Conquering The Magical Beast Forest

The grey sky billowed with clouds, and blinding flashes of lightning streaked down from the sky, followed by the sound of ringing thunder. A torrential downpour lashed on the earth as the storm vented its fury upon the land.

Within this downpour, Longwei stood upon a gigantic serpent's head with a sword in his hand. The serpent was so large that he was unable to see its tail from his vantage point.

"Congratulations Young Lord. The entire magical beast forest is now under your command," said Anastasia.

"Hm." Despite her congratulations, there wasn't a trace of happiness on Longwei's face. He just nodded his head as if this was not a great accomplishment at all before sending out a message to his subordinates for them to meet him there. Immediately, he could hear them rushing to meet him from the surrounding area. While he waited, he thought about the changes Ark Village went through in the recent months.

Another five months had passed by and Ark village continued to develop at an astonishing rate. It was now a gold village that commanded three times its original territory, and in recent months the population had skyrocketed. In the meantime, Longwei had been preparing to go to the Demon continent. His first order of business was to subjugate the magical beast forest.

The magical beast forest was truly large, and it was home to many powerful beasts. Even though he did not find any Saint ranked beasts, there were a handful of 8th and 9th ranks that called the forest home. It was very difficult for a beast to break through to the Saint rank, so it was no surprise that Longwei did not find any within the forest.

Despite being a Saint ranked expert, it took Longwei five months to fully take control of the magical beast forest with his demon army. He travelled to the furthest corners of the magical beast forest in order to challenge the boss of each region. Upon their defeat, he gave them the same choice he'd presented to the demon commanders: either follow him or die. Some of them were more than willing to serve, and became his subordinates, while others could not stand the idea of serving a human. Longwei did not show them any mercy and beheaded them on the spot when they refused. Even if they did not serve him in life, their beast core could be put to good use within the village as they did not have an effect on him anymore.

The ones that accepted his rule were allowed to stay within their respective domains, and were given a free pass to enter Ark whenever they wished. After breaking through the 8th rank, magical beasts developed intelligence almost on par with a human, so Longwei was not concerned with them causing any type of trouble within the village. Even if they did cause trouble, there were two strong dragons and three demon commanders living within the village that could handle them.

After learning of the demonic threat, almost every single human on the Archaic continent was doing their best to strengthen themselves. The prices of weapons and beast cores skyrocketed, and many people were trying to find a place of safety. As such, the newly created Ark village became the center of attention. Mages and warriors wished to reside there for the dense world energy, while regular mortals wanted to be in a place of safety. Every day, there was another new group of residents migrating into the village. The Ark army was recruiting people like crazy, so young people who did not have other means to make money were flocking to the village in droves.

Longwei was suddenly pulled from his thoughts when he saw the last magical beast finally arrive. It had only taken them a few minutes, as most of them were already nearby. Even though Longwei permitted them to stay within their respective domain, many chose to follow him as he continued his quest to gain control of the entire magical beast forest.

Soon, fourteen powerful beasts prostrated themselves in front of Longwei, not daring to move. Some of them looked at the corpse of the serpent with fear in their eyes. The serpent was a peak 9th rank magical beast that resided in the northern part of the forest. He was considered the second most powerful beast in the forest beside the female dragon that took over the highest mountain peak a few months ago. As they looked at his corpse, they knew they had made the right choice, or it would have been them lying there. Still, not even in their wildest dreams did they imagine someone would unite the entire magical beast forest.

Longwei stood motionless as he looked at the beasts in front of him. He knew that he was not powerful enough to challenge any of the Grand Dukes yet, so he was gathering all the help could to quickly form his army. In case the demons invaded the Archaic continent again, he would use the hordes of magical beasts to trample them.

"Listen up. I will be leaving this place for a while. However, don't you dare cause trouble in my absence or I will behead all of you. You are free to lead your territory as you used to. I am not going to ask you to spare humans if they are foolish enough to trespass on your territory and try to kill you. The only thing I expect is that you instill order in this forest in my absence."

"Master, we will follow your order. However, the reason for the chaos among us was because there was no leader powerful enough to unite us all. We will naturally follow your commands now that you've appeared," said the magical beast that Longwei had appointed as the leader. He was a 9th rank beast in the form of a large black bear. After breaking through the 9th rank, some magical beasts were able to speak in the human tongue. Prior to 9th rank, the only beasts that could speak were those who possessed a trace of divine blood.

After hearing their confirmation that they would indeed follow his orders, Longwei sent the beasts away to their respective domains.

"Anastasia, it's been seven months since the last invasion. How come I haven't seen any more demons since then? Don't tell me they gave up already," said Longwei. He was growing uneasy with their continued silence, worried that they were concocting something big as their next plan.

"I am not sure either, Young Lord. We were originally under the command of Valeria, one of the nine Grand Dukes. She is well known throughout the Demon continent as one of the five strongest demons, as well as for having a hot temper. I find it odd that she hasn't sent any more troops yet," answered Anastasia respectfully with a confused look on her face. She knew that Valeria would never put a human in her eyes, but she did not even send one of the other powerful demon commanders under her command.

"Well, let's head back to the village for now. I've already taken care of everything here. In two days, I'll take you along with Scarlet and head to the Demon continent to check things out. I feel uneasy just waiting for them to attack," said Longwei as he flew into the sky, followed by Anastasia.