The Magus Era

A small eagle had been hovering around in the air, gazing at the ground with its black beady eyes. A faint stream of light covered its wings, allowing it to fly thousands of feet above the ground to keep watch on the entire area that had a radius of nearly one thousand miles.

Ji Mo raised his head as he rode on a golden lizard, and looked at the blood-red mountain area around him.

Those endlessly extending mountains were pure blood-red, and yet, there were indeed thick layers of soil on those flat mountaintops that had countless rising dense woods. However, being affected by those blood-red mountains, those thriving green woods looked a bit like bruises, one that weren’t pleasing to the eye.

Behind Ji Mo were one hundred and eleven followers of his, who were all mounted on golden lizards and equipped with simple leather armors. Every one of them had a coarse face. Clearly, these warriors had been travelling and fighting away from home for years, so much that even their skins were chapped.

The golden lizard ridden by Ji Mo twisted its body as it abruptly opened its mouth, then thrusted out its long and sticky tongue to over ten zhang away, capturing a rabbit that was leaping across the grassland upfront; the lizard pulled its tongue along with the rabbit back into its mouth, then swallowed the rabbit immediately.

That over five-zhang long gigantic golden lizard gave a satisfied grumble as it blinked its huge, round eyes, after which it once again slightly twisted its body.

The eagle hovering in the air suddenly let out a resonant cry, folded its wings and swept down swiftly, leaving a series of afterimages in the air. Ji Mo raised his hands and waved at the eagle. In just a few breaths, this battle eagle that had been raised by him since he was a little kid landed on his arm with its pair of sharp claws, intimately rubbing his wrist with its beak.

Puff! A tail feather that had a special red luster went ablaze automatically on the eagle’s tail, then soon turned into a puff of smoke that dissipated in the air.

Ji Mo silently read the short lines that emerged from within the smoke, then raised his head and looked around, quickly locating the direction. Afterwards, he gave a long and resonant whistle; followed by which, the eagle flew back into the air while he himself took those warriors following him, quickly heading to a soaring cliff, then towards a long, rapidly flowing river from afar.

The golden lizard was a very special kind of riding beast among this mountain area. They were actually able to tread swiftly on cliffs that had a steep angle of ninety degrees. Their speed was amazingly fast, yet their movements were completely silent. In the Chi Ban mountain area, only the most elite human army could have one young golden lizard, which could be raised into a battle beast.

"Get ready, we’re about to kill someone!" Said Ji Mo in a frosty voice, "And that’s our clansman, from...the Fire Crow Clan. How many years has it been since the last time we heard this name?"

The warriors following behind Ji Mo all showed a weird expression after hearing him, but soon afterwards, they calmed down. Their faces turned cold and expressionless again, just like stone statues. One could never find even a slight little bit of emotion on their rough faces.

The Fire Crow Clan? Their memories about this clan had long been hazy. To these Fire Crow Clan’s clansmen who grew up in the Midland world and in wars between the humankind of the non-humankind, the name of the Fire Crow Clan was merely a symbol. It didn’t mean anything to them at all.

Killing one or even more Fire Crow Clan people was nothing special to them. They had already killed countless people all these years, and some of those dead people had even seen them as best friends or even eternally sworn brothers, yet that didn’t mean anything to them either.

The group of golden lizards moved quickly on the cliff. They swept past the multiple sentry turrets that were guarded by human warriors and invisible sentries. Many human warriors excitedly waved their hands at them, the most elite army in this mountain area, but Ji Mo only slightly nodded his head to those warriors.

When his vision swept across those human warriors, his face was completely emotionless, as if he was looking at a pile of corpses.

Perhaps those warriors would all become corpses soon; either the non-humankind would slaughter them or Ji Mo would kill them all by himself.

In just two hours, the group of golden lizard had already travelled across hundreds of mountains and arrived by a small island formed by two crossed rivers. The rapidly flowing river slowed down in this area and sand continued to be accumulated by the river flow, forming a small island.

The island was covered by thick, thriving reeds. Every time a gust of wind blew across, flocculent clouds would puff into the air and loud bird songs would resound from countless nests. Groups of white birds flew into the air, circling over the island, and suddenly plung deep into the river. When these birds flew back up from the water, their beaks would always be filled with fishes and shrimps.

"Sh, let’s take a break here. Get yourselves some food and water." Ji Mo raised his right hand and clenched his fist while speaking in a bland tone, "Two squads, go check both the upstream and downstream of this river. Those non-humans need to drink as well, so they always tend to invade through river valleys."

Two ten-people squads instantly moved towards both sides of the river and soon disappeared.

Yu Mu, who looked like a complete hill of meat, was seated by the riverside with a gigantic pot floating on the river in front of him. At this moment, he was holding a huge, fat yet scale-less fish in his hand. He had just finished gouging the fish’s internal organs using a small dagger, and now, he was cleaning the fish with the river water.

Seeing Ji Mo and his warriors, Yu Mu grinned and stood up, waving the pair of chubby hands towards Ji Mo and yelled, "Oi, brothers! Which army do you belong to?"

Ji Mo looked at Yu Mu coldly while making a short but shrill whistle, following which, he and his warriors rushed onto the river. Soft, yet large sarcolemma stretched out from those golden lizards’ claws. It allowed them to tread on the water surface, as they quickly moved across the river that was over ten miles wide, rushing towards Yu Mu.

Sitting on the golden lizard’s back and looking down at Yu Mu, Ji Mo then slightly pressed Yu Mu’s shoulder with the spearhead of his long spear, and said, "3928th troop of the main army of humankind, dare-to-die corps, I am Captain Ji Mo. Who are you? What are you doing here?"

While speaking, Ji Mo’s spearhead had already been pressed against Yu Mu’s throat. With a slight push, he could disable Yu Mu from retaliating and put him half-dead, or even kill him straightaway.

In woods far away from where Yu Mu was, Feng Xing leaned his head out from behind a big tree, then pulled his long bow open, aimed at Ji Mo’s throat.

"Oi! You! I’ll shoot you into a piece of meat if you don’t take that spear away!"

Yu Mu carried the fat fish with his left hand and gave a simple and honest smile, then flicked Ji Mo’s spear with his right hand, said, "We’re from the special army, belonging to the main army as well, we are..."

Feng Xing suddenly screamed out in the woods while a fierce, cyan flare burst out from under his feet. In the following moment, he darted out at a lightning speed and brought up tens of afterimages as he rose to hundreds of feet high from the ground within a blink of an eye, and then stomped his feet against the air. Followed by his move, tens of afterimages shot out towards all directions, while he himself darted to tens of miles away in just a single moment.

At the same time, twelve long arrows had been released successively by Feng Xing, letting out a high-pitched swishing noise.

A series of rustling noise came out of the woods. Among the two squads sent out by Ji Mo, a warrior was shot by an arrow right in the middle of his chest, and rushed out of the woods with his entire body covered in blood.

Ji Mo’s face immediately darkened. He raised the spear preparing to stab Yu Mu, however, his spear suddenly turned green as a puff of black smoke rose from his palm along with a sizzling noise. In the next moment, his left hand was corroded into nothing more than bones by Yu Mu’s poison.