Ma Qun

Ma Qun is a Heavenly Jewel Master of the Berserker Tribe and one of Zhou Weiqing's earliest academy followers. Introduced as a shameless, physically imposing freshman who relies on natural toughness, he grows under Lin Tianao's instruction into a defense specialist, tribal heir, heavy-cavalry commander, and calculating combatant whose apparent simplicity often hides a prepared trap.

Biography

A bruising lesson and an unlikely academy loyalty

Ma Qun enters the Fei Li Imperial Family Military Academy examinations as a youth more than two metres tall, protected by a toughness Physical Jewel, an Earth Attribute Elemental Jewel, and Stone Skin. He takes the combat test because he does not know that Heavenly Jewel Masters are admitted automatically, openly admits that he earned zero on the written military examination, and then pursues Shangguan Bing'er with an exaggeratedly honest manner. His confidence in his defense leads him to wager that Zhou cannot hurt him. Zhou's Demonic Right Leg breaks the Stone Skin, drives him into the pavement, and establishes the power relationship that initially makes Ma Qun call him “Boss.” (Chapters 40–41)

That submission is not immediately the same as loyalty. Ma Qun tries to hide behind Zhou when commoner seniors demand protection money and admits that he is better at taking blows than dealing them. Even so, he remains close, recognizes that strength gives Zhou practical authority, and gradually begins to stand with him rather than merely shelter behind him. When noble students attempt to compel the commoner class into patronage, Ma Qun is one of the few classmates who physically joins Zhou's side; afterward he participates in the class's collective refusal to yield. His attachment therefore develops from opportunistic respect into membership in the commoner group Zhou protects and equips. (Chapters 41–46)

In class, Ma Qun's weaknesses are as visible as his potential. He is boastful, lecherous, and academically poor; he volunteers to spar with Ming Hua because he underestimates a beautiful teacher, while his military-theory performance remains worse than Zhou's. His one-Jewel foundation is nevertheless unusually coherent: at seventh-level Heavenly Jing Energy he is already close to a second Jewel, and both Jewel attributes are oriented toward defense. Stone Skin supplies an early body-hardening technique, while comparisons with Lin Tianao establish the direction his cultivation could take. At this stage, however, Ma Qun has the materials of an ultimate-defense master without the training, equipment, or judgment to realize them. (Chapters 47–60)

Leaving school, accepting a teacher, and facing Crow

When Zhou returns from the Heavenly Jewel Tournament and prepares to leave Fei Li, Ma Qun volunteers to follow. He first praises Zhou's championship and Consolidating Equipment talent as proof that backing him is a sound choice, then admits the less heroic pressure behind his decision: he has failed his theory courses and expects to be expelled. Zhou accepts him when he refuses the other classmates, both because Ma Qun has already chosen and because travel will let him learn directly from Lin Tianao. The departure turns Ma Qun's academy shortcut into a much more dangerous apprenticeship, immediately illustrated when assassins attack Zhou and Ma Qun finds himself hopelessly below their cultivation. (Chapters 111–114)

The attack also changes how Zhou regards him. Although Ma Qun cannot fight the six-Jeweled assassins effectively, he comes forward when Zhou is in danger and later guards him while he recovers. Zhou interprets that choice as the act of a true brother rather than a calculating follower. Ma Qun's training with Lin begins to correct his lack of technique, but it also puts him face to face with a responsibility he previously fled: Crow, his arranged fiancee, finds him among Zhou's companions and demands an explanation for his disappearance. (Chapters 112–116)

Ma Qun initially fears Crow's strength and had run away because he resented a marriage imposed by their tribes. Yet he refuses her offer to dissolve the engagement because Gold Crow custom would treat her as disloyal, strip her position as heir, and potentially endanger her life. He admits his laziness, his shame at being weaker than her, and his desire to become worthy of standing as her equal. His attempted self-stabbing begins as advice from Zhou but becomes sincere when he aims at his heart rather than at a survivable location, offering his life rather than ruin Crow's name. Crow stops him, and their reconciliation begins not with his winning control over her but with accepting the cost of the obligation he abandoned. (Chapters 114–115)

From follower to tribal representative

On the northern frontier, Ma Qun remains a junior combatant surrounded by stronger companions, but Lin Tianao's instruction rapidly gives form to his abilities. His growing Assembly Set Shield lets him imitate Lin's positioning closely enough to delay Shen Little Demon, a much stronger opponent, during the group's clash with Blood Red Hell. He cannot reverse the battle alone and is severely injured by a Heavenly King, demonstrating that exceptional physique and defense do not erase cultivation gaps. Nevertheless, he rises after the blow and regroups behind Zhou, showing the endurance that increasingly makes him useful as a protector rather than merely a student. (Chapters 136–141)

After returning from the WanShou expedition, Ma Qun and Crow decide to repair the strained relationship between their peoples. Ma Qun identifies himself as a member of the Titan Tribe—another name used for the Berserker Tribe—and proposes that both tribes migrate to join Zhou. He is explicit about the bargain: the Fei Li Empire has repeatedly tried to draft their dwindling populations as expendable frontline troops, whereas Zhou equips even ruffian soldiers well and teaches them to preserve their lives. Ma Qun and Crow therefore stake their tribes' future on a commander they believe will demand service without treating their people as disposable. (Chapter 143)

The decision puts Ma Qun under enormous pressure when the migrating tribes encounter two WanShou cavalry regiments before reaching the Peerless Battalion. He and Crow helped persuade more than ten thousand people to move; every casualty now threatens to make them responsible for a tribal disaster. After hours of fighting, Ma Qun is exhausted and trembling when Zhou's reinforcements arrive, yet he has remained in the defensive line with his Assembly Set Shield. His father, Tribe Leader Ma Long, confirms that Ma Qun's reports shaped the tribe's trust in Zhou. The rescue and ensuing negotiations bring the Berserker and Gold Crow peoples into the Peerless Battalion with promises of equipment, protected families, future territory, and honored status in a restored Heavenly Bow Empire. (Chapters 157–162)

Heavy-cavalry command and tournament cunning

As the Peerless force matures, Ma Qun becomes the young master and field representative of the Berserker Tribe. He and Crow command elite tribal heavy cavalry in armor so massive that ordinary Jewel Masters could barely move in it. At Crescent City, the pair lead two hundred cavalry against a Kalise regiment; Ma Qun rides at the front, ignores lances that cannot penetrate his armor, breaks them with one spiked mace, and kills opposing heavy cavalry with the other. He also follows Zhou's order to halt before traps and obstructions inside the enemy camp, showing that his aggression now operates within battlefield command rather than as undirected bravado. (Chapters 187–197)

Ma Qun later asks to represent Heavenly Bow at the next Heavenly Jewel Tournament. He is still only four-Jeweled, but Zhou judges that his natural strength, Berserker bloodline, dual maces, and war experience let him threaten ordinary six-Jeweled fighters. His early appearances expose both sides of his temperament. Against Yuling's Spiritual Body of Earth, he assumes a small woman cannot move him, withholds his full defense, and is thrown off the stage before he can use his shield or Stored Skills. Zhou bans him from the next match and treats the defeat as a battlefield death in miniature: Ma Qun's kindness is not condemned, but careless underestimation is. (Chapters 213–216)

He answers that lesson against Noris, the six-Jeweled leader of the Bai Da team. Knowing the opponent's rapier and Darkness curses counter heavy armor, Ma Qun deliberately accepts a shoulder wound, drops a mace, and imitates a wounded brute until Noris commits to a killing thrust. Only then does he summon his four-piece Assembly Set Shield, use its suction to trap the rapier, enter Berserk to break the Slowing Curse and move his injured arm, and kill Noris with an Earth-infused mace. Zhou recognizes that the entire exchange was planned from the opening blow. Ma Qun has not ceased acting foolish; he has learned to turn the impression of foolishness into tactical concealment. (Chapter 218)

His later tournament service balances resilience with obedience to the team's larger strategy. He can hold a Passion Valley opponent for nearly an hour without allowing his defenses to be penetrated, losing only when his Heavenly Energy is exhausted and leaving the enemy depleted for the next teammate. In another round, Zhou uses his shameless verbal performance and immediate surrender to provoke a far stronger Dan Dun fighter without risking a futile duel. Ma Qun's latest directly documented state is therefore not that of an invincible champion: it is that of a four-Jeweled specialist who understands when to trap, when to endure, and when his role is to create an advantage for the team. (Chapters 220–226)

Appearance and personality

Ma Qun is introduced at more than 2.1 metres tall, with a body like a small hill and a weight capable of damaging academy property when Zhou drives him into the ground. His broad, muscular build grows into the natural silhouette of a Berserker heavy-cavalry warrior. By the imperial restoration campaign, thick custom armor, a massive shield, and paired two-metre spiked maces make him resemble a moving fortress rather than an ordinary soldier. (Chapters 40, 188, 195, and 218)

He often wears an ingratiating or foolish grin, but that expression is unreliable. Ma Qun is shameless, fond of women, quick to flatter Zhou, and willing to exploit comedy or verbal provocation. Those traits initially accompany cowardice and academic laziness, yet they coexist with a firm line around loyalty: he stands with the commoner class, refuses to destroy Crow's future for his own freedom, risks himself when Zhou is attacked, and bears responsibility for his tribe's migration. (Chapters 40–47, 111–115, 143, and 157–162)

His development does not replace humor with solemnity. Instead, military instruction and danger teach him when to use the same seemingly crude personality as camouflage. He can still underestimate an opponent, as Yuling proves, but the Noris duel shows a patient observer beneath the surface—one willing to be wounded, mocked, and apparently beaten until a prepared counter becomes unavoidable. (Chapters 214–218)

Abilities and cultivation

Pure-defense Heavenly Jewels

Ma Qun is an ultimate-type defensive Heavenly Jewel Master. His Physical Jewel is associated with toughness or defense, while his gold-diamond Elemental Jewel carries the Earth Attribute. He begins with one Jewel and seventh-level Heavenly Jing Energy, reaches two Jewels before leaving the academy, uses a three-piece shield during the WanShou expedition, and is explicitly four-Jeweled at the later Heavenly Jewel Tournament. No later personal Jewel count is stated in the supplied corpus. (Chapters 40, 47, 112, 139, 213–218)

The alignment of both Jewels makes him exceptionally hard to injure and gives him a strong base for Earth defensive Skills. Stone Skin is his earliest named Stored Skill: it covers his already tough body in a roughened earthen layer, but Zhou breaks it through superior explosive force. Later references mention multiple Earth Attribute defensive Skills without naming each one. His limits are consistent: piercing attacks, overwhelming cultivation gaps, prolonged expenditure, and techniques that draw on a much larger external force can bypass or exhaust his defense. (Chapters 40, 60, 216, 223)

Assembly Set Shield

Under Lin Tianao's instruction, Ma Qun develops a multi-piece Consolidated Assembly Set Shield modeled on his teacher's ultimate-defense path. Each additional Jewel adds another shield component and greatly increases the consolidated form's thickness and resilience. At three pieces he can maneuver it skillfully enough to delay a stronger opponent; at four pieces it withstands Noris's fully committed six-Jeweled rapier strike. Its surface also produces a powerful suction that catches the penetrating weapon and prevents its withdrawal, creating an opening for Ma Qun's counterattack. (Chapters 139, 218)

The shield requires summoning and Heavenly Energy, and its performance is not absolute. Noris's blow still drives Ma Qun backward, while opponents of Heavenly King level remain far beyond his demonstrated personal defense. In extended tournament combat, maintaining his shield, armor, maces, and defensive Skills eventually drains all his Heavenly Energy even when no attack penetrates. Its best applications are therefore positional: receiving the decisive strike, protecting a line, trapping an opponent's weapon, or exhausting a stronger combatant for allies. (Chapters 139, 218, 223)

Berserker bloodline and Berserk state

Ma Qun inherits the Berserker Tribe's bloodline ability. When activated, Berserk hardens the body, sharply raises strength, suppresses pain, and lets a warrior fight without ordinary concern for injury. Ma Qun uses it explosively rather than maintaining it visibly throughout every battle. Against Noris, the transformation accelerates a mace swing, lets his badly wounded arm raise the shield, and breaks a Slowing Curse. The source specifies that Berserk can overcome Curse or Sealing Skills only when the difference between users is not too large; it is not universal immunity. (Chapters 164, 188, 218)

His latest armor is constructed with space for the bodily expansion that accompanies Berserk, illustrating how the Peerless force integrates bloodline mechanics into equipment design. The state does not heal wounds, restore spent Heavenly Energy, or make Ma Qun invulnerable. Its pain suppression and forced movement can instead allow him to worsen an injury while continuing to act, so it is most effective as a timed breakthrough or finishing phase. (Chapters 164, 188, 218)

Strength, maces, and battlefield command

Although defense is his Jewel specialty, Ma Qun possesses the Titan Tribe's natural physical strength. By the second tournament Zhou judges that his raw strength exceeds Crow's, while his paired spiked maces give that power the offensive reach his early style lacked. Each tribal heavy-cavalry mace is roughly two metres long and close to two hundred jin; Ma Qun can break heavy lances, crush armored cavalry, and infuse a strike with Earth Attribute Heavenly Energy. His attacks remain relatively simple, making agility, range, or skillful penetration possible counters when he cannot force contact. (Chapters 188, 195, 213, 218)

Ma Qun is also a trained cavalry leader. He commands Berserker heavy cavalry beside Crow's Gold Crow contingent, can organize a formation under Zhou's direction, and understands orders concerning pursuit and terrain. His strategic ability is smaller in scale than Zhou's or Ming Yu's, but his duels reveal a practical commander's instincts: he reads an opponent's expectations, spends armor and even blood to shape those expectations, and treats endurance as a resource that can be converted into an ally's advantage. (Chapters 187, 195–197, 218, 223)

Power progression

Relationships

• Zhou Weiqing: Ma Qun first follows Zhou because Zhou can beat him and later because his championship, resources, and leadership make him a sound patron. Shared danger turns that calculation into brotherhood. Ma Qun consistently calls him Boss, accepts harsh correction from him, and becomes one of the commanders through whom Zhou links the Peerless force to the Berserker Tribe. (Chapters 40–46, 111–116, 143, and 157–218)
• Crow: Crow is Ma Qun's arranged fiancee and later wife. His flight from the engagement nearly harms both her and relations between their tribes; his refusal to dissolve it, willingness to risk his life for her reputation, and subsequent effort to become her equal repair the bond. They later act as paired tribal heirs and heavy-cavalry commanders. (Chapters 114–115, 143, 187–197, and 218–225)
• Lin Tianao: Lin is the defensive master Zhou chooses to teach Ma Qun. Ma Qun's Assembly Set Shield, movement, patience, and ability to occupy stronger attackers all develop through this apprenticeship. (Chapters 115–116, 139, 141, 218, and 223)
• Shangguan Fei'er: Fei'er's Peerless Battalion training reinforces Ma Qun's battlefield discipline. Zhou invokes the punishment she would impose after Ma Qun underestimates Yuling, showing the authority her standards retain even when she is absent. (Chapters 153–154 and 216)
• Ma Long and the Berserker Tribe: Ma Long is Ma Qun's father and tribe leader. Ma Qun's confidence in Zhou helps persuade him to move the entire tribe; the resulting rescue and settlement turn Ma Qun from a runaway student into an heir publicly responsible for his people's military and political future. (Chapters 143 and 157–164)

Items

• Assembly Set Shield: Ma Qun's defining Consolidated Equipment, developed from three pieces to four in the documented period. Its extreme thickness and weapon-catching suction make it the center of his personal defense. (Chapters 139 and 218)
• Paired spiked maces: Heavy Berserker weapons used from Unicorn-back or on foot. They supply crushing reach and lethal force but do not replace Ma Qun's need for positioning and defense. (Chapters 188, 195, and 214–218)
• Peerless heavy armor: Custom Frozen Steel, titanium-alloy, and precious-metal armor built thick enough to resist ordinary battlefield attacks and designed to accommodate Berserk expansion. Its immense weight requires both Ma Qun's physique and a powerful Heavenly Beast mount. (Chapters 164, 188, 192, and 218)