Lu Sisi

Lu Sisi is the aging ancestor of the Lu family of Mount Tiaoyun, whose final years are spent arranging alliances and resources for a clan he believes his heirs cannot protect. (Chapters 97, 126, 137–139)

Biography

Alliances on a shrinking frontier

When the Ji family takes Mount Huaqian, Sisi enlists the strength of Li Tongya and the help of An Zheyan to reclaim it. The campaign succeeds, but negotiations over an Ebony Ore mine expose how much stronger the Li family has become; after Tongya defeats him and An Zheyan in a dispute over their shares, Sisi accepts the Li family’s larger claim. He then seeks to bind the families through the marriage of Lu Wanrong to Li Xuanling, offering the alliance as protection against Li expansion and Yu Xiaogui’s family. In return, he agrees that the Li family may take Mount Huazhong after his death, a concession meant to keep the Lu family from being trapped between stronger neighbors. (Chapters 97, 99–101, 119–120, 126)

A failing patriarch and the family’s collapse

As his strength and remaining years diminish, Sisi spends two years seeking a way to preserve the Lu family, enduring humiliating appeals to younger cultivators. At home he finds Lu Yuanlu indulging in luxury and refuses to rebuke him, fearing that the heir would bear a grudge after Sisi’s death. The danger he feared arrives when Yu Xiaogui demands the families’ submission and tribute: Sisi recognizes the threat but publicly accepts Yu’s leadership to avoid retaliation. He dies after lamenting that the Lu family is doomed; with its protector gone, Li Tongya takes the family’s mountains as the surviving Lu relatives offer to surrender them. (Chapters 137–140, 143–145, 150–152)

Appearance and personality

Sisi first appears with crane-white hair, a rosy face, and a jade scepter. Years of effort to secure his family leave him with gray-tinted white hair, deeper wrinkles, dull eyes, and a trembling hand. He can bargain shrewdly for his clan, but as its prospects narrow he repeatedly swallows his pride and accepts terms from stronger cultivators. (Chapters 97, 119, 137–140)

Abilities and cultivation

By Chapter 145, Sisi has reached the seventh heavenly layer of the Qi Cultivation Realm. He fights with his jade scepter alongside Li Tongya and An Zheyan against Ji Dengqi, is badly burned by Ji’s talisman, then returns to the fight and helps block his escape. He also uses spells, though no named technique is attributed to him. (Chapters 97, 99–101, 145)

Relationships

• Li Tongya: A powerful neighbor and sometime ally. They cooperate against the Ji family and over local resources, while Sisi uses a marriage alliance to restrain the Li family’s expansion. (Chapters 97, 99–101, 119–126)
• An Zheyan: A traditional ally with whom Sisi shares the campaign against the Ji family and efforts to develop the Ebony Ore mine. (Chapters 99–101, 117–119)
• Lu Wanrong: His daughter, whose marriage to Li Xuanling strengthens the Lu family’s alliance with the Li family. (Chapter 126)
• Lu Yuanlu: His heir. Sisi sees Yuanlu’s arrogance as a danger to the family but avoids confronting him, fearing future retaliation. (Chapters 118–119, 139)
• Yu Xiaogui: A stronger rival whose demand for leadership and tribute forces Sisi to submit publicly. (Chapters 139–144)

Items

Sisi regularly carries a jade scepter, which he uses in his fight against Ji Dengqi. (Chapters 97, 99–101)