Rise of The Demon General

Before Nao Mei could express her opinion on what Nao Pei had just said, Amon quickly responded to Nao Pei first, "I am happy with that. It’s okay if you don’t teach me the technique. A simple introduction is more than appreciated."

Nao Mei, who had opened her mouth slightly to speak, closed it again.

Nao Pei began explaining without asking Nao Mei’s opinion. "Our Sea of Consciousness had four tiers, with the first being the weakest, and the fourth being the strongest. When we train, we train to grow our Sea of Consciousness. It is similar to a cultivator who trained to grow their energy core. However, having a vast Sea of Consciousness is useless unless you learn the methods to apply it."

"Like a cultivator who uses an art to project their cultivation power," Amon gathered.

"Well, close enough," Nao Pei said. "But cultivation arts have many variations. The application of the Sea of Consciousness only falls under four categories."

"Which is?"

It was Nao Mei who took over the explanations. "Mind reading, mind control, mind blast, and telekinesis."

"I see. So, what I have seen so far should only be mind reading and telekinesis," Amon said.

"Not really," Nao Mei said. "You might not be aware, but the others have tried using mind control on you since you came here."

"What others? You were also among those who tried it," Nao Pei said to her. He then turned to Amon and said, "Fortunately for you, you seem to have a natural resistance against our ability."

"Is that so...?" Amon recalled his experience in the past few days. Now that he knew the villagers were trying to mind-control him, he understood some of their actions that had seemed odd at the time.

There were times during his conversations with the villagers when they threw him random requests, like sit, stand, or go fetch something. Half of the time, he did it out of politeness. The other half, he refused to, because he felt the request was weird, like the time when a villager asked him to get a glass for him from the table. Another villager was closer to the glass than he was. It made no sense for him to do it, so he remained seated.

’So, that’s what those were all about,’ Amon thought. They were testing their power on him, to see how susceptible he was.

He guessed all the time he had spent with Lin Li had borne fruit. He had always had a strong resistance against mental assault, but he couldn’t rule out opponents that might have the same or even stronger mental power than Lin Li. Hence, he had regularly asked her to use her Mesmerizing Voice on him. With him being conscious that a mental power was targeting him, he learned to condition his mind to resist it.

"You said there were four tiers of Sea of Consciousness?" Amon asked. "Have any villagers with a fourth tier tried using mind control or mind reading on me?"

"There are only five people in this village who possess fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness," Nao Pei informed. "Two are currently not in this village."

Those two would be the ones Nao Dou and Nao Xin were waiting to decide his fate, Amon thought.

"Among the three still in this village, only one specializes in mind control ability," Nao Pei said.

"Specialize? I thought the tier of their Sea of Consciousness affects their mental power?" Amon asked.

"Perhaps we should inform him in more detail about how our mental abilities work," Nao Mei told Nao Pei.

"Yes, forgive me. Let’s backtrack a little. As we have said, there are four categories on how to apply our mental power," Nao Pei said. "Each tier of our Sea of Consciousness not only increases our mental powers, but it also opens up sub-categories. Anyone who starts practicing mind reading will begin from the listening phase. Those with a higher tier of the Sea of Consciousness can access stronger sub-categories. The second tier allows us to send silent messages using our mind. The third tier allows us to dig into the memory of unwilling subjects. As for the highest fourth tier, we can break our target’s mind."

"I see... What tier is your Sea of Consciousness?" Amon asked the two.

"I am at mid third tier," Nao Pei answered.

"Mine is at high third tier," Nao Mei said.

"High? Mid?" Amon asked.

"Not everyone at the same tier is equal," Nao Mei explained. "We divide our power level further into low, mid, and high. Roughly similar to the division of beginning, intermediate, and peak for cultivation levels."

"Moving on," Nao Pei said. "Mind control also has four sub-categories based on the Sea of Consciousness’ tier. You can create hallucinations in someone’s mind at the first tier. The second tier gives you the ability to persuade someone into doing what you suggest. The third tier allows you to possess someone, fully controlling him. The fourth allows you to transfer your mind to a different body."

Amon’s eyebrows raised when he heard the last ability. If what he assumed was true, that explained the odd issue he had observed in this village.

"Of course, the tier of our Sea of Consciousness does not just provide us access to new abilities, but also their power," Nao Mei explained. "For example, someone with Sea of Consciousness at the fourth tier can create hallucinations for a mass number of people, while those at the first tier can only make one target hallucinate. Higher tiers also make the hallucination more real."

"As for telekinesis and mind blast, they don’t have sub-categories," Nao Pei said. "The Sea of Consciousness’ tiers only affect their power and range."

"What exactly does mind blast do?" Amon asked.

"It is a mental power specifically meant for offense," Nao Mei answered. "We can project a focused mental attack. Anyone hit by this attack will lose all ability to think for a duration."

"Fascinating," Amon thought. He had experienced such a mental attack before. He knew firsthand how dangerous it was to lose focus during a fast-paced battle. It could mean victory or defeat. He wanted this mental power even more now.

Nao Pei resumed his explanation, "Having a high-tier Sea of Consciousness doesn’t mean you can learn all the mental abilities I just described. There is a limit to how many one person can learn. That’s why we have specialization. I specialize in telekinesis. I can bring out the full telekinetic power granted by my third-tier Sea of Consciousness. Because I choose telekinesis, my power in the other areas is much weaker. For example, Nao Mei has a slightly higher Sea of Consciousness tier, but he can’t overpower me in telekinetic ability. On the contrary, if we compete using telekinesis alone, I will always win over her, because she specializes in a different area."

"I specialize in mind reading," Nao Mei explained.

"You can’t improve on the other category after mastering your current specialization?" Amon asked.

Nao Mei shook his head. "You can’t. Once your mind locks onto one specialization, it sort of gets attached to it. That’s why we need to choose the field to specialize in early on. When your Sea of Consciousness improves, the field where you do not specialize can improve as well, but it will always be below your specialized field."

Amon nodded his understanding. He then asked Nao Mei. "So, you specialize in mind reading. Can you use your power to dig into my memories?"

"I can try, but I won’t be able to," Nao Mei said. "Someone stronger than I in mind-reading has tried."

"Nao Thu?" Amon asked.

Nao Mei nodded. "He is my mentor. He is one of the five in this village with fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness. He already tried digging into your memory when the villagers found you unconscious in this village."

"And?"

"He found your mind extremely resilient. He suspected your Sea of Consciousness to be rather well developed despite having no prior training. He couldn’t dig out your memory without causing permanent damage to you. Without knowing who you are, where you are from, and how you got into the village, he didn’t want to risk it. If your mind breaks, your memory will be lost as well, and we will never know the truth about you. The elders are waiting for our grand elder before deciding if we should take the risk."

"In other words, there is a possibility you can only enjoy an intact mind until she returns," Nao Pei added.

"Hm... That doesn’t bode well," Amon remarked.

Nao Pei chuckled. "Don’t be so pessimistic. There is a chance she might like you and accept you into our fold. I mean, you don’t mind, do you? Considering how friendly you are with everyone here and how eager you are to learn our way, I’m sure the grand elder would love to have you as a new member. Our number keeps declining, after all. Don’t you think so, Nao Mei?"