Zhu Zhuyun

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Zhu Zhuyun (朱竹云)
Alias(es)	“Yunyun,” used by Xu Yu while presenting her as his lover 17
Gender	Female
Affiliation	Netherworld Spirit Cat Family / Zhu Family, from which she defects; political ally of Xu Yu who negotiates cooperation with Spirit Hall rather than immediately joining it 7 10 11
Occupation/Role	Former Crown Princess of the Star Luo Empire; aspiring ruler of the Border Kingdom; leader building a power base in southern Star Luo 8 11 91 139
Martial Soul	Hell Spirit Cat 10
Cultivation	Soul Saint; subsequently gains another level of Soul Power 139 173
Status	Alive; remains in the southern region after Xu Yu escorts Empress Dowager Zhu away 174
First Appearance	Chapter 7, “Zhu Zhuyun” 7

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Level 48 — Soul Ancestor	15	Retrospectively identified as her level during the Continental Elite Tournament.
Two inherited leg Soul Bones absorbed	7	Before her escape, forcibly absorbs two family treasures, each over 80,000 years old. They strengthen her base attributes and grant Shrinking Ground to Inches and Ultimate Evasion.
Soul King	11	Absorbs the soul ring of a Tiger Shark over 15,000 years old, with Xu Yu assisting the hunt.
Level 53	15	Confirmed after reaching Spirit City. Xu Yu questions the speed of her advancement; its full cause is not established here.
Level 55	23	Medicine supplied by Xu Yu heals damage from forcibly absorbing the Soul Bones and unlocks more of their effects, raising her two levels.
Level 56	23 40	The medicine’s peak eruption raises her another level but threatens to destroy her body. Chapter 40 also identifies a breakthrough to Level 56; her uncontrolled aura makes her fear that her mother has recognized her.
Soul Saint	139	Advances during the wider surge in power affecting Xu Yu’s companions and summoned beasts.
Soul Saint — one additional level	173	Cultivates in a mysterious island world while confined in the Ruyi Bag of Treasures. Periods of dramatically accelerated cultivation yield another level; the exact number is not stated.

Background / History

Succession Defeat and Defection

Zhu Zhuyun is the eldest legitimate daughter of the Netherworld Spirit Cat Family and the daughter whom its head, Zhu Miaoying, had prepared most extensively as a successor. She is engaged to Dai Weisi and competes against her younger sister, Zhu Zhuqing, in the struggle for Star Luo’s succession. Before their decisive defeat, she repeatedly sends assassins to intercept Zhu Zhuqing on the journey to Suotuo City 14 15 40 163.

After she and Dai Weisi lose at the Continental Elite Tournament, Zhu Zhuyun refuses to accept the punishment awaiting the defeated contenders. She steals and absorbs two inherited leg Soul Bones, then escapes confinement. Her family pursues her to recover the treasures; she expects capture to mean a crippled martial soul and possibly the severing of her legs 7 10 163.

Rescue and Bargain with Xu Yu

Near the southern coast, Xu Yu’s support skills give Zhu Zhuyun the opportunity to escape her pursuers by jumping into the sea. He later finds her unconscious underwater with a Water Repelling Pearl in her mouth, carries her to an island, and revives her through cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He also takes her Storage Ring, clothing, and pearl 7 8 9.

Zhu Zhuyun initially rejects his proposal to join Spirit Hall because she does not want outsiders destroying the family that raised her. Nevertheless, she accepts that she cannot challenge Star Luo alone and agrees to visit Spirit City to negotiate a deal—not simply become a member of Spirit Hall 9 10.

Their cooperation becomes a political bargain: Xu Yu will supply support and Spirit Hall intelligence, while she will use her Star Luo influence to improve his standing. She also offers a personal relationship on the condition that he help her become ruler of the Border Kingdom, proposing that a future child could inherit it. Xu Yu accepts 11.

Spirit City and the Twins Scheme

In Spirit City, Zhu Zhuyun stays near Xu Yu at Golden Goose’s residence and poses as his woman to conceal her identity. She dislikes the humiliation and his exaggerated affection, but recognizes that the arrangement protects her from her family 15 17.

Xu Yu sends her to retrieve Dai Mubai’s former twin lovers from Baroque to undermine his relationship with Zhu Zhuqing. When she returns, Zhu Zhuyun falsely claims that the older twin is pregnant to test how Xu Yu would handle the situation. His refusal to force an abortion makes her attitude toward him warmer 22 38.

After consuming Xu Yu’s cultivation medicine, she suffers a dangerous energy eruption and turns to him for help. Their relationship becomes intimate, and he returns her Storage Ring and Water Repelling Pearl the following morning 23. During the subsequent negotiations with her family, she hides behind a screen in a mask and black robe, but fears that a cultivation breakthrough has exposed her aura to her mother 39 40.

Building a Southern Power Base

Frustrated that Xu Yu has benefited from her work without meaningfully advancing her ambitions, Zhu Zhuyun confronts him. She takes Gold Soul Coin cards and his governance handbook, then decides to leave and establish a nation in the south 43.

She later gains the support of two southern Star Luo provinces, though their local families retain actual control and her own forces remain insufficient to unite them. She writes to Xu Yu for assistance and information about the Devil Tree 91. By her meeting with Moss Head, she controls 30% of the south’s Devil Fruit users and has secured support from several major families 139.

The expanding Demon Jungle alarms her: she fears its growth could eventually consume human territory. Xu Yu’s failure to answer her repeated letters compounds her frustration until they reunite near the jungle 165.

Family Pursuit and the Demon Jungle

The Zhu Family’s elders order Zhu Zhuyun killed and the inherited Soul Bones recovered. Her mother joins the southern punitive expedition despite privately hoping to preserve her life. Xu Yu devastates the force on his journey south, and Zhu Miaoying interprets his intervention as confirmation of her daughter’s involvement with him 163 164.

While travelling with Xu Yu, Zhu Zhuyun encounters Tang Hao and then Empress Dowager Zhu. She openly rejects the dowager’s authority, declaring that she accepted the risk of death when she fled the family 169 170.

Xu Yu subsequently keeps her inside the Ruyi Bag of Treasures. Her consciousness reaches a strange world of floating islands and a Sky-Piercing Great Tree, where an island suited to her martial soul greatly accelerates her cultivation 173.

On returning outside, she finds Xu Yu apparently unconscious and guards him against the dowager. Unaware that he is exaggerating his injuries, she nurses him attentively. Before leaving, he gives her Moss Head’s contact information and escorts the dowager out of the southern waters; Zhu Zhuyun conceals her distress at their separation, then privately cries for three days 174.

Appearance

• Build: Tall and curvaceous, with long, toned legs and fair skin 7 15 169.
• Eyes and brows: Black eyes and willow-leaf-shaped eyebrows 7 166.
• Usual clothing: Tight black leather clothing, particularly black leather pants 7 139 165.
• Disguise: A black mask in Spirit City; a black robe and mask when concealing herself from visiting family members 15 39.

Personality

Zhu Zhuyun is proud, ambitious, and unwilling to exchange her martial soul and future prospects for a comfortable but powerless life. Her flight from the family is deliberate: she would rather risk death than submit to being crippled after losing the succession struggle 7 15 170.

She is calculating and politically perceptive. She recognizes Xu Yu’s ambitions, offers a bargain tailored to them, and treats alliances as necessary tools for recovering power. Her willingness to assassinate Zhu Zhuqing reflects the ruthless way she approaches succession competition, although her younger sister Zhu Zhuqiu condemns those methods 9 11 40.

Her guardedness toward Xu Yu gradually gives way to attachment without eliminating her independence. She tests his dependability, challenges his failure to support her goals, and leaves to build her own political base. Later, she tries to maintain a dignified public expression while concealing how much she misses him 38 43 139.

She remains sensitive about losing the Soul Bones in her legs. When Xu Yu touches her thighs, she momentarily fears that someone intends to cut off her legs and retrieve them, nearly attacking before recognizing him 166.

Abilities & Skills

Hell Spirit Cat Martial Soul

• Grants powerful night vision, allowing her to identify her family’s approaching forces during a nighttime battle 10.
• Provides sharp claws suited to attacking plant-type spirit beasts 10.
• Gives her substantial physical strength; an instinctive counterattack nearly injures Xu Yu badly when they are at comparable cultivation levels 16.

Shrinking Ground to Inches and Ultimate Evasion

These two skills come from her inherited leg Soul Bones 7.

• Support her flight from stronger family pursuers.
• Accompany a substantial increase in her base attributes.
• Do not make her escape certain: she still requires Xu Yu’s intervention when Zhu Ting attacks 7.

Combat with Xu Yu’s Support

• His early buffs heal her injuries, replenish Soul Power, strengthen her attributes, and accelerate skill release 7.
• During the Tang Hao encounter, his cooldown-reduction buff makes her feel capable of instantly casting both spirit-ring and Soul Bone skills 169.
• His whale-shaped buff immediately restores Soul Power spent on a physical-strength enhancement skill 169.
• These enhancements are supplied by Xu Yu, not innate abilities of Zhu Zhuyun 7 169.

Political Leadership

• Possesses experience directing Soul Masters stronger than herself; Xu Yu asks about her methods of controlling them 20.
• Uses her former Crown Princess status and Star Luo connections as bargaining assets 11.
• Secures provincial and major-family support, then builds authority over a substantial portion of southern Devil Fruit users 91 139.
• Initially lacks enough personal forces to consolidate the families supporting her 91.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Two inherited leg Soul Bones — Each is over 80,000 years old. Stolen from the Netherworld Spirit Cat Family and absorbed before her escape; their forcible absorption initially damages her body 7 23.
• Water Repelling Pearl — A family treasure found in her mouth while she is unconscious underwater. Xu Yu takes it and later returns it 8 9 23.
• Storage Ring — Taken by Xu Yu during her rescue and returned after their intimate encounter 8 23.
• Life Spirit Liquid / cultivation medicine — Supplied by Xu Yu as a mission reward; heals Soul Bone-related damage and raises her Soul Power, but its violent release nearly destroys her body 22 23.
• Gold Soul Coin cards and governance handbook — Taken from Xu Yu’s Storage Spirit Device to support her southern nation-building plans 43.

Relationships

• Xu Yu — Rescuer, political partner, and eventual lover. Their alliance begins as a mutual bargain, develops through distrust and cooperation, and becomes emotionally important to her despite his manipulation and neglect of her requests 9 11 23 43 165 174.
• Dai Weisi — Former fiancé and fellow defeated succession contender. She considers their relationship effectively impossible after their loss; he is later stripped of his martial soul and sent to labour at the border 10 15 104.
• Zhu Zhuqing — Younger sister and succession rival. Zhu Zhuyun orders repeated assassination attempts against her and later assists a scheme designed to damage her relationship with Dai Mubai 9 22 40.
• Zhu Miaoying / Mother Zhu — Mother and Zhu Family head. She invested heavily in Zhu Zhuyun’s future and retains affection for her, but must obey the elders’ demand to recover the stolen Soul Bones 163 164.
• Zhu Zhuqiu — Younger sister who is close to Zhu Zhuqing and condemns Zhu Zhuyun’s assassination attempts and southern activities 40 163.
• Zhu Yueru / Empress Dowager Zhu — Third great-aunt and senior family pursuer. Zhu Zhuyun rejects her authority and distrusts her promises even after the dowager’s defeat 170 174.
• Moss Head — Source of information about the Demon Ancient Tree forest and Devil Fruits. Xu Yu later gives Zhu Zhuyun his contact information 139 174.

Notable Quotes

“You really are despicable, but I like it.”
— To Xu Yu about his scheme involving Dai Mubai’s former lovers 22

“Empress Dowager Zhu, since I, Zhu Zhuyun, dared to flee, I was prepared to die without leaving even bones behind.”
— Rejecting her great-aunt’s demand to surrender 170