The Magus Era

The annoying rainy season had finally come. Warm, heavy rain was ceaselessly coming down from the sky, feeling like the sweat of some dirty man. It seemed that the rain, mixed with grew and sticky mist, had shrouded the entire Southern Wasteland inside.

The Cold Stream within the valley had doubled in width within only half an hour. The originally crystal clear and chilly water had now turned into a khaki colour, wriggling and roaring like a serpent, hitting against the stones on the shores of the stream along with a loud flushing noise.

Deep in the valley, near the cliff, was a three-floor building outside which, over a hundred tall and sturdy warriors were standing expressionlessly in the rain. The heavy raindrops dripped onto their bodies and crystal water drops shattered against their muscles, but these warriors didn’t even blink their eyes.

No matter how they had originally looked like, all of their faces had now been covered by a large blood-red tattoo, because of which no one would be able to tell how they had looked previously. The tattoos of three-legged Fire Crow were emitting a great heat. Even while they were standing in the rain, not a single raindrop remained on their body. All the rainwater on the shoulders and heads of these warriors had been evaporated into hot steam and had risen into the air.

This kind of totem tattoo was the brand of the Fire Crow Clan’s slaves. They were all tattooed with a special, magical dye that had been made from ninety-nine gigantic Fire Crows’ blood and mixed with the blood contained in the hearts of hundreds of different kinds of beasts in the jungle. There were also hundreds of different kinds venom added, finally making it into a dye with a special spell of the Fire Crow Clan. The totem tattooed by this type of dye contained an extremely strong power.

Unless these warriors had the power that would be even greater than the ninety-nine Fire Crows’ power combined, their souls and bodies would remain branded and ruled by these totems forever, without ever getting their freedom again, even if they would die.

Ji Hao had been sitting inside the wooden house, gobbling the grilled meat and rice cake that was served by Qing Fu, while fixing his eyes on these warriors standing in the rain.

Amongst these warriors, five of them were on the verge of becoming Senior Magi. They only needed three more months at the most, to break into the Senior level and become genuine Senior Magi. Aside the five of them, there were over a whole hundred high-level Junior Magi warriors; amongst them, ten had already reached the peak-junior-level, had their own special bloodline meridians, inherited from their own ancestors, activated, and had started practicing on awakening their first Magus Acupoints up.

Ji Xia had been sitting beside Ji Hao, enraptured talking about everything that had happened during his journey back to the Gold Black Mountain two months ago.

Lead by Ji Fang, a few elders sourly criticized the violent behaviors of Ji Xia and his son, with only a few sentences.

However, since the souls of the ancestors in the Holy Land’s Ancestral Temple had delivered their own opinions to all of Fire Crow Clan’s Maguspriests, expressing that they were all satisfied with the blood-offering ceremony performed by Ji Hao, and also would continue to encourage and support things like this; therefore, all of the Fire Crow Clan’s Maguspriests had chosen to stand on Ji Hao’s side, even those Maguspriests who were privately supporting Ji Shu. They had no other choice but to support Ji Hao this time.

Even Ji Shu himself had bitterly expressed his admiration towards Ji Xia, and his praise and expectations towards Ji Hao.

As for the death of Jiang Xue and the serious injuries of Jiang Yao, Ji Xia hadn’t heard even a word about them while he was in the Gold Black Mountain; it was as if Jiang Yao wasn’t the one who had gathered tens of clans into an allied force and attacked the Fire Leopard Clan, that Ji Hao wasn’t the one who had badly wounded Jiang Yao, and neither was Jiang Xue shot to death by Ji Hao’s friend, Heng Luo with a ‘ghost-face spider’ legs arrow.

In the meeting, held by the Master Maguspriest, Ji Kui, the Fire Crow Clan’s Master Maguspriest, had given a final conclusion about that, the allied forces were the who had attacked Fire Leopard Clan and besieged Ji Hao’s troop.

The final conclusion was, all those clans who had joined the Allied forces were played and used by the Black Water Serpent Clan, shamelessly launching a sneak attack on the most loyal dependency clan of the Fire Crow Clan, the Fire Leopard Clan; they had challenged the Fire Crow Clan by doing this, and also had provoked all of the Fire Crow Clan’s ancestors’ souls in the Holy Land’s Ancestral Temple; therefore, all those clans should be eliminated, and all of their clansmen must become the Fire Crow Clan’s slaves, working and fighting for the Fire Crow Clan from generation to generation, to atone for their crimes.

The Fire Crow Clan’s elders, who were in charge of all kinds of clan affairs, had accurately calculated the total amount of the total amount of people in these clans.

Apart from those unlucky warriors who had been offered to the ancestors as oblations by Ji Hao, and the thirty-thousand young slaves that Ji Hao had promised Qing Ying, and slaves, women and kids that had been giving to the Fire Leopard Clan to compensate for their losses during this fight, the Fire Crow Clan would this time gain over five millions of high quality slaves from these tens of clans.

During all these years, the conflict between the Fire Crow Clan and the Black Water Serpent Clan had occurred several times every year; however, the power of these two clans were nearly even, so their warriors might die in battle, but this kind of fight rarely brought a large amount of captives.

This time, the Fire Crow Clan had destroyed almost all of the elite forces of these tens of clans, who had possessed great power before, therefore, the rest of their clansmen, who were unable to resist, had all become the Fire Crow Clan’s slaves. This was the best harvest of the Fire Crow Clan within the past hundreds of years.

While those elders and Maguspriests of the Fire Crow Clan were discussing all these, Ji Hao and his troops, who were as powerful and fast as a wildland fire, had eliminated the nearest five clans, and had started sending slaves, guarded by groups of Fire Crow Clan warriors, to the Gold Black Mountain.

At last, Ji Kui talked on behalf of the ancestors, giving the final verdict about Ji Hao and his behavior. He said that Ji Hao had made great contributions to the Fire Crow Clan, although he was young, but the contribution he made to the clan could be compared to that of the most elite warriors in the clan already.

Furthermore, powerful warriors deserved better treatment, and warriors who made contributions to the clan shall receive proper rewards; therefore, five powerful warriors who had almost reached the Senior level, and a hundred of elite and peak-level Junior Magi warriors had been awarded to Ji Hao as his personal slave.

While talking, Ji Xia abruptly slapped his own lap, then slightly punched Ji Hao’s shoulder, laughed out loud and said, “Hao, you kid...I, your Abba, when the first time I had lead our clansmen and fought against those stinky snakes for three months, eliminated five branch clans of theirs, the clan had only given me twenty Junior level personal slaves.”

Ji Xia then held his head high proudly and boasted, “Qing Fu, look! This is my son, I, Ji Xia’s son! Haha, stronger than me! For his first time when he got rewarded by the clan, he has gained more than his Abba’s, which was mine, all awards added together, which I had gained after fighting for the clan for twenty whole years!”

Qing Fu smilingly brought a plate of newly picked fruits, rubbed Ji Hao’s head and said, “Hao, not every Fire Crow Clansman has their personal slaves, especially this many and this powerful; in the clan, you now have equal status with great warriors like your Abba!”

Smiled gently, Qing Fu looked at Ji Xia and said seriously, “Hao has grown up and has his own property; we should find him a nice girl. Xia, what do you think about this? Should it be our Qing Yi Clan girl or from some other clan?”

Ji Xia scrubbed his own head and frowned, smacked his lips then said, “Well, talking about girls, the Qing Yi Clan’s girls are certainly the most beautiful. But, back then, in order to marry you, I had to give all of my slaves and more than a half of my properties to your Abba. The Qing Yi Clan’s girls...hmm...their prices are hurting to the soul!”

Qing Fu pouted slightly and took an accusing glance at Ji Xia, silently grabbed his earlobe and twisted it slightly.

Ji Hao had been choked by a mouthful of rice cake when he heard his parents, and nearly couldn’t breathe. How old they thought he was? Why had they started to talk about his marriage already? yelled Ji Hao in his head.

“Abba, Amma, no rush, really, no rush. I just have received over a hundred slaves; I haven’t even figured out how to feed them yet. A few more years, just wait, a few more years!”

Ji Hao then darted out of the room while yelling,

“I have to build some houses for these slaves to get them settled down...”

“And didn’t you say that they’re all my personal slaves, and their offsprings are all my slaves as well? Then I have to find enough wives for them!”

Ji Hao disappeared in the rain, while shouting and yelling. Ji Xia and Qing Fu laughed aloud simultaneously.

Quickly after that, Ji Xia’s face darkened, and his expression became extremely cold.

“Hmmm, Qing Fu, we have to figure out a plan concerning Ji Shu and Jiang Yao. Even if not for ourselves, we have to think for Hao!”

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TL note: Pay for marrige is a tradition in old China. Usually, the husband need to give a certain amount of money and sometimes other properties to the wife’s family, at or before the wedding ceremony, to show that he would value this woman and to thank her family for raising her. If the fiance couldn’t afford the certain amount of money as the fiancee’s family had required, then their marrige could probably be denied. This tradition have been maintained in some Chinese families till today (not as strict as the old days though), I personally can’t accept it.