The Magus Era

On the broad top of Kui Gate, the disheveled water-kind campsite seemed to be boundless. Rotten trees and moldy straws piled together; short fences stuck slantingly in the ground for about half a foot deep. Every other seven to eight miles, a door was opened on the fence for water-kind warriors to enter or exit. Each door was guarded by a few or tens of low-grade water-kind warriors.

Walking into the camp, an indescribable odor attacked Ji Hao. Almost all freshwater and seawater creatures were born with a strong fishy smell. Ordinary water-kind creatures already had a pretty strong fishy smell, not to mention the fact that the ones gathered in this camp were all spirit water-kind creatures, tens of years old at least. The fishy smell from them was hundreds, even a thousand times stronger than from the ordinary ones.

The strong fishy smell drilled into Ji Hao’s nostrils, straight up to his brain. Heng Xing and Yuan Li were used to this smell since long ago. While they excitedly looking around, Ji Hao was baring his teeth and shaking his head. He hurriedly cast a small magic and isolated himself from the smell. Only then did he finally have a chance to breathe.

Looking around with the lingering fear for that horrible smell, Ji Hao saw an enormous dead whale lying by a door. A dragon whale man was holding a large knife, one foot stepped on a fin of the dead whale, waving his arms and yelling.

Hundreds of smaller shaped spirit creatures gathered around the dead whale, with all kinds of things held in their hands. They wanted to trade for a piece of whale meat with the things in their hands. Clay bowls, vats, wine pots, lamps, anything could be found on those small spirit creatures’ hands. Some of them were even holding a few ragged human clothes. No one knew where they found those things.

The dragon whale man was shouting loudly. A few small spirit creatures approached with broken clay vats and bowls, but the whale man punched their faces, making them vomit blood and flee desperately. After that, the whale man took over a roughly crafted bronze lamps from another small spirit creature pretty delightfully, then grinningly chopped off a large piece of whale meat and handed it to that spirit creature.

Ji Hao clicked his tongue on watching this. A dragon whale man was actually selling whale meat! Only spirit creatures could do such things, right?

Behind the front gate of the camp was a long, winding road. Ji Hao saw the thousands of miles of distance on the road with a glance, but still failed to find its end. In some areas, the road was hundreds of meters wide, but in some areas, it was no more than twenty meters wide. Stinky bones, furs, and other garbage piled on both sides of the road. Some filthy organs were thrown right in the middle of the road, emitting a horrible smell.

Some small spirit creatures with awfully weak cultivations could only, barely transform a half of their bodies into human shapes. They squatted on both sides of the roads with pieces of hide paved on the ground. Placed on their hides were flowers, grasses, tree roots, sparkling ores, metals pieces and all kinds of things. These small spirit creatures sat by their stalls without saying anything, just silently waiting for customers.

Some relatively stronger ones, who had cultivated themselves for one to two hundred years, but not even as powerful as Junior Magi, had been walking back and forth on the road with their heads held high. If they saw things that they were interested in, they would walk over and grab that thing directly up. Some of them were willing to follow the rules, and would drop some meat or other foods for the stall owners. But some slightly stronger ones would grab the things and go straight away, saying no word and paying nothing. Those stall owners dared not to say a word to them, and could only watch them leave.

Many straggly ‘buildings’ stood on both sides of the road. Ji Hao wasn’t willing to describe those things with the word ‘building’ actually, because that would be a humiliation to the word itself. He didn’t know what to call those things by the road, shelters maybe? Some of those were simply holes covered in leaves; some were small areas surrounded by rotten woods, barely covered under large tree barks. Some better ones looked slightly more like real buildings, but still not even as good as livestock sheds back in the old Fire Crow Clan.

However, crude ‘buildings’ like these apparently belonged only to the ones powerful enough. A water-kind spirit creature needed to be as powerful as a human Senior Magus at least to own a ‘building’ like this.

Ji Hao heard some strange noises from these ‘buildings’. Following the thumping noises, some less sturdy ’buildings’ were slightly shaking.

Out of curiosity, Ji Hao released his spirt power and tried to find out what had been happening in those sheds. Quickly scanning across all ‘buildings’ within a hundred miles with his spirit power, Ji Hao’s face turned green, while he covered his eyes with his hand. He was almost blinded by what he saw. He couldn’t even describe what he had seen.

Had anyone ever seen a male octopus making love with a water snake? One snake tail and eight tentacles passionately coiling around each other! Had anyone ever seen a ‘shark mermaid’ doing it with a crocodile? That ‘mermaid’ had her lower body transformed into a human shape, yet she still had a shark head! Did anyone ever see seven to eight turtle men serving one starfish girl attentively?

Ji Hao couldn’t describe that scene. He slapped hard on his head, cast a soul magic he learned from the Dao of evolvement, and forcibly wiped out what he had seen just now. Forgetting those horrible scenes completely, Ji Hao gasped for air and walked forward quickly with a badly darkened face.

While walking, he murmured, ”Let’s find a quiet place, with a better condition, and without too many people around!”

Following behind Ji Hao, Heng Xing and Yuan Li heard him and hurriedly popped out their eyes, checking around. But no matter how hard they tried, the kind of place Ji Hao required seemed not to exist in this chaotic water-kind campsite.

Walking for tens of miles forward, a fish skin flag suddenly flew out from a straw shed by the road. A swordfish man held the flag and yelled, ”This slutty woman almost got me late! Oi! Human beings are whacking us out there! I need thirty-thousand warriors to join the battle! Anyone who is willing to fight will be awarded with a human arm!” Shouted the swordfish man, ”If you want to taste human meat, follow me! Haha! Dark Water Serpent, our great ancestor has given his word, that you can have a half of all human beings you kill on the battlefield!”

Clicking his tongue, this swordfish man continued, ”Delicious human meat! Eat one piece of that, and your cultivation will soar! Have you little things ever had a chance to taste human meat? Hehe, follow me. You can fill your stomachs with human meat now!”

The swordfish man raised the flag and waved for a while. Hearing him, seventy to eighty small spirit creatures rushed over from all directions, and followed him to the battlefield before the Kui Gate.