The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  "Old Eagle, come over here for a moment!"

  Wang Chong turned his head and waved at the distant figure.

  "Let out the eagle and have it scope out the southeast."

  "Yes, Young Master."

  With no further questions, Old Eagle whistled, ordering the eagle on his shoulder to take flight. The gigantic eagle was fast, its glossy black wings needing to flap only once to send it soaring into the air like a swift arrow.

  The battle was over and Wang Chong had obtained the information he had wanted, so he immediately began to recollect the soldiers.

  "Now, it's time to temper my own strength!"

  Wang Chong's eyes flashed with a ruthless light as he looked at the low-hanging dark clouds in the distance, but in his body, a bloody red light began to flow like lava, gathering together. This was the Stellar Energy of the Little Yinyang Art.

  The martial path was one of steady progress. In normal circumstances, someone of his age, even one of stupendous talent, wouldn't be able to become a top-notch expert overnight.

  But though this was difficult, it was certainly not impossible.

  The Little Yinyang Art was one of those opportunities that exceeded the bounds of common sense. That was why Wang Chong had so tirelessly pursued it in his reborn life.

  Unfortunately, up to now, Wang Chong had lacked a chance, and this chance was 'war'!

  Only a massive war, an endless stream of opponents, could provide Wang Chong the chance to advance by leaps and bounds and reach the higher levels of cultivation.

  And only by possessing an invincible strength could he intervene in this war that would affect the destiny of the Central Plains.

  Now, his chance had arrived!

  Buzz!

  Wang Chong's eyes flashed red, a miniature sun of blood seeming to burst from his body. Swinging the reins, Wang Chong sent his horse galloping toward the south.

  There were even more Tibetan cavalrymen wandering around over there!

  Chapter 495: Discovery! A Thousand-Man Enemy Army!

  Chapter 495: Discovery! A Thousand-Man Enemy Army!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  Warhorses rumbled as a halo resonated under Wang Chong's feet. Under the ringing of metal, a pitch-black halo, as sharp as a blade, expanded from Wang Chong's feet to cover his entire army.

  This initial-level Halo of Dusk Stallion increased the speed, strength, and dexterity of his entire army.

  "Kill!"

  A shout of slaughter and ruthlessness resounded through the skies. Bang! Wang Chong jumped off the White-hoofed Shadow like a lightning bolt.

  "Single Character Consecutive Slash!"

  A fierce light flowed across the sky, madly hacking. Thumpthumpthump! Figure after figure fell to the ground.

  The technique was still that technique, and the person was still that person, but the power displayed was on a completely different level.

  'Single Character Consecutive Slash' had always been that supreme technique of the gods of death, meant for hacking, slashing, and harvesting human lives.

  Buzz!

  In the glistening sunlight, Wang Chong's right foot stepped forward, his body leaning with it, his inky hair floating behind. When he next appeared, he was already several dozen zhang away.

  Behind were the neighing warhorses and the fallen bodies of Tibetan warriors scattered over the earth like fallen wooden pillars.

  Their bodies had been cleaved apart, or their heads had been sent flying. There was often only a thin line of blood on their bodies, but this thin trace had extinguished their lives.

  "Flee!"

  "Run!"

  "We're no match for them!"

  "Where did they come from? How could there be such formidable warriors?"

  "Quickly inform the Great General!"

  ……

  Shouts in Tibetan filled the sky, the Ü-Tsang soldiers both disorderly and in despair. Some of them tried to escape, but their efforts were futile.

  The battle did not stop because Wang Chong stopped. The black tide of the army continued to sweep over the earth, leaving fallen Tibetan horsemen in its wake.

  Some of the Tibetans crazily yelled in an attempt to get their comrades to stop and put up some resistance, but all that awaited them were the Wootz Steel swords, like the scythes of the god of death.

  The Tibetans had always been proud of their thick armor, but it was like paper before these astonishingly sharp weapons.

  The Tibetans were no cowards, and certainly weren't afraid of facing a powerful foe. If their opponents' weapons had just been inconceivably sharp, the Tibetans would still have put up a fight.

  But if one's weapons couldn't even make a dent in one's opponent's armor, the only option left was to flee.

  But even if they wanted to flee, it was already too late!

  The heavy armor of Ü-Tsang now became a fatal flaw, and Wang Chong's army was also being buffed by the Halo of Dusk Stallion.

  Their fates were set, and Wang Chong did not follow his army in pursuit of the remaining Tibetans.

  Swish!

  Pulling his sword out of the last Tibetan he had killed, Wang Chong closed his eyes, allowing the streams of energy to flow out of the dark-red sword. Like pounding waves, this energy surged into Wang Chong's body.

  Wang Chong had originally been at Tier 4 of the True Martial realm, and the energy from these ten-some people he had killed now brought him to the peak of Tier 4.

  The progress he had made in this brief period had already surpassed the bitter training of the last four to five months. Not even the pills from Six-Fingered Zhang had as formidable of an effect.

  This sort of absurd progress was unique to the Little Yinyang Art and could be found nowhere else. If not for this power, the Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art would not have entered the ranks of the ten supreme techniques.

  And this supreme art wouldn't have become known as the evilest of all the evil techniques!

  Still lacking a little, Wang Chong said to himself as he slowly drew back his sword. Suddenly, he heard an almost inaudible groan.

  Schlock! Without turning his head, Wang Chong stabbed his sword into a pile of corpses, piercing through a dying Tibetan soldier who was being crushed by the corpse of a horse.

  The sword stabbed straight through his heart, causing the soldier to die without a single noise. Another majestic wave of energy flowed into Wang Chong's body.

  Rumble! With this last wave of energy, Wang Chong's strength finally broke through the bottleneck and reached True Martial realm Tier 5.

  "Wonderful!"

  Wang Chong's strength was greatly boosted upon reaching Tier 5 of the True Martial realm. The mysterious laws of the world began to improve the density of his bones and the toughness of his flesh and skin, while also increasing his ability to hold more energy.

  And a part of the Stellar Energy in Wang Chong's body also began to shift to Tier 5.

  But Wang Chong did not let this evolution continue. By reaching True Martial realm Tier 5, Wang Chong could proceed with the next phase of his plan.

  Boom!

  Wang Chong put his palms together, and a earth-splitting roar exploded from his body, accompanied by the shrill neigh of a horse.

  With Wang Chong as the center, the air began to explode. This sudden activity alarmed the people nearby, and the clan experts began to stop their horses and turn to see what was going on.

  They saw Wang Chong's body in a storm of Stellar Energy, and a black horse taller than a man leaping out of this Stellar Energy. Its hooves raised, it struck a majestic and awe-inspiring posture.

  It had eyes as bright as stars, blinding even from a distance.

  "Young Master…"

  Those with the closest relationship with Wang Chong—Li Siye, Zhao Jingdian, and Old Eagle—immediately turned their heads to look with concern at Wang Chong. Li Siye had a wide array of experiences, but even he didn't quite understand what the black div
ine steed that had manifested outside Wang Chong's body was.

  "Don't worry; it looks to me that he's trying to break through a bottleneck," Li Siye said soothingly, wanting to stop Zhao Jingdian from rushing over. Although he did not understand what sort of techniques Wang Chong practiced, there was no doubt that the phenomena around Wang Chong were signs of a breakthrough.

  Boom!

  In a flash, before Li Siye, Zhao Jingdian, or Old Eagle could come over, a boom came from within Wang Chong's body. A black vortex appeared in his dantian and began to suck in everything like a bottomless black hole.

  That black stallion suddenly neighed and began to retract into Wang Chong's body, along with that storm of Stellar Energy. In the blink of an eye, the energy exuded by Wang Chong's body dropped from Tier 5 of the True Martial realm to Tier 4, and then Tier 3, Tier 2, and finally, Tier 1.

  "Eh?" Li Siye exclaimed in surprise, looking in shock at Wang Chong. "What's going on here?"

  He had been cultivating martial arts for many years, but this was his first time seeing something so strange. It was his first time seeing someone have their cultivation drop upon getting stronger. He couldn't even be sure right now if Wang Chong had gotten stronger or weaker.

  This is far too strange!

  Li Siye's eyebrows rose, as he felt even more that Wang Chong was a man of many secrets. He had been at Wang Chong's side all this time, but he still felt like there were many things that he didn't know about him.

  Whoosh!

  Wang Chong didn't have the energy to think about such things. He had improved the Halo of Dusk Stallion to the second layer, and his entire body was now covered in sweat, his face much paler.

  He needed to reach True Martial realm Tier 5 in order to upgrade the Halo of Dusk Stallion to the second layer, but upgrading would severely tax his mental and physical energy. As a result, Wang Chong felt completely exhausted, his entire body limp.

  "Young Master, are you okay?"

  Zhao Jingdian was the first to arrive.

  "I'm fine!"

  Wang Chong shook his head and opened up the pouch on his belt. Taking out a thumb-sized, round, white pill, he swallowed it down.

  A hot energy quickly began to spread through his body, and Wang Chong's condition immediately improved.

  The Physical Strength Pill was another type of pill refined by a few of the formidable alchemists of the palace. It required many of the precious resources in the palace and could greatly boost one's physical strength.

  After experiencing that first bout of weakness, Wang Chong had specifically bought one of these pills from Six-Fingered Zhang so as to alleviate the weakness that was bound to come from upgrading the Halo of Dusk Stallion.

  "What sort of technique is that?" Li Siye asked in his vigorous voice as he rode by on his massive steed.

  Compared to other people, Li Siye's giant figure exerted a much greater pressure.

  "Reporting!"

  A loud and urgent voice grabbed everyone's attention.

  A scout riding a mottled horse of black and white was charging over from the distance.

  Once the scout got close, he dismounted and kneeled.

  "Milord, the tracks of a large number of Tibetan cavalry have been spotted up ahead. Their numbers exceed one thousand!"

  Buzz!

  These words immediately caused a change in the atmosphere. Even Li Siye was no longer in the mood to question Wang Chong on the origin and strangeness of the technique he cultivated.

  "How could this be? Where did all these enemy soldiers come from?" Li Siye questioned.

  The soldiers that the Tibetans had tasked with chasing down the Great Tang soldiers had been very scattered. There had been groups of ten, twenty, forty or fifty, even several hundred… but the most they had encountered was three to four hundred, and these had been scattered across a region.

  It was not normal to see more than a thousand gathered together.

  Once the Tibetans exceeded one thousand in number, they could form a middle-level Halo of Fortress, massively increasing their defense. Even ballistae would stop being very useful.

  In order to deal with this many Tibetans, the Great Tang would often need an army of six or seven thousand, and they had to be led by a high-level general with a high-level war halo. Only these things could deal with a middle-level Halo of Fortress!

  In all of the Great Tang, the only troops that could easily deal with this level of Halo of Fortress were those of Great General Geshu Han's Big Dipper Army!

  To others, it was a bone that one could break their teeth on!

  Chapter 496: Tension! As Nimble as Fire!

  Chapter 496: Tension! As Nimble as Fire!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  "Old Eagle, go and take a look."

  Wang Chong's brow creased in thought. In these last few days, he had swept through every encounter, meeting essentially no resistance.

  Part of it was because the Tibetan cavalry were scattered and had no reinforcements. The other part was that the Tibetans were still not on their guard.

  But if the Tibetans had gathered together, then things had completely changed.

  Moreover…

  As he recalled the information he had heard from the fleeing Great Tang soldiers, Wang Chong began to form a vague idea of what was going on.

  Swish!

  There was a rush of air as Old Eagle raised his hand and the massive eagle on his shoulder took flight, vanishing into the clouds.

  ………

  At the same time, several dozen li away, the clouds of war had gathered. The highland steeds of the plateau had congregated, their large eyes wide open as they occasionally scanned the surroundings.

  On each of their backs was a fierce Tibetan horseman.

  The area was quiet, punctuated by the occasional gust of wind. These horsemen would occasionally raise their heads to warily glance to the north.

  The air was suffused with a frenetic tension.

  "Have you figured out what's going on?"

  It was a hoarse voice, like the vibrating of a zither string. It reverberated in the air and felt like the gnawing of a horde of ants on the mind, and it was imbued with the accent unique to Ü-Tsang.

  "Yes. Tang reinforcements suddenly appeared out of the north, an exceptionally formidable force. All of our forces in the north have basically been wiped out."

  The other face was tinged with fear.

  "Impossible! As long as there are at least one hundred of us Tibetans, we can immediately form a Halo of Fortress, and coupled with our thick armor, who can break our defense? Besides, didn't we still have Ciren Luri in the north…"

  "Ciren Luri was killed!"

  The hoarse voice immediately stopped, and what followed was a long and oppressive silence. It was clear that the owner of the voice had not expected this outcome.

  "When did this happen?"

  "Just recently."

  "Wasn't Ciren Luri at True Martial Tier 9…"

  "But our people personally witnessed it. A giant Tang man killed Ciren Luri with a single slash!"

  One could hear the profound fear in that voice.

  Ciren Luri had been a mighty Tibetan commander, but he had been slain with a single blow. Such strength was utterly ridiculous.

  The Tibetan cavalry had one of the most powerful charges in the world, second only to the Great Tang's Tongluo elite horsemen. Perhaps they could have understood if that giant had been from the renowned Tongluo Tribe, but that person had clearly been a Tang man!

  Had the Great Minister been wrong? Were the Tang still just as strong as they were in the past?! Had they not actually waned?

  But hadn't the Tang been thoroughly routed on the shores of the Erhai?

  Weren't the Big Dipper Army, Beiting and Anxi and all the other regular armies of the Great Tang being suppressed? When did the interior armies of the Great Tang become so strong?

  "Hmph! Dengba, you think too highly of the w
ill of those Tang men and too poorly of your own side's power!"

  That hoarse voice coldly snorted and rebuked his subordinate. This was a fully-armored Tibetan commander, those red cheeks characteristic of the plateau the greatest proof of his ethnicity.

  Tibetans normally had bodies a little shorter than the people of the Central Plains, but this person's body was completely different. He was extremely sturdy and tall, a head taller than the average person of the Central Plains.

  Streams of Stellar Energy flowed under his skin like pythons, and he exuded an astonishing aura.

  The most unique part about him was the pair of golden gauntlets on his hands. They seemed incredibly heavy and bursting with power.

  "I don't believe that the Tang are this formidable. Continue to gather our comrades. I want all the Tibetans in a radius of several hundred li to gather here."

  "Yes, Milord!"

  Dengba quailed at his commander's anger and hurriedly lowered his head. The Tibetans rigidly enforced the command hierarchy, even more than the Tang.

  Although he was the deputy commander, he did not dare to lightly offend his commander, who was only one rank above him.

  "First kill those one thousand Tang, and then we'll deal with that Great Tang Commandant Xu. With the Annan Protectorate finished, I don't believe that there's still anyone left in the southwest that can resist us!" the Tibetan commander coldly said.

  Tibetans were noble and powerful. Those Tibetans in the north had lost merely because those Tang men had not encountered any real opponents.

  He thought it utterly impossible for there to be anyone in the southwest that could stand against him!

  "Sound the horn! I want these leftover Tang soldiers completely cleaned up!"

  "Yes, Milord!"

  ……

  Bwoooom!

  After a few moments, a row of Tibetan horsemen took up their large white horns and blared so loudly that it could be heard a hundred li away.

  This was the horn of the white yak!

  No matter where a Tibetan was, they all knew that the horn of the white yak was a signal for them to gather.

  This was the prelude to battle!

  ……

  "Reporting! Tibetan scouts have been discovered up ahead!"