Different Fortunes (Reader engagement greatly affects performance, don't hoard books. Seeking reader engagement)

Seeing Huo Yuhao in such a frenzied state, Bei Bei and Tang Ya involuntarily took half a step back, as if they were seeing him for the first time.

Was this really the same soft and weak Huo Yuhao from before?

Why was his hostility so intense? Could everything Feng Piaoling said be true?

Was Huo Yuhao truly an ungrateful wretch?

For a moment, the two of them couldn't help but wonder if inviting Huo Yuhao to join the Tang Sect had been the right choice.

Feng Piaoling said, "Then do what a man should do. Along the way, I've already seen it: you are someone insecure, introverted, reclusive, and prone to self-pity, yet you are also someone who forgets their roots. You joined the Tang Sect now because you think following them is better than following me. When you encounter someone better, you'll abandon the Tang Sect. Even if you don't abandon them, you'll drift away."

"Didn't you say before that you knew who your enemies were? You said that sooner or later, you would take revenge yourself. Fine, I'll watch. Bei Bei, Tang Ya, you two be witnesses too. Take a good look at this dog—see if he actually takes revenge, or if he'll just run off wagging his tail to forgive them the moment the White Tiger Duke Mansion tosses him a bone, offers a few hollow apologies, or claims it was all a misunderstanding. He'll go back to acknowledge his ancestors like a dog, and he won't even call himself Huo Yuhao anymore—he'll just change his name to Dai Yuhao."

After saying this, Feng Piaoling turned and left.

Huo Yuhao was completely shattered by Feng Piaoling's words. His eyes turned bloodshot, and he roared at Feng Piaoling's retreating back, sobbing and gasping for air:

"Feng Piaoling, you watch me! I will prove it to you. I am not a dog, I am not an ungrateful wretch. I am a man who stands tall and walks upright. I will personally kill my enemies, kill Dai Hao, kill the White Tiger Duchess, and kill everyone who bullied me and caused my mother's death. I will never change my surname; I will always be called Huo Yuhao. You just wait and see!"

"Good, then I'll wait." Feng Piaoling's lips curled slightly. He activated an Earth Escape Talisman, sank into the ground, and vanished.

Before disappearing, he left behind one final sentence: "Also, there are plenty of people in this world who have it worse than you, the illegitimate son of the White Tiger Duke. This act of yours, putting on a pitiful display to beg for sympathy, is truly disgusting."

He had already wasted enough time; it was time to find a secluded spot to absorb the soul ring of that five-thousand-year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear.

Staring at the spot where Feng Piaoling had vanished, Tang Ya and Bei Bei looked at each other, at a loss for words.

Because they realized that, looking back on their journey, Huo Yuhao really did seem to have been putting on a pitiful act the entire time.

At this moment, the voice of the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm echoed in Huo Yuhao's mind: "Little Yuhao, you really didn't need to do that. Big Brother just remembered—that cunning brat is about to be finished."

"What do you mean?" Huo Yuhao was stunned.

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm gloated, "The Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear is different from other soul beasts; the dominance of its soul ring energy is beyond imagination."

"An ordinary thousand-year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear is already comparable to a ten-thousand-year soul beast. The one that cunning brat scavenged is at least five thousand years old. Even if it doesn't scale perfectly to fifty thousand years, it should at least be at the level of thirty or forty thousand years."

"Although it's just intensity and lacks the sheer energy volume of a true thirty-thousand-year ring, do you think that brat can absorb a ring with the intensity of thirty or forty thousand years, even without the soul shock? He's a dead man."

Huo Yuhao wiped away his tears. Good riddance. Everyone who had bullied him deserved to die.

And the Dai Family—they all deserved to die, too.

Although Huo Yuhao refused to admit it, if the people from the White Tiger Duke Mansion truly humbled themselves to apologize, and if Dai Hao knelt at his mother's grave to repent and spoke soft words to convince him to acknowledge his ancestors, he might actually forgive them.

Before she died, his mother had also hoped he would acknowledge his roots.

But Feng Piaoling had said those things to him in front of his two friends, Tang Ya and Bei Bei.

Unless he never saw these two again, he really couldn't bring himself to acknowledge his ancestors now.

Huo Yuhao turned to Bei Bei and Tang Ya and said, "Brother Bei, Sister Ya, I've made a fool of myself."

Bei Bei shook his head. Although he didn't say anything, he was already regretting inviting the other party to join the Tang Sect.

He didn't know if inviting him had been right or wrong.

Tang Ya felt the same, but she still said, "Since you have joined the Tang Sect, you must be loyal forever. If you dare to commit any act of betrayal against the Tang Sect, neither I nor Bei Bei will let you off."

Huo Yuhao nodded and said, "Brother Bei, don't worry. I will never betray the Tang Sect. I swear it to the heavens."

Tang Ya didn't say she believed him; she simply had Huo Yuhao bow to her as his master, then gave him the Shrek Academy exemption quota she had mentioned earlier while boasting about the Tang Sect's greatness.

As for the Tang Sect's secret arts that they had previously bragged about as miraculous, neither Bei Bei nor Tang Ya had any intention of teaching them to Huo Yuhao.

At least, not yet.

They decided to observe him for a while first.

Although they didn't want to believe that the Tang Sect's founder, the Sea God Tang San, was as evil as Feng Piaoling claimed, they had to admit that Feng Piaoling had truly taken good care of Huo Yuhao earlier. He had even gone off alone to lure away a powerful soul beast, leaving himself in a wretched state.

And in the end, he was repaid with Huo Yuhao's total severance of their relationship.

Even if Huo Yuhao did it for the sake of the Tang Sect, it still wasn't right.

If he could speak so easily of cutting ties with Feng Piaoling for the Tang Sect today, then in the future, if he met someone or a faction that treated him even better, would he leave the Tang Sect for them?

With Feng Piaoling as a precedent, they had to be careful.

Meanwhile, as Tang Ya and Bei Bei were taking Huo Yuhao toward Shrek Academy, Feng Piaoling had already arrived at a hidden underground lair.

He had collapsed the entrance with a Fire Bomb Talisman, so there was no need to worry about any human soul masters or soul beasts disturbing him.

After doing this, Feng Piaoling finally took out the five-thousand-year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear.

At that moment, the aged voice of Electrolux echoed in his mind with a warning: "With your current constitution, absorbing this soul ring carries the risk of your body exploding. In a moment, if you cannot hold on, I will assist you."

"Then I thank you, Senior." Feng Piaoling did not refuse Electrolux's kindness.

However, he had his own calculations regarding absorbing this five-thousand-year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear soul ring.

Ever since he absorbed the two-thousand-five-hundred-year Earth Armored Dragon soul ring, he had discovered something.

When he was exploring and creating techniques, he could use the impact of the soul ring's energy to accelerate the process.

This time, he intended to use the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's soul ring to push through to the fourth level of the Green Lotus Sword Art.

If this were a ten-thousand-year soul beast of the same intensity as this Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear, he naturally wouldn't dare to take the risk.

After all, the massive energy and soul shock of a ten-thousand-year soul beast were no laughing matter.