Martial Soul

Biodata

Power Progression

Huo Yuhao’s two Martial Souls provide a documented example of how a bearer’s powers can develop.

Traits and Development

• A Martial Soul can affect its bearer beyond combat. Two pursuers’ Martial Souls sharpen their sense of smell and give them catlike habits 3.
• Martial Soul Possession can produce visible bodily changes. Yuhao’s Four-Not-Like forms horns, golden scales and dragonlike claws; its horns initially remain visible because he cannot yet control their retraction 11 12 14.
• Spirit Rings grant soul skills, but the resulting ability need not match the source beast’s signature power: the Mirror Shadow Beast’s ring gives Yuhao Spiritual Clone rather than its copying ability 26 27.
• A Martial Soul can carry an innate domain. Four-Not-Like’s passive Ceasefire domain weakens offensive soul skills within it by forty percent 14.
• Rare Martial Soul traits can guide decisions outside battle. Xu Jiujiu’s ancestral Star Crown Martial Soul gives her passive glimpses of the future and an intuition that Yuhao will prove extraordinary 5.
• Martial Soul attributes commonly influence personality. Ma Xiaotao describes fire-attribute bearers as generally hot-tempered and outgoing, while ice-attribute bearers tend to be withdrawn. She notes that Yuhao does not exhibit the expected ice-attribute influence 57.
• Martial Souls can serve different combat roles. Four-Not-Like is identified as a Power Attack System Martial Soul, while Spirit Eyes is a body Martial Soul whose spiritual abilities allow Yuhao to be classified in the Control System 14 73 84.
• Soul Tools can compensate for a Martial Soul’s shortcomings. Yuhao initially seeks them because Spirit Eyes lacks straightforward offensive power; he later explains that they blur distinctions between offensive and defensive Soul Masters and enable him to fight same-level Power Attack System opponents using Spirit Eyes alone 8 47.

Creation, Mutation and Evolution

• A second Martial Soul can be bestowed in an initially blank state. Tian Meng originally intends the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion to fill that role, but Jiang Ziya instead shapes it into Four-Not-Like using one-tenth of Tian Meng’s Origin and Auspicious Beast blood 11 12 22.
• Four-Not-Like inherits the qilin’s five elemental powers and the True Dragon’s bloodline power. Jiang Ziya originally plans to complete its attributes one at a time, but Gu Yuena’s reverse scale supplies the means to transform all five into ultimate attributes together 98.
• Martial Soul evolution can strengthen bloodline suppression. Following Four-Not-Like’s evolution, even Mu En feels an urge to submit arising from his own draconic bloodline 101.
• Mu En’s Martial Soul has evolved into the Radiant Sacred Dragon. He retains some control over lightning despite having no corresponding Soul Skill 68.
• A Martial Soul’s quality can improve through joint cultivation. After three months of cultivating with Yuhao and being freed from the burden of Evil Fire, Ma Xiaotao reaches level 68 and her Martial Soul undergoes a partial transformation toward Ultimate Fire 77.
• Mutation can radically alter a Martial Soul’s specialization. Cheng Shitao’s golden ant loses its offensive capabilities in exchange for defense dozens of times stronger than his brother’s Ant Emperor Martial Soul 16.

Ultimate Attributes and Cultivation

Soul Masters with ultimate attributes require substantially more Soul Power to advance after reaching three rings. The Snow Empress explains that this commonly slows their cultivation sharply, accounting for Yuhao’s reduced advancement despite intensive training 35.

Shrek Academy possesses cultivation records for Ultimate Martial Souls. Yan Shaozhe describes these manuals as records of cultivation insights with demanding requirements and subsequently gives Yuhao the method he requests 53 62.

Ultimate attributes can also counter harmful Martial Soul traits. Yuhao’s Ultimate Ice suppresses the Evil Fire associated with Ma Xiaotao’s defective Martial Soul, freeing her from the need to continually divert Soul Power toward controlling it 50 54 55.

Martial Soul Fusion Skills

• Compatible bearers can circulate Soul Power through one another, forming a shared circuit that purifies and strengthens their reserves. Yuhao and Ma Xiaotao discover this while suppressing her Evil Fire 54 55.
• Preliminary Soul Power fusion does not immediately guarantee successful use of a Martial Soul Fusion Skill. Yan Shaozhe explains that sufficient mutual understanding is necessary; even after three months of improved coordination, Yuhao and Ma Xiaotao can only produce an unstable phantom that collapses before completion 56 64.
• Siblings can possess Martial Soul Fusion Skills. Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo embrace to activate Sky-Encompassing Net, causing their hair to grow into a restraining web powerful enough that even a Soul Elder cannot quickly escape 67.
• Outside sibling pairs, partners who share a Martial Soul Fusion Skill commonly marry, according to the conventions Ma Xiaotao knows in the Soul Master World 55.

Soul Spirit Contracts

Jiang Ziya and Electrolux develop a Soul Spirit Contract method by combining beast-controlling techniques from the Nine Provinces, contract magic from Electrolux’s world and principles demonstrated by Tian Meng’s sacrifice. The method allows a Soul Master and a contracted Soul Beast to become partners and obtain a Spirit Ring without killing the beast 92.

• During Yuhao’s contract with the Silver Hero Beast, their connection allows him to perceive her emotions, and Spirit Eyes activates on its own as his fourth ring condenses 93.
• Yuhao is presented with the beast’s available Soul Skills and chooses Imprint. The resulting skill mutates into Mental Replication rather than remaining identical to the selected ability 93.
• The technique remains unfinished: at its demonstrated stage, one Soul Beast can supply only one Spirit Ring. Electrolux’s stated goal is for a single contracted beast to provide multiple rings 94.

Notable Martial Souls

Huo Yuhao’s Martial Soul Abilities

Spirit Eyes

• Hostility perception — Yuhao senses how others feel about him as colored mist; dark gray indicates considerable ill will, while black represents murderous intent 2.
• Spiritual Detection Sharing — Gives another person all-direction awareness. Its demonstrated range is fifty meters and can grow 14.
• Spiritual Shock — A mental attack Yuhao uses to stun the Mirror Shadow Beast 27.
• Spiritual Clone — Creates translucent copies by expending mental energy. The number available depends on his reserves 27.
• Enhanced eyesight and observation — Grants eyesight far beyond an ordinary person’s. Yuhao can discern Xu Jiujiu’s flushed face at a distance, observe the dark red gas associated with Ma Xiaotao’s Evil Fire and see through Zhou Yi’s Human-Skin Mask. It does not initially allow him to penetrate Wang Dong’er’s disguise 37 43 50 58.
• Spirit Butterfly Illusion Realm — His third-ring skill, obtained from a seven-thousand-year Spirit-Eyed Butterfly. It draws opponents into an illusion in which he can simulate objects, people and their auras. He uses it to misdirect Huang Chutian into attacking his own teammates and later to blend into his surroundings 42 67 87.
• Illusion–clone–ice puppet combination — Combines Spirit Butterfly Illusion Realm, Spiritual Clone and an Ultimate Ice puppet to create a convincing substitute. Wang Dong’er trades blows with this substitute while Yuhao stands beside Mu En recording the encounter 42.
• Mental Replication / mutated Imprint — His fourth-ring skill, obtained through his contract with Xiao Yin. It copies Martial Souls he has seen and retained in his mind, including their Soul Skills; the copied abilities’ power is limited by his own Soul Power Level 93 103.
  • Copies a Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda and uses its second skill to increase Di Qiu’er’s speed 93.
  • Copies Wang Dong’er’s Light Goddess Butterfly, manifesting its wings and two visible rings while impersonating her 103.
  • Copies Xiao Xiao’s Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron and uses Cauldron’s Tremor to agitate the lake water 103.

Four-Not-Like

• Auspicious Clouds — Carry Yuhao through the air 11 13.
• Auspicious aura — Resembles an Emperor Auspicious Beast’s aura closely enough that soul beasts flee from Yuhao in the Star Dou Great Forest 12.
• Ceasefire domain — Passively reduces the strength of offensive soul skills within it by forty percent 14. During the semifinal against Wu Feng, his released domain also suppresses opponents’ attributes and attacks 74.
• Ultimate Ice — Gained through the Ice Empress’s sacrifice. Yuhao subsequently withstands the Extreme North’s cold and uses ice-based defenses and attacks in combat 25 27.
• Ice Emperor’s Pincer — An ability granted by the Ice Empress that greatly strengthens his attacks, coating his claws in blue light. Yuhao uses it to kill the Mirror Shadow Beast 27.
• Ice shaping — Forms combat constructs from Ultimate Ice, including a humanoid puppet and a longsword. Yuhao uses an ice sword to block Wu Feng’s dragon claw and defeat her 42 74 87.
• Evil Fire suppression — Uses Ultimate Ice to suppress Ma Xiaotao’s harmful Martial Soul fire. Their simultaneous Soul Power circulation also purifies and strengthens both participants’ reserves 54 55.
• Five elemental attributes — Possesses the qilin’s five elemental powers in addition to the True Dragon’s bloodline inheritance. Yuhao demonstrates metal-attribute Soul Power while powering his Immortal Slaying Flying Knife 61 98.
• Five ultimate elemental attributes — Achieved through absorption of Gu Yuena’s reverse scale. Five elemental lights accompany the evolved Martial Soul, and its strengthened dragon aura exerts bloodline suppression even on Mu En 98 101.
• Wood-attribute relief — After the five elemental attributes become ultimate attributes, Yuhao channels emerald-green wood-attribute Soul Power into Wang Dong’er and relieves her abdominal pain 103.