The Magus Era

In a quiet room in the Magi Palace...

The furnishing in the room was extremely simple. A small altar was placed against the wall, with a small, black jade tablet laid upon it. Occasionally, a dim stream of light would flash across the surface of the jade tablet, after which, a small character ‘Netherworld’ would appear for a short moment on the tablet.

In front of the jade tablet was an awfully old clay bowl, the inner surface of which was stained completely by dried blood. Inside the bowl, an especially dense and sticky stream of blood-red mist had been circling, seeming like a living creature.

Emperor Shun and Si Wen Ming sat facing each other beside a stone table with their legs crossed. Both of them had their eyes narrowed and weren’t saying anything.

After quite a long while, a black beam of light ejected out from the black jade tablet. Following that, large clouds of black mist rose from the ground, gradually transforming into numerous dark air-whirlpools, swooshing all over the room. Shrill ghost screams constantly came from those air-whirlpools, and from time to time, countless twisted faces showed up, partly hidden and partly visible.

The air temperature in the quiet room dropped swiftly. Soon, both the wall and floor were covered up by a thick layer of black ice.

Emperor Shun and Si Wen Ming moved their bodies simultaneously. They were both living human beings while that black mist was produced by the purest netherworld power, which was highly inimical to the life-force of living human beings. The bodies of Emperor Shun and Si Wen Ming were wrapped up by the black mist, and they instantly felt like being sliced by countless sharp daggers. The cold and bone-piercing black mist had been trying to drill into their bodies, which made them feel quite uncomfortable.

A black metal gate slowly emerged from the black mist. The gate opened, and Netherworld Priest walked out of it with his eyebrows knitted, then sat behind the table that was in between Emperor Shun and Si Wen Ming.

Si Wen Ming took out a clay jar of rice wine, put it on the table before Netherworld Priest’s face. Without saying too much, Netherworld Priest grabbed the clay jar, slapped the seal open and poured a few big mouthfuls of wine into his own mouth in a row. He then let out a long heavy breath filled with a dense scent of wine, and said, “Fortunately, you messaged me timely. I traced the sense of power and have found its true owner.”

Emperor Shun and Si Wen Ming continued looking at Netherworld Priest in silence.

Netherworld Priest dropped the clay jar, held both of his hands in his sleeves then narrowed his eyes. He grinned at Emperor Shun and Si Wen Ming and said, “For what I know, I will speak out frankly to you today. But...you have gained so many non-humankind captives this time, I want a million of them!”

Emperor Shun’s fingers flicked on the table for a few times swiftly. He looked at Netherworld Priest’s grinning face, helplessly sighed and said, “The number of captives we gained this time is indeed quite big, but the number of clans that each deserve a share is also huge. We, the few leaders, will all pitch in and try our best to get you, dear Netherworld Priest...”

Before Emperor Shun bargained, Netherworld Priest gave a bigger grin, showed his white shining teeth and said, “A million non-humankind captives, young and strong ones, with powerful souls and abundant life-force. Let your Magi Palace’s Magi do the work. Kill them with the magic spell that could leave their soul powers and life-force unharmed maximally, and hand their bodies and souls to me.”

Si Wen Ming said in a deep voice, “Sure, a million non-humankind captives, we will execute them and hand to you in three days tops.”

Netherworld Priest then let out a heavy breath, looked at Emperor Shun and said smilingly, “Emperor Shun, you are too merciful...As the emperor of the humankind, this is good, but also not good. However, this is your humankind’s business, I shall say no more.”

Narrowing his eyes, Netherworld Priest’s look turned serious as he continued, “What I am going to tell you might violate some rules. For a couple of people, even I don’t want to provoke. Those few are mean, and if they knew that I have seen through them, they would certainly come bring me troubles. Therefore, what I am about to tell you, don’t let anyone know that it was me who told you that.”

Emperor Shun slowly lowered is head and responded seriously, “I understand. Netherworld Priest... Please tell us what you know.”

Netherworld Priest narrowed his eyes and pondered for a while, then began talking slowly, “In fact, back in the era of the three emperors, when the path connected the heaven and human world wasn’t cut off, I had made quite a number of contacts with your humankind...For example, I’ve been living in the netherworld, and back in the ancient times, a powerful human being once broke into my territory for saving his dead wife. We fought for fifty-eight rounds, and after that, he forcibly snatched her soul back.”

Emperor Shun and Si Wen Ming held their breaths, daring not to make any noise, silently listening to Netherworld Priest’s statement.

“Later, something changed in this world. Many scriptures belonging to your humankind were either lost by your ancestors or burned by some people on purpose. Therefore, regarding things that happened in the ancient times, only some bits and pieces came down to you.”

“Not to mention myself. All these years, we made quite a lot of contacts, and that made us old acquaintances.” said Netherworld Priest while smilingly looked at Emperor Shun and Si Wen Ming. He continued while seeming to be a bit proud, “Dong Gong and Xi Mu have both been living a cloistered life for many years, but occasionally, they would make a trip to the human world, and each has given some graces out. You should have heard about them more or less.”

Emperor Shun remained silent when listening to Netherworld Priest with concentration while Si Wen Ming had already taken out a softened piece of leather, with a pen held in his hand, quickly recording Netherworld Priest’s words.

Netherworld Priest glanced at Si Wen Ming and continued, “Just now, the one who attacked that little phoenix was Priest Corpse. In terms of age and experience, he is no worse than me. Just that he wasn’t lucky enough to be born with great talents, which made him slightly weaker than me.”

Emperor Shun and Si Wen Ming turned more and more concentrated when listening to Netherworld Priest talking while Netherworld Priest slowly told them some secrets, which had already fallen into pieces and scattered in the long history of the humankind.

Actually, ever since the Chi Ban Mountain war, smart people like Emperor Shun and Si Wen Ming had already noticed that this whole war clearly had some outer forces stepping in, and even had been pushing it.

Some traces showed that Dishi Yanluo, who started this war, and Fan Hai, who tried to loot some benefits, both were pawns of someone else, who had been playing the real game. Especially, Fan Hai, he showed up confidently and attempted to earn himself some benefits, but in the end, he was beaten up, severely injured and made to flee by Dong Gong, Xi Mu, and Netherworld Priest, who showed up unexpectedly.

Netherworld Priest showed up in Chi Ban Mountain battlefield because Emperor Shun asked for his help and had promised him great benefits. However, for Dong Gong and Xi Mu, even Emperor Shun had only heard about these two legendary beings but never saw them in person.

Nevertheless, these two legendary beings abruptly showed up in Chi Ban Mountain and directly joined hands with Netherworld Priest, severely injuring Fan Hai. Based on what happened, that was a complete trap targeted at Fan Hai, and this trap was well planned even before the Chi Ban Mountain war started.

In other words, before the Chi Ban Mountain war broke out, someone had foreseen Fan Hai’s appearance and planned this ambush.

What happened after that during the war also proved Emperor Shun and Si Wen Ming’s guesses. Two sword formations killed countless non-humankind elites, the Blood Moon was defeated utterly, and Dishi Yanluo was forced to sue for peace.

Added with the fact that Ying Yunpeng and some other people suddenly turned their weapons around, along with many other traces, it was not difficult to tell that two terrifyingly powerful beings had used Chi Ban Mountain as a chessboard and had been playing a long game. Everyone, including Emperor Shun and Si Wen Ming and other leaders of the humankind, became their pawns unknowingly.

The most terrifying thing was that after the ‘game’ had ended, these human leaders had to clear up the mess left by the players, and the human leaders had completely no idea about who on earth had done all those things in the darkness.

All the time, Emperor Shun and Si Wen Ming thought that the Yu Clan was the number one enemy of the humankind. But by the time the Chi Ban Mountain war ended, they realized that upon the head of the humankind, a thick layer of bodeful dark cloud had been hiding without their notice.

They inquired deeply into this. Emperor Shun and Si Wen Ming insisted on digging the truth out through Netherworld Priest at all costs.

Netherworld Priest had been talking slowly in a gentle voice, while drops of cold sweat oozed out of Emperor Shun and Si Wen Ming’ foreheads constantly.

By the end, both of them couldn’t help but begin quivering slightly.