Rise of The Demon General

The three teenagers looked at each other before one of them uttered loudly, "Well, it's no problem for us, but I'm afraid someone will be too chickenshit to enter the lair without the protection of an adult. Just like how he always relies on his mother in the clan."

The other two teenagers laughed at this, their eyes were looking at Amon with contempt. They didn't even feel the need to conceal who they were ridiculing. Lin Giru made a small smile. He then asked Amon, "Will you be brave enough to enter it."

Amon glanced at Lin Guo who seemed to be frowning before saying to Amon, "It is as brother Giru had said. Judging from the hole size, there should be only young Greasy Horned Weasels. There should not be much danger. Even if you meet one, your peak Mortal stage cultivation should allow you to contend with the beast. As long as you stay with these three, you should be fine."

"See, the coward still hopes for his bodyguard's protection," Lin Lang mocked.

"Lin Mo, if you didn't dare to go in. Fine. But you will get zero points from this mission," Lin Giru said.

"Just go back and drink your mom's milk then, haha," Lin Lang laughed. The two others joined.

Amon sneered at their childish behavior. It was clear that all of them were goading him to enter the lair. But he didn't mind actually. The one he was worried about was Lin Giru here. If it were only these three idiots, he had nothing to worry about. "All right, let's go in," he said.

Lin Bu smirked. "Trying to act brave now, are we?"

Amon simply shrugged. "You want to go in first, or do you want me to?"

"Heh, stop that lousy charade. If we let you go in first, you might get frozen from fright. Then we have to kick you to make you move. Lin Lang, you go first!"

"Sure thing, brother." Lin Lang replied and then jumped into the hole without hesitation.

Lin Sora jumped in next.

Before he went in, Lin Bu looked back at Amon and said, "don't get left behind. Don't expect us to come looking for you. If you are lost inside there, it's your own fault."

So much rubbish, Amon thought. Once the guy was gone, Amon approached the hole.

"Wait," he heard Lin Giru call out. Amon turned to him and saw him throw a small thing at him. Amon caught the thing and found it to be a small round stone with a smooth surface.

Lin Giru explained, "It will be very dark down there. Inject aether into the stone, it will emit light and illuminate your surrounding, allowing you to see. The others also carry similar stones."

Amon nodded. He made a last glance at Lin Giru before turning. He caught an expectant glint in Lin Giru's eyes.

Let's see what they were playing at, Amon thought and went into the hole.

The tunnel inside the hole was slanted. He slid through that narrow tunnel as gravity pulled him deeper into the tunnel. The wall of the tunnel was composed of soft dirt so there was not much friction. His speed even picked up after a while.

How deep was this lair? Amon was slightly astounded.

He soon came out onto a larger tunnel that was no longer going downward. His feet planted on the flat ground. He held the stone given by Lin Giru and injected aether into it. The stone abruptly emitted a very strong light.

'Isn't this too bright?' Amon thought.

He stored the stone in his space ring, his vision was engulfed by the darkness again. Taking such a glaring stone around a hostile territory was the same as putting a bright beacon telling everyone he was there.

He sat down and waited until his eyes got used to the darkness. Normally, one would take twenty to thirty minutes for this, but he used to train his eyes in his past life to get into such a condition faster. Although he was in a different body now, he also trained this body to do the same. What surprised him was that this body was even better in such adaptations. Now, he just needed around two or three minutes before he could roughly make out his surroundings despite the darkness.

The cave tunnel in front of him bent in another direction so he could not see its end. The three young clowns were nowhere to be seen. They truly had left him behind.

Not that he minded. It's better if they left him so that he could operate alone. However, he didn't think their ploy here was simply to leave him inside the lair of spirit beasts. He took out his Swan Dagger and moved forward carefully.

He followed the tunnel which soon branched out in a couple of different directions. He bent down and smell the dirt. One of them had a stronger oily smell, so he went in that direction. He had to crawl as the tunnel was becoming narrow again.

He soon came out into a rather large cavern hall filled with packed stalactite and stalagmite stones. The packed stones made traversing the place a bit like going through a maze. He stopped near the entrance and made some observations as he gazed at his surroundings. He didn't rush in blindly because he had sensed something.

There was something here. No, several. Amon was used to traversing dark or thinly illuminated territory in his past life. He had even fought in such conditions a lot of times. His body had learned to react not just from the information he received from his eyes, but also from his other senses. His ears, his nose, his skin, they had all been honed to become more sensitive to his environment. He could even detect killing intent directed at him, something that others in his past world attributed to a sixth sense. And at this moment, he felt faint killing intent from the existences inside this cavern hall.

He could differentiate killing intent between one exuded by a beast and one by a human. They had different characteristics. A beast's killing intent felt more feral, while the human's one was more cunning. These were humans'.

Due to sensing these killing intents, he stayed as still as possible as he continued to observe his surroundings.

Not long after, he heard some sounds. Sounds of footsteps and fabrics rubbing against stony surfaces, someone was shuffling through the stone mazes. He then heard voices, it was a whisper, but Amon's ears could still pick up the faint voice nevertheless, "Where is he, why hasn't he appeared?"

"Shh… What if he hears?"

"No way. If he is here already, we should already see him. Uncle Giru is supposed to give him the bright flare stone.

"Maybe he didn't use it."

"If he didn't, how can he see anything? Do you think he is like us? To have consumed a Cat-eye pill that allows us to see in the dark?"

"Just get back to your post! He can be here any second."

"What do we need to be afraid of? He is just a mortal stage, one of us is enough to take care of him."

"We need to make sure it is done properly. If Madam Lin gets news that we are responsible, we will be in trouble."

"Probably he is lost already in the tunnels."

"He will eventually come. All the tunnels lead to here, and there is only one exit, he has to go through here for the exit. There is nowhere for him to go."

"Huh, this is so boring. If uncle Fong didn't promise us a big reward, I wouldn't have wasted my time with that squirt."

"Just shut up and go back to your post!"

Several shuffling sounds and footsteps before the silence returned.

Amon had his eyes closed to focus on listening to their whispers. He now opened his eyes, a glint of savagery in his eyes.

'Hehe, so they plan to ambush me?' Amon thought with amusement.

When he started his career on the battlefield in his past life, he also started with a stealth operation. Sneaking and killing during the night. How fitting for his first mission in this world to carry the same vibe. He couldn't help but grin widely. He was going to enjoy this.

He stayed low and started moving. They mentioned they could see in the dark due to some drug called Cat-eye pill. So, he should assume that they could see as well as him, or even better. Yet, he was sure they couldn't hear as well as him. He had trained himself to be able to sneak around without any footstep sound.

There were three of them. He already knew the position of the two because they chattered. There was still another one which he could only guess the general direction from the boy's killing intent. He decided to go for one of the two whose positions he was sure about.

The stalagmite stone mazes hindered his progress, but Amon was patient. He continued to stay low and moved slowly and silently towards his prey.

The three hunters never expected that they would be the ones getting hunted!