The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  Metal element ability!

  Wang Chong's face also flickered.

  Wushang Village was surrounded by mountains, so it was easy to train Earth element abilities here, especially those related to stone. Huang Botian's Stone General was one such case. But the Wushang elder before him could actually use the Metal element, and he seemed even more powerful than Huang Botian in his Stone General.

  This Wushang Village surrounded by rocks was truly an inconceivable place.

  It's the Five Elements Sword Mountain!

  Wang Chong suddenly remembered something.

  The majority of Wushang Village's martial arts were related to stone and earth, but nothing was absolute. Wang Chong knew that one elder of the village had cultivated the Metal element, and his martial art was called 'Five Elements Sword Mountain'. He was exceptionally powerful and was Wushang Village's sole Metal element warrior.

  'Five Elements Sword Mountain' was extremely powerful, and its most unique point was the five small swords.

  Each of these swords weighed more than one thousand jun. Unlike other swords, they relied not on their edge, but their incredible weight. Any person who dared to underestimate them even slightly would end up having their body pulverized.

  Alas, this Metal element elder's emergence was as brief as the morning dew. Just like the others, he died in the great calamity.

  Wang Chong hadn't expected that he would run into him.

  "My apologies for my offense!"

  Even though he knew who this elder was, not only did Wang Chong not back down, he increased his speed as he charged toward the elder.

  "Seeking death!"

  The elder's eyes chilled. Elder Wu Jiumei was currently injured and time was urgent. No matter how high Wang Chong's status was, even if he might be a marquis, he was still an outsider. If he still tried to force his way through, the elder could not be blamed for what came next.

  Boom!

  The five small swords began to ring in the air. Though only several inches long, they were like whales in the ocean, leaving massive vortices in their wake as they shot through the air. With this sudden burst of speed, the five swords shot toward Wang Chong like five mountains.

  If struck, Wang Chong would instantly be pulped, his body pounded into paste!

  Wang Chong lightly snorted at this sight, no fear in his eyes. 'Five Elements Sword Mountain' truly was powerful, with one small sword being equivalent to a mountain. Yet not even the 'Five Elements Sword Mountain' was a match for one of the Ten Supreme Arts of the Central Plains, the greatest of the evil arts, the 'Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art'!

  Rumble! Wang Chong shot toward the five swords like a cannonball. As he approached them, Wang Chong immediately pushed the Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art to its limit.

  Buzz! In the blink of an eye, a massive attractive force exploded out of Wang Chong's body. Space in a radius of ten-some zhang began to twist, along with everything else within that area.

  The Metal element elder standing in the stone house instantly felt like everything outside the house had begun to twist and grow blurry. Not only that, the five swords he had sent out were altering their course under the influence of some inconceivably powerful force.

  "Not good!"

  The elder paled, knowing that he had underestimated this Young Marquis. He instantly began to circulate more Stellar Energy, his dantian resonating as he attempted to gain back control and stop Wang Chong. But he was too late.

  Bzzt! A thin and slender palm, like that of a ghost, suddenly pressed against the elder's belly, on his dantian. The elder's Stellar Energy immediately began to flood out, pouring into Wang Chong's body.

  However, the Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art's dominance did not merely reside in something like absorbing energy. The moment Wang Chong touched the elder's body, the Stellar Energy within the elder grew turbulent, falling out of his control and into Wang Chong's.

  And if an elite expert were to have all his Stellar Energy controlled by another, they would instantly turn from this supreme expert into an ordinary person who couldn't even truss a chicken, incapable of any sort of counterattack.

  Such was the terror of the Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art. Once one got close, the only fate awaiting a person was death, of being sucked dry of energy.

  "Senior, I've wronged you!"

  Upon gaining control of the elder's Stellar Energy, Wang Chong pulled with both hands and threw him outside, at the same time, sealing off his acupuncture points and Stellar Energy.

  If one did not want to kill a person with the Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art, this move was the most straightforward. Of the older experts of the martial world, the Demonic Emperor Old Man had captured and humiliated many of them using this method.

  As someone personally taught by the Demonic Emperor Old Man, Wang Chong was far too familiar with this move.

  After dealing with the Metal element elder, Wang Chong immediately charged into the house. A turpentine lamp faintly illuminated the simple room.

  A stone bed had been placed in the innermost depths of the house. Wang Chong saw that Wushang Elder Wu Jiumei was lying on the bed, his two eyes showing their whites and his mouth foaming. His thin body was as stiff as a board, and his skin was suffused with a blackish hue.

  The veins under his skin were bulging out and twitching like earthworms.

  "What are you doing?"

  "Lord Marquis, didn't we already agree? You will leave at daybreak. The matters of the village are none of your concern!"

  "Leave, leave, hurry! If you don't leave now, we can't be blamed for treating you rudely!"

  ……

  By the bed, several Protectors and elders no weaker than Huang Botian viewed Wang Chong warily, their expressions stern. Although they had permitted Wang Chong to stay for the night, the wariness the Wushang had of outsiders was not that easy to dispel.

  Especially at a time like this!

  "Lord Marquis, please mind your manners!"

  With these last words, the bearish Wushang Protectors immediately tensed up, prepared to attack. If Wang Chong made the slightest strange movement or took another step forward, they would immediately attack as one.

  "Whether I leave or not is a matter for tomorrow, but isn't the most urgent matter at hand Elder Wu? It looks to me like he won't be able to last for very long," Wang Chong said, peering behind those people.

  At Wang Chong's words, they all immediately turned around. Wu Jiumei's stiff body had suddenly begun to shudder and twitch. Not only that, blood was beginning to leak out of his mouth and the corners of his eyes.

  This was a sign that his organs had been injured.

  "What's going on?"

  The Wushang paled in alarm. No matter how slow they could be, even they could tell that Wu Jiumei's condition was extremely poor. For blood to be leaking out of the eyes and mouth, black blood at that, meant that his internal organs were damaged.

  This sort of illness wouldn't be as serious in a younger individual, but Wu Jiumei was very old. If a solution could not be found, the situation was liable to end very poorly.

  "Wujian grass! Quickly, use wujian grass!"

  "Elder has already taken it, but it showed no effect."

  "Elder's body has been afflicted by this illness for a long time, and because he's taken too much wujian grass already, these things no longer have any effect."

  "Then what do we do! Think of a way, think!"

  "Call the Chief! Only the Chief knows what to do."

  "I've already sent someone, but Botian and the others still haven't come back!"

  ……

  The room instantly fell into disarray. At this moment, no one had any mind for Wang Chong. Whoosh! In a split second, while the room was in chaos and everyone had their minds on other things, a silhouette shot toward the side of the bed. Two fingers of the right hand extended out, opened Wu Jiumei's mouth, and thrust a pill inside.

  "Bastard!"

  "Halt!"


  "What are you doing?!"

  ……

  The Wushang all paled. No one had expected Wang Chong to exploit their lack of attention.

  Chapter 708: The Peril of the Lunar Eclipse IV

  Chapter 708: The Peril of the Lunar Eclipse (IV)

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  "Don't panic. I have no relationship with Elder Wu, so why would I harm him? Moreover… given Elder Wu's current condition, would I even need to harm him?"

  Wang Chong put his hands behind his back and swiftly retreated, a smile on his lips.

  Before the other elders present could say anything, a Wushang Protector angrily roared, "Our Wushang Village doesn't need your interference. Speak! What medicine did you make the elder eat?" His hands clenched into fists and his body trembled, a clear sign that he was at his breaking point.

  Although the village had already ordered that this youth was a marquis of the court and could not be recklessly attacked, these repeated incidents were truly too much.

  "If anything happens to the elder, don't blame us for getting rough!" the other Protector growled.

  "Relax; nothing will happen," Wang Chong indifferently replied, his face calm and relaxed, unperturbed even in the face of these enraged Wushang Protectors. However, those shaking fingers at his back, where no one else could see, revealed his true state of mind.

  There was clearly something strange. Wang Chong clearly remembered that Wu Jiumei had only been injured in this incident, but right now, Wu Jiumei's feeble breathing and the black blood leaking out of his lips and the corners of his eyes portended something far worse.

  This definitely not something as simple as a heavy injury. A poor treatment would lead to death.

  I hope that the pill works as normal! Wang Chong anxiously thought.

  He could sense that the Wushang Village incident in this life was a little different from the one in his last life. While Wu Jiumei came away from that incident with severe injuries, he now seemed about to die in it.

  With things having changed, he could no longer be so certain about many things.

  "Ahhhhh!"

  Just when he was beginning to get concerned, an elderly voice suddenly gave out a long sigh. This voice caused everyone to shudder and turn to the bed.

  On the bed, Wu Jiumei's eyes, which had been showing their whites, had suddenly rolled back, revealing those slightly turbid yet pitch-black pupils.

  And with this long sigh, the blackish hue on his skin slowly began to retreat, first from his face, then his neck, his arms, and then down through the rest of his body to his legs. A rosy hue began to emerge on his body.

  Not only that, Wu Jiumei's eyes were moving, quickly falling on the Wushang Protectors and elders at his bed.

  "Chongli! Yunwen!"

  Wu Jiumei called out the names of two elders. Although his voice was a little weak, he could still be heard loud and clear.

  "Elder!"

  In the room, those villagers who had been attending upon him, ferrying around water and towels, were ecstatic and immediately rushed over.

  "Wonderful, Elder is awake! Elder is awake!"

  And this wasn't all. Shortly after, Wu Jiumei rubbed his head and, under everyone else's flabbergasted gazes, slowly sat up on the bed.

  "!!!"

  Shock!

  Endless shock!

  As they watched Wu Jiumei sit on the bed like nothing had ever happened to him, all the villagers turned to Wang Chong, the astonishment in their eyes difficult to describe. Those Protectors who had viewed Wang Chong with so much hostility had particularly complicated expressions.

  "Impossible! No medicine can be this formidable!"

  The elder that Wu Jiumei had called 'Yunwen' quickly stepped forward and gripped one of Wu Jiumei's arms. Wu Jiumei's pulse was stable and was gradually improving, his heart beating faster and more steadily.

  This was not merely a complete recovery, as the pulse was growing even steadier than it normally was.

  Instantly, Elder Yunwen turned to Wang Chong standing by the door, his expression one of shock, astonishment, and an indescribable excitement.

  Wang Chong merely smiled.

  Elder He Yunwen quickly turned back his head and tightly grasped Wu Jiumei's hand, his voice fraught with worry as he asked, "Brother Jiu, how do you feel? How do your neck and shoulder, right leg, back, and organs feel? Do they hurt?"

  "Very good. It doesn't hurt. What's wrong…"

  Wu Jiumei slowly moved his body as he replied confusedly to the questions. Though he did not know why He Yunwen was asking these questions at the start, as he inadvertently gave his answer, he immediately noticed something. His entire body froze, his face flabbergasted.

  For a moment, the room was deathly still, everyone looking in a single direction in extreme excitement.

  "Impossible! We people of Wushang Village might be powerful, but starting from the age of three, everyone begins to suffer from a faint ache. At the end of every month or when the stars dim, when Yin energy is at its strongest, our entire body will begin to convulse. Many people even die before the age of fifty. A sorcerer that the village invited said that it was a problem of fengshui.

  "Elder Wu is seventy or eighty, and his condition is more serious than that of anyone else in the village. How could he suddenly get better?"

  The mutterings of some person in the room voiced the questions on everyone's mind.

  People who arrived at Wushang Village for the first time would sigh in praise at the immense strength trained through living in this harsh environment, but very few people knew of the price of this strength. For all of their lives, every Wushang would have to endure an internal ache that only grew worse with age.

  Generation after generation, cohort after cohort—none were excluded.

  Elder Wu had suffered from such a severe breakout, with even black blood dribbling from his lips, because of his advanced age and the increasing severity of the condition. In that moment, many people believed that he would die. But no one had expected him to suddenly recover, and not merely recover. Even his ragged pulse had steadied.

  Elder Wu's condition would not recover for no reason. The only possibility was the pill that Wang Chong had made him swallow!

  Shock, disbelief, and a deep excitement and craving… all sorts of emotions were running through the minds of the villagers in the room. If Wang Chong's pill was useful even for someone of Elder Wu's age, wouldn't that mean that everyone could use the pill?

  Even the most hostile of villagers began to relax their stance toward Wang Chong, and they looked toward him like he was some sort of wishing star.

  He Yunwen suppressed his excitement and asked, "Lord Marquis… if you do not mind, can you tell me what sort of pill you had Elder consume?"

  Wang Chong only smiled and opened his palm, offering yet another one of the pills.

  Wang Chong's efforts had not been wasted. He could clearly sense that the Wushang's attitude toward him had undergone a complete reversal, and all this was because of the pills he had brought.

  Slap!

  Before He Yunwen could take the pill, a palm slapped it out of Wang Chong's hand and onto the ground.

  "Elder, have you gone crazy? He's an outsider! How could he be so kindhearted, and how could he have a method of resolving our Wushang's hidden disease? We Wushang have tried for centuries and still haven't solved this problem, so how could an outsider do it? This must be coincidence—it must be because Elder consumed so much wujian grass that its medicinal effects built up in his body, the accumulated effect bursting out at this moment to cure Elder's illness."

  A stocky Wushang villager of around thirty years, with a bright red cut on his left cheek, harshly shouted. His eyes were staring at Wang Chong with deep malice, and his loathing seemed greater than anyone else's.

  It's him.

  Wang Chong had initially not cared, but when he saw the cut, he remembered. When he was fighting with Qin Qicheng,
there was one villager who fought more fiercely than the rest, so aggressive that even Qin Qicheng found it hard to control him.

  When Wang Chong sent him flying, a rock had brushed past this villager's cheek, leaving a wound from which blood bubbled out. But that villager's gaze toward Wang Chong seemed to only grow even more ferocious. This had left a very deep impression on Wang Chong.

  It seems like he's holding a grudge over that incident.

  Wang Chong suddenly understood.

  "I've said what I wanted to say and done what I wanted to do. Since you don't believe, then forget it. I just don't know if all the other people tonight will be like Elder Wu, able to rely on their accumulated stores of wujian grass in their bodies to spontaneously heal," Wang Chong said. He tilted his head and listened for a moment, then turned and left.

  Outside the stone house, screams were rising and falling, more and more adding to the din. This night of the lunar eclipse was to be a sleepless night for Wushang Village.

  "Wait a moment!"

  Seeing that Wang Chong was about to leave and hearing all the screams, Wu Jiumei hurriedly raised an arm and called Wang Chong back.

  But at this moment, there was an unexpected event.

  Bang!

  Like a block of wood dropping to the floor, the middle-aged villager who had been yelling at Wang Chong just a few moments ago suddenly fell to the floor.

  His teeth were clenched, his complexion wan, and his body was unmoving.

  "Wanshi, Wanshi… what's wrong?"

  Everyone was stunned and hurried over, squatting down and gathering around him.

  "Not good—his illness is breaking out!"

  "The condition is serious. His entire body is convulsing."

  "Bring a towel and separate his teeth. Don't let him bite his own tongue."

  "Not good! Elder, his pulse is getting weaker and weaker, and his temperature is rapidly falling. If this continues, I'm afraid…"

  ……

  The quick and unexpected onset left everyone panicked. He Wanshi had collapsed too suddenly and his illness was advancing too quickly. In a few moments, his body temperature had plunged and a blackish hue was beginning to spread over his body.