Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 167: Chapter 167. Entering the Ancient Ruins

”Maybe you should have picked better candidates before coming here,” Xu Shi ridiculed.

Li Shi gave him an unfriendly glance, but Xu Shi maintained his mocking smile.

She didn’t bother with him. She took out four jade-like stones and six bright flare stones. Amon recognized the jade stone as a communication device similar to the one used by Madam Lin.

”Each team takes one,” Li Shi instructed as he handed the jade stones. ”This is the communication device that allows me to talk to you. You will go in and report to me what you see. Remember! Do not touch anything before I ask you to.”

Yong Lei, Zong Kui, Jie Mei, and Amon took the stones. As for the bright flare stones, Li Shi gave one to each student. Li Shi then instructed Yong Lei and Fan Niang to enter the entrance where they were standing. But before they entered, Captain Xu Shi demanded to check their space ring first. Anything not originally in the space ring by the time they came out will be confiscated by the army. If they were unwilling, they could leave their rings with Li Shi for safekeeping and enter without a space ring.

Fan Niang chose to give her ring to Li Shi for safekeeping while Yong Lei let Captain Xu Shi check his ring.

After the process was done, the two entered. Li Shi then took the others and circled back to the other entrances. Amon was assigned to the last entrance. Amon let Captain Xu Shi inspect his common ring. Similar to when entering White Cloud’s secret dimension, Xu Shi noticed Amon’s black space ring and requested to check it as well. Amon gave it to him. Unable to see any pocket dimensions inside the ring, he returned the black ring to Amon.

”Be careful,” Li Shi said to Amon when he was about to enter.

Amon nodded and entered.

Once Amon went through the crack in the wall, he immediately felt a headache assailing him. He felt as if several things were pressing his head from different directions.

’So, this is the mental pressure from the enchanted formation,’ Amon thought. If this ruin was from more than ten million years ago, this formation must have been very strong during its heyday. Every enchanted formation degraded over time. Some less than others, but all of them did. Without a formation sage maintaining the formations from time to time, they would weaken.

Amon couldn’t imagine what kind of headache one would feel if this enchanted formation functioned at its full power. Perhaps his head would have exploded the second he stepped inside.

The current headache was not something that troubled him. It was just a minor inconvenience. He looked around the place. He was in a corridor. A dark corridor. The only source of light was from the crack he had entered from. Some sort of lantern fixings were on the wall, but they were all broken already. Amon used the bright flare stone.

”Are you okay in there?” Amon heard Li Shi’s voice from the outside.

”I’m fine,” Amon replied.

”Can you describe what you see?”

”I’m in a corridor. Nothing out of the ordinary. Which way do you want me to go?”

”Go left. That way is to the heart of this structure.”

”All right,” Amon responded and started walking.

”If you see anything unusual, let me know via the communication device,” Li Shi uttered.

”Yes, ma’am,” Amon replied.

While walking, he picked up the debris on the floor. The debris inside was also fragments of blackstone. He stored them in his black space ring. This was the reason he insisted on being alone, so he could pick up any valuables he encountered without anyone realizing it.

He couldn’t process these blackstones since they required high expertise in smithing, but they were still rare materials. He could store them for later when he could use them.

Because Amon was busy picking up blackstone fragments, he progressed slowly. The others explored more of the place and relayed information back to Li Shi. However, they also didn’t find anything out of the ordinary, just more corridors. It was as if the inside was a maze.

”Is there nothing that looks like a door?” Li Shi asked Jie Mei through the communication device. It had been hours since they entered the ruin.

”No. I have been walking for a while, but it’s just the same corridors. Can it be this entire building is a maze of corridors?” Jie Mei informed.

The communication device could let Li Shi talk with one person at a time. She asked the students inside one by one. Everyone gave the same report.

When she asked Amon, Amon told her the same and asked if it was the same as the others. Li Shi confirmed it was so. Amon thought that even if this entire ground was a maze, it was unnatural for them not to bump into each other after exploring for so long. From the outside, the structure didn’t seem too large.

Another thing that caught Amon’s attention was after walking for so long, the floor was clean. It was as if someone had cleaned up the debris. Every time he met a turn, he always took one that brought him away from his original position. Since he remembered every turn, he was sure he didn’t circle back to where he was. But seeing the clean floor, he could not deny that he had circled back because he was the one who cleaned up the debris.

”This enchanted formation also creates an illusion,” Amon realized.

Amon knelt and touched the floor. He now knew he couldn’t rely on his eyes alone in this place. This entire place was affected by the enchanted formation, which meant energy flowed around the place. What he needed to do was understand its flow.

Amon closed his eyes. He let his consciousness sense the aether around him. It was difficult at first because it was like something was shrouding his senses. The enchanted formation protecting this place was indeed amazing. If it was still in its original power, Amon doubted he could sense anything at all. Even his consciousness might have been drowned inside the illusion, unable to wake up. But in its current deteriorating state, he only needed to persevere.