Zeng Mu

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Zeng Mu came from a poor family with a martial-arts tradition. His father and grandfather supervised his training from childhood: standing stances at four, the horse stance at five, and weapon studies after completing his unarmed foundation at twelve. Before entering the other world, he had trained with wooden weapons and protective equipment but had never killed anyone 1 11.

The appearance of his elemental mark offered him a way to overcome his family’s poverty and his own feelings of inferiority. He entered the Element Academy and placed third in its annual grade examination. When his mark became dormant, classmates assaulted and ridiculed him, while instructor Yue Yuxin tried unsuccessfully to restore his confidence 1.

His adoptive grandfather, Yuan Su, claimed that energy from another world caused dormant marks and that entering the world represented by a painting could restore his power. Before leaving, Zeng Mu went to the academy’s evening ball to say farewell to Zhou Shiyu. Fu Yuanyuan challenged him to fight without elemental power, then broke that promise and struck him over the heart with a potentially fatal elemental attack 2 3 4.

Yuan Su used a black stone necklace, an ancient helmet, and the moonlit painting to send him away. Zeng Mu awakened on a battlefield in the body of a dead knight, retaining his own memories but none of the body’s original owner. Kanni found him, gave him water, and named him “Nameless” after he could not provide an identity 4 11.

Appearance

• Original body: Described as handsome by Zhou Shiyu’s friends; bore a green wood-element mark before it became dormant 2 5.
• Knight’s body: Appears about twenty years old, with a comparatively slender build, an alert expression, and balanced features that become more appealing with familiarity 12 16.
• Golden forehead mark: Formed when he absorbed the Snake King’s Elemental Source 28.
• Golden pupils: Briefly visible after his transformation and again when he activates his power against the bandits 29 33.
• Black armor: His specially commissioned armor gives him a more imposing appearance than his original battlefield equipment 16.

Personality

The loss of his elemental mark severely damaged Zeng Mu’s self-worth. He accepted his classmates’ description of him as “trash,” rejected Yue Yuxin’s encouragement, and felt ashamed to approach Zhou Shiyu. Nevertheless, his pride and protectiveness drove him to confront Fu Yuanyuan despite his declining strength 1 3.

In the other world, he becomes increasingly willing to face danger and adapt. He embraces genuine combat as a chance to remedy the shortcomings of his earlier training, but remains capable of acknowledging stronger opponents: he openly credits Kanni’s superior swordsmanship and trusts his judgment about approaching enemies 11 16 37.

His determination sometimes becomes counterproductive. During sparring, Kanni identifies his excessive desire to win as the source of mental tension and worsening technique. Zeng Mu responds by recalling the principle of making his mind adaptable and clear, “like water” 17.

He is easily embarrassed by romantic or physical intimacy, particularly around Ma Linya, and declines an invitation to visit a sex worker. His attachment to Ma Linya also surfaces in his distress over her apparent decision to marry Bright 22 23 33 35.

His later decisions show growing tactical judgment. He prioritizes getting the water-bearing Emerald Bead back to Sand City and preserves O’Connor as a possible bargaining chip. During the siege, however, witnessing soldiers die nearly overwhelms his resolve to keep his power concealed 38 41 48.

Abilities & Skills

Martial Arts and Weapon Training

• Trained in unarmed combat from childhood and began weapon studies at twelve 11.
• Has experience with sabers, spears, swords, axes, halberds, lances, bows, crossbows, whips, blades, hammers, and shields, without claiming mastery of every weapon 11.
• Trained his naturally weaker left hand, allowing him to switch hands and throw his broken sword while falling wounded 12.
• Uses a longbow during Sand City’s defense 46.
• Limit: His original training lacked mortal-combat experience; Liduo initially outclasses him in both strength and battlefield experience 11 12.

Swordsmanship and Thrown-Sword Attacks

• Uses speed, keen senses, and evasive footwork to survive Liduo’s axe attacks 12.
• Throws his broken sword at Idiveer, creating the opening for Yetos’s decisive elemental attack 12.
• Receives praise from William, Aikimu, and Xibizete for his swordsmanship and “flying-sword” skill 16.
• Channels elemental energy into the Fish-Scale Sword, causing its scale patterns to shine during his confrontation with Qin Zihui 50.
• Limit: He considers Kanni the better swordsman and cannot clearly follow the movements of Kanni’s silver blade 12 16 26.

Inherited Combat Reflexes

• His host body retains neural and muscle memory developed through years of warfare, despite the absence of its former owner’s conscious memories 11.
• Instinctively avoids a Water Demon Scorpion’s stinger before consciously recognizing the ambush 6.
• Combines those reflexes with his own martial foundation when fighting stronger opponents 12.

Metal Element

• Suspends and retrieves Yetos’s airborne dagger through an invisible force 29.
• Begins manipulating a bandit’s knife before Ma Linya stops him 33.
• Stops arrows aimed at Ma Linya and kills pursuing Viking warriors, including attackers cut down by spinning winds 38.
• Coats his knuckles in a black iron-colored layer and punches O’Connor’s axe away 39.
• Limit: His new awakening does not establish a named realm or demonstrate mastery of additional innate elements 28 29 37.

Former Wood Element

• In his original body, manifested a blade of grass through his green elemental mark 5.
• Expected to produce water vines to relieve his thirst, but discovered that his original mark was inaccessible after crossing worlds 4.
• Limit: His later use of the Emerald Bead is artifact use, not evidence that his original wood mark has returned 31 36 37.

Elemental Knowledge and Perception

• Recognizes Idiveer as a Willful Realm Earth Elementalist and understands the disparity between Elementalists and ordinary fighters 10.
• Detects dangerous elemental fluctuations around the advancing Snake King and warns the others to retreat 26.
• Experiences sharply heightened senses after awakening, including hearing a grasshopper a hundred paces away 29.
• Applies academy knowledge about elemental properties, realm limits, and combined elemental techniques when assisting Yetos and Soxia 43.
• Limits: Kanni remains better at detecting distant pursuers through battlefield experience. Combining three elements places Zeng Mu under severe physical strain 37 44.

Elemental Body Enhancement

• Elemental Medicine strengthens his body while healing his battlefield wounds 16.
• Immediately after becoming an Elementalist, his body becomes hard enough to hurt Kanni’s hand when struck 29.
• Limit: Yetos explicitly describes the extraordinary resistance to blades and spears as a post-awakening strengthening period, not a confirmed permanent defense 29.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Black stone necklace — Yuan Su’s teardrop-shaped necklace enables Zeng Mu’s passage through the painting. It later protects him when he touches the Snake King’s elemental mark, which weakens during the encounter 4 27.
• Battlefield helmet and leather armor — His initial equipment in the knight’s body; the helmet’s sword emblem helps identify his affiliation 4.
• Iron sword — His early weapon against Liduo. After its blade breaks, he throws it at Idiveer 11 12.
• Commissioned black armor — Reward armor made by a master blacksmith recruited by Yetos 16.
• Bronze Sword — A trophy from the Silver-Pattern General, decorated with pale golden patterns and silvery fish-scale lines. Zeng Mu uses it to kill the Snake King 16 17 27.
• Yetos’s dagger — Given to him after he demonstrates elemental control by retrieving it from the air 29.
• Emerald Bead — A restored First-Rank Wood Elemental Artifact with internal storage space. Used to transport Bright’s group, supplies, and Hidden Lake’s water; later gifted to Zeng Mu by Yetos 31 35 36 41.
• Thousand-Mile Horse — Taken after defeating O’Connor; exceptionally fast and responsive to Zeng Mu’s guidance 39 40 41.
• Fish-Scale Sword — Presented with his ennoblement. Its overlapping scale pattern and slightly curved cutting edge provide formidable cutting power 41 50.
• Hero Medal, golden decree, and formal clothes — Rewards associated with his knight promotion and later ennoblement 16 41.

Relationships

• Yuan Su — Adoptive grandfather and benefactor. Owed his life to Zeng Mu’s grandfather during the Korean War and sends Zeng Mu into the other world to save him 1 2 4.
• Zhou Shiyu — Girlfriend and first love. Refuses her friends’ pressure to dismiss him, intervenes against Fu Yuanyuan, and uses her blood and elemental power to briefly revive him 2 3 4.
• Yue Yuxin — Academy instructor. Encourages him after his mark becomes dormant; her lessons later inform his work on the elemental trap 1 43.
• Fu Yuanyuan — Academy rival who had previously harassed Zhou Shiyu. Breaks their sparring agreement and gravely wounds Zeng Mu 3.
• Kanni — Rescuer, close companion, battlefield partner, and swordsmanship mentor. Names him “Nameless,” protects him against Liduo, and helps him improve his mental approach to combat 4 12 17.
• Ma Linya — Healer, mission companion, and developing romantic interest. Saves him with Elemental Medicine and unsuccessfully attempts to recover his host body’s memories 14 15 33 35.
• Yetos — Knight Commander and mentor. Rewards Zeng Mu’s service, guides his new elemental abilities, entrusts him with the water mission, and directs his role in the siege 16 29 31 47.
• Cobert — Herbalist and traveling companion whose medicines help the group survive Sand City’s beast attacks 19 20 31 38.
• Viscount Soxia — Holy Temple envoy who delivers Zeng Mu’s promotion and ennoblement; later works with him and Yetos on the elemental trap 41 43 44.
• O’Connor — Viking pursuer defeated and captured by Zeng Mu, who retains him as leverage for negotiations with Idiveer 38 39 41.
• Qin Zihui — Enemy commander whom Zeng Mu ambushes during the battle for Sand City 47 50.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Battlefield Survival and Recovery

Zeng Mu’s first battles combine his martial training with the reflexes of his new body. He helps Kanni kill a Water Demon Scorpion, then fights Liduo during the confrontation between Yetos’s knights and Idiveer’s Vikings. By accepting an axe wound and throwing his broken sword at Idiveer, he helps break the deadlock but is left unconscious and severely injured 6 11 12 13.

Ma Linya stabilizes him in Sand City. Her memory-awakening treatment produces a vision of a village and cultivated fields but fails to reveal his host’s name. After recovering, he receives his Third-Rank Knight promotion and resumes training with Kanni 14 15 16 17.

Sand City’s Beast Attacks

Zeng Mu helps obtain fragrant herbs for a potion against the Black-Feathered Sparrows. He and Kanni later discover yellow viper fruit hidden inside the birds, exposing their use as bait for a coordinated snake attack 19 20 23.

When the Yellow Sand Diamondback Snake King approaches advancement, ordinary attacks cannot injure its eyes. After its elemental mark weakens during Zeng Mu’s contact with it, he destroys the eyes and strikes the vital point seven meters below its head. The killing produces an Elemental Source, which he absorbs to become a Metal Elementalist 27 28 29.

Hidden Lake Water Mission

With Sand City’s wells contaminated by Red Night Ants, Yetos sends Zeng Mu, Kanni, Ma Linya, and Cobert to collect water from Hidden Lake using the Emerald Bead. Their journey through Black Iron Town secures a Blue Starfish, which Ma Linya identifies as a natural enemy of the ants 31 33 35.

After taking the lake’s water, the group is pursued by O’Connor. Zeng Mu sends Ma Linya and Cobert ahead with the bead while he and Kanni confront the Vikings. He defeats the attackers, captures O’Connor, and returns with a Thousand-Mile Horse before receiving his promotion to First-Rank Knight and title of Baron 36 37 38 39 41.

Defense of Sand City

Zeng Mu combines his metal element with Yetos’s and Soxia’s powers to prepare a concealed trap beneath Black Iron Slope. During the ensuing siege, Yetos instructs him to conceal his strength until an appropriate opening appears 43 44 47.

Despite his distress over the defenders’ casualties, he waits before ambushing Qin Zihui with the Fish-Scale Sword. Qin Zihui’s Wind Elemental Artifact aids his recovery, and he retaliates with a full-strength attack as coalition troops breach Sand City’s eastern gate 48 50.

Notable Quotes

“Of course. I have no choice now.”
— Accepting Yuan Su’s proposal to enter another world 2

“I'm more than willing to embrace real combat!”
— Facing Liduo after recognizing the value of his new body’s battlefield instincts 11

Trivia

• Zeng Mu hopes that acquiring all seven elements might grant him the power to return home. His belief that crossing worlds frees him from local bloodline restrictions is a theory, not a demonstrated ability 5.
• Yuan Su repeatedly tried to teach him painting during childhood, but Zeng Mu admits he has no talent for it 2.
• Chapter 4 foreshadows his eventual return to his native world many years later, followed by grief over the companions, beloved, and other world he has lost 4.