Rise of The Demon General

”This is our chance! Now...!!” Amon exclaimed.

Di Ying and Yao Ai advanced upon the signal. Mo Wang was locked in an energy contest with Di Yu that he could not discard. Meanwhile, Krassazh was impeding Mo Wang’s physical body, while Lin Li disrupted his mind. Mo Wang was, for all intents and purposes, constrained.

Originally, Amon planned to take the role of the attacker once Krassazh and Lin Li held Mo Wang down. He couldn’t rely on Yao Ai because she might hold back, considering her past allegiance. However, since Di Ying had voluntarily shown up, he let her take the risky role. He stayed back and watched from a safe distance.

Di Ying didn’t consider the risk. Even if she were aware, she would still take it. If she could disrupt Mo Wang enough, her mother would come out on top of the energy contest. Her mother’s black beam would do the rest.

She opened her mouth once she got into range. A beam of pure energy poured from that mouth and rushed toward Mo Wang.

Unfortunately, the Void Warp from Mo Wang’s defensive talisman was still active. Like Krassazh’s Polar Gravity, the beam slowed down to a crawl once it got near Mo Wang. No matter how she willed it to advance, her breath attack couldn’t reach Mo Wang.

Frustrated, Di Ying ended her beam and opted for close-range melee. She charged at Mo Wang, who appeared to still be in a trance. Yao Ai advanced beside her. She didn’t charge ahead of the dragon because she wasn’t motivated to kill Mo Wang. Di Ying’s claws were about to crush Mo Wang. However, when she was near, she understood then why her breath attack couldn’t hit him.

It was as if an infinite space was between Mo Wang and his surroundings. He was so near, yet Di Ying perceived an unfathomable distance between her and her prey. Even if she used her fastest speed, she didn’t believe she could arrive where Mo Wang was. Yao Ai experienced the same situation.

Amon saw the predicament. They must break through Mo Wang’s Void Warp. He didn’t believe the talisman’s effect lasted for long, but so did Lin Li’s hallucination effect. Someone of Mo Wang’s caliber could break free at any time. He wasn’t willing to bet whether the Void Warp ended first or Lin Li’s hallucination was dispelled first. He was about to advance when he sensed a familiar presence.

”What? Not now! Why do you come at this time...?!”

He zoomed away just as a ray of light shot past where he had been an instant ago. The ray of light stopped and took shape. Its shape was a woman with large butterfly wings. Her face was smooth with no features except for a mouth. That mouth was grinning.

”I came to finish what I failed to do the last time,” Yuka uttered.

”Bastard! Can’t you pick another time?” Amon asked.

”This is the worst time for you, but a perfect time for me,” Yuka exclaimed. She then advanced.

Amon flew away. Yuka was a Higher Primordial Beast that could rival an Overlord Stage cultivator. Amon was at the Intermediate Mammoth Stage. His refined constitution, arts, cultivation law, and special weaponry bestowed him the power to contest with Overlord Stage cultivators, but to win against one was still risky.

Yuka chased after Amon.

”Brother!” Lin Li noticed what was going on. Her worry caused her to lose her concentration. Her hallucination power waned. This allowed Mo Wang to break free from the illusion that clouded his mind.

Mo Wang was disoriented after regaining his mental faculties, but he quickly comprehended the situation. His lightning spear was on the verge of being blasted away by Di Yu’s black beam, and the Void Warp that stopped Krassazh, Di Ying, and Yao Ai was about to end.

”Tch! Troublesome pests!” Mo Wang cursed.

He teleported away. This made him lose control of his Calamity Lightning Spear, which meant letting go of the chance to defeat Di Yu, but he decided it couldn’t be helped. With these four disrupting him, he would be the one who suffered if he insisted. Hence, he took the loss.

The moment he did, the Calamity Lightning Spear lost the fuel it needed to maintain its power. Di Yu’s black beam engulfed it and continued forward. Mo Wang was no longer in his original spot.

Mo Wang had shut down the Void Warp before teleporting away. Otherwise, his teleporting range would also be affected by the Void Warp. Thanks to that, Di Ying and Yao Ai were no longer trapped. They moved away before Di Yu’s black breath arrived.

Mo Wang reappeared above Lin Li. ”You have forced me to re-experience one of my most dreaded memories. I don’t appreciate that.”

Mo Wang struck his palm downward. His speed was faster than Lin Li could anticipate. A gravity shield appeared between the palm and Lin Li. The gravity shield couldn’t withstand the palm strike. It shattered upon impact, causing an explosive force. The force of the blow sent Lin Li hurtling downward. She crashed into the ground below.

Mo Wang turned to Krassazh, who was responsible for the gravity shield. He didn’t have the time to punish the Hyanid because heavy pressure bore down on him.

”Mo Wang...! Your opponent is me!!” Di Yu was charging over.

”Tch!” Mo Wang teleported away before the black dragon arrived.

Krassazh used this chance to move to a safe distance. As for Di Ying, she followed her mother and chased Mo Wang.

*

Far below on the ground, Lin Li came out of the large crater she created when she fell. Her body hurt all over, and she was bleeding in some parts, but her injury wasn’t grave.

She survived Mo Wang’s palm strike thanks to Krassazh’s interference. The gravity shield had a special property that released a pushing force when it shattered. This prevented the shielded object from getting hit directly by the assault that shattered the gravity shield.

Krassazh saved Lin Li because he believed her ability to generate hallucinations was crucial to defeating Mo Wang. Unfortunately, Lin Li had a different plan. She rushed to where Amon had gone.

*

Not far away, Thien Huo was still fighting Ling Dau. Three out of his seven heads were gone. Two were physically torn. As for the third, it was burned to dust by Thien Huo’s fire breath.

”Give it up,” Thien Huo said. ”You can’t win against my awakened form. The reason you have survived till now is due to your Law of Shadows.”

Ling Dau had used his shadow-merging form repeatedly when Thien Huo attacked. In shadow form, he was almost impervious to physical damage. Unfortunately, Thien Huo’s assaults were always accompanied by strong fire. The fire burned Ling Dau’s shadows and forced him to materialize sooner than he wanted to.

”Give up...?” Ling Dau asked. Bitterness was clear in his voice. ”You mean letting the insufferable noble dragons like you look down on me forever? To lie down and accept this contemptible fate? Never!! I prefer to die over accepting this fate...!”

”... That’s a pity,” Thien Huo uttered. ”I see you have no desire to redeem yourself. In that case, I have no choice but to take you down.”

”Hehe... Hehehe.”

”What’s so funny?” Thien Huo asked. He was confused about why Ling Dau laughed. Could it be that he couldn’t accept his defeat, that his mind broke?

”With your power, you could have slain me earlier, but you didn’t. Instead, you pulled your punches and tried to talk me into submitting, as if you were doing me a favor.”

”... I simply think that it is a pity to lose a noble dragon as powerful as you. There are not many of us left anymore.”

”Thanks to your misguided kindness, or arrogance, if I put it correctly, you will instead doom your kind.”

”You are also my kind,” Thien Huo reminded.

”I have denounced being a noble dragon. No, I was forced to by our elder, in case you forgot. Since the day I was chased away, I was no longer a noble dragon. I am a cursed dragon! And my curse will bring down all the noble dragons, and you will regret it for handing me the means to achieve this goal.”

Thien Huo frowned. ”What do you mean? Why would I regret anything?”

Ling Dau laughed. ”Hahaha! Do you forget that aside from the Law of Shadows, I have one other law?”

”What are you talking about?”

”My Law of Understanding lets me understand not only the memories of an object I touch, but also the essence of it. How many times have you touched me while you are in your awakened form?”

A terrible realization came to Thien Huo. ”You don’t mean...”

”You are right. For a noble dragon to gain the Dragon Awakening ability, I need much experience that comes with age. Thankfully, I have glimpsed that experience using my Law of Understanding. Not only that, but I have also gained a better understanding of how the ability works. Perhaps, even more so than you...”

A transformation occurred on Ling Dau as he spoke. His body shivered as his muscles bulged. His scales stood and lengthened. Silvery fumes were sprayed from the opened scales. The silvery smoke gathered and formed a cloud-like ribbon. This flowing ribbon wrapped around his necks and floated behind his back in the shape of a ring.

He never stopped laughing during the transformation.

”Hahaha! Thank you, senior, for teaching me this wonderful ability!”