Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 342: Chapter 342. Flying Sword Art

Amon turned his attention back to the front. Before him was a large pond filled with glimmering water. The water seemed alive. Even when no stream was going in and out of the pond, the water had waves. Amon observed the waves. They moved randomly without any apparent pattern, which Amon figured was what gave him the impression the water was alive.

Amon could only sum up his thoughts into one word. ”Impressive,” he said.

The aether he felt for being so close to the spring was intoxicating. If being so close was already so alluring, what if he submerged his body in the water? Every fiber of his being was screaming for him to ignore all consequences and jump into the water, but he restrained himself.

It was not the time yet.

He averted his gaze away from the spring. His work here was done. All he had left to do was put up appearances. He moved around as if studying the terrain. Li Shi followed him closely. He asked some questions regarding ley lines while moving around.

He continued doing this until Li Shi said, ”Time’s up. We must leave.”

Amon did not argue with the decision. He complied and walked to the exit.

Li Shi was glad there was no complication. Normally, they need to use force to remove the students who received permission to use the spring here. Even when the tutors used this place, they found it extremely difficult to will themselves to leave. It was that addictive.

Amon gave the spring another look before Li Shi resealed the wall.

Li Shi blindfolded Amon again when she led him out of the place. She removed the blindfold after they were back in the garden. Amon thanked her for fulfilling his wish and left.

*

Amon didn’t go and pick a mission despite his urgency for academic points. Instead, he returned to his residence and secluded himself in the basement.

The reason was that he wanted to practice. In his spare time since the meeting with Oredolia delegates, he reread the manual book containing the martial art, Flying Sword.

Amon knew the common consensus was that the profound arts were too difficult for cultivators of the Human Realm to learn. However, he no longer thought this assessment was correct after meeting Xin Jingsao.

According to Li Shi’s information, Xin Jingsao not only knew one low-tier profound art but three. Those three arts were the Xin Lai Palm, the Flying Sword, and the Eight Trigram Steps. Xin Jingsao could execute all three arts despite having cultivation at the Transformation Stage.

Due to this, Amon concluded that learning low-tier profound art was not impossible for cultivators of the Transformation Stage, even without the compatibility of element affinity. After thinking about this matter, Amon concluded that the reason Xin Jingsao managed to learn such an art should be due to two factors. The first was his comprehension. The second should be because he received guidance regarding the arts.

He came to that conclusion after learning from Li Shi that those three arts were the exclusive arts of the Temple of Divinity. It was safe to say almost every talented disciple of the temple practiced these arts. If that was the case, the teachers of the temple were also used to teaching the arts. Therefore, they could provide better guidance.

Amon believed his comprehension didn’t lose to Xin Jingsao. What he lacked was guidance. He didn’t think any teacher in the Royal Academy knew the Flying Sword art. Hence, he had to find this guidance somewhere else.

He received this guidance from Xin Jingsao himself. That was the reason he looked for a reason to spar with the deacon. He wanted to learn about the sword art by experiencing it directly.

He intentionally clashed with Xin Jingsao’s broad sword multiple times without trying to dodge it. All was so he could sense and understand the distribution and power accompanying that broadsword. How it was channeled. How the energy was utilized to keep the sword in control.

After the experience and rereading of the manual book, many of the previously elusive methods stated in the book started to make sense. This was why he secluded himself and chose to train instead of performing missions. He wanted to practice while the experience from the spar with Xin Jingsao was still sufficiently fresh.

The Flying Sword art was achieved by linking his aether to his weapon. To do so, he needed to first carve a certain word of power onto the weapon. The word of power required was inscribed in the manual book. Thankfully, he had the basic knowledge of engraving, and the expertise required for this art was not high. Hence, he could engrave the word of power by himself.

After that, he needed to insert his aether and make it part of the weapon. It was a slow chore as his aether needed to invade all fragments of the weapon. Considering this, he chose to use one of his flying knives instead of a sword. A knife had a smaller mass and thus, less time was required for his aether to conquer it.

He trained for days and nights without rest. Even when Tuang Yin came and called, he ignored her. He kept the basement locked. No one could enter. The only ones who witnessed his training were Lin Li and Wu Qiu.

Amon didn’t block Lin Li’s window to the outside world when he was training. She also didn’t care. She was bored watching Amon’s repetitive training. She spent her time tending to the trees and plants instead.

As for Wu Qiu, Amon gagged him when he made noise and disturbed his practice. This taught him not to disturb Amon.

It was on the ninth day after he secluded himself when he started to see the result of his training. He could make the knife he used to practice fly a short distance, albeit slowly. It was not satisfactory, but at least it was a start. In this way, he could be said to have learned this Flying Sword art to its beginner mastery.

At this mastery, the furthest distance his knife could travel from him was three meters away, which was not far. It also had difficulty turning during its flight and had slow flying speed. In other words, it was pathetic. He had no plan to use this art in combat for now.

For Xin Jingsao to control a weapon as large as a broad sword and make it fly a long distance away from himself, his mastery should be quite high already. Xin Dhaije was even more so. He could control six flying swords at the same time and made them perform drilling moves with such power. If he could reach their mastery, his options in combat would become more diverse.

*

Amon spent another three days before he ended his seclusion. He had successfully learned the martial arts. All he needed now was to keep practicing and improve his mastery.

After leaving his residence, he went first to the tutor’s main office building to find Tutor Lao Zen. He asked the head tutor if there was another special mission available. Lao Zen berated him that special missions didn’t grow on trees. It was called special for a reason, but he did promise Amon he would make Amon the first candidate for a special mission if any ever came up.

Amon went to the mission center afterward. He wanted to pick a mission and check Sima Fang’s progress. To his discontent, he learned that the gap between Sima Fang’s scores and his had widened again. He picked up a mission and then went to meet Xin Wuming.

He expected after instructing his people to harass Sima Fang during her mission, her speed in collecting academic points would slow. Yet, from her scores, it didn’t seem so. He wanted to know why. Did his followers not carry out his instructions?

”She has bodyguards?”

”Yes, brother,” Xin Wuming reaffirmed his answer to Amon.

”Which force?” Amon asked.

”We don’t know. They took a similar approach to the Demon Gang. They wore plain clothes and face masks. We have no idea who they are. They came out of hiding and engaged our people when they approached Sima Fang. These had happened three times.”

”Any casualty?” Amon asked.

”No. They appeared only to wish to prevent us from disturbing Sima Fang. Once Sima Fang was away, they left as well.”

”Sima Fang just left when she saw people clashing near her?”

”The report from the people Gao Lan sent mentioned that she didn’t even glance back. It was as if she was sure there were people protecting her.”

”No casualty from their side as well?”

Xin Wuming shook his head. ”The report mentioned that those bodyguards had generally higher cultivation than the people we sent. Do I need to ask Gao Lan to send more or stronger people?”

”... No. Ask her to stand down. No need to send people to harass Sima Fang anymore,” Amon answered.