Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 223: Chapter 223. High-tier Practitioner Arts

Another reason he wanted to mask his cultivation level was to avoid getting too much attention. He already stood out as he was. Any more, and it would just be seeking trouble.

He would get attention because it was unheard of for someone to reach the Transformation Stage at age 17. Most achieved it above age 20. That was already considering they cultivated under favorable environments, like this royal academy. Even rare geniuses achieved this stage at least at age 19, like Wong Cou, the only freshman student with the cultivation level of the Transformation Stage.

Amon tried using the Xian Cloth. Now that he was at the Beginning Transformation Stage, he could channel more aether into the cloth.

He could control more parts of the cloth compared to before. When he commanded the cloth to become hard, half of it complied. He could also command that half to swirl around following his will, but the movement was slow and sloppy. He was still unable to fully utilize this cloth. He could only continue to rely on the rope dart technique for the time being.

Aside from improving his existing arts, he also learned one new arcane art. He didn’t learn the Iron Fist from Hei Gong because that art was mid-tier practitioner level. He didn’t want to spend too much time training low-level arts when he possessed better ones. There were plenty of high-tier practitioner arts in the Pyramid Library. They were harder to train, but in the last one year, he had decided to start training in one of them.

The art he chose was an arcane art called the Corporeal Shifting Branches. This art used wood elements. Considering he had no affinity, he wanted to possess arcane arts of all the elements. This way, he had more options.

This art at the beginner mastery created a ten-meter-long vine that shot out from his wrist. He could use this vine as a whip to lash the opponent. After one year of practice, he had trained in this art to skilled mastery. At this mastery, the vine was thicker and longer. It was now twenty meters. Aside from being used as a whip, the vine could also coil around a target upon contact, making it a convenient tool to snatch an item or opponent from a distance.

When he started learning the Corporeal Shifting Branches, he originally intended to learn another high-tier practitioner art but failed. This was because the art was a full-body transformation art.

Now that he had reached the Transformation Stage, he tried learning it again.

The art was called the Great Virulent Serpent. The art used earth elements. He spent ten days to learn this art. This time, he managed to learn it.

At the beginner mastery, activating this art provided him with enhanced senses. His sight, hearing, and smell were improved. His sight even let him perceive things in slightly slow motion. With this slow-motion sight, his response time improved.

Considering how difficult it was for him to learn this art, it would be a long time before he could improve it to skilled mastery. He didn’t fret about it. Everything worth doing took time. He just needed to persevere.

Hence, he continued to train.

*

Another two years passed. The freshman was finally in their final year. At the end of this year, they would graduate, provided they had enough academic points, and became junior students.

Amon’s rank in the top ten board had improved to the second rank, but Sima Fang still held the first place. The gap had even widened to 4,000 academic points. If Amon revealed his true cultivation, the academic points he gained would let him overtake Sima Fang. However, it was not guaranteed Sima Fang would not improve to the Transformation Stage as well by the end of the year. If so, his academic points would still be below hers.

Considering this, he needed to amass more academic points in this final year. He had to get the first place! The residence of the first ranker provided the best cultivation facility. He wasn’t willing to receive less after experiencing the best.

’It seems like I have to take more missions,’ Amon thought.

In the past four years, he had balanced everything; Cultivation, study, training, and missions. Academic points gained from the theory tests, practice spars, and cultivation level were limited. The ones that could provide unlimited points were specialization or missions.

He didn’t have the patience to spend too much time producing goods in the Specialization buildings. He was also not too exceptional in the fields. He could do alchemy, smith, or engraving, but he didn’t spend too much time learning them.

Hence, his best option was to take more missions. Completing a 5-star mission gave him 3,000 academic points. As long as he could do two 5-star missions more than Sima Fang and didn’t lose too much in the other fields, he should be able to snatch the first rank.

*

While Amon was busy doing missions, the leaders of Nobles, Virtuous, and Astute gathered in the residence of the current first rank in the Senior class, Gao Tien. Gao Tien was also the main leader of the Nobles faction. All the leaders from the three classes were there, accompanied by their trusted aides.

”What are we going to do with the Vicious? This is already the last year before graduation!” Gao Dou asked.

”Shut up!” Gao Tien snapped. Gao Dou lowered his head as if he had been scolded by his father. ”You miserable piece of shit! This is all your fault for not properly building our faction. You are a disgrace! How can you let an upstart faction dominate the freshman class?”

”Cousin, please give my brother a break,” Gao Sou pleaded.

”You are the same!” Gao Tien scolded Gao Sou, ”How could you get a tie in a duel against a freshman student? One who was a stage lower to boot. You are a shame to our faction and the Gao Clan. If not for the failure of you two, the Vicious wouldn’t have grown as they did!”

”Brother Gao, please calm down. Everyone makes mistakes,” A handsome and well-clothed man who sat beside Gao Tien said. He was Xian Yang, the senior leader of the Virtuous.

”You are the last person I expected to hear that from,” Gao Tien said.

”I agree. I figure you must be laughing in joy seeing the three leaders of the Nobles in a pitiful quarrel like that,” Zong Hua, the senior leader of the Astute, added.

”Haha. I can’t deny that,” Xian Yang laughed. ”But brother Gao, we come here not to listen to you admonishing your juniors. We are also not here for our usual rivalry. For this moment, we need to bury our hatchet and think of a solution. Otherwise, the old factions will lose hegemony in this academy.”

”Brother Xian is right,” Zong Hua said. ”Currently, the Vicious constituted a great portion of the freshman students, more than any of the old factions. If they graduate into the junior class under this condition, they will have a great influence on the new batch of the freshman students.”

”I agree with Sister Zong,” Xian Yang said. ”Us, senior students, have less than one year left. The juniors who graduate to the senior class next year will have only five years left in the academy. As opposed to the freshman who graduate to the junior class will have ten years. They will have more influence on the new freshman class. If we don’t halt the Vicious growth now, it will be even more difficult to do it when they enter the junior class.”

”Look at you two agreeing with one another. Why don’t you just get married?” Gao Tien ridiculed.

”Hahaha. If I get married, lots of women will be heartbroken,” Xian Yang laughed.

”Marriage is never in my mind. I am a career woman,” Zong Hua said.

”Tsk, whatever. Now, what are we going to do?” Gao Tien asked, but then he added with another grumble, ”Damn the Bloodless and Heroic factions. Don’t they know this affects them as well? How can they refuse to join this meeting?”

”Forget them,” Xian Yang said. ”Unlike them, our three factions can see the big picture. Let’s put our differences aside to settle this matter. Once it is over, perhaps an alliance to take out the other two factions?”

”That is still too far of an issue. Let’s stick to the current matter,” Zong Hua replied. ”What are we going to do with Vicious?”

”They are too cautious. We can’t touch them in the academy or the city,” Gao Dou said.

”Yes, I have tried to mobilize the junior members to cause them some trouble in the city,” Gao Sou added. ”But there are many meddling cultivators. I don’t know why so many are acting like heroes nowadays.”

Rather than heroes, those meddling cultivators were thugs. They were members of the Sewer Snakes or hired members of the Demon Gang. They were told to interfere whenever they saw academy students getting bullied by older students.