The Magus Era

The simple and crude paved path was opened up with hammers and machetes, yet, it was extremely firm, and would never collapse. From time to time, black and yellow spell symbols sparkled on the thick, rough rock wall. Those were the ’iron wall spell’ and ’bronze wall spell’, enchanted by Magi Palace’ master Magi. With these spells, an inch thick rock wall could be even more solid than a thousand meter thick iron board.

Fully armed human warriors in teams of seven to eight guarded the paved path at every other hundred zhang. These warriors stood perfectly straight right next to the wall and remained absolutely still, and one couldn’t even hear them breathing. All of them looked so cold and heartless, even dead, like puppet soldiers.

Walking for around a quarter of an hour, steel bars appeared on both sides of the path. Behind those steel bars were large prison cells, which were filled with captives, caught by the human army during all these days.

When Ji Hao walked past those bars, from one cell, a non-humankind slave with khaki colored skin that was thickly dotted with dark-green flecks suddenly rushed over, body clapping against those bars. This ugly creature hung itself up on the bars, then reached its long arm towards Ji Hao through those bars.

"You bloody barbarian! Release me! Release Zalu! I’m your master Zalu! Release me now! Do you have any idea about who my master is?! How dare you keep me in prison and treat me like this?! My master will cut you into a thousand pieces! A thousand pieces!"

Without even looking at that ’master Zalu’, Ji Hao threw a slap on it. Instantly, this ’master Zalu’, who merely had junior-level power, gave a loud howl. A half of his arm was smashed thoroughly and blood shed all over the ground.

Zalu held its broken arm and quickly stepped back into the cell while crying like hell, at the same time, all captives in the other cells, who were attempting to threaten Ji Hao just now, lowered their heads one after another. None of them dared to even look at Ji Hao in the eyes.

"A bunch of dogs, wagging your tails and begging for mercy. Look at where you are, do you even dare to keep showing your arrogant ugly faces?"

A few slave warriors raised their heads, seeming ready to argue against Ji Hao, but they quivered once they saw Zalu’s blood on the ground. In a great fear, these slave warriors lowered their heads deeply back down, not even letting out the slightest noise.

Ji Hao walked up to another cell, took out a jade talisman and pressed it on one steel bar; following his move, those bars slowly rose, along with a rumbling noise. Ji Hao then walked into the cell.

The black walls of the cell were all covered in stains of blood. Followed by a constant buzzing noise, a lot of spell symbols sparkled on the walls, orderly in groups. Except those sparkling spell symbols, this cell didn’t have any light. Nevertheless, these spell symbols had already lightened the cell enough for people to see anything clearly.

Tens of thumb-thick chains reached out from the walls, penetrating Ji Mo’s scapulas and knee caps. Ji Mo torpidly huddled up in a corner, and if one was to pay a closer look, one would find a thinner chain, that had a faint golden luster, had penetrated his spine, and on his skin near the spine, there were nine dragon claw-shaped lumps.

That was the ’nine dragon soul-sealing lock’, a very famous instrument of torture, created by the Magi Palace. Even Magus Kings didn’t have the powers to break out from nine dragon soul-sealing lock, not to mention that Ji Mo was only a Senior Magus, who had around a thousand woken Magus Acupoints.

Ji Hao took out wines and dishes from a bamboo basket, orderly placing in front of Ji Mo, then took out a huge bowl and pulled a full bowlful of wine for Ji Mo, holding it right before his face.

"Is this my last drink? Am I getting executed after I drink this bowl of wine?" Ji Mo struggled up with difficulty, sat straight with his legs crossed, then looked at Ji Hao with a pair of deeply hollowed eyes.

"You’re from the Gold Crow Clan, so I came to visit you." Ji Hao held that bowl of wine up near his mouth and said with a cold voice, "It was not easy to meet someone who shares the same origin and blood with me, here in the Midland."

Ji Mo seemed to be surprised slightly by Ji Hao’s words. He held the bowl with his mouth and raised his head, drinking up the bowlful of wine, then he slightly swung his neck, throwing the bowl back into Ji Hao’s hand. After all that, Ji Mo narrowed his eyes and began looking at Ji Hao from head to toes.

"Do I look different from the others?" Ji Hao sat down in front of Ji Mo, crossed his legs, took out another bowl and pulled himself a bowlful of wine.

"I still don’t understand, why did you...You had seen through me and my brothers since the beginning, you knew that we were there to kill you, right?" said Ji Mo with a confused look, "But I’ve used that trick before."

Ji Mo kept his eyes narrowed and went on, "Before, I’ve used that trick for more than once. Firstly we started a conflict against them, then we talked, drank together, we told them that we came from the Southern Wasteland as well and every time after that, everybody would relax their vigilance. Then, me and my brothers would launch surprise attacks. We easily killed all those people since they didn’t have any precaution. But this time, why couldn’t I kill you?"

Looking at Ji Mo’s confused face, Ji Hao sighed and responded, "I’ve already been seeing you as my enemies ever since you attacked Yu Mu. Although I learned that you also came from the Gold Crow Clan after that, I never relaxed my vigilance. I’ve been seeing you as my enemies all the time!"

Hearing Ji Hao, Ji Mo showed his teeth and growled out in a low and deep voice, "That shouldn’t happen! You’re only a little kid! You came from the Southern Wasteland, how could you, a little kid came from that kind of shithole, see through my trick?! Do you know how many people, who were older than you and more experienced than you, had been fooled by us?!"

Ji Hao shrugged, remained silent.

Seeing through tricks? Hehe, how could Ji Mo compare Ji Hao with those Southern Wasteland warriors who would cry when meeting people that came from the same places as themselves, and immediately loosen their tightened nerves? Ninety-nine percent of those Southern Wasteland warriors were especially simple and honest, and occasionally, a few of them played some little tricks, but those were all lousy ones.

Ji Hao was way different from those people.

"You have lost for a good reason!" Ji Hao said to Ji Mo with a cold and bland tone, "I’ve never seen you as truly trustworthy clansman... so, you’ve lost for a good reason. I came to see you because I want to ask you a question."

"Why?" said Ji Hao, "you’re from the Gold Crow Clan. You and your people have been enslaved by those monsters for generations. You should have an intense and deep-seated hatred for them, but why have you been dedicating your loyalty, even your lives to them?" Ji Hao looked at Ji Mo directly in the eyes and asked honestly, "Haven they been forcing you to do so with your Amma and Abba’ lives?"

Ji Mo didn’t respond, only glancing at the empty bowl.

Ji Hao pulled him another bowlful of wine, held it to his mouth. Ji Mo then drank that bowlful of wine up.

After that, Ji Mo satisfyingly let out a long breath, then narrowed his eyes again and said, "For them? You think? Both my Abba and Amma are now senior supervisors of mines that belong to our master. They have two-hundred-thousand slaves, who also belong to our master, under their commands. They are doing the job willingly, no one forced them to."

"So do I... I volunteered to join the training camp set up by our master when I was five. I learned how to disguise, how to fit in the human groups, how to make myself look like a ’pure human’, and how to conceal myself inside the human army."

"I’ve learned so many things, including assassination, dealing with corpses, prying for information, as well as using all kinds of magical contacting methods." Ji Mo looked back at Ji Hao and said also in an honest look, "You can never even imagine what I have learned back there."

’I can never imagine what you have learned.’ Ji Hao slightly and weirdly curved his mouth corner upwards while looking at Ji Mo. What Ji Hao had learned in his previous life probably was the truly profound and unimaginable things that Ji Mo and his people couldn’t even dream about. At least, if Ji Hao was the one who planned that surprise attack back on the small island, he would never make it so low-grade and have so many loopholes.

"Why?" Ji Hao kept asking, "Why betray your own kind and work for them?"

With a slight voice and a serious look, Ji Mo let out a few words, "High position and great wealth."