Zhang Sheng

Biodata

Power Progression

History

Previous Lives and Arrival in the Sui Dynasty

Zhang Sheng lived first in modern urban society and then on Douluo Continent. During his second life, he cultivated Blue Silver Grass to the Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster realm but failed to evolve it into a superior Martial Soul. After another transmigration, he awakens in the sickly body of an impoverished, orphaned child and blames Tang San's battle for destroying the comfortable life he had built 1 2 3.

Uncle Dashan arranges medical treatment and brings him food. Through their conversations, Zhang Sheng learns that he is near Heshui County under Luoyang and that Yang Guang has recently become emperor. His knowledge of the coming upheaval makes personal strength and self-sufficiency urgent priorities 1 2 4.

Establishing His Household

Zhang Sheng initially earns wages through carpentry, then turns to hunting and gathering medicinal herbs. He kills a tiger barehanded and gathers valuable ginseng; a later red lingzhi sells for a thousand strings of cash and helps pay for his new home. He offers Uncle Dashan's family rooms there in gratitude for their care 5 8 9 12 13.

During the snow disaster, Zhang Sheng takes in two starving sisters, Lan Xin and Lan Yun. They recover in his household and remain with him after Uncle Dashan's family returns to its own home. His subsequent cultivation breakthroughs give him healing abilities, allowing him to begin intensive body tempering 15 17 18 19.

Building and Defending Blue Silver Village

Over the following three years, Zhang Sheng accumulates substantial wealth while the village's population and living conditions improve. He shelters orphaned youths, supplies their food and clothing, and trains them as a defensive force to protect the prosperity his innovations attract 20 22.

After the village defeats several hundred bandits, Zhang Sheng learns that Magistrate Jia encouraged the attack with a false treasure story. Rather than kill an imperial official and invite wider consequences, he abducts Jia at night and hangs him at the city gate with a warning letter. He then organizes a defensive wall and a paid village guard with one hundred available places 24 25.

Zhang Sheng also protects the village through less confrontational measures. He offers loans so residents can pay the Grand Canal corvée exemption fee, warning that canal labor could be deadly. His school teaches village children and provides free lunches; he entrusts its management to Fang Xuanling at a salary of five strings of cash per month 29 31.

When Fang Xuanling considers presenting the village's high-yield rice to the court, Zhang Sheng warns that powerful clans would obstruct its distribution and that Yang Guang could not overcome them. Later, attackers demand his salt-making recipe. He destroys the assault with Blue Silver Sword Qi and sends the surviving leader back to warn his employer 33 35.

The Zhangsun Siblings

Zhang Sheng befriends Zhangsun Wuji and Zhangsun Wugou while hosting them in Blue Silver Village. Recognizing their historical importance, he wonders whether their meeting will alter the future of the Great Tang 27.

His later defense of Lan Yun brings him into conflict with Murong Yun. Zhang Sheng kills Murong Yun to prevent his escape, but a guard stabs Wugou in the chest. Zhang Sheng saves her with Baptism of Life, exhausting himself so severely that he remains unconscious for three days 40 42 43.

While continuing Wugou's treatment, he discovers Soul Power within her. After demonstrating his abilities and explaining her potential, he persuades the siblings to let her remain for cultivation. Zhangsun Wuji leaves for Chang'an, while Zhang Sheng teaches Wugou meditation and trains alongside her daily 43 45 46 47.

Learning About the Wider Martial World

During Yuwen Chengdu's visit, Zhang Sheng learns about Half-Step Grandmasters, Grandmasters, and Perfected Ziyang's possible standing. The information challenges his understanding of the world's power system. When Yuwen Chengdu requests a match, Zhang Sheng instead arranges for Lan Yun to test him first 49 50.

Appearance

• Initially has a small child's body and a pale face, weakened by illness and poor living conditions 1.
• Becomes noticeably taller during his early cultivation 5.
• After reaching level 10, grows increasingly handsome and reaches the height of a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old boy despite being younger 17.
• Develops an extraordinary bearing through cultivation; Zhangsun Wugou is struck by his handsome, unusual presence at their first meeting 20 27.

Personality

Zhang Sheng is pragmatic and security-minded. He prioritizes food, shelter, cultivation, and independence rather than relying indefinitely on Uncle Dashan. Although he possesses profitable knowledge, he initially avoids openly producing salt or paper because he understands that aristocratic interests could destroy an unprotected commoner 4 6.

He values familial affection deeply, having experienced little parental love across his lives. Uncle Dashan's care moves him to promise repayment, and he later cherishes Lan Xin and Lan Yun as younger sisters despite their being older than his current body. Their teasing is part of the family-like happiness he enjoys 2 10 36.

His compassion coexists with calculated self-interest. He rescues starving children and supports the village, but also trains the orphaned youths he shelters for future service. He is ruthless toward armed attackers while exercising restraint when retaliation could endanger his household or village 15 22 24 35.

Zhang Sheng has no desire to become emperor. He would rather cultivate peacefully, protect his own life, and potentially attain godhood and endless years. His growing attachment to Wugou complicates that detached outlook: he increasingly thinks about her throughout his day and becomes determined that she remain with him 20 47.

Abilities & Skills

Mutated Blue Silver Grass

His Martial Soul changes because his soul has been tempered through two passages across time and space. A faint silver-gray Qi flows through the grass, and his cultivation becomes faster than it was on Douluo Continent despite the new world's less concentrated energy 5.

• Vegetation absorption: Independently absorbs the Qi of surrounding plants and transfers it into his body for refinement into Soul Power 7.
• Cultivation enhancement: Summoning it during meditation improves his cultivation speed by at least twenty to thirty percent; cultivating in the forest is faster still 9.
• Plant perception: Detects vegetation within roughly ten meters when he is around level 5, helping him locate ginseng and other herbs 7.
• Materialization: Begins becoming physical at level 10 and becomes a tangible plant at level 11. It remains fundamentally one with him 17 18 19.

Soul Power Cultivation

Zhang Sheng uses an advanced meditation method acquired by chance on Douluo Continent, superior to Spirit Hall's basic method 3.

• Refines environmental energy into Soul Power while cleansing impurities, removing hidden ailments, and strengthening his body 3.
• Gains inner sight at level 10, allowing him to observe Soul Power circulating within himself 17.
• Advances beyond the level 10 and level 20 barriers without the restrictions he feared would require Soul Beasts 17 20.
• Warns Wugou that another person's Soul Power can injure someone who lacks Soul Power of their own 47.

First Soul Skill: Baptism of Life

A support-type healing skill granted directly by his materialized Martial Soul rather than obtained from a Soul Beast 18.

• Produces green light that rapidly closes wounds; Zhang Sheng demonstrates it by cutting and healing his own arm 19.
• Enables recovery from the injuries inflicted by his extreme body-tempering regimen 19.
• Can heal bodily injuries while the recipient remains alive. Regrowing severed limbs is described as a future possibility requiring sufficient Soul Power, not a demonstrated feat 19.
• Has a significant energy cost: saving the mortally wounded Wugou leaves him unconscious for three days, and she requires further treatment afterward 42 43.

Second Soul Skill: Endless Life

Accelerates plant growth, giving Zhang Sheng a powerful means of securing food supplies 20.

• Repeated tests take grain from seed through fruiting and ripening in a single night 20.
• He extends his experiments to vegetables, fruits, and medicinal herbs 20.

Third Soul Skill: Blue Silver Sword Qi

Releases numerous streams of silvery Sword Qi capable of devastating people and solid obstacles 35 45.

• Kills the attackers seeking his salt-making recipe and damages the village wall 35.
• Kills Murong Yun and his remaining guards 42.
• Shatters a stone block over a meter tall, with the remaining Sword Qi carving deep gashes into the ground 45.

Body Tempering and Physical Strength

Zhang Sheng follows a body-refining method from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect. He originally found it in a Soul Tool recovered from a dead Soul Master, but could not afford its resource demands or safely endure its risks in his previous life 18.

• Uses extreme stone-lifting exercises to push his physical limits, relying on healing to repair damage 19.
• Trains to ensure that his body can support future Martial Soul evolution 19.
• Eventually possesses at least five thousand jin of physical strength. Adding Soul Power is stated to at least double his combat strength 26.
• By the time he trains with Wugou, his body-refining progress has reached a difficult bottleneck 47.

Martial Arts and Practical Knowledge

• Combat experience: Retains experience from Douluo Continent's Soul Beast forests, helping him remain calm and evade repeated tiger attacks 7 8.
• Weapon techniques: Studied saber, spear, sword, and staff skills, which he later uses to train his guards 22.
• Carpentry: Makes mortise-and-tenon furniture using knowledge encountered in his first life and studied further on Douluo Continent 4.
• Cooking: Prepares fried fish and hot pot, and shares new foods with villagers 5 13 28.
• Salt processing: Knows how to turn poisonous salt into edible salt; the recipe becomes a target for outside forces 15 35.
• Cultivation research: Studies Martial Soul awakening and identifies Wugou's unusual sequence of developing Soul Power before awakening her Martial Soul. He treats broader conclusions as hypotheses requiring more test subjects 36 47.

Relationships

• Uncle Dashan — Caregiver and trusted elder who obtains medical help and feeds him after his arrival. Zhang Sheng repays his kindness and later relies on him in village affairs 1 2 22 29.
• Auntie — Dashan's wife; feeds Zhang Sheng during his recovery, helps prepare his tiger pelt, and supports his household celebrations 2 9 17.
• Huzi — Dashan's young son, whom Zhang Sheng affectionately calls his little brother. He looks after Huzi and takes him fishing 4 5.
• Lan Xin — Rescued refugee and household attendant whom he cherishes as a younger sister. She develops romantic feelings but worries that their difference in status could expose him to criticism 15 20 36.
• Lan Yun — Rescued refugee, martial student, and younger-sister figure. Calls him “Master,” eagerly pursues combat training, and receives his protection against Murong Yun 22 36 40.
• Zhangsun Wugou — Romantic interest and cultivation student. He saves her life, discovers her Soul Power, and teaches her to cultivate after she remains in his household 42 43 46 47.
• Zhangsun Wuji — Friend who becomes protective and confrontational over Wugou's safety. Eventually entrusts her to Zhang Sheng before leaving for Chang'an 27 42 45 47.
• Fang Xuanling — Schoolteacher and administrator whom Zhang Sheng recognizes as a future Tang chancellor. Their discussions expose the political obstacles to distributing high-yield crops 31 33.
• Old Sun — Apothecary business associate. Medicinal-herb sales through his shop help Zhang Sheng build his fortune 25.
• Magistrate Jia — Hostile county official whose bandit scheme Zhang Sheng uncovers. Public humiliation and a warning deter Jia from immediate retaliation 24.
• Yuwen Chengdu — Visiting martial expert who apologizes for his earlier conduct, explains higher martial ranks, and seeks a match with Zhang Sheng 50.
• Tang San — Figure from his previous world whom Zhang Sheng blames for his renewed transmigration and lost possessions 1.