Tang Xuan

Biodata

Power Progression

Tang Xuan develops soul power, body tempering, spiritual power, sword cultivation, and Soul Fighting Arena rank along separate tracks.

Background / History

Earth and Holy Soul Village

Tang Xuan was an orphan on Earth before inexplicably reincarnating on the Douluo Continent as Tang San’s elder twin. At age three, the brothers confessed their previous lives to each other. Both had lacked close family bonds before rebirth, making their relationship especially important to them 1.

Having read Douluo in his previous life, Tang Xuan roughly knew its original storyline. He nevertheless regarded his new surroundings as a real world whose immediate future was uncertain. Early on, he avoided disrupting Tang San and Xiao Wu’s developing relationship, partly because he feared that excessive interference might provoke rejection by the world’s will 1 8.

He and Tang San trapped wild game to improve their food and sold pelts to support the household. Tang Xuan kept their earnings rather than handing them to Tang Hao, fearing that their father would spend the money on alcohol 2.

Awakening and Nuoding Academy

Tang Xuan awakened the Godslayer Sword and displayed innate full soul power, but declined Su Yuntao’s invitation to join Spirit Hall. Old Jack arranged schooling for both brothers despite Tang Hao’s initial refusal 5 6.

At Nuoding Academy, Tang Xuan beat a gatekeeper who obstructed their entrance, stopping when Grandmaster intervened. He became Grandmaster’s disciple alongside Tang San and chose the power attack system. Tests against one-ring soul masters persuaded Grandmaster that the brothers could safely attempt older-than-usual soul rings 8 9.

With Flender’s assistance, Tang Xuan obtained his first two rings in the Star Dou Great Forest. The second hunt also yielded his Dragon Wings external soul bone. Afterward, he gave Flender thirty thousand Gold Soul Coins as an investment in Shrek Academy, where he and Tang San intended to study 10 11 16.

Businesses and the Heaven Sect

Tang Xuan sought an independent organization because individual strength alone could not secure his future. His family’s conflict with Spirit Hall also convinced him that wealth needed to be backed by military power 12 17.

Tang Xuan first encountered Lin Ao when a manager reported an old man eating and drinking without paying. Recognizing the need for powerful protection as his wealth grew, he sought to secure the services of the Soul Douluo-level expert 13 14.

Shrek Academy

Tang Xuan arrived in Suotuo City in July of Douluo Calendar year 2643. Before enrollment, he defeated Dai Mubai and treated the resulting injuries with a Third-Grade Healing Pill 31 33.

During Shrek’s entrance assessment, he challenged Zhao Wuji alone after the other applicants were overwhelmed. His strength, aerial sword attacks, and Sword Domain forced Zhao Wuji to escalate his techniques; his Star-Splitting Sword Slash prompted the use of Martial Soul Avatar. The applicants passed, and Tang Xuan described his own injury as minor 36 37.

That night, he reunited with Tang Hao after six years apart. He assured his father that neither brother hated him, diagnosed his severe internal injuries, and supplied healing and meridian-opening pills 38.

Flender subsequently appointed Tang Xuan teaching assistant while retaining his student status. He took charge of the Shrek Seven Monsters’ conditioning, combining weighted endurance work, moving meditation, gravity suppression, sparring, and medicinal recovery 39 40 41 42.

The Underground World

During a soul-ring expedition, the Titan Giant Ape seized Xiao Wu and punched Tang Xuan far away when he pursued it. He landed in water, was drawn through a cavern by a whirlpool, and awoke in an underground world without detectable spiritual qi 46 47.

Healing Pills helped him recover, but an unusual force blocked the underwater route out, and the surroundings suppressed his spiritual perception. He spent more than three months fighting Lava People, using them to understand Thousand-Mile Pagoda while their fire essence replenished and strengthened him 47 48.

The accumulated energy became dangerous: fire essence threatened to rupture his dantian, while killing intent and the Godslayer Sword’s black mist eroded his will. He succumbed to bloodlust and killed the Lava Giant, but sacred power behind the central boulders restored his clarity. Inside, he found saint origin grass, including a ten-blossomed divine-grade stalk whose pressure initially prevented him from touching it 49.

He later collected eleven bottles of water of life, erased his scars with its residue, and refined the spiritual energy and divinity absorbed by his sword. While attempting to strip the black energy from his body, he advanced to the third layer of his cultivation art and level forty 50.

Appearance

Tang Xuan begins as a clean-cut child with short black hair and faded grayish-white clothing. By his arrival in Suotuo City, he has handsome features, a heroic bearing, and a height of approximately 1.75 meters 1 31.

• Clothing: Frequently wears a gray-white robe 31 50.
• Later hair: Long and freely flowing by the underground-world arc 50.
• Physique: Tall, straight, and muscular; accumulated combat scars are removed with water of life 50.
• Dragon Wings: Dark blue wings resembling those of the Earthflame Tyrant Dragon; can be retracted into his body 16.
• Arena disguise: Wears a silver mask to conceal his age 20.

Personality

Tang Xuan places considerable importance on family. He treasures Tang San’s companionship, respects Tang Hao despite his failings, and prioritizes their health and safety. His reunion with his father reveals that his earlier resentment is outweighed by a son’s longing for parental affection 1 2 38.

He is commercially calculating and openly attracted to profit. His businesses finance his independence, while powerful allies and strict contracts protect his interests. He is also confrontational when provoked: his stated approach is to leave others alone if they leave him alone, but retaliate when crossed 8 12 14 31 33.

His teasing often targets Tang San and Xiao Wu’s relationship, and his training methods are demanding enough to make students and sect elders avoid sparring with him. He applies similarly extreme standards to himself, repeatedly returning after defeats and valuing accumulated reserves over quick increases in level 18 21 30 34 42.

Repeated killing makes him increasingly indifferent toward those outside his circle. He initially interprets this as a consequence of sword cultivation and familiarity with bloodshed; the Godslayer Sword’s accumulated baleful energy is later shown to be actively influencing his mind 45 46.

Abilities & Skills

Nine-Turn God-Slaying Art

A comprehensive cultivation inheritance supplied by his Godslayer Sword martial soul 1.

• Includes soul-power cultivation, movement techniques, sword techniques, alchemy, spiritual-power cultivation, and body tempering 1 27.
• Gives him an early advantage over Tang San in strength and speed, even before formal martial soul awakening 1.
• Reaches its third layer when he refines divine power in the underground world 50.

Soul-Power Compression and Soul Cores

Tang Xuan compresses soul power to improve its quality rather than pursuing level gains alone 9 25.

• Shares the compression method with Tang San; Grandmaster permits them to continue but emphasizes safety 9.
• Higher-quality power increases his effectiveness at a given level, but requires several times—or eventually dozens of times—more accumulation for advancement 25 42.
• Develops soul-core condensation during seclusion and uses ring absorption to enlarge his cores 12 16.
• Must carefully balance expanding cores: an explosion could cause severe injury or permanent crippling 16.

Twin Martial Souls

Tang Xuan possesses the Godslayer Sword and Clear Sky Hammer 9.

• Godslayer Sword: A black-and-blue sword with a blade over three feet long. Its aura combines righteous and sinister qualities 5.
• Quality: Tang Hao judges the sword comparable to the Clear Sky Hammer and potentially superior in quality to Sword Douluo’s Seven Kill Sword 7.
• Clear Sky Hammer: Its purple lightning suppresses the sword’s black vapor within Tang Xuan’s spiritual sea 46.
• Restriction: Tang Hao and Grandmaster warn him not to add rings to his second martial soul without permission 9.

Soul Skills

Godslayer Sword Art

The sword art contains nine moves. Tang Xuan’s documented mastery extends through an initial understanding of the third 37 48.

• First form — Sword Energy Sweeping Far and Wide: Splits sword light into numerous streams of attacking energy; can sustain pressure while his soul power lasts 36.
• Second form — Star-Splitting Sword Slash: Condenses a sword more than ten meters long for a destructive strike. Initially unpracticed against Zhao Wuji, it is fully mastered before his Lava People training 37 48.
• Third form — Thousand-Mile Pagoda: Depends on understanding killing intent rather than copying movements alone. One slash kills over a thousand Lava People; four subsequent aerial slashes annihilate the surrounding ten thousand or more 48.

Devouring Power and Baleful Energy

The Godslayer Sword absorbs power from slain beings, creating both a cultivation advantage and a serious mental hazard 24 27 46.

• Raises Tang Xuan’s soul power and spiritual power by absorbing soul-beast energy 27.
• Weakens the Great Strength Vajra Monkey’s residual soul before ring absorption 25.
• Can drain a soul beast’s remaining power to reduce pressure on another person absorbing its ring, as demonstrated with Oscar 44.
• Accumulates murderous intent and absorbed resentment as baleful energy that erodes Tang Xuan’s will 46.
• Eventually produces black mist that tempts him, attacks his consciousness, and assumes familiar appearances during his attempt to remove it 49 50.

Body Tempering and Dragon Wings

Tang Xuan’s physical strength can exceed that of much higher-level soul masters, but does not make him invulnerable 30 36 46.

• Trains without soul power under loads exceeding ten thousand jin, later using a fifty-thousand-jin iron block 28 30.
• Progresses from being beaten by sect elders to evenly matched physical bouts when all participants refrain from using soul power 30.
• Uses Dragon Wings for flight, transporting companions, aerial attacks, and blocking blows 21 24 36.
• The wings crack when blocking the Great Strength Vajra Monkey’s punch; the Titan Giant Ape’s strike severely injures him 24 46 47.
• His second body-tempering realm is not poison immunity: Tang San’s Medusa venom penetrates his skin and causes dizziness before he expels it with soul power 19 28.
• As an external soul bone, the wings can grow with him; Grandmaster warns him against revealing them casually because of their value 16.

Training and Combat Instruction

Tang Xuan tailors training to endurance, concentration, and individual combat weaknesses 40 41 42.

• Combines weighted runs, obstacle courses, log exercises, sparring, and medicinal baths 21 40.
• Teaches cultivation during cross-country running to develop calmness and environmental awareness 41.
• Incorporates Zhao Wuji’s gravity suppression into physical exercise and soul-power circulation 41.
• Selects sparring matchups to address weaknesses in control, explosive power, speed, and precision 42.
• Helps students obtain older rings by providing Soul-Congealing Pills and controlling or weakening suitable soul beasts 44 45.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Heaven and Earth Ring — Storage soul tool given by Grandmaster, with twenty cubic meters of space 9.
• Healing Pills — Carries Third-Grade pills for injuries, Fourth-Grade pills for Tang Hao, and additional healing supplies that aid his underground recovery 33 38 47.
• Meridian-Opening Pills — Gives these to Tang Hao after diagnosing his internal injuries 38.
• Fourth-Grade Soul-Congealing Pills — Supplies these to help students absorb stronger soul rings 44 45.
• Fasting pills — Sustains himself with them during prolonged underground combat 48.
• Purple-Gold Soul Fighting Badge — Awarded alongside eight million gold coins in arena winnings 20.
• Water of life — Collects eleven bottles and uses remaining traces to remove his scars and minor wounds 50.

Relationships

• Tang San — Younger twin brother and fellow reincarnator. Tang Xuan shares cultivation ideas with him, trains him rigorously, and repeatedly teases him about Xiao Wu. Tang San treats his brother as the standard he hopes to approach and is devastated by his disappearance 1 9 18 47.
• Tang Hao — Father. Tang Xuan respects him, forgives his long absence, and provides medicine while urging him not to worsen his injuries 2 38.
• Xiao Wu — Sworn younger sister. Accepts him as eldest brother after losing a joint fight with Tang San; frequently quarrels with him over teasing and harsh training. Blames herself when the Titan Giant Ape sends him flying 13 19 34 47.
• Grandmaster / Yu Xiaogang — Teacher. Guides his martial-soul development and approves his unconventional cultivation methods with safety warnings. After Tang Xuan helps him overcome his cultivation bottleneck, Grandmaster comes to regard him as both student and valued mentor-friend 8 9 15.
• Flender — Soul-ring hunting assistant, academy dean, and business partner. Accepts Tang Xuan’s investment and later assigns him full responsibility for student training 10 16 31 39.
• Lin Ao — Powerful ally associated with the Heaven Sect. Tang Xuan seeks his protection for his growing enterprises and accompanies him in the search for a ninth soul ring 14 18 24 25.
• Song Ming and the Heaven Sect elders — Sparring partners and organizational advisers. Their initially one-sided physical contests become much closer as Tang Xuan improves, leading several elders to avoid further challenges 18 30.
• Zhao Wuji — Entrance-test opponent and later training collaborator. Tang Xuan fights him alone, gives him healing medicine, and recruits him to provide gravity suppression for the students 36 38 41.
• Shrek Seven Monsters — Students under his supervision. His demanding training earns their respect, though most prefer other sparring arrangements to fighting him personally 39 41 42.
• Titan Giant Ape / Er Ming — Responsible for Tang Xuan’s disappearance into the underground world after striking him during the pursuit of Xiao Wu 46 47.

Notable Quotes

“Whatever martial soul you awaken, what matters is how you use it. Remember, San: there are no useless martial souls, only useless Soul Masters. True genius is nurtured with ninety-nine percent sweat and one percent talent.” 4

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way. How can I know it won’t work without trying?” 36

“Dad, I don’t blame you, and San has never blamed you either. We felt lost when you left us, but we’ve never hated you. You’ll always be our father.” 38