The Magus Era

“Hoho! Booze! An amazing treasure!”

In the special army camp and beside the foot of a small hill, the old tree leisurely and deeply rooted himself into the thick and soft layer of soil, while holding a specially crafted, gigantic vat with both of his arms, gulping the booze contained in it very noisily.

Next to him, the giant leopard had already fallen in an enormous clay bowl, which was also fully containing pure, nicely smelling booze. The leopard was constantly licking the booze with his long tongue, letting out loud clicking noise, and seemed to be quite happy.

Yu Mu grinningly stood beside a series of bonfires, which were around a hundred zhang away from the old tree and leopard. What had filled the spaces above the over ten bonfires up were newly butchered buffalos. Concentratedly and carefully, Yu Mu slowly spread several kinds of sauces evenly on the buffalo meat. The thick dense of grilled meat had already spread out to tens of miles away.

“Booze, great stuff!” The old tree reached his arm out in a big satisfaction, then slapped hard on Ji Hao’s back.

Along with a loud boom, the part below Ji Hao’s waist entirely sank into the ground. Helplessly glancing at the old tree, who seemed was a bit drunk already, Ji Hao twisted his body and pulled himself out of the ground.

After a short and simple inauguration, the old tree had become a Magi Master of the Magi Palace. He would be accepting elder-level remuneration and welfare offered by the Magi Palace, and in return, he only had to donate his fruits and a part of myron to the Magi Palace each year.

Magnificent palaces, board territories, luxurious clothes, beautiful maids…all these meant nothing to the old tree and leopard, only the booze brought by Ji Hao made both of them, who had never even tasted anything like this before, feel a great satisfaction.

“Booze! The true essence of nature itself!” Ji Hao looked at the old tree, whose face was now filled by a big grin, then grabbed a vat of booze himself, laughed out loud and poured some into his own mouth. The old tree barely had any material needs except for the sunlight, rain and soil, and now the booze was added.

Under the protection of the Magi Palace, he could now safely and peacefully live a life that he wanted, and would have as much booze as he would want. To the old tree and the leopard, two old friends who were both simple and didn’t have much of desires, nothing could be better than this.

Having drunk with the old tree and leopard for a while, Ji Hao, Feng Xing and Yu Mu then been called into the meeting hall tent of the base camp by one of Si Wen Ming’s close guards.

Si Wen Ming had changed his daily coarse clothes into a black, long cloak. On that purely black and lusterless cloak, complicated patterns of stars, rivers and mountains and other natural figures were embroidered with silver silk threads. Along with Si Wen Ming’s move, all those stars, mountains and rivers seemed to be moving as well.

Besides Si Wen Ming, Wulong Yao and nearly a hundred other Magi Palace elders were also in the meeting hall. They were all wearing the same black cloaks as Si Wen Ming, and were staring at Ji Hao, Yu Mu and Feng Xing walking into the camp, with incomparably serious and solemn looks.

Ji Hao sensed the serious atmosphere in the meeting hall. He puffed his chest out and tightened his face, looking at Si Wen Ming, whose face was now filled with solemnness.

From behind Si Wen Ming, a stream of smoke that seemed to be muddy yet actually contained countless different colors rose straight into the air. Within that smoke, a hazy human silhouette, who had his chest puffed out and head held high, arms reaching directly up as if he was holding the sky up, was faintly visible.

In this world, some people were standing straight in pride and fearlessness, and were able to communicate with gods and ghosts, and nature itself; these people were Magi!

That human silhouette released a strong and prehistoric sense of power, wave by wave, slowly spreading out. Gradually, Ji Hao, Yu Mu and Feng Xing’ heartbeats became exactly the same as the vibrations made by this sense of power.

The heartbeat frequency of all people in the meeting hall was now the same. ‘Boom, boom, boom’, suddenly, Ji Hao gained a magical feeling that he was sharing the breath and destiny with Si Wen Ming and all the other people; the people in the meeting hall had now become a unity.

This was a secret and special magic!

Ji Hao suddenly figured it out. In battlefields, this sense of integration could allow all people who had the similar heartbeat frequency to gather their powers and launch an attack all together in a single moment!

At this moment, over a hundred Magi Palace elders were in the meeting hall, and all of them were Magus Kings. Over a hundred Magus Kings gathering their powers together and suddenly bursting out an attack, what would it be like? Probably even a Divine Magi couldn’t survive it, right?

“Uncle Wen Ming!” Ji Hao cupped his hands and solemnly bowed to Si Wen Ming.

“Minister Wen Ming!” Feng Xing and Yu Mu too seriously and solemnly saluted Si Wen Ming. However, Yu Mu seemed a bit embarrassed when doing that, as his belly was way too fleshy that he couldn’t even bend his waist easily.

Si Wen Ming nodded, then raised his arm. Instantly, a pure black magic cane, which had double height than himself, appeared in his hand.

That magic can was embossed with dragon and phoenix patterns, which seemed to be flying in a boundless, dark sky. Stars and clouds were visible between these dragons and phoenixes, while incalculable bolts of lightning dazzled across those clouds and countless lively and exquisite figures of gods, devils, ghosts and other magical creatures in this world were sparkling in those lightning bolts.

That magic cane seemed a bit dull, not even a slight sense of power had been released by it so far. However, Ji Hao felt that his scalp was even numbed once he saw it. This magic cane…with a single glance at this dark cane, Ji Hao felt that he had seen a giant pillar abruptly descending from the heaven and plant into the ground, connecting the heaven and earth, suppressing the entire world; with a single and quick glance, that cane had brought Ji Hao a great pain as if his soul was crushed.

“Yu Mu, Feng Xing, I brought you two kids back when I was travelling across the world.” Looking at Yu Mu and Feng Xing, Si Wen Ming gave a gentle smile and said, “When I first met you two, Yu Mu was lying on the ground as a bait, while Feng Xing was preparing to hunt a wolf, which was about to eat Yu Mu, with his bow and arrows.”

Yu Mu and Feng Xing’ eye sockets immediately turned a bit red and misty.

They were so young back then and barely started cultivating themselves as Magi, their bodies were quite vulnerable as well. In the vast, primitive land, in order to keep themselves alive, the two kids could only hunt for food by themselves. They didn’t even know how to set a trap, therefore, the chubby kid Yu Mu had to play dead on the ground and when wild wolves went over to eat him, Feng Xing would sneakily launch his arrows and kill those wolves!

“Although I haven’t talked too much to you after I brought you back, every stage you’ve been through was in my sight.” Si Wen Ming kept that gentle smile and continued, “You worked very hard. Without support from families and clans, your improvement still satisfied me a lot.”

Turning to Ji Hao, Si Wen Ming then said, “Ji Hao, there isn’t too much to talk about you. Back in the Southern Wasteland, I’ve seen everything you accomplished. You’re a good kid. You have also made quite a few contributions in a row after you came to the Pu Ban City… good, very good.”

Si Wen Ming slightly knocked the ground with the cane in his hand, letting out a sharp wave of vibration that even made the souls of Ji Hao, Yu Mu and Feng Xing shake; all of their eyesight were filled with sparkling stars at that moment.

After that, Si Wen Ming went on in a harsh voice, “Today, I and all our elders are gathered in here, to enquire you if you are willing to join the inner palace, and become inner palace Magi… are you?”

“I will also ask you, can you support and protect our humankind forever, and never betray it?.” Si Wen Ming continued in that harsh tone.

From that magic cane, an immense, overwhelming pressure was suddenly released, that filled the entire meeting hall up.