In Rhea Edric's heart, her own life was of course more important than anything else.
Not to mention these tens of thousands of griffins, he was willing to take them together with the griffin knights as long as he could save his life.
The key problem is that once these griffins are handed over to Xu Lai, his life safety is completely no longer guaranteed.
Because of the reports from family members in Lionheart City, Rhea knew very well that the advent hero in front of them was very hostile to them.
And these 100,000 Royal Griffin Knights and Royal Griffins are the foundation for his livelihood.
Unlike other legions, the Royal Griffin Legion does not need wild Royal Griffins that cannot be controlled.
The wild royal griffins have hunted for a long time, and their actual combat effectiveness is definitely stronger than the recruited griffins.
But because of this, the beast cannot be controlled 100%.
Even like war horses, it is not enough to arrange a knight for each royal griffon.
Because war horses mainly eat grass, they have a gentler temperament.
Griffins are carnivores with a more cruel temperament. Even if they are tamed by humans, they cannot be 100% obedient.
Of course, there are some war horses that are highly aggressive, and there are also gryphons that are obedient and follow orders, but they are relatively in the minority.
Moreover, even tamed griffins will generally only obey the tamer, not just anyone else.
If the Royal Griffin Knights need to control these griffins, they can only use the recruited griffins.
The ownership and control of these griffons is naturally in the hands of Rhea Edric.
Without these royal griffins as capital, Yuwen Shaoguang would never have been able to cooperate with him.
The gryphon knights under his command can all be lured away casually.
Without this group of griffins, even if he could take these griffin knights back, it was unclear whether he could survive.
"Why should your Majesty the King care about us? You are a rich man. Even if you kill me, you will still be in a dangerous situation.
I have 100,000 griffins here, and you only have more than 100, so why take this risk? ”
Xu Lai smiled slightly and said: "Look at this, you are still not convinced, do you want to practice with me?"
If it weren't for the 90,000 griffons, Xu Lai wouldn't bother talking nonsense to him.
But there are a total of 90,000 royal griffons. With them, the last piece of the Xu Lai Air Force puzzle can be completed.
No matter how powerful the angels are, it's useless. Their numbers are too small and they can only be used to attack important targets.
But if we have these 90,000 royal griffons, we can formulate a targeted air force strategy.
Rhea clenched his teeth, the long sword with golden flames on his neck constantly burning his skin.
Fortunately, Rhea is not a demon, and Elvi also has conscious control, otherwise the flames on this holy sword of judgment would be enough to burn him to death.
In silence, Rhea kept thinking about ways to escape.
Threatening Xu Lai with 100,000 griffons was one method, but the effect was not satisfactory.
Not to mention that Xu Lai wouldn't be afraid, even if he assumed Xu Lai's identity, he wouldn't be afraid at all.
The super war eagle under Xu Lai's seat can tell how high and fast it can fly just by looking at its appearance.
Our own royal griffons may still have a chance to chase them down, but the griffin knights have no chance at all.
The problem is that once they die, these griffins will be equivalent to no heroes and will directly become wild monsters.
Because they want to firmly hold control in their hands, these griffins belong only to Rhea and have no affiliation with the Eastern Empire.
This also means that after he is killed, there will be no one to help him take revenge.
Those so-called royal griffin knights, now that they are no longer even royal, how could they choose to fight those Seraphs to avenge him.
Then, his remaining chance of survival is to agree to Xu Lai's conditions, or to escape from the hands of the female Seraph in front of him.
But when Rhea glanced at this female angel from the corner of her eye, there was only a chill in her heart.
His intuition told him that if he made any rash move, he would never survive for more than a second.
"Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you. The person next to you is the number one general of our Eagle Kingdom.
Dungeon Queen Moriel, Demon Lord Sellon of the Northern Empire, and Hell Lord Kerrigan all died under her sword. ”
In fact, Kerrigan died from self-explosion, and Moriel was actually hacked to death by Elvy.
But it doesn't matter, they all died in Xu Lai's hands anyway, and he can give the credit to whomever he is willing to give it.
No matter what, it was Elvi's great effort to kill these famous people, so there was no problem at all on her head.
As soon as Xu Lai said these words, cold sweat broke out on Rhea's forehead instantly.
They haven't received the news that Kerrigan is dead, but Xu Lai doesn't need to lie to them.
They don't have much news about the underground city, but even though Rhea is in the Eastern Empire, she heard that the underground city has been quiet recently.
Otherwise, it would be impossible for the Southern Empire to take action to attack Lion Heart City.
The Northern Empire did not strictly keep secrets, and Xu Lai suddenly appeared, so it was impossible for the other empires not to inquire about his past.
The battle in the Emerald City of the Northern Empire was the biggest impression Xu Lai left on the other empires.
As for Kerrigan, Xu Lai dared to directly attack Lionheart City occupied by Kerrigan, but Kerrigan's counterattack has not yet come.
Either Kerrigan was severely injured as before, and the Pope's blow left Kerrigan lying there for more than half a year.
Either as Xu Lai said, Kerrigan was really killed, otherwise there is really no reason to abandon this city that was regained at a huge cost.
"How about it, have you thought about it clearly? I don't have much time, and there are still customers to deal with."
Rhea looked at the countless Southern Empire soldiers on the ground waiting to surrender, and said with a wry smile:
"Have you even detected the movements of the Northern Empire?"
Xu Lai shrugged and said: "Unfortunately, no, but people are not as rude as you.
Before they came, they handed me their credentials and asked to regain the city that was previously taken by the devil. ”
Rhea frowned and said: "It seems that His Majesty the King does not intend to return these cities to the Northern Empire."
The relationship between the Northern Empire and Xu Lai is not bad, especially since Xu Lai is getting stronger at this time, but the Northern Empire still has to deal with the demon branch coming from the tower.
Therefore, before the Northern Empire sent troops, it greeted Xu Lai in advance.
Trying to take advantage of Xu Lai's unsteady foothold and lack of strength to regain the Northern Empire city that the demon had previously captured.
The key is that Xu Lai doesn't want to give it. Compared with a lot of bad cities in the Western Empire, the ones occupied by Sellon in the Northern Empire have never been taken care of.
When Kerrigan was still there, the Northern Empire did not dare to touch these cities within Kerrigan's sphere of influence.
And Kerrigan, because he had already assigned the city to Sellon, had never managed these cities.
So relatively speaking, the cities to the north of Lionheart City, although they are ruled by demons, are still somewhat decent.
At least the population and economy were not severely damaged. After all, Sellon did not have time to transform these cities.
The Northern Empire didn't want to go to war with Xu Lai, and they were being reasonable, so Xu Lai didn't want to go too far.
He didn't want to start a war on all sides and offend everyone. He planned to wait until he captured the Southern Empire and the Eastern Empire before attacking the Northern Empire.
But how can we seize these cities that should belong to the Northern Empire without breaking up with the Northern Empire?
The answer is simple, use the air force's flying advantage to take these cities back from the devil's hands first.
After the established facts were established, if the Northern Empire wanted to take back these cities, it would have to take them from Xu Lai.
At that time, it will be up to the Northern Empire to weigh whether to break up with Xu Lai and completely fall out. The Northern Empire sent a group of cavalry over, firstly to tell Xu Lai that they had no intention of attacking Lion Heart City.
Secondly, the Northern Empire could use these cavalry as a deterrent to prevent Xu Lai from taking action.
After all, no matter which way Xu Lai sends troops, Lion Heart City, as the central intersection, is the closest choice.
"It's not accurate to say that when the temple supported Duke Aled as king, the Northern Empire was as big as it is now.
Those cities, which belonged to the empire earlier, are now occupied by demons.
No matter from which aspect, it has little to do with the Northern Empire. Naturally, it is first come, first served. ”
There can be no truth in the mouth of a politician. If Rhea believed this, he would not have lived to be so old.
Strictly speaking, Xu Lai is not a politician, but he is a king. A king needs a lot of money, and he needs to plan for his country all the time.
"How can I make sure you keep your promise?"
Xu Lai smiled slightly. When Ruiya said this, it basically meant that the matter was settled, otherwise he would not have said this.
"Surrender, surrender with diplomacy.
We signed an agreement with each other and exchanged these 90,000 griffins for 10,000 of your lives. It will definitely not be a loss. ”
Xu Lai actually even considered diplomacy. It was obviously not the first time he had done such a thing.
However, Ruiya still did not agree. He said to Xu Lai:
"If I go back like this, I will definitely not end up well.
I can hand over these 90,000 royal griffons to you, but I not only want to exchange the lives of these 10,000 people, I also want my family.
If my family has offended you in any way, please forgive me.
You should know that apart from me, there is no one else in high positions in the Edric family.
My family had absolutely no part in any of the actions that offended you. ”
After Xu Lai thought for a moment, he finally agreed to the request.
First of all, this request is indeed not too much, and secondly, Xu Lai really doesn't want to waste time anymore.
After agreeing to Xu Lai's request, Rhea Edric said directly to the gryphon knights behind him:
"I know that many of you have connections with the Yuwen family.
I'm here and I won't hinder everyone's future. Those who want to join the Yuwen family can leave now. ”
A group of griffon knights did not leave immediately. Rhea's lieutenant immediately asked:
"What about you, General!"
Rhea coughed and said: "Grand Duke Yuwen entrusted his son to me, but I couldn't bring him back safely.
I have no face to see Grand Duke Yuwen again. I will take my family and defect to His Majesty Aled in the Northern Empire.
If you are still willing to follow me, then join me in joining the Northern Empire.
If I were here, I would never have wronged my brothers! ”
Xu Lai frowned, but he didn't expect that Rhea planned to defect to the Northern Empire. He thought that the other party would go to the Southern Empire.
But the Northern Empire has nothing to do with Xu Lai anyway.
Once the agreement is signed, for at least seven days, you cannot take the initiative to attack the other party, so you can just run wherever he wants.
After disbanding the Royal Griffin Knights, Ruiya handed over the ownership of 50,000 griffons to Xu Lai on the spot.
Most of the disbanded gryphon knights flew east again.
There are only about 23,000 left with Rhea.
Fortunately, even if there are only two or three thousand people, they are air units after all. Even if they are only used for reconnaissance, they are of great use and will not be wanted by anyone.
In fact, Xu Lai also wanted to recruit these gryphon knights, but before Xu Lai could say anything, Rhea dismissed them directly, which caught Xu Lai a little off guard.
For the remaining 40,000 griffons, Xu Lai could only leave Tahan here to gather the remaining soldiers and take in the prisoners.
And he took Rhea and rushed back to Lionheart City, allowing Rhea to take away the few dozen remaining members of his family.
Even the servants of the Edric family, Xu Lai generously chose to let them go.
When the huge army of gryphons flew towards Lion Heart City, several dignitaries headed by the Minister of Defense all thought they could be saved.
Unexpectedly, Rhea, who flew to Lionheart City, didn't even look at them. She went to Xu Lai to buy a few carriages and left in a hurry.
"Riya Edric, I am Yuwen Shaoguang's biological sister. If you don't save me, my brother will not let you go!"
Rhea glanced at the ladies in the crowd, then at the minister of defense who looked desperate, but finally left all the royal griffins without saying a word.
"Your Majesty, you don't want to let her go. I just interrogated her. This woman is one of the masterminds of your assassination."
While Xu Lai and Rhea were handing over, Roland immediately stepped forward to report.
He couldn't tolerate it and let the person who wanted to assassinate Xu Lai continue to live.
Xu Lai glanced at the fat woman and said lightly:
“I just killed her nephew, and now I don’t know where the body is.
Go and ask her if she is willing to go to higher places to look for it. ”
Roland was a Holy Light Knight after all, but he didn't understand Xu Lai's hint.
Fortunately, there is Ji Long beside Roland. With this guy, Xu Lai doesn't have to worry that no one will understand what he means.
After obtaining these 90,000 griffons, Xu Lai did not stop for a moment and flew north with Yu Lan, Elwe and the others, and then with Ed and the others.
On the way, he met the hero led by the Northern Empire. He had met him once or twice, but Xu Lai was not familiar with him.
But with the respect of Prince Entan Aled, Marquis Anderson, Haosen and others, Xu Lai didn't want to go too far.
He brought the angels and griffins with a smile and landed in front of these knights.
The more than 90,000 griffons are simply too many, and most of them cannot land and can only hover at low altitudes.
"Earl Kane, please don't go any further. This demonic city has been captured by our Eagle Kingdom.
If you are willing, you are welcome to visit the Eagle Kingdom, but it would not be very polite to bring so many soldiers and horses. ”
Kane looked at the dense crowd of griffins behind Xu Lai, and was so shocked that he couldn't even say a word.
After a while, he said: "Your Majesty Xu Lai, I remember that you just founded the country not long ago."
Xu Lai nodded and said with a smile:
"That's right, the Southern Empire and the Eastern Empire just invaded together. They were repelled by me and captured some additional gains.
In the Southern Empire, it is said that the Royal Archer Corps is dispatched. I harvested many magic longbows there.
If Earl Kane is interested, you can visit and I can give you some privately. ”
Xu Lai's words were 90% true and 100% false. The key griffon was right in front of him. Kane couldn't tolerate disbelief anymore.
At the same time, he defeated the armies of the Eastern Empire and the Southern Empire, and also took back many cities, including Lionheart City, from the devil.
Kane can no longer imagine how strong Xu Lai is.
Anyway, he didn't dare to lead his troops forward. (End of chapter)