Yan Shaozhe

Biodata

Appearance

• Usual appearance: A refined, easygoing face and a suave, debonair manner 4 13.
• Hands: Slightly roughened by years of cultivating fire-attribute soul power 22.
• Farmer disguise: A tattered straw hat, heavily patched clothes, and chicken feathers stuck to his face while posing as a Niulai villager 21.
• During his humiliation: Frequently appears with bloodshot eyes, a livid expression, and eventually pronounced dark circles beneath his eyes 13 23.

Personality

Yan Shaozhe is fiercely protective of Shrek Academy’s reputation and Martial Soul orthodoxy. He initially considers its teaching methods the finest on the continent and dismisses soul tools, even secretly withholding resources from the Soul Tool Department. Nevertheless, he privately recognizes the accuracy of several of Su Xian’s criticisms and admits that he would abandon his dignity to recruit an exceptional student 4 5 6.

His pride makes personal criticism especially difficult to endure. Su Xian’s attacks repeatedly provoke threats, uncontrolled flames, and attempts to confront him. The humiliation also spills into Yan’s work: he berates teachers over minor mistakes and angrily reprimands a finance supervisor for a misplaced decimal point 10 12 13.

Yan is politically perceptive and protective of his authority. He immediately recognizes the danger when Zhang Lexuan asks Su Xian to identify Shrek’s conservative leaders, then argues for gradual reform when an immediate overhaul threatens his position. His attachment to power coexists with genuine concern for Shrek: he later endorses Su Xian’s financial strategy and recognizes the potential value of scientific research 14 16 29 33.

Abilities & Skills

Bright Phoenix

Yan’s martial soul manifests as a vast phoenix accompanied by intense golden flames 8.

• Ultimate Fire: He prides himself on its destructive power, including against hundred-thousand-year soul beasts 22.
• Heat emission: Surging soul power distorts the surrounding air and evaporates falling rain 4 11.
• Phoenix wings: Wings emerge behind him when he charges toward Su Xian’s cabin 12.

Phoenix Cloud-Piercing Strike

A devastating fire attack used to annihilate the Death Messenger’s base 9.

• Produces a golden pillar of fire more than thirty meters in diameter 8.
• Destroys the base in a single strike, leaving no survivors 9.
• Is powerful enough to erase the enemy position rather than leave it available for student training 8 9.

Super Douluo Strength and Pressure

Yan possesses Level 95 Super Douluo cultivation 32.

• His pressure prevents the Death Messenger from releasing his martial soul 8.
• His physical blows produce thunderous impacts while he pounds a huge boulder without using soul skills 10.
• His restrained soul power is described as sufficient to level Shrek’s entire Back Mountain 4.
• His rampage toward Su Xian’s cabin is stopped by the combined intervention of Xuan Zi, Qian Duoduo, and Xian Lin'er 12.

Administration and Political Judgment

As dean, Yan oversees the Martial Soul Department and exercises influence over staffing, budgets, and student recruitment 5 6 13.

• Recognizes that an abrupt redistribution of resources could provoke internal revolt and split the academy 16.
• Draws on the Inspection Corps’ intelligence network to identify the group described in Su Xian’s warning 6.
• Proposes using sealed academy records and official appointments to establish a protected identity for Su Xian 29.

Equipment & Items

• Folding fan — Associated with his customary defense of Martial Soul orthodoxy during departmental disputes 6.
• Jade sound-transmission soul tool — Crushed to powder in his hand after Su Xian calls him an ineffectual puppet 12.
• Villager clothing and straw hat — Used to conceal his identity while participating in the Niulai Village deception 21 24.

Relationships

• Mu En — Teacher and superior. Yan is his direct disciple, but Mu En repeatedly restrains him and threatens to strip the martial soul of anyone obstructing reform, including senior department leaders 4 16.
• Cai Mei'er — Wife and vice dean of the Martial Soul Department. She tries to soothe his temper and initially wonders whether his agitation comes from a cultivation problem 13.
• Xian Lin'er — Former romantic partner and departmental rival. Their youthful relationship ended after his involvement with Cai Mei'er; she later confronts him over his suppression of soul-tool development 6 10.
• Qian Duoduo — Rival administrator and Xian Lin'er’s husband. Despite their disputes, Qian initially defends Yan’s personal morality before Su Xian exposes his romantic history 10.
• Ma Xiaotao — Personal disciple, whose martial soul is the Evil Fire Phoenix. She later joins the village deception in the role of a migrant worker girl 10 19.
• Su Xian — A protected source of future knowledge and the person whose criticism repeatedly humiliates Yan. Yan resents him intensely but eventually acknowledges the value of his economic and scientific ideas 11 29 33.
• Zhang Lexuan — Reform leader who targets Yan’s departmental power base. Under Mu En’s authority, she compels him to dismiss senior instructors 16 23.
• Xuan Zi — Fellow Shrek leader who alternates between consoling, mocking, and physically restraining him. Yan later attempts to calm Xuan Zi when Su Xian turns his criticism back on him 5 11 23.
• Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi — Students he recruits to pose as the village children A-Bei and A-Shi for Su Xian’s lessons 5.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Youth and Established Position

In his youth, Yan became involved with Xian Lin'er before also pursuing Cai Mei'er. The resulting romantic conflict drove Xian Lin'er away; she subsequently married Qian Duoduo, while Cai Mei'er became Yan’s wife. Su Xian later recounts these events in front of those involved, and their reactions confirm the history 10 13.

By Su Xian’s arrival, Yan is the dean of Shrek’s Martial Soul Department and Mu En’s direct disciple. He has spent decades cultivating trusted followers within the department and holds substantial influence over its resources and personnel 4 16.

Establishing the Niulai Village Deception

Mu En orders Yan to construct a dilapidated village on Shrek’s Back Mountain so the academy can investigate the blind Su Xian without revealing its identity. Yan participates in the deception while struggling with the claim that their world exists as a novel in Su Xian’s homeland 1 2.

Su Xian’s criticism soon turns directly toward Yan, exposing his prejudice against soul tools and his willingness to compete for talented students. Mu En forces him to acknowledge the substance of these accusations. Yan then brings Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi to study under Su Xian as supposed village children 4 5.

Yan also arranges expensive restorative food for Su Xian, including ten-thousand-year Earth Dragon Tendon Grass and a Mystic Water Pill. Su Xian mistakes the preparation for unpleasant village food and complains about its bitterness, further aggravating him 4.

Eliminating the Death Messengers

Su Xian warns that a future student mission against the Death Messengers will end with Yao Haoxuan dead and Chen Zifeng crippled because of inadequate precautions. Yan recognizes the group from existing intelligence, while Su Xian’s analysis shakes his confidence in Shrek’s training methods 6.

Mu En orders him to lead elite teachers from both departments against the base with no training exercises, probing attacks, or restraint. Yan suppresses the Death Messenger before he can release his martial soul and annihilates the base with a single Phoenix Cloud-Piercing Strike 6 8 9.

Repeated Confrontations with Su Xian

Su Xian attacks Yan’s romantic history, teaching practices, and political judgment while Yan listens outside the cabin. Some accusations concern events from the original story that have not yet happened in the current timeline, including his handling of Ma Xiaotao’s condition and his alleged failure to protect Shrek’s interests in the Spirit Pagoda 10 11.

Yan initially vents his fury by pounding a boulder. Later, after being described as a useless puppet, he charges toward the cabin and must be dragged away by Xuan Zi, Qian Duoduo, and Xian Lin'er. Mu En conceals the struggle by telling Su Xian that a wild boar has been caught in a trap 10 12.

Departmental Purge and Loss of Authority

After a vision of Shrek’s nuclear destruction, Zhang Lexuan identifies Yan and Elder Song as leading obstacles to reform. Yan argues that immediate, sweeping changes would provoke rebellion within the academy. Mu En accepts a gradual approach but appoints Zhang Lexuan to implement performance appraisals, beginning with the Martial Soul Department 16.

The resulting purge removes corrupt, idle, and anti-reform teachers, including Yan’s own followers. Under threat of Mu En’s intervention, Yan publicly condemns his subordinates and carries out their dismissals. He later reports that he has personally dismissed forty-five senior instructors and that former allies now accuse him of betrayal 17 23.

His authority is sharply reduced, but he remains involved in major academy deliberations 19.

Continuing the Village Disguise

When Su Xian demands to explore Niulai Village, Yan proposes revealing the truth so that Shrek’s authority will finally intimidate him. Zhang Lexuan rejects the idea, warning that a frightened Su Xian might conceal or falsify his knowledge. Yan is instead tasked with helping mobilize powerful Soul Masters to build a convincing village overnight 18.

While disguised as a farmer, Yan hears Su Xian use him as a warning against scientific backwardness. A lesson about the sun’s immense size also challenges his pride in his own fire power 21 22.

Yan eventually approaches Su Xian directly as “Old Yan” and defends Shrek’s prestige, territory, and record of producing powerful cultivators. He cannot answer Su Xian’s argument that a small elite cannot defeat the Sun Moon Empire’s future mechanized forces 24.

Financial Reform and Growing Interest in Science

Yan participates in the decision to establish the Sea God Pavilion Bank. Mu En assigns him and Zhang Lexuan to mobilize the Inner Court’s enforcement teams and secretly secure Shrek City’s treasuries before the bank opens 28.

Although still resentful of Su Xian’s insults, Yan wholeheartedly endorses the proposed financial strategy. He also suggests fabricating a protected background for Su Xian through top-secret academy files or granting him an appointment above ordinary departments 29.

Su Xian’s questions about the underlying nature of soul power make Yan recognize the limits of traditional cultivation knowledge. He subsequently advocates investigating scientific methods and asks whether acquiring petroleum and rubber overseas would allow Shrek to begin an Industrial Revolution. His alarm at the answer—that industrialization requires abandoning the desire to stand above everyone else—shows the remaining tension between his reformist interests and established privilege 32 33 34.

Notable Quotes

“Rest assured, Teacher. For the academy's future, I'll endure it even if he calls me shameless!” 5

“If we forcibly implement a new system without any buffer and slash the Martial Soul Department's resources, it will inevitably provoke a revolt throughout the academy!” 16

Trivia

• Yan has no sons or daughters, leaving him without a descendant to nominate when the elders compete for places in Su Xian’s village classroom 19.
• He eventually finds relief in hearing Su Xian insult Qian Duoduo and Xian Lin'er, despite receiving another insult himself during the same conversation 27.
• His “old bachelor” village identity conceals the fact that he is married to Cai Mei'er 13 24.