Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 222: Chapter 222. Breakthrough to the Transformation Stage

Amon moved the alchemical tools from his residence to the secret workshops in the city. He left only some tools for his personal alchemical practice to concoct his poison. After helping his members settle into the workshops, Amon returned to focusing on his cultivation and study.

Another half a year passed.

The Sewer Snake finally took over the Silk Street District. After acquiring this district, they reorganized their defense and hunkered down. Overstretched expansions could overconsume their resources. If not for their cooperation with Amon, they would need several more years before they could realize this objective.

Amon increased the Thousand Dream Powder he produced for the Sewer Snakes. The demon gang didn’t sell the powder even when they already had their own territory. If they did that, there would be a conflict of interest with the Sewer Snakes. Amon still needed their support. He was not ready to make them into enemies yet. Aside from that, the Sewer Snake had more connections, so they could reach more buyers. Hence, he let Sewer Snakes distribute his products in Qishurg city even when that meant losing half the profit.

The demon gang also expanded their territory. They took many unclaimed districts and some from the Street Aristocrats. The Street Aristocrats continued to experience a setback after the incident with Yan Ning’s murder. Many of their members jumped ship and joined the other underworld organizations, including the Demon Gang. Lu Zu could do nothing but display a tantrum over the situation. This, in turn, drove even more members away.

The Yan Clan redirected their attention to the Demon Gang after they emerged. Unfortunately, the Demon Gang worked in the shadow. All their gangs wore black outfits with faces covered in demon masks. No one knew where their hideouts were. They just appeared when it was time to collect the protection money and were gone again soon after. They were the epitome of the underworld.

Since the Yan Clan couldn’t hit the Demon Gang in the open, they asked the officials and the surrounding influential people to put pressure on the Demon Gang, to draw them out so they could be struck. However, the officials and the people they approached did little to meet their demands.

Little did the Yan Clan know that the Demon Gang had already approached those individuals. They were among the ones recorded in Yan Ning’s books. Aside from bribing those individuals, the Demon Gang also used threats to keep them in line. The information recorded inside Yan Ning’s book greatly helped in the matter.

Amon left his faction and his underworld organization to develop by themselves. He only aided when needed. Most of his time was spent on cultivation and study. He also undertook missions to get sufficient academic points. Even though he had the 5% penalty, his academic points were still among the top.

The top ten with the most academic points were displayed on a board inside the information center building. This way, everyone could keep track of the top ten. As for the other students, they could check their points by entering their names into a device near the board.

Currently, Amon was at the third rank with 24,650 academic points. It was just two years, but he was already halfway from the passing mark of 50,000 academic points. He should have no problem passing to the junior class. Of course, his target was not simply to pass. He aimed to remain the first rank to get the best accommodation.

Two students were above him in rank. The two were also among the top ten in the entrance exam. The first rank was held by Sima Fang at 27,100 academic points. The second was Zhuan San, at 25,500 academic points. Even without the 5% penalty, Amon would still not be in the first rank. But then again, Amon had previously paid the fine of 10,000 academic points. If not for the fine, his academic points would have been way above the current first ranker.

Amon didn’t regret the action that resulted in the fine. To him, regret was a waste of time. There was no use lamenting what had happened. What he could do was learn from the incident and do things wiser, like making sure he wasn’t discovered when he broke the academy’s rules.

At the end of that second year, he finally broke through to the Transformation Stage. His success was aided by the Transformation Pill, a pill specifically consumed by cultivators trying to break through from the Strength Stage to the Transformation Stage. With his wealth, he had no problem procuring the pill.

Pills that helped cultivation for cultivators of the Human Realm were still easy to get from the public market. It was pills that helped cultivators of the Martial Realm that were harder to get. Those pills were regulated by the kingdom.

He didn’t worry about getting those pills. He believed when he reached the Martial Realm, he should already become someone with a certain influence. At that time, getting those regulated pills should be doable.

He observed his body, which had crossed through to the next stage. The sense of exhilaration was indescribable. He felt as if he had just changed his clothes from a dirty rag into a luxurious robe. He felt indestructible, but he knew this was a fake feeling. His body and mind were still processing the transformation. He felt what he felt because the power difference between his current condition and the previous was truly immense.

He took a deep breath before shoving his fist forward. Ten loud and consecutive impact sounds were heard from the wall opposite him.

Normally, the words of power on the wall absorbed all the assaults directed at it. The energy from his punch should have sunk into the wall without producing any sound. Yet, they did this time. This meant his current power could already bypass the enchantment. The wall was fine, though. His punch was still not strong enough to leave any dent.

The art he used just now was the Bone Shattering Shadow Fist. It produced ten impact sounds because his mastery of this martial art had reached the grandmaster level. At this level, the art produced ten punches with equal power that could hit a distant enemy.

His art that had improved was not just the Bone Shattering Shadow Fist. He never neglected to train his arts daily. Aside from the Bone Shattering Shadow Fist, three other arts had also reached grandmaster mastery. They were the Hardened Bronze Body, Hundred Shooting Stars, and Water Slicing Ring.

Hardened Bronze Body at grandmaster level no longer had a duration. As long as he maintained concentration, his skin could remain hard like bronze indefinitely.

His Hundred Shooting Stars could now reach a longer distance, and he could throw as many weapons as his hands could cope.

Grandmaster Water Slicing Ring allowed him to create and throw multiple rings of water simultaneously.

Grandmaster mastery was seen as unattainable by many cultivators. Hei Gong had mentioned the difficulty when Amon learned his first martial art. A tutor in the theory class also mentioned the same thing in one of the lectures. However, Amon had successfully gained such mastery not only on one art but four! Anyone who learned about this would call Amon a prodigy.

Despite the success, Amon didn’t let this get to his head. He didn’t even think he should be proud of such an achievement. What mattered was he kept improving. That was all that mattered.

His other arts had also improved. His two movement arts, Lingering Shade Stride and Shadowless Sprint, had improved to expert mastery. Both movement arts let him become faster than the previous mastery. He believed Shadowless Sprint should now allow him to maintain speed for more than five days. He didn’t test it, though. He didn’t have the time to do that.

His Flame Lance had also reached Expert mastery. He now only needed one second to form the flame lance. The fiery lance he conjured was three feet long.

His Nine Moon Restorative Mantra was also Expert mastery now. This art gave him a faster recovery speed when activated.

The last skill that improved to the Expert mastery was Concealed Ghost Body. This mastery let him shroud his cultivation aura to one stage below. To cultivators who could sense one’s cultivation, he would appear to still be at the Strength Stage.

He preferred it this way. If his opponents underestimated and mistaken his cultivation, they would be easier to defeat.

With this breakthrough, he should have gotten 5,000 academic points if he reported it, but he decided against it. The final tally to decide the ranks was still three years away. He could report his real cultivation later. The points were awarded by comparing his current cultivation with the level when he entered the academy, so it made no difference if he reported it now or at the end of the freshman term.