"Alright, this isn't your fault."
Youshen gave Yan a reassuring look, then, with a surge of wind power, instantly appeared in front of Hu Liena. He covered her mouth with one hand to stop her from saying another word.
While she glared and struggled, he used wind-assisted sound transmission to say: "Hu Liena, don't you know that making a scene here is making a fool of your teacher? Just look at the expressions the others are giving you! Surely you don't want your actions to lower everyone's opinion of your teacher, do you?"
Hearing Youshen's words, Hu Liena's gaze quietly swept across the guests' expressions of mild disdain. Her body trembled, and she stopped struggling.
"Everyone, I have some matters to attend to for the moment, so I must take my leave."
After offering an apologetic smile to the crowd, Youshen turned to Grace and said: "Bring out my prized vintage wine and that rare ten-thousand-year-old spirit beast meat as compensation for disturbing everyone's evening."
He then quietly transmitted his voice: "Hu Liena has already broken through to become a Spirit Grandmaster and just returned after obtaining her third Spirit Ring. Furthermore, she has an older brother, Xie Yue, whose strength surpasses hers. It is completely normal that you couldn't stop her; this was beyond your current capabilities, so there is no need to feel guilty. I am not unreasonable enough to blame you for this."
Grace's expression relaxed almost imperceptibly. She bowed slightly to Youshen and said, "As you command."
Having finished his instructions, Youshen gave Xie Yue a look, and led the trio away from the banquet hall and into a reception room.
"What evil plot do you have this time?"
The moment she sat down, Hu Liena glared fiercely at Youshen again, ready to demand an explanation.
"Why so hasty? How about some candy?"
As soon as they were out of the guests' sight, Youshen instantly dropped his previous stern demeanor and calmly placated Hu Liena, pulling a small dish of candies wrapped in gradient-colored paper out of nowhere.
Hu Liena looked warily at the hand Youshen extended and shrank back slightly: "You're offering favors for no reason—you're either up to no good or outright stealing. Why would you be so kind? What if you've poisoned the candy? I won't eat anything given by you!"
"Nana!"
Yan looked heartbroken and scolded harshly: "Even if you've taken Her Holiness the Pope as your master now, it doesn't mean Teacher Youshen's past guidance has turned to smoke! Teacher Youshen has never treated us badly; how can you groundlessly suspect him like this?!"
Youshen blinked. Sorry, Yan, but this time it really is "poisoned."
That dish of candy was precisely that box of "friendly advanced candy."
Through Youshen's testing over this period, while these looked like ordinary modern candies, they indeed carried a mild special effect.
Young children and youths fed these candies would, as if subjected to a weak hypnosis, develop an inexplicably friendly attitude toward him, though the effect weakened the older and more rational the subject.
If Hu Liena—a dim-witted little radish who was all emotion and no reason—ate the candy he offered, it wasn't entirely impossible that she could become a planted pin in Bibi Dong's inner circle.
Just as Yan had said, Youshen used to be the trio's teacher.
However, unlike Qian Renxue's private tutor, back then he was an instructor at the Spirit Hall Academy.
A few years prior, before he was completely marginalized within Spirit Hall, he used to teach martial arts theory to the little rascals at the Spirit Hall Academy.
With Youshen's compulsory education background, to the people of Douluo Continent, that was a dimensionality reduction strike.
His classes were always met with rave reviews. Even at the lively age of six or seven, when children found it impossible to settle down and study theory, very few of them were unwilling to listen when he wove knowledge into stories.
Especially later on, when his class hours were forcibly reduced and reassigned, the little rascals could increasingly tell the difference.
Therefore, many of the new generation of Spirit Masters in Spirit Hall deeply admired Youshen. Perhaps noticing this, Bibi Dong belatedly wanted to downplay his prominence, though it backfired somewhat, making his peers serve as a foil for him instead.
Bibi Dong formally took Hu Liena as her disciple around that very time.
Despite their young age, the trio already stood out remarkably among their peers.
What made it even better was the trio's tightly-knit bond since childhood.
For reasons everyone understood, Bibi Dong had no intention of taking male disciples, so she only accepted Hu Liena.
Actually, strictly speaking, among the trio, Hu Liena's potential was truly the weakest.
Although the Demon Fox spirit was a top-tier spirit, according to Youshen's spirit evaluation system, the ratings were as follows:
[Spirit]: Demon Fox (top-tier spirit)
[Strength]: 2 (under equivalent Spirit Ring configurations, virtually unable to break through the defense of a peer-level advanced Defense System Spirit Master)
[Speed]: 4 (top-tier performance, with superior reflex and dynamic vision)
[Toughness]: 3 (above-average performance)
[Endurance]: 4 (lower soul power consumption, lower physical fatigue, average physical vitality enhancement)
[Energy]: 4 (top-tier mental-type energy, supplemented by normal top-tier spirit soul power quality)
[Special Ability]: 3 (Charm, mental-type ability, extremely effective against targets with weaker spiritual power than her own)
[Total Score]: 17 (+3)
Her comprehensive score was roughly on the same level as Youshen's current Starchasm Dragon...
A top-tier spirit, yet its score fell into the category of an advanced-grade spirit? Even if it was just the peak of an advanced-grade spirit, it was still somewhat embarrassing!
Of course, according to the cultivation plan provided by Bibi Dong, all of Hu Liena's strength lay in her "Charm" special ability, and those three bonus points were the true embodiment of her combat power.
Thus, Hu Liena's spirit strength couldn't actually be casually matched by an advanced-grade spirit.
However, compared to her brother and companion Yan, the Demon Fox was indeed inferior.
Especially Yan's Flame Lord, which was unquestionably the most formidable top-tier spirit among the trio.
[Spirit]: Flame Lord (top-tier spirit)
[Strength]: 4.5 (quasi-super-tier performance)
[Speed]: 3 (above-average performance, speed is the Flame Lord's weak point)
[Toughness]: 4 (top-tier performance)
[Endurance]: 3 (higher soul power consumption, lower physical fatigue, high physical vitality enhancement)
[Energy]: 5 (super-tier fire energy, top-tier earth energy, quasi-super-tier soul power quality enhancement)
[Special Ability]: 3 (Flame-Rock Control, possessing supreme control and dominance over solidified energy formed from a mix of fire and earth)
[Total Score]: 19.5 (+3)
In Youshen's evaluation, if this spirit followed the right path, it had a very high hope of completing a spirit quality upgrade during the Spirit Saint stage and stepping into the super-tier domain.
At least it was far better than that worthless trash of a Demon Fox.
What kind of garbage judgment did that dog-shit Pope Bibi Dong have?
Just because of gender factors, she ignored the one with the best talent and instead cultivated a brain-dead brat who was utterly useless the moment she was countered!
Wearing a serene smile, Youshen silently sneered and complained in his heart.