Shen Yanli

**Overview**

```
***❝ Nothing in this world is preordained by fate. Fate is but yet another measure by which to measure human accomplishments. It truly is the cruelest thing in this world. I lost everything and everyone that I ever cherished due to fate! ❞***

```

> - Shen Yanli
>
>

*This page is about **Shen Yanli**. If you are looking for the original Shen Yanli, please go to the **Shen Yingxuan** page.*
**Shen Yanli** 「沈厌离 (Shěn Yànlí)」 is the protagonist of The Scum Villain's Self Saving System: Adventures of the Arbor.

Originally she was a 21st century chess prodigy named **Liu Zhen** 「柳真 (Liǔ Zhēn)」 and a close childhood friend of Shen Yuan who died at a young age from a brain tumor. Also an avid reader of the webnovel *Proud Immortal Demon Way*, she would often go to Shen Yuan's house to discuss the webnovel chapters together. Her last wishes caused the System to activate out of pity and send her to the universe of the novel she loved in order to live out her wildest dreams while reuniting with her transmigrated friends. She transmigrated into the body of Shen Yanli, Lord of Golden Lotus Pavilion and the leader of Long Zhao Temple.

Due to her expertise in chess and all forms of war-based strategy games, Liu Zhen is exceptionally cunning and strategic, aided by the Long Zhao Temple's natural defenses and abundent qi.

## Appearance

In the novel, Shen Yanli is described as being a particularly elegant and fairy-like woman with long black hair entertwined with deep silver/snow-white strands (as a result of the soul merger) and clear, unsullied eyes. As she has successfully cultivated to mid-core formation, Shen Yanli retained a stunning visage described to be beautiful by members of Long Zhao Temple. Being the Lord of the Golden Lotus Pavilion, she is commonly seen wearing an elegant dress with a palette of black, dark blue and white with designs of moon phases, along with a blue ribbon in her hair and a red ribbon on the hip and back of the dress, in addition to some details of clouds. She also wears dark boots, with an incredibly detailed five-petaled lotus bell worn on a string around her waist with the names of her fallen comrades engraved onto it's surface.

After the soul merger, Shen Yanli is described as possessing the same burning crimson-red eyes that reminded her parents of a feathers of a heavenly Fenghuang as she did before becoming blind.

## Personality

Shen Yanli is an extremely elegant, reserved, and cold-natured woman with a stoic air to herself. She can come across as being rather rude and dismissive, but she will occasionally will slip out from the distant immortal persona into a gentler, softer individual towards her comrades and direct disciples. Her treatment of the people around her was so different from the original Shen Yanli that it completely changed the structure of her sect and how they responded to the other Great Sects, going from lots of interactions with them to straight on refusing any and all contact with the other smaller sects and any of the Great Sects.

Shen Yanli also possesses a thin face (that is, gets embarrassed easily) and dislikes being forced into a mindsight of uncertanity, nearly castrating one of her own disciples for unintentionally insulting her in the past. Extremely self-consious of her reputation and distrustful of interpersonal relations with the other Sect Leaders, she is an extremely strong advocate for total isolation for her sect and even refused to aid the efforts of Cang Qiong Mountain and Bailu Nu Temple along with Huan Hua Palace and other smaller sects for the trial of Shen Qingqiu, citing that it might incite a war with the Demon Realm. Yet, despite her advocation for total isolation of her own sect, Yanli ultimately refutes the charges against Shen Qingqiu and later on, even defends the actions of Luo Binghe against the rest of the cultivation world - going as so far as to offer a place in her sect for Shen Qingqiu's body, as well as a resting place for Luo Binghe.

Neverthless, despite preferring not to stoke conflict, Yanli has shown the attitude of deeming it necessary in extreme cases and even superseeded the direct influence of her Generals when she felt that their courses of actions diveted from her given instructions. A nonbeliever in the power of fate and it's influence, she is greatly traumatized by the changes wrought by it and seeks to overturn the influence of the divine in order to rewrite her own destiny and that of her modern world self. In this area, she clashes heavily with her sect's Master Diviner Yanti Mingye who believes in the power of the divine.

## History

Liu Zhen, much like Shen Yuan, was the third child and eldest daughter of a rich Chinese family who spent her days practicing chess strategies. She had two older brothers who worked in the family's business and a little sister who she greatly doted on, said younger sister often bragging about her older sister's prodigious talents in the art of boardgame warfare strategies. The Liu family was a rich and prodigious family filled with only the greatest talent, so Zhen who had a weak body since birth was unable to gain much experience by doing physical activity.

However, her family and friends enjoyed reading webnovels to her in order for them to pass the time together, one of their many bonding activities being to mentally break down a book's contents and closely analyze them for better comphrehension of the material within. One of their favorite webnovels was an famous stallion erotica by the title of *Proud Immortal Demon Way* by Airplane Shooting Toward the Sky. They had large enjoyment of the plot and worldbuilding while they were disdainful towards the cheap plot development and pornographic material. Much like Peerless Cucumber (aka. Shen Yuan), Liu Zhen and her family's shared handle was so recognizable that even the author was able to identify them.

With Proud Immortal Demon Way going to a close, Liu Zhen was so incensed by the ending that she died while cursing the novel. This activated the mysterious System, which transported her to the world of Proud Immortal Demon Way as Shen Yanli, Lord of Golden Lotus Pavilion and the Sect Master of Long Zhao Temple.

## Abilities & Equipment

* **Yuangu Haiyang Sword**: Liu Zhen is in possession of the original Shen Yanli's sword, Yuangu Haiyang, which is forged from a combination of three metals; **Long Gang** 「龙钢 (Lóng Gāng)」 (Dragon Steel), **Diguo Tie** 「帝国铁 (Dìguó Tiě)」 (Imperial Iron), and **Yongheng Zhitiao** 「永恒的枝条 (Yǒnghéng de Zhītiáo)」 (Eternal Branches), Yuangu Haiyang is a powerful blade and is capable of sealing itself due to the high cultivation of it's masters. Unlike most cultivation weapons, it was forged upon a divine mountain and carries divine properties as a side effect, although they are almost non-existant due to the biological makeup of it's user's body. With it, Shen Yanli is capable of channeling her immensely high spiritual prowess to a new height of expertise. Like other cultivators, she is able to fly on her sword and control Yuangu Haiyang telepathically by forming a sword seal with her hand. Most notably, Yuangu Haiyang is capable of materilizing itself from thin air whenever it's user wishes for it to do so, being the first sword with a sentient sword spirit sleeping inside of it, which is Baal of Prescience.
* **Martial Abilities**: Although not extremely proficent at the martial side of cultivation, due to her role as the sect's chief strategist alongside the Master Diviner, she is still skilled enough to fell over a thousand demons during the Times of Trouble.
* **Cultivation**: The original Shen Yanli cultivated to the stage of Mid Core Formation, granting Liu Zhen immortality and an impressive level of cultivation ability.
* **Strategy Abilities**: One of the shining pupils of a private talent-based Chinese chess academy, Liu Zhen is a skilled strategist in the art of tactical warfare and shows a through understanding of the basic principles behind war tactics. She was capable of negating most, if not all, of Ming Fan's tactical attacks with her own strategies and her own strategist abilities inherited from the original Luo Yanli. As the Master of the Golden Lotus Pavilion, the intelligence-based Pavilion of Long Zhao Temple, she is an expert in intelligence-based warfare and excels greatly in manipulation of information to suit her own needs. She is one of the three leaders of the current Great Sects who still maintains a fully operational spy division within the normal working operations of their own respective sects.
* **The System**: By gaining points (and sometimes through manipulation) Shen Yanli is able to use the System to affect events in the plot. While this can be an asset, oftentimes the System manipulates events in a way that backfires. She can also use the System's inventory to store and retrieve key items.
* **Kestral Engraved Jade Hairpin**: For the majority of the story, Shen Yanli has the real engraved jade hairpin the original Yanli's master gave her stored in the system's inventory. Containing the remaining spiritual essence and a single soul fragment from her late Shizun, it eventually shatters when
* **Clarity Bell**: A five-petaled lotus spiritual bell and the standard spiritual device of the Long Zhao Temple cultivators, it is typically utilized as a time-tracking method, spiritual tracking device, and a communication device.
* **Delicate Winds**: A

## Relationships

### Zise

Princess Zise and Shen Yanli have a master-disciple relationship and, following the events of the main story, became each other's traveling companions on missions.

Before her transmigration, Liu Zhen was extremely fond of Zise as a character and felt saddened by her sudden death (mentioned offhandly), noting that she enjoyed reading about sweet-natured, calm, and level-headed characters.

This attitude carries over post-transmigration, with Shen Yanli feeling a great deal of admiration and love for