Lu Jiu

Lu Jiu’s character profile

Lu Jiu, better known as Lu Qingyun, is a physician who was previously a disciple of Jishi Hall. He is an amnesiac, a cultivation swine with a perfect spirit core but no meridians, and formerly was a host for a mind demon.

He was originally raised by Xie Qingxuan and given the name Lu Qingyun. He had a kill order placed on him and was hunted down by the major cultivation sects for the slaughter of Qingshan City. After escaping through unknown means, he found his way to Peach Blossom Wharf where he used the name Lu Jiu, settled down, and started a medical hall while attempting to avoid trouble, though his life was disrupted by the appearance of Liu Jianghe.

Lu Jiu's amnesia seems to be unnatural, as his mind demon expresses surprise when confronted by his empty consciousness.

## History

### Childhood: Helan Manor, Jishi Hall

Lu Jiu's origin is a mystery: Liu Jianghe claims to know something about his past, though he hasn't elaborated. He's implied that Lu Jiu's siblings pass away early which might be referring to some unknown blood siblings, since of Lu Jiu's martial siblings only one has already died. He has also pointed out similarities in appearance between Lu Jiu and Zhou Zikun, although it's currently unclear if these are based on his knowledge of Lu Jiu's past or are merely speculation. He knows or at least suspects that Lu Jiu has trauma related to the mass grave which is connected to the existence of his mind demon.

As an amnesiac, Lu Jiu has no memories of his life prior to living for several years in a Helan Manor dumping ground as a child before being rescued by Xie Qingxuan. He was given the name Lu Qingyun and raised by Xie Qingxuan as his disciple. Because of his status as a cultivation swine with a mind demon, Xie Qingxuan put a seal on his spirit core preventing Lu Jiu or anyone else from extracting or damaging it.

During this time, he formed a strong bond with his civilian servants despite Xie Qingxuan's cautions. As a result, he became obsessed with finding a way to extend their lifespan, consuming a large number of medical texts in the Sutra Library in his pursuit of answers. Ultimately, his search was fruitless, and instead a heart-wrenching accident occurred.

One of Helan Ning's dowry servants ended up causing the death of Sister Siqin, the leader of the servants. This aggravated Lu Jiu's mind demon and it manifested with Sister Siqin's form.

However, with Xie Qingxuan’s help, he managed to contain his mind demon once more. He then sent Lu Jiu to the Sutra Library basement in order to protect him from the confrontations between him and Helan Ning.

In this period, he was visited by Xie Renyu. He told him the origins of the cultivation swines and tested his loyalty to Xie Qingxuan. When Lu Jiu passed, Xie Renyu put on a counterattack spell on Lu Jiu that would respond to a fatal blow, just in case Xie Qingxuan changed his mind and attempted to consume Lu Jiu's spirit core. This is unknown to Lu Jiu, however, who believed it to be a spirit core talisman.

After this period, he lived with Xie Qingxuan in the Medical Hall together; Xie Qingxuan being under house arrest after his confrontations with Helan Ning. Xie Renyu had also dismissed all of Xie Qingxuan's servants, leaving only Xie Qingxuan and Lu Jiu.

### Early Adulthood: Spirit Treasure Mountain

Living in the Medical Hall together with Xie Qingxuan, Lu Jiu passed time by helping his master collecting herbs and making elixirs. He then had a chance encounter with the young Xie Qingshuang, when she tried to pick flowers from the Medical Hall's surrounding rooftops. This encounter eventually led to a friendship bond between the two.

Despite their guardians' animosities towards each other, they became good friends, hiding their relationship from both Xie Qingxuan and Helan Ning.

One day, at Xie Qingshuang's insistence, the two were searching for a way to cure an unknown woman locked up in the Westhill Courtyard that Xie Qingshuang had discovered, knowing only that her strange disease was related to the Nine-horned Snake.

However, Xie Renyu had tampered with all of the information related to the unknown woman’s condition, leading them to believe that the Nine-horned Snake is the cure, not the disease itself. This became known to Lu Jiu only later on.

The two of them were then led to the Spirit Treasure Mountain by the false records left by Xie Renyu in the Consonance Hall. His purpose was to kill Xie Qingshuang who had learned of his secret of the unknown woman in the Westhill Courtyard.

His plan went awry and backfired when Lu Jiu jumped in the way of a gu zombie instead to save Xie Qingshuang, setting off the spell that Xie Renyu had left on Lu Jiu much earlier.

As a result of this unfortunate incident, Xie Qingshuang used her medicinal blood in order to save him, thus exposing her true value to Xie Renyu. He eventually managed to survive thanks to her medicinal blood and Xie Qingxuan’s spirit core talisman, but his body was too weak and his condition was like the walking dead. This only ended when Xie Qingxuan provided him with the Archaic Kunshan Jade to replace his meridians, and Lu Jiu was in a coma for over ten years.

After he woke up, Xie Renyu had obtained both fame and fortune. Xie Qingshuang and Xie Qingxuan had also developed a sibling bond, despite Helan Ning’s furiousness. This strange period of peace was maintained until the day the Nine-horned Snake was killed.

### Interlude: Slaughter of Qingshan City

Lu Jiu helped to exchange the eyes of the Twin Ladies of Red Leaf Manor. While they were at Jishi Hall, Helan Ning obtained some Soul-inducing Incense from them. She then used it on Lu Jiu in search of evidence for what she believed to be a plot of the Medical Hall against Xie Qingshuang, thinking the Spirit Treasure Mountain incident their fault.

As a result, Helan Ning learned of the nine-horned snake’s existence. She didn’t know of its true identity yet, but she did know that its existence caused danger for Xie Qingshuang, and she initiated a search for the woman. When she and the old allies of Helan Manor found the nine-horned snake in a secluded courtyard in Qingshan City, they broke the restraints on her waist. This caused the vines to grow without halt. Xie Qingxuan was then sent by Xie Renyu in order to exterminate it.

This culminated in Xie Qingxuan being unknowingly made to kill the Nine-horned Snake, his mother. As a revenge against his father, he supposedly decided to wipe out Qingshan City by poisoning them, and enlisted Lu Jiu's help by asking him to gather large amounts of herbs. Due to his frequent involvement, Lu Jiu felt a strong degree of responsibility for the deaths of the nine-horned snake and the slaughter of Qingshan City.

One night, a great amount of civilians and refugees in Qingshan City began to die and Lu Jiu entered to investigate. There he encountered Xie Qingshuang, who warned him to leave, out of fear that Xie Renyu or Xie Qingxuan would scapegoat Lu Jiu for the massacre.

However, he wanted to continue investigating even at the cost of his own life, and told her to leave Jishi Hall in return before walking off. Lu Jiu confirmed that all of the bodies were poisoned using West Mountain Weed, though he was confused why they all seemed to be in a similar state despite ingesting different amounts at different times.

Suddenly, the bodies were reanimated under the influence of the meat ganoderma, shocking and overwhelming Lu Jiu. For unknown reasons, he began to consume some of them, but was interrupted by Liu Jianghe who used living possession on him, taking over his body. Liu Jianghe then vomited out the meat ganoderma Lu Jiu had already consumed.

However, Liu Jianghe's possession was incomplete, as Lu Qingyun’s emotions didn’t completely disappear, and he had some awareness of what was occurring. This led Lu Jiu to believe that he was the one choosing to slaughter the ganoderma-infected civilians.

Liu Jianghe got into a fight with Xie Qingxuan who managed to breach Liu Jueming’s formation that covered the city. As a result Lu Jiu also thought that it was himself who was responsible for Xie Qingxuan’s eventual death. However, Liu Jianghe claimed that the emotions he interpreted from Lu Jiu indicated that Lu Jiu had already hated Xie Qingxuan's guts at that point.

In the wake of Qingshan City, Lu Jiu felt as if Xie Qingxuan had abandoned him. He took the blame for Xie Qingxuan's death and the massacre of the city himself and was hunted down by the major cultivation sects. The Archaic Kunshan Jade was then removed from his wrists by Xie Qingshuang, rending him unable to use spiritual energy. She secretly allowed him to escape alive, deceiving both Xie Renyu and Zhou Zikun.

During this period, Lu Jiu also cut off a portion of his consciousness in order to trap his mind demon in a cage, and then further separated it from his consciousness with a formation built from his memories to prevent it from affecting him.

### Peach Blossom Wharf, Red Leaf Manor

Lu Jiu escaped through unknown means and found his way to Peach Blossom Wharf, where he used the name Lu Jiu, settled down, and started a medical hall while attempting to avoid trouble.

He adopted an orphan named Little He, who served as his assistant. He stayed there for about a decade before Liu Jianghe appeared at his front door. Lu Jiu originally planned on treating Liu Jianghe's wounds, expecting him to be a normal cultivator with unusually grievous injuries, and then ultimately abandoning him.

When he first discovered of his patient’s identity by accident however, he decided to seal Liu Jianghe’s spiritual senses as an instant defense countermeasure. Liu Jianghe woke up just in time to stop him and forcibly impose a life and death contract on them both, forcing him to continue treating Liu Jianghe in order to avoid losing his own life; as his life was now connected to Liu Jianghe's.

While Lu Jiu was taking care of Liu Jianghe, Little He accidentally gave a local prostitute, Linglan, the ingredients to make a poison for cultivators. Lu Jiu went to the brothel to dissuade Linglan, only to discover that she had already used the poison on the head of Peach Blossom Wharf, Liu Yuan. He knew that the poison wasn’t strong enough to take Liu Yuan's life instantly, which in turn would cause Linglan to be in trouble.

What he predicted came true, with Liu Yuan showing up and kidnapping the two of them, using the excuse of adultery and attempted murder, then locked them up in his manor. Liu Jianghe managed to rescue the two of them, at the cost of being further grievously injured and voluntarily ended the life and death contract in the process. After escaping, Lu Jiu parted ways with Little He and Linglan by sending them away in a different direction. He then took off with Liu Jianghe and fled from Peach Blossom Wharf himself.

The two of them made their way to the Red Leaf Manor in search of a Kunshan Blood Lotus for Liu Jianghe's treatment. Along the way, they stopped at a black inn, where Qu Jianglin provided them with sufficient moon pearls to purchase a blood lotus, and Lu Jiu secretly poisoned Liu Jianghe with an evil puppet gu, believing Liu Jianghe's life and death contract was still active.

At Red Leaf Manor, Lu Jiu participated in Lighting the Moon. He tried to poison his opponent Helan Xu with thousand needles, but failed due to having treated him with his hundred-herb elixir sometime prior, which made them immune to the poison. Helan Xu was about to kill him when Qu Jianglin stepped in and defeated them, as well as "lighting the moon" and winning the blood lotus. Lu Jiu's injuries were severe enough that he was treated with soul-inducing incense, which showed him an illusion of Xie Qingxuan. After Lu Jiu forced himself awake to escape the image of Xie Qingxuan, he was informed by one of the Red Leaf Manor sisters that Jishi Hall had the blood lotus and wanted him to come get it. After he and Liu Jianghe left Red Leaf Manor, Qu Jianglin appeared under Xie Qingshuang's orders to escort the two of them to Qinghua Manor.

### Qinghua Mansion

Once at Qinghua Manor, Lu Jiu met with Xie Qingshuang. When Xie Qingshuang revealed that Lu Jiu was no longer under the life and death contract and activated the evil puppet gu, Lu Jiu forced her to save Liu Jianghe. While Liu Jianghe was being treated, Lu Jiu wandered into the old medical hall. There, Qu Jianglin revealed to him that Xie Qingshuang was planning on killing Xie Renyu.

After Xie Renyu's death, Lu Jiu and Liu Jianghe were confined to Luxian Pavilion. Liu Jianghe realized that Xie Qingshuang was injured and thus intentionally delaying his treatment. He jumped from the pavilion in order to mortally injure himself, distressing Lu Jiu in the process. Because Xie Qingshuang couldn't treat Liu Jianghe's injuries herself, she restored the archaic Kunshan jade in Lu Jiu's wrists so that he could do it in her stead.

Lu Jiu treated Liu Jianghe with the blood lotus, at the same time going into Liu Jianghe's consciousness where Liu Jianghe taught him how to form a life and death contract. Soon after learning he was interrupted by Qu Jianglin, who wanted to kill him without Xie Qingshuang knowing. The two fought, with Lu Jiu attempting to form a life and death contract on Liu Jianghe in order to take advantage of Xie Qingshuang's desire for him to stay alive to save himself from Qu Jianglin. While he failed to have enough of an opening, Liu Jianghe regained consciousness long enough to form one for him, allowing him to use it and end the fight.

With the life and death contract in place, Liu Jianghe's spiritual sense escaped into Lu Jiu's consciousness, allowing the two to trick Xie Qingshuang into thinking Liu Jianghe needed further treatment. She ordered the two to be escorted to Sumu Estate, but along the way there, Liu Jianghe tricked Lu Jiu into unsealing the memories trapping his mind demon and let the both of them inside.

### Sumu Estate

Lu Jiu and Liu Jianghe remained inside Lu Jiu's memories until Su Tuntun and Si Yuyan, the Shadow Guards taking care of their bodies, nearly killed Lu Jiu, causing Liu Jianghe to leave in order to save him. With this Lu Jiu realized he'd been tricked, and when Liu Jianghe returned he demanded to know the truth, which Liu Jianghe continued to avoid giving him. This stress put pressure on Lu Jiu, causing him to emotionally break down. He realized that Liu Jianghe had been targeting him on purpose due to his mind demon, and later, realized that Liu Jianghe had unsealed it entirely. He refused to go along with Liu Jianghe's plan without knowing what it was, and the parallels between the present situation and his past experience with Xie Qingxuan gave his mind demon an opening to take control of his spiritual senses. Liu Jianghe forcibly sealed the mind demon and Lu Jiu's memories as well as throwing Lu Jiu's spiritual senses out in order to separate it from the mind demon. As a last request before Lu Jiu woke up, Liu Jianghe asked him to save Su Tuntun.

Lu Jiu woke up and tracked down Su Tuntun, whom Si Yuyan attempted to kill. Lu Jiu killed Si Yuyan instead and healed the wounds Su Tuntun had received. He brought him along with Liu Jianghe to a civilian village where Lu Jiu continued treatment of Liu Jianghe. However, the two were interrupted by a man named Mr. Zhang who was searching for herbs to use in order to help immortals revive his dead son.

Lu Jiu was interested in the mention of bringing the dead back to life and helped out Mr. Zhang in exchange for information about the immortals. Upon investigating Lu Jiu immediately understood the trick, though he allowed them to carry it out to be certain. He then set up a trap to expose the fake immortals as swindlers and let the villagers handle them how they would.

Lu Jiu and Su Tuntun returned to their room at the inn, where Liu Jianghe woke up soon afterwards. After a tense conversation where Lu Jiu refused to hear Liu Jianghe make more excuses, the two were interrupted by Madam Zhang, who had received some meat ganoderma from an unknown cultivator. After listening to her, the two headed out to avoid Su Tuntun's eavesdropping and to get rid of any remains of the meat ganoderma.

## Trivia

* He may have some relation to Zhou Zikun, as Liu Jianghe noted sibling-like similarities in their appearances including matching eye color, and both of them have unclear origins related to Helan Manor.
* The "Jiu" in Lu Jiu's name means "nine", and comes from his time at the Helan Manor dumping ground or possibly even earlier, when he was referred to as "Little Nine".
* Lu Jiu's spiritual energy is pure enough that Liu Jianghe remarked on it upon encountering it for the first time.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Chapter 66: Transition
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 15: We Each Have Secrets
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 0: Preview
4. ↑ Chapter 39: A Deal
5. ↑ Chapter 41: Three Thousand Retainers
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Chapter 51: The Sight of Me Reminds Him of His Enemies (Part 2)
7. ↑ Chapter 59: Crisis
8. ↑ Chapter 38: Birds of a Feather
9. ↑ Chapter 71: Divine Punishment?
10. ↑ Chapter 68: Happy Days
11. ↑ Chapter 69: Bothered
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Chapter 72: The Past
13. ↑ Chapter 70: The Second Form
14. ↑ Chapter 73: Xie Qingxuan's Decision
15. ↑ Chapter 75: Unanticipated
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Chapter 82: Shock
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Chapter 76: Turn of Events
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Chapter 78: Seven Days
19. ↑ Chapter 79: Nine-Horned Snake
20. ↑ Chapter 80: Start of Disagreement
21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 Chapter 87: Emotional Appeals
22. ↑ Chapter 88: Motivated by Reasoning
23. ↑ Chapter 94: Discord Between Siblings
24. ↑ Chapter 98: Second Half of the Night
25. ↑ Chapter 99: Caution
26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Chapter 100: Stubborn
27. ↑ Chapter 101: All's Well That Ends Well
28. ↑ Chapter 23: You Want to See Me
29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Chapter 31: An Exchange Between Sworn Siblings
30. ↑ Chapter 64: Beginning
31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 31.3 31.4 31.5 31.6 Awaiting citation
32. ↑ Chapter 1: Saved the Public Enemy by Mistake, is it Too Late to Kill Him Now?
33. ↑ Chapter 2: Keeping My Beloved at Home
34. ↑ Chapter 3: The Rising Wind Forebodes the Coming Storm (Part 1)
35. ↑ Chapter 4: The Rising Wind Forebodes the Coming Storm (Part 2)
36. ↑ Chapter 7: Is Liu Jianghe a Man of His Word?
37. ↑ Chapter 8-2: You Are the One I've Been Looking For
38. ↑ Chapter 47: The Price (Part 2)
39. ↑ Chapter 58: Invalid Deal
40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 Chapter 86: Fury
41. ↑ Chapter 77: Problem Solved
42. ↑ Chapter 83: Master
43. ↑ Chapter 89: Emotional Appeals and Reasoning are Useless
44. ↑ Chapter 90: Hindrance
45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 Chapter 92: A Man of Character, but Not Much
46. ↑ Chapter 91: Unpredictability
47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 Chapter 93: Begging for Herbs
48. ↑ Chapter 96: One's Character Is Determined by Their Companions
49. ↑ Chapter 97: Resurrection
50. ↑ Chapter 102: Awakening
51. ↑ Chapter 103: Liu Jianghe, Bow Respectfully to Lu Qingyun
52. ↑ Chapter 104: There Are No Kind Visitors in the Middle of the Night
53. ↑ Chapter 105: Confidence