The Magus Era

“A hundred jade coins each?” murmured Si Wen Ming while frowning, and complained, “When did you raise the price?”

The gigantic turtle slowly walked until it was less than a hundred zhang away from Si Wen Ming and the two kids. The middle-aged man with black clothes lithely leapt down from the tower, then jumped across a few building, and quickly landed in front of Si Wen Ming, after which he crossed his arms and saluted Si Wen Ming while grinning.

“My honored guest, you seemed to have traveled a lot between the four wastelands. We have indeed raised the price, but it’ll be worth it. This Starry Sky Spirit Turtle of ours has just broken into the High-Magus-King-level three years ago, so the journey will now be much smoother and steadier than before, by at least ten times.

“Really?” said Si Wen Ming while raising his eyebrows, then smilingly cupped his hands towards that man in black clothes and said, “It’s very difficult for this Starry Sky Spirit Turtle to break into the High-Magus-King-level, with such a huge body. Your caravan is going to make a fortune!

While laughing, Si Wen Ming took out three adult-palm-sized, square jade tablets from his sleeve.

Those green jade tablets were exquisitely crafted, and decorated with complicated and beautiful flower patterns. A few clouds were embossed in the middle of those jade tablets, and within those clouds was a soaring tower that had a shining erect eye floating above the tip of the tower.

“A jade tablet is equal to a hundred jade coins, but according to the most recent exchange rate, you still have to give me five jade coins in change.” Si Wen Ming handed the three jade tablets to the man in black clothes while seriously bargaining with that man.

The black-clothed man took the three jade tablets then instantly put them into the leather bag that was tied around his waist. After that he took out fifteen thumb-sized, round jade coins, which were wrapped in clear green light, and handed them over to Si Wen Ming. Ji Hao could clearly see that these jade coins were also embossed with the same tower and erect eye.

Before Ji Hao had the chance to ask where these jade coins and jade tablets did come from, they encountered a small trouble while they were boarding onto the back of the Starry Sky Spirit Turtle.

Once Man Man stepped onto the turtle’s shell with her pair of hammers carried on her shoulders, the gigantic turtle instantly turned its head around, took a glance at Man Man in surprise, then began speaking like a human, with a muffled voice.

“Little girl, your hammers are too heavy...Oy, Gui Three, guests should pay one more jade coin for every additional hundred-thousand stones, you should carefully measure how heavy this little girl’s hammers are!”

[TL note: In Chinese, ’Gui’ as the last name, has the same pronunciations as the word which means turtle.]

The black-clothed man, who was called Gui Three by the gigantic turtle, hurried over with another few men who also were wearing black clothes, and requested to check Man Man’s hammers.

Man Man chronically swung her hammers upwards and carelessly threw them towards Gui Three...

The Spirit Turtle Caravan instantly fell into chaos, and large groups of guards rushed over from all directions, then all stared stunned at Gui Three and the other four Senior-Level guards, who had been overwhelmed by the pair of large hammers, and couldn’t even move. Not only them, even the Starry Sky Spirit Turtle, which was carrying the city, was shocked by this as well.

Quite a while later, the Starry Sky Spirit Turtle slowly said with its very muffled voice, “This little girl is...so powerful. Did anyone die? Oh, good...no one is dead...this...little girl, see, they’re even vomiting blood, do you agree that you should cover the money for their medicines?”

“Man Man, next time, do not throw your hammers everywhere!” Inside the city on top of the turtle’s shell, Ji Hao stood beside the door of the room, which was assigned to the three of them by the caravan people, and seriously warned Man Man, “Look, we had been honoured guests of the caravan, but now, we nearly became their enemies, they would probably hunt us down!”

Man Man was paying absolutely no attention to what Ji Hao just had said. She kicked the door opened, then shook her head dissatisfied and complained, “Such a tiny room...That was because they’re all too weak, okay? We’re still in the Southern Wasteland... hunt Man Man down? Ji Hao, you sure that you were not joking just now?”

Ji Hao and Si Wen Ming glanced at each other and both became speechless. This little girl seemed right though, anyone intending to hunt her down in the Southern Wasteland should also prepare for the possibility that their entire family might be exterminated by the Zhu Rong family. At least, this Spirit Turtle Caravan would definitely not dare to challenge the family of God.

Man Man unhappily threw her hammers onto the floor, right after which, this entire small building, which was specially prepared for guests who had paid for a ride back to the Midland, slightly shook once again. Man Man then sat down on a chair with a long face, and took out a small magic storage bag, opened her mouth and showed her teeth, while measuring all those jade, gold, precious stones and other valuable treasures, which were jingling inside the small bag.

Five caravan members were hurt by Man Man’s hammers earlier, Man Man had to compensate them with a pile of jade and gold pieces. She was now sadly murmuring, “No wonder big brother said that money would be necessary when I come out for a journey...I’ve only hurt a few people, and I had to give that much to them. If I had accidentally killed them, I would have no money left. Hm, I’ve been on all kinds of journeys, but never before did I think that we would need things like money.”

Ji Hao turned around his body. He had decided not to discuss with Man Man further about this.

The two of them came from different family backgrounds, there were lots of common and sensible knowledge that they wouldn’t even want to discuss with each other.

Unlike Ji Hao, Si Wen Ming seriously began explaining to Man Man about the importance of money when she was not at home. The Midland was not the Southern Wasteland. In the Southern Wasteland, clans could run primitive trading activities by exchanging goods, but in the Midland, all kinds of trading activities between clans, forces and other organizations, would require jade tablets and coins, like the ones Si Wen Ming had used before, as currency.

Ji Hao stood beside the window of the room, and looked at this city, which had a radius of miles and was being carried on the back of the gigantic turtle; as for Man Man, she was bored by Si Wen Ming’s speech, grabbed one of her hammers and tried to thrust it into her magic storage bag.

“Ha, the hammer! I am so smart! If I only put my hammers into this small bag, I can go ask for my money back!” yelled Man Man excitedly, then instantly activated her terrifyingly great strength, and tried to thrust the hammer into the poor small bag.

Si Wen Meng didn’t have enough time to stop her. Followed by a loud popping sound, tens of piercingly shining spell symbols suddenly shattered apart. At the same time, large amounts of exquisitely carved jade and gold pieces, and other precious treasures poured out of the small bag, like the water during a tide, and filled the entire room within a blink of an eye. Moreover, many treasures were affected by the space-explosion that was caused when the magic storage bag broke, slightly shook then were turned into wisps of smoke and dissipated quickly in the air.

“What...” Man Man blinked her eyes confused then murmured, “The inner space of this bag is as big as a house, how come this hammer didn’t fit in?”

Ji Hao stood back up from the pile of treasures with difficulty, and looked at Man Man with a bitter smile on his face. Si Wen Ming had a similar bitter smile on his face as well. He helplessly looked at the room full of shining treasures and laughed hollowly, then said, “Man Man, these treasures of yours, I’ll temporally keep them for you. The reason that your hammer couldn’t fit in your small bag was simple, which is that the craftsmen of our humankind aren’t capable of making storage magic treasures which are firm enough to hold heavy weapons like your hammers!”

A trace of helplessness and bitterness flashed across Si Wen Ming’s face. He then said blandly, “When you get to the Pu Ban City, you will learn so many things.”

He then looked at those mountains, which were continuously swooshing backwards, and continued with a deep voice, “Including why we have to pay the caravan for a ride in order to travel through tens of billions of miles with them, and get back to the Midland, instead of going back to the Midland through transportation magic formations, is because our humankind is not yet capable of building transportation magic formations that can transport over such long distances; our humankind is not yet strong enough!”

Was humankind not yet strong enough?

Ji Hao slowly nodded his head, and seemingly understood Si Wen Ming’s words.

At this moment, the gigantic turtle abruptly stopped once again. Gui Three, who was just hit by Man Man’s hammer and even vomited blood, was now excitedly yelling on the tower like before.

“Oi, turtle ancestor. East front for eight-hundred miles, there are again a few people needing a ride! Ha, we can make hundreds of jade coins more, and at least we can earn your board wages for the next month!”