The Magus Era

In front of the Town Hall in Pu Ban city, a series of simple and crude, straw-roofed prison cells stood in a straight line.

Compared to the old days, the surrounding areas of these prison cells now were much busier. Many clan governors, who had elegant and deliberate demeanors that differentiated them from ordinary civilians, and were all surrounded by guards, had been standing outside those prison cells and talking to people inside in low voices, and with badly darkened faces.

The looks of those people standing outside those prison cells were all utterly bitter. Their tightly knitted eyebrows clearly stated the great pressure that they had now been suffering from.

As for those people in those prison cells, they were no one else but elders who unexpectedly ordered their warriors to turn the weapons around and launch attacks on their own kind on the Evil Dragon Bay battlefield back in Chi Ban Mountain area. What they had done had nearly destroyed the entire Chi Ban Mountain defensive line, yet by now, they all sat on straw mats calmly, as if nothing had ever happened, with an easy grace on their faces. They even had a rather mysterious, weird and faint smile on their faces.

Almost all of them had been sitting on their straw mats with the same gesture. Their hands were relaxedly put on their knees, while they had their eyes narrowed and maintained that faint smile on their faces. It was as if they were living a nice idle life like a drifting cloud or a free wild crane, unspeakably free and unfettered.

Hearing the deep yells and even angry curses given by higher-level leaders or elders of their clans, these people would let out one or two words as responses if they were in a good mood. If they weren’t in a good mood, they would simply say nothing. They even stayed perfectly impervious when some grumpy clan leaders and elders threatened them with the safety of their families.

At a distance away, Po was standing on his toe tips on a tall tree, with his hands held in his sleeves, looking towards the prison area.

Seeing those people’s impervious looks and that weirdly calm smile on their faces, Po slightly shook his head and said, “Nothing but a heretical trick. They know nothing but using these kinds of small dirty tricks. And they want to compete against us for the natural fortune, for the great Dao of this world, how? Just like this?”

Wielding his broad sleeves, Po lithely flew off the tree, sighed slightly and continued, “A bunch of poor things. Well, just let them pass away in the state of extreme joy. If I wake their consciousness back up…that would be way too cruel for them.”

In a prison cell near the front gate of the Town Hall was the cell that kept Ji Hao a while ago because of the crystal mine discovered by the Rong Mountain Clan. Now, Ying Yunpeng sat in that cell on a straw mat, also with that calm and careless smile on his face that made people just want to smash it altogether.

A middle-aged man, who looked eighty to ninety percent similar to Ying Yunpeng but a bit younger than him, stood outside his cell, frowningly looking at Ying Yunpeng, who had been remaining absolute silent, and said, “Brother, why did you do such a stupid thing? You have to give me an explanation!”

“In one year tops, the news about what happened here in Pu Ban will travel to Ten Sun Country. By then, do you know what will happen to those nephews and nieces of mine? Aren’t you worrying about your own children at all? We are blood brothers, I don’t believe that you would do things like that! But, what has actually happened?”

The middle-aged man begged and begged only for Ying Yunpeng to tell him about what had exactly happened in Evil Dragon Bay. He needed to know what made Ying Yunpeng crazy enough to order those Eastern Wasteland archers, who mainly came from Ten Sun Country, to turn their weapons around and kill a large number of elite human warriors, even including nearly ten thousand of Emperor Shun’s feathered warriors!

The life and death of Ying Yunpeng himself wasn’t a great matter, and even if he incriminated all his children, that wouldn’t be a big deal at all for the great Ten Sun Country. However, those, hundreds of thousands of archers under Ying Yunpeng’s command were genuine elites of many Eastern Wasteland Clans, especially the Ten Sun Country! Emperor Shun and a group of senior ministers insisted on punishing those warriors strictly. By now, a big number of clans had joined hands and were at loggerheads with Emperor Shun.

Currently, the leaders and elders of those clans were all eager to find out what exactly happened to Ying Yunpeng and the other rebel elders that made them do such a lunatic thing. Nevertheless, they had been yelling and barking towards those rebel elders for many days till now, who give out literally zero truth.

These clan leaders and elders would never stop being anxious before they found out what exactly had caused the unreasonable actions of those rebelling elders. This time, they did this in Evil Dragon Bay, where would the same thing happen the next time? Next time, would they just frenziedly start wars against the other human clans with warriors under their commands? Would they even do something that is crazier and devoid of a bottom line?

Ying Yupeng smiled faintly, looked at the middle-aged man and said nothing.

His gaze was deep and roving, like the gaze of a God who was sitting high upon clouds, as if ordinary human beings could never figure out what was in his head.

The face of the middle-aged man gradually turned deeply dark, and the handsome face became twisted as well. He gnashed his teeth and suddenly lowered his voice, growled in a deep yet strong tone, “Ying Yunpeng, despite the fact that we are raised by the same father, if you push this too far, don’t blame me for showing no mercy! Do you have to try those cruel tortures of our family before you tell me the truth?!”

Ying Yunpeng gave a slight sigh and finally started talking, “Ying Yunhe, creatures like you are ignorant, struggling in this vast ocean like world and sinking forever and ever. You will never understand the pleasure given by true freedom and the delightfulness of spiritual detachment. To people like you, what can I say?”

Ji Hao and Si Wen Ming walked over with big steps at that time, and they both heard Ying Yunpeng’s words.

Ji Hao couldn’t help but laugh out, and said, “True freedom? Spiritual detachment? Ying Yunpeng, you pushed hundreds of thousands of warriors under your command into a deadly danger, how can you still be shameless enough to say things like these?”

Ying Yunhe quickly turned around, cast a complicated glance at Ji Hao, then politely cupped his hands to Si Wen Ming and made a salute. Si Wen Ming nodded, walked to the cell and frowningly looked at Ying Yunpeng, who abruptly stood up from the ground.

Po was walking away, but abruptly he turned his head around and saw Ji Hao walk up to Ying Yunpeng. After that, he wielded his sleeve, following which, a light cloud rose from under his feet. He’s body flashed across the air as he lithely walked backward for a few big steps, stood under a tree while slightly shaking his head and looking at Ji Hao.

Po locked his fingers together into a certain gesture, silently casting an evil-suppressing secret spell. A magical stream of power that could clear people’s minds instantly shrouded the surrounding area of Ying Yunpeng’s cell. The craziness that had started to emerge from Ying Yunpng’s eyes was dispelled, and Ying Yunpeng’s look immediately became much calmer than before.

Ying Yunpeng clicked his lips. He was going to do some savage things to drag Ji Hao into the trouble right in front of all these clan leaders and elders, but instead, he gasped for a few times and pointed his finger at Ji Hao. He sneered and said in a strange voice, “Ji Hao, I know that my son and my nephew all died because of you. But I don’t blame you. Being alive is such a sorrowful thing, you have freed them… I should be thanking you for that.”

Taking a deep breath, a fanatical glow began shining in Ying Yunpeng’s eyes. He opened his mouth and seemed to say some astonishing things, but Po standing under the tree afar immediately changed the hand gesture while incanting the evil-suppressing spell in a low voice, forcibly restraining the evil intention in Ying Yunpeng’s heart.

Ying Yunpeng then gave a weird laugh, looked at Ji Hao and said in a deep voice, “I…I want to tell you that…You, Ji Hao…we could have succeeded…but you…you ruined our perfect plan! You’ll see, we…will never…let go of this!”

Ying Yunpeng raised his hand, pointed at Si Wen Ming and Ying Yunhe, as well as those clan leaders and elders in the surroundings, then burst into a furious laugh, and said, “You…hehe!”

He then took another deep gasp, after which, Ying Yunpeng sat on the ground with his legs crossed. He and the other rebel elders who were kept in prison because of what they had done simultaneously gave a loud laugh then locked their fingers together into a lotus-shaped gesture, holding before their chests. In the following moment, colorful and translucent streams of light burst from their faces and next, the sense of their lives instantly dissipated.