Note: Magus Monarch has been replaced by Magus King and spell names are written within [] rather than ‘’.
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Chapter 49: Interrogation
At the end of the valley, Ji Hao forced Ji Xiao to face the Gold Black Mountains and kneel.
Ji Xiao tried to struggle and resist a few times, however, his magus acupoint were sealed and his physical strength was reduced by Qing Fu’s drug; he could never break away from Ji Hao’s control. He knelt down facing the Black Gold mountains, ten thousand miles away. His emotions stirred, he howled towards the sky in shame and anger
“Uncle Xiao, save the scream, it won’t help you” said Ji Hao, fiddling with a dagger, made of blood-jade. His fingers flicked rapidly and the dagger rotated quickly between his fingers; a circle of blood-red shadow appeared, which shone under the starlight.
“Since Grandpa Ji Zhuo is here, no one can save you. Both you and I know about his temper. Uncle Jie’s head was chopped off by Grandpa Ji Zhuo himself, when Jie fled from the battle against the Black Water Serpent Clan.” Ji Hao patted Ji Xiao’s shoulder and said in an honest tone, “the mistake you made is way more serious than fleeing from a battle.”
Ji Xiao gasped, and said with a trembling voice, “Hao, all this was because of Hu. Why did you kill him? Indeed, he tried to kill you…but couldn’t you just wound him and…warn him? Why did you have to kill him?”
“Because he didn’t show any mercy when he tried to kill me” said Ji Hao coldly, while staring at Ji Xiao with a mocking smile on the corners of his mouth. “My dear uncle, haven’t you realised? The issue between you and me is not because of Hu. In fact, Hu’s death was only an excuse that you gave to yourself. You’re young and strong, as long as you get yourself a couple more wives, you can have even a hundred sons.”
“The biggest issue between you and me is Ji Shu and Jiang Yao, who is supporting Ji Shu, and the entire Bi Fang Clan, who is supporting Jiang Yao!” Ji Hao looked into Ji Xiao’s faltering eyes and said word by word, “in the name of our ancestors’ souls, you should examine your own conscience and see if I’m telling the truth.”
Both of Ji Xiao’s arms were pushing against the ground and supporting his body, large amounts of sweat dripped down his forehead in streams. He breathed heavily and trembled intensely.
“I…Ji Shu…” Ji Xiao’s eyeballs slowly rotated in his eye sockets, losing focus. His healthy face was now deathly pale and darkened.
“Zhe!”
Ji Hao whispered the [Nine Secret Words] and locked his fingers together, then gently pressed his finger onto the area between Ji Xiao’s eyebrows. Ji Hao’s pupils changed to a golden-red colour; nine spell symbols slowly rotated around both of his pupils. An oddly powerful force capable of soul control was sent from Ji Hao’s pupils deep into Ji Xiao’s eyes.
Most of the Senior Magi in the Southern Wasteland neglected cultivating their souls. On the contrary, Maguspriests who concentrated on the practice of all kinds of magic sorceries, have always worked hard to nourish their souls through special and mystical methods; by doing so, they could slowly increase their spiritual power and use it to cast all kinds of magic sorceries. Maguspriests capable of communicating with gods, ghosts, and other mysterious beings, could only slowly improve their souls with all of their efforts; not to mention Senior Magi like Ji Xiao, who had never even attempted to improve the power of his soul. Although Ji Xiao also has a relatively powerful soul, the power of his soul was only nourished by his own Senior Magus blood, thus he could only rely on his strengthened body. The level of his soul and spiritual power were no better than the soul and spiritual power of three-year-old Ji Hao.
At this time, Ji Xiao was already hopeless; the power of his soul scattered, which allowed Ji Hao to easily take control of his mind.
“Uncle, the mistake you made is unforgivable. You have to die. Why don’t you tell me what you know before that? Why must Ji Shu take the position of commander from my Abba? What is he planning? Just tell me everything you know!”
Ji Xiao slightly quivered, eyes staring without focus. Following the soft voice of Ji Hao, he slowly opened his mouth.
Ji Hao controlled Ji Xiao’s soul carefully, digging out all the secrets buried within Ji Xiao’s heart. Gradually, Ji Hao’s facial expression turned strange. Did Ji Shu try everything to get the position of commander for this? thought Ji Hao.
“No wonder Ji Mu knew those slave dealers before. They really are old friends. Damn Ji Shu, you surely found yourself a good way to earn a fortune!”
Although the Fire Crow Clan had already become an auxiliary clan of the Bi Fang Clan, due to the absence of powerful high-level Magi, such as Magus Kings for thousands of years, the firm foundation of the Fire Crow Clan was still there. With a large number of branch clans and vast territory for hundreds of thousands of miles around, the Fire Crow Clan was still a very powerful and thriving clan in the Southern Wasteland.
Surrounding the Holy Land in the Gold Black Mountains were thousands of branch clans of the Fire Crow Clan. The population of the smallest amongst these branch clans was over a hundred thousand; and within this, there were at least eight to ten Senior Magi within one hundred thousand warriors.
As for branch clans with large populations, for example Ji Shu’s clan, had over a million people and hundreds of Senior Magi.
After Ji Shu became the leader of the Holy Land warriors, with the exception of Elder Magi and Maguspriests, all of the warriors, including Senior Magi, Junior Magi and Novice Magi, had to follow Ji Shu’s lead and do whatever he says.
Long ago, Ji Shu started to secretly work with slave dealers, capturing and selling many people from smaller clans. By now, with Ji Shu’s leadership and the support gained from a few Elder Magi and Maguspriests in the Holy Land, allowed his small-scale slave trade to quickly expand.
Before, when Ji Xia and other former leaders held the highest power within the clan, the Fire Crow Clan had always been lenient towards the small clans of the Southern Wasteland. As long as those clans were willing to pay a certain amount of taxes, they would be under the protection of the Fire Crow Clan.
However, as Ji Shu planned, those taxes were not even worth mentioning. All the Fire Crow Clan’s auxiliary clans would become his slave suppliers and continuously supply slaves to him.
According to Ji Xiao, Ji Shu would even choose to start a war if he couldn’t get the number of slaves he wanted. He would not only fight against the archenemy, Black Water Serpent Clan, but would also attack the small clans which bordered the Fire Crow Clan and had no enmity with the Fire Crow Clan. These small clans would all become Ji Shu’s prey.
“He’s going to set the entire Southern Wasteland into turmoil.” Ji Hao finished his interrogation and asked, “How dare he even plan this? Only with the support of Jiang Bo? Is Jiang Bo even powerful enough to withstand the repercussions?”
Ji Xiao smiled bitterly, shook his head, and kept quiet.
Although Ji Xiao colluded with Ji Shu a long time ago, he was neither from Ji Shu’s clan nor a close relative; how could Ji Shu trust him and let him know all of his most important secrets?
“Goodbye then, my uncle!” Ji Hao raised the dagger and said, “By the way, your Senior Magus blood won’t be wasted, not even a little bit. My Abba and Amma need it to recover.”
After eating a portion of horned serpent meat, Ji Hao’s physical strength had vastly improved.
He injected all of his internal power into the jade dagger.
A faint light quietly flashed through the air. When the light faded, Ji Hao had already thrown nearly a thousand stabs towards Ji Xiao’s chest, finally cutting open his chest and piercing into his heart.
Ji Xiao, whose soul was still under Ji Hao’s control, let out an ashen smile. A golden-red flame was blazing in his heart, drawing all of his power and blood inwards, which then condensed into a sphere of golden-red Senior Magi blood, containing all of Ji Xiao’s power and life force, and slowly seeped out of his heart through the cut.
“Old man! Now I have the Senior Magus blood from Ji Xiao, can I give the [Bu Tian Bu Lou Magic Spell] to my Abba and Amma?” In his own overcast spiritual space, Ji Hao shouted to the air.
A dense fog started circulating, slowly condensing into a vague figure, who was looking down at Ji Hao.