The narrator's ancestor and former leader of the Zhengyi sect of Daoism. He became sect leader at twenty-three and was ambitious about reviving Daoism, which had been suppressed under shamanism. He naively challenged the shamanic leader to a duel and then attempted to subdue the demons of the Red Gate Inn but was defeated and barely escaped with his life. Upon hearing that the shamanic leader returned unscathed from the inn with a letter from the demon leader, Chen Lu was enraged, coughed up blood, and died at twenty-five. His descendants all died before age twenty-five, believed to be cursed by the Red Gate Inn's demons.
