Rise of The Demon General

After one week of practicing Bone Shattering Shadow Fist, Amon was still in the Beginner phase. But he thought it was time to try practicing Hardened Bronze Body. As he had thought, it was harder to control and balanced the aether in his body when he had to direct them equally all over his body. Even after practicing for a whole day, he was still not yet enter the beginner phase.

After several days of perseverance, he could finally reach a perfect balance. His skin turned hard and its color became metallic-like bronze, hence the name he supposed. Yet, he could only maintain that state for a short three seconds. It was hardly practicable for a real fight, not to mention he had to keep his focus and thus cannot move while maintaining this state. He figured this was the beginner mastery. When he reached a higher mastery level, he should be able to move while in this state and also be able to maintain it longer.

He went back to training the Bone Shattering Shadow Fist. After more than a month of practice, he could finally execute the art as easy as he did a normal punch, allowing it a decent chance to be used in combat. Hei Gong informed him that he had reached the Skilled mastery.

He finally allowed himself to look at the Silent Swift Stab. After studying the theory in the book, he surmised this art was meant for a sudden strike. An ambush that was meant to kill with one stab, meaning it could only be used once in combat.

He didn't mind though, in fact, he preferred this kind of skill. In his past life, rarely did a battle go on for long. One only needed one hit for a kill. This skill should match him nicely.

The difficulty of performing this art mostly came from how he applied his aether to synchronize with his dagger. Just as Hei Gong had said, it was more difficult compared to executing a martial art using his fist.

He focused on practicing this art before going back to his first two arts. He had reached skilled mastery on Bone Shattering Shadow Fist and beginner mastery on Hardened Bronze Body. He decided to train the Silent Swift Stab until at least skilled mastery before going back to those previous arts again.

It took him half a year to reach that stage. This art was part movement art as well since it gave him an explosive push that sent him forward in speed. When he performed the art with skilled mastery, it created a loud bang and his body turned to a blur as a ray of light followed his dagger. He stabbed onto the wall of a large tree in the courtyard. The light continued as it penetrated the tree and went out the other side.

Amon looked into the hole and was satisfied to see that his stab had managed to puncture a hole through the thick trunk of the tree. The excitement he felt was exhilarating. He was armed with fangs again.

With him getting more accustomed to his cultivation art, his cultivation also underwent rapid advancement. He estimated his silver Energy Core was around one-third progress. In one year's time, he should hit the limit to advance to the intermediate Mortal stage.

As his martial arts and cultivation improved by the day. Hei Gong and Hei Pho's treatment of him also developed, especially Hei Gong. Amon did not get the feeling that he was treated as a tool anymore, Hei Gong now treated him as a more proper family.

Due to this increase in trust, Amon decided to ask them about his origin. They were taken aback by his question. They gazed at one another with apprehension and were silent for a long time. Amon waited for them patiently, considering their secrecy, he assumed that the topic of his origin was not simple.

"So, how did I come to be?" Amon finally asked again after the continued silence.

"We should tell him, Gong," Hei Pho said.

"He is just a kid. He won't understand," Hei Gong argued.

"Look at him," Hei Pho said. "Do you see that is the expression of a kid? If he is, he is the smartest and most mature one I know. He understood everything I taught him. He is the fastest learning kid I ever met, or person, ever. His cultivation and martial art training speed are also extremely fast. He has no advantage like the noble kids who are aided by cultivation pills and top-notch cultivation arts, but his improvement is not any less than them."

Hei Gong took a deep breath. He did not think that Hei Pho would support the kid to this extent. He stared at Amon and found the kid staring back. The gaze was calm, yet expectant. Hei Pho was right, the kid did not lack the intelligence to understand whatever he was holding back. However, the real reason was not that he was worried that the kid won't understand. The reason was that he was afraid that the kid might accidentally spill this secret to an outsider. If that happened, everyone within this mansion would be doomed.

He looked at Amon again and knew from his eyes that the kid was not the careless type. So, he took another deep breath and said, "all right."

Good, Amon thought. Now that both of them had agreed, he repeated his previous question, "how did I come to be?"

"First of all, you should know. You were not born," Hei Gong informed. "You don't have a father or a mother, you don't have any blood relation to any of the clansman or clanswoman in this mansion…"

"But we still care for you like you are one of our own," Hei Pho interjected.

Hei Gong gave Hei Pho an annoyed look for interrupting him, he then continued, "We also did not adopt you. We didn't take you from any other place."

Not born, Amon had expected as much. He didn't show any surprise or confusion when he asked his next question, "then how was I made?"

It was Hei Gong that was taken aback by Amon's calmness. The kid had even uttered about him being made like it was the most normal thing. To be honest, Hei Gong felt slight fear at the moment, but he soon dismissed it as an irrational thought.

He answered, "You are right, you were made. You were made using a forbidden art that was passed down in our clan."

"Forbidden art?" Amon asked with furrowed brows.

"We might need to tell you a short history of our clan for you to understand," Hei Pho said.

Hei Gong gestured for her to proceed. He was not interested to talk about the history lesson, since it had been a depressing one.

"Our clan used to be a large one, spanning multiple branches in the country. Most would not dare offend us and uncounted people would line up to grovel at our feet hoping for our favors. At our peak, we had a cultivator of peak Lord stage Martial realm, just a half-step from becoming a Demigod. But that soon change due to a single event."

Hei Pho paused for a bit, sighing about the past, before continuing, "The half-step Demigod cultivator that I mentioned, had spent centuries trying to cross that gap, but to no avail. Out of desperation, he looked for a way by involving himself with a demon cult."

Centuries, Amon did not find that statement strange. He had read from the books that cultivators had a very long lifespan. The higher the realm they reach, the longer their life will be. It was estimated that a Mystic stage Martial realm cultivator could live up to three hundred years, something unthinkable in his past life. The Lord stage cultivator that Hei Pho mentioned should have an even longer lifespan. Amon was instead more interested in the demon cult Hei Pho mentioned. "Demon cult?" He asked.

"There are people of this world that carry demon's line," it was Hei Gong who explained. "They are abhorred beings and will be hunted down if found out. Demons are a taboo of our world."

"Demons are real?" Amon asked. In his past world, demon was only a metaphor people used to scare the mass into obedience. If there is any real demon in his past world, he would be the most qualified to assume the title.

"They are. They are the enemy of Aetheria. They invaded us long ago. An arduous and bloody battle took place in the past and shook the core of this world. Only with the help of the divines that the cultivators of this world managed to drive the demons back to their world."

"However, they left many legacies in our world," Hei Pho took over. "And one of these legacies was the one that had doomed our ancestor."