Rise of The Demon General

Xin Rong was baffled to find Amon’s strength nearly matched hers. He was a full one cultivation level below her, not to mention at a lower realm. How could he manifest such strength?

Amon always had a stronger physique than other cultivators. Moreover, he had used the body-strengthening meridian points technique before intercepting Xin Rong’s army. His strength now was way above that of a regular Mammoth Stage cultivator.

While Amon’s strength surprised Xin Rong, she noticed another detail that shocked her. Amon’s weapon, which looked like a broken sword, had its blade sunk a little into the blade of her glaive. She channeled her Overlord energy to protect the glaive. For Amon’s weapon to cut into her glaive like this could only mean one thing. Amon’s weapon was of a much higher grade than hers.

Her shock diverted her attention, almost causing her not to notice an assault coming from her right.

She dodged to the left, away from the hidden assault, which turned out to be the stinger of a tail extending from behind Amon. Amon’s assault, however, didn’t stop there. Her abrupt dodge only served to bring her into Amon’s next combo. His foot struck the side of her head and sent her reeling.

The sight astounded those who watched. Everyone was aware of the gap between the two combatants’ cultivation. They all expected Xin Rong to make short work of Amon. Yet, it was Amon who scored the first strike.

None was more surprised than Diu Cay. Xin Rong had the same cultivation level as he did. Amon was only half a stage lower than when they had a confrontation before the Lords’ meeting. A confrontation that ended with the loss of Amon’s pet, while his was severely wounded. They didn’t truly clash, then. But from the looks of the current battle, if they did, Amon wouldn’t be as helpless as he thought he would be.

Xin Rong gritted her teeth. Her entire troop was watching this fight. She couldn’t afford to lose to an opponent with cultivation much lower than hers. She would lose her troop’s respect if she did.

She used the shame she felt to drive her rage. With an angry yell, she swung her glaive. Torrents of sharp wind followed her swing. They could shred anything in their path.

Amon countered using White Slash. Flashes of sword lights clashed with torrents of wind. This time, the winner didn’t surprise anyone. The white flashes broke apart after colliding with the sharp winds, which continued to blow towards Amon.

Everyone understood then that Amon’s successful first strike was only a fluke because Xin Rong had underestimated her opponent, which caused her to become careless.

Though Amon lost in the contest between their martial arts, Xin Rong’s art failed to hit Amon. He was already gone by the time the sharp wind arrived. He turned into a flash of light. Not only that, but countless sword lights also followed wherever he zoomed to. These sword lights ground away at the sharp winds blowing around Xin Rong as he moved closer to her with each flash.

”Don’t think that you can touch me!” Xin Rong exclaimed. Her glaive moved in one circle, conjuring a ring of green light. The speed of the ring was fast enough to catch Amon’s flashes. The contact broke his art, sending him tumbling.

Despite losing the exchange, Amon laughed. ”As expected of an Intermediate Overlord Stage cultivator, defeating you won’t be so easy.”

”Defeating me? You shouldn’t aim for an impossible goal,” Xin Rong scoffed.

”Impossible? Hehe. We will see.” Amon’s voice became hoarser during his speech. His voice wasn’t the only thing changing. A thick shadow suit materialized, cloaking his entire body and giving him a new facade. The shadow suit formed a gigantic humanoid with eight tentacles for wings and a pair of long horns on its crown.

”You are not the only one who can transform!” Xin Rong exclaimed. Her features changed. Fur grew all over her exposed skin. The fur was a mixture of green and black. Her arms and legs slightly elongated as her face became feline-like.

This was her transformation art, Nightmare Cat. She only used this transformation art in a pinch because she disliked its ugly appearance. She was not yet in a pinch, but she must end this fight as soon as possible. Otherwise, her soldiers would lose respect for her.

An explosion of winds erupted behind her, and she turned into a black flash. The Nightmare Cat transformation art gave her incredible speed. Combined with her wind-element movement art, she was almost imperceptible when she moved.

She moved nonstop. Black flashes crisscrossed around Amon. Gusts of sharp wind followed each flash. They tore the shadow suit protecting Amon.

Xin Rong was astounded again. Amon’s shadow suit was very dense and sturdy. Her sharp winds were as if trying to slash into a compact sponge that appeared impenetrable. She could tear through chunks of its outer layer, but she could not reach the inner layer it was protecting.

’He... He can’t possess a cultivation law, can he?’ Xin Rong thought. That was the only explanation for Amon to strengthen his arcane art to this extent. While her guess was mostly correct, it was not the only reason. Amon’s Elder God Veil was also created using the fused aether in his mixed energy space. It was much more powerful than if he had used regular aether.

Xin Rong’s enhanced speed slowed a little upon the revelation. Amon struck then. An intense and blinding light shone from his right hand. Xin Rong winced from the light.

The light of Broken Justice wasn’t strong enough to blind Xin Rong, but it was enough to distract her. Amon threw the shining Broken Justice forward. At the same time, the eight tentacles on his back stretched and lashed at her. Their ends turned into hooking claws.

The shining light disrupted not only Xin Rong’s visions but also her cultivation sense. However, the disruption was not strong enough. She could still roughly sense the incoming attacks. Her glaive turned into a blur as it deflected all the hooked tentacles and the glowing blade.

Too bad for her, Amon had already foreseen her reaction. He controlled the deflected Broken Justice using the Xian Chain. Instead of flying away, the Broken Justice slipped in between Xin Rong’s glaive and her arm. The momentum caused the Xian Chain to wrap around her left arm.

”Ugh! Let go!” Xin Rong exclaimed. She slashed her glaive at the chain. To her surprise, she failed to cut through it. She didn’t even feel that she had caused a nick.

Amon pulled. With the Xian Chain holding Xin Rong tethered, her enhanced speed became useless.

Xin Rong retaliated by pulling back. She was stronger, so Amon couldn’t pull her towards him. All the while, she never stopped slashing the chain to free herself, but it was futile. Her repeated slash didn’t even cause a scratch.

Due to her frantic slashing, she was late to notice the darkness that crept through the chain. Before she knew it, the darkness had covered the part of her arm bound by the chain. She could feel her arm being eroded.

”Ugh!” She channeled her aether to fight the eroding power. She succeeded at first due to her higher cultivation, but the darkness persisted. She had to continue to focus her energy to prevent the darkness from intruding, like holding a barricade from an angry mob. If she eased even a little, the mob would break through. Such a brute method not only wasted a lot of energy but was also ineffective.

To make it worse, Amon didn’t seem to need the same level of concentration to keep up the pressure. The hooked tentacles on his back continued to lash at her. She was forced to use only one hand to swing her glaive and parry those tentacles.

After some time, her concentration finally wavered, and the darkness ate at her arm. She watched in horror as the darkness spread further. It was about to reach her shoulder.

With a desperate scream, she swung her glaive, cutting her left arm and freeing herself from the chain. Blood gushed out of her stump like a broken fountain. She hurriedly used the meridian points technique to stop the bleeding.

”Hah...! Hah...!” She panted.

Those who watched were shocked into silence. Not only did Xin Rong fail to defeat Amon in a short time, but Amon was winning instead, and he didn’t seem to have much trouble doing it.

”You... Do you have a cultivation law?” Xin Rong asked. She could no longer deny the fact.

”Yes. I possess the Law of Darkness.” Amon didn’t try to hide it. The crowd gasped at his admission.

Diu Cay turned to Yao Ai and asked, ”My Lady, is he telling the truth?”

”Isn’t what you witness proof enough?” Yao Ai asked in return. ”Why do you need my confirmation when the evidence is right before your eyes?”

Xin Rong was shaken by this revelation. She had been too careless. If she had treated Amon like a worthy opponent and taken the time to gauge his ability, she wouldn’t have suffered as she did. It was too late. She had lost an arm, a lot of blood, and expended a great deal of energy.