Rise of The Demon General

”Mother, I have to leave!”

The sentence from Di Ying finally pulled Di Yu out of her unchecked rampage. By then, Mo Wang’s castle had become ruins. Any splendor it possessed before was gone.

”Ying Er, what are you saying?” Thien Huo asked. ”You have just been reunited with your mother. How can you leave?”

”Uncle, you should know the reason...,” Di Ying replied weakly.

Thien Huo growled. ”It is that Amon, isn’t it? Curse him! Where is he? I will tear him to pieces!!”

”And what do you think that will do to Ying Er?” Di Yu roared. ”She will be crippled for the rest of her life! How do you let this happen? I entrusted her to you! How can you let a human enslave her...?!”

Thien Huo lowered his head. There was not a day that passed that he did not regret not slaying Amon the second he laid eyes on him. His hubris of looking down on a weak human, that Amon would never be able to harm them even if he wished to, had cost him deeply.

Di Yu continued to scold him, and he let her.

”Mother, stop it. This is all my fault, not uncle’s,” Di Ying pleaded. ”I am too trusting... I should have listened to uncle’s words more.”

Di Yu’s heart softened after hearing that. ”My child... Oh, my child... It was also my fault... If I hadn’t been careless and captured, I would have been by your side, protecting you. None of this would have happened... It’s that Mo Wang’s fault! I will never forgive him! I swear I will rip his heart out to pay for all the sufferings he has caused me!!”

”Mo Wang and Amon, those two accursed humans have wronged us,” Thien Huo growled. ”I will never stop hunting them.”

”Leave Amon alone,” Di Yu commanded. ”We can’t do anything to him, at least not until he releases his dominion over Ying Er.”

”He will never do that!” Thien Huo exclaimed. ”A human’s greed is irredeemable. Once they believe they own something, they will never let it go.”

”I have a deal with him,” Di Yu said. ”I will come to his call for aid three times. After I fulfil this condition, he will let Ying Er go.”

”Don’t be deceived. He will never keep that promise!”

”If he doesn’t, I will call for the council of dragons. Then, he will learn the hard way that wronging a noble dragon carries a significant consequence.”

Thien Huo didn’t comment. He doubted the other noble dragons would take it kindly if they called for the council for a personal issue that had nothing to do with their survival. Then again, having a noble dragon enslaved by a human was something that had never happened before. Perhaps this hurt their pride enough to motivate them to act.

Nevertheless, doing that would be bad for Di Ying in the long run, because the other noble dragons would forever be aware of her tarnish as having once been a human’s slave. She would forever be looked down upon. Thien Huo believed Di Yu was aware of this. That’s why she was willing to gamble on Amon’s promise and leave the council-calling for a last resort.

”I... I must go now, mother... Or, he says he will punish me,” Di Ying told the two.

This statement angered them, but they couldn’t do anything about it.

”I will come with you,” Di Yu announced.

Di Ying shook her head. ”He forbids it. He said you should stay away from us until he calls for you.”

Di Yu gritted his teeth. Thien Huo cursed Amon again, ”Blasted that human! How heartless can he be?”

Di Yu restrained her anger and exhaled a long sigh. She approached her daughter. She placed her head beside hers. Her serpentine body coiled around her daughter in an embrace.

”I’m sorry we have to part again when we have just been reunited... I promise we will be together again someday. Stay strong, my daughter.”

”I will... You must take care of yourself, too, mother.”

After a long moment, the two finally let go of one another. Di Ying looked at her uncle and said, ”Please take care also, uncle. I’m sorry for all the trouble I have caused you. Thank you for everything.”

Thien Huo was lost for words. All he could do was nod.

Di Ying turned and flew away. Di Yu and Thien Huo watched her leave with untold sadness in their hearts.

After she disappeared from their sight, Thien Huo asked, ”What are you going to do now?”

”I can do nothing to Amon for now, but Mo Wang is a different case. I’m going to hunt him down!”

”I will help you, but you must follow my lead,” Thien Huo said. ”We can only look for him if we disguise ourselves as humans. You have been confined for too long. The human world has changed much. You will make mistakes if you are not careful.”

This time, it was Di Yu who nodded without uttering a word.

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

Time continued to pass.

Mo Wang was in hiding, not from Di Yu, but from someone more troubling. He expected the Divine to come after Di Yu was released. Yet, there was no news of an incursion whatsoever. The last time the Divine came, he made a ruckus the instant he entered the realm.

Mo Wang surmised it was perhaps due to timing. It was close to the Purge. The Purge was an important event for the upper world, even more so than the lower world, which was roped in against its will. Perhaps the Divine didn’t want to jeopardize this event. The guy was a stickler for plans and order, after all. He would probably only make his move after the Purge was over.

In any case, Mo Wang believed he still had a few years left to construct a secure hiding place that could hide him, at least until he reached the True Devil Realm and got used to its power. Hence, he cut contact with everyone.

As for the three factions, they were oblivious to what had happened. They did receive reports about a disturbance inside Mo Wang’s territory. When they went to check, they were shocked to discover that Mo Wang’s castle had become a ruin, and the realm ruler was nowhere to be found. Many believed Mo Wang had encountered a disaster and maybe had passed away. No one could prove for sure.

This belief further motivated the three domain lords to continue their endless conflicts. Any of them who came out victorious over this war would become the new realm ruler.

Six years after Mo Wang’s castle was decimated, the war appeared to be approaching its climax, particularly in terms of the conflict between the Devotion and Commitment Factions. Due to the Mercy Faction’s disruption from the South, the Commitment Faction was forced to split its forces. It was unable to withstand the full might of the Devotion Faction once Hai Di made up his mind to go all out in the war.

The Devotion Faction’s force continued to invade the Commitment Domain. After many years of war, they had occupied almost one-third of the enemy territory and were deep enough to be at the doorstep of the Commitment Faction’s capital, Fracture Heart City.

Hai Di himself led his force as they approached this capital. The two forces engaged one another in a pivotal battle that might end this long war.

”Brother Hai Di, you are still as fierce as I remember,” Lang Man uttered.

He was fighting Hai Di high in the sky while their armies battled on the ground and at lower altitudes. Hai Di was using the Elder God Tentacles. The tentacles with their branches surrounded Lang Man. They covered all his escape paths. Nevertheless, Lang Man didn’t appear perturbed.

He waited until the tentacles almost reached him before releasing his power. Stardust spread everywhere. They touched the dark tentacles, and they were all frozen solid. They then shattered into tiny dust.

He had prepared a counterattack when he froze the dark tentacles. A crystalized ice with jagged edges materialized in his right hand. One of the jagged edges abruptly enlarged and elongated, turning into a gigantic crystal sword. He swung this giant sword down at Hai Di.

The crystal sword sliced into Hai Di, splitting him in two. No blood was spilt, and no scream was heard. Hai Di, who had been cleaved, turned into dark shadows.

”Shadow clone?” Lang Man uttered. He sensed Hai Di channeling energy on his flank.

Dark rings took shape before Hai Di’s hand. He pushed his hand forward. The rings acted like a spring. They sprang forward. A lean dark javelin shot through the center of these rings.

Lang Man couldn’t dodge this swift and sudden assault. He used the crystal sword in his hand to block. The javelin punched into the thick crystal and flattened into a dot. On the surface, it was as if the dark javelin was not strong enough against the crystal sword. However, Lang Man knew it was not the case.

He felt the crystal sword in his hand becoming heavy. He couldn’t move the sword. The energy from the dark dot blocked by his sword also didn’t weaken. He let go of the sword and flew away, just as the dark dot bore through the crystal sword. The dot turned back into a javelin and continued its advance. The rest of the crystal sword slowly eroded into nothingness.

Lang Man watched the dark javelin fly away. He turned to Hai Di and said, ”Your black spear is also still as fearsome as I remember.”