The Magus Era

“Good one!” Both of the two old men laughed out loud while taking back their sword and machete, which had almost touched the bodies of the two Yu Clan’s elderly men

The two Yu Clan’s elderly men were sent flying backwards while vomiting blood, one of them had a twisted neck and the other one had a huge hole in his chest, all of his internal organs exposed in the air. After steadying their own bodies, they stared at Ji Hao and Man Man in a great shock, as if they couldn’t believe what had just happened. Boiling blood containing strong life-force surged inside their bodies and quickly healed their wounds.

Looking at their speedily healing wounds, Ji Hao couldn’t help but have his eye corners twitch intensely. Yu Clan’s people were never famous for great physical strength and strong life-force, they were more like pure ‘wizards’, who were good at controlling all kinds of magical powers and launch effective attacks with outside forces.

These two Yu Clan’s elderly men were injured so severely but managed to fully recover within the span of merely one breath, this clearly showed that their spirit blood were even many times powerful than Ji Hao himself.

“The shell-breaking stage?” Ji Hao stared at the two Yu Clan’s elderly men and yelled.

“Indeed, the shell-breaking stage!” responded the two Yu Clan’s elderly men while staring back at Ji Hao with fierce looks. Their sharp and malicious eyes made them look just like two wounded old wolves, which would rush up and tear Ji Hao into pieces if they could, then feed his corpse to wild dogs.

To Yu Clan’s people, breaking into the shell-breaking stage meant stepping into a special and transcendental status. Breaking out from the mortal shell and reaching the higher world was the meaning contained in the name of the shell-breaking stage. Every Yu Clan’s person who managed to step into this stage had strong life-force and solid, robust bodies, as great as human Magus Kings. Added with all kinds of secret magic possessed particularly by the Yu Clan, Yu Clan’s warriors at the shell-breaking stage could individually crush human Magus Kings, although technically, the Magus-King-Level was equal to the shell-breaking stage.

Both of the two Yu Clan’s elderly men were at the shell-breaking stage, and also powerful beings among their own group. Nevertheless, they had both been injured by Ji Hao and Man Man. To these Yu Clan’s noble people, who especially valued glory and face, it was not hard to imagine how ashamed and angry they were right now,

“Ah, shell-breaking stage, no wonder your neck is so hard… nearly broke my bones.” said Ji Hao while swaying his hand. Broken muscles and skin on his hand grew back speedily, the wound on his hand recovered completely in the span of a few breaths.

“Even though you’re shell-breaking stage powerful beings, you have to be reasonable. The Red Wood Palace’s people also are Qian Family’s members, who attempted to forcibly sell things to my friend, and have been bullying my friend since the very beginning. How should we settle this? Hm? What do you think?” said Ji Hao blandly, “Yes, this is our very first visit to this Chi Ban Market, but don’t you treat us like silly kids and think we’re all pushovers.

Qian Tan, who had suffered a great punch from Ji Hao was currently lying on the ground with a face covered in blood, still twitching his body. He took a deep breath with difficulty, and after a few guards had given him emergency aid, he finally could talk again. Tremblingly, he screamed out with a high-pitched voice.

“Dear four law enforcers, don’t listen to this little human bastard’s crap! He didn’t even know that old tree man!”

“Didn’t know?” Ji Hao gave three loud and bright laughter, then raised his right hand. From his palm, a faint sphere of green light slowly rose into the air. Soon, a thumb-sized, vividly green leaf flew out of that green sphere of light. This tiny leave had a crystal-like texture, as if it was exquisitely carved out of a jade piece, and had been releasing a dense sense of life-force.

“Friend! A friend I can trust with my life!” seeing that tiny leaf, the old tree man instantly yelled out in a great excitement. He then gently reached a thin branch to Ji Hao, intimately patting on Ji Hao’s head, after which, he coiled that branch around Ji Hao’s waist.

That tiny leaf was a gift given by another treeman, who was Ji Hao’s close friend back in the Southern Wasteland.

Tree men were special and magical creatures, produced by this wonderful world. Originally, they were all ordinary trees. Only trees that had lived for countless years and been nourished by the purest natural power could gain consciousness and finally become human-shaped spirit creatures. They had a unique ability that belonged only to their kind, that was, each treeman could produce an imprint, containing the information of his own soul, when he met a true friend who could be trusted with his life; normally, tree men would give their imprints to their friends as gifts.

The treeman imprints could be fruits, flowers or a piece of tree bark; of course, it could also be a leaf.

Any individual holding a treeman imprint would be seen as a true friend by every other treeman, even the most violent ones and the ones who had the worst temper. In a similar way, every individual holding a tree man imprint would naturally see all treemen, who admitted the friendship presented by the imprint, as true friends.

This was a magical and even divine ability, gifted by the nature itself. An ability that belonged to a magical and magnificent kind that allowed the members of this kind to build connections with other kinds.

“You!” staring at this glowing tiny leaf, Qian Tan was suddenly choked by his own words.

“Friend! Friend!” The old tree man was still yelling in excitement, such that those fruits hanging on his head even began shaking in rhythm.

“Fruit! Fruit!” Staring at those fruits with a pair of glowing eyes, streams of saliva gushed out of Man Man’s mouth corner again.

The faces of the two Yu Clan’s elderly men were awfully darkened. They glared at Qian Tan, and yelled together, “You stupid kids! Have you forgotten about the rules of our Chi Ban Market?! The Chi Ban Market, regardless of your backgrounds, experiences, races or personal hatreds, this is a place for fair trade!”

“There is no hatred in our Chi Ban Market! All that matters in here is money! You kids have started such a foul atmosphere in here, do you want to ruin our family businesses?!”

Qian Tan and a group of Qian Family’s members lowered their heads, silently hearing the two law executors, daring not to say any word.

The Chi Ban Market was a black market, a typical black market. Regardless of your background and standpoint, or your personal hatred, the only principle working in this place was nothing else but money. Making more, and more and more money! Uncountable amount of money!

“You have to give us a reasonable explanation!” Ji Hao didn’t want to forgive Qian Tan and the Red Wood Palace so easily, slapping hard on the old tree man’s branch and yelled angrily, “Look! Purple grain dragon sandalwood! Hehe, Qian Tan, you knew my friend is a valuable Purple grain dragon sandalwood, therefore, you attempted to force him to sell himself to your Qian Family, so that you could harvest the ‘purple snow dragon juice’ and ‘purple grain, dragon blood fruits’ from his body, right?!”

“Eh?” The old tree man lowered his head, looked at Ji Hao in surprise and asked, “My juice and fruits? What for?”

Ji Hao threw a heavy kick on his foot then yelled at him, “You’re all blockheads! Don’t ever say such a silly word! You’re much more valuable than you think you are anyway! If I were you, I would hide in the deepest mountain and never come to this outside world before I cultivated myself into an invincibly powerful being!”

“You just walked on streets with this big cat? You’re already lucky for not being cut into pieces and inserted into the soil to reproduce more of you!” After having yelled at the old tree man, Ji Hao turned to the two Yu Clan’s old men, sneered and said, “Those young people lack experiences and manners, but I assume old folks like you are much more reasonable than them, aren’t you?”

“For a purple grain dragon sandalwood who has cultivated himself into a spirit creature, how much is he worth, say it by yourselves! Only a million? I can give you a hundred million right now, but do you even dare to try to get me a hundred purple grain dragon sandalwoods with that price?!” Ji Hao pointed his finger at the two Yu Clan’s old men and growled.

Resonant swishing noise came one after another, while Ji Hao was speaking, law executors of the Chi Ban Market, who came from fifty to sixty different races and all wearing the same black long cloak, had came to the Red Wood Palace.

At the same time, huge groups of heavily armored warriors were quickly moving over from all directions, firmly surrounded the entire Red Wood Palace.

Ji Hao’s voice became louder and louder when he told these newcomers about how Qian Tan’s attempt to force the old tree to sell himself to the Qian Family; when telling the story, Ji Hao added some inflammatory details.

“Hehe, Chi Ban Market, I came here because I heard about the reputation of this place.”

“But I did not think that this so-called Chi Ban Market is nothing but a gangster’s inn!”

“Today, this Red Wood Palace and your Chi Ban Market, both have to give me a reasonable explanation!”