The Magus Era

Di Falang and the other Di Family elders silently left, taking Di Sha’s skeleton with them.

The plan targeting the Qian Family had already started being implemented. Apart from the series of secret work that had been carrying on inside the Blood Moon by the Di Family, from the human army’s Chi Ban Mountain defensive line, large-scale forces had already begun transferring because of this plan.

Army forces which were already quartered near the battlefront didn’t move, but all newly arrived reinforcement forces had silently moved into the Chi Ban Mountain area, and into a certain few important strongholds. All reinforcement forces came from the Huaxu Family, Thunder Lustre Clan, Kuafu Family, Dragon Bo Country and the others powerful, large-scale clans and families, which were close to Emperor Shun.

When these army forces were transferring under urgent orders, Ji Hao was wearing a black cloak, closely following Si Wen Ming, walking into the Chi Ban Market once again.

Si Wen Ming seemed to be quite familiar with the Chi Ban Market. He quickly walked across many streets and alleyways in the market, finally stopping in front of a purely black and red palace, which was cast from metal as a whole. He took out a palm-sized metal tablet and tied it around his own waist. After that, large groups of Jia Clan warriors, who encountered Si Wen Ming and Ji Hao along the path, would grin in a friendly manner and politely bow to Si Wen Ming after they saw this small metal tablet, then watch Si Wen Ming and Ji Hao walk straight and deep into the palace.

“Uncle, do you come here a lot?” Ji Hao asked while curiously looking at that small metal tablet tied around Si Wen Ming’s waist.

“Not a lot, but every time I came, I gave then a lot of money.” Si Wen Ming patted on that small metal tablet tied around his waist and said in a slightly gloomy tone, “According to them, I’m the VVIP of this place.”

Ji Hao remained silent. Si Wen Ming then gave a bitter laugh and continued, “But I feel like, I’m just the fattest, juiciest, most delicious…jurassic beast.”

Jurassic beast, the poor kind of animal which allowed themselves to be trampled upon. Ji Hao took another glance at that metal tablet hang on Si Wen Ming’s belt, and couldn’t help but let out a long breath.

A door, that was cast from pure gold, opened along with a loud, metal clashing noise. Afterwards, a white and chubby Xiu Clan elderly man, who didn’t have even a slight wrinkle or beard on his face, with a face as smooth and glowing as the most precious pearl, happily, and passionately walked up to Si Wen Ming, spread his pair of short and fat arms, giving Si Wen Ming a big hug.

“Ah, my respectable old friend, I haven’t seen you in this small shop of our Wu Family’s for a seriously long time. I, Wuli, missed you so much, I was so afraid that you were trapped in some troubles out there.” That Xiu Clan elderly man, named Wuli, stood on his tiptoes and ebulliently put his own cheek to Si Wen Ming’s cheek.

Si Wen Ming gave a gentle and kind smile and responded, “Too many things happened lately. Your people have been beating us so hard that we can’t even breathe.”

Wu Li shrugged, made a scornful snort and responded, “Oh, no, no, my old friend, those were only a bunch of idiots who know nothing but solving problems with violence; they’re not my people. You know what, our Wu Family has always been showering in the glow of the supreme Mirage Moon, what we are pursuing is the truth of eternity, instead of violence and blood.”

The Mirage Moon?

Ji Hao curiously looked at Wuli, whose five eyes were blinking constantly. He had already known about the Blood Moon, who possessed the power of that evil blood curse and pure darkness, and the High Moon, who were all top-grade masters of battle skills. Wuli and his people were from the Mirage Moon, what kind of magic or skill were they good at?

Wuli attentively offered seats to Si Wen Ming and Ji Hao, after which, beautiful young human girls served tea that had a nice, attractive aroma, along with delicious desserts. Wuli hospitably introduced that tea and those desserts, then suggested Si Wen Ming and Ji Hao to give them a taste. Afterwards, he put his chubby face near Si Wen Ming’s face and said in an enthusiastic tone, “Old friend, you took time out from your busy schedule and came all the way here to me… I have even smelled a big business. Is it a big business?”

Si Wen Ming maintained a calm and bland look, put the tea cup down and said slowly, “I need to get some information first…I heard that, on your side, some people are planning a massive attack… is this true?”

Wuli remained silent for a while, then he did a finger snap, followed by which, a tall and slim Yu Clan man silently walked in, put his mouth near Wuli’s ear, and whispered a few words. Wuli nodded, then said to Si Wen Ming, “I think, this information is worth five million pieces of magic crystal. Old friend, this price is indeed a bit high, but I promise you, it is worth…This information will reduce the casualties of your army by at least a million.”

Si Wen Ming took a deep gasp and responded in a deep voice, “Reduce the casualties by at least a million? Good, this information, I’ll take it.”

Wuli clapped his hands in satisfaction, then took a fist-sized crystal ball from the hands of that slim Yu Clan man, bashing it against the ground. Instantly, a stream of light was released, and from within that light, a landscape image emerged. Ji Hao looked at that landscape closely, and found out that it was nowhere else but the Blood Cloud Mountain, which the Di Family was going to attack. Ji Hao had seen a map of that area in the headquarters pavilion.

“Blood Cloud Mountain!” Wuli looked at Si Wen Ming, grinned and said, “Not a long while ago, you seemed to have caused some bad influence to a powerful and influential family. They are now eager to rebuild their lost glory, therefore, they have now been gathering all of their powers, read my lip, all their powers, including the army of their human slaves. With that force gathered from their entire family, they’re going to launch an attack to this area here.”

“Blood Cloud Mountain!” continued Wuli in a deep voice, “This is an important stronghold of yours, in the Chi Ban Mountain area. If they break this stronghold, your entire defensive line would lose its initiative. If this stronghold was broken and the army of that family surged in through here, this would cause you casualties for at least a million warriors.”

Si Wen Ming rubbed his own chin while saying blandly, “Ah, the Di Family. We have just reaped some benefits from them, didn’t think that they…”

Wuli grinned quite proudly, the five eyes on his face blinked quickly while he said, “You should know that the Di Family is a branch family of the Dishi Family. They possessed noble bloodline, so the shame brought by failure is even more unbearable to them than it is to the others. Whatever you have done to them, they would certainly want to do it back to you, but tens, hundreds of times worse.”

Wuli shrugged again, maintained that grin, and said, “It’s quite stressful, you need…weapons of the best quality.”

Si Wen Ming looked at the landscape image of the Blood Cloud Mountain, and remained silent for a while. After that, he seriously looked at Wuli and said, “You’re right, it’s indeed stressful. We need a lot of weapons of mass destruction. This time, I want the best stuff, don’t you try to fool me with some cr*p.”

“The best are expensive… very, very expensive… you should know.” Wuli stared at Si Wen Ming right in the eyes and said, “Our techniques in crafting weapons, armors and all kinds of battle puppets, are way advanced than yours. Our weapons can easily break those weapons crafted by your own kind, can slice your armors open, and destroy your battle puppets for good. Except very few kinds of treasures crafted by your kind, such as the tortoise chariot, your army doesn’t have any weapon that can be compared with the weapons crafted by us.”

“Therefore, the price is a big problem.” said Wuli honestly, “With a good price, nothing can’t be sold. We can even sell you our ‘city-destroying demon crossbow’, the newest developed weapon of mass destruction of ours. With enough numbers of that… city-destroying demon crossbows are giant stuff… with those, you can even threaten to destroy the Liang Zhu City. But as for the price, it’s very, very high. My old friend, the price is truly high.”

Si Wen Ming nodded. He took out a leather scroll and slowly spread it out, as a topographic map showed up before Wuli’s eyes.

“In the South, a hundred and eighty thousand miles away from the Chi Ban Mountain, here, here and here, these are three natural spirit mines.” Si Wen Ming pointed his fingers at the map and said blandly, “City-destroying demon crossbows and the other good stuff, the more the better.”

Ji Hao’s pair of eyes suddenly popped widely out when hearing Si Wen Ming. He stared at that three spots of spirit mines in an extreme degree of shock.