Rise of The Demon General

Tao Su continued his lecture while Amon resumed cultivating but still paid attention to the lecture. To his disappointment, there was no mention of the infernal branch cultivation. Several details that Amon didn't find from the books were in the lecture, though. So, it was not all a waste of time.

Thinking that most of this lecture was the stuff he had already learned from books, he wondered if he should still attend the next theory class. It was more beneficial for him to just stay inside the aether-rich basement under his house and cultivate. But he decided to still attend a few more and see if any other classes provide benefits.

At the end of his lecture, Tao Su dismissed everyone. He informed them before leaving, that they were free to go and use the facility in the other classes. Other classes didn't have a fixed schedule like the theory class, so they were free to adjust their own timetable. The next theory class will be in the morning three days from now with a different tutor.

Most of the students went to check out the pagoda and the practice building. Those should be the two places most students would spend most of their time because cultivating and practicing arts were the two most important factors for a cultivator.

Amon didn't join them. His basement facility provided a better facility compared to the two buildings. He might be missing the chance to get guidance from the tutors in the practice building, but most of his art was from the pyramid legacy which came from the ancient age. The tutors' knowledge about these arts should be the same as his, which was zero. So, it was still better for him to practice alone.

Before he left, he called Xin Wuming who was still on standby beside him, "Wuming."

"Yes, big brother." Xin Wuming was glad that Amon finally didn't treat him as air.

"I have a task for you," Amon said.

"Anything," Xin Wuming said compliantly.

Amon whispered the instructions to Xin Wuming's ear. Wuming nodded as he listened.

"I will carry out your request," Xin Wuming said.

"Just spend a few hours for them. Do not neglect your cultivation and art training inside the pagoda or the practice building."

"Yes, big brother," Xin Wuming replied.

Amon left after that. Before he returned home, he went first to the specialization buildings, which comprised four buildings. Each represented alchemy, engraving, smithing, and talisman making.

Amon went into the alchemy building. A staff came and asked, "Do you wish to use this facility?"

All the new students had gone either to the pagoda or the practice building. No one came to the specialization class yet, so the staff was rather happy that one student entered.

"I might in the future, I just want to take a look first," Amon said.

"Oh...," The staff wore a disappointed expression but he still followed Amon as he introduced everything in the building.

The rooms were partitioned to allow every alchemist to work individually without disturbing others. The tools were top-notch. There was also a list of available materials that one could choose from to work with. A few standard recipes were provided free for the students. If the students wanted a higher-grade recipe, they had to pay using their academic points.

"Many famous pill masters in this city and the capital came from this academy. We are proud to say we have nurtured those pill masters," The staff promoted while giving Amon the tour.

"Can I buy these alchemy tools?" Amon asked.

"No, sorry," the staff replied.

"What about at the shop building?" Amon asked again.

"The shop building only sells products produced by our students using these tools as well as some ingredients and materials collected by students during their missions. It doesn't sell the tools themselves. For those, you will have to go out into the city and search among the alchemy shops."

Amon nodded. He would do that later after he got used to this place. For now, the tools he brought from the Lin clan were still enough for experimentation.

Amon then paid a visit to the engraving building. They also used various tools. The knives to do the engraving came in different shapes and sizes. More advanced words of power required a certain depth or width in the carvings, hence the different knives. The staff there also explained that the amount of aether injected during the carving also had variations for advanced words of power. The staff was happy to teach Amon if he wanted to give it a try.

Amon again told the staff he would give it a try at a later date. He went to the smithing and talisman buildings next, checking on the equipment that was used in those specialized jobs. He just did it to get a basic understanding. He had no time to dabble in them yet. At this moment, he still needed to focus on his cultivation and art practice.

He went straight home after.

Arriving home, he first took out a few wooden planks and carpenter tools from his space ring. These were mundane tools he had bought in White Cloud City for general purposes. He used those wooden planks and made partition walls to block off a portion of the ground floor.

After finishing with the partition, he took out his alchemy equipment. He set them up inside this new room.

The task occupied him until late afternoon. After making sure everything had been set up properly. He went down into the basement. He walked to the center with the circular word of power, where the aether condensation was the thickest. He took out his black aetherium stone, ate another spirit fruit, then sat down and started cultivating.

*

Over the next two days, he focused on cultivation and art training. He didn't do any alchemy. The dense aether was intoxicating, Amon felt like he could go for weeks just cultivating without stopping. But he still forced himself to stop cultivating once in a while to practice his arts.

On the third day, he joined the second theory class that touched on the subject of spirit beasts. Although some of the beasts taught in the lecture were already mentioned inside the encyclopedias of spirit beasts in his space ring's library, there were also some unknown ones. Amon assumed maybe these were newer generation beasts not existed in the ancient era. Hence, they were not recorded inside the encyclopedias.

A single lecture wouldn't be able to cover the multitude of known spirit beasts. The tutor, who was a burly and heavily bearded old man named Ha Gild, said that his lecture would resume next week to introduce more spirit beasts to the students.

Two days after was the last class of the week. A history class by a female tutor named Li Shi. In this class, Amon finally heard a mention of the infernal branch cultivation.

"It is said that in the past, there was no cultivation. No human was practicing the profound way. Humans were amongst the other animals scouring through the land conquered by spirit beasts. But humans were blessed by intelligence despite being unable to utilize aether. This caught the attention of one of the strongest spirit beasts, a deity beast."

"This deity beast, its name lost to history, took humans under its wings, as one of its pets. Humans, however, showed much more potential than as simple entertainment to the deity beast. Hence, the deity beast put more attention on them. Over time, its fascination with humans turned to adoration. It cared for the humans as if they were its own offspring. And from then, it started to teach humans multiple things. One amongst which was language."

"After learning language, the intelligent humans showed even more potential. Hence, the deity beast decided to teach them the basic utilization of aether. Of course, the way that spirit beasts used aether was different. It was as natural as breathing to them. Hence, the deity beast's early attempt to teach humans how to utilize aether ended up in failure."

"However, with their intelligence, humans managed to use that basic knowledge and develop a way to utilize the aether in a way unique to them. This was how the first cultivation art was born. The first human that created this cultivation art acquired power that was otherwise impossible for humans. For this achievement, the deity beast rewarded this human by making him the leader of the rest of his kind."

"This leader started to teach his cultivation art to the rest. Some with success, some with less. The cultivation art also granted the leader a longer life compared to others. After some time passed, the leader took a wife who bore him two sons. His love for his sons made him focus all his attention to teach them his cultivation art, so that they could live a life as long as him."

"The oldest son followed his father's footsteps perfectly. The cultivation art he practiced was giving him improvement that was even faster compared to his father. This made the leader proud. The second son, however, was not as fortunate. He couldn't utilize the cultivation art properly, so his improvement was very slow."

"Even though the leader still loved his second son, the treatment of the first son who was more successful eventually turned the second son bitter. He was furious and angry at his own inability. But the second son, however, was one with more intelligence. Despite his inability to utilize his father's cultivation art, he learned to modify the art to suit himself."

"The cultivation art he modified turned into an entirely new cultivation art. It produced more power. However, it also intensified all the negative emotions in his heart. When he used the power from his cultivation art, it produced dark color energy. This was when the first demon was born."