Rise of The Demon General

The experience Amon had after passing through the rift created by Mo Wang was different from when he traveled through the portal connected to the lower world. For one, there was no rejection. Neither his normal energy core nor his black energy core felt any pressure. The journey was smooth.

Another difference was that he didn’t pass through a tunnel. What he perceived around him was a vast emptiness, as if he were in outer space. Yet, he knew he was moving in a direction. He simply didn’t have a reference point to perceive the motion.

After some time, he saw another rift in the distance. He approached the rift at a breakneck speed. One second, it was still far away. Next, it was right in front of him. He could not see what was beyond this second rift. Everything behind it was pure white.

Before he knew it, he plunged into a sea of blinding white. The white was then replaced by total darkness.

*

He wasn’t sure how long he had passed out. When he regained consciousness, he found himself lying on the ground, face down on a carpet of grass. He felt dampness on his skin before realizing there was light rain. He pushed himself off the ground and looked around.

He figured the blackout was a side effect of using Mo Wang’s rift to cross over. Using the proper portal shouldn’t have caused him to lose consciousness.

But then, he felt something odd. He looked around. Everything was grassland as far as his eyes could see. The sky above was slightly cloudy. The rain was light, and the wind was gentle. It was soothing. Everything felt pleasant.

He sat cross-legged on the grass. At a glance, he could see nothing wrong. Everything was perfect. The impression of perfection was not in the things he saw, but in the feeling they invoked. He felt at peace, and this was what tipped him off. For him, feeling at peace was unnatural.

He closed his eyes. He had a similar experience long ago, when what he saw was not what they were. He believed it was the same occurrence. He could use the method he used then. By eliminating what he thought was false. The feeling of the grass brushing his skin? False. The rain droplets that softly hit his face? False. The gentle breeze that provided him with pleasant coolness? False. However, that would take time. He had a better tool in his arsenal now.

He whispered in his mind, ”Lin Li...”

Not long after, the veil that covered his mind was slowly lifted. He felt it then, the truth. Hard surface on his back. The feeling of vertigo. He was not sitting. He was lying with his back on the hard floor.

He didn’t immediately move or open his eyes. He felt no danger yet. Now that he had grasped reality, he could sense that two people were nearby. He heard them talking, a man and a woman.

”... sure that no one has broken the rules?”

”I have asked everyone. They all know the risk of letting the outside world learn of this village’s existence. There is no way they let an outsider in.”

”You believe them?”

”I don’t see why they would lie. Our fates are tied. Breaking the rules will only doom us all.”

”Those who are bored can make a foolish decision, even one that may cause self-destruction. Don’t underestimate human nature. We are, after all, still humans despite our conditions. I can’t say for sure about our guest here.”

”You are right. He certainly doesn’t look like one, even when we know he is. Considering this, I doubt he is from the outside world.”

”What do you mean?”

”Look at him. With that appearance, he won’t last long outside. The inquisitors will hunt him down.”

”You are right... I think we should call the other elders so we can pry...”

”Elder Dou, what’s wrong?”

There was a long silence before the man spoke again.

”I know you are already conscious. There is no need for pretense.”

Amon knew the words were meant for him. He opened his eyes and sat up. He was on a wooden bed inside a small room.

Now that he let his senses roam free, he could feel how different the air in this place was compared to the surface world or the lower world. He didn’t see any words of power in the room, but the aether contents were already almost as dense as in the region where Mo Wang’s castle resided. This aether condition convinced him that he was indeed in the upper world.

Sitting beside his bed were two people, the couple whose voices he had heard. They were both elderly. Their cultivation levels were at the Peak Mystic Stage, which disappointed him. He expected the cultivation level of upper world denizens to be higher, especially if they looked as old as these two. He surmised the two were probably the type that wasn’t interested in cultivating, or he had landed in a backwater village where cultivation resources were scarce even with the upper world’s superior aether condition.

Amon looked at the two without saying anything. He originally wanted to pretend to be unconscious and eavesdrop on them longer to glean more information. He didn’t understand how he was discovered.

The elderly man suddenly said, ”I know because I sensed the hallucination I placed on you no longer holds your mind.”

Amon frowned. He thought, ’Did he just reply to my thoughts?’

”He did,” the elderly woman said.

”... You can read my mind?” Amon finally spoke.

”We can,” the elderly woman answered. ”Although I must say that your mind ain’t what we are usually accustomed to. You see, normally, there are plenty of background noises in one’s mind. We can hear their direct thoughts, but there are always plenty of minor thoughts. In yours, we only hear your direct thoughts. There is no background noise at all. You must have one peculiar brain.”

”Maybe he has a special constitution,” the elderly man said. ”Or maybe he simply is an extremely focused person who can concentrate on one thought and clear out everything else.”

”If that is true, then he will be a first.”

”Hm...” Amon thought about this discovery. He held many secrets. Being with someone who can read his mind is extremely concerning.

”Mm...?” The expression on the two elders changed. They leaned toward Amon, as if trying to see him more clearly.

”Interesting,” the elderly man said.

”This is also a first,” the elderly woman added.

”How do you clear your mind so? Now we read nothing at all... No matter how someone tries to clear their thoughts, they never truly do. Unless you have trained your Sea of Consciousness like us, then you can shield your thoughts from us, but you don’t. We can sense that though your Sea of Consciousness is considerable, it is untrained.”

”Sea of Consciousness?” Amon asked.

”Never mind that. Anyway, for an untrained person like you, there should always be stray thoughts all the time, but yours... How do I describe it...? It is like you have a black hole inside now. It’s like I’m trying to read a dead person.”

Amon smiled. ”I’m glad to hear that.”

The two elders looked at one another.

The elder woman said, ”Well, there goes our hope of getting the information about how he got here from his mind. Now what?”

The elder man took a deep breath before saying, ”I guess there is no choice but to use the old-fashioned way, then.”

”Torture?”

The elder man rolled his eyes at the elderly woman before saying, ”Talking!”

Under normal circumstances, Amon would have laughed at the statement from two Peak Mystic Stage cultivators about torturing him. His expression, however, remained serious. This was because, despite the two’s low cultivation levels, he could now sense slight danger from them.

”I don’t mind telling you how I came here,” Amon told the two. ”Though I must admit, I don’t know exactly where here is other than this is the upper world.”

”Oh? In that case, please enlighten us.”

”I came from the surface world,” Amon explained. ”I arrived here because my colleague and I have been working on a device that can create a rift in space to transport us to the upper world.”

”A rift?” Nao Dou asked.

”That may explain how he bypassed our illusory barrier formation and entered this village,” Nao Xin said.

”Just to be sure, this is indeed the upper world, right?” Amon asked.

The two elders nodded.

”Then I was right. We succeeded, except we can’t determine where we will cross into when we use our device. The destination is random, considering we have never been here before.”

The two elders looked at one another again.

”What do you think?” The elderly woman asked the elderly man.

”I miss the time when we could still read his mind,” the elderly man answered.

”Right. It is much easier that way. I can’t tell if he is telling the truth.”

”Hm... I don’t think he is,” the elderly man said.