Chapter 420 Ground Guardian

After returning to Jaboli, Yang Ling immediately ordered for the Main Residence's area to be expanded to take up one third of the inner city, demolishing the houses of the citizens living near the Main Residence.

The power of the Church was huge. If they came for revenge, it would definitely cause a stormy, bloody battle. To prevent the innocent from being hurt, his castle residence must be a certain distance away from the citizens. Furthermore, the castle had to be big enough to lay more traps and ambushes to welcome the Church fellows.

Expanding a huge castle needed much manpower and funds. To an ordinary Domain, they would consider the difficulty in getting that kind of money; however, this was not a problem for Yang Ling.

During this period, more people had streamed into Jaboli, attracting many nomads who had led a tough life to come and seek a living. Cheap labor could be found by the handful. Having gained the accumulated wealth of the generations of Pharaoh Kings over a few thousand years, his funds were plentiful in supply. The funds were sufficient for expanding the castle. Even building a few dozen - or even a few hundred - Wissen Castles would not be a problem.

Apart from expanding the area, Yang Ling also personally planned the architecture within the palace and its garden. He planted man-eating vines and commanded a few dozen Withered Tree Warriors to transform into thousand-year-old withered trees, which would guard the various battle positions. He also reared from the forests huge numbers of Magical Beasts, such as the Horned Bee Beasts, Spiders, and Vampire Bats. Within the building, he placed the Gargoyles one by one. Within the lake, he placed a few ferocious Black Mamba Giant Pythons. Within the castle itself, he laid down various ambushes and traps!

After he finished the overall planning, Yang Ling laid an Imprisonment Restriction over the entire castle. He then reinforced it with the Great Wizard Seal, stacking layers of Illusory Formation, Killing Formation, and Gravity Restriction. Finally, he placed the Wizard's Pagoda in the courtyard. Under normal circumstances where the Restriction was not triggered, the Main Residence looked like an ordinary castle, but once the Great Wizard Seal had activated the Restriction, any enemies who barged in would immediately be trapped by various ambushes.

Could he lay a Restriction that would cover the entire Jaboli City?

Examining the various Restrictions laid around the Inner City, the ever-expanding Main Residence, and the Outer City that was being constructed, Yang Ling had a sudden thought. The Church might be large and powerful, but they also could not send tens of thousands of Guardian Knights and Spellcasters over to seek vengeance. At most, they would only be able to send a few hundred elites over. If he were to concentrate his forces like the City Guards led by Argus or like the Marines led by Ashnamov, he might be able to lay a complete web over Jaboli and slay all the Church Experts. It would allow them to come, but it would not let them leave.

If he could not match them one-on-one, then he would use his huge army to drown them!

In this period, with Yang Ling's permission, Goode had managed the Hunter Association until it was prosperous. More expansions were being built to the Hunter Association, so membership had grown explosively. After posting the missions, there were people capturing large numbers of Magical Beasts and Magical Beast Eggs. Only a small number of the Magical Beasts would be handed to the Beast Taming Ground to be tamed and sold as pets. The rest of them were gathered and given to Yang Ling to be kept in the Wizard Pagoda's Space.

The Wizard Pagoda's Space had grown in size. The miserably small Magical Beasts Base from the start had long become a vast ancient forest, forming the beginnings of an ecological chain. After moving large numbers of Magical Beasts in, the Magical Beasts within the Wizard Pagoda's Space grew in number, causing the ecological chain to lengthen, becoming more complete. Despite that at the moment there were not many high-level Magical Beasts, there were countless wild Horned Bee Beasts, Vampire Bats, and Spiders. As long as Yang Ling was willing, he could form a huge Magical Beast Army at a moment's notice.

The Magical Beast Army was impressively large. At the same time, as long as he gave the command, he could also gather a great number of warriors within the Realm!

Through the hard work of Yuna, Goode, and others, the development of the Magical Beast Realm progressed at a rapid pace. Not only did it attract large numbers of nomads and tribes to settle down, but it had also formed a strong sense of cohesion. As long as Yang Ling gave the command to gather troops as the Lord of the land, people would jump at the chance to join the army to defend their hard-earned homeland and to defend the honor and glory of the Magical Beast Realm.

Some time ago, in order to explore overseas, Ashnamov publicly announced the recruitment of a hundred brave warriors to join the army. People swarmed in from all over, and over three thousand people turned up. Some didn't even want payment, instead they had only hoped to be able to accumulate war merit within the army, and one day become a close guard of His Lordship Yang Ling. They wanted to follow in his footsteps to witness the glory of the Magical Beast Realm. From this one incident, one could see the charm and charisma of His Lordship Yang Ling.

There was no time to lose!

After making up his mind, Yang Ling immediately took action. He greatly expanded the strength of the Marines and the City Guards, then recruited large numbers of brave warriors into the army. The main forces were concentrated on the army base located just outside the city. If needed, he could immediately close up, surround Jaboli, close the gates to beat the dogs, and give the enemies who barged in nowhere else to run. An ordinary soldier might not have a strong attacking ability, but if everyone were to wield a strengthened version of the Pear Blossom Crossbow and every arrow were to be smeared with Poison Wizard Alice's fatal poison, then no matter what they would cause suffering. Despite if they fired in unison or made a sneak attack sneak, they would catch the enemy by surprise.

After completing the overall planning, Yang Ling swallowed large amounts of Magical Beast Blood Orbs to replenish his exhausted Wizard Power and Metal Energy. He started laying a Restriction to cover the whole of Jaboli city, with the Main Residence as its center. Even though it was just a simple Illusory Formation, at the critical moment it might prove itself to be useful. If it was not activated under ordinary circumstances, the people's lives would not be affected at all. During times of chaos and instability, as long as people stayed at home and closed their doors, the Illusory Formation would not harm the innocent. It was much better than the Energy Towers, found in many cities on the Continent, that attacked everyone without discrimination!

After laying heavily armed traps and ambushes, Yang Ling went to cultivate his training in silence behind closed doors. He hoped that before the Church arrived with their vengeance, he would be able to advance another level in his power. After all, when faced with the Experts within the Church, it might come down to the Corpse Wizard King and himself having to face them personally in the end.

Besides going in and out of the Graveyard of the Deities and Demons, what other mysteries did the Teleportation Portal hold?

After sitting cross-legged on the Great Wizard Altar, Yang Ling first observed in detail the Teleportation Portal that the various powerful factions had been so determined to get their hands on. According to the Pharaoh King Mobli's memories, many years ago in the Graveyard of the Deities and Demons the mysterious elder used this exact Teleportation Portal to seriously wound the first-generation Pharaoh King and the Divine-Level Magical Beast, the Golden Roc. If he could figure out the mystery of the Teleportation Portal, he would have much more confidence in his ability to kill off the Church's Experts!

If he were to pour in large amounts of Wizard Power and Mental Energy, what kind of changes would happen to the Teleportation Portal?

Examining the Teleportation Portal, which was carved full of mysterious runes, Yang Ling hesitated for a bit, not daring to act impulsively. The successive generations of Pharaoh Kings, with their ability to run a nation, could only manage to figure out a way to enter and exit the Graveyard of Deities and Demons. They were completely unable to figure out the real mystery behind the Teleportation Portal, so they could only use it in that simple manner. Historically there were five Pharaoh Kings. They suffered from rebounding Magic while trying to study the mystery of the Teleportation Portal, and the rebound caused them to explode on the spot. Two of them were fatally wounded by the evil demons who dashed out of the portal by accident, and they died from their injuries. Without being certain, he dared not do anything to this dangerous two-bladed sword on impulse, as he wanted to prevent killing himself by mistake through his curiosity.

After stowing away the dangerous Teleportation Portal, Yang Ling focused his attention on studying the Ring of the Earth that he had pried off of the Pharaoh King Mobli's finger.

Compared to the Teleportation Portal, it was a much smoother process to study the Ring of the Earth. According the Pharaoh King's memories, Yang Ling dripped a drop of his blood on it for it to recognize him as its owner. Thereafter, after muttering a few incantations, he could activate the powerful Holy Land Armor and Ground Guardian. After pairing it with the Ice-sealing Throne, his defense ability increased to an astonishing level.

He wondered if the giant claws of the Dark Dragon King would still be able to leave a mark on him now?

After trying it out, Yang Ling walked into the Wizard Pagoda's Space. He found the Dark Dragon King, who was training in the desert, to find out exactly how strong his defense was now. He commanded the Dark Dragon King to use his strongest attack.

"My Lord, you're sure you want to stand still and not move?" After transforming into a giant Dark Dragon, the Dark Dragon hesitated when he saw Yang Ling, who was unmoving.

Natural Spirit Fire and boiling hot lava lakes were the sources of energy for all Burning Fire Elves. To the Dark Dragons, it was also a rare, holy training ground. While Yang Ling was laying the Restrictions, the Dark Dragon King was either busy training by the lava lake, absorbing large clouds of pure and refined Fire Element Magical Energy, or training with the powerful Burning Fire Elf King. His power had increased in leaps and bounds. Not only had his defenses gotten physically stronger, the oppressive power of his Dragon Realm had also become dramatically different from the past.

Now, he could give a gentle pat with his giant claws and completely flatten a big mass of extremely hard Star Metal. What would happen if he were to ruthlessly slam his claws onto Yang Ling's head?

"Hehe, hurry up and do it if you don't want to eat Immet's children!" Looking at the Dark Dragon King circling low overhead, Yang Ling smiled lightly and muttered a few incantations, rapidly adding to his defense with the Ground Guardian. In an instant, a light, mud-yellow glow surrounded his entire body.

Immet's children?

Thinking of the scorpions crawling up, down, and all over Immet's body, the Dark Dragon King felt a prickle down his spine. He might not be afraid of heaven or earth, but every time he saw Immet, he would immediately lose his appetite. Only an old pervert like the Corpse Wizard King would be able to pick a few misbehaving scorpions off Immet, stuff them into his mouth, and swallow them like a snack while talking to Immet.

"My Lord, be careful. Here I come!" After a roar, the Dark Dragon King dove down from above, coming with a trial attack at Yang Ling, who was standing on the ground. Unexpectedly, after a dull 'thud' sound, Yang Ling was undamaged and there was a sharp pain from the Dark Dragon King's claw that went straight to his heart.

How could this be?

After the initial shock, the Dark Dragon King cast Dragon Realm, relying on the oppressive power of the Dragon Realm to launch waves of intense attacks. Unexpectedly, after ruthlessly hitting Yang Ling a few times with his claws, he was in a lot of pain. Yet Yang Ling, who was surrounded by the constantly-moving yellow glow, did not seem to be affected. After accidentally being jumped on and punched by Yang Ling, he was in so much pain that his whole body trembled. The mud-yellow glow layer on Yang Ling's body seemed to not only be able to defend against the Dark Dragon King's strong attacks, but also was able to increase the damage given. It was powerful beyond compare!