Chapter 98: Demon General
At this moment, all the disciples were stunned, astonishment reflected in their expressions.
Once the evil spirit engulfed them, the disciples drew away from the inner disciple that had spoken.
“Shiiiiing!”
Cleve unsheathed his sword, pointed it at that inner disciple and yelled, “I believe that you are not Gavin. Who are you?”
“Kekekeke...”
A weird chortle was heard from the inner disciple named Gavin Xu. Soon after the chortling finished, several sharp thorns stretched out of his body. Everyone present was shocked to see that not a drop of blood was shed even though the sharp thorns had pierced his skin.
“I have lurked in Sky Forest for quite a long period. In all this time, I have not noticed any traces of human beings. Now, I have finally encountered some human beings. I must say, the taste of human flesh is as delicious as I expected!” After making this horrifying statement, the inner disciple shot out a rather long, strange tongue and began to lick his lips. Afterward, his head crumbled into pieces and the flesh, brain matter, and bone bits were exposed.
It was at this moment that the others present realized that the inner disciple was a demon disguised as Gavin Xu.
“When did you swallow Gavin and hide yourself inside his body?” questioned?Cleve. He pushed his gleaming sword closer to the demon as he spoke.
As the demon grinned, it exposed rows of sharp teeth. With a smug smile, it answered, “You are nothing more than a lowly human being. Do you think it is necessary for me to answer your questions?” The demon let out an ear-piercing shriek as soon as it finished speaking. All of a sudden, dozens of demons darted out from one side of the valley. Not only were these demons extremely hideous, but they also emanated such strong evil spirit that the disciples trembled involuntarily.
“Kill them!”
yelled?Cleve resolutely. He knew that they could not flinch in front of these demons. No wonder Cleve was an inner disciple! He maintained calm, issued an order, and boosted the morale of other disciples all at the same time in a critical situation.
The disciples of Drizzle Peak were out of luck to have met so many fierce demons simultaneously.
It was common knowledge that demons often snuck into Sky Forest to scout their enemies' movements. It was also well known that they seldom reconnoitered in groups. After all, the demons couldn't underestimate the Imperial Army of the White Emperor City. The demons were aware that if they were scouted and detected by the Imperial Army, they would be killed. Since it was difficult to disguise their evil spirit, they seldom moved around in groups to avoid discovery.
However, a demon had now stalked, killed, and consumed an inner disciple, Gavin. What was worse was that it had camouflaged itself as Gavin and followed other disciples of Drizzle Peak. In doing so, it had given other demons the opportunity to track the disciples.
“Ah...”
A horrible shriek was heard from an outer disciple shortly after Cleve had issued the order.
Since the outer disciple had passed Aura's evaluation, he must have been courageous and mighty. However, several demon soldiers showed up in front of him at the same time. Overwhelmed by their evil spirit, he didn't know how to resist and counterattack. As a result, he couldn't defend himself when a demon tried to bite his head.
Aware that fear was a powerful weapon, the demon soldier lifted the decapitated corpse so that other disciples could see it, thus intensifying their fear.
At this point, the four inner disciples had begun to attack the demon soldiers.
However, the color drained from the faces of others such as?Henry?and Gury. The power of so many evil spirits was so debilitating that these outer disciples were frozen in place. Aside from shivering and gritting their teeth, they found themselves incapable of moving.
Of all the outer disciples, only Zen stayed calm.
When the fight started, Zen had taken his broken flying knife out of the space ring. To avoid being flanked, he stood in a way that his back was facing the valley. His eyes squinted into slits as he observed the demon soldiers.
The demon soldiers acted like malicious ghosts that had just climbed out of. In their eyes, the human beings in front of them were delicious food, and they were ravenous!
One of the demon soldiers targeted Zen.
It wielded the sharp thorns protruding from its hands and strode forward with long legs that were covered in scales. Zen stood calmly and watched the demon get closer to him.
“Now is the right time!” Zen mumbled to himself as the demon soldier came within attacking range. Zen's mouth quirked up a little at the corners, and the broken flying knife in his hand suddenly shot out.
“Puff!”
A dull sound was heard as the broken flying knife slid through the demon's head and flew out. Very soon, it swept back and sliced the demon's entire body. When the demon soldier's corpse touched the ground, it separated into two parts along the path taken by the knife.
“One,” Zen counted. In a sense, this was the first demon that Zen had formally killed.
Before Zen had a chance to look around, another demon soldier pounced on him. Since the broken flying knife still lay embedded inside the dead demon's corpse, Zen gestured with his fingers. The broken flying knife swirled out and returned to Zen upon receiving the order.
“Boh!”
As the flying knife penetrated the second demon soldier's head, fluids gushed forth. All of a sudden, the demon fell to the ground.
“Two,” Zen whispered as he prepared for the next demon soldier.
At this moment, Zen shifted his gaze to? Henry. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw two demons creeping closer to Henry? and Gury. With their sharp thorns brandished, it looked as though they intended to spring on the two disciples.
Zen could sense that the two demon soldiers were not very powerful. Henry? and Gury were ranked first and third respectively, among the outer disciples at Drizzle Peak. They were powerful enough to kill these demons.
But at that moment, both Henry and Gury were scared out of their wits. Their bodies trembled as they stood rooted to their spots.
Zen shook his head at this scene. He could not do much from this distance. He stamped his foot in frustration before dashing forward. When he was about 30 feet away, he tossed the broken flying knife.
“Puff, poop!”
The broken flying knife sliced the heads off both the demon soldiers.
As Zen walked over to Henry and Gury, he asked, “The two of you act like cowards. Are you certain that you wanted to come to Sky Forest to kill demons?”
Henry? was grateful and surprised when he realized that Zen had saved his life. But when they were spoken to by Zen in such a belittling manner, both Henry? and Gury felt a little ashamed.
The lack of action by Henry and Gury was not because they didn't dare to resist. They stood still in a daze, only because when they wanted to step forward to fight the demons, they couldn't move. It was as though their feet had been glued to the ground. The two hadn't felt fear like this before.
“I would never have thought that the top outer disciple of Drizzle Peak would be a good-for-nothing!” Zen sneered.
Upon hearing Zen's sneer, a red tinge crept on? Henry's neck and extended to his face. Henry's life had been very smooth. He had not faced any challenging hardships. Ever since he was little, everyone treated him with awe and admiration as he had been a genius. But now, Zen was cursing him.
Being humiliated by someone inferior was a fate far worse than death to Henry.
“You don't believe me? When faced by demon soldiers, you have not dared to move. Tell me. Aren't you a good-for-nothing?” Zen sneered as he questioned Henry again.
Henry couldn't bear it anymore and yelled loudly, “I am not a good-for-nothing!”
Zen nodded and responded, “Since you say that you are not a good-for-nothing, prove it to me. Those demon soldiers are as mighty as people who have reached the nature level. They are even a little weaker than you. Fight and kill them. Even if you die in the battle, it would be better than submitting yourself to the demons without a fight.”
In essence, human beings had infinite potential. Provoked by Zen, Henry? bellowed and unsheathed his three-foot-long cyan-blade sword. His eyes turned red as he rushed toward the demon soldiers.
Now that? Henry? was on the verge of becoming an inner disciple, he stood out in terms of gift, talent, speed, and strength. In addition, he outperformed ordinary inner disciples. After Zen provoked him, Henry? exhibited, harnessed, and exerted deadly strength.
Zen was stunned to see Henry stir up gusts of wind and thunder with his cyan-blade sword. He wielded his sword with the aggression of an angered God. At last, he sliced a demon to pieces.
After killing that demon, Henry stared at its remains. Henry's chest heaved, and his eyes widened. He couldn't believe that he had executed a demon.
Only after Henry had killed the demon was he relieved from his debilitating fear. Henry? stood in a daze and grunted, “I've got it! I am no longer wreathed and badgered by the evil spirit. I have figured out why.”
As he exclaimed, he switched his gaze to Zen.
By this time, Zen had been rushing toward another demon soldier. He spared Henry an apathetic glance before readying his broken flying knife for his next kill.
Zen had killed four demon soldiers.
Henry? saw the power and ease with which Zen was killing the demons. He sighed at Zen's abilities and his speed. His envy for Zen had changed into admiration by now. Another sigh escaped? Henry? when he secretly acknowledged that he lagged behind Zen in terms of strengths. He knew that Zen should be ranked as the topmost outer disciple at Drizzle Peak instead of himself.
The fight was so fierce that Henry didn't have much time to get lost in his thoughts. Immediately, he invigorated the life vitality inside his body to help the other inner disciples fight the demons.
Cleve's sword was a low-grade spiritual weapon. Nevertheless, it was powerful. He wielded his sword dexterously. When confronted with a demon at the very beginning, he swung his sword back and forth 30 times in the blink of an eye.
But none of his attacks were to the point.
“Didn't you say that you could kill me with only three strikes? But I have given you so many chances. Why couldn't you kill me?” the demon shrieked in a human tone as it taunted Cleve.
This further infuriated Cleve, who thereby stopped and thought over the matter. He felt as though there were anomalies about this demon as it had moved and dodged much faster than other ordinary demon soldiers. His eyes widened as a terrifying thought flashed through his mind. Cleve whispered, “You are not a demon soldier!”
“Gyuh, gyuh, gyuh, gyhu!” The demon burst into shrieking laughter. Immediately, many bronze colored sharp thorns stretched out of its tawny body. In a flash, it became several feet taller. From a distance, it looked as though the demon was as tall as a hill!
At the same time, its evil spirit was enhanced. It was more overwhelming than the evil spirit that was emanated from ordinary demon soldiers. Within seconds, it filled up the whole valley.
Other disciples of Drizzle Peak who were fighting the demon soldiers were shocked at the scene.
Cleve was so scared that his complexion paled. His throat felt parched as Cleve realized what he was up against. Cleve gulped at the sight of the towering demon and mumbled, “Demon general!”
The demon general's strengths were far mightier than ordinary demon soldiers'.
But generally speaking, demon generals rarely haunted Sky Forest.
Their evil spirit was so overwhelming and perceivable that demon generals felt challenged when trying to keep their evil spirit from being sensed by the Imperial Army from the White Emperor City when they hid in Sky Forest.
But there could be exceptions! A demon general was standing in front of?Cleve, although all people present were confused as to how this general had slipped into Sky Forest unnoticed.
“I will kill you even though you are a demon general!”
yelled Cleve, who, at this moment, understood that he had no other choice but to face the demon general. Unlike Henry, Cleve had undergone the trial for slaying demons before and had ever killed demons. At the same time, he understood that no emotion was more useless than fear.
Deep inside, Cleve knew that fear would lead to his death faster.
At the thought of all this, Cleve summoned his courage. With a deep breath, he swung his sword against the demon general with the greatest strength he could exert. As Cleve's sword cut through the air, streaks of bright white light glittered on both sides of the blade. Others around were dazzled by the brightness to such an extent that they couldn't see the sword.
Only the demon general was capable of dodging Cleve's fierce attacks.
“Shiiiiiing, vzzzzt!”
A loud, crisp noise was produced as Cleve's sword clashed into a bronze colored sharp thorn. The vibrations from the clash traveled through Cleve's arm. A shooting pain jarred his nerves before Cleve felt his arm go numb.
Gosh! Cleve realized that something terrible was going to happen.
The demon general was waiting for this chance to counterattack. How could it possible for the demon general to make it easy for Cleve to escape from his counterattack?
Before Cleve could take a step back, the demon general extended one of its sharp claws. The claw hooked Cleve's sword, and with one swift movement, the demon general pulled the sword away from Cleve. As a result of the force used by the demon general, the sword arced through the air and embedded itself into the ground.
Cleve stared at his sword in dismay as it swayed to and fro. It had been dragged out of his hand by the demon general with such force that it had landed far from Cleve's reach. Before Cleve could think of a way to defend himself, the demon general extended another claw and aimed for Cleve's chest.
If he was unable to dodge in time, the claw would slice Cleve's belly open.
A malicious grin spread across the demon general's face as it prepared to kill Cleve. However, before its claw could slash Cleve's chest, the demon general roared in surprise and stepped back. He withdrew his claw like a streak of lightning. In the next moment, a broken flying knife sliced through the air between Cleve and the demon general.
The demon general's claw would have been chopped off by the broken flying knife had it not been withdrawn in time.
Cleve was stunned by his narrow escape. This demon general was not scared by his low-grade spiritual weapon, but why was it fearful of that broken flying knife? Cleve couldn't help but ponder upon this mystery. When Cleve turned to see where the knife had come from, he noticed that Zen was standing nearby. His arm was still extended as though he had just thrown the knife. Regret flashed in Zen's eyes.
“How cautious and agile it is. My flying knife even didn't hit him,” sighed Zen as he straightened himself.
The demon general glared at Zen with its ugly and evil eyes. Fear was reflected in the demon general's eyes as it yelled in a shrill and horrible voice, “You...you are different.”