Situ Li

Duanmu Siping (Cousin) †

Situ Lan (Aunt) †

Situ Li's aunt

*This entry is for the manhua character. See Shito Ritsu for the anime/donghua equivalent.*

**Situ Li** is the only child of the youngest generation of the Situ family, a family of soul masters that can control and manipulate spirits. He is also the cousin of Duanmu Siming and Duanmu Siping, as well as Duanmu Xi’s sworn enemy.

His father used to work as a butler for the Duanmu household, until the Situ family was kicked out due to the schemes and crimes of mainly Situ Li and Situ Li’s aunt. His mother, on the other hand, died while he was still a young child. After that, his paternal aunt, Situ Lan, took him under her wing and raised him as her own, until she committed suicide during his teenage years. Situ Li also had a special relationship with his cousin Duanmu Siping, Duanmu Siming’s twin sister. Situ Lan had asked Li to help her take care of her, because she couldn’t openly raise her as her daughter, since twins were considered ominous in the Duanmu household, and had to send her to the Zhiren house, until it was closed later by Duanmu Xi. Situ Li’s and Situ Lan’s actions, however, led her to commit suicide, with her mother, Situ Lan, following shortly afterwards. Situ Li refused to acknowledge his fault in their deaths and blamed everything on Duanmu Xi, whom he has been trying to take down ever since for revenge.

**Season 1**

Situ Li appeared in the acknowledgement of contract ceremony to taunt Duanmu Xi, but he was quickly pulled back by his father, who was apologizing on his behalf both during the ceremony and later to Yang Jinghua, whom he asked to put in a good word for Li to Duanmu Xi, so that he wouldn’t get angry with him, and also help him take care of him. Shortly afterwards, Situ Li came to threaten Yang Jinghua to give him Duanmu Xi’s real birth date, so that he could curse and kill him. Yang Jinghua, however, firmly refused and the two of them started fighting. Since Yang Jinghua had weak spiritual powers and couldn’t touch Situ Li, in addition to the distance restriction and Duanmu Xi not hearing him, Situ Li managed to easily restrain Jinghua and stab his knife to his body, causing his soul to start scattering. However, the table Yang Jinghua was on happened to also have the Luoyue sword on it and due to his special connection with it, Jinghua managed to grab it and slash Situ Li’s torso using its power. As he was about to strike him again with the sword, Duanmu Xi ran out of his room, yelling to him to stop. At that moment, Situ Li’s father also appeared and when he saw Situ Li hurt like this, he began questioning Yang Jinghua. Duanmu Xi then stepped in and defended Jinghua, even threatening to fire Situ Li’s father from his butler position, if he failed to discipline Li properly.

A few days later, Situ Li showed up again with his knife to kill Duanmu Xi. Duanmu Xi, who had asked Yang Jinghua to not interfere, let Situ Li stab him on his left hand with the knife, so that the Situ family wouldn’t dare come after Yang Jinghua for what had happened after Li had committed such a serious offense. Duanmu Xi then proceeded to restrain him, after which Qin Shiyao started beating him for hurting her beloved Xi.

Later, when Duanmu Xi regained his consciousness, after Yang Jinghua had unintentionally stabbed him with the Luoyue sword that sealed his powers and made him lose a lot of blood, the two sneaked out to find a way for Duanmu Xi to get back his powers, before anyone found out. As they were secretly leaving the household to go to Yang Jinghua’s hometown and look for the sword’s sheath, they were seen by Situ Li, who immediately followed them there. Once he heard that Duanmu Xi had  his powers sealed, Situ Li took the chance to attack them. During the fight he managed to get Yang Jinghua’s tassel with Duanmu Xi’s baby hair, and used it on a voodoo doll to torture Xi. Unable to stand watching the torture, Yang Jinghua cut the tassel himself, even though he had promised Duanmu Xi to never let the tassel be damaged. That action resulted in Duanmu Luoyue, the demonic ancestor of the Duanmu family who was sealed in the Yang bloodline with Yang Jinghua being the only one left to bear his seal, managed to get out of the seal and take over the body of Yang Jinghua. He was immediately stopped, however, by Duanmu Xi who stabbed him with the Luoyue sword, after asking Situ Li to enhance it with his spiritual power, and then used his blood to get him back to the seal, which he managed to do successfully since Yang Jinghua hadn't disappeared yet for Luoyue to break completely free from it. After witnessing Yang Jinghua becoming a powerful demon, Situ Li couldn’t understand why Xi was protecting him and resumed torturing him, saying that he should have sent both of them to hell. Yang Jinghua then woke up and in his powerful adult form he stopped Li, completely overpowering him. After destroying his upper clothes and shaving a strip of hair on the top of his head, Yang Jinghua with Duanmu Xi left Situ Li behind and returned to the Duanmu household, as they figured out that the sheath of the Luoyue sword might be inside Jinghua’s heirloom plaque.

Upon their return, however, they were confronted by Situ Li’s aunt. Situ Li had probably informed her about his sealed powers so, she came there with some other Situ family members during the night, claiming that the Situ family had captured an evil spirit, as the Duanmu family had requested, which needed purification immediately because its seal was about to expire. With that, she wanted to force Duanmu Xi to reveal that he indeed had his powers sealed, as she had heard, and make him give up his position as the head of the family. Situ Li’s father told her to not say such things without proof, but she didn’t falter and even blocked Duanmu Siyun from dealing with the spirit herself, further pushing Duanmu Xi and asking him to step down from his position. Yang Jinghua, then, came back with the sheath and restored Duanmu Xi’s power, resulting in a burst of energy from Xi that made the Situs kneel and beg him to forgive them for misunderstanding him.

**Season 3**

Despite their defeat, Situ Li and his aunt didn’t give up on their revenge. Since it was confirmed that the Luoyue sword could indeed seal the powers of a Yangming Master, they planned to do the same using the Xuangu nail (玄骨钉), which was made of the same material as the Luoyue sword. In order for it to be effective however, it had to be used by a descendant of the Yang family, but since Yang Jinghua, the only member that was left, was out of question, they decided to open his grave and use his ashes to activate the nail. As Situ Li was about to snatch the box that contained the ashes, he was stopped by Shenlong Zhangxuan, who was secretly guarding the grave. Situ Li’s mission however was still successful, as a small amount was stuck under his fingernails, which was enough to activate the nail. Situ Li’s aunt also added some of the Situ family’s magic to block Xi’s mind and make him unable to contact anyone through telepathy. The last part of the plan preparations was to find an insider close to Duanmu Xi to help them, for which they approached Duanmu Siming.

After all was set, Situ Li trespassed on the Duanmu family’s forbidden burial grounds of the Yangming Masters and hid there. Situ Li’s father, then, came to beg Duanmu Xi to enter the grounds and save his only son, to which Xi agreed, but in exchange he would have to move Li, and all the people related to that incident, far away from the Duanmu household forever. After that, he set off alone to find Situ Li.

When Xi arrived in the forbidden grounds, Li pretended to be unconscious in a lake and waited for Xi to approach and help him. Once he did, Li stabbed him with the Xuangu nail in his lower back, incapacitating him spiritually, and dragged him into a room in the woods which he had surrounded with seals that would prevent anyone from coming in. He then began torturing him for a while before falling for Duanmu Xi’s provocations and dragging him out of the sealed room. With that, he exposed their location to Yang Jinghua, who had felt that something bad was happening to Duanmu Xi and had come to the forbidden grounds looking for him, followed by Duanmu Siming. Once they arrived there, Yang Jinghua asked Siming to take Duanmu Xi back, while he dealt with Situ Li.

When they were left fighting alone, Situ Li decided to share his memories with Yang Jinghua, using his ability to communicate with spirits as a soul master, and finally reveal the reason he hated Duanmu Xi so much. It was because of his cousin, Duanmu Siping, who was also Siming’s twin sister. Since twins were seen as a bad omen and Siming was the male heir who would inherit the position of the head of the household, their mother, Situ Lan, decided to sent Siping to the Zhiren house to be raised in secrecy and train as a monk in order to assist the spiritually weaker Siming when he would become a Yangming Master. Situ Lan, however, still missed and worried about her, so she asked Situ Li to help her look after her, since she couldn’t do it herself. Situ Li took that role quite seriously, but his peaceful life with her was disturbed when Duanmu Xi arrived in the household. Seeing her compassion and thoughtfulness towards him, Situ Li became jealous. Later, she went even further by assisting Duanmu Xi during a ceremony with her singing, which was against her mother’s and Li’s wishes. Li also found a song she had written to sing over one of Duanmu Xi’s music scores that he had gifted to her and which she had dedicated to him. Situ Li misunderstood it, thinking that she had inappropriate feelings for her half-brother and discussed his concerns with Situ Lan, who tried to have Xi killed during the next ceremony. However, after Siming informed her about their plans, Siping intervened and helped Xi again with her singing, making Li and her mother quite desperate. After that, at Situ Li’s initiative, the two of them began giving her a special poison that, in low doses, would cause permanent loss of voice. When Siping figured out what they had done to her and that she would no longer be able to sing, which was her secret passion, she consumed a large amount of the poison, took Situ Li’s knife, along with a letter she had written, and went to Duanmu Xi, hoping he would put her out of her misery after reading what had happened. Since it's a heavy sin to commit suicide and she would end up in hell, Duanmu Xi was forced to fulfill her wish and take the blame.

In the meantime, Duanmu Siming, who also wanted to learn the truth about the death of his sister, took advantage of Duanmu Xi’s incapacitated state and used the special power he had as a twin to copy his ability and enter his mirror of yellow springs in order to see the past. After everything was revealed, Situ Li still refused to believe that what happened was his and Situ Lan’s own fault and kept blaming Duanmu Xi for that outcome. He resumed attacking all three of them and managed to tie Duanmu Xi’s chains in a rock with his knife, before pushing him down the lake. Right after that, he knocked Siming’s face with his knee, breaking his glasses, the pieces of which injured and blinded his right eye, and told him that since the three of them were guilty for Siping’s death, they should die together that day. Yang Jinghua once again appeared in time to release Duanmu Xi from the rock and also removed the nail from his back. Situ Li quickly caught up with them and Jinghua tried to stop him. However, when Li said he would take Jinghua down with him so that he would hurt Xi even more, Xi used his spiritual power on Li. Even though he stopped him with one strike that sent him to intensive care, he broke one of the three commandments of the Yangming division and thus triggered heavenly punishment on him, which was the second time that year.

Since Duanmu Xi didn’t believe he did anything wrong and the heavenly punishment couldn’t be lifted until he did, his great-grandmother suggested he went to the Jingsi Spring of Jingling mountain until he repent. Once Situ Li, who was still recovering in the hospital, heard that this was how the Duanmu family dealt with Xi, he got so agitated that he fell on the floor with his face while trying to get up, further injuring himself. Even though it wasn’t anything serious, the Situs took the chance to devise one final plan that would take down Duanmu Xi for good.

Shortly afterwards, Situ Li’s aunt showed up in the Duanmu household in mourning clothes, along with some Situ family members and a casket, claiming that Duanmu Xi had killed Situ Li, in addition to Duanmu Siping and Situ Lan in the past. She then presented a book that was signed by 198 people from the psychic world, demanding that Duanmu Xi resign his position as head of the Duanmu family and Yangming Master and be severely punished. Duanmu Xi said he wouldn’t step down and let them take over the Duanmu family, but he would accept any request or punishment. So, Situ Li’s aunt asked him to kneel down and take the punishment according to the family law, which would be executed by his great-grandmother. Great-grandmother beat him a few times with the Duanmu family’s ruler, but when she stopped to ask if it was enough, Situ Li’s aunt took over with the even more vicious whip of the Situ family. She was immediately stopped, however, by the crowd and Yang Jinghua. At that moment, everyone received on their phones a live broadcast of Situ Li and his father discussing the details of their plan to frame and destroy the Duanmu family. This was arranged by Shenlong Zhangxuan, who also published to the world the Situ family’s various misdeeds and illegal business, thus completely destroying the Situ family. With that revelation, Yang Jinghua took the chance to beat up the Situs and later, Situ Li’s aunt and the family members that were involved, were arrested by the police.

Before being taken by the police, Situ Li’s aunt gave Situ Li one of Situ Lan’s earrings and told him to use their last trump card. This meant unleashing the spirit of Situ Lan, which the Duanmu family had sealed after she traded her soul in exchange for cursing Duanmu Xi and then committed suicide. After that, the two of them led an invasion of spirits inside the Duanmu household, with Situ Lan going after Duanmu Xi. Situ Li, on the other hand, was controlling a special spirit he had found earlier in the Duanmu family’s forbidden burial grounds, which was raised in ancient times to absorb the soul essence of the deceased Yangming Masters. With that, he confronted Yang Jinghua, who was attempting to lure the spirits in one place to deal with them. Yang Jinghua began to attack him but the spirit, which was covering Li, was absorbing the power of each attack, becoming bigger and even hungrier for spiritual power.

In the meantime, Situ Lan had reached Duanmu Xi and was ready to take her revenge for Dunamu Siping’s life, as well as Duanmu Yin’s lies to her. She stabbed his abdomen with her spiritual hand, but as she was about to strike her final blow, Siming revealed that it was actually him and that he had used his special ability to copy Duanmu Xi’s aura and appear to her as Xi so that she would finally admit her sins. Devastated, she listened to Siming’s words, who also told her about the plan he had with Duanmu Siyun to change the ways of the Duanmu family and Yangming Division. Situ Lan then finally let go of her hatred for the Duanmu family and Duanmu Xi, telling Xi that perhaps he wasn’t entirely responsible for Siping’s death. As she didn’t want to get devoured by the increasingly growing spirit that Situ Li was controlling, she asked Xi to perform his duties as a Yangming Master. Before she left, she told Siming that she would be waiting for him to carry out his plan with Siyun and that her children were never useless, as she used to say. She also admitted to Duanmu Xi that, when she first saw him, she found him quite cute and that if he wasn’t the son of Duanmu Yin or she wasn’t Yin’s wife, she would have actually liked him. Duanmu Xi then completed her purification and sent her away the same way he did with Siping.

After that was done, Duanmu Xi ran to Yang Jinghua’s side to deal with the spirit that was devouring everyone’s spiritual power. While he was transferring some of his power to Yang Jinhgua, so that he could occupy Situ Li, he took off the Kun-ring and then started feeding the spirit with his own unlimited spiritual power, until it couldn’t take it anymore and got destroyed.

After everything was settled, Situ Li was arrested by the police, but he still could not accept his mistakes or defeat. Duanmu Siyun then took the chance to remind him that the destruction of his family was the result of his own actions, even if he wasn’t convinced, and that she would make sure he was marked as the biggest shame in the history of the Duanmu family, so the people that follow her know not to be as stupid and conceited.

**Season 5**

A few months later, the Duanmu family and their allies were casting the Heaven and Earth Formation to restore the earth's disturbed veins, which were messed up by unknown forces that wanted to cause Duanmu Xi’s death on the altar and then eliminate Yang Jinghua. Situ Li and his aunt, along with other Situ family members and enemies of the Duanmu family, attempted to prevent them from doing so, with the members of the Situ family trying to control the spirits that were gathered by Yang Jinghua to help with the formation. However, they failed once again, as Jinghua’s influence on the spirits was far greater than theirs. The Situs then were arrested by the Duanmu family, with Siming getting the chance to punch and restrain Situ Li.

1. ↑ *Ling Qi* extra chapter after chapter 346