Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 268: Chapter 268. A Truce

Amon’s words caused Yang Jun to stop. Leng Ku and Yang Su, who were about to resume their attack, also stopped.

”How do you know about the Pledge Demon?” Yang Jun asked.

”Does it matter? What’s important is I can provide you freedom,” Amon uttered.

Yang Jun seemed to be contemplating the offer, but his face soon turned stern again.

”You know what? I think you are just stalling.” He swung his axe again, which generated another wave of energy.

Amon detected Yang Jun’s killing intent before he attacked. He used Lingering Shade Stride to dodge the energy wave.

Seeing their leaders resume the assault, Leng Ku and Yang Su also did. Amon didn’t let them have the initiative. His swan dagger tied to the Xian Cloth flailed around while flying daggers flew out. Against this burst of offense, the two were forced back.

Even though Yang Jun, Leng Ku, and Yang Su had higher cultivation than Amon, they were not at the level of the royal academy students. They were cultivators from a small village. They didn’t have many resources. They didn’t have any arcane arts. Their martial arts were only low-tier practitioner arts. Their weapons were mostly common ones. The only decent weapon was Yang Jun’s axe, which was a low-tier engraved weapon.

Hence, Amon could still contend against them, albeit barely. The reason Gao Yun was defeated so quickly was that he was surprised by Yang Jun’s ambush, in addition to getting disabled by Leng Kun and Yang Su before he could do anything.

While keeping Leng Ku and Yang Su at bay, Amon threw three poison cloud bullets at Yang Jun. Yang Jun saw the incoming bullets. With a swing, he hit all three bullets. The bullets exploded and produced white gas.

Yang Jun’s reaction was faster than Yan Miyang’s. He immediately jumped back once the white gas appeared. Even so, his eyes still got itchy.

With Yang Jun momentarily hampered, Amon resumed his focus on Leng Ku and Yang Su. Amon’s control over his swan dagger and flying knives was so skillful that the two stronger cultivators failed to approach even after they used their martial arts. However, Amon knew this was not a solution. He was playing defense. This was only delaying the outcome. Furthermore, his stock of flying knives was running low. Soon, he would have only the poisoned knives left.

While he contemplated fleeing, Tuang Yin came rushing in. A fire trail followed her as she rushed forward. The fire from her claws was again forming the eagle image. Her dash was as fast as the speed of an eagle coming for its prey, and she was coming for Yang Su.

Yang Su saw her coming. He had no choice but to divert his attention.

With Yang Su clashing with Tuang Yin, Amon had only one opponent to deal with in that instant. He stopped swinging his swan dagger and moved toward Leng Ku.

Leng Ku was surprised Amon approached him purposefully. He didn’t let the chance go. He knew Amon had lower cultivation than him. He saw this approach as Amon committing a mistake. His hand shot forward. He attempted to grab Amon and prevent this sneaky boy from putting a distance again.

He didn’t grab Amon. He grabbed his afterimage. While his body was in the forward momentum, Amon grabbed his sleeve instead.

Amon pulled the sleeve and caused Leng Ku to lose balance. He kicked the back of Leng Ku’s knee and caused him to fall. At the same time, a long vine came out of his hand. This vine wrapped around Leng Ku’s body, binding him.

In a short instant, Leng Ku fell on the roof, unable to move, and had a sharp dagger pressing on his throat.

”Stop, or I will kill him!” Amon exclaimed to Yang Jun, who was about to attack again after his eyes cleared.

”Bastard!” Yang Jun cursed.

”Yin, come here!” Amon ordered.

Tuang Yin stopped fighting Yang Su after hearing the order. She came to Amon’s side. Yang Su didn’t move because he didn’t want anything to happen to Leng Ku.

”Do you still think I’m stalling?” Amon asked. ”I can kill him. This will make it easier for us to deal with you two, but I’m not doing it.”

Amon removed his swan dagger from Leng Ku’s throat. He also let go of the vine that was binding Leng Ku.

Amon moved away while talking, ”Let’s have a truce. I’m serious about freeing everyone in this village from the Pledge Demon. What chance do you think you have? As time passes, more and more people will come. You can’t keep what happened here hidden indefinitely. Are you just going to wait until that happens? Or, until someone comes and helps you? Well, I am the help! Are you willing to take it or not?”

Yang Jun and his two comrades looked at each other. Amon’s words started to sink in on them. They had little options to begin with.

”How can you help?” Yang Jun asked.

”We should speak away from here, don’t you think?” Amon asked.

The three realized what Amon was implying. They were fighting above Yon Niang’s house. If Yon Niang came out and saw them up here, they were finished.

”Follow me!” Yang Jun said. He jumped away, followed by Leng Ku and Yang Su.

Tuang Yin was still confused about the situation. She asked, ”What’s going on? Don’t we originally want to come here? And where are the other seniors?”

”The seniors are not a problem anymore, but the Pledge Demon is more troublesome to deal with. Come,” Amon only gave a brief explanation. He jumped and followed Yang Jun.

*

Yang Jun led everyone a distance away from Yon Niang’s house. He stopped in front of a house and opened the door. He beckoned for everyone to enter.

Amon stopped before the door and peeked inside before entering. It was a common house. A pretty small one at that, so he could see most everything in a glance. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

He entered and leaned on the wall beside the door.

Tuang Yin was the last to enter. She closed the door after entering. Seeing Amon’s posture, she copied him and leaned on the other side of the door.

Yang Jun and the others laid out some floor mats and sat on them. There was no chair inside the house. They also laid out mats for their guests, but Amon and Tuang Yin didn’t show the intention of sitting.

Yang Jun didn’t insist. He started talking, ”Speak. How do you plan to free us from the Pledge Demon?”

”Before that, tell me everything you know about this Pledge Demon,” Amon said.

Yang Jun’s face turned ugly again. He didn’t like being demanded by someone much younger than him, but he then remembered Amon’s words. This chance might not come again. Even if he didn’t believe Amon could help them, even if he was grasping at straws, he had no choice but to take it.

He sighed before speaking, ”It all started around three years ago. That’s when Yon Niang and her family moved to this village. The story was that they wanted to escape the hustle and bustle of a city, hence they came here. We are always friendly to outsiders, especially cultivators, so we accepted the family with open arms. We don’t have many cultivators here, as you can see. Everything was fine in the first year after they settled in. They got along fine with everyone in the village. The problem was that awful things started happening in our village.”

”What awful things?” Tuang Yin asked.

”Some children started missing. Our village has always been peaceful. Not many spirit beasts around here. The ones that are seen are all inferior beasts, and they rarely venture close to the village. So, when this thing happened, people started blaming others. Can you guess who their primary suspect was?”

”The newcomers,” Tuang Yin answered.

Yang Jun nodded. ”I always took it upon myself to look out for the safety of this village. I work closely with the one kingdom soldier assigned to this place. You could say we were partners. His name was Wui Gu. Wui Gu calmed everyone down and told them not to jump to conclusions since there was no proof. Well, that was until a testimony from Ba Ji.”

”Who is Ba Ji?” Tuang Yin asked.

”A villager. He was a young man who was mostly silent and kept to himself, but he was one of us. So, everyone believed what he said even when Wui Gu told everyone he needed to check on Ba Ji’s testimony first.”

”What is his testimony?” Tuang Yin asked.

”He said that he saw one of the missing children following Yon Pa. Yon Pa was Yon Niang’s husband, by the way. When what he said spread to the villagers, they came together and decided to act.”

Yang Jun heaved a long sigh after saying that.

”Don’t beat yourself too much,” Yang Su told Yang Jun.

Yang Jun sighed again before resuming his tale, ”I was among the villagers who marched to Yon Niang’s house, even after Wui Gu warned us not to be rash. Blinded by our anger, we did what would then change our lives...”