The Magus Era

All elders and master Magi tutors sent by the Magi Palace were called to the main meeting camp. There were too many important things that were in need of their efforts.     

Ji Hao and his teammates, along with thousands of other apprentices of the Magi Palace, were led by an armed squad to a smaller campsite in the north-west corner of the base camp. When Ji Hao looked closer, he discovered that tens of banners that had different kinds of eagle totems painted on them were fluttering above this camp.     

"Phew, such a rush. Just wondering what kind of jobs will they arrange for us to do since we now have arrived here." Yu Mu was leisurely patting his own belly, while carrying his fully repaired huge pot on his back. He was curiously looking around while moving forward.     

"Hm, this is not a decent camp anyway." Feng Xing insisted on keeping zhangs of distance away from all the other apprentices, leaning his head like a thief and peeked into those tents through the apertures on the tents.     

Ji Hao carefully sniffed the air and sensed a strong smell of medicines, which was especially used to cure wounds. He also sensed a dense bloody scent. Most of these tents were completely empty, and not too much sense of power was leaking out of those tents. Obviously, it had been a while since someone had lived in these tents.     

As for tents that had people staying in, all of those people were either lightly or seriously wounded, and their wounds were mostly hard to deal with. Some of them had been releasing a strong sense of power. All these people were Senior Magi, but still, they were wrapped around by a dense medicinal scent. Obviously, their Senior Magi spirit blood was not powerful enough to cure themselves completely.     

The sky turned dark and was thickly dotted with sparkling stars.     

In the middle of the camp, on a square was a bright bonfire, lighting up the space for miles around.     

A young man, wearing a neat black shirt and heavy armor, possessing a square and handsome face that made him looks honest and highly esteemed, stood on the middle of the square. He looked at Ji Hao and the other apprentices of the Magi Palace with a frown.     

Deep growls rose into the air. These apprentices, who were carefully selected by the Magi Palace, stopped walking and stood still, dividing into over a thousand small groups. The division happened according to how well they knew each other and were separated in the square. Everyone was curiously observing this armed young man, silently guessing who he might be.     

"I am Huaxu Lie. From now on, you're all under my direct command." When all the apprentices had quieted down, this young man's voice resounded through the entire camp.     

The groups of apprentices, who had stopped talking and walking just now, immediately began whispering to each other again. Was this a hoax? Was he really one of the Huaxu family members? The Huaxu family was an ancient and legendary family and they were very mysterious. Their people rarely connected with the outside world. Even in the highest meeting room of Pu Ban City, not a single elder of the Huaxu family had appeared.     

The Huaxu family's people showing up in this great war, what did this mean?     

Did the emperor and his ministers perceive something serious and were forced to use those strong powers that were hidden all this time by them? Or were there any other reasons?     

Man Man was fiddling with her pair of hammers while murmuring, "Huaxu Country? That's a nice place. Their honey is so, so sweet, and has a nice aroma. Man Man loves Huaxu Country's honey jam the most."     

Hearing her words, Yu Mu, who was standing aside, instantly swallowed a big mouthful of drool while his eyeballs turned greedy green. He glowingly stared at Man Man, with the fat on his face shaking from time to time.     

Ji Hao shook his head, turned back to Huaxu Lie and focused on what he was about to say.     

"You are all elites amongst the Magi Palace's apprentices and possess Senior Magus level of powers. Besides, what you have learned and mastered is way more than any ordinary warrior has ever learned. Every single of you can be ten times more destructive than the other warriors, maybe even hundreds, thousands of times more."     

Huaxu Lie's eyes were glowing sharply, slowly glancing through each apprentice.     

"Therefore, you won't be used as ordinary warriors, neither will you be sent to join an official army of the Chi Ban Mountain. From this moment on, you're soldiers of my special army, led by me, Huaxu Lie!"     

"From now on, you can start your fights against the non-humankind monsters. Then entire Chi Ban Mountain will be your battlefield!"     

"You can team up with anyone you want, use any method that you like, do whatever you can, to disturb those monsters... sneakily attack them, slaughter them! Their dead bodies will forge your medals!"     

Along with a swooshing sound, a black and blood-red stone monument abruptly rose from the ground behind Huaxu Lie. This thick stone monument was hundreds of zhang wide and over thousands zhang tall, covered by a sticky layer of flowing blood-red liquid.     

Loud jade-clashing noises then came from the stone monument, along with which, thousands of palm-sized blood-red tablets darted out from the stone monument, stirring up sharp gusts of wind towards those apprentices. Ji Hao immediately raised his hand and gripped the tablet that zipped towards him. His finger was even cut broken by the sharp edge of the jade tablet. A slight stream of blood spread on that tablet, which instantly built a magical connection between Ji Hao and the tablet itself.     

"Every time you kill an enemy, this tablet will record your military exploit credit for that."     

Huaxu Lie then said harshly, "Kill one slave of those monsters, you will get one credit point, kill one slave warrior, you will get five credit points. One Jia Clan warrior, your credit point will vary from a hundred to no ceiling limit, according to how powerful that enemy was. Yu Clan warriors, your credit point start from a thousand to no ceiling limit."     

"You can come to me and trade those credits for medicines, tools, weapons, magic treasures, slaves, fighting beasts, or beautiful women. If you have enough credit points, you can even earn a personal territory that is enfeoffed by the alliance of the human clan."     

"If you're not interested in that stuff, you can trade for official positions with your credit points. From the leader of a five people squad, which is the lowest position among our army, to being the commander of a ten thousand people troop, and even like me, directly lead an entire army and command millions of warriors...As long as you have enough credit points, you can make it happen."     

"If you're not interested in these official positions either, you can trade for government positions with your credit points. Maybe, someone among you will sit in Emperor Shun's meeting hall in the Pu Ban City one day, and make decisions for the future of the entire human race."     

Huaxu Lie stared at the groups of apprentices with serious and sharp eyes, then continued, "If you feel that none of these awards will satisfy you, I can promise you that as long as you can kill one of those emperors in power of the Yu Dynasty, the chair of the human Emperor will be expecting you! The more you do, the more you will earn!"     

Ji Hao stared at Huaxu Lie in shock and couldn't help but shake his head.     

He had read all the books he picked up in the Magi Palace during his journey here. By now, he had already learned what kind of scary beings those twelve emperors in powers were. Each of them possessed terrifyingly great power and were nearly invisible. Not to mention that they were surrounded by millions of incredibly powerful warriors at any given moment.     

Even if the humans sent peak-level Divine Magi to sneakily attack one of those Emperors, they wouldn't be able to get even a chance to approach an Emperor by less than a hundred miles.     

Indeed, the throne of the human Emperor was attractive, but to trade for it by killing an Emperor in command of monsters, it was not even possible.     

Right after he had finished his explanation, Huaxu Lie gave his order straight away.     

"You have just arrived from the Pu Ban City, and are all filled with powers and life-force. You're so young and passionate, you must be eager to chop some enemies and make your contributions!"     

"Therefore, I will not interfere... you can just release your passion as much as you want!"     

"Everyone, grab your packs and get into the Chi Ban Mountain! Hunt as much as you like! Go build your achievements! For your clans, for the name of your families, for your ancestors! Bring glories back!"     

"Do not humiliate your ancestors!"     

A violent gale blew out from beside Huaxu Lie and across the camp. Ji Hao and the other apprentices couldn't even stand still as they all were pushed into the Chi Ban Mountain in the night by that roaring, hurricane-like gale.