The Magus Era

Within that magnificent splendor, Yu Yu’s clear and resonant voice rang in Ji Hai’s head, reading this scripture over and over again.

The scripture didn’t have a title. Its language was simple and plain, not containing any unnecessary, decorative phrases. This short and simple scripture frankly stated a general, yet unfathomable knowledge — How to nourish the soul, cultivate the spirit, merge the spirit power with nature and eventually go beyond the transmigration, achieving immortality.

The last time, Yu Yu imparted Yu Yu’s Study of Magic Formation to Ji Hao. The study of magic formations was a method, a skill, also could be seen as a way to use the natural powers and natural laws. The [Mantra Dan with Nine Secret Words] that Ji Hao had been studying for many years, properly speaking, was also a method, a way to communicate with nature and develop the potential of the human bodies, and attain all kinds of magical powers by using the powers of nature.

Yu Yu’s Study of Magic Formation was extensive and profound, and included a great, wide range of knowledge that was complicated and unspeakable, such as the systems of astrology, sidereal revolutions and heavenly circuits. Compared to Yu Yu’s Study of Magic Formation, [Mantra Dan with Nine Secret words] was especially detailed and meticulous, like a picture of lands and cities embossed on a single thread of hair, achieving an extreme degree of detail and exquisiteness.

Nevertheless, both Yu Yu’s study of magic formation and [Mantra Dan with Nine Secret Words] were only methods, skills that could be used to manipulate nature powers and steer the mysteriousness of nature.

As for this scripture Yu Yu had been imparting to Ji Hao right now, which was of primitive simplicity yet with solid substance, the essence of it was the original Dao of this world!

Ji Hao’s body was trembling and his blood had been insanely surging inside his body. While he was breathing deeply in and out, long, sharp and strong gusts of wind rose in the woods. The woods was swinging, sand and dirt rose, driving in the air; all creatures living in the woods like birds and wolves, insects and bugs, had huddled their bodies up, daring not to move.

Po waved his right hand, following which, a large, golden flag rose into the sky along with numerous golden lotuses. Those golden lotuses rotated in the air, covering up this entire piece of woods. Instantly, all abnormal phenomena disappeared. Looking from a distance, one could only see beautiful natural scenes in this area, without detecting anything strange at all.

Followed by long breaths, great and pure streams of nature power were inhaled into Ji Hao’s body, as the Golden Dan in his spirit space began spinning swiftly. That black and yellow sphere of mist, which was condensed from the reward given by nature for his merits, had been merging with the Golden Dan. Gradually, the Golden Dan emitted a dazzlingly bright light, lighting up every single corner of Ji Hao’s spirit space.

Yu Yu sat in front of Ji Hao, explaining the meaning of every single word in the scripture to Ji Hao. Every time he read a word in the scripture aloud, thin streams of purple mist would descend from the air, land on the ground and silently blast out, transforming into lotuses, swaying along the wind.

Abruptly, Yu Yu took a glance at the woods, then gave a faint smile and waved his long, broad sleeve. Right after that, a few smart-looking monkeys, a couple of large birds, several birds from a clear pool, one crab and two prawns, were brought over to in front of Yu Yu simultaneously.

“You’re destined to hear this, so you shall just listen carefully. As for how much you can understand, that will depend solely on yourselves.” said Yu Yu gently while smilingly looking at these animals, “If you can manage to grow a slight trace of Dao power in you, you will be admitted as my registered disciple!”

Ji Hao opened his eyes, looked at these lucky ones which had just been invited by Yu Yu to the lecture for a while, then smiled knowingly.

These little ones were truly lucky that they had met Yu Yu, such an enlightened Daoist priest, who was willing provide education to all living creatures without discrimination. Silently, Ji Hao made an unspoken criticism for the other few so-called ‘powerful beings’, who were extremely picky in selecting disciples. If these animals met those ‘powerful ones’, they might have already been kicked to thousands of miles away.

Ji Hao closed his eyes and settled his mind, quietly and listening to Yu Yu’s lecture with utmost concentration.

That black and yellow mist had merged completely with the Golden Dan. The light emitted by the Golden Dan grew magnificently bright, seeming to even to shine the outside world through Ji Hao’s body.

A bright light spot emerged from in between Ji Hao’s eyebrows. The light spot sparkled brightly like glistening water. Showering under this splendid light, those creatures invited by Yu Yu, Mr Crow, who was standing on Ji Hao’s head, and the pair of magic fire snakes lying on Ji Hao’s shoulders, cheered out together. Within the coverage of the bright light released from the light spot in between his eyebrows, Ji Hao sensed that in the eyes of these creatures, including Mr Crow and the two snakes, lights of intelligence had been added. By now, when these creatures turned their heads and looked around, the looks on their faces were not much different from ordinary people already.

Mr Crow was already an over thousand-year-old descendant of a magical kind of bird, with intelligence of its own. After being shone by the bright light released from in between Ji Hao’s eyebrows, Mr Crow’s eyes instantly began shining dazzlingly. The sense of spirit power released from Mr Crow’s body boosted up instantly, while a faint, mystical vibe slowly spread out from his body.

Breathe in, breathe out.

The breath of Ji Hao grew longer and longer while power surged into his body. Under this earnest, face to face tutoring giving by Yu Yu, the outline of Dao was delineated inside Ji Hao’s body. Yin and Yang were divided, fire power and water power contained in his body joined the strengths and achieved harmony. This strong, powerful body of Ji Hao as a Senior Magus was turned straight into an all-surpassing, great furnace.

Nature powers was supplied as fuel, while his body and Magus Acupoints served as a smelting furnace, and his spirit power, soul power and life-force were added as raw materials. After a while of severe smelting inside Ji Hao’s body, his golden Dan suddenly exploded.

An intensive breath was held back inside Ji Hao’s body. Puffs of black mist rose slowly from Ji Hao’s head. Yu Yu locked his long and slim finger together and slightly patted on Ji Hao’s head. Instantly, a clear, cool stream of power, that even sensed a bit sweet, gushed right into Ji Hao’s body, flowing along all his meridians for thirty-six rounds, then finally merged with Ji Hao’s mind.

The Golden Dan splintered, transforming into the purest liquid of Dan, merging into one with the black and white mist.

In Ji Hao’s spiritual space, a tiny, faintly visible, man-shaped silhouette emerged. That tiny silhouette breathed deeply like Ji Hao did with his body, inhaling the clear light stream that was transformed from the combination of the liquid of Dan and black yellow mist entirely.

After that, this fist-sized, tiny silhouette suddenly began growing. Within a blink of an eye, it reached the size of Ji Hao’s body, and became clearer than before. Hazily, one could find out that this silhouette looked exactly the same as Ji Hao’s real body.

“Duo!” Yu Yu gave a deep shout while flicked his finger at Ji Hao’s forehead, in between his eyebrows, then said in a gentle yet strong voice, “The sky is dark blue and the earth is yellow… I shall purify the reward given to you by nature, the soul to the greatest extent, into pure positivity… Yang, out!”

Ji Hao only felt that his body was lightened immensely, as if all fetters and burdens had now been cast off. He felt an extreme happiness without any sorrow or anxiety. As he leapt up into the air, his primordial spirit broke out of the limitation of his body and flew out, floating in the air three feet high above his head.

The primordial spirit broke out from the body. A gentle breeze blew over, bringing Ji Hao a wave of coolness, chilling his entire body. The sunlight poured down, augmenting the warmth inside his body. After Ji Hao’s primordial spirit merged with the black and white reward given by nature, he had already easily crossed a gateway that was normally the hardest and most dangerous for the other cultivators, with one mere step.

Without being restrained by the body, Ji Hao’s primordial spirit had now been quietly feeling this world. He sensed that the whole world had now become much clearer than before.

With a single and momentary thought, Ji Hao’s primordial spirit immediately reached a thousand mile away. If he travelled across this distance with his flesh body, no matter how fast his fiery wings could make, a thousand miles would take him quite a while to cover. However, while travelling in the form of primordial spirit, crossing a thousand mile of distance only required a single thought.

Ji Hao’s primordial spirit flashed across the space. He travelled around the entire area that had a radius of a thousand miles, after which his primordial spirit delightfully returned to his body, settled in his spiritual space, arms tightly holding the Immemorial Sun streamer. This prehistorical, powerful treasure had now become his spirit treasure; they now shared their destiny.

With a thought of his primordial spirit, Ji Hao’s blood boiled in his body, swooshingly surging like roaring dragons. Meanwhile, all eight-thousand Magus Acupoints of his opened simultaneously, letting streams of nature power pour in. The rate of absorbing nature power of Ji Hao’s body had suddenly risen to over a hundred times faster than before!

Ji Hao was nearly mad with joy. He opened his eyes, hurriedly kneeling and saluting to Yu Yu.

“Thank you, my dear Shifu! Thank you for making me better!” Ji Hao was clearly aware that as his primordial spirit was raised and visualized, enabled to leave the body and travel freely, he had now formally stepped onto the path of cultivation of the great Dao. This was a whole new level of his cultivation.

Yu Yu laughed out loud, but abruptly, his loud and clear laughter stopped.