Rise of The Demon General
Chapter 232. Loud Scuffle

Chapter 232: Chapter 232. Loud Scuffle

Inside the cave, Amon and Xian Mei followed the tunnel. Amon turned to Xian Mei and asked, "What’s the hold-up? You are rather slow today. Did you not sleep enough?"

"Don’t be smug, freshman. Perhaps I should teach you a lesson about respecting your senior?" Xian Mei threatened.

Amon grinned at her. Suddenly, he bolted.

"What the...!" Amon’s action took Xian Mei aback. She looked back. She walked slowly to let the others catch up. Where the hell were they?

She looked back to the front. Amon had disappeared into the darkness of the cave.

"F*cking freshman...!" She cursed. Her body dashed forward to chase Amon. As she ran, she wondered how Amon guessed they were making their moves today.

She was using movement art. Her legs became a blur as they moved at high speed. She went on for a few minutes. The tunnel had a linear path and was very long. There were no branches, which was good for her. However, she still hadn’t caught up to Amon.

’What the hell? There is no way my movement art loses to him. I should have caught up by now,’ She thought.

The tunnel finally opened to a large cavern hall. She jumped onto a tall rock and looked around. She saw four openings leading in different directions from this cavern.

"Shit...!" She cursed. She couldn’t tell where Amon had gone to.

She heard a whistling sound from her left. She instinctively moved away as a flying knife went past her initial position. She looked over and saw Amon in one of the four openings. He turned and ran away again.

"Stupid freshman," Xian Mei scoffed. If Amon had kept running, she wouldn’t have known where he went. He had revealed that information by trying to ambush her.

She used her movement art again and dashed toward the opening Amon had disappeared to. She didn’t want to take chances this time. She activated another art. Her skin turned rough and brownish. It was a defensive arcane art, wooden skin.

She disliked using this art because it made her look ugly, but she didn’t want to let Amon get a lucky hit. She had suffered before by the lucky hit from the Cave Mantle Cat. She had a scar on her arm. She still felt slight pain from that scar.

When she got near the opening, a saber appeared in her hand. She made quick cross-slashes and left an X-mark on the wall beside the opening. This mark should tell the others where to go.

She continued chasing Amon into the tunnel. Two times she encountered the tunnel split in different directions. She didn’t know which one to take. During both times, Amon again threw flying knives at her from afar. Those knives failed to hurt her. All they did was expose Amon’s position, allowing her to chase him again.

She was starting to wonder if Amon intentionally wanted her to chase him. As that thought occurred to her, she felt something yank her leg. It was so abrupt she had no time to react. Before she knew it, she was upside down in the ceiling.

"What...?!" She was still in shock when she heard a whistling sound again. She felt an impact on the back of her neck.

’A defensive art?’ Amon thought from afar. Xian Mei was rather far, and the cave was dark. The effect of the Cat-eye pills was not enough to let him perceive that Xian Mei’s skin had transmuted.

’Too bad,’ he thought. If only he could quickly take one out before the others arrived, but he knew life never let anything go easily.

Xian Mei finally got a grip on her situation. A vine was tying her leg, holding her upside down from the ceiling. She had stepped into a snare trap.

’Did he build this trap?’ Xian Mei thought in surprise. Was this the reason he let her chase him? But most importantly, when did he build this trap?

She didn’t let her thoughts stop her for long. Her body bent up, and her saber swiped at the vine. She somersaulted as she fell and landed on her feet. When she looked over where Amon was, he was gone already.

She paused for a second but resumed chasing. She was not afraid of Amon’s traps. Whatever he tried, he wouldn’t win. He was only at peak strength stage, after all. She would cut through all his traps.

*

At a different part of the cave network, another dysfunctional team was wandering.

"Why are you following me this time? Go to that other path!" Wu Di told Wu Chun, who was walking not far away from him. In the previous days, the two always split once they found branching paths inside the cave. They never told this to the others, though. The two tutors would have scolded them if they knew.

"Shut up! I will go where I want," Wu Chun replied.

"Bitch! If that is the case, I will go the other path," Wu Di said. He turned back, but Wu Chun stood in his way.

"You can go. But first, give me that Siren Stone."

"Don’t think because you are a woman that I won’t hit you," Wu Di said.

Wu Chun laughed at the threat. "Haha. I have higher cultivation than you, bastard. You should be the one grateful that I don’t hit you."

"I said move aside!" Wu Di’s skin turned taut, and his muscles bulged. Despite the appearance of a transformation, this was not a transformation art. It was a martial art, Hard Skin Strong Muscle.

Wu Di used the martial art to intimidate Wu Chun. But instead, Wu Chun gladly welcomed the provocation. Her palm shot forward and struck Wu Di’s chest. He was sent crashing into the cave wall behind. The wall broke from the impact. Wu Di’s body half-sank into the wall.

Wu Di grabbed the wall by his side and pulled himself out. There was now a big indentation in the wall behind him. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

"Hand over the Siren Stone, and you won’t get hurt," Wu Chun demanded. "Don’t try to use it. I won’t hold back if you do."

Wu Di wiped the blood dripping from his mouth. "That’s it! You ask for this, bitch!"

He shot forward and sent a punch at Wu Chun. Wu Chun was surprised by her opponent’s action. She thought that one hit would have taught the freshman a lesson to not cross her. She wasn’t flustered, though. Her hand again shaped into a palm. She shoved it toward Wu Di’s incoming punch.

Fist and palm collided. Upon the impact, a loud explosive sound was heard. Wu Chun was shocked to find herself getting blown away by a very strong force. Her hand was flung back. She skidded on the ground and backstepped several times before she stopped after the force was neutralized.

She held her left arm. The pain was searing. It felt as if it could have torn off. "That... It was Ignition Fist! How do you learn a high-tier practitioner art?"

"Heh, that is the privilege of a top student," Wu Di said. He had gotten this high-tier practitioner martial art from Principal Li Niang. It’s a reward for him possessing an S affinity light element and completing a special mission for the principal.

Wu Chun recognized the skill because it was the same martial art used by her faction leader, Gao Tien. The difference was that Gao Tien only acquired this martial art at the end of his junior class.

"Don’t get cocky, you bastard!" Wu Chun exclaimed. Even though her opponent used a high-tier practitioner art, he still had lower cultivation than her.

Wu Chun channeled her aether. Swirling water materialized around her palms. She lunged forward.

Wu Di did the same. Soon, the palm and fist collided again. Another loud explosion was heard. But this time, Wu Chun wasn’t thrown back. The swirling water around her hand was blasted apart, though. It reformed again soon after.

The two exchanges strike multiple times. The palms and fists smashed into each other numerous times. The loud sound of the resulting explosions echoed throughout the cave.

Wu Chun found it hard to believe. The degree of mastery Wu Di exhibited in the Ignition Fist did not lose to Gao Tien. Each punch using the Ignition Fist drained the user’s stamina, but Wu Di could execute it rapidly for so long.

It was Wu Chun who finally couldn’t keep up. Repeatedly reforming the water on her palms consumed a large amount of aether. She could run out of aether if she kept this up. She jumped away and resorted to drawing her weapon, a sword.

"You are dead!" She declared.

"I know you are a sore loser, bitch," Wu Di mocked. He also took out his weapons, which were twin brass knuckles.

When they were about to clash again, they heard voices. They turned to the voices and were surprised to find a group of humanoid-like creatures staring at them.

They were the Jue Apes. Their loud scuffle had drawn these apes to them.