The Farm | Azure Hills | Crimson Phoenix Empire
We give to the land, and the land gives back.
A farm located in the corner of the Azure Hills, nearby the village of Hong Yaowu and the town of Verdant Hill. Here, Jin Rou decided to put down roots, get away from the cultivator life, and make, in his words, his own slice of paradise on the earth. Thanks to his cultivating of the land and the work of his animals/disciples, it has become what amounts to a Sect in and of itself, and a Qi-rich oasis in the otherwise Qi-barren hills.
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Humans
Jin Rou / Rou Jin
The transmigrated protagonist of the novel, who decides to start a farm instead of ascending to the heavens. Was an Outer Disciple of the Cloudy Sword sect before deciding on a career change.
- Absurd Cutting Power: Imbuing qi into his tools allows Jin to saw hardwood timber like paper and plough ground like a knife through butter, without ever having to manually sharpen the metal.
- Accidental Bargaining Skills: Jin has looked around the marketplace and seen that ten silver coins is a normal price for a luxury item, so when Guan Bo offers fifty for a jar of maple syrup, he frowns in puzzlement. Guan Bo misinterprets it and promptly increases his offer to sixty. (Subverted when the rising offer clues Jin in to the worth of his goods, and the farm boy in him can't resist fleecing a big-city yuppie.)
- Achievement In Ignorance:
- Jin sees his farming as a way to get away from the cultivation world. His Qi-powered farming techniques are driving his cultivation to untold heights because he is following “The Path of Shennong”, a form of cultivation that can only be practiced if you are unaware of it and truly love the earth.
- He knows that maple syrup is a saleable product, but he has no idea that it contains fire and earth qi in excellent balance, worth hundreds of coins a bottle, until he's actually selling it.
- Similarly, he knows that his rice is good, grown with his Earth knowledge of proper planting techniques, but doesn't realize that it's actually of a grade not seen locally in a thousand years, too valuable to even sell to anyone nearby.
- In several cases, stuff which is such mundane and unremarkable common knowledge to Jin, because of growing up on Earth, is considered very shrewd or innovative by those around him:
- Building a beehive with removable sections for harvesting the honey without destroying the hive is an innovation, but unlike some of his other future knowledge, Jin doesn't even realize he's innovating here. To him, that's just how bees are kept. This surprises his friends and absolutely floors the queen bee, who was prepared to offer up her own larvae as tribute for Jin allowing her hive to exist on his land.
- When Shan Daiyu of the Azure Jade Trading Company informs Jin that Bai Huizong, the Director of Spiritual Ascension Affairs for the Azure Hills, is running a side business making and selling dolls in Tigu's likeness, he says it's no problem as long as Tigu gives permission and gets royalties from the sales revenue. For him, that's just what you do if someone wants to sell merchandise based on you. Shan Daiyu, however, is stunned that he, as a cultivator and a farmer, even has an idea of what royalties are.
- He is surprised to learn that Xianada apparently has no concept of knitting, and Meiling is quite excited by the idea of being able to create clothes without a full loom.
- Afraid of Their Own Strength: Once Jin fully realizes how powerful he's become, he gets worried that he'll be tempted to use that power in the stereotypical ways such power gets used in the sort of setting he finds himself in — violence and domination without empathy or morality. Luckily, he's got a great support network of people who reassure him he's a great person, as well as ironclad restraint and self-control.
- Almighty Janitor: In terms of power, he far outclasses everyone in the Azure Hills, but decides to start a farm instead of putting his power to use as a soldier. It's heavily implied that he has a low opinion of cultivators in general.
- Ambition Is Evil: He certainly believes this, considering his low opinion of other cultivators. That said, it's not his opinion of all cultivators – he's okay with those who aren't insane, line-snuffing rapist murderers, like Xiulan.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: At the Dueling Peaks, Jin singlehandedly stops the attack by the Shrouded Mountain Sect, ends a demonic cultivator with a single punch, and then reveals that he's backed by the strongest sect on the planet. This makes it clear to the cultivators of the Azure Hills that Jin is easily the strongest person in the entire province and likely ranks among the most powerful people in the world—so they begin looking to him for direction and guidance. Jin hates this.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Jin, natch. He does sometimes wield a shovel against wolves and foxes, but when given a ceremonial sword, he reflects that all he knows how to do with it is swing or throw it at someone, then End Them Rightly with his fists.
- Big Damn Heroes: Jin arrives at the Dueling Peaks just in time to save Yun Ren from Fenxian, intimidate the rest of the Shrouded Mountain disciples into a truce, and save Xiulan and Big D by punching Zang Li/Lu Ban into the next province.
- Body Snatcher: Whoever's currently in Jin Rou's body, who appears to be from Canada.
- Catchphrase: "You tell 'em, Big D," and "My Own Little Slice of Paradise, right Here."
- The Chains of Commanding: Jin specifically left the Cloudy Sword Sect and ran to the Azure Hills to avoid dealing with sect politics and making life-or-death decisions for himself and other people. So when his farm animals start awakening as cultivators and his farm essentially evolves into the Fa Ram Sect with himself as the Great Master, he gets pretty stressed out. He gets really stressed out when he uses his full power to save his disciples from Lu Ban and the Shrouded Mountain Sect, and in so doing reveals his power to the cultivators of the Azure Hills. They instantly realize he's far and away the strongest person in the province, backed by the strongest sect in the world, and begin to look to him for guidance and direction.
- Chekhov's Skill: Jin was shown teaching advanced fluid dynamic mathematics to Washy, which the fish drank up like a sponge, which apparently came from a stint working in a wastewater plant in the Before. It's only in Book 4 that it comes to the fore when he, with Miantiao and Bowu's help, installs working toilets and plumbing in his house.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: Initially upon moving to the Azure Hills, Jin had no idea how strong he was compared to the average, not realizing that being an outer disciple of the Cloudy Sword Sect already put him in the top tier of the province, let alone how much power he was gaining with his farm work-based cultivation. He views the Wicked Blade, a wolf that had been terrorizing the countryside, as a weak mutt that he puts down in one blow, and when a cultivator breaks his hand trying to punch him, he assumes that the guy was so weak he had to be an imposter of the sect he was claiming to belong to. Not helping the fact is that he has difficulty in sensing Qi, so he has no idea how strong others are in relation to himself.
- Eccentric Mentor: Jin comes off this way to his animal disciples and more conventional cultivators who come to his farm and watch him "cultivate" by literally cultivating crops.
- Farm Boy: Rejected cultivation in favor of the Call to Agriculture. And he'll stay one if it's the last thing he does.
- Fluffy Tamer: He's a farmer who happens to gather Spirit Beasts around him, either by making them sapient by feeding them Spiritual Herbs (unknowingly at first) or having the Spirit Beasts flocking towards him.
- Gardening-Variety Weapon: Until he began to brush up on his swordsmanship following the fight with the Shrouded Mountain Sect, Jin's primary weapon for defense of his farm and livestock was his shovel. Not that this holds him back—in Bi De's words, that shovel in Jin's hands is "a command of Death". Much later his "students" gift him a finely crafted, supernaturally enhanced shovel that promises to be both an effective tool and weapon.
- Genre Savvy: Played straight and subverted. Due to his knowledge as a transmigrator from modern day Earth who read cultivator genre literature, he can often see cliché cultivation tropes before they happen. However, he also takes a while to see that he more or less fits the trope of an old master Hermit Guru, hiding away from society and not wanting to be disturbed.
- Giving Radio to the Romans: A minor example of using advanced rice growing techniques he learned in a manga and sharing them with the locals. He also starts giving other examples of technology out, such as a waterwheel, knitting needles, cement, and a greenhouse, although more complicated inventions like a seed drill require smarter individuals like Bowu to take Jin's broad strokes and turn them into something real.
- Good Is Not Soft: Jin may be a kind and gentle man who wants nothing more than to turn his farm into his own little slice of heaven, but threatening him, his farm, friends, family, or any other innocent in his presence is not going to go well for you. The Wicked Blade, numerous predators and pests at the farm, Lu Ban, and the Shrouded Mountain Sect all find this out the hard way.
- Henpecked Husband: Pun aside it's actually treated as a good thing. Because if his wife Meiling can boss him around that means he's still very much down to earth. Her first order to him is to never act like a Cultivator.
- Hermit Guru: For all intents and purposes is one to Xiulan, despite being a runaway student and younger than her. Once he reveals his power to the other Azure Hills cultivators, they all view him this way as well, and he has to very firmly refuse numerous requests from the sects to send their disciples to train with him.
- Heroic Neutral: Mostly wants to just live in peace, having given up the cultivator race to tend to his farm. Push him, and you'll discover the hard way that "dropped out of the race" is miles away from "couldn't reach heaven."
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Towers over his wife Meiling by more than a foot.
- Humble Hero: He prefers to focus on his farm and refuses any accolades or influence, which completely confounds the administrators and politicians who have to deal with this incredibly powerful Farm Boy. Moreover, he will bow his head to anyone who helps his friends, fix or repay what he breaks with his own hands, play with and comfort children, and cook for everyone he meets, discombobulating everyone that knows his strength and expects him to act with appropriate levels of arrogance.
- Hunk: Is always described as tall and heavily muscled. Notably, this is not the dominant standard of male attractiveness in Xianada, which tends to favor more of a "Pretty Boy" archetype as the ideal.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Voluntarily drops out of the cultivator's race to the heavens to live a normal life, but ends up creating an all-new kind of Weird through his farm. Note that he still enjoys the perks of Super-Strength and Super-Toughness, he just doesn't want to rule the earth or break the heavens.
- Just Following Orders: Subverted. Jin doesn't believe following the orders of one's sect justifies their actions, much to the confusion of Yingwen, who gave this as his reason for kidnapping Tigu.
- Killing Intent: Most of the time this is downplayed; cultivators usually don't sense Jin's power and often mistake him for a mortal. However, if they closely examine him, or if Jin chooses to reveal it, Jin's intent reveals the enormity of the power he has accidentally accumulated. Most can't even wrap their minds around it; comparisons to bottomless lakes and unknowably tall mountains are common. The mere revelation of Jin's intent even without direction is enough to immediately stop fights between Profound-level cultivators.
- Lazy Alias: Gives his name as Rou Jin and spells it with different characters on official records to throw off potential pursuers from the Cloudy Sword sect. Surprisingly effective! (It wouldn't throw off an investigator who saw the records, but it does allow his friends to honestly say that they don't know anyone named Jin Rou.)
- Living Battery: Once people realize just how much Qi Jin has access to, he sometimes finds himself serving as a power source to aid the techniques of others. He finds this somewhat annoying, but is willing to do it for a good cause.
- Martial Arts and Crafts: Jin uses his considerable Qi and martial arts prowess to become a highly productive farmer. His disciples then use his farming techniques to become powerful cultivators themselves.
- Meaningful Name: His name "Jin" can be translated as "gold", and as shown with the spirit of the Azure Hills Tianlan, his Qi is slowly healing her of her injuries, depicted as her damaged body slowly filling in with gold like a "kintsugi" technique.
- Megaton Punch: As Lu Ban found out the hard way, when Jin is sufficiently empowered, he can throw a punch hard enough to cause a landslide over a thousand li awaynote .
- Merger of Souls: What the original Jin Rou and whoever was transmigrated went through, instead of a straight bodyjacking. Their broken souls fused to make a mostly singular being, visually represented on their soul by golden lines similar to kintsugi. The transmigrated “Rou Jin” serves mostly as the one in control. In special circumstances, they can even communicate with each other.
- Come Vol. 3 Chapter 48, the two souls appear to have merged fully into a single existence.
- Mistaken for Profound: The animals of Fa Ram/the farm believe Jin Rou to be their Cultivator master/teacher who teaches them in roundabout ways, when he's actually just farming his land and acting with basic honesty. Once he discovers that they're intelligent, he actually does begin teaching them. Xiulan also sees him as this.
- Mr. Fanservice: He's described as having "tanned, rippling muscles", and the sight of them has Meiling staring at him in awe.
- Mundane Utility: Uses his fantastical Cultivator powers to be really good at farming, and uses mystic Qi-infused herbs as seasoning.
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Neutral Good: He's not inclined to following the path of many other cultivators like him, but obeys the law of the land, if only to stay out of the spotlight. - No Name Given: The person currently in Jin Rou's body is never given a proper name.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: In the Cloudy Sword Sect, his qi was considered paltry and pathetic. In the Azure Hills, he would have been very nearly an elder, before his qi starts shooting through the roof making him practically a demigod by local standards.
- Not Afraid to Die: When Shen Yu confronts Jin about the fact that his current path makes immortality an impossibility, Jin merely and calmly replies: "I know".
- Seduction-Proof Marriage: Jin only has eyes for Meiling, despite a variety of normal and cultivator beauties throwing themselves at him.
- Street Urchin: Before his gramps found him, he was a street rat shoveling refuse in the streets of Crimson Crucible City after his parents died to an illness.
- Reluctant Warrior: After his identity and connection to the Cloudy Sword Sect is revealed to the other Azure Hills sects, he reluctantly starts practicing swordplay in the event that stronger foes come knocking. However, it's clear to Bi De that his master is very uncomfortable with learning the combat arts, both because of how much he treasures his peaceful life, and because of how much damage he could wreak if he actually got violent.
- Unable to Support a Wife: Jin Rou delayed his engagement (by local standards) until he made a home suitable for Meiling and their future children. Thankfully, it only took him a season to remodel his house himself.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Little actual combat skill, but possesses enough qi-backed strength to literally punch a demonically-possessed cultivator and all of his defenses clear into the next province.
- Weirdness Magnet: The unusual just seems to show up at his doorstep, often literally, including a whole farm's worth of cultivating animals, spirits, and many people with unconventional attitudes for Xianada.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Admits to Shen Yu that he practiced cultivation in the beginning not to rule the world or reach enlightenment, but to make his gramps proud, until he decided that the struggle to get there wasn't worth it.
- Work Hard, Play Hard: He spends a good bit of his time working on his farm but also introduces hockey, tobogganing, and vodka to the world of cultivators, and never sees partying alongside his friends and family as beneath him.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Would rather live out his days surrounded by friends and family, and eventually die, than spend all his time seeking immortality like other cultivators.
- World's Strongest Man: Downplayed. He's easily the strongest cultivator in the province, which comes with status and responsibilities that he really doesn't want.
- Younger Than They Look: When the cultivators at the Dueling Peaks meet Jin for the first time, all of them assume is he is at least a generation older than his current age due to his power compared to everybody else in the Azure Hills and being Tigu's master and/or father. Also, when he finally lets Xiulan in on his origins from the Cloudy Sword sect, she is amazed that he is younger than her.
Hong Meiling
The daughter of Hong Xian, she grew up in Hong Yaowu and learned her father's trade as a healer. Jin's love interest, and later wife.
- Ambiguously Bi: While Meiling is very deeply in love with Jin, there are certain indications that she's also attracted to Xiulan. Although it is difficult to tell whether or not she's simply teasing her friend when she insists on trying to get Xiulan into their bed, she nevertheless has some Ship Tease with her.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Her initial reaction to Jin, aside from fear when she could smell his potent Qi levels, was indignance when he pulled her into a mud puddle and she started chasing him around. Her friends couldn't stop teasing her about how attracted she was to him afterwards.
- The Confidant: Is one of the few people around that her husband Jin can truly open up to about his worries and concerns and is the only one (aside from an eavesdropping Vajra) that knows that Jin is actually from another world.
- Covert Pervert: Her reaction to finding a few sketches of cosplay costumes, including a Playboy Bunny outfit, around her husband's room? Excuse herself to Verdant Hills for a few days (ostensibly to take care of a pregnant Meihua) and make them herself as a surprise.
- Does Not Like Spam: Probably due to her sensitive nose, she doesn't like making or eating cheese, and is appalled at Jin's love for it, especially on pizza. But because she loves him, she'll make it for him.
- Drunken Song: Favors a lewd song involving a donkey when she gets into the cups.
- The Force Is Strong with This One: Given her ability to smell qi, Meiling can sense cultivators and Spirit Beasts. The scents also give her insights into their moods and/or moral alignments, such as demons smelling of blood and oil, while Jin smells earthy (with an undercurrent of peat if he's feeling stressed).
- Generation Xerox: She has a strikingly similar life story to Linlin, Xiaoshi's wife, her ancestor who lived thousands of years ago. This diverges however after Hong Yaowu is not destroyed, and she awakens as a cultivator on her wedding night, something Linlin never achieved.
- Heroic Lineage: If her grandmother's drunken rantings were accurate, she's from the same bloodline as the Azure Emperor that Xiaoshi overthrew, in possession of something called the Celestial Constellation Soul Art, with her inheriting the purple eyes and constellation-like freckles. As a What If? storyline shows, this is not inaccurate.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Meiling (5'2") is this compared to her husband Jin (6'3").
- Master Poisoner: A (usually) harmless variant. As a healer, Meiling knows the medicinal applications of various plants — and their toxic applications, too. She enjoys using itching powder on targets of her wrath. Her knowledge does however extend to extremely lethal and painful poisons... and she's taught Ri Zu a number of those recipes just in case...
- The Medic: Meiling has training as a healer, and helps her Frontier Doctor father treat various injuries and sicknesses. She also treats animals. After becoming a cultivator on her wedding night, it turns out that her Qi is specifically medical Qi, which she later uses to heal more severe injuries and afflictions, such as demonic qi infection.
- Her skills continue to grow throughout the story, and on one trip to Verdant Hills she manages to stop a plague from contaminated water and draw out Qi damage from the Lord Magistrate's wife, and eventually conduct major reconstructive surgery on Bowu's leg and purge some demonic Qi from Shen Yu's injuries.
- Missed the Call: As shown in a What If? storyline, her village was supposed to be wiped out by the Wicked Blade and Meihua taken by Zang Li, which would have started her on the path to becoming a tragic xianxia protagonist... had Jin's reincarnation not caused him to move to the Azure Hills and be in the right places at the right times to thwart both threats.
- The Nose Knows: She can smell qi, can distinguish between various types of qi, and can even discern emotions by differences in a cultivator's smell. It's why she first started paying attention to Jin – she could sense his very, very strong qi and was terrified that he would be a typical arrogant cultivator.
- This also means she is prone to Sensory Overload from Qi; a weird plant filled with Qi in Jin's greenhouse gives her a sneezing fit, and when she smells a cultivator in the Imperial realm, she feels like she is moments away from a nosebleed.
- Promoted to Parent: After her mother died, she basically acted as her younger brother Xian's mother figure.
- Sexually Transmitted Superpowers: Jin's connection to the land is expanded to include his wife, on their wedding night. When she wakes up the next morning and finds that she has access to a pool of qi, making her a cultivator, she internally notes that she suspected something like that might happen.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: While Jin still found her cute, her appearance at the start of the series was distinctly bony and flat-chested (in part due to living through a really nasty famine and having her growth slightly stunted from malnutrition). A few months of Jin's qi-infused foodstuffs and the normal cultivator bodily improvement leaves her somewhat curvier and much more attractive looking by the time she visits Meihua at Verdant Hill.
- Shout-Out: Her name is a reference to Touhou Project's Hong Meiling, while her appearance is based on Maomao from The Apothecary Diaries (save for her Youthful Freckles actually being real).
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Meiling fell for Jin Rou because he was genuinely respectful of herself, and supportive of her career, during their courtship. When she learns that he is building storage for medicinal herbs, and a library, so she can continue her studies, she promptly sends Yun and Gou out of the room so she can snog him senseless.
- The Tease: It comes out more when she gets drunk, but she enjoys teasing her husband Jin with Cosplay outfits, and while Xiulan is staying with them on the farm, often invites her into their bed with them, which flusters Xiulan too much to accept.
- Unkempt Beauty: She tries getting dolled up for tea with the magistrate's wife, but the makeup doesn't suit her skin tone, it's too obviously covering her freckles, and the dress makes her feel fake. So she scrubs her face off, changes back into her regular clothes, and simply uses the presence and self-confidence she now has as a cultivator. Her friend Meihua, widely considered to be an astounding beauty, takes one look and is stunned.Meihua: That is very, very unfair, Meimei.
- Youthful Freckles: Meiling, in defiance of female love-interests typical of the genre, has freckles. It gets her derided as plain, but Jin, with his Western sensibilities, finds them charming. Ironically, these freckles are eventually revealed to mark her as a descendant of the former Emperor of the Azure Mountains and the inheritor of his lost cultivation bloodline.
Cai Xiulan
- Action Girl: The most athletic and combat-capable female human met thus far. Tigu is the only one able to match her in this regard, and the two spar frequently.
- Ancestral Weapon: The Jade Grass Blades are considered a heirloom of the sect and were passed down to her when she proved herself before the start of the story. It's revealed that they were originally opera props used by her ancestor Ruolan.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind:
- After her battle against Sun Ken, where many lives were lost on both sides, Xiulan is plagued over and over by dreams where she relives the deaths of her soldiers and then gets killed by Sun Ken. With the earth spirit's tutelage, she eventually reaches a point where she wins the dream fight and vanquishes him — Just in Time, as it appears that the internal manifestation of him was gaining presence and becoming some form of demon.
- Xiulan again experiences one of these, this time against Lu Ban's fire Qi which has ignited her wood Qi. It takes the form of a wildfire in a grass field in her mind. She is able to extinguish it with the help of Ri Zu channeling water Qi provided by Xianghua. Then, with the help of the earth spirit, plus what she has learned from Jin, Xianghua, and others, she is able to restore her ability to cultivate, in the same way that a burned-out forest will grow back stronger because of the nutrients deposited in the soil from the ashes.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Whenever someone comments on her beauty, her large bust is often part of that discussion. Words like "lush" and "bouncy" have been used.
- Character Focus: The back half of Book 2 centers on her return to cultivator culture through the Dueling Peaks Tournament, with her reconciling her new outlook with the traditions and expectations of her station.
- Dance Battler: Her fighting style becomes incredibly graceful after she integrates her ancestor Roulan's own movements, mesmerizing the rest of her Sect when she demonstrates it.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Started off as the stoic, duty-bound Young Mistress of the Verdant Blade sect, keeping her acquaintances at a distance, but after spending time at Fa Ram, she is soon tilling the land with Jin, roughhousing with Gou Ren, or talking deeply with her Senior Sister Meiling (and singing lewd Drunken Songs with her when they get into the cups).
- Due to the Dead: She makes certain that the men who died to Sun Ken are memorialized.
- Gilded Cage: Xiulan feels that her obligations to her sect are restrictive. For example, she cannot choose a husband of her own – her father, the head of the sect, will choose one for her to secure an alliance of some kind.
- Green Thumb: She is a master of the Verdant Blade sect. Her qi is wood-aligned, and her techniques are all inspired by grass or other plants.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Her weapons are a pair of floating swords called the "Jade Grass Blades".
- Heroic Willpower: Even when severely injured and dying of poisonous demonic qi, she kept on hunting Sun Ken.
- Hidden Depths: One arc she's gone through during the Dueling Peaks tournament is that after her ascension during her time at Fa Ram, she feels that the victory at the tournament now feels meaningless and that she's not sure what to do with her life now that she's reached a peak. She starts making plans to create a grand alliance of cultivators to alleviate suffering she saw caused by things like Sun Ken.
- The Joy of First Flight: After he returns to the farm as a Dragon, Washy gives Xiulan a ride as he flies around. She finds it quite enjoyable and the change in physical perspective helps give her philosophical perspective, increasing her cultivation by two Stages, all the way into the next Realm.
- Master of the Levitating Blades: Her sect's signature technique, the [Blades of Grass], involves creating numerous copies of her heirloom swords which she then controls telekinetically.
- Orgasmically Delicious: Xiulan has a tendency to make sounds when she encounters a new sort of food she enjoys, mostly from Jin's otherworldly recipes. It's completely involuntary and she's quite embarrassed by it.
- The Power of Legacy: She lies about the actions of Jiang Yuan. Sun Ken killed Yuan in a single blow, but in her retellings of the story, Yuan manages to wound Sun Ken before dying.
- Red Baron: After Sun Ken's death, she becomes widely known as the "Demon-slaying Orchid".
- Secret-Keeper:
- At Jin's request, she keeps the secret of the Farm's location, of who actually killed Sun Ken, and the identity of those who helped her. Jin explains that he likes his life simple, and doesn't want people seeking him out. The only person she tells is her own father, head of the Verdant Blade Sect, and the version of the secret is much abbreviated – that a "Hidden Master" saved her and slew Sun Ken. He agrees with keeping the secret.
- Following the Dueling Peaks Tournament, she knows about his past at the Cloudy Sword Sect as well.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Xiulan is quite an attractive woman, only enhanced by her use of qi — to the point where she has faced unwanted advances from a very young age. Thankfully for her she has enough personal power, and the backing of her father and sect, to be able to confidently reject them from the vast majority of suitors.
- Spectral Weapon Copy: How the [Blades of Grass] technique works. The more powerful the practitioner, the more simultaneous blades they can create and manage. Xiulan starts the story with eight but later upgrades to 16, 32 and then 64 simultaneous swords.
- Stepford Smiler: She pretended that she was fine after the long campaign against Sun Ken, but she was suffering from PTSD. Thankfully, her time on the Fa Ram did wonders for her.
- Survivor Guilt: She suffers from this, as many of the men under her command were killed hunting Sun Ken. It's not helped that "her" defeat of Sun Ken has been immortalized in a play about her and her exploits, which constantly reminds her of not only how she lost them, but it was All for Nothing as it was Bi De that actually did the dirty work.
- Telekinesis: She appears to specialize in this application of qi, initially with her floating blades, but later manages an entire kitchen at once.
- Tempting Fate: Upon meeting Ri Zu and Bi De, a cultivating rat and rooster respectively, she wonders what was next - pigs that could shake the earth? Her unspoken question is promptly answered when Chun Ke goes thundering by outside. Cue Twitchy Eye and Meiling being amused.
- Vitriolic Best Buds:
- She has this relationship with Tigger, until Tigger transforms into a human and drops most of her cynicism – and even after that, they spar frequently.
- Her relationship with Xianghua eventually morphs from bitter rivalry into friends who constantly tease and insult one another.
Xong Gou Ren
Gou Ren is a childhood friend of Meiling and younger brother to Yun Ren. Since spending time around Jin and eating his qi-enhanced food, he's started to unlock his potential as a cultivator himself.
- Abduction Is Love: Following his mother's tribe's custom, he tries to kidnap Liu Xianghua as a marriage proposal. Unbeknownst to him, she also had decided to practice that custom on him...
- Animal Motif: Monkeys. He is explicitly stated to resemble a monkey early on, with a flat nose and sideburns.
- Benevolent Boss: After he redesigns and helps rebuild Hong Yaowu, he is startled to find that everyone now calls him "Boss."
- Better as Friends: He remains friends with Cai Xiulan with the latter intending to matchmake him. Eventually he remains friends with Xiulan when he gets betrothed to Xianghua.
- Big Little Brother: Is a few inches taller than his older brother Yun Ren.
- Hidden Depths: As he works on Jin's farm, he slowly develops an appreciation for architecture, even designing and building several structures himself.
- Hopeless Suitor: Has a crush on Cai Xiulan but understands that she is completely out of his league due to her being a Sect Leader's daughter and powerful cultivator in her own right. While he confesses his feelings, he accepts it when Cai Xiulan doesn't reciprocate his feelings (and even gets insulted that Xiulan would compare him to other suitors that wouldn't take no for an answer).
- Mighty Glacier: His Unskilled, but Strong nature means that he resorts to pure strength over speed.
- Reinforce Field: Specializes in using Qi to reinforce the durability of physical objects. This mainly gets used to strengthen the rice paddies and other farm construction against weather damage, but in battle it lets him wrap himself in a shell of hardened Qi that even a cultivator a full Realm higher can't crack, and his own blows strike with enough force to crack stone.
- Unskilled, but Strong: When he fights Yingwen with a bamboo staff it's clear he doesn't have the best idea what he's doing—his technique doesn't even have a fancy name, just [Break]. But he's putting so much power behind each blow that even a cultivator a realm stronger is forced to dodge, as getting hit or even attempting to parry could be lethal.
Xong Yun Ren
Yun Ren is a childhood friend of Meiling and older brother to Gou Ren. Like his brother, he's also managed to unlock his Qi, though he's less interested in getting stronger and more on enjoying life.
- Animal Motif: Foxes. In addition to his slim features and squinty eyes, his line is descended from a fox spirit that interbred with a human, something noted when he meets another fox spirit who turns out to be a nephew of the fox spirit his line is descended from.
- Camera Fiend: After being put in charge of recording Jin and Meiling's wedding with a recording crystal, he becomes obsessed with photography.
- Cool Sword: Owns a jian sword, for limited self-defense but mostly to practice with because it's fun and looks cool. Things get more interesting when Nezan secretly swaps it out with Summer's Sky, an Empathic Weapon with centuries of experience and lightning powers.
- Crossdresser: Occasionally wears dresses (with or without an illusory sex change) much to his girlfriend's delight.
- Funny Bruce Lee Noises: He makes these when he's practicing with his sword by himself. It becomes embarrassing for him when his Empathic Weapon Summer's Sky insists on using his random noises as names for his techniques.
- Legacy Character: To Summer's Sky, Yun Ren is the Eighth Wielder.
- Little Bit Beastly: Gains fox ears and a tail after crafting the presentation that revealed the Shrouded Mountain Sect's perfidious past.
- Master of Illusion: In-training. Between his practice with that recording crystal and his awakened Qi, Yun Ren has learned to "paint" himself with a thin layer of light to create pseudo-Holograms. Makes for a good party trick! Or evading goons!
- Secret Legacy: Nezan the Spirit Fox awakens his latent fox blood, making his teeth sharper and features more androgynous, as well as enhancing his illusions.
- After going undercover in the Shrouded Mountain Sect, one of their tests reveals that he has a connection to that sect's lightning-using Zang clan as well.
Rou Zhuye / "Xiao De"
Jin and Meiling's firstborn son, born in Chapter 40 of Volume 3. Is officially named in Volume 4 Chapter 9 (due to Xianada's high infant mortality rate, children are not officially named until a hundred days after their birth). He has his father's brown hair and his mother's purple eyes.
- Baby See, Baby Do: One of his first behaviors is echoing Bi De's morning greeting. He also gets really fussy when Bi De isn't around to crow and one of the younger roosters has to do it instead.
- Meaningful Name: His official name is written with the characters for "red leaf", referencing the sugar maple leaf that has become Fa Ram's symbol and a key source of their wealth and status.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Due to Xianada's high infant mortality rate, children are not officially named until a hundred days after their birth. "Xiao De" is a placeholder-slash-nickname given to him until he can be officially named.
- Punny Name: His nickname translates to "Little D", which is a reference to both his habit of imitating Bi De when he calls the sun, and a dick joke. It also sounds very similar to "Xiao Didi"/ "Little Brother", Tigu's nickname for him.
- Shared Family Quirks: Has seemed to inherit Meiling's sensitive nose; when his dad shows off his new pickled creations, both he and his mother grimace and crinkle their faces in the exact same way.
Animal and Spirit Disciples
In General
- Inconsistent Spelling: Every animal or sentient sword/plow named by Jin has some flavor of this due to English phonetics not translating perfectly to Chinese. Everyone who hears Jin pronounce such names thinks that he slurs them oddly.
- Killer Rabbit: As Spirit Beasts, all of them know how to use Qi in various combat applications, be it the tiger of a housecat, the solar-powered rabbit, the Master Poisoner rat, or the rooster with talons of moonlight.
- Uplifted Animal: As a result of constant consumption of Lowly Spiritual Herbs, exposure to high qi levels, or just started out that way and migrated to Jin's farm one way or another.
- Undying Loyalty: The Spirit Beasts all see Jin as their Great Master, take all of his teaching to heart, and would give their lives for him if he asked.
Big D / Fa Bi De
SPOILER
A northern subspecies of the Common Crimson Phoenix Chicken, the first spirit beast featured in the series and the eponymous chicken of the story. Jin Rou's first and faithful "subordinate", who names himself "First Disciple of Fa Ram".
- Actually, I Am Him: Bi De reveals to Miantiao and Yin that it was actually he who killed Sun Ken and not Xiulan.Bi De: The slayer of Sun Ken stands before you.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Starts off as a Cocky Rooster, but gets knocked down a peg in the first volume after nearly falling to Chow Ji's machinations.
- The Atoner: Becomes this after realizing that his qi has been deliberately corrupted by the rats.
- Barrier Warrior: His technique [Aegis of the Full Moon] projects a circular forcefield that glows with the light of the moon. It's large enough to defend both himself and others.
- Beautiful Singing Voice: While in human form, he still keeps up his morning habits by singing to the dawning sun, which actually invigorates everyone who hears it. Many women, and some men, are transfixed by his voice.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: Subverted. While he frequently mates with the non-sapient hens, this is never implied to be in any way inappropriate. He stops once he realizes that none of his offspring show signs of becoming sapient like him.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Served as this to the village of Correct Place 8, when in their darkest moment of being threatened by a Spirit Wolf, Bi De appeared and slew the beast.
- Arrives at the fight between Xiulan and Zang Li/Lu Ban just in time to save her from a lethal blow. He then defends her long enough for Jin to arrive and save him in turn.
- Bishōnen Line: Inverted. Big D is stronger as a chicken than as a human, since it is the former that is his true form.
- Break the Haughty: Big D suffers from this in the first volume after he lets in a group of pill-making rats whose pills corrupt his qi. It takes him quite a while to recover from this, both in a physical sense and an emotional sense.
- Chick Magnet: He has been considered attractive by several female characters, none of whom are chickens themselves. Besides Rizzo and Vajra back at the Farm, he has also been noticed by Liang Yin, a rabbit. That said, non-sapient chickens also find him attractive (presumably due to qi optimising and enhancing his body), and he is mentioned as mating with them multiple times. When he takes human form, every woman and many men who meet him drool over his appearance.
- The Chosen One: Played with and subverted. Bi De was chosen by the fates, with the help of a seer and ancient spirit, as the designated heir to the ancient Azure Emperor. However, he is actually the third choice; the seer had a kindly heart beneath her gruff exterior and rejected the first two candidates – the Lord Magistrate and Jin – to spare them the stress and pain that position would bring. However, Bi De doesn't want the position either.
- Cock-a-Doodle Dawn: Greets the morning every day, and it's implied the rousing of those who hears his voice has a slight Qi-empowered edge to it. Even in human form, he goes out to the dawn and sings.
- Deuteragonist: Although Jin is the primary point of view character and it's his actions that set most of the events of the story in motion, Big D is the title character and his separate adventures are significant drivers of the plot.
- Extremity Extremist: As a rooster, Big D's main weapons are his feet and spurs. During a fight in human form, he falls back on fighting with his feet because it's what he's most familiar with - and humiliating/astounding the Shrouded Mountain sect when he beats several disciples with his hands behind his back.
- Foil: To Jin. If Jin represents a subversion of the stereotypical Xianxia protagonist and the tropes associated with one, Big D's adventures hit those story beats like clockwork... with the twist that he's a chicken.
- Humanity Ensues: In Book 4, he takes on a human form to infiltrate the Shrouded Mountain Sect. Surprisingly he's able to do it with little fanfare. As it turns out, this is because he's so powerful as a rooster that becoming human actually makes him weaker, so he's 'stepping down' to an inferior form.
- Inconsistent Spelling: Everyone in Xianada besides Jin Rou hears/pronounces his name as "Bi De", even Big D himself.
- Karmic Jackpot:
- Even at the top of his arrogance he continues donating Qi to the land. This ends up warning him just in time that Chow Ji's pills are corrupting him when the land recoils from his now-tainted Qi.
- He rescues Ri Zu from a hawk, and she repays the debt by helping him resist Chow Ji's corruptive techniques.
- Lemony Narrator: His internal narration displays all the gravitas of a cultivator as he espouses the glory of the Great Sect Fa Ram (Jin's farm) and performs his training atop the Great Pillars of Fa Ram (the farm's fence).
- Lunacy: All of Big D's special techniques are philosophically based on the moon, and he draws power from proximity to the moon.
- [Rising of the Crescent Moon] is a technique that allows Big D to jump supernaturally high and fast. It's usually followed by [Descending Lunar Fangs], an attack that uses the resulting height advantage to add weight and speed to his descent.
- [Wheel of the Crescent Moon] is a flying, spinning attack that traces a semicircle with Big D's Qi-enhanced spurs.
- [Aegis of the Full Moon] creates a moon-shaped, glowing forcefield.
- [Split Faces of the Half Moon] allows him to split himself into a light and dark copy of himself which can attack, maneuver, and communicate separately.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Big D has this in the first volume, after he realizes the pills he's been taking are corrupting his qi, and that the farm/Fa Ram has been suffering for it.
- Nemean Skinning: After he slew Basi Bu Shi in defense of Fa Ram, Jin fashioned him a fur vest out of the fox's pelt.
- The Paragon: Becomes this after his Character Development. He now does his best to help his fellow disciples grow and develop, both as cultivators and as people.
- Punny Name: "Big D" is a rooster, a.k.a. a cock.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: He is learning Cultivation from Jin... but it's completely unintentional as Jin doesn't even realize he's practicing cultivation. This changes once Jin realizes that Big D is sapient.
- Stroke the Beard: Animal equivalent; he often strokes his wattles when he's thinking.
- Took a Level in Kindness: He was immensely humbled after Chow Ji's betrayal. He becomes much more introspective and kind to Chun Ke and Pi Pa.
- Translator Collar: Master Gen gives him a medallion that allows him to speak to humans who can't understand Qi speech.
Rizzo / Hong Ri Zu
SPOILER
A City Rat that was originally part of Chow Ji's pack, who eventually left the pack and joined the Farm.
- Appropriate Animal Attire: Unlike the other animals, she wears a tiny medical robe on a regular basis.
- Deadly Doctor: If she has to get in a fight, she makes full use of her medical knowledge, her arsenal of tinctures and poisons, and her medical needles to subdue her opponent.
- Defector from Decadence: She rescued Bi De from the evil rat leader, Chow Ji, and joined the farm.
- Expy: Her and the rest of her tribe are expies of the Skaven from Warhammer Fantasy, being rat-people speaking in the Skaven's characteristic speech.
- Guile Heroine: When she does fight, she uses poisons and dusts, to Tigu's dismay.
- Happily Adopted: Of a sort. While the animals are picking family names for themselves, Meiling and her father proudly allow Ri Zu to take on theirs.
- Humanity Ensues: Wanting to join Bi De in infiltrating the Shrouded Mountain Sect, she eventually takes a look at Chow Ji's faulty technique and uses a heavily reworked version, influenced by her surgical skill, to succeed where he failed.
- Interspecies Romance: Is shown to have feelings for Bi De, though neither acts on it due to their species barrier. When they both take on human forms, however, they do share a moment in an alley.
- Master Poisoner: As befitting the education she received from Meiling, she has an impressive knowledge of medicines, poisons, and both warlike and peaceful ways to deliver either.
- The Medic: Takes on this role, learning from Meiling, and very rarely participates in the fighting.
- The Minion Master: She eventually develops the ability to command a horde of shadowy rats.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Watched Chow Ji sacrifice the other rats for power, and knew that if he was aware that she was sapient, she'd be forced to mate with him to continue his lineage. So when she has an opportunity to take him down, she goes for it.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Named after Rizzo the Rat from The Muppet Show.
- Shrinking Violet: Ri Zu's very first action in the story is – keeping to herself. Specifically, keeping secret the fact that she is self-aware and independent, to remain beneath Chow Ji's notice. She later becomes Meiling's student, and is a competent healer, but still lacks self-confidence, which hinders her from talking freely with Bi De about her feelings for him (though he's aware). Even when she takes a step out of her comfort zone and leaves the farm to see the Dueling Peaks tournament, she's usually hiding in someone's hair rather than publicly introducing herself.
- Translator Buddy: Before the other animal disciples gain the power of speech, she's the go-to translator between the animals and Jin.
- Verbal Tic: When stressed or furious, she will revert to the Skaven-like Department of Redundancy Department way of speaking that her old pack used.
Tigger / Rou Tigu
SPOILER
A tiger-striped kitten of the Goldgrass Steppe Tiger-Cat species, which Jin Rou received as a gift from an old woman. She later manages to transform herself into a human.
- Absurdly Sharp Claws: Her martial style takes inspiration from Bi De's moonlight spurs, enhancing her own claws and summoning large, spectral claws to fight with. She retains this after assuming human form, summoning qi blades over her hands.
- Amazonian Beauty: In her human form, she has the defined musculature of a Farmer's Daughter, and when she goes to the Dueling Peaks tournament, she attracts several admirers, including Zang Wei, Dong Chou and Tie Delun. Downplayed in that her muscled form isn't considered the ideal of beauty for most of Xianada.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Being a cat, she is very full of herself, even more so than Big D. This largely goes away when she becomes human.
- Badass in Distress: Zang Li kidnaps her near the end of book two, following a severe beating by his minions.
- Break the Cutie: She is ambushed, beaten, forced to watch two of her friends get maimed, and kidnapped by the Shrouded Mountain Sect led by Lu Ban. This is her first time losing a fight outside of a sparring match or regulated competition, the first time one of her fights has negative consequences for someone she cares about, and the first time she feels like prey instead of a predator. It's a huge psychological blow to her and Rizu has to give her a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech to help her recover and break out of confinement.
- Cat/Dog Dichotomy: Completely averted, at least in the case of Zhang Fei's puppy Shaggy Two, to the point where Jin jokingly muses that he almost thought she was going to kidnap him during their visit to Eighth Correct Place.
- Cat Girl: She tries this with her human form but ends up with a mostly standard human form.
- Cats Are Superior: Certainly believes this. She eventually is forced to admit that Bi De is stronger, though. Largely loses this attitude once she adopts a human form, and in fact dislikes transforming back.
- Cuddle Bug: Being a cat, she often tries to snuggle with Jin and Meiling. She retains certain feline sensibilities after becoming human as well, and will often hug, rub her cheek against, and pounce upon friends and loved ones.
- Farmer's Daughter: Played with when she becomes human, she comes from Fa Ram to the Dueling Peaks while having little experience of the outside world. And with her human form resembling Jin, the people who saw her and Jin together may think they are daughter and father at a first glance. For all intents and purposes, she is his adopted daughter, being the only one of the disciples to take his family name.
- Genki Girl: She becomes easily excitable after becoming human.
- Girlish Pigtails: Her human form has these, in keeping with her general Farmer's Daughter aesthetic.
- Happily Adopted: Chooses to take Jin's family name when the disciples are picking names for themselves, and is for all intents and purposes Jin and Meiling's adopted daughter.
- Has a Type: Probably non-romantic, but her ideal of attractiveness is that of her master Jin, rugged and muscular. There's a reason her nickname for Tie Delun of the blacksmithing Hermetic Iron Sect is "Handsome Man".
- Humanity Ensues: Manages to turn herself into a human to better connect with Jin and Mei.
- Inconsistent Spelling: Everyone in the novel (aside from Jin Rou, and possibly Chun Ke) hears Jin pronounce her name as "Tigu'er", and since "er" is an affectionate suffix in Chinese for little children, they think her given name is just "Tigu", with her master/father being affectionate. Tigu also views her name this way, so if Jin calls her just "Tigu", she sees it as a Full-Name Ultimatum.
- Innocently Insensitive: Having been basically raised by Jin, Tigu's standards of beauty are tuned much closer to modern Canada than pseudo ancient China. Thus, when Ty An tries to insult her by calling her "Muscles", she takes it as a compliment, and returns the favor by calling Ty An "Freckles". Of course, while to her sensibilities having muscles and freckles is good, the local ideal of womanly beauty is smooth, lithe, and graceful, and Ty An is mortified.
- The Lancer: She's much less philosophical than Bi De, but quite capable of killing things. The earlier books have her hotheadedness and arrogance clashing with Bi De's new tempered mindset and her having to come to terms with her identity and shortcomings.
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Turns out the shift from her predatory, haughty cat mentality to a more balanced, compassionate and understanding human mindset was indeed influenced by her bodily change. Among other things, she no longer feels compelled to try to eat Ri Zu.
- Mundane Utility: In addition to shredding bandits, her claw arts are also well-suited for carving sculptures and harvesting crops.
- Named After Someone Famous: After Tigger from "Winnie the Pooh."
- The Nicknamer: According to end-of-chapter notes, she has trouble remembering proper names and thus resorts to nicknames. Some of these are directly descriptive (e.g., "Loud Boy" and "Rags"), others are more poetic (Cai Xiulan is "Blade of Grass," while her junior sect member An Ran is "Smaller Blade of Grass").
- Oblivious to Love: As she has only been a human for a short before the tournament in Dueling Peaks, her social skills lessons do not include romantic love, thus she is oblivious to the affections of the other interested male cultivators.
- Old Shame: Part of what causes her trouble turning back into a cat after becoming human is that she looks back at how she acted when she was one and is utterly ashamed of the arrogance and cruelty she carried herself with. She subconsciously resists turning back due to her fear she would start acting like that again and drive away the people she loves.
- The Paladin: After her encounter with the Grass City slaving rings, Tigu has pledged herself to Zhong Kui, the Ghost Hunter. Per
Word of God, continuing along this Path will eventually let her develop powerful techniques to destroy demons (even ones that are unkillable by normal means) and cause the wicked to recoil from her mere presence
. - Past Experience Nightmare: Subverted example. Mei and Xiulan tell her she can come to them if she has bad dreams following the events at Dueling Peak, but her dreams tend to focus on Jin arriving and ending the fight instantly, leaving her in a very good mood after waking up.
- Path of Most Resistance: She chose to undergo Tribulation in order to achieve human form. An astounded Ri Zu notes that her method, despite being much more dangerous, achieved results far superior to those Chow Ji attempted to use, finding very little in her new body that isn't human.
- Red Baron: "The Tiger of the Peaks."
- Reveling in the New Form: Tigu becomes much happier and more content after achieving a human form, to the point of having difficulty mustering the will to ever change back.
- Sarashi: After she becomes human, she insists on wearing Jin's tunics, and since they end up flapping open in the front, Meiling insists she wears these to cover her breasts.
- Sense Freak: Is tremendously surprised by how much more developed her senses of taste and touch are in human form.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Not her directly, but she has no qualms about presenting her carved sculptures of her master and fellow disciples, all in their nude, muscular glory.
- Shaping Your Attacks: When she unleashes powerful enough attacks, an ethereal tiger formed of Qi can be seen to outline or mirror her.
- Spirited Competitor: Especially after gaining humanity and shedding her feline arrogance, she revels in the opportunity to test her skills against worthy opponents. This gets especially highlighted during the Dueling Peaks arc, where she gives instruction to the weaker opponents she faces in the initial brackets, beats the monsters on the Hill of Torment without even bothering to collect the treasures they guard, and is ecstatic when she finally comes up against someone who can give her a real challenge.
- Token Evil Teammate: As a cat, she is self-centered, arrogant, and cruel. She grows less so over time. No longer applies after she becomes human.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Jin lampshades this as he watches Tigu learn how to weave, knit and loom, that instead of eschewing all things feminine like a regular tomboy would, she still embraces usual feminine hobbies.
Chunky Shan / Shan Chun Ke
A Rust Boar and one of Jin's pigs, given to him as a reward for a favor.
- The Big Guy: Physically the strongest of the farm disciples.
- Dumb Is Good: Left slightly brain damaged after the battle against the rats, but still a genuinely kind and friendly person.
- Face of a Thug: Looks the most feral of all the Fa Ram disciples, with shaggy red fur, enormous tusks, and three huge scars across his face. He is also one of the kindest and friendliest of all the disciples.
- Friend to All Children: While he's friendly with everyone he seems to particularly enjoy playing with children, and the children all adore him as well.
- Gentle Giant: His vast size and strength is only matched by his kindness and friendliness. All agree he's the best ride for the children, the best perch for wild birds, and the best pillow to sleep against.
- Handicapped Badass: He's slower than most and mentally deficient, but of all the members of the Farm, he hits the absolute hardest.
- The Heart: He acts as this for the Spirit Beasts of Fa Ram, being able to get through to each member, earn their trust, and get them to work together even when they are arguing with one another.
- Hulk Speak: Skirts the edges of this in his POV scenes, due to his mild brain damage.
- Inconsistent Spelling: Everyone in Xianada besides Jin Rou and Chunky himself hears/pronounces his name as "Chun Ke".
- Punny Name: Shan means "mountain", so using the Western name order (which he does when he first comes up with the name) his name would be "Chunky Mountain". He did this on purpose.
- Simpleminded Wisdom: Seems to be partially aware of the real origins of the animals' names and is much more perceptive than he seems. He's also capable of coming up with solutions to interpersonal problems that try to satisfy everyone, even if it means going against his beloved wife. As mentioned above, he is also aware of the Western name order, which shocks Jin as it shows he actually understands English to a degree.
- He even manages to connect to Tianlan Shan and become a regular confidant to her, especially when her paranoia overwhelms her need for help. He is aware of her presence long before Jin himself notices, and is able to enter her dream/spirit world at will.
- Sizeshifter: As he grows in power he gains the ability to make himself arbitrarily larger. Curiously, only cultivators and other spirit beasts seem to notice this.
- Slobs vs. Snobs: Downplayed in his relationship with Pi Pa. She is the most formal and proper of all the Fa Ram disciples while Chun Ke is one of the most childish and informal, but each loves and deeply appreciates the other.
- Squeamish About Slaughter: After he witnesses Jin killing one of his non-sapient chickens for food, Chun Ke swears off eating meat raised on Fa Ram and sticks to a vegetarian diet. If meat is served, it usually comes from an animal outside the farm or at least slaughtered outside the farm for Chun Ke's peace of mind.
Peppa / Shan Pi Pa
A North Wind Swine and one of Jin's pigs, given to him as a reward from Tingfeng for protecting Meihua.
- Big Eater: Pi Pa can eat a human body in one bite. Though depending on the body, she finds it distasteful.
- Black-Hole Belly: Seemingly an aspect of her void-aspected Qi, she can swallow things larger than her head in one bite, and can even store and spit them up later without harm. One time when Ti Gu and Ri Zu were squabbling, she swallowed both of them into her mouth and continued with her work until they calmed down.
- Despair Event Horizon: Almost fell to this following Chun Ke's injuries from Chow Ji. The combination of brain damage and disruption of his cultivation nearly reverted him to a normal animal, and only Jin and Meiling's treatments were able to allow him to keep his sapience. The trauma and struggle from nearly losing him caused Pi Pa's qi to gain the essence of Void.
- Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: She holds some contempt for Bi De since it was his arrogance that let Chow Ji into the farm and injured her husband to the point of brain damage. His contriteness and change of heart after that have gone a long way in soothing the ill-feelings, but she will always remember what he did.
- Genius Bruiser: She can almost match Chunky in terms of pure strength but she has also demonstrated higher understanding of things like home finances and calligraphy.
- Good Is Not Soft: Is dutiful, diligent and loving to her husband and home, but if anyone threatens the ones or places she loves, she will swallow them whole, never to return, and not lose a wink of sleep afterwards.
- Inconsistent Spelling: Everyone in Xianada besides Jin Rou hears and pronounces her name "Pi Pa", like all the other animals.
- Kindly Housekeeper: Takes the role of Fa Ram's housekeeper, keeping track of the house and farm's finances while always being on hand to attend to guests.
- Lady of War: An elegant war-machine capable of mowing down cultivators with ease, and looking graceful while doing it.
- Love Makes You Dumb: When teaching his disciples math, Jin notes that she deliberately got the same questions wrong as her husband, Chunky. He scolds her for this and tells her flat-out that if she limits himself so that Chunky feels better, all she'll be doing is hurting both of them in the long run.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Named after Peppa Pig.
- Power of the Void: Awakening due to the trauma of Chun Ke's debilitating injury caused her to develop void-aspected qi.
- Proper Lady: And she won't let you forget it. Her penmanship — using her mouth — makes Meiling feel inferior.
- Slobs vs. Snobs:
- Downplayed in her relationship with Chun Ke. She is the most formal and proper of all the Fa Ram disciples while Chun Ke is one of the most childish and informal, but each loves and deeply appreciates the other.
- She also finds her fellow glutton Wa Shi an absolute boor.
- Threatening Mediator: Forced to take up this role because of Tigger and Rizzo's hostility towards one another.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Despite being a pig, she is the most proper and formal of all the Fa Ram inhabitants. And as a void cultivator, she is also one of the more dangerous disciples.
Washy / He Wa Shi
SPOILER
A Common Azure Hills Carp who acts as the farm's dishwasher and scrap disposal. Later becomes a dragon, but still likes being a dishwasher and sprinkler system for the farm.
- Big Eater: Washy likes eating food. He can branch out into all kinds of activities, but in the end, it all boils down to what gets him more food.
- Boisterous Weakling: Talks a big game, but immediately backs down when challenged.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Is normally pretty easygoing, but is one of the Farm's more diligent residents when sufficiently motivated. Which is to say, he understands that keeping Fa Ram operating is important to his food supply.
- Comically Missing the Point: When a turtle asks Wa Shi what Flow is, it's fairly clear that the old terrapin is ready to get into a philosophical discussion... which is thrown off the rails when Wa Shi immediately recites the mathematical equation for flow, q=v/t.
- Giver of Lame Names: His one-track mind for food means that his suggestion for Jin's son's name is "Wan", which would mean that the full name of "Rou Wan" would translate to "meatball". Tigu takes exception to this.
- Good with Numbers: He is a mathematical genius but gives answers as slowly as possible to avoid getting more work.
- Hidden Depths:
- Understands math at a high level, even able to surprise his turtle mentor with the equations for flow.
- Dislikes the implication that he would eat the whole moon when he said he wanted to eat it, he wants to taste things, since if you eat everything then there'd be nothing left to eat. Specifically, he's an epicurian; he doesn't want to just mindlessly gorge himself, he wants to try lots of new and different tasty foods. It's one reason that he hangs around Fa Ram, because Jin comes up with new, interesting things to taste all the time. He at one point mentions that he doesn't know what this "cheese" stuff is, but if Jin wants it than it must be good.
- Legendary Carp: Manages to climb a waterfall to return to the Farm from a spiritual realm.
- Making a Splash: Learns how to manipulate water from a kind turtle, which he uses to clean the dishes and water the fields.
- Shock and Awe: He gains the power to shoot lightning after becoming a dragon.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Is happy and content with being Fa Ram's gluttonous dishwasher, but Jin is amused at how quickly he can go from being grandiose, talking himself up, and trying to give himself magnificent surnames to cowering at Tigu's ire.
Vajra
An Iridescent Azure queen bee that Big D rescued when Jin expressed an interest in starting a hive.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She's the last surviving queen of a great alliance of sapient queens that was wiped out nearly to the last by an unknown threat (hinted to be some manner of qi-channeling hornets). She was found by Big D wandering in a daze, trying to rebuild her hive.
- Disproportionate Retribution: After finding that mosquitos are bothering Jin, she sets her hive on a crusade to exterminate all mosquitos near Fa Ram.
- Eating the Eye Candy: During her pre-Farm days, she would often demand that the males of her hive dance for her entertainment. After she is rescued and nursed back to health, she has turned her attention towards Big D, and she sneaks into the baths to peep on Jin.
- Hive Mind: Although she has a separate identity as the queen bee, her qi is spread across her entire hive and they nearly function as extensions of her body. Those closer to her, like her Coldguard and more successful warriors, have more intelligence and personality because they share more in her qi.
- Lost in Translation: She communicates everything to Jin through her usual bee dances - and doesn't realize that Jin has no idea what she's saying and just thinks she's cute.
- Love Makes You Dumb: Or in this case - makes you seem dumb. Because Vajra and her other bees kept sneaking into the bathhouse to peep on Jin and getting stuck inside, Jin took that silly behavior as evidence that she wasn't sapient like the other Spirit Beasts. It was only when Vajra and her hive brought a full-on royal procession to greet Jin's new son that he learned the truth.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Named after the aliens from Macross Frontier. Other potential names that she rejected were Kei Regan and Tai Ranid.
- The Runt at the End: So far, she's the only Spirit Animal associated with Fa Ram that is not in theme with the Chinese Zodiac.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Knows about Jin's origins since she was nearby when he confided in Meiling, and he never realized because he thought she wasn't sapient.
- Warrior Princess: Before she was taken to the Farm, she commanded troops for her old hive.
Babe & Sunny / Bei Be & Sun Ne
A Northern Azure Ox that Jin received on his wedding day to plow his fields, and his plow made from the sword that once belonged to Sun Ken.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: As a sword-turned-plow, Sunny's only concern in life is to cut things, with little regard for what exactly it is cutting. It also gets upset when told not to cut, or if it cannot cut things cleanly. Almost has a breakdown when it realises that it's expected to cut around roots without damaging them, until Babe says that doing so would be more skillful than simply cutting everything.
- Empathic Weapon: Sunny has a mind of its own, but thus far has not communicated with anyone except for its current wielder, Babe, and Summer's Sky.
- Ironic Name: Invoked by Jin. He names the plow Sunny in direct opposition to its past as The Crimson Demon's Tooth, the blade of a notorious bandit and murderer.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: Summer's Sky enters Sun Ne's Mental World, and meets it as a small Wild Child of an undetermined gender. While slightly shy, the child noticeably cheers up when it learns Summer's Sky also enjoys cutting things.
- Legacy Character: Sunny thinks of Babe as the Third Wielder. Sun Ken was the second, but it's not known who the first was, nor who forged the sword in the first place.
- Mental World: A rather peaceful one, with a large plain surrounded by mountains, marked by thousands of perfectly straight furrows, representing its desire for perfection in the cuts it makes, with a sky marked by golden cracks. Summer's Sky is slightly surprised, having expected something like a forge, a raging river, or a world of blood and slaughter.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Babe, after Paul Bunyan's legendary ox companion.
- Only One Name: When given the opportunity to choose a surname, Babe declines.
- Sanity Slippage: Being forced by Sun Ken to rip and tear rather than cleanly cutting was not good for Su Ne's mind, and it was practically gibbering by the time Sun Ken was defeated. Then it was made into a plow and locked away, unable to cut at all, for several months. This left the blade nearly catatonic with despair by the time Babe took it out and started using it to cut the earth.
- The Spartan Way: Lampshaded by Jin regarding Babe, who wants to sleep outside since it "Purifies the elements."
- The Stoic: Babe doesn't talk much, and it actually took months for Jin to realize that he was sapient. (The fact that he was content with his life did contribute to that, too.)
Miantiao
An Azure Hills Jade Snake encountered by Big D during his travels, who is sapient and capable of using Qi. Deeply knowledgeable of martial arts, pottery, and glasswork.
- All for Nothing: Miantiao goes into a state of depression when he learns that all of his martial arts training, and turning Yin into a weapon of vengeance, were for nothing since the one he was training her to get revenge by proxy on, Sun Ken, was dead.
- The Atoner: After he realizes his quest for revenge was pointless, he is filled with regret for the terrible things he did while seeking it (like raising Yin to be nothing but a weapon) and after briefly seeking death at the hands of the person who took his revenge for him he dedicates his life to atoning for his misdeeds.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Hoo-boy. Sun Ken and the Whirling Demon Sword Gang killed his master and wiped their village off the map. When he met the awakened rabbit Liang Yin, he chose to train her in martial arts to help him pursue vengeance. To that end, he made a number of questionable decisions (e.g., killing other awakened critters to harvest their qi) that he thought would be justified in the end. Then, just as they were ready to hunt down Sun Ken, they heard the story of the Demon-slaying Orchid beating them to the punch; this left Miantiao questioning whether everything he did was worth it. By the time Big D encounters him, Miantiao has largely lost the will to live.
- Handicapped Badass: He lost an eye, has several burns, and a building fell on his spine, putting a kink in it. He doesn't have his full range of motion back, but that won't stop him from kicking an ass or two. Since arriving at Fa Ram, Meiling's been working on healing him.
- Martial Arts and Crafts: He's a powerful martial artist, and his techniques are both based on and aid him with his glassmaking and pottery.
- Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: Once he discovers that the man who killed his master and destroyed his village is already dead, Miantao thinks that he should offer his life to whoever killed him in order to atone for the horrible things he's done in the name of a revenge he can no longer take. Luckily, Bi De has no desire to kill him.
- The Power of Glass: Several of his techniques utilize glass, used to craft illusions or defenses.
- Punny Name: Literal meaning is "Noodle," which Jin uses when narrating.
- When he first introduces himself to Bi De, he calls himself "Shi Te." In-universe this means "Corpse," since he feels he has failed everything and deserves to die, but out of universe it sounds like "Shitty", which pretty accurately describes his self-image.
- Vengeance Denied: He'd dedicated his life and Yin's to revenge on Sun Ken, and despaired when Sun Ken was killed as it robbed them of a meaning to live.
Liang Yin
A female, silver-furred rabbit encountered by Big D during his travels. Awakened and taught to fight by Miantiao as part of his plan to get revenge on Sun Ken.
- Blood Knight: Enjoys training and fighting, and eagerly spars with Tigu.
- Cute Bruiser: Prefers to fight head-on and smash her enemies' faces in with her gauntlets, and her cuteness comes naturally as a rabbit and as a human woman.
- Challenge Seeker: Finds inner peace in the midst of challenge and strife, which she indulges as the Commander of the Blazing Swords of the Azure Hills alliance.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: After her initial purpose to become a weapon to kill Sun Ken was rendered defunct, Miantiao has told her to find something that she would like to do, so she's been trying different activities. For a while, nothing really worked with her beyond fighting, but working with Huo Ten has given her an interest in mining. Eventually, she decides to undergo her own form of Tribulation to achieve human form to reinvent herself in as a complete form as she can manage, and later on, finds that peace when fighting against evildoers.
- Humanity Ensues: Following Tigu's example, she also undergoes Tribulation and achieves human form.
- Instant Armor: Her [Armor of the Sun] technique generates golden armor around herself. While it looks ridiculous on a rabbit, it looks downright intimidating on her human form.
- Ironic Name: Her name Yin may fit her cute appearance and silvery fur, but is completely at odds with her aggressive, outgoing personality and her sun-based fighting style.
- Killer Rabbit: Despite being a small silver rabbit, she's a very strong cultivator and messing with her would not be a good idea.
- Moon Rabbit: She's implied to be an actual Lunar Rabbit who was exiled to Earth for unclear reasons. This doesn't apply to her martial techniques, however. An informational post says that she has an excess of Yang energy compared to her mostly Yin-aligned kin, and the pity and mockery heaped on her caused her to lash out with her fiery, irascible temper, which led to her being exiled.
- Mundane Utility: Miantiao often makes use of her heat to manage his pottery-making kilns and ovens. After she joins the Farm, she expands this utility to cooking, heating baths, or just acting as a warm pillow at night.
- Pintsize Powerhouse: She's a normal-sized rabbit who is a strong practitioner of Magical Martial Arts. She's capable of pulling a carriage the size of a house, and the greatest difficulty is that the harness is awkward for her to pull since it's, understandably, not designed to be worn by a rabbit.
- The Power of the Sun: Ironically, despite rabbits traditionally being associated with the moon, Yin's style is based around the Sun, utilizing fire and heat to enhance herself.
- Red Baron: "Sun Fairy."
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Just after she transforms into a human, she barges in breakfast hour and proudly presents herself, entirely uncaring of her nakedness. Miantiao has to beg her to Please Put Some Clothes On.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Tends to speak aggressively and crudely, though Miantiao usually chides her for it. Her regal, silvery-haired, beautiful human form just adds to the Vocal Dissonance for those who hear her cussing.
Huo Ten
An Azure Hills Golden Snub-nosed Monkey, spirit beast and one of Master Gen's relatives. He goes with Jin after the latter's visit to Master Gen.
- Accent Adaptation: His "gruff" voice in the text has translated into a Scottish accent in the audiobook.
- Alone in a Crowd: A bit. Even if he's impressed with Fa Ram and its inhabitants, he still longs for others of his clan. Jin helps him start digging a mine, and Yin joins him, initially to get clay for Miantiao, but the discovery of an ancient, huge bone and a vein of Light Crystals brings them together.
- Tunnel King: Just like the rest of his clan, Huo Ten likes to dig.
The General that Commands the Winter
A gigantic snowman created by Jin by utilizing his enhanced cultivator strength and Qi.
- Companion Cube: Jin first built him just as a snowman and as a joke acted around others as if he was a real person.
- Heart Drive: Jin finds a core of ice Qi in The General that Commands the Winter after his first winter. Jin keeps it in his ice cellar and uses it when the next winter comes; Jin later discovers that it has turned into a crystal in the following spring.
- An Ice Person: His name may have started as a joke, but by his second winter he's show to actually have the power to manipulate winter weather and uses that power to ease the harshness of the annual end-of-winter storm at Jin's Farm, and lend some of that to his subordinate in Hong Yaowu, The Warden that Sends Forth the Flying Ice and Snow.
- Snowlems: The general started out as a fun winter project and a bit of a joke, but due to the Qi Jin used to build him, he began forming a core of ice Qi and awakened into full sapience by his second winter, the core having been preserved in Jin's ice cellar.
Animal Antagonists
Basil Brush / Basi Bu Shi
A dastardly fox that kept stealing and eating Jin Rou's chickens, until his defeat at the hands— er, spurs of Big D.
- Appropriated Appellation: Basil was intelligent, but whatever his true name was, there's no way to know. He was given the name by Jin.
- Cunning Like a Fox: He kept getting into the chicken coop to steal the hens there, much to Big D's chagrin.
- Named After Somebody Famous: He's named after Basil Brush, from The Basil Brush Show.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He barely makes an appearance and his primary role is as Big D's Starter Villain. However, his pelt is used to make a vest for Big D, and Big D makes occasional references to the fox over the course of the story.
- Starter Villain: He's the first villain taken down by Big D. As a reward, his pelt is made into a vest for the rooster, which becomes iconic of the character.
- Uplifted Animal: While it's not touched upon much, Big D recognizes that Basil was as intelligent as he was.
- What Could Have Been: Much later on, Bi De wonders whether Basi Bu Shi might have been recruited as a disciple if Jin had realized he was sapient, taken him in, and offered him food and safety.
Chow Ji
A cultivating rat who sets his sights on the resources of the Farm.
- Animalistic Abomination: He's partway into transforming himself into a human form.
- Bad Boss: He treats his rat followers like dirt. This was a mistake.
- The Corruptor: He tries to corrupt Bi De into his servant.
- Humanity Ensues: Attempted to do this via the slow way, gradually morphing into a human. He... didn't get too far, leaving him a Body Horror-laden rat with a few human characteristics. Ri Zu mentions he was in constant pain from the deformities and suffered from an elevated heart rate. After having the benefit of being able to examine Tigu's own successful ascension and having received a lot of experience in surgery by helping Meiling, Ri Zu corrects the defects in Chow Ji's faulty technique he had attempted to steamroll over and uses the perfected result to become human herself.
- Shout-Out: He's described as an evil Master Splinter. Also, the way he and his servants speak is a shout-out to the Skaven of Warhammer Fantasy.
- Treacherous Advisor: He wheedles and brainwashes his way into Big D's good graces while Jin is away, for the explicit purpose of turning the rooster into his personal goon via Qi drugs.
- You Dirty Rat!: The rat swarm accepts Fa Ram's hospitality under false pretenses, with the intent to corrupt its guardians and take over.
