The Human Emperor c1-2382
Page 391
"Chaaaarge!"
"The Tang are at the end of their rope! Reach the summit and they are doomed!"
"His Majesty has ordered that the first to reach the summit will be made marquis of ten thousand households!"
"The Great Minister has ordered that the first person to break through the Tang defenses and reach the summit will receive the title of 'Satulu Great Warrior', personally conferred by the Tsenpo!"
……
The Mengshe Zhao and Tibetan generals stood in the black tide of steel, yelling out orders, roaring, and keeping a close watch. A Tibetan horseman whose horse happened to step on a stone and was forced to take a few steps back to steady itself was almost instantly executed.
This sort of frenzied air covered the entire mountain.
Everyone felt like a saber or sword was pressed against their back, compelling them into a crazy charge up the mountain.
Bwoooom!
A yak horn blared, and the sound of this horn was accompanied by a metallic clanging, different from the past signals. Boom!The ground sank as a storm of energy suddenly ascended.
At the base of the mountain towered a highland steed taller than a man, with a muscular figure on its back that was as straight as a spear. The cape on his back snapped in the wind, and his entire body exuded an aura of arrogance and dominance.
Although he had done nothing, this figure was like the sun in the sky, instantly attracting everyone's attention.
"Huoshu Huicang is moving out!"
In a place that no one was watching, two figures stood in the shadows of the army, silently watching Huoshu Huicang.
"Mm."
Duan Gequan nodded.
"This should be Dalun Ruozan's plan. His entire strategy has already been broken by that child, leaving him with no other recourse.
"Gequan, Huoshu Huicang is too domineering and arrogant. Once he moves, he will assuredly attract the notice of all the Great Tang. This is our best chance!"
That other voice continued to speak.
"No! Now is not the time!"
Duan Gequan shook his head and immediately rejected the notion. In the gloom, his gaze seemed even darker and gloomier.
"Wait a little longer! In just a few moments, it will be time for us to utterly crush the Tang! Your Majesty, be at ease! Your grand ambitions will be realized. This lowly subject will put all his power into helping you succeed!"
Duan Gequan's voice was suffused with a powerful will!
Ruler and subject knew each other, and ruler and subject would die for each other!
The Mengshe Zhao of today was one that he and Geluofeng had constructed together, step by step. This was not solely Geluofeng's dream, but his as well. On the shore of the Erhai, he had once promised Geluofeng that he would help him transform this Erhai from a small kingdom on the southern periphery, bullied by all, into a hegemon of the continent!
He could never allow the empire to fall here, much less allow his dreams to crumble!
"Fifteen minutes! In at most fifteen minutes, I'll let Your Majesty see the final end of the Annan Protectorate army!"
Duan Gequan looked in the distance, his eyes glowing.
This was a promise a Great General made to his sovereign!
With this promise, all fell silent.
……
Boom!
The ground quaked as Huoshu Huicang finally entered the battle.
A golden light as bright as the sun exploded over the mountain as the massive Vairocana Buddha manifested. Majestic and domineering, it loomed over the mountain. The air resounded with Buddhist mantras and hymns.
"Om! Ma! Ni! Pe! Me! Hung!"
The endless light made Huoshu Huicang's Vairocana Buddha seem incredibly lofty and tall. Just by looking at it from a distance, one would feel a deep shock and respect.
Roar!
Yet Huoshu Huicang was unable to succeed in his assault. The roaring figure of a giant golden-armored god, like a deity that had awoken from ages of slumber, raised up a palm and stood up out of the mountain. It instantly began to engage in fierce combat with Huoshu Huicang.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Vast streams of Stellar Energy from the ripples of their battle stirred a fierce gale that threw countless stones into the sky.
This level of battle had already surpassed the imagination of an ordinary person, and all the surrounding soldiers were retreating.
"Duan Gequan still hasn't moved?"
While Wang Yan was using the Mighty Miracle God Formation to battle Huoshu Huicang, Xianyu Zhongtong was standing at the ready, coolly and calmly staring down the mountain.
Wang Yan and Huoshu Huicang were battling not too far from him, but Xianyu Zhongtong remained stationary with no intent to intervene. In Xianyu Zhongtong's view, he had only opponent in this battle: the Erhai Great General, Duan Gequan!
Xianyu Zhongtong's grudge against the Erhai Great General had not begun today. When Zhangchou Jianqiong was still overseeing the southwest, Xianyu Zhongtong had already developed a grudge against this general.
But no grudge could surpass the one created in that crushing defeat on the Erhai plains.
This would be a pain that Xianyu Zhongtong would nurse for a lifetime.
"Reporting to General: he has not! Up to now, only Huoshu Huicang has moved!"
A voice came from the side. The only people around Xianyu Zhongtong were elites of the Annan Protectorate army, and their loathing of Duan Gequan was not one bit inferior to Xianyu Zhongtong's.
"Duan Gequan has spent all this time hiding behind Geluofeng. Not once has he moved out."
Xianyu Zhongtong was surrounded by generals of the Annan Protectorate army, all of them standing at the ready. The slightest movement would immediately cause them to form the Vajra God Formation, combining into a power that could lay upon Duan Gequan a fierce blow.
But before that moment, none of these people would take part in any other battle.
"There's no reason for this!"
Under the black banner representing the Annan Protectorate army, the black-armored Xianyu Zhongtong gazed at that distant chariot, and that powerful figure standing behind Geluofeng. Slowly, his brow began to crease.
"This is the last and decisive battle. The fates of three countries will be decided here. Duan Gequan has been quiet for so many days; there's no reason for him to still remain hidden in this final battle!"
The Mengshe–Ü-Tsang army had three individuals of the 'Great General' level: Geluofeng, Huoshu Huicang, and Duan Gequan. Geluofeng, as sovereign of Mengshe Zhao, would not risk himself by rashly entering the battle. As for the other two, only Huoshu Huicang had ever moved out.
Duan Gequan had remained behind the curtain throughout this battle, never once acting. Perhaps this would have been acceptable before, but for him to do so now was not normal at all.
Xianyu Zhongtong suddenly had a very bad feeling.
Chapter 623: The Decisive Battle! The Terrifying Duan Gequan!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Xianyu Zhongtong's brows rose as he suddenly ordered, "Someone, inform Young Master that he should be on guard at all times!"
"But…"
The messenger hesitated as he glanced up the mountain. Wang Chong's attention was currently split, a massive burden placed upon him as he almost singlehandedly managed the battlefield.
One could easily the massive pressure placed on Wang Chong's shoulders as he commanded sixty thousand soldiers against three hundred thousand.
Almost all his attention was on commanding. He had no mind for anything else.
At a time like this, no one wanted to trouble him with anything else.
"We can't concern ourselves with something like that! If there's a problem on the frontlines, we can make up for it, but if Duan Gequan strikes, the entire army will be wiped out. I have a feeling that Duan Gequan is about to act. This venomous snake of Erhai won't be able to wait that long," Xianyu Zhongtong said.
As his mortal enemy, Xianyu Zhongtong had a very strong intuition about Duan Gequan. When Duan Gequan was being patient, it didn't mean that he was afraid. On the contrary, that was a sign that he was about to explode.
The messenger nodded and quickly left.
Xianyu Zhongtong's surroundings once more fell silent, as if that fierce melee around him had no relation to him.
"Duan Gequan, Duan Gequan… no matter what you're scheming, what you're up to, I'll always be watching you. I won't give you even a sliver of a chance!"
A few thoughts flickered through Xianyu Zhongtong's eyes as he quickly composed himself.
In this battle, Duan Gequan was foreordained to be his!
……
Time no longer had any meaning in this place. So intense was the battle that it was incapable of growing more intense. In every moment, a great number of Mengshe Zhao, Tibetan, and Great Tang soldiers were dying.
The corpses were piling up so high that some of them were even rolling down the mountain.
The brown flanks of the mountain had by now been dyed a grisly red, and the thick stench of blood filled the air.
"It's about time!"
Far at the base of the mountain, a pair of unnoticed eyes blinked before swiftly vanishing.
……
The clashing of weapons could be heard all over the mountain.
In a place close to the summit, the black banner of the Annan Protectorate army flapped prominently in the air. Unlike other places on this mountain, the area under this banner had remained extremely quiet.
But in this silence, an unease and anxiety were seeping through the air.
"Why? What is Duan Gequan thinking? Does he really not plan to move?"
On the mountain, Xianyu Zhongtong and his surrounding generals were all staring at the chariot and Duan Gequan upon it. Both sides had suffered terrible casualties, but Duan Gequan still had no intentions of acting.
"Impossible! Are Geluofeng and Duan Gequan prepared to just let things end like this?"
Xianyu Zhongtong gritted his teeth.
He had spent more than seventy percent of this battle in a state of complete calm, but at this moment, Xianyu Zhongtong had to admit that his mood was growing imbalanced.
Duan Gequan was no incompetent and feeble coward. On the contrary, he was far more threatening than anyone else. In a battle like this, it was impossible for him to be helpless.
Xianyu Zhongtong knew that there was something he had missed.
He could see nothing, but the danger in the air was only getting worse.
This sort of ill foreboding almost made Xianyu Zhongtong go crazy!
"Impossible, impossible! …Duan Gequan, you definitely aren't one to sit still!"
Xianyu Zhongtong clenched his fists, his eyes fixed on that distant figure, that figure hidden behind Geluofeng's back.
Scenes from the battle of Erhai began to appear before his eyes, the blood and corpses of thousands as far as the eyes could see. The bodies of his soldiers carpeted the ground, and even the vast Erhai was dyed red.
Rather than say that he had lost in the battle of Erhai to Mengshe Zhao's massive army, it was better to say that he had lost to that man always hidden in the shadows. That man had struck at the critical moment, piercing through the Tang lines in a single blow, ending the lives of one hundred thousand soldiers and leaving them to rot on the Erhai plains.
"No matter what, I won't let you repeat that scene!"
Xianyu Zhongtong tightened his fists, his eyes dyed a bloody red.
"AH!"
Cries of alarm came from beside him. The Annan Protectorate army generals were all looking in panic at Xianyu Zhongtong.
"Milord, blood!"
Some wet thing dropped onto his hand. Xianyu Zhongtong felt his face and realized that his nose had begun to bleed.
Was I working my mind too much?
Xianyu Zhongtong looked at the blood on his hand with a little contempt for himself, a blurry reflection of his pale and grimacing face within. But as he was looking at his reflection, he noticed that something had flown over his head.
Xianyu Zhongtong stood in a daze for a moment, his mind completely blank. Although there was nothing before his eyes, Xianyu Zhongtong felt like his body was ice-cold.
"Not good!"
In mere moments, Xianyu Zhongtong suddenly shouted, his face twisted in extreme panic.
"Young Master, careful!"
Xianyu Zhongtong shouted at Wang Chong as he began to charge up the summit.
Xianyu Zhongtong's reaction couldn't be called slow. Alas, he was too late…
Boom!
There was a massive boom. On the summit, Wang Chong had just turned in surprise to Xianyu Zhongtong when what seemed like a massive bomb suddenly plummeted onto the mountain. Countless Annan Protectorate army soldiers screamed as they were flung outward and into the air by a terrifying energy.
Many of them were pulverized in midair, their limbs hurtling through the sky.
Roar!
With this heaven-shaking roar, a black demonic god, two-headed and four-armed, equipped with massive sabers, suddenly stood up from the ground at the edge of the Myriad Stars Formation. Boom! A single slash of a saber immediately caused the formation that Wang Chong had put so much effort into to crumble. Countless shield soldiers, axe soldiers, spear soldiers, and even ballistae in the rear were smashed to pieces by this strike.
The several-dozen-zhang-tall saber energy even split the earth, leaving behind a deep furrow. Black smoke rose from this furrow, giving off the stench of decay.
"Aaaaah!"
Screams filled the air, and time seemed to freeze for a moment.
"Duan Gequan!"
Turning to that massive gap in his formation, Wang Chong felt his heart stop, a look of despair emerging on his face.
"How could it be him?"
The battle between the Great Tang and the Mengshe–Ü-Tsang army had already reached a critical point. Wang Chong had never imagined that Duan Gequan would manage to strike at this time with so little warning.
And even more terrifying for Wang Chong was that Duan Gequan had selected the weakest point in the entire Myriad Stars Formation.
Boom!
The massive machine of the Myriad Stars Formation that had swallowed up so many Mengshe–Ü-Tsang soldiers came to a sudden stop, as if struck by a heavy blow.
Duan Gequan's attack had been like a dagger thrust into the Annan Protectorate army's heart. It had completely disrupted Wang Chong's tempo and shattered the movements of the Myriad Stars Formation.
"Soldiers of Mengshe Zhao, follow me! Today will be the day that we bury the Annan Protectorate army!"
Duan Gequan's voice came from that two-headed, four-armed demon god, echoing over the battlefield.
This was the first time he had spoken on the battlefield, but this single time altered the entire course of the battle and the southwestern war!
Roar!
"Follow Great General!"
"Charge to the summit; slaughter the Annan Protectorate army!"
"With the mighty Great General, our Mengshe Zhao will win!"
……
The depressed Mengshe Zhao soldiers instantly rallied when Duan Gequan appeared. The tens of thousands of soldiers roared as they followed behind Duan Gequan in a frenzied charge through the gap Duan Gequan had cleaved open.
"Kiiiill!"
Countless Tibetan soldiers followed close behind the Mengshe Zhao army, surging up to the summit.
Duan Gequan's actions had had a destructive effect, causing a chain reaction that caused the Annan Protectorate army across the entire mountain to give way. It took mere moments for the gap opened up by Duan Gequan to rapidly widen.
"Kiiiill!"
Cries of battle filled the air like the raging of the sea. The countless soldiers of the Mengshe–Ü-Tsang army were pressing forward into that gap like endless waves.
"Hahaha, wonderful—Great General has succeed
ed!"
At the base of the mountain, Fengjiayi heartily laughed, his face red from excitement.
"Gequan, you truly haven't disappointed Us!"
Geluofeng's eyes were practically shining. Finally, Mengshe Zhao and Ü-Tsang were showing signs of winning this battle.
From Geluofeng's perspective, the Annan Protectorate army on the mountain was already beginning to show signs of crumbling.
Whether it was the choice of time, place, or method, Duan Gequan was a supreme perfectionist.
This was a true one-hit kill!
"Xianyu Zhongtong, you've lost!"
Geluofeng turned to that black banner on the summit, unable to suppress his smile.
From start to finish, Xianyu Zhongtong and the generals around him had never moved, and how could Geluofeng and Duan Gequan not understand his intentions?
Alas, when the evil grew a foot higher, the righteous would grow a zhang. In the end, Xianyu Zhongtong had still lost to Duan Gequan.
……
"This is impossible!"
At this very moment, Xianyu Zhongtong's eyes were wide in rage, earthquakes rumbling through his mind. Duan Gequan's appearance had been like a dagger thrust into his bosom, drenching his body in blood.
Chapter 624: The Decisive Battle! The Whole Front Collapses!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Xianyu Zhongtong found it impossible to believe that while he had been staring at Duan Gequan all this time, Duan Gequan ended up appearing in another area of the mountain. And he had also chosen the most exquisite of moments, tearing open the Myriad Stars Formation that Wang Chong had taken such efforts to establish with a single blow.
Xianyu Zhongtong had been in a state of absolute vigilance, yet he had still lost. The screams rising from the Annan Protectorate army were like jeers ringing in his ears.
"Stealing a beam and replacing it with rotten timber—I've been deceived!"
Xianyu Zhongtong clenched his fists as he shook off the initial shock, finally beginning to understand. He had spent the entire day being played by Duan Gequan's substitute.
That person standing on the chariot, concealed in the shadows, was definitely not Duan Gequan.
"Geluofeng!"
An idea emerged in his mind and Xianyu Zhongtong instantly understood.