Dongfang Huaizhu

The eldest daughter of the Dongfang Clan at the time, older sister to Dongfang Qinlan. As a female of the Dongfang Clan, she has the ability to pass on spiritual power to her offspring. She is the lover of Wangquan Baye and mother of Wangquan Fugui.

She died after exhausting all her remaining spirit power and giving birth to Wangquan Fugui.

## Appearance

She has crimson eyes and a fire mark on her forehead. Although she usually has her hair down, she does pin up her hair from time to time. She is only seen with a green-turquoise robe over a yellow one along with a yellow Pibo (披帛).

## Personality

Unlike some other traditional women, she does not do any household skills or any of the four arts: Guqin, Chinese chess (weiqi), calligraphy, and painting. Being in the Dongfang Clan, she was raised to be a warrior and thus excels in martial arts. Therefore, she does not act submissive, but acts calm and rational in many situations--as opposed to her younger sister, Dongfang Qinlan. This can be seen when she confronted several men who wanted to capture and fight with her.

## History

*See also: Zhuye Arc*
Her story begins when she went to collect herb with her sister Dongfang Qinlan. As it started to rain, she went to a nearby inn to take shelter and met the trio (Ximen Chuisha, Chi Huo, Shi Tang) who thought they were yaoguai. Once they sat down, the trio began to undermine the female generation of the Dongfang clan, ticking off Dongfang Qinlan who wanted to challenge Chi Huo, "Little God of Fire," to compare her pure-yang flames to his flames. Collected, Dongfang Huaizhu stopped the match out of respect for three. The respect quickly diminished when she found out that they forced the old servant to serve the trio or else they would not save his family, who were captured by the yaoguai.

Suddenly, poisonous spiders led by Du Fuzi invaded the town and attacked the group. Ximen Chuisha created a tornado to take shelter at the eye of the tornado and to avoid the poisonous fumes of the spiders. Dongfang Huaizhu became mad at the trio for ruining the surrounding environment by spreading the fumes. Just then, she saw a piece of flying wood and realized that the spiders were also in the beams of the building. Du Fuzi appeared and flashed all of his eyes on his body and captured Qinlan, blowing the trio and Huaizhu far away.

### Baye

When she woke up, her outer robe had fallen off her shoulders and she met a man standing on the branch of a huge tree above her. Greeted by the man, she was shocked and expected a handsome mask. She was even more shocked facing the mask, realizing that it was not of seriousness. She is also very particular about her appearance, seemingly flusters when Baye pointed out the condition of her clothes. Wangquan Baye excused himself and left on his sword to attack the spider yaoguai's hideout. Huaizhu took the chance to follow him and did so aggressively as he sped up to throw her off track. She was also determined to save her sister and servant, even standing up against Baye's offer to leave it up to him. Baye agreed to her decision on the condition that:

1. She could not fight
2. She must stay 10 steps behind him and
3. She must hold onto his scabbard.

It was clear that once Qinlan was rescued, Baye had deeply underestimated the power of Dongfang Huaizhu, apologizing several times for his assumptions. By that time, Huaizhu was deeply impressed by the swordsmanship of Baye. After the ordeal with Huandu Qingtian, Baye escaped and grabbed on Huaizhu's hand instinctively. The two laid holding hands with one another on the grass field after the battle and stared at each other affectionally. Once realizing their actions, they quickly grew flustered and embarrassed, clearly showing interests in one another. Because Huaizhu had to leave after being summoned by her father through Jin Renfeng, she left a message on Baye's scabbard to meet on the seventh day of the seventh month by the Zhu Pavilion by the Huai River.

Huaizhu highly anticipated the awaited day, noticing how she dressed up and did her hair. As her boat floats by the Zhu Pavillion, she was saddened at first to not see him but later on glad once she noticed him standing on the roof. The two exchanged words of poem until Baye asked Huaizhu to play the flute she had within her arms. She responded that she does not know any of the four arts, merely holding the flute as a decoration. Once she asked if Baye was disappointed, he laughed out loud and grabbed her toward the sky. They began to dance in the sky with fire and sword. In the midst of the date, Huaizhu was disappointed many times at the mask Baye had since it did not fit the atmosphere of the date. Thus she decided to gift him a new mask, a white bottom mask layered with gold outlines. After multiple dates, Baye had to go on a mission, leaving Huaizhu waiting for him. He promised to return on the seventh day of the seventh month (Qixi).

### Jin Renfeng

Huaizhu still waits at the Zhu Pavilion, even knowing that Baye would not return soon. However, she is confident that no matter what he does, he will be fine. Meanwhile, her father has been greatly ill and bedridden. Huaizhu did not realize that Jin Renfeng and his servant were giving her father pills to paralyze and burn his life source. She only found out when her servant, Yu Ping, witnessed Jin Renfeng's murder and warned the sister. Qinlan wanted to confront him but Huaizhu quickly knocked out Qinlan and requested Yu Ping to take her away while Huaizhu tries to hold the clan back.

After the two left, Huaizhu fashioned a white small flower on her hair to mourn for her father and locked the gates, refusing any request to enter. She maintained this status for a few day with excuses, only thinking about the well-being of Baye. Finally the clan, led by Renfeng, forcibly entered the palace. Huaizhu tried to force them back with her fire and fighting arts but was at a disadvantage because of Renfeng's prowess and the number of soldiers. She kneeled down hopelessly as her conscious began to fade and her body numb. She began to ponder about the Zhu Pavilion and her memories with Baye, expressing her desire to see him again. Suddenly, a man with a sword started to head toward the gates (Huaizhu notices the man as she has the ability skill to sense Qi). The man stepped forward and sliced the gates to pieces.

Because of Baye's drastic change in appearance, she only realized his identity through his sword skills. Only when Butler Fei spoke, did she realize his motive, to make her his concubine so that she would be protected from the Dongfang Clan. In return for saving her, Baye had to take over Wangquan Clan as the head. On her wedding day, she was dressed beautifully in red with pink lipstick, red eyeshadow, and a golden headpiece. Butler Fei apologized for making her concubine (because the process to become a wife would take much longer) and assured that she would be treated like a legal wife. She also lamented that out of the entire clan present that day Baye saved her, no one was powerful enough to defeat Renfeng, implying that Baye had lost the swordsmanship he held. As the red veil curtained her face, she shed a tear and wondered what had Baye gone through to change so much.