Rise of The Demon General

The five hundred cultivators at Mount Kallash weren’t aware of what had happened to their comrades who had gone to the West. The ambush had happened too quickly. No one had the chance or the thought to use a message talisman to inform others about the ambush.

They were loitering near the aether absorption machine, lamenting their bad luck for having drawn the short straws. Their friends were out there, enjoying a hunt, but they were forced to sit here, guarding the machine.

”Guard it from what?” One of the upper world cultivators asked. He sat with his friends not far from the machine. They chatted to pass the time. ”Who can come here? All the surface worlders are weaklings.”

”That’s right,” his friend agreed. ”Even if we need someone to guard it. One person is enough. Why do we need so many? We should all go out there so we can finish this hunt faster.”

”Come on now. Do you two forget that it is not just us who participate in this purge? There are people from the lower world as well.”

”Aren’t they our allies?”

”They are demons. We can never truly trust them.”

”If so, why don’t we just eradicate them as well? If we do, then it’s problem solved.”

”You are so clueless. Don’t you know that the lower world can only be accessed by people with infernal cultivation? We, divine cultivators, cannot enter the lower world. If we attack them, they will always have a place to retreat to. We can never truly wipe them out. They will harass us with guerrilla tactics.”

”It’s you who are clueless.”

”What do you mean?”

The one who had spoken looked around before saying in a hushed voice, ”I have a friend who is a priest in the Holy Temple. He told me that their formation sages have been hard at work for a long time to develop a means to breach through the lower world, and they are close to completing it.”

”Are you serious?”

”Why would I lie about this?”

”How do you know your friend is telling the truth?”

”Why would he lie about this?”

”I don’t know, to impress you, maybe?”

”My friend, what is there to be impressed about having the means to breach the lower world? We never truly care about that world. We only talk about it because of our current situation. Whether the lower world lives or dies has nothing to do with us. Moreover, my friend who told me this news is a priest of the Holy Temple. I’m not even a deacon. I’m an initiate who is waiting for a chance to join the Holy Temple. Why would he need to impress me? It should be the other way around.”

”Now that you mention it, I feel even more depressed for not joining the hunt. I am also an initiate. I aim to perform well in this Purge so my merits can help me join the Holy Temple. My hope is now dashed. There is no way to get any merit by just sitting here and doing nothing. Oh... Such bad luck.”

”Most of us here are initiates, man. Only the commanders are members of the Holy Temple. The purge has always been allocated to initiates because the Holy Temple members consider it beneath them to kill surface worlders.”

”Sigh... If only I could... Hey, is it a common occurrence for the clouds in the surface world to change color?”

His friends were confused by his sudden change of topics. They followed his line of sight and looked up. They saw the clouds above, which were initially white, had now become green. As they watched the clouds, they noticed something else that was strange.

”Huh? Are the clouds falling?”

The green clouds they were watching were getting closer with each second. The phenomenon soon drew the attention of everyone on the mountain. They stood and looked up. One cultivator finally asked for instructions from their leader, a Bishop of the Holy Temple, whom Tian Kuo appointed as commander of this battalion. His name was Xian Ta.

”My Lord, those clouds look suspicious. Should we be alarmed?”

Xian Ta observed the green clouds that were slowly descending. Like most of his comrades, he didn’t believe there was anything worth worrying about in the surface world. Still, he had a bad feeling when he watched these green clouds.

He didn’t want bad things to happen due to carelessness. Hence, he ordered his aide, ”Alert everyone to be ready. Call the formation sages and talisman masters to erect a shielding net just in case those clouds are harmful.”

The aide immediately shouted the orders. His voice was enhanced with aether. It was loud enough to be heard by everyone on the mountain. Surprisingly, the first ones to react to his voice were not his comrades, but the clouds.

The green clouds that were slowly descending suddenly sped up. They were so fast that they might as well be falling rocks. This took everyone aback. Any thoughts that this was a natural phenomenon had been dispelled.

”Defensive position!” Xian Ta exclaimed. A sphere of golden light encapsulated his body as he flew toward the green clouds.

He dove into the descending green clouds. He discharged his power, blasting the clouds away. He succeeded. The air around him cleared as the green clouds were blown away. Yet, the clouds surprised him by flying back and resumed their descent. They advanced like a living creature, past his sides, evading him so he couldn’t stop them.

”What...?” He wanted to chase, but he was confused. How did he stop an intangible thing like a cloud?

The green clouds finally touched down at the top of the mountain, where the portal and the Aether Absorption Machine were. They continued to flow downward, washing over the entire place where the upper worlders made camp.

Not many had fast reflexes like Xian Ta, and not many had defensive arts that could stop intangible things like a cloud. Those who didn’t were submerged in the green clouds. Agonizing screams were soon heard. The screams didn’t last long.

Those who managed to prevent the green clouds from touching their bodies long enough flew out of the cloud-covered area. Just as they did, the normal clouds above thundered, and many lightning bolts shot down from those clouds.

These lightning bolts were faster than regular lightning. The upper world cultivators failed to dodge them. To their shock, they found that their defensive arts were useless against these lightning bolts. The lightning just punched through their protective arts and also their bodies. These cultivators, who had survived poison, fell back into the green clouds. Even if they didn’t die instantly from the lightning bolts, they were paralyzed by the electricity. They could no longer defend themselves from the green clouds’ poison.

Xian Ta was shocked by the turn of events. The lightning bolt also targeted him. It punched through the golden sphere protecting him, but his sphere halted the lightning long enough for him to dodge it barely.

He was shocked. He was an Intermediate Ancestor Stage cultivator. Yet, the lightning bolt could so easily tear through his best defensive art. He couldn’t quite grasp the power behind the lightning assaults, but he was sure that whoever the attacker was, they were more powerful than he.

He heard another crackle from the clouds above. He looked up and saw the entire sky lit up.

”What–”

He couldn’t complete his sentence, as another lightning bolt shot down. It was much larger than the previous ones. It looked more like a giant lightning beam shooting down from the sky. Its speed was also much faster. He failed to dodge the lightning this time.

When the lightning passed through him, he felt the space around him collapse. He felt the collapsed space grind his body as the electricity singed him. He felt nothing afterward.

Among the green clouds that rushed through the mountain and the lightning bolts, none of the five hundred cultivators remained standing. The green clouds dispersed and vanished after reaching the foot of the mountain, as if they never existed.

Two figures descended from the clouds. They landed near the upper world’s portal and the Aether Absorption Machine. They were Mo Wang and Amon.

Amon looked around the place before uttering, ”The Calamity Fog Poison is indeed something else. Are you sure I’m not allowed to learn the recipe?”

”That is a funny question. Do you hear me asking you to share with me the plan you are cooking to bring down the upper world?” Mo Wang asked back.

”It’s not that I don’t want to share. It is still in progress. That’s why we are doing this. I must know more about our enemy before I can formulate an effective plan. Do you mind? Someone can come through that portal at any moment.”

Mo Wang turned to the glowing portal. Unlike the portal to the lower world, which was hidden inside a river, this one stood proudly atop a mountain. He scoffed. ”Talk about haughtiness.”

He took out a stack of large-sized talismans and threw them forward. Under his control, the talismans arranged themselves into a pattern that encircled the portal. Words of power emerged, linking the talismans. Their linked image formed a symbol.

The symbol transformed into a sphere wrapped by chains. The light emitted by the portal froze, as if the space inside the sphere had been locked.