The Magus Era

It was a rainy day. On the broad plain area in the south of Liang Zhu City, the grasses had already reached the height of human waists. The boundless, shiny green grassland was decorated with different sized mushrooms and wildflowers, blooming thrivingly. Within the light of sight, differently colored flowers were everywhere. Marmots and other small creatures had been popping out from the grass. Habits took family as a unit and leaped out of their nests. These scrawny creatures crazily wolfed the grass to replenish the energy they had burned in the past few years.

In the meanwhile, skinny wolves wandered through the grass, as silent as ghosts. Occasionally, shrill screams could be heard as poor small creatures were caught by them. A faint blood scent spread in the air. Occasionally, the wolves would give echoing howls of satisfaction.

A group of metal plates had been slowly hovering in the air, about a hundred meters high from the ground. That was a troop of dark-kind slave warriors and a few Xiu Clan scholars, on a daily patrol. The dark-kind warriors vigilantly looked around, while the Xiu Clan scholars were writing down their new discoveries on papers.

”The life-force of this world is way too strong. It’s only been a few days since the flood has receded, but the world has already come back to life, almost entirely.”

”Strong life-force means inexhaustible resources. Among all worlds we have conquered, this is the richest one. I even suspect that this world is even richer than our homew…”

”Shut up! You do not say such outrageous words! Supreme Saint Pan Yu, the creator of the world, the dominator of the world… The three suns and nine moons are your eyes, and showering under your never-ending glow, we will conquer everything!”

The few Xiu Can scholars whispered to each other. Abruptly, a dark-kind warrior burst with a shout, ”Look, a troop is approaching from the south! Eh? Which family is this slave-hunting troop from? So lucky! Didn’t they run into our main force in Chi Ban Mountain? They haven’t been brought into the main force!”

Another dark-kind warrior threw a sideways glance at him and said, ”Stupid! Since they’re slave hunters, how would they come through the main path in Chi Ban Mountain? They must have used the secret passage hiding in Chi Ban Market…Hah, as long as they avoid meeting the main force, those outer circle patrol troops are easy to deal with, with nothing but…”

This dark-kind slave warrior craftily rubbed his thumb, forefinger, and middle fingers together, as if he were counting jade coins.

The metal plates slowly descended and stopped in midair, lesser than six-feet from the ground. Under the metal plates, dim lightning bolts sparkled and covered the grasses down below with an extremely faint layer of lightning bolts. Along with sizzling noises, fire sparkles burst from the grasses.

In the thick growth of grass, over ten three-meters wide circles emerged. Within the circles, all grasses were pressed down to the ground in one direction. The slave-hunting troop approached, while tens of flags fluttered in the sky.

”Glowing Gold Chamber of Commerce, Sparkling Gold Chamber of Commerce, Shining Gold Chamber of Commerce…Ah, it’s an allied slave-hunting army! Today is our lucky day.”

A group of Yu Clan nobles mounted on tall and muscular four-horned white deers held their heads high and rushed over. Seeing this patrol troop from Liang Zhu City, they glanced at each other. With large steps, a Jia Clan warrior walked over.

”Hmm, you saw nothing today, right?” The Jia Clan warrior puffed up his chest and glared at the dark-kind warriors on the metal plates. In Yu Dynasty, Jia Clan people were noble warriors. Their social status was much higher than dark-kind slave warriors.

The group of slave warriors hurriedly bowed to him and said, ”Sir, we saw nothing.”

The few Xiu Clan scholars stood on the metal plates and curiously looked at the large crowd of human slaves behind the slave-hunting troop.

A Xiu clan scholar laughed abruptly and said, ”You have such a bad luck. Right now, almost all nobles have gone south, preparing for the war against the human beings. Liang Zhu City is empty now. You brought back so many slaves, but you’re not gonna make any money from them.”

Another Xiu Clan scholar sighed, ”You can only keep them in your slave camps, but the cost of meals is going to be huge.”

Another Xiu Clan scholar suddenly exclaimed out, pointing at a fat guy in the crowd, ”Look, that one is like a lying olive nut…Oh my, such a fat slave? What do you expect him to do?”

In the crowd, Yu Mu rolled up his eyes. He was much taller and way huger than ordinary human beings. Patting his belly, he bared his teeth and roared like a beast towards the few Xiu Clan scholars.

Feng Xing stood by Yu Mu’s side. He was tall and slim, slightly shorter than Yu Mu, looking like a toothpick stuck beside a burger. The few noisy Xiu Clans scholars didn’t even notice him. As Feng Xing poked Yu Mu’s soft fat on the waist, the latter snorted, pointed at the few scholars, and said proudly, ”I am the best cook in my clan…My special dish is roast Xiu Clan kidneys!”

The few Xiu Clan scholars’ expressions changed. Their faces twitching, they asked the Jia Clan warrior, ”You brought a cook from a cannibal clan?”

The Jia Clan warrior seemed to be slightly embarrassed. The dark-kind warriors had been extra polite to him, without daring to say anything unpleasant. But, these Xiu Clan shorts…Xiu Clan scholars and craftsmen had special social status in Yu Clan. Like the Yu Clan people, they were also high-grade nobles. Therefore, an ordinary Jia Clan warrior was always at a much lower position than these Xiu Clan shorts, who served in official institutions.

This Jia Clan warrior took out a leather bag from his sleeve sulkily and said with a deep voice, ”You saw nothing today, right? Hehe, I saw this fall from your sleeve…I saw it clearly, it fell from your sleeve!”

A Xiu Clan scholar took over the bag and opened it.

The human-head-sized bag was halfway filled with raw gemstones. Thumb-sized emeralds, pigeon-egg sized rubies, hazelnut-sized sapphires, it even included two egg-sized, perfect diamonds!

”Ah, not bad!” The Xiu Clan scholars took out a handful of raw gemstones from the bag and gave to a dark-kind slave warrior behind him. All dark-kind slave warriors laughed happily, with their mouths widely opened. Surely, this handful of raw gemstone belonged to them now.

”It was truly not bad. We broke a mid-scale clan, which had three rivers in their territory. Each river was a gem mine.” said the Jia Clan warrior with a muffled voice, ”But, it’s shame though that the time was too limited. We had to rush out before we got too many gems.”

Pausing shortly, he continued asking, ”How’s Liang Zhu city been recently?”

The Xiu Clan scholar put the leather bag into his sleeve and said grinningly, ”No war is happening in Liang Zhu City. It’s all peaceful and safe, tranquil and quiet…I suggest you use the ninth gate in the southwest, near the Great Library. Not too many patrols were arranged in that area.”

The Jia Clan warrior nodded seriously and returned to his troop with large steps.