Ambush

The air was clean and fresh.

Ji Hao walked behind Ji Hu. He was looking at his surroundings.

There were towering trees, coiled by thick, dragon-like vines. Moss was growing on rocks with all kinds of insects crawling over them, and there were also mushrooms that were huge and colourful. The Black Gold Mountain had always been full of vitality.

This was the first time Ji Hao observed this mountain from such a close range, aside from the time he had been two years old and sneaked up towards the mountain with Mr Crow for the very first time.

They waded across two brooks, trod a path through a few trees and bushes, and then finally arrived at a flowering meadow.

The meadow had a circumference of hundreds of feet. Wildflowers were blooming in the high grass. Under the sunshine, the meadow looked like an emerald gem.

Once they arrived at this meadow, Ji Hu and the other two young men subconsciously tightened their bodies, and had a trace of murderous glint appear in their eyes.

"Such a beautiful place." Ji Hao stopped and murmured. "The Feng Shui[1] here must be pretty good...If one could be buried here...He'd be happy in his next life."

"Feng Shui?" Ji Hu asked curiously. His forehead had started to sweat. "What Feng Shui? There isn't even a brook here!"

"Haha." Ji Hao laughed out loud and looked at Ji Hu, "Don't you know about Feng Shui? Well...forget it then...It's too complicated to explain it to you; even more complicated than trying to explain the fact that you wanna kill me!"

Ji Hu had been looking at Ji Hao with a smile. His expression changed suddenly after hearing what Ji Hao had said. Ji Feng and Ji Shui, who were closely following Ji Hu, simultaneously pulled out their knives and axes, and chopped towards Ji Hao's back.

Both of their knives and axes were huge and heavy, forged by themselves with black iron, and in addition to that, both Ji Feng and Ji Shui were Sixth-Level Novice Magi. They waved their weapons full of force, causing two sharp gusts of winds which cut off all the flowers and grasses in the surrounding ten feet.

At the same time, Ji Hu let out a growl and thrust out his spear which was aimed to pierce Ji Hao's heart.

All three of them attacked Ji Hao at almost the same time. Ji Hu was already showing a victorious smile on his face. In his eyes, Ji Hao was already a dead man. Half a month ago, Ji Hao had only been a Level 3 Novice Magus. And although he had learned some Magic Spells from those elders, he would never be able to survive this.

However, he could never have imagined how things had changed over the last half-month. While they were attacking Ji Hao, Ji Hao suddenly rose high into the air and floated, then heavily kicked backwards with both of his legs.

Ji Feng and Ji Shui hadn't seen this coming; Ji Hao's feet slammed heavily onto their chests and sent them flying backwards. Ji Feng and Ji Shui then fell hard on the ground like mashed fruits. They were vomiting blood and couldn't even stand up back.

Ji Hao then stood still in the air while facing forward, and glared at Ji Hu. He grabbed Ji Hu's spear, which was stabbing towards him with all of Ji Hu's strength; Ji Hao grabbed that spear and twisted his palm. The spear broke into three parts, right in front of Ji Hu's face.

"Hao! Listen to me!" Ji Hu yelled trembling, and staggered backwards.

"Why?" Ji Hao then flew up to Ji Hu at lightning speed, and threw a punch towards Ji Hu's face.

"My Amma has told me, if someone tries to kill me, then I have to kill him! This is the rule of the Southern Wasteland!" Ji Hao's punch hit Ji Hu's head accompanied with a flame. Ji Hu's body stopped, after which strands of flames burst out from the pores of his skin. In the blink of an eye, Ji Hu was scorched, and fell on the ground.

"Kill him! You two!" Jiang Xue's voice came from the woods. Along with the voice, Jiang Xue rushed out of the woods. She was wearing the same leather armour she had worn the last time, while holding a bola in her hands.

"You douchebags! The three of you couldn't even kill a kid! Kill him!"

Ji Feng and Ji Shui had seen that Ji Hu was killed by a single punch of Ji Hao; they struggled back up, glared at Ji Hao and screamed, "Ji Hao! You killed our brother Hu! God! You killed Hu! You killed our brother! You...You killed one of our own people! You've committed a grave offense!"

Ji Hao took a lazy glance at Jiang Xue, who was rushing towards him full of rage. Then he turned around and darted towards Ji Feng and Ji Shui.

"What did Jiang Xue gave you to kill me? How dare you help an outsider and hurt your own brother? You're right, it's a grave offense. But I was only defending myself. It was you...who committed a grave offense!"

Ji Hao sensed a great power being released from the meridians inside his body; soon, a golden flame surged out from his back. All of the plants near him rapidly withered.

Ji Feng and Ji Shui stared at the blazing flame with shock. The flame showed that Ji Hao had already broken through to Level 11 and had awakened his bloodline power; they couldn't believe their own eyes. Only half a month ago, Ji Hao had still been way weaker than themselves.

Ji Feng and Ji Shui were in a daze for a short while, after which they screamed out and threw their weapons away, flying backwards in a hurry.

"Ji Feng! Ji Shui! Come and fight me like real men! What are you doing? Are you trying to humiliate our ancestors?" Ji Hao growled. He interlocked his hands together, casted a spell, then waved his arms forwards. Spears of flame darted out from his palms and struck against Ji Feng and Ji Shui's backs.

Ji Feng and Ji Shui were sent flying by the flame spears. They let out a howl and fell hard onto the ground; half of their bodies had been burnt.

Just after this, Ji Hao sensed a sharp wind coming from behind him. He turned around and saw Jiang Xue with four Bi Fang Clan warriors waving their weapons and rushing towards him. Their weapons were shining with a fiery light, making it look like four fiery dragons.

Along with the sound of sharp gusts of wind, the air around those warriors bursted into flames. Ji Hao saw four figures of Bi Fang birds in that flame. Obviously, these warriors belonged all to the group of elite Senior Magi of the Bi Fang Clan.

Ji Hao retreated quickly.

Facing these four Bi Fang Clan elite Senior Magi, he sensed that the air pressure was rapidly increasing, which even made him feel hard to breathe.

However, their powers were far weaker when compared to Ji Shu's light palm strike at the worship ceremony.

Nevertheless, Ji Hao still couldn't risk taking this attack. After all, he was just a Novice Magus. He gazed at those warriors, and retreated as quickly as he could, while trying to gather his bloodline power as much as possible in the meantime.

Jiang Xue followed those warriors and yelled viciously, "Kill him! Kill him! This damn bastard! You killed Ji Hu...I...I hadn't even married him yet...You killed my fianc��e! You ruined my reputation!"

"Haha!" Ji Hao laughed out. People in the South Wasteland were traditional and superstitious; indeed, the fianc��e being killed before the wedding ceremony would completely ruin a girl's reputation.

While Ji Hao was laughing, he heard Jiang Xue's ear-piercing scream.

A wisp of black shadow flashed through the air. The bola in Jiang Xue's hands suddenly exploded into pieces. A few faint yellow spell symbols were just about to emerge from the surface of her leather armour but before that, the armour had been torn by the black shadow.

Jiang Xue was sent flying sideways, coughing blood.

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[1]Feng Shui: Feng Shui is a Chinese philosophical system of harmonizing everyone with the surrounding environment. It is closely linked to Daoism. The term Feng Shui literally translates as "wind-water" in English. Feng Shui is one of the Five Arts of Chinese Metaphysics, classified as physiognomy (observation of appearances through formulas and calculations). The Feng Shui practice discusses architecture in metaphoric terms of "invisible forces" that bind the universe, earth, and humanity together, known as Qi. Historically, Feng Shui was widely used to orient buildings, often spiritually significant structures such as tombs, but also dwellings and other structures in an auspicious manner. Depending on the particular style of Feng Shui being used, an auspicious site could be determined by reference to local features such as bodies of water, stars, or a compass.