Rise of The Demon General

After the battle ended, there were still around one hundred thirty members in Amon's group. They looked at each other with disquiet. How should they proceed from here? Only until the surviving youths were one hundred in number that Pai Kuan would declare this preliminary round over.

At the moment, Pai Kuan simply observed these remaining youths in silence as he moved those who are unconscious or no longer able to fight away from the arena.

Everyone looked at Amon. He was their leader, so they would let him decide.

Amon was studying the group as well. After walking around observing everyone, he started picking people.

"You… you… you… move over here."

After a while, there became two groups.

'What's wrong? Does he want us to fight each other?' They thought.

But after careful observation, they noticed there was a similarity in the ones Amon had chosen. The youth which Amon had picked, were all middlingly wounded.

Those who were heavily wounded had been deemed as unable to continue to fight and were taken away by Pai Kuan. The remaining were those middlingly wounded, lightly wounded, or without a scratch.

Currently, Amon had separated his group into two. One with the middlingly wounded, while the remaining others were lightly wounded or without a wound.

The group who was middlingly wounded looked at each other in trepidation. Were they going to be sacrificed? Their number was less than the other group. They numbered less than forty. The other group had more numbers and was still healthy. If Amon decided to discard them, they would have no power to resist.

They gritted their teeth. They had sacrificed themselves to achieve victory and this was their reward? Screw this, if the other group wanted them gone, they would have to fight for it. They prepared themselves for a bitter fight.

Lin Gai, who had been hiding in the back all this time, hence he suffered no injury, clapped his hands. "Bravo, brother Lin Mo! Once we discarded this lot, we are officially the winners of the preliminary round."

"Fuck you! You want a piece of me? Come and try me!" One of the youth from the wounded group yelled.

"Yeah, you think we are pushovers?!" Another joined.

The wounded group was very riled up. They were very angry at how unfair they had been treated. They were ready to lunge and die together with the opposite group. They swore to at least take down one person with them.

"Halt!" Xin Wuming stopped their advance. He was amongst the wounded group. He had been fighting fiercely and thus had suffered quite an assortment of wounds. Despite that, he still stood straight and maintained his dignity. He turned to Amon and asked, "Is this what you want? You want to discard us?"

Amon looked at him and sneered, "I never say that."

He then turned to the larger group and uttered. "Each one of you picks one person."

"What?" Lin Gai was confused. "What do you mean?"

"You pick one person, then you fight. I'm giving you a chance for a fair fight. Those who win, stay. Those who lose, well, you know what will happen."

"What's the point? We should just beat those people up. We outnumber them and they are already wounded. It will be a piece of cake!"

"How dare you!" Amon's voice thundered out. "These people fought fiercely and that's how they get their wounds. They earned their places. You who are still unscathed, still have to prove that you deserve to win!"

The unwounded group was silenced by Amon's admonishment. They did hold back to avoid injury. They were all still youths, they were not that shameless enough to deny that.

Xin Wuming who heard Amon's words, felt admiration and appreciation as he watched Amon's back.

There were, of course, some that were unwilling to relinquish an easy win. One such youth exclaimed, "why should we do that? Lin Gai is right. We should just dispose of…"

His words were cut short as Amon blurred to his front. Amon had again used Silent Swift Stab advancing technique without the dagger, his fist instead buried deep into the youth's stomach. The youth bent over as all the air inside him was forcefully pushed out. Before he could react, Amon's other fist dove onto his head. His head slammed onto the floor below. He lost consciousness at once.

"This is not a discussion!" Amon declared.

These youths, both intimidated by Amon's display and acknowledging his fair treatment, started to accept his instruction. They looked at each other and started pointing.

"You."

"You."

Those that had picked their opponents went further apart to have their duel.

"No ganging up. You will be thrown out if you do," Amon reminded.

Lin Gai, who watched what was happening, yelled out in disbelief, "What are you people doing? We have more numbers than them. Why should we listen to him? We should…"

Amon had appeared in front of him.

"You… what do you intend to do? We are one clan. If you dare to lay your hands on me…"

"Oh, I do," Amon said. "I pick you."

"Wh–What…?"

"I pick you. I am amongst those who have no wounds. It's only fair I should fight someone as well," Amon said.

"You… you lunatic!"

"You better move. I will count to three. If you are still not ready, don't blame me. One…"

Lin Gai couldn't believe this. He looked around. There were still a few youths who were undecided. They were probably like him, who agreed to dispose of those wounded ones and had themselves an easy win.

"Two…"

"Damn you…!!" Lin Gai screamed as he lunged at Amon. He clawed out. The nail on his fingers elongated and hardened. Amon could feel the sharp aether projected from those nails.

Amon shifted his body as Lin Gai claw arrived. His fist shot out and punched accurately into Lin Gai's elbow. Amon had used Bone Shattering Shadow Fist in his punch. The sound of bone snapping could be heard. Lin Gai screamed painfully.

While Lin Gai lost all semblance of thoughts, Amon grabbed him and judo-threw him onto the floor. His fist then slammed onto Lin Gai's face. Amon controlled his power to not give the kid a permanent injury. He was still not ready to face the Lin clan out in the open. His punch instead caused Lin Gai to blackout.

He stood and watched the others that were still undecided.

"You people have three seconds to pick an opponent. If by the time I count to three, you are still hesitating. We will treat you as enemies."

When Amon said this, the number of youths that were still undecided was only around twenty. The others had moved away and had their duels. The forty wounded youths came to Amon's back to show that they supported him.

The twenty remaining youths looked at each other. Though reluctant, they finally pick one another for a duel.

Pai Kuan and the spectators who were watching were flabbergasted by the turns of events. This should be a battle royale where chaotic fights were waged until a handful remained. How come it became this kind of organized fighting?

Pai Kuan was especially amazed. This was the first time the battle royale event had turned out like this. He was especially amazed by Amon's ability to control the situation. Amon was just a kid, but his ability to influence others was shocking. Given a chance, this kid would have huge potential.

Pai Kuan tried to remember Amon's info. He knew nothing of Amon aside from him being part of the Lin clan and was named Lin Mo. Pai Kuan reminded himself to have his people find out more about Amon's background.

While Pai Kuan was contemplating, the duels below continued.

Once all the winners were decided, there were still fifteen spots left. Amongst the losers, some had been knocked unconscious and some were heavily wounded, so they had been automatically removed by Pai Kuan.

There were coincidentally thirty youths left amongst the losers who could still fight. So Amon arranged for these thirty losers to do another picking and duel each other again. The fifteen winners amongst them would join the winning team.

Seeing no other choice, they complied. Once the duelings ended. The one hundred winners of the preliminary round were decided.

Pai Kuan came down to the arena and watched these one hundred youths. He was conflicted. So did the spectators. There was no cheering as usually happened at the end of the round. These one hundred could not be said as the best amongst the rest who had lost. They simply had cooperated better and seized the victory.

Pai Kuan, who had watched the entire proceedings from close by, did not doubt the reason for their cooperation. It was the Lin clan's kid, who now stood at the front, facing him. The others stood behind him, perfectly acknowledging their inferiority to this Lin kid. Although all of them were kids, he had never seen someone subjugating others so easily.