Sang Ying during their escape from the collapsing structure 46 47 48.

Return and Later Life

After the crisis, Nan Gurong accompanied Sang Ying aboard the Plain Robe Pavilion’s flying boat. At the sect, she explained that its founder had deliberately established it at the mountain’s foot so sick mortals could reach its healers. Sang Ying’s appreciation of that purpose made Nan Gurong feel that they had truly become friends 49 50.

She introduced Sang Ying to Sect Leader Meng for treatment and accepted her master’s affectionate reprimand for becoming involved with Luo Fengyuan without sending word home 50.

Nan Gurong settled Sang Ying in a quiet courtyard where she could rest and practice swordsmanship without disturbance. After learning from Sect Leader Meng that Sang Ying’s unusually pure Ice Spirit Root caused dangerous cold poison, she disclosed her newly obtained alchemy inheritance and offered its Pill Formulas for study. At this point, she still did not know who had left the inheritance on her windowsill 51.

By the following morning, Nan Gurong and her master had identified the Frost Return Pill as a way to completely restore Sang Ying’s Spirit Root. Nan Gurong arrived with dark circles under her eyes but was delighted to announce their discovery. When the Thousand-Year Ice Lotus they sought from the Flowing Light Sword Sect proved unavailable, Sang Ying supplied a ten-thousand-year Ice Lotus and an additional lotus for extra pills, allowing Sect Leader Meng to proceed with refinement 53.

After Sang Ying recovered at the Pavilion, Nan Gurong saw her off and continued waving as she departed by sword 54.

A flash-forward identifies Nan Gurong as a future Pavilion Master. Her posthumous biography describes the rescue battle as the beginning of an inseverable bond with Sang Ying, who would later become the Sword Master 37.

Expelling Gu Huaiwei’s Party

When Su Fuyun brought the gravely injured, masked Gu Huaiwei to the Plain Robe Pavilion, Nan Gurong disliked her arrogant manner but nevertheless took the visitors to Sect Leader Meng out of a healer’s compassion. By this time, the alchemy inheritance had already brought substantial changes to the Pavilion 123.

After Sect Leader Meng recognized Gu Huaiwei and ordered the party expelled, Nan Gurong immediately obeyed. At the gate, she publicly identified him and declared that his injury could not be healed and his cultivation path had ended. News of his condition spread throughout the cultivation world within half a day, exposing the weakened Gu Huaiwei to retaliation from his enemies 123.

Invasion of the Twin Orchid Realm

During Devil Lord Fusheng’s invasion, the Plain Robe Pavilion came under siege. Nan Gurong and the other medical cultivators, whose offensive abilities were weak, abandoned their sect and sought refuge with the Flowing Light Sword Sect. Their connection to Sang Ying and the Sang household helped make this refuge possible. Sect Leader Meng sacrificed herself for the sect during the calamity 411 416 417.

Nan Gurong led the medical cultivators in developing spirit medicines for the defenders. Song Jiaojiao used Nan Gurong’s latest medicinal powder while treating wounded disciples, and the healers’ support was crucial to keeping the Flowing Light Sword Sect from falling 411 417.

She also treated Sang Zheng, urging him to rest when his body was near its limit rather than return to battle and reopen his wounds. When Sang Ying returned with reinforcements, Nan Gurong welcomed her with delight, explaining that she had been worried after hearing Sang Ying was trapped in the Black Tortoise Realm 416.

After the siege was broken, Nan Gurong expressed her faith that Sang Ying’s return would improve their situation, but also wept over her master’s sacrifice. Sang Ying credited Nan Gurong and the other defenders with earning their own chance to survive through their persistence and medical work, rather than attributing their survival solely to the reinforcements 417.

Later Medical Cooperation

During the later war, Nan Gurong led Plain Robe Pavilion disciples in making medicine alongside medical cultivators from the Cloud Mulberry Realm. Her involvement produced tremendous progress in pills for purging Demonic Qi, while the cultivators used the Endless Sea as a protected rear base where the wounded could recover 631.

As the Cultivation World and the Beastmen World integrated, Nan Gurong worked with the Beastmen to develop medical cultivation, pill refinement, and training exchanges 686.

Appearance

• Initially described as a delicate beauty; at the waystation, she appears radiant and striking to Sang Ying 38.
• First encountered in the borrowed appearance of Lin Niansheng’s younger sister, produced by a Law Artifact rather than her natural looks 39.
• Wears a hairpin whose accidental fall leads her to discover the manor’s hidden tunnel 45.
• Has dark circles under her eyes when she and Sect Leader Meng arrive to announce their discovery of a treatment for Sang Ying’s Spirit Root 53.

Personality

Nan Gurong places patients and junior disciples before her own safety. During the escape from Cold Crow Devil Lord, she stays behind to draw pursuit away from the rescued women and urges Sang Ying to leave rather than die over the Pavilion’s feud. She also blames herself for endangering her disciples by acting without investigating thoroughly 30 31.

Her medical ethics favor sharing knowledge rather than monopolizing it. She would make a rare medical canon available to healers committed to doing good, but not indiscriminately. Her immediate response to receiving Fusheng’s inheritance is joy that the poisoned girls can finally be saved 39.

Although frightened by powerful enemies, she can be openly defiant when a friend is threatened. Away from home she behaves as a proper, considerate eldest senior sister; before her master, she becomes more youthful and readily begs forgiveness for her recklessness 43 50.

She values putting medical knowledge to use over keeping an inheritance secret. When her master remarks on the rarity of her willingness to share, Nan Gurong explains that a medical cultivator does not rely on Pill Formulas alone. The narration explicitly connects her generosity and benevolence to the Pavilion’s eventual preservation through a catastrophe affecting the cultivation world 51.

Her compassion does not prevent her from taking a hard line against those her master refuses to protect. Although she initially receives Su Fuyun’s party despite disliking their conduct, she follows the order to expel them and deliberately exposes Gu Huaiwei’s identity and condition 123.

Her longstanding trust in Sang Ying remains strong during the invasion. She believes Sang Ying can make the impossible possible, while her grief for Sect Leader Meng reveals the personal cost of continuing to care for others through the war 416 417.

Abilities & Skills

Medicine and Alchemy

A medical cultivator trained by Sect Leader Meng and later a recipient of Immortal Lord Fusheng’s alchemy inheritance 39 50.

• Poison management: Keeps the rescued girls’ facial lesions under temporary control before a cure becomes available 39.
• Pill-formula study: Identifies the Complexion Renewal Pill within Fusheng’s inheritance, enabling the Pavilion’s successful treatment 39 40.
• Diagnostic limits: Initially cannot formulate an antidote because the experimental drugs contain unknown poisons and have been compounded by additional pills 39.
• Assistance to Sang Ying: Sang Ying initially seeks her help with pill refinement and believes her inherited knowledge can address a hidden danger involving her Spirit Root. Nan Gurong later shares the formulas with Sect Leader Meng and helps identify the Frost Return Pill as a means of completely restoring that Spirit Root 42 51 53.
• Wartime pharmaceutical development: Creates medicinal powder and leads the development of spirit medicines that help sustain the Flowing Light Sword Sect’s defenders 411 417.
• Injury treatment: Treats Sang Zheng during the invasion and recognizes the danger of his returning to combat while severely weakened by blood loss and injury 416.
• Demonic Qi treatment research: Makes major contributions to Demonic Qi-purging pills in cooperation with the Cloud Mulberry Realm’s medical cultivators. The narration describes her as a medical genius 631.
• Medical teaching and exchange: Participates in medical cultivation, pill-refining, and training exchanges with the Beastmen 686.

Spiritual Qi Support

Her Water Spirit Root makes her Spiritual Qi usable by Sang Ying during the underground palace’s collapse 47.

• Transfers Qi through a hand pressed against Sang Ying’s back.
• Supplies the additional power needed for Sang Ying’s Thousand-Mile Ice Seal.
• Has her reserves abruptly drained by the technique; the sword art itself belongs to Sang Ying 47.

Leadership and Infiltration

• Commands the immediate obedience of her junior disciples during retreats and evacuation efforts 30 31.
• Uses an appearance-changing artifact to enter the captives’ dungeon under another girl’s identity 39.
• Is explicitly described as unskilled at fighting despite her Foundation Establishment cultivation 46.
• Leads the Pavilion’s medical cultivators in seeking wartime refuge and developing medicines for the Flowing Light Sword Sect 411 416 417.
• Coordinates Plain Robe Pavilion disciples’ pharmaceutical work with medical cultivators from another realm 631.

Equipment / Items

• Appearance-changing Law Artifact — Allows her to impersonate Lin Niansheng’s younger sister during the investigation 39.
• Insect-repelling powder — Used during the escape from Cold Crow Devil Lord; she gives the remaining supply to Sang Ying 32.
• Rejuvenation Pill — Takes one after being seriously injured in the masked attackers’ ambush 37.
• Inheritance bead and Jade Slip — Carry Immortal Lord Fusheng’s inheritance and pill formulas, including the Complexion Renewal Pill 39.
• Inherited Pill Formulas — Shared with Sect Leader Meng to research a treatment for Sang Ying’s Spirit Root; their study identifies the Frost Return Pill 51 53.
• Newly developed medicinal powder — Used by Song Jiaojiao to treat wounded disciples during the siege of the Flowing Light Sword Sect 411.

Relationships

• Sang Ying — Rescuer and close friend. Sang Ying repeatedly saves her, secretly gives her Fusheng’s inheritance, and receives her help during the river-freezing escape. Their bond is later commemorated in Nan Gurong’s biography 37 39 44 47 50. Nan Gurong helps research a remedy for Sang Ying’s Spirit Root, worries over her absence in the Black Tortoise Realm, and joyfully welcomes her return during the invasion. Sang Ying explicitly credits Nan Gurong’s medical leadership with helping the defenders survive 51 53 416 417.
• Sect Leader Meng / Surong — Master and head of the Plain Robe Pavilion. Treats Nan Gurong affectionately while reprimanding her for taking risks against far stronger cultivators 50. Raised Nan Gurong from childhood and is regarded by her as a mother. Nan Gurong willingly shares her inheritance with her, and later mourns her sacrifice for the sect 51 417.
• Elder Chanyi — Pavilion elder and martial aunt. Helps rescue the party, treats Sang Ying, and informs Sect Leader Meng of the incident 38 50.
• Plain Robe Pavilion junior disciples — Follow her leadership and are deeply reluctant to abandon her during the retreat; one unnamed youth insists on staying to help protect the innocents 31. She later leads the Pavilion’s medical cultivators during wartime and in cooperation with the Cloud Mulberry Realm 417 631.
• Sang Zheng and Wen Miaoshu — Sang Ying’s parents, whom Nan Gurong gets to know through her master after Sang Zheng returns to the Flowing Light Sword Sect. Their household connection helps the Pavilion’s medical cultivators find refuge there. She calls Sang Zheng “Uncle Sang” and treats his severe wartime injuries 416.
• Si Jing — Saves her from Luo Fengyuan’s whip and helps secure the pair’s escape from the underground palace 46 47.
• Luo Fengyuan — Abductor and adversary. Attempts to obtain her formula through coercion and later attacks her to prevent his crimes from being exposed 43 46.
• Cold Crow Devil Lord — Enemy of her sect whose poison arts threaten both her rescue party and the captive girls she treats 30 31 39.
• Su Fuyun and Gu Huaiwei — Initially received as a treatment-seeking party despite Su Fuyun’s arrogance. Nan Gurong expels them on her master’s orders and publicly exposes Gu Huaiwei’s identity and debilitating injury 123.
• Song Jiaojiao — Uses Nan Gurong’s newly developed medicinal powder to treat wounded Flowing Light Sword Sect disciples during the invasion 411.
• Cloud Mulberry Realm medical cultivators — Wartime collaborators in medicine production and the advancement of pills for purging Demonic Qi 631.
• Beastmen — Partners in later medical cultivation, pill-refinement, and training exchanges between worlds 686.

Notable Quotes

“If I had such good fortune, I would certainly bring the medical canon out for the medical cultivators of the world to study together. But only medical cultivators devoted to doing good would be allowed to read it, because only then could more people survive thanks to it.” 39

“If you dare do anything to her, then your young lady can stay sick for the rest of her life!” 43

“More than keeping the inheritance, I want to put these Pill Formulas to the best possible use. A medical cultivator doesn't rely on Pill Formulas alone to make her way in the world!” 51

“That's wonderful, Sang Ying. I knew that as long as you came back, everything would get better.” 417

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