The Magus Era

A bright fiery light darted south. Ji Hao surprisingly fond out that Suiren’s flying speed was only slightly slower than the highest speed of the golden bridge under his control. In mere terms of flying speed, Suiren was faster than Xiang Liu and Wuzhi Qi.

What surprised Ji Hao more was that Suiren brought Man Man, Shaosi, Feng Xing Taisi and Yu Mu, but at the same time, he had also conveniently brought Yuan Li along with the others. By now, this water ape with long silver fur was huddled in the fiery light, and had been slapping his own head hard. No one knew what kind of complicated question he was struggling with.

Man Man, Shaosi, and all the others had been looking at Suiren with extra respect and admiration. Suiren was an ancient human emperor, a saint who led the humankind from ignorance to civilization. Before, Suiren only existed in legends, but now, he showed up right in front of them, as a living being. Man Man and the others were surely thrilled by his appearance.

However, because of Suiren’s great fame, none of them dared to say anything to him.

Flying for a while, Suiren finally started talking, ”Marquis Yao, do you understand?”

Ji Hao grinned and nodded. He understood Suiren’s words, and the reason why Suiren said that. But, Ji Hao had his own reasons to do what he had been doing. They shared an ultimate purpose, as they both wanted to humankind to survive, grow and develop; they just thought in different ways.

But of course, Suiren was an ancient human emperor, while Ji Hao had his previous life memory. Based on their backgrounds, if would be ridiculous if they had the same way of thinking.

”You will be a territory owner; you can take care of a clan quite well. Even on battlefields, you will be a good commander, who cares about his warriors. But, you will not be a good commander in chief, and you can never become a good leader.” said Suiren slowly, ”In this regard, Si Wen Ming is bigger than you and all the other competitors.”

”Uncle Wen Ming is indeed good.” Ji Hao agreed.

”What I’m trying to say is, he is more hard-hearted than all of you. He is willing to let human beings bleed and sacrifice. For the future of the humankind, he can bear to let our warriors shed blood.” Turning around, Suiren looked at Ji Hao and continued, ”And you…You protect your warriors too well. This is truly not good.”

Ji Hao remained silent. He didn’t know what to say, and he could only give a hollow smile.

”If we want the humankind to grow stronger and to thrive, we have to go through difficulties.” said Suiren slowly, ”Human beings have to understand that everything we have, food, armors, weapons and all kinds of magic treasures, talismans, we have to make those with our own hands. We have to know how to produce those things we need, and knowledge, is our true wealth.”

”What you’ve been doing can indeed allow a small number of people to grow stronger ahead of the others, but on the whole, this can only weaken the natural, inexhaustible learning abilities and creativity of human beings.” Suiren patted Ji Hao’s shoulder and continued, ”I know you meant well, but you did it in the wrong way.”

”Si Wen Ming has been doing well. He knew you’re a diamond in the rough. Therefore, he dared to give you pressure, and he dared to let you, such a young man, lead a great-scale, elite force to the north.”

”What you are going to face is not only those non-humankind armies; you will also face the Yu Dynasty, which was built by the non-humankind. You will encounter countless challenges and life-risking fights. You might die, but if you survive, you will serve as a core member of our humankind for many years to come.”

”Not only you, this is also a test, and an opportunity, for all people around you.”

”Once upon a time, Emperor Fuxi said that human beings are strange. If human beings live too comfortably and safely, the humankind would quickly corrode and fall. But, if human beings live under pressure, the humankind would never die, no matter how strong the pressure was. Therefore, Emperor Fuxi said that disasters will make the humankind thrive; the more disasters come, the stronger our can humankind be.”

”This flood had indeed caused us severe damage, but as long as we can get through this, a brighter day will be expecting us.” said Suiren seriously, ”This is a severe trial, facing which, countless heroes will rise among us. But you protected them as if they were a group of fragile chicks.”

Ji Hao spread his hands, not knowing what to say.

Emperor Fuxi and Emperor Suiren chose to cultivate and strengthen the humankind with the pure law of the jungle, while Ji Hao…

Smiling embarrassedly once again, Ji Hao said, ”I may be too softhearted…I don’t want people around me to die one after another.”

Suiren looked at Ji Hao seriously and responded with a strangely heavy tone, ”Marquis Yao, believe me, we’ve witnessed death a million times more than you did…And every one of us has died many times. Those warriors refused to surrender and died to the last man, but their sacrifices saved many more people. With their deaths, they earned the rise of the entire humankind. So, who cannot sacrifice?”

He pointed at Ji Hao’s heart and continued, ”Perhaps, one day, we will both die. Who can truly be immortal? At least, I don’t believe in immortality. Can this world exist forever?”

”If we want to survive, many of us have to fight, to kill and to die. Only when many brave ones among us are happy to die for the future of the humankind can we grow and develop, can be strong and never collapse. A society without heroes and the brave ones will not have a future.”

”Aren’t you ruining their future by over-protecting them?” sighed Suiren, ”I have a mission here, but I don’t have the time to do it myself. So, I can only leave it to you.”

Patting again on Ji Hao’s shoulder, Suiren carried on, ”Try your best to accomplish the mission, and think about what I said. In the future, we have many more important things for you to do.”

At last, he said to Ji Hao, ”Remember one thing, as long as the sacrifice is meaningful, as long as we can afford it and we’re not wasting lives on purpose, no matter how great the sacrifice might be, we should not dread.”

The fiery light flashed across the sky. Ji Hao carefully pondered upon Suiren’s words. Recalling what he had done in the recent years, Ji Hao felt that he had indeed been overprotecting people around him.

A while later, the fiery light dimmed. In front of Ji Hao still was the vast water. However, on the boundless water surface was a ten-thousand-miles-wide dark whirlpool, roaring and spinning.

”This is a core area of the Huai Water. This whirlpool, we call it the ‘water eye’.” said Suiren, ”After we received your message, Emperor Shun has sent out quite a few strong warriors to try to dive in, but they have all disappeared.”

”We want to find out what exactly is hiding in this water eye, and the other water eyes in the rest few large rivers.”