List of The Smiling, Proud Wanderer characters

Five Mountain Sword Schools Alliance

Mount Hua School

• Linghu Chong is the happy-go-lucky protagonist of the novel. An orphan, he was raised and trained by Yue Buqun and Ning Zhongze as their first apprentice. He learns the Nine Swords of Dugu from Feng Qingyang and becomes a formidable swordsman. His sudden leap in swordplay prowess causes his master to suspect him of having stolen the Bixie Swordplay Manual and mastered the skill. Even after his expulsion from Mount Hua, he remains loyal and respectful towards his former master. However, they ultimately become enemies after Yue Buqun is revealed to be a power-hungry hypocrite. Linghu Chong eventually retires from the jianghu to lead a peaceful life with Ren Yingying.
• Yue Su and Cai Zifeng were two Mount Hua School swordsmen who became rivals and respectively founded the Qi and Sword factions. See also their connections to the Sunflower Manual.

• Yue Buqun is the leader of the Mount Hua School. Although he is nicknamed "Gentleman Sword" for his gentlemanly conduct, he gradually reveals his true personality – a bigoted, narcissistic and power-hungry hypocrite. He lusts for the Lin family's Bixie Swordplay Manual and plots an elaborate scheme to seize it, after which he castrates himself to fulfil the prerequisite for learning the swordplay. He is also secretly jealous of Linghu Chong for his sudden leap in swordplay prowess, refusing to accept the fact that his apprentice has surpassed him. He is incidentally killed by Yilin during the final battle with Linghu Chong while attempting to trap and kill his rivals inside a cave on Mount Hua.
• Ning Zhongze, nicknamed "Heroine Ning", is Yue Buqun's chivalrous and kindly wife. She regards Linghu Chong as a son and is also the only person who believes his innocence in the theft of the Bixie Swordplay Manual. She loses her will to live after seeing her husband reveal his true colours and learning of her daughter's death, and eventually commits suicide out of shame at her husband's actions.
• Yue Lingshan is Yue Buqun and Ning Zhongze's daughter and Linghu Chong's first romantic interest. She falls in love with Lin Pingzhi later and marries him. However, she eventually learns that she is actually a pawn in a struggle for power between her husband and her father. Lin Pingzhi kills her after she refuses to follow him to join Zuo Lengchan in taking revenge against Yue Buqun. Before dying, she makes Linghu Chong promise to spare her husband's life.  
• Lin Pingzhi is Lin Zhennan's son and the sole survivor of the Lin family, who was massacred by the Qingcheng School. Yue Buqun saves him, takes him in as an apprentice, and arranges for a marriage between him and Yue Lingshan. Driven by hatred and resentment after discovering Yue Buqun's ulterior motives, he becomes increasingly vicious and brutally kills his family's murderers in revenge, but is blinded by Mu Gaofeng. He is eventually defeated and permanently disabled by Linghu Chong, who imprisons him in an underground dungeon so that he can neither harm others nor be harmed by others.
• Lao Denuo, nicknamed "Old Man Sa", is Yue Buqun's second apprentice who is actually a spy sent by Zuo Lengchan to steal the Violet Mist Divine Skill manual from Yue Buqun. He murders Lu Dayou and attempts to push the blame to Linghu Chong. After Zuo Lengchan's death, he attempts to learn the Bixie Swordplay on his own but fails and ends up losing all his inner energy. During Linghu Chong and Ren Yingying's wedding, Ren Yingying reveals that the Sun Moon Holy Cult has captured and forced Lao Denuo to live among monkeys.
• Liang Fa is Yue Buqun's third apprentice. He is killed by Mount Song School members.
• Shi Daizi is Yue Buqun's fourth apprentice.
• Gao Genming is Yue Buqun's fifth apprentice.
• Lu Dayou is Yue Buqun's sixth apprentice who is nicknamed "Sixth Monkey" for his monkey-like behaviour and affinity with primates. A close friend of Linghu Chong, he is murdered by Lao Denuo, who attempts to push the blame to Linghu Chong.
• Tao Jun is Yue Buqun's seventh apprentice.
• Ying Bailuo is Yue Buqun's eighth apprentice. After he witnesses his master trying to harm Lin Pingzhi, his master kills him outside the Lin family residence in Fuzhou.
• Shu Qi is the youngest among Yue Buqun's apprentices.

• Feng Qingyang is an elderly swordsman from the Sword faction. During the school's internal conflict, he was lured away by the Qi faction, who used the opportunity to defeat and force the Sword faction into exile. Feeling disgraced for being deceived, he leaves the school and leads a reclusive life in a secluded area on Mount Hua. He meets Linghu Chong by chance and teaches him the Nine Swords of Dugu as he is very impressed with Linghu Chong's good character and intelligence. His name is derived from a poem in the Classic of Poetry.
• Feng Buping is the leader-in-exile of the Sword faction. Zuo Lengchan instigates him to return to Mount Hua to challenge Yue Buqun for the position of leadership of their school. He is defeated by Linghu Chong and forced back into exile.
• Cheng Buyou is Feng Buping's junior. He is torn into four pieces by the "Six Immortals of the Peach Valley".
• Cong Buqi is Feng Buping's junior. He is defeated by Linghu Chong.

  Mount Song School

• Zuo Lengchan is the ambitious and ruthless leader of the Mount Song School and chief of the Five Mountain Sword Schools Alliance. He practises a skill, Freezing Inner Energy, which allows him to freeze his inner energy to sub-zero temperature and increase its power tremendously. He had sent Lao Denuo to infiltrate the Mount Hua School and steal the Bixie Swordplay Manual from Yue Buqun; Lao Denuo steals a fake copy of the manual for him and he practises the swordplay without knowing it is not the real one. After that, he calls for a special assembly of the alliance on Mount Song and attempts to intimidate the other four schools into submitting to him. However, he is defeated and blinded by Yue Buqun, who uses the real Bixie Swordplay against him. After his defeat, he pretends to concede his position as the alliance chief to Yue Buqun. Later, he leads his followers to Mount Hua to kill Yue Buqun, who sees through his plan and traps them inside a cave. The trapped swordsmen start killing each other out of paranoia and mistrust; Zuo Lengchan is killed by Linghu Chong during the frenzy.
• Zuo Lengchan's juniors:
• * Ding Mian, nicknamed "Pagoda-Bearing Hand".
• * Lu Bai, nicknamed "Heavenly Crane Hand".
• * Fei Bin, nicknamed "Great Songyang Hand", is killed by Mo Da.
• * Deng Bagong, nicknamed "Divine Whip".
• * Gao Kexin, nicknamed "Colourful Lion".
• * Tang Ying'e, nicknamed "Red and White Sword".
• * Zhong Zhen, nicknamed "Nine Sections Sword".
• Yue Hou, nicknamed "Great Yinyang Hand", is one of the martial artists who attacks Xiang Wentian. Linghu Chong comes to Xiang Wentian's aid and injures Yue Hou.
• Bu Chen, nicknamed "White Haired Old Immortal", is killed by Linghu Chong in Fuzhou while attempting to steal the Bixie Swordplay Manual.
• Sha Tianjiang, nicknamed "Bald Eagle", is killed by Linghu Chong in Fuzhou.
• Shi Dengda, nicknamed "Thousand Zhàng Pine", is killed by Zuo Lengchan during the special assembly on Mount Song.
• Wan Daping is Shi Dengda's junior.
• Di Xiu is one of Zuo Lengchan's apprentices. He is killed by his master during the special assembly on Mount Song.

  (North) Mount Heng School

• The "Three Elder Nuns" are the leaders of the Mount Heng School.
• * Dingjing is the most senior of the trio, but she willingly gives up the position of leadership to her junior, Dingxian. Zuo Lengchan sends his henchmen to ambush her and force her to let the Mount Heng School be absorbed into the Mount Song School. She refuses to capitulate and dies from her wounds before Linghu Chong can save her.
• * Dingxian is the benevolent and wise leader of the school. She is mortally wounded by a masked Yue Buqun in Shaolin Monastery. Before dying, she passes on her leadership position to Linghu Chong.
• * Dingyi is the most junior of the trio and the most hot-tempered one. She and Dingxian are murdered by a masked Yue Buqun in Shaolin Monastery.
• Yilin is Dingyi's apprentice and the daughter of Monk Bujie and Mute Granny. She falls in love with Linghu Chong after he rescues her from Tian Boguang's sexual advances, but has to suppress her feelings because she is forbidden by her vow of celibacy. Her mother tries to force her to marry Linghu Chong but she refuses.
• Tian Boguang is a bandit nicknamed "Lone Traveller of Ten Thousand Li". Notorious for his lecherous behaviour and for raping many women, he makes sexual advances on Yilin but is stopped by Linghu Chong. Having lost a bet to Linghu Chong, he has to uphold a promise to leave Yilin alone from then on. Later in the novel, Monk Bujie semi-castrates Tian Boguang and forces him to become a Buddhist monk, renaming him to Buke Bujie, which means "cannot have no rules". He ultimately joins the Mount Heng School.
• Bujie is a Buddhist monk and Yilin's father. He fell in love with Mute Granny and renamed himself "Bujie", which means "no rules". He attempts to cure Linghu Chong of his internal wounds by injecting two streams of inner energy into his body to suppress the six streams of energies, saving Linghu's life momentarily.
• Mute Granny was a Buddhist nun who fell in love with Bujie and bore him their daughter, Yilin. She has remained close to her daughter all this time by pretending to be a mute caretaker working for the Mount Heng School.
• Yihe is the most senior of the school's members of the Yi generation.
• Yiqing is Yihe's junior who succeeds Linghu Chong as the school's leader.
• Yizhi is Dingjing's apprentice.
• Yizhen is Dingjing's apprentice. She delivers medicine to Yue Lingshan in Fuzhou.
• Yiling accompanies Yizhen to deliver medicine to Yue Lingshan.
• Yiguang is Yilin's senior.
• Yiwen is Dingxian's apprentice.
• Qin Juan is a secular apprentice of Dingjing.
• Zheng E is a secular member of the Mount Heng School.
• Aunt Yu is originally Dingxian's servant. Dingxian accepts her as an apprentice later.