Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 761: Chapter 761. Zee Whang and Dao Su

”You are earlier than expected,” Li Zhong told Lei Mao in the courtyard.

”I... try to complete this task as quickly as I can,” Lei Mao answered.

Li Zhong looked at the small package in his hand before turning back to Lei Mao. ”You have done well. Stop worrying. I said I would recommend your promotion, and I will keep my promise. Stop looking glum. Go away now. You deserve a rest. I will call you again when I have a new task for you.”

”Y–Yes, sir...” Lei Mao bowed his head.

Li Zhong attributed Lei Mao’s nervousness to the fear of being replaced. He already gave the assurance. If Lei Mao remained worried, then that’s his problem. He wasn’t going to babysit this insecure man. He turned and walked away with the package.

Lei Mao only lifted his head after Li Zhong entered the house. His face was filled with anxiety. The masked stranger walked into the courtyard and tapped Lei Mao’s shoulder.

”Well done,” the stranger said. ”Now, run to your brother’s house. If you are quick enough, you can save him before he runs out of blood.”

”W–What...?!” Lei Mao turned to the stranger with an agitated expression.

”You heard me. Run now, or it will be too late.”

Lei Mao didn’t know whether the stranger was telling the truth, but he couldn’t afford to gamble. He turned and ran as fast as he could, leaving the stranger alone in the courtyard.

”Hm...,” the stranger observed the house. As he expected, there were protective words of power surrounding the house. Breaching in would not happen quickly or quietly. Any attempt would warn the occupants inside and allow them to respond. Thankfully, he had already implemented a solution. He grinned at the thought.

*

Inside the house, Li Zhong brought the package to the deeper part of the house, which had been renovated with a particular purpose. Aside from the outer wall, there was an inner wall that formed a confinement unit with only one entrance. The inner wall also had engraved words of power. It formed a layer of barrier that prevented unauthorized people from entering.

If anyone tried to breach either the first or second barriers, a warning would sound. When that happened, Li Zhong would use the Shift Stone. A shift stone was a high-tier runic item that conjured a portal that teleported people who entered it to a fixed location that was set up beforehand. In this case, it would be the mayor’s office. The mayor of Cruel Consecrate City was a Supreme Stage cultivator. They would be safe there until they ascertained the nature of the breach.

Li Zhong crossed through the second barrier easily. He was registered personnel, so the barrier didn’t hinder him. Inside the confinement unit was a large but disordered workshop. Parts were everywhere, both mechanical and organic.

Li Zhong sighed. The two men he was overseeing were geniuses in their fields, but they were also incredibly messy. He had to clean the place on several occasions, which pissed him off. He was someone with a slayer rank, not a maid. Yet, he could not allow someone else into this house, nor could he force these two to clean up, not unless he wanted their work to slow down.

Although only three men were inside the workshop, they were not the only ones moving. Several worker puppets moved around the place. There were also dog-sized bugs that walked using six legs and carried things using their two long forelimbs.

One of these bugs walked past near one of the men and brushed his leg. The man reacted by kicking the bug hard. The bug uttered a screeching voice as it flew far and high.

”Bloody fat pig! Stop harassing my work roaches!” One of the men, a tall, skinny man with four arms, exclaimed. Each of his four arms was holding a different surgical tool as he operated on a living human. This human was among those Lei Mao kidnapped and delivered. The human’s mouth was gagged, so he couldn’t scream from the pain.

”Then keep your disgusting pets away from me, you four-armed freak!” The fat man, who was Zee Whang, shouted back. He was working on what appeared to be the control module for human puppets. ”We have already agreed on the distribution of this workshop. Stay the hell away from my section!”

Li Zhong sighed again. This was roughly what he had to deal with every day. These two geniuses kept bickering daily when they should have been working together. Even so, he had no choice but to facilitate them. Hai Di gave him the special assignment to oversee these two until they produced a favourable result, a result that kept eluding each year. This frustrated him. It was not only Lei Mao who had grown weary of how long this had gone on. He himself was ready to wrap this up if only these two could succeed.

He released his aura when the two’s dispute turned even more heated. The two had lower cultivation levels than he did. Zee Whang remained a Beginning Spirit Stage, while the four-armed man was a Beginning Malicious Stage cultivator.

His Peak Fiendish aura pressured the two, making it difficult for them to move or breathe.

”Are you two ready to calm down and get back to work?” He asked.

”Ugh! Tell that to that fatso! He started it!”

”Fuck you! You are the one who trespassed first!”

”That’s enough!” Li Zhong thundered. ”I have had enough with you two. If not for My Lord’s order, I would have cut you two to pieces and fed you to the dogs!”

”Hehe,” the four-armed man grinned even when he was clearly in pain from Li Zhong’s aura. ”That is the same as admitting you can do nothing to us. You must treat us well. Otherwise, you will get punished.”

Li Zhong turned his gaze to the four-armed man. His expression was grim and unfriendly. ”Dao Su, I suggest you watch your mouth. While it is true that My Lord ordered me to keep you safe, he also demanded results, and you haven’t exactly provided much. I’m within my rights to dispense a punishment on you, a punishment that will cause you much pain and discomfort. I don’t think you will want that.”

”Tch! Don’t think you can intimidate me with a threat,” Dao Su talked back. ”The result you asked for is too outrageous, and it even requires cooperation with that fat fuck, who completely doesn’t know how to appreciate beauty. How do you expect me to succeed?”

Zee Whang spat on the floor before yelling, ”You call what you do beauty? Any person with common sense can see that your handiwork is sick and repulsive!”

”I said enough! Don’t you hear me?!” Li Zhong increased the pressure of his aura. Zee Whang and Dao Su winced from the pain.

Li Zhong waited to see if the two wanted to continue protesting. They were silent. Hence, he retracted his aura. ”Go back to work! And stay away from each other until it is time to do the combined test.”

”Tch! Whatever,” Dao Su uttered, but didn’t say anything more. He returned to his task of dissecting the living human on his table.

Zee Whang also ignored everyone and returned to tinkering with the module on his worktable.

Li Zhong shook his head. Although it didn’t require him to do much, this task was getting more frustrating by the day. He turned to the package he had placed on a nearby table when the two were bickering. He picked it back up and started unwrapping it.

”Zee Whang, the parts that you requested have arrived.”

Zee Whang replied without looking at him, ”Be a dear and open the wrapping, then bring it to me.”

Li Zhong was vexed. If he didn’t have sufficient self-control, he would have thrown the package at Zee Whang. However, he was already halfway through unwrapping it, so he continued. Removing the wrapping revealed a small box with a top and bottom lid.

A weird feeling tugged at his mind. The box was too light. He shook it and heard something small banging on the box.

”What the...,” he uttered. Though the part Zee Whang was asking for was small, it should not be this small and light.

He opened the box. Inside was empty except for a necklace with a small black ring tied to it.

”What the...,” he uttered for the second time. This was clearly not the parts he ordered. He was still pondering whether his contact at Liberty Slave City had made a mistake in putting the contents or Lei Mao had taken the wrong package, when the black ring emitted a flash.

Following the flash was a suffocating aura that washed over the room. A huge butterfly with a woman’s face and a squid’s bottom materialized above him.

Before Li Zhong could react, the butterfly creature opened the gigantic mouth filled with sharp teeth in her abdomen. With one quick bite, the mouth clamped on Li Zhong’s upper body. Li Zhong wasn’t given the time to use any defensive art, and his natural durability was no match for the mouth’s crunching power.

In one swift second, Li Zhong’s upper body above the waist was gone.