Martial Soul

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Martial Soul
Original Name	武魂
First Appearance	Chapter 1
Latest Appearance	Chapter 269

Overview

A Martial Soul is the foundation of a Soul Master's abilities and cultivation. It can be summoned or used for Martial Soul Possession, while its nature determines compatible Soul Rings, combat applications, and potential development paths. 1 5 105

Martial Souls are awakened through Martial Soul Hall, which provides free awakenings to commoners. 102

Although Martial Souls are generally innate, their properties, bloodlines, and even origins can be altered through exceptional external means, including Soul Bones, bloodline power, and spatial-origin extraction. 98 183 240

Classification

Category	Known examples	Characteristics
Space-type Martial Soul	Jiang Ming's pure Space Martial Soul; Bone Douluo's spatial-attribute variant	Uses spatial power for cutting, displacement, compression, confinement, folding, and redirection rather than conventional hard defense. Jiang Ming's Martial Soul is identified as a pure Space type rather than a variant with spatial attributes. 1 63 84 117 138
Time-type Martial Soul	Xu Heng's Hourglass Martial Soul	Possesses time-related traits, including a time-slowing effect upon release. Its use can impose an enormous drain on the wielder's physical energy. 241 263
Tool Martial Soul	Clear Sky Hammer; Soul-Breaking Spear	Can manifest as a weapon or tool. Tool Martial Soul users may be able to store harmful properties within their Martial Soul. 98 162 180
Beast Martial Soul	Jade Phosphor Serpent; Vajra Bear; Great Ape	Acts upon the user's body during possession; a Beast Martial Soul's properties may affect its wielder directly. 71 98 105
Plant-type Martial Soul	Blue Silver Grass; Blue Silver Emperor	May possess toughness, vitality, control abilities, and potential bloodline-based evolution. 51 183
Twin Martial Souls	Tang San's Blue Silver Emperor and Clear Sky Hammer	Two Martial Souls can create conflicting Soul Powers if cultivated simultaneously before the user's body can endure them. 177 182 183

Awakening and Cultivation

• Innate Soul Power is regarded as a factor affecting a Soul Master's cultivation ceiling. 20
• A Soul Disciple becomes a Soul Master after obtaining a first Soul Ring; Jiang Ming reached level 10 before seeking his first ring. 5 70
• Soul Rings grant Soul Skills and can raise Soul Power after absorption. 30 41
• Ring selection is consequential: an unsuitable ring can fail to realize a Martial Soul's strengths and may limit future development. 5
• Matching a Martial Soul with an aligned Soul Beast is considered ideal; Jiang Ming specifically sought spatial Soul Beasts for his Space Martial Soul. 5 126
• Absorbing a ring beyond one's physical limit can tear meridians, cause severe internal injuries, or result in death. 13 177
• Spirit Bones can strengthen the physique and help a user endure excessive Soul Power or Soul Ring pressure. 176 178
• A Martial Soul's release can carry burdens beyond Soul Power consumption. Xu Heng's time-type Hourglass Martial Soul greatly depletes his physical strength when summoned. 241
• Martial Soul qualities can potentially evolve when supplied with the proper catalyst, though such methods are exceptionally rare. 98

Power Progression

Stage	Jiang Ming's documented state	Martial Soul advancement
Unringed Soul Scholar	At seven years old, Jiang Ming possessed no Soul Ring. 1	Demonstrated innate spatial cutting and Space Shift without summoning a ring or activating a Soul Skill. 1
First Soul Ring	Reached level 10 after absorbing the Blue Silver Emperor's life force and subsequently absorbed a Space-type ring at least six hundred years old. 5 13	Obtained Spatial Amplification, increasing the force of his spatial abilities by 50%. 45
Second Soul Ring	Absorbed a thousand-year spatial ring in six hours. 24	Obtained Spatial Stripping. 24
Third Soul Ring	Absorbed a ten-thousand-year Void Burrowing Beast ring and advanced to level 33. 41	Obtained Space Compression, giving him a powerful restraint and attrition ability. 41 72
Fourth Soul Ring	Revealed a yellow, purple, black, black configuration as a Soul Ancestor. 62 84	Obtained Spatial Shift, allowing instantaneous relocation and attack redirection. 62 72
Fifth Soul Ring	Acquired a fifth spatial ring from the Void Walker, stated to be at least fifty thousand years old. 129 135 160	Obtained Void and an External Soul Bone with spatial traversal and defense-ignoring properties. 135 175
Level 63 without a new ring	Cultivated for three years without adding a Soul Ring, reaching level 63. 240	Developed a fifty-meter Spatial Domain and integrated Space Compression, Spatial Stripping, and Space Tear into Dimensional Slash. 240
Sixth Soul Ring	Killed and absorbed a ninety-thousand-year Space Soul Beast's black-red ring. 242	Obtained Spatial Collapse; its full effect remains undisclosed, though the spatial fluctuations released during its awakening disintegrated nearby leaves into powder. 242

Soul Rings

Documented Ring Colors

Color	Documented age association	Notes
Yellow	Hundred-year	Jiang Ming's first ring is identified as a six-hundred-year Space-type ring, while his displayed first ring is yellow. 13 41
Purple	Thousand-year	Jiang Ming's second ring is a thousand-year ring and appears purple. 23 41
Black	Ten-thousand-year or higher	Jiang Ming's third and fourth rings are ten-thousand-year rings; his unusually dark fifth ring is stated to be at least fifty thousand years old. 41 62 160
Black-red	Ninety-thousand-year	Jiang Ming's sixth Space-type Soul Ring appeared black-red after he killed the captured ninety-thousand-year Space Soul Beast. 242

Absorption

• Soul Rings arise from slain Soul Beasts and are absorbed into a Soul Master's body. 13 41
• A ring's age and attribute affect both its absorption danger and the resulting Soul Skill. 5 13 24
• A ten-thousand-year ring may retain a residual soul impact capable of attacking or attempting to devour the absorber's soul. 41
• Jiang Ming repeatedly surpassed conventional ring-age expectations through exceptional physique, spiritual power, body tempering, and the Blue Silver Emperor's life force. 13 30 41 53
• Jiang Ming's absorption of his ninety-thousand-year sixth ring proceeded unusually smoothly despite the Soul Beast's extreme age and dangerous spatial attribute. 242

Martial Soul Origin

A Martial Soul has an origin tied to its owner's soul. Jiang Ming can use Spatial Stripping to extract this origin, leaving the target's Martial Soul crippled. 182 183

• Yu Xiaogang's Martial Soul Fusion Skill failed after his Martial Soul origin was extracted. 182
• Tang San's extracted origin was revealed to be the bloodline of an unawakened Blue Silver Emperor rather than ordinary Blue Silver Grass. 183
• Removing Tang San's Blue Silver Emperor bloodline crippled his Martial Soul and prevented further cultivation. 183
• Jiang Ming later extracted Xu Heng's time-type Hourglass Martial Soul origin, reducing Xu Heng to a dying, Martial Soul-less state. 269
• Xu Heng's extracted origin manifested as a sphere of light-golden radiance, which Jiang Ming absorbed into his own body. The resulting ability has not yet been disclosed. 269

Jiang Ming also extracted the purest origin from the Blue Silver Emperor Spirit Bone to comprehend the Law of Life. The resulting life-origin power grants him extreme regenerative capacity, allowing a severed finger to regrow by the following day and a lost hand or foot to recover over roughly half a month. 240

Space-type Martial Soul

Jiang Ming argues that the Space type's true path lies in exploiting space itself, rather than adding conventional defensive Soul Skills. 1

Innate Applications

• Spatial cutting / Space Tear — Forms a spatial rift capable of silently severing objects, Soul Skills, and living targets. Jiang Ming demonstrated this without a Soul Ring or Soul Skill. 1 7 36
• Space Shift — Moves the user or selected targets directly between locations, allowing attacks to be evaded or redirected. 1 71 72 129
• Spatial distortion and folding — Can change an attack's trajectory or conceal a user within spatial cracks, functioning as a form of evasion. 1
• Spatial confinement / compression — Restricts a target by closing space around them from multiple directions. 72
• Spatial Domain — Upon reaching level 60, Jiang Ming naturally formed a fifty-meter domain around himself. Within it, he can use spatial abilities without summoning his Martial Soul or revealing Soul Rings. 240
• Spatial Disintegration — Jiang Ming can reduce targets to dust through spatial power, using the ability to cremate five corpses retrieved from his soul tool. 266

Development Path

Jiang Ming develops his Martial Soul by hunting spatial Soul Beasts and accumulating spatial-origin abilities. This produced skills including Space Tear, Spatial Stripping, Space Compression, and Spatial Shift. 5 138

This approach contrasts with Yu Xiaogang's proposed defense route of obtaining turtle- or shell-type defensive Soul Rings. 1

Jiang Ming's later development centered on integrating his separate spatial abilities rather than relying solely on individual Soul Skills. His Dimensional Slash combines Space Compression, Spatial Stripping, and Space Tear into a single sword technique. 240

Known Martial Soul Skills

Skill	Source / Ring	Effect
Spatial Amplification	First Soul Ring	Increases the power of spatial skills by 50%. 45
Spatial Stripping	Second Soul Ring	Removes a section of space along with whatever occupies it; can remove tracking marks, defenses, Martial Soul origins, and internal organs. 24 71 73 183 269
Space Compression	Third Soul Ring	Compresses the space around a target, restraining and exhausting them. 72
Spatial Shift	Fourth Soul Ring	Enables instantaneous displacement and can redirect attacks or transport other targets. 62 72 129
Void	Fifth Soul Ring	Nullifies an opponent's attack or Soul Skill, including Shui Bing'er's Ice Phoenix, by allowing attacks to pass harmlessly through Jiang Ming's body. 175
Dimensional Slash	Integrated spatial sword technique	Combines Space Compression, Spatial Stripping, and Space Tear to destroy a target with a single dimensional strike. 240
Spatial Collapse	Sixth Soul Ring	A spatial ability obtained from a ninety-thousand-year Space Soul Beast; its complete function remains unrevealed. Its initial spatial fluctuations disintegrated nearby leaves. 242
Attack Reversal	Xu Heng's first Hourglass Soul Ring	Reverses an incoming physical or energy attack by one second, provided that the attack is directed at someone other than Xu Heng himself. 263

External Soul Bone

After absorbing the Void Walker's Soul Ring, Jiang Ming gained an External Soul Bone alongside a new Soul Skill. 135

• The bone can traverse space and is associated with a silver spatial-energy sword, also called the Void Blade. 109 135 148 266
• Its attacks can ignore defense. 135 138
• Combined with Jiang Ming's Void Form, it makes conventional speed, strength, and defense ineffective against him. 138

Notable Martial Souls

• Space Martial Soul — Jiang Ming's Martial Soul; an extremely rare, pure type built around spatial-origin abilities. 1 84 117
• Hourglass Martial Soul — Xu Heng's time-type Martial Soul. It possesses time-slowing traits and later granted the support skill Attack Reversal before Jiang Ming extracted its origin. 241 263 269
• Time-type Martial Soul — Xu Heng's newly awakened Martial Soul featuring time-slowing properties. 241
• Blue Silver Emperor — Tang San's latent first Martial Soul, initially mistaken for Blue Silver Grass; it can undergo a second awakening at level 50 if its bloodline remains intact. 183
• Clear Sky Hammer — The signature Tool Martial Soul of the Clear Sky Sect, regarded as the world's number one Tool Martial Soul. 162 180
• Jade Phosphor Serpent — Dugu Bo's Beast Martial Soul; its toxins fuse with the user's Soul Power and body, creating dangerous side effects. 98
• Vajra Bear — Zhao Wuji's Beast Martial Soul, which grants a powerful Martial Soul Avatar and defensive capabilities. 71 72