Rise of The Demon General

The youths originally underestimated these snakes because they were still young, but after one youth was killed, they became cautious. They tried to keep the fighting at range because the snakes had no range capabilities. Due to this, the snakes got pulled away from the center of their nest.

Seeing this, Pai Wuci instructed one of his sect comrades to sneak through the snakes. He used his arcane art. His two arms burst into flame. The flame formed into the shape of a saber. Pai Wuci swung his two arms which were now flaming sabers onto the closest snakes. The flame sabers cut through the hard scales of the young snakes and produced scorching wounds. They hissed while reeling back.

This created a gap for his sect comrade to pass through. This White Cloud youth was the fastest amongst them. He also possessed movement art, Cloud Walk, which allowed his running speed to increase. During the activation of this speed, his running speed made his feet appear as if not touching the ground.

Pai Wuci used another of his fire element arcane art. Several flame darts were shot from his fingers. These flame darts struck the snakes near his comrade's running path, preventing them from intercepting his comrade.

However, it was still not enough. When his comrade was halfway towards the nest, one of the snakes swung its tail into the air. Pai Wuci's flame darts stabbed the swinging tail but it endured the burn and continued swinging. The swinging tail was long, it covered a large area. The sect youth who was running at top speed had little time to react.

The swinging tail connected with his chest. The two were coming at each other at high speed. The impact was severe. Everyone heard the sound of bones cracking. The sect youth was smacked to the ground by the side, right in the middle of a carpet of wriggling snakes.

His scream, which was let out due to both terror and pain, made everyone's hairs stand on ends.

One of the clan youths couldn't endure the pressure. He turned around and fled.

"Coward! Come back!" Pai Wuci uttered with disgust.

While the rest of the clan youths were having second thoughts after seeing one of them run, they heard a loud voice.

"Watch my art!"

They turned and saw Lei San who was standing a distance away. He had his right hand's fingers held up high, his left hand was holding those fingers. Violent fire aether swirls around those fingers. Lei San then brought his fingers down and pointed forward. A thin red beam shot out from those fingers. It cut a straight line to the nest. This line then caught on fire, creating a fire fence.

Many of the snakes that this beam pierced through were wounded or outright cut. The ones that were still alive writhed away from the fire fence.

It was indeed an impressive art. But shouting to draw everyone's attention, this Lei San was quite a showoff, Pai Wuci thought with a scoff.

Lei San was not done, he took a step sideways as his other hand's fingers started to accumulate similar fire aether. He then pointed those fingers and shot another beam. Two long fire fences lined up side by side. The snakes avoided the fire, creating a safe path directly to the nest.

Lei San, who had just discharged powerful arcane arts two times in a row, fell to the ground with a pale face. He shouted to the others, "Everyone! Go through this path and…"

His words stopped because at that time, a dark shadow shot out from the bushes behind him. This shadow jumped over Lei San and ran through the created path. Lei San showed a surprised expression. "Who…? Stop…!!"

Amid the fire fence, the others caught sight of this intruder. It was a boy in a black suit. His head was also covered in black cloth, leaving only his two eyes. He was running at high speed towards the nest.

"Stop him!" Pai Wuci immediately shouted. But the snakes were blocking their path, they couldn't get through. They ran towards where Lei San was, so that they could enter from the path created by the fire fences as well. Yet, Lei San had placed himself some distance away from them. They had to waste time running over there. Pai Wuci cursed Lei San in his mind for that.

Lei San was still panting on the ground with a pale face when the first youth arrive. "St… Stop him…," Lei San said weakly.

The first boy who arrived rushed into the fire fence path. When Pai Wuci arrived, he had the urge to kick Lei San before going in, but he controlled himself. He was about to rush into the fire fence when he stopped himself. Another clan boy got past him and rushed in. When a White Cloud's youth was about to head in, Pai Wuci stopped him. This youth looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"The fire is getting weaker," Pai Wuci spoke to answer his questioning look. The youth took a better look after Pai Wuci's words and found the fire fence was indeed dimming.

As the fire fence became weaker, it was no longer enough to repel the snakes. The first boy who rushed in to chase the black-suit intruder had gone only halfway when one of the snakes jumped through the weakened fire fence. It had used its powerful belly muscle to rise in an attacking posture before lashing out from a height, jumping past the fire. The snake's jump height was the height of the boy's head. The boy detected the movement from the corner of his eyes and turned just to see the wide-opened mouth of the snake.

His consternation lasted only a moment before his head entered the snake's mouth. He was pulled to the side out of the fire fence due to the snake's jumping momentum. He fell to the ground with his whole head still being gripped by the snake's mouth. He only had the chance to struggle for a brief moment before the snake clamped down on his powerful jaw and shattered his skull.

The second boy who had run into the fence stopped dead on his track after seeing what had happened. He then immediately turned around and attempted an escape, but the fire fence had gotten even weaker by then. Several snakes forcefully crawled through the fire. He soon found his return path blocked. He looked to the front again and saw several snakes had crawled in from that side as well. When he was unsure of where to go, he didn't notice one tail sneaked through from underneath, enduring the pain caused by the dimming fire fence. It then abruptly coiled around the boy's leg and then pulled. The boy was screaming as he was forcefully pulled out from the fire fence. His scream didn't last long.

Pai Wuci turned to Lei San in anger, "You should have told us first if you are going to create a path like that so we can prepare!"

"I… I'm sorry," Lei San said.

Pai Wuci was about to ask if he could do that fire beam art again. But with one look at Lei San's exhausted face, he knew that there was no need to ask. He gritted his teeth as he looked back at the nest. The dark suit youth was already inside the nest. He couldn't get a good look because the nest was formed by broken twigs, branches, and bushes.

'Who the hell is that person?' Pai Wuci thought in rage. While still holding the thought, a shrill cry that made him feel as if his ear drums were bursting filled the air.

*

The black-suited person was Amon. He had stayed in hiding but stayed close to Lei San all the time. He noticed the Lei youth was slowly moving away from the other youths. Amon suspected he had done so deliberately, which meant that he should act soon.

When Lei San yelled asking people to watch his art, that's when Amon knew it was time to act.

Amon honestly was impressed by Lei San's art. It was a powerful fire element art. The penetrating effect was very powerful. Many of the snakes were cut by the art despite their hard scales. It was also very fast. If Lei San used this art in a fight, it would be very difficult for the opponent to dodge. Unless that opponent was him, of course.

After going through the path made by the fire fences and arriving inside the nest, Amon saw other boys entering the fire fences path as well. Some of the snakes were also slithering back after seeing an intruder enter their nests, but these snakes had been pulled away from their nests. It would take some time for them to return.

Amon ignored them all. He focused his mind to search for the mandrakes. Luckily, they were not hidden at all. He immediately located three large purple flowers at the center of the nest. The flowers had red lines adorning their sides. He knew then he had found the right ones.

He didn't have much time, so he used two hands to grip two flowers. He intended to pluck two mandrakes at the same time.

Without hesitation, he pulled.