The Magus Era

Note 1: Although I have apologized for the release of unedited chapters 234-236, I like to apologize again, in case people haven’t seen or read it. I hope by the time this chapter is released, the mistake is rectified.

Note 2: Some time ago we had promised one extra chapter in case we reach 100 new readers and 50 votes. As it stands we have 181 new readers and 24 votes. One goal reached, exceeded even, other not even half. Yet, because one has reached almost double the amount of what we wished for, we decided to release an extra chapter for that. I hope you guys enjoy the story as much as we do.

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Chapter 237 - Xie Zhi

The dirty words Ji Hao had said, were combined essences of all the dirty words he had learned in his previous life. They were both mean and cruel, extremely evil and so sarcastic that ordinary people would have no means of understanding the true content of what he had said.

At least, the muscular men in the jail, who had more muscles than brain, didn’t get the meaning behind Ji Hao’s words, not a single word.

Ying Yunpeng frowned, pondered for quite a while, but no matter how hard he tried, he could only feel that Ji Hao’s words were filled with mysteriousness. However, those words had sounded way too profound. Even though Ying Yunpeng was born in a famous and powerful family of the Ten Sun Country, and had been granted the most advanced education among the entire country, he still failed to understand Ji Hao’s true meaning.

Only Kong Ye’s face, which was white and tender, instantly turned as red as pig’s liver. Then, the redness of his face even grew purple, and his two eyeballs nearly popped out from his eye sockets. He stared at Ji Hao straight in the eyes, while his slim body began to shake intensely.

“You, you, you’re not, not even birthed by humans!” after trembling for quite a while, Kong Ye finally let out a complete sentence.

“I have a father and a mother, of course, I am birthed by human.” Sitting on the straw mat, Ji Hao crossed his arms in front of chest, and stared coldly at Kong Ye, and said, “But you, persuading people to join your heresy for no good intend. What do you think you are that makes you feel like you can save all those people from their bitterness.”

Abruptly activating the power contained in one Magus Acupoint, Ji Hao yelled harshly, “Do you think you’re a god from the heaven?!”

The thunderous sound waves transformed into thunder and quickly transmitted around, causing even the surrounding ground to tremble slightly. Kong Ye was indeed frightened by Ji Hao’s growl, he embarrassedly staggered a few steps backwards, then stared angrily at Ji Hao for a while, then suddenly moved his body, transforming into a white beam of light that flashed across the air and disappeared.

Ying Yunpeng opened his eyes, grinned coldly at Ji Hao and said, “Ignorant kid, you antagonize randomly. As I see it, you will die within this year.”

Ji Hao sat on the straw mat, looked calmly at Ying Yunpeng and said, “In this way, you and this Kong Ye knew about each other?”

Ying Yunpeng gave Ji Hao a frank look and said, “So what? I think, some of his words were quite correct. All living creatures are suffering in different ways. Like me for example, my bitterness is nothing in common with those lowly creatures, for sure.”

Ji Hao was staring at Ying Yunpeng, while speculating a little bit. Ji Hao could look right into his mind or probably he didn’t see through his mind, but Ji Hao just clearly knew about people like Ying Yunpeng. He knew what they would worry about and what they were afraid of.

He mockingly laughed and said, “Your bitterness? I assume you’re just afraid that when you run out of your life force, you won’t be able to continue holding on to your wealth, luxuries and power. You’ll lose all of your enjoyments when you die, therefore, you want to stay young and energetic, you want to have your current power, status, gold and those beautiful women forever.”

Ying Yunpeng was obviously shocked by Ji Hao. His body quivered subconsciously, his eyes popped up, while he stared at Ji Hao and yelled coldly, “You Southern Wasteland barbarian, I hadn’t thought that you could be so intelligent and observant!”

Ji Hao narrowed his eyes and gave a series of sneers. In this case, as a super observant kid, he had actually exposed the darkness and dirtiness deep inside Ying Yunpeng’s heart, using only his words. Apparently, this had brought Ying Yunpeng a pain that was similar as being peeped by someone else. This is why he would try everything in his power to wipe Ji Hao out from the world.

However, why would Ji Hao be afraid of him?

A silvery hoofbeat came from afar. A black kylin-shaped animal, which had a sharp straight horn on its head, looked honourable and stately, quickly and lithely walked over. This animal was over a zhang tall, and had a slim and long body. Under its black scales there were spiral-shaped wisps of fluff.

This animal opened its eyes wide, walked up to Ji Hao’s cell, knocked the roof of Ji Hao’s hut, then talked harsh words with its gentle voice, “Ji Hao, don’t yell in this jail, otherwise, although you’re not incriminated, if you yell again, you will be beaten with a solid rod ten times. It’s not worth to suffer the physical pain for no reason, since this is your first time, and you’re young and ignorant, I will spare you from the punishment, but only this time.”

Ying Yunpeng sneered while looking sideways at Ji Hao. Ji Hao was curiously looking at this weird, talking animal.

If the man who had put him and Ying Yunpeng into this jail, was named Hao Tao, then this animal should be Xie Zhi, which was responsible for guarding this jail for Hao Tao.

“Xie Zhi, it’s said that you’re a magical animal that is able to travel freely across the heaven, the human world and the underworld, and is capable of seeing people’s sin clearly. Please look at me, am I a sinner?” Ji Hao seriously asked Xie Zhi.

“Hm? You know about me?” Xie Zhi blinked its eyes and asked a bit surprised. It remained silent for a while then said gently, “I am indeed able to tell if a person is guilty or not, however, how can I make the others believe my words? What I can do is guard this jail well, not make innocent people suffer and never let sinners escape.”

“Whether a person is guilty or not, the Emperor and those ministers will correctly authenticate that.”

“In this case, can you at least take a look at this old guy and see if he’s a sinner?” Ji Hao pointed his finger at Ying Yunpeng while grinning and asked. Ying Yunpeng’s facial expression seemed quite weird, he turned his eyes away from Ji Hao, looked at Xie Zhi, then turned back to Ji Hao, after that, he turned his eyes to Xie Zhi once again, doing so back and forth while staring at Xie Zhi, as if this was the first time he had heard that Xie Zhi could tell if a person was guilty or not.

“This depends on how you define ‘sin’,”said Xie Zhi while staring at Ji Hao with its eyes narrowed, “You have killed quite many people as well, but deep inside, do you feel that you’re a sinner?”

“You crafty thing, you threw the question back to me,” Ji Hao smiled and looked at Xie Zhi. He put his hand into the storage bag tied around his waist and rummaged for a while, then took out a fresh fruit that he had picked up earlier, threw it at Xie Zhi and said, “Here, treat yourself with this nice fresh fruit, I won’t yell again.”

Xie Zhi speechlessly bounced the fruit back to Ji Hao with its forehead and said, “Are you trying to bribe me? Or are you simply viewing me as those small fluffy animals, like rabbits or sheep, which you can freely feed with fruits? You’re such an interesting boy.”

Shaking his head, Xie Zhi warned Ji Hao, telling him not to yell once again, then harshly threw a glare at those muscular men, who had been yelling at each other just now, turned around, walked away along with silvery hoofbeats.

“Xie Zhi,” Ying Yunpeng abruptly let out a sneer and said, “A single-horned animal, guarding this jail for Hao Tao. God knows where Hao Tao has brought this animal from. In this jail, this thing is equal to a dog, guarding the house for a hunter, how special can it be?”

“Don’t you know about Xie Zhi?” Ji Hao looked at Ying Yingpeng and asked in shock, “Is it true? Can’t believe you don’t know about him. Have you never heard that he is capable of seeing through the hearts of people, distinguishing kindness from evilness? Or has he just never showed those abilities in front of you people?”

The corners of Ying Yunpeng’s mouth twitched intensely a few times. He looked at Ji Hao in a truly weird way, as if he suddenly thought of some bad things.

“It seems, quite many of you have fallen in a disadvantaged situation in front of him, well,” Ji Hao sighed, shook his head, and said, “If I had known, I wouldn’t have talked about these things in front of you. I just thought you all knew how amazing this Xie Zhi is.”

Ying Yunpeng remained silent. A few other people walked along the broad road, but when they were walking past Ji Hao’s cell, a girl suddenly stopped.

“Hm? How…why do you have this on you?!”

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Xie Zhi: According to the legend, county magistrate Gao Yao had a unicorn goat called zhi (廌), which he used in criminal proceedings, whenever he was in doubt. The animal instinctively knew the innocent from the guilty; it butted the latter with its horn. It is described by the scholar Yang Fu as a ”righteous beast, which rams the wrong party when it sees a fight, and bites the wrong party when it hears an argument”. It is also described in the Shuowen Jiezi as being ”a cattle-like beast with one horn; in ancient times, it settled disputes by ramming the party at fault”. As an inherently just beast, the XieZhi was used as a symbol of justice and law.

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SR’s teaser: Are you ready for the most OP person to appear, who shows OP’ness by treating a Magus King as dirt? Well, that is what happens in the next chapter. As far as details are concerned....I guess you will have to wait till tomorrow.

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Edited by SecondRate

Translated by XianXiaWorld