Shenlong Xiren

Duanmu Xi (Nephew)

Shenlong Quan (Adopted niece)

Duanmu Lian (Supervisee) †

*This entry is for the manhua character. See Shinryuu Sekijin for the anime/donghua equivalent.*

**Shenlong Xiren** is the current head of the Shenlong family. He is the younger brother of Duanmu Xi's mother, Shenlong Lihua, and the elder brother of Shenlong Zhangxuan.

After their parents passed away due to old age, the elder sister, Lihua, took over as the head of the Shenlong family and became responsible for the upbringing of her brothers, as Xiren was a child and Zhangxuan a baby at the time. At some point, Lihua became the supervisor of the then Yangming Master, Duanmu Yin, as the Shenlong family had been responsible, since ancient times, for guarding and monitoring the Yangming priests in order to prevent them from neglecting their duties or becoming evil like the first priest, Duanmu Luoyue. However, she accidentally became pregnant with his child due to her mistaking her diet pills for contraceptives before sleeping with Duanmu Yin. Because her secret role as his supervisor didn't allow such a relationship between them, she had to give up her position as head of the Shenlong family and supervisor of Duanmu Yin and raise this taboo child secretly from the world. After explaining the situation to Xiren, who was still a teenager at the time, and despite his objections, she transferred the Shenlong family's power of hypnosis to him, which caused him to lose consciousness. She then said her goodbyes to baby Zhangxuan and left their family with Quan, a little orphan girl that had been serving her for years and whom she later adopted. After Lihua's departure, Shenlong Xiren became the head of the Shenlong family and raised his little brother, Zhangxuan, on his own.

After Duanmu Yin died on the altar about a year later, Duanmu Lian succeeded him as the next Yangming Master and Xiren became her supervisor. They probably had a pretty good relationship, as many years later Xiren still seems to have a soft spot for her daughter, Duanmu Siyun. A few years later, when Lian also passed away on the altar, he returned to the Shenlong household.

   When Duanmu Xi was a young child, a kid threw a stone at him, which sent him to the hospital. Although he didn't have anything too serious, he had to get a blood transfusion, which caused him a severe allergic reaction. In a moment of desperation, Lihua begged Xiren to help little Xi with Zhangxuan's blood, as Zhangxuan was born immune to poisons and toxins and, with the added help of the medicinal herbs he was fed as a child, his blood could be used as an antidote. However, Xiren still had not forgiven her for abandoning him and Zhangxuan for this taboo child, that he despised even more than her. He refused adamantly, saying that this was god's punishment for giving birth to Xi and even if Zhangxuan's blood could save him he wouldn't give him, the only person he loved, to her who had betrayed and abandoned them. But even without it, Duanmu Xi managed to recover, only for him to commit suicide a few years later, which led Lihua to sacrifice her own soul in order to bring him back from hell. After that incident, Duanmu Xi was brought to the Duanmu household and became the next Yangming Master, after demonstrating his exceptional talent in front of his grandmother by performing a massive purification.

Meanwhile, Xiren had Zhangxuan train as a professional bodyguard during those years, mastering various weapons and fighting styles, as well as pharmacology, in order to prepare for becoming the supervisor of a Yangming Master in the future, as this was his family's duty. When Duanmu Xi was 12 years old, and had already been a Yangming Master for 3 years, the Duanmu family requested a supervisor for him that was close to his age, so that he could be his companion as well. Since Xiren was too old for little Xi and couldn't leave the family duties again, as he was the head of the Shenlong family, it was decided that Zhangxuan would be sent to the Duanmu household as Duanmu Xi's personal bodyguard and, secretly, supervisor. Since Duanmu Xi couldn't leave the household, Zhangxuan wasn't allowed to leave either, until the end of Xi's life that would come in about 10 years after he began serving as a Yangming Master. So before leaving, Zhangxuan bid farewell to Yu, Xiren's trusted aide, asking her if he should be calling her sister-in-law after his return, and to Xiren himself, who gave him a key to the house, telling him that he would be waiting for him to cοme back.

When Zhangxuan met Duanmu Xi in person, he immediately understood the pure and kind nature of him and told Xiren that he was a born priest. During his time there, Zhangxuan was communicating with his brother through encrypted letters, providing information on the internal affairs of the Duanmu household, while Xiren was sending him orders, one of which was to make Duanmu Xi the head of the Duanmu family, and was, also, correcting his mistakes, like the time Duanmu Xi sang for an audience and unknowingly caused a spiritual disturbance through his voice that led to the death of many people. During his last days there, though, Zhangxuan made a serious mistake that led to his downfall. He left Duanmu Xi alone in the household, while he went to find Yang Jinghua, whom Xi had been looking for all those years, and deliver to him the letter that Xi had written to him. On the way to Jinghua's workplace, Zhangxuan was confronted by Xiren, who scolded him both for leaving Xi alone in a house full of enemies and for the letter that great-grandmother had sent to him, requesting to take Zhangxuan back for further training. Zhangxuan, however, refused to set his personal feelings for Duanmu Xi aside and obediently perform his supervisory duties. Amidst his frustration, Xiren told him if that was the case, he had no place in the Shenlong family. When Zhangxuan returned to the Duanmu household, after suspecting that something was wrong with Duanmu Xi, he found that Xi had suddenly gone missing. He managed to locate him in the mountains, right before the previous acting head attempted to assassinate Xi, after poisoning him first, for which Zhangxuan shot him in the neck, leaving him in a vegetative state. That action caused Zhangxuan to become the scapegoat of the assassination plot and all the attention was shifted to him, especially after Duanmu Siyun revealed the encrypted letters he had tried to send to his brother, which she accidentally found while stalking him earlier. He was then accused of attempted murder against the acting head as well as of interfering in the affairs of the Duanmu family, due to being given too much power by Duanmu Xi according to great-grandmother. The Duanmu family then took him into custody and asked the Shenlong family how to deal with him, to which Xiren replied that they were free to punish him as they saw fit. That night, however, Duanmu Xi took him out of his prison cell and tried to run away with him, not believing the previous accusations. On their way, they were stopped by the Duanmu family and the police, with Siyun trying to convince Xi of his betrayal, which was clear after deciphering his letters. In the meantime, Yu had called Zhangxuan on his cellphone and was trying to convince him that if he killed Duanmu Xi for attempting to abandon his post, Xiren would take care of the rest and he would be able to return home. However, they did not expect that Zhangxuan loved Xi so much that instead of harming him, he would choose to commit suicide in order to become his spirit shadow.

Xiren was devastated by Zhangxuan's death, as he never meant for such a thing to happen. On the contrary, he would have done everything in his power to prevent his death, had he received his last letter earlier and known what he was going to do in that situation. So, he searched for his soul in the three realms in order to explain his true intentions, but not even a trace of him could be found. A few years later, when he heard that Yang Jinghua had stabbed Duanmu Xi with the Luoyue sword and that Xi had recovered from that wound, which would normally require a blood transfusion, he figured out what had happened. The Duanmu family had kept Zhangxuan's body and soul to use as a blood bag for Duanmu Xi. Xiren, then, began planning attacks against Duanmu Xi to injure him in a way that would again require a blood transfusion in order to confirm his theory. But even after hypnotizing Yang Jinghua to separate him from Duanmu Xi, he still could not succeed. So, he decided to personally confront Xi, while he was visiting Zhangxuan's grave, and stab him with his spear, after revealing to him that Zhangxuan was not dead as he thought. When Duanmu Xi returned home and confronted his family about the matter, Siyun, along with Siming, led him to a secret room in her quarters, where Zhangxuan was kept. After his spies reported that to him, he planned to ambush the Duanmu household with his forces to get his brother back that same night. He found Yang Jinghua and hypnotized him again while placing a rune on his hand that would break upon contact with the forbidden soul-binding formation that was keeping Zhangxuan bound and hidden there. Once that was done, he, along with Yu and his subordinates, took Zhangxuan's body and tried to leave the household. They were blocked, however, by Yinzhe and his followers, until Duanmu Xi used the Heavenly Call spell to command all the spirits of Jingling mountain to stop them from escaping. In order to fight back, Xiren used the Dry Moon Mirror to suck Duanmu Xi's power and then hypnotized the spirits, causing them to succumb to their desire for Duanmu Xi's power and attack him. However, Yang Jinghua appeared in time and forced Xiren to leave Zhangxuan with Yu, while he would try to buy some time for them to escape with their remaining forces. Yang Jinghua, then, made a two-way soul contract with Duanmu Xi and their combined power broke the Dry Moon Mirror, leaving Xiren defeated. Despite the commotion he caused, Duanmu Xi let him go, only asking him to give Zhangxuan a proper burial and tell him that he finally understood his actions and he should not worry about him from then on.

Once Xiren returned home, he immediately began his efforts to bring Zhangxuan back to life. He used an ancient secret technique of the Shenlong family and implanted a Ten Thousand Years Gu in his body, which would connect and repair his damaged, from the headshot, nerves. It would, also, give him the ability to communicate with Zhangxuan and control him, which he found quite beneficial since his hypnotism was not effective on blood-related family members. The technique was successful and Zhangxuan was resurrected. However, he was heavily influenced by Xiren's emotions, especially when it came to punishing Duanmu Xi, after Jinghua destroyed the Kun-ring, another artifact of the Shenlong family, that was used to monitor the Yangming Masters. That led them to a quarrel that ended with Zhangxuan leaving the Shenlong family and seeking Dr. Sen in order to remove the Gu from his body, even if it caused his death. In that case, he asked for his body to be kept as a blood bag for Duanmu Xi and when Xi’s organs would start to fail, to replace them with his own. Despite all that, Xiren never abandoned Zhangxuan and spared no effort to rescue him from Dr. Sen's base, where he was being held along with Duanmu Xi, Qin Shiyao, Ouyang Yang and some other hostages. He even cooperated with the Duanmu family, even though he had tried to kill Duanmu Xi by bombarding the abandoned city he was in, before he was taken hostage by Dr. Sen, and agreed to give them the names of the traitors in the Duanmu household in exchange for helping him save his brother. Afterwards, he left Zhangxuan in their care, since they had more advanced medical technology than the Shenlong family. Zhangxuan eventually managed to wake up from the coma, but the removal of the Gu had left him with paralyzed legs. He was, however, freed from Xiren's control and was able to stay by Duamnu Xi's side, like he always wanted.

As for his relationship with Duanmu Xi, he continued to monitor him from the shadows, as the Shenlong family tried to stay hidden after the incident with Zhangxuan. His judgment remained quite harsh towards him and he was willing to kill him after the loss of the Kun-ring, whether it was by controlling Zhangxuan or by cooperating with Dr. Sen's forces, even going as far as to ask great-grandmother to dispose of him. However, he always had the interest of the world in his mind and he was able to put his personal feelings aside and join forces with him, if it was meant for the greater good.

Xiren, also, assisted in the Heaven and Earth Formation, along with Yu, when the Duanmu family needed volunteers to restore the earth's disturbed veins.