The Magus Era

The war had ended, yet, things weren’t done. Senior ministers like Si Wen Ming had been busy day and night, dealing with all kinds of aftermaths of this great war. Countless big or small affairs were waiting for them to handle.

Not to mention anything else, only the fact that Ying Yunpeng and the army of archers under his command unexpectedly changed their sides in the war back on the battlefield, and the sudden rebellion of the troops from quite a few clans were more than enough to keep Si Wen Ming blood-vomitingly busy.

Ji Hao was still a nobody, hence didn’t need to worry about all those big affairs. Therefore, his life had been quite leisurely in these couple of days. Carrying an earthen jar of incomparably delicious fruit wine, Ji Hao strolled to in front of the cave that Yu Yu opened up as his temporary residence.

The cave was located next to a deep pool, and was covered by ancient pines on both the left and right sides. The mountain was thickly dotted with green moss, and a few squirrels were happily leaping around, nimbly dodging those pine cones thrown down by a few monkeys on the mountainside. Standing under an ancient pine was Po, who Ji Hao hadn’t seen in quite a long time. Seeing Ji Hao walking over, Po instantly grinned and nodded at Ji Hao.

Ji Hao was truly happy when he saw Po. He then glanced at Yu Yu, who was sitting under the ancient pine with downcast eyelids. Ji Hao placed the earthen jar of wine on the ground, kneeled and kowtowed to Yu Yu. He saluted and greeted with utmost respect, “Shifu!”

Yu Yu raised his eyelids, took a glance at the earthen jar placed beside Ji Hao, sighed heavily and asked, “What is that?”

“Delicious wine!” responded Ji Hao frankly, “I know that you, my dear Shifu, love drinking wine. I, as your disciple, don’t have too much to offer. This jar of wine is gotten from Prince Kang… It’s the best fruit wine made by the Lie Mountain Family.”

Yu Yu’s lips twitched, then again, he let out a heavy sigh, waved his hand and said blandly, “This time, I’ve killed too many living creatures. As your Shifu, I’m feeling a bit unsettled for that. Therefore, I’ve decided to quit drinking for three days, as my penance.”

Pausing for a short while, Yu Yu waved his hand again and following that, the earthen jar flew into his sleeve. Next, he gave a big warm grin to Ji Hao, nodded and said, “Since you, my good disciple have nicely brought me this, I will accept it. After three days, when my abstinence is over, I will have a good taste of it. Hm, Lie Mountain Family’s fruit wine? Hm…can it be…”

Yu Yu’s look slightly changed immediately. He then hurriedly grabbed the earthen jar out of his sleeve, pulled the plug out and took a long and deep breath.

Afterwards, Yu Yu narrowed his eyes and said in a deep voice, “It is indeed the magical wine, ‘hundred-flowers, hundred herbs and hundred fruits’. As descendants of Shennong[1], they do inherit this good ability of making wine. However, the materials nowadays are not as good as back then when Shennong made wines himself. Well, nevertheless, the powers and abilities of the humankind are shrinking with each generation, so this is reasonable.”

Ji Hao opened his mouth, yet, he didn’t know how to respond to Yu Yu’s words. Neither did he know how Lie Mountain Kang would feel after hearing Yu Yu’s words.

Yu Yu put the earthen jar back into his sleeve, grinned and said, “Po, you haven’t seen Ji Hao for quite a while. You’re his big brother… you should spend more time with him. You can’t be stingy for what you are supposed to give your little brother.”

Ji Hao grinned and said to Yu Yu, “Brother Po is not stingy at all. The armor made by brother Po back then had saved my life many times.”

“Eh? Po, your little brother still remembers your kindness.” Yu Yu raised his eyebrows, threw a sideways glance at Po and said as his voice tailed off.

After the three of them chatted and laughed for a short while, Yu Yu slightly clapped his hands and said slowly, “Alright, let’s head to the business. This time, I stepped into the great war that happened between the humankind and Yu Clan. Although there is a good reason for it, I have, more or less, violated some rules that I cannot state. But, consequently, I can’t stay here much longer.”

Ji Hao’s heart beat quickly, as he hurriedly asked, “Shifu, you’re heavenly powerful… can anyone in this world actually harm you?”

Yu Yu sighed, helplessly spread his hands and said, “Heavenly powerful…hehe, heavenly, heavenly… what a good word…Hm, there are indeed a few people who are able to harm me, your Shifu.”

Yu Yu then sulkily raised his head, glanced at the sky and continued in a bland tone, “But, I have to leave not only because this time you and Po killed so many animals with my sword formation, there are also some things that I need to go and deal with personally. This is something that is inevitable.”

‘Killed so many animals’? Ji Hao was stunned by Yu Yu’s words. He couldn’t help but stare at Yu Yu with a badly shocked look.

Were those non-humankind beings same as real animals in Yu Yu’s eyes? And judging from the careless, even a bit cold and cruel tone of Yu Yu, he wasn’t abusing those non-humankind beings intentionally. Instead, in Yu Yu’s eyes, those non-humankind beings were just like cattle, horses or wild wolves; they were nothing but ‘animals’!

Yu Yu seemed to detect the shock in Ji Hao’s heart. He smiled, pointed his finger at the sky and said, “They are not creatures of this world… therefore, in my eyes, they are actually worse than animals. Those real animals, like cattle and horses, are way more adorable than them.”

“Not creatures of this world?” Ji Hao raised his head, looking at the sky and threw out an abrupt question, “Shifu, outside the sky… what’s in there?”

“Outside this sky… is the infinite sky!” Yu Yu gave a vague answer, “But not to mention you, even Po, Gui Ling, and your other brothers and sisters, who have been through the prehistoric years with me as their Shi Fu, and have built some solid cultivations… outside this sky are things that even they are not in a capacity to reach.”

Po slightly sighed, respectfully bowed to Yu Yu and said, “Shifu, you’re absolutely right. I, as your disciple, am still weak and shallow on what I’ve been learning. Sorry to disappoint you.”

Yu Yu waved his hand and responded blandly, “Never mind, you’re only half a step away from the goal. This time, you’ve killed this many non-humankind beings, which although was too much killing, you have indeed made some meritorious contributions. You should cultivate yourself carefully; you will find a great improvement someday.”

Ji Hao stayed silent; he only felt that what Yu Yu said was unfathomable.

In the Evil Dragon Bay battle, the humankind was just about to suffer a great loss. But a sword formation suddenly rose and began killing, slaughtering countless non-humankind elites. Po was the one who controlled that sword formation, which was something Ji Hao found out just now. However, after hearing Yu Yu’s words today, Ji Hao was now wondering about the other reasons that might also be part of the cause of this massive slaughter.

Ji Hao didn’t say anything, but Yu Yu looked at him and laughed out, saying, “Ji Hao, you’ve earned quite a lot benefits this time as well.”

Yu Yu then pointed his finger at Ji Hao. Instantly, Ji Hao felt that his body suddenly shook and streams of warm and pure sense of power descended from the air. He raised his head, and surprisingly found that a black and yellow sphere of mist had been floating upon his head. This black and yellow sphere of mist had vivid colors, and was around a hundred meter in radius. Before, Ji Hao didn’t feel anything about this sphere of mist, and only saw this magical scene right above his own head after Yu Yu pointed it out.

“Those non-humankind beings are monsters from outside the sky. They intruded this world, plundering resources and fortune of this world. Of course the nature of this world hates them.” said Yu Yu in a deep voice, “With the sword formation I lent you, you have killed countless non-humankind beings in Evil Dragon Bay. Naturally, this world accepted your immeasurably great, meritorious contributions, and had given its rewards.”

“With this reward given by nature as a foundation, the basics of the Dao that is pursued by us, you, my disciple, will be able to attain now.”

While speaking, Yu Yu raised his hand, clenched his fingers toward the black and yellow sphere of mist floating upon Ji Hao’s head, then rubbed his hands, turning that sphere of mist into a fist-sized, round-shaped pearl. He then conveniently threw it into between Ji Hao’s eyebrows.

Afterwards, Yu Yu pointed his finger at the space between Ji Hao’s eyebrows. Immediately, Ji Hao saw splendid light gushing out from before his eyes. In the meanwhile, a scripture, which seemed to be prehistorical, mysterious and unspeakably occult, that only had thousands of words yet each word a gem, suddenly engraved deeply in Ji Hao’s soul.

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[1]Shennong(神农): Shennong (which can be variously translated as ‘God Farmer’ or ‘God Peasant’), is a deity in Chinese religion, a mythical sage ruler of prehistoric China. Shennong has been thought to have taught the ancient Chinese not only their practices of agriculture, but also the use of herbal drugs.