Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 734: Chapter 734. Leaving Aetheria

After Amon’s disappearance, his battle puppets remaining on the field were dismantled. That included the Beta Puppet, which Lao Zen confiscated and sent to their puppet makers to see if it could be repurposed.

Since no one knew where Amon had disappeared or how he had done it, a large-scale search was conducted inside the capital. Many members of the Demon Gang and Lin Hei Sect were captured for interrogation. Most of the interrogation wasn’t limited to conversation. A lot of these interrogated members were never seen again.

Fortunately for the top brass of these two organizations, Xin Wuming delivered Amon’s scorched-earth instruction as he fled. Gao Lan, San Guo, Lu Fei, and many others left the capital and went into hiding. They were also shocked when they learned Amon was a demon. Even so, they were Amon’s accomplices. Whether they knew he was a demon or not, the kingdom would vent its rage on them as long as Amon was still at large.

In a matter of days, the Demon Gang and Lin Hei Sect went from the most powerful and feared organizations to ones hunted by everyone.

Amon didn’t have the time to worry about his subordinates. Other than Xin Wuming, he wasn’t confident that the others would still follow him if he showed up before them. Even if they were willing, their number would not be many. They wouldn’t have sufficient power. Against the whole world, they had no chance of surviving.

Amon knew this. The moment his demonic secret was exposed, he knew he no longer had a place in Aetheria.

He continued his journey to the West, past Khode and into the wilderness beyond. He traveled by avoiding settlements. He also avoided flying and moved through terrains where he could utilize stealth, like woods or mountains. He chose areas heavily inhabited by spirit beasts. This forced him into repeated encounters with spirit beasts, but that was better than being spotted by humans, who could report his sightings to the authorities.

Because of the roundabout way and the sneaking, his journey took two months before he arrived in the no man’s land West of Khode. Though he knew the general area of his destination, he didn’t know its exact location. He ended up spending five more months wandering around the place.

One night, he was hiding inside a cave. He sat beside a small bonfire, which he used to cook the meat from a spirit beast that tried to attack him earlier. The meat tasted hard and awful, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

Standing beside him was a battle puppet. This battle puppet suddenly made a gesture and began writing on a paper. Amon observed its writing, threw away the half-eaten meat, and dashed out of the cave.

*

Not far from the cave where Amon was hiding, two men were walking through the trees. A lush jungle dominated the area. The two looked around carefully as they moved. They were like thieves who had entered a place they weren’t supposed to.

One of them, who had a face like a weasel and a thin mustache, said with a low voice, ”I don’t understand why they started sending even Malevolent Stage cultivators like us. This concealment stone doesn’t exactly come cheap.”

The man was referring to the stone fixed on the collar around his neck.

”Pipe down. The report says that this place is filled with strong spirit beasts. We don’t want to attract any,” his partner, an overweight man with a bald head, said.

”That’s exactly my point. They should have sent at least Diabolic Stage cultivators,” the weasel man replied. His voice was more of a whisper than before. ”It will be pointless if we are done in by the spirit beasts before gathering any information.”

”The purge will not be long now. Most high-level cultivators are training and preparing for the event. The domain lords want to know as much as possible about the lay of the land before it starts. The lords want to ensure we gain more loot before those uptight upper dwellers lay claim to everything, and we are the ones who can be spared to scout.”

”What do you mean by spared? It’s more like expendable if you asked me.”

”Do you find that surprising? People like us are always expendable.”

The two continued chatting, unaware of a pair of eyes that watched them from above. These eyes belonged to Amon, who used Concealed Ghost Body to prevent the two from detecting him.

Amon came to this area because he accepted that he could no longer live in Aetheria. He could remain hiding in the wilderness, but every second he stayed increased the risk of being discovered. If he had a choice, he preferred the other option, even if it meant going to hell, which was not entirely far from what he planned to do.

Xin Lie and Li Jing, the two demon women he encountered in the past, had once told him that he could flee to the lower world, or the demon realm, if his demonic secret was exposed. He never thought the day would come, but he remembered the offer.

They informed him that the gate to the lower world was in this area, but were not specific about its exact location. Hence, he had been wandering around the place searching for it.

After months of fruitless search, he figured blind roaming was ineffective. So, he dispatched battle puppets equipped with Faxien Radar all over the area. These battle puppets couldn’t find the gate even if they happened to wander near it. Xin Lie mentioned that only those with infernal cultivation could detect it.

The thing he wanted the battle puppet to find was not the gate, but the demon who used the gate. After some time, his wait finally bore fruit. The weasel man and the obese man walking down there were two such demons. They didn’t emit infernal aura, though. Their aura was concealed by the stones in their collars.

Amon followed and listened to their conversation, which had devolved into meaningless chatter. Since there was no longer worthwhile information to gain, he acted.

He crashed into the obese man, planting him face-first into the ground. The weasel man yelped in surprise, but couldn’t do much before Amon’s Xian Cloth wrapped around him. The cloth tightened and bound him.

”Who...?!”

The obese man tried to get up, but Amon used one hand and slammed his head back to the ground. A great headache assailed his head. When it cleared a little, he found an engraved chain had wrapped around his body.

Amon did the same to the weasel man. He then placed the two leaning against a tree.

”Who... Who are you?” The obese man asked.

”What do you plan to do with us?” The weasel man asked.

Amon ripped the collar from their necks. No dark aura seeped out since they weren’t using their aether, but Amon could sense the infernal energy from them. The two were no experts in concealment arts.

”So, this thing masked the infernal energy?” Amon asked. He drew the infernal aether from his black energy core. A dark aura emanated from him.

”You... You are also a demon?” The obese man asked in surprise.

Amon ignored the two. He put on the collar. The dark aura that seeped out of him vanished. He could still sense it, but what he sensed was no different from the regular aura created by divine aether.

”Interesting,” Amon remarked. However, he didn’t think this collar was at the same level as the one worn by Mu Qin. He was sure that once his infernal cultivation became stronger, this collar could no longer conceal his infernal aura.

He stored the collars. He had no use for them where he was going. Finally, he spared his attention for his two captives.

”Alright, I will be asking questions. You will answer. If you don’t, I will feed you this,” Amon showed them a bottle containing the Eternal Anguish Blood. ”I understand you don’t know what is inside this bottle. So, I will give you some for demonstration.”

*

A few hours later, Amon stood before a large river. Only after standing right by the riverbed did he detect something. It was not something he detected using his cultivation sense. Instead, it was a strange tingling sensation in his black core, as if something were calling it.

”The gate was under the river,” Amon muttered. The spot was extremely concealed. Even if a demon were using it, no one would be witnessing it. All someone would see is humans exiting the water.

Amon dove into the river. The water was murky, but Amon knew where to go. The tingling sensation in his black energy core was getting stronger.

After some swimming, Amon arrived at his destination. There was nothing there at first, just the rocky riverbed. He sensed his infernal energy resonated with whatever was before him. The water started to distort. A crimson portal abruptly appeared.

Amon felt like he was suddenly caught in a whirlpool. Unable to control himself, he was sucked into this crimson portal. Once he was through, the portal abruptly closed and vanished. The river returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.