Yu Xiaomen walked out of Awakening Hall and watched Yu Xiaogang run into the distance. Yu Xiaogang tripped over a stone, struggled to his feet, and kept running.
He looked up at the bright sunlight and reached out, as though trying to catch its warmth.
"What a show you've put on for me," Yu Xiaomen said softly. Then his voice turned wistful. "Mother, I didn't let you down. I awakened a powerful Martial Soul. It's just that this Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon..." Disgust flickered across his face.
Then he said with a pleased smile, "Hmph. It doesn't matter. I don't want to leave the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan just yet."
"How did he manage it with so little Innate Soul Power?" Huo Yuhao wondered.
Innate Soul Power determined how far someone could progress. By all rights, Yu Xiaogang's talent was enough to make him a Soul Master. Yet in the original story, before taking the Nine-Rank Purple Ganoderma, he had somehow reached the rank of Soul Grandmaster.
Many works attributed it to the vast resources he had consumed from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. That might have played a part, but how could ordinary resources alone have done that?
If Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures alone had pushed Yu Xiaogang past the limits of his talent all the way to Level 29, then in a sense, he was a genius who had worked a miracle. After all, who else with Innate Soul Power like his had ever become a Soul Grandmaster?
But was Yu Xiaogang a genius? Judging by the story of Douluo Continent's first world, the word hardly suited him.
There had to be more to Yu Xiaogang's growth.
Huo Yuhao could work out Yu Xiaogang's future, but it was like following a show: if he knew the answer from the start, what fun would the rest be?
Three days. It had not even taken three days for everything to change.
Yu Xiaomen had once crept through the clan in fear, a boy even a servant could trample underfoot. Now he had become the most talented of its younger generation. If his growth went smoothly, he would surely earn a place in Douluo Hall one day.
His father was no longer cold toward him, but constantly asked after his well-being. When Yu Yuanzhen learned what Yun Niang had endured, he flew into a rage and ordered the execution of every servant who had bullied her.
The clan's other branches all urged their descendants to curry favor with Yu Xiaomen. His position as Young Master had not yet been confirmed, but he already enjoyed the treatment Yu Xiaogang once had. Wherever he went in the clan, people bowed their heads and greeted him as "Young Master Xiaomen."
One day, Yu Yuanzhen handed Yu Xiaomen the Sect Leader Token. "Xiaomen, this token is yours from now on. It will let you go anywhere in the clan, claim resources for your cultivation, and ask the clan's elders to hunt soul beasts for you."
With that settled, Yu Yuanzhen headed off in a certain direction.
"Father, are you going to see Brother Xiaogang?" Yu Xiaomen asked with concern.
Yu Yuanzhen sighed. "He's my other son, after all, and your brother. He's locked himself in his room for three whole days without eating or drinking."
"Yes. Please talk to Brother Xiaogang, Father," Yu Xiaomen said.
Yu Yuanzhen nodded and went straight to Yu Xiaogang's room. Faint sobs came through the door. He frowned, remembering the awakening ceremony. What he had seen at the start of Yu Xiaogang's Spirit Awakening could not have been a mistake. It had been a Golden Sacred Dragon. Then something had gone wrong, and his Martial Soul had mutated into Luo Sanpao.
It was a useless Martial Soul, but Yu Yuanzhen had a nagging feeling that it held some mysterious connection to the Golden Sacred Dragon. He already had a few guesses about the cause of the mutation. Yu Xiaogang had once been the child he loved most and watched most closely. Perhaps, Yu Yuanzhen thought, the boy could still be saved.
He twisted the lock open and burst in.
The room was pitch-black. Light spilled in from outside, revealing dust hanging in the air.
Standing in the doorway, Yu Yuanzhen quickly spotted Yu Xiaogang curled beneath a quilt, trembling.
"What are you doing shut away in here, Xiaogang?" he demanded, frustrated by his son's weakness.
Yu Xiaogang's eyes were bloodshot, and tears streaked his cheeks. "Dad, why did I awaken Luo Sanpao? It was clearly a Golden Sacred Dragon at first..."
"You could cry from morning till night and night till morning. Would that bring the Golden Sacred Dragon back?" Yu Yuanzhen asked.
"With your talent, you'll struggle to become a Soul Master. Even if the clan could help you break through, the resources it would cost wouldn't be worth it," he continued.
Yu Xiaogang jolted. "No, please! I want to become a Soul Master. I don't want to be an ordinary person. Father, are you going to give up on me?"
The gulf between a Spirit Warrior and a Soul Master was a gulf in status. It marked the fundamental divide between nearly everyone on the continent and the tiny handful who became Soul Masters.
Yu Xiaogang would rather die than live as an ordinary person. He lacked the courage to take his own life, but growing old and dying was a way to die too.
Yu Yuanzhen looked at his son's pleading face and suppressed his irritation. "Hear me out. Do you remember the half-formed Golden Sacred Dragon you awakened? That was the turning point of your life. Something seemed to obstruct your Martial Soul. One step forward would have opened a whole new world; failing to take it meant falling into the Abyss. Your body and mind weren't strong enough to support its mutation into a Golden Sacred Dragon. So it regressed instead, mutating into Luo Sanpao."
"So don't underestimate your Martial Soul. There must be some connection between Luo Sanpao and the Golden Sacred Dragon."
Understanding dawned on Yu Xiaogang, followed at once by hatred for Luo Sanpao. You were supposed to be a Golden Sacred Dragon. Why did you regress into Luo Sanpao? Why?
Yu Yuanzhen continued, "If a Golden Sacred Dragon can regress into Luo Sanpao, there must be a way to evolve Luo Sanpao into a Golden Sacred Dragon."
"What way?" Yu Xiaogang asked urgently.
Yu Yuanzhen shook his head. "I don't know."
"Now I'm giving you two choices. Do you want to become a dragon, or live as a pig? If it's the latter, the clan will train you to manage its affairs. You'll look after the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's businesses. As long as I'm alive, you'll live comfortably, and the clan won't make things difficult for you. But if you want to become a dragon, I'll help you as much as I can. You'll have to find the path yourself, though. To explore that thorny road, you'll have to work two hundred times harder than other Soul Masters."