Ku Shu Meng Du Family

The Gusu Murong family is a martial household whose celebrated technique, Returning you with your own move, gives its name influence far beyond its own encounters. That reputation draws the family’s retainers into disputes with Shaolin and the Xingxiu Sect, and makes them convenient objects of suspicion: at Xue’s residence, even an apparent attempt to help becomes entangled with old, uncertain grievances attributed to the family.

Identity and reputation

The family is represented in these episodes by four retainers serving its young master, Murong Fu: Deng BaiChuan, GongYe Gan, Bao BuTong, and Feng BoE. The household’s standing rests in part on its association with Returning you with your own move, a technique that has become famous enough to shape how others interpret events. Shaolin’s abbot, XuanCi, sends a Heroes Invitation Card calling warriors to gather at Shaolin Temple on the Double Ninth Festival and challenge the technique’s reputation. The invitation reflects a broader unease: many people have died in recent years under a skill attributed to the family, and Shaolin monks suspect it may have been connected to the death of their martial grandfather, XuanBei, in Dali. Even Xu Zhu, delivering the invitation, understands that suspicion falls on the family, although he says the abbot himself has not reached a conclusion.

That fame also makes the household wary of claims that it is responsible for unrelated violence. At Xue’s residence, Deng BaiChuan explains that Murong Fu has never met the physician Xue and has no personal grievance against him. The retainers would not seek treatment from someone they considered an enemy, even if the poison were far worse. Yet the family’s history of enemies leaves room for uncertainty: relatives of Xue may have been killed by someone else, with the resulting blood debt mistakenly assigned to the Murongs. The family’s name thus works as both a public credential and a burden, inviting challenges while attracting blame.

Retainers and conduct

The four retainers’ loyalty is visible in their coordinated defense of one another. When Feng BoE is struck while shaving the iron mask worn by You TanZhi, GongYe Gan tends to him and gives him a detoxification pill. Deng BaiChuan and Bao BuTong move to block You TanZhi and Ding ChunQiu; Bao BuTong is poised to attack, but checks himself when Deng BaiChuan calls him back. Deng then asks Ding ChunQiu to explain why his sect has injured Feng, who had been trying to remove the mask in what Deng describes as a good-faith act. The exchange makes the family’s internal order legible: Bao BuTong is quick to anger, but he responds to his elder brother’s restraint, while Deng seeks an explanation before escalating the dispute.

Their exchanges also reveal sharply different temperaments. Bao BuTong’s irreverence surfaces when Ding ChunQiu’s followers praise their master: Bao openly mocks the flattery, and two retainers have to deflect the attacks that follow. In a separate crisis, Bao proposes burning down Xue’s residence after the poison trap has left the group hungry and unable to trust the food and water. Deng refuses, reasoning that Xue is still a friend of Shaolin and that XuanNan is present. He urges the group not to eat or drink within three li of the house, because Xue’s schemes may extend beyond the coffin and trap already encountered. The contrast is not simply between boldness and caution: Bao’s impatience presses toward immediate action, while Deng’s judgment takes account of allies, uncertainty, and the risk of implicating others.

Conflict with the Xingxiu Sect

The family’s confrontation with Ding ChunQiu grows out of the attack on Feng BoE and the broader violence around Xue. Deng speaks for the retainers, asking why the Xingxiu Sect injured a man who was trying to help You TanZhi. Ding dismisses the question, claiming that You TanZhi wants to wear the iron mask and that Feng has meddled in another person’s affairs. The exchange leaves no common ground: Deng frames the incident as a matter requiring explanation, while Ding treats his disciple’s actions as beyond the need for justification.

As the conflict expands, the retainers face an opponent whose methods expose the limits of their standing and skill. During the later battle, Ding ChunQiu and You TanZhi defeat the Murong retainers alongside XuanNan and the Shaolin monks and Su XingHe’s Eight Friends of Hangu. You TanZhi’s martial technique is described as limited, but his unusually deep internal power and accumulated frost poison make his attacks dangerous. GongYe Gan’s counterattack, for instance, leaves him injured by the cold poison. The family’s reputation cannot shield its members from this practical advantage, and their defeat occurs within a larger clash involving multiple groups rather than a contest over reputation alone.

Old secrets and disputed claims

Deng’s account of what the family’s old master told the retainers connects Ding ChunQiu’s ambitions to a deeper history. According to that account, Ding had seduced the old master’s lover, fled with her to a village near Lake Tai, and concealed large numbers of stolen martial-arts manuals in Suzhou. Deng suspects that Ding’s interest in the art of Eternal Youth Never Ageing is not merely a desire to delay aging: he may also be seeking to strengthen his Great Energy Dissolving Skill. These claims are presented as the family’s explanation and suspicion, not as a complete independent account of Ding’s motives.

The retainers further attribute to their old master the view that eternal youth is not literal, though skill in internal energy might delay visible aging. They suspect Ding’s search for a book could lead him toward the manuals hidden near Suzhou. This account helps explain why the family’s knowledge matters in the confrontation, but it does not resolve every mystery surrounding the stolen books or Ding’s intentions. When the group decides to leave the cave and face him rather than wait for him to break in, Deng and his brothers agree to go together; their decision turns family solidarity into a commitment to confront the danger directly.

Defeat and significance

The battle ends with the retainers and their allies overpowered. Ding strikes Deng BaiChuan, and Bao BuTong is knocked down; GongYe Gan and other fighters also succumb to You TanZhi’s frost poison. The episode underlines the difference between the Murong name’s formidable reputation and the immediate conditions of combat: the family’s retainers are capable fighters, but Ding’s and You TanZhi’s powers overwhelm them in the larger encounter.

Afterward, Ding orders the group taken away and Xue’s residence burned. Xue gathers his medicines and herbs, while Ding’s followers load the injured Shaolin monks, the four Murong retainers, Su XingHe’s Eight Friends of Hangu, and Xue’s family into ten carriages. The passengers are unable to move freely, and the curtains are tied shut, leaving them unable to see where they are being taken. The family’s representatives thus end this episode not in triumph or in a settled account of the old accusations, but as captives in a conflict whose consequences reach well beyond their household.