The Magus Era

The annoying rainy season was about to end, the rain and the wind which had been sweeping across the entire jungle had now turned much more gentle, as if someone had narrowed the opening of the tube where the rain was coming from.

Those dark clouds in the sky seemed to have run out of energy, and were weakly and slowly dissipating. If you could stand in the jungle and look up at the sky, you would be able to see the bright star lights from the edges of those dense clouds.

Even during the nighttime, the Southern Wasteland jungle was very lively.

Beasts, which had been hiding in their nests for months, were coming out one after another, stretching their bodies, sharpening their teet and claws, and were preparing for their hunt. Countless wing-flapping sounds were coming along with the night breeze. All of the birds which had also been stuck in their nests for a couple of months, excitedly started preparing for the coming great meal as well.

In the dark night, raging flames intertwined with black smokes, soared into the sky.

A high ranking clan had fallen into the sea of flames. Warriors who had died in the battle were thrown into the fire and were slowly being burnt into ashes.

Large groups of barbaric elderly people were tied into strings with vines and dragged to the shore of the great river that flowed beside the village, by Fire Crow Clan’s warriors. These warriors then raised their machetes high into the air and quickly chopped the heads of these elderly people off. After that, their bodies were directly thrown into the river, which drew countless crocodiles and gigantic turtles from under the water, and causing them to fight madly for these bodies, resulting in high waves being released from the river.

“Grandpa!”

A young man of around ten years old, rushed out of a blazing straw cottage, while screaming in a hoarse voice, towards an elderly man who was just thrown into the river.

However, a Fire Crow Clan’s warrior caught this young man up in big steps, and heavily hit at the back of his head with a long spear, knocking him down on the ground, then stamped hard on his head with his foot. Another two Fire Crow Clan’s warriors then rushed over, tightly bound the young man with vines, and carelessly threw him into a cage that hung on a four-tusk mammoth’s body, nearby.

Hundreds of four-tusk mammoths were silently standing around the village, which was burning by the raging fire, with huge cages hung on their bodies. Almost every cage was filled with men, women, and children from the Black Water Serpents Clan.

When all of the cages were completely filled to the point that not even another child would be able to fit in, a loud resonating whistle could be heard, followed by which all the mammoths started moving, and walked into the dark, dense jungle simultaneously, with big steps.

Deep in the dense jungle, Ji Shu was quietly standing in the brushwoods, with tens of siblings who he trusted.

About a hundred zhangs away, in front of them, two Yu Clan’s men and nearly a hundred Jia Clan’s warriors had also been silently standing there.

Four mammoths carried all of the captives over. Large groups of sword edge spiders and slave warriors walked silently out of the jungle, and carried all of the cages that were filled with captives onto the broad abdomens of sword edge spiders. Two men were each standing on the sides and carefully counted the number of captive they had gained.

After having worked for over half an hour, the metallic spiders carried those slave warriors and walked back into the jungle, disappearing quickly without leaving even a single trace.

The two Yu Clan young men who were leading the group of Jia Clan’s warriors, showed satisfied smiles on their faces, took two steps towards Ji Shu, then said with proud smiles, “It’s a pleasure to work with you, Lord Ji Shu...actually, we, the Nightmare Devil, are not weaker than the Blood Fang at all. We are very glad that this time, you, dear Lord Ji Shu, had changed your mind and decided to work with us; hopefully, we all will get what we wanted.”

While speaking, one of the young men took out a small bag that was decorated with golden silk threads, from out his sleeves and threw it towards Ji Shu with a slight trace of pitying on his face.

Ji Shu measured the weight of the small bag with his hand, pulled the white rope which had bounded the opening of the bag, took a glance inside, after which he nodded in satisfaction. This small bag was a one-time usage storage tool, and contained inside it were large amounts of high-quality weapons and armours, exactly the amount that Ji Shu must have asked.

Ji Shu then tied the bag around his waist and complained to the two young men, “Every time, what you give me is this kind of one-time usage rubbish. Next time I want a real powerful magic tool that is capable of storing large amounts of weapons.”

The two young men simultaneously smiled scornfully, turned around and walked into the jungle without saying a word.

The storage-magic-tools were valuable and strategic tools, especially to those Southern Wasteland clans, who lived in a jungle that had rough roads. One storage-magic-tool could be considered as a moving warehouse that could store all kinds of supplies. With a powerful storage-magic-tool like this, the battle effectiveness and chance for survival would largely be increased.

How could those slave traders from the Yu Clan give such a precious magic treasure to Ji Shu?

“Damn you!” Ji Shu gnashed his teeth and said, “They will get at least ten times profits after they have taken these slaves back to their place, maybe even more! Those Black Water Serpent Clan’s women had well-shaped bodies, they can be sold at even higher prices!”

Ji Mu, who had been standing behind Ji Shu, took a step forward and moved his hand horizontally across his own neck.

Ji Shu stayed silent for a while, then slightly shook his head. The Blood Fang had been wiped out, which meant Ji Shu had lost his old business partner. The Nightmare Devil was his new partner. Recently, the Bi Fang Clan had started a great war against the Water Ape Clan; during the war, a lot of enemies would be captured and sold every single day, therefore, Ji Shu couldn’t do without the Nightmare Devil at this moment.

“Hold for a while, we have to wait until we have rebuild the connection with the Blood Fang,” growled Ji Shu impatiently with a deep voice, “All kinds of messed up situations have come to us simultaneously...Why isn’t there any news from the Cold Stream Valley yet? If someone exposes what we have done for this, I doubt if any of them could gain benefit from it.”

Coo coo...Coo coo…

A weird and creepy sound of a night-cat came from out the depth of the jungle.

Ji Shu’s eyes suddenly shone, and his face showed surprise, while he hurriedly threw a glance at Ji Mu, after which, the two of them told the tens of warriors who had been surrounding them, to head back first, and quickly walked into the dense jungle.

Rushing in the jungle for around a quarter of an hour, they had traversed at least hundreds of miles far with their Senior-level Magi’s powers. Guided by the sound of night-cat, they soon arrived in front of a small cliff.

Jiang Bo was silently standing under the cliff, expressionlessly staring at Ji Shu and Ji Mu.

“Abba, is there a good news? The Cold Stream Valley...” yelled Ji Shu in a hurry before he could clearly see Jiang Bao’s face.

Suddenly, Jiang Bo’s body started burning. A sphere of flame, which was as pure as coloured glaze, started from under his feet, and slowly spread to his head, transforming his body into several thin-sized, white beads. Finally, Jiang Bo’s body had transformed into whole eighteen white beads, which were the last evidence of him leaving the world.

Ji Shu and Ji Mu gazed at this scene in both shock and fear. They turned back as quickly as they could and tried to flee, however, a slight, mysterious singing sound lingered around their ears, softening their entire bodies and had taken away all of their strengths. They felt that their feet were aching and gone limp, making it so that they couldn’t even move a little bit.

“Such a shame. You’re too unreliable...Everything was perfectly fine, but you had to turn the situation into a complete mess. You could have happily been a leader and earn money from the slave business, why on earth did you have to try killing that little kid and his family?”

“Well, if you could have just killed them as you had planned, it would have been even better, we would have nothing to worry about after that. But, you were as stupid and useless as this, that family had already been send away from the Gold Black Mountain, but you have created all these messes even after that.”

“Since they are still alive, all of you have to die.”

“All these are just cause and consequence. You had laid the cause, and you couldn’t take the consequences. However, you are responsible for this disastrous consequence, that you have to accept.”

“Cause and consequence, so scary.”

Along with the slight sighing sound, Ji Shu and Ji Mu’s body started burning as well. Similar to what had happened to Jiang Bo, the pure and beautiful white flame soon transformed their bodies into white beads.

The difference was, both Ji Shu and Ji Mu were much weaker than Jiang-Bo; Ji Shu transformed into three beads, while Ji Mu transformed in only one.