Elemental Power

Biodata

Power Progression

Realm System

Zeng Mu's Documented Progression on the Continent

Background / History

The Continent and Elf Realm

According to Okelo's account, Elemental Power existed when humanity was still in the Stone Age. Its seven elements corresponded to seven natural gods without gender or moral alignment. A war after humanity entered the Bronze Age killed the Fire, Thunder, Earth, Wood, Wind, and Metal Gods; the seemingly weakest Water God emerged as the final victor 342.

The Elffolk arose in the realm where the Water God slumbers. Every elf can wield at least one element, while some, including Okelo, possess three. Their king created the Blackstone Necklace from material said to be the Water God's Divine Soul 342.

Earth

Elementalists appeared on Earth after a blue comet, less than a meter across, landed in 1993. Its arrival introduced a mysterious power that only a small fraction of humanity could wield. Elemental Academies subsequently trained these users for roles such as military instructors, bodyguards, and security personnel 1 3.

The Seven Elements

Water's Anomaly

• Kanni describes water beasts as little stronger than ordinary animals, even when their grade should make them formidable 6.
• Zeng Mu learns that no human water Elementalist has appeared during the continent's centuries of elemental history 197.
• Okelo's water power disproves the assumption that the element itself is inherently powerless 197 349.
• The Seven-Pattern Cloud Mouse's element remains disputed: scholars propose either water or a wood–water mixture 276.

Acquisition and Elemental Marks

Awakening

• On Earth: An innate elemental mark generally manifests around sixteen years of age, identifying its bearer as an Elementalist 1.
• Through elemental meat: Energy from an Elemental Beast accumulates in the consumer's body. Reaching a sufficient concentration can transform the bloodline and enable elemental control 4 117 223.
• Talent remains necessary: A person may eat elemental meat throughout life without awakening, although the accumulated energy still improves physical abilities 6 165.
• Inheritance: Elemental energy can pass through bloodlines. Descendants awaken more easily, and a very small number are born Elementalists 117.

Awakening Resources

Marks and Energy Reserves

• A mark's appearance reflects the elemental energy inside its bearer. Damage can weaken or dissipate that power until the body can no longer draw energy from the world 27.
• Dormant marks fade to faint outlines. Zeng Mu's physical strength declines after his mark becomes dormant 1 3.
• An embryonic mark indicates that accumulated energy is approaching the awakening threshold 236.
• A mark's brightness can reveal remaining reserves; Zeng Mu notices Sibigail's mark dimming as she expends energy faster than Pitman 194.

Cultivation and Mastery

Practice and Proficiency

• Daily practice both accelerates realm advancement and improves proficiency 43.
• Sufficient proficiency permits applications beyond a user's normal realm limits, including energy shaping by a Manifestation Realm user 43.
• Meditation allows users to sense and refine the elemental energy within their bodies 74 286.
• Each newly acquired element normally requires separate cultivation. Zeng Mu's lightning begins in Manifestation Realm despite his metal already being Willful Realm 145.

Combining Elements

• Skilled Elementalists can combine their powers, briefly allowing a single-element user to participate in applications involving other elements 43.
• Zeng Mu, Yetos, and Soxia join hands to merge their brown, green, and gold lights while preparing a concealed trap 43.
• Combination is not restricted to different elements: Qin Mu and the Prison Warden pool their earth power into a strike whose force increases severalfold 370.
• Zeng Mu's later six-element attacks combine three personal elements with three elements supplied by his artifact; they do not represent six personal elemental marks 244 332 334.

Advancement Protection

• Successful advancement temporarily produces unusually abundant energy and heightened physical and sensory abilities 25 370.
• A special protective energy, explicitly distinguished from all seven elements, surrounds newly advanced Elementalists 369 370.
• The resulting invincibility period varies by person, from less than a minute to approximately ten minutes 370.
• Reisado withstands powerful attacks without forming a normal elemental barrier during this state 370.

Abilities & Skills

Physical and Sensory Enhancement

Elemental energy continually nourishes muscles, bones, meridians, and flesh 184.

• Even without actively releasing power, an Elementalist has several times an ordinary person's strength and speed 3 184.
• Awakening sharpens perception and the sixth sense 9.
• Users can directly absorb the essence of heaven and earth; an Elementalist can endure seven days and nights without sleep, food, or water 232.
• Yetos uses enhanced vision to read battlefield details while conserving his elemental power 74.

Combat and Defense

• Direct manipulation: Zeng Mu bends arrowheads, breaks shafts, and caves in armor through metal control 116.
• Weapon reinforcement: Elemental energy infused into a sword improves penetration and can remain in wounds to damage a target internally 232.
• Constructs: Users create shields, armor, blades, and condensed energy weapons 25 331 370 372.
• Barriers: Elemental domes can block powerful attacks, though maintaining them may consume substantial reserves 332.
• Materialization: Return to Truth Realm users can make their energy tangible and extend that effect to allies' attacks 360.

Support, Healing, and Concealment

• Movement assistance: Yetos moves roots and branches aside and reinforces travelers' footsteps to speed passage through the Withered Forest 13.
• Battlefield enhancement: Two Elementalists jointly activate a Wind Elemental Artifact, selectively increasing the knights' speed, strength, agility, balance, and judgment 119.
• Emergency treatment: Yetos and Zeng Mu seal Yenaier's neck wound with elemental power 119.
• Toxin removal: Zeng Mu detects a transparent toxin through elemental sight and destroys it with lightning 288.
• Privacy: Pitman's wood power blocks sound and attempts to probe a room 348.
• Energy sealing: Zeng Mu interrupts Qin Zhongyi's elemental flow, immobilizing him and taking control of his body 372.

Elemental Beasts

Levels and Grades

• Level or tier corresponds to an Elementalist's realm; a level-two beast is comparable to a second-realm Elementalist 25 123.
• Grade distinguishes the number of elements a beast possesses 6 123.
• After reaching the third tier, a suitable opportunity can trigger grade advancement. A newly acquired element immediately matches the beast's existing third-tier strength 25 145.

Mutated Power

Elemental Artifacts and Elemental Spirit

Elemental Artifacts

• Artifacts have three quality tiers corresponding to Elementalist realms. Their usual roles are metal and earth for defense, wind and wood for support, and fire and lightning for attack 20.
• Ordinary people can use them, but must withstand the power passing through their bodies 20.
• Some artifacts evolve through sustained tempering. Qin Zihui raises his artifact from first to second tier over six years 51.
• Zeng Mu's Rainbow Artifact develops from a Wind Elemental Artifact into a wind–earth artifact, then adds wood. Its multiple elements are unprecedented in the continent's recorded artifact-making history 243 244.
• The Blackstone Necklace is an unranked, irreplicable artifact said to contain the Water God's Divine Soul and an Elemental Source. It supplies an endless stream of power and enables unusually rapid acquisition of additional elements 342.

Elemental Spirit

• Elemental spirit is spiritual energy within natural elements and the force Artifact Masters use to break down and refine objects 239.
• Unlike ordinary elemental power, it contains all seven elements, allowing a master to forge artifacts with attributes other than their personal element 239.
• Receiving it can cause severe clashes and pain in a single-element user's body. Ordinary elemental power can ease that pain but cannot prevent it 239.

Limitations

• Single-element restriction: Human Elementalists native to the continent ordinarily control only one element throughout life. Zeng Mu and the Elffolk are documented exceptions 123 244 342.
• Finite reserves: Heavy use depletes energy. After personally killing about seven hundred soldiers, Zeng Mu has spent more than half his reserves and must slow down 117.
• Defense has a cost: Blocking one all-out cursed attack consumes nearly half Zeng Mu's personal power 332.
• Poison protection is conditional: Internal energy can repel venom while stamina lasts, but poison entering through respiration remains dangerous in the Jiao Monster's mist 26 232.
• Control is not universal: Zeng Mu cannot manipulate one of the six metals in the Ceramic Plate. Qidunston suggests that the uncontrollable substance is energy rather than ordinary matter 221.
• Power does not replace armies: Zeng Mu concludes that even the strongest known human Elementalists cannot sustain unrestricted battlefield slaughter and still require military forces 117.
• Energy can expose identity: Because users are rare and their elements are known, releasing power during an assassination can identify the attacker 271.