In the Fine Jade Snow Palace, on the platform by the lake, a few long jade tables were placed in a straight line. Hundreds of beautiful girls had been continuously serving all kinds of fine wine and delicate dished to the tables.
Hundreds of Gold Crow Clan sturdy men had changed into luxurious long silk robes and comfortable leather boots made from spirit beasts' skin, with their hair perfectly brushed. They were holding wine cups made from pure gold and fine jade, laughing loudly towards the sky while enjoying the wine, the food, and all kinds of fresh fruits, as much as they wanted. They just felt that this was exactly how great the life should be.
The sky over Pu Ban city was filled with dark clouds, with snowflakes drifting down along the fierce wind. But Ji Hao had set a magic formation in this area with hundreds of flags, forcibly dispelling all clouds within the whole sky area upon the Fine Jade Snow Palace, which was with a radius of hundreds of miles. Splendid starlight poured down like water streams, making the palace, the garden and the thick layer of accumulated snow on the ground, breathtakingly beautiful.
Numerous boats had been quietly moving on the lake surface, with lanterns hanging on the prows. Strong and muscular fishermen had been singing and fishing, and once a big fish was caught, it would be sent into the kitchen, cooked into delicious dishes and served immediately.
Fishes in this lake were delicious, and the chefs working in Ji Hao's palace had great culinary skills. With unstinted all kinds of precious spices, the fish dishes tasted absolutely amazing, making these Gold Crow men unable to stop praising, with their mouths covered in oil.
On the edge of the platform, Ji Xia and Ji Hao sat by a small table, facing each other. Countless delicious dishes and great abundant wine were served on the table. While wolfing and gulping, Ji Xia was speaking glowingly of the changes that happened during these couple of years to Ji Hao.
Man Man had unexpectedly changed her usual vivacious manner. Instead, she quietly held a large vat of wine, standing by the table and constantly pouring wine to Ji Xia and Ji Hao's cups, while gently telling those maids to replace empty dishes with new cuisines. This gentle and quiet behavioral pattern of Man Man made Ji Hao feel rather weird. After every sip of wine, he would subconsciously cast a glance ast Man Man, worrying if Man Man was cursed or simply possessed by some devil. Otherwise, how could she suddenly change into this?
Ji Hao told Ji Xia about how he came to Pu Ban city with Si Wen Ming, joined the Magi Palace as an apprentice, made a few small contributions then went to Chi Ban Mountain and fought the war. Afterward, he gained Yu Yu's help and killed countless non-humankind, because of which, he made a great contribution. He told Ji Xia almost everything that happened to him after he left home.
Hearing Ji Hao, Ji Xia would take a long gasp in shock from time to time, pop his eyes out and ask Ji Hao about the details, such as the powers and numbers of those non-humankind beings and those powerful great machines used by them, which were far more powerful than weaponry of the humankind. All this made Ji Xia feel like he was listening to some fantasy story. After all, Gold Crow people had always been living in Southern Wasteland jungle. How could they ever know that the outside world was actually so colorful, interesting and also dangerous and even terrifying sometimes?
"Yao, you're Earl Yao now!" After spent quite a long while in wonder, Ji Xia patted his own head and said.
"Earl Yao, Earl Yao… hehe, my, Ji Xia's son is now Earl Yao!" Ji Xia patted his head hard with the heavy palm of his, even causing a series of muffled booms like a buzzing bell. He delightfully looked at Ji Hao with a huge grin on his face, repeating this sentence over and over again, 'My boy is an earl now, entitled by the human emperor himself!'
Ji Hao looked at Ji Xia with an honest smile. He was Earl Yao now. When using this title to deal with those outsiders, Ji Hao was indeed a bit proud of himself. However, when facing Ji Xia, things like the noble title of Earl Yao, hundreds of millions of clansmen, were just like drifting clouds and flowing water to him. Instead, being able to see the pure and simple smile of his father who was nearly drunk, to sense his father's happiness which came straight from the heart because of his achievements; to have this moment when he and his father could look at each other in the eyes and laugh… this was the most beautiful thing that could happen in this world.
"When I go back to Southern Wasteland, I'll tell the others about you, and I bet a lot of people will be shocked to death!" Ji Xia abruptly stood up and roared out towards the lake, "My, Ji Xia's son, is Earl Yao, entitled by the human emperor! Damn you! Bi Fang Clan, Fire Dragon Clan, Fire Phoenix Clan… all piss off!"
"My, Ji Xia's son, is Earl Yao, conferred by the human emperor! None of your kids is as good as him!"
The rumbling roar of his reached a thousand miles away. Fortunately, this whole area belonged to Ji Hao, so no unnecessary attention was caught by Ji Xia's thunderous roars. Only in a military camp in the distance, those warriors under Ji Xia's command abruptly stopped talking and laughing and remained quiet for a while. After this, tens of thousands of warriors who followed Ji Hao to Pu Ban city from Yao Mountain stood up together, raised their cups and cheered out towards Fine Jade Snow Palace.
Hearing all cheers and laughs, Ji Xia proudly sat back to his seat, then began telling Ji Hao his own experiences during the past few years with a ruddy glowing face.
It was quite simple though. Back then, Jiang Yao and her husband Ji Shu accidentally gained a map, with the locations of Ji Xia's direct ancestors' tomb recorded on it. Later, their scheme didn't work, and the map landed in Ji Hao's hands. When Ji Hao left the clan, he left the map to Ji Xia.
Three years ago, Ji Xia was carrying out a daily patrolling task given by Zhu Rong Tonggong, passing by a wild area with thousands of warriors that was filled with active volcanos in the mid of Southern Wasteland. Suddenly, the map released its power, automatically dragging Ji Xia and over three hundred warriors into the tomb area.
After a complicated series of bloodline confirmations, Ji Xia and those clansmen stepped into an ancient tomb that was located in another small dimension. A stone monument was standing in the middle of the coffin chamber, recording the backgrounds of its owners. The tomb belonged to a Gold Crow Clan Master Supreme Magus named Ji Liao, and sixteen Supreme Magi, thirty-eight Divine Magi, three-hundred and sixty Magus Kings under his command. These people lived in the era of the three legendary human emperors.
Back in the era of the three human emperors, evil beings were acting amuck against the whole world. Emperor Xuan Yuan led human armies and fought against those evil beings for a hundred years, finally wiping the evil beings out in Southern Wasteland. Ji Liao was one of the major generals under Emperor Xuan Yuan's command. He and his warriors fought in the battlefront and were besieged by the army of evil beings. They had already been pushed into a deathly situation but decided to desperately strike back. Ji Liao and his warriors were circled by enemies and couldn't break out, and if enemies pushed slightly further, they would be destroyed.
Under such a situation, Ji Liao used his own spirit blood as a trigger and drew this dragon-skin map, giving it to one of his warriors and ordering him to take this map and break out of the encirclement to inform his clansmen about the location of his death. He did so his clansmen could find the place with the map, and collect all those Supreme magic treasures and other inherited treasures carried with him.
After Ji Liao set his spirit blood ablaze and sent that warrior out of the encirclement, he gave up on his own life and triggered a forbidden spell, perishing together with those devil beings. He opened this tomb up in the small dimension and suppressed hundreds of evil beings all at once.
However, no one knew what happened to the warrior who was supposed to deliver the map back the clan. But the map never made it back to Gold Crow Clan, and instead, it had been drifting outside all these years. Until countless years later, this map was accidentally attained by Ji Xia, one of the direct descendants of Ji Liao, and also accidentally, Ji Xia was dropped into the tomb as he was passing by the area.
In the tomb, Ji Xia partially inherited the great power of Ji Liao, his ancestor, who also was a Master Supreme Magus, and directly become a nine-star Divine Magus from a small Senior Magus. Gold Crow clansmen who entered into the tomb with Ji Hao inherited the powers that belonged to the other thirty-eight Divine Magi and three-hundred and sixty Magus Kings.
"What had been killing me was that the other sixteen Supreme Magi' powers still didn't find inheritors…" Speaking of this, Ji Xia's face turned glowing red, "The powers of the sixteen Supreme Magi have to be inherited by direct descendants of our family. Therefore, your Amma had been forcing me to have more children!"
"Eh?!" Ji Hao and Man Man glanced at each other in shock, then both remained silent.
So this was the reason why Ji Xia had been working so hard on making children?
Turning around his palm, Ji Xia took out a human-head-sized, brightly glowing bead, that was wrapped in raging flame, put it heavily on Ji Hao's hand and said, "Hao, this is the power of one of those ancestors, the most powerful Supreme Magus among the sixteen. I brought it over to you!"