Wen Li is a main character in The Demon's Light. He owns a plant shop named Plant Empire in Silivia.
Appearance[]
Wen Li is an elderly man, though spry and upright for his age. He has thinning whitish gray hair, short and tousled, alongside a wispy mustache. He often wears clothes in white, gray, or beige, usually dressed casually.
Personality[]
In his youth, Wen Li was strong and independent, and at a surface level appeared somewhat uncaring, impulsive and even cocky. He often believed he did not need to rely on the help of others and rather it was the opposite. He was also quite impressionable. For most of his life, he grew up without his mother, which led to his almost seemingly lack of empathy. Nonetheless, deep down, he is a caring and kind soul.
Later in life, Li also became rather generous and trusting, in addition to gaining a "kindly older man" demeanor. He appears now somewhat cynical and apathetic, even doddering sometimes. Other times, he appears to be a genial old man, jocular and amusing. To many, his actions come off as eccentric and unpredictable. He rarely, however, becomes angered or frustrated and keeps it contained.
Background[]
Wen Li was born to Shen and Sunshine Li in a private hospital in northern Hala. After being fed up by Sunshine's antics and abusiveness, in 255 TP, Shen and Li boarded a ferry to Thales, where Shen acquired a job as a textile merchant in Port City.
However, in 268 TP, Shen became increasingly sick. Li's rather protective and caring side emerged, and he did all he could for his father. Li was easily exhausted, working countless hours as a taxi driver to support them. The time came where his father recovered and Shen, seeing Li as a better person, told him to live his own life.
Eventually losing his taxi job, Li gained a more resilient attitude within his few months unemployed and became determined to follow through with acquiring a stable job. He soon found it too, when he met Gabriel Alchemilia after one of his campaign rallies. Impressed with his attitude and determination, Gabriel hired him immediately.
Li and Gabriel soon became very close friends, a new experience for him — friendship. Li quickly became one of Gabriel's most trusted allies and executives. Li spent many years working for Gabriel. But Li, disgusted by basic human rights violations he had discovered going on, quit after Gabriel refused to do anything about it, noting they were doing a "fine job."
However, Li was also inspired. He decided to enroll at the Silivian Institute of Biology to pursue a degree in botany, something he was fascinated by in his earlier years. This was where he met Yu Li, who would eventually become his wife. They studied together and, for the first legitimate time in Li's life, he felt love. After the two graduated, they married and Yu convinced Li to open a plant shop — Plant Empire.
They began traveling the world as much as they could in their free time. Li experienced many diverse cultures across Euclid and, in turn, was affected by them. They shaped his view of the world from a twisted place to something full of beauty.
In Li's later life, he became more involved with his aging father. Li, too, was aging, and Shen suggested he hire Da Chang, the son of two of Shen's good friends. Da became very trusted and lifted some of a burden from Li, to which Li rewarded him greatly for. Shen once again became sickly and frail, which halted Yu and Li's travels. They focused more on working at Plant Empire, where they (and an ill Shen) eventually moved into, and started breeding more varieties of flowers.
Role in Series[]
Season One[]
- "In Somnis Veritas"
While tending to an orchid at the Plant Empire counter, Wen Li was approached by Marshall Rooke. Welcoming the young man to the store, Li introduced himself and his wife, Yu, to Marshall, who stated that he was looking for another store. Extending his hand, Li told Marshall to look around the shop, which he did. Marshall eventually came up to the counter with several plants and offered an old coin as payment for them. Examining the coin, Li was impressed and decided to take the payment. Marshall then stated that he had no way to transport the plants. Li, in an act of kindness, told Yu to take care of the shop and had Marshall follow him. Leading him to his truck outside, the two loaded up the plants in the back and got inside. After Li asked where Marshall wanted to go, Marshall mentioned Samuel Brownlee's Laboratory of the Mind and said that he'll give Li directions. Li revealed that he was a good friend of Samuel's and that the lab was just a few blocks away.
- "Carpe Diem"
With the two finally arriving at The Laboratory of the Mind, they exited Li's truck and carried the plants up to the doorstep of the lab. Due to Marshall having trouble with opening the door, Li walked over and pressed the doorbell, making a comment about how simple it was to do so. After being let in by an assistant, Marshall placed the plants on a table as Li introduced himself to the assistant and shook his hand. After being told the whereabouts of Marshall's friends, Li grabbed Marshall by the arm and began to walk upstairs. Finding the room his friends are in, he decided to stay by the door while Marshall went in.
After hearing Marshall yelling in the room, Li lingered by the doorway. He and Marshall then became silent after seeing a photograph of Savannah Whitesmith's deceased body after she had been murdered.
Later, he joined the others for breakfast. Chris Wellington asked his name, and he introduced himself to the group.
- "Ticking Clock"
Seated at the breakfast table, Li watched as John Fontaine explained the mission to everyone. With Fontaine leaving the room, Atticus Anoethite proceeded to ask Blossom Cane, Li, Samuel, and Steven Devlin to leave as well so that he and his friends could discuss the operation alone.
Li refused, stating that the matter was bigger than all of them. With the others refusing as well, Li remained seated at the table. As the group pondered over whether or not they should join the operation, Li offered the advice that the operation would only be successful if they all joined it together and that they were the only hope for such a plan.
Eventually the group decided to go along with the plan.
- "Primo Victoria"
Fontaine trained Li and the others for three months in preparation for Operation: Primo Victoria. During this period, Li employed Marshall at Plant Empire and allowed him to stay in the upstairs loft.
Li was with Marshall in Plant Empire when the phone rang. He stopped what he was doing and prepared to answer, but Marshall tried to stop him. Li mocked what he deemed a "temper tantrum" from Marshall and listened to the phone's voicemail after the ringing stopped. On the phone, Chris informed the two that Primo Victoria was starting that day and that they were needed at Samuel's. With this in mind, Li reminded Marshall that he was an important part of the mission. Marshall attempted to brush off the call due to personal issues with Atticus and Blossom, but he agreed to go after some convincing from Li.
Li and Marshall arrived to the Laboratory of the Mind later than everyone else. On the way there, they had stopped to buy everyone food from Frog Kingdom. Marshall prepared to hand out food to everyone, but he was stopped by the sudden arrival of Fontaine. Arriving with a bag of Alchemilia Nutrition Cubes, Fontaine thanked everyone for their arrival and said the training would be over. Once everyone briefly had a look at the cube-shaped foodstuff, Fontaine confirmed that it was indeed time for Primo Victoria. He said that everyone would be separated into a Team A and B. A would disguise themselves and deactivate Remnant Rock's power, and B would storm the base after through the Port City bridge.
Once Fontaine finished, Samuel escorted everyone to an armory at the laboratory's basement. This was where everyone would select which weapon they would bring to the operation. Li selected a Halan Dao and attached it to his waist. As he was doing this, he noticed Marshall shoving many weapons into his pocket. After Marshall had taken quite a bit, Li affirmed to him that "that'll do."
Once everyone had taken a weapon, Li and the others went outside to get to Samuel's van. Marshall commented that Atticus and Steven were taking long, but the two eventually arrived without incident. With everyone inside his van, Samuel drove to Port City.
When everyone finally arrived to the seafaring Port City, Samuel took a moment to remind everyone of the plan. Samuel walked up to Li and confirmed if he was going to drive, and Li responded that he was capable. Samuel reminded Li that the drive could entail gunmen and bombers, but Li remained confident in his ability. After some final words with Team A, Li left with Team B to drive across the Port City bridge.
Li's drive across the bridge was peaceful for some moments. Melissa remarked that it seemed a bit too quiet, but Li continued to repeat the idea that it would be a straight drive. Eventually, however, Li's hopes would be shattered by the sudden clamor of bullets on the car from above. Blossom quickly ordered Li to speed go faster as Team B was caught in a panic and searched for the bullets. After Blossom's suggestion, Melissa told Li to pull over to get out of the line of fire, but Steven and Blossom quickly shot down this proposal.
The unseen gunmen eventually managed to shatter the car's back-glass, injuring those in the back. After a word with Melissa, Samuel reminded everyone that they would soon drive out of range of the immobile snipers. As Li's hands shook on the steering well, he said that he hoped everything didn't end up badly.
Team B soon ended up escaping the snipers. Once everything seem fine, Li checked on the team and asked everyone if they were okay. After everyone revealed that they were mostly fine, Samuel suggested to Li that they stop for a maintenance check on the car's tires. Li quickly agreed to the request, parking the car and giving everyone a chance to recover from the recent chase.
Samuel checked the car's tires and the others attended to cuts Blossom had received from the broken glass for a few moments. Once a few minutes had passed, Samuel called out to Team B and told them they should get in the car. His speech, however, suddenly stopped when everyone heard a sound in the distance. Team B looked down the bridge, and they discovered a set of gray humanoids known as Artificial Tieflings were quickly approaching. Everyone frantically ran inside the car at the sight, with Li once again being the driver.
Li decided to drive directly towards the gray beings, an action which had some vocal disapproval from Blossom. By closing the distance between the car and the creatures, some of the beings were able to jump on the car's windshield. In response to this, Li blew the car's horn and flipped on the windshield wipers. The sound of the horn appeared to have an effect on the creatures, as some leaped back and clutched their heads in pain.
Li continued to swerve on the bridge as the creatures continued their attack. Team B was forced to take action, taking out their guns and attempting to shoot the creatures off of the car. One creature had taken advantage of the shattered back window, thrusting its hand inside the car.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a wall of flames would appear down the road as Li continued driving. Li did not choose to stop or retreat, and he boldly drove straight for the flames despite pleas from Blossom.
- "Primo Victoria: Part II"
Li drove closer to the flames ahead amidst screams from Team B. Li chose to ignore everyone's pleas to turn back, driving directly into the wall of fire. The flaming obstacle engulfed the entire car and forced everyone to duck, while the creatures on top of the car dropped onto the ground and burnt to death in the fire.
After driving through the fire, Li, who had managed to make it through unharmed, hit the car's breaks and asked if everyone was fine. Blossom was the first to speak up, holding up her burnt left arm and telling him that everyone was not okay. To Blossom's response, Li only said that there was a first-aid-kit in the back. After some more angry words at Li for his actions, Team B decided to continue driving forward.
After taking a closer look at the facility through the car's shattered glass, Samuel asked everyone if they should continue on foot, since the car most likely suffered internal damage from the fire. Li quickly agreed with Samuel and got out of the car, telling everyone to get out and come with him as well. Once they got out, Team B quickly ran for the bridge to get into Remnant Rock.
Team B was nearing the entrance of Remnant Rock until they were stopped by a familiar obstacle from before. As they approached the bridge's end, Team B watched as a wall of flames obstructed the end of the bridge. When they turned around to investigate what was going on, the left and right sides of the bridge lit up with fire as well. Li unsheathed his dao and readied himself in case of a threat.
Eventually, the flame wall Team B drove through began to shift. At the bottom of the wall, some flames appeared to swirl into a homogeneous light blue. After spinning for a moment, the circle of fire was shot directly at the group. They quickly prepared to move out of the way, but the fire shot into the air and missed everyone.
From the hole that was created in the wall, Team B saw a group of figures approaching them. They watched as a set of gray androids followed closely behind a red-haired woman in a general's uniform. When the woman arrived in front of the group, she announced that they were all under arrest.
Melissa spoke up immediately, confidently telling the woman that she would not arrest anyone and calling her a "little bitch." In response, the woman disregarded the insult and revealed herself as General Nabi. After she finished talking to Melissa, Nabi mocked Team B's bold attempt to storm and uproot Remnant Rock. Nabi stated that if she was told where Atticus and Marshall were, she would grant everyone comfier cells.
The team quickly surrendered once they realized they were outmatched. Blossom was the first to surrender, with Steven after her. In his surrender, told Nabi that Atticus, Marshall, and Fontaine where in the facility's underground tunnels to the dismay of Blossom. Li, Samuel, and Chris quickly surrendered as well. With most of Team B haven given up, Nabi ordered everyone to get inside a black limousine that drove up behind her. Everyone followed the order and got inside, with the exception of Melissa. Melissa refused to surrender and tried to fire a shot at Nabi, but she was swiftly knocked out. Nabi drove Team B and took them to the Remnant Rock prison after their defeat.
Li was placed in the same cell as Blossom. In the cell, Blossom asked Li if he thought Atticus and Marshall would be able to make it out alive. Li nonchalantly responded that he thought they would be able to. After Blossom commented on how little Li said, Li proceeded to explain that though the two survived many things, the Corporation was a powerful entity that existed for decades. Despite Li taking note of Alchemilia's power, he said he still had high hopes that the two would be able to survive with the help of Fontaine.
After some more conversation, Li took out and played a harmonica to try and cheer Blossom up. Blossom prepared to ask him to stop, until she noticed that Li was nowhere in the cell. She tried to ask where Li was through the cell's wall, but the old man quickly left Blossom after saying he would get a few things.
Li ran through the prison for some time before arriving at a white table below a bulletin board. From the bulletin board, Li found and took an incomplete map of Remnant Rock and put it into his pocket. As he was preparing to leave; Li heard nearby footsteps and hid under the table. An Alchemilia guard arrived and looked over the bulletin, but they were quickly knocked out by a sucker punch from Li.
Li left the guard and table and took a look around the prison. He removed the map from his pocket and took a look at it, trying to think of a plan for escape. After being surprised at the mentions of "android storage" and "biological testing" on the map, Li eventually found the location of a staircase on the map. After examining the cell doors near him, Li opened a door to a gray staircase and hurriedly ascended it.
Li arrived at one of the prison's higher floors after taking the staircase. After exiting through a door, he discovered Samuel and Chris, who seemingly escaped their cells. Surprised, Samuel immediately asked Li if the paper he was holding was a map. Before Li could respond to Samuel, he noticed a man approaching behind Samuel and Chris.
The man, who was affiliated with Alchemilia, commented on everyone's words. He said that their plan to escape Remnant Rock would be a failure, and he ordered the three to return to their cells. Samuel turned around and faced the man, mocking his "empty threats" and saying the three would escape by the day's end.
The man responded to Samuel by reiterating the difficulty of escaping Remnant Rock. Before they finished speaking, however, all of the lights in the prison suddenly shut off one-by-one. This confirmed to Li and the others that Team A was alive and were able to shut off the power. With this in mind, Samuel, Li, and Chris, silently confirmed what had to be done next. The three quickly ran away with the goal of releasing the prisoners and inciting a riot.
The three succeeded and soon the prison fell into a chaos. After some running, Li got into a skirmish with the man everyone met earlier, Santo. After some fighting, Santo managed to pin Li to a wall. Santo prepared to finish him off, but Li was able to headbutt Santo and knock him unconscious. Li took Santo's pistol and hurried down a hallway.
In the distance, Li noticed an approaching figure. He went into a fighting stance and readied himself, but the figure grabbed Li's hand and revealed themselves as Samuel. Once Li made out Samuel's face, the two started talking. As they were speaking, Li felt someone behind him. Li prepared to fight back, but Samuel quickly shot and killed the guard that tried to attack Li.
With the guard dead, Samuel asked Li if he could still see the map. Li said it was too dark, and that he had difficulty deciphering the inmate placement algorithm. Samuel suggested they check upstairs. Li quickly agreed to do so and ran down the hallway, Samuel behind him. Eventually, they came across a metal door.
Li heard the lower levels of the prison crumbling as the two were by the door. Li commented at the sight, before telling Samuel to open the door as they were running out of time. Samuel agreed and opened the door.
When Samuel walked into the doorway, someone suddenly started choking him. Li prepared to fire at them, but once he hesitated when he realized it was the General from earlier, Nabi. The woman quickly tossed Samuel across the railing, leaving Li alone to face her.
- "Until Dawn"
As the group flew over Muné, the Hummingbird began to run out of fuel and Li had to take over the controls from Samuel, helping to land the plane.
After landing, Li followed Marshall out of the plane, commenting on how him and his wife lived on the continent for two months once. The group approached a large mansion, with Li stating that they should add a second count of trespassing to the list of their crimes. Samuel replied and mentioned that he owned the mansion.
After walking inside and the group surveyed the scene around them, Li sarcastically commented that it was a nice place. The group then dispersed for the night, with Li leaving to sleep in the Hummingbird.
The next morning, Li spoke at the funerals for Fontaine and Steven, commenting on what he liked about each and then ending the ceremony by playing on his harmonica.
Trivia[]
- He is known to play the harmonica.
- Wen Li has a coin collection he stores in his basement.
- In Season 2, he takes on the use of a cane.
- He strongly dislikes using his reading glasses.