The Contract

A group of warriors were walking out of Ji Hao's home and complaining loudly.

"He had to borrow power from an 'Inherited Magic Treasure' to beat our brother Xia...I can't believe he's our leader now..."

"'Inherited Magic Treasure'...Hmm, if many of our elders hadn't made...sacrifices in order to protect our homeland and lost those ancient 'Inherited magic treasures' of our own...How could that bastard have won?"

"Look at his delicate face...He doesn't even look like a man...such a coward."

"That man doesn't have a good reputation...You should hear how other clans talk about...what he did..."

All these people were warriors from the Holy Land. They were also close friends of Ji Xia, who always treated each other like brothers. They would rather die than follow Ji Shu. But they couldn't do anything to change the fact that Ji Shu had beaten Ji Xia at the ceremony and became their leader.

A lot of people came for Ji Xia and Qing Fu, who were still in coma. Everyone flew in rage once they saw what Ji Shu had done to Ji Xia and Qing Fu. For decades, Ji Xia had led them and fought against the enemies, conquering many lands. All of the Fire Crow Clan people admired him deeply for his contributions to the clan.

As for Qing Fu, she had amazing medical skills. She had cured countless ill and injured people. In the Fire Crow Clan, she was even more famous than Ji Xia.

These people were clearly aware of the fact that Ji Shu had intentionally harmed Qing Fu and Ji Xia. They had made up their mind, they would never follow Ji Shu's lead.

After the last guest had left, Ji Hao sat down beside Qing Fu. He put his hands on her temple and channeled the [Bu Tian Bu Lou Magic Spell].

Wisps of Shamisen Fire were pulled out of Qing Fu's temple and absorbed by Ji Hao's palms. Ji Hao felt a burning sensation in his Dantian, and had soon began to sweat. Luckily, the Shamisen Fire was swallowed by the multicoloured flame in his Dantian before it could do any harm to Ji Hao's body.

The faint multicoloured flame suddenly grew bigger. Ji Hao surprisingly felt that his strength was improving quickly.

"It's the dragon blood." Ji Hao heard the mysterious man's voice coming from his spiritual space. "The dragon blood gave you a perfect human body, which means your physical strength won't get limited by your body. Hmm...You should eat more, you know? You could even be as powerful as a Senior Magus at this stage, if only you ate enough."

Ji Hao showed no interest towards the advice of the man. How much would he have to eat in order to become as powerful as a Senior Magus?

Soon, Ji Hao had pulled out all of the fire force from within Qing Fu's body; he then did the same with Ji Xia.

After Ji Hao had dealt with the fire force inside their bodies, he stood up, interlocked his hands together and channeled the power of one of the secret words, [Zhe].

Once Ji Hao channeled [Zhe], the bodies of Ji Xia and Qing Fu started to tremble. Ji Hao had taken control of their bodies with the power of [Zhe], released their bloodline powers and life force which were naturally contained in their bodies.

Then he changed his hand gesture. The air surrounding their bodies started to glow, and transformed slowly into a faint light-river, flying into Ji Xia and Qing Fu's bodies.

[Zhe] was the most mysterious secret word among the [Nine Secret Words], which contained the strongest life force in the world. Ji Hao carefully controlled the power of [Zhe], and sent the life force carefully into Ji Xia and Qing Fu's bodies, continuously healing them.

Ji Hao then unleashed his spiritual power and observed inside their bodies. He noticed that even their damaged Magus Acupoints were slowly healing due to the power of [Zhe]. Ji Hao might even cure these "dead" Magus Acupoints.

Ji Xia and Qing Fu's bodies were wrapped by the warm, faint light. Their facial expression gradually changed from that of suffering to being pleased.

Ji Hao looked at his parents and let out a sigh of relief.

Then, he heard a knocking sound coming from the window. He turned his head around, and saw that a two-foot tall crow was standing on the windowsill, knocking against the window with his beak.

Ji Hao walked up to the window, patted his head and fed it a piece of dry meat. He then gently asked the crow, "Do the grandpas want to see me?"

The crow nodded and cawed, flapped his wings and flew away. Ji Hao glanced at his parents who were quietly laying on the bed then leaped out of the window, following the crow to the mulberry forest down in the valley.

In the wooden dome, where Ji Hao had fought Ji Wu for the first time, Ji Kui, Ji Tu and tens of other elder Maguspriests were sitting around a bonfire. Ji Kui saw Ji Hao coming, tapped the ground next to himself and said with a warm smile on his face, "Come, sit here, Hao."

Ji Hao sat down next to Ji Kui, looked around and noticed that all the Maguspriests were wearing serious faces. Ji Hao said respectfully, "Dear grandpas, is there anything that you want to say to me?"

Ji Kui dropped his eyelids and said, "You know...Ji Shu is one of your father's cousins. Specifically, we have a hundred and twenty-seven different Fire Crow Clan branch-bloodlines in total, except your dad, Ji Shu and his people have the purest bloodline among the others."

Ji Kui let out a heavy sigh and continued, "However, they're too close with the Bi Fang clan...Some of their...some of the things they did...we can't agree with. We thought they would do no good to our clan. That's why they had never gotten the chance to compete for the highest position."

"Grandpa, but this time...Abba..." Ji Hao gave a bitter smile and said.

Ji Kui put his scrawny hand on Ji Hao's shoulder, paused for a second, then said seriously, "It's already happened, let us see what they really want. But, the most important thing at the moment, is...Hao, we all feel that you're going to have great achievements in the future, you're talented and kind...So we won't let anything happen to you. We must ensure that!"

"But Ji Wu's death was partly because of me. Ji Shu, Jiang Yao, and their people, they won't let it easily go," Ji Hao said candidly.

Ji Kui gave a mysterious smile, then said, "We know that...We, received permission from our ancestors at the ceremony...Hao, although you're not a Senior Magus yet, our ancestors said that you can already make a contract with a Fire Crow. The crow will become your companion beast, you will fight side-by-side, always protecting and supporting each other."

Ji Hao eyes popped up as he stared at Ji Kui, he couldn't believe what he just had heard. Fire Crows were mysterious and powerful creatures of the Gold Black Mountain. Even his father, Ji Xia, was not qualified enough to make a contract with a Fire Crow, but now he had been told that he could make one.

"Grand...grandpa, how...how did our ancestors know about this..."

"Er...we're Maguspriests, we do as our ancestors told us..." Other Maguspriests gave the same mysterious smiles and said, "Exactly, the will of our ancestors are always delivered through us...So...Hao, if we say that you can make a contract with a Fire Crow, it's because our ancestors have said so..."

Ji Hao was fully aware of what these grandpas had done for him. He nodded and stayed silent.

The heavy wooden door then opened. A gigantic fire crow, the one always flying around in the jungle with Ji Hao, slowly walked in.

The crow saw Ji Hao and cawed pleasantly. A drop of blood raised from his mouth, transformed into an odd spell symbol in the air and quickly flew into the skin between Ji Hao's eyebrows.

Ji Hao suddenly sensed Mr Crow's power, which made his blood boil. He slightly shook his body; a golden fiery light darted out from his back, quickly blazing up into a flame.