Rise of The Demon General

Amon looked around. It seemed his pursuer was only this one person. Other locals immediately hid away when they saw two cultivators were having a dispute. Most of the ones living in the slum here were peasants who never had a chance to cultivate in their lives.

The man who chased after Amon was full of sweat. His breathing was also heavy. Despite his running speed being faster, the movement art burnt a lot of aether. He couldn’t maintain it for long. It was lucky that he managed to catch up to Amon before he ran out of energy.

”Damn, kid! What kind of movement art do you use? How are you still breathing fine after running so fast for so long?” The man asked. ”By the way, my name is Abdu. I am a cultivator of the Beginning Transformation stage.”

”What do you want?” Amon asked.

”Hehe, what do I want? I want you to accompany me playing for a while. You are very rude to our young master. So, he doesn’t want to see you in the entrance exam. It’s better this way. There is no way a boy like you can pass the exam, and I’m here to make sure of that. You can just say that it is because of me that you fail, so you won’t bring shame back home. Ain’t I a kind person for helping you making an excuse?”

Abdu had been walking towards Amon as he talked. Amon looked around, although the peasants had hidden away inside their home, they were most likely still watching. It would be a problem if Amon killed this Abdu with so many witnesses.

He figured this city was similar to White Cloud City. Conflicts sometimes happened on the streets amongst cultivators. But as long as no life was lost, the governing party didn’t bother to deal with it. They will just pretend the conflicts never happened unless their patrolling units happened to come across the disputes. This slum-like place seemed to be an unlikely place for any guards to patrol through.

Amon turned around as if he wanted to run away.

”Hey! Don’t you think you can…!”

Abdu didn’t finish his sentence because as he lunged forward and used his movement art to chase Amon, Amon turned back again at him, and then Amon vanished.

”What…”

To his surprise, Amon suddenly appeared in front of him with his fist punching forward. Amon had trained the martial art he created, Silent Swift Shadow Fist, until the Master level. He could easily execute this art now. Several fist images that left trails of light rushed from behind him as his fist collided with Abdu.

A large impact voice was heard. Too loud for an impact against the flesh of the body.

Before Abdu was a rock plate, protecting him from Amon’s fist. Abdu had used this arcane art once he thought something was wrong when Amon vanished.

When Abdu wanted to teach Amon a lesson for daring to attack while he was still talking, he saw the incoming fists with trails of light from behind Amon. These fists slammed onto Abdu’s rock shield repeatedly.

Abdu sneered. Who did this youth think he was? Didn’t he already announce that he was a Transformation stage cultivator? A youth at his age who was looking to enter the royal academy could only be of the Strength stage. He estimated Amon to be only at the Beginning Strength stage. This thought was in reference to their talented young master who was at the intermediate Strength stage. Amon couldn’t be at the same level as their young master, could he?

Abdu wasn’t too far off. Amon was indeed still at the Strength stage. However, he was at the Peak Strength stage. Additionally, the Silent Swift Shadow Fist was an art Amon created from the combination of two martial arts. Two martial arts which after further study, Amon classified as mid-tier practitioner art.

Most other arts he observed in White Cloud city were low-tier practitioner art. The arts kept by the Hei clan were actually a level higher than the common arts. When Amon combined the two arts, he elevated the level even further. Not quite a high-tier practitioner art, but close.

As the fists that looked like meteor showers crashed into the rock shield, cracks continued to appear on the rock.

The confident face that Abdu showed, slowly diminished as more cracks appeared.

’How many punches can his art delivers?’ Abdu thought in alarm. He was injecting his aether into his rock shield to try to reinforce it.

However, it was still destroyed after another three hits. Two more meteorite fists still rushed in, they crushed into Abdu’s body. Abdu’s Transformation stage body was not strong enough to resist the impact force. He vomited blood as he reeled back from the impacts.

While he was still unbalanced, he found Amon was already upon him. He didn’t have a chance to do anything before a very strong punch slammed onto his head from above, sending him crashing to the ground. His vision was spinning.

Amon controlled his strength so as to not crack Abdu’s skull open. He didn’t want to kill anyone, yet. He was a newcomer to this city. He was not yet familiar with the rules. It was better if he didn’t cause unnecessary trouble. He incapacitated this man in self-defense, the people in this slum were his witnesses.

He didn’t bother about Abdu any longer. He turned and resumed his run. He was short on time.

Amon paid attention to his surroundings. He didn’t notice any other pursuers. Abdu must be the only one in that Wu young master’s entourage who had a long-range movement art.

Amon didn’t meet any more resistance along the way. He soon came out of the slum area and into a more crowded commercial area. At one point it was too crowded that running at full speed was impossible without crashing onto the pedestrians. So, Amon climbed to the roof of one of the buildings and then ran along the roofs. It’s a good thing most of the buildings were shops that uniformly had only two storeys, so their roofs were connected.

Some of the pedestrians looked up and saw Amon’s action. Several shook their heads at the sight.

The very large blue building was seen already at the end of the roofs he was running on. The guard was right, it was impossible to miss it once one was nearby. Only a bit over an hour passed since he entered the city. He still had enough time. As he was about to arrive, two people in soldier uniforms jumped atop the roofs. They stood in Amon’s path.

”Halt!” The two uttered.

Because the two were wearing soldiers’ uniforms, Amon complied. Otherwise, he would have just jumped past the two.

”Who are you?! What is your intention of coming to Blue Gate Square without taking the proper road?”

Amon was close enough to see the large square before the big building with the unusually large doors. There were lots of people crowding around the square. Amon assumed that must be the Blue Gate Square.

”I am a participant in the Royal Academy’s entrance exam. I was told that that large blue building is the place I should go to. I take the route through these roofs because the exam almost starts. Hence, my hurry to avoid the traffic.”

The two soldiers looked at one another. They then said to Amon, ”Where is your badge?”

Amon showed them his badge.

The two checked the badge, seeing no problem with it. ”Why are you not with the other Lin people?”

”I’ve gotten ill during the travel so I arrive later,” Amon gave the same explanation.

The two guards looked at one another again.

One of them then said, ”You are late and you are causing a ruckus by running through the roofs. Our duty is to keep the order in Blue Gate Square. If we just let you go like this, how can we answer to our superior?”

Amon smiled. It was easy to guess what the two wanted. Amon took out a hundred aer stones and said, ”I know I’m in the wrong. I hope that you can give this junior some lenience. This is a token of my appreciation.”

Amon gave the one hundred aer stones to one of the soldiers. He wasn’t aware if this sum was considered large or not in this city. In White Cloud city, common folks’ average weekly income was around fifty aer stones. He believed soldiers should have a higher wage considering they were all cultivators. And Qishurg city was larger than White Cloud city, so the average income might be higher here as well. He was assuming one hundred aer stones should be these soldiers’ weekly wages.

The soldier’s eyes glinted as he took Amon’s aer stones. Amon then took out another one hundred aer stones and gave them to the other soldier. The two soldiers looked at one another, they were happy enough if Amon gave the first hundred for the two of them. Amon didn’t truly violate any rule, anyway. They just made up about the ruckus caused by Amon running on the roofs. Now that both of them received one hundred aer stones, they were very happy.

”This brother is truly generous. We thank you for your generosity. Here is your badge. Come, let us take you to the entrance. It will be difficult to go through the crowd by yourself.”

”Then I will trouble you two,” Amon replied. Two hundred aer stones were nothing to him. The profit generated by San Guo’s underworld drug business had granted him substantial wealth.

The three jumped down to the square. The two soldiers then started ushering Amon while they shouted for the folks to part way. Since it was the city’s proper soldiers who were issuing the command, none dared to disobey. They parted ways like obedient little children, wondering at the same time who this big shot the soldiers were escorting.