Rise of The Demon General

With their flying speed, the upper world legion only needed four days to arrive in Khode, then another day to reach the Western region, where the surface world’s population was amassing. Of course, the fastest ones must adjust their speed to match the slowest in the legion. Even so, they practically went from one end of the continent to the other end in less than a week.

Because the world population gathered in one region, the sight of them was nauseating. Their tents expanded as far as the eyes could see. The entire region became like one giant megalopolis. The towns in that region were linked to each other with slums formed from the migrants’ tents.

"What a disgusting sight," Tian Kuo stated. "There is no sense of order or structure at all. Everything is a mess. The Divine is right. These surface dwellers serve no purpose for the greater good except as fuel for our prosperity."

"But where is the lower world’s force?" Guo Fen asked. "Why haven’t they attacked these people?"

"Hmph! Those demons must be slacking. They wait for us to arrive first so they don’t do all the work. We will punish their laziness later. For now..." He turned to his troops. "My brothers and sisters! Let us carry out our holy duty! We must exterminate this cancer of society before it breeds more chaos into the world. We can’t let them spread, much less to our holy land. Let the purge begin! For the Divine...!"

"For the Divine...!!!" His troops shouted back.

"Forward!!" Tian Kuo shot forward.

His troops spread out. Each of them was more than capable of performing a massacre. They didn’t need to go in a group. They split up in different directions to cover more ground so they could finish the task more efficiently.

The migrants on the outer rim noticed the upper world’s force. They were confused about what this newcomer group was doing. They thought these newcomers were another group of migrants.

They themselves didn’t know why they were told to migrate. No real reason had ever been given. Some citizens challenged the migration order when it was given. Those citizens were executed on the spot by the country’s soldiers. A few ran away after the treatment, but most were like them. They saw no choice but to comply with the migration order.

However, as the newcomers approached, they soon knew that this new group didn’t come in peace. The newcomers unleashed violent elemental energies. These energies crashed into the mass and slew many people in an instant. The newcomers didn’t stop. They continued to discharge powerful energies that took out many people in one assault. The migrants fell in droves.

Many with high cultivation levels tried to fight back after the people in the outer rim were decimated, but they soon learned these newcomers were too powerful. The newcomers easily brushed away their attacks and killed them with a single counterattack.

As the massacre began, the upper world’s forces failed to notice movements in the ground directly below them and in the clouds above them.

The ground exploded as many things burst out. They were altered beasts. Backpack-like contraptions were strapped on their backs. These altered beasts were very fast, as they were combined from beasts that excelled at speed.

The upper world’s force noticed these incoming beasts. At first, they ignored the beasts. Their targets were not spirit beasts, and they feared no beasts of the surface world. But as the beasts approached, they were surprised by the auras. These beasts were all of primordial grade. Such a beast should no longer live in the surface world.

The altered beasts were spread out as well. They covered a large area, an area encompassing the bulk of the upper world’s force.

The upper world’s force stopped advancing to face this threat. They were surprised but not afraid. The altered beasts might exude primordial-grade auras, but they were too few to be a threat.

Surprisingly, they didn’t need to fight the beasts. Because as the beasts approached, the contraptions on their backs exploded. The blast was powerful enough to wound the beasts, causing them to stop their charge and lose their balance.

The upper world’s force was bewildered by the turn of events. One upper world cultivator suddenly laughed. He said, "Hahaha! What a fool! They try to ambush us and fail to time the detonation correctly!"

Tian Kuo, who saw everything, had the same thoughts. The intel said that the surface dwellers somehow knew about the purge. It was not surprising to find an ambush awaiting them. They, however, never feared any ambush the surface dwellers could muster. While the discovery that the surface dwellers could control Primordial-grade beasts was concerning, luck was on their side. These surface-dweller fools had misjudged the timing. If they were hit by a blast that could wound primordial-grade beasts, they wouldn’t be unscathed either.

However, they were again surprised by another incident. Out of the clouds above, many battle puppets descended. These battle puppets had a speed booster attached, allowing them to dive at a great speed. They also carried similar backpack contraptions to the altered beasts.

Since the upper world’s force already knew what the contraptions did, they immediately activated defensive arts when these battle puppets dove toward them. Shockingly, the contraptions again exploded before the battle puppets reached them. The blast tore the battle puppets’ frames apart.

"What the heck is going on?" Tian Kuo asked. One miscalculation could be considered a blunder, but two in succession?

They then noticed something strange following the explosions. The explosions produced strange green fog instead of normal smoke. This fog spread rapidly thanks to the blasts. They spread both from above and below, covering a large area. The upper world’s force was trapped in between. They couldn’t escape the green fog.

More cautious cultivators used defensive arts to prevent the green fog from touching them or used their energy to blow it away, but many underestimated the situation. They still couldn’t wrap their heads around the notion that anything in the surface world could hurt them.

They soon paid dearly for this mistake. When the green fog touched them, they felt the effect almost immediately. They could feel it intrude on their organs. Those with the King Stage cultivation level lasted only a few seconds before they dropped lifelessly to the ground. The Emperor Stage cultivators lasted a bit longer, but they, too, joined their fallen brethren. Only Ancestor Stage cultivators survived, but their internal organs were deeply injured. Their bodies quivered from the pain as they lost their flight and dropped to the ground.

Those who used their defensive arts were spared. However, the green fog was as if alive. It returned after the force that blew it away weakened, and it continued to cling to the shield that prevented it from touching the upper world’s cultivators.

Most could not maintain their defensive arts for long, especially the ones deep in the green fog. Only those at the periphery managed to flee while their defensive arts protected them. The ones surrounded by the green fog eventually joined the afflicted ones.

Tian Kuo and Guo Fen were among the ones who fled the fog. Tian Kuo watched the state of his force in shock.

"What... What is happening...?" He asked. In an instant, most of his troops were dead. This was supposed to be an easy operation with minimal risk. How would he explain this loss when he returned?

"Poison...," Guo Fen said.

Their predicament, however, had not ended. They heard battle cries. They turned and saw many cultivators rush toward those who survived the green fog. They identified the cultivators’ garments as those from the lower world.

They watched in consternation as this lower world’s force pounced on the surviving troops, those who escaped the green fog or the ones wriggling on the ground.

They were shocked by the scene. Guo Fen shouted, "Wha–What are you doing? Bastard! Stop this...!!"

She rushed over to help her comrades, but a bolt of lightning forced her to stop. She turned and saw an elderly man holding a swordstaff. Though she had never met the old man, she recognized her from the intel briefing before the purge. The man was Du Ji, a dictator of one of the lower world domains.

"Du Ji? How dare you defy the upper world! Are you declaring war on us?" Guo Fen demanded.

Du Ji smiled. "Declare? Are you so dull that you don’t even realize it when it has already begun?"

Du Ji was a Peak Overlord Stage cultivator, while Guo Fen’s cultivation was at the Peak Ancestor Stage of the Demigod Realm. Their power was roughly equal.

Tian Kuo wasn’t going to take this quietly. He rushed at Du Ji. Guo Fen might not be able to defeat Du Ji in a short time, but he was different. A swirling water orb materialized in his hand. "Du Ji! The lower world will regret ever crossing us! You will be the first one to suffer my wrath!"

He heard a female voice as a powerful aura came from behind. "Cardinal Tian Kuo, your opponent is me."

He swiveled back and shoved the water orb in his hand. The orb collided with something equally powerful. It exploded into a turbulence of wind and water.

Before him was a woman with a pair of curly horns, but one was broken. She had two large wings on her back. Her four limbs were not human, with the left arm being slightly larger than the right. Though the description was not entirely accurate, he recognized her immediately from her appearance.

He asked, "Are you Yao Ai? One of the lower world’s domain lords?"