Lord of the Magical Beasts

The Evil Eye would subconsciously let out a roar every time it consumed an Essence Crystal. It quickly absorbed the energy of the Essence Crystals with the help of the Wizard Power and life force.

Slowly, its Essence Crystal expanded bit by bit and started to release bolts of red light. The mysterious pituitary gland also grew as it released waves of messy, yet increasingly powerful, ripples.

I might as well go all out now!

Seeing the transformation of the Evil Eye becoming more and more obvious, Yang Ling clenched his jaw, once again increasing the intensity of the energy he was injecting. The Evil Eye trembled, its six tentacles convulsing as it let out a suppressed howl. But at the same time, the rate of growth of its Essence Crystal and pituitary gland increased.

As the thick metallic stench of blood within the cave spread further away, faint weird sounds from far away began to draw nearer, as if some monster was rapidly approaching.

Hearing the strange sounds outside the cave becoming clearer, looking at the suppressed howls of the Evil Eye before Yang Ling, the rest of the Evil Eyes floated around in unease, as if their instincts were telling them of danger. Soon, the concentrated three-row formation turned into a complete mess.

Unlike the flustered Evil Eyes, the spider army held their positions under the instructions of the Tarantula King. Seeing the mess of the Evil Eyes’ formation, the spiders quickly crawled forward to fill in the gaps, in case any Magical Beasts suddenly charged in. As a precaution, the Tarantula King even sent a team of elite troops to dig into the area around Yang Ling and act as his makeshift personal guards.

Even though they did not have a champion like the Tarantula King to lead them, the Horned Bee Beasts were still roughly in their basic formation, continuing to execute Yang Ling’s instruction for them to act as scouts. The Withered Tree Warriors had a preliminary spiritual intelligence, so they were blockading the entrance of the cave just like normal. Their sharp spikes and hardy tree armor still made them the strongest infantry units.

The powerful Unicorn did not leave Yang Ling’s side. As a high level Magical Beast, it knew that its master was in a situation where he was most vulnerable to an attack even without Yang Ling’s commands.

Under his intense focus, even though Yang Ling could hear waves of faint, strange sounds, he did not have the excess energy to command his Horned Bee Beasts to head out and learn about the situation. As time passed, he noticed a strange phenomenon.

At the start, the Evil Eye was merely passively absorbing the Wizard Power and life force he was injecting into its body. But sometime later, as it consumed more and more Essence Crystals, it slowly began to actively absorb the energy in his body. Not only that, but the rate of absorption was increasing.

A failed experiment?

Feeling the Wizard Power and life force well out of his body, Yang Ling creased his brows, feeling that something was off. But there was no turning back now. He clenched his teeth and began to retrieve and consume Magical Beast Blood Orbs from within his space ring to replenish the lost Wizard Power as he allowed the Evil Eye before him to absorb the energy in his body.

Yang Ling did not care too much about the green life force that was abundant in the forest. Given enough time, he would be able to rapidly replenish the energy no matter how much of it he exhausted. But he was unwilling to waste the Wizard Power that he had to obtain through tough training. After all, the level of his Wizard Power decided if he would be able to tame more Magical Beasts and if he could quickly advance to the level of Earth Wizard or not.

After absorbing a large amount of Wizard Power and life force, the Evil Eye before Yang Ling began to change rapidly.

Its six tentacles slowly became thicker and longer, from the size of an adult’s wrist to the thickness of a person’s thigh. It also grew a blood red tentacle from either side of its body which became thicker and longer, like two long red vines.

The lone eye on its head became larger, slowly growing from the size of a cup to the size of a bowl. Its color turned from a pale green to blood red. Coupled with the twitching tentacles and the black and white pattern on its skin, the Evil Eye looked hideous and exceptionally ferocious.

The change to the appearance of the Evil Eye was immense, but the changes within its body were even more obvious. Its fiery red Essence Crystal had expanded to the size of a nectarine and was radiating a hot red glow like a miniature sun. Its pituitary gland had also expanded to five times its original size, and now radiated ripples that were more intense and clear.

Roar…

Just as Yang Ling was feeling that something was off, waves of strange, ear-piercing roars suddenly came from outside the cave, as if the cave had been heavily surrounded by a bunch of Magical Beasts.

An enemy attack?

Yang Ling was alarmed when he heard the strange sounds outside the cave. He forcefully gathered a shred of concentration to instruct the flustered Evil Eyes to get into their formation again. He then ordered a team of Horned Bee Beasts to attack, while the rest of the Magical Beasts were to be fully alert.

Yang Ling had fast reactions, but his enemy’s reactions were faster. The Horned Bee Beasts hadn’t begun their attacks when the other party started their offensive.

With a roar, a group of flying black creatures charged into the cave, fast as lightning. They had wide foreheads and sharp beaks. Their sharp claws were half an inch long and powerful enough to leave deep scratches on the hardy tree armor of the Withered Tree Warriors with a mere strike. From far away, their half-meter long triangular wings were forceful and powerful. They were like monkeys that could fly.

Using the Evil Eyes’ memories, Yang Ling quickly understood that these attacking creatures were mid-low level Magical Beasts called Gargoyles. They were incredibly fast and had precise attacks. They subsisted on the brain matter of the Evil Eyes and some of the wild fruits in the land basin.

Yang Ling guessed that it was precisely because of these creatures hunting the Evil Eyes that there could not be a naturally evolved level four Evil Eye King in the land basin. Even the powerful Horned Bee Beasts were unable to fend their surprise attack, much less the low level wild Evil Eyes.

After exhausting their poisonous stingers in the battle against the wild Evil Eyes, the Horned Bee Beasts were not a match for the rather speedy Gargoyles in a one on one situation. But with the help of the spiders’ poisonous attacks, they were able to hold off the Gargoyles that were charging in with their numbers advantage.

Even though the Withered Tree Warriors had powerful attacks, their speed unfortunately did not allow them to catch up with the speedy Gargoyles. Their sharp spikes were basically useless. The Evil Eyes were unable to launch a large scale counterattack in consideration of accidentally hitting the Horned Bee Beasts with friendly fire.

Fortunately, under the command of the Tarantula King, the spider army stubbornly defended the cave, and their concentrated poisons sprayed toward the low flying Gargoyles. They were able to hold off against the fierce attacks of the Gargoyles together with the Horned Bee Beasts.

The cave was easy to defend, yet hard to attack. Even though the Gargoyles charging in were unafraid of death and had powerful attacks, they still suffered heavy casualties against the massive numbers of Horned Bee Beasts and the cooperative spider army. In just a short amount of time, the ground became littered with a thick layer of their corpses.

Despite the heavy casualties, the Gargoyles continued unleashing waves of attacks in an attempt to break through the line of defense formed by the Horned Bee Beasts and the spider army. With more and more Gargoyles swarming into the land basin, the situation was becoming even more dire for Yang Ling.

Several times, groups of courageous Gargoyles managed to charge all the way to Yang Ling. There was even one time when a Gargoyle almost managed to grab onto his skull. Fortunately, the Tarantula King had prepared for this. The spiders that laid in ambush attacked in unison, working with the Unicorn to kill the enemy.

D*mn it, I’ll gamble once again!

Seeing the situation becoming even more dire, Yang Ling clenched his teeth and decided to give it his best effort. He injected all the Wizard Power and life force he had into the Evil Eye before him. In that instant, the Evil Eye sprawled on the ground and struggled with all its strength, howling as if it was in incredible pain.

While Yang Ling concentrated and gave his best effort, he did not realize that the dead Gargoyles were also releasing streaks of blood vapor that were entering the Evil Eye’s head under the effects of the Spirit Gathering Spell Formation.

Slowly, with the injection of a large amount of energy, the Evil Eye before him quickly started to expand like a balloon, gulping in the Wizard Power and life force in his body like a bottomless pit.

After consuming the last Magical Beast Blood Orb beside him, seeing that the Evil Eye in front of him was still devouring the energy in his body without stop, Yang Ling knew that his experiment had failed. It was now becoming a serious problem. If Yang Ling did not stop now, his body might wither like a piece of human jerky.

Just as Yang Ling was prepared to forcefully shake away the Evil Eye before him, something strange suddenly happened. The pagoda-shaped brand between his brows started to heat up and released a massive amount of life force. The life force formed a thick ball of green fog, engulfing the Evil Eye completely.

Suppressed roars sometimes escaped the green fog, as if a fierce, dying beast was engaging in an intense struggle. But listening closer, it also sounded like a fierce tiger ready to strike. What was even more terrifying was that the green fog was continuously absorbing all of the energy in the surroundings, devouring the pool of blood formed by the corpses of the thousands of wild Evil Eyes around them.

Slumping down against the wall of the cave, Yang Ling cautiously took out his sharp dagger and tried his best to recover the Wizard Power in his body as he looked at the strange green fog.

Even though the Gargoyles were still launching steady waves of attacks like the tide, there was no possibility of them breaking through and charging in within a short amount of time. The combined defenses of the Horned Bee Beasts and the spider army were still too strong. And no one knew what kind of monster the Evil Eye within the green fog would become. There was a need to be cautious!

After the creature absorbed a large amount of blood vapor, the green fog gradually became thinner. Slowly, the outline of the mutated Evil Eye became visible. Its eight thick tentacles were two meters long. Its head was large, and its lone, blood red eye occupied about a third of its face.

Bloodthirsty, ferocious!

Yang Ling took in a deep breath as he looked at the mutated Evil Eye. He could feel waves of pulsing Magical Energy radiating from this ugly Evil Eye.

Just as he was hesitantly wondering if he should preemptively kill this mutated Evil Eye, the creature let out a thunderous roar just as the last streaks of green mist scattered. In that moment, all of the Evil Eyes in the cave floated over in fear before obediently sprawling before it.

A success?

Looking at the mutated Evil Eye, then looking at the Evil Eye army before it, Yang Ling was elated. He knew that he had won the wager and successfully nurtured an Evil Eye King just like the Tarantula King.

“Evolving within the metallic stench of blood, reborn from a massacre, bloodthirsty, ferocious, violent! I shall call you the Evil Eye Tyrant in the future!”

After the unwarranted shock, Yang Ling shook his head. When he had been trying to feed this ravenous creature, it would only have taken a little more for him to turn into a human husk. It looked like it was better for him to refrain from forcefully increasing the level of a Magical Beast. The gains would not outweigh the losses if he were to carelessly throw in a large portion of his cultivation level.

After hearing Yang Ling’s words, the mutated Evil Eye gave an excited nod, as if it was satisfied by the name “Tyrant.” Like the Tarantula King, even though it was unable to speak, it now had some intelligence and could express itself through its body language.

But combat was the true test for ability!

Taking in a deep breath, Yang Ling ordered the Evil Eye Tyrant to lead the Evil Eye army in an attack. He was prepared to wipe out the attacking Gargoyles, and at the same time, he wanted to see what the Evil Eye Tyrant that he had spent this much effort on had to offer.