The Magus Era

Chapter 74: Bloodline

“Abba, you’re late!” Ji Hao looked at that beam of fiery light, which was darting across the air, and let out a simple and honest smile.

“O souls of our great ancestors, please take these humble offerings from the Fire Crow’s Clansmen!” Ji Hao raised his arms high and started mumbling the offering ceremony’s spell that was orally taught and passed down through generations of Fire Crow Clan’s Maguspriests.

“Their skins, their bones, their blood, their flesh, their souls and their spirits, all of them, will now be yours!” Behind Ji Hao's body, a large piece of fire was blazing; within the fire, a looming Fire Crow was flying and dancing, silently cawing towards the sky.

Above the altar, within the dense golden fiery light, the translucent three-legged Gold Fire Crow slowly and slightly opened its slender eyes.

Countless extremely thin, golden beams of lights darted out of its narrowed eyes; the Gold Fire Crow looked down at the pile of clans’ leaders on the altar, suddenly widened its eyes, and let out an extremely sonorous caw that was full of delight.

Nine Fire Crows that were standing around the altar also let loud and clear caws out, as one fell another rose. They waved their wings and started dancing slowly around the altar, with solemn and respectful expressions. These gigantic Fire Crows danced slowly and gracefully, like imperial nobles in the most sacred ceremony; every single move of theirs seemed indescribably mysterious.

At the same time when the Fire Crows were dancing, the Fire Crow afar which was being ridden by Ji Xia cawed suddenly out and stopped flying; it stretched its wings in the air, eyes spurted out fiery lights, while solemnly staring towards the altar’s direction. The fiery light around its body transformed into a transparent sphere of light, tightly wrapping Ji Xia inside.

The ‘Nine suns above the air’ blood-offering ceremony was the most sacred offering ceremony that had been passed down through these Fire Crows’ bloodlines, they wouldn’t allow anyone to interrupt this holy ceremony, not even Ji Xia had that kind of power.

Ji Hao continued reading the spell, invisible power started rotating and gathering from the surrounding air; shrouded by this invisible power, the low sound of spell incantation gradually grew loud and sonorous. Slowly, the spell incanting sound rose high into the air and came back down from beyond the clouds. Muffled thunder sounds suddenly came from the sky, pieces of clouds were shattered by the invisible sound waves, baring the azure sky.

A floating hill which was miles in radius slowly drifted across the air above Ji Hao along with the wind. The invisible, mysterious power drawn out by the spell incanting sound slightly hit against this hill and shattered it into ashes quietly. Afterwards the large cloud of ash was slowly dissipated into the air by the wind.

The offerings on and around the altar silently blazed, both their flesh and their souls were burning fast. A dense smell of blood could be sensed along with a stream of hot air which contained enormous power, which was rotating and hovering in the air. The Gold Fire Crow above the altar slowly opened its beak and breathed this magical hot air stream inside its body.

The Gold Fire Crow’s translucent body gradually became thick and real. It seemed as if it had gained a real body made of flesh and blood instead of having the form of a soul. A trace of terrifyingly strong power was emitting from the Gold Fire Crow’s body. Stone, Treeman, Ape, Heng Luo and Ji Hao’s other friends, who had been standing on a mountainside very far away, were hit by this slight trace of power, making all fall hard on the ground and roll over. Afterwards they seemed unable to get back up no matter how hard they tried.

Even the two ten-thousand-year-old Treemen let out roars in fear, pulled their legs out of the ground and fled away at their highest speed. These two ten-thousand-year-old Treemen were as powerful as peak-level Senior Magi, but they couldn’t even stand a trace of power that had been emitted from the Gold Fire Crow’s soul.

Ji Hao couldn’t begin to imagine how powerful this Gold Fire Crow really was.

Maybe it was as powerful as the legendary Magus Kings, or even more.

This was a legendary ancient powerful creature, even if it had fallen and become a wisp of spirit that was being worshipped by the Fire Crow’s Clansmen in their Holy Land, it still could burst enough power, once it would get the chance, to shock the whole world.

The nearly a thousand feet tall Gold Fire Crow stood still on the altar, slowly raised its wings and released countless extremely thin beams of light, which then condensed into nine huge golden spell symbols in the air. Those golden spell symbols then slowly rose into the air.

In the sky, over ten thousand feet high from the ground, those golden spell symbols flashed across the air and disappeared. Ji Hao clearly saw that those golden spell symbols were flying towards the sun.

In the next moment, the sun burst out an eye-piercing light, along with which a great heat descended from the sky. The jungle was suddenly lit up, becoming incomparably bright; mountains, trees and the earth had all become nearly transparent when showered in this snow-white light. Everything had become as pure as coloured glaze under this light.

Not a single thing in this world could block this kind of light.

This pure primitive light and heat, descended from the air, enveloped the altar that had a radius of thousand feet, which had been set up by Ji Hao and Fire Leopard Clan Maguspriests inside.

Wisps of hot air that contained great powers started drawing near Ji Hao’s body and gushing inside. After he had activated his bloodline power, Ji Hao possessed tens of meridians that were blazing inside his body; however, while his body was absorbing this magical power coming along with the hot air, the more complex interleaving meridians were lit up inside his body; faint, fiery lights started to slowly being emitted from these meridians.

Ji Hao understood, this was a gift from the ‘nine suns above the air’ secret blood-offering ceremony. The Gold Fire Crow had drawn a magical power, which had gotten into Ji Hao’s body and slowly activated the power sources contained in his body, which had been lost by the Fire Crow Clansmen through the passing of the past thousands of years.

Ji Hao felt that his eyes were boiling hot, and his body was scorching. The sphere of flame inside his chest became more powerful and compact. A great hot power silently condensed into several faint, transparent feather-like and fine spell symbols, and were being inlaid on Ji Hao’s skin one after another.

Ji Hao didn’t even notice that he had got his fourth special ability, the Gold Fire Armour - A special ability that had only existed in the Fire Crow Clan’s legends!

The Gold Fire Armour was a defensive magical special ability; these spell symbols that were condensed by the huge power contained in the hot air, had a formidable defensive power; additionally, they could largely improve the abilities of flying and running, which meant that these spell symbols could improve Ji Hao’s speed to at least double the amount once he triggered his fiery wings.

Mr. Crow, who had been standing on Ji Hao’s shoulder, let a happy caw out while raising his wings high. Countless thin beams of golden light shone towards Mr. Crow from all directions as well and entered into his body.

Suddenly, three feathers on Mr. Crow’s head were blazed, then slowly turned golden; after that his claws went ablaze as well and soon turned into a magnificent golden colour, as if they were gilded.

The thin Gold Fire Crow’s bloodline, contained in Mr. Crow’s body, had largely been improved, which improved its future prospects.

The nine gigantic Fire Crows that were standing around the altar were even happier. They were swallowing the light coming from the air, in the meanwhile, their bodies all went ablaze; on their wings or tails, there were one or two feathers that slowly had turned into a light golden colour within the fire.

Similar to Mr. Crow, the Gold Fire Crow’s bloodline, contained in their bodies, had been improved. Their power didn’t increase a lot immediately, however, they would certainly become a lot more powerful than other ordinary Fire Crows in the future.

All of the Fire Crows nearby was lightly cawing. More or less, their bloodline had all been improved.

Undoubtedly, the one who had gotten the most from this offering ceremony was the Gold Fire’s soul that was standing on the altar, its dim and translucent body had already became like a sculpture forged with pure gold; its entire body was glowing in a divine golden light.

The Gold Fire slightly nodded towards Ji Hao, then let a satisfied caw out. It transformed into a sphere of fiery light and disappeared into the air, without leaving even a single trace.

A fierce gust of wind blew over. The altar, along with the ground under it, instantly turned into white ashes, which were rolled up by the wind and blown away.