Sun Moon Empire

Biodata

Power Progression

The empire’s documented progression concerns its soul-tool technology and military capabilities, rather than a cultivation rank of its own.

Background / History

Continental Collision and Defeat

Four thousand years before the main events, the Sun Moon Continent collided with the Douluo Continent. The three existing nations went to war against the Sun Moon Empire using Tang Sect Hidden Weapons. Superior soul tools initially allowed the empire to drive their armies back repeatedly 11.

Shrek Academy’s dean reversed the war by assembling more than sixty Titled Douluos. The defeated empire had to accept reparations and treaties, and the Sun Moon Continent was forced to take the name Douluo Continent. Although growing national strength later made the treaties largely irrelevant, the defeat and renaming remained a source of public resentment 11.

Xu Cheng attributes the loss to inadequate weapons against elite combatants and slow prewar research in a society without serious rivals. The subsequent four-thousand-year arms race accelerated development across melee weapons, ranged weapons, and fixed soul guidance cannons 12.

Xu Cheng’s Rise

Xu Cheng begins as the emperor’s eleventh son, with no maternal relatives or established court faction to support him. His position as the Holy Spirit Cult’s Holy Son makes rival princes wary, but does not initially give him the money or public imperial backing he needs 1 16.

His soul-engineering talent wins Cheng Baiqing’s recognition. Cheng accepts him as his final disciple and explicitly supports his bid for the throne. Because Cheng’s textbooks and research underpin the training of many military Soul Engineers, this endorsement substantially changes Xu Cheng’s political standing 20 24 38.

Government and Succession

Despite its advanced technology and comparatively accessible education, the empire remains feudal. Imperial rank carries strong social authority: Ju Zi instinctively attempts to kneel when she learns Xu Cheng is a prince 41.

Competing Factions

• Kong Deming is regarded as a stabilizing pillar of the empire. Xu Cheng expects him not to intervene rashly in the succession struggle 20 38.
• Cheng Baiqing’s influence extends beyond personal combat strength: his research, textbooks, and military reputation can place a previously marginal prince on comparable footing with a long-established faction 20 47.
• Court etiquette requires ordinary officials to kneel before the emperor, while princes and distinguished veterans such as Kong Deming, Cheng Baiqing, and Jing Hongchen may bow with clasped hands 47.

Imperial Family Inspection Team

• Oversees imperial-family affairs and incidents within Mingdu. Rules established by the previous emperor authorize it to investigate even the emperor and interrogate imperial relatives 21 42.
• Is controlled by Xu Mochen, a direct-line imperial relative whose father, Xu Wannian, supports the Fourth Prince 21 46.
• In practice, often overlooks misconduct among imperial relatives while acting harshly against ordinary nobles and commoners 43.
• Maintains an interrogation room equipped with torture devices, including the Dragon-Peeling Pillar 43 45.

Institutions and Education

Sun Moon Imperial Academy

• Admissions: The Soul Tool Department accepts applicants under twelve who possess at least one soul ring. Commoners may enroll without a city lord’s recommendation letter 8.
• Departments: Includes Soul Tool, Martial Soul, and Practical Control Soul Tool education. The Martial Soul Department has less prestige, and promising students are often recruited away by the Soul Tool Department 8 14.
• Practical-control certification: Students qualify by skillfully operating and fighting with tools of the corresponding level, rather than necessarily manufacturing them 14.
• Assessment: Losing a match does not automatically lead to expulsion; the academy uses other evaluation methods rather than excluding talent on a single result 20.
• Advancement: Placement follows ability rather than age. Becoming a Level 2 Soul Engineer permits promotion to second year, with the same principle applying to later years 48.
• Financial support: Impoverished students receive ten Gold Soul Coins monthly, alongside assistance with certain research projects 30.
• Graduate routes: Stronger students proceed to Mingde Hall; others enlist on the front lines to earn military merit 48.

Mingde Hall

• Supports the academy and provides advanced research laboratories. Soul Engineers of Level 5 and above commonly join a lecturer’s laboratory rather than continuing routine work in the academy’s Experiment Building 10 13.
• Pursues closely guarded humanoid-mecha research known to only a small circle, including the emperor, its hall master, Elder Kong, and Cheng Baiqing 12.
• Houses Cheng Baiqing’s work on mechas, surveillance cores, and Level 9 Fixed Soul Guidance Cannons, as well as Xu Cheng’s later missile project 20 48.

Military

The empire relies on technology to compensate for a shortage of naturally powerful combatants. The narration states that, without soul tools, its strength would probably fall below even the Dou Ling Empire, the weakest of the three rival empires 12.

Equipment and Combat Doctrine

• Elite patrol equipment: Fire Phoenix troops use basic exoskeletons, standard soul cannons, soul guidance rays, and defensive tools. The twenty guards encountered by Xu Cheng are all Level 5 Soul Engineers or higher 36.
• Powered mobility: Huo Qing’s returning patrol wears crimson exoskeletal armor with Class 7 propulsion devices 37.
• Unit coordination: Soul Engineers’ greatest strength lies in coordinated formations. Xu Cheng judges that even Xuan Zi would avoid confronting the entire Fire Phoenix Corps working together 39.
• Frontier operations: The Star Luo border extends for at least several thousand kilometers. Huo Qing conducts routine patrols there; Huo Lei describes the clashes at the time of Xu Cheng’s visit as not particularly serious 36 37 39.

Technology and Economy

Research Priorities and Limitations

• Tracking: Short-range automatic tracking already exists, but Xu Cheng distinguishes it sharply from precision strikes across tens of thousands of kilometers 11.
• Guidance shortcomings: Xu Cheng criticizes research for emphasizing explosive power over accurate delivery, forcing powerful Soul Engineers to transport their weapons close to targets themselves 11.
• Mecha accessibility: His proposals aim to let low-level Soul Masters operate stronger equipment. Physical tolerance and soul-power supply remain obstacles 12.
• Information warfare: Xu Cheng proposes reconnaissance, radar, and information systems as technologies capable of deciding battles; these are research directions, not confirmed completed systems 12.

Civilian and Commercial Uses

• Manufacturing: Reproducing low-level core formations can provide a lucrative livelihood or a route into military service 5.
• Student employment: Academy students sell low-level soul tools to organizations and on the black market during holidays to finance their studies 30.
• Transport: Soul-powered cars are a common choice for low-level Soul Masters; stronger users may travel with flying soul tools 30.
• Technical expertise: Cheng Baiqing’s academic standing demonstrates that research achievement carries political weight alongside combat power 20.

External Relationships

• Shrek Academy — Historic enemy whose intervention caused the empire’s ancient defeat. Resentment persists among academy students, while Tang Ya comes to view the two institutions as irreconcilable enemies 11 31.
• Star Luo Empire — Frontier opponent. Ju Zi’s father is killed by troops under White Tiger Duke Dai Hao, giving her a personal stake in the conflict 37 39 41.
• Holy Spirit Cult — Backs Xu Cheng’s succession bid while pursuing influence over the empire through him. Zhongli Wu regards Xu Cheng as essential to the cult’s future plans, and Ye Xishui also stands to benefit if its Holy Son becomes emperor 39 43.
• The three rival nations — Their armies initially lost to the empire’s superior soul tools after the continental collision. Internal conflict between the empire and the Holy Spirit Cult could give them an opportunity to act 7 11.

Major Political Incident: Xu Cheng’s Arrest

The Imperial Family Inspection Team arrests Xu Cheng over Wang Shaojie’s death, using the case as grounds to detain a rival of the Fourth Prince. Xu Cheng cooperates deliberately and secretly asks Nana to alert his teacher, Jing Hongchen, and the Holy Spirit Cult 42.

Xu Mochen’s group attempts to obtain a confession that Xu Cheng conspired with the cult to overthrow the empire. Their torture device fails against his defensive soul tool, while his arrest draws responses from both the cult and Crown Prince Xu Tianran 43 45.

At court, Xu Cheng demands punishment for the inspectors and accuses Xu Jiran of framing him. When Xu Jiran invokes the Holy Spirit Cult’s reputation as an evil-soul-master organization, Xu Cheng summons Long Xiaoyao and five other figures at Super Douluo level or above. Under their pressure, Xu Jiran and the assembled officials deny any connection between the cult and evil soul masters; the supplied account does not establish a final sentence for the accused 47.