The Magus Era

Back at Yao Mountain, Ji Hao spent small half a day to settle the Aardwolf Clan’s people.

Aardwolf Clan was a dependent clan of a large clan that was located near Yao Mountain territory. Because of the special inherited power system, their inner power could merge perfectly with the earth power, and as an effect, Aardwolf Clan people were all excellent at excavating mines.

For many years, Aardwolf Clan had been managing many mines for their suzerain clan and had made great contributions to the development of their suzerain clan. However, a thousand years ago, a few extremely greedy and mean clan leaders emerged in their suzerain clan in a row. Because of this, the life of Aardwolf Clan became more and more difficult. They could barely breathe under the great pressure given by their suzerain clan. Many of their people had died in dangerous mines.

Since the life was too difficult, Aardwolf Clan’s ancestors decided to take their people and run.

For any clan, the escape of a dependent clan was absolutely intolerable. The old suzerain clan of Aardwolf Clan sent out warriors and killed almost all Aardwolf Clan’s elite warriors. After losing their elite warriors and being hunted for tens of years, the inherited power systems of this clan gradually faded away among clansmen.

Because their escape had offended their suzerain clan seriously, Aardwolf Clan people dared not to build campsite and stay too long in any place. They were afraid of that their suzerain clan would find them and wipe them all out. Therefore, they had become a homeless clan on the tramp.

The bearded man named Tie Lang was the clan leader of the Aardwolf Clan, and also was the only Magus King in his clan in the recent thousand years. He was quite talented in cultivation but had a simple and straightforward personality. Simply speaking, he was a poorly educated man who only knew how to fight.

Under Tie Lang’s lead, the poor life of Aardwolf Clan became poorer and poorer. Many times, they didn’t even have three day’s food supplies in storage. As they were already on the run, by depending on his own power, Tie Lang and the remaining warriors in his clan started to rob. They robbed every village they passed by. With the resources they gained through robbery, their living quality had indeed improved; it was easier than hunting and working in farmlands anyway.

But this time, they encountered Ji Hao’s village, which was as tough as an iron board. And Tie Lang, a Magus King, was defeated by a Senior Magus. Next, all clansmen of the Aardwolf Clan, which was not a small clan at all, had become Ji Hao’s people.

Aardwolf Clan people had lived quite a long span of life as bandits. Therefore, each one of them had grown an unreasonable temper that only bandits would have. From elderly men to children, not a single one of them was easy to deal with. If Ji Hao let these people stay together, they would definitely cause all kinds of troubles and would never ever truly settle down, working and living like the others.

For the above reason, Ji Hao selected all Aardwolf Clan’s warriors out and arranged them in the army under Zhamu’s command. All of them were arranged into Zhamu’s army separately. Facing those dark-kind warriors who were a lot more powerful than themselves, they couldn’t possibly cause any big trouble.

In front of Tie Lang, Ji Hao had given his order to Zhamu — If any Aardwolf Clan’s warrior refused to follow orders, he would be executed immediately, and the punishment would go to his families as well. All his families would be beheaded too, right in public.

The strict military rule scared those Aardwolf Clan people. Every one of them was obedient, and no one dared to cause any trouble.

Hundreds of thousands of elderly men, women, and children were separated by Ji Hao as well. Taking family as a unit, they were arranged into a hundred villages. These people didn’t have much power, therefore, facing hundreds of Senior Magi and thousands of elite warriors stationed in each village, they had no other choice but to settle down and work like all the others.

After he had done all this, Ji Hao gave these new villagers many benefits.

Grain, meat, salt… Ji Hao provided them with all these basic supplies as much as they needed. In the villages they were sent to, new and firm houses were built up for them. Every one of them received a warm fur coat that was made in a hurry under Ji Hao’s order. All kitchen wares and other homewares in need were ready for them as well, from soup to nuts.

Ji Hao scared them with the strict rules while giving them all these benefits. Thus, the hundreds of thousands of Aardwolf Clan’s people were completely swallowed by Ji Hao’s territory without any disagreement.

In the meeting hall built inside the mountain and on a thick and heavy stone table, a square magic sandbox was glowing, showing the topographic map of the whole area around Yao Mountain. Centering Yao Mountain, different sized and different colored marks had already been made around the mountains and rivers.

Tie Lang was now wearing a comfortable cotton shirt and a set of high-quality heavy armor, looking powerful and energetic. He seemed entirely different now. At the moment, he was holding a black stone dagger, heavily piercing into a mountain which was around three-thousand miles away from Yao Mountain’s main peak.

Instantly, this mountain turned blood-red, as eye-catching as a puddle of fresh blood.

“Master, this is Black Mouse Clan. Those bloody bastards, they are good at raising bronze-teeth ghost mice. Those mice are not big in shape but can run even faster than ghosts, and are especially good at digging holes and mining. These people are rich!”

Clicking his tongue, Tie Lang continued a bit angrily, “They don’t have too many people, only around seventy to eighty thousand. But their people are good at opening mines, and also mastered in casting techniques. They have a city that was entirely cast from metal and has a very good defensive power. Their leader is a Magus King as well. Back then, my clansmen and I attacked their city and the fight lasted for whole twenty-four hours, but we failed at last.”

“Good at mining? Mastered in casting techniques?” Ji Hao’s eyes shone, looking where Tie Lang was pointing while rubbing his own chin.

Ji Hao didn’t think that clans with hundreds of thousands of populations like Aardwolf Clan had been living in his territory. Therefore, after conquering Aardwolf Clan and settling their people down, Ji Hao found Tie Lang and asked about the other clans in this area.

Consequently, Ji Hao was startled by the answer given by Tie Lang.

Within the area ten-thousand miles in radius around Yao Mountain were over thirty different scaled clans. The clans with the smallest population, such as Black Mouse Clan, only had tens of thousands of people, while the clan with the biggest population had over a million people. Together, those more than thirty clans in this area had a population of over ten million.

Unlike Aardwolf Clan, which were moving around and living on robbery, the other clans had their own territories. Their origins were complicated as well, with some of them partially possessing the non-humankind’s bloodline. Therefore, each of these clans had their own special way of survival.

Just like the Black Mouse Clan, they didn’t have too many people but had high-quality armaments, and their clan leader was a Magus King. Additionally, they had an entirely metal city to guard the heart of their territory. Therefore, they had been living quite a good life.

“Before no one came to manage this area, so they could live their life in their own style. That was their freedom.”

Looking at those different-sized marks on the magic sandbox, Ji Hao said coldly, “But now, since the human emperor has conferred me with the title of Earl Yao, this piece of land is my personal territory. They have to submit to my authority! Especially for clans like Black Mouse Clan that have their own special abilities... they have to become my people!”

These clans were just like a fleshy piece of meat placed right in front of his door. Ji Hao had no reason to let go of them.

Before, he had been busy in building the city, settling his people and educating his disciples, and didn’t have the time to send people looking around his territory.

Now, he had Tie Lang, who was like a local tour guide. Whether these clans were willing or not, they had to submit to Ji Hao’s power now. The weak were the prey of the strong. Large clans would swallow small clans up; Ji Hao had seen such things a lot back in the Southern Wasteland.

“The weather is bad, not good for marching. This winter, our warriors should settle in here and keep training.”

Ji Hao punched hard on the stone table and continued, “at the beginning of spring, I will lead the army myself and will move all these clans to Yao Mountain!”