Fang Yuan

Courtesy name Xianmou. Yuan Fang is the first member of the Eight Enigma, genius military advisors handpicked by renowned veteran strategist Sima Hui 'Shujing' from his students. As a promising member of the prominent Yuan clan, Yuan Fang's primary goal is to expand his clan's territory in the north, and acts as First advisor to the clan leader, his uncle Yuan Shao. With his diminution tactics, Yuan Fang has single-handedly eliminated the entire Guandong Alliance (formed to overthrow Dong Zhuo) and later, Yuan clan's strongest adversary Gongsun Zan, solidifying their position in the north.

Unbeknownst to Yuan Fang until he was 22, he is actually Yuan Shao's illegitimate son conceived from his mother's adultery after her husband's death. As his brilliance far surpasses his three half-brothers (Yuan Shao's legitimate sons), Yuan Shao inwardly acknowledges Yuan Fang as the true heir and spares no efforts to strengthen his position within the clan, which include murdering Yuan Fang's fiancée to ensure his engagement with the eminent warlord Sun Jian's daughter, Sun Shu. Although Yuan Fang never truly forgives his father for this, over the years he starts to relent to Yuan Shao's plans, and gradually manifest the ambition to take over the clan and overthrow Imperial Han.

The course of the story also observes Yuan Fang's transformation into a ruthless anti-hero unhesitating to eliminate anyone in his way, even his fellow classmates. In the prelude battle of the Guandu campaign between Yuan and Cao faction, Yuan Fang is noted as the first Enigma to direct a fatal assault on the other Enigmas (the recipients being Xun Yu and Guo Jia). Although he failed to take their lives, this movement signified the dissolution of the Eight Enigmas, causing their master Shujing to retire.