Glossary | Reverend Insanity Wiki

The core noun

Everything in this novel is built on one word. These are the forms it takes and the ranks of being that use it.

中文	pinyin	English (fan translation)	Notes
蛊真人	gu zhen ren	Reverend Insanity	The title of the novel itself. Literally closer to "Gu true man"; the English title is an interpretation rather than a translation.
蛊	gu	Gu	Left untranslated by every English fan source, and this wiki follows that. The character carries a sense of poison, worms in a vessel, and bewitchment.
蛊虫	gu chong	Gu worm	The creature itself. English text uses "Gu" and "Gu worm" interchangeably.
蛊师	gu shi	Gu Master	A mortal cultivator, ranks one to five.
蛊仙	gu xian	Gu Immortal	A cultivator past immortal ascension, ranks six to nine.
仙蛊	xian gu	Immortal Gu	A Gu of rank six or above. Note the reversal against Gu Immortal: the same two words in the other order.
凡蛊	fan gu	Mortal Gu	reconstructed Ranks one to five.

The machinery a cultivator works with. The pages under /cultivation cover each of these in prose with citations.

中文	pinyin	English (fan translation)	Notes
窍	qiao	aperture	reconstructed The internal space a cultivator holds Gu in. Sometimes written with a second character in fan sources.
仙窍	xian qiao	immortal aperture	reconstructed The aperture after immortal ascension.
真元	zhen yuan	primeval essence	The fuel a Gu Master spends. Fan sources also render it "true essence".
仙元	xian yuan	immortal essence	reconstructed The immortal-rank counterpart.
道	dao	path, dao	Rendered "path" for a cultivation specialism and left as "dao" for the philosophical sense. Same word both times.
道痕	dao hen	dao mark	The trace a path leaves in a body, a place, or the world.
杀招	sha zhao	killer move	A combination of Gu used as one attack. Literally "killing move".
炼蛊	lian gu	refining Gu	The act of making a Gu from materials.
蛊方	gu fang	Gu recipe	reconstructed The formula a refinement follows.
转	zhuan	rank	reconstructed The counter used for the one-to-nine scale, so "rank six" is literally closer to "sixth turn".
大师	da shi	master	reconstructed An attainment level in a path, below grandmaster.
宗师	zong shi	grandmaster	reconstructed The attainment level above master. Fan sources also use "great grandmaster" for a further step.
仙材	xian cai	immortal material	reconstructed Refinement input at immortal rank.

Three different things the fan translation renders with overlapping English, plus the institution that is not a place at all.

中文	pinyin	English (fan translation)	Notes
福地	fu di	blessed land	A self-contained territory a Gu Immortal can hold.
洞天	dong tian	grotto-heaven	The larger and older counterpart of a blessed land. The "heaven" here is not the sky.
天庭	tian ting	Heavenly Court	An organisation, not a location. This wiki does not place it in any region.
洞府	dong fu	immortal cave, abode	reconstructed A smaller dwelling. Appears less often in the English text than the two above.

Four are named for a compass direction and one for being in the middle. The region articles are at /regions.

中文	pinyin	English (fan translation)	Notes
南疆	nan jiang	Southern Border	Literally the southern frontier. Clan country.
北原	bei yuan	Northern Plains	Tribes rather than clans.
中洲	zhong zhou	Central Continent	The middle region. Sects rather than clans or tribes.
东海	dong hai	Eastern Sea	Divided into named sea areas.
西漠	xi mo	Western Desert	The region the chapter index says least about.

The ages of the Gu World in sequence, each named for its distance from the beginning, and the last for the age fate could not survive.

中文	pinyin	English (fan translation)	Notes
太古	tai gu	Immemorial Era	First of six. Also seen as Immemorial Antiquity.
远古	yuan gu	Remote Era	Second of six. Also Remote Antiquity.
上古	shang gu	Olden Era	Third of six. Also Olden Antiquity.
中古	zhong gu	Medieval Era	Fourth of six. Also Medieval Antiquity.
近古	jin gu	Late Era	Fifth of six. Also Late Antiquity.
当代	dang dai	Current Era	Sixth of six, and the one the novel is set in.

The most contested vocabulary on this site. The indexes at /heavens and /earths set out what is and is not attested.

中文	pinyin	English (fan translation)	Notes
黑天	hei tian	Black Heaven	reconstructed Appears in chapter titles. This wiki can cite it; the English is secure even where the Chinese form is not.
白天	bai tian	White Heaven	reconstructed Appears in no chapter title. The same two characters are also the everyday word for daytime, so the reconstruction is unusually weak.
九天十地	jiu tian shi di	nine heavens and ten earths	reconstructed Also an ordinary Chinese idiom meaning "everywhere". The nine are the colour heavens; the ten earths are the terrains of the merged world and are indexed at /earths.
宝黄天	bao huang tian	treasure yellow heaven	reconstructed A grotto-heaven built around a fragment of the immemorial yellow heaven and used as a market. Not one of the nine, and not one of the two skies that remain.
天意	tian yi	heaven's will	reconstructed A force the novel treats as an actor. Fan sources also render it "will of heaven".
人祖	ren zu	Ren Zu	The human ancestor of the Immemorial Era legends. The name is left untranslated in the English text; it means roughly "ancestor of humanity".

The vocabulary of who someone is. Demon and Immortal here are not villain and hero; see the Olden Era page for why.

中文	pinyin	English (fan translation)	Notes
尊者	zun zhe	Venerable	The honorific carried by the ten figures at the top of the history of this world.
仙尊	xian zun	Immortal Venerable	A Venerable of the righteous path.
魔尊	mo zun	Demon Venerable	A Venerable of the demonic path. Not a moral label.
正道	zheng dao	righteous path	The position that a cultivator serves the group.
魔道	mo dao	demonic path	The position that a cultivator follows their own will.
家族	jia zu	clan	reconstructed The Southern Border unit. A bloodline before it is anything else.
部落	bu luo	tribe	reconstructed The Northern Plains unit.
长老	zhang lao	elder	reconstructed A rank inside a clan or sect, not an age.

A short set of proper nouns from the opening chapters, plus the two paths this site has pages for.

中文	pinyin	English (fan translation)	Notes
方源	Fang Yuan	Fang Yuan	The protagonist. Recorded on his page with this Chinese form.
古月方源	Gu Yue Fang Yuan	Gu Yue Fang Yuan	The same person with his clan name in front, in the Chinese order. Not a separate alias.
春秋蝉	chun qiu chan	Spring Autumn Cicada	The rank six Immortal Gu the novel opens on. Spring and Autumn together also name a historical period, and the pun is intended.
时光道	shi guang dao	time path	reconstructed The first character pair means the passage of time rather than time as a coordinate.
智道	zhi dao	wisdom path	reconstructed Sometimes rendered "wisdom dao" in older fan sources.