Du Tian

Du Tian is a Soul Refining Sect ancestor who supports Wang Lin's rise and confronts the Forsaken Immortal Clan during its attack on Pilu. (Chapters 383 and 1626)

Biography

Choosing the Soul Refining Sect's successor

Du Tian is the last active Soul Transformation ancestor of a sect repeatedly prevented from becoming a rank-six country. His foresight-domain senior brother spends his remaining lifespan searching for a path to survival and dies as Wang Lin arrives. With his own lifespan nearly exhausted and no adequate successor, Du Tian treats the coincidence as a final wager. He gives Wang Lin three gifts, explains the sect's suppressed history, and asks him to preserve its inheritance and eventually build 999 heaven-reaching towers. Wang Lin accepts the soul-sealing manual and becomes the sole core disciple, while Du Tian begins transferring authority before death can leave the flag undefended. (Chapters 383–396)

Raising and protecting Wang Lin

Du Tian provides an illusionary sub-flag to kill the Giant Demon ancestor and later empties the sect's celestial-jade reserve to push Wang Lin toward Soul Transformation. When the reserve proves insufficient, he follows Soul Refining tradition and raids neighboring sects for more, openly using his approaching death to make resistance irrational. He then demonstrates the true flag against a nine-leaf shaman and travels beside Wang Lin as teacher and shield. Their formal relationship is brief, but Du Tian treats the successor as a disciple in every practical sense: resources, manuals, battlefield instruction, and inheritance all arrive before he asks for results. (Chapters 396–420)

Final battle with Zhuque Zi

Zhuque Zi attacks to seize the one-billion-soul flag. Du Tian refuses offers to rebuild the sect under Suzaku control and spends his last life force summoning the fourth soul, a Three Metal Soul capable of penetrating matter and injuring origin souls. Feeding it soul fragments raises its speed, but Zhuque Zi's trap captures it and leaves Du Tian ready to die. Situ Nan awakens through Wang Lin and frightens Zhuque Zi away, then promises that the second-generation Suzaku will help restore the sect. That promise satisfies the purpose for which Du Tian has spent his life. (Chapters 422–425)

Death and inheritance

Du Tian remembers his origin as a youth rescued from bandits by the master who asked whether he would follow. He keeps the resulting promise to protect the Soul Refining Sect until his last breath. Once assured that Wang Lin and Situ Nan provide a future, he willingly erases his consciousness and sends his soul into the flag, joining the prior ancestors. Wang Lin kneels to him, acknowledges that Du Tian treated him as a disciple, and carries the damaged treasure across later eras. Even after the original sect disappears, Wang Lin preserves the flag because it is Du Tian's gift and eventually sees it repaired by the Void Gate's power. (Chapters 425, 433, 916, 1570, and 1626)

Appearance and personality

Du Tian is an ancient old man whose body increasingly emits death aura as his lifespan ends. He is boisterous, shrewd, and proudly tyrannical in the Soul Refining tradition, announcing himself while stealing jade rather than hiding the act. Beneath the humor is absolute institutional devotion. He gambles on Wang Lin without proof because waiting guarantees extinction, spends his life to defend the flag, and dies smiling once the sect has a future. (Chapters 391–392, 415–416, and 422–425)

Abilities and cultivation

One-billion-soul flag formations

Du Tian controls hundreds of millions of fragments and dozens of Soul Transformation primary souls through the one-billion-soul flag. In the Thirteen Soul Formation, five hundred million lesser souls orbit thirteen primaries, manifest a giant soul-refining hand, and can fuse into a combat entity at early Ascendant strength. Adding further primaries makes the threat sufficient to force a nine-leaf shaman's retreat. The method's scale is also its cost: fusion lasts briefly and damages fragments, so Du Tian often reveals power as deterrence rather than sustain combat. A sub-flag holds one-third of the main treasure's strength and only two uses, giving a successor access without surrendering the core. (Chapters 396, 416–420, and 433)

Soul sealing and the Three Metal Soul

The sect's manual lets Du Tian bind, release, combine, and retrieve souls within flags. Its fourth primary soul is the exceptional Three Metal Soul, a needle-like heavenly treasure that penetrates substances and directly harms origin souls. Normal commands cannot summon it: Du Tian must consume his own life force. The soul grows faster by devouring stored fragments and primaries, but that feeding destroys the flag's accumulated foundation. Zhuque Zi exploits this mechanic, provoking Du Tian into sacrificing one-third of the flag and ten primaries before using prepared black mud to capture the accelerated soul. The weapon can injure a late Ascendant, yet Du Tian's Soul Transformation energy cannot drive it fast enough to guarantee the kill. (Chapters 422–425)

Soul Transformation instruction and resource arrays

Du Tian recognizes when Wang Lin has reached the body-refinement threshold before Soul Transformation and builds a seven-white-flag array around him to channel celestial jade. His method treats realm advancement as both comprehension and enormous energy expenditure. When the sect's reserve fails, he leverages the great flag to confiscate more jade from other rank-five powers. He also teaches transfer formations that counter Giant Demon bloodline displacement. These arts show his role as a transmitter rather than only a combatant: he diagnoses progression, provides energy infrastructure, and gives Wang Lin defensive formulas suited to known enemies. His own limit is time; no resource reverses the lifespan already expended on the sect. (Chapters 397, 402, and 415–416)

Relationships

• Wang Lin: Du Tian selects him as successor, gives him the sect's core manual, resources, and flag, and treats him as a disciple. Wang Lin preserves the inheritance and remembers him long after death. (Chapters 390–425, 433, 916, and 1626)
• Zhuque Zi: Zhuque Zi suppresses rank-six rivals and attacks Du Tian for the flag. Their final battle consumes Du Tian's lifespan and ends only when Situ Nan frightens Suzaku away. (Chapters 391–392 and 422–425)
• Liu Mei: Du Tian expels Liu Mei when her mission conflicts with his plan for Wang Lin; her presence helps prompt secrecy but does not determine his choice of successor. (Chapters 390–392)

Items

• Cultivation Planet Crystal: Du Tian and Wang Lin recognize that Zhuque Zi's damaged control of the crystal explains why he must personally bargain and fight for the soul flag. (Chapter 429)
• The one-billion-soul flag is Du Tian's sect treasure, battlefield system, and final resting place; he gives it to Wang Lin at death. (Chapters 390–425)