NovelPantheon

Hu Pao

Wang Lin's former disciple who masters a modified soul-refining spell and rebelsSoul Refining Tribe

Hu Pao is a Demon Spirit Land youth who follows Wang Lin alongside Thirteen, learns the soul-refining spell, and later turns against his teacher after imprisonment and manipulation. In ten years he gathers one hundred million soul fragments, but the weakness built into the inherited spell allows Wang Lin to take control of them and end the rebellion. (Chapters 541–606)

Biography

Following the Ancestor

Hu Pao travels with Wang Lin and Thirteen as one of the youths who address him as Ancestor. He is less rigid than Thirteen—tempted by wine, privately complaining when discipline becomes uncomfortable, and quick to sneer at defeated enemies—but he is also genuinely concerned when Wang Lin falls into a dangerous state of nostalgia. When demon soldiers threaten them in a restaurant, Hu Pao suppresses his anger until fighting becomes unavoidable. (Chapters 541–547)

Learning soul refinement

In battle, Hu Pao uses small soul flags to release more than a dozen fragments and combine their pressure with Thirteen's physical assault. The pair recognize that they are outmatched by the demon soldiers, yet resolve to protect Wang Lin even if they die. Wang Lin later develops Hu Pao's talent in the soul-refining path, giving him a foundation that can grow rapidly in the soul-rich Demon Spirit Land. (Chapters 546–550 and 562–566)

Imprisonment and radicalization

After separation from Wang Lin, Hu Pao is captured by a commander who crushes his bones and shatters his meridians. He suffers torture and humiliation in a dark prison while repeatedly hoping Wang Lin will rescue him. A new benefactor saves him, modifies the soul-refining spell, and uses a method that burns Hu Pao's future potential and lifespan for a brief, enormous increase in power. Hu Pao comes to interpret Wang Lin's absence as abandonment and his former discipleship as exploitation. (Chapters 604–606)

Rebellion and death

Calling himself Demon Guardian, Hu Pao arrives with a cloud of one hundred million refined souls and declares that he will kill Wang Lin, destroy the Soul Refining Tribe, monopolize the spell, and found a tenth demon country. Wang Lin identifies the temporary, self-destructive nature of his growth and exposes a deeper flaw: every soul refined through the version he taught recognizes Wang Lin as its true master. Hu Pao loses all one hundred million fragments at once. Wang Lin then fuses them into a single soul through the one-billion-soul flag; one punch tears apart Hu Pao's body and soul. (Chapters 604 and 606)

Appearance and personality

Hu Pao is eventually shown as a normal-looking, sullen young man in black robes, with hatred visible in his eyes. Earlier he is impulsive, pleasure-seeking, and less solemn than Thirteen, but capable of courage and loyalty in a crisis. Torture and the conviction that he was abandoned transform those traits into resentment, grandiosity, and a desire to eliminate every rival who knows the soul-refining art. (Chapters 546–547 and 604–606)

Abilities and cultivation

  • Soul-refining spell: Hu Pao stores and commands soul fragments through multiple small flags and later a massed soul cloud. The fragments can surround targets, apply spiritual pressure, and invade a body, but the transmitted version of the spell contains a control weakness that leaves ultimate authority with Wang Lin. (Chapters 546–547 and 606)
  • One hundred million soul fragments: Over ten years, he refines souls from an ancient battlefield, including fragments that belonged to demon-general-level beings. Their combined cloud covers the sky, and he can detach forces of one million or order the entire mass to devour a target. (Chapters 604 and 606)
  • Accelerated cultivation method: His benefactor's method burns potential and life to raise him to a short-lived peak that Wang Lin estimates will last less than a day. It explains his extraordinary ten-year growth but makes the power inherently unstable. (Chapter 606)
  • Demonic spiritual energy: Before the rebellion, Hu Pao can contend with one demon soldier and manipulate the demonic energy in his meridians, though stronger coordinated soldiers overwhelm him. (Chapters 546–547)

Relationships

  • Wang Lin: Teacher, perceived abandoner, and executioner. Wang Lin gives Hu Pao the art that enables his rise but retains the authority that ultimately defeats it. (Chapters 541–606)
  • Thirteen: Fellow disciple and frequent contrast. Hu Pao finds him irritating, yet their shared willingness to die protecting Wang Lin creates a moment of genuine comradeship. (Chapters 541–547)
  • Unnamed benefactor: Rescues Hu Pao from prison and alters his cultivation. The modified spell fails to remove Wang Lin's underlying control. (Chapter 606)

Items

  • Small soul flags: More than a dozen flags used to deploy soul fragments in Hu Pao's early battles. (Chapter 546)
  • Hundred-million-soul cloud: The amassed product of his later refinement. It functions as his principal weapon but defects to Wang Lin when confronted with the original control symbol. (Chapters 604 and 606)