Chapter 36: Overwhelming Magic Beasts

Zhao Hai assumed these slaves had never been to school and that asking them to line up would be a difficult task. To his surprise, as soon as his command was issued, the female slaves quickly formed two neat rows, no less orderly than Zhao Hai and his companions had been back in school.

Lin stood alone to the side. Zhao Hai glanced at him, knowing it was because he was a man; currently, he was the only male slave in the castle, so he stood there by himself.

The speed at which the slaves lined up far exceeded Zhao Hai's expectations, leaving him momentarily stunned and looking at them with confusion.

What Zhao Hai didn't know was that these slaves had been trained to line up since childhood; by now, forming lines had become almost instinctive for them.

Of course, they didn't count the slaves every single day, but whether they were going out to work or returning, they had to line up. They reported their numbers when leaving and when returning to prevent anyone from running off.

Unaware of this, Zhao Hai was momentarily dazed by how quickly they organized themselves, but he quickly regained his composure. Knowing there was no time for idle thought, he immediately commanded, "Report numbers!"

The words came out almost instinctively. The slaves immediately began counting, and the final number was thirty-four. This meant there were thirty-four female slaves and one male slave in the courtyard.

Zhao Hai nodded and said loudly, "Lin just sent word from the mountain. A large number of magical beasts and undead creatures are attacking the castle from the Rotten Corpse Swamp. There might be a battle soon. Stay here for now; do not go anywhere."

Fear involuntarily flickered across the faces of the female slaves. If a human army were attacking, they wouldn't be afraid; as long as they didn't resist, the enemy generally wouldn't kill slaves because they could be sold for money. As long as they remained compliant, they were usually safe.

But this time, it was magical beasts and the undead. To these creatures, gold coins were useless. In their eyes, there was no distinction between noble and slave; to them, a human was simply a human, with no status or rank.

Just then, several more slaves walked in from outside, all women. Ju was among them. Zhao Hai had them report their numbers as well, including Ju. There were fifty in total; all the female slaves had returned.

As soon as Zhao Hai saw Ju leading the female slaves back, he knew Meg might have returned as well, though she likely hadn't entered the inner fortress yet and was probably ahead, preparing to support Mutou and the others.

Zhao Hai did not head toward the outer fortress. He knew that going there now would only add to the chaos for Merlin and the others; it was better to wait here.

Zhao Hai glanced at the slaves, then turned to Ju and said, "Ju, watch over them. Don't let them run around." He then turned to the slaves: "I am going inside to get some things. Listen to Ju and do not wander off."

With that, Zhao Hai walked briskly toward the castle. There was an underground warehouse in the castle that he had visited before; it held all the supplies Green had purchased. Zhao Hai intended to go there and store everything in his spatial dimension to prevent it from being trampled or destroyed by the magical beasts or the undead.

The underground warehouse was truly massive. It took Zhao Hai quite a while to finish collecting everything. Afterward, he ran upstairs; there were many more items there, most importantly the books in the study.

Zhao Hai had also realized that Green and the others had bought those books with the intention of training the slaves; otherwise, they wouldn't have bought so many introductory books on magic and battle qi. Those books were extremely important—not only were they a key for Zhao Hai to understand this world, but they were also the educational tools used by the Buda family to cultivate talent.

Zhao Hai rushed upstairs and swept everything in the study into his space, even the tables and chairs. Since the storage in his spatial dimension was not limited, he loaded them up aggressively.

He did not collect things like bedding first. Green and the others had bought plenty of those, likely because the weather had warmed up, so they hadn't been distributed to the slaves yet, leaving a large pile in the warehouse.

Just as Zhao Hai finished clearing out the study, he heard Merlin calling him from outside. He hurried out of the room to find that Merlin and the others had already returned. All the slaves were gathered in the inner fortress, and Mutou and the others were back as well.

Seeing that everyone had returned, Zhao Hai finally breathed a sigh of relief. He turned to Merlin and asked, "Grandma Merlin, is everyone back?"

Merlin nodded. "Everyone is back, and the castle gates are closed. However, I don't think the magical beasts will arrive that quickly. Young Master, perhaps you should go into your space."

Zhao Hai shook his head. "Not yet. Grandma Merlin, let's go to the walls of the outer fortress and take a look. I haven't seen poison-type magical beasts or undead before."

Merlin looked at Zhao Hai with concern. "Young Master, is that wise? It's too dangerous. What if something truly happens?"

Zhao Hai smiled. "It's fine, don't you all have my back? I just want to see the magical beasts and the undead, and see how many are coming. If there are too many, we'll retreat into my space. If there aren't many, we'll just fight them off."

Merlin was stunned but said nothing more. She had confidence in her own abilities; just as Zhao Hai said, if the number of magical beasts and undead wasn't overwhelming, she really could drive them back.

Zhao Hai waved his hand, calling Ju and An over. He told them, "Watch them here. Don't let them run around." Having said that, he walked toward the outer fortress walls with Merlin and the others. Mutou and Shitou followed closely by his side, and Meg stood right behind him, never leaving his side.

Zhao Hai felt somewhat helpless at their behavior, but he had no choice but to let them follow. He knew very well that if he didn't let them follow, he probably wouldn't be allowed to go to the walls at all.

Merlin and the others assumed the undead and poison-type magical beasts wouldn't move very fast. To their surprise, as soon as they reached the walls, they saw that the creatures had already reached the foot of the mountain and were moving downward.

Leading the charge was a swarm of rat-like creatures. Each one was much larger than a normal rat, standing about a meter tall with pale green fur. They had webbed feet and bodies exceeding three meters in length, not to mention their thick, long tails.

Among these rat-like creatures, several were exceptionally massive, standing two meters tall with multicolored fur, appearing to be the leaders of the pack. There were at least a thousand of these large, meter-long rats, and the sight made the hair on Zhao Hai's neck stand on end.

Following behind this group was a massive swarm of snakes!

Indeed, snakes—countless snakes of all sizes and bizarre shapes. Some were green, some red, and others were multicolored. The largest few were iridescent and a meter thick, looking extremely dangerous.

Behind the snakes came a massive swarm of insects of all kinds. These insects shared one characteristic: they were huge. Even a single spider was over a meter tall, with some reaching two meters. There were smaller insects as well, but even they were formidable, moving with incredible agility and speed as they scurried through the insect pile.

These insects were also multicolored, clearly indicating they were highly venomous. Zhao Hai's heart sank; the number of snakes was already immense, and the number of insects was even greater.

By this time, the rat-like magical beasts at the front had reached the vicinity of the castle's moat. These creatures were clearly capable of swimming; they plunged into the moat, and the water instantly turned green.

Zhao Hai's expression darkened again. He finally understood why there were no fish in the moat; once those poisonous rats bathed in it, it was no wonder no fish could survive.

Merlin walked to Zhao Hai's side and said, "Young Master, let's go back. There are too many magical beasts; we cannot handle them."

Zhao Hai nodded and glanced up the mountain, only to see more magical beasts emerging. This time, they were crocodile-like creatures, quite large with brightly colored bodies. Interspersed among these crocodile beasts were various bones.

To Zhao Hai, they looked like moving bones—some human, some animal, some large, some small. There were all kinds of bones, and more were slowly appearing from the mountain.

Merlin pulled at Zhao Hai's sleeve. "Young Master, let's go."

Zhao Hai nodded, but suddenly felt the sky darken above the magical beasts. Confused, he looked up and saw that a swarm of flying creatures had appeared above the horde. Some flew low—mostly flying insect-type magical beasts—while others flew high, appearing to be bird-type magical beasts. Zhao Hai's expression changed drastically; with flying magical beasts, attacking the castle would be far too easy.

Zhao Hai immediately nodded. "Quick, let's go! There are flying magical beasts. We must go to the inner fortress and get the slaves inside, or it will be too late!"

Merlin saw them too. She shouted loudly, "Mutou, get back to the inner fortress! Get the slaves into their rooms!"

Mutou responded, his body flashing with a yellow light as his speed increased significantly, sprinting toward the inner fortress in a flash. Meanwhile, Shitou scooped Zhao Hai up onto his shoulders and ran toward the inner fortress. Fortunately, Shitou was also using battle qi; though he was fast, he was steady, so Zhao Hai wasn't tossed around too much.

Merlin's body shimmered with a water-blue light, her speed not lagging behind Shitou's at all. Meg was even faster, her body glowing with a cyan light, moving much quicker than Shitou.