Shen Yanli (Original)

**Overview**

**Shen Yanli** 「沈厌离 (Shěn Yànlí)」 is a side character of *The Scum Villain's Self Saving System* and a minor character in *Proud Immortal Demon's Way*. She is the youngest and current Sect Master of Long Zhao Temple and the Lord of Golden Flower Pavilion. Bitter enemy of the Huan Hua Palace's 67th leader, she constantly waged a cold war against him and his descendants for many decades before finally stopping in the era preceeding that of the Old Palace Master's reign.

A member of the illustrated and highly respected Shen clan, Yanli is the only female sect master of her generation and is a powerful cultivator, with even the likes of Gongyi Xiao looking up to her as an example of an explementary cultivator.

Shen Yanli, née **Shen Yingxuan** 「沈应选 (Shěn Yīngxuǎn)」 is the original owner of the body that Liu Zhen transmigrated into after her death. It is known what happened to Shen Yanli after the transmigration took place, as her soul was mentioned to have merged with that of Liu Zhen, essentially merging them together into a new entity.

## Appearance

Unusually even amongst cultivators, Shen Yanli is completely blind and thus on special occasions wears a blindfold with peonies (the flower symbol of Huan Hua Palace) weaved in stalks of mulberry leaves (the flower symbol of Long Zhao Palace). She is described as being fairy-like in appearance despite the blindfold over her eyes and has a gentle demeanor, possessing creamy jade skin and a large, phoenix-shaped mark on her back that allows her the ability to generate, manipulate, and combine pure fire qi with the rest of her spiritual qi.

She wears a black blindfold/veil with a silver crescent moon detail in the middle. Her clothing consists of a 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.

Before becoming blind, she had burning crimson-red eyes that reminded her parents of a feathers of a heavenly Fenghuang.

## Personality

Shen Yanli has a quiet, stern, and composed personality in the presence of people that she isn't close with, due to being the "secondary brain" of the three Shen siblings, in addition to her high-ranking position as the Sect Master of Long Zhao Temple. Even-tempered, serene-natured, and extremely calculating, she is interested with maintaining the position of her sect solely through honorable methods and has a extreme dislike for either bloodshed or war. A sterwart defender of balance and order, she fiercely refuses to involve her sect in matters of the mortal world or that of the demon world, to the point that she utterly lacked critical information about the news of a new Demon Lord and seemed utterly suprised when she learned his name.

Deeply attached to the members of her sect, she feels great agony when one of the members is killed and goes to great lengths in order to uphold the might of the sect in their names, engraving their names into the five-petaled lotus that hangs off her belt. She is enraged whenever somebody merely grazes the bell or calls it a simple spiritual device, becoming greatly angered when Liu Qingge damages it by leaving a strike on it with his sword Chen Luan. The engraved lotus bells worn by the members of the Long Zhao Temple contain the names of their deceased loved ones and it is said that their ghost can return if the person who loves them wears an engraved bell with the five-petaled lotus flower of the sect on their person.

Traumatized by what war brought down on her sect as a result of it's consequences, Yanli is a feverent pursuer of peace and even reportably pulled out of the talks between all of the Great Sects rallying to fight Luo Binghe, a stance also taken by the rest of her sect.

## History

Only daughter and middle child of the Shen siblings born to the legendary cultivators Shen Hu of Long Zhao Temple and Li Lan of Cang Qiong Mountain. She alone inherited the extremely distilled Fenghuang mystical being heritage from the siblings' ancestors and as acknowledgment of this, wielded the legendary sword **Yuangu Haiyang** [远古海洋 (Yuǎngǔ Hǎiyáng)]. She had outstanding talent from an extremely young age and ascended to the position of Head Disciple alongside her younger brother Shen Yuan of Long Zhao Temple. Her swordplay can be described as exceedingly marvelous. In the younger years of her life, she became completely blind and utilized a blindfold to prevent people from staring directly at her blind eyes.

Later on in her career, she inherited leadership of the Long Zhao Temple and the High Elders of the temple aceeded complete control of the sect to her, with them ascending into the heavens. In their honor, she built several homes for abandoned children and would raise them up to become members of her sect, along with implementing measures to increase trade and have better relations between the other major sects aside from her own.

To commemerate her ascension to the post, the Huan Hua Palace organized a month-long celebration which Shen Yanli accepted and in response to the celebration held to celebrate her ascension, she sent many valuable spiritual whips for the usage of the Little Palace Mistress. Cang Qiong Mountain sent their War God and Chief Strategist to enjoy the festivities, as well as bear gifts to the new Sect Master of Long Zhao Temple.

During the event, the two dueled with each other causing Shen Yanli's expertise and skills in the art of swordsmanship to become well-known, with the duel causing Yanli's five-petaled lotus bell to be damaged by Chen Luan, unfortunately sending Yanli into a qi-induced rampage that only ended with the High Elders Youwu, Feixiao, and Jingliu, the War God, and the Strategist of Cang Qiong Mountain fighting her to a standstill long enough for several qi transfusions.

## Abilities & Equipment

* **Martial Abilities**: Although from a notoriously peaceful sect and being a pacifist herself, Shen Yanli is the newly uncrowned Martial Champion of Long Zhao Temple and was trained by the High Elders Youwu, Feixiao, and Jingliu in her martial abilities, allowing her to become the Martial Master of the entire sect. During her youth, she reportably fought a herd of demonic beasts with her bare hands alone and defeated them on her lonesome.
* **Swordsmanship**: Shen Yanli is the crowned Sword Champion and Sword Master of the Long Zhao Temple, being known as **Yanting-jun** [炎庭君 (Yántíng-jūn)] (Lord of the Burning Court).
* **Cultivation**:
* **Yuangu Haiyang Sword**: 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

## Trivia

* Her title of **Yanting-jun** [炎庭君 (Yántíng-jūn)] (Lord of the Burning Court) pays homage to her Fenghuang heritage (Winged Phoenix) and her Pyrogenesis abilities (production/generation/manipulation of heat).