Gu He

Gu He is the Jia Ma Empire's celebrated Pill King, a tier-six alchemist whose reputation can summon Dou Huang and Dou Wang allies. His pursuit of a Heavenly Flame, devotion to Yun Yun, and rivalry with Xiao Yan repeatedly test the difference between prestige and control. Defeat does not destroy him: he honors agreed terms, later joins the Yan Alliance, and converts personal renown into institutional alchemy—though his leadership is not exempt from accountability. (Chapters 208–225, 282–341, 690–708, 785–786, 1386–1389)

Biography

Expedition for the Green Lotus Core Flame

Gu He enters the Tager Desert as a Dou Wang and the empire's sole acknowledged tier-six alchemist. His target is the Green Lotus Core Flame, and his professional influence supplies what his cultivation alone cannot: Yun Yun, three Dou Wangs, and several Dou Lings join the expedition. He first seeks negotiation, offering Queen Medusa an extraordinary package of pills and resources in exchange for the flame. When she refuses because it is bound to her own evolution plan, the mission turns to force and pursuit. (Chapters 208–212)

The expedition proves both the reach and limit of Gu He's reputation. His promised alchemical labor gathers a force capable of crossing Snake-People territory, yet neither rank nor bargaining can compel Medusa to surrender the flame. While his group is occupied, Xiao Yan enters the city and takes it first; Gu He later reconstructs the deception after recognizing Xiao Yan's green flame at Misty Cloud Mountain. He leaves the desert without the object he sought, having spent considerable influence to create the distraction from which his future rival benefits. (Chapters 212–225, 339–341)

Alchemist Grand Meeting and Xiao Yan's emergence

In the capital, Gu He appears as Liu Ling's teacher and the standard against which other Jia Ma alchemists are measured. Liu Ling's defeat at the Grand Meeting initially reflects on the disciple, but Gu He recognizes more than a lost championship when “Yan Xiao” reveals precise flame control and exceptional Spiritual Strength. Once the youth is exposed as Xiao Yan, Gu He identifies him as the same person connected to the desert failure and accurately reads the danger and ingenuity of his merged-flame attack. (Chapters 282–325, 339–341)

His response is proud but not intellectually dishonest. Gu He explains why merging incompatible flames risks backlash, then acknowledges that Xiao Yan controls an equilibrium even many established alchemists could not maintain. He tells Liu Ling there is no grievance in losing to such an opponent, using his disciple's defeat as a lesson against arrogance. This professional candor becomes important later: rivalry wounds Gu He's pride, but does not prevent him from recognizing superior evidence when it is before him. (Chapters 339–341)

Yun Yun's wedding and the Misty Cloud battle

After Yun Shan confines Yun Yun, Gu He grows distant from the Misty Cloud Sect even though he remains a tribute elder. Yun Shan attempts to bind him to the coming battle by arranging his marriage to her. Gu He's feelings are genuine and long-standing, but the proposed wedding is not founded on Yun Yun's consent. Even within that compromised arrangement, he asks that her seal be removed and intends to take her away from sect politics rather than leave her imprisoned, revealing concern that does not erase the one-sided nature of his hope. (Chapters 690–705)

Xiao Yan prevents the wedding from deciding Gu He's allegiance by proposing a ten-exchange duel. Gu He, now an elite Dou Huang, accepts terms under which he and the experts gathered through his reputation will withdraw if he loses. Xiao Yan defeats him on the final exchange, and Gu He responds without evasion: he admits defeat, tears apart his wedding robe, tells Yun Shan to end the ceremony, and leads his allies away. His withdrawal deprives Misty Cloud of crucial reinforcements and shows that personal disappointment will not make him break a public promise. (Chapters 705–708)

Yan Alliance and Pill Hall

Gu He lives in isolation after the Misty Cloud Sect dissolves, continuing alchemy with Liu Ling rather than attaching himself immediately to another faction. At Fa Ma's suggestion, Xiao Yan invites him to the Yan Alliance's Pill Hall. Gu He rejects status and even the prospect of a future Pill Tower recommendation as sufficient inducement; instead, he demands an alchemical contest that can settle his professional rivalry on its proper ground. After two days of refinement, he accepts the unannounced result and joins the Pill Hall, prompting other independent alchemists to follow. (Chapters 785–786)

Years later, Gu He is chief of a far larger Pill Hall, but its senior alchemists have grown arrogant, disobeyed alliance orders, and sold pills for private profit. Xiao Yan holds Gu He responsible for allowing that culture to develop and demotes him to deputy chief while promoting Fa Ma. Gu He accepts the judgment and, together with Fa Ma, receives a partial ancient soul-training method tied to future contribution. His latest arc therefore complicates rather than idealizes his institutional reinvention: he remains valued, but prestige no longer shields him from failure of oversight. (Chapters 1386–1389)

Appearance and personality

Gu He is introduced as a middle-aged man of extraordinary bearing who remains composed before a hostile Snake-People city. His public manner is courteous and controlled, suited to an alchemist accustomed to negotiating with rulers and recruiting powerful allies. During the Misty Cloud wedding he wears an elaborate ceremonial robe, which he deliberately destroys after losing to Xiao Yan. (Chapters 208–212, 697–708)

Pride is central to Gu He, but it is paired with professional seriousness and a strong regard for agreed terms. He can be possessive in his hope of marrying Yun Yun and haughty toward recruitment, yet he also admits when Xiao Yan's technique surpasses expectation, keeps the ten-exchange bargain, and submits to the result of their later alchemical contest. His acceptance of demotion shows continued respect for institutional authority, even when that authority judges his own leadership inadequate. (Chapters 339–341, 697–708, 785–786, 1386–1389)

Abilities and cultivation

Tier-six alchemy

Gu He's tier-six standing is established at his introduction and explains his exceptional political reach. He possesses the Spiritual Perception needed to identify flames and refinement methods, can direct high-tier pill production, and turns promised medicinal labor into alliances with experts who would not otherwise accept his command. His work supports bargaining in the desert, Liu Ling's education, and the mass-refinement structure of the Yan Alliance Pill Hall. The supplied evidence does not identify his teacher or a personal Heavenly Flame. (Chapters 208–212, 282–325, 785–786, 1386–1389)

The limits of his alchemy are comparative and institutional. He cannot force Medusa to trade, and Xiao Yan's control of multiple flames eventually surpasses his own expectations. As Pill Hall chief, Gu He also fails to prevent corruption among senior alchemists, demonstrating that refinement mastery does not automatically confer sound administration. After his demotion, the ancient soul-training method offers a path toward improved Spiritual Strength, but the corpus does not show him attaining the eighth tier. (Chapters 208–225, 339–341, 1386–1389)

Dou Qi and flame combat

Gu He advances from Dou Wang during the desert expedition to elite Dou Huang by his wedding duel with Xiao Yan. He can fly, spread Spiritual Perception across a battlefield, and combine Dou Qi with purple flame techniques. His named Purple Eagle Incineration shapes flame into a large eagle around his attacking claw, producing enough pressure to concern other Dou Huangs. This combat cultivation protects his expeditions and makes his alchemical influence harder to challenge directly. (Chapters 208–225, 705–708)

His martial ceiling is demonstrated in the ten-exchange duel. Gu He detects Xiao Yan's rapid repositioning, answers with Purple Eagle Incineration, and forces a serious final collision, but Xiao Yan's compressed Heavenly Flame overwhelms the attack. Xiao Yan withdraws enough force to avoid killing him, leaving Gu He decisively defeated rather than evenly matched. Later chapters emphasize his Pill Hall office, and no higher combat rank is securely established. (Chapters 705–708, 785–786, 1386–1389)

Power progression

Relationships

• Yun Yun: Gu He trusts Yun Yun as an expedition ally and develops a long-standing, unreturned love for her. Yun Shan exploits that attachment through an arranged wedding. Gu He wants Yun Yun freed from her seal, but accepts the marriage despite her lack of consent; after losing to Xiao Yan, he ends the ceremony and eventually admits that her choice lies elsewhere. (Chapters 208–225, 697–708, 1388)

• Xiao Yan: Xiao Yan unknowingly benefits from Gu He's desert expedition, later surpasses his expectations in both flame control and combat, and defeats him in two different contests. Their relationship develops from indirect rivalry to structured competition and finally institutional hierarchy when Gu He joins the Pill Hall and accepts Xiao Yan's disciplinary judgment. (Chapters 208–225, 282–341, 705–708, 785–786, 1386–1389)

• Fa Ma: Fa Ma is Gu He's senior professional peer and the mediator who makes his Yan Alliance recruitment possible. They later work together in the Pill Hall; when Gu He's oversight fails, Fa Ma replaces him as chief while Gu He remains deputy and shares access to Xiao Yan's soul-training method. (Chapters 282–325, 690–693, 785–786, 1386–1389)

Items

• Green Lotus Core Flame: Gu He leads the Tager Desert expedition to acquire this Heavenly Flame, first by trade and then by force. He never possesses it; Xiao Yan obtains it while Gu He's group is occupied by the Snake-People. (Chapters 208–225, 339–341)