Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 382: Chapter 382. A Villain

Inside the puppet-making section of the Royal Academy’s specialization building, three teachers were busy repairing the reserve battle puppets. All active battle puppets were deployed with the students and other teachers. The ones remaining here were previously damaged puppets that had not yet been repaired. These teachers were repairing them now so they could be deployed as well. They were going all out to help with the city’s defense.

”This one’s power source is damaged. I’ll need to take some Zillium from the storeroom,” one of the teachers said. ”Master Ji Zhi left you the key to the Storeroom, didn’t he? Please unlock the door for me.”

”Repairing a power source takes a while,” his friend responded. ”Find another battle puppet that requires less time to repair first.”

”There is no more such battle puppet. We have repaired and sent out all the lightly damaged ones. The remaining here all have heavy damage and require major replacement parts.”

”Sigh... Here. Take the key. I’m in the middle of a sensitive repair. I prefer not to stop.”

The teacher threw the key at his friend. When the friend caught the key, a large knife flashed past and cut off the hand that held the key.

”Ahh...!!!” The teacher, whose hand had just been cut, screamed from the pain and shock.

His screaming didn’t last long because the knife flew back and sliced his throat.

The teacher who threw the key was stunned by the sudden incident. He caught a movement from the corner of his eyes. He turned and saw a similar knife to the one that had just cut off his friend’s hand right in front of him. This knife plunged into his forehead.

The third teacher, who was repairing another battle puppet a distance away, witnessed the whole thing. He immediately let go of the battle puppet and took out a battle staff. He looked around for the attacker but couldn’t find anyone. While searching, he noticed the two large knives that killed his friends were heading toward him.

He was astonished at how the enemy controlled these knives without revealing themselves. He used his battle staff to repel them, but they kept flying back to assault him.

He realized he couldn’t continue doing this. After slapping the knives away, he made a run for the exit. Before he reached the exit, several flying knives flew out from behind a row of damaged puppets. He knew then that was where the attacker was hiding.

The flying knives blocked him from reaching the exit. He had no choice but to use his martial arts to defend himself from the knives. His battle staff twirled at high speed, parrying all the knives.

He wasn’t given a break. After the flying knives, several water rings rushed out from where the hidden attacker was. To make things worse, the two large flying knives had caught up to him. They were targeting his back. Because of the initial flying knives, he couldn’t move away from the spot. The twirling of his battle staff turned a notch faster. Its afterimage covered his whole body.

With the powerful martial arts, the battle staff slapped the flying knives coming at him from behind. The flying knives rebounded far away from the powerful impact. The water rings, however, produced a different outcome.

The teacher noticed the incoming water rings had black edges. He didn’t think much about it. He believed these water rings would also recoil from his defensive art, just like the flying knives. To his consternation, the water rings sliced through his battle staff like it was a piece of tofu.

By the time the water rings passed through, both he and his battle staff were cut to pieces.

Amon came out of hiding after slaying the three teachers. Although they were teachers, their specialization was puppet-making. In terms of cultivation, all three were at the Transformation Stage.

His alpha flying knives returned to him. He went to pick up his remaining flying knives while instructing Bo Wu to devour the three dead teachers to wipe out evidence. After that, he picked up the storeroom key on the ground.

Amon went to the storeroom and used the key to unlock its door. Inside, he found what he was looking for. He stored all the Zillium in that place. The Zillium stored here was enough to create the power source for around one hundred battle puppets. This might be a large quantity by normal standards, but it was far from enough to power up the battle puppet army he stole from Shi Zi.

It would have to do for now.

Inside the storeroom were also many precious battle puppet parts. He took them all. After raiding the place, he walked back out. He was greeted with commotion from the surrounding area. Sounds of battles were heard. The monster swarm had invaded deep enough and entered even the Royal Academy.

”Time to leave,” He thought. There might still be many treasures to steal during the chaos, but he decided he had taken enough. He risked exposure if he continued. If the Royal Academy survived this, he didn’t want to get on their bad side.

Amon sneaked his way out of the Royal Academy. He avoided places where he heard conflicts. With his Concealed Ghost Body and stealth proficiency, he remained undetected.

Outside the royal academy, he saw many destroyed houses. The despair and grieving voices of civilians filled the city. Their voices were not lower than the heated sounds from the ongoing battles around them.

Many corpses littered the street among the rubble of collapsed buildings. He passed by the dead bodies of a mother holding her baby on the ground. He felt nothing from the sight, but it conjured a memory, or more correctly, a promise. A promise he made to Madam Lin.

”Spare the children and mothers...,” Madam Lin’s voice resounded in his mind. He frowned at the thought.

A loud cry from a child caught his attention. He turned and saw a little child crying not far away. She was calling for her mother. Her cry attracted the attention of things other than Amon. Three ape-like creatures with giant heads resembling frogs climbed out of the surrounding rubble. These three spirit beasts ran toward the crying child.

The child saw the spirit beasts. She cried louder as she ran away from them. Her short legs couldn’t outrun the spirit beasts, though. The three spirit beasts leaped high into the air. They were about to descend upon the poor child.

Two large flying knives accompanied by numerous shooting stars rained on the three leaping beasts. The shooting stars were a combination of smaller flying knives and needles. Two of the three beasts became pincushions for the knives and needles, while the larger flying knives stabbed into their disproportionally large heads.

The last beast used its comrade as a stepping stone to jump away to safety, or so it thought. Unbeknownst to it, Amon was waiting at the ground where it landed. His ceremonial dagger slashed past the beast’s immense neck. Its giant frog head fell to the ground before it knew what was happening.

Amon’s alpha flying knives and needles returned to him. He picked up his remaining knives manually. The child stared at him while he did that.

”Alie...!” A woman appeared from the corner of the street.

”Mother...!!” The little girl called. She ran to the woman, who embraced her.

”Let’s go! We need to find shelter!” The woman said.

”Wait!” The little girl turned to Amon. ”Thank you for saving me, mister,” the child uttered. She then left with her mother.

Amon sneered. He was amused at her words. ’Save?’ He thought. That was ironic, considering he was the cause of what befell this city.

The spirit beast invasion was his doing. He pulled it off by using the Allure Beacon. After gaining the Primordial Blue Lotus’ nectar, he had long since brewed the Beast Nectar required to use this ancient artifact.

He used the artifact and called the surrounding spirit beasts to cause enough disaster to the city so that all the cultivators inside the Royal Academy were lured away. The Royal Academy was backed by the kingdom. It could not stay back and watch when the city was under attack. Every personnel and student would be mobilized to aid the defense.

Amon did all this to get his hands on the Spring of Life. While other students exerted themselves to fight for the right to use the Spring of Life for a short period, his goal was to take the whole spring for himself. To that end, he didn’t hesitate to cause calamity to a whole city.

Right now, incalculable innocent lives were either buried under the rubble or killed by the spirit beasts. The survivors were hiding in terror, hoping the spirit beasts didn’t find them. As for the defenders, countless had met their ends, while the remaining continued to fight valiantly against a lost cause. The spirit beasts kept pouring in while the defender’s number became fewer by the minute. Reinforcements were probably still hours away, if not days.

Everything seemed dire for Qishurg City and its citizens. Amon gave no heed to their fates. That was not something a villain like him would trouble himself with.