Clouded Deer

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Clouded Deer clan (密云鹿族) 16
Species/Race	Soul Beast clan; known members include Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts capable of taking human form 13 25.
Affiliation	Spirit Creek Valley’s Soul Beast community 15
Leadership	Lu Xue, the matriarch; Lu Yao is addressed as the Young Chief 15 24.
Home	Spirit Creek Valley in the Star Dou Great Forest; its sacred grounds are protected by the Skyvault Bamboo Forest 15 25.
Occupation/Role	Keepers of the Secret of Symbiosis and an ancestral Inheritance Imprint 16 28 29.
Status	Active; clan representatives are defending their secret against Spirit Hall 37.
First Appearance	A Clouded Deer appears during Spirit Hall’s hunt; the clan is explicitly named when its secret art is revealed 13 16.

Power Progression

The documented progression concerns the clan’s symbiotic power as developed through Lu Yao and Xiao Shenghe, rather than a shared cultivation rank for the entire clan.

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Primordial Sea awakening	21	Lu Yao’s life essence awakens a dormant depth of Shenghe’s soul. An emerald, antler-like rune manifests the clan’s contract imprint.
Stable symbiotic bond	24	Lu Yao and Shenghe become bound in life and death, with Soul Power circulating between them. Shenghe awakens his Heaven Soul Martial Soul and rises from level 15 to level 24 using part of Lu Yao’s inherited power.
Deepened Symbiotic Power	27	The Bamboo King’s pressure trial brings their powers into closer integration, allowing them to sense each other’s thoughts and movements. Shenghe develops Symbiosis: Protection during the Panda’s trial.
Expanded symbiotic network	28	Contracts with the Skyvault Bamboo King and Tigerfang Blazing Panda strengthen Shenghe’s existing bond with Lu Yao. Shenghe reaches level 26.
Inheritance Imprint completed	29	The clan’s ancestral power merges with the three partner bonds, evolving Shenghe’s Martial Soul into the Symbiotic Heaven Soul. He reaches level 30, while his bond with Lu Yao grows closer.

Background / History

The Clouded Deer’s ancestors established themselves in the Star Dou Great Forest under the protection of a million-year-old Skyvault Bamboo. That guardian later served as the vessel for the clan’s Inheritance Imprint 28.

According to Lu Xue’s account, the clan instinctively grasped the Secret of Symbiosis after the appearance of a holy light. She connects the art to the primordial source of Soul Beast bloodlines—the “old rules”—and warns that joining a human exposes that inheritance to the world’s changed laws 23.

The clan lived in seclusion for generations. Its matriarch describes long lives spent within the valley, unable to overcome an invisible limitation: many deer eventually lose their strength and return to nature. The clan’s oldest legends speak of “God,” a form of life beyond mortal restrictions that the deer cannot reach through their own efforts alone 16.

Human hunting made trust difficult. Lu Yao’s father was killed by human Soul Masters the year before the clan met Xiao Shenghe, and Spirit Hall repeatedly pursued her mother 14 15. Shenghe’s intervention, followed by the rescuers’ refusal to claim a Soul Ring or Soul Bone, prompted the matriarch to welcome them and challenge her community’s blanket distrust of humans 14 15.

Territory and Sacred Sites

Site	Significance
Spirit Creek Valley	A hidden, Soul-Power-rich sanctuary reached through a bamboo grove. Nearly a hundred intelligent Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts of multiple species live there; they are not all Clouded Deer 15.
Ritual Altar	An ancient ceremonial site where Lu Xuan conducts the Secret of Symbiosis. Outsiders are asked to remain outside during the ceremony 19 20.
Skyvault Bamboo Forest	The barrier surrounding the clan’s sacred grounds. Its gentle Soul Power attracts defense- and support-oriented Soul Beasts; the Bamboo King and Tigerfang Blazing Panda rule the area 25.
Inheritance Land	Contains the million-year-old guardian bamboo that sheltered the clan’s ancestors and holds its Inheritance Imprint 28.

Abilities & Skills

Secret of Symbiosis

The clan’s innate secret art joins a direct-bloodline Clouded Deer and a human Soul Master through genuine sincerity. Only a handful of successful cases have occurred in ten thousand years 16 25.

• Equal partnership: The bond is neither a transaction nor a master-servant contract 20.
• Irreversible commitment: The partners intertwine their souls and fates, sharing life and death 20 24.
• Shared strength: Soul Power circulates between the partners, allowing each to draw on what the other has accumulated 24.
• Mutual adaptation: Shenghe’s Heaven Soul gains the deer clan’s spiritual nature, while Lu Yao’s Soul Beast power gains the fluidity of human Soul Power 24.
• Danger awareness: Lu Yao can sense Shenghe’s Soul Power and support him when he is endangered 24.
• Ritual difficulty: Resonance must be found rather than forced. Shenghe’s unusually vast soul initially absorbs Lu Yao’s aura without the expected response 20.
• Bloodline consequences: The ritual can stir preexisting symbiotic connections involving relatives and elders, extending beyond the immediate pair 22.
• Uncertain larger effects: Lu Xue suggests that symbiosis may alter Soul Beasts’ fate or reincarnation, but warns that the old and new rules may not merge safely 23 24.

Early explanations describe abandoning the physical body to merge with a human soul. Later explanations emphasize shared growth without sacrificing a Soul Beast’s life essence 16 17 30.

Inheritance Imprint

The Inheritance Imprint carries the wisdom and strength of countless ancestors, including the secrets of Symbiosis with Nature 29.

• Stored within the clan’s million-year-old guardian bamboo 28.
• Guided into the recipient’s soul by Lu Xuan 28 29.
• Completes the Martial Soul’s acceptance of Clouded Deer power after the initial symbiosis ritual 25.
• Can fuse with Symbiotic Power and Soul Spirit power; Shenghe’s successful fusion produces the Symbiotic Heaven Soul 29.

Affinity with Nature

Clouded Deer possess an instinctive kinship with the natural world 25 30.

• Lu Xue leaves jade-green specks of light in shrub leaves as she passes 25.
• Lu Yao detects distant fighting and the distressed cries of an injured Soul Beast 30.
• The clan’s distinctive spiritual power can soothe the heart, as shown when Lu Yao reassures Shenghe within his transformed spiritual sea 21.

Protective and Purifying Soul Power

Clan members use their power for defense and to support purification.

• Lu Xuan forms a large shield against the Netherworld Poison Dragon’s corrosive attack 33.
• Lu Yao channels Clouded Deer Soul Power through her bond to help Shenghe resist and extract Soul-Eroding Corrupt Miasma 33 34.
• Lu Xue shields the group from the Soul-Eroding Cave’s eerie whispers 36.
• Shenghe and Lu Yao combine their power to dispel Poison Thorn Douluo’s poison 37.
• Major purification feats also draw on the Bamboo King and Panda; they are not presented as Clouded Deer power alone 33 36.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Antler Staff — Lu Xuan uses it to activate the altar’s symbiosis formation 20.
• Purifying Poison Pills — Clan-made emerald-green pills that relieve discomfort and temporarily protect against corrupt poison 32.
• Deer Antler Comb — Made by Lu Yao’s mother from her deceased father’s antler; Lu Yao carries it as a treasured family keepsake 13 15.

Notable Members

Member	Role
Lu Xue	Matriarch and Lu Yao’s mother; authorizes disclosure of the secret art, explains its risks, and later protects the traveling party 16 23 24 36.
Lu Yao / Xiao Yao	Young Chief and Shenghe’s symbiotic partner. Called Xiao Yao in the early rescue chapters and Lu Yao during the ritual and subsequent journey 15 20 24.
Lu Xuan	Elder and ritual officiant; conducts symbiosis, guides the inheritance, and directs the expedition to Mistveil Valley 19 20 28 30.
Lu Yao’s father	A stag killed by human Soul Masters the previous year; his antler was used to make his daughter’s comb 15.

Relationships

• Xiao Shenghe — Rescuer, honored guest, and recipient of the clan’s inherited power. His bond with Lu Yao demonstrates cooperation without hunting Soul Beasts for their rings 13 15 24 29.
• Chen Xin — Helps stop Spirit Hall’s hunt, reassures the wounded matriarch, and guards her during treatment. Later fights alongside the clan’s representatives 13 14 36 37.
• Gu Rong — Stabilizes the matriarch’s injuries and helps protect the symbiotic partners during their journey 14 33 37.
• White Spirit Deer — Prominent member of the valley community who formally welcomes the rescuers after hearing the matriarch’s account 15.
• Skyvault Bamboo King and Tigerfang Blazing Panda — Rulers near the sacred grounds who test Shenghe before accepting symbiotic contracts 25 26 28.
• Spirit Hall — Hunts the matriarch for a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring, threatens Lu Yao, and later demands the Secret of Symbiosis 13 37.
• Mo Chen — Seeks to exploit the clan’s symbiotic power to strengthen his miasma and enslave Soul Beasts 35 36.

Story Role / Major Arcs

• Rescue and reconciliation: Shenghe, Chen Xin, and Gu Rong interrupt Spirit Hall’s hunt. Treatment and restraint earn the matriarch’s trust, opening Spirit Creek Valley to human guests 13 14 15.
• Symbiosis ritual: Lu Yao proposes becoming Shenghe’s Soul Ring. The clan explains the deeper partnership behind the proposal, and the pair completes the ritual after receiving Lu Xue’s warning 16 19 23 24.
• Sacred inheritance: The journey through Skyvault Bamboo Forest produces two additional partners before the ancestral imprint evolves Shenghe’s Heaven Soul 25 28 29.
• Miasma crisis: Clan representatives help investigate corrupted Soul Beasts, purify the Netherworld Poison Dragon, and defeat Mo Chen 30 34 36.
• Spirit Hall ambush: While returning toward Deer Valley, the party faces three Titled Douluo seeking the clan’s secret and Shenghe’s Soul Spirit power. The battle remains underway in the supplied account 37.

Notable Quotes

“Today has also shown me that not all humans are our enemies.”
— The Clouded Deer matriarch, addressing the valley community 15

“Our art is founded on equal coexistence. It's nothing like a Soul Master killing a Soul Beast to obtain a Soul Ring.”
— Lu Xuan 25