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Ye Shiyuan

Last updated 2026-09-11

This article is about the Yunkui Summit NPC. For the enemy mind-controlled by the Creator, see Ye Shiyuan the Thrall.

I don't care about my calamity. I only care about whether or not I can save her.

Ye Shiyuan (Chinese: 叶释渊) is a commission-exclusive NPC and a former member of Yunkui Summit Yunkui Summit.

Profile

Despite being a member of Yunkui Summit, Ye Shiyuan has a more analytical, down-to-earth approach to the world; he is prone to question everything and plan ahead, which is why Pan Yinhu dubbed him as "cynical."[3] He deeply cares for his sister Shunguang, and he swore to find a way to free her from the Qingming Sword curse.[4]

History

Ye Shiyuan's parents were free spirits that dabbled in the mystic arts and spent their youth traveling the world; after witnessing the dangers of Miasma, they decided to settle in Waifei Peninsula with their firstborn son to study a better way to suppress it, and welcomed their second child Shunguang shortly after.[5] Shiyuan and Shunguang thus spent part of their childhood in the residential area near the mines.

During the Fall of the Old Capital,[6] there was a Miasma outbreak at the mining site: Shiyuan and Shunguang's parents managed to protect the two children with a technique, while they themselves got corrupted, and asked Banyue to leave them behind and save the kids instead.[7] This experience scarred Shiyuan, who started having nightmares of his parents getting killed by a monstrous figure in the Miasma. After a short period where the two siblings had to scrape by in a relief center,[8] Banyue brought them to Yunkui Summit so that they could be taken in under Yixuan's guidance.[5] The Ye siblings arrived at temple gates at the same time as Pan Yinhu, and to establish their order of seniority, Yixuan made them draw lots; Shiyuan let his eager sister draw first, but she drew the junior lot, while Shiyuan himself became the most senior one, with Pan Yinhu in the middle.[4] Settling at Yunkui Summit made Shiyuan's nightmares gradually subside.[5]

In the beginning, Shiyuan struggled with his training as a mystic, unlike his sister, whose talent was eventually noticed by the Qingming Sword, which chose her as its new wielder.[9] At first, the news made him ecstatic, but when he learnt of the curse the sword entailed, he swore to find a way to save Shunguang, even resorting to experimenting with forbidden techniques, trying to shift the Qingming Sword's side effects onto himself instead. This angered and saddened Yixuan, and he promised he would never let his obsession ruin him, not even for Shunguang's sake.[4]

When the Lemnian Hollow started displaying abnormal observation data readings, he followed Yixuan, Ju Fufu and Pan Yinhu in relocating to Suibian Temple to investigate the situation under Mayor Mayflower's request.[3] However, returning to Waifei Peninsula made his nightmares of the Fall resurface again, deeply troubling his sleep,[6] now with seeing Shunguang getting consumed by the Qingming Sword as a new nightmare.[10]

A few months later, while the rest of the team was trying to prevent Mevorakh's ascension, he faced Sarah alone. He thus witnessed the Overseer mark being granted to her, which shook his beliefs that the Creator was not real, and Sarah tempted him with the possibility of the Creator granting his "wish."[11] She then took him by surprise and feigned[12] using her power of "Erasure" to free him from his nightmares, forcing him to change into his hidden form.[10] Shiyuan played along, with the plan of locating and destroying the Creator before They could take form.[13][12] His schemes were however predicted by the Creator, and Sarah let him believe he had the upper hand;[4] the Qingming Bird messenger he tried to use to contact Yixuan got trapped in Miasma by the Creator.[7] Shiyuan helped Sarah find the array needed to gather the Miasma's power for the Creator's descent, in exchange for the promise of not including Shunguang (who he believed was still on Yunkui Summit) in her plotting.[7] After witnessing that Sarah had tended a trap to Shunguang to lure her in the Hollow, he went with Sarah to evoke the Creator, only to attack her while she was distracted. However, this did not stop her, as she managed to merge with the Creator despite her wounds, and they together corrupted Shiyuan with Miasma.[7] His mind-controlled self then attacked the newly arrived Phaethon, Dialyn, Banyue and Shunguang, pushing the latter into unsheathing the Qingming Sword so that the Creator could absorb its power.[7] After the unsheathed Qingming Sword hit him, he returned to his senses, rushing to help his sister. Nonetheless, he left immediately to investigate further into the Qingming Sword's nature, since he had gained important info by accessing the Creator's mind while possessed.[14]

After discovering Lu Hengzhou's scheme of sacrificing orphans to the Qingming Sword, Shiyuan grew resentful towards Yunkui Summit:[15] he temporarily aided them during the Lemnian Hollow emergency for the sake of Failume Heights and his sister,[16] but after Shunguang got awarded the Void Hunter medal, he left the sect, aiming to uncover the secrets of the Void Hunter Weapons and find a way to put an end to the Qingming Sword negative effects.[17] He reached Faunus Quarter, helping many people along his way, and planned to head to the edge of the Pluto Quarter, in order to get as close as possible to the Old Capital to find clues.[18]

Commission and Event Appearances

Phaethon's Story Episodes

Story Commissions

Trust Commissions

Events

Hearsay Commissions

Character Mentions

Agent Intel

AgentIntel

Enemy Intel

Dialogue

Trivia

Etymology

  • 叶释渊 Yè Shìyuān is a name that observes Chinese name structure of monosyllabic surname + disyllabic name. His surname, 叶 Yè, means "leaf"; His given name, 释渊 Shìyuān, could be translated as "he who explains what is profound", from 释 shì, "explain, release" and 渊 yuān, "abyss, deep".

HoYoverse Shared VA

Gallery

Knock Knock Icon

Video Archive Stills

Cutscene Stills

Comic Book Images

Wallpapers

Videos

Other Languages

LanguageOfficial Name
EnglishYe Shiyuan
Chinese
(Simplified)		叶释渊
Yè Shìyuān
Chinese
(Traditional)		葉釋淵
Yè Shìyuān
Japanese葉釈淵
Yō Shakuen[19]
Korean엽석연
Yeopseogyeon
SpanishYe Shiyuan
FrenchYe Shiyuan
RussianЕ Шиюань
Ye Shiyuan'
ThaiYe Shiyuan
VietnameseYe Shiyuan
GermanYe Shiyuan
IndonesianYe Shiyuan
PortugueseYe Shiyuan

Change History

References

  1. ↑ Twitter (X): EN VA Self Announcement
  2. ↑ Twitter: JP VA Self Announcement
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Phaethon's Story, Where Clouds Embrace the Dawn, Episode 4: Welcome to Suibian Temple!
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Phaethon's Story, On the Precipice of the Abyss, Episode 5: Fleeting Warmth
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Phaethon's Story, On the Precipice of the Abyss, Episode 3: Cryptic
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Phaethon's Story, Where Clouds Embrace the Dawn, Episode 8: Calamity Casts a Shadow, Yet Shows No Sign
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Phaethon's Story, On the Precipice of the Abyss, Episode 6: A Series of Changes
  8. ↑ Trust Event Commission: When Memories Drift By
  9. ↑ Story Commission: Leisurely Lull: Untold Secrets
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Phaethon's Story, On the Precipice of the Abyss, Episode 1: New Resident
  11. ↑ Phaethon's Story, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, Episode 8: Ending at Last...?
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 HoYoLAB: Enemy Dossier | Ye Shiyuan the Thrall
  13. ↑ Phaethon's Story, On the Precipice of the Abyss, Episode 7: A Storm Brews
  14. ↑ Phaethon's Story, To Be Fuel for the Night, Episode 7: A Sudden Turn of Events
  15. ↑ Phaethon's Story, To Be Fuel for the Night, Episode 8: Secrets Beneath the Ice
  16. ↑ Phaethon's Story, To Be Fuel for the Night, Episode 9: "Our" Connection
  17. ↑ Phaethon's Story, To Be Fuel for the Night, Episode 12: Epilogue
  18. ↑ Event Commission: Heart of the Sword
  19. ↑ YouTube: Version 2.4 Japanese Special Program (Timestamp: 8m 42s)