Sun Moon Empire

Biodata

Background / History

Continental Collision and Earlier War

More than four thousand years before the current story, the Sun Moon Continent collided with the Douluo Continent. In the ensuing war, Sun Moon’s soul tools surpassed Tang Sect hidden weapons in overall power and attack range, inflicting devastating early losses on the three original empires. The original Douluo side ultimately won, but the conflict undermined demand for Tang Sect weapons and encouraged other countries to develop soul tools 468.

The defeated Sun Moon Continent lost its separate name and was incorporated into the Douluo Continent. The imperial family regarded this as a lasting humiliation; even otherwise idle royal heirs considered continental unification their greatest ambition 357 485.

Royal Coup

According to Xu He, his father—the previous emperor—governed diligently and brought increasing prosperity to the empire. His father had inherited the throne despite having a more talented brother, because the preceding emperor considered that brother dangerously vicious 139.

Six years before Xu He’s account, his father, mother, and three elder sisters were killed in one night. His uncle entered the capital with an army, announced that the imperial household had died of food poisoning, purged the late emperor’s followers, and seized the throne. Xu He escaped through a secret passage and later lived under the name He Caitou 139.

Strategic Standoff

The empire’s technological advantage was initially checked by the original three kingdoms’ greater combined Soul Master strength. A high-ranking Soul Master penetrating a technologically equipped army could inflict catastrophic losses, while whichever kingdom attacked Sun Moon first risked bearing disproportionate casualties. These competing risks maintained a prolonged balance 485.

That balance became increasingly unstable as Sun Moon developed battle armor, mecha, and closer ties with the Holy Spirit Cult. Bei Bei judged that its newer equipment had largely erased its previous shortfall in top-level combat power 505.

Government and Imperial Politics

• Succession struggle: Crown Prince Xu Tianran faced a rival faction supporting Third Prince Xu Tianyu, led by Assistant Chancellor Tan Jingguo. Tan favored Tianyu because Tianran was too forceful and independent to control 350.
• Royal oversight: The Imperial Family Inspection Team supervised imperial relatives and affairs within the Imperial City. It answered directly to the imperial clan and ordinarily did not handle external affairs 348.
• Princely holdings: Princes excluded from succession could receive fiefs, while contenders maintained residences in Mingdu 348.
• Court balancing: Xu Yutian preserved part of Tianyu’s faction after the Dream Pavilion scandal to counterbalance Tianran’s growing influence 352.
• Public law on evil Soul Masters: Assisting evil Soul Masters was punishable by execution. Consequently, cooperation with the Holy Spirit Cult had to remain separate from the empire’s public position 349.
• Imperial martial soul: The direct imperial bloodline possesses the Sun martial soul, a powerful fire-attribute martial soul that can draw strength from sunlight. Vina identifies it as a major foundation of the dynasty’s original rise 503.

Dream Pavilion Scandal

Dream Pavilion financed the faction of Xu Tianyu and Tan Jingguo. Huo Yuhao exposed its trafficking and abuse of children, including sacrifices performed by the evil Soul Master Soltut, and detained prominent suspects at the Inspection Team’s offices 350 351.

The resulting settlement confined Xu Tianyu, forced Tan Jingguo to retire, and transferred the Tan Family’s members and property to Huo Yuhao. Kings Xu Cheng and Xu Lin were also implicated and imprisoned 350 352.

Territory and Major Locations

Mingdu has no conventional city walls. Kong Deming states that its defenses could withstand an attack by dozens of Titled Douluos; later, the city possesses an automated entry-scanning system and a Soul Tool Shield covering more than ten thousand square kilometers 324 462.

Institutions and Education

Royal Soul Engineer Academy Requirements

Commoners can awaken their martial souls at six through local elementary soul engineer academies. These awakenings are free and subsidized by the imperial treasury 361.

Soul Guidance Technology

Research Leadership

The Imperial Soul Tool Hall stands at the forefront of continental soul tool development and is described as the empire’s “sharpest blade.” Huo Yuhao places its top-tier fighting strength alongside the Body Sect and Shrek Academy’s Sea God Pavilion 209.

• Technology blockade: Crafting methods and advanced equipment data are tightly restricted, leaving Shrek and the original kingdoms dependent on comparatively crude independent research 171 250.
• Specialist resources: More than two-thirds of the continent’s hundred ranked carving knives are held in Sun Moon, supporting its concentration of powerful soul engineers 177.
• Unconfirmed upper limit: Huo Yuhao raises the possibility of secret Level 10 Soul Engineers, but does not establish their existence 209.

Rare-Metal Dependency

Huo Yuhao criticizes the empire for building its soul tools around the special properties of abundant rare metals while neglecting Soul Masters’ individual strength. He warns that losing access to those metals would undermine both its technology and the social system dependent on it 89 341.

• Proposed reforms: Refine and fuse metals through forging, reduce material consumption, and make equipment smaller and easier to transport 341.
• Manufacturing proposals: Involve ordinary people in theory, research, casing production, and machine-assisted manufacturing 341.
• Resource pressure: Rare-metal demand increases more than tenfold over three years, prompting research into seabed, deep-underground, and volcanic mining 530.
• Trade controls: The empire strictly prohibits rare-metal buying and selling, keeping prices high. Control of smuggling becomes the principal prize contested by Mingdu’s underground factions 530.
• Royal financing: Xu Tianran explicitly states that the imperial family needs rare-metal smuggling profits 535.

Civilian Applications

• Agriculture and industry: Soul guidance technology increases productivity in farming, mining, and fishing 352.
• Transportation: Soul Guidance Automobiles are in use, while exoskeleton tools assist soldiers constructing the academy on Heaven-Questioning Peak 415.
• Urban systems: Mingdu integrates transportation, security, healthcare, education, and work through soul guidance infrastructure 462.
• Coastal shipping: Soul tools make travel near the coast safer, allowing maritime freight to use less manpower and fewer resources than land transport 424.

Military Forces and Equipment

Armed Forces

Mecha and Adaptive Equipment

• Soul Guidance Mecha: Use Soul Power Storage Devices to give pilots strength beyond their own cultivation. Physically capable ordinary people can operate them, making mecha a mainstay of modern armies 474.
• Standard military models: Generally stand five to eight meters tall, balancing mobility, offense, and defense. White and yellow mecha belong to the ordinary military category 474.
• Adaptive auxiliary combat soul tool: A transforming device intended to provide combat and survival equipment for varied environments. Its theoretical forms include armor, bows, tents, water purifiers, insulation devices, and small spacecraft; the early prototype has only a handful of transformations 417.
• Exploration role: Adaptive equipment is intended to reduce casualties among soldiers searching dangerous regions for rare metals 417.

Strategic Weapons

• Fixed Soul Cannon Shells: Invented by the empire and tightly controlled. A Level 8 shell can match a Super Douluo’s all-out strike; a Level 9 shell can match a Limit Douluo’s strike and destroy a city 418 468.
• Sun Moon Divine Needle: Ye Yulin’s Level 9 high-altitude weapon and prototype for a Soul Guidance Satellite. It can hover at five thousand meters, but requires three days of solar and lunar charging and supports no more than three attacks when fully charged. Its widest advertised attack range is theoretical 532.
• Destruction Eye Ray Tower: Part of Mingdu’s automated defensive response, requested for a precision strike when unresponsive visitors are classified as a threat 461.
• Source Soul Tool research: Huo Yuhao gives an unfinished cannon prototype to the Imperial Soul Tool Hall for further development. Its projected future capabilities are not established as operational imperial weaponry 418.

Strategic Limitations

• Individual combat: A Level 9 Soul Engineer may struggle against a true Titled Douluo individually, despite having greater battlefield destructive potential 505.
• Target evasion: A Level 9 shell’s destructive power does not guarantee killing a Limit Douluo, whose danger sense may allow escape and retaliation 474.
• Naval expansion: Large fleets provoke attacks from sea soul beasts, restricting deep-ocean operations 424.
• Political integration: Xu Tianran admits that possessing conquest-level firepower does not mean the empire can win the original kingdoms’ Soul Masters’ recognition 535.

Relationships

• Huo Yuhao — Recruited for his talent and technological potential. Imperial engineers escort him into Sun Moon, and he later becomes a military commander and academy headmaster. His cooperation with Xu Tianran remains mutually manipulative 321 324 352 418 423.
• Jing Hongchen — Imperial Soul Tool Hall master. He offers Huo Yuhao material support and protection, then helps arrange his reception in the empire 89 321 324.
• Kong Deming — Senior imperial expert who escorts Huo Yuhao to Mingdu and seeks to cultivate his sense of belonging to Sun Moon 324 326.
• Xu He / He Caitou — Surviving prince of the displaced imperial branch. Huo Yuhao supports him as a potential challenger to the ruling faction and later supplies his northern group with current research 139 500.
• Ju Zi — Xu Tianran’s trusted associate, who reports military support for his succession and opens the tournament on his behalf. He intends to make her empress 461 490.
• Body Sect — Historically fought alongside Shrek against Sun Moon. Huo Yuhao later offers its support for Xu Tianran’s succession in exchange for advanced soul tools and an academy for body martial souls 63 352.
• Shrek Academy — Rival institution capable of rallying the original kingdoms. Its tournament team serves as a measure of continental resistance, while Huo Yuhao and Xu Tianran discuss dismantling its prestige and political influence 136 231 358 361.
• Star Luo, Heaven Dou, and Dou Ling — Rival empires whose lack of unified command helps sustain Sun Moon’s position despite their greater combined Soul Master strength 485.
• Holy Spirit Cult — Covert partner whose public tournament participation exposes the alliance. Xu Tianran seeks its power to support conquest 349 485 535.
• Abyss Plane — Another partner in Xu Tianran’s plans to conquer the continent and eventually other worlds 535.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Original-Story Account

Chapters recounting the original Huo Yuhao’s story describe a different sequence from the reborn protagonist’s current history. These events should not be treated as completed developments in the present timeline 443 444 445.

• Mingdu catastrophe: The original Huo Yuhao and Tang Sect raid underground stockpiles; explosions destroy a third of Mingdu and the Imperial Soul Tool Hall. The emperor dies and Xu Tianran succeeds him 444.
• Continental campaigns: Sun Moon captures Mingdou and conquers Heaven Dou. Du Busi’s suicide attack fails to kill Xu Tianran, while a separate group briefly abducts the crown prince 444 445.
• Ju Zi’s later offensive: After taking power, Ju Zi destroys Dou Ling and reduces Star Luo to its capital within three years, bringing Sun Moon close to continental unification 445.