The Magus Era

Ying Yunpeng took the few middle-aged men and rushed to the east of the market of the Ten Sun market as quickly as possible.

The clear stream, which looked vivid because of the floating grasses in it, wiggly flying across a beautiful mountain area. Lines of wooden buildings and stone houses were built in this area. This place was the luxurious part of the Ten Sun market, you would be able to find the most beautiful women and delicious wine in this place.

Of course, this place was also filled with all kinds of possibilities that could stimulate the most primitive desires of people, encouraging them to spend their coins and energy lavishly. This kind of activities were either put on the table or hidden in the darkness. The annual profit of this small east market represented over thirty percent of the total profit made by the Ten Sun market.

Under a small hill that was covered by thriving plants, in a shallow aqueduct, Great Gale Ling was lying, with a weird and frozen smile on his face. His body was now as cold as a piece of ice, not even a single wisp of life force was remaining inside his body. He had already died long time ago.

A few pure-white-haired elderly Maguspriests were standing beside the aqueduct. All kinds of insects and small-scale beasts that had great sense of smell were moving quickly around their bodies, trying to discover any possible traces that may have been left by the murderer who had killed Great Gale Ling. A few Senior Magi, who were especially good at tracking and assassination, were also carefully checking the shallow aqueduct and Great Gale Ling’s body, trying to figure out whether Great Gale Ling had died naturally or murdered by someone else.

“Oi, that’s Great Gale Ling, the most talented young archer of the Great Gale Clan!”

“Died just like this! Oh my god, those Great Gale Clan’s elders are going to be so sad and frustrated.”

“Normally this guy was extremely haughty and arrogant, but during the past few days he had been doing nothing but constantly drinking in the bar, here in the east market, for some unknown reason.”

“Could it be that his girlfriend left him for another guy and he couldn’t bear it, so decided to finish himself?”

Thousands of people with strange smiles were standing either close to the shallow aqueduct or far away from it, while looking at the body of Great Gale Ling. All these people were all guests of the east market, they were either from big-scale clans of the four Wastelands or the Midland and were all rich and powerful people. None of these people were afraid of the Ten Sun Country, therefore, they voiced their thought loudly, while pointing at the dead body of Great Gale Ling.

Pu Ban City was a peaceful place. It was the political center of the entire human world and was filled with all kinds of powerful Magi. It had also been well protected by all kinds of defensive magic formations and guarded by large amounts of elite warriors, therefore, homicide cases filled with mysteries hardly ever happened in this city. Moreover, the Ten Sun market was controlled by the Ten Sun Country. People from all over the world knew how great the archers of the Ten Sun Country were. It was nearly impossible for someone to sneak into the Ten Sun market under their watch.

As for Great Gale Ling, he was a famous talented archer among the younger generation of the Ten Sun Country and was quite influential in the Pu Ban city. During the past few years, Great Gale Ling and other few young Magi of the Ten Sun Country had created different-scale conflicts against people from other clans, quite many time.

Such a young, talented and potential Magus abruptly died in a small, shallow aqueduct that was less than a foot deep. Without a doubt, this was like a heavy slap that had been thrown on the face of the Ten Sun Country.

Many people were taking pleasure in this misfortune. It wouldn’t matter if they discovered the murderer, because the death of Great Gale Ling had badly humiliated Ying Yunpeng and the Ten Sun Country.

Ying Yunpeng rushed over with the little group of middle-aged men while his face looked twisted and dark. He had even forgotten about the accident of the fleet for the time-being. Although the cargo that those ships were carrying was extremely valuable stuff that had been lost, it was lost without the possibility of retrieval. Ying Yunpeng could only accept such a result.

Besides, only the core members of the administrative staff of the Ten Sun Country knew about this accident, as long as they could keep this news from the others, the overall situation wouldn’t become too embarrassing.

However, Great Gale Ling had died right in the east market, under the watch of countless guards of the Ten Sun Country. If Ying Yunpeng couldn’t figure out how exactly this happened soon enough and execute the murderer in front of everybody through the most cruel way, the death of Great Gale Ling would become a heavy smear on the reputation of the Ten Sun Country.

After all, so many people had witnessed his death.

Rushing angrily over to the aqueduct, Ying Yunpeng waved his long arms, which even reached his knees, and yelled harshly, “How on earth did this happen?!!”

Ying Yunpeng truly wished that he could make an excuse, such as Great Gale Ling was actually suffering from a serious disease for a long time and died because of the sudden attack of his disease. This kind of excuse could serve as a big leaf that could stop people from doubting the Ten Sun market, or even the Ten Sun Country’s power and status. Nevertheless, Great Gale Ling was a Senior Magus, what kind of diseases could Senior Magi have?

Senior Magi were like monsters that would never be defeated by the weather or disease. They had tremendous amount of life force that allowed them to have thousands of years of lives. If a young and strong senior Magus suddenly died, he was certainly murdered by someone or something, and couldn’t possibly have died because of a natural cause. Therefore, Ying Yunpeng was not even able to come up with a reasonable excuse.

Ying Yunpeng could only yell angrily at those Maguspriests and Senior Magi, in both anger and shame, questioning the cause of Great Gale Ling’s death.

An elderly Maguspriests quickly walked over, bowed politely and deeply to Ying Yunpeng and said, “Elder Yunpeng, we roughly have an idea what may have happened.”

A group of people walked up to Ying Yunpeng and reported to him about what they had seen or heard about Great Gale Ling. Some of these people were waiters working in the bar, some of them were girls who had flirted with Great Gale Ling, some of them were warriors from other clans, who had gambled a few rounds with Great Gale Ling and had won thousands of jade coins from him.

Since Grate Gale Ling had been injured by Yu Mu’s poison, released by Shaosi and gotten back to the Ten Sun Market, he had been doing nothing else but drinking in the bar. He had never been sober during the past few days, had always been staggering on the road and talking nonsense. Besides, he was extremely unlucky in any of the gambling games during the past few days. Every day he would lose over ten thousand jade coins. Finally, he had nearly lost all he had earned in the Pu Ban City during the past few years.

He had also sought conflicts on many occasions with other young men from other large-scale clans, just for the sake of a few pretty barmaids. Once, he had almost dueled someone.

Today, Great Gale Ling had lost another three thousand jade coins, walked out of the bar with empty pockets, while yelling at the owner of the bar, telling him to keep accounts. After that, he walked away with his entire body emitting a dense scent of alcohol. Many people had seen Great Gale Ling walking out of the bar alone, going down the hill along the small path that was paved with flat stones. About ten minutes later, Great Gale Ling was found dead in the aqueduct.

During these ten minutes, not any noise that sounded like fighting, had been heard by anyone. Neither had any sense of power been felt by anyone around here. None of those especially trained fighting birds of the Ten Sun Country, which were hovering above the east market, had sensed any abnormal sign.

A Senior Magus leapt up from the aqueduct, handed a thumb-sized scorpion tail to Ying Yunpeng, with a weird facial expression.

“Elder, we think, Great Gale Ling was badly drunk, and couldn’t even stand steadily, so he fell into this aqueduct. By accident, this poisonous scorpion tail was buried in the white sand that was paved on the bottom of the aqueduct. The hook of this tail happened to be pierced into the vital spot, back in his head, injected venom into his body, paralyzed his neuro-system and blocked his power, even disabling him from breathing. Therefore, he had died because of suffocation.”

This Senior Magus looked at Ying Yunpeng with an extremely weird expression and continued, “We didn’t find any traces that could prove the possibility of murder, which means, he was purely unlucky, fell into the aqueduct and got pierced by this fall off scorpion tail.”

A Maguspriests said with a hoarse voice, “Judging from the appearance of this tail, it had been soaked in water for at least a month. In other words, this scorpion tail was not put down their on purpose, it had been buried in the aqueduct for quite a long time before Great Gale ling had fallen in.”

Ying Yunpeng opened his mouth, but was unable to utter any words.

This scorpion tail was actually not poisonous enough to kill Great Gale Ling, if he hadn’t been that drunk.

However, he had been badly drunk, fell into the aqueduct and got pierced by the scorpion on the vital spot, on the back of his head. The venom gushed into his body, mixed with the power of alcohol, and accidentally killed this young and talented Senior Magus.

“How on earth should I explain this to the master elder of the Great Gale Clan?!!” screamed Ying Yunpeng, “You, what do you want me to say to him?!”

Another Senior Magus darted over like a gust of wind, while yelling with a loud yet hoarse voice.

“Elder! Ying Yun, he, he fell off from his contract bird, di…died!”

Everybody in presence was shocked by this news, and looked at Ying Yunpeng, whose face had suddenly turned deadly pale.

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SR: I wonder how they got so unlucky all of a sudden….;p

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Edited by SecondRate

Translated by XianXiaWorld