Root of all problems.

Yao Jun slowly walked through the town, his clothes dirty, his hands covered in blood. On his face was a faint smile. His hair was disheveled, his emerald green robe dirtied, but as he walked slowly and gracefully, he gave off a type of elegant bearing, making him seem like an immortal walking the streets.

He had spent four days in the medicine garden. Sometimes he raged at how he had been used and lied to when he was angry he would find a tree or a rock and simply start hitting it until he calmed down and started cursing.

Sometimes he would be sad that he was the only one who thought that he had managed to make some friends when he was sad he would either sit or lie down somewhere and just cry, cry until he could cry no more.

Sometimes he would just laugh out loud, laugh at his own stupidity for believing them, laugh at how he ignored the obvious signs that he had been used. When he laughed, he would laugh until his voice was hoarse and he started to cry again.

Sometimes he would start cursing and shouting, cursing the heavens for making him the target of their deceit, cursing himself for being unlucky enough to be the only one to transfer at this time. When he cursed, he would curse until he started laughing.

As the time passed and he kept thinking it over, he slowly started to realize something. They left the main branch because his power was a dud and he would be weak. He was too ashamed to properly face his parents because he was too weak and thus was a disgrace. In Flying Fish Town he was scorned and pitied because he was too weak. Here in Golden Moon Town, they took advantage of him because he was too weak and stupid to notice anything wrong.

When his thoughts came to this point, he realized that all the things he had cursed and blamed his bad luck for, had all stemmed from his own weakness.

If he was strong, would his parents feel the need to leave the main branch and move to a tiny town where they had no friends? Would he be too ashamed to look at his parents without feeling like a disgrace? Would the people in Flying Fish Town dare scorn him? Would the people in Golden Moon dare use him? The answer to all of these questions was no.

Since the root of all his problems was his own weakness, then all he had to do was become strong, strong enough to where he could live his life just the way he wanted to. Of course, he realized that becoming strong was not everything, would Yao Pianzi and the others have been able to use him if he had been more suspicious and less eager to trust others? Of course not!

Since it was like this, his future course of actions was clear. Become stronger, and less eager to trust. The more easily he trusted others, the easier it would be to be used, so trusting people without fully knowing them quickly became a taboo to Yao Jun.

With his thoughts and mind having reached this point, Yao Pianzi and the others became a non-factor to him, he simply removed them from his mind. Since they were not friends or trustworthy, there was no point in spending any energy on them.

After walking for a while, Yao Jun found himself outside his house in the Yao clan compound. He entered the house and took a long bath, allowing the warm water to wash away all the dirt, blood, and negative emotions he still had left. He changed the water several times, soaking in the warm water for almost three hours, just enjoying the peace.

After he finished bathing, he put on a fresh green robe and packed everything that he owned into his interspatial ring. He wanted to get stronger, but he also knew that staying here would not allow him to cultivate with max efficiency. He left the little house and headed to the main mansion before heading into the section that dealt with what chores the disciples undertook.

Normally, the only way a disciple could change what chores they undertook was by either becoming an inner disciple or whenever new disciples arrived. But there was one exception, and that was signing up for the Cloud Wilderness Expeditions.

The Cloud Wilderness is the name of the largest known wilderness on the planet, it is so large that only around half of it has been mapped. Most of the center parts have not been explored by humans, making the entire Cloud Wilderness a mystery.

Joining the Cloud Wilderness Expedition meant that you were willing to join a team of disciples consisting of people from both the Yao clan and the Peng clan to explore the small section of the Cloud Wilderness that they controlled. The section they controlled was located on the periphery, but even then, only people whose powers had reached the first grade had a survival rate that exceeded 60%.

Anybody could sign up to join the Cloud Wilderness Expedition, but to be allowed to go there, one had to sign a contract that stated that if one died there, the clan would hold no responsibility.

Yao Jun quickly reached the counter that was responsible for managing the disciples that would head to the Cloud Wilderness. Behind the counter sat a wrinkly old man clad in a patched grey robe, his eyebrows were a pure white and hung loosely down his temples, his head was completely bald.

"Hello, I would like to sign up for the Cloud Wilderness Expeditions." Yao Jun cupped his hands and spoke in a polite tone.

"Oh? Why would you join those expeditions? You are still young my child, there is no need to partake in such dangerous missions."

The old man spoke slowly and his voice was hoarse, but at the same time his voice was filled with warmth, it gave one the feeling that one was sitting in front of a fireplace during the cold winter.

"I thank you for your concern, I know that it is dangerous, but I also believe that it is something that I have to do."

Yao Jun gave the elder a short bow as he spoke, but his eyes shone with determination.

"Ai, If that is what you feel, then I would not be doing my job as your elder if I kept pestering you. Just be careful my child, I have seen too many young ones leave in high spirits but come back in coffins."

Seeing the determination in Yao Jun's eyes, the elder knew that there was nothing he could do to stop him. He had the feeling that if he blocked him from joining the expedition, the child in front of him would just wander off and find a way to enter the Cloud Wilderness alone.

He took out an azure jade token that had the words Yao and Cloud inscribed on it and handed it to Yao Jun, explaining to him how to use the token.

"You can go now my child, I will handle your dismissal from the other chores."

Yao Jun cupped his hands and thanked the elder once more before handing over his identification jade. The elder inspected the jade once and wrote down who was in charge of Yao Jun's chores before returning the jade and seeing Yao Jun out.

"Ai, what does one have to do make a young child like him like that?" After Yao Jun left, the elder shook his head and sighed. Yao Jun had spoken politely and respectfully, even a bit cheerfully towards the end. But the elder had clearly noticed that while he spoke like that, he was constantly wary and guarded, keeping a slight distance between himself and the elder, both physically and mentally.

Yao Jun left the Yao clan area and took a quick trip home. He explained to his parents that he would take a trip with the clan, leaving the town for a while. He didn't explain where he was going, he didn't even tell them the dangers, but how could his own parents not notice that he was hiding things from them.

They knew that he was hiding things from them, but even then, they didn't ask him where he was going. They could see the determination in his eyes and they knew that their son was already 15 and had already started spreading his wings. As parents, it was their job to make sure that he could properly spread his wings, not clipping them, so they simply told him to be careful and forced him to bring some more food and water with him.

After he was done, Yao Jun proceeded to head to the city center, the place where the spatial formation that would take him to the Cloud Wilderness was located.