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

The old man's face showed both joy and surprise. He quickly dispelled the spiritual array in front of Ying Li, grabbed Ying Li, and said with a smile, "Little boy, what is your name? Where do you live? Have you had any trouble lately? If anyone bullies you, just tell your master, and your master will stand up for you!"

Seeing that Yi Bicheng had been injured by the backlash of spiritual energy while saving him, Ying Li was about to vent his anger on the old man. But after hearing the old man's words, three black lines appeared on his forehead, and he stammered, "Master...Master?"

Where did this "master" come from? He was just shouting for us to fight, and now he's making her call him "master"?! Are you kidding me?!

Just as Ying Li was confused, the old man's face lit up with a smile. He patted Ying Li's shoulder and said, "Hey, hey! Master is here! Girls are so obedient, that's great. I, Old Man Yan, have a female apprentice now!"

Ying Li and Yi Bicheng exchanged a glance, both looking puzzled. Ying Li had clearly not said anything, yet this old man had taken it upon himself to accept a disciple. He was truly quite self-aware!

As the old man reached out, a yellow leaf tattoo appeared on his arm, faintly glowing yellow, which puzzled Ying Li.

However, the alluring man inside the skeleton ring was no longer calm. "Girl, this is the mark of the Yellow-Robed Spirit Master. This old man is truly a master. It's a great fortune for you that he took you as his disciple. To encounter such a master as soon as you leave the mountain gate, it seems you have extraordinary luck."

Upon hearing this, Ying Li could not hide the shock on his face. Spirit masters were rare on the Spirit Domain Continent. If a family had a spirit master, they would be like a god and would be worshipped by the gods. Spirit masters could create illusions, set up illusions, and protect the entire family within a spiritual barrier to prevent enemy attacks.

In all his years, Ying Li had only ever seen three spirit masters. One was Miss Hu, whose spiritual power was mediocre; unable to summon spirits, she resorted to indiscriminate killing. Another was the old man from Winter Night Manor who set up the illusion, far more skilled than Miss Hu, but still possessing only mediocre spiritual power. Although the illusion at Bixia Palace was also set up for assessment purposes, it was a real entity; anyone could open the illusionary door, and it had nothing to do with spirit masters. The third was the old man before him, a genuine yellow-robed spirit master, the yellow leaf spirit summoning on his arm serving as proof—it couldn't be faked.

Such a great opportunity, Ying Li naturally had to seize it. She glanced at Yi Bicheng, who saw a look of awe in her eyes and changed his opinion of the old man in front of him.

"Sir, we apologize for our slight disrespect earlier. Please forgive us," Ying Li said, bowing respectfully.

The old man was overjoyed, but when he heard Ying Li change her address, he looked somewhat displeased. "Didn't I say you should call me Master? Why are you calling me Old Man? Your name is Ying Li, so I'll call you Ali from now on."

Ying Li was stunned for a moment, and under the old man's expectant gaze, he called out "Master". The old man was delighted and immediately healed Yi Bicheng's injuries. Then he asked Ying Li to perform the apprenticeship ceremony.

It turns out that this old man was none other than the famous Yan Zheng, a yellow-robed spirit master who was once worshipped by the Yun family, one of the nine great families. Because of Yan Zheng's strange personality, he often caused trouble for the Yun family. After making a huge mess, the Yun family finally had the heart to stop worshipping Yan Zheng and let him fend for himself. They invited another yellow-robed spirit master named Cui Yunfei to be their honored guest. For the next ten years or so, Yan Zheng disappeared without a trace. They never expected to see him today.

Although Old Man Yan had a strange personality, he had never been known to do anything heinous over the years. He only caused minor trouble. Cui Yunfei, on the other hand, was a notorious womanizer. He not only defiled many young girls, but also demanded that the Yun family offer him fifty beauties every year for his enjoyment. He was insatiable in lust. Most of the girls he violated committed suicide or were crippled, which caused the Yun family's reputation to decline after Old Man Yan left.

I don't know what the Yun family is planning, but they haven't expelled Cui Yunfei for over ten years and are even making offerings to him. Tsk tsk, that's really strange.

Yi Bicheng knew the inside story of the Yun family and had also heard about the old man Yan's deeds. Seeing that his affection for Ying Li seemed genuine, he withdrew and let the old man speak with Ying Li. He then went out to comfort Boss Wei, as the commotion must have alerted the people downstairs, and he needed to make proper arrangements.

After Yi Bicheng left, Old Man Yan looked at Ying Li with increasing delight. He had originally wanted to take Yi Bicheng, a disciple with no mental control abilities but extremely high talent, as his apprentice, but he never expected to encounter such a powerful young woman as Ying Li.

Not only does he have mind control abilities, but he also possesses the Deep Eyes; he's truly struck gold.

"Girl, have you ever studied any spiritual books? I just saw you set up a barrier, it was quite impressive. If you haven't studied them, then your talent is truly terrifying," Old Man Yan said with a smile.

Ying Li honestly handed the old man the beginner's book of spiritual knowledge from the cloth bag and replied, "I came across this book by chance and have been studying it in my spare time. I don't know how effective it is, so please take a look, Master."

Old Man Yan's expression changed. He thought that this beginner-level spirit book could not be obtained so easily, so he took it and looked at it carefully. However, he found that the contents were very different. "Ali, apart from the first few chapters, this spirit book is not true. You did not learn it all?"

Yingli felt a pang of fear and nodded, "I've learned it all. If I learned it wrong, could it harm my body?" She had continued practicing because she hadn't felt anything unusual when she learned the spiritual book. Now that her master said it was wrong, she was naturally worried.

"The back of this sacred book has been forcibly altered, seemingly to prevent anyone who obtains it from successfully cultivating it. Where did you get it?"

Ying Li recounted her experience of obtaining the spirit book to Old Man Yan in detail. After listening, Old Man Yan understood. "That Miss Hu is wicked, and the channel through which she obtained the spirit book couldn't have been any good. Spirit books are valuable to spirit masters, but for ordinary spirit cultivators who have no mental control, they are just worthless pieces of paper. The other party probably looked down on Miss Hu, so they gave her a spirit book that was written haphazardly. The reason why Miss Hu was able to condense six barriers was probably because she offered sacrifices to the spirit guide. The spirit guide knew that the book was fake, but still wanted to be worshipped, so it passed off the fake as real, creating a false impression."

"No wonder I couldn't condense those six spiritual array barriers even after practicing for so long. So that's the problem." Ying Li suddenly realized, feeling somewhat fortunate that he hadn't suffered any physical damage yet.

Old Man Yan looked at Ying Li and pondered for a long time. Finally, he shook his head and rejected the thought in his mind. He threw the spirit book in Ying Li's hand aside, took out a piece of Xuan Brocade from somewhere, took out a tattered book from it and handed it to Ying Li. "This is a genuine beginner spirit book. You can study it first. I'm going to rest for a while."

After saying that, he tossed the beginner's book to Ying Li, picked up a pillow, lay down on Ying Li's bed, and fell asleep.

Looking at the thick book that was so different from his own, Ying Li blurted out, "Such a thick book, Master, won't you give your disciple some pointers?"

Old Man Yan looked up at Ying Li, his eyes filled with worry and his forehead wrinkles were very deep. His eyes seemed to say, "I've given you my treasure, and you still want me to waste my breath teaching you? You little brat, don't you know any manners?"

Seeing the situation, Ying Li stuck out her tongue and quickly waved her hand, then opened another room to practice. She was currently at the fifth stage of spiritual cultivation, and had been suppressing her spiritual power earlier, but now, while practicing the spiritual book, she was letting it run wild.

However, this real spiritual book is much more difficult to obtain than the fake one, and it consumes more spiritual energy. Ying Li studied this spiritual book from morning till night, and only after dark was he able to barely condense six weak spiritual energy barriers. Although the defensive power was extremely low, at least he was gradually getting on the right track.

Flipping through the book at random, Ying Li noticed that the beginner's guide to spirit arts contained several techniques, including protective arrays, stun arrays, blood curse techniques, enemy-defense arrays, and spirit spell arrays. She couldn't help but sigh, "Authentic books are definitely the best..."

Fortunately, the chapter on the Loss of Spirit Array recorded in the spirit book she obtained was genuine; otherwise, she would have been splattered with blood at Winter Night Manor. It's likely that the person who sold the fake book knew that Miss Hu couldn't master the Loss of Spirit Array, so they simply gave her the real one. Ugh, why should Ying Li think about these things? Focusing on her studies is the most important thing.

Thinking of this, Ying Li opened the chapter on Guardian Arrays and began cultivating. As the name suggests, Guardian Arrays are arrays for protecting one's family. They are somewhat inferior to Disruption Arrays, but Disruption Arrays cannot be made extremely large and require a spiritual guide. For most spiritual practitioners without a spiritual guide, Disruption Arrays are both difficult and hard to set up. Unless there are special circumstances, such as Yin Huan's father protecting Yin Huan's mother, most spiritual practitioners will not set up Disruption Arrays. In comparison, Guardian Arrays are the superior choice.

Thinking of Yin Huan, Ying Li became even more certain that Mu Huan and Yin Huan had no relation whatsoever. Mu Huan's parents were both Spirit Lords, but Yin Huan's mother was not. This completely negated the possibility that Mu Huan was Yin Huan, and Ying Li couldn't help but feel happy.

Ying Li was quite happy learning as she flipped the spirit-gathering manual in her hands. However, after practicing for a while, she felt a little tired. Thinking that she had exhausted a lot of spiritual energy by practicing the spirit book today, she remembered the spirit herbs she had picked at Winter Night Manor.

Ying Li opened the Xuanjin brocade, intending to take out some spiritual herbs to nourish her body, but after opening the Xuanjin brocade, she was stunned. There should have been more than 3,700 spiritual herbs, but now there were less than 700 left, and the number was still decreasing.

Upon closer inspection, the wolf that had recognized Ying Li as its master had grown to more than ten times its original size and was eating the spiritual herbs without hesitation, with a leisurely and satisfied expression on its face. The barrier that Ying Li had set up to imprison it had long since turned into dust.

Ying Li was startled. She looked at the pills Yin Huan had left for her and breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Yin Huan had kept those treasures aside, and the wolf couldn't access them while inside the Xuan Jin. Otherwise, Ying Li would have even considered killing it.

“The spirit has recognized you as its master, so you naturally have to offer it food. You put it in the Xuanjin, so it naturally assumes that you're feeding it these things. However…” The alluring man looked at Ying Li’s furious and murderous face, coughed, and said with some pain, “However, feeding it so much is indeed excessive…”

As Ying Li watched the rapidly disappearing spiritual herbs, thinking about how he had risked his life to obtain them, he almost spat out a mouthful of blood!