Lord of the Magical Beasts

It was a bitter triumph!

After Yang Ling summoned the Dark Dragon into the Wizard Pagoda’s Space, the remaining heavily wounded Dark Dragons were quickly killed by the various powerful factions. The Dark Dragons guarding the Underground City were wiped out. The powerful factions also suffered heavy losses. Both sides were greatly damaged!

The Church originally had almost a thousand Knights and over 200 Spellcasters. But after the intense battle, there were only slightly over 500 Knights and 80 Spellcasters left. More than half were killed or badly wounded. Out of the four red-robed Cardinals, two were ripped in half by the savage Dark Dragons.

Under the command of Elder Klive, the Dark Association had always moved with caution, doing their best to protect themselves whenever possible. Even so, they lost over 200 Dark Knights and a few dozen Spellcasters, effectively losing one-third of their men.

The Bellimore Family did not have many people with them in the first place, and under the Dark Dragons’ vengeful attacks, they were left with only a dozen or so people. However, almost all those who were left behind were the cream of the crop. According to Yang Ling’s covert observation, all of them were at least at the power level of high-level Great Swordsmen. They had at least three Sword Saints, and on top of that, the Sage-Level Warrior in the golden cloak. Their power still could not be underestimated!

If the three main powerful factions suffered such heavy losses, no more need be said for the others. There were only a hundred or so Orcs left and more than half of the Wolf Troop’s Team was dead or heavily wounded. As for the Angus family, apart from the Elder and the young man with long hair, Harrison, there were only a few members of the clan left. Almost all of the clan had been wiped out.

Looking at the corpses of his clan members, then at the powerful Church and Dark Association, the Elder of the Angus Family realized that the situation had changed. After weighing his options, he commanded a few soldiers to put the corpses of their clan members into the Space Ring and prepare to leave post-haste.

Without enough power, he understood that they would not be able to go up against powerful factions like the Church and Dark Association. Even if they were to find the Divine Weapons in the Underground City, it would be pointless. They would only invite trouble and death. In that case, they might as well leave early.

In an attempt to make a Zombie Dragon, the Angus Family had sent out their elites to face the Dark Dragons and paid a heavy price. They had not expected to lose the Zombie Dragon or suffer a total defeat!

But unlike the Elder who blamed himself, the long-haired young man, Harrison, put all the blame on Yang Ling. Thinking back to the many times Yang Ling took what they wanted right from under their noses, he hatefully gritted his teeth, suffering from the feeling of resentment coming in waves.

“Hmph, Lord of Magical Beasts. We’ll be back!”

Before leaving, Harrison hatefully glared at Yang Ling who stood a short distance away. Holding his staff tightly in his fist as he was speaking, he swore darkly that he would be back one day with his army of the Undead to give this Lord Yang Ling a taste of his own medicine.

“Hmph, he’s asking for death!” Seeing the venom in Harrison’s eyes, Yang Ling immediately knew what the other party was thinking. While thinking about murdering the entire Angus family, Yang Ling showed no emotion. Then he faked a smile and said, “The Magical Beast Realm will always welcome visiting guests from afar!”

“Young Master Harrison, let’s go, let’s go quickly!”

Sensing at the hidden menace behind Yang Ling’s smile, Harrison wanted to add on a few harsh words of his own, but the experienced Elder Krich kept pulling him away by the right arm. Unlike Harrison, Elder Krich was more concerned about the threat from the Church.

For thousands of years, the Church had seen the Angus Family as evil pagans and had sent their elites to kill the family on multiple occasions. In return, the Angus Family, who practiced Undead Magic, also saw the Church as their biggest threat. If given a chance, they would take the opportunity to get revenge. Both parties were unable to put up with each other.

Looking at the many Church Knights and Spellcasters giving them strange looks, Elder Krich instinctively felt threatened. If they did not leave quickly, the Church might turn on them even before they went into the Underground City.

Ashnamov was leading a team of men in pursuit. “I want them brought before me, dead or alive!”

Looking at the Angus family’s rapid retreat, Yang Ling smiled coldly and whispered a few instructions into Ashnamov’s ear. After getting over his shock, Ashnamov led a few dozen Galapagos Tortoisemen and strode away. They further split into two teams, with one following the Angus Family from a distance, and Ashnamov himself leading a dozen or so elites to take a smaller path in order to reach the crossroads to cut off the Angus family’s retreat.

After recuperating with a short break, the Church’s army quickly took action, taking big strides to rush into the narrowing entrance to the Underground City. Using the Levitation Technique, the white-robed Cardinal Bishop flew up to the head of the stone carving, pressed his right palm onto the middle of the carving’s forehead, and started chanting loudly.

With a blinding flash of Holy Light, followed by a deep cracking sound, the entrance stopped narrowing and started widening. It looked like the Church had been fully prepared in advance to find the supposed Divine Weapons.

Scrape…

Looking at the widening entrance, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. However, just as they were about to crowd into the Underground City, a strange sound came from within. It sounded like an animal chewing on a bone, or someone grinding his teeth in his sleep. It was accompanied by gusts of freezing cold wind. It all seemed terribly creepy.

“Cold, so cold!”

“It’s colder than ice. What’s going on? Can it be? The Underground City…”

…

Looking at the seemingly endless entranceway into the Underground City, the remaining troops and adventurers who were lucky enough to survive shrunk back and began muttering among themselves in fear. At that moment, no one dared to lead the way in.

“Knights in front to pave the way! Go!”

After waving his hand to reinforce the Knights’ Holy Shields, the white-robed Cardinal Bishop gave the solemn order. As he did so, he stealthily pressed a hand to the wound on his chest. Even though he used Break Through Space and Time to cause great injury to the Dark Dragon King, he had also suffered a substantial internal injury for doing so. However, he could not show his vulnerability in front of the other factions, no matter what. Otherwise, all their hard work from before would have been in vain.

The strength of the Dark Dragon King had far exceeded his expectations!

The white-robed Cardinal Bishop had originally thought that as a Domain Expert, he could take on the Dark Dragon King by himself. And with the help of the other factions, the battle would have been over even more quickly. But seeing the Dark Dragon King cause heavy injuries to the elites of each faction, one after another, it seemed that this fellow guarding the Underground City had not been your ordinary Level-Surpassing Magical Beast.

Seeing how the Church’s army had moved forward quickly, Elder Klive wasted no time and commanded his army to follow closely. Just like the white-robed Cardinal Bishop, he was also suffering from a heavy blow dealt by the Dark Dragon king during the battle, but he hid it very well, acting as if he was fine. An ordinary person would not be able to tell that there was something wrong with him.

With the Church and Dark Association paving the way, the surviving troops and adventurers felt more relaxed. Soon, everyone was following and hurrying to catch up, leaving Yang Ling and his people on the plains.

“My Lord, shouldn’t we be catching up?” Looking at the endless entranceway, Goode paused, then said, “I heard that the resources are rich in the Underground City. It would be a shame if we were to miss out on it!”

“We’re going to catch up with them, of course!” Looking at the strange stone carving, then at the seemingly endless, deep entranceway, Yang Ling said in a deep voice, “Goode, I’ll lead the Bullmen and Elven archers inside. You’ll stay here with the rest to provide support and do a sweep of the battlefield at the same time!”

Recalling the strange sound coming from deep within the Underground City, Yang Ling had a bad feeling. But, since they were already here, they must go and see what the Underground City was all about. Of course, just in case, they needed to leave enough men behind to act as support.

There was no time to waste. After making his decision, Yang Ling acted fast, leading the Bullmen warriors and Elven archers to dash into the entrance to the Underground City. Goode ordered the rest of the men to sweep the battlefield and set up a temporary camp near the entrance.

The entrance to the Underground City was a meandering path that sloped downwards. It got narrower and was able to fit up to ten Bullmen warriors standing shoulder to shoulder. The rock walls on both sides were smooth and ice cold to the touch. Along the way, they did not see any monsters, leading the uneasy warriors to let out a sigh of relief.

After walking downwards for about an hour, they came upon a flatland. It was hilly, with piles of rocks all around. Once in a while, they would see bubbling red hot lava. Raising their heads, they could see gray skies. It seemed that it was not much different here from the surface.

The more things seemed normal, the more uneasy Yang Ling felt. The pagoda-shaped mark between his brows was gradually growing warmer and vibrating slightly as if trying to signal that there was danger about.

“Everyone take note, no matter what happens, do not go more than 20 paces away from me! If you see any monsters or people trying to ambush us, kill on sight!”

Touching the pagoda-shaped mark that was getting warmer and warmer, Yang Ling became surer of his gut feeling. To be safe, he was prepared for the worst possible scenario. If left without a choice, he would transport everyone into the Wizard Pagoda’s Space and retreat. Even if his energy and senses were greatly restricted in this space, he still had confidence that he could escape from here using the Earth Evasion Spell!

Taking every precaution, Yang Ling sent forth many Horned Bee Beasts ahead as lookouts and scouts. Following the shadows and tracks of the troops and adventurers ahead, they soon caught up with the Church and the Dark Association.

“It’s a castle, look! That’s the Magical Square Castle that was sealed away by the Holy Dragon according to legend!”

“Oh heavens! So what the legend said is true, that’s truly the Magical Square Castle!”

…

After crossing a hilly area, the people in front suddenly started shouting. There was a sudden flurry of activity. As Yang Ling led his men to forward to take a look, he saw that far away there was a basin landform filled with yellow sand. In the middle of that basin stood a grand castle.

There was a heavy fog in the basin landform, but from afar, Yang Ling could barely see that the castle gate was carved with many complicated drawings. At first glance, it seemed like a massive spell formation, but somehow, it gave Yang Ling a familiar feeling, as if he had seen it somewhere before.