Rise of The Demon General

The colossal explosion took everyone aback. Half the population inside the capital died instantly, along with the altered beasts that happened to be within the blast zone. The two armies battling outside the capital stopped fighting and stared at the massive dust cloud rising high into the sky.

They were sure the explosion was caused by one of the domain lords. The question was, which one? Who dispensed it and who was on the receiving end? The answer would determine which side should flee.

The answer came in the form of an inhuman wail. The Yukona let out a shrill cry as it clawed her body. It was under incredible pain.

Seeing this, Xin Rong, who commanded the Devotion Faction’s army, shouted, ”Lord Hai Di has slain Lang Man. Victory is ours!!!”

The Commitment Faction members found this hard to believe. Everyone knew that Lang Man was immortal. His special constitution and Law of Survival rendered him unkillable. Even if he couldn’t defeat an opponent, the opponent would still be unable to kill him. There must have been a mistake!

But the Yukona’s wail forced them to accept the undeniable truth. What the Yukona experienced was the abrupt removal of her mental link with its master. It was proof that Lang Man had died!

Xin Rong didn’t let this chance go to waste. The Yukona had suffered severe mental damage. It had lost all abilities to protect itself. Xin Rong lunged forward using a movement art. A wind explosion threw her forward. She swung her weapon, a long glaive. Sharp, swirling winds followed her swing.

She shot past the Yukona, and the spirit beast split into multiple pieces, along with several Commitment Faction members who happened to be in the vicinity.

This abrupt attack served as a second blow to the morale of the Commitment Faction’s army. They finally accepted that their side had lost, and it was time to run. Du Ji, the dictator of the Commitment Faction, tried futilely to rally his followers, but his cry fell on deaf ears. The army of the Commitment Faction split up and fled in different directions.

Du Ji himself was forced to escape when Xin Rong came at him with many strong cultivators.

While the two armies confirmed the victor between them, Hai Di remained floating above the place that used to be Lang Man’s castle. It was nothing but a massive crater with a deep hole at its center.

Hai Di also heard the Yukona’s wail. He, too, believed he had killed his opponent, but he remained on the spot as he sent his cultivation sense deep into the hole in the ground. He didn’t sense any life inside. The detonation of his domain art must have been destructive enough to completely obliterate Lang Man’s body, leaving no remains he could regenerate from.

Hai Di remained there for several minutes, just to be sure. A smile slowly crept on his face.

”Hehe... Haha... HAHAHA...!!” His laughter grew louder with each second until it echoed through the sky. Those who heard it thought for a second that he had gone mad.

”Hahaha! Unkillable? There is no man I, Hai Di, cannot kill! From now on, the lower world knows only two domain lords! But that will also soon change! When this conquest is over, I will be the sole domain lord...! No, I will be the new ruler of this world!!! Hahaha...!”

His faction members made a rallying cry following his declaration. They celebrated this victory by chasing after the fleeing soldiers and raiding what was left of the enemy’s capital.

*

Deep under Fractured Heart City was a large and complex series of catacombs. They were built by a domain lord who was Lang Man’s predecessor, but had been abandoned for a long time. Everyone had forgotten about its existence. It was now mostly home to underground spirit beasts.

Earlier, a massive earthquake had happened. It destroyed a large portion of the catacombs. The ceiling collapsed and buried almost everything. Many spirit beasts that made these catacombs their home had died in the process.

One such spirit beast was a faceless lizard. It was a higher superior beast that resembled a giant lizard, but without eyes or a nose. Its interaction with its environment relied entirely on its hearing. It had been shocked by the earthquake just now, but was lucky enough to be outside the affected zone. It was now carefully approaching the collapsed part, which used to be its home.

As it moved, it heard something that attracted its attention. A rhythmic thumping and a wriggling sound. It was something tiny. Something that might be a delicious prey. Hence, it moved toward it.

What it was approaching was a small lump of flesh. Tiny vines grew from it. They writhed around like fish out of water. When the faceless lizard approached, the vines wriggled even more vigorously. Yet, its intensified wriggling was not due to fear. It was due to excitement. The excitement of a predator awaiting the approach of an unsuspecting prey.

When the faceless lizard almost arrived near the wriggling lump of flesh, a light flashed past the lizard’s neck. Its head fell off. The vines from the lump of flesh stopped wriggling. The sudden turn of events had taken it aback.

”That was close. Luckily, I find you in time.”

The flesh with vines was startled by the voice. In its current form, it couldn’t see its surroundings. It could hear the voice, though, even when its ears were gone. It deciphered the voice from the sound vibration. It retained its sensing ability, though weaker. From the aura, it identified the speaker. It was someone it had met during the last Lord’s meeting. The speaker was a slayer who came with Yao Ai. It tried to recall the person’s name. It came to him soon. The speaker’s name was Amon.

”Almost everyone believed that the regeneration ability of your special constitution is limitless. Even you yourself believe that, at least until ninety years ago. Isn’t that so, Lord Lang Man?”

The flesh with vines, or Lang Man, was surprised on multiple levels. The first was that Amon recognized him even in his current state, the second was that he discovered him here despite all the mess, the third was that Amon sounded like he was looking for him on purpose, and the most surprising thing of all was that Amon knew the significance of the incident ninety years ago.

”I was up there in the city a while ago. I saw your battle with Lord Hai Di. Everyone believes you have died. Your trick of severing your mental link with your tamed beast is shrewd, though brutal. You sacrificed it to mislead Hai Di, so he didn’t chase after you down here. You did that because your regeneration ability has been severely overused. Even an immortal like you fears death.

”Thankfully, I know about these catacombs. From the spot Hai Di had sent you underground, I estimate where you most likely are in these catacombs. I hurried here. I’m glad I was right.”

Lang Man used the vines to try moving away, but a knife stabbed into the ground before him, blocking his way.

”It’s rude to leave when one is talking,” Amon said. ”As I said, your special constitution, combined with your Law of Survival, makes you practically unkillable. You can recover from any wound, even when you have only a tiny piece left. However, it is not truly without ends. You discovered this the hard way ninety years ago, when you brazenly challenged a Lower Deity Beast.

”I learned about the battle from Yao Ai’s intel. However, that battle was not a secret. Most people had heard of it. What was fascinating about that battle was that while everyone knew you had won, you went missing for a whole month. At the battle site, there was only the deity beast’s corpse. You are nowhere to be found. Even your wives didn’t know your whereabouts during that one month. Such an incident had never happened before. Everyone thought you were dead, only for you to appear one month later. You acted like nothing was wrong. You brushed away everyone who asked you about that period.

”That piqued my curiosity, so I went to the site where you had battled the lower deity beast. I questioned the people who live nearby. It took me some time, but I picked up an interesting tale happening around that period. It sounded unrelated, but I know it was not the case. The tale mentioned that a region near the battle site experienced a sudden decline in the population of spirit beasts.

”Do you know what I think when I heard that? Maybe Lord Lang Man won the battle, but at the cost of almost losing his life. Perhaps his wound was so severe that his regeneration ability was exhausted. Probably, he recharged his regeneration power by slowly consuming other lives. That would explain the spirit beast’s population decline.

”Isn’t that what you are trying to do just now, Lord Lang Man? You tried to consume that poor lizard before I interfered, didn’t you?”

Lang Man tried to move away again. This time, a dagger stabbed into him, impaling him to the ground.

”Sorry, Lord Lang Man. You won’t be as lucky as ninety years ago this time.”