Rise of The Demon General

Amon opened the courtyard's gate and entered. It was much bigger than the house Madam Lin had provided him inside the Lin Estate. Here he thought he would be staying in a bunker-style accommodation during his time in this academy. He didn't expect he would be provided with such a luxury living place again.

But luxury was never Amon's intention. It was its function. With this privacy, he could safely cultivate and practice as well as did his poison experiments.

Amon first walked around the courtyard, which circled around the house. And since it was on the top of a mountain, he could see faraway views.

'This academy is much larger than I expected,' Amon thought. It was practically another town by itself. A separate town within a city. The academy alone probably took up one-fifth or one-fourth of Qishurg City's area.

Amon marveled at the night view. There were more lights outside the academy complex compared to the inside. It showed that the outside city was more lively compared to the academy, which was probably meant to be more serene.

'A view from up top is indeed different,' Amon thought. But also lonely. Such was the price for being on top. Anyone who thought otherwise was simply daydreaming. Amon had accepted this fact when he climbed over many corpses in his pursuit of power in his past life. Many of whom were ones who considered him friends or even families. His life this time won't be any different.

He went into the house after that brief moment of sentimentality.

Despite being such a large house, the interior was using the studio style. Inside was a very large space without any barrier wall. Amon even wondered how the ceiling was supported without any inner structural walls or pillars. Perhaps this was intentional so the occupant could renovate the interior however he or she liked.

A kitchen and bathroom were on one side of the room. A table and a few chairs were also there. A staircase brought him to the second floor which was one-third the area of the ground floor. Up there, Amon found a simple bed. There was also a large patio outside the floor.

Amon went back down to the ground floor. He had seen another staircase, going down from the ground floor. As he approached the stairs, he noticed another barrier there. It was the same as the one that encircled the house. Considering there was a second barrier that prevented people to go down there, what's below the stairs should be special.

The barrier didn't stop Amon as he was the legitimate occupant of the house. He walked down those stairs and came into a basement that was almost as wide as the ground floor. Words of power were engraved along the walls, ceiling, and floor. Amon sent a punch to the wall. It was like his punch sank into a bottomless well. There was not even an impact sound.

Not only that, but his acute sense also felt that the aether content within this basement was much denser. Was it because of the words of power around the wall? He saw that there was a series of engraving that made a round formation at the center of the floor.

Amon walked over. He felt that the aether became even denser as he approached the center. When he stood in the middle of the round formation, he felt as if he was being bathed in a liquid aether. Even without using cultivation art, his passive aether absorption gorged down a large amount of aether simply by standing there.

'So dense!' Amon thought. This was a perfect place for cultivating!

This basement was perfect. Not only was it away from prying eyes, but it had such a high content of aether and its interior was also sturdy enough to allow him freedom in unleashing all his strength.

After seeing the layout. He decided to do his cultivation and training in this basement, while a portion of the ground floor would be transformed into a workplace for him to study alchemy.

He then sat cross-legged at the center of the round formation where the aether was densest. He took out his Black Aetherium stone. The stone enhanced the already dense environment even further.

Amon ate one spirit fruit from his space ring's plantation before he started cultivating. With such concentrated aether around him, his cultivation speed increased by many folds.

Amon was glad that he had aimed for the top ten. This housing facility alone was worth the effort and trouble from the exams.

He wondered if the other nine houses granted similar benefits. He thought they should. His hypothesis was this dense aether condition must be the result of a massive ley line under the academy complex. Just as how the Lin, Lei, and White Cloud sect built their estates atop the ley lines in White Cloud city, the academy must have also been built because of the existence of one that was even better than White Cloud City.

The words of power engraved on the floor must be what drew and processed the energy from the ley line below.

Amon's hypothesis was correct about the ley line. The mountain was specially built with an enchantment that sucked the energy from the ley line to the ten houses. However, the amount of energy distributed to each house was not equal. The top house in which Amon dwelled gained the largest amount. The second house received one-tenth less of what the first house got, and so on, with the smallest amount spared for the last house at the foot of the mountain. But even with this smallest amount, it was still a much better cultivating environment which would have been unavailable if these students stayed in their clans.

Amon was glad that he had made the right choice of joining this royal academy.

*

Amon spent the whole night cultivating. The next morning, he took off the cloth that had served as his eyepatch. His damaged eye had fully grown back. Afterward, he came out of his house and saw the others gathered at the foot of the mountain. He went down to where the group was, just when someone in a work uniform approached them. That person must be their guide.

"Good morning. Oh? No eye patch now?" Zhuan San greeted Amon who had just arrived.

"He probably just wore it before to make people think he is menacing. Pathetic, if you ask me," Yan Long mocked.

Amon didn't give any response to either the greeting or the mocking.

"Is everyone here?" The guide asked.

"There are ten here. Can't you count?" Tuang Yin said.

Everyone looked at her. They were surprised that this girl dared to antagonize this academy's personnel. The guide also looked at her with a displeased expression, but he didn't push the issue. He turned around and uttered, "Follow!"

Everyone followed behind. Zhuan San gave a silent thumbs-up to Tuang Yin.

Zhuan San again chatted with the others as they walked, with only the same ones as yesterday who responded. The others just ignored him.

After a long walk, they came into a more crowded area. Many youths and young adults were walking or hanging around. The guide informed them that this place was already one part of the main section. He mentioned that the students from all three grades: freshman, junior, and senior, were free to walk around this main section. But the buildings where their classes take place were still differentiated.

They passed through a group of four men who were lazing about. One of these men whistled and said, "Hey, you girls from the freshman? How about you come with us? We will introduce you to this place."

There were only two girls from the group, Sima Fang and Tuang Yin. Both were beauties. Sima Fang wore a ceremonial robe that covered almost all of her body, while Tuang Yin wore a tight dress that revealed much of her skin.

Sima Fang completely ignored the call, while Tuang Yin stopped and turned to the men. These men became excited when they saw this sexy girl respond to their tease.

"Are you willing to help this little sister?" Tuang Yin asked with a teasing tone and a come-here gesture.

"Sure, girl! Anything for you. I can even bring you touring around the city. You won't regret it," One of the men came over excitedly, thinking that he had hooked a pretty damsel.

He came and stood close to Tuang Yin, he couldn't divert his eyes from her cleavage. Her tight dress showed that she had unusually large breasts. His hands were so eager to grab those two melons that were so close.

Because he was completely absorbed with the sight of her fair bosom, he was not aware of her leg which had kicked forward. He was only aware that something was wrong when he felt the burning pain in his loin. He buckled over and fell to the ground whimpering in pain.

The others stopped their walk and looked at her. Everyone was again amazed by her. She not only dared to antagonize the academy's personnel but even assaulted the older student for simply teasing her.

"You…! How dare you!" The other three men came forward after seeing their friend being assaulted.

Tuang Yin ran back when the four came forward. The others again looked at her in a different light. Where had all her bravado gone?

She ran and hid behind Amon. She then said, "Don't think that you punks can do anything with my boyfriend here!"