Chapter 14: The Day
Editor: Hitesh_
Nothing worth mentioning happened in the next few days before the Ancestral Worship Ceremony. Ji Shu, Jiang Bo, and their people had kept their mouth shut and didn't let anyone know about the attacks.
People in Gold Black Mountain had started their busiest time of the decade preparing for the ceremony. Leaders of every branch clan had come to the Holy Land in the Gold Black Mountain with their people. The smell of grilled meat and strong liquor filled the entire valley every day and night.
The Fire Crow Clan used to be a powerful and thriving clan. There were legendary Magi such as the Magus King and the Divine Magus[1] among their ancestors. Even though none of the Fire Crow Clan Magi went beyond the senior level for a thousand years, the clan had still remained large. The Holy Land in the Gold Black Mountain was the center of the Fire Crow Clan, which was surrounded by nearly a thousand of branch clans.
The largest branch clan had a population of around a million, while the smallest one had a population of at least ten thousand. Each of these branch clans controlled a batch of small clans which were relatively weaker and had to depend on other clans for protection. During these days, leaders of nearly a thousand branch clans had arrived in the Holy Land one after another, which had kept Ji Xia very busy.
However, although Ji Xia was extremely busy, he hadn't forgotten about Ji Hao. He continued to hunt a lot of beasts to satiate Ji Hao's appetite.
'Four-Armed Bear-Gorilla', 'Single-Horned Pixie', 'Golden-Head Baboon', 'Winged Black Tiger', 'Soul-Eater Leopard' ... All kinds of beasts were being hunted and had been continuously sent back home where it was eaten by Ji Hao. Qing Fu's special drug, which could largely enhance both his internal and spiritual power, was being added to the meat.
It had only been half a month. Yet Ji Hao had already absorbed an abundance of physical strength and life force energy from nearly fifty beasts' bodies with the special skill he had gained from the [Bu Tian Bu Lou Magic Spell]. A couple of those beasts were on the level of Junior Magi. The small multicoloured flame in his Dantian had grown into a blazing fire. His body had also grown a foot taller and became much stronger.
The day had finally arrived.
Before the sun had risen, more than a thousand of gigantic Fire Crows had flown from those towering mulberry trees onto the top of the Gold Black Mountain.
Bright fiery light was being emitted from their feathers, making them look like a thousand of small suns which even caused the clouds in the sky to dissipate. A dozen of floating mountains which were drifting through the Gold Black Mountain had suddenly been burnt by those fiery crows and turned into wisps of smoke.
Those Fire Crows started to caw. The thundering sounds had even shook the entire Gold Black Mountain. Down in the valley, countless black crows had raised from the mulberry forest, making it seem like a floating black river, hovering around the Gold Black Mountain.
Black and red feathers fell from the sky along with earsplitting sounds.
Ji Hao was standing in the yard while chanting the [Nine Secret Words] in a low voice. His hands were interlocked together and constantly changed motions. He then started to walk in a particular pace. He had just eaten a 'Double-Headed Serpent' which was at the same level as a Junior Magus and was about to transform into a flood dragon[2]. The multicoloured flame in Ji Hao's Dantian quickly turned the serpent's body into power and energy. Ji Hao triggered his internal power, and absorbed the strength from the flame.
His internal power had formed a mist-like, purple light ball which appeared between his eyebrows. The light ball had started to expand and contract after he had absorbed so much of physical strength and spiritual power from the flame. Meanwhile, it was becoming solid and golden.
Ji Hao had been delighted when he had noticed this change.
After he had been reborn in this world as Ji Hao, he had been learning and practicing the [Mantra Dan with Nine Secret Words] which he had created by himself in his previous life. With the [Bu Tian Bu Lou Magic Spell] and the strong life force energy that existed in this world, he had made the same achievements in his previous life which had taken him thirty years of time.
More astonishingly, although his internal power light ball hadn't completely turned solid and golden yet, he could already sense that his internal power was at least a hundred times stronger than it had been in his previous life; also, it was a lot purer than before. After all, his internal power had mainly been gained from those powerful beasts living in the jungle.
Soon, the power and the strength of the serpent had been fully absorbed by Ji Hao's body. He took a deep breath, slowly opened his mouth, and breathed out a blast of hot air. His breath was like a high-pressured hot steam, which suddenly filled the air and raised the temperature in the yard. The fat bear, which had been snoring aside the wooden door, was instantly jumped awake and roared at Ji Hao.
Ji Hao laughed out loud. He had never felt better. Although it had only been half a month, what he gained through the [Bu Tian Bu Lou Magic Spell] had been far more than ten years of practice.
"Hey old man, thanks!" He had gotten into his spiritual space and shouted to the air.
'Dong!'! 'Dong'! 'Dong'!
Ji Hao heard the Fire Crows cawing and drums beating. A thousand war drums were beaten at the same time down in the valley, causing thundering echoes and the ground to shake.
'Whuu, Whuu...'
The Dragon Bone Horns were blown. Long ago, one of the Fire Crow Clan ancestors had slaughtered a dragon. After that, they made a set of Dragon-Bone Horns from the dragon's throat bones which were considered as one of the most important treasures of the clan.
Today was the day of the worship ceremony. Ten of the most powerful Maguspriests were blowing the Dragon Bone Horns. Along with the sharp sounds, wisps of white smoke soared into the sky and formed a few mist-like gigantic dragons which hovered around the mountain.
"Hao, let's go to the Ancestral Temple in the Holy Land." Qing Fu walked out from the door and said to Ji Hao. She was wearing a long dress made of self-woven linen. Her beautiful long hairpin was coiled into a bun and locked by nine wooden hairpins.
Ji Hao gazed at those wooden hairpins. These hairpins were in the shape of needles, but were longer and bigger. These wooden hairpins were in three different colours which are black, white, and cyan. If one looked carefully, some smoke-like marks and tiny spell symbols were rolling over inside those wooden hairpins.
These hairpins were brought from the Qing Yi Clan by Qing Fu when she had married Ji Xia. They were famous and powerful Maguspriest tools called 'Thorns of Life and Death'. They had been passed down to a few generations before Qing Fu. The 'Thorns of Life and Death' were capable of both saving and killing people. Ji Hao had once seen Qing Fu cure badly injured warriors with the white and cyan thorns, but this was the first time he saw Qing Fu taking the three black thorns with her.
"Amma, I heard that Jiang Yao was injured quite badly, she may not show up today," Said Ji Hao to Qing Fu, who had a real serious look on her face. A strange but pleasant smell of herbs came from her sleeves.
"Hao, you're too young to know about women," Qing Fu smiled and said. "Today is the day of the Ancestral Worship Ceremony. As long as Jiang Yao is alive, she will show up and will definitely challenge me."
Ji Hao heard her words and stayed silent. He took a leather armor from Qing Fu's hand. The two of them then walked out with the fat bear.
Countless Fire Crow Clan people had gathered and had lined up in the valley. Hundreds of Maguspriests and elder Magi were walking at front of the line and were blowing the horns, leading their people towards the Gold Black Mountain.
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[1]Magus king and Divine Magus: Both are Magi levels. Magus king and Divine Magus are beyond the Senior Magus.
[2] Flood Dragon: Flood Dragon is a mysterious creature capable of many forms. Most often it was regarded as a kind of dragon. In Chinese old legend, serpent kind and fish kind are capable of transform into flood dragons by practising their own spiritual power and life force energy. Once they successfully transformed, they will gain a supernatural power and will be immortal.
Chapter 15: The Ancestral Worship Ceremony
Editor: Hitesh_
When the sunlight had completely warmed up the Gold Black Mountain, all the Fire Crow Clan people had arrived at the Ancestral Temple, and were waiting outside.
Under the sunshine, gigantic crows were cawing and hovering above the temple. A couple of old crows lazily leaned their heads and looked down from their nesting tree.
Ji Hao was also standing outside of the Ancestral Temple with a group of children.
The Ancestral Temple of the Fire Crow Clan didn't exactly look like a temple. It had been built on the mountainside, just below a sheer cliff. It was more of a cave. Ji Hao and the other Fire Crow's people were standing in front of a square entrance. From the entrance, one had to walk through a thousand-foot-long hallway where the holiest place, the location of the ancestors of the Fire Crow Clan people's burial remains, was located.
People were standing there orderly and quietly, with a serious look on their faces.
A dozen of Elders and Maguspriests were standing in front of the crowd, carrying trays which were carved out of jade, and were holding gold, precious stones and other treasures in it.
Ji Hao hadn't even heard of some of those treasures. He could sense a strong spiritual energy coming from those sparkling precious stones. The mysterious energy even caused a splendid, multi-coloured sunglow in the sky.
After the sun had reached its zenith in the horizon as it spread its light and gave life to everything it touched, the Master Maguspriest of the Fire Crow Clan, Ji Kui, came forth from the crowd. He was wearing a cloak made of dragon skin, a helmet made of dragon skull and a string of sharp beast teeth. He held a blood-jade dagger and walked towards the entrance of the temple. Then, he turned around and waved to the crowd.
After that, all the Maguspriests who had come from thousands of branch clans walked out, lined up and kneeled behind Ji Kui. After that, they began to chant an ancient and obscure magic-spell.
Ji Hao shivered and looked around. He sensed a strange cold air which pervaded around him along with those Maguspriests' voices, as if he had been surrounded by ghosts. Both his body and soul felt cold as ice.
Right at that moment, Ji Hao heard the sounds of screaming and wailing. Ji Xia and a thousand of sturdy warriors were bringing thousands of slaves from the back of the mountain. Those slaves were skinny, wounds all over their bodies and their eyes were filled with fear and hopelessness.
"You bastard! Fire Crow Clan, we, the Black Water Serpent Clan, will prey on you until the last one of us dies!"
"No...You can't kill me...My father...My father is an elder of the Black Water Serpent Clan!"
"My great ancestor, please take my soul now, please don't let the evil have my soul!"
However, no matter how hard those slaves shouted and struggled, they couldn't escape from Ji Xia and his people's control.
Soon, the man who had claimed that his father was an elder of the Black Water Serpent Clan had been pinned down to the ground in front of Ji Kui.
"Son of a Black Water Serpent Clan Elder, our ancestors would love to have your soul!" Ji Kui said coldly and pressed his hand onto the slave's chest. The slave was around a foot taller than Ji Kui. However, he painfully screamed when Ji Kui's hand touched him, after which his body quickly went limp. Ji Kui stabbed the Blood-Jade dagger deep into his chest, and pierced through his heart. In the meantime, Ji Hao had noticed that a few spell-symbols on the dagger's surface started to shine and a blast of hot air came out from the dagger.
The slave began to twitch uncontrollably. His muscular body rapidly shriveled and turned into a wisp of black smoke, ultimately blown away by the wind. All his bones, muscles, blood and life force had been sucked into the dagger.
Other slaves who had witnessed this man's death started to struggle even harder than before. Some of them even cried out in fear.
Ji Kui remained cold. He continued killing thousands of slaves one after another. The dagger became blood-red, those mysterious spell-symbols were shining with a bright light. The air was turning hotter and hotter. People had even started to sweat.
Suddenly, a whirlwind came out from the entrance of the Ancestral Temple, which blew across the feet of every Fire Crow People.
Ji Hao was very nervous. He clenched his fists and gazed at Ji Kui.
This was only the decennial worship ceremony. Ji Hao had heard that at the centennial worship ceremony, the Master Maguspriest would kill ten thousands of slaves at the very least.
However, the dagger had already become truly miraculous after Ji Kui had taken thousands of people's lives with it. It was floating in front of Ji Kui and shining with a bright fiery light which seemed like a blood-red sun. The light constantly grew and shrank, just like the beating of a heart. Ji Hao sensed a strong life force coming from the fiery light.
The Maguspriests who were kneeling behind Ji Kui continued chanting the magic spell louder and louder with excitement on their faces.
Though this was Ji Hao's first Ancestral Worship Ceremony, he had heard a lot about the standard procedure before. First, the Master Maguspriest would kill slaves in front of the entrance, letting the dagger absorb the life-force and souls from those human sacrifices. Then he will send these souls and life forces along with other oblations into the temple, offering them to the ancestors.
The mysterious being inside the temple might be the souls of Fire Crow people's ancestors, or other unknown things. They would devour the oblations and grant 'gifts' to the Fire Crow people.
People who could receive the 'gifts' would be randomly chosen from the crowd of the Fire Crow's people.
In the history of the Fire Crow Clan, there had been a newborn child who got all of the 'gifts' from a worship ceremony. The 'gifts' allowed him to open up a hundred of 'Magus Acupoints', making him as powerful as a Senior Magus. That child was the last Divine Magus of the Fire Crow Clan.
Ji Kui was about to walk into the Temple when Ji Shu walked out and said something aloud.
"Respected Master Maguspriest, I have something to say and I want to say it in front of our ancestors," said Ji Shu.
The corner of Ji Kui's mouth twitched. He looked at Ji Shu and said in a very cold tone, "According to the rules of our ancestors, anybody can talk about anything at the ceremony. But, Ji Shu, if you're planning to say something not important, you should be prepared to take the punishment from our ancestors. Are you aware of that?"
Ji Shu bowed to Ji Kui, smiled and answered, "Of course it is important. I'm talking on behalf of the entire clan. Someone should let others have the important position if he is no longer qualified for it."
Ji Shu then raised his arms and yelled, "Ji Xia, my brother! You're the leader of the Holy Land warriors, which means you are the leader of warriors from a thousand of branch clan! But, do you think you still deserve this position?"
Ji Shu waved his arm and roared, "Let us obey the rules of our ancestors. Ji Xia, my brother. I'm now challenging you! Do not blame me, this is for all of us."
Ji Xia snorted. He calmly went up to Ji Shu with his spear.
"Abba! Hold! Ji Shu, my dear uncle, have you forgotten that your son still has a fight against me?" Ji Hao's voice broke the silence.
"In front of our ancestors and all our people, we shall have a match!"
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
18 Power
stone 
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