The Magus Era

This pure dark magic cane was completely lusterless, however, the terrifying, soul-level strike released by it was as great as mountain clasping and tsunami, and was able to surge directly and deeply into people’ souls, interrogate about the most hidden thoughts buried in the deepest area of one’s heart.

Both Yu Mu and Feng Xing’ bodies were now covered in sweat, which had been pouring down in streams. They looked straight at that magic cane while their knees abruptly thudded against the ground, then they solemnly and respectfully kowtowed to the cane.

Yu Mu popped his eyes up and began murmuring, “I, Yu Mu, have no parents and families, the Magi Palace raised me. I will support and protect our humankind forever and ever, and will never betray it. Under the watchful eyes of the gods in heaven, and under the witnesses of my ancestors’ souls, I, Yu Mu, will never do anything that might fail you, Minister Wen Ming and other elders, the Magi Palace and our humankind.”

Feng Xing’s entire body quivered. Perspiration quickly soaked the coarse flax cloth worn by him.

His pair of eyes sparkled with cyan light, while staring straight at the magic cane and growled loudly, “Under the witnesses of gods in heaven and souls of ancestors of the Divine Yi Clan, I, Feng Xing, will never, ever fail our humankind. I will spend my entire life to support and protect the humankind, and never betray…But, I, Feng Xing, have to avenge my Abba and Amma!”

Si Wen Ming’s eyes shined with a cold light. He stared at Feng Xing and responded harshly, “Only kill your enemies but never harm the humankind, can you do that?”

Feng Xing’s body slightly trembled, after which, his look became extremely determined, then answered loudly, “Yes!”

Si Wen Ming instantly laughed out loud. The other elders all smiled and nodded, while praising ‘good’.

Ji Hao was different from the two of them. That soul-level strike suddenly launched by the magic cane, which was overwhelmingly great and incomparably effective like a tsunami, could disable all magi, who were not that good at using their soul powers, from standing straight in front of it. Only Ji Hao, whose soul was contained in the Golden Dan, which was golden, shining and smooth, way more solid and harder than diamond could endure it. When that soul-level strike released by the magic cane surged over wave by wave, Ji Hao too felt a horrifyingly huge impact and he began sweating as well, as countless strange and magical images appeared in his sight.

However, just like reefs in a tsunami, Ji Hao’s soul stayed perfectly unmoved, not quivering even slightly.

He solemnly knelt on the ground, kowtowed to this magic cane. After thrice kneeling and nine times kowtowing, Ji Hao’s pair of eyes began shining with a magical, golden-red light, while he said in a serious tone, “I, Ji Hao, am a human being. In this life, I will protect and support the humankind until I die… never betray, never do anything that might harm the humankind.”

Ji Hao couldn’t explain why he knelt and kowtowed to this long and black cane, and that too thrice kneeling and nine times kowtowing, which was the highest etiquette. It was an instinct, that made Ji Hao feel that he should respect this magic cane more, not to its power, instead, he should respect its origin and history.

If one was to look closely, one would found that this cane was actually crooked. If one got rid of those complicated totems and patterns embossed on its surface, they would discover that in fact, this cane was a slightly crooked yet still straight spine.

This was a spine, a spine that was straight, forceful, containing a prehistoric power. Ji Hao’s blood was boiling, and his soul was slightly agitated by the great, soul-level strike released by the cane. His body, his bloodline and his soul, were all jumping with joy because of this magic cane. Gradually, a strange, magical sense of integration seemed to be growing out from his body, bloodline and soul.

After Ji Hao performed the highest etiquette to the magic cane, that magical sense of integration abruptly emerged from his body and perfectly merged with that overwhelming sense of power released from the cane, and quickly spread out in the air.

‘Hah~~~’!

Those Magi Palace elders who were on the scene all had extremely sharp eyes. All of a sudden, they discovered that subtle and magical sense of integration which abruptly emerged from Ji Hao’s body and quickly disappeared. They stared right at Ji Hao with shining eyes, as if they were looking at some kind of dreadful, legendary monster, eyes all filled with crazily great surprise and shock.

Si Wen Ming’s body slightly shook, glancing at Ji Hao in surprise and shock, then narrowed his eyes, carefully recalling that solemn look of Ji Hao when he performed the thrice kneeling and nine times kowtowing to the magic cane, and couldn’t help but grin at Ji Hao, as he said, “Ji Hao, I always had faith in you, and now that faith is growing greater and greater!”

He gripped the magic cane with both of his hands then heavily thudded it against the ground, and said harshly, “Under the witnesses of human ancestors’ souls, since today, Ji Hao, Yu Mu and Feng Xing are Magi of our inner palace. They will support and protect our humankind forever, and safeguard the offsprings of our humankind.”

While he was speaking, within the body of that tens of zhang tall human silhouette behind Si Wen Ming’s body, thick meridians lit up one after another, speedily spreading out like roots of trees, towards all directions.

One, two, three…a thousand, three thousand, five thousand…ten thousand, twenty thousand, thirty thousand meridians…

Ji Hao carefully looked at that human silhouette. At last, fifty-nine thousand and four-hundred seventy meridians lit up in that silhouette. Ji Hao clearly understood, these meridians were all that the Magi Palace had exploited with the secret meridian-expanding magic.

The number of these meridians were many times more than the power meridian systems possessed by those big-scale clans, which were inherited from other powerful creatures. However, this number hadn’t reached even a half of all meridians that the human body truly had. Only god knew how many efforts did the Magi Palace make, and how much time did generations of Magi Palace elders spend on this, to reach the current stage.

“Since you’re now our inner palace Magi, you shall learn the secret meridian-expanding skill.” Said Si Wen Ming quite seriously, “Take a blood oath to your ancestors’ souls, to prove that you will never mention this secret meridian-expanding skill to an outsider. This is a supreme, secret magic that only our inner palace Magi are eligible to attain.”

Ji Hao, Yu Mu and Feng Xing bit their tongues broke and took that blood oath, regarding never mentioning the Magi Palace’s secret meridian-expanding skill to any outsider.

This blood oath was a great restraint to Yu Mu and Feng Xing, but it meant absolutely nothing to Ji Hao.

“Good!” Si Wen Ming laughed out then nodded to the other Magi Palace elders, who stood around him. These elders all smiled as well. After that, each of them flicked their fingers and sent a drop of blood up into the air, flying towards the magic cane held in Si Wen Ming’s hands.

Afterwards, they growled out together, mouths releasing different colored light streams, surging into the magic cane like waterfalls.

Magnificent multicolor light streams flowed on the surface of the magic cane, following which, countless patterns of stars began lighting up. At last, the magic cane let out a loud clang and released three dazzling streams of light, each darting into Ji Hao, Yu Mu and Feng Xing’s body.

Loud sizzling noise instantly came from all three of their bodies. That three light streams swiftly surging around inside their bodies along with the pattern of meridians showed in the human silhouette’s body. Yu Mu and Feng Xing slightly trembled. In addition to those new meridians Ji Hao opened up for them, another three thousand meridians were opened.

Moreover, Magus Acupoints lit up one after another in those new meridians. In every single newly opened meridian, one new Magus Acupoint would be completely woken up! Within such a short span of time, each of them had three-thousand new Magus Acupoints woken up.

“The inner palace has exploited 59470 meridians with the meridian-expanding skill, as your welcome gift for joining our inner palace, we have rewarded you with three thousand new meridians. From now on, you are largely different in status from those outer palace apprentices.”

Si Wen Ming then continued seriously, “The rest part of the meridian-expanding skill was a supreme secret magic, condensed from the efforts of countless of our elders. If you want it, you can earn it with your contributions!”

Along with Si Wen Ming’s voice, shreds of light and shadows flashed inside the magic cane and next, three seemingly heavy, black tablets zipped out, slightly landing in Ji Hao, Yu Mu and Feng Xing’ hands. Ji Hao, Yu Mu and Feng Xing’s portraits and names were embossed on these, ancient style, exquisitely crafted tablets. Since this moment, they were no longer apprentices of the Magi Palace. Instead, they had become elite Magi of the inner palace.