The patriarch asked another boy to approach the soul gauge. Smugly swaggering up, he placed his hand upon the pedestal and gave an arrogant smirk.

-What an awful attitude.

The boy's name was Wu Chen. He was an attractive guy that was popular with women. Wu Niu is usually fine with those types of people, but Wu Chen was always braggadocious about it. He would often use it to try and make Wu Niu jealous. However, Wu Niu was always more annoyed then jealous. From his perspective, Wu Chen was just a person who would pester him by bragging about himself.

Eventually, Wu Niu learned to tune out whenever Wu Chen was around. Wu Niu wasn't too sure why Wu Chen would come over so he could brag about himself, but fortunately, when the patriarch endorsed Wu Niu as his successor, he stopped pestering him. Ever since then, Wu Chen had been seemingly avoiding him. It sure seemed like Wu Chen had become hateful toward Wu Niu for some reason.

The fiery soul lit up underneath Wu Chen's palm. His soul was at least an upper 4th tier. Seeing this, the crowd clapped and began praising him like some hero.

"Woah! Wu Chen is an amazing genius."

“I always knew that boy was special.”

The patriarch looked down at the boy and spoke with a disingenuous smile.

"You may have 200 body tempering pills. use them well, boy."

As Wu Chen grabbed the pills off the table, he walked pass Wu Niu he gave him a pompous smirk.

Wu Niu smiled at Wu Chen.

"I'm happy for you, Cousin Che—"

"Shut your mouth, trash. Know that your place is beneath me."

"Oh, really? Thanks for letting me know.", said Wu Niu while laughing.

"Tch. Shut up."

Wu Chen awkwardly walked away, with tightened fists.

-That kid has a serious complex or something.

***

Thirty minutes had passed, and Wu Niu was next up to test.

The patriarch told him to step forward and test his soul strength. Complying to the patriarch’s request, he approached the podium. In doing so, he was onset by the feeling of dizziness. He was apprehensive of whether he even wanted to see the results. He knew they wouldn't be pretty, and everyone would surely be disappointed—especially his grandfather.

-Would it be better if I didn’t learn what my soul strength is?

Slowly lifting his hands, Wu Niu hovered it just above the soul gauge.

The patriarch leaned forward and watched intently. His interest was piqued because he held high expectations for Wu Niu. Everyone in the crowd was anticipating Wu Niu to have a strong soul. Wu Niu was distraught by the thought of revealing to everyone how truly weak his soul was.

“His mother had a 7th tier soul, didn’t she?”

"I bet Wu Niu has at least a 7th tier soul as well."

"Are you kidding, that boy reached "Half-Purity" body tempering stage without having taken any pills. He definitely has got an 8th tier soul minimum."

It was true that it was entirely unheard of (at least within the Wu family) for someone so young to have achieved the "Half-Purity" stage body tempering without pills. However, since qi can't be cultivated until "Half-Purity" stage body tempering, soul strength is completely irrelevant to the process.

Pushing those thoughts out of his mind, Wu Niu turned his attention back to the soul gauge. The dark pit in the center of the soul gauge was somewhat reminiscent to the bottom of a deep well. Even without having yet touched it, he could feel it reacting to his hand. It was like a battle for control was taking place within the orb.

-Is this normal? Ah, whatever. Here we go.

Wu Niu took in a deep breath and sighed. Lowering his hand, he rested it upon the flame that took form underneath.

-It looks like 2nd tier soul, but why are there two ha—?

Suddenly, the soul gauge shattered into several pieces. It was only for a fraction of a second, But Wu Niu could've sworn that he saw something odd with the flame.

The crowd stood there in complete silence with blank expressions.

-Did they see it?

After a moment of silence, the patriarch spoke.

"B-Bring out the backup test."

Two henchmen ran inside a storage building and came out carrying a large black block. It was an older obsolete version of the soul gauge. From what Wu Niu knew, this variation of soul gauge didn't display the soul itself. Instead, it estimated its size and then showed the bottom line soul of the tier above it.

The henchmen dropped the black block at Wu Niu's feet. It loudly thudded on the ground, followed by the feeling of escaping air rushing passed his feet. Then the patriarch's henchmen swiftly retreated back into the crowd.

Setting his hand on the big black block, Wu Niu stood in wait to see the results.

The courtyard was uncomfortably mute. A couple of seconds had passed, and nothing changed. There wasn't any soul projection whatsoever.

-Nothing?!