Yu Zhu
First Encounter
Bone-Cracking Demon
The Direct Disciple of the Iron Fist Gate of the Kongtong Sect, and of its present Sect Leader.
A petite girl of monstrous strength, known in the Jianghu as the Bone-Cracking Demon.
She works at forging iron and has steeped herself in ingenious mechanism craft since childhood. Whenever inspiration strikes she forgets food and sleep, and she holds a defiant grudge against the Tang Clan and the Fire Mountain Sword Pavilion.
Her terrible look is down to lack of sleep, plus an eye ailment (nearsightedness).
Biographies
Her eyesight is poor, so she often squints at people,
which gives everyone the foul impression that she glares at all comers. In truth she is a girl of gentle, honest temperament.
As the Direct Disciple of the Iron Fist Gate, she has the right to compete for the position of the future Sect Leader's Wife,
and by rights should be held in esteem. In practice no one takes this sour-faced little runt seriously,
and the Iron Fist Gate seems to have given up the struggle, leaving her to squat in the Great Smithy hammering away, nothing like a proper young lady of a good house.
The iron mallet she favors is an ordinary thing, but a pair of unremarkable gloves is a treasure worth a city,
woven from Tianshan "Black Silk", proof against water and fire, and impenetrable to blade and spear.
which gives everyone the foul impression that she glares at all comers. In truth she is a girl of gentle, honest temperament.
As the Direct Disciple of the Iron Fist Gate, she has the right to compete for the position of the future Sect Leader's Wife,
and by rights should be held in esteem. In practice no one takes this sour-faced little runt seriously,
and the Iron Fist Gate seems to have given up the struggle, leaving her to squat in the Great Smithy hammering away, nothing like a proper young lady of a good house.
The iron mallet she favors is an ordinary thing, but a pair of unremarkable gloves is a treasure worth a city,
woven from Tianshan "Black Silk", proof against water and fire, and impenetrable to blade and spear.
Bonding Route
See Yu Zhu Bonding Guide for details.
Personality
- Because Kongtong's streets are unsafe and full of bad people, Xiao Zhu puts on the manner of a fierce woman blacksmith. She calls herself Master Zhu.
- As the Direct Disciple of the Iron Fist Gate's present Sect Leader, she is approachable and without airs, treating herself as an ordinary commoner.
Kind
- Because of her monstrous strength, she will not hit people even when angry; when unhappy she vents by hammering iron.[1] When she truly means to strike, it is usually because she has endured what others could not.
- In person she is gentle and kind, often helping others of her own accord, and is much loved by her neighbors.
- Many villains take her good nature for weakness: malicious tab-running and theft are common, and some unscrupulous shops even pose as branches of her business to cheat outsiders.
- "Yu's Woodwork" in the Iron Fist Alley background is one example.
Loves Toys & Children
- More than making weapons and tools, Xiao Zhu prefers making toys, especially mechanical toys.
- She says she had few toys as a child, so she understands how children feel about them.
- She loves children and knows exactly what they like. Meeting a little boy, she will not only tell him stories to cheer him up but give him a transforming mechanical toy.
Inferiority
- Perhaps because she was abandoned as a child, she has a strong sense of inferiority, especially the fear of being abandoned by a lover and a lack of confidence in her own charm.
- Clever enough to design complex mechanisms herself, yet she keeps calling herself stupid.
- She believes she lacks feminine charm and always frets that her beloved will fall for another woman.
Other Traits
- She lives frugally and is utterly without greed, often giving away her work for free, polishing weapons and repairing things for others. Friends and family often urge her to be greedier and pursue her own happiness.
- In fact she has saved up a good deal from her work, but sends most of it home and lives plainly and simply herself.
- She is actually quite timid: afraid of heights, of the dark, and of ghosts and monsters.
- She believes deeply in the power of vows and in ghosts and gods, and holds the immortals who descend to the mortal world in great awe.[2] She is the most superstitious of the Kongtong Four Maidens.
- She is studious by nature and longs to read. She secretly asks Wei Ju to teach her reading and writing.
- When sad, she shuts her door and stays alone in her room, puts on her prettiest clothes, dresses up beautifully, and eats and drinks her fill while tears run down her face.
- She loves animals but dares not pet them, for fear of ruining them.
- She has complicated feelings about tigers: she likes them, yet will still beat them to death.
- Many of her equipment pieces and works are designed after tigers.
- Especially after becoming a wife, she has a strong fixation on tiger penis, and so has hunted every tiger on Kongtong Mountain.
Monstrous Strength & the Bone-Cracking Demon
- Look carefully, this is a copper coin. (Crushes it)
- She once crushed the knuckles of Meng Chen of the Kongtong Four Talents, and so earned the title.
- She actually dislikes the title very much.
But during the Wulin Alliance battle she was proud of it.
- She actually dislikes the title very much.
- Jianghu rumor says she can forge iron barehanded,
and in fact she can; breaking ironware barehanded is easy for her. - Xiao Zhu's monstrous strength comes from two Iron Fist Gate spirit pills she swallowed by mistake as a child: Dragon-Elephant Leopard Strength Pill and Iron-Scaled Black Python Blood, all of which went into her alone.
- Xiao Zhu has always blamed Xiaomei for her not growing taller; Xiaomei talked back in prison that it had nothing to do with those two pills, she was simply born short-legged.
- Xiahou Lan says her divine strength is half inborn and half the Iron Fist Gate's secret medicine. Even Xiahou Lan's martial arts would not dare take it head-on; if it landed without being deflected by Transforming Energy, it would surely kill.
- She can make rice balls, but her grip is so strong the rice turns to paste, with a texture like mochi; the taste is quite otherworldly, and Zhao Huo thinks it delicious.
For some reason fan works twisted this into armpit rice balls.- Xiao Zhu's secret zongzi method: compress the zongzi down to the size of a pellet. Link
- As a child she gave the former Sect Leader a Massage Voucher as a birthday gift; it later passed to the present Sect Leader, Lei Qian, and neither dared use it. When Zhao Huo wins the Seasonal Trial, she gives it to him.
- Out of good intentions she may accidentally break Zhao Huo's ribs.[1:3]
Even her hugs are lethal. - If Xiao Zhu's full-force backhand slap in her embarrassment ever landed, there is not a soul in the Wulin who would survive it.[3]
Bloodlust
- Xiao Zhu is normally gentle, kind, and values life; even a stranger dying beside her will leave her too upset to eat for three days. But if someone seriously crosses her bottom line, she strikes with extreme ferocity.
- In battle Xiao Zhu sets aside her compassion for a time, and her temperament turns brave and bold; her terrifying destructive power and savage attacks strike fear into her enemies.
- She can shatter the defensive stance of Venerable Golden Crow in his Iron Pipa state with a single blow. Were it not that Xiao Zhu's Internal Force is poor and the Venerable Golden Crow's physical resistance high, anyone else would likely be crippled for life.
- In the great battle at the Wulin Assembly she sends a swordsman flying with one blow, setting off a chain of knockbacks like falling dominoes. In the Wulin Alliance battle she savagely tears enemies apart.
- She grabs a grown man by the arm and swings him like a human mallet, killing a whole group in one blow.
Craft
- Her skill is superb; even the Diancang Sect seeks the swords she forges.[4]
- She loves Mechanism Arts and has a habit of taking mechanisms apart to study them; merely holding the Tang Clan Small Sword lets her sense the mechanism hidden inside.
- Though not of a combative nature, she is fired up with fighting spirit for the Divine Weapons Assembly called by the Fire Mountain Sword Pavilion.
- Xiao Zhu's forging skill is top-tier; Zhao Huo has clever ideas, but his fundamentals are far below hers.[5]
- The April Fools' DLC Million Zhao Huo was also developed by Xiao Zhu.[6] Alas, it exists only in the story's imagination and was never actually built.
- Her woodworking skill is very high; from a single glance at furniture she can analyze the material, the technique, and the cost.
- Her woodworking skill may be inherited from her birth father, a woodcutter who knew woodworking techniques.
- Her knowledge of architecture is very high; one look at the roof of the Tang Family Compound tells her it is a style reserved for the imperial house, and she easily spots the hidden mechanisms in the Tang Clan smithy that even Zhao Huo did not know about.
Belongings & Works
- Because Kongtong has many thieves, Xiao Zhu carves her signature on everything she owns. Ever since the Great Smithy was cleaned out by thieves some years ago, she carves it on unsold goods too, and only grinds it off once an item is sold.
- She is particular about hammers; the handle must be specially made to withstand her grip.[7]
- Fearing the hammer will be stolen, she keeps it in hand almost always except when visiting home, and carries it even to the reading group.
- But Xiao Zhu seems to worry overmuch: most people cannot even lift this hammer, let alone steal it.
- Fearing the hammer will be stolen, she keeps it in hand almost always except when visiting home, and carries it even to the reading group.
- The mightiest weapons she has built are the Tiger Battle Tank and the Rocket Flying Fist. Unreleased content holds even nastier weapons.[8]
- During the siege of Jiangling she privately built a mechanical Tiger Battle Tank and sent it into battle.
- The Tiger Battle Tank's concept may reference Germany's Tiger tank of the Second World War.
- The Tiger Battle Tank can breathe fire and advance on its own: a self-propelled gun in the literal sense.
- If the Tiger Battle Tank has been developed, the Wulin Alliance battle will see an enhanced Unit Two developed.
- During the siege of Jiangling she privately built a mechanical Tiger Battle Tank and sent it into battle.
- Xiaomei's Jade Sky Divine Dagger was forged and given to her by Xiao Zhu.
- She forged a pair of Brave Warrior's Flying Claws; one of them was bought by and sold to Ye Yunshang, who used it for pranks.
- The black gloves she wears when dressed up are woven of Black Silk, impenetrable to blade and spear. She wears gloves because she does not want her scars seen.[1:4]
- If the two hint at their feelings for each other during the Outer Fort repair event, then on returning to Kongtong she unpicks her beloved Black Silk Gloves and sews them into armor, the Black Silkworm Treasure Garment, and gives it to Zhao Huo as a keepsake.
- In her maiden years she built a pinball machine and set up a stall at the night market.
Made Together
- With Zhao Huo she turned Eldest Senior Brother's Doodle into a workable version and built the Reverse Scale Treasure Robe.
- During the Wulin Alliance's declaration of war, driven by hatred, she developed the blueprints for a rocket repeating crossbow.
- Its terrible killing power was enough to cause a massacre, and she came to fear the design.
- Zhao Huo volunteered to develop and build the rocket repeating crossbow, taking the blame that would follow in her stead.
Tiger Armor "Tiger King"
- During the Wulin Alliance's declaration of war, if Zhao Huo asks her to develop a weapon for her own use, Xiao Zhu will take the Iron Sword Token and, together with everyone at the Fire Mountain Sword Pavilion, forge her own equipment, the Tiger Armor "Tiger King".
- It consists of a cloak, a breastplate, a tiger-head shield, and two huge metal arm guards, the arm guards large enough to serve as shields.
- The outer shell of the Tiger Armor is shaped wood armor, the inside metal armor. Zhao Huo tried it on and found it far too heavy; only Xiao Zhu can handle it.
Even Nangong Shen in the Phoenix War Armor cried out at the sight: "What in the world is that thing!"- The Horse-Slaying Sword that comes with the Tiger Armor is in fact a decoration at the Fire Mountain Sword Pavilion; the Pavilion declared that whoever could pull it out could have it, and gave it to Xiao Zhu.
These smiths really are not familiar with the rumors about the Bone-Cracking Demon.- The Horse-Slaying Sword is roughly two meters long by eye; its huge attack range and heavy slashes can sweep away a thousand troops with ease.
- Duel: the Tiger Armor can withstand any damage, but its durability is limited, and when durability runs out she retreats.
- The huge arm guards hide a Rocket Flying Fist mechanism, fired as she retreats.
- Battle: Xiao Zhu in the Tiger Armor leaps into the fray on her own; after a system close-up, she hurls the Horse-Slaying Sword and wipes out every enemy in one blow.
- Zhao Huo's appraisal:
You'd think I was General Zhu the Flying himself, sweeping away a thousand troops, matchless against ten thousand! Truly majestic on all sides, invincible wherever I turn!
- Xiao Zhu's appraisal:
Wear it long enough and it's heavy and stifling. Even I can't take it.
Physical Traits
Eyesight
- Her eyes are weak, so making small, fine items is a strain.
- She cannot aim at distant targets, and cannot even tell that Zhao Huo is an ugly man.
Weight
- Writer Bear stresses that she is short and heavy.[9]
Not only can her little sister not push her, even Zhao Huo's bridal carry looks a little strained. - Her weight is more than a ladder can bear, so she fears heights and dares not climb ladders; any high work such as roof repairs must rely on Zhao Huo's help.
- Fearing the boat would sink under her weight, she went and bought sheep stomach and leather to make a swim ring, and clung to it and would not let go. After a while she was no longer afraid, and ran about the bow and stern, beside herself with excitement.
But players, after calculating, reasonably suspect that the normal buoyancy of a swim ring could not in theory support her weight.
Other
- Xiao Zhu is only short; she is well nourished, and has grown where she ought to grow.[5:1]
Yu Xiaomei has more than once shown jealousy of her bust. - Her sense of smell is keener than most. By scent alone she can tell Zhao Huo from Chao He at a distance of several feet, and thinks Zhao Huo smells wonderful.
Though Zhao Huo says the smell on him is the Other Shore Incense of Zhengxin Hall, it clearly is not, for there is no explaining where the body scent comes from when he is not at the Tang Clan.
- Though she has no confidence in her looks, everyone agrees Xiao Zhu's face is pretty, and even her little sister envies it.
Martial Arts
- Though her constitution makes her a natural for martial arts, she never trained in the past.
- There are many reasons she would not train: love of peace and her nearsightedness are chief among them. Another is the fear that training would make her body coarse and sturdy, and even less like a girl's.
- Once she learns that Tang Clan martial arts will not coarsen her figure, she throws herself eagerly into group training, and eagerly asks Zhao Huo for private martial arts instruction.
- Another reason is that, as the Direct Disciple, no one but the Kongtong Sect Leader and the Four Sect Leaders is qualified to instruct her.
- Every fight she has had to date was nothing but wild swinging of her iron hammer by brute force.
- Though she cannot aim at distant targets, her throwing is astonishing; with one throw she bursts a training dummy.
- She has even, at a critical moment for a Flying Stone Gang member, hurled her hammer to shatter stone in a divine rescue.
As expected of an honorary member of the Flying Stone Gang, the strongest heir of Throwing Stones to Question Heaven.
- She has even, at a critical moment for a Flying Stone Gang member, hurled her hammer to shatter stone in a divine rescue.
- Her weight keeps her from practicing Qinggong; during the Wulin Alliance battle, when falling back to defend the Tang Family Compound, it was suggested she be carried up the mountain on a palanquin by several men.
Relationships
Lei Qian
- Because loves telling ghost stories, she is very afraid of ghosts.
- Though Lei Qian is a rough old brute, he is upright and dotes on this female disciple, several times bending the rules to let Xiao Zhu go home in secret.
- He thinks Xiao Zhu will sooner or later be beaten to death at Kongtong by the Irritable former Sect Leader, and turns a blind eye when Xiao Zhu tries to run home.
- During the siege of Jiangling he falsely reports Xiao Zhu killed in action, and writes to the Earth Guardian Tong Dachong, then in Jiangling, to "kill one man", expelling Xiao Zhu from the Iron Fist Gate in the hope she will not return to Kongtong to suffer.
- He is furious when Xiao Zhu's family comes to Kongtong to leech off her, and even more furious that Xiao Zhu runs back to Kongtong to suffer for their sake.
Wei Ju
- Xiao Zhu never had the chance to study as a child, and secretly asks Wei Ju to teach her reading and writing.
- She is quite unaware how dangerous it is for two Direct Disciples to meet in secret, but Wei Ju is glad to provide the education.
- Wei Ju is the most dazzling woman she has known in her life, and so when inventing a background for herself she claims to have been a fellow student at Sect Leader Wei's Gengyang Study.
Xiahou Lan
- Xiahou Lan, , and Xiao Zhu were close as sisters from childhood.
- Xiahou Lan was gentle by nature in the past, and and Xiao Zhu often burrowed into Xiahou Lan's blanket to sleep as children.
- She sincerely believes that Xiahou Lan after the Kongtong Incident has become a true female ghost, a companion of monsters.
Meishan & the Tang Clan
- After the Brave Warrior's Flying Claw affair, secretly took note of her for the fine craft of her work.
- Thanks to her looks and her smithing skill, she was warmly welcomed by male and female disciples alike the moment she entered the Tang Clan.
- Zhao Huo puts her forward to study at the Tang Clan as an exchange disciple. says flatly that without a recommendation letter she cannot study there, so Zhao Huo and help write one after the fact.
- Though Xiao Zhu's status is that of an exchange disciple, the Sect Leader assigns her to the Women's Quarters of the compound.
- Her works are so popular that even the greedy , helping to hawk them, willingly lets Xiao Zhu take sixty percent.
- When asks whether she wants anything fetched from Kongtong, she answers that there is nothing at all, which leaves the greedy dumbfounded.
- During her study at the Tang Clan, Xiao Zhu is much loved by the neighbors of the Outer Fort as well, and some women even want to marry her to their own sons.
- She shows keen interest in and willingness for the Tang Clan Senior Sisters' lessons in the arts for wives.
- She secretly does hard labor for the Flying Stone Gang; for her excellent work she is praised as an honorary member, and Lady Shi even raises her pay.
Xiaomei
- Her relationship with : once close friends, but because she was tricked into eating the spirit pills back then, Xiao Zhu is still angry with her.
- Whenever Xiaomei comes close to fool around, Xiao Zhu must hold back her own strength and resist with the least force possible.
- Xiaomei quietly handles many troubles for Xiao Zhu, but Xiao Zhu does not know, and Xiaomei does not want her to know.
- When Xiao Zhu goes home, the young lord playing her fiancé at her side is in fact Xiaomei in disguise, there to make Xiao Zhu see her family's true nature and cut ties with them.
- Xiaomei says she did not follow Xiao Zhu to the Tang Clan for her sake, but on the Xiao Zhu route, even with low favor, Xiaomei still follows her to the Tang Clan.
Perhaps Xiaomei came to protect Xiao Zhu from being caught up in the Thousand Lantern Tower.Perhaps the Apricot Blossom Immortal's birthday wish came true.
- Xiaomei disguises herself as a Painted Skin demon and claims to have killed the real Xiaomei. Xiao Zhu, who fears ghosts and monsters, instead flies into a rage and wants to kill the Painted Skin demon to avenge Xiaomei.
- Hearing that Xiaomei has been captured, she still throws caution to the wind and carries out a prison-break rescue plan.
The Kongtong vinegar jarXiaomei, while in prison, is jealous that Xiao Zhu is so gentle to her second sister and pays her no concern.- Whatever Xiaomei's favor, she will turn murderous toward Zhao Huo because Xiao Zhu falsely claims to be carrying Zhao Huo's third child.
Xiaomei is usually very good at reading people and seeing through lies, yet she does not doubt this utterly transparent lie of Xiao Zhu's in the least.
- According to the dialogue of Ending 11, if no bond is formed, she will in the end adopt an orphan and make peace with .
Birth Family & Relations
- Before she became one of the Kongtong Four Maidens, her name was already Zhu.
- Her old home is in Tianzhai Village on Tiger Mountain.
- Her childhood lacked family affection; she often envied others' kind parents, and is quick to sympathize with the troubles other parents and children face.
- There was a time when her parents doted on her too: her woodcutter father would carve Mohele Dolls for her to play with, and when money was loose he would take her into town for treats and toys. When she sulked she would hide in a tree hollow on purpose and let her father come find her.
- She does not want her family to know she runs in the Jianghu, and lies that she entered the Gengyang Study and is betrothed to a rich young lord.
- Xiao Zhu cares deeply for her family, often sending money home in secret, and finds excuses to slip home quietly.
Birth Father
- Though the eldest daughter of the house, she was never favored; in her birth father's eyes she was a golden goose that could be sold for money and milked ever after.
- Because her birth father was a compulsive gambler she was sold to a debt collector for two taels of silver, and nearly sold to a brothel; in the end the former Iron Fist Gate Sect Leader Deng Yi bought her, originally intending to resell her to a brothel, and only at Huyan Ju's pleading took her as a Direct Disciple instead.
- Hence she loathes gambling, and grows angry to see Zhao Huo gamble.
- After she took charge of the Great Smithy, her father would come to Kongtong every few months to see her. At first she was glad to fulfill her filial duty and gave him all her savings.
- Until one day her father lost all his money at a Kongtong gambling den and meant to stake her as the bet. After that he dropped all pretense and only sent word asking for money; if she did not give it, her little sister Baohua would be sold instead.
- Her birth father spread lies that she had gotten lost and run away from home, so the rest of the family always took her for an eldest daughter of vile character.
- Her birth father claims his income comes from gambling windfalls, but in fact the Yu family's living comes almost entirely from Xiao Zhu alone.
- Because her birth father was a compulsive gambler she was sold to a debt collector for two taels of silver, and nearly sold to a brothel; in the end the former Iron Fist Gate Sect Leader Deng Yi bought her, originally intending to resell her to a brothel, and only at Huyan Ju's pleading took her as a Direct Disciple instead.
Younger Sister & Brother
- Though she envies her sister Yu Baohua for having their parents' love all to herself, she still wants to be a dependable good elder sister like and .
- Even when treated unfairly by her family, she still steps forward when her younger siblings are in danger.
- Her sister Yu Baohua believed their father's story, thinking she truly lived a life of plenty while coldly leaving her family to suffer in a poor village, and so harbored deep resentment.
- Later, learning the truth, her resentment turned to guilt.
- But Baohua holds their father at fault and has no heart to mend the sisters' bond, until she writes a family letter on their mother's behalf, expecting nothing less than that Xiao Zhu will not come back. But Xiao Zhu does come back.
- Her brother Yu Cheng longs for the Jianghu and does not know his sister is a master smith of her generation; he scorns the toys Xiao Zhu carefully prepares and clamors for a weapon.
- Xiao Zhu fears Yu Cheng will be hurt and will not give him a weapon.
- While in prison, Xiao Zhu makes peace with her sister and brother, and directs them to the Tang Clan to seek the protection of their future brother-in-law Zhao Huo.
The Apricot Blossom Immortal's Blessing
- Yu Zhu's birthday wishes:[2:1]
- To make peace with the close friend she fell out with.
- To be reunited with her family.
- I hope all those who love me are safe and that all goes well for them.
Even a little good fortune is enough; I hope they can all be a little happier.
- The Apricot Blossom Immortal's Blessing story is counted as canon in the game. The blessing she receives after the dream becomes one of the hopes that keeps Xiao Zhu alive:
"I once had a dream, and in the dream there was an immortal.
The immortal told me that in the distant future many people will celebrate my birthday.
If my birth is a good thing worth celebrating, then my ending surely will not be a tragedy."
Notes
On age: she is the same age as .
- claims to be nearly 10 years younger than Xiahou Lan. Tang Zhongling says is older than Tang Moling.
- And Xiahou Lan is about 25–27 in year 3.
- Tang Moling is about 15–16, so and Xiao Zhu are estimated at about 16–17.
- claims to be nearly 10 years younger than Xiahou Lan. Tang Zhongling says is older than Tang Moling.
A gentle all-affirming machine for raising good-for-nothings.[10]
Because the ending has her with a houseful of children and she still complains the household's tiger penis wine stock is too small, the term "Zhu Ball Team" spread among players.
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