Rise of The Demon General

Inside Dao Su’s workshop, he was busy tinkering with a large, cylindrical tank containing strange, bluish liquid. The tank had half its covering made of transparent glass, so one could see its contents. Floating inside the blue liquid was a bizarre creature that resembled a combination of several different spirit beasts.

”Not bad, but it is child’s play compared to what our expert flesh alterers can create,” said Yeresdyx, who entered the room not long ago.

Dao Su turned and hissed at her. ”You take that back! No one is better than me in terms of flesh altering!”

”I’m just telling you my opinion. Your expertise in altering humans might be unparalleled, but you lack the experience in altering spirit beasts, especially when it comes to combining more than two beasts into one body.”

”No one asked for your opinion. What do you want coming here, anyway?”

”I have completed this mixture you requested of me.” Yeresdyx showed Dao Su a tube filled with gelatinous substance.

Dao Su’s expression changed upon seeing it. He took the tube off Yeresdyx’s hand.

”Why, look at this beauty! I’m going to work wonders with this. Hehe. You work fast. I didn’t expect you to complete it so quickly.”

”I have a lot of free time. I need more things to do. Do you still have anything that needs concocting?”

”How about you let me study your body...?”

”Hands off!” Yeresdyx slapped Dao Su’s hand that approached her.

”Come on. Just let me run some tests on you. I have always wanted to create a fully altered creature. Your kind is the only successful result from the method. I need to understand how your race came to be.”

”I have already told you all the history that I know of my race. I’m not letting you play with my body.”

”Tch! Then at least show me some of the secret methods left behind by the flesh alterer who created you.”

”I don’t know. I didn’t study flesh-altering much. I specialize in pill making.”

Amon’s voice interrupted them. He stood behind them. ”I can’t tell if you two are good friends or simply like to bicker.”

”Boss,” Yeresdyx greeted.

Dao Su was less courteous. ”Bloody hell! Why do you always show up like a ghost? We didn’t hear your footsteps or sense your aura. Yeresdyx, did you notice when he approached?”

”No,” Yeresdyx answered. He then gave some pills to Amon. ”These are your requests. Do you have any other pills that need making?”

Amon chuckled. ”Your productivity can rival a small workshop filled with pill masters. No. It will be some time before I need another Mammoth Pill, and I don’t have more aetherium fruits for now. It will take some time before the tree bears more fruit. You are free to make what you want for now. If you need ingredients, just tell me.”

One of the pills Yeresdyx handed to Amon was a Mammoth Pill. It was a pill that helped an infernal cultivator break into the Mammoth Stage. After stealing the elemental energies from various ley nodes, Amon had hit the limit of his Peak Supreme Stage. At this level, he no longer had the no-chokepoint benefit from the Poison Blood Infusion Method. He now experienced cultivation chokepoints like any other cultivator.

During the time at the ancient battleground, he had no problem breaking through the chokepoints within the Supreme Stages without help from any pill. This time, however, he could feel the chokepoint was harder to break through. It was because the chokepoint was between the Supreme and Mammoth Stages. Hence, he opted to get the help of a pill before he tried breaking through. Otherwise, if he failed, he might need to wait several days or even weeks before attempting another try.

The rest of Yeresdyx’s pills were the Heirloom Pills, similar to the Inheritance Pills Amon took from Huang San, only more potent. The Inheritance Pill was only effective for cultivators below the Lord Stage. The Heirloom Pill worked for cultivators until they reached the Divine Realm.

A Heirloom Pill could be consumed four times a year, unlike Aetherium Fruits, which could only be consumed once a year. Furthermore, consuming a Heirloom Pill wouldn’t limit the consumption of Aetherium Fruits. Amon could eat the pill and the fruit together, and the energy they produced wouldn’t clash with one another. This meant he could receive a significant boost five times in a year simply by consuming the Heirloom Pills and the Aetherium Fruit.

Regularly consuming the pills had already shown results. His divine cultivation had increased to the Peak Lord Stage.

”Look. If you can’t think of any pills you wish to make, you can try making this,” Amon said after Yeresdyx showed a forlorn expression. After spending more time with her, he could better read a Hyanid’s facial expressions.

While Yeresdyx showed unnatural diligence, she lacked the inspiration to create new things. Amon handed her a paper containing a recipe.

”What’s this?” She asked. Her voice sounded excited. The formula on the paper was unlike what she used to work with.

”It’s a pellet that explodes upon heavy impact, releasing its content within. Use this to make its content.”

Amon gave her several vials. ”Be careful. Their content is highly poisonous. Handle them with care.”

The vial contained his Void Volatile Poison. What he wanted Yeresdyx to make was poison pellets. After his poison grew in lethality, his pill master expertise was not enough to create a pellet good enough to contain the poison. Now that he had a master-level pill master, it would be a waste not to make use of her.

”This is an old formula that I used on a weaker poison. You will need to modify it for this poison I give you. Do you think you can do it?”

”I will give it a try,” Yeresdyx answered. She stored the vials and rushed away, eager to begin working.

”Look at her, like a kid who gets a new toy,” Dao Su remarked.

”You are one to talk. How about this new toy of yours?” Amon said as he studied the bizarre creature inside the tank. He was familiar with the two large blades attached to the creature’s right arm. ”I see you used a part of the Primeval Scortaur.”

”Of course. It will be a waste to dispose of a Lower Primordial Beast without fully utilizing it. That pair of blades is a remnant of the Scortaur’s scythes. I also extracted the accelerated regeneration gene that it used on its decoy human-looking part. Its regenerative efficiency is less effective when used on functional tissues, but I added an accelerant to augment it, so this beast should have a somewhat good healing factor. The rest of the parts are from beasts you defeated during these past two years.”

”When will it be operational?”

Dao Su laughed. ”This is an experiment. Although I have made mash-up beasts before when working for Hai Di, this is the first time I have actually done it out of interest. It’s quite interesting, really. I guess I hated it at the time because I was forced to do it. Well, anyway. I don’t think I will succeed on the first try. Unlike the past, I used a living human as the base for this creature. The result will most likely be an uncontrollable rabid beast.”

”How strong do you think this creature will be?”

Dao Su shrugged. ”For sure, much stronger than the beasts I used to build it with.”

”Good. If it is strong, I might decide to make it my tamed beast. The Sun Ray Hawk cannot keep up with my progress.”

”Did you not hear what I said? I expect this to fail. Also, I have never heard anyone taming a beast made from flesh-altering. The Sun Ray Hawk was a success because it was already mentally linked with you from the start. I doubt you can perform a mental link process with a spirit beast with a broken mind.”

”I still like to try. Call me when you let it out for a trial test.”

Dao Su shrugged again. ”Sure. I certainly don’t want to be the only one in the room when that happens.”

”What about Bo Wu? Have you done cleansing it?” Amon asked.

”It takes many years, but yes, it is finally done,” Dao Su answered. He walked to a nearby table while resuming his speech. ”As I have told you before, after interacting and studying it all this time, I learned that there are two souls inside Bo Wu. The original one is the hell beast’s soul. The other is a partial soul that hitched a ride. It is this partial soul that supposedly has a soul link with Hai Di. My guess is the partial soul came from Hai Di’s tamed beast.”

”There is a spirit beast that can implant its partial soul like that?” Amon asked.

”I can’t tell, but there are many spirit beasts with abilities we aren’t aware of. Perhaps Hai Di possesses one such beast.”

”Mm...” In the reports inside Yao Ai’s data crystal, it was mentioned that Hai Di managed to tame a powerful beast around a century ago. No details had been obtained about this spirit beast, because Hai Di never showed it to the public.

”Anyway, I have managed to slowly grind the hitch-hiking partial soul away. The soul that remains inside this jewel is now purely the hell beast’s alone.” Dao Su took out a jewel from inside a sealed container. Bo Wu’s voice was immediately heard.

”Hiya, partner! It’s good to see you again. You should take me out more often... Hey! It’s my old mate, good old Amon! How are you doing?”

”You sound more cheerful than the last time we spoke,” Amon said.

”Well, thanks to our friend Dao Su here, I can finally be myself. Say, it is truly inconvenient to be without a body. Isn’t it time to give me one, eh, mate? Hehe.”