The Magus Era

In the West Chi Ban Market, the air was filled with a nice and dense medicinal scent. In this market, all herbal shops had pharmacies in the backside, and many pharmacists were cooking medicines directly in those pharmacies. Every time when a medicine furnace opened, huge clouds of smoke would rise into the air, and a dense scent of magic medicine would quickly spread out in all directions, just like a hurricane.

Scents of all kinds of magic medicines mixed together into a layer of thick and sticky mist that was so dense that one could even touch it. Slowly and silently, that mist seeped into hair, cloth and armors of people, imparting on everyone a thick fragrance of magic medicines.

Geng guided Ji Hao and Man Man while walking on the main road of the West Market, introducing those stores to Ji Hao and Man Man, and greedily breathing that dense scent of magic medicine.

To Senior Magi like Ji Hao, that medicine scent was no more than a useless waste air, but to lowly slaves like Geng, this medicine scent could nourish their fragile bodies, boost their life-force, heal their wounds and prolong their lives.

Normally, if no guests came, Geng and other slaves were not allowed to enter into the Chi Man Market at all. Therefore, to breathe as much magic medicine scent leaked out of the medicine furnaces when they opened, and absorb the thin medicine power contained in the scent, as they wanted, was the biggest dream of many of those slaves, who were living in the bottom level of the Chi Ban Market.

“Honored guests, this is the Lan Cang pavilion, mainly selling all kinds of water-natured herbs. Their most famous product is the ‘Lan Cang green wave pill’... With a single pill, you can live freely under the water for three whole months. This magical kind of pill is indispensable for adventures in dangerous places underwater or battles that happen in the water area.”

“This is Death-reverse Pavilion, mainly selling magic medicines that can heal all kinds of cut wounds. Many weapons contain metal poisons that are engendered during the forging process, and medicines sold in this Death-reverse Pavilion are best at detoxifying metal poisons contained in those weapons. These are very good life-saving medicines, greatly helpful in battlefields.”

“As for this Herbal Hall, they mainly sell all kinds of life-force and spirit blood-boosting medicines. My honored guests, you should know that Senior Magi have especially strong life-force that, as long as the life-force remains, no weapon attack could actually kill a Senior Magus. However, in battlefields, no matter how strong your life-force is, it would eventually consume up, and that’s the time when you need the medicine from the Herbal Hall to save your life. With only one dose, even a peak-level Senior Magus could gain at least thirty percent of his consumed life-force back!”

Geng apparently knew all stores in the West Market very well, he could tell the specialties of almost all those different-scale shops, including what those shops mainly sold and what their medicines were mainly for.

While Ji Hao and Man Man were having a tour in the West Market under Geng’s guidance, a deep, hoarse and muffled voice came from an immense, palace-like, stunningly beautiful pharmacy, that was built from gigantic rock blocks which had natural silver stripes, and luxuriously decorated with pure gold and silver.

“It’s all I got, I have no more... this is all I have. I need a Xiao Marrow Pill to save my friend...He’s poisoned, can’t last too much longer, he’s dying...I only need one Xiao Marrow pill, just one, please...”

“I don’t have any more coins, I have no more coins...Can I bring you more coins later? I really don’t have any more coins right now...”

“I need a Xiao Marrow pill to save my friend! He’s my only friend...”

Mumbling in a faint voice, this voice repeated the same words over and over again. He didn’t have any more jade coins, but he needed to buy a Xiao Marrow Pill to save his friend.

Ji Hao narrowed his eyes. ‘Xiao Marrow pill’? He had read about the recipe of the Xiao Marrow pill from a book back in the Magi Palace. The cooking process of the Xiao Marrow pill was complicated and demanding, one pill required all nine ‘ghost face Xiao’ marrows as the raw material. As for the ‘ghost face Xiao’, habitation areas of this kind of animal mostly were located on the north side of the Chi Ban Mountain area, because the weather and natural environment of the south side of the Chi Ban Mountain area was not suitable for ghost face Xiao to reproduce.

Therefore, although the Magi Palace possessed the recipe of the Xiao Marrow pill, their annual output of this kind of medicine was no more than a thousand pills. Compared to the number of people in the Magi Palace and the residences of the Pu Ban City who were under the Magi Palace’s protection, this amount of pills was not even as much as a drop in the bucket.

The Xiao Marrow pill was a quite effective yet mild kind of medicine. For poisons produced by quite a few kinds of highly poisonous creatures, the Xiao Marrow pill was the only effective antidote.

“Xiao Marrow pill, it’s quite expensive, right?” Ji Hao looked at Geng and asked.

“I vaguely remember that in this West Market, one Xiao marrow pill cost about three-million jade coins.” Geng frowned, slightly hesitated, then continued, “My honoured guest, I assume you already know that the ghost face Xiao, this kind of fierce animal is only raised in the North now. The feeding cost of this kind of animal is awfully high, by shipping them all the way here to our Chi Ban Market, the price will surely rise by hundreds of percent.”

“If you’re looking for antidotes, you can find many other effective kinds, so don’t have to use the Xiao Marrow pill. Therefore, the sale of this kind of medicine has always been not so good. However, if someone is pushed into a hopeless situation and have to use the Xiao marrow pill to save a life, that means that person is poisoned by the certain few kinds of poisonous creatures that, except the Xiao marrow pill, no other medicines can ever save from.”

“Eh? No other medicines can save him, doesn’t that mean he’s gonna die for sure?!” Man Man popped her eyes out in a slight shock, staring at Geng and asked.

“Hm, I’m afraid so.” Geng gave a short sigh and responded, then he pointed at that luxury pharmacy, said, “That’s Red Wood Palace, a property of a big family from the North. Normally, they can hardly ever sell a Xiao Marrow pill. It’s not so often that someone needs a Xiao Marrow pill to save a life. It’s already impressive that they didn’t raise the price on purpose. They would never sell it to that person if he doesn’t have enough jade coins. They won’t accept the shortage for even a single coin.”

Ji Hao held Man Man’s hand, walked up to the frontal gate of the Red Wood Palace and looked inside.

A big group of people had already gathered before the Red Wood Palace’s frontal gate, to see what was happening in there. Some of them were whispering to each other.

“This ‘cyan-eyes dragon leech’ is matured enough, for three-million jade coins. I think it’s worth it.”

“Eh,” another man clicked his tongue and responded, “This old wood is such a big blockhead, what can we say about it? He took the leech to the Red Wood Palace... They’ll definitely force the price down.”

“This poor old wood is so unlucky. Trying to beg the Red Wood Palace for help? He won’t be able to get out of this building before they got him peeled.”

In that especially commodious lobby of the Red Wood Palace, an over a-hundred-zhang tall treeman stood right in the middle, looking a bit dull. A few strong yet pliable branches of his firmly held a winged, gigantic leopard, which was being coiled by streams of black smoke.

On the old tree man’s tree trunk were a pair of hollowed eye sockets that had two green spheres of flame blazing in them; from that pair of eyes, huge drops of green tears were ceaselessly dripping down.

“Three-million jade coins...But this is all I have...Did you mean...this cyan-eyed dragon leech is only worth two-million? But people told me it is at least worth three-million!”

“I don’t have any more coins, not a single one...But he’s the only friend I have, please give me a Xiao Marrow pill... I have to save him...I will pay you back, I will pay you back!”

A Yu Clan’s man walked up to that tree man, and whispered something to him.

After that, the tree man abruptly let out a resonant growl and began angrily waving his branches.

“No deal...I’ll go to another pharmacy...The others have Xiao marrow pills too! I have to save my friend...I won’t sell the leech to you...”

Slowly swaying his body, the tree man turned around, walking towards the frontal gate, while murmuring, “Let’s go to another shop, we can always find a Xiao Marrow pill...I’ll save you, I’ll save you...”

Ji Hao looked at that tree man and the sticky, huge drops of tear rolling down from his eye sockets, and couldn’t help but curve his lips down. These spirit creatures were probably the simplest and most honest beings in this world. He was crying in front of all those people, that meant he indeed urgently wanted to save that winged leopard.

The tree man only took a few steps forward, when a sudden, cold and fierce roar burst out.

“Where do you think you can go?! No one dares to steal customers from our Red Wood Palace! This Xiao Marrow pill, you’ll have to buy if from us!”

“Don’t have enough jade coins? Easy, you can always sell yourself! You’re rather powerful, why don’t you just sell yourself to our Red Wood Palace as a slave, with a discounted price, like a-million? In this way, you can save your friend, right?”