Mo Chen

Biodata

Background / History

Mo Chen formerly worked in the Spirit Hall Technical Department, where he attempted to make Soul Power lamps cheaper. His department head rejected the simplified design, insisting that goods used by Soul Masters should remain distinct from those available to ordinary people. His laboratory subsequently “accidentally” caught fire, destroying his notes and samples. He was transferred to scrap-storage duties for half a year and eventually driven out of the department 31.

He also researched a Universal Soul Tool Core, an idea the Hundred Refinements Pavilion dismissed as a waste of resources. Failed experiments led to his expulsion and left him burdened with debt. A Soul Power backlash damaged his meridians, leaving residual toxins, disordered Soul Power, and lasting difficulty using his left arm 60 100 103.

By his first meeting with Lu Yuan, Mo Chen lived among discarded lamp cores, unfinished stabilizers, and failed circuit prototypes. Heavy drinking and fear of further suppression had worn him down, but he retained exceptional engraving skills and continued experimenting. He later stated that he had spent twenty-three years on his research 29 30 92.

Appearance

• Face: Sunken eyes, prominent cheekbones, and a face initially described as puffy from heavy drinking; his eyes are frequently bloodshot 29 91.
• Hair: Tangled gray-white hair. By the New Fire Workshop period, more than half has turned white 91 220.
• Hands: Rough, misshapen, and covered in calluses and burn scars. His left fingers curl unnaturally from an old injury, yet remain remarkably steady during engraving 31 91 93.
• Clothing: Often wears an old leather apron stained with grease and scorch marks 91 129.
• Voice: Habitually hoarse and gravelly 29 91.

Personality

Mo Chen is abrasive, suspicious, and quick to anger, especially when strangers approach his work. He initially dismisses Lu Yuan as a child, but a correct diagnosis of his circuit immediately captures his attention. His pride in his experience coexists with an intense willingness to learn: once shown why his designs fail, he asks Lu Yuan for instruction and later asks Shen Moxin to teach him her material-testing method 29 92 118.

His bitterness stems from institutional suppression as much as failed experiments. He resents monopolies that keep useful technology expensive and reacts angrily when Lu Yuan’s associates suffer similar exclusion. Although initially frightened into hiding his work, he eventually accepts the risks of building an independent research base 31 101 107.

He is deeply invested in his companions despite his rough manner. Lin Xiao’s capture leaves him angry and guilt-ridden, and he repeatedly places himself in danger to support the group. His determination survives severe injuries and the destruction of much of his equipment 128 148 165 204.

Abilities & Skills

Precision Craftsmanship

Mo Chen’s strongest demonstrated skill is practical Soul Tool manufacture. Lu Yuan considers his fundamentals exceptionally solid, and even his injured fingers can engrave fine, intricate patterns 30 93.

• Etches circuits with steady pressure and precise alignment 30.
• Salvages functional cores from discarded equipment and disguises finished devices as rubble 93.
• Makes usable tools from poor materials, including hair-fine etching needles fashioned with a broken hammer, a bearing, and sharpened stone fragments 104.
• Eventually shifts from making every component himself to leading and teaching young researchers 220.

Soul Tool Research

Mo Chen pursues general-purpose Soul Tools rather than accepting that each device must remain a separate, specialized design. His research includes energy circuits, stabilization arrays, conduction schemes, and a repeatedly revised Universal Soul Tool Core 60.

• Practical knowledge: Has studied widely, including renowned Soul Tool texts and forbidden material in the Hundred Refinements Pavilion’s library 60.
• Theoretical limitations: His early designs suffer from phase conflicts, energy-flow losses, unsuitable materials, and missing buffering or transition structures 60 92.
• Collaborative development: Uses Lu Yuan’s theoretical guidance and Shen Moxin’s measurements to turn experimental concepts into working equipment 104 114 118.
• Later research: Explores inexpensive stabilization materials, preservation and gradual release of healing Soul Skills, and unidentified ancient soul-guiding runes 220.

Detection and Counter-Surveillance

Mo Chen specializes in compact warning mechanisms and devices that manipulate detectable Soul Power fluctuations 93 154.

• Builds sensors that detect nearby Soul Power fluctuations and ground vibrations, then transmit weak pulses to a receiving core 93.
• Claims his concealed stone-forest sensors are difficult to locate unless directly stepped on or examined by a Soul King or stronger specialist in Soul Tool detection 93.
• Detects a concealed tracking mark on a map supplied by the Listening Wind Pavilion and transfers its frequency to a controllable decoy 169 170.
• Installs Flow Disruption Crystals that simulate traces of different Soul Master systems and even Soul Beasts to mislead trackers 210.

Sabotage and Defensive Engineering

Mo Chen supports operations by disabling alarms, preparing traps, and disrupting enemy coordination rather than relying solely on direct combat 148 163 216.

• Disables the Cloud Mist Sect camp’s Soul Tool alarm net, creating an opening of approximately one hundred breaths 148.
• Operates explosive traps and preset crystal nodes during the Scavengers’ assault 163.
• Uses disorderly Soul Power pulses to briefly disturb an enemy’s control over the surrounding energy field; these pulses have no direct offensive power 163.
• Coordinates mire traps, Soul Power chains, and directed sonic blasts from New Fire Valley’s console 216.

Medicinal Formulation

• Develops clotting gel and formulas for medicines that counter poisonous miasma or stabilize Soul Power 60.
• Entrusts these formulas, research notes, and potentially useful Soul Tool concepts to Lu Yuan in an iron box described as his “legacy” 60 61.

Soul Power and Injuries

Mo Chen’s Soul Power is initially weak and somewhat unsteady, but his control remains reliable. During the lamp test, Lu Yuan estimates his fluctuations at roughly the third or fourth rank of Soul Scholar; this is an observation, not a confirmed cultivation breakthrough 30.

Equipment / Inventions

• Simplified Soul Power lamp: Mo Chen manufactures and tests Lu Yuan’s revised circuit. Lu Yuan estimates that the design should theoretically reduce Soul Power loss by approximately forty percent 30.
• Universal Soul Tool Core: His long-running attempt to create a general-purpose core. Early versions repeatedly fail, including a seventh version whose central node collapses because of conflicting energy phases 60 103.
• Single-use interference device: Disrupts low-level Soul Power fluctuations within ten zhang for about twenty breaths. It also prevents its user from using Soul Power while active, may be loud, and had not been tested on people when he gave it to Lu Yuan 61.
• Energy-emitting wrench: Fires a fist-thick pale-yellow beam capable of breaking Stone Scorpion shells. Its recoil aggravates his injury, and its crystal requires time to recharge 95.
• Soul Power Guidance and Diversion Device: Built with Lu Yuan over ten days from salvaged materials, Soul Marrow fragments, metal runes, and three Soul Stones. Its first test successfully diverts three faint streams of Soul Power 104.
• Stabilizing array disc: Made with Shen Moxin using jade fossil and Soul Marrow crystal. Produces a stable halo about one meter across; Lu Yuan estimates a charge lasts forty to fifty shichen 118.
• Smoke-and-iron-sand mechanism: Prepared for Lu Yuan’s meeting with Deacon Han. Conceals vision and disrupts Soul Power perception for three to five breaths 154.
• Tracking decoy: Reproduces a hidden tracking mark at thirty percent greater signal strength, with controllable direction and a twelve-shichen operating duration 170.
• Bee Sting control crossbow: Made from ordinary materials and usable, with practice, even by a Soul Scholar. Its demonstrated bolt releases a small vortex that clears dust and leaves from a marked circle; Mo Chen explicitly describes it as a control tool rather than a killing weapon 175.
• Metal-moth probes: Three flying reconnaissance devices used to survey the underground space beyond the evacuation route. All lose contact after transmitting a vague human-shaped outline near the Gate of Finality 201.
• Portable turbulence detector: A palm-sized Soul Tool that can faintly sense and mark turbulence; counted among his proudest later creations 220.

Relationships

• Lu Yuan — Research partner, theoretical instructor, and healer. Lu Yuan rekindles his interest in research, promises a partnership based on shared skills and results, and treats his damaged meridians 29 61 92 129.
• Shen Moxin — Technical collaborator whose measurements and calculations complement his craftsmanship. They complete the first stabilizing array disc together; she also treats his injuries and counters invading shadow energy 118 165 198.
• Wang Shuo — Knows him as “Uncle Mo Chen” and introduces Lu Yuan to his workshop 29.
• Lin Xiao — Companion in research expeditions and combat operations. Mo Chen feels responsible when the group cannot find him after an operation and later helps infiltrate the camp where he is held 128 148.
• Lu Qinghe — Fellow defender and operational partner. They plant rumor-bearing devices across nearby settlements as part of the effort to divert pressure from Lin Xiao 133.
• Yun Youzi — Research and expedition ally. They help develop protective equipment, and Yun Youzi approves Mo Chen’s proposal to use probes rather than risk another injured team beyond the gate 193 201.
• Shi Jian — Shares command of New Fire Valley during Lu Yuan and Yun Youzi’s absence; also protects Mo Chen during combat 204 215.
• Spirit Hall Technical Department — Former employer that suppressed his inexpensive lamp design 31.
• Hundred Refinements Pavilion — Former research institution and later threat. It rejects his universal-core project, expels him, scrutinizes his contact with Lu Yuan, and searches the mountain where they shelter 34 60.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Notable Quotes

“I've got the skills, you've got the brains. We'll turn this tunnel into a laboratory!” 60

“I'm sick of hiding, and I'm sick of this broken body!” 120

“It's a control crossbow, not a weapon for killing.” 175

“It doesn't depend on talent. It takes practice.” 175