Chapter 1: Prologue

Prologue

The sky was grey with billowing clouds roiling steadily across it.

Thunder crackled and a blinding flash of lightning streaked down from the sky, without making any noticeable sound.

Qiang Liang, a demigod[1], held a zax[2] and stood upon a gigantic serpent's head, which had been beheaded just now , and was stunned as he gazed at the sky. He saw, hovering over the horizon, a wriggling purple serpent tail, which almost covered the entire vault of the sky.

The serpent was so huge that he couldn’t discern its head, and it blocked the entire skyline.

Hiding the sky and covering the earth, the serpent’s body was often submerged in dark grey clouds. Lightning occasionally struck the serpent’s body, and created a horrible atmosphere; which made the giant, Meng Ming, grimace in pain and shiver unceasingly.

"This crazy bitch has gone mad again, who enraged her this time?!"

While Meng Ming cursed, a mottled, ancient round cauldron[3] slowly descended from the heavens and floated in the air; with a sudden bang, thunder and endless lightning surged out from the cauldron. Soon, the sky returned to normal, and the huge serpent also vanished into thin air.

......

Dark clouds amassed in the sky, torrents of rain lashed onto the earth, and the air was filled with cool mist and showers of water.

A brightly lit crystal pyramid made of glass, illuminated the dark night sky. Dozens of armed men wearing raincoats surrounded the pyramid, and kept a vigilant watch over the place.

Suddenly, the raindrops started to splash rhythmically on the ground, like the beating of a heart. The rain droplets gradually rose more than a foot high from the ground; and the rainfall weaved into dozens of water ropes, silently wrapping around the armed men’s necks.

The water ropes swung violently and broke their necks, taking their lives instantly. A dim silhouette suddenly emerged from the fog and walked towards the pyramid gate, step by step. Every step closer to the gate, the hazy stature became clearer and at last turned into a transparent man of water, who stood in front of the pyramid gate.

In a flash, the water man slightly shook his body, transforming into a real person. The figure was tall , slim, dressed in a bright, black armour, and had a handsome physique. He was Qing Long.

Numerous water drops condensed into water ropes, which were wriggling like snakes, and drilled into the pyramid, cutting off all security equipment lines like sharp knives. A large electrical fire emerged from the pyramid; only the lighting system was left intact.

Forcing the three-foot-thick crystal gate open, Qing Long slowly walked into an exhibition hall.

More than a hundred crystal exhibition tables were placed in a circle, under the brilliant lights of the hall. Cross-legged skeletons were positioned on each of those tables; and notably, the exhibition case in the centre, made of bulletproof glass, held a multicolored, translucent round cauldron, the size of human head. A totem of a dragon and phoenix was embossed on its surface.

Qing Long moved closer and quietly observed the cross-legged skeletons.

These skeletons had a similar structure to that of humans; however, the bones of their entire body had a dark golden colour, and were translucent like glass. If they stood up straight, their height might have reached more than two meters. More astonishingly, in addition to the two dark eye sockets on either side of their face, there was a third eye socket located in the middle of their eyebrows, which was slightly larger than the other two.

"Three-eyed people?" Qing Long pulled out a dagger and knocked the skeleton with it.

The skeleton gave of sparks when it was knocked by the dagger, which had been made from a special alloy and was forged at a level comparable to diamonds. Unexpectedly, the dagger failed to leave even a single mark on the skeleton. Qing Long's expression became serious. Humanoid skeletons which were harder than diamonds must be extremely valuable, he thought.

"This time, I came by myself...hmm, worthy." Qing Long turned around and walked up to the exhibition case in the centre;he chuckled and said, "Hey, if you don’t show up, I may just take these treasures and leave..."

The side door of the hall opened, and a team of warriors came in through the door. They were wearing long, black trench coats and their bodies were wrapped in flames, lightning, hurricanes, and other odd supernatural visions. Walking in the front was a blonde haired young girl with green eyes, she was slim and pretty. Held in her hands was an oddly shaped jade sword.

"Mr Qing Long, we’ve heard so much about you." The girl walked towards Qing Long, slightly bowed to him and continued, "In the past few years, more than a hundred of our people have died by your hands, including three of my former Secret Service directors. However, what’s inconceivable is, this is the first time that we get to see you in person."

"Ayaya, I’m not that handsome!" Qing Long teased the young girl; at the same time, he pressed his right hand onto the bulletproof glass case, and shattered it into pieces with his palm muscles.

“Oh God!” People who were standing behind the girl exclaimed aloud, and unconsciously took a step back. They had heard about Qing Long, who came from the Eastern country of Hua Xia, and was known as the strongest man in the world. However, they never thought that Qing Long would be so powerful!

They had done tests a few days ago and confirmed that even tank guns could not break the case. Did Qing Long just shattered it bare-handedly? This was beyond their imaginations — was it even possible for a humans to be this strong?

Qing Long held the three-legged cauldron with both of his hands, which gave an extremely pleasant feeling. Holding the cauldron, Qing Long felt like he was holding the entire universe.

Qing long carefully put the cauldron into his bag, which was tied around his waist, and said, "These treasures are taken from Liang Zhu[4], the ancient city of my country. I have to bring them back. According to our rules, the strongest man gets to make the decision. You won’t disagree that I reclaim our treasures, will you?"

The smiling girl looked at Qing Long and said with a soft voice, "Mr. Qing Long, you might want to know some of our research results...about these mysterious treasures. You may not guess it, but according to our survey, we found that the soil layer, where these treasures were buried, have at least a hundred thousand years of history.”

Qing Long subconsciously touched his bag. Thousands of years old antiques? Human history was still in its nascent stage, wasn't it? Was it even possible for those ancient people to create such a beautiful and exquisite treasure with such an inexplicable power hidden in it?

The girl turned over her hand, and revealed the jade sword she had been holding the whole time.

The jade sword was three feet long and a palm-size wide, carved out of a single piece of jade. Near the hilt, was an odd totem with an erected tower; scarlet eyes floated above the tower, seemingly evil and cold.

"We have tested that this jade sword is made of Hetian white jade, the material was Hetian white jade indeed. As we all know, white jade is a type of nephrite, which is very delicate.” The young girl smiled, “However, whether natural diamonds or our laboratory’s hardest special alloy, this sword can cut them as easily as cutting a piece of tofu."

The young girl brandished the sword, smiled and continued, "I split a strategic bomber with this sword earlier; across a distance of two kilometres, with my strength, I could split a strategic bomber. Mr Qing Long, I truly can't imagine what would happen if this sword was held in your hands.”

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Qing Long's complexion drastically changed, he didn’t take the girl and her people serious at all, they were just a bunch of cannon fodder to him. But, if this sword was as powerful as she said, this may not be that easy.

"So this is a trap, then?" Qing Long asked. In the meanwhile, he twisted his neck and soothed the joints in his body.

"We’ve always wanted to have an opportunity to negotiate face to face, with you." The girl said with a charming smile on her face, "In the past few years, you have caused us too much damage. We hope that you will be able to join us. If so, you can have my position or even my superior's position, you only need to ask."

"Of course, in exchange, we hope that we could have your loyalty and your creation, the [Mantra Dan with Nine Secret Words] [5]!” The girl’s breath became disordered when she spoke the last few words.

[Nine Secret Words] is a powerful magic spell. It can develop the human body’s potential and associate it with the vast and mysterious power of the universe.

The [Mantra Dan with Nine Secret Words] was Qing Long’s original magic spell, based on the [Nine Secret Words]. This spell enabled Qing Long to control earth, water, fire, and wind, communicate with the netherworld, travel to anywhere in the world within a moment, and also made him the world’s most powerful human.

"This is, of course, impossible!" Qing Long patted the bag around his waist and said with quirky laugh, “If you have ever heard about me, you should have known that I am the type to seek revenge for the slightest grievance, and I’m also famous for never betraying my ancestors!"

Qing Long’s body suddenly transformed into countless sharp wind knives and dashed towards the girl. Those wind knifes soon gathered into a hazy swirl, enveloping the entire hall.

The girl shook her head and sighed helplessly, "I knew it, those damned idiot bosses insisted on spending so much effort in vain!"

With a cold laughter, the girl held out a golden bamboo slip[6] and threw it upward. Along with an earth-shaking thunder, blood-red lights emerged from the dark eyeholes of the cross-legged skeletons.

With a buzzing sound, the red lights quickly converged into a huge blood-red cage, firmly imprisoning Qing Long inside.

The light cage remained motionless as it was hit by Qing Long’s wind knives; all of the wind knives shattered into pieces.

Outside, the dark clouds billowed over the eastern horizon and waves of lightning were seen, followed by the unceasing rumble of distant thunder.

On the street, innumerable screams could be heard; people looked up at the sky in fear. They saw the clouds drifting and changing forms; behind the dense clouds, there was a gigantic purple serpent slithering above.

Inside the pyramid, Qing Long fell down on his knees, blood smeared all over his body. In the light cage, ninety-nine light spears floated in the air, silently aiming towards him; in the very next second, all of those spears pierced his body.

"Damn! Does this weird stuff really have such a strong power?” The girl excitedly caught the golden bamboo slip, which fell down from the air and shouted hoarsely, "Qing Long, did you see that? You are the most powerful human...yet you are so vulnerable in front of us!"

"These skeletons, this bamboo slip, and that cauldron, they all came from the same place! They are the treasures from thousands of years ago! God, so amazing; according to the methods described on bamboo slip, arranging these skeletons in certain orientations can truly release this much magnificent power!" The girl yelled hysterically.

"What...the...hell is this?" Qing Long moaned in pain and looked up.

"There are records in this bamboo slip which say that this is an ancient strategy[7]; as for the name...sorry, our linguists have yet to decipher that.” The girl shrugged and said, "but these skeletons, they are called..."

Suddenly, purple lightning fell from the sky, and struck the crystal pyramid.

All of the crystal glasses were instantly destroyed by the lightning, the girl and her people were burned into ashes, and the round three-legged cauldron started to emit a faint multi-coloured light that wrapped around Qing Long’s body. Qing Long roared in pain and his body twitched violently. With blood covering his entire body, he felt as though his lifeforce, the essence of his body and his soul were all being rapidly extracted by the cauldron.

The three-eyed skeletons simultaneously raised their arms and pointed at the sky, as if to cast a counterattack. The blood-red light in their pupils condensed into a huge red dragon and rushed towards the purple lightning.

The dragon vanished in the air once it collided into the purple lightning; at the same time, ninety-nine three-eyed skeletons shook fiercely and exploded into golden dust.

Qing Long was enveloped by a purple ray. He felt an inexhaustible power rush down from the sky and destroy everything in its path. The purple lightning then condensed into a human-sized lightning sphere，flashed across the air and disappeared. After a few seconds, everything subsided.

The public square and the pyramid were gone without a trace, nothing was left.

Qing Long

He possesses unsurpassed wisdom and extremely strong spiritual power. He created the [Mantra Dan with Nine Secret Word]’ based on the [Nine Secret Words]. He was known as the strongest human in the world. To retrieve the lost treasure—the round cauldron, which belonged to the ancient city of Liang Zhu—Qing Long fell into a trap and was gravely injured. After that, he was influenced by an unknown power, unexpectedly traveled through space and time, and was reborn as Ji Hao in the Fire Crow Clan.

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[1] Demigod : Half god, half human.

[2] Zax : A tool similar to a hatchet, used for cutting and dressing roofing slates. Old English seax knife; related to Old Saxon sahs and Old Norse sax.

[3] Cauldron: Many cultures, including the ancient people of China and Greece, used cauldrons as ornaments, trophies, sacrificial altars, cooking vessels or tripods, and decorative ceramic pottery.

[4] Liang Zhu: A mysterious, ancient city, located in the Eastern country of Hua Xia.

[5] [Mantra Dan with Nine Secret Words]: a mysterious magic spell; it can discover the deepest potential of the human body.

[6] A bamboo slip: One of the main medias for literacy in early China.

[7] Ancient strategy: Refers to the tactical deployment of troops in coordination with Magus sorceries.

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