The Magus Era

Netherworld Hierarch stood on the black lotus. A strong netherworld power coiled around him in twisting streams, making him look like a giant octopus with thousands of enormous tentacles. Long and dark netherworld power streams flaunted around him, and faintly, high-pitched coarse screams could be heard.

”Netherworld Hierarch…Netherworld Priest!

Ji Hao looked at Netherworld Hierarch seriously, wondering if he were truly a clone of Netherworld Priest.

Ji Hao knew about Netherworld Priest, a mysterious, powerful being. After the humankind rose, Netherworld Priest was the only ancient powerful being who still had a tight connection with human beings. When Dishi Yanluo newly ascended to the throne of the Blood Moon, he started a great war. Back then, Emperor Shun asked Netherworld Priest for help, and he did show up to fight a quick battle against Dishi Yanluo.

As Ji Hao clawed his way up the social ladder of the human society, he had reached many core secrets already. He knew that a long-term agreement existed between high-level human leaders and Netherworld Priest. Human beings were under Netherworld Priest’s protection, and in return, the souls of some fallen human warriors would follow Netherworld Priest upon their own wills, becoming his disciples. Apart from this, when human leaders asked Netherworld Priest for help, they also promised him the bodies of a part of fallen warriors, allowing him to make those dead bodies into flying zombies and other types of battle puppets.

Priest Hua and Priest Mu had been trying everything they could to attract more followers among human beings and to collect the faith power from human beings, but Netherworld Priest was different. He lived in the netherworld, with ghosts, zombies and other dark beings; he had no interest in living human beings.

Such a powerful being was hiding right next to the reception room of the shop run by the Tushan Chamber of Commerce, but why? Ji Hao was curious. What was Tushan Chamber of Commerce planning? Or, what was Netherworld Priest planning?

”Who are you, my friend?” Seeing Ji Hao remaining silent for quite a while, Netherworld Hierarch asked a bit angrily, ”I’ve seen what you can do. You’re not a nameless ordinary being for sure, and you’re definitely not a crayfish. My friend, impressive shapeshifting skill!”

Following a sizzling noise, a thin crack suddenly appeared between Netherworld Hierarch’s eyebrows, exposing a dark eyeball.

A dark beam of light darted out light a bolt of lightning, covering Ji Hao’s body.

Ji Hao sensed a slight coldness from his skin. His boiling spirit blood cooled down suddenly, and his shapeshifting magic was almost broken by this dark eye of Priest Hierarch. Pondering briefly, Ji Hao deactivated his shapeshifting magic and showed his real face.

Wearing the brightly glowing Taiji cloak, Ji Hao bowed to Netherworld Hierarch with a vigorous look and said politely, ”You are an eldership of mine. I am Ji Hao, and it’s a pleasure to meet you. My Shifu always tells me that you are a friend of our sect, and that I should respect you as much as I respect my Shifu.”

Before Netherworld Hierarch said a word, Ji Hao kneeled on the ground and greeted him with the special teacher-greeting convenance from Yu Yu’s sect.

Watching ‘old crayfish Summer’ suddenly become Ji Hao, a handsome, strong young man, Netherworld Hierarch paused slightly, then had his eyes shone brightly. Glancing at Ji Hao’s Taiji cloak, he abruptly laughed out loud and said, ”Hah, you’re my friend Dachi’s…No, the power I sensed from you…”

Ji Hao smiled, silently activated his primordial spirit, and released a layer of Yu Yu’s divine light that covered his entire body like a beautiful green jade. The light was vividly green, and contained an inexhaustible life-force, seeming to generate all possibilities. But the sense of power it gave out was strong and sharp.

”Yu Yu’s divine light, you’re my friend Yu Yu’s disciple!” Netherworld Hierarch’s tightened face eased a lot. Gently patting his own forehead, he chuckled and said, ”Hah, you’re Marquis Yao Ji Hao, a young human being. Hmm, you’re Yu Yu’s disciple. No wonder Emperor Shun said that you’re the most talented, capable young man among your generation.”

Ji Hao smilingly bowed again to Netherworld Hierarch and responded mildly, ”I am flattered.”

Netherworld Hierarch shook his head, raised his hand, and slightly waved towards the outside. The shell, which was sealed by Ji Hao with the extremely negative power, flew to Netherworld Hierarch’s hand along with a sharp swishing noise. He pointed at the shell, then a dark fire puffed up from it, sizzlingly burning the cold silver light wrapped on the shell.

Pop! Ten minutes later, the seal cast by Ji Hao with the extremely negative power was broken by the dark fire. A dim black light burst from the shell, and the power of the Chaos soul-eating giant crayfish swept across the entire room. Once again, Ji Hao heard the dragon-roar-like, resonant sound.

In a slight surprise, Netherworld Hierarch glanced at Ji Hao. He knew what Ji Hao did to the shell. Sealing the shell with the extremely negative power, this had impressed Netherworld Hierarch already. After all, Yu Yu was best at magic formation art and sword art. In other words, Yu Yu was the fiercest sword artist in the world, but he was just average on the great Dao of extreme negativeness. But the seal Ji Hao cast was powerful and ingenious; it was clearly above the limitation of Yu Yu’s disciples, and had reached a whole new level.

In order to break Ji Hao’s seal, Netherworld Hierarch activated fifty percent of his power! In Netherworld Hierarch’s eyes, Ji Hao was only a young disciple. Judging by the sense of power released from Ji Hao’s body, Ji Hao hadn’t even completed his first century of cultivation, and his seal should be broken easily, even with merely fifty percent of his power.

As a result, Netherworld Hierarch activated fifty percent of his power, and spent ten whole minutes to break Ji Hao’s seal!

Thinking that Ji Hao couldn’t be using all of his power when sealing the shell, Netherworld Hierarch was shocked. This disciple of Yu Yu, what a little freak! He had cultivated himself for no more than a century, but he was already sixty to seventy percent as powerful as Netherworld Hierarch himself.

Trying pretty hard to act less shocked, Netherworld Hierarch swung the shell slightly, smiled and said, ”Since you’re a disciple of Yu Yu, this shell is useless to you now.”

Ji Hao detected some undermeaning from his words and asked, ”This shell, is anything wrong with it?”

Netherworld Hierarch chuckled, stroked the thick and complicated natural pattern on the shell, and responded in a bland tone, ”Hmm, no big problems, it’s just, this shell can deliver a cultivation method especially for crayfishes, lobsters, shrimp warriors, and has been processed by me.”

Flicking his fingers on the shell, Netherworld Hierarch looked at Ji Hao and continued grinningly, ”Any shrimp warrior who uses the cultivation method will be able to make astounding advances on both cultivation and physical strength. But, their spirit blood powers will gradually transform into the netherworld power. At a certain stage, they will become my netherworld warriors…instead of living beings!”

Ji Hao speechlessly looked at Netherworld Hierarch. ‘So, it turns out that Tushan Chamber of Commerce opened a store in Kui Water to help Netherworld Hierarch entrap water-kind beings, right?’ thought Ji Hao.

Then, Netherworld Hierarch sighed and continued, ”Marquis Yao, before you…through Inkstone’s hands, I have given out seventy to eighty ‘Chaos monster remains’ like this…I believe, I will soon have millions and millions of more elite warriors under my command!”

Ji Hao spread his hands and smiled, speechlessly, then deeply bowed again to Netherworld Hierarch.