The Magus Era

Note: Regular Chapter 2/7

Chapter 180 - Shaosi

The sounds of footsteps were loud and clear, and everyone on the square heard it.

At the moment the footsteps were heard, Taisi had been persuading Ji Hao to swallow that sphere of life-force with an evil smile on his face, looking like a ghost which was trapped in the water and was eagerly looking for someone else to replace it. But once he heard the footsteps that sounded like the rings of a silver bell, Taisi’s scrawny body instantly quivered, and his nail-like bony face suddenly twisted. He immediately ran behind Ji Hao, just like a frightened mouse.

Ji Hao was unaware why Taisi acted like such, and turned his head in the direction where the footsteps were coming and was trying to find the reason out.

A white silhouette walked over. The person was wearing simple white flax clothes, thin soled boots made from the tendons and leather of beasts, and her waist was wrapped around by a black belt, which was also made from the tendons of a beast. Her long hair was hanging loosely on her back and was swaying slightly with her movements.

Ji Hao’s eyes were shining suddenly, and the burning intention of fighting that had been lingering in his mind, seemed to have disappeared by about thirty percent, for no apparent reason.

Looking at this girl, who was walking over quickly, Ji Hao couldn’t help but think of his close friend back in the Southern Wasteland, Heng Luo. Heng Luo always had looked as if she had the essence and life force of the entire mountain gathered within her. She was as beautiful as a dream, and would make people feel that she was too stunning to be real.

As for the girl who was walking over towards Ji Hao and Taisi, she was perhaps particularly favoured by the world and had been gifted a special power that made her seem quite heavenly. She seemed like a small white flower that had been nourished by the purest and most intelligent power of the entire world. When she walked into the square that was filled with apprentices and covered in altering shadows, Ji Hao felt as if all the other apprentices had suddenly become very vague silhouettes in a watercolour painting. It seemed as if the presence of all the others could serve only as a foil to show how special and extraordinary she truly was.

The most elegant and graceful white flower-like girl had walked into the square, seemingly from out a watercolour painting.

Ji Hao grabbed Taisi’s neck and carried Taisi out from behind him and then put Taisi firmly back onto the ground. He pointed at the girl while laughing and said, “Haha, Taisi, are you afraid of this little girl?”

Taisi seemed so seriously nervous that his forehead even had began sweating. He stared at the girl who was still over a hundred zhang away from him, and started talking while stuttering.

“Shao…Shaosi, it’s no…not me, I didn’t start this…it’s them. They…ha…have been bullying…Ji…brother Ji Hao stood up for me.”

Taisi let out a few hollow laughs, then suddenly thrust his hand out, pointed at the sphere with life force in Ji Hao’s hand and continued in a trembling voice, “Shaosi, ha…hahaha, you see, how strange it is… brother Ji Hao…he…he knows how to use the [Life-Taking Magic] as well…ha…haha…how strange…”

Ji Hao held the sphere of life force that weighed over a hundred-thousand stones, without knowing how to respond.

Shaosi walked over. She was extremely beautiful but her expression was bland and cold, like that of an iceberg. When she walked close to Ji Hao, Ji Hao sensed a faint and nice fragrance blowing across his face along with a breeze. He subconsciously took a deep breath, and felt as if he was standing on a grassland during spring in the morning that just had a light rain last night. This fragrance he sensed from this girl, who was named Shaosi, somehow touched Ji Hao a little bit.

Ji Hao looked at Shaosi, then turned his eyes towards Jiang Yong, who was held by a few other Southern Wasteland Society’s boys, shook his head, sighed, then said honestly, “Jiang Yong, this girl is indeed too good for you.”

Jiang Yong had received a hard beating by Ji Hao earlier, and couldn’t even stand up straight by himself till now. He glared at Ji Hao with a really darkened face, while clenching his fist hard till it even let out creaking sounds.

The other Southern Wasteland Society’s boys glared at Ji Hao in rage as well, the anger in their eyes seemed like it was about to turn into real fire, which would burn Ji Hao and Taisi into ashes. Quite a few among them showed lust when they looked at Shaosi, just like Jiang Yong did.

Shaosi stood in front of Ji Hao, blandly glancing at Ji Hao with a pair of eyes that looked like a cold pool of water that was deep in a snow-covered mountain.

Ji Hao’s pupils slightly shrunk while looking at Shaosi in the eyes. His eyes looked frank and honest like a vast ocean, clean and peaceful without any impurities. They were broad and gentle, and seemed to be able to hold anything in the world.

Shaosi’s sharp glance swept across Ji Hao’s eyes, like how a sword sweeps across the surface of an ocean, but was unable to stir even a single riple. After glancing at Ji Hao, Shaosi’s uptight face finally relaxed a little bit. She sighed, slightly bowed to Ji Hao and said, “Taisi has been acting unreasonably, sorry for implicating brother Ji Hao.”

Taisi stood aside and began murmuring, “Shaosi, Shaosi, I am your blood big brother, don’t directly say my name in front of others…”

Shaosi threw a sideway glance at him, sighed and said, “What did I say when I left the Magi Palace for my task?”

Taisi opened his mouth, and looked as if he suddenly had lost all of his vitality. He laughed embarrassedly, tried to evade the question and said, “I thought you said that you would go out for a few months, but you came back so soon!”

Shaosi didn’t even look at Taisi. She took out a small black jade bottle from her sleeve, gripped that bottle in her hand for a second, then handed it to Ji Hao with limpid eyes showing helplessness and deep apology, and said to Ji Hao, “Brother Ji Hao, I have no other things to compensate for the trouble that Taisi caused you. This is a bottle of dragon bone body-strengthening pills, which is very beneficial for Senior Magi, and is able to highly strengthen your body. Please accept this humble gift from me.”

Ji Hao paused for a moment, then smilingly shook his head.

This Shaosi was very interesting. She seemed like an unbending and proud girl, who didn’t want to owe anyone anything. Ji Hao had helped Taisi, so she decided to pay Ji Hao back with a bottle of dragon bone body-strengthen pills. Judging from how she acted when taking out this bottle of this pills, these pills should be very precious to her, and she must be a bit reluctant when handing it over to Ji Hao.

Wulong Yao told Ji Hao that except apprentices like him, who were especially talented and valued by the Magi Palace and who the Magi Place would spare no resource to cultivate, all the other apprentices had to complete all kinds of tasks for the Magi Palace if they wanted any resources from the Magi Palace.

This bottle of dragon bone body-strengthen pills could efficiently nourish and strengthen the bodies of Senior Magi, which meant that in order to gain this bottle of pills, the task Shaosi had completed must have been Senior Level as well.

Similar to Taisi, Shaosi was also very close to breaking into the Senior Level, but after all, she was not yet a Senior Magus. Completing a Senior Level task with the power of a Junior Magus, she certainly had spent quite an effort on that. With this bottle of pills as payback for Ji Hao’s help, Shaosi had probably made a very determined effort.

“I helped Taisi, only because I couldn’t bear watching him being bullied by those idiots.” Ji Hao pushed the bottle back smilingly and said, “I didn’t do it for anything else. Maybe I just simply wanted to kick the asses of Jiang Yong and his fellows, so I did it. You don’t own me anything.”

Jiang Yong stood quite far from Ji Hao, heard his words, Jiang Yong yelled out in anger, “Ji Hao! You swaggering bastard! What do you think our Southern Wasteland Society are…”

Ji Hao sneered, and interrupted Jian Yong’s shouting rudely and said, “Your Southern Wasteland Society is nothing but a bunch of stupid Senior Magi who are not as good as a series of farts. You believe that you’re more powerful than the others and can bully whoever you want in the Magi Palace, yeah, how marvellous you are.”

He threw threatening glances at Yao Kaiyuan and Yao Kaijiang. Ji Hao then continued in a cold voice, “If you’re really that brave, you can go try kill a few Jia Clan’s monsters, but, you don’t seem to have the guts.”

A loud cough came from the exit of the Jia Road, followed by which, a few elderly Magi tutors, who were wearing long gowns, slowly walked onto the square.

“Hm, is everyone here? Apprentices who haven’t arrived yet, should go ask for a hundred lashes later.” One of them blandly said to all apprentices on the square.

While speaking, he pointed his finger at the air. Followed by this, a huge and translucent, brightly glowing blackboard instantly rose and floated in the air.

The elderly Magi tutor then continued while looking at that blackboard, “We have new tasks here. You should freely choose according to your own abilities.”

Editors: SecondRate and Dylan