Li Lanfeng

Li Lanfeng as depicted in the manhua.

**Li Lanfeng** (born **Li Mulan**) is the eldest of his generation in the Li Family, which includes his younger cousins Li Shiyu and Li Yingjie. His identity as Li Lanfeng allows him to act without the limitations of his Li Mulan identity.

Li Lanfeng's face has been described as very beautiful, although he usually keeps a mask on as Li Lanfeng to avoid connection to his identity as Li Mulan, as well as the singer Li Yinfei, who resembles him.

## Background

As a child, Li Mulan was taken to Empyreal Zhuge to have his fortune read. His fortune was the "Phoenix Thrall Fate", which meant that he would be bound to serve a 'destined king', and would become their plaything. As a promising member of Li Family who had one of the best talents (he had another fortune, the "Supreme Commander Fate", as well), Li Family decided that it would be more worth it to try to defy this fortune.

Li Mulan also was affected mentally by the reading of his fortune, leading to something of an obsession regarding his fate, as seen in his alias in the virtual world, [Self-Defined Destiny].

Li Mulan had constitution issues similar to Ling Lan's (spiritual power too strong for the body), making him physically weaker than his peers. This allowed him to retreat to Planet Azure under the excuse that he was deathly sick and needed a peaceful place to be treated, while he actually began to build enough personal power to defy his fate under the forged identity of Li Lanfeng, a member of a side branch of Li Family.

One of Li Family's ploys to defy his fate involved Li Yinfei. Li Yinfei, a member of a side branch of Li Family who already heavily resembled Li Mulan, was made nearly identical to him. She was then raised as a popular singer to publicize her face. In this way, if what the destined king was attracted to was Li Mulan's face, they would seek Li Yinfei rather than Li Mulan.

## Plot

Li Lanfeng is a spectre, who first interacts with Ling Lan in the virtual world of Planet Azure. They first meet at the Colosseum where he teaches her how to watch a Mecha Battle, and he acts unfriendly and cold to Ling Lan. At that time, both were in disguises, Ling Lan as girl in her mid-teens, and Li Lanfeng as an adult man in a black cloak.

However, after they meet again at the Mecha Training Center in the virtual world, they train with each other for 2 years, and their relationship builds up to the point where both are amicable with each other, despite keeping their true identities anonymous. They address each other by the builds of their mechas, which are a rabbit (Ling Lan), and a leopard or cheetah (Li Lanfeng). Then, when they both graduate from basic mecha training, they go their separate ways. At the time, Li Lanfeng was 13, while Ling Lan was 9 or 10.

7 years later, at 20 years old, he encounters Ling Lan again in the real world at the First Men’s Military Academy, but neither recognize each other.

At First Men's Military Academy, Li Lanfeng made a friend named Zhao Jun, and they both were "hired hands" of the Wuji faction there. He first catches word of Ling Lan when he hears of a talented rabbit mecha operator, and eventually joins Ling Lan's Lingtian Battle Clan at the same time as Li Shiyu and Chang Xinyuan, eventually recruiting Zhao Jun into the clan as well.

After encountering and learning of the existence Li Yinfei during her concert at the academy, Li Lanfeng cuts off his identity as Li Mulan.

After the core members Lingtian Battle Clan graduated and joined the 23rd Division, Li Lanfeng started to compete with Han Jijyun for the role of strategist in the Lingtian Mecha Clan. He accompanied the clan until it grew into Lingtian Independent Army, but he later abandons the pursuit of the role strategist for a bigger dream.

When Ling Lan was advancing to Imperial stage domain expert at Base Nebula, Li Lanfeng confessed how he felt towards her (at the time, he considered Ling Lan his most precious person, but did not consider those feelings love). Once he did, he finally realized that she was the destined king of the Phoenix Thrall Fate that would doom him for the rest of his life. He considered killing Ling Lan while she was helpless advancing, but stopped himself. Shortly after, realized his implied romantic) feelings towards Ling Lan, which would fulfill the Phoenix Thrall Fate. This caused Li Lanfeng to fall into something of an identity crisis, and have suicidal thoughts, during which he lowered his defenses and allowed himself to be nearly killed by Ling Lan's force of presence while she was advancing. He was saved from death by Ling Lan after she finished advancing.

During the battle with Caesar Empire, he issues a kill order to already surrendered opponents on the battlefield even though Ling Lan didn't give the command, almost costing all of their positions and even endangering Ling Xiao in the process by violating the Humanitarian Act, which forbids the killing of enemies who have already surrendered.

## Ability

Just like Ling Lan, Li Lanfeng has two domain abilities to speak of: Reformat and Bewitch.

Reformat is the ability that causes him to appear as a "reaper" and allows him to use his abilities as a spectre in the real world. Once activated, Li Lanfeng’s entire force of presence changes. The space around him becomes twisted and a strong force starts to suck in everything around him, and a reaper scythe manifests in his hands.

Due to Li Lanfeng’s body not reaching the requirement and only his spiritual power breaking through the barrier, Li Lanfeng’s domain concept was derived from his spiritual power. He was originally a spectre, so after deriving this concept, he could turn anything into virtual objects within his domain.

This ability allows him to "reformat" anything within his domain, erasing them, virtualizing any energy within its territory, and altering them to his domain concept.

On the other hand, Bewitch is the hypnotising ability that allows him to manipulate people's emotions and make them have a positive impression of him. To elaborate, the ability can reduce someone's enmity towards him, increase someone's existing good impression of him to the point of thinking he's a very close friend and turn a momentary crush into intense infatuation.

In the beginning, he wasn't aware of this ability and therefore it was only activated when he strongly desired for specific individuals he admired to like him in return. (He subconsciously used this ability on Ling Lan in Ch 127 when he desperately wanted to be her friend. Although it didn't affect her, she considered him her best friend regardless). Li Lanfeng is currently aware of this ability, however it has minimal effect on individuals stronger than him, like Ling Lan.

## Extra Info

* Due to habit, He tends to call Ling Lan 'Rabbit'. It royally pisses her off, because she thinks it's embarrassing and destroys the cold-hearted image she built up.
* In later chapters, the official translation began using the name "Leopard" rather then "Cheetah".
* Big Leader Li was a name given to Li Lanfeng by the 250 Ace Mecha Clan.The "Big" serves to differentiate him from Li Yingjie, also a leader in 250 Ace Mecha Clan.
* Although he seems to be warm and easy to get along with, he is actually very guarded against outsiders and someone who doesn’t easily open up to people, including his younger cousin Li Shiyu.
* Ling Lan believes that Li Lanfeng is a dangerous, black-bellied, cunning villain, and wishes that he would expose more of his true side to her. She also considers him a close confidant. However, she is oblivious to his feelings.
* Ling Lan's hidden innate talent allowed her to see an alternate timeline in which she died to the Frost Monarch. In it, Li Lanfeng became a marshal who controlled three divisions and caused great bloodshed in the human universe.
* The "Mulan" (木蘭) of his given name is the same Mulan as the one in the *Ballad of Mulan*.

## References

1. ↑ Li Jinghong’s expression dimmed, and he said, “I really don’t like him. No matter how talented he is, I still won’t like him. You all don’t know… but our eldest cousin brother is really really nice. All of us children in the branch families really like him, but unfortunately…”
2. ↑ Chapter 131
3. ↑ Chapter 238
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 392
5. ↑ Chp 225
6. ↑ Chapter 1091
7. ↑ Chapter 1092
8. ↑ Chapter 1130
9. ↑ ch 775
10. ↑ ch 776