The Magus Era

”Shall we stop them?” Ji Hao lowered his head and murmured.

”Let’s watch.” Emperor Shun remained silent while Emperor Xuanyuan said with a deep voice, with a trace of excitement. A dense yellow mist coiled around him. Ji Hao sensed a strong will of fighting from Emperor Xuanyuan’s voice, as he sounded full of expectation towards the battle between Piji Nu and the dark-scaled dragon king.

No one on the side of human beings stopped the dragon king.

On the side of non-humankind, all non-humankind beings curved their mouth corners upwards, giving a faint smile full of expectation. These Yu Clan nobles who luxuriated in the culture of elites all year long, curved their lips in the exact same way. At first sight, they seemed to be wearing the same masks. Looking at them, one might feel unconformable from deep down one’s heart.

Piji Nu laughed out wildly. Flying towards the dragon king, his feet trod heavily on the air. With every step he took, he left a dark-red footprint in the air. The Red Sun Power rolled out from his body. The violent power quaked the air, vibrating the dark-red footprints and causing dark-red space cracks to spread.

”Worm, fight me, like a real warrior! I an a pious slave of the supreme, great Red Sun. I am Piji Nu, the Emperor in power of the Red Sun! I swear with the glory of my family and mine that I will tear your head off!”

Piji Nu growled thunderously. He took off his luxurious long robe and exposed his exquisitely crafted hauberk. The tight hauberk was made of tens of thousands of ingeniously designed, scale-like metal pieces. On each metal piece, a vividly red eye had been glowing brightly, releasing a strong, violent sense of power and emitting a thick scent of blood.

”Hah!” Piji Nu growled and flicked his wrist, sending out a red beam of light.

Ji Hao opened his erect eye and glanced at the red light beam. That was a fist-sized, arena-shaped piece. The roars of countless warriors could be heard from it. An intent of fighting condensed into a blood-red flag, rising to the sky and making it quake intensely.

The fist-sized piece dazzled with a blinding light and started to expand along with thunderous roars. Within a couple of breaths, a miles square, blood-red arena appeared between the dragon kind and Piji Nu.

Piji Nu hopped onto the arena, slightly lowered his body, and fixed his three eyes on the dark-scaled dragon king like a fierce beast preparing to pounce on his prey. The dragon king rushed madly to Piji Nu. Piji Nu shouted with a bright voice, ”Tell me your name! Come onto my arena, and let’s fight to the death!”

”I am Cloud Dream Lake Dragon King. I’m from the dragon-kind, and my name is Ao Ri Tian[1]!” The dark scaled dragon king roared. Carrying a giant axe, he leaped into the blood-red arena.

Ji Hao’s face twitched. Sitting beside him, Si Wen Ming explained to him with a trembling voice, ”Ao Hao, the dragon king from the Cloud Dream Lake! He, he, he has always been rude. When he started his adult life…Despite his father’s objection, he changed his name into this. For this very reason, his father, the current Dragon Emperor, beat him cruelly and then sent him to the Cloud Dream Lake!”

Ji Hao made a long gasp. Ao Ri Tian, this dragon king had such a strong personality!

”Pretty boy, how should we do this?” Standing on the blood-red arena, Ao Hao yelled at Piji Nu, ”Tell me now, how should we do this? I’m gonna ruin your pretty face! I just feel so uncomfortable seeing your pretty faces!”

Roaring towards the sky, Ao Hao released dark flames from his mouth and nose. With a strong corrosive power, the dark flame rose into the sky, seeming to even burn a hole into the sky.

”Fight till death!” A red sun emerged above Piji Nu’s head. He had fallen into a crazy desire to fight as well. From under his skin, countless complicated red spells symbols emerged. An agitated, violent power condensed into an enormous bird with nine heads and eighteen wings behind his body. The birds’ head looked similar to a dragon head and body like an eagle, while its long tails seemed like poisonous snakes. This was such a ferocious creature.

Surrounding the blood-red arena, countless blood-red thunderbolts suddenly erupted into thousands of sharp weapons under the effect of a strange restraining power, floating around the arena and sealing it up.

Letting out a dense red smoke from his mouth, Piji Nu growled at Ao Hao, ”No one can leave this arena. Anyone who tries to leave before the winner is determined will be chopped into pieces! Only one, only one of us can get out alive! Damnable worm, taste the strongest power of the Piji Family!”

The expressions of Emperor Shun, Candle Jiuyin, and Si Wen Ming all turned especially serious.

”In the Magi Palace, you should have read some of the records about the Ancient Great War…Some extraordinarily talented non-humankind beings can merge their bodies with the souls of strong creatures, turning the beast souls into their spirit beasts. In this way, a non-humankind being can share a life with the beast, and have an immeasurably strong power.” Si Wen Ming hurriedly explained to Ji Hao.

Breathing deeply, he continued, ”The beasts qualified to become spirit beasts can naturally reach the level of Supreme Magus on maturity. I’ve never heard about this nine-headed, eighteen-winged bird before. It should be from their world.”

Ji Hao raised his eyebrows as he glanced at Piji Nu.

A similar cultivation system existed in human clans in Southern Wasteland, with human beings merging with beast souls. However, the beasts chosen by Southern Wasteland people were mostly lions, tigers, leopards, elephants, and other regular strong creatures living in the jungle. In Southern Wasteland, this cultivation system was useful to Senior Magi, but barely effective for Magus Kings and Divine Magi.

But according to Si Wen Ming, the non-humankind beings had spirit creatures that could naturally reach to the level of Supreme Magi when they matured? Didn’t this mean that no matter how weak Piji Nu was, in the future, he could always become a Supreme-level powerful being? Or even now, he was already such a powerful being?

Hopefully, Ao Hao could be lucky, and this spirit beast with nine heads and eighteen wings of Piji Nu wouldn’t have matured yet. Otherwise, Ao Hao would get himself killed.

The blood-red arena suddenly released raging fires. Water-tank sized fire streams rose from all over the arena along with a rumbling noise. Almost simultaneously, Ao Hao and Piji Nu were both struck by a flake of fire erupting by their feet. Piji Nu nimbly moved away and dodged at lightning speed. The fire only burned a small area of his armor black.

But, Ao Hao wasn’t familiar with the arena. Therefore, when the fire rose, he reacted relatively slowly. The scale on his left arm was burned glowing red, which made him howl in pain. Wielding his giant axe, he marched towards Piji Nu.

Watching the fight, all non-humankind beings and human warriors held their breaths.

This suddenly occurring battle seemed to be an accidental event, but in fact, it was meant to happen. After all, the non-humankind intended to keep showing their strengths to so many human beings, dragons, and phoenixes, while the humankind was holding an intention to feel out the actual abilities of the non-humankind leaders. Even if the dirty talking black dragon didn’t start this, some other people would stand out and start a battle directly between the leaders of both sides.

Laughing out loud, Ao Hao swung his axe down at Piji Nu, which dazzled with a frigid light.

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[1]Ao Ri Tian’s real name is 敖(Ao)昊(Hao). This character ’昊’ includes two parts. The upper part ’日’ literally means ’sun’, but in dirty talks, this word can also mean ’have sex with…’, or simply, the ’F’ word. As the lower part of ’昊’, the character ’天’ simply means ’sky’. So, now we can understand that Ao Hao changed his name into Ao Ri Tian because he believed that he could ’f*ck the sky’. In case you may want to know, yes, Ji Hao has the same name.