Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 304: Chapter 304. All to Lure the Target

Yan Fan again used his Bright Flare Stone to brighten the place. The inside was empty and as broken down as it looked outside. He turned to one corner where wide stairs went down to the basement below. This warehouse had a large basement. The Veiled Toxic Leaf was stored in that basement when this warehouse was still actively used.

The three walked down the stairs into the basement. Yan Fan didn’t ask his subordinates to keep a lookout because these stairs were the only point of entry.

Arriving at the basement, Yan Fan was disappointed to find it mostly empty except for several stacks of wood crates at the far side of the wall. Gao Lan was nowhere to be seen.

”You stay here. Guard the stairs,” Yan Fan told one of his subordinates. He then walked toward the wood crates at the far end with his other subordinate. Even if Gao Lan was not here, he still had to ensure that she was ever here and that this was indeed the place where she got the Veiled Toxic Leaf.

There were ten stacks of crates there. Each stack consisted of four crates. One crate was half the height of an average man. Yan Fan jumped and pulled two crates from the top stack. As he did, he saw behind the crates were more crates.

Holding the crates, Yan Fan landed and put the crates on the ground. He told his subordinates, ”You open that one.”

The lid was nailed shut, but it was not a problem for cultivators like them.

”It’s empty...,” the subordinate remarked after pulling off the wooden lid.

The one opened by Yan Fan was the same. Without saying anything, he jumped up and pulled the crate at the far-left end. He told his subordinate to take the one at the far-right end. After bringing the top crates down and opening them, they found these crates were the same. Nothing was inside.

They decided to open the rest of the crates from those stacks. They were all empty.

When Yan Fan’s subordinate asked him if they should open more, Yan Fan went and took the crates from the inner stack. When he pulled the crates behind the second stack, he found more stacks behind them.

He didn’t bother to open the lids after putting the crates on the floor. He slapped his palms on the two crates, and they were destroyed. Nothing was inside.

”It seems these are all just empty crates,” his subordinate said. ”Should we open more?”

”We open all, but no need to do it one by one,” Yan Fan said. He thrust his palm in the crates’ direction. An energy wave crashed into the crates, obliterating them. He then made a pulling motion. The wooden debris was pulled out. There was nothing but wooden wreckage. There was no Veiled Toxic Leaf.

Yan Fan’s strike only hit a portion of the stacks. He was just about to discharge another energy wave when he sensed something approaching fast. He swung his arm to the side. The energy produced by his swing deflected a small flying knife.

Another knife flew together with the knife he had just deflected, but it was a distance away and not heading towards him. So, he didn’t bother with this second knife. However, he caught a glimpse of something flashing from the knife before it punctured through a crate that was still intact.

He listened to the sound of the knife puncturing through multiple layers of the crate walls. Suddenly, his Mystic Stage’s senses detected a sudden spike of energy from inside the stacks of crates.

”Run!” He told his subordinate.

It was too late. An explosion occurred from inside the stacks of crates. The blast blew pieces of wood everywhere. Yan Fan and his subordinate slammed into the wall from the blast. The explosion had been so sudden that they didn’t have the time to use any defensive arts, but their cultivator bodies allowed them to survive the blast.

The blast was the least of their concern. When they regained their balance, they found themselves covered by purple smoke.

*

When Yan Fan and his subordinate were busy opening the crates on the far side of the basement, the other subordinate was standing at the exit. He was watching the stairs. There was only one entrance into this basement. If someone wanted to ambush them, it would be from these stairs.

He suddenly heard a loud blast from behind. He looked back and saw a portion of the crates demolished. It seemed it was Yan Fan who had done it.

As that happened, he noticed something from the corner of his eyes. He turned in that direction just as he caught the sight of two knives flying at high speed toward his comrades. His eyes didn’t follow those knives because those knives were flying away. His eyes were instead drawn to something else heading toward him.

What he saw was a young man in a tight black suit. The young man was close, but a pair of vine-like things that came out of the young man’s hands were closer.

These vines coiled around his two arms before he could do anything. They pulled his arms and kept them stretched. The owner of these vines revealed a large dagger tied to a yellow cloth. This dagger was thrown toward him. With his arms bound, he couldn’t use them to defend himself. So, he used his leg.

His leg came up to kick the dagger away. But as if alive, the dagger swayed away from his kick. The dagger then swung back swiftly and sliced past his throat.

”Huckh...!” Blood spurt from his open throat.

The young man arrived then. The large dagger returned to his hand, and he made a strong slash. The slash went through his open throat. This time, his entire neck was split apart.

*

Amon used Concealed Ghost Body to hide in one of the corners near the stairs. His Concealed Ghost Body was already at the Grandmaster level. He was invisible when he channeled this art to the fullest. He stayed still at the corner to maintain his invisibility while Yan Fan and one of his two subordinates went to check the crates on the other side.

When he saw Yan Fan start destroying the crates en masse, he knew it was time to act. He threw two flying knives. One to distract Yan Fan. The other was fitted with an exploding talisman, targeting a special crate deep inside the stacks.

He rushed at the other subordinate once he threw the knives. He was no longer invisible once he moved, but he still had the element of surprise. He used Corporeal Shifting Branches to cover the distance and incapacitate his target before swiftly dispatching him.

Amon looked at the other side after completing his task. Half of the room was covered in purple smoke. That smoke was the result a large dose of Cold Stiff Poison.

Cold Stiff Poison was even deadlier than the Black Slaughter Poison. It could affect even Spirit Stage cultivators or kill them if they were not careful. As for Mystic Stage cultivators, they mostly likely died if exposed to this poison. Amon exhausted lots of his ingredient stock to get the amount enough to create a cloud that size. Even so, this airborne version slightly diminished the power of the poison by a little.

He watched as the cloud slowly receded and the poison vapor dropped to the ground. The subordinate who was with Yan Fan was seen lying on the ground with his limbs contorted in a strange pose. Apparently, he was in agony from the poison and died with his body turning stiff in that peculiar pose.

Yan Fan himself was still moving.

”Cough... cough...!” Yan Fan propped himself on the wall. He held his breathing once he saw the purple cloud, but some already went into him when he was still shocked by the blast. He quickly poked several parts of his body using the meridian points technique. Those parts were where he sensed the poison had encroached. This technique helped his body slow the poison from spreading. He then channeled his aether to expel the poison from his body.

He saw Amon after the purple cloud was gone.

”You...?!”

”Me,” Amon replied. ”It would be great if you went down from the poison. But I guess against a Peak Mystic Stage, that is asking too much.”

Yan Fan seemed to try to make sense of the situation. He said, ”Wait... You are the poison expert? Not Gao Lan?”

Amon grinned at the question, which answered Yan Fan’s question.

Yan Fan realized something. ”This... All these are to lure me here?”

”I know your type. You can’t help following clues,” Amon answered. ”I know you will most likely investigate Gao Pan’s death. Even if Yan Clan didn’t ask you to, you will do it yourself once you catch wind of the cause of his death. From there, I simply placed breadcrumbs that led you here.”

”Unfortunately for you, I am still alive. Your ploy didn’t work!” Yan Fan exclaimed.

”My ploy isn’t done yet,” Amon said. He placed a hand on the wall, and it lit up.