Martial Soul

Biodata

Power Progression

Awakening and Soul Power

Martial Souls awaken during a formal ceremony, normally at six years old. Their forms can range from mundane items such as handkerchiefs and shovels to plants, body parts, weapons, dragons, and other beasts 1.

A person needs innate Soul Power to become a Soul Master. Qin Qi’s initial rank-one Soul Power is sufficient to enter cultivation, but is treated as a poor foundation by Spirit Hall; Tang San’s Innate Full Soul Power receives the opposite reaction 1.

A Martial Soul’s apparent form may conceal a different nature or potential:

• Qin Qi’s “palms” are initially evaluated as a Body Martial Soul but are actually the Formless Hand inherited from Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable 1.
• Tang San’s Blue Silver Grass initially appears ordinary despite his Innate Full Soul Power and hidden Blue Silver Emperor origin 1 19.
• Luo Sanpao is dismissed as weak until Qin Qi refines and develops it as the Golden Saint Dragon 9 11.
• The Evil Fire Phoenix’s excessive internal fire is treated as a flaw, but Qin Qi determines it is a surplus of power beyond Ma Hongjun’s capacity to contain 31 32.

Spirit Hall provides free Martial Soul awakenings, including to orphans who arrive without guardians. Qin Qi exploits this procedure to register additional identities, presenting the Golden Saint Dragon to Ma Xiunuo as Luo Mian and the Undying Bird to another official as Feng Jiuyue 14 15 37.

Innate aptitude is not immutable in Qin Qi’s case. By extracting and refining the Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone’s energy, he purges bodily impurities, opens and expands his meridians and acupoints, and improves his cultivation foundation to a level he considers comparable to Innate Full Soul Power 28.

Soul Power Quality and Attributes

Soul Power advancement involves changes in quality as well as quantity. Qin Qi identifies the quality difference between Soul Master ranks as a reason that stealing from weaker students becomes less effective as his own cultivation rises 18.

Martial Soul development can also alter the user’s Soul Power. Replenishing the Golden Saint Dragon’s origin produces golden Dragon-Shaped Soul Power with domineering, explosive, and aggressive characteristics, while increasing Qin Qi’s capacity by roughly 10%. He can apply this power to punches and movement, later combining it with Dragon Claw Hand to cover his hands in golden dragon claws 48 60.

His self-made system evaluates Soul Power quality relative to his current realm rather than on an absolute scale. Its rating changes from S at Level 26 to A at Level 31 without an actual reduction in quality, because the new realm offers further room for improvement 49 60.

Soul Rings and Soul Skills

Soul Rings enhance a Soul Master’s body and grant soul skills. Qin Qi notes that each absorbed ring improves strength, speed, and reaction speed in addition to its specific ability 14.

Qin Qi’s Formless Hand allows abnormal handling of Soul Rings:

• It can seize and instantly refine rings rather than absorb them conventionally 2 18.
• It can remove Qin Qi’s own ring, convert it back into energy, and reorganize it into another ring without losing access to its power 6.
• It allows Qin Qi to conceal abnormal ring counts from others through inherited secret techniques 11.
• Rings can be refined into energy and fed to the Golden Saint Dragon to support its evolution 11 12.
• The physical tempering already received from rings remains even after their energy is fed to the Golden Saint Dragon 14.
• It can steal an incapacitated Soul Saint’s entire seven-ring set, as demonstrated against Zhao Wuji 52.

Innate Abilities and Self-Created Soul Skills

Not every Martial Soul ability originates from a Soul Ring. The Golden Saint Dragon’s protective golden light manifests when Qin Qi has no ring equipped to it, leading him to identify the protection as an innate feature. Similarly, the Golden Saint Dragon King’s elemental wing manipulation after absorbing the Four-Eyed Cat Owl is an innate ability rather than a ring-granted skill 12 95.

Established techniques can greatly increase how much of a Martial Soul’s potential its user can express:

• Clear Sky Hammer — Qin Qi cites Tang Chen’s development of specialized hammer techniques as a reason the Clear Sky Sect rose beyond the hammer’s inherent strength 89.
• Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon — Dragon Transformation enhances bodily attributes and Soul Skills, with amplification that can stack with Soul Skill boosts 87.
• Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda — Heart Separation Control is identified as its associated specialized technique 87.
• Golden Saint Dragon King — lacking Dragon Transformation after mutation, it motivates Qin Qi to develop the proposed Golden True Dragon Armor, a Self-Created Soul Skill formed from Soul Power. He makes progress on the armor, but the initial account presents it as an imitation under development rather than an inherited ability 87.

Qin Qi argues that, within the first thirty ranks, technique, physical strength, Martial Soul quality, equipment, and Soul Skill strength can offset rank differences. His lesson to Yu Tianheng emphasizes mastering existing power rather than assuming that possessing a Self-Created Soul Skill automatically makes someone strong 89.

Known Martial Souls

External Beast Martial Souls

The Golden Saint Dragon is an External Beast Martial Soul: it acts separately from its master rather than requiring Martial Soul Possession. This lets Qin Qi and the dragon fight as two combatants against one opponent 12.

Its linked skill structure divides combat roles between them:

• Golden Saint Dragon — primarily receives active offensive skills, including Golden Dragon Claw and Elemental Breath 12 18.
• Qin Qi — receives defensive counterparts, including the golden shield and Elemental Totem’s passive counterattacks 12 18.
• Life Dragon Totem — activates when the Golden Saint Dragon is injured and heals it with life energy 20.

Unlike ordinary Beast Martial Souls stolen from Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun, the Golden Saint Dragon has awareness, emotional attachment, and rudimentary communication with Qin Qi 9 12 20.

Its protective light compensates for the absence of Martial Soul Possession by defending Qin Qi while the dragon acts independently. Qin Qi recognizes this as a safeguard against opponents bypassing the external beast to attack its master directly 12.

Origin Feedback

The dragon’s development can feed power back into Qin Qi rather than benefiting only the summoned creature:

• Partial origin replenishment strengthens Qin Qi’s own foundation, raises his Soul Power capacity, and produces Dragon-Shaped Soul Power 48.
• Absorption of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear palm Soul Bone and origin transforms both the dragon and Qin Qi through metal-attributed energy. The dragon’s scales and protective barrier become dark gold, while Qin Qi gains exceptionally sharp dragon-claw attacks 79.
• Absorption of Flender’s Four-Eyed Cat Owl gives the dragon elemental wing manipulation and allows Qin Qi to use the air as footholds without consuming Soul Power 95.

As the dragon matures, it becomes better able to recognize suitable origins. It refuses the high-grade Vigorous Vajra Bear origin because it instinctively feels incompatible, communicating its rejection through roars and gestures 52.

Theft, Refinement, and Forgery

Martial Soul Theft

Formless Hand can steal a Martial Soul directly from its owner and refine it into a permanent mark on Qin Qi’s body 2 31.

• Steal instantly refines the stolen Clear Sky Hammer into Qin Qi’s possession 2.
• Heart Steal refines Luo Sanpao and removes its bond with Yu Xiaogang 9.
• Sleight of Hand enables Formless Hand to pass through space and enter a target’s body to retrieve a Martial Soul 7 8.
• The theft of Luo Sanpao and one of Yu Xiaogang’s Soul Rings leaves Yu Xiaogang unable to summon his Martial Soul 15 16.
• Qin Qi extracts the Blue Silver Emperor origin from Tang San without stealing his entire visible Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul, removing its future evolutionary potential while preserving its ordinary manifestation 19.
• Stealing the Vigorous Vajra Bear worsens the unconscious Zhao Wuji’s injuries; Qin Qi then removes all seven of his Soul Rings and takes portions of his other attributes before escaping 52.
• Qin Qi later steals Flender’s Four-Eyed Cat Owl and other captured teachers’ Martial Souls, using them as resources for the Golden Saint Dragon King and Star Luo Chess 95 96.

Theft remains constrained by Soul Power expenditure. Qin Qi runs out of energy while removing Flender’s rings and must rest before continuing 95.

Forged Martial Souls

Qin Qi uses Deceive Heaven, Cross the Sea to construct temporary replacements from Soul Beast essence and Soul Rings 30.

• A fire-attributed chicken Soul Beast is reshaped into a false Evil Fire Phoenix 30.
• A cat-type Soul Beast is reshaped into a false Evil-Eyed White Tiger 30.
• The forged souls resemble the originals closely enough to replace them in Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun without immediate detection 31.
• The imitations lack the genuine souls’ bloodline, power, and inherent functions 30.

The replacements conceal the theft but do not preserve the victims’ former strength. Ma Hongjun reports unusual weakness, while Dai Mubai’s forged White Tiger Body Barrier fails against opponents he expects to defeat 33.

Qin Qi distinguishes this forgery from genuinely creating an equivalent powerful Martial Soul. He attributes the limitation to possessing a Thieving Dao inheritance rather than a Refining Dao inheritance 30.

Constructed-System Applications

Formless Hand also serves as the core of Qin Qi’s artificial cultivation system. He combines it and Thieving Heaven techniques with Computer Gu, a Soul Power testing crystal, and a spiritual Soul Beast’s ring and origin to construct an initial detection panel 41.

Later upgrades assess physical and mental strength, approximate technique mastery, and suggest cultivation directions. The panel remains limited by available data, computing power, and substantial Soul Power consumption 49 50 60.

Qin Qi considers distributing a future version with a concealed Formless Hand stealing function to drain small amounts of strength from its users. This is an unrealized plan, not an established continent-wide application 50.

Mutation and Evolution

Qin Qi concludes that substantial Martial Soul mutation requires the accumulation of energy from cultivation, Soul Rings, medicinal resources, or Soul Bones. In his view, the type of energy absorbed can influence the direction of the resulting mutation 36.

Documented examples include:

• Golden Saint Dragon — develops lightning, wings, stronger draconic traits, fire, and life energy through repeated refinement of Soul Rings, Soul Beast essence, Evil Fire, and the Blue Silver Emperor’s origin 11 12 19 20 33.
• Evil Fire Phoenix — becomes a blue-green Life Flame Martial Soul after its Evil Fire repeatedly combines with Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone energy 35 36.
• Undying Bird — retains the mutated Martial Soul’s healing and recovery traits while receiving a new name for Qin Qi’s public identity 36 37.
• Clear Sky Hammer — absorbs a compatible Beast Martial Soul origin, becoming a dark-gold weapon with a bear pattern and new strength, intimidation, and gravity applications 52.
• Golden Saint Dragon King — the later mutated dragon form gains dark-gold metal enhancement from a Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear’s Soul Bone and origin, then elemental wing manipulation from the Four-Eyed Cat Owl 64 79 89 95.

Mutation need not preserve every useful trait. Qin Qi notes that his mutated Golden Saint Dragon King lacks the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon’s Dragon Transformation and therefore seeks to imitate its benefits through a Self-Created Soul Skill 87.

The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon is described as unusually prone to mutation compared with the Clear Sky Hammer and Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, including mutations acquired after awakening 89.

Compatibility and Origin Fusion

Ordinary origin fusion depends on compatibility rather than solely on the grade or apparent power of the Martial Souls involved. Even the unconscious Undying Bird instinctively resists an unsuitable origin, showing that rejection does not require self-awareness 52.

Star Luo Chess and Subordinate Martial Souls

Star Luo Chess provides an alternative to ordinary Martial Soul fusion. Qin Qi determines that it acts as one main Martial Soul commanding a group of subordinate Martial Souls: consumed souls become pieces with distinct functions and do not interfere with one another as incompatible origins would in conventional fusion 96.

Before Qin Qi acquires it, its original Soul Emperor user temporarily traps five Spirit Hall Soul Saints with the expanded chessboard. After refinement, Qin Qi finds that the board can form a barrier to trap enemies or protect occupants, while enormous black and white pieces can be moved as attacks 51 96.

War Pieces

The initial capacity is three incorporated pieces. Adding Soul Rings expands the developed set to six types, with one black and one white piece of each type 96.

Its first three Soul Skills support piece summoning and enhancement, reduce the chessboard’s upkeep cost, and temporarily prevent destroyed pieces from returning while strengthening the survivors 96.

The board is also the system’s central vulnerability. Qin Qi recognizes that attacks originating outside it, or an enemy breaching it, could compromise his chess-based offense and defense. He relies on his other Martial Souls and physical strength as safeguards 96.

Identity Use and Concealment

Qin Qi assigns different Martial Souls to different identities to prevent his thefts from being traced back to him:

• Qin Qi — Formless Hand 37.
• Luo Mian — Golden Saint Dragon; registered at the Suotuo City Great Soul Arena as a Level 11 Soul Master 28 37.
• Feng Jiuyue — Undying Bird; registered at Spirit Hall with Innate Full Soul Power 37.
• Evil-Eyed White Tiger — retained but deliberately concealed because its association with Star Luo royalty would invite suspicion 37.

The Clear Sky Hammer presents the same problem as the Evil-Eyed White Tiger: its clan-specific identity makes it suspicious for an apparently ordinary orphan to possess. Qin Qi considers inducing another mutation in the White Tiger through Soul Beast origins to make it less recognizable, but this remains a proposed measure in the cited account 37.

Bloodline Assumptions and Clan Recognition

Martial Souls are treated as evidence of ancestry. Yu Yuanzhen believes that even a mutated Martial Soul should retain recognizable bloodline traces, while Spirit Hall officials assume that a child with Innate Full Soul Power likely has notable Soul Master parents 37 39.

Qin Qi’s Golden Saint Dragon, lightning abilities, awakening in Notting City, and Luo Mian alias attract the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan’s attention. Yu Yuanzhen investigates whether he might be an abandoned descendant rather than merely an unrelated recruit 34 38 39.

The disguise eventually gains public recognition as a clan connection. Arena staff address Luo Mian as a young master, Yu Tianheng and Yu Tianxin treat him as a relative, and the clan elders are impressed by his dragon’s bloodline pressure, which they perceive as stronger than that of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon 48 57.

Continued Public Use

• Qin Qi uses Feng Jiuyue and the Undying Bird to establish a second arena reputation, defeating Yu Tianheng while hiding his true cultivation 42.
• When Luo Mian’s fifty consecutive victories leave him without willing opponents, he switches to Feng Jiuyue to continue competing 48.
• His upgraded panel separately displays his true Level 31 Soul Elder cultivation and his disguised Level 14 Soul Master presentation 60.
• He later publicly identifies Luo Mian’s Martial Soul as the Golden Saint Dragon King, presenting its changed name as the result of mutation while continuing to pose as a one-ring Soul Master 89.

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