Martial Soul Splits the Void

Martial Soul Splits the Void is an Eastern fantasy novel by the web author Fried Bun (Youzha Baozi), serialized and completed on Qidian in 2011. It runs over four hundred chapters and about 1.5 million characters. Set in the fictional continent of Jiuzhou, the story builds a cultivation system centered on "martial souls": warriors differ in innate talent—some excel at cultivation, some at fire control, and a rare few can briefly raise their martial rank in battle and kill opponents above their level. These talents are called "martial souls" in Jiuzhou and can be hunted, seized, and turned to one's own use. The protagonist, Shen Kun, was originally the close disciple of a sweeping monk at Shaolin Temple, with the dharma name "Bu Tan" (Not Greedy), though he styles himself "Bu Ke Bu Tan" (One Cannot Not Be Greedy)—a young monk who loves money and loves doing business. He never believed his crazed master, who constantly claimed to be a incarnation of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, and never seriously practiced the Soul Sutra his master passed down. That is, until his master manifested the Ksitigarbha Dharma form before him and sent him with one palm to "a land of countless yin souls"—the continent of Jiuzhou—where he discovered that the Soul Sutra could actually influence, strengthen, and even seize the martial souls of Jiuzhou's warriors. After crossing over, Shen Kun takes possession of the eldest young master of the Shen family in Xinyue City. This young master was one of the rare young prodigies in Jiuzhou's three-thousand-year history, yet he was weak-willed, and even his martial soul had left him. Armed with the Soul Sutra and a money-loving head, Shen Kun starts from the infighting of his family, hunting martial souls, making powerful allies, and maneuvering among sects and dynasties. With the aid of martial souls such as the Heaven-Defying Talisman and the Two-Faced Buddha, he climbs toward the pinnacle of martial arts, ultimately setting his sword toward shattering the void and ascending in broad daylight. The book is known for its humorous style, dense foreshadowing, and a streetwise, cunning protagonist.