Unaware

After a low, angry roar, Yu Xiaogang vented the stifled frustration in his heart, finally steadying his mind to prepare for his application to hunt his first soul ring.

It had been a year since he returned from Martial Soul Hall.

In that so-called genius exchange tournament, their Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had not achieved any good results.

Consequently, the geniuses of the sect pushed all the blame onto Yu Xiaogang.

Many of them were clearly just a hair's breadth away from defeating their opponents and securing a high ranking.

Just a hair's breadth.

If the resources that originally belonged to them hadn't fallen into the hands of their opponents, their strength would have definitely been greater than it was then, and they certainly wouldn't have ended up with nothing.

Because of this, after returning to the sect, the elders of the various branches became even more dissatisfied with Yu Xiaogang.

They subsequently sought out the sect master, Yu Yuanzhen, and pressured him collectively.

Under these circumstances, even Yu Yuanzhen, as sect master, had no choice but to concede.

He truly had no other way.

He had suppressed the disciples of other branches too heavily in the past, and now it had triggered a backlash; if he didn't provide an explanation, he would have to make concessions in other areas.

As a result, the sect ultimately stripped Yu Xiaogang of his resources.

For the past year, Yu Xiaogang's resources had been provided out of Yu Yuanzhen's own pocket.

Due to various reasons, Yu Xiaogang grew increasingly disgusted with the current Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.

But for now, he had to rely on the sect's power to hunt for a soul ring.

After all, he was only level 10 and could not hunt a century-old soul beast on his own.

The first thing that came to Yu Xiaogang's mind was to find his father and ask him to help him hunt for a soul ring.

Although it was somewhat shameful to do so, when it came to his first soul ring, he felt he could only endure it for the time being.

Mustering his courage and shaking off the inner conflict, Yu Xiaogang went to find Yu Yuanzhen.

Only to be told that the sect master was in seclusion.

This news struck Yu Xiaogang instantly.

Could it be that Father has truly given up on me?

He doesn't go into seclusion early or late, but chooses to do so just when I've broken through to level 10.

Do even you feel that my existence is a disgrace to you?

Yu Xiaogang looked at the distant sect master's palace, his eyes filled with a sense of loss.

The reason he had such thoughts was that he truly did not want to face those people in the sect.

Even though he had long since grown accustomed to the countless insults over the years, what normal person would want to be mocked to their face and go out of their way to seek out such provocation?

Because he was unwilling to face it, he chose to displace his emotions elsewhere.

Yu Xiaogang was an extremely insecure person. Living in an environment of mockery and abuse, he was overly sensitive. Whenever anyone said anything related to him—even if it was about someone else, or perhaps had nothing to do with him at all—he felt that the other party was talking about him, mocking him.

At the same time, he was also a very confident, even arrogant, person.

Whenever he felt the slightest bit of discomfort, he felt that others were targeting him and ostracizing him.

He took himself far too seriously.

The reason for these two diametrically opposed personality traits was mainly the disparity in his status.

Before awakening his martial soul, no matter where he went, he was flattered by others, held up on a pedestal from which he could never come down.

After awakening his martial soul, even if those same people treated him with the same attitude, he felt that they were laughing at him, mocking him.

If he hadn't taken himself so seriously, there wouldn't have been so much unnecessary trouble.

Apart from a rare few, there really weren't many people in the sect who were idle enough to mock him.

On the contrary, many people actually envied Yu Xiaogang.

Despite having such poor talent, he still had a father who was a Title Douluo constantly protecting him.

But Yu Xiaogang had never thought of it that way.

The root cause was that he took himself too seriously.

He lacked self-awareness.

At this moment, Yu Xiaogang was steeling himself as he arrived at the place where the sect handled soul-hunting applications.

The person in charge of this matter was a Soul King with very average talent; he would likely never become a Soul Emperor in this lifetime.

Limited by his talent, after reaching a bottleneck and being unable to advance further, he had also studied martial soul theory.

Although he couldn't be called a master, he was considered to have some accomplishments in the field of martial soul theory.

Seeing that Yu Xiaogang was interested in the study of martial soul theory, he wanted to offer some guidance.

Those children might treat Yu Xiaogang as a piece of trash to be mocked, but old men like them truly dared not, because Yu Xiaogang's father was the sect master.

The young were fearless and could ignore everything, but at their age, they dared not be so reckless.

The reason for doing so was to curry favor with the Sect Master.

He simply wanted to tell Yu Xiaogang that having theories alone without putting them into practice would not improve his cultivation at all, but would instead waste his prime cultivation years.

Little did he expect that his well-intentioned reminder was seen by Yu Xiaogang as mockery.

After two consecutive times, the old man stopped saying anything further.

He simply watched helplessly as Yu Xiaogang walked down the wrong path, wasting his own time.

"I want to apply for the sect's assistance in hunting my first soul ring."

Seeing the old man before him, Yu Xiaogang's tone was filled with cold indifference.

He was well aware that this old codger looked down on him immensely.

If not for his desire to obtain his first soul ring as soon as possible, he would have chosen to come back and apply another day.

"These are the squads responsible for soul-hunting missions; pick one yourself."

Seeing Yu Xiaogang's demeanor, the old man immediately felt a sense of disgust.

He had originally intended to offer some guidance and help him select a suitable soul-hunting team.

But given Yu Xiaogang's attitude, he really couldn't be bothered to try and get close anymore.

After so many interactions, he had finally seen Yu Xiaogang for who he truly was.

The man was the high and mighty son of the Sect Master, the son of a Title Douluo; even if his Innate Soul Power was poor and his martial soul was trash, he was not someone they could afford to cozy up to.

Taking the initiative to show goodwill had only invited resentment.

Since that was the case, then let him be.

Yu Xiaogang glanced at the squads responsible for soul-hunting missions.

There were only basic introductions for the teams, and nothing else.

The strength of the soul-hunting squad members and what kind of soul beasts they were adept at hunting were not mentioned at all.

For a moment, Yu Xiaogang's expression turned incredibly unsightly.

Although this was his first time coming to hunt for a soul ring, he did know a few things about the process.

Whenever someone came to apply for the sect's soul-hunting squad to assist them, the person in charge would always provide detailed information about the squads.

The situation before him made it clear that he was being deliberately made things difficult for.

And that was indeed the truth.

For the person in charge, there were two standards: one for those with good talent, and one for those with poor talent.

Even if one's talent was merely average, as long as their attitude was not poor, this person in charge would provide them with the same standard as those with good talent.

The reason he provided Yu Xiaogang with such a poor standard was, naturally, because he found him unpleasant.

Acting within the rules, even if you have grievances, you have to endure them.