A Dou King's Strike

Zhao Li thought it over. For safety's sake, he pinched several Magical Beasts unconscious as if he were handling chicks, and only then did he rest.

The Jade Rabbit sank in the west, and the Golden Crow rose in the east.

After resting for the night, Zhao Li was in very good spirits. He stretched, woke the Magical Beasts, and fed them a few pills. After the Magical Beasts took the pills, they no longer looked as listless as when they had first been captured.

"Little Red, you need to do some proper ideological work on them. If they follow me, not only will they get pills to eat, they'll also have underlings following them. Wouldn't they look impressive wherever they went?"

Finding Magical Beasts was not a simple matter either. Along the way, Zhao Li kept trying to communicate with these Magical Beasts. Perhaps Red Fox was a little more intelligent, because it could barely understand what Zhao Li meant, so Zhao Li immediately assigned Red Fox an important task.

Whether the few Magical Beasts had figured things out on their own or had been PUA'd by Red Fox, they were much more proactive today.

Zhao Li lay on his back on Red Fox's fluffy back, watching the team behind him gradually grow. He was fairly satisfied. It could barely be considered a good start.

"Now that there are more beasts, if things get chaotic, it'll be hard for me to manage. Luckily, I took in a few loyal underlings earlier. With them watching, there shouldn't be any major problems for now."

Following the formations of ancient generals he had seen on TV in his previous life, Zhao Li divided the beasts into Five Beasts One Squad and Five Squads One Row, temporarily arranging them properly.

Fortunately, these Magical Beasts did have some intelligence after all and were no longer beasts that acted purely on instinct, so nothing went wrong.

Looking at the Magical Beast ranks that now seemed somewhat proper, Zhao Li felt it was about enough. If these Magical Beasts worked together, even he would have to avoid their edge for the time being.

"Not bad. Everything's going smoothly. The leading Tier 3 Magical Beasts are more or less enough too. With them, we should be able to Sweep Aside Tier 1, 2, and 3 Magical Beasts. Next comes the routine of subduing one batch, suppressing one batch, and killing off one batch."

From that day onward, Zhao Li led the team through the mountains like a roaming troublemaker. Wherever they passed, not a blade of grass remained.

When those low-level Magical Beasts saw this small Beast Tide, most of them crouched on the ground and did not dare move, then were forced to join the team. A small number fled early, and Zhao Li was too lazy to chase them. As for those that dared provoke Zhao Li's Magical Beast army, they were directly reduced to flying ash.

In the sky, Lin Lan and Xiong Ba watched every single one of Zhao Li's actions clearly: his cautious advance into the depths, his swift retreat, his capture of Magical Beasts, and then the formation of this current small-scale Beast Tide.

At first, they did not quite understand what Zhao Li was trying to do. When they saw him begin subduing Magical Beasts, they did not take it seriously either, only thinking that young people had no experience. Magical Beasts were still Magical Beasts, after all. How could they be so obedient?

But everything that happened afterward repeatedly went beyond their expectations.

Lin Lan looked at the man-made Beast Tide that had already taken shape, his expression solemn, and said to Xiong Ba, "Old Xiong, if this continues, once the Beast Tide goes out of control, your region will probably suffer heavy casualties. You should disperse the Beast Tide."

Xiong Ba was quite unconcerned. He really did want to see what other tricks Zhao Li could come up with.

"Brother Lin, calm down. Let's keep watching. At the critical moment, I'll naturally make a move."

With a Beast Tide of this scale, all he had to do was stand in front of the Magical Beasts with the bloodline pressure of a Tier 7 Magical Beast, and the Beast Tide would have to scatter. It was just that losses would be unavoidable.

After hearing that, Lin Lan also calmed down. Remembering Zhao Li's solemn guarantee before they parted, he beat Zhao Li up fiercely several times over in his mind.

"This is what you meant by saying you wouldn't seek death? You didn't actively provoke high-level Magical Beasts, sure, but you created a Beast Tide that even high-level Magical Beasts would have to avoid?"

He was only panicking because he cared. Zhao Li was in the middle of the Beast Tide, and he was afraid that one careless mistake would leave him without even a corpse.

Zhao Li did not know that his every move was being watched by the two of them, nor did he know that his insane death-seeking behavior had badly frightened Lin Lan, who had already decided to give him a beating.

He began leading the Magical Beasts deeper in, and everything went very smoothly. However, when he fought a few Tier 4 Magical Beasts, he discovered that they were not as strong as he had imagined.

With Tier 4 Magical Beasts joining the team Zhao Li led, it became even more surging and had already begun to show an unstoppable Momentum.

The autumn air was crisp and clear, the sky bright and clean, with few white clouds. The sun was not so dazzling either. Beams of light passed through the branches and leaves into the mountains as Magical Beasts ran rampant and dust billowed.

Within a single day, Zhao Li approached his destination. However, this Beast Tide seemed to have begun attracting the attention of the Beast Emperors in the mountain range. Several cries rang out, and the Magical Beasts began to scatter, though a round of slaughter was inevitably unavoidable.

Seeing the Magical Beasts scatter because of a few beast roars, Zhao Li secretly felt it was a pity, but he did not insist.

"I still underestimated Magical Beasts' suppression by bloodline. Forget it. My goal has been achieved anyway, so this is fine. If a Beast Emperor came and turned the Beast Tide against me, I'd be gone in an instant. Blessings and disasters lie hidden within each other."

Zhao Li quietly left and found a place, preparing to rest and reorganize.

"Cry!"

A high-pitched Eagle Cry rang out. All the hair on Zhao Li's body stood on end. He saw a mighty eagle in the sky diving straight at him, its sharp claws gleaming with cold light. In the next instant, they could pierce through Zhao Li's head.

"In the end, I still ran into a Tier 5 Magical Beast?"

Zhao Li cast aside all thoughts of luck. He focused completely, bent his legs slightly, and pushed the Momentum he could stir to the limit, briefly bringing the area within three feet around him under his control.

He did not dare be careless and went all out from the start. This was his first time encountering a Magical Beast at the Dou King Level.

Fist and claw collided, erupting with a muffled boom. The moment man and bird made contact, they instantly retreated and separated. Immediately afterward, violent energy swept out from the point of contact, leaving a deep pit in the ground.

Zhao Li circulated his Dou Qi, muscles, bones, vital energy, and blood to the limit. A trace of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, and only then did he barely calm the churning blood in his chest, making a judgment in his heart.

"Very strong, but within my 'domain,' I can barely fight."

Eagle King's sharp gaze swept toward Zhao Li, and he was inwardly shocked. Seeing that a human had actually led a Beast Tide to rampage through the Myriad Beast Mountain Range, killing intent had risen in his heart. His strike just now had been fully prepared; he had intended to defeat the enemy in one move, but he had not expected it to be blocked. A bit of wariness rose in his heart as well.

"Who are you? Why did you control a Beast Tide? Do you know you've already disrupted the order this mountain has formed over decades? What will it become from now on?"

When Zhao Li heard Eagle King speak, he was also astonished. Although he had long known that Magical Beasts could not only speak but also transform, this was still the first time he had encountered one.

"A misunderstanding. My teacher, Lin Lan, told me to find more Medicinal Ingredients so I could continue refining medicine and cultivating. I wanted to find some Magical Beasts to help me search for Medicinal Ingredients, but I didn't expect it to form a Beast Tide. By then, it was already too late, and I couldn't control it anymore."

Zhao Li hurriedly explained. If the battle continued, he had almost no chance of winning. Besides, with his current strength, he could not sustain a battle of this intensity for long, so he could only bring up his teacher.

When Eagle King heard the name Lin Lan, his killing intent dispersed.

"What you say is understandable, but you still have to compensate us for these losses. Or you can try seeing whether the Myriad Beast Mountain Range Beasts are pushovers."

Zhao Li fell silent. This matter had started because of him, and he truly had not thought of the series of problems brought about by the Beast Tide. The idea had only occurred to him because the book had said that before a Beast Tide, even the strong had to retreat. Before he could speak, a rough voice rang out.

"How do you want him to compensate?"