Xu Zhengyang

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Rebirth and Incomplete Awakening

Before his rebirth, Xu Zhengyang was a gifted traditional Chinese medicine student on Blue Star. An explosion during medicinal-herb research brought him to the Douluo World, where he was born to Xu Haoyang and a spear-wielding mother in Dongyang City. His memories of the original story made him fear the future war's consequences for the Sun Moon Empire and his family 1.

His childhood diligence, physique, and academic ability created high expectations, which collapsed when he awakened an apparently useless iron rod and only half a rank of Innate Soul Power. Privately, he discovered a second Martial Soul and identified both as incomplete awakenings. Taking Ji Juechen's cultivation path as his model, he committed to refining his weapon and overcoming his aptitude rather than abandoning cultivation 1 2.

Training in Dongyang City

Xu Zhengyang arranged to cultivate at home while continuing to sit his academy examinations, consistently earning excellent results. His parents supplied instruction, medicinal ingredients, Soul Beast meat, and a rare Mysterious Water Pill. His routine combined spear drills, strength training, running, medicinal baths, and meditation 3 4 5 6.

After acquiring his first Soul Ring, he won his debut duel against a rank-nineteen Ice Silkworm Soul Master equipped with three Class 1 Soul Tools. He subsequently achieved thirty consecutive arena victories. These fights exposed both the effectiveness of Soul Tools and the poor combat awareness of opponents who depended on them 12 13.

His father made Class 1 Soul Engineer certification a condition of leaving home. Xu Zhengyang accepted, discovering that forging could refine his Martial Soul and temper his body simultaneously. He departed Dongyang City at nine with protective equipment supplied by his father 13 14 15 16.

Ice Sea, Sunset Forest, and Shrek City

In the Ice Sea, Xu Zhengyang deliberately fought without his high-grade Soul Tools to develop his own abilities. His four-day contest of traps and ambushes with a Polar Ice Fox ended when he lured it into a smooth-walled ice pit and killed it. A year of such encounters hardened his physique and instincts 17 18.

He next hunted the White-Eyed Devil Tiger in Sunset Forest, combining a concealed pit, fire, the Thunder Flame Enemy-Binding Net, and the Class 5 Flame Spear to overcome it. After securing its ring and External Soul Bone, he discovered the poisonous barrier around the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. He trained there for six months but could penetrate only four kilometers into the miasma, not reach the core 20 21 22 23 24.

In Shrek City, he investigated the academy and recognized Bei Bei, Tang Ya, Xu Sanshi, and Jiang Nannan. Their ages allowed him to conclude that he was two years older than Huo Yuhao. After leaving the city, he defeated Bei Bei in a spar without using a Soul Skill and introduced himself as Long Aotian. He continued using that name to conceal his imperial-clan identity and encourage assumptions of a Body Sect connection 25 27 30 31.

Gengxin City and Azure Thunder Mountain

At the Starlight Auction House, Xu Zhengyang bought a second Mysterious Water Pill for thirty-two thousand gold soul coins. To fund his pursuit of the Soul Devouring Carving Knife, he arranged to auction his nearly thousand-year Polar Ice Fox Head Soul Bone 33 34.

After obtaining the knife, he settled in Gengxin City and purchased the Zhengyang Blacksmith Shop, retaining its five workers at double their previous wages. He spent a year refining his spear and learning from local smiths, particularly Blacksmith Association president Lou Li. With Lou Li's assistance and Vajra Chisel, he finally shaped the stubborn spearhead, although it remained unsharpened 35 36 39 40 41.

His attempt to destroy the knife through Azure Thunder Mountain's lightning nearly killed him. He survived beside the exposed Gold of Life, but found the knife's black curse patterns on his spear. A mysterious gray power had also entered his spiritual sea and connected with the Devil Tiger's Eye; he suspected it might be Electrolux, without confirming that identity 42 43 44 45.

Third Ring and the Tiger Cub

In Star Dou Great Forest, Xu Zhengyang exploited a battle between a Nether Flame Demon Tiger and a Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear. He first took the tiger's newborn cub into his living-storage Soul Tool, then used traps, poison, and attacks to finish the wounded adults. Their remains yielded his third Soul Ring and a right-palm External Soul Bone 46 47 48 49.

Although ready to return home after three years away, he delayed his departure to find a suitable mother for the cub. He refused to kill a newborn whose mother's death he had caused, while recognizing that handing it to his clan would probably condemn it to become someone's Soul Ring 49 50.

Appearance

• Childhood build: Already 1.4 meters tall at six and 1.6 meters tall at eight, with unusually developed muscles 1 6.
• Traveling appearance: At nine, stands 1.7 meters tall, wears ordinary gray clothing, and has short hair and bronze skin from forging 16.
• After wilderness training: Develops long black hair, iron-hard muscles, and a weather-beaten, untamed appearance. At eleven, stands 1.75 meters tall 18 27.
• Devil Tiger's Eye: Normally leaves only a faint mark between his brows; manifests as a vertical forehead eye when active 22 48.
• Darkgolden Terrorclaw: Can extend five dark-golden blades from his right fingertips, each roughly one foot and two inches long 49.

Personality

Xu Zhengyang is disciplined, ambitious, and unwilling to accept innate aptitude as an absolute limit. His determination is closely tied to protecting the parents and clan who supported him. He repeatedly risks absorbing rings beyond conventional limits, enduring severe pain rather than surrendering his intended path 2 6 10 22.

He values personal combat ability over dependence on equipment. Initially reluctant to study Soul Tools, he revises his judgment after witnessing their practical advantages and nearly losing to a better-equipped opponent. Even afterward, he uses them as support rather than a substitute for cultivation and combat instincts 3 8 9 12 17.

He prefers solitude and can be blunt or confrontational, particularly toward Shrek Academy's prestige. His ruthlessness in hunting does not extend to indiscriminate killing: the orphaned Netherflame Demon Tiger cub reveals a boundary he is unwilling to cross 26 27 28 50.

Abilities & Skills

Tiger-Head Zhan Gold Spear

His primary Martial Soul is a mutated inheritance of his mother's spear. Initially resembling a massive rusted rod, it gradually acquires a defined shaft and tiger-headed spearhead through ring absorption and direct forging 2 15 40.

• Composition: Contains Yang flame iron and extraterrestrial meteoric copper 37.
• Growth: Increases from approximately five hundred jin at awakening to over one thousand jin after his second ring 23.
• Incomplete edge: Remains unsharpened even after Lou Li helps finish its shape 40.
• Tiger soul: Xu Zhengyang concludes that it contains a fierce tiger's soul. His belief that releasing it requires Soul Sage rank and Martial Soul True Body remains a deduction 19.
• Curse: Acquires the Soul Devouring Carving Knife's black patterns after the lightning incident; its effects and his survival remain unexplained 44.

Purple Brilliant Heaven-Destroying Dragon

His second Martial Soul is an incompletely awakened imperial dragon, initially resembling a purple snake or lizard with four short limbs, scales, fangs, and undeveloped bumps on its head and back 2.

• Grows to over three meters and begins emitting faint purple flames as his cultivation and fire control improve 16.
• Swallows the White-Eyed Devil Tiger's white-light attack, protecting him despite its still-weak state 21.
• Its imperial association makes him fear that revealing it could endanger his family 2.

Physical Tempering and Yang Constitution

Xu Zhengyang builds his physique through exercise, medicinal baths, weighted travel, forging, extreme cold, and poisonous miasma. He attributes his growing tiger-like constitution to this training and successive tiger Soul Rings 4 16 18 24 48.

• Possesses exceptional strength, endurance, wound recovery, and resistance to cold, flames, poison, and lightning 6 29 49.
• Is not immune to ice or fire; his resistance substantially exceeds that of ordinary Soul Masters at his level 49.
• Experiences a major bodily transformation after his third ring, which he interprets as progress toward a pure Yang physique rather than a confirmed completed transformation 48.

External Soul Bones

• The Devil Tiger's Eye releases gray energy and absorbs some of the pressure during his third-ring absorption. Its connection to the mysterious power in his spiritual sea remains unresolved 44 48.
• He considers the Darkgolden Terrorclaw his strongest immediate means of fighting enemies after obtaining it 49.

Spearmanship and Unarmed Combat

His foundation consists of repeated thrusts, jabs, blocks, and upward flicks. Handling his unusually thick spear also develops his palm and claw techniques, allowing him to apply spear principles without a weapon 4 12 29.

• Tyrant's Furious Collapse: Combines jolting and thrusting to disrupt balance. Executed through his fingers and arm, it breaks Bei Bei's Thunder Dragon Claw 29.
• Tiger Roars in the Mountains and Forests: A self-created technique based on his second Soul Skill; its tiger-phantom thrust tears through Bei Bei's Thunderbolt Fury 30.
• Defeats Bei Bei through physique, technique, and Soul Power control without activating a Soul Skill 30.

Forging and Soul Engineering

Xu Zhengyang uses forging both as a craft and as cultivation, transmitting the impacts on his Martial Soul through his own body 15 36.

• Develops his own version of the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer Technique, stacking force through an eighty-one-strike sequence. It is especially useful for forging, though less suited to combat than the Clear Sky Clan's version 15 36.
• Later sustains more than one thousand hammer blows in a session 39.
• Estimates that he can forge Class 5 Soul Tool models and barely attempt Class 6 models under ideal conditions 39.
• Remains a Class 1 Soul Engineer because advanced core-formation engraving lags behind his material preparation and shaping skills 15 39.
• Directly forging a Martial Soul is dangerous: poor heat control or excessive damage can destroy the soul, sever meridians, or cripple its owner 14 37.

Medicine and Fieldcraft

• Applies knowledge from his former medical studies to medicinal baths, herb identification, and research into the Mysterious Water Pill 4 5.
• Uses poisons, concealment powders, traps, bait, and observation to compensate for stronger Soul Beasts' advantages 17 20 21 48.
• Carries spirit herbs in a Soul Tool capable of preserving living things 46.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Training spears and weights — Uses heavy physical spears separately from his Martial Soul, along with wearable weights for continuous body training 4 7 16 31.
• Class 4 Wings of Flight — A winged backpack-style flight Soul Tool supplied by his father 8 15.
• Class 4 Thunder Flame Enemy-Binding Net — Restrains enemies with a tough, lightning-infused net; central to several difficult hunts 9 20 47.
• Class 5 Flame Spear — A sharp, fire-attribute Soul Tool used to pierce the White-Eyed Devil Tiger's defenses 21.
• Defensive Soul Tools and Milk Bottle — Emergency protection and Soul Power replenishment supplied before his departure 15 42.
• Storage Soul Tools — Includes a rare living-storage device used for medicinal herbs and the tiger cub 15 46.
• Camouflage Mirror — Conceals his shelter while he prepares to absorb the White-Eyed Devil Tiger's ring 21.
• Gold of Life — A fist-sized piece recovered after the lightning incident; radiates life energy that helps keep him alive and heal, but does not merge into his body 44 45.
• Polar Ice Fox Head Soul Bone — Offered for auction to raise money for the Soul Devouring Carving Knife, rather than absorbed 33.

Relationships

• Xu Haoyang — Father, a rank-fifty-six Soul King and Class 4 Soul Engineer. Teaches meditation and forging, obtains his first Mysterious Water Pill, accompanies his first ring hunt, and supplies protective Soul Tools 5 7 9 15.
• Yang Miaoyun / Yang Miaowen — Mother; her name varies between passages. A spear-wielding Soul Ancestor who teaches him weapon techniques and supports his training financially and through carefully prepared meals 1 3 4 5 6.
• Xu Yuanxuan — Dongyang City's Xu Clan head and city lord. Encourages his Soul Engineering studies and helps prompt his interest in evolving his Martial Soul through forging 13 14.
• Lou Li — Blacksmith Association president, mentor, and friend despite their age difference. Advises his Martial Soul forging and personally helps shape its spearhead 37 40 41.
• Bei Bei — Shrek student and sparring opponent. Initially considers recruiting him into the Tang Sect, but recognizes his hostility toward both the sect and academy; loses their match 29 30.
• Tang Ya — Shares his restaurant table and later accompanies Bei Bei outside Shrek City; urges Bei Bei to use hidden weapons during their spar 27 28 30.
• Ji Juechen — Cultivation role model whose rise through weapon refinement inspires Xu Zhengyang's own approach; no meeting is documented 2.
• Huo Yuhao — A figure known through his previous-life memories. Xu Zhengyang calculates that he is two years older and suspects that the Terrorclaw Bear he kills is the one associated with Huo Yuhao's original opportunities 27 48.
• Netherflame Demon Tiger cub — A newborn he takes during its mother's battle. After killing the mother, he assumes responsibility for finding the cub a chance to survive 46 50.

Notable Quotes

“I absolutely cannot lose. My era has only just begun. In this lifetime, I will never bow beneath anyone.” 22

“No, I underestimated you, and I underestimated your Soul Tools. Otherwise, you wouldn't have had even that fleeting opportunity.” 12

“Humans and Soul Beasts may be different, but I'm not about to kill a little cub.” 50