‹martial souls›
Everyone on the Douluo planet has their own martial soul; among them, a very small number of people's martial souls can be cultivated, forming the profession called 'soul master.'.
At the martial soul awakening at the age of 6, everyone awakens their martial soul and soul power, but only those with soul power will be able to cultivate.
All martial souls are hereditary, and so therefore the highest a soul master can reach in their lifetime is already decided at birth. But there are ways to overcome this, like 'spirititems.'.
On top of that, soul masters inherit their martial soul's bloodline.
Martial souls can be classified in 4 groups:
-Beast-type: Beast-type martial souls enhance the user's body by fusing the power of the "beast" with their own, resulting in increased strength and a unified human-soul fusion. At level 30 and beyond, the transformation becomes more pronounced due to the robust nature of beast-type soul masters' bodies. Refining martial soul control and enhancing bloodline synergy can further perfect this fusion, allowing the user to maximize the power of their martial soul.
-Tool-type: Tool-type martial souls do not change the user's appearance or directly enhance their body, but they offer unique advantages. The martial soul itself can be strengthened and enhanced with soul skills. Toxins affecting the tool-type martial soul won't harm the user, and these martial souls can function independently of the body, making them more supportive. While tool-type soul masters face greater challenges in reaching the Title Douluo level, they often surpass beast-type soul masters in strength at that stage.
- Elementalist-type: Elementalist-type martial souls are rare and have no true form. They allow the soul master to control the element correlated to the martial soul. These elements can vary between Ice, Fire, Earth, Wind, Light, Darkness, and Space. Possessing multiple elements is rare and hard to cultivate, as one element can clash with the other and cause damage to the soul master.
- Body-type: Body-type martial souls are rare and originate from the user's own body, offering unmatched control and higher potential. They enable intricate transformations and variations, far beyond other martial souls. Body-type soul masters can achieve multiple awakenings, with greater power tied to vital organs, making these martial souls highly revered and mysterious.
‹spirit souls›
Soul Spirits are energy-based manifestations of spirit beasts used by soul masters as complements to soul rings. These spirits can originate from animals, plants, tools, materials, or elemental entities. When a spirit beast becomes a soul spirit, it binds its spiritual and life essence to a soul master without losing its existence.
Soul Spirits surpass conventional soul rings because their age and quality can evolve, typically through the Spirit Pagoda's Spirit Ascension Platform. Contracting higher-ranked Soul Spirits requires strong spiritual power and a robust body. A Soul Spirit's cultivation manifests as spirit rings within the soul master, but if the Soul Spirit leaves voluntarily, the master permanently loses those rings.
Artificial Soul Spirits are created using Spirit Beast genes, but as Spirit Beasts face extinction, their genetic material has become scarce. Researchers at the Spirit Pagoda attempted to use non-Spirit Beast genes, successfully producing Soul Spirits, though these were extremely weak and largely undesirable for purchase.
These soul spirits were known as Defective Soul Spirits.
Now, artificial soul spirits could also take the form of non-living objects, such as metal or tools.
There are various ranks of Soul Spirits that can bestow a Spirit Master with one or more Spirit Rings:
10+ years Soul Spirit: Can bestow a maximum of one White Spirit Ring.100+ years Soul Spirit: Can bestow a maximum of two Yellow Spirit Rings.1000+ years Soul Spirit: Can bestow a maximum of three Purple Spirit Rings.10,000+ years Soul Spirit: Can bestow a maximum of four Black Spirit Rings.100,000+ years Soul Spirit: Can bestow a maximum of four to five Red Spirit Rings.200,000+ years Soul Spirit (Ferocious Beast): Can bestow a maximum of four to five Orange Spirit Rings.1,000,000+ years Soul Spirit (Divine Beast): Can bestow Gold Spirit Rings, with different tints depending on the contracted Divine Beast.
‹spirit ranks›
Spirit rank showcases a soul master's strength and amount of soul power they possess; they are upgraded through cultivation and are measured in 10 stages with interims of 10 ranks.
Spirit Scholar: rank 1–10
Spirit Master: rank 11–20
Spirit Grandmaster: rank 21–30
Spirit Elder: rank 31–40
- once a soul master reaches rank 40, their cultivation rate will plummet as not only will the practitioner have to increase their soul power but also compress it.
Spirit Ancestor: rank 41–50
Spirit King: rank 51–60
Spirit Emperor: rank 61–70
Spirit Saint: rank 71–80
Spirit Douluo: rank 81–90
Titled Douluo: 91–99
- but because it is so hard to cultivate between 91 and 100 and because there is a wide gap between each level in this stage, the titled Douluo is further split up into three groups:
Average Douluo: rank 91 - 94
Super/Hyper Douluo: rank 95 - 98
Limit Douluo: rank 99
God: rank 100
‹martial soul awakening›
Annually, a soul master from the spirit pagoda will awaken the martial spirits of children, and only children at the age of 6 will be 'awakened.' Everyone on the Douluo continent has a martial soul as part of their body, but not everyone has what it takes to become a «soul master» and cultivate «soul power.»
To become a soul master, the child must possess soul power when awakening their martial soul. Soul power is a type of energy a soul master possesses; they can nourish their martial soul with this energy and upgrade their martial soul and walk the path of a soul master and reach greater heights.
The rate at which a soul master can cultivate will depend on their «innate soul power,» which they are inherently born with; therefore, only one in a thousand people can cultivate soul power.
The innate soul power can vary from '0' (=no soul power) all the way to 10 (=innate full soul power). The higher someone's innate soul power, the faster they can cultivate.
Finally, martial souls are characterized in four ways:
Beast type: this type is classified when changes occur to the body. The closer the changes are to the martial soul, the better the soul master can unleash its strength.
Tool type: this type of martial soul materializes outside the body and that allows them to detach themselves from the soul master. The enhancement of the martial soul itself will make their soul skills stronger.
Elemental type: This type's strength lies in controlling the elements their martial soul bestows on the user and thus needs a high spiritual power to effectively use.
Body type: This martial soul is a rare martial soul, and is part of the soul master's body, making them more reliable and giving them the possibility to undergo a second or third awakening.