Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 279: Chapter 279. Peak Damned Stage

Amon focused all the negative emotions he could muster to fuel his new cultivation art. It was not easy, as he had expected. He had trained almost his entire life, this one and the previous, to feel no emotion. It was not easy to do the opposite now.

Thankfully, he had just gone through a very human experience due to the incident with Tuang Yin. He was now using the rage and fear he felt within him. The rage was mostly directed at himself for deciding to save her. As for the fear, it was the fear that someday she might be used as leverage against him.

He harvested these two emotions and used them to refine the surrounding aether into infernal energy following the cultivation art’s technique. He looked inside him and found that this infernal energy flowed by itself into his black energy core instead of his normal one.

His black energy core drank this infernal energy greedily, like a thirsty man in the desert who had found an oasis. Amon had to return his attention to his cultivation art to keep up with the rate his black energy core was absorbing the infernal energy.

This black energy core was about the same size as when Amon felt the breakthrough when he departed from White Cloud City. The passive aether absorption took too long for the core’s growth. Now that he was using proper cultivation art, he could feel this black energy core growing at a rapid rate.

Two other things influenced the growth rate.

The first was the black aetherium stone. The stone pulsed with stronger black light when Amon used the Evil Soul Tempering. It resonated with the infernal cultivation art and gathered even more aether from the surroundings than usual. Amon surmised this black aetherium stone was actually a cultivation tool dedicated to assisting infernal cultivation.

The second was the divine energy from his normal energy core. Amon could feel his divine energy leaning on the boundary between the normal and infernal energy spaces. This energy served as a magnet, which stimulated the infernal energy on the other side.

Amon thought this must be because the difference in power between the two cores was too vast. This motivated the weaker energy space to improve. Of course, he couldn’t confirm this. He was probably the only person with two energy cores in this world. This situation was unique to him.

As he got used to harnessing his negative emotions, he sensed something similar from the outside. After sparing a part of his attention to detect what he sensed, he recognized that what he sensed was the lingering malice left behind by Yon Yu.

Even though it was just a lingering sensation, he could feel the negative emotion within the malice was more potent than anything he could muster. He could roughly understand now why the Pledge Demon chose the little girl. How she had such malice, whether she was born with it or due to some traumatic experience, he would never know. He wasn’t interested in finding out. The thing that mattered to him was utilizing this malice while it lasted.

To his pleasant surprise, the Evil Soul Tempering could utilize negative emotions from outside sources. By using Yon Yu’s lingering malice, he found it easier to convert the aether into infernal energy.

He cultivated the entire night without rest. He only paused in the morning when Tuang Yin woke up. The two looked at one another without saying a word. While cultivating the black space core, Amon’s body was filled with demonic energy. If anyone happened to venture by, they would find out about Amon’s secret. Thankfully, most of this village’s inhabitants had perished. Amon also spared his attention to his hearing. He would know if someone approached.

Tuang Yin tried to rise but found that she was having trouble. She laid back down again.

”I thought I was going to die,” she said.

”... I saved you,” Amon said.

”Thank you.” She turned to Amon again. ”Don’t worry. No one will know your secret, at least not from me.”

”I won’t show you mercy again if that happens,” Amon said.

She slid her body close to the bed’s edge to get closer to Amon. Her face was back to her usual cheery and teasing expression. ”It was because of mercy that persuaded you to save me? I am hurt. Here I thought it was because you care about me.”

Amon closed his eyes. ”I want to cultivate. Don’t disturb me,” Amon said.

”Go on, boyfriend. I will warn you if I hear anyone approaching.”

That was unnecessary, but he didn’t bother to tell her that.

*

The two spent a few more days in the village. Tuang Yin was recuperating, while Amon never stopped cultivating. He wanted to make full use of Yon Yu’s malice. On the sixth day since Amon started cultivating, the malice had thinned out to almost non-existent. Amon couldn’t utilize it anymore. But by that time, Amon had gotten used to utilizing the negative emotions from outside sources, he could reach out a distance away to use this outside source.

Unfortunately, he could find none in this village. In the first two days since he cultivated, he could still sense the negative emotions from others among Yon Yu’s malice. Those were from the few villagers who survived. Now, there was none. He figured the surviving old people gathered the surviving children and left for the nearest settlement. There was nothing left for them in this village.

Since it was so, he thought it was pointless for him to stay here. He could better cultivate back inside his Royal Academy residence. He might have trouble harnessing negative emotions there, but the abundance of aether made up for it.

He studied his black energy core. Thanks to the stimulation from the black aetherium stone and his normal energy core, he achieved a breakthrough in this cultivation. From the information he learned from the Pyramid Legacy book, he could say his black energy core after the breakthrough was at the Peak Damned Stage of the Acolyte Realm, which was roughly the equivalent to the Peak Mortal Stage of the divine path.

He didn’t feel stronger from this improvement. If he used his demon energy, he would produce weak power that was only enough to fight Mortal Stage cultivators. In this sense, there was not much benefit for him to cultivate this infernal path. It was more beneficial for him to improve his divine cultivation.

However, he decided to spare half his time to cultivate his black energy space from now on. The first reason was so he had a backup energy source, just in case he ran out of aether from his divine energy core. The second reason was for his trump card, the merged aether inside his mixed energy space.

After his black space core improved, more black energy threads went into this mixed energy space. The amount of merged aether inside the mixed energy space increased. He estimated he could now perform two attacks when he used the merged aether.

Amon stood up. He turned to Tuang Yin, who was also cultivating on her bed. On the third day since she started resting, she could already move around.

”Let’s go back,” Amon told her.

She opened her eyes and replied excitedly, ”Finally! I was already afraid you might want to stay here for weeks.”

The two exited the house and walked in the direction of Bleakford City, the closest city to Grimwich Village. They saw no one else as they walked. A foul smell filled the air as the corpses inside the house decomposed. Most of these corpses were inside the house, but a few were out on the street. Bite marks were seen on these corpses. Some animals or minor spirit beasts probably ventured into the village to devour these cadavers.

Tuang Yin felt bad for these people. She asked Amon if they should bury these corpses. Amon ignored the question and kept walking.

They didn’t possess steeds, so they started running once they reached the village’s edge. Amon used Shadowless Sprint, while Tuang Yin used her clan’s movement art. Her movement art made her as if gliding above the ground, though not as profound as Xian Yang’s movement art.

Their running speed did not lose to if they were riding steeds. Tuang Yin suffered, though, because she was forced to use her movement art all day. They rested at night. It took them four days of running to arrive at Bleakford City.

”Want to hang out here a few days before we return to the Royal Academy?” Tuang Yin asked.

”No. We returned today,” Amon answered.

”Hmph, you are no fun,” Tuang Yin pouted.

”Stay if you want, but use your clan privilege to let me use the sky stable,” Amon said.

”I will follow you back to the academy,” Tuang Yin said in a defeated tone.

The sky stable in this city was like the one in Qishurg City, so it was not difficult to find. It was towering above other buildings.

”Wait!” Tuang Yin grabbed Amon’s shirt.

”I said I don’t want to stay here,” Amon told her in a slightly annoyed tone.

”No. It’s that guy,” Tuang Yin pointed.

Amon followed her finger and quickly identified the person she was indicating. Amon remembered this person. He was one of the seniors who ambushed them in Grimwich Village. Tuang Yin fought this senior when Amon lured the other seniors away.

This senior was drinking on a table outside a tea house. He must have come to this city after fleeing the village.

”Too bad there are too many people here. Otherwise, I will reunite him with his friends,” Tuang Yin said.

Amon thought for a second. He told Tuang Yin, ”Let’s spend the night here.”