The Magus Era

Back at the campsite built up by the people of the Rong Mountain Clan.

Tens of thousands of Curly-Horned Cattles were lying quietly around the campsite, with their thick and sharp, battering ram-like horns outwards orderly, firmly encircling the entire campsite.

Bonfires were blazing inside the campsite. The Rong Mountain Clan clansmen were huddled up around the bonfires and experienced some difficulty spending this long night. Now and then, thunderous howls of unknown beasts were coming from afar, causing each time some people to raise their head and look around.

Yu Mu was sitting on a small hill outside of the campsite, looking vigilantly at the surrounding area with his pair of, slightly glowing, eyes. A few floating mountains had drifted over from some unknown place, stopped right above the campsite and instantly blocked all the bright starlight. Suddenly, the dense and thick curtain of night shrouded the entire campsite.

However, Yu Mu also seemed also to have a certain kind of magical, eyesight-related special ability; in the middle of each of his pupils, an extremely tiny spell symbol began to sparkle. The darkness seemed unable to block his eyesight. From time to time, he would still cautiously take a glance at where the suspicious noises were coming from.

Although he had been concentrating on doing the night watch, he was still holding a fat piece of meat in his hands. Every now and then he would slice a small piece of meat off and put it in his mouth, causing his face to be filled with incomparable satisfaction, after which he would start to slowly chew the meat. When he was chewing meat, his face looked like that of devout religious person.

“To get to eat your fill…is luck and happiness! Hm, what should I eat in the morning? Breakfast?” Yu Mu murmured. Soon, he began to struggle with whether he should eat grilled meat or boiled meat for breakfast in the morning.

“Stupid fatso! All you know is eat, eat and eat! You will die from eating, sooner or later!” yelled Feng Xing in a low voice. Feng Xing was squatting in a small bush tens of zhang away from Yu Mu. He abruptly yelled out at Yu Mu. “You have been thinking about eating every day and night, oi, do you even eat people?”

Yu Mu frowned seriously and thought about Feng Xing’s question for quite a while, then answered slowly, “As as pure-blood humans are concerned, I won’t eat them. How can we eat our own kind? Even animals don’t do that! But those monsters with three, four, five eyes, I truly want to know what they would taste like.”

With his pair of dimly glowing eyes, Yu Mu took a glance at another small hill that was located miles away from him and had plants swaying along with the wind, then continued in a bland tone, “Those creatures are not created by our world, therefore, in my eyes, they’re nothing different from chickens, ducks, gooses and fishes. They will fill their stomachs with our fellow humans, why can’t we eat them in return?”

Feng Xing stayed silent. He raised his head and looked at the sky. Suddenly, he yelled out again in his deep and low voice.

“Where did these pieces of dirt come from?! Let me blow them away! I hate nights. I do not like dark nights at all!”

Taisi was lying beside a bonfire in the campsite, with both is arms and legs stretched out and had fallen into a deep sleep. A bit chill was brought over by a gust of wind and Taisi twisted his body while sleeping, after which he crawled subconsciously towards the bonfire. He was too weak and scrawny, even in sleep he wanted to find a warm place to continue with his nice dream.

Seeing that Taisi was crawling into the bonfire and even burned a stream of his long hair, Shaoisi, who was sitting beside him and doing her daily cultivation in silence, frowned slightly. She grabbed Taisi’s neck, carried him a bit up and threw him back at where he had been lying before. Shaosi did so with convenience and ease that it seemed as if Taisi was actually a chicken instead of a boy.

Although he had been carried up and thrown back onto the ground, Taisi still didn’t wake up from his dream. He snorted, slowly turned around his body, then began crawling towards the bonfire once again. He crawled closer and closer to the fire, along with which, a slight trace of smile gradually emerged on Taisi’s pale face. Shaosi shook her head, grabbed his neck and again threw Taisi back at where he had been.

However, when Taisi started crawling towards the bonfire for the third time, Shaois picked a stone up from the ground, which she knocked hard onto the back of Taisi’s head, quickly and without hesitation. The stone shattered into pieces against Taisi’s head, causing him to faint from his deep sleep immediately, while not making any noise.

Shaosi dragged Taisi back to where he had been lying before, then took out a long rope that was made from the tendons of a beast and tied Taisi firmly up. After that, she nodded her head in satisfaction, sat back on the ground and continued her cultivation.

In the dim light of night, magical power streams, which were invisible but could be perceived if you had a sensitive spirit power, seemed to be gathering from over the edge of the sky. Very slowly, these streams of power merged with Shaosi’s body, along with which, the sense of power that her body was releasing, had become especially magical and strange. It sensed as if it existed in this world, yet was beyond this world. Gradually, Shaosi’s body became blurred. You wouldn’t be able to tell where she was if you weren’t paying attention to her particularly.

Thirty miles away, on a small hill, a tall, slim silhouette appeared abruptly. It was a man, wearing a feathered armour that was made from black and white feathers, and a bird-head-shaped helmet that made from the skull of a roc. He also was carrying an odd-shaped longbow on his back, and two faintly glowing tail feathers that belonged to a gigantic eagle, stuck in his hair. This tall, slim man looked at the campsite of the Rong Mountain Clan, then let out a scornful sneer.

“I see…these Midland clans probably have lived peacefully for too long,” laughed the young man while he continued, “They have moved a troop that has a whole three-thousand clansmen and their campsite looks like this during the night. Any Maguspriest capable of animal - control can easily summon a group of beast and destroy them. There would no bodies be left to be found after that.”

Along with another breeze, five more young men, who were dressed similar as the first young man, but with only one feather stuck on each of their heads, appeared silently as well.

One of them sniffed and said, “What are you even talking about, my dear brother? How could these Midland douchebags be compared to our Eastern Wasteland men? Every single one of our Great Gale Clan warriors can easily kill ten enemies at the same level. Sooner or later…”

“Sooner or later, an Eastern Wasteland man will become the king of the entire humankind,” said the young man who had appeared first. He laughed proudly then continued, “Pu Ban City, Pu Ban City. How great and powerful would our Great Gale Clan be if we owned Pu Ban City?”

Accompanied by a slight swishing sound, twenty young archers, who were only wearing black feathered armours, but were without the feathers on their heads, rushed rapidly over. Hearing the arrogant words of the young man, one of those boys said in a very low voice, “Brother Ling, we should better be more cautious. The two brothers, Qing Yao and Qing He, they were both Senior Magi, but had been mummified suddenly even when they were still in the Magi Palace. Brother Ling, these enemies may not be easy to deal with.”

The young man who was called Brother Ling sniffed scornfully, threw a threatening glance at that boy, then said, “Scared? If you are scared you should just go back to your mommy’s arms. It’s nothing big, just that the two idiots, Qing Yao and Qing He, have died. Do you have any idea how many apprentices will actually die in there? Although the Magi Palace strictly forbids apprentices to kill each other in the Magi Palace, at least a thousand apprentices will die abruptly for no reason, every single year!”

Brother Ling then proudly held his head high and continued, “Have you heard what Elder Yun Peng said? He said that the Magi Palace is actually a Gu-raising-bowl, and the purpose of a Gu-raising-bowl will always be to generate the strongest, most powerful and poisonous Gu. Powerful Gu like us, are allowed to kill as much weak and useless creatures as we want…it’s the right that the Magi Palace has gifted us!”

[TL note: According to the legends, if you put thousands of poisonous insects/bugs into a bottle/bowl, then seal it up, let them fight, kill and eat each other in the bottle/bowl; the one that survives in the end would become a Gu. A real Gu will be magically poisonous and scary.]

Another boy said with muffled voice, “No matter what, they were all brought back to the Magi Palace by Minister Si Wen Ming…”

The face of brother Ling turned dark instantly, then he responded with a vicious tone, “Si Wen Ming? His pussy-like working style is not suitable for the Magi Palace. The Magi Palace is a great and large organization. Matters like what we should do and how we should do, will eventually depend on us! Si Wen Ming? He will be wiped out, sooner or later.”

Grabbed his longbow, brother Ling then growled in a cold voice, “Let’s move! Take out a few guys! And conveniently… we can sell these people of the Rong Mountain Clan at a quite good price.”

Pausing briefly, brother Ling then continued with an evil grin on his face, “I have decided that whoever contributes the most today, will have the prettiest girl among all these people!”

Under the cover of the darkness, tens of arrows silently flew over along with the wind, quickly forming a rain of arrows, which shrouded Feng Xing and Yu Mu currently.

__________________________________________________________________________

Edited by SecondRate

Translated by XianXiaWorld