Jin Guangyao became the leader of the Lanling Jin Sect after the death of Jin Guangshan. A member of the Venerated Triad, he was also Jin Zixuan's half-brother and Jin Ling's uncle. Due to the power of the Lanling Jin Sect before and during his reign, he became the first Chief Cultivator.
Jin Guangyao possesses an eidetic memory; he can remember the name, title, age, and appearance of a person after just one encounter. Moreover, if he has seen someone more than twice, he can remember all of their likes and dislikes and thereby cater to their needs. Because of his memory and intelligence, his sworn brother Nie Mingjue considers him a rare genius.
Jin Guangyao is an excellent actor, easily switching from cold to panicked, shedding tears on command. He is exceptionally skilled with words and easily uses his talent to gain advantages over his opponents.
Additionally, he is capable of maintaining his craftiness volatile situations; he quickly deduces that Wei Wuxian is the paperman who had seen his unstable wife and Nie Mingjue's head and promptly hides the head while casting suspicion on Wei Wuxian, revealing him as the Yiling Patriarch in Mo Xuanyu's body.
On the surface, Jin Guangyao has a caring and humble demeanor. He proposes the construction of lookout towers to watch over common people, and he allows his deceased brother's murals to exist alongside his own in equal glory, despite the precedent that he should make Jin Zixuan seem less impressive.
Jin Guangyao is also filial towards his mother, building a Guanyin Temple with a statue in her likeness. He hoped that his mother, a prostitute, would receive enough worship to reincarnate into a better life.
Underneath his gentle facade, Jin Guangyao is deeply insecure about his roots. He repeatedly demonstrates distress at being called "the son of a prostitute." Moreover, he is desperate to earn Jin Guangshan's approval; in his own words, as long as his father commanded him, "no matter how foolish it was, no matter how hated I'd be, I'd obey regardlessly." As a result, Jin Guangyao commits many violent acts, even killing his sworn brother Nie Mingjue after Jin Guangshan deems Nie Mingjue a political inconvenience.
After realizing that Jin Guangshan will never love him, Jin Guangyao retaliates against his father by murdering him in a deeply embarrassing manner, revealing a ruthless side to his personality. Although he does not kill needlessly, he is willing to kill or endanger many to save himself. In his own words, he has killed "his father, brother, teacher, wife, son, and friend" by the end of the story. However, his ruthlessness is not without his own brand of mercy: he elects to save his mother's friend Sisi despite the fact that she was a witness to his murder of Jin Guangshan, and to marry his own half-sister because she had already become pregnant before he knew of their relation.
A notable exception to his ruthlessness is his sworn brother Lan Xichen. Lan Xichen is his closest friend, and they spent spend hours together talking and night hunting. Jin Guangyao helps rebuild the Cloud Recesses exactly as it was before and protects Lan Xichen from Nie Mingjue's fierce corpse.
