Rise of The Demon General

Amon transferred all the goods into his space ring including the compasses. He assumed the compasses as something the boys used to determine direction within this dimension. Perhaps the direction facing the depth of the woods was this dimension's equivalent of the north pole.

He threw away the two boy's space rings and disposed of the body. He dug a large hole and then buried them inside. It's not that he wanted to give them a proper burial. It's just that if someone else came again and saw the body, they would be alerted and it would be harder for Amon to ambush them.

Afterward, he returned to his chores of building the plantation inside his space ring.

As before, he worked on the periphery of the woods without going too deep. Most of the soil surrounding the woods was now badly messed up due to Amon. Amon figured it should still take him a few more days to finish gathering the soil and trees in this woods' outer rim. After that, he would need to search for another plot with good soil.

Another two days passed. Amon had worked himself to a different part of the woods' outer rim. He was mostly done at this place. Before he left, however, he took out one of the compasses he had taken from the two boys he killed.

He had a curiosity about the compass and wanted to check. When he looked at the needle, the compass was pointing in a different direction than the previous. Amon knew his bearing because he paid attention to his surroundings. He was sure the compass needle was pointing in a different direction.

However, he noticed although the needle was pointing in a different direction than two days ago, it did point to the same thing. It was pointing into the depth of the woods.

His curiosity piqued further, Amon decided to find out. He held the compass in his hand and he ran along the outer rim of the woods. As he ran, the needle of the compass slowly turned. Its needle was constantly pointing into the depth of the woods.

'Is the center of these woods the north pole of this dimension?' Amon wondered.

As he was having his thought, his sharp ears heard voices from the distance.

'Another person? Is it the other finalist again? This dimension is so vast and yet he keeps on running into other people?' Amon hurriedly hid again.

From his hiding place, he saw two people. Two people he recognized. They were Lin Fen and Lin Cang, the youths from the same clan as his. They were heading towards the woods. One of them, Lin Fen, was holding a small thing in her hand. He regularly looked down at this thing in her hand, as if ascertaining the direction they should take.

Amon somehow thought if he went over to them, he would find out that the thing in Lin Fen's hand would be the same compass as the one he had.

'Why do they have this thing?' Amon thought. The Lin clan never told him anything about this thing. Then again, he was considered an outsider in the Lin clan so it was natural for them to keep something from him. What he was more interested in, was what this compass was pointing at and why these clan youths were heading in the direction it pointed.

After some thought, Amon decided to follow the two Lin youths. Like the two boys that he killed before, Lin Fen and Lin Cang were ecstatic when they found the trees that bore spirit fruits. They went and picked up the fruits.

Was the compass simply showing the woods that had the trees with spirit fruits? Amon wondered.

Amon stayed still and just observed them for a bit. He was mostly done with this place, there was no need for him to kill any more trespassers. If all they were after were these spirit fruits, then Amon would just leave them and headed somewhere else searching for the next good plot to transfer into his space ring. They would encounter trouble from the Ethereal Bronze-skinned Snake inside the woods but that was not Amon's problem.

After some hours, the two Lin youths were finally done with the spirit fruits. Lin Fen looked at the thing on her hand again and they ventured deeper into the woods.

Amon decided to tail them.

They went deeper and deeper into the woods. Amon tailed them at the same time he was paying attention to his surroundings. He didn't plan to get ambushed by another Ethereal Bronze-skinned Snake again. He had read from the spirit beast encyclopedia that one could know one of these snakes was nearby by its particular scent.

The scent was a combination of the sweetness of almond scent and the stinkiness of a rotten cadaver, which was the weird scent Amon had smelled before he was assaulted by the invisible phyton he had killed. With this knowledge, he paid particular attention to his nose.

He wondered whether the two Lin youths would arrive at whatever the compass was pointing to or would they become prey to the snakes. He put a sufficient distance between himself and those two. Firstly, to make sure they weren't aware of being followed. Secondly, so that he could retreat safely if the two were ambushed by the snakes.

It seemed that fate was rather kind to the two Lin youths. They had traveled for more than half a day and were very deep into the woods. Yet, no encounter with the snakes.

In fact, the woods were surprisingly devoid of living things. Only a few harmless critters and worms. No other animals nor spirit beasts. Amon assumed probably the creator of this dimension didn't put too many ecosystems inside this world. Even throughout his travel these few days, this dimension appeared rather barren with life except for a few spots.

The two Lin youths Amon was following suddenly stopped. They looked around as if searching for something. Amon stopped as well.

'Did they hear me?' Amon thought. No, he was very confident with his stealth.

Amon then saw the reason why the two stopped. Another figure appeared and walked to where the two were standing. Amon remembered that person as one of the White Cloud youths. The two Lin youths seemed to be on edge when this person approached. However, this person held his hands up and gave a gesture that he meant no harm.

The three talked. Amon couldn't hear what they were talking about since they were too far.

After a long discussion, the three started walking together.

Amon frowned. 'What's going on here?'

He tailed after the three. He checked the compass in his possession. The three were deviating a bit from the direction shown by the compass.

Amon decided to follow the three first. He didn't want to go to where the compass was pointing without sufficient information.

After a while, Amon saw the three approaching a larger group of youths. Amon was surprised to find so many youths there. The world inside this dimension was so big. How did they end up here? He looked at the compass in his hand. Was it because they all followed this thing?

Amon searched for a tree that had thick foliage near where the group was gathering. He then stealthily approached and climbed the tree. He counted the number of youths gathering below. Including the two Lin youths, there were thirteen youths.

Out of one hundred youths that entered this dimension, this could be considered quite a few. Amon looked at their hands, most of them carried the same compass in his hand. This confirmed how they gathered here. There were probably more youths that had these compasses as well, but they couldn't get here because they were transported to a place too far away from here when they entered this dimension.

The group below had five from the White Cloud sect while the other eight were from the different clans who participated in the tournament. Amon remembered all their faces even if he didn't catch their names. There were, however, two familiar faces within the group. Wei Lun, the Wei clan's tournament winner who pretended to be weak, and the talented youth from the Lei clan, Lei San.

A tall boy from the White Cloud sect seemed to be the one assuming the leadership of the group. This boy was briefing the new arrivals, the Lin youths.

Amon was close enough to hear what they were talking about.

"You are of the Lin clan?" This tall boy asked.

Both Lin Fen and Lin Cang nodded.

"My name is Pai Wuci," The tall boy introduced. "I am the leader of this group. You should do well to listen to my order."

The two Lin youths looked at one another before they nodded.

"Good. You two are following the nightshade compass, so you know what you come here for," Pai Wuci said. "But know this, the Thousand Year Mandrakes you after are within the nest of Ethereal Bronze-skinned Snakes. If you proceed, you won't make it out alive."