The Magus Era

Tens of naked, deadly pale infants had been floating in the air, eyes shining with black light, and staring expressionlessly at the Demon Clan Master Maguspriest, who had been smashed on the ground by the gigantic stone hand.     

These infants were evil creatures that had been raised by special dark magics of the Demon clan, neither alive nor dead, neither entity nor phantom. They were very mysterious and powerful, not afraid of any kind of weapons, and had the special ability of controlling souls of others, which was extremely hard to deal with.     

However, their only weakness was the man - the Master Maguspriest - who was controlling them. These evil creatures were way too powerful and savage, even the Demon Clan Maguspriests wouldn't risk to let them get out of control, and always controlled them with very rigorous magic spells. Therefore, when the Master Maguspriest had been knocked out by the stone hand, these evil infants had all lost connection with the outside world, blankly stopping their movements and floating in the air.     

"Kill him! Kill him!" An ear-piercing scream came from the sideway.     

Ji Hao turned around and saw Jiang Xue standing on a rock less than a mile away, pointing her finger at Ji Hao and yelling loudly, "Anyone who kills him and chops his head off, his or her clan will be under Bi Fang Clan's eternal protection!"     

Snorting sounds came from the crowd. There were countless warriors from numerals clans running over, however, Senior Magi and Maguspriests from those clans all sniffed scornfully when they heard Jiang Xue.     

All the clans gathered here were all free clans that had always been minding only their own business, neither under any other clan's protection or control. The Bi Fang Clan's eternal protection sounded pretty good, but in fact, once they accepted the protection of the Bi Fang Clan, they had to send a large amount of offering to the Bi Fang Clan every year; additionally, their warriors wouldn't be as free as nowadays, and instead, they had to be prepared for Bi Fang Clan's transfer command anytime.     

Therefore, what Jiang Xue had just promised was not that attractive to these clans.     

Jiang Xue seemed to have realised the mistake she made, instantly changed her words and said, "Whoever kills Ji Hao, his or her clan will get a reward from the Bi Fang Clan - weapons and armours. enough to arm three hundreds warriors, all forged by the best steel!"     

According to the rules of the Southern Wasteland, Jiang Xue beat her own chest hard while yelling loudly, "I swear in the name of our Bi Fang Clan ancestors' souls, my father is a Bi Fang Clan elder named Jiang Shu. Whoever gets Ji Hao killed, his or her clan will get three-hundred sets of armours and weapons that are of the highest quality as a reward."     

Red Horn struggled back up from the ground, waved his huge wooden stake and growled, "Five Hundred!"     

Jiang Xue gnashed her teeth, then nodded and said, "Five hundred, then five hundred!"     

Before Jiang Xue finished speaking, Red Horn shouted out and rushed towards Ji Hao along with the hundreds of Ghost Clan Warriors, while waving the large wooden stake.     

The ground in front of them suddenly split up, an over two hundred feet tall white stoneman, whose whole body was shining in a jade-like luster darted out from the ground at lightning speed; hundreds of yellow spell symbols flashing fast on its snow-white body.     

This stone giant was so tall that Red Horn's head couldn't even reach his knees. Judging from its gigantic, heavy body, he should be moving very sluggishly. However, the body shape of this stone giant seemed tall and slim, and additionally, he moved even faster and nimbler than an ape.     

He clenched his fist in the air, a stone pillar rose from the ground along with his move.     

"Grilled meat!"     

The Stone giant pulled the over thirty-foot-long, tank-thick stone pillar out of the ground, letting out a great roar and swung it towards Red Horn. Along with a silver light and loud whistle of the wind, the stone pillar thudded hard on Red Horn's body.     

Red Horn only had enough time to raise his wooden stake and hold it in front of his chest.     

The Stone giant's power was immeasurably great, the tremendous power easily shattered Red Horn's wooden stake and hit on Red Horn's body along with a cyan, fierce gale, caused by the stone pillar. Red Horn howled out in pain. His body suddenly transformed into a cloud of mist, and then transformed back in human shape. He began transforming his body quickly, alternating between his mist and human body, attempting to dodge the stone giant's attack.     

However, the stone giant was also a powerful creature that was created by nature and had been nourished by the vast natural power. A trace of mysterious and special natural power was contained in his attack, which was enough to hurt Red Horn even when he had transformed his body into a cloud of mist. More than a half of the black cloud was shattered, and large amounts of blood sprayed out from the mist.     

The mist started rolling inwards, and soon, followed by a loud cry, Red Horn fell down from the mist. Half of his body was smashed, he fell and tumbled for a short distance on the ground, then lied still as if he had died.     

Behind Red Horn, tens of most powerful Ghost Clan warriors were sent flying by the power of the stone giant's attack. All of them were coughing up blood and stumbled back. They looked at the stone giant, and couldn't hide the fear in their fiendish eyes.     

"Oi, spirit of the earth, we have never offended you!" A Ghost Clan Senior Magus, looking similar to Red Horn, yelled to the stone giant.     

"Grilled meat!" roared the stone giant with a very muffled yet thunderous voice, then swung the stone pillar towards the ground once again.     

Those Ghost Clan warriors didn't even dare to resist against the stone giant's attack. The fact that the Ghost Clan got to survive and prosper in the Southern Wasteland meant that they must have had their own way of survival. They were all clearly aware of the fact that creatures like this stoneman were formed and nourished by the nature power. They also knew that the power possessed by the stoneman-kind was unimaginably great, and probably only the dragon kind were stronger than them. In the Southern Wasteland, creatures that could compete with the stonemen in physical strength wouldn't be more than five all together.     

To fight against a crazy stoneman who kept murmuring 'grilled meat'? What kind of stupid people would dare to do that?!     

This over two hundred feet tall stone giant badly frightened all those warriors from the allied clans. All of them stopped running, looked around, hoping that some brave man would rush up and draw the stone giant's attention away, which would give them the chance to kill Ji Hao.     

However, if one was hoping like this, then hundreds, even thousands of people were all hoping the same thing, including the four Senior Magi from the Black Water Serpent Clan. All of those people stood stunned, looking at each other. At last, everyone stayed three miles away from Ji Hao, not a single warrior daring to move an inch closer.     

Jiang Xue was standing on the rock nearly a mile away. Her face was about to turn green in anger. "You useless cowards! Are you even men?! Aren't you the brave warriors of your clans?! It's just a stone monster! Why are you so afraid of that!" screamed Jiang Xue.     

While Jiang Xue was shouting, the ground split up again. A black arm and a yellow arm thrust out from the ground. Soon, an over sixteen hundred feet tall stoneman and a twelve to thirteen hundred feet tall stoneman came out of the ground.     

Compared with the snow-white stone giant who had shown up earlier, the whole body of the black stoneman was emitting a cold air that made people shiver; while the body of the yellow stoneman was extremely heavy. While the yellow stoneman was standing on the ground, within the area of hundreds of feet in radius around him, the gravity would rise to twenty times greater. Ji Hao was the nearest one to the yellow stone giant, and felt that his body had become so heavy that it was difficult to move even for a bit.     

Jiang Xue was stunned for a short while, then screamed out again, "A thousand sets of armours and weapons! Kill Ji Hao! Then you will get a thousand sets of armours and weapons that has been forged from the best quality steel in the Southern Wasteland!"     

All of the warriors gasped deeply.     

A thousand sets of armours and weapons, forged by steel, were way too attractive for these Southern Wasteland clans with low productivity.     

Jiang Xue waved her arms, it seemed as if she was going to say something else, however, the next instance a noise of an arrow piercing through a human body could be heard. An arrow made of ghost-face spiders' legs had silently flown across the air, and had penetrated Jiang Xue's white and tender neck from her back.     

Blood splashed out. The poison dipped on the arrow quickly spread inside her body. Jiang Xue's beautiful face suddenly turned dark green, after which her body fell silently on the ground.     

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[Translator note: The Chinese word 'Xue', as Jiang Xue's last name, means snow, therefore, the title of this chapter was 'snow melt.]