Rise of The Demon General

During the rest of the day, the other youths kept on hearing loud banging sounds from one of the rooms. They thought it was only temporary, but it then went on for hours without stopping.

Those that stayed near Amon’s quarter had it the worst, as the noise was the loudest. They couldn’t rest nor cultivate with such disturbing sounds. The nearest ones started to call out to whoever was making the noise to stop, but Amon ignored them.

When their requests were ignored, they started calling for the White Cloud people who oversaw the resting rooms. They were not allowed to come out of their rooms. In fact, their rooms were even locked, to prevent these inquisitive youths from roaming around where they shouldn’t be. So, they could only yell to attract attention.

Soon, the entire complex was full of noise. The White Cloud staff could finally not ignore them any longer and came to see what exactly was going on.

After hearing the explanation from one of the complaining youths, the White Cloud staff paid attention to the voices of the other youths that were still calling for them. There were indeed some banging sounds amongst those chaotic voices. The staff followed the sound and arrived in front of Amon’s room.

They unlocked the door and went in to look. They saw Amon, shirtless, with a body full of sweat, dashing from one side of the room to the other as he punched the wall. Every punch was so hard it made the engraving on the wall flicker.

”Hey! What the hell are you doing?” The White Cloud staff called out.

Amon finally stopped. ”I’m training martial arts,” Amon replied. ”Is that not allowed?”

”Training is fine, but you have been disturbing the others with loud noises. You should train without punching the wall!”

”Do you have a training room that I can use? If I train there, I won’t disturb the others,” Amon asked.

”No! The rule is for you all to stay in these rooms until your next match. So, stay in your room! No special privilege. And stop disturbing the others! Otherwise, I have the right to disqualify you from the tournament for disturbing public peace or breaking the rules.”

With that threat, the White Cloud staff left. Amon looked at his fist. He almost got the feeling. There was still a slight pause, but the way the aether flowed from his movement to his fist had become more fluid. He should be able to perfect this move if he could do it a few more times.

But he decided to not tempt the staff. He couldn’t get disqualified just for this small matter. So, Amon sat cross-legged to rest and cultivate.

While cultivating, he wondered. With the move of combining those two arts, Amon could feel the art’s nature had changed. There was a fundamental change to the energy at the tip of his fist when he punched out. It had somehow become a completely new art. Perhaps unintentionally, he had created a new art. He wondered if he should give the art a name.

Since this art was combined from Silent Swift Stab and Bone Shattering Shadow Fist, perhaps he should call this new art, Silent Swift Shadow Fist.

He cultivated while contemplating his new art. Since he was not allowed to do actual training, he did shadow training in his mind. He had no problem multitasking his mind to both cultivate and study this new art. He pondered about how he distributed his aether when performing the art. Where went wrong and what could be improved. He did several simulations and prepared several methods to test his theory when he had the chance to practice again.

He continued doing this until the next morning when everyone was called for the second match.

*

On the third day after the tournament started, the second match began. Everyone was brought to the same arena that they had used the previous day.

Amon waited his turn while continuing to mull over the art he had created. The other youths came and went from the arena. After a while, Amon’s name was finally called.

His opponent was a big-sized youth who coincidentally sat beside Wei Lhosa. The two knew each other before the tournament. They were from the same gang where Wei Lhosa was the leader. The big-sized youth was called Ta Niu.

Ta Niu was getting ready to head up the arena when Wei Lhosa stopped him. ”Hey, he is mine,” Wei Lhosa said.

”What? Big bro, you can’t ask me to surrender, right?” Ta Niu said.

”You can rough him up a bit, but you need to let him win so I can crush him with my hands,” Wei Lhosa said.

”Bro… This tournament is important to me. You know how we non-clan boys are. If I can perform well, I might get recruited by the White Cloud sect. If that happens, my family will live well for the rest of their lives.”

”What’s so good about joining the sect? You do this for me, I will take care of you. I will find a way to make you join my Wei clan.”

Ta Niu was hesitant. The White Cloud sect’s prestige was better than the Wei clan. If it was the Lin or Lei clan, then they could be said to still be at the same level as the sect. If it was only the Wei clan…

”Why are you hesitating? Are you looking down on my Wei clan? Are you asking for a beating?” Wei Lhosa said threateningly.

”No, big bro. Of course not! How do I dare to underestimate the great Wei clan? All right… I will do as you ask,” Ta Niu finally relented.

”Good bro! I will remember this favor,” Wei Lhosa declared.

Ta Niu came up the arena with a scowl as he grumbled all the way. His back was to Wei Lhosa so the Wei youth couldn’t see.

Amon was already up there waiting for him. But Ta Niu noticed that his opponent appeared to not look at him. Amon was staring down at the floor as if thinking about something. Or was his opponent so scared and dared not look directly at him? When he thought about this guy’s match yesterday, Amon had won without fighting. The other side had strangely surrendered.

Never mind, whatever the reason, he would beat this guy up to alleviate his frustration. Wei Lhosa only said to let Amon win, didn’t say Amon had to win in one piece. Ta Niu planned to beat this guy until he was satisfied before he announced his surrender. Even if he was declared lost, probably the White Cloud sect would still recruit him if he showed enough of his prowess in this bout.

With that frame of mind, he readied himself. He looked at Amon as he prepared to rush ahead and beat the guy up once the referee started the match.

”Begin!” The referee shouted.

Ta Niu was about to head over, but his opponent suddenly became blurry. He thought there was something wrong with his eyes. He was about to lift his hands to wipe his eyes when suddenly his opponent was already in front of him.

Before he could register anything. He felt a sharp pain in his chest. His eyes also picked up numerous shadows of fists that rushed over from behind his opponent. Every time this fist arrive, he felt a strong impact on his chest. He heard some cracking sounds from inside his chest. Before he knew it, he was several feet away and on the floor.

Everyone was flabbergasted by the scene. No voice was heard. Even the spectators were silent. The referee was still standing there watching while Amon studied his fist. He didn’t even pay attention to Ta Niu who was already on the floor several feet away.

Throughout last night, Amon had never stopped thinking and shadow training his new art. He had isolated the points where he could improve and how the aether should be circulated. He didn’t have a chance to test his theory until now.

He felt that there were still parts that he didn’t do right. He looked at Ta Niu who was laying on the floor and wished the guy could stand up again so he could perform another test. Ta Niu, on the other hand, was whimpering on the floor in pain.

The referee finally snapped out of his daze. ”Li… Lin Mo is the victor!” He announced.

It was not like there was never a short bout. But this was the shortest and most abrupt win in the tournament’s history, performed by some unknown youth so to say. Although Lin Mo was from a renowned clan, he was not someone who had made his name known to the public. Unlike Lin Xiaolong, Lei San from the Lei clan, or even Wei Lhosa who had been renowned in White Cloud city as one of the prodigies.

Everyone watched Amon as he walked down from the arena and returned to the waiting seat. The thought on everyone’s mind from yesterday that he had won using an underhanded trick, was no more.