Chapter 001: Conquering

Hearing Tek’s words, Du Fan was speechless. Watching the Great Leader of the Magical Beasts so triumphant, he realized that all of the leader’s power came from conquest!
It was understandable—for magical beasts, those who claimed strength would be obeyed. Moreover, after the Great Leader and Tek subdued those magical beasts back then, they didn’t sign any unfair treaties that would disadvantage the beasts. Such treatment was already considered very generous by them.
“Conquering them one by one—how long would that take?” Du Fan murmured. He could easily imagine Tek following the Great Leader through the Twilight Mountains, sweeping through various magical beast races—one after another. What a vivid scene that must have been.
“It wasn’t that long. It took us fifty years to reach what we have now,” Tek said with a smile.
Hearing this, Du Fan had nothing left to say. Fifty years wasn’t even considered a long time in Tek’s eyes. Yet, magical beast races were incredibly diverse, with many having appearances and even abilities that defied imagination. For someone as battle-loving as the Great Leader, constantly conquering various magical beasts and seizing their territories must have been pure enjoyment.
“There must be tens of thousands of these griffins, right?” Du Fan guessed, given Tek’s intention to subdue them all.
“Over 38,000. I counted them carefully these past two days,” Tek replied with a smile when asked.
“The Great Leader has been here for two days?” Du Fan asked in surprise.
“That’s right. I’ve been here for two days because of these griffins,” Tek said. “These griffins are truly strange magical beasts. They’re completely different from other beasts. While other species have leaders, these griffins have none. They seem to act based on some instinctive collective consciousness. That’s why I can’t conquer the entire group by taking down their leader.”
“Conquering so many griffins seems impossible!” Du Fan said worriedly, looking at the griffins still flying high in the sky, blocking out the sun.
These griffins were formidable, but capturing them would likely be difficult.

“Over the past couple of days, I’ve thought it over and over and come up with a method: as long as I lure away a portion of these griffins each time, I can fully conquer that portion,” Tek said. “I’ve tried it—each time I can only lure away at most three griffins. My goal is ten thousand, so it will take a long time to achieve my goal. Besides, as you know, Du Fan, I don’t have the patience to lure them away one by one.”

“That’s easy, Commander. Let me take care of luring the griffins so you can subdue them,” Du Fan said with a smile. “But from what I know, these griffins are quite fierce, and there’s no Griffin King or anything like that to control them all. I’m really curious—how exactly do you plan to subdue them, Commander?”

“Haha, that’s a secret, a real secret! I can’t tell you. But think about it, Du Fan—after all these years managing the magical beasts with my elder brother, how could we possibly not have some ultimate tactics?” Tek laughed loudly.

“Good! If that’s the case, I have a request. I’ll be the one to lure the griffins, but I’ll need three thousand of them,” Du Fan said, glancing at Tek.

“Haha, I only need ten thousand. With your three thousand, that’s over fifty thousand griffins, but we’ll only have subdued about a quarter of them. That’s not much of a threat to this entire group of griffins,” Tek said with a smile.

“Very well, Commander. Then wait for me here,” Du Fan said with a smile.

The place where the two stood was already far from the Skangacha Strait, but it was still part of the cliff area. From here to the sea, it was an open expanse. Looking toward the cliffs where the griffins lived, one could faintly see a few of them flying up onto the cliffs.

As Du Fan entered, the blue sea water crashed against the cliffs below, producing a loud roaring sound.

After Tek’s loud cry earlier, the cliffs had returned to calm. Only groups of griffins circled above the sea, dipping their sharp claws into the water to catch white fish one after another.

One of the key reasons this place became a gathering spot for griffins was the abundant fish stocks in the sea beneath the cliffs. The density of fish here was as if all the fish in the entire Skangacha Strait had gathered here!

Standing firm, Du Fan also let out a long howl into the sky. With his howl, the griffins living in the stone nests on the cliff faces immediately took off and flew swiftly toward the source of the howl. Waves of griffins kept charging at Du Fan. Watching them rush at him, a faint smile appeared on Du Fan’s lips. At that moment, his entire body began to emit bursts of milky white light. Though these griffins’ sharp claws could tear through tigers and leopards, they had no effect whatsoever on the combat energy shields of those with strong domain powers. Standing there, allowing the griffins to scratch at him endlessly, Du Fan silently counted the number of griffins approaching. After scratching for a while, they all started roaring in unison. This roar immediately caused a slight sense of confusion in Du Fan’s mind. “Tek was indeed right.” Shaking his head to dispel the confusion, Du Fan’s smile grew even wider. If their roars could cause such mild confusion in Du Fan’s mind, he had no doubt that they could also induce mental chaos in magical beasts below level five. Such a skill would be extremely useful in large-scale cavalry battles. Although its range was only about a kilometer, 3,000 griffins roaring together could cover an astonishing area. It was easy to imagine cavalry losing control of their horses and being forced to fight on foot—cavalry on foot would likely be no match even for infantry. Of course, there were limitations to using this skill. The griffins’ roars could affect not only the enemy’s horses but also their own. Sensing that the number of griffins around him had reached its limit, Du Fan thought silently, and his space transfer domain was activated. This time, he locked all the griffins within his domain in place. After doing so, he immediately headed toward Tek! With just a few flaps of his wings, Du Fan left the other griffins far behind, arriving at Tek’s side with the griffins trapped in his domain. Seeing a large group of griffins charging toward him in unison, even a master like Tek showed a surprised expression.

“Commander! I’ve brought the griffins—now it’s up to you!” Du Fan’s voice came from among the crowd of griffins.
“Haha, good.” Hearing Du Fan’s voice, Tek shouted loudly. With that laugh, he soared like a giant bird straight toward the massive group of griffins.
Seeing Tek charge in, Du Fan immediately retracted his domain.
Soon, the griffins trapped in Du Fan’s domain began flapping their wings and taking off. Even from among them, Tek managed to make them fly. As his body emitted a radiant glow, the griffins, as if under some spell, fell back to the ground one after another. Soon, an area of a kilometer square was filled with weak, struggling griffins.
“Not bad, Du Fan. This time, you’ve brought in nearly two thousand griffins.” Looking at the ground covered with griffins, Tek smiled happily.
As he laughed, he walked among the griffins. With each step, hundreds of black rays emerged from his body, swirling around the griffins’ lion-like heads. Any griffin whose head was entwined by these black rays immediately returned to normal. But unlike before, they became very docile, standing there obediently, their lion-like heads fixed on Tek, seemingly waiting for his commands.
By the time Tek fully took control of the griffins, over ten minutes had passed.
“Commander, your move is truly amazing—controlling so many griffins at once!” Looking at the ground full of griffins, Du Fan said excitedly.
“Haha, back in the day, this was how I made a living.” Hearing Du Fan’s praise, Tek laughed heartily.
“But Commander, will these griffins still obey me now that you’ve taken control of them?” Looking at the griffins around him, Du Fan asked doubtfully.

“Of course, as long as I give them orders, they will naturally start obeying yours,” Tek said with a smile. “Du Fan, I know you. I’m afraid you want those three thousand griffins to form an army, right? If you want your subordinates to ride them, you’ll need to remove the restrictions I placed in their minds. Once those binding spells are removed, the griffins can be contracted again,” Tek said with a smile.
“Thank you so much, Great Commander,” Du Fan replied immediately upon hearing this.
“No need, no need. Speaking of which, I’m Basha’s uncle, you’re Basha’s sworn brother, and you’re also my junior. I’m just giving you something—there’s no need for thanks,” Tek said cheerfully.
With Du Fan’s help, three hours passed, and Tek finally managed to control over thirteen thousand griffins. After being tamed by Tek, some of these griffins stood on the ground, some perched on trees, and others stood on prominent rocks.