Nangong Shen

First Meeting1 / 14

The eldest Young Lord of the Nangong Family.
With all eyes upon him, heir to his family's learning, refined and elegant, accomplished in all Four Arts. Not only is he well connected in the Jianghu, he has considerable ties among the refined scholars as well.

Biographies

Steeped in it since childhood, and clever and quick besides, he makes good use of his family's wealth and connections. The Family Head taught him martial arts himself, and famous masters guided his calligraphy; in food, clothing, and every comfort he lives like the nobles of Lin'an. He holds no office, yet lives more comfortably than any scholar.

He sets himself above others, and his Worldliness carries more than a hint of the spoiled young lord.

He is engaged to Shangguan Ying, the only daughter of the Shangguan Family, but whenever the two meet they either quarrel or come to blows.

Moved to caution by the Hegemon-King of Chu slitting his own throat at the Wu River, he holds that martial valor alone cannot accomplish anything. Which founding king in history was himself a great martial artist? Those who flaunt a common man's courage only throw their lives away.

So he only skims the surface of everything. The Eldest Young Lord is accomplished in all Four Arts, yet seeks mastery in none.

His attitude toward both letters and martial arts is to get by, and he is good at talking his way out of things with a clever tongue.

He believes his true task is to know people and use them well: to command the strongest warriors and drive the most learned scholars. Only that makes one truly above others.

For all his talent and strategy, he cannot escape the habits of a young lord: fond of flowers and lustful, he and a few friends are known together as the Four Young Lords of Flower City, regulars of the pleasure quarters.

If not for Shangguan Ying's thin skin and hard fists, there would surely have been trouble before the wedding.

Worldliness

• He treats people in two extremes: he loathes the powerless, and toward those with strength and skill his attitude is entirely different.
• He keeps them fed and wateredand whored.
• Wei Ju finds it hard to compliment him and keeps a respectful distance. Her original words:

  "He consorts with literati, yet prides himself on a Wulin lineage; he has depths, but they are neither deep nor shallow;
  　He touches the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting but seeks no understanding, and feigns unfathomable profundity—mere imitation of refinement;
  　He loves ease and hates labor, fawns on scholars of talent, orders laborers about from on high, yet holds farmers and merchants cheap.
  　The poems he writes are vulgar beyond bearing, and the characters he writes claim a sword's qi but are in truth all bared fangs and claws;
  　He clearly has so fine a fiancée as Lady Shangguan, yet fancies himself a romantic and dallies with every flower."

• The Legend text describes Nangong Shen with particular venom, and it is suspected that Wei Ju is taking a sly jab.
• Together with Chen Xu, Yu Ziyong, Cheng Xi, and , he is counted among the Four Young Lords of Flower City, a regular of the pleasure quarters. Why the Four Young Lords of Flower City number five has always embarrassed him; unwilling to offend anyone, he always muddles through with vague answers when asked.
• He is friends with Fang Zhentian, junior alliance leader of Jingjiang Nine Counties, Duan Chunqing, Chief Forge Master of Fire Mountain, and Qi Ren, wielder of the Heaven-Slaying Black Wing Twin Dragon Sword.

Attire

• The author confirms he has the biggest chest. Truly worthy of the Deep V Hero^[1]
• On the Western Wulin route, there is a chance to face a super Nangong Shen wearing the Phoenix Treasure Robe.
  • Nangong Zhi forged this battle armor back then to intimidate the Jin army; the more exaggerated and conspicuous the better. It was indeed unstoppable when charging into battle, but against Wulin experts it is clumsy and heavy.
• Ye Yunshang's first impression of him: "Why aren't any of you saying anything? Is that really normal? Is that right? Look at those shoulders, that cloak, that headpiece, and his collar is open so wide—he's obviously doing it on purpose!"

Shangguan Ying

• His engagement to Shangguan Ying was arranged entirely by his . Shangguan Ying was beautiful by nature, and he liked her at first sight; childhood sweethearts, the two got on very well. They even went together to study at the Gengyang Reading Studio, where they became classmates of Wei Ju.
• Seeing Shangguan Ying grow ever more beautiful and, at a young age, manage the family business in her father's stead while he was only an Eldest Young Lord, he felt ashamed at how far his ability fell short of hers. He urged Shangguan Ying not to show herself in public—partly because he did not want the world to fix its eyes on her beauty, and partly because he feared she was too capable, leaving him far behind and hard to control after marriage.
• He cares deeply about face and cannot stand Shangguan Ying scolding him in public, or even cursing him before his friends for keeping bad company, or before his tutor for his poor mastery of the arts.
• He took up with courtesans precisely to make Shangguan Ying wary. Though Yue Ping was somewhat plainer in looks, she was gentler and more pleasing, always speaking in a soft voice and clinging to him like a little bird. Just when Nangong Shen most needed affection, she stole his heart.
• Before the Battle of Jiangling, out of religious scruples he refused the prayer beads Shangguan Ying had begged for on his behalf, and instead accepted the Sachet Yue Ping had sewn overnight.
• But after the Battle of Jiangling he broke off his engagement to Shangguan Ying. The stated reason was that the Shangguan Family held office, and the match might make it hard for the Nangong Family to remain impartial in the Wulin. In truth, it was because he had gotten Yue Ping pregnant.
• He regretted it as soon as the engagement was dissolved, but Shangguan Ying was no longer willing to turn back.
• Though the engagement was broken, they remained friends, and when he learned Shangguan Ying was to be married far away in Japan, he tried to help.

The Junior Martial Sister's Suitor Contest

• He took part in the contest for 's hand, hoping the Nangong Family and the Tang Clan might stand on the same side.
• He had his eye on 's gentle, kind nature, thinking she might set aside prejudice, accept Yue Ping, and live with her in harmony.
• At the interview, knew he was steeped in books and that another literary test would be pointless, so he posed a problem of conduct, or had ask why he had broken his engagement to Shangguan Ying. In the martial test he was scrupulously courteous, and whenever he beat an opponent he gave them a way to save face.

Martial Arts

• When he defends with all his strength, his guard is watertight; even one as strong as the Painting Immortal can do nothing to him for a time. Even when Yu Xiaomei joined in a fierce assault, his Pauldron's miracle just barely held off the attack.
• The Phoenix Treasure Robe is the bane of Melee; even Nan Xi was hard pressed.

Notes

• His single-character name "Shen" (deep) refers to his character, and stands in deliberate contrast to his younger brother Nangong Qian (shallow).^[2]
• His mother is alive but does not live in the Nangong Family; she returned to her maiden home many years ago and has little contact with the Nangong Family.^[3]
• He is deeply afraid of Tang Buyi. More than once he was beaten by a Masked Man for his philandering, and when he set a private trap to retaliate he was beaten even worse.
• Seeing that Zhao Huo can use the martial arts of every sect and looks as if he wears a Human Skin Mask—strong in martial arts without having received true transmission—he once suspected Zhao Huo of being the Thousand-Faced Demon.
• When the Tang Clan did not actively move against the Demon Cult besieging Jiangling, he also suspected the Tang Clan of being Mud Cult spies, and spoke to them most rudely.
• As an envoy of the Wulin Alliance, he ought not to have leaked the Alliance's intelligence, yet he named the Alliance's experts and secretly tipped off the Tang Clan.

---

1. Youtube－【Exclusive Broadcast】Behind the Scenes of the Hit Legend of Mortal! The Production Team's First Livestream Interview! ft. Bird, Bear, Youhuo ↩︎

2. Game Corner－Interview with Original Bird Bear (2) The Anko Spirit of Legend of Mortal—Random Piles Finally Become a Legend of the Wulin ↩︎

3. Bahamut－RE:【Information】Bird Bear Q&A Collection (Updated 11/2 Second Wave + Private Questions) ↩︎