The Magus Era

TL Note: ‘Magus caves’ was replaced by ‘magus acupoints’.

Bonfires were blazing in the Cold Stream Valley. Hundreds of skinned wild beasts were being grilled upon the bonfires, while making sizzling noises; a thick aroma spread to the forest around. Most of the Southern Wasteland clans were friendly and hospitable; the guests that came from afar would always be treated with the utmost cordiality.

Huge vats of cassava-wine, brewed by the Fire Crow Clan’s women, were carried out from the cellar, while emitting a bewitching aroma. All of the Fire Crow Clan Warriors raised their large clay bowls, laughing and shouting, urging Po to drink.

Po was a strong and sturdy young man, who also had a frank and outgoing personality. Every time when the Fire Crow Clan warriors urged him to drink, he bottomed up his bowl without any hesitation.

Frank men were most preferred by the Southern Wasteland Warriors, therefore, Po quickly gained the affection of all the presenting Fire Crow Clan warriors; especially Qin Ying, Ji Ying, Ji Bao and Ji Lang, who were about the same age as Po and curious about the world outside of the Southern Wasteland. They surrounded Po, and asked him continuously about the outside world.

Ji Hao was sitting beside Ji Bao, smilingly looking at Po, whose clothes were nearly soaked by the cassava-wine; he raised his clay bowl from time to time and toasted to Stone and Treeman, who were sitting behind him like two small mountains.

“Speaking about the Middle Land...Two hundreds years ago, I was stuck at a bottleneck, while trying to achieve greater achievements as a Senior Magus. At that time I couldn’t find any way to practise and increase my power further, thus i decided to travel to the Middle Land to take a look at that legendary place,” said Ji Zhuo loudly. His face was flushed by the bonfire. While drinking the wine, he had started to his own story.

“I traveled with a caravan, trudged for two years, finally arriving in the Middle Land.” Ji Zhuo glanced at Po, then continued in a low voice, “there were tens of powerful Senior Magi and Maguspriessts among us in the caravan, but still we ended up losing quite a few companions during the journey. Hao, our guest here traveled through the Middle Land, and came to the Southern Wasteland alone, he is an incredibly powerful man.”

Ji Hao curved his eyes, looked at Po, and smiled to him.

When Ji Hao first saw Po, he sensed the differences acutely between Po and himself.

Ji Hao had been practising the [Mantra Dan with Nine Secret Words] since he had been a little kid, because of which he had already gained a Yuan Dan by condensing his internal energy. By condensing his internal energy further, he could advance his Yuan Dan into a Golden Dan any moment now. At that point he would surpass the achievements of his previous life and reach a new level. If Ji Hao’s current power could be compared to a flowing river, then Po’s power would be a vast sea, which was broad, deep and unfathomable.

Such a powerful ascetic traveller; no wonder he could travel through the whole world alone, thought Ji Hao.

“Hao, I’ll give you a mission!” Ji Zhuo slapped on Ji Hao’s shoulder, put his mouth near Ji Hao’s ear, lowered his voice and said mystically, “our guest is so powerful and talented, it’ll be amazing if he could leave our clan a few his offsprings. Later, I’ll ask them to send us a few carefully chosen girls from the Gold Black Mountain. You go ask Po, whether he’s willing to leave us a few of his offsprings.”

Ji Hao choked by a mouthful of wine when he heard Ji Zhuo, and nearly spew a stream of blood out.

Just now, Po had been arm wrestling with Qing Ying with his sleeve rolled up; whoever lost the arm wrestling fight had to bottom up a bowl of a wine. While Ji Zuo was talking to Ji Hao, Po’s facial expression changed suddenly and he took a glance towards Ji Zhuo and Ji Hao in panic, at the same time, his face instantly reddened as if painted with blood. Obviously, Po’s five senses were extremely sharp, which allowed him to catch every word said by Ji Zhuo.

In the Cold Stream Valley a huge party was going on, which was filled with booze and delicious meat; everyone was revelling in it.

At some unknown moment, a group of young girls from the Fire Crow Clan showed up at the party. All of them were wearing neat armours, bared their fair legs, while swinging their spears and shields. They danced around the bonfire next to Po, showing their youth and vitality, and displaying their strong and vigorous bodies to Po.

Quite a few times, some of those girls danced near Po passionately, and touched his unsophisticated face.

Po’s expression gradually became weird he started to twist his body as if his butt was being grilled on a fire. After some time, he suddenly emitted a few groans, dropped his clay bowl and fell on the ground. While he breathed out wine fumes and snored like thunder, he fell into a deep sleep.

Hao laughed out loud, pointed his finger at Po and yelled, “Po is drunk! Drunk! Haha! You should stop urging him to drink!”

While laughing, Ji Hao grabbed Po from the ground, carried Po on his shoulder and ran fast towards a row of cabins in the deep valley.

“Oy, Kid! If you don’t like these sturdy girls of our Fire Crow Clan, you can just tell me what type of girl you like! We also have delicate and pretty girls amongst our Southern Wasteland clans! I can get you whatever you like!” Ji Zhuo rubbed his own neck regretfully, looked at the back of Ji Hao, and yelled suddenly out.

Ji Hao chuckled when he heard Ji Zhuo, while Po shook his body on Ji Hao’s shoulder. “It scared the hell out of me. Fortunately, I’ve been through this kind of things in the North, East and West for many times, and gained some experiences!” murmured Po in a low voice .

Hearing Po talking to himself, Hao laughed even louder in happiness.

The night was coming. Bonfires in the Cold Stream Valley quietly dimmed. All of the wine and meat had been eaten by those warriors. The valley became quiet, only the metal-clattering sounds, made by slaves who were still working in the mine, were reverberating through the valley.

The sun traveled through the sky, slowly going down towards the West. Ji Hao sat side by side with Po, on the highest cliff around the Cold Stream Valley, looking at the vast and borderless primitive jungle, feeling the breeze blowing through his body and sensing the most subtle vibrations of nature’s power.

A strange yet beautiful glow was circulating around Po’s body; a great, vigorous and boundless power was gushing out of his body through the glow, spreading to the surrounding areas. The power enveloped the entire area, illuminating all, both the powerful and weak creatures, for thousand miles around.

Ji Hao merged his own spiritual power into Po’s spiritual power. Usually, Ji Hao’s spiritual power could only spread to tens of miles away. The farther his spiritual power went, the weaker it would become, and the less information could Ji Hao get from it.

However, with the support of Po’s spiritual power, the spiritual power of Ji Hao was now traveling around thousands of miles around, as if it was a fish swimming in a vast sea; through his own spiritual power, he was feeling the lightning and thunder; seeing flowers blooming and withering; sensing the flowing water, and the wind, which rolled the clouds over.

Inexhaustible, profound and mysterious information about the power of the nature flushed into Ji Hao’s mind. Suddenly, Ji Hao gained a deeper understanding of the nature’s power. Po’s spiritual power was like a key to Ji Hao, which seemingly opened a gate in Ji Hao’s mind, guiding him to perceive this world.

“There is a huge differences between us, he’s so much more powerful than me!” Ji Hao was sensing every single subtle movement of the nature; in the meanwhile, he smiled bitterly and murmured in his head.

The spiritual power, also called soul power or psychic power of Ji Hao could only extend tens of miles far; if he tried to envelop an entire area like Po was doing now, the area would only be miles in radius. However, Po easily covered the mountains and jungle for thousand of miles around with his spiritual power.

Po’s spiritual power was over ten-thousand times greater than Ji Hao’s current spiritual power. Besides, Po seemed very comfy at the moment; perhaps he was only using ten percent of his power; or might be one percent, or even lesser.

Po was concentrating on his roaming mind he suddenly laughed out and said, “Hao, my young friend. I’ve never thought that I’d meet someone as interesting as you during my journey. Since you’ve already sensed the nature’s power, your future won’t be limited to this Southern Wasteland for sure. There’s a bigger world waiting for you.”

“After I finish this trip, are you willing leave the Southern Wasteland with me? My teacher is Yu Yu, a Taoist priest; if you’re interested, I would recommend you to my teacher, and you’ll become his student. With his guidance, you can perceive the vast and mysterious power of the universe; you’ll gain a great and endless contentment by doing so,” said Po.

Before Ji Hao responded, Po took out a fist-sized jade bottle and put it in Ji Hao’s hand.

“I’ve noticed that both, your Abba and Amma, have injuries inside their bodies. Their magus acupoints were broken by someone else with some evil sorcery, which is very harmful to them,” continued Po.

“Since we found each other amiable at the first glance, I should do this favor to you. This is six life-saving pils made by the brother of my teacher, which is capable of reversing life and death with the nature’s power. This might make your Amma and Abba fully recover from their injuries.”

Ji Hao’s heart started beating fast, subconsciously, he seized the jade bottle.

“Po, my brother. Thank you, thank you!”