Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 446: Chapter 446. An Uprising

Amon used the Sky Stable in a nearby town to return to Golden Stone City after leaving the Xandar Region. He looked for Huang San, but the prince was not in the capital, so he visited Gao Lan and San Guo to check their progress during this one year.

The Demon Gang had grown a lot in this one short year. This was due to the sufficient funds from the City Hall theft, reinforced by the widening distributions of their recreation drugs. The profits gained from these drugs were shared with Huang San. At their current rate, they should have no problem collecting enough aer stones to pay for the right to join the Ancient Ascension Trial three years from now.

Their legal ventures were also improving. They had bought and opened many businesses in the capital. San Guo proposed that Amon formalize their legal groups into one encompassing organization. Amon agreed to the proposal. Since they were not bound by bloodlines like the clans, they decided to form a sect instead.

San Guo asked if they should use the name of Amon’s faction at the Royal Academy and called their new organization the Vicious Sect. Amon turned down the idea. He instead gave their new organization the name of Lin Hei Sect. The others didn’t oppose the name. They saw it as Amon honoring the two clans he originated from.

Amon asked Gao Lan about the underworld coalition proposed by Gao Fongze. She answered that the massive growth of the Demon Gang was partly due to the coalition’s success. The coalition captured and absorbed many territories within this one year. None of the individual underworld organizations could resist the coalition’s combined might.

Some underworld organizations started working together recently to better resist the coalition’s expansion, but their effectiveness was limited. Their emergency collaboration wasn’t on the level of the nine major underworld organizations inside the coalition.

Amon asked Gao Lan whether the kingdom had started responding to the increased underworld struggles. Gao Lan answered that while there had been more patrols in response to the increased conflicts on the streets, the control level had not returned to before. The reason was many soldiers from the capital were still outside, dealing with the ongoing unrest in the surrounding areas caused by the rebels.

Gao Lan informed Amon the major incident that happened recently was the uprising of a neighboring city called Fuxiang City. It was believed that rebels had taken control of the city, and it declared independence from the kingdom. The kingdom army from the capital was now laying siege on that city.

”That was pointless,” Amon remarked. ”They can’t truly expect to win their independence that way.”

”That’s why many believed the rebels were involved with the uprising,” Gao Lan said. ”They wanted to sow unrest and displayed the incompetency of the kingdom. The more incidents like this happen, the more the public loses trust in the kingdom.”

”Your force in Fort Fresh Maw has also been mobilized to aid the kingdom army in the siege,” San Guo added.

”I see... All right, I will go join that siege,” Amon said.

”What about the underworld coalition?” Gao Lan asked. ”You mentioned Gao Fongze might have malicious intentions. Should we continue to cooperate?”

”I don’t think he will do anything yet while the expansion is still proceeding smoothly. It is when the kingdom army returns to the capital and reaffirms control over the city that he might try something. For now, continue to play along and make use of the coalition for our benefit. Also, do not forget to secretly do those tasks I instructed.”

”Understood,” Gao Lan said.

Before leaving the capital, Amon went to meet Zong Hua first. She had been gathering information about the rebels this past one year. If the rebels had anything to do with the uprising of Fuxiang City, she should know something.

*

From Golden Stone City, Amon went to Fort Fresh Maw before heading to Fuxiang City. When he arrived at the fort, it was indeed mostly empty. Only his battle puppets patrolled the battlements surrounding the fort.

Amon entered the keep. The people working at the workshop inside were all still there. They didn’t join the force that went to Fuxiang City.

Ji Zhi greeted him, ”Welcome back. How goes your endeavor? I heard from Huang San that you are looking for a way to get Zillium supply for the battle puppets in the basement. Did you succeed?”

”I did. Call Shi Hei, Hu Hua, and Diao Xin. Come down to the basement with them after ten minutes,” Amon told him.

Ji Zhi went to look for the three within the keep. They then went down to the basement together. When they arrived there, Ji Zhi’s eyes were wide. At one corner was a huge pile of Zillium. Shi Hei, Hu Hua, and Diao Xin weren’t as surprised because they didn’t understand how rare Zillium was.

”How... How did you get this many...?” Ji Zhi asked.

”Let’s just focus on what’s next rather than what’s before,” Amon said. ”How long do you need to process this Zillium to power these battle puppets?”

”With the manpower we have, more than the three years...,” Ji Zhi replied.

”That’s unacceptable. The Ancient Ascension Trial is three years from now. We must complete the battle puppet army before then because we need the army against the rebels. Didn’t I ask you to find as many capable puppet makers as possible?”

”You also mentioned trustable. That brings the scope down considerably,” Ji Zhi defended himself.

Amon contemplated the matter. He said, ”In this case, we have no choice but to outsource. Send the Zillium to puppet makers you know outside this fort and place orders for them to make the power sources. Do it under the table and spread the order as much as possible, so they don’t get suspicious about us having more Zillium than we are supposed to.”

”I will have to spread the order all over this country in that case... But I think it can be done. Okay, I will do that while also recruiting more puppet makers for our workshop here.”

”Good. One more thing,” Amon added. ”The battle puppets here are not all we have. There are two times more battle puppets stashed away somewhere.”

Ji Zhi was speechless hearing that. He decided not to question this statement. He nodded and said, ”I will consider that when I spread out the orders for the power sources. Thankfully, I have a wide network of puppet makers since many were graduates from the Royal Academy.”

After leaving the instruction, Amon left the fort. He rode his Alpha Flying Knives and flew in the direction of Fuxiang City. It was a neighboring city, so it was only a couple of days of travel.

---------------

Fuxiang City was surrounded by hilly terrains on all sides. Small woods covered the hills on the Northern side. Like Qishurg City and Golden Stone City, it had tall walls enclosing its perimeter. The walls had words of power powering it. A dome like the one in Golden Stone City protected this city, preventing fliers from entering from the sky.

Outside this city, an army was laying siege. This army was a combined force between the army from the capital and the regiment from Fort Fresh Maw. The regiment was led by Lao Zen. As for the army from the capital, it was under the command of Major General Jiang Bo.

However, the main commander of this siege was not either of them. Instead, it was the Thirteenth Prince, Huang San.

This uprising was suspected to be the work of the rebels. Since Huang San had sworn to get rid of the rebels, King Huang Ti decided to give the commander responsibility to him. This was also a way for him to gather merit and make a name for himself.

Huang San and the important personnel of the sieging army were gathering at a command base overseeing the main gate to Fuxiang City.

Among the personnel was Huang Zen, the son of the late first prince of Echos. He was appointed as the capital’s army second commander. In other words, Jiang Bo’s second-in-command. Jiang Bo was Prince Huang Zi’s supporter, while Huang Zen was Princess Huang Er’s follower. The Prime Minister, Zhu Yao, made this arrangement to balance the influence between the two factions. Without complete control, each faction didn’t have total authority and thus wouldn’t be too daring to cause difficulty to Prince Huang San, who acted as the main commander.

”Uncle, it has been eight days since we laid siege on this city. We can’t keep waiting like this,” Huang Zen told Huang San. Despite calling Huang San uncle, Huang Zen was older than Huang San. In fact, they were rather close. They spent a lot of time together when they were kids since their age wasn’t too far apart. This was another reason Zhu Yao appointed Huang Zen to join this operation.

Jiang Bo, who was also there, agreed with Huang Zen. He, however, voiced his opinion more aggressively. ”If the Thirteenth Prince doesn’t have the guts to finish those rebels, relinquish your command to me. I will make short work of them!”