Gu Yue Clan

Appearance

At the sacred temple ceremony the clan head wears ceremonial white robes and kneels on a brownish yellow floor before a tall black case of three layers that holds ancestor memorial tablets, with copper incense on both sides. Over ten elders and important members kneel behind him in the same fashion, wearing loose white ceremonial garments. ^{ch. 1}

Moonlight Gu is the clan’s local Gu and a symbol of the clan. It is crystalline and shaped like a crescent, like a piece of blue quartz. ^{ch. 8} The academy elder calls it the clan’s symbolic Gu, and to the clan’s youngsters it is the symbol of the clan’s glory. ^{ch. 22}

On alliance ground, Gu Yue Gu Masters are on the skinny side. ^{ch. 124}

Settlement and neighbours

Hundreds of years earlier the clan migrated from the central lands to the South Border and settled after finding a spirit spring under the mountain, which becomes the foundation of Gu Yue Village. ^{ch. 4} A lightning wolf pack assaulting the village is a wolf tide that forces Gu Masters onto the walls through the night. ^{ch. 149}

Qing Mao Mountain also holds Flower Wine Monk’s strength inheritance. Chapter 60 is titled for the passage behind the broken wall, and the hideout behind the image wall is set to nurture an avenger against the Gu Yue clan. ^{ch. 60} Later underground, Fang Yuan is still inside that inheritance ground. ^{ch. 79} Three mountain villages sit there: Gu Yue, Xiong, and Bai. ^{ch. 65} Fang Yuan already treats Bai and Xiong as the other two clan families on the mountain while the caravan is still in Gu Yue Village. ^{ch. 45}

Three named arcs cover this stretch: Gu Yue Village, Qing Mao Mountain, and Gu Yue Clan Conflict.

Awakening Ceremony and clan logic

The clan holds its Awakening Ceremony for fifteen-year-olds, and the distance a child walks during it reveals a talent grade from A to D. ^{ch. 4} Seven days later the academy treats those who opened their apertures as rank one Gu Masters. The grade follows a person afterwards: the protagonist is graded C beside an A grade twin on that basis. ^{ch. 7}

Gu Yue Bo teaches that a clan is not just rules and regulations, but also blood relation and kinship. Rules alone leave a family a pile of dead objects; adding blood relationship makes it alive. He is the clan leader in the opening stretch. ^{ch. 58} Members carry the clan name before the personal name; chapter 140 titles a fight as “Gu Yue Qing Shu vs Bai Ning Bing (Part 1)”, ^{ch. 140} and the novel later uses the same construction for the protagonist. ^{ch. 1673}

Who the clan produces

Fang Yuan is inside this clan as Gu Yue Fang Yuan in the opening stretch, reborn five hundred years earlier by Spring Autumn Cicada. ^{ch. 1} Fang Zheng is his younger twin brother of the same generation. ^{ch. 2} The academy names him Gu Yue Fang Zheng among the newly awakened rank one Gu Masters, ^{ch. 7} and he later fights as the clan’s rising junior on Qing Mao Mountain. ^{ch. 83} Gu Yue Qing Shu faces Bai Ning Bing in a rank three-scale fight across three consecutive chapter titles. ^{ch. 140}

Clan conflict and exit

Fang Zheng after Qing Mao