Rise of The Demon General

Once the one hundred winners in an arena were announced, they were taken back to the resting rooms. They were given recovery pills and salves to treat their wounds. They were told to rest for the remainder of the day. The next round would start the morning of the next day.

Each youth was given his or her own room. Although it was a small and simple room, there would need to be four hundred rooms to accommodate all the winners from the four arenas. It was a huge scale considering the quantity. From the outside, the rooms appeared more like prison cells. They were also stacked up with one another, with four floors in total.

All the ones from their arena were taken to the second floor. The arena that first completed the preliminary round got the first floor. Amon's group was the second to finish the preliminary round.

Before Amon took the stairs up to the second floor, he recognized the youth inside the room next to the stairs. The youth with white clothes and long hair was also staring at him without any expression. The youth was Lei San, the supposed top talent of the Lei clan.

Amon only gave Lei San a short glance before he went up to the second floor.

Amon went inside the room allocated for him and sat cross-legged. He consumed the recovery pill and applied the recovery salve. He didn't receive many wounds but he still treated the ones he got. He needed to be in top shape tomorrow.

He then spent the rest of the day in cultivation.

*

The next morning, the four hundred youths were taken to the central arena. It was called the central arena, but the fact was it was not only one arena there. There were eleven of them. Ten were arranged circularly, with a number allocated to each arena. The eleventh one, which was the largest arena amongst the eleven, was situated at the center inside the other ten arenas.

The arenas here were much smaller than the four arenas the youths fought in the day before. The previous ones were used for a large number of participants. The ones here were meant for a more personal bout, a one-on-one duel.

The four hundred youths were instructed to pick one folded paper out from multiple jars provided by the organizer. Each of the papers in the jar had a number, one to fifty.

The youths would be divided into fifty groups. Each group would have three matches until one winner was determined from this group, so the total would have fifty winners for the final.

Amon picked a paper with the number thirteen written on it.

He was with group thirteen, which would have a match in arena no.3. He was ushered to that side, as with the groups that had received numbers three, twenty-three, thirty-three, and forty-three. A total of forty youths stood by the side of each arena.

A referee from the White Cloud sect stood in the middle of each arena. The one on arena no.3 currently called out, "Those that picked number three, come up!"

Eight youths came out from the group. In front of the referee was a table with four jars. The eight youths were asked to again take a paper out of the first jar. After they all took the paper, they found out that this time, the paper was marked with colors.

There were eight pieces of paper but four colors, red, blue, yellow, and green. Every two youths had the same color. The referee explained that those with the same colors will fight with one another first. Red would go first. Afterward, the red winner will go against the blue winner. Then the victor would meet whoever won between yellow and green in the semifinal round.

The referee then announced. "Next, those that picked up number thirteen, come up!"

Another eight youths, including Amon, came up the stage. Interestingly, there was Wei Lhosa. He looked at Amon just as Amon glanced at him.

"Enjoy your remaining time. Your life is mine when we meet at the semifinal," Wei Lhosa said to Amon. "Of course, you can surrender or intentionally lose before that. We will settle our deathmatch another way then."

Amon ignored him, but he wondered why the guy was so sure that they will meet at the semifinal. If they both pulled the same color, then they would fight in the first round of their group.

When Amon was about to take a paper from the jar, the referee stopped him. "Not you. The two of you have special arrangements. This is your color."

The referee gave Amon a yellow color paper, while Wei Lhosa was given red paper.

'I see,' Amon thought. This way it would guarantee that they only met in the semifinal round, considering if they won their first two bouts.

The other six youths took random color papers from the second jar.

After all forty youths got their colors, the referee instructed those with the red paper to standby beside the arena. The others sit further away near the audience. Amongst the red candidates, he then asked for the ones that held number three.

Two youths came up to the arena.

The referee then laid out the ground rules, "no weapon, no charms, pills, nor artifacts. You fight only with your arts. No intentional killing. Anyone breaking the rules will be disqualified. Heavy offenses like intentional killing will face further punishment. The time limit is ten minutes. One is considered lost if one loses consciousness, step outside the arena, is unable to fight anymore, or surrender. If no conclusive winner after ten minutes, I will decide who is the winner. My words are final, I will entertain no disagreement."

The two youths nodded their understanding. They then took their positions at each end of the arena.

"Begin!" The referee announced.

The two youths seemed to be rather cautious of each other. Amon surmised that the two probably knew each other and their levels were rather similar, hence their wariness.

After a boring amount of time, the two finally met at the center and started exchanging blows.

'Kids,' Amon scoffed in his mind.

The two were not exactly bad, their cultivation ensured that they had above-average strength and speed, but the way they fought is too reserved. They fought as if those sparring in a training session. Every attack purposefully avoided vital parts. It was true that if they wound their opponents too severely, they might end up killing them and face possible disqualification, but they held back their offensive too much. Amon surmised these two must be amongst those that simply joined a winning group during the battle royale and did minimal effort.

The bout ended up having no clear winner even after the ten-minute time limit was reached. The referee looked disappointed. He then announced one of the youths as a winner.

In the next round, Wei Lhosa who held a red paper came up to the arena. While he and his opponent took their positions, he looked at Amon and gave a cutthroat gesture.

Amon sneered at the theatrics.

This time, unlike in the first match, Wei Lhosa dashed toward his opponent once the referee announced the start of the match. His skin turned grey and hard, like metal.

His opponent didn't panic. He unleashed his arcane art in the form of earth spikes. He punched the ground and multiple earth spikes jutted out along one line. Wei Lhosa skipped to the side to evade the spikes.

His opponent punched the ground again and a second line of earth spikes arose. This time, Wei Lhosa couldn't evade the spikes entirely. Some of the earth spikes stabbed his legs. However, instead of injuring the legs, the spikes broke.

This surprised Wei Lhosa's opponent, causing him to pause. Amon, however, knew the reason. It was due to Wei Lhosa's wooden skin art. Apart from Wei Lhosa's mastery of the art being superb, the earth elemental attack was weak against metal. Each element had weaknesses and strengths against the other elements. Although no one had taught Amon about this, he had read enough books to understand this basic principle.

Wei Lhosa took the chance to arrive before him. Before his opponent could react, Wei Lhosa's legs kicked out and spun, appearing as if three kicks were coming at the same time. His opponent only manage to block one kick while the other two landed on his abdomen and waist. He was thrown back while vomiting blood.

He fell on his knees to the floor. Wei Lhosa was about to attack again but he was stopped by the referee. The referee observed Wei Lhosa's opponent who was not getting up and announced Wei Lhosa as the winner.

When Wei Lhosa was walking down the stairs. He called out to Amon, "you are next!"

Amon simply looked at him and smirked. 'Such a retard. You will have another match again before you fight against me,' Amon scoffed in his mind.