Rise of The Demon General

'Boyfriend?' The others from the top ten were flabbergasted. They knew for sure that the two hadn't known one another before the exam.

"Boyfriend?" The three men also uttered, but they continued advancing.

The guide that took them here just stood back and did nothing. Fighting was common in this academy. They studied to be cultivators, after all. It was in their nature to fight. As long as there was no death or permanent damage, most of the academy staff just pretended nothing had happened.

Amon glanced at Tuang Yin who was hiding behind him. She flashed a wink at him. Amon looked to the front again.

The men had approached. "How dare you freshman students make fun of us? You have better–ooff…!"

His words were stopped because Amon's fist had landed on his face. The impact produced a loud sound and the man flew back.

Everyone was stunned by the sudden turns of events. Before anybody could react, Amon was already in front of the other two men. His fist again shot out and punched one of the two's throats. At the same time, his knee came up and struck the same man's groin.

The remaining man realized the danger and was about to use an arcane art. But before it was unleashed, Amon's Bone Shattering Shadow Fist was executed first. It landed on the man's face and caused it to backflip from the impact.

Before anyone realized it, the three men were already on the ground, joining their friend who was still whimpering from Tuang Yin's kick.

Despite being older and of the upper grade, the four were still peak Strength stage. Hence, Amon was able to finish them by taking advantage of a series of first strikes.

The others looked at Amon warily. They had known his score from the battle trial and heard of him causing one of the battle puppets to malfunction, but directly seeing him in action was another thing. He didn't show any heaven-defying art, the most impressive about him were his momentum, precision, and control. The three he attacked didn't even have the chance to react properly.

Amon walked back after finishing his deed.

"As expected of my boyfriend! You–ack…!" Tuang Yin couldn't finish her words because Amon's iron-like hand had gripped her throat.

Tuang Yin was not an average cultivator. She wouldn't have been one of the top ten students if that was the case. But even so, she couldn't see Amon's arm until it was already gripping her throat. Not only that, but she found herself to be unable to use her strength. She grabbed Amon's hand that was on her throat but she couldn't pull it off. She couldn't seem to properly direct the aether circulation on the upper part of her body.

Tuang Yin used her leg, trying to strike Amon's manhood with her knee. But before her foot even left the ground, it was already stepped on by Amon's foot. Her other foot was away from Amon and she would lose balance if she tried using that other leg.

She was helpless. Amon had targeted her pressure points in his grip.

"If you dare to pull that kind of stunt on me again. I will put you down like those four," Amon said while staring straight into her eyes. He then shoved her away.

The shove was anything but gentle. Tuang Yin ended up tumbling and rolling on the ground several meters away.

Amon turned around and continued walking. "Let's go," he said to the guide. The guide nodded and resumed leading the way.

Yang long glanced at the four whimpering seniors before following.

Zhuan San came to Tuang Yin's side. "Ai ya… That guy is just too rough. How can he treat a lady like this? Come, let me help you up."

He was offering his hand to the girl but the girl was not looking at him. She was looking at Amon, who was already walking away. Zhuan San at first thought Tuang Yin was looking at Amon with hatred in her eyes, but after careful inspection, it was not so. Instead, there seemed to be a glint of admiration in those round eyes.

"Oh…?" Zhuan San turned to Amon before returning his attention to Tuang Yin, who was still staring at Amon's back.

"Hehe," Zhuan San smiled.

*

The ten of them were brought to a large open plaza surrounded by multiple buildings. On this plaza, they saw it was already filled up by the other candidates who had passed the trial yesterday and became students of this academy.

Even though almost a thousand students were standing on this plaza, there were still much empty spaces around. This plaza could house a much bigger crowd than this.

The guide took the ten to the front of the group. Afterward, he went and stood with the other adults that were facing the crowd of students.

It seemed that the ten in Amon's group were the last to arrive. Because soon after, Li Niang and Lao Zen came floating down from the sky and stood before the students.

Li Niang, being the academy principal, spoke first. She thanked and congratulated everyone here for entering the royal academy. However, their struggle had just begun. She explained the layout of the place as Lao Zen had told Amon and the others last night. About the grades of Freshman, Junior, and Senior. Each with a five-year term.

At the end of this term, each student will be evaluated based on their academic points. Those who were below the required standard would have to leave the academy. So, the students shouldn't think that they were guaranteed to stay in the academy for the full three terms even after passing the entrance exam.

She then explained that the activity in this academy would be divided into several classes. Theory, cultivation, practice, specialization, and mission. Each of these classes would provide the academic points for assessment at the end of the term.

Aside from assessment, these academic points were also used to buy products and to use the various facilities in this academy. The assessment was using the total gathered academic points, not the current points they possessed. So one didn't need to worry about spending all their academic points. For example, one had gathered one thousand points from the classes. The person then spent eight hundred points for various purposes. During the end-term assessment, he was still considered to have one thousand points, not two hundred.

As for the classes, the theory class was carried out inside one of the buildings around the plaza. Li Niang pointed at the building to let everyone know which one she was referring to. Each theory would cover different subjects such as history, art developments, spirit beasts and plants, the geography of the world, and so on.

The class would take place on a specific day and time. Students should check the message board outside the mentioned building to learn about the time. The class would not be repeated. Anyone who did not attend the class would be considered absent. There was no academic point in attending the theory classes. However, there would be a written test by the end of each year. This test covered the subjects explained during the theory classes. So, if one didn't attend the classes, they would have trouble in the test.

The cultivation class was for the students to focus on increasing their cultivation level. A special building had been prepared for this class. It was another of the buildings around this plaza, a pagoda, which was also the tallest building compared to the others around the plaza.

Inside the pagoda were rooms that could accommodate one person. What was special about these rooms was that the aether inside was condensed thus it allowed one's cultivation art to better absorb the aether and also in a larger quantity. Each room also had an aetherium stone equipped, further increasing the cultivation efficiency.

Li Niang explained about the pagoda and confirmed Amon's previous hypothesis. There was a huge ley line directly under the royal academy. The ley line had been the primary reason that the academy was built at this place. The pagoda harnessed the aether from this ley line and distributed it to each of the rooms within.

However, the pagoda only had five hundred rooms, so it was not possible for every student to use them at the same time. One student was only allowed a maximum of eight hours daily to use the pagoda's room. Staff was present inside to organize and record the time the students spent inside.

Additionally, fifty out of the five hundred rooms were special rooms with higher aether content. These rooms were not available to the public. One needed to spend academic points to use these special rooms.

Li Niang also said that the top ten students of the current term were not permitted into the pagoda. Everyone except the top ten students was confused as to why. This was because the top ten students already had their private cultivation chambers inside their houses. Even the lowest house that accommodate the tenth-rank student had a cultivation chamber equal to the special room inside the pagoda. Hence, the top ten did not need to fight with the others for using the pagoda. They even had no daily usage limit. They could cultivate as long as they like.

The academic points from this class were graded by how much the students' cultivation improved each year. The higher the increase, the more points they received. The grading was done using the same detection orb that Lao Zen had used in the entrance exam's first trial.