Note: 1/2 Sponsored chapter by SAURABH BANSAL
A big thank you to Saurabh Bansal for being our first official donator for The Magus Era. Thanks from the whole team. :)
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Chapter 171 - Decision
Deep within the Magi Palace, was a forbidden area, which no one except the elders knew about.
There were countless stars shining splendidly in the void; the thick and powerful power of the stars were darting and spreading without being restrained. Now and then, two streams of star power, each with different natural quality, would bump against each other, causing a loud, resonating, bell-ringing-like bang to be released that resounded throughout the void.
Tens of black jade boards were floating in the void, each were a zhang wide and a foot thick, and were glowing with a crystal-like lustre; on the surface of these black jade boards all the knowledge that the Magi Palace had gathered since it had been built, were engraved with sesame-size words.
Hundreds of elderly men, who were wearing flax long gowns, and had wrinkled faces, were sitting on those black jade boards with their legs crossed. Those jade boards were rising and falling, following the movements of the star power steams. Only a few jade boards in the middle, which were releasing a great sense of powers, were staying perfectly still.
Si Wen Ming sat on a black jade board in the middle with his waist straightened, and repeated every word that had been said by Ji Hao earlier.
“Ji Hao said that he wants to be the most powerful Magus,” said Si Wen Ming with a resonating voice, and his hands put on his knees. “He said that the most powerful means that he will be the best in medicine making, spell symbol drawing, weapons forging, magus treasures making, and all the other subjects like magic curses, communicating with gods and driving out evil spirits.”
“Therefore, he wants to study in as many subjects as he can, he…”
Si Wen Ming’s words were interrupted by an elderly man, who was wearing a black long gown, had a long beard, and his whole body wrapped in water-like light. Inside the pupils of the elderly man, muddy waves of water seemed to have been rotating, and slight ocean wave sounds were coming from his eyes. The elderly man interrupted Si Wen Ming’s speech with a frosty voice, “Unscrupulous! Ignorant kid! Does he know that the classics stored in our Magi Palace are all-inclusive? From the ancient ages to present days, seventy to eighty percent of all the knowledge that has been discovered or learned by all the clans in the world are gathered here, in the Magi Palace!”
Slapping hard on the board that he had been sitting on, the elderly man’s pupils then spurted out two zhang long streams of cold light, while he continued harshly, “He is no one but a young kid from the Southern Wasteland, how dare he talk like that?! He has an exaggerated opinion of his own abilities!”
Tens of zhang away, another elderly man, who had been sitting on another black jade board, with water-like lights rising around him and also wearing a black long gown, let out a sigh slowly and said, “Ha, such an ignorant little kid. Even we have each been only concentrating on one subject and learned that every subject was so extensive and profound that we can’t possibly achieve the perfection of our own chosen subjects even at the end of our lives. How dare that little kid brag like this?”
This elderly man then crossed his hand on his abdomen, then slowly continued, “Such a presumptuous kid, he could cause us many troubles if we continue to keep him here in the Magi Palace. I suggest that we kick him out.”
Wulong Yao, sitting on a black jade board that was floating not far away from the two elderly men, let out a cold smile, looked at the two elderly men and said, “You two shameless things, I assume, the real reason why you are holding such a prejudice to this little kid and are trying to give him a hard time, is that Ji Hao has almost wiped out the entire Water Ape Clan back in the Southern Wasteland, isn’t it? Why don’t you take a look at yourselves, see how old you are? You are old enough that half of your bodies are standing in your graves, and you could probably die tomorrow morning! How could old things like you insidiously attempt to hurt a little kid? Don’t you feel ashamed?”
Slapping the black jade he was sitting on, Wulong Yao continued with the cold smile remaining on his face, “Ji Hao is a good kid, I can’t tell much about other subjects, but judging only from what he got on medicine making, he is especially talented, to the point that I cannot estimate his potential.”
The two elderly men with black gowns glanced at each other, then the one who talked at first responded with a scornful smile, “Wulong Yao, we were only talking about the facts, you don’t need to say those meaningless words. He is no one but a little kid, how could we purposely give him a hard time? You are seeing him way too highly while over downgrading us.”
With a deep gasp the elderly man then continued in a frosty voice, “I know that you were friends with Ji Hao’s ancestors, but this shouldn’t be the reason for you to blindly support him. You said that he is especially talented, could you tell us, what kind of marvelous things has he done that made you say such things?”
Wulong Yao grinned coldly while he grabbed a magic storage bag tied around his waist. He opened that magic storage bag, following his movement, three-feet square jade slips, which were as thin as a cicada's wing, flew out from the storage bag one after another. Not long after, hundreds of thousands of jade slips flew out, piled up and floated beside Wulong Yao, nearly as big as a small house.
“This is the [Medicine Classic], compiled by our Magi Palace!” said Wulong Yao while staring at the two elderly man with black gowns, “Back when I first had broken through the Senior Level, I had spent an entire three years to thoroughly memorize this book, but that kid, Ji Hao, did that only in twenty days.”
While speaking, Wulong Yao grabbed another storage bag from around his waist and let another amount of jade slips out.
“The [Medicine Classic] had recorded all kinds of magical and powerful materials that can be used as medicine in the world, such as roots, flowers, leaves of plants, and bones, blood, tendons, and flesh of animals, and other mysterious kinds of materials. Different from the [Medicine Classic], is the [General Records of Magic Medicine]; whether from the four wastelands or the Midland, all kinds of magical medicinal prescriptions that were developed by all the clans in the world, has been included in this book. The content of this book is more than the [Medicine Classic] by over ten times, but Ji Hao has already memorized everything in this book as well.”
The facial expressions of hundreds of elderly men sitting on those black jade boards, changed simultaneously. They all turned their faces towards Wulong Yao, and stared at him with shining eyes.
The two elderly men with black gowns remained silent, not saying anything.
Far away from these elderly men, the hundred-zhang tall giant, who had fixed Ji Hao’s tight armour earlier, had been sitting extra carefully on a gigantic black jade board that was pieced together by hundreds of smaller jade boards. The giant abruptly shouted out harshly, “Don't you two old snakes make troubles here! Seriously, the kid Ji Hao, I like him!”
The giant then continued with a thunderous voice, “I am also wondering how on earth Ji Hao’s does brain work, has he memorized all those leaves and flower stuff of the old medicine as well? Haha, well, my brain works rather slow, so I spent a hundred and seventy years on memorizing books like [Mineral Classic], [General Records of Magic Tool], [Secret Forging Technique], but that little kid, Ji Hao, has memorized all of them within only two months!”
The giants took a deep breath, took out a huge vat of booze from an unknown place, opened his mouth and gulped two mouthfuls of booze, then let out a sigh of satisfaction, laughed out aloud and said, “Since this little kid has got such talent, we should just let him try! If he can’t make it, he could always focus on learning blacksmithing with me!”
Wulong Yao glared at the giant and said, “Even if he couldn’t reach the best in every subject, and decide to focus on only one subject, he has to stay with me and learn medicine making!”
Tens of elderly men were shouting simultaneously, everyone yelling that if Ji Hao was unable to achieve what he wanted, he could always shift his focus on learning the inherited secret classics and magic of their respective subjects.
The two elderly men with black long gowns looked very embarrassed now, they glanced at each other, then looked at the other few elderly men, who seemed a bit embarrassed as well. However, none of them showed any sign of saying anything.
Si Wen Ming looked at all those yelling elderly men, then grinned gently and said, “Since you, the elders of the Magi Palace have said so, then let’s give Ji Hao an opportunity. From now on, Ji Hao is allowed to use all of the materials possessed by the Magi Palace based on his needs, as long as he doesn't waste them on purpose.”
Si Wen Ming then continued with a smile, “I am sincerely looking forward to the emergence of a true versatile Magus, here in our Magi Palace.”
The elderly man with the black gown abruptly shouted out in anger, “Si Wen Ming! You can’t just do whatever you want, and go against the rules! In the whole world, have you ever seen a single versatile Magus? How could a person master everything?!”
Si Wen Ming looked at the elderly man with cold eyes, then asked blandly, “Are you sure that there is no such kind of ‘person’?”
Hearing Si Wen Ming’s words, the two elderly men with black gowns and all the other people present, quivered simultaneously, none of them could let a word out.