Rise of The Demon General

He pulled the flowers in his grips and felt the ground giving way, revealing two large roots that looked very much like miniature humans. These two humanoid roots wore a terrified expression and opened their wide mouths. Piercing shrill cries soon assaulted him. He had already worn earplugs as was warned by Lei San, but he could still hear the cry. The cry made him cringe but his mental fortitude kept him from being paralyzed. If he didn't wear any earplugs, then it would have been a different case.

He felt the flower in his grips become lighter, just as the humanoid roots detached themselves from the stem of the flower he was holding. He had been prepared and paid attention to the direction they were screaming at. His two hands released the flower with a fast motion and came down the paths where the two humanoid roots were facing.

Amon felt these two humanoid roots slam into his hands as they attempted to run. He immediately tightened his grips around these two mandrakes. All the while, they continued to cry.

With a thought, Amon sent the two mandrakes into his black space ring. If he was using a normal ring, he would have to kill these mandrakes first before storing them. Otherwise, they would have been repelled because they were still alive.

The last purple flower was still at the nest, but the snakes were getting near now. These mandrakes were their treasure. They had made their nest at this place precisely because of the existence of these mandrakes. The aura and air around these mandrakes provided them with a nourishing environment to grow. Once they saw an intruder in their nest, they slithered back frantically.

Amon used one hand to grip the last purple flower. He was not going to let it go when he was so close. His other hand took out Lei San's Repellant Smoke Bomb. He channeled his aether into the bomb to trigger it before throwing it onto the ground.

Thick smoke exploded outward, covering everything in the vicinity. The smell was indeed terrible, but Amon could still bear it. The snakes, however, were screeching wildly. Amon couldn't hear them because of his earplugs, but he sensed the danger they represented dissipating, which meant they were moving away, avoiding the smoke.

Amon pulled the flower in his hand. He could not see the mandrake, but he could still hear its scream despite the earplugs, which was a good thing. He was not paralyzed by the scream but he could still hear the cry enough to identify the position of the mouth, the source of the cry. His acute hearings immediately processed this information once the mandrake started screaming.

Amon's other hand shot in the direction he suspected the mandrake would be heading. That hand touched something soon. He immediately grabbed the thing and transferred it into his black space ring.

Afterward, he ran in the opposite direction from where Lei San was because that's where most of the youths were concentrated.

The smoke continued to travel outward, pushing the snakes further. With a bigger circumference, the density of the snakes became sparser. When he came out of the smoke, he quickly identified the area with fewer snakes and ran that way.

One of the nearest snakes sprang at him with its mouth opened wide. Amon made an abrupt stop. The snake passed by his front. He used one hand to grab the snake's head. Another hand was holding the Swan dagger, which he stabbed underneath its neck, a little below its mouth. There was a soft spot there where the scale was not as hard as the rest of the body. He had this information after reading the spirit beasts encyclopedia from the pyramid legacy. This weakness existed even on the adult Ethereal Bronze-skinned Snakes.

With this information, he fared much better than the other youths.

The snake that had assaulted him died after that one stab into its skull. Amon transferred the carcass into his space ring before resuming his escape.

Another nearby snake attacked by lashing out its tail. It had probably seen this human killing its friend by exploiting their weakness. So it avoided sending its head in the assault. Amon squatted down when the tail swipe came and rolled forward.

At the end of his roll, he detected a small ball was flying at him. It was too late to dodge, so he used his swan dagger to block that ball. It exploded with tiny shrapnels and blue smoke. Some of the shrapnels hit Amon but he protected his vital parts. The explosion was small and the shrapnels were tiny. They didn't give him any serious injury.

Amon looked over at the one who had thrown the ball. It was Wei Lun.

Amon didn't waste time standing there. He had broken through the snake's encirclement after the roll. Without further ado, he ran away.

*

Pai Wuci had known the black-suited person would run the other way once he saw the smoke. He hurriedly instructed everyone to head to the other side. However, with the snakes between them, they had to go through a big roundabout.

He was not even halfway when he saw the black-suited intruder escaping the snakes. One of the clan youths attacked with a ranged weapon, but the black-suited intruder blocked the attack. The weapon exploded but it didn't cause any meaningful injury. What a weak weapon, Pai Wuci cursed in his mind.

The intruder then dashed off into the distance.

"Arrgghhh…! Don't let him get away…!!!" Pai Wuci yelled in rage. However, with such a head start, he knew that it was unlikely for them to catch up. Their comrade with a movement art had perished when he tried to barge into the snakes' nest. The rest of them didn't have any decent long-range movement art. Pai Wuci had one, but his movement art was a short burst that was only useful in a fight, not for a long-range chase.

*

Amon didn't stop running. He stayed within the woods as it provided most cover. He also did not run in a straight line. He always used hard-packed soil to step on, rocks or gravel as opposed to soft soil which would leave tracks. He had also inserted soft pads under his soles to muffle his footsteps. He avoided touching the bushes or breaking any branches as he ran.

Although he was running at high speed, he still paid attention to not stumble into one of those adult Ethereal Bronze-skinned Snakes. He had made sure to run in a different direction than Pai Wuci's partner who lured the adult snakes away, but there could still be the possibility of a straggler snake, like the one that attacked him the first time.

He had traveled the circumference of these woods for days when setting up his plantation. So, he knew the terrain outside. There was another forest nearby. He picked the closest side between these woods and the other forest before running out into the plains in the direction of that forest. There was no one in sight so he thought he should have lost his pursuers.

He didn't stop until he entered the other forest and headed into the deeper part. He had traveled around this forest before. There were some spirit beasts here, but they were just lower inferior beasts. They were boar creatures that had six tusks on their head. When Amon first encountered this beast and killed it, he found it to be quite tasty after cooking it. Hence, these woods were some of the safe areas for him to hide.

He rested at a clearing within these woods. He had been running non-stop for almost half a day. Noon had passed and the sun was low on the horizon already. His black suit was drenched with sweat. He took off the suit and replaced them with his original clothes.

He then sat on a large rock with thick bushes beside it. He allowed his breathing to return to normal while applying healing salve on the wounds caused by Wei Lun's shrapnels. After a while, he took out one of the mandrakes from his black space ring. The mandrake was still alive and wriggling in his hand. It, however, was no longer producing that shrill cry. It didn't have the energy to make the cry continuously, The paralyzing cry only happened one time after the mandrake was pulled.

Amon observed the mandrake in his hand. It was making a whimpering cry. He lowered his head and took a bite on the mandrake. After a few bites, he stopped. Something was wrong. His body suddenly convulsed violently. He fell to the side into the thick bushes with the mandrake still in his hand.

He continued to convulse inside the bushes, as was evident from the swaying of the bushes. After a while, the bushes finally stopped moving.

A figure jumped down from a nearby tree after the bushes stopped moving. It was Lei Muyin, the other Lei clan's youth who entered this dimension with Lei San. On her shoulder was a creature similar to a squirrel. The squirrel could detect a particular scent and she had been using it to track Amon.

The scent that the squirrel tracked was a scent produced by the Repellant Smoke Bomb Amon had used to repel the snakes. The bomb was given by Lei San. He had added special substances inside the bomb which would be released and adhered to the person within the smoke. These substances released the special scent that the squirrel on Lei Muyin's shoulder could track.

Lei Muyin approached the bushes. On her hand was a long slim sword. Lin Mo should be half dead already for eating the mandrake raw, but she still wanted to kill this Lin youth using her own hand.