Rise of The Demon General

Amon took out the carcass and placed it inside the now empty structures after Amon stored all the bookshelves in his space ring.

"Ethereal Bronze-skinned Snake," the spirit said after seeing the carcass. Amon never bothered to ask the spirit's name all this time. When he wanted to ask the spirit a question, he simply called the spirit, spirit.

"You found this carcass or you killed it?" The spirit asked.

"Killed it," Amon answered.

"You are indeed exceptional. This phyton is extremely dangerous. Even someone with high cultivation could still fall prey to it. Only those that have entered the Martial realm and have developed the ability to detect others' presences can safely go up against this snake. Otherwise, they won't know from where this snake will attack."

Amon didn't pay attention to the spirit's ramblings. The spirit had done that often during these few days that Amon was here. He didn't know whether a spirit could get lonely. Perhaps that's why the spirit was so chatty.

Amon took out his Swan Dagger and started cutting the snake. Its scales were too tough. He couldn't damage it when the snake was alive, he couldn't do it now even after it had died. He slipped his dagger into the underneath of the scales and cut from there. The process took a very long time due to that, but Amon worked patiently.

With the help of the books about this snake, he also learned its valuable parts. The part that he would want to harvest was its gland that helped it turn invisible. This gland was useful as both engraving and alchemy ingredients.

The scales were also useful for smiths, they could be turned into a good scale mail. But not all the scales were useful, the book told Amon that the ones that should be taken were the small part near the back of the head. All the other parts would just deteriorate and turned soft over time.

The snake's gallbladder and the oil from its fat were also useful ingredients for alchemy and medicinal pills. With the knowledge from the book, he no longer had to waste time feeling the aether of a corpse, he could go directly into dissections.

During the process of cutting, he found one fascinating thing though. There was a living worm crawling underneath one of the scales he was cutting. It couldn't have come after the carcass was taken out. It was not that long to allow this slow-moving critter to climb all the way here.

But how did he explain its existence here? It was not possible for living things to exist inside his space ring. If this worm was already on the snake's body, it would be repelled when Amon stored the snake's body in his space ring for the first time. Unless…

To test his theory, Amon stored the carcass back in his black space ring again. He then had his consciousness dove into the black space ring. He went to the part of the snake's body where he had seen the worm. There it was. Still clinging to the snake's body and still wriggling.

Amon took the carcass out again and looked at his black space ring. Not only was this black ring contained space way bigger than normal rings, but it was also unable to be accessed by other people for reasons he had yet to know. Now, he also found out that it was capable to store living things, something that he read to be impossible. This ring was even more special than he initially thought.

"Something's wrong with the ring?" The spirit asked.

Hearing the spirit's question, Amon showed the black space ring to him and asked, "Do you know what kind of ring is this?"

"Hm…," The spirit mumbled as he observed the ring. "Can't say I do. Doesn't look like anything special to me."

Since the spirit didn't know, Amon didn't ask further. He resumed his process of harvesting the snake's valuable parts.

After finishing with the snake's carcass, Amon turned to the garden again. He now know he could store these living herbs and trees in his black space ring, but another issue cropped up. How did he provide an environment where these plants could live?

For the soil and water, he could take some from here and transfer them into his black space ring, creating a small garden. But they would still need sunlight to survive.

Amon looked up. He then asked the spirit, "All the things here are free for me to take, right?"

"That's right," The spirit said.

"Then it will be fine if I take that artificial sun up there as well, right?"

The spirit looked up. "If you can take it," he answered.

Amon looked up again. Yes, that would be a challenge. If he was already in the Spirit stage of the Martial realm, this should not be a problem since he could just float up there and take it. But as he was now, he had to climb up by himself.

The ceiling of this huge cavern was incredibly high. If he fell, even if he survived, it would not be without wounds. Not to mention, the miniature sun was located right at the center of the ceiling, the furthest spot away from the cavern walls. Which meant that he would have to do roof climbing on the ceiling all the way to where the miniature sun was.

"Is there a mechanism to shut it off and bring it down?" Amon asked the spirit.

"I can turn it off. Well, not exactly turn it off. Just lower its light to a minimum. That's how I generate a night feel here. If you try to take it as it is now, you will be burnt to ashes before you can touch it. But even if I can make it dim, I can't bring it down. You have to do it physically."

"I understand. Please turn it down then," Amon said.

"All right," the spirit then uttered, "Night." But in the language of Amon's past world. This took Amon by surprise. The miniature sun in the sky turned dim. It still emitted a soft light that kept the cavern from total darkness.

"What language do you use just now?" Amon asked.

"The one I use to control the miniature sun? It's the language created by my creator," the spirit answered.

'Created…?' Amon wondered.

"Tell me, spirit. Is your creator also the one that created this dimension?"

"Yes. All the things and legacies within this dimension were placed by him here before he passed over to the higher realm."

"Higher realm?"

"It's the place where Gods live."

"Hmph, interesting. I might want to visit that place in the future," Amon grinned. "This creator of yours. Does he or she has a name?"

"It's he. Sadly, I am not permitted to divulge his name. But if you truly visit the realm of the Gods, probably you will meet him."

"Meet him? How long ago since your creator left?"

The spirit gave the matter some thought. "Give or take, around three million years ago."

"And you think your creator is still alive after that long?"

"My creator has reached the Divine realm. That's how he can go to the higher realm. One becomes immortal after reaching the Divine realm."

"Unless one is killed."

"No one can defeat my creator."

Amon didn't bother to argue with the spirit. He turned his attention up to the miniature sun that now looked more like a miniature moon. Everything was darker now.

"I will go up there. Keep that miniature sun dim," Amon ordered.

The spirit nodded.

"By the way, will the maze prevent me from moving freely again?" Amon asked before he left.

"No, once you passed the maze. You are marked as the inheritor of the legacy here. The maze won't hinder you anymore."

"Good," Amon said and left.

He went to the cavern wall where he saw its top part slightly sloped in, hence the distance where he had to scale the ceiling was shorter. He took out his climbing claws once he arrived under the wall. He had also made a set that was to be used on his feet, a set of foot spikes. He wore these ninja climbing gears before he started scaling the wall.

There was no problem as he climbed the wall. After a long climb, he arrived at where the ceiling and the wall met. The scene here combined with the ground so far below would have intimidated anyone, but not Amon. This was not his first time doing roof climbing. He had done plenty in his past life. Sometimes for covert missions, sometimes for training, sometimes simply because he had no better things to do. He even often did it without any harness or climbing gears at all.

As he started doing the roof climbing here, his previous habits all came back. All the toe hooks, heel hooks, knee bars, bicycles, and campusings. But all in all, what truly mattered was his strength and stamina. Can't have one losing a grip midway because of getting tired. With his current cultivation, he found this roof climbing to be much easier than in his past life.

Amon steadily proceeded through the ceiling towards where the miniature sun was waiting for him.