The Magus Era

Seven days later, the war situation of the Cold Stream Valley started going downhill for the residents of the valley.

Twelve hundreds of zhangs tall black stonemen had joined the enemies’ team. The entire bodies of these stonemen were made from black moonstones, and each of them had a red slave-mark branded on their foreheads; obviously, they were all slaves under someone’s control.

“Ho!”

Accompanied with mad roars, one of the black stonemen smashed hard on the ground with both hands; instantly, a hundreds of zhang high hill shrank quickly, and condensed into a round stone ball that had a radius of one zhang. The stoneman then waved his arm furiously in the air and threw the stone ball towards the fence wall. His movements were surprisingly fast, his arms even left a few afterimages in the air, and the stone ball darted towards the fence wall at a speed, which even Ji Hao couldn’t see clearly, then hit on the fence wall along with a thunderous bang.

Bang!!

The fence wall shook violently.

The stoneman’s power was incredibly great, combined with those weird spell-symbols, which were shining on the surface of the stone ball, it had a great effect on the fence-magic-formation that had been supporting the fence wall; only with one shot, the power of the fence-magic-formation had largely been lowered.

Mining slaves were running fast, carrying large amounts of fire essence crystals and jade pieces into the fence-magic-formation. Countless spell symbols were shining around those fire essence crystals and jade pieces, which had piled up into a small hill, continuously turning into great power and replenishing the fence wall’s power.

However, everyone could clearly see a human-head-sized pit on the fence wall, which was left by the impact from the stone ball that was thrown over by the black stoneman; although this was only a small pit, it proved that the enemies already possessed the power necesary to break into the Cold Stream Valley.

“The Black Water Serpent Clan could never have enough power to enslave powerful creatures like these!” said Ji Zhuo while gnashing his teeth, looking at the twelve stonemen outside the fence wall, and the few weird stonemen manipulators, who were standing behind those stonemen, wearing black cloaks, their entire bodies wrapped in a layer of faint black mist, and continued, “We, the Fire Crow Clan and the Black Water Serpent Clan, know each other too well...they could never have enslaved these creatures, neither could they afford to feed these gigantic stonemen.”

While Ji Zhuo was speaking, all twelve stonemen launched their attacks simultaneously. They gathered large amounts of sands and stones from the ground, condensed them into stone balls, and threw them towards the fence wall.

Muffled swooshing sounds never stopped. Fire sparks were sent towards all directions when those stone balls hit against the fence wall; the fence wall was shaking intensely, and fragments of all sizes were falling from the fence wall, now and then.

Even though the Cold Stream Valley had enough jade and fire essence to replenish the power of the fence wall, with the speed these black stonemen were attacking, the fence would only be able to last for a month tops, after which, it would be completely shattered by these stonemen.

Stone and his friends were roaring in rage behind the fence wall; they were beating their own chests and shouting provokingly towards those black stonemen outside the fence wall. Accompanied with their deep roars, simple and ancient, natural-formed spell symbols emerged from the bodies of Stone and his friends. Soon, large amounts of mud started gushing out of the ground, up to the wall, and covering the entire fence wall.

After the surface of the fence wall was covered with mud, it turned into layers of hard rock. But these layers of rock were not as firm as the original body of the wall; tens of zhangs long pieces of rocks would instantly shatter into ashes after a stone ball had hit against the fence wall; Stone and his friends were ceaselessly mustering mud gushing out of the ground, and piling up into new layers of rock; while on one side the black stonemen were madly throwing stone balls towards the fence wall, the rock layers on the fence wall were continuously becoming thicker as well; as such, the rock layer and the black stonemen’s attack had achieved somewhat of a rough equilibrium.

Ji Zhuo and Ji Xia smiled simultaneously. Although these balck stonemen were still a great threat to the Cold Stream Valley, with the help of Stone and his friends they were atleast not an imminent threat. With the continuous addition of rock layers, those black stonemen would need at least three months to break into the Cold Stream Valley.

“Hao, come with me!” said Ji Zhuo while dragging Ji Hao’s arm, and leading Ji Hao and Ji Xia deeper into the valley.

A loud shouting sound that seemingly even shook the sky, came from outside the valley, causing tens of thousands of enemies to launch their attacks towards the fence wall, while shouting.

Bright fiery light darted out of the fence wall. Every enemy that dared to come close to the fence wall would be burned by the Fire Crow Clan’s special magical flame. The air surrounding the fence wall had become extremely thick, even peak-level Junior Magi could barely climb up onto the fence wall; however, facing the Fire Crow Clan’s warriors who were guarding the fence wall, all of them had been beaten and had fallen down before they even made on top of the wall.

But this time, those black stonemen had joined the attack. Those Fire Crow Clan’a warriors had to pay attention to those gigantic stone balls that were being thrown over, one after another. Occasionally, some careless warriors would be wounded by these stone balls, and the enemy would instantly climb up from the parts of the fence wall that were being guarded by these wounded warriors.

The situation of the battle had turned extremely serious for the Cold Stream Valley.

“It has been seven days, I haven’t got any news from the Gold Black Mountain,” deep inside the valley, Ji Zhuo said with a cold voice while seriously staring at Ji Hao in the eyes, “which means, I have lost contact with the Gold Black Mountain.”

“I have sent a few warriors, told them to sneak out of the valley, go back to the Gold Black Mountain, and sent a message back. Grandpa had left tracking magics on their bodies, the magic showed that they have been killed when they approached the Gold Black Mountain,” said Ji Xia.

“Someone wants us to die here, that old bastard, Black Water Qiu was right,” said Ji Zhuo calmly.

Shaking his head, Ji Xia then said in a deep voice, “We can’t deliver any messages to the Gold Black Mountain, but I’ve got a message from Ji Shu, sent by a fire crow - he requires us to send a large amount of jade and fire essence crystals to the Gold Black Mountain, saying that they need these resources to help with the great fight against the Black Water Serpent Clan.”

“Without those jade and fire essence crystals, how are we supposed to defend the Cold Stream Valley?!” yelled Ji Hao in anger; he was nearly pissed off by this ridiculous requirement.

They had lost contact with the Gold Black Mountain, but Ji Shu could easily send order to ask for more resources; even an idiot could tell what was going on here. Although Ji Shu was the leader of the warriors of the Fire Crow Clan, he couldn’t have done this all by himself.

Obviously, the Bi Fang Clan was involved in this.

“What if we break out of the valley and withdrew to the Gold Black Mountain?” Ji Xia slapped himself after he had let this sentence out.

Breakout and withdraw? In this situation, where the enemy’s side had more Senior Magi than their own side, no matter what method they used to break out of the valley, they would only die out there. The Cold Stream Valley had a complete defense system, and if, even this powerful defense system would have failed to defend the valley, then abandoning the valley and fleeing was equal to committing suicide.

“And, your abba can’t go!” said Ji Zhuo seriously while looking at Ji Hao, “Your Abba has never lost during all these years. If he abandons the valley and flees away, after receiving the order requiring resources from Ji Shu, if the Fire Crow Clan would lose the fight, at last, your Abba will be the one who take all the blame.”

“So does it means we have to deal with the enemies out there, who have been becoming stronger and stronger, only with what we have now?” Ji Hao frowned and said, “twelve black stonemen showed up on their side today, who knows what will show up a few days later?”

“Therefore, Hao, our only hope lies now in you,” said Ji Zhuo coldly, “you are pretty close with Man Man, go try to borrow an army from her. Only thousands of warriors from Zhu Rong Country, the country of god, can eliminate the entire Black Water Serpent Clan.”

Ji Hao’s pupils suddenly shone, and he nodded then silently.

Ji Zhuo took a leather map out, pointed at a certain spot on the map and said, “The Fire Crow Clan is located in the northeast of the Southern Wasteland, very far from the Zhu Rong Country. If we want to get to the Zhu Rong Country within a short time, we have to go through transporting-magic-formations.”

“The Bi Fang Clan has a transporting-magic-formation that directly leads to the Zhu Rong Country, but you can’t go to the Bi Fang Clan.”

“Other clans are not reliable at the moment. Fortunately, I know another transporting-magic-formation.”

After a quarter of an hour, Ji Hao tramped over the mountain located behind the valley, and sneaked out of the Cold Stream Valley, darting towards the South at his highest speed.