Chapter 7 - Defiance
Ji Hao opened the door and saw Ji Wu, who was standing in front of the door, shaking his body impatiently. His arms were crossed around his chest.
“Ha!”
Ji Wu arrogantly looked down on Ji Hao, who was a lot shorter and thinner than himself, laughed out loud and said aggressively: “Ji Hao, I’ll kill you at the worship ceremony!”
Ji Hao looked up at Ji Wu, twitched the corner of his mouth and sneered：“Kill me? Who was nearly beaten to tears by me, yesterday? You wanna kill me? Haha, I don’t think so!”
Ji Wu grinded his teeth and stared at Ji Hao; he looked so angry that his eyes nearly popped out of the eye sockets. Yesterday, in front of his own father and all those elders in the clan, he was beaten till he had coughed up blood, by a Ji Hao, who was thinner, weaker, and at a much lower level than himself. For him, this was his greatest humiliation; he couldn’t even face his own father after that!
“You bastard!” Ji Wu angrily waved his fist, attempting to punch Ji Hao.
At that moment, a beautiful woman walked out from behind Ji Wu, gently grabbed his arm and pulled him backwards. The woman was slim yet full of strength.
As result of her gentle pulling, Ji Wu staggered tens of steps backwards and fell on the ground. Ji Wu sat on the ground, utterly embarrassed.
“Amma! I’m going to kick this little bastard’s ass!” Ji Wu shouted out.
“Hey, you little bastard, who are you talking about?” Ji Hao crossed his arms, looked at the woman standing in front of him and laughed.
Ji Wu was going to say something else, but the woman scolded him loudly, causing Ji Wu to shut his mouth fearfully.
The woman narrowed her eyes and looked at Ji Hao from head to toe for a while, then said with a sneer：“Such a pretty boy, as pretty as your Amma. But you’re so thin and weak. Look at your skinny arms and legs, you should be careful, don’t let those beasts in the jungle break you legs.”
Ji Hao looked back at the woman. She was a bit taller than Qing Fu. Compared to Qing Fu, who had a gentle and mild character, this woman seemed to have a terrible temper. This was a beautiful, sexy woman, with attractive breasts, hip, bright red lips, and sharp dark brown eyes, giving a charming yet dangerous vibe.
“I don’t believe that there exists a beast in this world who could break my leg!” Ji Hao stared at the woman’s voluptuous breasts, and said, “But Appa[1], you’re the one who should actually be careful. Those stinky snakes from The Black Water Serpent Clan have often been coming and pestering recently. Appa, imagine, if you were to be kidnaped by those guys, there would be at least a hundred of stinky snakes coming to your bed every night.”
The woman’s expression suddenly turned darker. ‘Appa’? Did she look like those ugly old women in the village? And don’t even mention what Ji Hao said about those stinking snakes.
“You son of a bitch!” growled Ji Wu, “how dare you talk to Amma like that!”
The tattoos on both of his arms lit up, a shield and an axe erupted from his arms, which he held in his arms.
Just as Ji Wu was going to attack Ji Hao, a huge bear showed up suddenly. The bronze-furred bear standing straight behind Ji Hao, seemed like a small mountain. The bear stared at Ji Wu and drooled as if it was staring at a piece of roasting meat.
“Da...Damn!” The shock of seeing the bear rooted Ji Wu to the spot. He felt like a frog which was being preyed on by a serpent, and couldn’t move even a little bit. He took two steps back, while trembling, and almost fell on the ground again.
Despite the bear being fat and lazy, it was Ji Xia’s contracted beast. The bear’s strength had nearly reached the level of Senior Magus. How could a Novice Magus like Ji Wu face the Bronze Bear and not be frightened.
The woman waved her finger in the air; the scary atmosphere, created by the bear, was soon expelled. She looked at Ji Hao with a cold face and said: “You little bastard, how old do you think you are? Do you know the things that men and women do? Hah, Qing Fu, I came here for you; are you going to let this little bastard keep talking nonsense here?”
“Hehe...” The woman sneered and waved her hand. A gray mist sprayed out from her sleeve toward Ji Hao’s face.
Ji Hao smelled a terrible scent, quickly recognizing seven different highly toxic herbs from it, including the ‘Bone Etcher Plant’ and the ‘Duan Chang Grass’.
Ji Hao stepped back fast, creating a outburst of wind. The bronze-furred bear growled and stood up again. A gale wind blew out from its gigantic mouth, blocking the mist for one second. The woman flicked her finger, turning the mist into two strands of smoke, dashing towards the bear’s nostrils.
“Jiang Yao, you should know that I only know how to make potions that save lives...I know nothing about your poisons,” Qing Fu sighed. A green mist sprayed through the windows of Ji Hao’s family house, wrapping the gray mist. The gray mist and the green mist quickly devoured each other, turned into a white fog and dissipated in the air.
Jiang Yao, her beautiful face turned sour, and said coldly: “Qing Fu, I’m surprised that after they broke your Magus Acupoint and dropped you to the Junior Magus Level, you actually managed to make some improvement in potion-making.”
Qing Fu stayed silent. Ji Hao stood behind the fat bear, dragging its short tail to keep it from attacking Jiang Yao, he said: “Indeed, my Amma dropped from the Senior level, but she still is a genius on potion-making. She has always been concentrating on healing and detoxifying our people, who needed it, with her potion-making knowledge. It’s only natural for her to make certain breakthroughs.”
Jiang Yao sneered again and yelled: “Ji Xia, big brother! I came all the way to visit you and you are just gonna let this kid deal with me here?”
Ji Xia stayed silent. Qin Fu said: “Jiang Yao, are you visiting us or challenging us? If you want to talk, we will talk at the worship ceremony. If you want to compete against me in potion-making, we will do that at the worship ceremony too. How about that?”
Jiang Yao laughed and glared at Qin Fu. She said in a soft yet dramatic voice: “Okay, we shall do what you said. You and me...we have a lot of catching up to do at the ceremony. After all, Ji Shu, my husband, is going to become the leader amongst the Fire Crow Clan’s warriors!”
Ji Hao coughed and said: “Hey! My Abba, Ji Xia, is the only leader of the Fire Crow Clan!”
Jiang Yao smiled maliciously, she suddenly turned her slim waist and raised her arm, and clawed towards Ji Hao with her dark-green fingernails.
Jiang Yao’s fingernails created a sharp wind and scratched Ji Hao’s face from feets away; he couldn’t open his eyes. The wind had a nauseating smell, obviously, there were something highly toxic on Ji Yao’s fingernails. While clawing, Jiang Yao yelled: “You little rat! This is how you speak to elders?”
Jiang Yao was a Senior Maguspriest, very good at using poison. Ji Hao stepped backwards and couldn’t even keep his eyes open.
Qing Fu suddenly showed up in front of Jiang Yao. She opened her mouth, spewed a thumb-sized, white jade pearl, which was shining with a faint white light. The jade pearl hit heavily on Jiang Yao’s palm.
Jiang Yao screamed, drew back her hand quickly as if she had touched a flame. She covetously looked at the jade pearl and said: “Mu Sheng Pearl, such a treasure...It’s a shame that Qing Fu your Magus acupoint had been broken. Now, you’re such a waste. You don't deserve a treasure like this! I’ll be expecting you at the ceremony.”
Jiang Yao finished her words and put her right hand on Ji Wu’s shoulder. Suddenly, their bodies bursted into streams of fiery lights and then disappeared.
Qing Fu put the Mu Sheng Pearl back into her mouth. She wobbled, nearly falling on the ground. Ji Hao opened his eyes, he noticed that there was a wisp of blood in the corner of Qing Fu’s mouth.
Ji Hao’s eyeballs suddenly turned blood-red for a moment and went back to normal.
Ji Xia’s voice came from the room: “Hao, come in, you haven’t finished your meal.”
Ji Xia took a breath and said in a lower voice: “How dare they show up here and treat us like that? Do they really think that I’m trash?”
Ji Hao silently walked back to the lobby, grabbed a piece of meat and started to gobble it down.
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[1] Appa: Old ladies. In China, children sometimes call their grandmas as ‘Appa’.