Rise of The Demon General

Amon held the body of the woman as he slowly laid her down on the ground, so as to not make any noise. He then delved back into the darkness again.

This world's practitioners were too used to using their cultivation level to decide on winning or losing that they were completely alien to stealth combat. But Amon figured this style was only effective when he was going against Human realm cultivators. In the Martial realm, cultivators could sense others' cultivation, which also meant that they could sense others' presence. He would not be able to use sneak tactics against those beings.

Amon covered the body of the dead woman with shrubs to hide it. As long as these supposed assassins still underestimated him, it would ease his effort. He heard the scream of a man. The direction indicated it was the one who had stumbled onto the White Bone Ants. This meant only two were left.

He then sneaked to the other side where the other two should be, going from cover to cover.

The white-haired leader was nowhere in sight. That guy had probably gone further away searching for him. The last of his underlings, on the other hand, was sitting up there on a branch of a tree. He was scanning the surrounding, trying to spot movements. Amon was watching him from behind a tree.

'This one is more careful,' Amon thought. He then picked up a rock, which he flung to a nearby tree. The rock caused a sound as it hit the tree and fell to the ground. The assassin above immediately responded to the sound. He jumped to the tree branch above where the sound was heard.

He tried to look below but couldn't see anything down there. Amon was expecting him to come down to check, but instead, he made some spinning motions using his two arms. Flickers of fire were created following his motion, which came together and fuse into a fiery ball the size of a grapefruit.

This ball of fire was then dropped to the ground. Where the fireball touched the ground, flame erupted and radiated outwards. It even hit the tree where Amon was hiding at. One side of this tree was on fire as Amon stayed still on the other side.

The man who had used the flame art looked again down there. Everything had been alighted by his flame. Hence, he could see better, but he still did not see Amon anywhere.

After seeing how effective his fire art was in lighting up an area, he went and tossed one fireball after another to other areas. The flame spread out more and more due to his action.

'Idiot!' Amon thought. He had crept away already. He was not staying around waiting for one of that guy's fireballs to light up the place he was on.

"Haha! Let's see if you can continue to hide!" The assassin laughed as he kept on tossing fireballs all over the place.

Suddenly, several white objects shot out with high speed from the flame, heading to where the assassin was at. His reaction was not bad as he managed to jump before the white object hit. The branch he was on a moment before was shattered to pieces.

He landed on another branch but soon another volley shot out from underneath. The pattern continued until he found that most branches were snapped already. There were fewer for him to jump to.

The white objects that shot out of the flame, were now crawling around the trees around the assassin. They were the White Bone Ants that dominated this place. Any cultivators who ventured into these woods would be careful when they passed by so as to not disturb these spirit beasts unnecessarily. This assassin had instead gone around destroying their habitat, how did they not provoked?

'It seemed like I do not need to do anything,' Amon thought as he observed from afar.

"Found you," Amon suddenly hear a voice from above. He looked up and saw the White-haired man high above the top of the tree.

'How?' Amon thought.

"It seemed that you can sense one's presence," the white-haired man said. "Impressive. Normally, only a Martial realm expert can do that. How do you do it? Is it a secret technique?"

He jumped down and landed not far away from Amon. There were sounds of the other assassin clashing with the White Bone Ants some distance away. That assassin had been calling for help for a while now, but the white-haired man completely showed no care for his teammate. He walked leisurely but keep his distance from Amon.

"You must be wondering why you can't sense my presence, don't you?" The white-hair man asked.

Amon did not answer, but he was indeed curious. It was impossible for someone to fool his senses like this. And yet, this person was directly in front of him, but he couldn't hear his footsteps, his breaths, or his heartbeat. Even the smell and aura he exuded previously when he first met the man, was non-existent.

Amon was also good at erasing his presence, but the way he did it was more like blending in with the environment. This was how he was so good at stealth combat. But the man in front of him, It was as if he was looking at an illusion. As if something… was shrouding the person.

Upon this thought, Amon asked, "Is it an art?"

"Hehe," the white-haired man snickered. "You can have an art that allows you to sense someone despite being in the Human realm. Why can't I have an art that blocks others from sensing me?"

'So there is such an art. I will have to get my hands on one of this–' Amon's thought was cut short as he felt strong killing intent from the white-haired man. He was unable to sense anything from the man, but when the man was about to strike, the overflowing desire to kill could still escape whatever shrouding art this man used.

Amon's body reflexively dodged to the side, just as he felt a sharp thing cut through the side of his left arm. A tree behind Amon was sliced cleanly. Its heavy upper trunk fell as it lost its bottom support.

Amon looked at his arm, blood was flowing from the laceration. Fortunately, the wound was not deep. If he was any slower, his entire body would have been cut clean off already. Even if his self-adjusting chainmail could resist the attack, he would still be badly wounded. This was dangerous, he didn't think his opponent had such a deadly skill.

The white-haired man was no less surprised himself. "How do you do that?" He asked.

Amon did not answer, his right hand took out the Swan Dagger while his left hand gripped five of the throwing knives. He didn't bother about the wound on his arm that was still bleeding, he also didn't bother to hide his Swan Dagger anymore. His opponents were specifically targeting him, so they clearly knew who he was.

"Your response was way too fast for a Human realm cultivator," the white-haired man continued. "No… Rather than calling you fast. It is more correct to say you move before I deliver my attack. As if… You can predict my move?"

It wasn't like that. It was because his intention had been exposed before he performed his attack. But Amon was not going to bother to explain.

"Is it another art? Heh, the handler had indeed sent us an interesting target. Tell you what, kid. You teach me this art, and I will think about sparing your life. How about that?"

"All right," Amon replied.

"Good. Now teach."

"First, you have to learn how to feel your surrounding. Close your eyes, and let your other senses work."

The white-haired man was staring at Amon with a sneer. "Who do you think I am? A little kid like you? You think anyone is going to fall for that dumb trick?"

Amon shrugged. "I thought you are dumb enough."

"Hehe. What an interesting kid. You either knows no fear or you still do not yet realize your inevitable fate. Do you truly think you will walk out of these woods alive?"

"I don't think so. I know so."

"Interesting. Then let me see how you achieve that!"

The white-haired man's arm lifted just as his words ended. Amon again felt that strong killing intent. He was more prepared now. Amon dodged to the side as his body turned to bronze. At the same time, the five throwing knives in his left hand were released.

The white-haired man followed his first attack with a second wave of his other arm. Another cutting energy was shooting at Amon.

This second attack was immediately after the first, Amon had no chance to change the direction of his dodge. So he twisted his body and placed his Swan Dagger on the energy path which was right in front of his chest. The cutting energy slammed onto Amon, producing a loud clank. Amon was thrown by the force of impact. His body was spinning violently in the air before he fell to the ground.