Li Minggong

Li Minggong begins as the eldest sister of a crowded family generation who expects to serve as a supporting hand. A northern rout leaves her among the few survivors of her peers, and successive wars turn her into a front-line defender and household elder. Her Pheasant Flame foundation makes her a specialist in True Fire, but she depends on artifacts and allies against more experienced opponents. As the family loses its older generation, she becomes a mediator, negotiator and protector of younger relatives. She has no personal ambition to attain Purple Mansion, though she would attempt it if the family needed her. (Chapters 497, 582, 885, 1176, 1614, 1721–1726)

Biography

Talent entrusted to family service

Minggong introduces herself as the eldest sister of the first lineage and a granddaughter of Yuanwan. She grows up among many siblings while the Li family’s inheritance expands. Yuanjiao notes that she is among the most talented children, and Xijun later assigns her the Pheasant Flame’s Long March Technique. By the time she and Chenghuai help pacify the rear of Zhouwei’s conquest, she is already trusted with practical work as well as cultivation. (Chapters 497, 582, 677)

Minggong’s later recollection gives this early service a different weight. She remembers expecting that she would never establish Foundation and would only support the family from behind. Yet she takes responsibility for messengers and household arrangements as older relatives fall or go away. She does not begin by seeking authority; her reliability gradually places her among the people who must make decisions when others are absent. (Chapters 726, 1176)

The northern defeat and the cost of surviving

During the northern campaign, Qinghong’s mixed defensive lines spread families across the force so that no one group could abandon another. Minggong worries even after the first local victory, fearing that Qinghong has followed the enemy into an ambush. Qinghong gives her a jade pendant that can summon help for three days and tells her to use it if the devil cultivators attack. The arrangement gives Minggong a way to call for aid, not control over the larger battle. (Chapters 750–753)

When Mount Yan Pass falls, Minggong retreats with An Zheyan and the younger cultivators. They encounter Yuexiang already fighting a devil cultivator. Yuexiang tells them that if she must die, she will not drag them with her; she gives up her spiritual essence and orders An to escort them home. Minggong returns in relatively good condition but carries the memory of the decision and its cost. She reports what happened and steps forward to accept punishment with the others instead of presenting survival as a personal victory. (Chapter 885)

The catastrophe nearly erases her generation. Minggong is the only member of the Radiant Lure generation to return alive from the pass; other family cultivators survived because they had been elsewhere. The losses shake her cheerful composure and help explain why she becomes so protective of the family’s remaining people. Her later responsibilities are not a prize she sought; they are what remains after the older defenders and many of her peers are gone. (Chapters 887, 1176)

True Flame foundation and a measured conquest

Minggong eventually succeeds in Foundation Establishment through the Pheasant Flame’s Long March Technique, becoming the first in her family to build a True Flame foundation. Ximing is pleased by her achievement and encourages her to study artifact forging, since True Flame is suited to that work and the family needs a cultivator to guard Nine Gates Mountain. Her True Flame affinity suits the assignment, which places her in charge of guarding Nine Gates Mountain. (Chapter 1023)

Zhouwei gives her the Six-Cornered Scarlet Flame Lamp, a Foundation Establishment artifact donated to the family by the Golden Feather Sect, and the compatible Purefeather Li Fire. With the lamp and feather fire, Minggong gains a way to contest opponents who had previously outmatched her. She faces Miaoshui again, but argues that killing the surrendered cultivator would only persuade the rest of Hidden Cloud Cave that none could survive Li rule. Minggong pleads for Miaoshui’s life; the former enemy later becomes someone she treats like a younger sister. Her clemency is personal and compassionate, while also serving a clear political purpose. (Chapters 1043–1063, 1159)

Holding Floating South while a generation dies

Floating South is the northern barrier protecting Moongaze Lake, so Minggong cannot simply leave when the Golden Tang forces attack. She calls for reinforcements, fights beside Ding Weizeng and refuses to let An Siwei’s capture turn into an easy surrender. Her True Fire can trouble metal-based attacks, but Situ Mo’s skill and stronger mana overwhelm her: his blade cuts her deeply, and his stone seal doubles the cost of maintaining the Chongming Profound Insight Screen. The screen buys time and lets her stay in the fight; it does not make her equal to the veteran attacker. (Chapters 1088–1091)

Minggong later lends the screen to Chenghui, while she helps read the Capital Immortal Dao’s movements and argues against a head-on battle that would serve Changxiao’s aims. After Chenghui is killed, grief drives her to attack, but a threat involving the family’s talisman forces her to restrain the pursuit. She then takes charge of a battered household, asks after the family head and the survivors, and arranges Chenghui’s rites. Her request that Chenghuai collect lightning to bury in place of her brother’s body shows how personal mourning and family responsibility have become inseparable. (Chapters 1159, 1164, 1169, 1176–1178)

The effort leaves Minggong with severe internal injuries. She has wielded the Scarlet Flame Lamp, the borrowed screen and the Capital Dao Bell through the fighting. She collapses after the opposing cultivators withdraw, while Ding is still missing; once she can speak, she orders people to search for him. In the dispute over Chenghui’s inheritance, she resists rewarding a relative whose public grief seems feigned, preferring to preserve her brother’s name and judge the younger generation carefully. Her authority now comes from surviving the same losses she has to govern. (Chapters 1176–1178)

Recovery, refinement and the refusal to claim too much

Minggong returns from recovery after finding an opportunity in the flourishing Fire Virtue and the Dwelling Heart that Charges Profundity. She reports that an insight during seclusion carried her to mid Foundation, though the breakthrough leaves her foundation unstable and requires more time to settle. Rather than celebrate first, she asks Jiangqian how he has arranged the forces going to the river. Even as a cultivator on the mend, she returns immediately to the practical questions facing the family. (Chapter 1287)

Ximing later offers her a valuable pill and preparation for a higher True Fire path. Minggong asks that the resources go instead to Jiangqian or Quewan, saying that she believes her own cultivation has reached a dead end beyond Foundation. Ximing insists that she use what the family has prepared, and she accepts. She emerges from seclusion at late Foundation with solid cultivation and a natural aura that Ximing takes as signs the pill helped her. She rides ahead when the family needs the strongest available cultivator. (Chapters 1368, 1415)

A trusted bridge to the mountain and to younger kin

Minggong becomes the family’s familiar contact with Reverent Yang Mountain. Ximing relies on her standing and established relationships there, and she carries messages and bargains between the two powers. In one negotiation she conveys the mountain’s offer to design a spirit artifact if Ximing refines the requested batches of pills and supplies at least fifteen. She communicates the terms rather than claiming the agreement or its benefits as her own. (Chapters 1467, 1484, 1607)

She also turns that access into care for younger relatives. Minggong travels among several towns so that children from each direct line can reach the lake without local officials denying them a fair chance. She takes Suining and Suikuan with her, despite disappointment in their father’s conduct, and vouches for the children and the records they bring. Minggong has never married and has no children of her own; her concern for the wider family is a chosen responsibility, not a claim that these descendants belong to her household. (Chapters 1607–1611)

Conquest, retreat and continued guardianship

When Zhouwei’s forces take Changxiao Gate, Minggong handles captured property without treating it as personal spoils. She boxes a painting, receives the spirit keys and reports that the lineages’ inheritances have been collected and delivered while the spirit materials are loaded for transport. Her task is stewardship: securing what the family has taken under its orders and reporting the work complete. (Chapters 1653–1655)

The northern crossings test her judgment again. When both flanks are breached, Minggong recognizes that the formation can no longer be held and orders a retreat. She does not repeat the earlier loss by turning duty into a demand that everyone die in place. A possible future in which she dies at Smoke Valley is part of a calculated scenario, not the course of events she experiences; by Chapter 1721 she has recovered from her injuries, and Ximing still consults her in Chapter 1726. She remains alive and responsible for the family’s survival. (Chapters 1605–1607, 1705, 1714, 1721, 1726)

Appearance and personality

Minggong is introduced as radiant and poised, with a graceful bearing and a sword at her waist. In later years she often appears in red and moves through the air on flames. Although she is no longer young by Chapter 1614, she still looks to be in her thirties; her early Foundation Establishment and lack of major injuries help preserve her youthful appearance. Her composed appearance can give way to visible grief when her siblings die, and her calm after the river battle conceals the internal damage she has sustained. (Chapters 582, 726, 1088, 1176, 1614)

She is warm toward relatives and capable of clemency toward former enemies, but not politically naïve. Minggong understands when mercy can encourage surrender, when a rival is merely posturing, and when retreat is the only way to save the people under her command. She never presents herself as ambitious for Purple Mansion; she says she would make the attempt if the family required it. Her sense of duty is practical and relational, shaped by the people she has lost and the younger relatives who still need help. (Chapters 1063, 1164, 1614, 1705)

Abilities and cultivation

True Flame and Pheasant Li March

Minggong’s foundation follows the fourth-grade Pheasant Flame’s Long March Technique. She establishes a True Flame Dao foundation by Chapter 1023, and her fire gives her a specific advantage against metal: it can refine and erode metal qi rather than simply overpowering every opponent. She surrounds herself with flames, rides them through the air and breathes fire at close range. Against the Situ Biao puppet, the yin qi sustaining it becomes vulnerable to her True Fire even though its Geng Metal body is not ordinarily especially susceptible. (Chapters 582, 1023, 1047, 1334)

Her fire can shelter an ally as well as attack. She protects Ding Weizeng from metal attacks and later regulates Radiant Fire and Baleful Qi during construction at the Viewing Pavilion. The element match remains situational: Situ Mo’s superior blade technique cuts through her defense and forces her to rely on artifacts. (Chapters 1047, 1089–1091, 1359)

Scarlet Flame Lamp and compatible feather fire

The Six-Cornered Scarlet Flame Lamp is equipment allocated to Minggong, not an innate technique. It holds compatible red-and-white feather fire; she raises the lamp and blows across it to release a blaze. The flame clears dense growth, sends protective plumes around allies and helps her hold back golden qi. With the lamp and supplied fire, she turns a former defeat against Miaoshui into a victory that allows Minggong to advocate for Miaoshui’s surrender rather than her execution. (Chapters 1043, 1047–1063, 1089)

The lamp can block blades, but that protection stresses the artifact and consumes Minggong’s mana. Her equipment-dependent advantage is explicit: Chenghui’s techniques are stronger without relying on the lamp. The artifact cannot prevent Situ Mo from injuring her, and using it for a prolonged defense alongside other treasures contributes to her severe internal injuries. Its range and duration are unknown. (Chapters 1061, 1090–1091, 1176)

Borrowed artifact defense

The Chongming Profound Insight Screen is entrusted to Minggong to counter the Golden Tang forces. Its Heavy Abyssal Gale disrupts flying weapons, while its Golden Dao offers protection that lets her escape pressure and support Ding. She later lends it to Chenghui for a dangerous mission. Its effects are those of a family artifact in her custody, not a personal cultivation stage or permanent mastery. (Chapters 1090, 1159)

Minggong also uses the Capital Dao Bell during the river battle. The screen, bell and lamp help her coordinate a defense that she could not sustain through True Fire alone, but the combination exacts a high cost: she suffers deep internal damage and collapses once the immediate fighting ends, with Ding still unaccounted for. She orders a search for him while tending to the other wounded. She cannot use Foundation-level sight to see through an enemy’s divine-ability disguise, and she depends on allies and timely retreat when veteran cultivators exceed her strength. The bell is returned to the Capital Immortal Dao; its custody does not make it her property. (Chapters 1159, 1176–1177)

Household judgment and specialist diplomacy

Minggong’s service gives her practical skill in preparing reinforcements, examining reports, weighing clemency and force, and carrying detailed bargains between the Li family and Reverent Yang Mountain. These strengths allow her to preserve defenders, secure support for an artifact design and protect younger descendants’ access to family resources. She recognizes that some conflicts are staged to serve a stronger party and orders retreat when both river crossings fail. These are learned judgment and responsibility, not an additional divine ability. (Chapters 1063, 1164, 1484, 1607, 1705)

Power progression

Relationships

• Li Qinghong: Her commander during the northern defense. Qinghong gives Minggong a three-day emergency pendant and tells her how to summon aid if the line is attacked. (Chapters 750–753)
• Li Yuexiang: An elder who sacrifices her chance to escape so Minggong and the younger cultivators can return home. Minggong carries the cost of that choice. (Chapter 885)
• An Zheyan: The cultivator Yuexiang charges with escorting the survivors from Mount Yan Pass. Minggong returns under his protection. (Chapter 885)
• Li Chenghui: Her younger brother and fellow defender. His death in the river battle leaves Minggong to conduct his funeral and judge the succession to his line. (Chapters 1169, 1176–1178)
• Li Ximing: The family’s Purple Mansion patron and an important supporter of her cultivation. He encourages her artifact knowledge, entrusts her with diplomacy and provides resources she initially wants to give to younger cultivators. (Chapters 1023, 1368, 1484)
• Li Zhouwei: The family head who assigns her the Scarlet Flame Lamp and relies on her to carry out family orders. She is his aunt. (Chapters 1043, 1653–1655)
• Miaoshui: A former opponent from Hidden Cloud Cave whose life Minggong asks the family to spare. They later set aside their old grievances, and Minggong treats her as a younger sister. (Chapters 1063, 1159)
• Li Jiangqian: A younger family administrator with whom she coordinates during the family’s recovery and later northern affairs. (Chapters 1287, 1379)
• Li Suining and Li Suikuan: Younger relatives whom Minggong takes from their towns to the lake, making sure they receive fair access to family cultivation and instruction. (Chapters 1607–1611)
• Li Jiangzong: A younger family leader who consults her judgment and relies on her experience during crises. (Chapters 1609, 1714)

Items

• Six-Cornered Scarlet Flame Lamp: Zhouwei allocates this family artifact to Minggong for her use. She continues to use it in her defense. (Chapters 1043, 1287)
• Chongming Profound Insight Screen: A family artifact entrusted to her against Golden Tang. She lends it to Chenghui, then uses it again during the river defense; its protection does not make it her permanent property. (Chapters 1090, 1159, 1176)
• Capital Dao Bell: Minggong uses the bell alongside the lamp and screen in battle. It is returned to the Capital Immortal Dao during the negotiated exchange, rather than retained as her own. (Chapters 1176–1177)