The female lead is a tsundere and the male is, by xianxia novel standards, a beta male. Always keeps his head down, avoiding conflict to the point that everyone in the sect viewed him as a coward and pushover, though occasionally he would get his revenge by killing his enemies in secret.

Even though he always tried to be low-key, the MC always gets into trouble for no apparent reason. Example, early on he killed a female spy from another sect because she was targeting him, weirdly enough he not only became the target of the rival sect, but also fellow students (who have a crush on the spy) and a big shot (who wants to make the spy his cauldron), so the MC invited aggro not only from the enemy but also from his teammates, and the more boggling thing is, not only did NOT he get rewards for killing a spy, he got punished and suspected, PLUS he got blackmailed and forced to pay compensation... FOR KILLING A SPY FROM RIVAL SECT!! WHAT THE f*ck KIND OF SHITTY SECT IS THIS?!

This set the tone for the whole novel where the MC got pushed around by everybody into a corner, plus he's poor as f*ck and has to scr*pe by. He often said that the reason he's often targeted and has no resources is because he's not a top student, if only he's a true disciple he would have been protected by the sect AND received resources. Here's the thing... this s*upid f*ck HIDES his strength and talent because he's afraid of being targeted and draw too much attention. Newsflash DUmbf*ck, you're already being targeted by everyone and bullied even by his sect juniors, AND repeatedly drew attention anyway, so what's the point of hiding your strength? Isn't showing your talent get protected and receive resources so you can get strong faster better than hiding your strength, not being appreciated/protected, being poor as f*ck when both scenarios would have him being targeted anyway? Why hide? What kind of a logic is that?

Furthermore, the "drawing too much attention" part is bollocks anyway. His full strength is actually mid even among the students his generation. At least early on there are many students who are stronger than him. He's mid but pretended to be at the bottom of the barrel, which invites disgust from his fellow students and even his teacher, but even at full strength he's barely among the top student there. Those top students seem just fine, they receive more resources and less trouble/hassle, plus no one viewed them as tr*sh and bully them, unlike the MC. So what's the point of hiding your strength?

The MC has cheat, but even the cheat is rather mid early on. He sometimes receive random attributes, but honestly, the MC struggle to win even against someone with the same realm. Forget about fighting across realm.

All in all, if you like a low key MC who got pushed around and despised by everybody (including the female lead) and hiding his strength for no apparent reason, then this one is for you.

Hong Yue also saves MC's life a couple of times from really strong enemies even at the risk of injuring her already damaged soul.

In the very first chapter there is a r**e. Anything involving SA in the first 10 chapters of a story for absolutely no reason is a no go for me. I know many Chinese authors love to put it in their story but so far in my reading journey of hundreds of novels it was in maybe 10% of them and it was just one scene or two in the whole novel. But if I see it from the get go then I'm already biased towards dropping it. It serves absolutely no purpose.

The second thing is the ridiculousness of the story. Turns out MC's r**ist is the sect master described as a jade beauty blablabla you already know the drill. She came out of seclusion and found out that her sect had been infiltrated by spies. oh yeah it's supposedly a "Devil faction" sect and the spies are from the Immortal Sects aka righteous. Do you know how many spies have been found in just these few first chapters, dozens. How am I supposed to believe that righteous sects sent dozens if not more of their own cherished disciple because we have trues disciple, saintess, etc. come to this sect and nobody noticed anything for 60 years until the sect master came out of seclusion? As if it wasn't enough MC killed a spy and he is punished for it? And the justification is it's a devil sect. What kind of nonsense is that? Especially when it's been told that that sect take spying very seriously. What a way to contradict yourself author. Added to that MC is then clearly bullied and used by the sect master and frankly anybody with a bit of power. I don't find it enjoyable no matter how strong he is if he has to act dismissive and weak.