Rise of The Demon General

Once Bo Wu’s soul was captured, his smoke form dispersed. The initially transparent ball, wrapped in glowing ropes, gained a greyish color. His face took shape on the surface of that grey ball.

”I have been waiting for quite some time for you to act,” Amon’s voice reverberated around the energy space. ”I was hoping that pretending to be bested by you would lower your caution, so you may divulge more information about Hai Di. Sadly, what I learned is that you are nothing but an expendable pawn.”

”Screw you! I’ve said it before! I’m not a pawn!” Bo Wu exclaimed.

”Hm... I think I believe you. Now that I have touched your soul, I learn something surprising. Your soul possesses a mental link. Yet, it is a weak link... No, rather than calling it weak, it is more like only part of your soul is linked. Intriguing... Still, I wonder about this mental link. Are you Hai Di’s tamed beast? That will explain your loyalty to him.”

”Hmph! Don’t think you can dig for information from me,” Bo Wu said defiantly, before laughing maniacally. ”Hehe... Hahaha! Do you think you have won? Since it has come to this, I have got nothing else to lose! I will release my soul and force you into a mental battle! Only one soul can occupy a body. We will see whose mental power is better!”

Finished speaking, the grey ball of Bo Wu’s soul enlarged. The glowing ropes had trouble keeping it restrained. Fumes began to seep out from it. Bo Wu’s mental presence bloated out in the form of smoke as that happened. However, a powerful pressure pressed on him.

Following the pressure was Amon’s voice. ”Are you sure you want to do this?

Bo Wu felt the energy space around him shrinking. Everything around seemed to press in on him. Amon’s presence descended on him then.

Bo Wu stammered. ”You... Impossible! How can you have such a vast mental power...?”

Amon’s wicked chuckle was heard again. ”Do you think I never gauged your mental power in all the time you hitchhiked my body? If you want to go for brute force against me in terms of mental capacity, you will be the one who regrets it.”

Bo Wu’s soul core stopped expanding. The fumes also stopped seeping out of the core.

”Do you think you can trick me?” Amon asked. ”I have known from the start that you have an ulterior motive. I am someone who, given enough time, can devise a plan to deal with any person, no matter how powerful the person is. Do you truly think I will not prepare for the moment that you turn on me?”

Amon’s mental pressure continued to surround Bo Wu’s soul core. The glowing rope also tightened. Bo Wu’s core continued to shrink until it was completely wrapped by the glowing ropes.

”Seal!” Amon exclaimed. The flowing ropes flashed and turned into a sphere filled with words of power. Bo Wu’s core was at its center.

Bo Wu’s smoke form came out of the core and slammed the sphere’s wall.

”Release me!” He yelled.

Amon snickered but said nothing. He left, leaving the imprisoned Bo Wu, who struggled futilely to break the sphere.

Amon reassumed control over his body. He looked at his left arm. Bo Wu’s tattoo was no longer there. Instead, a large, black dot was at the center of his forearm.

”You alright, brother?” He heard Lin Li’s concerned voice.

”Didn’t I already tell you that everything will be fine?” Amon replied.

Lin Li never came out when Bo Wu possessed Amon’s body because Amon could still communicate with her.

Amon looked at the inscriptions on the wall first, then the broken sword on the ground second. Both were enticing, but he didn’t let his impulse guide him. He accessed his black space ring and took out the prison box. After conjuring its portal, he stepped inside.

Dao Su was working merrily when Amon walked in. He had no idea that they had been trapped inside an inescapable pocket dimension.

”Hiya! How are you doing?” Dao Su greeted Amon. On his table was a big cylinder containing greenish liquid. Floating inside the liquid was something that looked like a fetus.

”You sound joyful. Does your research progress smoothly?” Amon asked back.

”It looks promising. I have a good feeling about this one.”

”You said the same thing on the previous three trials, which all failed.”

”I’m confident it will be different this time!”

”You also said that the last time.”

”Are you here just to bust my joy or what?”

”Remember the assignment I gave you regarding soul imprinting?”

Dao Su made a face like he was trying to recollect something. His expression then changed to one of realization. He went to the other side of his workshop and rummaged through the place. He fished out a large black jewel and brought it to Amon.

”I must say, despite that fatso’s unbearable attitude, he does have skills.”

Amon studied the jewel. It had words of power engraved all over its surface. The jewel was crafted by Zee Whang using the Tainted Aetherium Crystal. As a master puppet maker, he also excelled in smithing. As for the words of power, they were engraved by Dao Su.

”Are you sure this is stable enough to keep a soul locked in?” Amon asked.

”Of course. Do you doubt me?” Dao Su asked back.

Amon didn’t bother to reply. He grabbed the jewel with his left hand and showed Dao Su the black dot on his arm. ”Do your thing,” he told Dao Su.

Dao Su touched the black dot on Amon’s arm before pulling it away as if he had touched a hot stove. ”That was one angry soul,” he remarked.

He went away and gathered several tools. ”Sit down,” he told Amon. ”This will take some time.”

Amon sat on the nearest chair and put his left arm on the table. Dao Su returned with his tools. He dipped a needle in a strange liquid and used it on Amon’s left arm. He worked like a tattooist, except he was not drawing a tattoo on Amon’s arm. He was engraving words of power. He started from where the black dot was before working his way to the hand that held the jewel.

Dao Su worked until almost Amon’s entire forearm was covered in his strange scribblings. He then used the longest talisman Amon had ever seen to wrap his left arm like a bandage. Afterward, he poured more strange liquid into a bucket before submerging Amon’s hand with the jewel into it.

He spoke an incantation and activated the long talisman. The talisman interacted with the engraved scribblings on his arm. Amon felt like his arm was getting burned while being bitten by a million ants at the same time. He endured the pain without making a sound. He caught Dao Su watching him, probably expecting him to cry out in pain. He could see the disappointment in the flesh alterer’s eyes.

The black dot in Amon’s arm burst apart into pieces of smoke. Like water going through a channel, the smoke flowed through the inscriptions on Amon’s arm toward the hand. When they touched the liquid where the hand was submerged, they spread into the water. The water was as if receiving sudden and intense heat. It began to boil.

The jewel in Amon’s hand began to glow. The words of power on its surface flashed brightly. The smoke around the liquid was pulled rapidly into the jewel. Before long, the smoke was gone. The jewel continued to shine.

The long talisman wrapping Amon’s arm turned to dust. Amon saw that the inscriptions Dao Su had engraved onto his arm were also gone.

He no longer felt Bo Wu’s presence inside him.

He lifted the jewel and watched it closely. The glow was enthralling. The light within the jewel continued to shift. He glimpsed Bo Wu’s silhouette among the glows.

”Is it still conscious inside here?” Amon asked Dao Su.

Dao Su nodded. ”Yeah.”

”Can I talk to him?”

”I placed several layers of seal on it. We can hear it by temporarily removing one of the seals. Here, let me show you.”

Dao Su did something to the jewel. Bo Wu’s angry voice was soon heard.

”... will gnaw you to the bone when I get out of here! You, piece of shit, blasted worm can! Fucking dogshit! Let me out of here! Let me out of...”

Amon put the jewel near his mouth and spoke, ”We will talk again once you have calmed down.”

It was unclear if Bo Wu heard Amon because he never stopped swearing. Amon handed the jewel to Dao Su, who resealed it. Bo Wu’s ranting disappeared then.

”Study its soul,” Amon told Dao Su. ”I suspect it possesses a mental link with Hai Di.”

”What? Are you suggesting it is Hai Di’s tamed beast?” Dao Su asked.

”No, the mental link I sensed from him is very frail. I don’t understand it myself. I don’t think it is Hai Di’s tamed beast. If it is, it should be able to share its senses with Hai Di. If that is the case, Hai Di would have known when I rescued you from him. Yet, he never came for me.”

”I see. Interesting. I will indeed study this fascinating specimen... Oh, by the way, I am done with the preparation for the alteration you requested. Do you want to begin the process?”

”... Hold it off for a few more days. There is something I need to take care of first.”