Shangguan Hong

Shangguan Hong is a violet-gold-robed 9-Essences Paragon of the Vast Expanse School. He is the cultivator who purchases Meng Hao's apparently dead body and brings it into the scheme to receive Paragon Heaven-Eye.

Biography

The purchased body

Shangguan Hong first enters Meng Hao's story as the violet-gold-robed elder who buys what appears to be a dead but perfectly preserved body from Yun Shan and Yun Feng. He recognizes it as the remains of a nine-Essences expert and sees enormous value in a vessel that has suffered little decay. The purchase is practical rather than compassionate: the Vast Expanse School needs a body capable of receiving the dying Paragon Heaven-Eye, and Shangguan Hong has found an exceptional candidate. (Chapters 1411–1413)

He and the other senior Paragons invest rare medicinal plants, formation power, and their own cultivation into repairing the corpse. They do not know that Meng Hao's soul has survived inside the bronze lamp or that the body is recovering from within. When Heaven-Eye's soul descends, Meng Hao consumes it and emerges as the supposed Ninth Paragon. Shangguan Hong formally welcomes him, but the profound look in his eyes and his blunt question after Meng Hao leaves show that he is not fully convinced by the transformation. The school's need for a Ninth Paragon is greater than his suspicion, so he accepts the useful result while continuing to watch. (Chapters 1413–1419)

Ninth Paragon and necropolis expeditions

Shangguan Hong becomes one of the senior figures trying to contain the hostility between Meng Hao and the Sixth and Eighth Paragons. Before the first expedition he steps between Meng Hao and the Sixth, urging the new Ninth Paragon to let the dispute go. His mediation is cautious rather than heroic; when the attack continues, Meng Hao answers it personally and demonstrates power far beyond what Shangguan Hong expected. The later destruction of the Eighth Paragon and the battle with Jin Yunshan repeatedly force Shangguan Hong to recalculate what kind of being the school has admitted. (Chapters 1421–1439)

Inside Patriarch Vast Expanse's necropolis, he advances with the sect's Paragons through environments capable of killing even nine-Essences cultivators. He recognizes Jin Yunshan's terrifying Void Divinity and witnesses Meng Hao survive and counter techniques that leave the other Paragons gasping. Once Meng Hao provides access to an altar and its opportunities, Shangguan Hong joins the others in approaching respectfully. The relationship changes from wary supervision to dependence: the school's old plan created the Ninth Paragon, but only Meng Hao can repeatedly carry that plan beyond its expected limits. (Chapters 1422–1441)

Shangguan Hong continues participating in the school's preparations after the first expedition. He questions the Sect Leader about the new possibility of remaining within the necropolis long-term. His supplied-text role remains that of a powerful institutional survivor rather than a personal disciple of Meng Hao: he cooperates when the benefits are real, avoids pointless confrontation, and keeps enough skepticism to ask what others leave unsaid. He is last directly named in this discussion. (Chapter 1468)

Appearance and personality

Shangguan Hong is an old man dressed in distinctive violet-gold robes. The clothing makes him easy to identify among the Vast Expanse School's senior Paragons, but the narrative otherwise emphasizes his gaze and reactions rather than a detailed physique.

He is shrewd, acquisitive, and institutionally minded. He can recognize value in an unknown corpse, commit tremendous resources to a calculated plan, and then accept an unforeseen outcome without pretending to trust it completely. Formal courtesy serves him as both etiquette and concealment. He is also pragmatic enough to mediate disputes and retreat from threats that exceed him; this caution is not cowardice so much as the survival discipline of a cultivator who has reached nine Essences without confusing status with invulnerability.

Abilities and cultivation

Nine-Essences cultivation

Shangguan Hong stands among the Vast Expanse School's ruling Paragons. He can endure the pressure of the necropolis, travel with the Sect Leader's expedition, and intervene between other nine-Essences experts, although peak figures such as Jin Yunshan and Meng Hao still surpass him.

Corpse assessment and refinement

He identifies Meng Hao's body as the exceptionally intact remains of a nine-Essences expert. Together with the other Paragons, he channels cultivation and rare medicines through large formations to restore the vessel for Heaven-Eye. The work repairs accumulated damage but does not give Shangguan Hong control over the soul that ultimately occupies it. (Chapters 1413–1418)

Essence power

As a Paragon he can deploy Essence-based attacks and defenses at the level required for the school's expeditions. The supplied scenes show him more often restraining companions and contributing to formations than unveiling a named personal Essence, so no specific Dao should be inferred.

Necropolis resistance

Shangguan Hong withstands multiple hostile regions inside Patriarch Vast Expanse's tomb and remains functional while weaker cultivators require protection. Survival depends on group formations, the Sect Leader's direction, and Meng Hao's breakthroughs as well as his own cultivation. (Chapters 1422–1441)

Political mediation

He steps between the Sixth Paragon and Meng Hao before their conflict can compromise the expedition. The attempt fails to end the feud, but it demonstrates his role as a senior stabilizer rather than an aggressive faction leader. (Chapter 1422)

Relationships

• Meng Hao: Purchases his body, later treats him as the Ninth Paragon, and remains wary of his true identity.
• Vast Expanse School Sect Leader: His supreme leader.
• Su Yi and Xin Yue: Fellow participants in the first necropolis expedition, though subordinate to Meng Hao rather than Shangguan Hong.

Items

• No independently notable item is assigned to Shangguan Hong; his major investment is the collective stock of medicines and formation resources used to repair Meng Hao's body.