The Magus Era

Two days had passed.

The magnificent and commodious temporary manor had been cleaned up and renovated; all those dirt that had gathered in the tens of years while this temporary manor was left unused, had been cleaned out.

Ten-thousand Fire Essence Crystals had been inlaid on the walls of those different sized rooms and lobbies; the heat that was being emitted from the Fire Essence Crystals, had dispersed the moisture and the cold in the palace. Those young slaves who had been walking fast across the rooms, and being busy with their work, had added a bit of liveness to this ancient and mysterious temporary manor.

The name of the lake, located under the palace, was Blue Jade, and the beautiful flowers that were blooming in the lake were called ‘jade string’; in accordance with the name of the lake, the temporary manor was called Blue Jade Palace. The Blue Jade Palace had been built for people that were called ‘masters’ by Ying Yan, for the purpose of viewing these jade string flowers.

Inside the palace, an especially large terrace had been built right upon the lake. The nearly thousand-foot wide terrace was completely cast with bronze. Countless totems of magical and legendary animals, such as fiery dragons, phoenixes, fiery horses, and fiery turtles were embossed on the floor of the terrace, with extremely fine craftsmanship.

Standing near the edge of the terrace, one could feel the breeze blowing across the face, and see the rain falling from the sky; the downpour of the rain falling onto those translucent petals of the jade stings blooms could also be viewed from up here. Crystal raindrops were rebounding by the soft yet firm petals and rose back into the air, flying towards all directions; every time the jade-like petals were hit by the rain drops, they would emit a silvery tinkling sound. Innumerable, small tinkle sounds merged together, and became a breathtakingly, appealing, natural melody, as if it coming from the heaven, enchanting all those who heard it.

The name ‘jade string’ perfectly suited such magical flowers. The flowers were like the strings of a music instrument that was being played by the nature itself. Ji Hao started to feel that it seemed quite reasonable to build such a temporary manor, only for the purpose of viewing these magical flowers in the lake.

Ying Yan had been yelling around, directing a few young slaves that had come from the Fire Crow Clan to carefully lift a round, large tripod that was coiled around by nine dragon sculptures, to the middle of the terrace. Ying Yan checked the directions of the nine dragons’ heads over and over again, then carefully wiped out a slight speck of dust that was on the tooth of one of the dragons with his sleeve, finally letting out a sigh of relief.

He then opened the lid of the tripod by himself and waved his hands towards a few girls.

Seeing Ying Yan wave his hands, those girls who had changed into red long dresses with their hairs hung down loosely, carried a three-foot-wide, golden tray and walked over. Ying Yan carefully took those blood-red wooden sticks, which were cut into three-inch-wide, one-foot-long and placed on the golden tray orderly, then put them into the large tripod one after another.

The whole bunch of thousand wooden sticks had been orderly piled up inside the tripod, after which Ying Yan flicked his fingers towards the wooden stick pile. A slight sphere of blue-white flame slowly flew out from between his fingers, lightly falling on those wooden sticks. Followed by a flaming sound, a sphere of silk-thin, blue-white fire shrouded the entire tripod; afterwards, a dense aroma started to come out of the tripod, slowly spreading to the surrounding areas.

The colourless smoke coming from the tripod contained an extremely thick and rich warm power. Ji Hao had been standing near the edge of the terrace and watching the sea of the flower; he carefully took a breath, and suddenly felt a stream of warm power gushed into his lower abdomen; the sense of his bloodline power suddenly became stronger, even his physical strength had been improved by a little bit.

“Uncle Yan, what kind of treasure is this?” Ji Hao was stunned by the power of the smoke, and asked Ying Yan.

Ying Yan raised his eyebrows proudly, grinned to Ji Hao and said, “Well, not really a treasure, just...people like you might hardly see it. This is the real Fire Dragon Blood sandalwood. You must water it with the blood of a ten-thousand-year-old fire dragon to make it sprout, then it could only grow mature near millions of years old volcanic vents; after that, it could only be chopped down and made into incenses after ten-thousand years. This kind of incense is capable of nourishing the vital energy and the blood of the human body, making you stronger. Normally, our young master uses only this kind of incense.”

Ji Hao’s mouth fell wide open after listening to Ying Yan. Millions of years old volcanic vents? Of course he knew what those meant.

Within the Fire Crow Clan’s territory, there was one dangerous place like that. That million-year-old volcanic vent was over a thousand mile wide; the temperature inside the vent was astonishingly high, even if ordinary Senior Magi of the Fire Clan would go even slightly near that vent, they might be burnt into ashes because of that tremendous heat.

A very long time ago, when the Fire Crow Clan was still in its golden age, powerful Magi like Magus kings and Divine Magi had often ventured into the volcanic vent and searched for all kinds of rare treasures hidden in it; however, currently, not a single Magus king had appeared in the Fire Crow Clan for thousands of years, because of which the clan could only look at the volcanic vent with zealous eyes.

This kind of Fire Dragon Blood sandalwood could only grow near millions of years old volcanic vents; obviously, it must be an extremely precious treasure.

Ying Yan carefully put the lid of the tripod back, then turned around looking at Ji Hao seriously, and said, “Ji Hao, during these couple of days, I have seen that you’re a good kid. Therefore, I have to warn you with kindness, whatever you do, do not offend our young master; otherwise, not only would you fall into a very hard time, but also if our old master ever wanted to look into this, even your entire clan would suffer from great pain.”

“You have to remember that our young master is about the same age as you; if you act extra cautious, there won’t be any serious...”

Before Ying Yan had finished speaking, the ground had suddenly started to shake. From the end of the corridor leading onto the terrace, a three feet thick bronze gate with all kinds of totems of animals’ heads embossed on it, fell down along with a thunderous bang.

Two sturdy warriors, who had half broken into the Senior level and were guarding the corridor, had now hunkered down on the ground and were holding their heads; their bodies were quivering intensely, like weak birds under a storm, without even daring to make the slightest sound.

Ji Hao popped up his eyes, while Ying Yan shouted aloud, “Ayaya, my young master, how come you have arrived today? Ayaya, hadn’t they said that you would need to travel a day longer?”

Followed by a heavy sharp sound, a not very tall little girl rushed over with a huge mace carried on her shoulder. The girl was wearing a red, tight armour. She had snow-white skin, bright eyes and shining teeth; her long hair was casually banded into a ponytail, by three golden rings, and laid on her back. Two narrow dimples would appear on her face when she smiled.

The pink, cheery-like mouth of that girl curved aside, she then raised her foot and kicked on one of the warriors, who were hunkered down on the ground; the poor warrior rolled out for a very long distance like a ball; at the same time, the girl yelled, “Ah! Old Yan! You’re here! What kind of waste have you brought here? Look at the two of them, couldn’t even open the door quickly, I had to kick that door open by myself.”

The girl then shook her head and frowned, shouted to Ying Yan, “Old Yan, why does our own temporary manor have this many doors? I have to open and close those doors one by one while walking, and then open and close again, I feel oppressed by it. Except the front gate...never mind, including the front gate, you now just have to remove them all! I want this place to be clear and broad, then I’ll feel much better when I walk around here.”

The corners of Ying Yang’s mouth twitched, he tremblingly said, “Young master, this temporary manor is...”

The young girl showed the whites of her eyes to Ying Yan, then interrupted his speech impatiently, “it belongs to my big brother, doesn’t that mean it’s mine too? So, this palace is mine now. Old Yan, just tell your people to start working, remove all the doors here!”

The girl then swung her hands carelessly and threw the mace carried on her shoulder, which was eighty-foot-long, three times taller than the girl, and an adult-lap thick, towards Ji Hao and said, “Oy, toy boy, carry the stick for Man Man.”

The mace swooshed towards Ji Hao along with a fierce gust of wind.

“Young master! Please be careful! Do not smash one more to death!” Ying Yan screamed out aloud while his whole face was twitching violently.

Ji Hao quivered when he heard Ying Yan. What did he mean by “one more”?

When the mace was about to hit on his head, Ji Hao intuitively thrust his hands out and caught the mace. Suddenly, a horrible power hit against this hand. Ji Hao felt a great pain coming from every single bone of his body, and heard the metal-clashing-like sound made by his own bones. He used all of his strength to hold the mace tight, while his feet staggered and stepped back quickly.

Bong! Bong! Bong!

Every heavy step of Ji Hao made a great, resonant, bell-like sound against the bronze cast floor.

After only taking three steps back, the boots Ji Hao was wearing, which were made of the hardest skin parts of a blood crocodile, were stamped into pieces.