Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 437: Chapter 437. Escaping the Maze Formation

Amon looked around him to make sure. He wasn’t wrong. The terrain had shifted again.

He looked up before taking to the sky. He floated until he was past the thick canopies formed by the trees. When he went past the tree, he experienced vertigo. Suddenly, he found the gravity under him was gone. In return, something pulled him from above. He fell upward. When he looked up, he saw the ground, and it was fast approaching.

His hand shot out and slapped on the ground, stopping himself from hitting the ground headfirst. He then flipped and landed. He looked above where he fell through. The thick leaves prevented him from seeing beyond. He looked around. This was the same place where he was before he flew up to flee from the sky.

Normal people might have panicked when faced with such unexpected and unexplained phenomena, but not Amon. He calmly analyzed the situation. He sat down again and repeated what he had done earlier. He closed his eyes and studied the picture in his memory, both the original and the first altered terrain, comparing them to the current terrain.

After doing that for another hour, he found the terrain shifted again.

This kept on repeating. Despite his seemingly futile act, he kept doing the same thing. He stayed in his spot and never moved. One day later, he remained there, sitting cross-legged. The terrain had changed twenty-four times.

Finally, he rose. After reviewing the changes, he learned that there was a pattern to the phenomenon. The terrain didn’t change randomly. Every tree in the area shifted one meter away in one direction, while the ground and the shrubs remained in the same spots. This created the illusion that the scenery had changed while only the trees moved.

Considering how systematic and limited the changes were, Amon assumed this was a low-level maze formation. Even though it was low-level, this finding alarmed Amon. It was uncommon for a spirit beast to have the knowledge of a Formation Sage. Yet, this was clearly the deed of the spirit beast disguised as the old man.

Amon didn’t worry about that for now. His immediate concern was to break free from this maze formation. The mysterious spirit beast promised to grant him fruit from the Longevity Tree if he escaped its labyrinth. If its words were to be trusted, he should have completed his objective once he broke free.

The best way to deal with enchanted formation was to locate its focal points and apply a counter-formation. This should disrupt the formation’s energy and force it to unravel. However, Amon’s skill in Formation Sage was not deep enough. Even so, he did study the basics to know a different solution to maze formations. Like what he did when he encountered one in the pocket world of the Pyramid Legacy, all he needed to do was understand the formation patterns and locate the exit point. Since this was only a low-level maze formation, he was confident it was not too difficult.

He had already figured out most of the patterns from one day of observation. He walked opposite the direction the trees shifted toward. If he walked perpendicularly from that direction, he would find himself reaching the maze’s edge. When he crossed through, he would come out on the opposite side, just like when he flew up earlier. He would cross through the ceiling edge and fall back into the same labyrinth. The only way to proceed was to either walk following the flow of the trees or opposite it.

He hadn’t yet known the exit, but he understood most maze formations cycled their layout. Since he was going against the current, the exit would come past him sooner than if he walked following the current. The exit should have a different aether concentration from the rest of the labyrinth. He could detect this difference using his Mystic Sense.

After walking for almost two days amidst the shifting terrain, he stopped because he heard voices. It had been nothing but silence after he entered the maze formation. There were no living things in the surroundings. He sensed nothing. That’s why the voices alarmed him.

Not long after, a group of people rushed out of the bushes. The one at the head was a good-looking woman with torn clothes. She was running toward him with a terrified expression. Chasing not far behind her were three evil-looking ruffians.

”Hero...! Please, save me...! Save me...!!” The woman pleaded as she approached.

One of the ruffians yelled at Amon, ”Bastard! Don’t you dare snatch our prey. Scram if you wish to live...!”

Amon’s Mystic Sense sensed nothing. This was like with the old man when he appeared.

”Hero, please!” The woman reached out her hand.

Amon’s hand came up to grab the woman’s arm before she touched him. However, the woman’s arm went past his hand like a mirage. A drastic change occurred in the woman. Her good look turned monstrous. Her eyes enlarged into two hollow cavities, sharp teeth grew inside her mouth, her skin turned crusty, and her nails elongated into sharp knives.

Amon jumped away as her nails sliced his belly. He felt the clawing. The claw couldn’t rip through his Jue Body Suit, but he felt the claw touch him. Behind the woman, the three ruffians also transformed into similar horrors.

He couldn’t touch the woman, but she could touch him. ’They are illusions conjured by a mind assault,’ Amon thought.

The Pledge Demon had the same ability, but he could feel from the touch just now this mind attack was much weaker than the Pledge Demon’s. Even so, he couldn’t underestimate these illusions. He couldn’t attack them if he couldn’t touch them.

He didn’t believe these illusions were created by the maze formation trapping him. It was too low level to create a mind assault of this magnitude. These illusions came from a living culprit. He needed to find the one responsible for the mind assault to get rid of the illusions.

He didn’t see anyone else, though. He tried expanding his Mystic Sense to scan where the enemy was hiding but detected nothing.

He dodged the attacks from the four while continuing to search using his Mystic Sense. The four formed a line that prevented him from dodging to the side. He had to keep retreating to avoid getting hit. After he backstepped a few times, he realized what these four illusions were trying to do. They were preventing him from going forward.

Amon grinned after that realization. The fact that someone resorted to this meant he was close to the exit.

He activated the Great Virulent Serpent and Hardened Bronze Body before dashing forward. He no longer tried to dodge the four illusions. He crashed into them. His arts increased his defense and reinforced his belief in his durability. The illusions here were also weaker than the ones produced by the Pledge Demon. So, when their claws hit him, he didn’t receive much damage.

He felt the hit but went through them. With one move, he was behind them. He advanced without glancing at them.

Several more weird-looking creatures came from the front to block his advance, but he gave them no mind. He knew they were also illusions because he sensed nothing from them. Like before, he relied entirely on his boosted toughness and charged past them, all the while paying attention to any irregularity of aether flow in the surroundings.

After some time, he detected it. It was where a giant tree was. At the bottom of the tree’s large trunk was a gaping hole. The irregular aether was most concentrated there.

When Amon approached, the giant tree suddenly came to life. Its branches lashed down at Amon, preventing him from approaching. Despite the irregular aether around the tree that marked the exit point, he still sensed nothing from the branches coming at him, which meant these attacks were also illusions.

Amon charged through. He felt the lashes. They were stronger than the previous illusions. He felt stinging pain from the impacts. They even caused his charge to stop.

He refused to retreat. He gritted his teeth, planted his feet on the ground, and used the Invisible Sky Steps to give him a speed boost. His body shot forward, passing through the myriad branches and straight toward the hole in the tree.

Once he plunged into the hole, he felt another sense of vertigo. It lasted longer this time. He couldn’t tell which way was up or down. Everything was dark and empty. When he could see and feel again, he found himself shooting out of the hole of a similar tree he went in. He quickly rebalanced himself mid-flight and planted his feet on the ground.

He looked around. He could sense small animals around him again. He was out of the maze formation.

A voice greeted him from behind, ”Impressive. I didn’t expect you could free yourself from my formation in a mere three months.”