Rise of The Demon General

As he got closer, the temperature turned warmer. It was blistering hot when he was less than thirty meters away from the miniature sun.

The spirit overseer below was right, if he didn't turn this miniature sun into this dim version, he won't be able to get close to it.

He continued. It was harder to proceed as there were fewer handholds, so it took him a long time. He was full of sweat due to the heat. As he was around ten meters away from the prize, there was no handhold at all. There was even an upside-down crater in the ceiling directly above the miniature sun. The surface of this crater was extremely smooth, even his climbing claws had difficulty getting a grip.

The surface here must have been affected by the heat of the miniature son. After long exposure to the heat, it slowly melt and turned into this reversed crater with smooth surfaces.

Without any handhold, there was no way for him to reach the miniature sun. Amon gazed at the thing. That miniature sun was still around ten meters away and hanging around five meters below him. From the ceiling, it was hanging around eight meters away.

Amon supposed its original distance to the ceiling was also five meters. But after heating the ceiling rock for a long duration of time, it created this crater and caused it to appear hanging further away. The miniature sun was held by a red color chain that went all the way to the ceiling.

Amon surmised the chain must have gone even further, deep into the ceiling rock. To be able to bear the heat of the sun that could melt even the ceiling rock, the chain must be extremely durable. Yet, Amon didn't care about the chain. All he needed was that miniature sun.

After thinking for a while, Amon made his decision. He decided to take the risk. All he needed to do was touch the miniature sun long enough to transfer it into his space ring. He estimated with this distance, he should be able to push for a jump. The thing was, he only had one chance. He was sure he would suffer quite some injuries falling from this height. He won't be in good enough shape to climb a second time if he missed.

He took out the highest-grade recovery pill he had in his space ring, then put it into his mouth. He stored that pill under his tongue. After that, he got ready. He positioned his hands and feet at handholds and footholds that had enough surface to propel himself forward.

He focused his mind on the target and controlled his breathing. He transferred the energy to his hands and feet. He held his breath. He then pushed using all his hands and feet. His body shot in the air at an angle towards the dim miniature sun.

He could feel the heat intensifying as he approached, so much that he had trouble opening his eyes. But he forced them open, he couldn't afford to lose vision at this crucial moment.

He extended his arms forward as he got near. His two arms hit the round object that was the miniature sun and gripped them with full force.

"EERRGGHHH…!!!" He gritted his teeth as extreme heat burned his hands. He took care to not open his mouth or else the recovery pill might fall out. Despite the extreme pain, he didn't let go. He forced his grips to stay with the round object.

He needed at least one second to send his consciousness to store the object into his space ring. Anyone's mind should have been blacked out by the sheer pain, but Amon's persevered. The pain made it difficult for his mind to think, but he forced them to. He ended up spending two seconds before the miniature sun vanished and entered his space ring.

With the miniature sun disappearing, so too was his handhold. He was free-falling towards the ground.

He spread his arm and body to create enough surface for the air drag to help slow down his fall. When he was almost to the ground, he readjusted his body so that his feet were facing down. He pressed his two legs together and tucked in his chin while covering his head with his arms.

The miniature position was directly above the central structure of the garden. During the fall, Amon had positioned himself so that his free-falling direction was towards the tree in the garden.

He activated Hardened Bronze Body just before he hit the tree. The tree had thick foliage. The leaves and branches helped cushion his fall before he hit the ground.

*CRASH*

He landed on his feet and knees. He tried to roll to cushion the impact but everything was too sudden. The bones in his legs were broken, and so too were the ones in his ribs and arms. Thankfully, he managed to protect his head.

He was still breathing as he lay on the ground. The Hardened Bronze Body and the trees had saved him from a fatal impact. But all his body parts were hurting, his hands were badly burned. He won't be moving anytime soon.

He swallowed the recovery pill that he had stored under his tongue.

He saw the spirit come above him and asked, "Are you okay?"

Amon didn't reply. He just closed his eyes to regulate his breathing and regulate the aether in his body. It would take him a long time to heal before he could move again.

*

One month passed with Amon staying inside the cavern.

For the first half month, Amon simply laid there on the ground with the broken bones. He regulated the aether in his body to speed up the healing process. During the time, since he couldn't do anything, most of the time he spent his consciousness inside his black space ring.

The miniature sun he had recovered was inside there. He used his mind to move it up onto the top of the space in his space ring. In this space, he controlled everything, he could move things simply with his mind. So, there was no risk of getting burned by the miniature sun.

Once it was up there at the top, Amon uttered, "Day," in his previous world language. The miniature sun shone brightly, brightening up the entire space within.

Now, he only needed to transfer soil and water inside here before bringing the living plants inside. But since he could still not move, he must leave that for later. For now, he went to the rows of bookshelves and studied their contents. He started to take out one book to read after another.

In the arts section, he found something useful for his current condition. It was an art called Nine Moon Restorative Mantra. It was an art with a healing function. He could practice this art since it didn't need him to do any body movement. All he needed to do was regulate the aether as instructed in the book while reciting its mantra.

After memorizing its content, Amon went to practice it. He quickly gained understanding after practicing it for half a day and entered its beginning level. Even with only the beginning level, he could feel his healing proceed at a much faster pace than normal.

Amon also ate a recovery pill daily. He had to struggle very hard considering he also broke his arms and they were also badly burned. But with enough determination, he managed to put the pill into his mouth.

During that half month, Amon continued to read the books in his space ring. It was impossible to read them all, but he selected some that he thought were useful. Particularly one that contained information about spirit beasts, the classification of arts, and cultivation levels.

After all that reading, he learned that the Arts in this world were divided into five categories: Cultivation art, Martial art, arcane art, transformation art, and movement art. Cultivation art was the art that absorbed aether to enhance and improve a cultivator's energy core. Martial art was an art that utilize body movements to create a powerful force. While arcane art was the art that utilized the elements of the world. Transformation art caused changes to the body, like Wei Lhosa's art which turned him into a brute ape. The Nine Moon Restorative Mantra he had just learned was also classified as a transformation art. The last movement art was an art that utilize the aether to increase one's speed and movements.

The power of each art was also graded based on its power. There were three grades of power in an art: Practitioner, profound, and heavenly. Each of these main grades was further divided into sub-categories: low-tier, mid-tier, and high-tier.

The Nine Moon Restorative Mantra was considered a mid-tier practitioner art. There was higher grade healing art in the collection, but the higher the grade, the harder it was to learn. Amon needed to urgently heal himself, so he couldn't choose to learn the difficult one.

He didn't know what grade the martial arts he had learned from the Hei clan. The ones on the bookshelves here were already categorized by the owner. So, he had no problem identifying their grades. However, the book explained that once one entered the Martial realm, one would be able to use his consciousness to grade an art once one learned its beginner level.