Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 326: Chapter 326. Ally Gone and Ally Gained

Madam Lin’s smile turned wider. She looked genuinely happy despite her inevitable death.

Before she breathed her last, she said, ”Go to your... old home... Take... care of her...”

Her hands fell. She was gone.

Amon wanted to feel relief. Relief because whatever emotional connection he had with her was finally over. He was free of her now. Yet, there was this strange pain inside him.

”Hm...?” He touched his cheek, which still felt warm because of Madam Lin’s hands. There was a droplet of water.

’Tear...?’ He thought. He couldn’t remember when he ever cried. In his memory, he never did, not in this world or his past world. Even as a child still learning to survive in a war-torn country, he never once cried. He was having trouble understanding why he shed this one droplet of tears now.

”Hmph!” He squeezed the tear using his fingers. A sizzling sound was heard. The tear was gone.

He looked at Madam Lin’s serene face. It was hard to imagine this was the face of a woman who underwent horrendous torture before her death.

”To honor you for drawing this one droplet of tear, I will rain calamity upon the ones responsible for your death,” he swore.

Amon didn’t quite understand what Madam Lin meant with her last words. The old home Madam Lin mentioned should be the Hei mansion, but that mansion had been abandoned ever since he moved to the Lin Estate.

Amon took out a blanket from his space ring and wrapped it around Madam Lin. He then carried her. He could place her into his space ring now that she was dead but chose not to.

The others had been silent since Amon saved her mother. When he rose, Xin Wuming asked, ”Brother, should I take a team and raid Wei Clan’s vault?”

Most Wei Clan members wore space rings, so their valuables were inside. However, those were more like their personal treasures. The real treasures of the clan were inside their clan’s vault. After all, space rings had a limited space of only a small room. They couldn’t hold many, and there was a limit to how many space rings a cultivator could link with. The higher their cultivation, the more space rings they could link with. Hence, most clans had their most precious treasures locked away in a vault.

After they wiped out Wei Clan members in the main hall, Amon instructed their surviving members to collect the space rings from the slain enemies. He also reminded them to collect the bodies of their fallen comrades. He didn’t want the kingdom to have evidence that linked this massacre back to him. He told them to leave immediately after that while he led a small group to this jail.

Xin Wuming thought that now after they accomplished their objectives, or failed to, considering Madam Lin’s death, they should raid Wei Clan’s vault for their benefit.

”No. Have everyone leave immediately,” Amon answered.

Xin Wuming was confused but didn’t object. Everyone followed Amon as he rushed out while carrying Madam Lin.

After coming out of the building, they immediately turned in the direction closest to the estate’s wall. As they were on their way, they heard a commotion from the estate center, where the main building complex was.

”The city guards? They move quickly,” Xin Wuming remarked. Although they let the maids out of the main hall during their attack, they had members detaining those maids outside, to prevent them from heading out of the estate and informing everybody.

”They are not the city guards,” Amon said.

”No? Then who are they?” Xin Wuming asked.

Amon didn’t answer.

They continued heading out. Their other members had left earlier.

*

Later that day, they regrouped in a secret hideout outside the city. When Amon arrived, one person suddenly rushed at him.

Amon was prepared. His hand stopped the fist that came punching at him. The fist was stopped, but a powerful blast followed. Amon was thrown by the explosion and backstepped a few times before he regained his footing.

Xin Wuming, Tuang Yin, and the others immediately surrounded the person who assaulted their leader.

”Wu Di! What do you think you are doing?” Tuang Yin scolded.

”Move aside! This is between me and him!” Wu Di returned.

”In your dreams! If you are unwilling to stand down, we will put you down!” Xin Wuming threatened.

”Halt!!” Amon commanded.

The Demon Gang complied and stood to the side while Amon approached Wu Di. Wu Di was standing still. He no longer rushed at Amon. Amon stopped after he was before Wu Di. He folded his arms and stared at Wu Di without saying anything.

”Why did you massacre Wei Clan?” Wu Di asked. ”Our objective is to save your mother! Why annihilate an entire clan? I know they are guilty of your clan’s demise, but doing the same thing to them just makes you as bad as they are.”

”I am worse than them,” Amon stated.

Wu Di seemed surprised by the statement. He yelled, ”There are innocent women and children in that clan. They all die because of you!”

”It’s done. What are you going to do about it?” Amon asked.

Wu Di clenched his fists. The others tense up. They were ready to act if Wu Di attacked.

Tuang Yin got in between Amon and Wu Di. ”Wu Di, stop this! He is emotional because of what happened to his clan. You can’t blame him for it.”

That was not true, but Amon didn’t try to correct her.

Wu Di took a deep breath and harrumphed. He turned around and walked away. The Demon Gang members looked at Amon, waiting for his instruction about what to do.

”Wu Di!” Amon called. Wu Di stopped walking but didn’t turn back.

Amon asked, ”Are you going to tell people who is responsible for Wei Clan’s demise?”

”I will not,” Wu Di answered. ”But I will not help you anymore. We are no longer friends from now on.”

Wu Di resumed walking.

”I... I will talk to him,” Tuang Yin said and chased after Wu Di.

Amon didn’t stop her. It would have been easier to eliminate Wu Di, but there might be complications. He didn’t want to add more problems for now. He knew Wu Di’s personality. The guy kept his word. If he said he would keep what happened here a secret, he would. Plus, Wu Di could be said to be an accomplice in Wei Clan’s annihilation. He would implicate himself if the secret was out.”

*

After Wu Di left, Amon debriefed everyone. The treasures they recovered from Wei Clan members’ space rings were pooled together before being distributed equally among the members who joined this operation.

Amon let Xin Wuming oversee the distribution process. He himself was away. He told Xin Wuming to send everyone back to Qishurg City after everyone received their share. The wounded, which included Yang Li, would stay and recover before heading back. Their business here was done.

Amon told Tuang Yin the same. He left carrying Madam Lin’s body. She didn’t try to follow.

Amon went to the ruins of Lin Estate. He went to Madam Lin’s house and buried her there. He placed a simple tombstone to mark her grave. He carved the tombstone himself.

Before he came here, he went to the city hall and used his wealth to buy the deeds for this estate. He did it under a disguised name, of course. He didn’t plan to do anything with the estate. He was going to leave it as it is. In a way, it could be said he turned this whole estate into Madam Lin’s tomb.

He stood before the tombstone for some time.

”How long are you going to stay there?” Amon asked.

A chuckle was heard. Lei San revealed himself. ”You are pretty sly. You acted earlier than what you told me.”

Amon sneered. ”Do you think I’m going to make it easy for you to eradicate both the Wei Clan and me at the same time?”

”You truly have a trust issue, my friend,” Lei San laughed.

”No need to deny it. If you didn’t plan that, your clan wouldn’t have come to Wei Estate as soon as we were done.”

The group that caused the commotion when Amon’s team was leaving Wei Estate was the Lei Clan. Contrary to Amon’s statement, a few city guards and one city official were with the clan. They were there as witnesses it was not Lei Clan who was responsible for what happened there. The official had been bribed beforehand, of course. Lei Clan raided the Wei Clan’s vault and shared a portion of the treasures with the official and the city guards.

Amon had suspected this would happen since it was Lei San who informed him of details of Wei Clan’s festivities. Lei San knew the details because the Lei Clan had a mole inside the Wei Estate. The mole was the maid who Amon disguised as. When Lei San brought Amon to meet this maid so Amon could question her for info about the Wei Clan, Amon asked the maid to find an excuse to leave the estate before the festivities.

He spent some time with the maid to develop facial prosthetics that allowed him to transform into her. He was adept in this art in his past life. Although the materials he used in his past life were not available in this world, he had learned to use available materials as substitutes.

He also used the time to study the maid’s habits, attitudes, and gestures. This was to ensure Wei Clan members were not suspicious when he replaced the maid.

Lei San was there the entire time Amon was with the maid, so he was aware of Amon’s plan to infiltrate Wei Estate. Hence, Amon supplied him with misinformation.

Amon informed Lei San that he would carry out his assault on the night of Wei Clan’s private party. It made sense, considering the night would better cloak their operation. At that time, most of the Wei Clan members would be too drunk and tired after partying the whole day.

Lei San didn’t expect Amon to move up the timetable to broad daylight, risking the success of the operation to fool him. He had expected Amon not to be fully truthful to him, so he had his clan prepared early. He believed it should take Amon some time to fight the Wei Clan. He didn’t know about Amon’s poison, so he didn’t expect the entire clan to succumb that quickly.

When he entered the Wei Estate with his clan, he had trouble coping with the scene. He was wondering how Amon’s force could wipe out an entire clan in that time frame. After one of his clan’s pill masters examined the slain Wei Clan members, he knew then that Amon used an unknown potent poison.

”Are you going to rat me out to the authorities?” Amon asked.

Originally, Lei San was planning to do just that. However, he figured making an enemy out of someone who could wipe out a moderate clan so efficiently was not wise.

”If I planned that, I wouldn’t have come here and met you all by myself, would I?” Lei San asked in return.

Amon nodded. ”I am merciless to my enemies but beneficial to my allies. Stay being my allies, and you will see more profits in the future.”

”I will count on that. Shall we shake for our continuing relationship?” Lei San asked.

”We shall not,” Amon replied.

Lei San chuckled at the response. He left afterward.

Amon watched Lei San’s back. It would be easier to eliminate the man, but it was not guaranteed Lei San hadn’t divulged to others the fact he was the one who annihilated the Wei Clan. If Lei San didn’t return, the person he told the secret might go to the authorities with this information. Although there was no direct evidence that could incriminate him, it would still be a troubling matter to deal with.

Hence, having Lei San as an ally for now was preferable.