Soul Crystal

Biodata

Properties

• Stored Soul Power: Soul Crystals contain power that weapons and artifact spirits can draw upon 12 34.
• Glittering appearance: Exposed deposits gleam in rock faces; High-Grade crystals give off a particularly dazzling crystalline light 25 195 241.
• Hard but brittle: They break easily when carved, making them unsuitable for delicate formation inscription 324.
• Consumable: After the Crow Cauldron absorbed ten crystals overnight, only a thin layer of residue remained 34.
• Distinct from Immortal Realm crystals: The metal-aspected crystals Mu Bai discovers in Silver Frost Forest replenish his essence power and support his immortal cultivation. They are identified separately from Soul Crystals 124.

Grades and Exchange Value

Uses

Sustaining Soul Soldiers

• Soul Crystals can be fitted into grooves in Soul Soldiers to maintain their might when the wielder’s Soul Power runs low 12.
• Before the White Wolf Tribe’s tournament, Hai Zhan gives each of the five participating children ten crystals as emergency reserves 12.
• Hai Zhan forbids using them except in life-threatening situations, warning the children not to become dependent on external resources 12.

Nourishing Artifact Spirits

• The Crow Cauldron absorbs Soul Crystals directly, without the visible mounting grooves found on ordinary Soul Soldiers 12 34.
• Mu Bai confirms this absorption by leaving ten crystals inside overnight. He concludes that their Soul Power helps restore the Artifact Spirit Ancestor’s soul 34.
• Over nearly a year, the cauldron consumes more than 6,000 crystals without the Ancestor showing signs of awakening 107.
• After awakening, the Ancestor demands a regular allowance; Mu Bai eventually promises him 100 crystals a day 113.

Artillery and Defensive Formations

• Heaven-Piercing Cannon: Mu Bai charges it with ten million Soul Crystals at Jiayu Fort. Its blast destroys countless Fierce Beasts and opens a route for the surviving defenders to retreat north 223.
• Soul Crystal Cannons: Armies deploy them against Beast Tides and protective formations. Their operating cost becomes a point of contention during the Eastern Nether Great Tribe’s attack on Star Island 216 393 394.
• Star Great Formation: Its crystal reserves are finite. Fear that the supply will run out prompts Xing Yang and Xing Mu to lead a counterattack against the besiegers 394.

Formation-Carving Limitations

• Xiao Liu explains that Soul Crystals fracture too easily for reliable carving 324.
• Carved formations also produce conspicuous Soul Power fluctuations, allowing others to detect them readily 324.
• He teaches Mu Bai to carve an Alerting Spirit Array into soul jade instead 324.

Currency and Trade

Soul Crystals pay for pills, weapons, materials, services, sect obligations, and property-related expenses. Their circulation is not universal: in Beast Territory, Beast Cores, Demon Cores, and medicinal pills are more commonly used for trade, leaving many local Soul Crystal mines undeveloped 10 33 71 180 279.

Documented Prices and Payments

Wealth and Financial Influence

• Scarcity among young tribespeople: Before the tournament, Ling’er and Hai Chen remark that they have never seen even three Soul Crystals in total 11.
• Commercial operating costs: Mu Bai’s pill business pays several thousand crystals monthly to the Construction Hall, alongside benefits to other sect and city personnel 52.
• Political inducements: Taiyuan Qing offers one billion crystals to five great tribes over poisoned tribespeople. When fighting becomes imminent, he offers the money to eight rival chiefs and promises another 600 million if they kill his opponents 201.
• Bribery: Du Xiang pays prison overseer Long Jingde 100,000 crystals to create an opportunity to attack the imprisoned Mu Bai 252.

Deposits and Mining

Wartime Supply

Years of fighting drain the Spirit Taming Sect’s ordinary treasury. Zhou Dechen raises taxes in Spirit Command City and sends cultivators to search for mines, but these measures barely sustain the front. He then persuades Nangong Yan to open the strictly controlled inner treasury before an Elders’ Council vote can be held 241.

Mu Bai later supplies one billion Soul Crystals to repay lost military supplies, compensate Enforcement Hall disciples’ families, and support the war. Half comes from Mu Lan Pavilion and half from a payment he forces Zhou Detai to make; the contribution secures Zhou Dekai’s pardon 249.

Speculative Trading in Southern Marsh City

• The City Lord’s Manor sells 200,000 fragments from two demolished statues at an initial price of 100 Soul Crystals each, promoting them as collectibles that can appreciate in value 561.
• Displayed prices rise and fall, drawing residents into repeated buying and selling. Prices exceed 400 and later reach 500 crystals during the frenzy 562.
• The manor lends residents additional Soul Crystals at 10% daily interest, encouraging further purchases 562.
• It then introduces a transaction fee of one Soul Crystal per hundred traded 562.
• Mu Bai watches without buying any fragments and leaves the city with Golden Roc 562.