Look at the Fine Mess You've Made!

The coachman weighed the several dozen Gold Soul Coins in the pouch, far exceeding the carriage's value, and plastered a fawning smile across his face as he nodded repeatedly.

"Yes, yes, sir, please do as you wish. I'll be going now, right away!" With that, he nimbly jumped down from the driver's seat and hurried off without looking back, afraid of being dragged into the conflicts of a powerful family.

Yu Xiaogang struggled to stick his head out again and demand answers, but Yu Lingfeng's icy, blade-like glare forced him back. "Pull your head back in! Don't make a sound! And don't show your face!"

The severity and resolve in that gaze chilled Yu Xiaogang's heart, and he obeyed the order instinctively.

His face dark, Yu Lingfeng jumped onto the driver's seat and sharply snapped the reins.

The carriage turned around. Rather than heading for the sect gates, it raced down a secluded side path.

The wheels crushed over gravel with hurried, muffled rattles, as though foretelling the sudden plunge of Yu Xiaogang's fate.

The carriage jolted onward for a long time before finally stopping in a sparsely populated stretch of countryside far from any town.

Before them stood a fairly spacious but clearly aged adobe old house, surrounded by barren fields. The silence was so profound that only the chirping of insects could be heard.

"Get out!" Yu Lingfeng's voice was colder than the country wind.

Full of confusion and grievance, Yu Xiaogang climbed down from the carriage. Looking around at this unfamiliar wasteland, the unease in his heart grew stronger. "Elder Brother! Where is this?"

"What exactly happened? Even if I did something that disgraced the sect, you should at least tell me why!"

"Why? You still have the nerve to ask why?" Yu Lingfeng spun around, fury blazing in his eyes. "Yu Xiaogang! Do you know that you threw away the face our Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect spent centuries building in a single day?!"

His elder brother's fierce rebuke stirred Yu Xiaogang's stubbornness. He raised his neck and said, "Elder Brother! What did I do?"

"Even if you're going to sentence me to death, at least let me die knowing why!"

"Hmph, still talking tough!" Yu Lingfeng laughed in rage and delivered another merciless slap, striking Yu Xiaogang hard enough to make his vision go dark.

Then Yu Lingfeng roughly seized his collar and dragged him into the old house like a piece of cargo.

The room was dimly lit and filled with the smell of dust and mildew.

Yu Lingfeng viciously threw Yu Xiaogang to the floor, then took a Recording Stone from his robes, poured Soul Power into it, and tossed it into the air.

Buzz!

A clear screen of light instantly unfolded.

The scene on the screen struck Yu Xiaogang like a bolt from the blue, as though all the blood in his body had frozen—it was that nightmare near the Litang Great Soul Arena that had made him wish he were dead!

Thirty-six figures wearing different colored hoods sat around a massive round table, its lavish dishes serving as a mocking backdrop.

And he himself was the "main course" being "shared" by everyone... Though the image was silent, the impact of that unbearable sight was more piercing and heart-wrenching than any sound could have been!

"No—!!" Yu Xiaogang let out a beast-like roar, his eyes splitting with rage as his body trembled like a sieve.

The overwhelming humiliation and the agony that had seeped into his bones a month ago were instantly awakened. A hidden part of his body seemed to once again throb with phantom pain, as if it were being torn apart.

He abruptly covered his eyes, unable to keep watching, and rasped out an explanation. "Fake! It's all fake!"

"Elder Brother! I was framed!"

"They drugged me! A whole bottle of drugs!"

"I'm the Second Young Master of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect! How could I... how could I do something like that?!"

"Second Young Master?" Yu Lingfeng's voice was full of sarcasm and pain. "You still remember that you're the Second Young Master?"

"Then tell me, in this Heaven Dou Empire, aside from those few families, who would dare—and who could—do something this utterly insane to you, the Second Young Master?"

"Tell me, who was it?!"

Backed into a corner, Yu Xiaogang desperately recalled the figure he had seen at the Litang Great Soul Arena and blurted it out.

"Spirit Hall! It was Spirit Hall!"

"People from Spirit Hall were there that day! Their Saintess Bibi Dong, and that Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan!"

"I recognize him!"

"Although they didn't reveal their identities, I couldn't possibly be mistaken!"

"You bastard!" Yu Lingfeng trembled with rage and slapped him again. The blow was so hard that blood seeped from the corner of Yu Xiaogang's mouth. "Even at death's door, you're still slandering them! I personally went to Litang!"

"I investigated! I asked around!"

"Everyone near that Great Soul Arena said you were nothing more than some street-performing con artist trying to use your nonsensical theories to curry favor with them. In the end, they dismissed you like a beggar!"

"Other than that, there was no further contact!"

"They didn't even know your name!"

"What reason would Spirit Hall's Saintess and a Titled Douluo have to go through so much trouble and use such despicable means to frame a nobody like you, Yu Xiaogang?! Huh?!"

"Elder Brother, I..." Yu Xiaogang was left speechless by the rebuttal. Every excuse seemed pale and powerless before the ironclad facts, leaving only despair and confusion on his face.

Seeing his younger brother so utterly shattered, a trace of reluctance finally flashed through Yu Lingfeng's eyes, but the responsibility he bore for the sect quickly suppressed it.

He drew a deep breath and announced in a cold, weary voice, "Enough. This farce should end."

"Now, I will announce Father's final punishment for you."

Yu Xiaogang suddenly raised his head, his eyes holding the last trace of hope.

Avoiding his gaze, Yu Lingfeng said one word at a time, "Father's decree: From this day onward, you, Yu Xiaogang, are forbidden from ever setting foot through the gates of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect again."

"Stay here, or find some other quiet place. Live as a wealthy man and spend the rest of your life in peace."

"If you can find a suitable woman in the future, start a family, and have descendants... should their Martial Soul undergo a beneficial mutation and restore the might of our Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, their descendants may be permitted to acknowledge their ancestry and be entered into the sect genealogy."

"W-what?!" Yu Xiaogang felt as if the sky above his head had suddenly collapsed, draining all color from the world.

He crumpled to the floor, clutching his head tightly in both hands as he let out a pained whimper. "Father... Father is... is expelling me from the sect?!"

"No! I don't believe it! Father wouldn't do this to me! I'm his son!!"

Seeing his younger brother collapse so completely, Yu Lingfeng felt a bitter ache in his heart as well. His tone softened somewhat, carrying helpless consolation. "Xiaogang, calm down!"

"Father isn't completely striking your name from the records or expelling you from the sect! This is protection!"

"This is the best result Father fought for you at the Elder Council, against all opposition!"

He crouched down and looked into Yu Xiaogang's unfocused eyes, explaining with grief.

"Do you know that those 'fine deeds' of yours, those unbearable recordings, have already been copied countless times?"

"They have been spread through every elementary, intermediate, and advanced Soul Master Academy within the sphere of influence of our Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect!"