The Emperor's Domineering Favor, the Evil Consort's Unparalleled Reign

"Who is that girl?! She didn't waste a single bit of spiritual energy, yet the barrier opened!"

"Moreover, I've never seen such amazing talent before—the ability to defeat the Lin family's young lady in Ye Lingcheng with just one move!"

"That's right. I heard that Miss Lin from Ye Lingcheng's family is already at the seventh level of Soul Cultivation, yet she was easily defeated by a little girl. It shows just how terrifying her power must be!"

"It seems to be Ying Li, the good-for-nothing from the Ying family of Ye Lingcheng! A dozen days ago, she broke into Qingyue Gate again, and just like that, she entered the manor gate with ease!"

"Could it be that he's deliberately hiding his strength in front of others?! That shouldn't be the case!"

"A prodigy! A prodigy! This girl is so young, yet she's already so accomplished; she's bound to achieve great things in the future!"

"..."

Lin Piaopiao clutched her lower abdomen, listening to the crowd's words, her face growing increasingly dark. She had actually been defeated by Ying Li twice in a row; how could she possess such terrifying power?!

"Piaopiao, let me take you to rest first," Jiang Yunlou said with concern, glancing at the cultivation room out of the corner of his eye, his heart heavy.

Lin Piaopiao's eyes narrowed, and she staggered to her feet, snatched the brocade pouch from Jiang Yunlou's waist, tore it open, and threw it violently towards the cultivation room, shouting sharply, "I want her dead! I want her dead!"

Jiang Yunlou's waist felt empty. Remembering the function of the brocade pouch, his expression changed drastically. He pulled Lin Piaopiao back, noticing that the pouch had disappeared from her hand. "Piaopiao, if you want to do it, we can do it privately. There are too many people around now, and most of them recognize our identities. If you do this and something happens to Ying Li, how will that old man from the Ying family let it go?!"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Xun recalled the specialties of Jiang Yunlou's family, and his expression turned grim. The brocade pouch contained medicinal catalysts refined from the inner cores of small beasts—specially made by the Jiang family to capture spirit beasts. Qingyue Manor was teeming with wondrous beasts; if any evil or spirit beast were to enter, Ying Li, alone, would certainly not emerge alive!

When Ying Li dies, all those people on the mountaintop will become witnesses to Lin Piaopiao and the two of them killing Ying Li together! In that case, even if they wanted to explain, no one would believe them!

"So what? I want her dead! She dared to hit me, dared to touch my people, I want her dead!" Lin Piaopiao said viciously, her fingers clenched tightly, her brittle nails digging into her flesh without her noticing.

Just as they finished speaking, a sudden gust of wind rose from the mountaintop. Everyone turned to look and saw a large patch of dark clouds looming over the mountaintop, while countless evil beasts shot towards the cultivation room on the mountaintop!

Xiao Xun observed that there were a full thirty of them! At this rate, Ying Li would surely be torn apart and killed by the evil beasts!

The crowd scattered, and the thirty evil beasts charged past the training room!

"Clang clang clang!"

The evil beasts crashed into the barrier of the cultivation chamber. The first few were violently knocked back and fell to the foot of the mountain! Everyone gathered their spiritual energy and hid to the side. Although the evil beasts were bounced back by the spiritual energy barrier, the next second, several more domineering evil beasts overtook them. Five or six evil beasts rushed forward together, and with another "bang!", a large hole was smashed in the barrier. The remaining twenty evil beasts chased after them and rushed into the cultivation chamber at the top of the mountain!

"Damn it!" Jiang Yunlou and Xiao Xun shouted simultaneously, but they were powerless to reverse the situation. With their combined strength, they couldn't possibly stop so many evil beasts. If they did nothing now, those beasts would surely launch a full-scale invasion of the mountaintop cultivation chamber. Ying Li was alone inside; how could he possibly withstand such ferocious beasts?! He was certain to die!

Twenty-five evil beasts were led into the cultivation room by Lin Piaopiao. The mountaintop was in a mess, with the corpses of five huge evil beasts hanging upside down on the mountain wall. The turbid blood, mixed with the limbs blown off by the cultivation room barrier, looked particularly eerie.

At this moment, Ying Li was completely unaware of the awkward situation outside. Instead, she walked straight into the middle of the cultivation room, breathing in the powerful and abundant spiritual energy of heaven and earth. She sat down on the ground, and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth flowed continuously through her body. Feeling the power entering her limbs and bones from her right hand and the abundance of spiritual energy from the withered bone ring, Ying Li was overjoyed. This feeling meant that she could break through to the sixth stage of soul cultivation in no time.

Thus, Ying Li immediately closed his eyes to cultivate, allowing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to circulate rapidly within his body. The energy flow in his dantian grew stronger and stronger, and the spiritual power surrounding the withered bone ring also became stronger and stronger. An unprecedented feeling of exhilaration came from his limbs and bones, his eyes became clearer and his mind became more relaxed.

Ying Li gathered spiritual energy in his hands, reversed the flow of spiritual power, and the red spiritual light in his eyes gradually faded until only a single red starlight disappeared into his pupils. "Uh!" Ying Li suddenly withdrew his spiritual power and felt that his body was stronger, and the sound of spiritual energy breaking through the air was more than twice as loud as before he entered the cultivation room!

"Eighth stage of Soul Cultivation!" Ying Li exclaimed in surprise. This cultivation room was indeed a good place, allowing her to break through to the third stage at one point. This was a surprise she never dared to dream of. So when she faced Dongfang Lin, she was the only one who could win!

However, before he could even feel the joy, Ying Li's expression turned serious. A cold wind swept over him from behind, and something terrifying was approaching the training room!

Could it be that this mountaintop training chamber, besides offering even more intense training, contains other mechanisms?!

"Girl, be careful, this is going to be interesting!" the alluring man said in a deep voice, his tone no longer carrying its usual languid ease. It seemed that something truly terrifying was about to arrive!

Ying Li stood up, looking at the bright firelight at the cave entrance, and mobilized all her spiritual power. She had a bad feeling that breaking through to the eighth stage of soul cultivation would not be so easy.

Sure enough, the wind howled, and the evil beasts attacked. Twenty-five enormous spirit beasts flashed before Ying Li in an instant. They were five or six zhang tall, their spiritual power around that of first-tier spirit beasts. Even a soul cultivator at the corresponding first-tier spirit beast level couldn't easily handle them, yet these twenty-five enormous evil beasts were actually besieging Ying Li, a soul cultivator at the eighth level!

In that case, how could there be any chance of victory?! But if they wanted to leave the cave alive, they would have to kill all these spirit beasts. How could such a massive undertaking not be terrifying?!

With their gaping maws open, these enormous monsters, resembling hunting dogs, stretched out their four sharp claws and stared menacingly at Ying Li, contemplating the best moment to strike.

Ying Li suddenly noticed that one of the evil beasts was clutching a torn brocade pouch in its claws, with the character "Jiang" clearly embroidered on it. Ying Li's face turned cold. It was him—Jiang Yunlou! In the entire Jin'an Kingdom, only the Jiang family relied on hunting evil spirit beasts to obtain their inner cores and cultivate spiritual power. Now, with the medicinal ingredient in the brocade pouch right before her eyes, Ying Li's heart turned cold. If she could get out, it wouldn't be a simple matter of teaching them a lesson; she would kill them!

While she was pondering, the twenty-five evil beasts shot past Ying Li! Black spiritual energy instantly enveloped Ying Li's body. Her face darkened, and she suddenly rose higher, weaving through the horde of evil beasts. Her right hand gathered spiritual energy into a whip, creating numerous whip shadows that left a trail of yellow and black blood wherever it went!

"howl!"

The roars of the evil beasts were incessant, their echoes mournful and terrifying. Those beasts not touched by the whip's shadow launched even stronger attacks at Ying Li. Ying Li's hands continued their movements, his body weaving through the evil beasts with the help of spiritual energy. At the same time, his deep pupils used the existing spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the cultivation room to continuously slow down the beasts' movements.

As expected, with the combined efforts of all three parties, the evil beast's offensive slowed down.

"Now!" Ying Li shouted, "Stomp stomp stomp!" He stomped his right foot on the head of the evil beast in front of him, while his spirit whip lashed out at the neck of another spirit beast behind him!

"howl!"

A huge spirit beast collapsed to the ground, its yellowish blood splattering everywhere. Ying Li, breathing rapidly, seized the opportunity when the other spirit beasts were in a daze, and with a fierce whip, seven or eight more evil beasts fell in the blink of an eye.

Within an hour, thirteen evil beasts had fallen before her. The cultivation room was filled with blood, the stench of blood mingling with the stench of the beasts. Ying Li suppressed the nausea churning in her stomach and wiped the sweat from her face. Her clothes were disheveled, and a deep, bone-revealing wound was visible on her arm. She had been caught off guard, and a small beast had taken advantage of her. The excruciating pain shooting through her arm made Ying Li's eyes grow colder. Her spiritual power surged, and seven withered bone totems split open from her bracelet, rotating on her right wrist. A continuous stream of spiritual power flowed from the bone totems into Ying Li's body.

"What is this?!" The alluring man, who had been watching the battle from the sidelines, was thrown into turmoil upon seeing Ying Li's actions. This ability to control the withered bone ring, this faintly emanating spiritual power—he dared not think any further. Ying Li had repeatedly overturned his understanding of her identity! He had thought Ying Li was an incredibly talented king in this Spirit Realm Continent, but with the emergence of her spiritual power, she actually possessed the talent of a peak king! Although this spiritual power was faint and indistinguishable, he truly felt the changes it brought to Ying Li.

"Ah!" Ying Li was oblivious and charged into the horde of evil beasts again, the sound of flesh tearing open echoing continuously!

"Howl!" The last evil beast fell in front of Ying Li. The spiritual whip in Ying Li's hand suddenly disappeared. She kicked the evil beast lying next to her with its skin torn and bleeding aside, and wiped the sweat off her face with her right hand.

Strangely, despite hunting twenty-five evil beasts and sustaining injuries due to carelessness, she felt no fatigue whatsoever. Even the pain only kept her mind sharp and did not impair her mobility. Looking at the wound on her left arm, where blood was still gushing out, Ying Li tore off a few pieces of cloth from her skirt and hastily tied it up, thus fixing the wound.

Just as Ying Li was about to leave the cave to settle accounts with Lin Piaopiao, Jiang Yunlou, and the others, his gaze was unexpectedly drawn to the shimmering spheres surrounding the evil beasts. "This is... an inner core?" Ying Li, half-believing, roughly flipped one of the evil beasts' bodies open, and a golden inner core emerged from its abdomen.

Indeed, it was an inner core. Ying Li was astonished. He had never expected to obtain such a pure inner core. Although this evil beast was called evil, unlike the Devouring Python, these evil beasts only harmed other evil beasts and did not harm humans. Therefore, the inner core of the evil beast was purer than that of the Devouring Python.

This was truly a treasure trove! Ying Li searched for a long time, then counted the seventeen inner cores she held in her palm. If she could refine them, she might even break through to the ninth level of Soul Cultivation when the Bixia Palace opened its registration area. If that happened, her spiritual power would be on par with Dongfang Lin's, and the outcome would already be clear.

Thinking of this, Ying Li packed up the inner core, put it away, and then walked towards the entrance of the cultivation room.