Chen Mu

Biodata

Power Progression

Background and History

Reincarnation and Heavenly God Cave

Chen Mu was a self-taught programmer on Earth who died while working under the “996” schedule. Reborn with his memories intact, he grew up in a Wilderness village dependent on hunting and gathering. He recognized that its custom of sending people to “serve the heavenly god” was actually a means of abandoning those unable to work 1 10.

After his younger sister Chen Duo was sent to Heavenly God Cave, he refused to leave her there to die, even when his third uncle demanded his return. The White Turtle offered him a cultivation path, and Chen Mu absorbed the Rune Ancestor’s entire inheritance. The turtle subsequently chose to accompany him 2 3.

Return to Chen Village

After helping defeat members of the Black Water Tribe, Chen Mu returned to Chen Village. To conceal the White Turtle and his inheritance, he claimed that an eccentric Daoist had taught him talisman cultivation and made his Rune Gun. The village accepted the story 8 9.

Village chief Chen Shanyu then revealed that Chen Mu’s parents had been taken by people associated with Tuoba Ziying of the Flame Blessing Tribe. Chen Mu resolved to find them but promised not to act before he was strong enough. Meanwhile, he strengthened the village through enhanced equipment, farmland improvements, talismans, and defensive preparations 9 13 19.

His fabricated master later caused an unexpected crisis: Mingye abducted him while searching for that supposed teacher. Chen Mu led her into Soul Severing Valley while looking for an opportunity to escape 43.

Studies and the Search for His Parents

Chen Mu left the village to pursue studies, planning to take Chen Duo and A Huo to the Heaven-Questioning Pavilion. Before leaving, he entrusted Landuo with his workshop equipment and the completed Mechanism Fortress’s formation disc 49 50.

During his time at the pavilion, his inventions became battlefield weapons for the Sword Guardian Battalion. The Sixth Prince publicly credited the battalion under Chen Mu’s command with repeatedly turning the tide of battle 111 122.

Later, Chen Mu infiltrated the Flame Blessing Tribe as Mu Chen. He located his mother, Meng Hui, revealed his identity to her, and escaped pursuit before bringing her home to Chen Village. He subsequently reunited with Chen Haoran, though his father soon departed through a void passage to go to war 146 151 154 156 164.

Rune Research Institute and the Chen Kingdom

Back in Chen Village, Chen Mu formally accepted disciples and established the Rune Research Institute. Within a year, it had expanded to more than ten times the size of his original talisman-making room, with dedicated facilities for researching and producing Rune Artifacts 194.

He negotiated for the Yin Lineage to join Chen Village as partners rather than servants. On returning home, he learned that the Temple had threatened a beast tide unless the village surrendered the Demon-Slaying Sword 275.

By the Chen Kingdom’s founding, Chen Mu held the position of Imperial Preceptor. His research organization also developed a Battle Talisman branch in the Ancient Desolate Mining Area; its department eventually exceeded 3,600 disciples 300 307.

During the kingdom’s wars, he supported construction, weapons development, battlefield command systems, and the training of younger commanders. His position did not make him an experienced general at every scale: he openly admitted unfamiliarity with warfare involving the vast armies encountered outside the Wilderness 317 370 379 393.

Netherworld Expedition and Return

Chen Mu accompanied Mingye into the chaotic void to investigate her origins, opening a spatial rift at Nether Luo Mountain with a one-use formation 426.

After his internal world was sealed, he lost access to most of his usual power. He relied on his physique, rune knowledge, and Rune Core No. 4 to continue operating. In the Netherworld, he crafted equipment, repaired formations, and supported Iron Soul City’s growth and defense 429 430 439 453.

Later, he secured the Chen Kingdom’s imperial capital against the Heavenly Puppet Sect. Using the Eight Trigrams Dunjia Array and Heavenly Stems War Soldiers, he defeated three Saints and destroyed the inner worlds of Wang Xian’an and Hong Qianyong to prevent their rebirth 510.

Heavenly Court Conflict and Godhood

Chen Mu’s confrontation with the Haotian Emperor included forcing his way through Heavenly Emperor City and the imperial palace’s defenses. He later mastered the Wentian Spear Technique and earned the Wentian Divine Spear’s approval as its new wielder 544 574.

His conflict with the Heavenly Court continued in and around the Kunlun Secret Realm. Gu Ningbi sought him out after learning his Chen Clan ancestry and hearing accusations that he had betrayed Divine Lord Xuanji and stolen a Heavenly Court treasure—charges Chen Mu recognized as pretexts for attacking the Chen Kingdom 609.

After attaining godhood, he accepted the surviving Di Clan Tribe into the Chen Kingdom as the Kunlun Heaven Realm approached collapse. Later, he fought Demon Venerable Luo Zhan while his forces positioned explosives to redirect a landmass 687 714.

In the latest documented battle, Chen Mu and A Huo fought Long Ao and the Heavenly Court’s forces using their merged planes. Although Chen Mu could draw on the Pan Emperor Heavenly Dao, he hesitated to reveal that ability because he feared attracting the hostility of the three great factions 744.

Appearance

• Early appearance: A sturdy youth dressed in animal hides; another observer described his figure as small and thin during the Black Water Tribe battle 7 8.
• Usual clothing: Simple, plain-colored robes. He had no particular favorite color and prioritized uncomplicated clothing 379.
• Visible runes: Golden runes flowed over his exposed body during combat. His earlier Five Elements Pattern could disappear beneath his skin after being absorbed into his body 170 385.
• Fate Vision: Wore a crystal lens over his right eye, clipped to his right ear 130.
• Disguises: Could alter his bones, flesh, facial features, and apparent build rather than merely changing clothes 145 154 429.

Personality

Chen Mu approaches cultivation as a researcher and inventor. He values experimentation, logical analysis, and discovering the principles beneath established techniques. His programming background helped him absorb the Rune Ancestor’s inheritance, while rune creation revived his former dream of changing the world through his work 6 10 18 140.

His original motivation for developing weapons was not conquest but rescuing his parents and protecting those around him. He refused to abandon Chen Duo or Mingye, treated people kindly regardless of their tribe’s strength, and rewarded those who helped him. This protectiveness could override his usual caution, as when he entered a dangerous place after Mingye without first securing a way out 3 39 85 131 224.

He is nevertheless ruthless toward established enemies. He killed Wu Tong because reconciliation with the Wumeng Tribe was no longer possible and favored eliminating Zhu Dou rather than merely seeking his expulsion. He also recognized that opposing factions were not automatically evil simply because they were his enemies 35 85 382.

His Biological Intelligent Brain eventually had an emotional cost: he became increasingly withdrawn and machine-like, concentrating on analysis while rarely initiating contact with even his closest family and companions 682.

Abilities & Skills

Rune Technology and Scientific Research

• Combines rune cultivation with physical structures and fundamental natural laws, rather than relying only on traditional combinations of existing runes 111 413.
• Builds research instruments, including material analyzers, energy detectors, mechanical databases, and precision inscription equipment 41 45 140.
• Uses Rune Cores to calculate, analyze, and refine designs; his Biological Intelligent Brain later performs similar work internally 140 310.
• Develops automated rune printers and industrial production methods. Eventually, his firearms can be manufactured from ordinary metals rather than requiring spiritual materials throughout 132 405.
• Adapts equipment to environmental constraints, such as replacing ineffective Spirit Magnetic Waves with Soul Magnetic Waves in the Primordial Beginning Mountain Range 659.

Five Elements Talisman Arts

• His Life-Bound Five Elements Chaos Talisman gives him particular proficiency with five-element runes 6 7.
• Uses metal- and earth-element techniques to extract metal, wood-element techniques to alter plant structures, and fire-element runes to power his earliest firearm 7.
• Employs techniques such as the Azure Armor Rune, Misty Moon Water Mirror, and lightning-summoning talisman arts in battle 186.
• Forms Five Elements Ring Armor through the Law of the Five Elements and combines it with his Domain of Laws 384.
• Rapidly studies Ancient Runes with the assistance of his intelligent brain, including runes capable of drawing energy from the cosmic void 348.

Runic Body and Battle Talisman Combat

• Integrates runes into the organs, limbs, bones, and eventually cells, making his body a medium for talisman arts 170 247.
• Combines martial attacks with talisman effects rather than treating them as separate combat systems 170 174.
• Merges Soul Power and Spiritual Power into Dharma Power as the Runic Body develops 247.
• Can transform into chaos to let attacks pass through him, though the transformation has limits and does not make him immune to powerful law-based injuries 416.
• Uses a Dharma Aspect True Body and stresses precise control of internal runes when teaching Battle Talisman cultivators 309.
• Regenerates severe injuries with origin cells, but their stored supply is limited 744.

Spatial Movement and Concealment

• Uses Instant Movement Talismans and Earth Escape Talismans to evade pursuit, including traveling underground 82 156.
• Activates Instant Movement directly through his Runic Body, strengthening its effect through the cooperation of Soul Power and Spiritual Power 189.
• Adds Space Traversal Runes to vehicles; one modified flying ship could teleport within a hundred meters 106.
• Uses concealment and invisibility runes, though early invisibility could be exposed by distorted air or disturbed dust 16 153.
• Constructs a one-use formation to stabilize a spatial rift using his enhanced perception of spatial rules 426.

Fate Dao of Talismans

• Develops Fate Vision to gather fate patterns and assist his Eye of the Seer; its use consumes substantial Soul Power 130.
• Uses karmic rules that can interfere with spatial projection, making the Suspended Light Realm ineffective against him 245.
• Obscures heavenly secrets, assists subordinates in enduring Heavenly Tribulations, and performs deductions concerning Mingye’s origins 457.
• Uses this path cautiously because its extensive karmic consequences can rebound on the practitioner 457.

Perception, Computation, and Clones

• Absolute Insight: Uses his Biological Intelligent Brain to calculate opponents’ possible follow-up moves, evasive routes, and killing opportunities 310.
• Primordial Eye: Records observed combat techniques for analysis. He can learn many techniques if their requirements are not too restrictive, though Ye Beihen’s Sole Supremacy Technique remains beyond his understanding 666.
• God-level perception: After becoming a god, can observe matter below the atomic scale without equipment and inscribe hundreds or thousands of runes on a single atom 688.
• Rune Clones: Created a spell producing two clones, each with seventy percent of his original body’s combat strength 420.
• Primordial Spirit clone: Maintains a separate clone capable of receiving news of his true body’s breakthrough and summoning A Huo from secluded cultivation 687.

Planes and Heavenly Dao

• Nurtures a material plane within his internal world using a World Seed and his understanding of the Great Dao of the Universe 604.
• Projects the phantom of his nascent plane to repel attackers 633.
• Becomes a god through creating his own plane, an achievement exceptionally rare in the Pan Emperor Star Domain 682.
• Uses the Domain of Origin and summons the World-Creation Five Elements Army 714.
• Identifies the innate “heart of utmost purity,” rather than the Power of Faith, as the key to awakening the Pan Emperor Heavenly Dao’s power 732.

Practical and Military Skills

• Wilderness survival: Combines experience growing up in the mountains with knowledge from Earth; these skills also sustain him and Han Zishu during the True Body Grotto-Heaven trial 4 585.
• Cooking: Prepares elaborate meals and personally cooks dishes for Mingye 213 370.
• Planning and command: Initially draws on real-time strategy games, then develops battlefield command systems and gathers combat data to support his generals 26 393.
• Limitations: His early close-combat instincts and later experience with large-scale conventional warfare lag behind his technical abilities 16 317.

Equipment and Inventions

Rune Gun Series

Other Notable Equipment

• Dharma-Breaking Staff — Personally forged from ten-thousand-year-old spirit wood and auxiliary runes. He made a matching staff for Chen Duo 53.
• Fate Vision — A crystal eyepiece designed to gather fate patterns and assist the Eye of the Seer 130.
• Rune Cores — Computing devices central to his research and Rune Technology. Rune Core No. 4 could be constructed from Spirit Particles; No. 5 used refined Star Core Crystal as its main material 310 430 688.
• Flying ships and talisman-puppet vehicles — Include a teleporting ship and a spatially concealed vehicle fast enough to keep pace with Fan Jing’s Purple Cloud Shuttle 106 343.
• Wentian Divine Spear — Accepted Chen Mu after he mastered its spear technique; later blocked a divine strike from Xuanji 574 633.
• Eight Trigrams Dunjia Array and Heavenly Stems War Soldiers — Used together to defeat the Heavenly Puppet Sect’s three Saints in the imperial capital 510.
• Floating Light and Fleeting Shadow Recorder — His recording device became a successful mass-produced product through Guo Xiaohan’s efforts, helping the Vast Sea Theater dominate the Central Land’s theater business 307.
• Military Rune Artifacts — Develops Rune Cannons, talisman puppets, defensive equipment, and other weapons for organized forces rather than only personal use 101 166.

Relationships

Family and Close Companions

• Chen Duo / Duoduo — Younger sister. He defied the village to save her from Heavenly God Cave, made glasses for her, and supplied her with weapons and cultivation support 3 10 53 56.
• Chen Haoran — Father. Chen Mu sought to free him from the Flame Blessing Tribe; Haoran later guided his cultivation toward godhood 137 164 682.
• Meng Hui — Mother. He rescued her and brought her home, eventually telling her his experiences except for his reincarnation 154 156.
• Chen Hongjie — Third uncle and an early caregiver. Although they disagreed over Chen Mu’s departure, Hongjie disclosed the clan’s dangerous ancestry and later worked closely with him in developing Chen Village and the kingdom 3 49 131 574.
• Chen Hongguang — Eldest uncle; his family helped support Chen Mu and Chen Duo after their parents disappeared 3 156.
• Chen Zihu — Older cousin who treated both siblings kindly. Chen Mu trusted him and later fought alongside him in the village’s defense 8 19 172.
• Mingye — Initially an assassin who captured him; later his trusted companion and an intimate partner. He repeatedly risked himself to protect her, and she chose to share his room before they later traveled to investigate her origins 43 82 224 426.
• A Huo — Long-standing companion, fellow student, and military ally. Their cooperation eventually extended to fighting with the strength of merged planes 50 130 400 744.
• Taichu — Calls Chen Mu “Father.” He entrusted her with defending the imperial capital, and she reported its safety while he was trapped by Xilade 412 416.

Teachers, Disciples, and Allies

• White Turtle — Early guide who introduced him to talisman cultivation and accompanied him after witnessing his talent for the Rune Ancestor’s inheritance 2 3.
• Elder Ming — Assisted during his Solid Realm breakthrough and later witnessed his successful demonstration of the Wentian Spear Technique 94 574.
• Landuo — Trusted technical collaborator. Chen Mu left him responsible for the village workshop and Mechanism Fortress and later involved him in research planning 50 251.
• Chen Ju / Little Juzi — Originally his sworn younger sister; later formally accepted as his disciple. They agreed to use the master–disciple relationship rather than sibling forms of address 54 132 194.
• Nangong Tong — Disciple and a leader in the Battle Talisman Department, reporting its growth to Chen Mu 247 307.
• Kong Yu — Sword Guardian Demon Hunting Corps leader who offered the corps’ support and helped accommodate the Yin Lineage’s fleet 131 275.
• Wen Shan — Friend, herb supplier, and collaborator from the Heaven-Questioning Pavilion. Chen Mu recognized and approached him with concern after finding him severely diminished years later 85 332.
• Gu Ningbi — Soul Clan woman encountered at the Ancient Chen Clan tombs. After discovering his ancestry, she sought him in the Kunlun Secret Realm to help save him 531 609.

Major Adversaries

• Tuoba Ziying — Flame Blessing Tribe figure whose grudge against Chen Village was connected to the abduction of Chen Mu’s parents 9.
• Ge Yu — Rival talisman cultivator whose resentment deepened as Chen Mu outpaced him; used the Brahma Great Luo Barrier to trap him 186 187.
• Xilade / Black Demon Emperor — Sought to kill Chen Mu because his potential and elemental fusion threatened the Devil Race 416.
• Long Bo / Haotian Emperor — Attempted to intimidate Chen Mu at court and later helped arrange an ambush in Black Water City 544 633.
• Divine Lord Xuanji — Heavenly Court opponent who sealed Black Water City during the attempt to surround and kill Chen Mu 633.
• Long Ao — Heavenly Court opponent who pierced Chen Mu’s chest during the battle involving Chen Mu and A Huo’s merged planes 744.

Notable Quotes

“Third Uncle! I'll never leave Duoduo in the mountains to wait for death. If I'm going back, Duoduo goes with me! Otherwise, I'm not going back either!” 3

“In my last life, I had no choice. But in this life, I want to hold my own fate in my hands.” 213

“Obviously! You came in, so how could I possibly leave you behind?”
— To Mingye 224