Lord of the Magical Beasts

Yang Ling left quickly after establishing an outline of a plan. He was going to return with the Magical Beast army sometime later, when the preparations were complete.

Scaling the mountain had been difficult, but descending was much easier!

Yang Ling immediately pushed a large distance forward with every gentle tap of his toes on the snow-covered ground. He did not make a detour even when he encountered slippery ice sheets or cliffs. He was confident in his abilities, making his way past the obstacles, fast as the wind.

Such a beautiful snowy field, it would be fantastic if I had a pair of skis here!

Yang Ling was overcome with emotion as he looked at the stunning landscape. He decided that he would get Goode to send someone to build a house near the lake after he tamed the Twin-legged Flying Dragons. The, he could come up to the mountains to ski or fish in the lake with Alice, Yuna and the rest when they had nothing to do…

Yang Ling summoned the Unicorn after he reached the base of the mountain, prepared to rush back to Wissen Castle at the highest speed possible.

In order to successfully tame the Twin-legged Flying Dragons, he had a mountain of things he had to complete. He had to send someone to look for gathering sites of the Vampire Bats and form an army of Self Destructing Bats. He had to send someone to get the fatal snake poison from the Medusas, and take the time to cultivate his poison techniques.

The Vampire Bats would be far from sufficient if he wanted to deal with the Twin-legged Flying Dragons with powerful battle capabilities. His true trump card was the miniature bombs tied to the bodies of the Vampire Bats. Unlike killing his enemies, the motive for Yang Ling attacking the Twin-legged Flying Dragons was to make them incapable of moving so he could tame them with his blood. Since that was the case, he had to remove the steel nails and spikes from the miniature bombs and rely on the effects of the poison instead.

According to the memories of the Twin-legged Flying Dragon, Dragon Bone Grass was naturally a little poisonous. After consuming Dragon Bone Grass over a long period of time, the Flying Dragon’s resistance to poison was far superior to an ordinary Magical Beast. If he wanted to poison the Flying Dragons, he would require a powerful, or unique, poison.

The Wizard Techniques recorded on the stele covered many aspects, which included the method for cultivating poison techniques. In the past, as his energy had been tied up elsewhere, coupled with the limitations of his circumstances, Yang Ling had not paid too much attention to these relatively sidelined Wizard Techniques. He had decided to put in some last minute work in order to deal with the powerful Twin-legged Flying Dragon.

Wizard Techniques were mysterious, their effects rarely visible within a short span of time. But Yang Ling was confident that he would be able to create a good number of suitable poisons now that he had Flowing Venom’s training notes as well as a large batch of ready-made poisons and ingredients. Of course, it would be even better if he was able to control the activation and extent of the poison using his mental energy, just like Flowing Venom had done!

Even though he had luckily managed to kill Flowing Venom, Yang Ling would still feel his skin crawl when he thought about his indefensible poison techniques and the terrifying Dragon Tongue Orchid. If he had a choice, he would rather face a sage level fighter like Elder Klive over a Lesser Sage assassin that was adept at administering poison!

The Unicorn was fast, and Yang Ling successfully returned to Wissen Castle in just over two days. Along the way, he had instructed his Magical Beast army to hunt dozens of Magical Beasts, obtaining over a hundred bottles of Magical Beast Blood Essence.

Yang Ling had just entered the castle when the tactician Goode hurried over. “Sir, a few merchant associations have come to the town claiming that they signed a contract with you in Montson. Do you want to discuss this with them personally?” Goode felt bad interrupting Yang Ling’s trajectory, as it was clear he was ready to rest in his villa. But he had no choice.

Over the past few days, a large number of merchants had arrived in town. Some said that they had signed a contract regarding the stone mines, some claimed that they had won the rights to the construction and management of a pier near Wissen Town in an auction. Some even said that they had reached a verbal agreement with Yang Ling in some areas of the territory’s development, which made a lot of work for Goode. If this had been someone else, they might have long broken down in front of the merchants!

Yang Ling looked at Goode, who had bloodshot eyes, in confusion. He slowly understood what was going on with the latter’s explanation.

As it turned out, after getting the news of the alliance officially expressing the support for the Magical Beast Territory, the merchants had rushed toward the Magical Beast Territory, hoping to be the first to sign a contract with Yang Ling. Along the way, seeing more and more of their competitors also journeying to the Magical Beast Territory, a few of the smarter merchant associations had opted to first send a representative to Wissen Town as quickly as possible.

Wissen Town was rich in resources. Whoever was the first to sign a contract with Yang Ling would naturally obtain even more benefits. None of the merchants who had grown their businesses were fools. None of them would bear to miss such a great opportunity.

Just like that, the merchants had arrived one by one just after Yang Ling had returned. In the end, the Shangri-La was almost packed to the brim with merchants. Even though Goode had expanded the villas and raised the price a full five times, the Shangri-La could still not meet the demand of the merchants. They earned a huge revenue every day, much to the elation of the calculative old butler, Murbaqi. He ran his calculations of the accounts every day.

Yang Ling deliberated for a moment before taking out a stack of contracts from his Space Ring. “Goode, these are the contracts I signed with the large merchant associations back in Montson. Prioritize the relevant procedures. As for the other smaller matters, you can weigh each one and make the decision yourself!”

The development of the territory was important, but it could be taken slowly, compared to taming the Twin-legged Flying Dragons. Most of the issues had already been discussed with the large merchant associations like Harribell’s Boulade Merchant Association and the Aragon Merchant Team. The smaller matters that followed could be handed over to Goode to deal with.

Goode was a little hesitant as he took the stack of contracts. The smaller matters that Yang Ling spoke of were all projects involving hundreds of thousands, some even millions of Purple Crystal Coins. Without understanding the other party’s baseline, without Yang Ling’s authorization, it was hard for him to deal with those matters.

“Goode, don’t worry. Remember, our most important aim is to develop our territory, not to be calculative with the specific amount of Purple Crystal Coins!” Seeing Goode’s tightly knit brows, Yang Ling did not have to think too deeply to understand his intentions. “You can weigh the smaller matters yourself. If you are unable to come to a decision, you can come look for me in a few days!”

Yang Ling left on his Unicorn after leaving behind a few instructions, heading straight for his villa. As a large number of merchant teams moved into his territory, the development of the territory would gradually unfold. Even though he already had a preliminary plan, there were still many specifics that he had to go through further. He had to tame the Twin-legged Flying Dragons as fast as possible to prevent it from delaying the next phase of the plan.

With only Goode toiling alone, he did indeed have too little tacticians by his side!

Recalling Goode’s bloodshot eyes and white hair, Yang Ling knew that he had to recruit more tacticians and managers. Unfortunately, tacticians were not like the Germite Melons that he could see wherever he went. Where was he going to recruit one at such a short moment’s notice?

An open recruitment drive in town?

Yang Ling shook his head when he thought about the largely illiterate townspeople who did not know how to write their names, and the hot-tempered soldiers that had come from foreign lands. Recruiting a team of warriors in town was a feasible idea, but it might be harder to recruit experienced tacticians in the town than it would to attack the Flying Dragon Valley alone.

Harribell was not a bad choice. She was intelligent, smart, and experienced, but unfortunately…

After shaking his head, Yang Ling tossed away this impractical thought. As the person in charge of the Boulade Merchant Association, Harribell would never work under him. Though it might be possible for him to ask her for help in finding experienced tacticians in Montson, or get a few able assistants from her.

Yang Ling walked quickly into his villa after recalling the Unicorn, sitting down while being served by Yuna and the little lass Alice.

Ever since he had crossed the line during their journey, he had decided to disclose his relationship with Yuna. The people had mixed reactions to the appearance of another mistress in the castle.

The old butler Murbaqi would frequently nag by his side, hoping that he would hold a lavish wedding. Most of his followers, with Goode as the leader, were visibly elated, all of them agreeing to the old butler’s suggestion. Of these followers were the Galapagos Tortoisemen, like Ashnamov and the rest.

The most excited people after receiving the news were the Beastmen in his territory. The Fox Elder, Ox Chief and Medusa Leader hurried over from Black Water City overnight, giving Yuna their greatest of blessings. Yang Ling understood the Beastmen’s intentions. As long as Yuna became the mistress of the Magical Beast Territory, the interests of the Beastmen would be even further secured.

But the tribe of elves had many grievances when they received the news. In their hearts, Yang Ling, who was a Tree Shepherd, belonged to the tribe of elves. Other than Sofia, they would not allow any other person to become the mistress of the castle. This was especially so for a few of Sofia’s best friends. They would turn and walk away the moment they saw Yang Ling. To this, Yang Ling could only shake his head and smile a little bitterly.

The tribe of elves had many grievances, while Casey and the rest who had followed Yang Ling since the start also had many opinions. In their hearts, the beautiful and kind Sofia had been with Yang Ling first, and was the most suitable mistress. Even though they did not say anything out loud, Yang Ling knew what they thought when he observed them.

Yang Ling understood more than anyone the opinions of the group. For the time being, even he did not know how to explain things to Sofia when she returned from the Divine Temple of the Goddess of Nature. Without a choice, all he could do was push his wedding with Yuna back time and time again.

But in his hustle, he had not noticed the changes in Alice. He did not know how many tears she had shed behind his back, nor the sleepless nights she had.

“Brother Yang, why did you only return after so long?”

Setting down the book she had been holding, Yuna spoke as she removed Yang Ling’s coat before serving him a hot cup of jasmine tea. At the same time, Alice served him plates of delicacies in a fluster.

Adventures on the Continent?

Yang Ling flipped open the annals of a roaming poet that Yuna had been reading. Even though Yuna had not had that many life experiences, she was intelligent, and usually understood concepts after listening to an explanation once, sometimes even offering her own opinions. She would be an invaluable help if he got her to settle some matters in the territory.

Furthermore, there were a large number of Beastmen in the territory. He believed that some matters would be solved more easily if he allowed Yuna, who was a Heavenly Fox, to settle them. This would not only greatly ease Goode’s workload and stress, it would also further solidify the trust and sense of belonging the Beastmen had to the territory. This was definitely killing two birds with one stone with regards to development!