The Magus Era

“My mind flowing like a river, my body flying like a cloud; I’m coming and going, follow my heart, never stained by any dirt…”

Po was singing a simple and unsophisticated melody, leaving the Cold Stream Valley and walking towards the South.

The territories of the Fire Crow Clan were in the northern side of the Southern Wasteland. Ji Hao couldn’t even begin to imagine that there were countless mysterious and powerful creatures, as well as unlimited numbers of thriving and powerful clans, living in the southern parts. Furthermore there existed even a mystical country, which was built by the ruler of the entire Southern Wasteland.

“My young friend, if everything goes well, I will return here in three years. We found each other congenial when we first met, I assume that my master also will be glad to take you as his student; then you will be my junior fellow apprentice!”

The appointment was in three years!

In three years, if Po successfully finished his journey, he would come back to the Fire Crow Clan, take Ji Hao out of the Southern Wasteland, and introduce him to Yu Yu, the Taoist priest, as a apprentice.

Ji Hao stood on top of a mountain, gazing at the back of Po. Po was carrying a huge wine-gourd[1] with his left hand, and in his right hand carrying a large and freshly grilled beast-leg; both the wine gourd and grilled beast leg were lightly swinging following his pace. Every movement of Po emitted a natural and unrestrained vibe.

A black armour, as thin as a Cicada’s wing, was tightly wrapped around Ji Hao’s body. Po stayed in the Cold Stream Valley for two extra days, making the carapace of the Devil-Wind Scorpion, which was killed by him a few days ago, into this magical armour for Ji Hao.

The carapace was extremely hard, however, with Po’s magical treasure-making methods, it became as soft and flexible as water; on the other hand, Po injected numerous spell symbols into the carapace, which weighed a million ‘stone’, turning it into a light-weighed armour. Ji Hao didn’t feel even a little bit inconvenient or uncomfortable by wearing it.

Ji Hao was stunned by Po’s incredible treasure-making skills. Compared to Po, those tool-making masters in the Fire Crow Clan should be too ashamed to keep living they might crash themselves up against a cube of tofu, thought Ji Hao. Fortunately, there weren’t any traces of Tofu found by Ji Hao as off yet, otherwise, he would certainly send one to each of those elder Maguspriests.

After having waited til Po went into the jungle and disappeared, Ji Hao took a deep breath, jumped nearly a hundred feet high into the air, leapt and glided through soar cliffs, he landed agilely in the Cold Stream Valley.

Some people or things could be so special that it only took a short amount of time to engrave in one’s heart. Po was such a special person. His lenience, honesty, generousity，charm, and rich experiences made Ji Hao view Po as a trustable friend and a reliable big brother.

“Abba! Abba! Where is Amma!” shouted Ji Hao.

The valley was now bustling, filled with busy slaves. Ji Hao found Ji Xia near a mineshaft, who was directing the construction of the mineshaft. Ji Hao interrupted Ji Xia’s work, and dragged him towards the cabin they lived in.

Ji Xia quickly left a few words to Ji Ying and another couple of warriors, smilingly caught up with Ji Hao, and said, “Hao, that friend of yours, has he left? Hmmm, this Po is such a great kid. But, why doesn’t he like our Fire Crow Clan’s girls? Such a shame, such a shame...”

Ji Hao was laughing, but didn’t respond to Ji Xia’s words.

Soon, Ji Hao and Ji Xia got back to the cabin they lived in. Qing Fu was sitting in front of the door, carefully grinding some herbs with a pestle. The mining work of the Cold Stream Valley had already started to progress smoothly; each day, there were more slaves getting injured during work. Qing Fu was the only Maguspriest skilful at healing and medicine-making, therefore, she had been extremely busy lately. She had to make large amounts of life-saving medicine daily.

Seeing that Ji Hao was dragging Ji Xia and coming over, Qing Fu smiled to him, wiped the sweat from her forehead and said, “Hao, don’t disturb your Abba. The mining work is important. If you have nothing to do, why don’t you go find your uncle and catch some birds?”

Ji Hao stayed silent and helped Qing Fu up, dragged them into the cabin, then closed the door carefully.

The expressions of Ji Xia and Qing Fu turned serious. “Hao, what is it? Have you found anything wrong?” asked Ji Xia with a low voice.

Ji Hao took the jade bottle out from his sleeve, which was given by Po, handed it to Qing Fu and said, “Amma, take a look at this. Po gave this to me before he left. He said that this is a life-saving medicine that was given by an elder of his, and this will be good for both of your injuries.”

Qing Fu looked at Ji Hao, smilingly shook her head and said, “Hao... Me and your Abba-...our magus acupoints were broken, the injuries went deep into the bloodline. I doubt that ordinary medicine could heal-...”

Ji Hao pulled the plug out of the bottle, after which beams of golden lights darted out from the bottle opening. Qing Fu choked back her words, staring at the bottle being stunned. She poured two round pills out from the bottle, while gazing at them.

The two bird-egg-size, golden pills were rolling over on Qing Fu’s palm; wisps of soft golden light, ceaselessly gushing out, wrapped around the two pills. Nine dragon-shaped, purple spell symbols could be seen wriggling, like living creatures, on the surface of each pill.

“This medicine...is alive?” Qing Fu stared at the pills and asked. The appearances of these pills have completely subverted her knowledge about medicine-pills[3]. In the Southern Wasteland, not a single type of medicine-pills could look like this. These two pills were like some magical beings; totally different from the medicine-pills Qing Fu knew about.

“Amma! Dead or alive, just take them!” said Ji Hao. He then grabbed a pill and thrust it into Qing Fu’s mouth.

“Haha!” laughed Ji Xia, he then grabbed the other pill from Qing Fu’s palm and put it into his own mouth without any hesitation.

Ji Hao had no idea about the effect of these pills, neither did he know how they tasted like. The only thing he noticed was that a layer of faint, golden-purple mist suddenly gushed out of Qing Fu and Ji Xia’s faces.

The golden-purple mist soon disappeared, then quickly reappeared, a phenomenon that repeated itself for nine times. Afterwards, followed up by a sizzling sound, wisps of purple smoke puffed out from the heads of Ji Xia and Qing Fu, and condensed into a purple cloud above their heads, which was around ten feet in radius.

An odd glow started to sparkle on the skins of Ji Xia and Qing Fu; large amounts of black-coloured blood began to seep out from their pores.

Ji Xia’s brawny body began to change; all of his muscles swelled as if they were inflated; in the meanwhile, the face of Qing Fu, which was pale and sallow like a forty-year-old woman's face, quickly turned into being ruddy and tender as the face of a sixteen-year-old girl; the grizzled hair of her suddenly became black and shining.

“Thi...this seems to be wor...working!” stammered Ji Xia, “Hao, Abba’s Magus acupoints...ho...those broken Magus acupoints… I feel them!”

“There are four more! Take them all! Quick!” Ji Hao poured the other four round pills out, then neatly thrust all of them into Ji Xia and Qing Fu’s mouths.

Qing Fu stamped her foot anxiously, and said, “Hao, save one! Save one! Let Amma have a close look!”

However, Ji Hao ignored the academic spirit of Qing Fu, putting two round pills into her mouth as quickly as possible.

Qing Fu let out a muffled groan, stopped yelling at Ji Hao and fell on the ground; similar to Ji Xia, her body started to quiver intensely.

Red and cyan light soon lightened the entire room. Ji Xia’s body was now wrapped by a golden flame, while Qing Fu’s body was coiled into a large green cocoon by countless vines which suddenly emerged out of nowhere.

A while later, a sliver of the flame upon Ji Xia’s head condensed into a three-legged Fire Crow. Along with the slight caw of the fiery, three-legged crow, a sphere of green mist upon Qing Fu’s head started rotating fast, soon transformed into a breathtakingly beautiful, cyan Luan bird[2].

Ji Hao laughed out loud. Since he had been a little kid, he often felt depressed by the injuries of his parents. Now, he felt an unprecedented joy; all of the haze in his heart had gone, not leaving even a trace.

While laughing, Ji Hao sat down on the ground with his legs crossed, concentrating on the practice of the [Bu Tian Bu Lou Magic Spell]. The multicoloured flame in his lower abdomen was a lot more active than usual, and started transforming the Senior Magi Blood of Ji Xiao at a speed which was tens of times faster than yesterday.

A thundering-sound came from Ji Hao’s body. Just now, the worry, hidden deep down in his heart, had gone; at the same time, he felt that he could no longer suppress his physical strength. Finally, Ji Hao fully activated the power of his bloodline. An eye-piercing fiery light appeared behind his body, within which, two narrowed fiery eyes slowly emerged.

[1] Wine-gourds: Ancient Chinese people usually use gourds as wine containers.

[2] Luan bird: A mythical bird, looks similar to the phoenix, but smaller.

[3] Medicine pill: In ancient China, pills were usually round and in dark color, like beads.