The Magus Era

Beside the Blue Jade Lake, was a vast primitive jungle.

The raindrops never stopped swishing down from the sky, and the jungle had been quivering in the storm, while the dense mist had been madly rolling and spreading in the jungle. Except for the roars of the wind and the rain, and the brushing sound of the branches and leaves, none of the other sounds could be heard from the jungle.

Even the most ferocious beast wouldn’t be willing to leave its nest during the rainy season, unless it was starving. Almost all of the beasts and birds had been quietly staying in their nests, enduring the endless rain, day after day.

Suddenly, the mist was dispersed by an unknown power. Tens of fully armed Jia Clan’s warriors rushed across the jungle, without making any noticeable sounds. Two pairs of eyes were shining on each of these warrior’s faces.

They seemed like emissaries who had come from the underworld and were sent by death itself, responsible for harvesting lives. Wherever they ran through, all of the animals, no matter if it were the beasts hiding in their tree holes or the birds hunkered in their nests, had all been silently and gently killed by these Ji Clan’s warriors, with a slight touch.

No sound of any living creature could be heard. The jungle they had walked across, gradually became deadly silent. Only the roaring of the storm could be heard, which seemingly ruled the whole world.

Behind these Jia Clan’s warriors, hundreds of gigantic sword-edge spiders had been quietly and quickly moving forward. Each of these sword-edge spiders carried large groups of dark-skinned warriors, who were wearing full leather armour. These great, dark troops hid under the beaches and leaves, silently moving towards Man Man’s manor.

The hundreds of sword-edge spiders carried at least ten thousand warriors on their backs. Each of these warriors had a cold and cruel expression. Obviously, these were all powerful, elite warriors. From time to time, a dim light would flash across the armours worn by them and the weapons held in their hands. Judging based on the Southern Wasteland’s standards, all of their armours and weapons were the best quality magical tools.

Behind these sword-edge spiders, twenty thousand feet long metal centipedes were rushing across the jungle like a fierce gust of wind.

On the backs of those metal centipedes, nearly a thousand Jia Clan warriors had been sitting or standing, with a cold and greedy smile on their faces. They looked through the dense jungle, at the magnificent palace located on the cliff afar, seemingly floating above the clouds.

Jiang Yao had been standing on the metal centipede’s head that had been rushing in the front. Her face was ferociously twisted like that of a ghost, and her body was slightly trembling; her eyes were filled with flames that contained a bone-deep hatred. She had been cursing in a low voice with her teeth gnashing. A thumb-sized, black scar could be clearly seen on Jiang Yao’s throat.

Not long ago, Jiang Yao had gathered tens of clans and set an ambush for Ji Hao, but Ji Hao had set up a counterplot, pretending that his soul had been controlled by the Master Maguspriest of the Demon Clan with its soul-calling magic, and directly walked up to Jiang Yao, and launched a deadly attack on her.

Fortunately, Jiang Yao had her life-saving treasure, given by Jiang Bo, with her; therefore, although she had been badly wounded by Ji Hao, she succeeded in getting away.

However, Ji Hao had taken out his thorns of life and death, the inherited Magic treasure of Qing Fu, and used the three blackthorns, which had been used and nourished by hundreds of Qing Yi Clan’s Maguspriests, for over ten thousand years, and had attacked her once again.

If she wasn’t the daughter of Jiang Bo, the Bi Fang Clan’s Master Maguspriest, who could use all kinds of rare and precious medicine of the Bi Fang Clan storage to save Jiang Yao, by now, she would belong dead. Even though Jiang Bo tried his best to cure her, the three highly poisonous black thorns had left deep, ugly scars on Jiang Yao's body.

Her throat, chest and lower abdomen, where the three most important Magus Acupoints were located, had all been punctured by the three thorns of life and death. The poison had spread over her body, which made Jiang Yao, who had just broken into the Senior Level two years ago, fell back to the Junior level; apart from this, her body had been damaged by the poison of the blackthorns, therefore, even amongst Junior Magi and Maguspriests, Jiang Yao was now at the bottom level.

Her plan had failed, and her body was damaged, if all these facts could still be accepted by Jiang Yao, then Jiang Xue’s death really drove her into a desperate situation.

Jiang Xue’s father was Jiang Shu, an elder of the Bi Fang Clan, and also one of the important followers of Jiang Bo. He could even be considered as one of Jiang Bo’s arms. Jiang Xue was the only child of Jiang Shu. More importantly, she was a highly important tool for Jiang Bo and Jiang Shu to draw Ji Shu closer, and to control Ji Shu, which meant, Jiang Xue was incomparably important for the Bi Fang Clan to seep into and to control the Fire Crow Clan.

But, Jiang Xue was killed by Ji Hao. Jiang Yao didn’t even know how to explain this to Jiang Bo and Jiang Shu.

“I want them to die! I want them die! They must die!” Jiang Yao growled madly and hoarsely. From the pupils to the white of her eyes, the entire eyeballs of hers had become a weird and a scary blood-red colour, shining with a vicious blood-red light. “Ji Hao, Ji Xia, Qing Fu, and everyone that is related to them, all of them have to die! All of them have to die!!”

A sizzling sound came from her neck; along with which, a wisp of black smoke rose from the scar on her neck. The poison which hadn’t been completely dispersed from her body, was again corroding the tender skin near the wounds. Jiang Yao frowned in pain, and nearly fell down from the metal centipede’s back.

Di Luo, who had been standing beside Jiang Yao thrust his arms out and held Jiang Yao; after that, he put his arms around her waist, and never left her body.

“My respectful Maguspriestess, your injuries are so serious...what about that ‘Wu Xian’ magical medicine? Don’t you have any more of that?” yelled Di Luo dramatically; at the same time, he put his nose near Jiang Yao’s neck, breathing deeply and fascinated. The light aroma emitted from Jiang Yao’s body often made Di Luo feel that his mind had been carried away from his body.

The primitive land, the magical, vast jungle, and a noble, beautiful Maguspriestess from a powerful primitive clan, all these were way too attractive to Di Luo. He swore that he was totally obsessed in the breathtakingly, charming Jiang Yao.

Since Di Sha had left the Southern Wasteland, now he, Lord Di Luo, was the most powerful man in the Blood Fang. He was certainly capable of doing something for this beautiful Maguspriestess. But, of course, everything that he was going to do for this beautiful Maguspriestess had a condition, how could he do anything for free anyway?

Noble people like him, from the Yu Clan, were unimaginable honourable and respectable. To work for free? No, such a stupid thing was not what Di Luo was going to do.

“Lord Di Luo!” grinned Jiang Yao, while staring at Di Luo with that pair of blood-red eyes, and said, “Kill Ji Hao, Ji Xia and their families for me, wipe all my enemies out; then, I will accept any of your...reasonable demands.”

“Any demand?” said Di Luo, he couldn’t hide the happiness deep down in his heart.

“Anything! Yes!” Jiang Yao’s voice became especially cold and ruthless, “For now, I need you to kill every single person inside this manor, right now! I know that you people know some powerful, large-scale magical formations; I want you to arrange the most powerful large-scale magical formation here, around this manor, and use it to capture Ji Hao alive, and kill all of the others!”

Jiang Yao was born extremely beautiful and attractive. At the moment, she had been shrouded by a cold and ferocious vibe, a looming blood-red light had been circling around her body. In Di Luo’s eyes, this woman now looked like a highly poisonous, beautiful flower, and had an irresistible charm that could make any man drown in it.

“Even the most beautiful, noble lady in our capital doesn't have one millionth of your beauty!” Di Luo shrugged and signed with a low voice, and said, “Oh, I’m really jealous of that man...Okay, I’m willing to do anything for you...I should seriously consider if I should send a duel request to your husband to put him down in front of your lovely face.”

“Kill Ji Shu? Haha!” Jiang Yao chuckled and said with a tone that was filled with madness and viciousness, “If you, lord Di Luo, can satisfy me this time, I don’t mind to offer you a chance like that. To be honest, I'm already starting to lose patience towards that useless man.”

Di Luo let out a shout excitedly, then waved his hand hard in the air.

A large piece of light-gray smoke mixed with the watery mist, and flew into the palace along with the fierce wind.

Guards who had been standing outside of the manor’s front gate slightly trembled, then suddenly fell down on the ground, while blood was gushing out of their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths. Large groups of Blood Fang’s warriors rushed up through the stairs, raised their heavy weapons and ruthlessly chopped towards those poor guards, who lay on the ground paralyzed, being unable to move their bodies.

A bone-cracking sound started coming out from the manor, and a dense blood scent slowly spread out; however, once the blood scent came out of the manor, it had been dissipated in the air by the storm.

TL note: Am I the only one who failed to picture Jiang Yao as ‘extremely beautiful’ in my head? She seems always wearing a very twisted face, the best I can do is to picture her as a lizard.

EDT: Same.