The Magus Era

The arc roof was supported by twelve thick and huge pillars, which were built in two lines, with each having bronze candle holders. Thumb-thick candles, which were made from animal oil, were blazing and letting out sizzling noise. Every time the oil popped in the flame, the candle light would abruptly grow a slight bit brighter.

Under each pillar, a few fully armed warriors were standing there, while holding their hands in front of their chests, each carrying a long sword. From under their thick metal masks, one could hear their beast-like heavy breathing.

A few maidservants, who were wearing white long dresses, gently and cautiously walked out from behind a screen in that hall, without making any sound. They silently walked across the smooth floor like ghosts, and quickly placed tens of plates of food, fresh fruits, and wine pots on the stone table, in front of Ying Yunpeng and Prince Xu.

Because Prince Xu was an honoured guest, Ying Yunpeng had generously served all the rarest, luxurious and precious food on the table. This was a feast worthy of the gods. The ingredients were from many kinds of magical and rare animals, including the liver of a dragon and the marrow of a phoenix, and all kinds of rare, fresh fruits. Even not mentioning the others, the hundred-fruit wine, contained in a jade wine pots that was placed in front of each of them, was an extremely rare and valuable wine. This wine was produced in the Northern Wasteland by a mysterious non-human clan, called Spirit Hall. Within the translucent jade pot, the originally amber-coloured wine, now looked beautifully green, even glowing faintly. This was so, because Ying Yunpeng had put a cholecyst of a dragon in each of the pots. All this, just to make Prince Xu feel like a truly honoured guest.

In this world, the dragon and phoenix kind were the two most powerful beings. Both of them were legendary, mysterious, and free from vulgarity, hardly ever making any connection with other kinds.

The cholecyst of a dragon had innumerable amazing effects. It was even truly nourishing even Magi at the Divine Magus level. Each cholecyst was extremely valuable. Hunting a real dragon down to dig its cholecyst out was extremely hard, not even mentioning that even if you did manage to hunt one down, the terrifying revenge of the dragon race should be expected if they discovered it.

A pot of wine that had a cholecyst of a dragon soaked in it would be treasured even by Emperor Shun himself. Without a doubt, there was no possible way that Prince Xu would express being dissatisfied by such a great treatment.

As anticipated by Ying Yunpeng, Prince Xu was indeed quite satisfied. He poured himself a glass of wine, then slowly and elegantly drank the glass of sticky glowing wine, then honesty praised, “It’s amazingly delicious, such a marvelous wine, thank you my dear elder, thank you.”

Ying Yunpeng let out a bland grin, then responded in a careless tone, “Just some small stuff, not even worth mentioning. Dear Prince Xu, is there anything I can do for you this time? Are you looking for some rare features? If so, the Ten Sun market is your best choice.”

Prince Xu smiled, then shook his head and said, “Today, I’m not in that mood. Hm, elder Yunpeng, have you heard of Meng Ao, the Deacon of the Magi Palace?”

Ying Yunpeng raised his eyebrows, grinned and said, “Yes, I have met him a few times, and was quite impressed by that kid. Although he is not working directly for me, that kid is astute and quite capable, with good communication skills as well. He is also a competent helper of elder Meng Jiang, from the Qiong Qi Clan of the Western Wasteland.”

Ying Yunpeng poured himself a glass of wine and drank it up as well, then continued while smiling, “Elder Meng Jiang is a friend of mine.”

“Ah, in this case, it’s more than great. That Meng Ao probably died already,” Prince Xu said.

Prince Xu’s words made the pupils of Ying Yunpeng shrink suddenly. He remained silent for a while, then slightly flicked his fingers on the stone table and said in a deep voice, “Dead? How do you, my dear prince, know about it? You didn’t watch him die, did you?”

Prince Xu shook his head again, then told Ying Yunpeng about everything that had happened in the new territory of the Rong Mountain Clan, even including the fact that he had bribed Meng Ao with a bag of magic crystals, telling Meng Ao to return to the Magi Palace and frame Ji Hao. He told Ying Yunpeng every single detail about the serie of events.

“When Meng Ao left, I put some small magic on him. However, after less than an hour, the magic mark that I had left on his body disappeared suddenly. Therefore, I came hurriedly to you, my dear elder.”

Ying Yunpeng couldn’t help but sneer after hearing Prince Xu’s words, “Why me instead of Meng Jiang?”

Prince Xu looked at him with a smile and said, “Elder Meng Jiang and those kids working for him have been more than healthy lately, but you, my poor elder Yunpeng, it seems that people who are close to you, have all encountered some accidents. Although I don’t live in Pu Ban city, I have, more or less, heard about things that happened around here. I know everything that I should to be knowing.”

Ying Yunpeng drank up another glass of wine, then a third glass, then a fourth. Soon, a whole potful of wine was emptied by him. He even took that cholecyst of the dragon, which was specially processed with magic and had shrunk to a baby-fist-sized from being zhang-big, directly out of the pot and put in his mouth, chewing it slowly.

Ying Yunpeng remained silent for quite a while, without saying anything. However, a faint sound of footsteps could be heard outside the hall, causing the faces of both, Ying Yunpeng and Prince Xu, to tighten simultaneously. With their status, except those guards who were working in this hall, who dared to walk directly in?

Anger could be seen on the face of Ying Yunpeng and he was about to yell, but suddenly, his wrinkled face was filled with a happy grin, like a blooming flower. At the same time, he hurriedly stood up and walked towards the middle-aged man, who was walking slowly towards them.

“Mr. Ku Quan! You finally returned! You went away for nearly a half year. Without you, there were many problems that I didn’t know who to consult with. This time, if you were here, I probably won’t end up so...”

The one who had been walking slowly over from the outside, was a middle-aged man, who had jade-like, glowing white skin, long hair that was hanging loosely on his back, and three strands of long beard on his chin. This man was wearing a crappy white flax coat that was thickly dotted with patches, and a star rope wrapped around his waist serving as a belt. His feet were bare and were white and tender, inches longer than the feet of any ordinary men, being pure and clean without even a stain.

Prince Xu looked coldly at this middle-aged man, who was called Ku Quan, with eyes that were filled with pride.

Judging from the sense of power that was being released from the body of this man, Prince Xu could sense clearly that this Ku Quan was quite weak. His power was only equal to that of a newly promoted Junior Magus, who had still been a Novice Magus on day earlier. Prince Xu was quite confident that he could shatter this Ku Quan into pieces with a single blow.

If there was anything that seemed special of this Ku Quan, than that would be his eyes. His pair of eyes were especially bright, glowing with a magical light, which had formed half an inch thick halo around each of his eyeballs. But that was all. This Ku Quan seemed by no means powerful.

Once this Ku Quan had walked into the hall, he seriously fixed his eyes on Ying Yunpeng, looking at him from head to toe.

Abruptly, Ku Quan let out a sneer, then thrust his hand out. His fingers released beams of white light that were a foot in length, grabbing the air above Ying Yunpeng’s head.

“Elder, have you encountered some weird people lately? Why does your luck seem to be depressed to such a point, and your soul is covered by dust? Even among your three souls and seven spirits[1], one soul and two spirits were lost. If you hadn’t been carrying the jade talisman that I had given you, I’m afraid that you...,” said Ku Quan.

Along with his move, a puff of black smoke suddenly gushed out of Ying Yunpeng’s head, within which, a few extremely odd and ancient style spell symbols flashed across. After that, both those spell symbols and the puff of black smoke exploded, dissipating in the air.

Ying Yunpeng quivered and felt that a gust of cool and clear wind blew right into his head and came out from the bottoms of his feet, then his mind, which had been quite confused all these days, instantly returned to being clear and peaceful.

Ying Yunpeng immediately let out a growl, “Mr. Ku Quan! The few poor kids of mine, they, they’re dead! In such cruel, horrible ways!”

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[1]Three souls and seven spirits: Translated from three Hun(Chinese: 魂) and seven Po (Chinese: 魄). Hun and Po are types of souls in Chinese philosophy and traditional religion. Within this ancient soul dualism tradition, every living human has three different kinds of souls, which are, soul of life, soul of perception and soul of spirit. The seven spirits also have their different names and functions. After death, the soul of life and soul of perceptions will dissipate in the world, and the soul of spirit will reincarnate into another life, all seven spirits will dissipate as well.

[2]Ku Quan as a name, literally means ‘bitter spring’.

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Edited by SecondRate

Translated by XianXiaWorld