Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 175: Chapter 175. The Spring of Life

Amon wasn’t discouraged. A runic weapon was usually the plaything of a Martial realm practitioner. His cultivation was still too low. He was not sure if this Xian cloth was in the low-tier or high-tier of the runic grade. He would need a skillful appraiser if he wanted to find out. However, he was not going to do that and let others know he had this treasure just to satisfy his curiosity.

He tried experimenting more with the cloth. He found it could move following his control to a certain degree. The cloth could spin on its own or move around his body. It was exactly as depicted in the mural. Perhaps this cloth was used by dancers in the past for entertainment purposes. But in his hand, he could turn this into a weapon. He just needed to get used to it first.

He took out his swan dagger and tried stabbing and cutting the cloth. The cloth was unscathed. Its material was very sturdy. If he wrapped this cloth around his body, it could serve as armor.

He stored the Xian cloth. He would practice with it later. He thought that he had fully scoured this section. If he was to explore further, he needed to go to the section where the others were exploring, but he wouldn’t be free with the others roaming around the place.

He decided to stay here and cultivate. This ruin was built on an existing ley line. It was not as profitable as cultivating inside the basement of his house in the academy, but it was a better environment compared to cultivating up there in the tent provided for them. Furthermore, he couldn’t use his black aetherium stone up there.

*

That night, Amon told Li Shi he had searched through every part of his section. There was no more thing of interest, and he couldn’t proceed any further as all the possible paths were sealed by fallen structures. He asked for permission to search the other sections.

Amon figured that since the others still had not yet broken through the illusion, he could get a head start and clean out any treasures he might find.

Li Shi was getting restless because Xu Shi only gave her a month, which was less than two weeks away. Afterward, the military would use brute force, which had a high potential of damaging this ruin. So, Li Shi agreed to Amon’s request. He had successfully found one significant historic record, after all.

Xu Shi, of course, asked Amon if he found anything valuable in his section, anything that had a practical value more than historical. Amon replied to him that it was empty down there. Xu Shi searched Amon’s space ring and his body to make sure Amon wasn’t lying. Amon let him do so.

The next day, Li Shi told Amon to enter the section where Lei Gun and Zong Kui were exploring. The two grumbled about the decision. Down there, when they reached the furthest part where they couldn’t pierce through, they watched with annoyance as Amon proceeded on.

They tried to follow because they were unwilling to believe a freshman student could do what they couldn’t. They ended up getting trapped in the elusive maze again. Amon was nowhere to be seen. They could only sit down and meditate.

Amon walked forward unhindered. He didn’t find any more broken floors, but he found stairs that were still in good condition. He went down the stairs and came to a corridor with many rooms. He reckoned this used to be the dormitory part for this ruin’s past occupants.

This section was larger, had fewer blocked passages, and consisted of several floors. So, more places to search. He spent two days searching there but found nothing, not even in the historical sense. Li Shi was disappointed. But she knew most of the time, excavation yielded nothing new. She didn’t get discouraged by it.

The second day Amon was searching Lei Gun and Zong Kui’s section, Yong Lei managed to break through the illusion. The next day, when Amon was about to request permission to search Jie Mei’s section, she also conquered the illusion.

’Guess I’m out of chance now,’ Amon thought. With the two exploring those two remaining sections, he couldn’t act as he wished even if he found something. So, he decided to just cultivate under his current section while Lei Gun and Zong Kui were still unable to come down there.

Yong Lei didn’t find anything worthy down there, but he continued to search. Jie Mei found something on her second day of searching. She shared the findings with the group at night when everyone gathered.

She described a large room going down several floors. She reckoned that room should be the basement of the ruin. There was a large round indentation on the floor of that basement. She could sense what used to be words of power engraved around the wall of this indentation, but they had faded due to time.

She explained that she had a feeling the indentation used to be a pool filled with water. In fact, she found some remaining droplets of water at the bottom of the indentation. She sensed a large concentration of aether in those droplets. She knew for sure those droplets were extraordinary, so she took a few droplets using a container. That container had been confiscated by Captain Xu Shi.

”Captain?” Li Shi asked the captain, who was also there with them.

”What? I’ve already said not to take anything from the ruin, have I? Everything down there belonged to the kingdom.”

”I am not complaining about that. I just ask you to let me see those droplets,” Li Shi said.

Xu Shi was silent for a while before he took something out of his space ring. It was a small glass container. There were a few glistening dews inside that glass container. Even visually, everyone could see that the dews inside were not normal liquid.

When Li Shi opened the container, thick aether pervaded the air. As Jie Mei had mentioned, this liquid was indeed extraordinary. Even from this range, everyone could sense the aether from those tiny droplets.

Amon imagined a large pool filled with such powerful water. The past owner of this ruin was for sure no normal person. He was regretful that he had gone into Lei Gun and Zong Kui’s section instead of Jie Mei’s. Otherwise, those remaining droplets down there would have been his.

”This... This is water from the Spring of Life!” Li Shi uttered after sensing the aether from the dews.