Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 366: Chapter 366. Shi Zi’s Preparation for Future War

Yuka hissed at the giant battle puppet. She barred the fangs of the large mouth in her belly and the small mouth on her woman’s face.

”How dare you...!!”

She charged forward. The battle puppet reacted when she approached the circumference of the diagram on the floor. The two traded blows and the battle puppet showed a significant advantage in the exchange.

”Save your energy,” Amon said. ”I know from the information inside this control panel that the chain greatly weakens you. You can’t use many of your abilities, and your physical strength is nerfed. All you can use are tricks that don’t harm your opponent directly, like that light-eating darkness you created. You will only waste your energy struggling like that.”

Yuka didn’t listen. She continued to fight the battle puppet. She even released a dark smoke that enveloped the battle puppet. However, as Amon said, the smoke didn’t cause any harm. It was just an inconvenience. Sadly for Yuka, the sensor Shi Zi installed on this giant puppet was even more advanced than the old warden puppets. The smoke did not hinder the battle puppet at all.

Amon took this chance to review the giant puppet’s performance. Unfortunately, Shi Zi did not have enough resources to install weapons. All it could do was throw simple punches and kicks. It was no different than a cultivator without combat arts.

”Damn you...!!!” Yuka yelled again. She finally had enough and retreated. The giant puppet didn’t chase her.

”Hhh... Hhh...!” She was breathing heavily as she paced back and forth the inner region of her prison diagram. Amon could see she was extremely frustrated by the situation. He didn’t blame him. Here she thought she finally had a chance at freedom in the near future, only for Amon to extend it to her original jail time.

”AAAaaaa...!!!” She let out her frustration with an ear-splitting shriek. She went quiet after that.

”Are you done venting?” Amon asked.

Yuka didn’t answer. She just glared at Amon.

”What do you expect? You tricked me. You have this one coming,” Amon said.

”Fuck you!” Yuka responded.

”I will come again next month to get your blood,” Amon said.

”Fuck you!” Yuka said again. ”Ask that hunk of junk of yours to come take my blood if you want it so badly.”

”Don’t tempt me to do that. You won’t find it pleasant,” Amon warned. ”Alright, as a peace offer, I will compensate you every time I draw your blood. I will bring you a meal each month when I come. In exchange, you fill my vial with your blood. Do we have a deal?”

Yuka didn’t answer.

”What are you whining about? You have waited for millennia! What’s a hundred years to you? The maker of this prison expected your life force to fade before this place runs out of energy, but he doesn’t expect you to get meals to sustain your life force. If you have nothing to eat, perhaps you won’t last till the end of these one hundred years. But with regular feeding, it will be different. You will enjoy a life of freedom once these hundred years pass. However, you will need my aid to achieve that. So, do we have a deal?”

”Grr... Grahhh...!” Yuka growled. ”So be it! But watch yourself, demon cultivator. You will find drawing the ire of my kind is no laughing matter. We don’t forget those who transgress us.”

Amon sneered. In a hundred years, he believed he wouldn’t find her kind to be a menace anymore.

He had the giant puppet grab the warden puppet near the prison diagram to be brought to him. He salvaged that warden puppet off its power source and other valuable materials. Done with the task, he left the pocket world.

Coming out of the portal, Amon stored the prison box in his black space ring. He then proceeded to check Shi Zi’s space ring.

The inside was what he expected to find, a bunch of puppet-making materials and many books about puppet-making. Among the books was Shi Zi’s journal. Amon took out the book and skimmed through it. This journal was invaluable when he became proficient enough to improve the giant puppet. Every battle puppet was personal, after all. Shi Zi should have detailed records of the process he took to build the giant puppet.

Currently, the giant puppet was only useful for keeping Yuka on the leash. He couldn’t use it in actual combat against other opponents. Well, he could, but that would risk Yuka escaping her prison earlier. She already had a full day straining her chain. That shaved off many years from her jail time. If he had to remove the giant puppet for other purposes, she would no doubt shave off more years during the puppet’s absence.

The second she was freed of her jail, it would be a death sentence for him unless he reached the Lord Stage by then. Due to that, Amon resolved not to use the giant puppet unless it was an absolute emergency. He needed to buy himself more time by keeping Yuka in her prison for as long as possible.

Amon was about to close the journal when his eyes noticed an interesting passage from a page.

”Hm...,” he flipped the pages and continued reading in more detail.

”Was this what he meant by preparing for the future war...?” Amon muttered. He closed the page and sent his consciousness back into Shi Zi’s space ring. He shifted through the heaps of puppet-making materials inside the space ring. Thankfully, Shi Zi’s ring was a normal space ring. The space inside was only the size of a small room. It didn’t take him long to locate the item he was looking for.

A large bronze key appeared in his hand.

He then walked toward the stairs to the basement. Last night, after the worker puppet showed him to the guest room, he came out again after the worker puppet left. He roamed the mansion, seeking a suitable hiding place. Thankfully, there were no guard puppets, only worker puppets of the basic grades. Those worker puppets had almost no combat power.

Perhaps Shi Zi was so confident with the battle puppets and formation guarding his mansion outside that he saw no need to place sentries inside the mansion. That was his mistake. Amon would find it slightly more challenging to murder him if he had stationed some sentries inside his workshop.

After finding an ideal hiding place close to Shi Zi’s main workshop, Amon hid there and waited. He came out of hiding after everyone left in Ha Gild’s eagle and Shi Zi returned to the workshop. He sneaked into the workshop and waited until the final moment before Shi Zi activated the giant puppet.

During his roaming last night, he had seen the stairs to the basement, so it didn’t take long for him to find them now. He walked down the stairs and came onto large double doors. The doors were locked. He inserted the bronze key into the keyhole. It fit perfectly. The doors were unlocked, and he opened them.

Behind the doors was a huge hall. It was an open space the size of the entire mansion layout. Filling up the hall were rows and rows of battle puppets.

”Impressive...,” Amon muttered. ”He does deserve the title of the kingdom chief puppet maker.”

There were probably tens of thousands of battle puppets in this basement. Amon inspected the one closest to him. He was not yet an expert, but he could roughly tell it was high-tier engraved level.

He didn’t find it strange. Mid-tier Zillium was extremely rare, while high-tier one was non-existent. Shi Zi must have used what mid-tier Zillium he could procure to make the three low-tier runic battle puppets guarding the mansion outside.

Even if the battle puppets in this basement were just high-tier engraved puppets, their number was still staggering. Their battle power was equivalent to Peak Transformation Stage cultivators, and they didn’t get tired. If he could activate these battle puppets, he would have an army of Peak Transformation Stage combatants. This would put him on par with a small kingdom force.

Unfortunately, all these puppets were inert. They didn’t have power sources. That’s why Shi Zi lamented about the supply of Zillium last night. The kingdom of Echos had to share the Zillium mined from the Xandar region with four other countries, which meant the portion coming into this country was limited. Most of those were then monopolized by the kingdom, with only a small portion hitting the market for public use. Hence, Shi Zi was unable to power up these battle puppets.

If Shi Zi showed this puppet army to the kingdom, he would probably get the support he needed. From what Amon read in his journal, he started building this puppet army after his exile. He was pissed at the kingdom, so he kept it a secret. He wanted to slowly procure the required Zillium and activate these battle puppets one at a time. He desired to bring this army to the front line when the war broke out. He was eager to see the faces of the kingdom officials when he came to the rescue.

Sadly for Shi Zi, his dream would never come to fruition. This puppet army was now Amon’s!