Lou Xu

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Lou Xu (楼叙)
Alias(es)	Little Xu; Earl Lou 5 15
Species/Race	Human; transmigrator 1 5
Gender	Male 5 8
Age	Six years old when granted the Silver Dragon King’s protection 5
Affiliation	Blacksmith Association; Lou family; recognized friend of the Soul Beast Clan 5 10 19
Occupation/Role	Divine-artifact smith; originator of Runic Forging; Earl; acting administrator of the Blacksmith Association during Lou Gao’s recovery 4 10 19
Martial Soul	Star-Iron Furnace Anvil, associated with Ornn, the god of forging and craftsmanship 1 2
Innate Soul Power	Level 20; identified by Xu Xingxuan as God-Given Soul Power 1 21
Latest Confirmed Cultivation	Level 27 Soul Grandmaster 22 24
Status	Alive 26
First Appearance	Chapter 1 1

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Innate Soul Power: Level 20	1	Begins with exceptional mental strength, physical conditioning, and reinforcement from ten-thousand-year whale glue; seeks a thousand-year first soul ring.
Level 24 — Soul Grandmaster	3	Absorbs the rings of a 1,200-year Blazing Wind Harrier and a 2,700-year Flamecloud Unicorn, using the First Flame to guide and refine their power.
Level 25 — Soul Grandmaster	4	Absorbs life energy from a piece of Tian Meng’s body, discovering that this energy increases both Soul Power and vitality.
Level 26 — Soul Grandmaster	11	Activates the Future Market rune ring to borrow a future soul-power level. Further borrowing is blocked until cultivation repays the debt.
Level 27 — Soul Grandmaster	22	Confirmed to have broken through before departing Gengxin City; the precise breakthrough method is not stated. Subsequent soul-power growth slows.

Background / History

Transmigration and Soul-Ring Hunt

Lou Xu retains memories from a previous life and knowledge of the original story’s characters and events. He uses that knowledge to recognize Di Tian and later locate Ah Yin’s hidden cave. His transmigration also gives him mental strength beyond that of ordinary people 1 23.

Before awakening his Martial Soul, he already practiced forging through physical strength alone. After awakening the Star-Iron Furnace Anvil, he inherits Ornn’s forging and rune-inscription knowledge, while the Douluo Plane grants him a trace of the First Flame 2 9.

Lou Xu accompanies his grandfather, Lou Gao, into the Star Dou Great Forest to obtain his first soul rings. Despite Lou Gao’s warnings, he insists that his strengthened body and unusual mental power can withstand a thousand-year first ring. Lighting their campfire with the First Flame attracts Di Tian, who injures Lou Gao, knocks Lou Xu unconscious, and abducts him 1.

Bargain with the Silver Dragon King

At Mirror Lake, Lou Xu finds himself surrounded by Ferocious Beasts and the injured Silver Dragon King. Unable to overpower them, he explains his Martial Soul’s foreign divine origin and identifies the internal force from space-time turbulence that prevents her recovery 2.

He bargains for assistance obtaining future soul rings and initially demands Di Tian’s death, believing Lou Gao has been killed. The Silver Dragon King refuses to sacrifice Di Tian; when Di Tian reveals that Lou Gao survived, Lou Xu leaves his replacement condition undecided. The Scarlet King then supplies the two beasts whose rings raise him to level 24 3.

Lou Xu forges the Quicksilver Sash, suppressing the Silver Dragon King’s affliction without curing it. In return, she marks him as a friend of the Soul Beast Clan and assigns Xiong Jun to protect him until he becomes a Titled Douluo. Lou Xu reunites with his badly injured grandfather and uses life energy to aid his recovery 4 5.

Return to Gengxin City

Lou Xu prevents Xiong Jun from killing Xiao Wu, proposing that she become a trustworthy helper instead. She accepts his protection and accompanies the group home. During the journey, he repeatedly practices with his new external soul bone until he learns to fly 6 7.

In Gengxin City, Dai Weisi has occupied the Blacksmith Association and injured its members while demanding Lou Xu’s surrender. After Xiong Jun kills the prince’s rank-87 Third Offering, Lou Xu demands compensation, twenty mineral deposits, and self-government for Gengxin under the association 7 8 9.

Emperor Dai Changkong subsequently grants Gengxin and its surrounding territory to the Lou family as a hereditary fief, with control over its taxes and resources. Lou Xu receives an earldom and a thousand-year soul bone, but interprets the generous settlement as an attempt to bind his family and Xiong Jun to Star Luo 10.

Development of Runic Forging

Lou Xu records Ornn’s rune knowledge and recruits Lou Gao and his four disciples to develop a new forging system. Their research establishes soul-power activation, compatible metals, and a framework for combining runes. Lou Xu withholds the dangerous inspiration-system techniques, fearing both their side effects and the consequences of attracting powerful claimants 9 10 13.

The group produces forty pieces of its first runic equipment, which Lou Xu names Jingzhe. Their auctions attract major sects, imperial figures, and Spirit Hall because the weapons allow ordinary people to unleash attacks comparable to a Soul Elder’s 13 14.

Dai Changkong offers Lou Xu the position of Imperial Preceptor and a Star-Iron King Medal, hoping Runic Forging can support economic reform. Lou Xu refuses, credits his grandfather, and later burns the emperor’s written offer of participation in governing the empire 15 16 17.

Tang Hao’s Raid and Association Leadership

Tang Hao breaks into the Blacksmith Association, severely injures Lou Gao and his disciples, destroys weapons, and takes Lou Xu’s research. While Xiong Jun confronts the intruder, Lou Xu carries the wounded to safety and treats them with life energy 17.

After Xiong Jun mortally wounds Tang Hao, Lou Xu identifies himself as the manuscript’s author and confronts him over the attack. He threatens Tang Hao’s loved ones, including Tang San, and afterward has his corpse publicly displayed outside the association as a warning 18.

During the smiths’ recovery, Lou Xu assumes responsibility for association operations. He maintains ordinary metal trading, suspends auctions and rank assessments, orders repairs, and supports city security. He also announces a six-month pause in runic-weapon production, followed by a limit of fifty weapons annually, prioritizing research and instruction over volume 19.

Academy Plans and Northern Journey

Lou Xu proposes the Artisan Soul Academy in Gengxin City to teach Runic Forging and Soul Power cultivation beyond the limits of individual apprenticeship. Xu Xingxuan agrees that her daughter, Xu Youyou, can join its first class, provisionally expected in three to seven years. When Tai Tan later attacks Lou Xu while seeking Tang Hao’s remains, Xiong Jun intercepts and kills him 20 21.

Lou Xu travels north with Xiao Wu and Xiong Jun to conduct business and seek life energy. Near Holy Soul Village, he retrieves Ah Yin’s hundred-thousand-year right leg bone and takes her weakened Blue Silver Emperor plant. He deliberately allows Tang San to encounter the plant, framing their future relationship around the debt Tang Hao owes him 22 23 24.

In Heaven Dou, Lou Xu refuses to sell the Runic Forging method to Ning Fengzhi but offers education through the planned academy. Xue Qinghe proposes seeking approval for a Heaven Dou branch. Lou Xu then negotiates a separate divine-artifact arrangement with Ning, setting a price equivalent to five ten-thousand-year soul bones per artifact and requiring secrecy about his involvement 25 26.

Appearance

• Face and bearing: Handsome, delicate features, deep eyes, and an upright bearing 7 8 15.
• Hands: Thin calluses on his fingers from forging 7.
• Reverse-scale mark: A pale-purple, dragon-scale-shaped Soul Mark appears on his forehead when the Silver Dragon King seals their pact, then immediately vanishes 5.
• Manifested wings: Enormous fiery-red wings with gold and orange feathers at their tips; they radiate enough heat to burn Xiao Wu’s fingers when she touches them 4 7.
• Relative height: Stands approximately half a head taller than Tang San during their first meeting 24.

Personality

Lou Xu is ambitious and confident, but his confidence is grounded in preparation: he argues for an unusually old first soul ring based on his mental strength, conditioning, whale-glue reinforcement, and First Flame. His persistence also appears in his repeated falls while learning to fly 1 7.

His attachment to Lou Gao is especially strong. He attacks Di Tian despite being hopelessly outmatched, risks demanding the captor’s death, and later conceals the worst of his ordeal to avoid worrying his grandfather. After Tang Hao’s raid, he preserves valuable soul bones for the injured smiths rather than consuming them himself 1 3 5 20.

Lou Xu combines political caution with forceful bargaining. He recognizes imperial rewards as recruitment tools, refuses offices he does not trust, and uses Xiong Jun’s strength to secure concessions. In crafting, he is similarly cautious about dangerous knowledge, refusing to disclose inspiration runes before his group can protect itself 9 10 13 16.

His commitment to sharing Runic Forging contrasts with his vindictiveness toward enemies. He rejects the blacksmiths’ attempt to kneel and insists that the craft should help ordinary people rather than serve exploitation. Yet he publicly displays Tang Hao’s corpse and extends his resentment to Tang Hao’s family 18 19 23 24.

With Xiao Wu, Lou Xu alternates protection, teasing, consideration, and coercion. He saves her life, encourages her cultivation, and appreciates her care for his room, but also demands obedience and threatens to return her to the forest when her sympathy for Ah Yin conflicts with his wishes. His preference for sorting possessions by size, color, and category carries over from his previous life 7 11 23 24.

Abilities & Skills

Star-Iron Furnace Anvil and First Flame

His Martial Soul combines a forge-anvil with Ornn’s inherited craftsmanship and a trace of primal fire granted by the Douluo Plane 2 9.

• Guides and repeatedly refines the powerful energy released during soul-ring absorption 3.
• Refines life energy and provides the working surface for divine-artifact creation 4.
• Activates experimental runes, helping the research team discover how to activate them with Soul Power 10 13.
• Serves everyday purposes such as lighting a fire and reheating tea 1 25.
• Lou Xu considers its protection sufficient to stop Tang San’s contemporary hidden weapons before they reach him; this is his assessment, not a demonstrated exchange 24.

Life-Energy Absorption — “Tank Engine”

The anvil extracts life energy from soul-beast remains, Tian Meng’s flesh, and soul bones. Absorption strengthens Lou Xu’s Soul Power, vitality, and physical capabilities 4 20.

• Lou Xu estimates an overall increase of roughly three-thousandths per stack; the piece of Tian Meng supplies at least ninety stacks 4.
• Soul bones yield more and better-quality life energy than soul-beast corpses 20.
• Stored energy can be transferred to injured people, as with Lou Gao and the association’s smiths 5 17 26.
• Forging and healing consume the reserve; after treating the raid victims, he is left depleted 19 20.
• He keeps the extraction ability largely secret, fearing classification as a heretic or fallen soul master 20.

Soul Rings and Soul Skills

Soul Ring	Source	Documented Result
First — purple, 1,200 years	Blazing Wind Harrier; fire and wind attributes	Obtained as his unusually old first ring 3.
Second — purple, 2,700 years	Flamecloud Unicorn; fire and strength attributes	Brings him to level 24 alongside the first ring and supplies his external soul bone 3 4 7.

• His two rings grant Bellows Flame Breath and Flame Flash; the supplied account does not detail their individual mechanics 4.
• He rejects Xiao Wu’s proposed hundred-thousand-year ring because its attributes do not match his Martial Soul 6.

Flowing Fire Cloudburning Wings

An external soul bone from the Flamecloud Unicorn fuses with Lou Xu’s spine and continuously strengthens him 4.

• Enables flight, including turning, circling, and hovering, after repeated practice 7.
• Provides a speed burst that leaves burning trails 4.
• Creates a flame clone 4.
• Produces flames that burn away an opponent’s Soul Power 4.

Divine-Artifact Forging

Lou Xu uses inherited techniques, Primal Fire, runes, and life energy to forge artifacts containing the power of laws 4 12.

• Can create an artifact from life energy alone, but doing so demands heavy Soul Power and energy expenditure 4.
• Uses suitable metals to reduce the cost of creating something from nothing 12.
• Explains that soul bones can serve as artifact vessels, with effects determined by their inscribed runes and power determined by the Soul Power used to charge them 26.
• Such artifacts can be transferred or inherited without harming the previous wielder 26.
• Cannot yet fully cure the Silver Dragon King: he identifies a top-grade divine artifact as necessary 4.

Runic Forging

Lou Xu organizes Ornn’s rune knowledge into a teachable system developed with Lou Gao and his disciples 9 13.

• Classifies World Runes into precision, domination, resolve, sorcery, and inspiration; attribute runes connect other runes into arrays 13.
• Establishes that hundred-refined metals can hold tested rune combinations when compatible metals are incorporated through Fusion Forging 13.
• Creates manuals for first- and second-tier techniques and later compiles third- and fourth-tier material 19 22.
• Supplies Primal Fire-forged examples above the team’s current production tier for reverse engineering 19.
• Warns that overloaded rune circuits can send Soul Power back into the user, causing severe injury. Interrupted circuits might become explosives, but remain dangerous to experiment with 26.
• Considers research into combinations above the seventh tier beyond his current Soul Grandmaster experience 13.

Physical Combat and Cultivation

• Possesses exceptional physical strength from training, whale glue, and later life-energy absorption 1 20.
• Defeats Xiao Wu in a spar while suppressing his Soul Power, relying on physical superiority and combat experience 11.
• Uses an Advanced Meditation Method supplied by Lou Gao 11.
• Remains far weaker than the ancient beasts protecting or confronting him; Di Tian knocks him unconscious with one blow 1 2.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Quicksilver Sash — A mid-grade divine artifact forged for the Silver Dragon King. Resists negative statuses and periodically dispels them, suppressing her affliction without permanently curing it 4.
• Future Market rune ring — A mithril ring bearing a blue circular rune with flowing gold-coin patterns. Borrows future soul-power levels, but requires repayment through cultivation before further use; Lou Xu later restricts its intended use to breaking bottlenecks 11 13.
• Myriad-Era Catalyst Stone — An intermediate divine artifact made using mist tin and sprout copper. Restores vitality equal to 5% of Soul Power spent and Soul Power equal to 5% of damage received; grants one additional soul-power level after a ten-level increase. Lou Xu plans to reforge it into the Rod of Ages when capable 12.
• Reverse-scale Soul Mark — Identifies him as a friend of the Soul Beast Clan, prevents unprovoked soul-beast attacks, and permits visits to the Silver Dragon King. The pact depends on his not deliberately slaughtering Soul Beasts 5.
• Storage ring — A valuable ring given to him by Lou Gao before his northern journey 22.
• Six Sovereigns Token — Lou Gao’s Spirit Hall Elder Token, entrusted to Lou Xu for travel. The honorary elder appointment belongs to Lou Gao 22.
• Rune manuscripts and manuals — His research records, beginner teaching manual, and developing third- and fourth-tier manuals 9 19 22.
• Six soul bones taken from Tang Hao — Ranging from 30,000 to 80,000 years, including two Clear Sky Sect inheritance bones. He saves them for Lou Gao and the injured smiths 20.
• Blue Silver Emperor right leg bone — A hundred-thousand-year soul bone retrieved from Ah Yin’s hidden cave 23.

Relationships

• Lou Gao — Grandfather, mentor, and principal research collaborator. Their mutual protectiveness drives Lou Xu’s initial conflict with Di Tian and his vengeance after Tang Hao’s raid 1 5 10 17 19.
• Ornn — Source of his Martial Soul’s divine association and inherited forging and rune-inscription knowledge 2 9.
• Silver Dragon King — Initially his captor’s sovereign, later his patron and patient. Promises soul-ring assistance, grants the reverse-scale pact, and appoints Xiong Jun as his protector 2 3 4 5.
• Xiong Jun — Bodyguard whom Lou Xu nicknames Big Bear. Protects him by order of the Silver Dragon King, but also personally enjoys his courage and temperament 3 5 9.
• Di Tian — Abductor and continuing object of resentment. Lou Xu withdraws his demand for Di Tian’s death after learning Lou Gao survived, but still intends to use his remaining condition against him 1 3 5.
• Xiao Wu — Protected helper, introduced as his maid; later accepts a wager requiring her obedience. Their growing attachment includes teasing, study, domestic care, and an unequal dependence on Lou Xu’s protection 7 11 12 21 24.
• Si Long, Siyu, Si Kai, and Si Di — Senior brothers through Lou Gao’s discipleship and collaborators in Runic Forging. Lou Xu rescues and treats them after Tang Hao’s attack 13 17 19.
• Dai Weisi — Hostile prince who attempts to force his recruitment. Lou Xu compels him to accept compensation and territorial concessions after Xiong Jun kills his protector 7 8 9.
• Dai Changkong — Emperor who grants his earldom and repeatedly seeks cooperation. Lou Xu distrusts his political overtures and declines a high imperial office 10 15 16 17.
• Tang Hao — Enemy whose violent theft attempt injures Lou Xu’s family and colleagues. Lou Xu confronts him after Xiong Jun’s victory and publicly displays his corpse 17 18.
• Tang San — Tang Hao’s son, whom Lou Xu deliberately introduces to Ah Yin’s plant. Lou Xu treats him as a future debtor for his father’s actions 24.
• Ah Yin — Tang Hao’s wife, taken from her cave in weakened Blue Silver Emperor form. Lou Xu keeps her alive while considering her possible uses and consulting options 23 24.
• Xu Xingxuan and Xu Youyou — The Star Crown family’s head and daughter. Xingxuan heals the injured smiths; Lou Xu offers Youyou a place in the planned academy rather than immediate personal apprenticeship under Lou Gao 20 21.
• Ning Fengzhi — Prospective academy partner and divine-artifact customer. Lou Xu refuses to sell him the forging method but offers instruction and a carefully priced artifact arrangement 25 26.
• Xue Qinghe / Qian Renxue — Heaven Dou’s crown prince in public, whose true identity Lou Xu recognizes internally. Offers support for a branch academy; her Angel Martial Soul reacts to Lou Xu’s power 25.

Notable Quotes

“Just because I don't want her soul ring doesn't mean I told you to kill her.” 7

“When you enter these doors, no one makes you kneel. Once you leave them, you're even less permitted to kneel!” 19

“Runic Forging is not something we use for business, so... it is not for sale. But... it can be taught.” 25