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

A wolf's howl startled Yao Fan awake. How had the black dog turned into a black wolf?!

She looked down at the black wolf in her arms, her brows furrowed. Where had her black dog gone? In her haste to escape, she hadn't had time to check on the dog, only glancing at its color. Now, hearing the wolf's barking, she suddenly realized her mistake. Could it be… Yao Fan remembered the girl she'd bumped into this morning; the problem must lie there.

However, Laoyue Town wasn't very big, so finding someone should be quite easy. With that in mind, Yao Fan bought a black gauze hat on the street and wandered aimlessly around the town, trying to remember where the inn where he had met Ying Li was. He hoped to run into Ying Li again and exchange his black dog for her.

"Oh! Lord Hou is here! Hurry up! Ten Qinghua Kui on the third floor!" The madam of Xile Street stood in front of the Red House and saw Hou Bang swaggering towards them with four brothers. She quickly waved her handkerchief at Hou Bang and then called out to the girls behind her. The girls had seen this kind of thing many times before. They covered their mouths and smiled, and hurried upstairs to call the new Qinghua Kui.

"Fresh?" Hou Bang stroked his chin and whispered in the madam's ear. There were many wealthy young men here, and those of them who enjoyed the good life in front of their masters naturally had to keep a low profile to avoid offending important figures. Although Young Master Lei was a local bully in Lao Yue Town, he ultimately started out selling medicinal herbs and couldn't compare to those whose ancestors were noble families. Even if they caused trouble, they had to have some sense of propriety.

The madam, her face painted like a ghost, pinched Hou Bang's waist and chuckled, covering her mouth with a handkerchief as she said, "What the Marquis is saying is naturally something new, would I lie to you?! Same old rules, the last five rooms on the third floor, one large and four small, brothers, have fun as you please. How about that, is that fair enough?"

Although all the prostitutes on Joyful Street sell their bodies and perform, there's a rule: no matter how high the stakes, they only stay out until late at night. They don't see any customers during the day, only during the two hours after dark. Hou Bang's master is Old Lei, the head of Old Yue Town. Although his title sounds unappealing, he's still the top dog. Businesses like Joyful Street, which rose from the bottom and are looked down upon, naturally need to curry favor with them.

Upon hearing this, Hou Bang was overjoyed. He patted the still-attractive madam and called her "my darling" several times before stepping into the Red Chamber and heading straight for the third floor.

Several passersby scoffed when they saw Hou Bang mingling with the madam.

"I heard that another girl from out of town was kidnapped by them today! They are utterly heartless! That girl is just a little girl, I heard she's only fifteen years old. What a tragedy, what a tragedy!"

"I don't know what that bastard Lao Lei is trying to do by capturing young girls! They dare not touch the girls in the local Yue Town, but the girls from other places are really suffering! I heard that Hou Bang's lackeys even went to other places in Feng'an Kingdom to search for girls with high spiritual power. Girls from several surrounding spiritual cities have been captured one by one. I don't know how Lao Lei managed to get rid of all these girls. A lot of people came a few days ago, but they couldn't find those missing girls..."

"I heard he's practicing some kind of forbidden technique. The people in our old Yue Town are all very peaceful. Their spiritual power is average, so they just accept their fate and live their lives. But after Lao Lei's father made his fortune selling medicinal herbs, he met an old Taoist priest and got some kind of fortune slip from him. The priest insisted that a spiritual master would emerge from their hometown in the future, and now he's vigorously cultivating Lao Lei. The methods he's using are really dirty!"

"Those poor girls, we can only be angry but dare not speak out. What if Lao Lei comes knocking on our door?"

"Let's stop talking, let's get on with what we're supposed to be doing..."

"..."

"What are you talking about? What? Lao Lei has arrested another girl?" Yao Fan happened to be passing by Xile Street. He was about to run away after seeing Hou Bang and the others, but seeing that they didn't seem to be arresting anyone, and hearing these people talking, he listened carefully and heard the news that Lao Lei had arrested another girl.

The group turned their heads and saw a woman with a plain appearance and a slightly long face, dressed in a blue robe, holding a small black wolf in her arms, staring intently at them. There was a faint fluctuation of spiritual energy around her; she was clearly no ordinary person.

With the intention of telling the girl to leave quickly, the leading man said, "Little girl, you'd better leave quickly. This Old Yue Town is not a place for talented girls like you. Do you see this Red Mansion? There are quite a few thugs inside. If they find out that your spiritual power is not low, they will definitely make you suffer, and you might even lose your life. Today, a little girl who was holding a small black dog was captured by Lao Lei. She probably won't see the sun rise tomorrow. She's a little younger than you and was also wearing a blue dress. Hurry up and leave this place."

Upon hearing this, Yao Fan's expression immediately changed. Could it be that the little girl he had bumped into that morning had been mistakenly arrested? After thinking about it carefully, he realized that the little girl's clothes were similar to his, and she was also holding a black spirit pet. If that were the case, wouldn't he have endangered her life?!

Thinking of this, Yao Fan thanked the people and hurriedly left Xile Street, heading towards the old mansion. She knew Lao Lei's residence was very close, only half an hour's walk away. "Don't you dare lay a hand on that girl!" Yao Fan thought anxiously, quickening her pace.

On the old mansion side, Ying Li moved, and the little black dog, baring its teeth, rushed towards the inner room door. Startled, she reached out to grab the little black dog back, but the little black dog dodged to the right, and Ying Li missed. The little black dog then darted towards the inner room door without any hindrance. With a "creak," the door opened, and it rushed inside.

With that sudden rush, Yingli began to have doubts. She wondered how a small black dog could so easily break into the inner chamber, given the effectiveness of the barrier. But the attack that followed made her dizzy, leaving her no time to think about these questions.

The man called 'Young Master' suddenly appeared in front of Ying Li, his right hand reaching out to Ying Li, and the phantom slammed a heavy palm onto Ying Li's left shoulder!

"Crack!" The man's right hand was knocked back two steps by the spiritual array that suddenly appeared in front of Ying Li. When he looked up at Ying Li again, a bloodthirsty smile appeared on his lips, as if he had seen a very desirable prey. The next second, he pounced on Ying Li without any regard for anything else!

As expected of a top-tier spiritual cultivator, even without using his full strength, Ying Li already felt considerable pressure. This was her first time fighting against someone of such high spiritual cultivation. Back in Bixia Palace, she had faced Yuan Zhongyue, a seventh-tier spiritual cultivator, with great difficulty, despite only being at the second level of spiritual cultivation.

Although she is currently at the fifth level of spiritual cultivation, each level of spiritual cultivation is qualitatively different from the previous one, so she still feels pressured when facing someone four levels higher than her.

"Your mind control abilities are truly impressive! Yao Fan, blame your parents for tricking you into selling me!" The man sneered, his attacks on Ying Li becoming even faster. A flurry of punches rained down, each one accompanied by a fierce whistling wind, sending a sudden wave of panic through the crowd.

Ying Li understood from his words that Yao Fan also possessed mind control abilities, which was too much of a coincidence.

"Concentrate!" the man shouted, abruptly changing the direction of the attack. Ying Li's expression changed; the spirit array couldn't remain in front of him indefinitely, and he had already dissipated it. Hearing the man's sharp shout, Ying Li's expression changed again, and he quickly set up his own spirit array in front of the man.

Six spiritual barriers were set up in front of the man, and six vortexes of spiritual energy kept squeezing him. The man's expression changed. He seemed not to have expected Ying Li to be able to use the spiritual array so flexibly, and his face showed a shocked expression.

"I didn't expect you to have such strong mind control abilities at such a young age. It seems I underestimated you." The man stared at Ying Li, his eyes revealing an undisguised greed.

Ying Li coldly said, "You underestimate far too much! Today I will end your life and show you just how much you've underestimated!"

With a sudden jerk of his right hand, the spiritual array in front of the man tightened even further. The man clutched his arm, his face contorted in obvious pain. How could this girl be so strong?! He had initially thought she was just a beginner spiritual cultivator with only weak mental control abilities. He imagined he could absorb her spiritual energy to gain her mental control, win the favor of a spiritual master in the Top Ten Spiritual Masters Apprentices Competition ten days later, and then become her apprentice. But now it seemed that it wouldn't be so easy.

"What are you waiting for?! Come out!"

Just as Ying Li was about to deliver the final blow to the man, two women dressed in black suddenly appeared in the inner room. Each of them possessed the same top-tier spiritual power as the man! Moreover, their features resembled the man's by six or seven points—were they siblings?!

No wonder there were so many young girls' corpses in the room. Even if the forbidden technique, Illusion Feather, causes minimal harm to the human body, harming too many people can still lead to a backlash of spiritual energy. The collision of different spiritual energies within the body can easily cause qi deviation and ruin the entire technique. Ying Li was initially somewhat puzzled, but the man rushing out disrupted her train of thought.

"Little girl, you're quite skilled! Old Lei, don't keep all that to yourself!" one of the women said, her eyes filled with delight as she looked at Ying Li.

The man called Lao Lei smiled slightly, "Second Sister, of course, let's get started!"

The two women's expressions changed, and they gathered their spiritual power and attacked Ying Li! Ying Li's expression also changed. The withered bone ring spun in her hand, and abundant spiritual power continuously flowed into her body. However, the two opponents were top-level spiritual cultivators, and she was also distracted by using a spiritual array to imprison a top-level spiritual cultivator. In the battle, she gradually fell into a disadvantageous position.

Without the wolf hunter by her side, the malfunction array could not be set up. Ying Li bit her lip, ignoring everything else. She could only pray that the wolf hunter was not far away, otherwise, if the fight continued like this, she would be tortured to death!

Silently chanting, Ying Li used his spiritual power to write the runes for the Disruption Array beside him, then slammed his right hand into the runes! A loud cracking sound rang out in the inner room. The four of them looked towards the source of the sound, only to see that the little black dog, which had already entered the inner room, had suddenly grown ten times its original size. It was no longer soft and cute, but had transformed into a bloodthirsty hunting dog. It stood behind Ying Li with its head held high, and the runes beneath its feet were clearly visible. It was actually a Spirit Guide?!

Ying Li was shocked but also overjoyed. If that's the case, then let these people see the power of the Heavenly Dog Spirit to devour the sun!