Shen Fa

Biodata

Power Progression

Background

Shen Fa belongs to the meritorious nobility and grew up alongside Xie Yu, whom he considers his best friend. Their shared background does not stop him from acting against the Xie family when its dealings with the Tartars amount to treason 15 27.

The deaths of fifty thousand soldiers at Pine Pavilion Pass weigh heavily on him. During his confrontation with Xie Yu, he says their final battle cries still echo in his ears at night 27.

Appearance

• Combat clothing: Black fighting clothes with a subtle woven pattern. By his visit to Yang Ge concerning the Tartar spy, he has a facial scar and a more pronounced air of killing intent 12.
• Leisure clothing: A finely tailored white robe decorated with ink-painted bamboo, paired with a lustrous white jade hair circlet. Yang Ge finds him strikingly handsome when he is not radiating murderous intent 16.
• Official clothing: A black-ground embroidered qilin robe and black gauze martial cap at the Northern Pacification Office 48.
• Battle injuries: After fighting the Tartar experts, his topknot is cut off, his clothes are heavily slashed, and his left arm continues bleeding through an improvised bandage 42.

Personality

Shen Fa places the country’s safety above solidarity among noble families. He rejects Fourth Master Xie’s claim that collusion with the Tartars is justified as protection against imperial suppression, confronting him instead with the soldiers and civilians endangered by that choice 15.

He is calculating in his recruitment of Yang Ge. He begins with a death threat, disguises a politically dangerous operation as assistance against a spy, and later uses the fate of surrendered guards and their families to push Yang Ge into office. Nevertheless, Yang Ge eventually recognizes that Shen Fa has left him room to refuse rather than simply issuing compulsory orders 7 12 14 17 37.

His severity coexists with personal compassion. He promises to seek survival for the Xie family’s women and children, intervenes when Yang Ge is overwhelmed by the aftermath of torture, and undertakes to protect him from the consequences of exposing grain profiteering 27 42 48.

As a martial adviser, he values perseverance over talent alone. He argues that cultivation must temper the practitioner as well as increase power, using the difference between a repeatedly forged saber and a directly cast one to explain his position 35.

Abilities & Skills

Saber Combat

Shen Fa fights Fourth Master Xie and a Tartar spy alongside the Guard’s experts during the interception of the Xie cargo boats 15 16.

• Releases a streak of dark saber energy that interrupts Fourth Xie’s speech 15.
• Cuts through incoming palm force while continuing his attack 15.
• Remains an active combatant despite suffering injuries in the later operation against Tartar experts 42.

Martial Knowledge and Instruction

Shen Fa explains cultivation principles and evaluates martial techniques for Yang Ge 6 35.

• Outlines the five great martial realms and the significance of their breakthroughs 6.
• Recognizes that the Eighteen Routes of Snowfall Palm and Eighteen Routes of Chaotic Wind Kicks share a lineage and complement one another 35.
• Explains Qi Sea cultivation through strengthening qi, breaking barriers, and opening the Twelve Orthodox Meridians 35.
• Identifies Yang Ge’s naturally open meridians as an advantage while warning that rapid advancement does not replace experience and personal tempering 35.

Intelligence and Operational Planning

Shen Fa uses covert personnel, surveillance, and staged opportunities to investigate suspects and recruit useful allies 9 10 42.

• Has disguised informants report Yang Ge’s spending, habits, relationships, and reaction to Ding Man’s execution 9 10.
• Seals Yang Ge’s dossier and leaves two elite men to make discreet contact 10.
• Supplies Yang Ge with roughly one hundred case files from the Northern Pacification Office’s Archives Repository, concealing their source because Yang Ge would otherwise refuse them 18.
• Deliberately allows some Divine Land martial experts to escape as bait for a subsequent operation in the Upper Capital 42.

Equipment / Items

• Gilt Tiger-Head Ox-Tail Saber — Beside him during his visit to Yang Ge to discuss the escaped Tartar spy 12.
• Banner Commander waist token — Used to present Yang Ge with the choice of accepting responsibility for the surrendered merchant-ship guards 17.
• Eighteen Routes Frost-Defying Saber manual — A copy left for Yang Ge after Shen Fa had offered to find him a complementary weapon technique 35 45.
• Probationary Hundred-Household Commander token — Given to Fang Ke for delivery to Yang Ge as a promotion reward 48.

Relationships

• Yang Ge — Recruit, subordinate, martial student, and developing friend. Shen Fa repeatedly pushes him toward public responsibility, while also providing instruction, resources, and protection 7 18 35 37 42 48.
• Fang Ke — Subordinate who has served under him for two years. Shen Fa assigns him to Yang Ge as Junior Banner Officer, then appoints him Road Pavilion’s Banner Commander 18 48.
• Xie Yu — Childhood friend whose family’s treason places them on opposing sides. Xie Yu entrusts his men to Shen Fa on the condition that he continues fighting the Tartars 27.
• Fourth Master Xie — A familiar elder from the noble Xie family who addresses him as a nephew. Shen Fa refuses to let that familiarity shield him from investigation and armed confrontation 14 15.
• The emperor — Sovereign whose favor earns Shen Fa his forthcoming promotion. Shen Fa nevertheless recognizes the political limits on both his own authority and the emperor’s freedom of action 48.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Recruiting Yang Ge

• Offers Yang Ge paid work without formal government registration, then threatens to kill him if he refuses again. Yang Ge accepts, and Shen Fa identifies himself as a Thousand-Household Commander 7.
• Uses Ding Man’s public execution as a warning while observing Yang Ge’s response from a nearby residence 9.
• Reviews the painting titled Looking Homeward and reports concerning Yang Ge’s finances, social isolation, and cultural allegiance before sealing his dossier 10.

The Xie Family Investigation

• Requests Yang Ge’s help restraining an escaped Tartar spy, drawing him into the interception of Xie family cargo boats and a conflict involving the emperor, noble clans, and Tartars 12 14.
• Condemns the Xie family for maintaining enemies to preserve its own power and participates in the battle that ends with Fourth Master Xie plunging into the Bian River 15 16.
• Pressures Yang Ge to vouch for surrendered ship guards so they can enter the Guard’s rolls as spies rather than face household exile to Lingnan. He then establishes Yang Ge’s banner and assigns Fang Ke to assist him 17 18.
• Meets Xie Yu secretly on Mid-Autumn night. He promises to seek survival for women and children, but excludes those who colluded with the enemy, took charge, or held civil or military office 27.

The Tartar Ambush and Luting Murders

• Warns Yang Ge that an enemy chief will pass through the area. Yang Ge chooses to keep his unit in Luting rather than support Shen Fa’s ambush 36 37.
• Arrives wounded after his own battle and takes charge of three tortured attackers at the county court. His intervention helps Yang Ge step back from his immediate desire to kill one of them 42.
• Reveals that he has released some enemy-aligned martial experts to lure further opponents into action, with the next confrontation planned for the better-prepared Upper Capital 42.

Grain Profiteering and Promotion

• Receives Fang Ke’s report about three grain merchants manipulating prices and bribing Guard personnel. Although furious, he concludes that the emperor has tacitly accepted the arrangement to support the coming northern campaign 48.
• Promises to protect Yang Ge, rewards him with promotion to Probationary Hundred-Household Commander, and instructs him not to interfere further while Shen Fa handles the merchants 48.
• Announces his own forthcoming promotion to Pacification Commissioner for supervising the Xie treason case, then prepares to seek an imperial audience 48.

Notable Quotes

“I want to become someone like that!”
— After Yang Ge describes those who sacrifice themselves to keep ordinary lives peaceful 12.

“You reap what you sow. Cheat your martial arts, and your martial arts will cheat you in return.” 35

“Just live your life in peace and practice your martial arts. Let your big brother handle this filthy, rotten bullshit. There’s no need to dirty your hands any further.” 42

Trivia

• Habitually enters Yang Ge’s courtyard by climbing the wall. He finally knocks after discovering a sign threatening to beat wall-climbers to death, protesting, “Why don’t you just write my name on it?” 34.
• Enjoys Yang Ge’s cooking and asks for a promotion banquet when rewarding him with a higher office 16 48.