Shang Huan

Biodata

Feature	Information
Name	Shang Huan (尚欢)
Alias(es)	Gongsun Sheng (impersonated); “Mo Wuzhou’s Trusted Follower” (fabricated identity)
Species/Race	Human
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Jilong Dao Lower Courtyard; Seven Siblings of Wushan (Heart-Linking Gu-bound associate)
Occupation/Role	Merchant, middleman, peddler, and distributor of pills, powders, incense, and artifacts
First Appearance	An Honest Man 186

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Armor Soul	221	Already recognized as an Armor Soul expert.
Jade Seed	310	Successfully cultivates a Jade Seed; the Sevenfold Heart-Linking Gu is believed to have accelerated his growth.

Appearance

Shang Huan is a small-eyed, plump man whose body changes drastically after taking a basic Heavenly Demon Rebirth Pill and becoming linked to the Sevenfold Heart-Linking Gu. He is later described as tall, fat, and exceptionally agile. 186 237 358

• Initially a small-eyed fatty with a broad, expressive face. 186 191
• Grows to nearly 1.9 meters within several months; later appears over two meters tall. 237 311
• His enlarged body conceals powerful muscles, described as having steel skin and iron bones. 237
• Uses a black cloak and white mask when impersonating Gongsun Sheng during deliveries. 276

Personality

Shang Huan is greedy, commercially inventive, and almost pathologically willing to adulterate a product if it improves profit. He turns bone meal, Calming Spirit Pills, Qi Concealing Powder, Spirit Drawing Paste, and even roast-meat seasoning into opportunities for dilution, counterfeiting, or resale. 191 200 222 232 278

His nerve disappears when his life is directly threatened. Under Xu Rao’s interrogation, he breaks and reveals a false identity for the pill supplier; when Zhao Shaoyuan attacks him, he repeatedly offers to surrender and disclose anything demanded. 230 358 Despite this cowardice, he is resourceful at recovering from setbacks, quickly recognizing Chen Mu’s coercion as a chance to build a profitable long-term connection. 191 192

Abilities & Skills

Commerce and Counterfeiting

Shang Huan possesses sharp business instincts and an extensive talent for making inferior goods appear legitimate.

• Adulterates bone-meal fertilizer while calculating amounts carefully enough to keep crop yields within normal lower limits. 191
• Developed a counterfeit Calming Spirit Pill formula whose scent matches the genuine product, though the false pills provide no cultivation benefit. 200
• Dilutes Qi Concealing Powder, selling a mixture of insect-repelling powder and sawdust as protection against Mutant Beasts. 232
• Dilutes Spirit Drawing Paste with water to double its consumption rate and increase repeat sales. 278
• His schemes repeatedly attract dangerous attention, including the Seven Siblings of Wushan, patrol officers, and ambushers targeting his distribution network. 230 266 277

Trade Networks and Negotiation

Shang Huan establishes and expands sales channels for Chen Mu’s goods while exploiting other people’s reputations as protection.

• Becomes Chen Mu’s unwilling but effective middleman for Calming Spirit Pills. 191 192
• Brokers the sale of Wood Spirit Guards through Mo Wuzhou’s name, offering Mo a share of the profits. 266 274
• Recruits the Wushan Six Siblings to escort deliveries, investigate ambushes, and distribute Spirit Drawing Paste. 274 276 277
• Uses Mo Wuzhou’s reputation without permission, including inventing the identity of “Mo Wuzhou’s Trusted Follower.” 236
• Later expands into Insect Repelling Incense and trade with East Ridge mountain folk, acquiring Exotic Beast Meat and other supplies. 310 355

Heart-Linking Gu Enhancement

Shang Huan is one of the hosts of Chen Mu’s Sevenfold Heart-Linking Gu, which improves his physique but leaves him vulnerable to Chen Mu’s control.

• The Gu strengthens his body, replenishes his Three Treasures, and contributes to his increasingly complete Jade Seed. 237
• Chen Mu can monitor him through the Heart-Linking Incantation and directly punish or incapacitate him from a distance. 266 321 361
• Shang Huan cannot safely betray Chen Mu; Chen Mu explicitly threatens activation of the Gu after Shang Huan reveals information to the Wushan siblings. 232
• The connection gives him access to a powerful network, but also makes him a controllable subordinate rather than an equal partner. 231 232

Divine Movement Secret Art

Shang Huan cultivates a movement technique that makes his large body surprisingly difficult to hit.

• Moves through dense forest “like a huge yet nimble rubber ball.” 358
• Can rapidly shift position after an apparent hit, evading Zhao Shaoyuan’s Black Iron Heart-Piercing Nail twice. 358
• The technique delays his defeat but does not let him escape a stronger opponent on his own. 358

Relationships

• Chen Mu / Gongsun Sheng — Coerced into selling Chen Mu’s stolen goods and pills, then becomes his merchant intermediary and Heart-Linking Gu host. Shang Huan alternates between fear, flattery, opportunism, and attempted betrayal. 191 192 232 266
• Old Hao — Business partner and frequent companion. They adulterate fertilizer and counterfeit pills together, though Old Hao is usually more hesitant about the risks. 191 200
• Seven Siblings of Wushan — Initially interrogate and capture him over the pill business; after Chen Mu subdues them, Shang Huan becomes a Gu-bound “Seventh Brother” and recruits them for his ventures. 230 231 274
• Mo Wuzhou — Shang Huan falsely claims to be Mo’s trusted follower, uses his reputation to secure payments and protection, and later serves as a middleman in Wood Spirit Guard transactions. 236 266 280
• Shi Xian — Shang Huan approaches her with Zhao Shaoyuan’s group’s spoils and begs for relief from the divine ability Chen Mu placed on him. 361
• Zhao Shaoyuan — Pursues Shang Huan for information and attempts to kill him with the Black Iron Heart-Piercing Nail; Chen Mu intervenes and saves Shang Huan. 358

History

Early dealings at Low Hill

Shang Huan begins as a merchant living beside a neglected Yellow Sprout Rice field. He immediately sees profit in buying treasures from newly arrived outsiders and reselling them aboard the Ghost Ship on the Heaven-Reaching River. 186 Alongside Old Hao, he adulterates bone-meal fertilizer for profit while rationalizing that the reduced amount will not noticeably harm buyers’ crops. 191

Chen Mu’s middleman

Chen Mu forces Shang Huan to sell stolen items and six bottles of Calming Spirit Pills. Although terrified by Chen Mu’s Five Ghosts Moving Mountains Incantation, Shang Huan quickly decides that access to an alchemist or pill supplier is an opportunity worth pursuing. 191 Chen Mu subsequently makes him a regular distributor, demanding secrecy while allowing Shang Huan to keep the margin he earns. 192

Shang Huan responds by mixing counterfeit Calming Spirit Pills into the genuine stock. His plan is exposed when Chen Mu reveals that some of the supplied pills were already fake, leaving Shang Huan unable to prove which bottles he personally adulterated. 200

The Sevenfold Heart-Linking Gu

When the Seven Siblings of Wushan interrogate Shang Huan about the pill supplier, he gives them the name “Mo Wuzhou” under pressure. 230 Chen Mu defeats the siblings and discovers the Sevenfold Heart-Linking Gu, then uses its Heart-Linking Rope to bind Shang Huan and the Wushan siblings under his control. 231 232

Shang Huan becomes emboldened after the rescue, treating the former captors as his brothers and flaunting Chen Mu’s backing. 231 He remains unreliable, however: he sells fake Qi Concealing Powder, leaks information, and repeatedly uses fabricated identities or borrowed reputations to expand his business. 232 236

Wood Spirit Guard trade

Shang Huan helps Chen Mu turn Wood Spirit Guards and Spirit Drawing Paste into a major business. He carries out transactions with Mo Wuzhou, recruits the Wushan siblings for escort and surveillance, and repeatedly escapes ambushes aimed at the profitable distribution network. 272 274 276 277

His methods remain unchanged even as the business grows. Rather than worrying about surplus Spirit Drawing Paste, he dilutes every portion with water so that buyers must replenish it twice as often. 278

Jade Spring Mountain ventures

At Jade Spring Mountain, Shang Huan identifies Insect Repelling Incense as a potentially massive market among the newly arriving land-reclamation workers. 310 He later involves himself in unapproved detection-artifact sales and cross-region trade, prompting Chen Mu to repeatedly render him unconscious through the Heart-Linking Incantation. 321 354

Zhao Shaoyuan’s pursuit

Zhao Shaoyuan targets Shang Huan for information about his backers and business. Shang Huan attempts to surrender but is not believed; his Divine Movement Secret Art briefly saves him from the Black Iron Heart-Piercing Nail. 358 Chen Mu intervenes, driving Zhao away before a giant spectral figure kills Zhao Shaoyuan. 358

Shang Huan later suffers consequences for seemingly preparing to reveal Chen Mu’s backing during the confrontation. Wu Ruo informs him that, through the Heart-Linking Gu, she heard enough to understand his intended betrayal. 359

Capture

Shang Huan is later bound by Tantai Zong after being used in a plan involving General Jin. 420 Thousand Eyes subsequently holds the emaciated Shang Huan while claiming that several primordial embryos have been captured for the general. 421

Notable Quotes

“Fortune favors the bold, and the timid starve. What’s there to fear?” 222

“I diluted every portion of Spirit Drawing Paste with water.” 278

Trivia

• Shang Huan claims that he was once “the finest young man for miles around” before becoming fat; Old Hao mocks the claim. 237
• He purchased an expensive secret art before the Seven Siblings of Wushan captured him, and his fear of dying before practicing it contributes to his decision to talk. 230
• Chen Mu routinely makes Shang Huan fall face-first or collapse unconscious as punishment, to Shang Huan’s humiliation. 206 221 321 361