Out here, own your mistakes and stand straight for your beating!

Everyone had already been sick of the sight of Yu Xiaogang.

Now, the very first thing he said upon arriving was yet another question about Dragon Duke Meng Shu.

And there was clearly something off about his attitude.

As a result, their dissatisfaction with him deepened.

So, as though by unspoken agreement, none of them wanted to acknowledge him.

What no one expected was that even Flender, who had always been extremely tolerant of Yu Xiaogang, showed no intention of answering him this time.

For a moment.

A deathly silence fell over the scene.

"Teacher, that fellow seems to have been burned into a pile of charcoal."

Seeing that no one was acknowledging Yu Xiaogang, Tang San did not think much of it.

This was hardly anything unusual anymore.

"Looks like it. I never imagined you'd be so powerful, Yang Jian."

With Tang San breaking the silence, the atmosphere finally eased a little.

But what surprised everyone was that Xiao Wu, who normally said very little, had actually joined the conversation for once.

And she had praised Yang Jian right in front of Tang San and Yu Xiaogang.

Her wording had been so straightforward, too.

It genuinely stunned everyone.

Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing, in particular, looked at Xiao Wu differently now.

A trace of wariness entered their eyes.

"It was all right."

Yang Jian replied casually.

Praise that did not trigger an emotional reward was not entirely useless to him, but at most, it was something he could take or leave.

"I'm completely convinced now, Boss Yang!"

Oscar suddenly shouted.

At that form of address, everyone immediately turned to stare straight at him.

Even Yang Jian froze for a moment.

Although he had never paid much attention to Oscar's fixation on treating him as a "rival," there was one thing he knew.

That was that Oscar harbored considerable hostility toward him.

Still, that hostility amounted only to romantic jealousy and envy, which was why he had barely bothered with it.

What was going on today...?

Had the sun risen in the west?

Xiao Wu smiled at me, and Oscar called me Boss Yang?

Yang Jian was rather baffled.

"Don't all look at me like that. Heh-heh."

Under everyone's stares, Oscar scratched his head awkwardly. "I know I haven't been all that respectful toward Boss Yang, but, well... wasn't that just because I was young and didn't know any better?"

"Now I've figured it out. With Boss Yang's genuine strength and his warm heart, always drawing his blade when he sees injustice, I must've lived all those years in a dog's belly to have treated him with such disrespect!"

"But now I've come to my senses, so..."

At that point.

Oscar's expression abruptly changed. His lingering awkwardness instantly gave way to resolve as he walked up to Yang Jian.

He looked like a citizen of the Golden Sun Capital seeing his sun, practically itching to throw both hands up and jump wildly on the spot.

"Boss Yang, I'm sorry!"

Oscar first bowed deeply to Yang Jian, so respectfully that his head nearly disappeared beneath his legs. "I never imagined that after the way I treated you, you'd still be willing to face an opponent comparable to a Titled Douluo for the sake of my Soul Ring."

"Compared to you, I'm not even human!"

"For everything I did before, I want to offer you a sincere apology. I hope you can forgive me, Boss Yang!"

Once he finished saying all that.

To Yang Jian, he looked like some ruthless figure preparing to head to the Blue House and deliver his inaugural address.

"Good! Well done!"

"Hahahahaha..."

Flender burst into laughter again. "There's no greater good than recognizing your mistakes and correcting them. I'm delighted to see that you've figured things out and stepped out of that trap."

"That's right, Little Oscar. You're actually a very promising youngster, too. But comparison is what people fear most, and you just had to compare yourself to the most monstrous freak of all. Sometimes, I really worried you wouldn't get far down the path of a Soul Master."

Zhao Wuji's words carried a deeper meaning.

"Who would've guessed, Old Zhao? You look like such a big, burly brute, but you can spout wisdom like that, too."

Yang Jian deliberately teased him.

He wanted the slightly awkward atmosphere to dissipate as quickly as possible.

After all, if you claimed that a fierce man who had escaped an encirclement by sixteen Soul Emperors from Spirit Hall possessed courage but no brains, you were certainly underestimating him.

"Hahahahaha..."

The moment Yang Jian finished speaking, Ma Hongjun could not help bursting into laughter.

Dai Mubai laughed as well.

Then everyone from Shrek burst out laughing.

Even Xiao Wu was swept up in the mood, the corners of her lips lifting slightly.

Only Yu Xiaogang and Tang San wore cold expressions from beginning to end, who knew what schemes brewing in their minds.

"Boss Yang, please forgive me!"

Just as everyone's laughter faded, Oscar, who had been laughing along with them, bowed to Yang Jian again.

This time, his face almost touched his thighs, making him look even more devout.

For a moment, everyone's eyes gathered on Yang Jian again.

None of them could tell whether Yang Jian had truly forgiven him or merely pretended to.

After all, Yang Jian never played by the usual rules.

"Forgive you, my ass!"

Yang Jian suddenly cursed.

Everyone's heart lurched.

"If I forgive you just because you ask, where does that leave my standing?"

"Who the hell do you think you are?!"

"Out here, own your mistakes and stand straight for your beating!"

"Who the hell are you to make demands of me? Stand at attention when you speak!"

The moment Yang Jian finished speaking.

Oscar immediately stood at attention and shouted, "Yes, Boss Yang!"

The sight instantly shocked everyone into speechlessness.

Yu Xiaogang and Tang San, on the other hand, suddenly grew excited, staring intently at Yang Jian with burning eyes, as though they had found one of their own kind.

[Ding! Detected that Yu Xiaogang, a holder of the same type of martial soul, has begun indulging in unspoken imaginings. Reward: one piece of brain flesh from a mentally aligned lesser dragon descendant.]

[Ding! Detected that Tang San's pent-up emotions have been released. Reward: two Godly Zhuge Crossbows.]

Huh?

Why haven't Oscar's emotional rewards refreshed? Why did Gangzi and Tang San's rewards pop up instead?

Aren't these rewards a bit too lousy?

Only the Fart God's is slightly better. Feeding that piece of brain flesh to Xiaotian should at least increase his soul strength a little.

But what kind of junk are these Godly Zhuge Crossbows?

They can only bully Soul Elders. Anyone at the Soul Ancestor level would be hard to kill with these things as long as they stayed a little alert.

At most, they could inflict injuries.

Against a Soul King, there's even less to say. They'd struggle to break through their defenses.

Of course.

Calling them junk was a little exaggerated.

They still had some use, however slight.

If some brainless Soul Ancestor spread their arms and let one hit a vital spot, they would still die.

"All right, I was just teasing you."

"We're all from the same academy. There's at least some brotherhood between us. I accept your apology."

Yang Jian smiled and waved a hand. Since he could not squeeze out any emotional rewards, there was no reason to keep up the act.

Pretending to be angry was pretty tiring, too.

"I knew you weren't some petty little man, big brother. Am I right, Qingqing?"

Seeing Yang Jian return to his usual indifferent expression, Ning Rongrong immediately smiled and "elbowed" Zhu Zhuqing beside her.

Zhu Zhuqing merely smiled helplessly without answering.

"Oh, right. We still haven't dealt with Snake Granny Chao Tianxiang and her granddaughter."

Yang Jian suddenly said.