Rise of The Demon General

"Spare… Spare me…!" Wei Lun pleaded. "You can keep the mandrakes, I won't tell anyone that you are the one who steals the mandrake."

Amon was just watching him in silence.

"Please… I have no quarrel with you… There is no need for you to kill me," Wei Lun continued.

"… Your clan has been showing quite an intent on harming me," Amon finally said.

"That… That has nothing to do with me. I promise you, I have no intention to be your enemy at all. I attacked just now because you have the mandrakes. If we met any other time, I won't be showing you any hostility. And this will be the same in the future. You have my words!"

"… I see you use magic talismans. Did you create those talismans yourself?" Amon asked.

"Yes… Yes, I did! Do you want me to create talismans for you? No problem. You can take the ones I have here."

Another talisman appeared in his uninjured hand.

"Don't try it!" Amon warned while aiming his crossbow.

"Don't worry. I am just giving this to you," Wei Lun said and placed that talisman on the ground near the other one that had fallen previously. "These are all the ones I have left. If you want more, I can create it for you later when we get out from here. Hey, we can be good friends. I can make many talismans that will help you in numerous ways."

"Tempting, but I'm not interested in friends. Would you be willing to be my underling?" Amon asked.

"Underling…? Of course! From now on, you are my boss. I will listen to all you say. Any command you give, I will carry it without question!" Wei Lun exclaimed.

"You swear it?" Amon asked.

"I swear it!" Wei Lun uttered.

At this time, Amon pressed his crossbow trigger. The bolt was released and it penetrated right between Wei Lun's eyes. His eyes bulged as he didn't understand what had happened when he lost his life.

"Hmph, faker," Amon said. He had dealt with many underlings in his past life. He knew when someone was lying just to save his life. He did not doubt that this Wei Lun would double-cross him once he found a chance. Although the boy's talisman-making talent was useful, this kind of opportunistic person was someone he could not utilize yet with his current situation. He was not in a position of power yet. What he needed at this moment was trustworthy persons, or more correctly in his opinion, someone who was simple and easier to be manipulated. Not this snake.

He bent down and picked up the two talismans. Although he had never used one before, he had read its application was simple. All he needed was to transfer his aether into the talisman. The talisman would then release its intended effect. In this case, produced an explosion. He stored the two talismans and took Wei Lun's space ring.

When he sent his consciousness into the space ring, it confirmed his suspicion about Wei Lun. Inside were another two exploding talismans, the boy had lied. He took these talismans as well together with the other valuable resources Wei Lun had gathered during his time in this dimension.

After finishing his plunder, he returned the almost empty space ring to Wei Lun's finger. He then walked away from that place.

*

After traveling some distance away, Amon stopped at another rocky outcropping that he thought was safe enough. He rested there under the cover of night. He applied healing salve on his burned skin and used the Nine Moon Restorative Mantra to help with the healing.

After he felt much better, he prepared to consume the mandrake. It should be just a few more days before they were forcefully ejected from this dimension. Although his black space ring should be able to hide all his items, he still preferred to consume this mandrake before he left.

He prepared a pot and filled it with water. He then heat it until it was boiling. He took one of the mandrakes out, which was still wriggling. Without any expression, he threw the mandrake into the pot. A shrill cry was heard as the mandrake splashed around in the pot. Amon covered his ears from the cry. This was not mentioned in the catalog, he complained in his mind.

The cry was not as powerful as the cry it produced when it was plucked from the ground, but still loud enough to make Amon's ears hurt. He just hoped that there was no one around that heard the cry.

The cry only lasted a short moment. He saw the mandrake inside the boiling water become weaker as time passed, it eventually stopped moving.

Amon waited until one hour. He then poured the water out of the pot. The clear water had turned dark brownish. Amon presumed that was due to the toxic element excreted by the mandrake's skin.

He lifted the mandrake. It now had a smooth pink-colored skin instead of the previous brown and rough skin.

After inspecting it for a while, Amon took his first bite. There was almost no taste. The meat was rough. Amon felt like he was munching on wood that had been softened. He didn't care about the taste though, he was not consuming this mandrake for delicacy. He continued eating until none of the mandrakes was left. He then sat cross-legged and waited for his body to completely absorb the mandrake's essence.

A few minutes passed, and Amon felt nothing changed. The book he read informed that if someone had successfully triggered the birth of a special constitution via the mandrake, the consumers would feel the change. It would be as if their bodies underwent a transformation.

'It fails?' Amon thought dissapointly.

He still had one more mandrake, but it was no use. One person could only consume one mandrake. After consuming once, even if it failed to trigger a reaction, the body would develop a tolerance to it. The next mandrake won't give a result anymore.

Never mind, if it failed then it failed. There was no need to dwell on it. Amon had learned through a life full of struggles that there were winnings and there were losings. It's all part of a cycle. As long as one still lived, there was a way to turn things around.

He started cultivating while resting, but as he felt the flow of aether, he noticed something different.

"Hm?"

He only noticed it when he started to pay attention to the aether flowing into his body when starting his cultivation art. There was already a small amount of aether flowing inside. He stopped his cultivation art but kept his attention to the flow of aether. The aether continued to sip into his body, even though it was very minuscule.

'Is this? Can this be the special constitution that is triggered by the mandrake?' Amon thought. Normally one needed to consciously suck in the aether from the surrounding environment. That was what cultivation art was for. But now, his body was doing it by itself.

He thought about the implication. If this was true, then it would be as if he continued to cultivate all the time. Even if the aether absorbed with this passive cultivation was minuscule, it was still better than none. He already did not need sleep due to his demon body and could cultivate while others were sleeping. With this additional passive cultivation, his cultivation speed would not lose to the youths of the rich and famous clans who were regularly supplied with cultivation pills and resources. Added with the spirit herbs and spirit fruits from the plantation in his black space ring, and the boost from the black aetherium stone, he might even overtake those youths.

However, he thought that the benefit of this passive absorption of aether didn't stop only at cultivation speed. It would greatly help his combat prowess as well. One of the problems for combatants was aether reserve. Every art consumed aether. The stronger the art was, the more aether was needed as fuel. During a fight, it wasn't effective to use cultivation art to absorb aether. Hence, once one's aether reserve was depleted, he or she won't be able to perform any more arts. It was like a fighter who had run out of stamina, one would be a sitting duck that way. But with this passive aether absorption, his reserve would be continually refilled during a fight. Even if the refill was slow, it would still help him last longer than anyone with the same cultivation level.

Amon was excited by this improvement in his body. He was wondering though, why this change didn't cause any sensation? The book described that one would clearly feel the transformation, many described the experiences as very painful even. Yet, he never felt a thing. If he didn't actively check his aether flow, he probably won't notice this change for some time.

He thought about it for a while. Could it be that his demon body was already considered a special constitution? He thought. The mandrake didn't trigger any transformation because he already had one. So, instead of triggering a special constitution, the mandrake simply upgraded the one he already had.

He had no way to know if this was the case. That was not important. All he cared about was that he had acquired an additional edge in both cultivation and combat.