The Magus Era

Ji Hao and Po stood behind Yu Yu, one on the left and the other on the right, quietly listening to the conversation between Yu Yu and that man.

After the horrible experience, Ji Hao had just been through, his primordial spirit nearly shattered by those overwhelming, hazy bamboo silhouettes, he had now been extremely cautious and careful. His primordial spirit was vigilantly guarded in his spirit space, while the Immemorial Sun Streamer had been slightly swaying, ready to release its full power at any moment. Circles of warm, golden light spread out from the sun streamer, defending the primordial spirit from all directions.

Po glanced at Ji Hao, who was wearing an extra serious and cautious look and silently locked his fingers into a particular motion. A tiny and exquisite jade talisman flew out from Po’s fingertips, transforming into a clear beam of light and falling on Ji Hao’s body.

A warm stream of power flew across Ji Hao’s entire body. Instantly, Ji Hao calmed down from the palpitation and nervousness he was suffering before and instead felt totally peaceful. He gratefully nodded at Po, and Po responded with a warm and honest grin. After that, Po turned to that middle-aged man, glaring at him with a pair of dagger-sharp eyes.

“First, my friend, you know that my tenet is different from the others. Now, Fan Hai can be seen as my disciple... So my friend, please do not try to hurt him in the future.” The first sentence said by that man was remarkably shocking.

Ji Hao looked at him astonished.

‘Is Fan Hai truly his disciple? In this case, it was totally reasonable for Gui Ling to show up unexpectedly, take over the sword formation and chop that flying zombie released from in-between Fan Hai’s eyebrows high up in the sky’, thought Ji Hao. Could this be counted as Yu Yu playing a dirty trick on those people on his own initiative?

“Eh?” Yu Yu looked at that man, pretended to be surprised and said, “Priest Hua, were you saying that Fan Hai is your disciple? How little did I think of this? You’ve been making fortunes lately, and it seems that you have indeed attained some substantial conveniences. Did you truly dare to take them in... even those non-humankind beings?”

The face of the middle-aged man, who was called ‘Priest Hua’ by Yu Yu, turned more and more distressed. His lips were curved down so much that his mouth corners had even nearly reached his chin. He then sighed deeply and said, “The great Dao is burdensome, and I can only struggle as hard as possible. My friend, why do you have to make the taunt about me?”

Priest Hua then gave a complicated glance at Yu Yu and continued coldly, “I must thank you, my friend, for showing mercy to Fan Hai.”

Yu Yu waved his hand and responded carelessly, “I did not know that he was your disciple. The one who controlled the sword formation was Gui Ling, my disciple. The reason why she showed mercy was only because we did not want to draw the old, troublesome ones forth, who might be hard to deal with, by killing the little and weak ones.”

Pausing briefly, Yu Yu continued in a serious tone, “At least, before I stepped across this doorsill, we shall not get a rise out of those old ones, who we both knew in those years.”

Similar to Yu Yu, Priest Hua’s look changed slightly as well. He remained silent for a while, then said in a deep voice, “That spirit flying zombie of Fan Hai was raised with his secret Nether Moon magic in combination with the admirable magic of our sect. The two types of magic merged into one, which was as marvelous as the demiurgic power of nature itself. That flying zombie was a method to prove the great Dao of mine, but it was chopped by your sword formation......Yu Yu, you have to give me a reasonable explanation.”

Clang! Yu Yu pulled his long sword out. A clear, cyan-colored sword light dazzled across the sky while releasing a fierce and frosty sense of power. He stared at Priest Hua and said in a deep voice, “Here is the explanation you required!”

Priest Hua clenched his fingers and gripped the bamboo staff, staying silent for a short while, after which he gave a faint smile and said, “If you insist on being unreasonable...”

Yu Yu interrupted him with an ice-cold voice, “I was born like this. I am an unreasonable one. Do not threaten me with the safety of my disciples... If any of my disciples suffered any grievances like a headache, fever or losing a limb... hehe, you would see rolling heads all over your place.”

“Heh!” Priest Hua flicked his fingers at the bamboo staff and gave a deep roar.

Yu Yu too let out a deep growl as his pair of eyes shone with a frosty light, “If Fan Hai was not an Emperor in Power, he would have been chopped along with that zombie as well. Priest Hua, you took a non-humankind being as your disciple. For this, even if I and my two brothers went to smash your dojo together, that would be entirely reasonable.” said Yu Yu.

Priest Hua gave no response for a short while, after which he said coldly, “In this case, what happened this time has to be settled anyway. If you claim that destroying Fan Hai’s flying zombie is reasonable, then you should bring Miao Yin back to me.”

Yu Yu laughed out loud and conveniently pushed his long sword back into the sheath. He then nodded to Ji Hao and said, “The woman you burned to death that day, take out her remains!”

Ji Hao paused shortly. A couple of days ago, when he was controlling the sword formation back in Evil Dragon Bay, two men and two women abruptly broke into the formation, launching surprise attacks on Ji Hao in an attempt to kill him. However, one of them ended up being captured alive by Ji Hao while another one was burned dead. That woman who had been burned to death seemed to be called Miao Yin.

Silently, Ji Hao took out the few things left by Miao Yin.

One was that triangle-shaped clock. Once Ji Hao took that small clock out, it began buzzing slightly and struggling ceaselessly, seeming to fly to Priest Hua.

Another one was that broken, resplendent small streamer. This streamer was damaged pretty severely by Ji Hao’s Immemorial Sun Streamer. It now had only been glowing dimly, letting out thin and faint streams of light, looked weak and tired. This streamer seemed to have sensed the presence of Priest Hua as well, and it too intended to fly up towards him, yet it could only sway slightly and weakly.

Except for these two powerful treasures, Miao Yin’s remains were mostly small things like jade talismans, pills, magic crystals and jade coins. Among these small and piecemeal things, there was a thumb-sized, white-colored bead. Ji Hao found this bead from Miao Yin’s ash after she was incinerated.

Priest Hua immediately reached his hands out when he saw all these things.

However, Yu Yu’s hand was reached out too. Their palms clapped against each other loudly. Meanwhile, Yu Yu flicked his finger hard on the small bronze clock. Right after he did that, this ceaselessly buzzing clock quieted down, peacefully lying in Ji Hao’s arm.

“Only this is what we can give you back.” Yu Yu again flicked his finger towards those things held in Ji Hao’s arms. Along with his move, that bead flew up while spinning quickly, falling into Priest Hua’s hand.

With that sorrowful look, Priest Hua glanced at that small bronze clock held in Ji Hao’s hand, sighed slightly and said, “That’s a treasure that belongs to our sect.”

Yu Yu crossed his arms in front of his chest and responded slowly, “Well, your disciples were not good enough, so it got looted away. Now it’s a treasure that belongs to our sect!”

Again, Priest Hua sighed slightly, turned his eyes away and took out a golden-purple bowl from his sleeve.

Inside the golden-purple bowl, sparkling waves of water were faintly visible. Although it was only a human-head sized bowl, it gave people an illusion of being a vast, boundless expanse of mist-covered water. The water contained in the bowl looked like a colored glaze with phantasmagoric shadows, changing all the time. On the surface of the water contained in the bowl, a fresh and tender few bunches of lotus leaves were holding two thumb-sized lotuses buds, which were quite beautiful and adorable.

Priest Hua gave a snort while throwing that white bead left by Miao Yin into the bowl.

Waves of dulcet, beautiful melody came out of the bowl instantly and soon, florid lights emitted from the bowl. Within the short span of three to five breaths, a human silhouette dashed out of the bowl. It was no one else but Miao Yin, who had been burned to ashes by Ji Hao!

Miao Yin, wearing a marrymuffe, heavily thudded her knees against the ground, kowtowed to Priest Hua with a bitter look and said, “Dear Shifu, your talentless disciple, Miao Yin, is kowtowing to you. Thank you, my great Shifu, for saving my life and sparing me from the agony of reincarnation.”

Ji Hao popped his eyes out in astonishment, and couldn’t help but exclaim out, “Did she come back to life again?!”

Priest Hua squeezed a trace of a smile out of his face and said to Ji Hao a bit boastfully, “The power of our sect is limitless, this is nothing but a small case.”

Yu Yu was about to say something, but Ji Hao abruptly laughed aloud and said, “So it’s that bead. Was the remainder of Miao Yin’s soul hiding in that bead? Hm, this secret resurrecting magic is not too hard to deal with. In the future, when we kill your disciples again, we only have to perish the remains of their souls with magic spells. Thus, they would surely die for good!”

Once Ji Hao said that Yu Yu applauded and laughed loudly out, while the looks of Priest Hua and Miao Yin changed instantly. Both of them turned around, glaring at Ji Hao.