The Magus Era

No one on the pavilion took another glance at Di Falang and the other Di Family elders, who had just embarrassedly transformed into blood-red mist streams and dissipated.

Just like what Si Wen Ming did, all the other ministers and elders on the side of the humankind solemnly showed their respect to Feng Qi, while silently wondering what this phoenix suddenly showed up for. All of them had quickly and carefully searched through their minds but failed to find any big issue that was related to the phoenix-kind.

Feng Qi floated up into the air, trod on a multicolored, glowing cloud, then threw a glance down on these human ministers and elders in pride, not showing any sign of landing on the ground. The phoenix-kind was the most proud race in this world, they wouldn’t want to be contaminated by even a single grain of ash or dirt.

“Nothing serious, just want to ask you for a thing.” Feng Qi proudly held her head high while speaking in a cold and bland voice.

Before Si Wen Ming responded, she raised her hand, pointed her finger at Ji Hao and continued, “Little kid, just hand that purple grain dragon sandalwood over.”

Ji Hao couldn’t even believe what he had just heard. Feng Qi broke into the main pavilion of the alliance of human clans’ base camp, where the headquarters of the human army was located, when a secret meeting was happening, and broke over a thousand defensive magic screens set by Magi Palace’s magi in a row, in such an aggressive manner, even using a secret, legendary treasure which was amazingly powerful; she had also scared Di Falang and the other Di Family’ elders off, but she did all these just for this?!

“This...” Ji Hao didn’t know how to respond.

Clap! An exquisitely crafted, translucent leather bag was thrown on the ground right in front of Ji Hao by Feng Qi in a careless manner. The leather bag was filled with glowing jade coins. Feng Qi’s head was still held high when she pointing at Ji Hao with her chin, sneered and said, “Here are a hundred-thousand jade coins, just take the money call that purple grain dragon sandalwood in. From now on, he is a slave of our phoenix-kind.”

The faces of Si Wen Ming, Huaxu Lie and the other ministers and elders all darkened to a certain degree.

Feng Qi had directly broken into the headquarters pavilion of the human army, violently broke the defensive magic screens set in this pavilion, in where, a highly classified meeting was happening; if going deeper, Feng Qi was on a serious suspicion of spying on the humankind military situation.

However, the reason why Feng Qi broke into the headquarters pavilion, was nothing else but forcibly purchase Dragon Pool with a hundred-thousand jade coins!

Ji Hao kicked that bulged leather bag with his tiptoe, then raised his head and gave a complicated, faint smile, as he said, “What a fortune!”

Once after Ji Hao let out the few words, Si Wen Ming, Huaxu Lie and other ministers and elders all silently sighed in their heads. Ji Hao’s tone was filled with scornfulness and taunt; even they had sensed that obvious scorn and taunt contained in Ji Hao’s words, not to mention Feng Qi. After all, the phoenix-kind were naturally sensitive.

As they estimated, Feng Qi’s face suddenly darkened, while she lowered her head and directly launched a palm attack towards Ji Hao’s chest without saying anything.

Feng Qi was wearing a pair of nearly transparent, dim golden glove, which was as thin as a cicada’s wings. Ji Hao didn’t know what this pair of gloves was made from, but when Feng Qi launched that seemingly gentle and slight palm attack, a dazzling beam of golden light suddenly flashed across the air and countless spell symbols on her glove blasted out. Next, an enormous, golden and shining palm, which was three-foot wide, silently swooshed straight towards Ji Hao’s chest.

Airwaves surged in the pavilion. Once that golden palm appeared, a strong and fierce pressure instantly spread out towards all directions. Clothes of all people in the pavilion were raised, rustling in the air while their long hair fluttered intensely like crazy snakes.

“Dear ambassador!” Once after Ji Hao made a defensive gesture, Hao Tao abruptly raised his arm and reached his hand to in front of Ji Hao. His square, brick-like hand shielded Ji Hao behind and blocked that golden palm, after which, he gripped his five fingers, that looked like iron stakes. Along with a long and loud series of cracking noise, that golden palm, which was actually an image condensed from gold power but looked almost like a touchable real object, was directly crumbled into pieces by Hao Tao’s single hand; thousands of golden pieces then fell to the ground.

A wave of silvery clang rose against the ground. Those pieces of that golden palm clanged against each other while falling to the ground; after quite a while, those pieces slowly disintegrated into a great puff of golden light spots and finally dissipated in the air.

“How dare you!” Feng Qi angrily pointed her finger at Hao Tao and yelled harshly, “Who are you?!”

“I am Hao Tao!” Hao Tao put his hands back into his sleeves and responded blandly, “I’m in charge of the penalty. Ji Hao is a warrior of our human army... if he did something wrong, I will be the only one to punish him, no one else should step in.”

Just like his appearance, Hao Tao’s voice was hard and cold, like a rock. He looked at Feng Qi right in the eyes with his pair of completely emotionless eyes and continued blandly, “Madam, you are the ambassador of the phoenix-kind. May I ask what do you break into our headquarters for? If you, dear ambassador, broke into our headquarters and interrupted our important military meeting only for some insignificant affairs, regarding this, I will inform Emperor Shun, and our Emperor will send a message to your leader, requesting a reasonable explanation.”

Feng Qi remained silent for a short while.

The relationships between the dragon-kind, phoenix-kind and humankind, were complicated and hard to explain. Although the dragon-kind and phoenix-kind were both proud, like those successful and wealthy families who never showed any respect to their poor relatives and friends who lived in the countryside, the communication and exchange between these three races had never stopped.

The Emperor Shun was the current human emperor; if he truly sent an official message to request a reasonable explanation for what Feng Qi did today in the headquarters pavilion of the human army, things would become troublesome. Feng Qi was only an elder of the phoenix-kind, who ran certain affairs in the Chi Ban Market. She indeed had some powers and possessed a relatively high status among the phoenix-kind, but she was not a truly big deal who was holding the real power.

An interrogation came from the human emperor would be quite serious to her. Feng Qi silently estimated the consequences, and found that she couldn’t easily cope with it.

Her great arrogance had eased quite a lot. She trod on that multicolored cloud and descended from above the long meeting table, floating in the air a few feet above the ground, then blandly said to Hao Tao, “I came here surely for some big and important matter.”

Hao Tao didn’t prepare to end this conversation so easily, as he said, “For a purple grain dragon sandalwood? You, dear ambassador, broke into our headquarters pavilion by using a powerful treasure only for a tree?”

Feng Qi turned her head away, seeming unwilling to make any more eye contact with Hao Tao, then said a bit nervously, “A purple grain dragon sandalwood, isn’t this an important matter?! Do you have any idea how valuable a purple grain dragon sandalwood can be to our phoenix-kind? Your humankind has taken a purple grain dragon sandalwood into your Magi Palace, why didn’t you report to us regarding this?!”

Ji Hao took a step forward, looked at Feng Qi in the eyes and said coldly, “Dear ambassador, why are you saying something that is obviously untrue? In the law enforcement hall of the Chi Ban Market, didn’t you see Dragon Pool by yourself? You have seen me as well, and you knew that it was me who took Dragon Pool out of the market. Why would we report something that you have already seen with your own eyes to you?”

Ji Hao sneered, then directly pointed an essential issue out, “Besides, our humankind is not an appendage of your phoenix-kind, why do we have to report to you about treasures that we have found?”

Feng Qi gnashed her teeth in anger, staring right at Ji Hao in the eyes and said, “That is a treasure, which matters a lot to the improvement of the power, of our entire phoenix-kind. Don’t you think...”

Ji Hao stared at Feng Qi in coldness, straightly interrupted her and said, “There are countless treasures in this world, almost all of which are capable of improving the general power of the phoenix-kind. Did you mean that all those treasures belong to your phoenix-kind?!”

Feng Qi clenched her fists and yelled displeasedly, “But, your humankind...”

Ji Hao gave another series of sneer and interrupted her again in a harsh voice, “Because we are weak, you can break in violently and forcibly purchase Dragon Pool with a hundred-thousand jade coins, right? Where can you find such a ridiculous rule in this world? Do you think that our humankind is a pushover?”

Ji Hao then turned around, cupped his hands towards Si Wen Ming, gave a cold smile and said, “Dear Minister Si Wen Ming, please write an official letter regarding what happened today, to request a reasonable explanation for this - Are their phoenix-kind thinking that our humankind are the ones to be bullied, that any of their members is allowed to do whatever he or she wants to us?”

Feng Qi was enraged so badly. She pointed at Ji Hao and was about to burst out a yell.