Lord of the Magical Beasts

After watching Orlando lead a large group of warriors to the scene, Yang Ling snuck away from the crowd and quickly made his way back to the castle. He had just sat down in his meeting hall when Orlando brought in the old beggar and the female soldier.

“Aiyo, I’m so much pain, aiyo…”

The soldier, Bess, bowed in respect when she saw Yang Ling, while the old lecher was still feigning ignorance, rubbing his stomach as he pretended to moan pathetically.

After shooting a look at Orlando and getting him to guard the entrance, Yang Ling said slowly, “According to the rules of the Magical Beast Territory, private brawls are strictly prohibited. Tell me, what’s going on?”

“Sir, this old man, he…” After glaring at the old lecher, Bess fumed as she said, “He groped me all over while I was drunk!”

Bess had long heard of Yang Ling’s reputation. Her fellow troops had heard about what had happened to the Wind Troops and had been warned by their acquaintances the moment they arrived in Wissen Town. Therefore, she’d had no choice but to cooperate when Orlando appeared on the scene with a large group of guards.

“No, sir. I only had too much to drink and accidentally bumped into her. In the end, I got beaten by her and a bunch of troops until my bones almost broke!” said the old lecher.

Bess answered Yang Ling’s questions immediately with a respectful attitude, fearful that she would offend the extremely powerful Yang Ling. Meanwhile, the old beggar continued to act as though he was pitiful, coming up with excuses in an instant. He claimed that he was the victim, but had a faint, mocking smile on his face. He seemed not to care about Orlando and the other soldiers.

Hmph, what a crafty old man!

The old lecher was not anxious, not concerned about what was happening before his eyes, but Yang Ling was even more composed. This was his territory, and he had a myriad of ways to force the other party to slip up and make a mistake. After a moment’s deliberation, he said, “Miss Bess, what evidence do you have to prove that the other party groped you?”

“Evidence?” Bess turned red with embarrassment when she heard Yang Ling say this, stuttering for some time but unable to say anything. The old lecher had been very sneaky. How was she going to find a witness even though there was a crowd in the bar at the time? There was no way she could gather all of the troops and ask them one by one if they had seen the old man stroke her thigh, could she?

“That’s right, you beat me up so viciously even though you have no evidence. You almost broke my ribs. Sir, you must take pity on me!” said the old lecher. Bess had nothing to say, her face red in shame, while the old lecher was elated, continuing to ask for pity without any embarrassment.

“Great, that’s great!” Looking at the old man continuing to feign ignorance, Yang Ling let out a cold smile and continued, “Bess is definitely in the wrong for hitting someone without evidence. But do you have any evidence to prove that you did not grope her?”

“Do I need evidence for that?” The old man’s eyes and mouth opened wide in surprise when he heard Yang Ling say that, so wide that he could almost swallow an egg. He had never seen or heard of something like that before, despite having roamed the continent for many years.

“Sigh, it’s going to be troublesome if neither party has any evidence!” Yang Ling pretended to be in a difficult position as he shook his head, “But since your ribs are almost broken, you can take off your clothes and show me your wounds. You can use that to ask Miss Bess for a sum of money as compensation!”

Yang Ling shot a look at Orlando as he said this. Orlando understood and immediately moved forward with a few Bullmen, prepared to forcefully rip off the old beggar’s clothes.

Even though the old man had claimed that he was very pitiful, his body had not sustained any injuries. He had deftly avoided all of Bess’s heavy strikes. Yang Ling knew that the old lecher would definitely be exposed if he ripped open his clothes.

Indeed, the old man quickly dodged to the side when he saw the soldiers ready to act, loudly saying, “Forget it, sir. The past is the past, it is pointless for me to ask for crystal coins as compensation. I’ll just count myself as unlucky!”

No one around knew what was going on, but the guilty old man knew exactly what he had done. Everything would be exposed if his clothes were forcefully ripped open by the soldiers. Teasing Bess, the little beauty, had been interesting, but it would lose its fun if his ploy was exposed in front of everyone.

Orlando let out a whistle after having failed to catch the old man several times. In that instant, a large group of guards swarmed into the room, completely surrounding the old man who had been darting around like a fish.

“Hehe, he finally slipped up!” Yang Ling let out a cold smile when he saw the agile movements of the old man, completely unlike what one would expect from a slow-moving elderly person.

Ashnamov was personally defending the castle with a large team of guards. Even a sage level fighter might not be able to charge within a short amount of time. In order to prevent the old lecher from teleporting away with a space element magic, Yang Ling silently recited a Wizard Mantra, secretly casting an Imprisonment Restriction.

The Imprisonment Restriction was incredibly powerful. Other than allowing him to create Magic Hunting Cards, a more important use of the technique was to imprison a space itself. This restriction could limit the area of activity of his enemies, or directly turn another party into an immobile vegetable.

“Hehe, forget it, this is not fun at all!” The old lecher said, shaking his head. He had already avoided the pursuit of a few Bullmen but saw more and more soldiers appearing in the hall, as well as people crowding around outside the door. He quickly took out a Teleportation Scroll from within his robes and muttered softly, preparing to leave as soon as possible.

The old beggar was very experienced, and he had made plans for the worst-case scenario before he even entered Wissen Castle. But he realized something shocking when he finished the last of his incantations and stepped into the ring of light formed by the Teleportation Scroll.

The ring of light did not move, unable to teleport him out of the castle no matter what he tried. It was incredibly mysterious!

“Domain Space?” he wondered. In shock, the old beggar lost all his color as he sensed bolts of strange energy rippling through the air. He quickly figured out what was going on when he noticed Yang Ling silently murmuring nearby, secretly cursing him in his heart. When he had wanted to satisfy his curiosity about the strange weapon the female soldier had strapped to her thigh, he had not expected it would so carelessly bring him trouble.

He had heard of Yang Ling’s powerful abilities before he had come to Wissen Town, being able to escape the embattlement on his journey back from Montson. Despite that, he had not expected Yang Ling to be powerful to this extent, possessing a domain ability that could imprison space.

Could it be that Yang Ling had a space element Divine Weapon on him?

Even though he left his family long ago, the old lecher had heard from the elders in his family when he was young that only Domain Experts, who were a level above sage level, could possess the ability to imprison space. But these people were all rumored to be old monsters who had trained for thousands of years. He did not believe that Yang Ling could have possibly reached the level of Domain Expert at such a young age. The only explanation then was that Yang Ling possessed a Divine Weapon of immense power.

“Sir, I am merely an old man who roams the land, I do not have anything valuable on me.” After realizing that there was no way for him to successfully escape, the old beggar resumed pretending that he was pitiful, stroking the torn clothes on his body as he spoke, signaling to Yang Ling that he would not gain anything by keeping him there.

“Hehe, that’s right, you don’t have anything valuable on you!” Yang Ling let out a faint smile as he looked at the stubborn old man, “Why not hand over the two Space Rings on your fingers? Then you can leave after giving Bess an apology!”

Two Space Rings?

The crowd outside lost its voice in surprise when they heard Yang Ling say this, all of them shifting to look at the two black, unassuming rings on the old beggar’s hands. If not for Yang Ling’s comment, none of them would have noticed that the old man was wearing them, nor could they have known that those two unassuming rings were, in fact, Space Rings.

The crowd was surprised, but the old beggar was even more shocked. He had an epiphany as he came to his senses. He finally understood why Yang Ling would order the troops to escort him and Bess into the castle, and why Yang Ling could so quickly find his flaws. As it turned out, the rings that he had disguised so perfectly had given away his identity.

“Sir, there’s no way that I can hand these two Space Rings over. Tell me, what are your terms, I, Aaron, will immediately agree to them if it is within my ability!” After calming himself down, the old beggar, Aaron, realized that he had carelessly come to an unexpected failure. It was clearly impossible for him to walk out of Wissen Castle without any losses on his part. Since that was the case, he might as well get the other party to show their cards directly!

As he had roamed the continent for many years, he had seen people’s various schemes, even while he was young and still with his family. As a leader, Yang Ling would never waste his time on him without a motive. Aaron knew more than anyone the intentions of these nobles who wielded such a great deal of authority.

“Aaron? You… You are the so-called Genius Alchemist, Aaron Thomas?” Goode nearly lost his voice in surprise. He suddenly recalled the famous Aaron Thomas when he observed the old man’s cynical demeanor.

“Hehe, Genius Alchemist?” Aaron, the old beggar, neither confirmed nor denied the claim after letting out a few bitter laughs.

A Genius Alchemist was rare in that territory!

Looking at Aaron’s behavior and once again confirming his identity, Goode, who was a tactician, instantly thought of his value to the territory. After a moment’s deliberation, he silently whispered Aaron Thomas’ background into Yang Ling’s ear.

As it turned out, the old beggar’s name was indeed Aaron Thomas, and he was an exceptionally Great Alchemist. His name had spread throughout the Delar Empire in the west when he was just fifteen and was hailed as a genius alchemist at that time.

But for some reason, when he was at the peak of his fame and had the attention of every major faction, he had publicly announced that the source of all magical power had come from nature. He had tried to explain alchemy using natural phenomena and was then viewed as an evil cultist by the Alchemist Association, Spellcaster Association, and the Church.

The Church had never spared any effort when it came to persecuting cultists!

Even though Aaron had averted the crisis with his family’s help, his lover had been implicated and captured by the Church. His family had refused to help him even after he had knelt in front of his father for three straight days and begged for assistance. In the end, his lover had been tied to a stake and burned alive by the red-robed cardinal of the Church. From then on, he lost all faith and left his family, wandering around the continent, leading an unrestrained life.