The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  “Kill them!”

  Fadi’s reddened eyes immediately spotted Wang Chong and his White-hoofed Shadow in the center of the battlefield, and the morale of his troops was immediately revitalized. After so long, after being led around this blizzard by the Tang for so long, they had finally found the young Tang commander.

  This was the ultimate archcriminal!

  Rumble! All other noise in the world was drowned out as the Arab soldiers became a massive drill, piercing through their own disorderly soldiers to charge straight at Wang Chong.

  “Heh!”

  As Wang Chong gripped the reins of his horse and stared at Hular and the Three Titans of Black Radiance, he smiled.

  “You’ve taken the bait!”

  ‘To shoot a man, first shoot his horse, and to capture the underlings, first take the king.’ By following this principle, the Three Titans of Black Radiance had ultimately fallen into his trap.

  Clang!

  The cry of a sword resounded over the battlefield. Wang Chong stood tall on his horse, pointing the golden sword that he had obtained from Bahram straight up to the sky.

  “Not good!”

  The sight of Wang Chong’s confident expression that completely disregarded the tens of thousands of Arab soldiers around him suddenly made Fadi extremely uneasy. But before he had time to deeply think, he heard a heaven-shaking roar.

  Hooves thundered from all around, sending up flurries of snow, as countless warhorses suddenly charged out of the blizzard, killing intent seething from their riders’ bodies. The air immediately tensed.

  “Careful! Enemy attack!”

  The faces of the Three Titans of Black Radiance immediately twisted into nasty grimaces.

  They had fallen for a trap!

  The three reached this conclusion at the same time. No one had expected that while these Tang had been forcing their way into the Arab army, they even had time to set up a trap within their trap, laying an ambush to surround the Arab commanders.

  The tactics of the three had been completely predicted by the Tang.

  “Capture the king to capture the underlings! Kill that young Tang commander!”

  Fadi’s gaze chilled as he swiftly made up his mind. In the current situation, only killing this most troublesome and intractable Tang commander who had been responsible for all of this could resolve the situation. “Hyah!” Fadi charged ahead toward Wang Chong.

  At almost the same moment, Firas, Imron, and Hular also galloped forward.

  “Hahaha, Arabs, your opponent is here!”

  Brash laughter rang out through the air, and then a man and horse suddenly descended from the skies like a god, from a position twenty to thirty meters in the air. Gao Xianzhi, his hair flying in the wind and Stellar Energy thrumming around him, had thrown out a spear while still in the air toward Fadi on the ground.

  Following the spear were eight massive pillars brimming with dazzling and destructive energy.

  “Strength of the Fire God!”

  At almost the same moment, the Sassanid Great General Bahram collided with Firas.

  Following Bahram overhead was a scarlet flame that now blossomed into a massive golden ball of fire. This ball of fire contained an endless destructive energy that could intimidate any expert.

  The Fire God was one of the gods revered by the Sassanid people. In the Sassanid legends, the Fire God was also the Sun God, and as a Great General of the Sassanid Dynasty, Bahram had inherited one of the strongest Sassanid techniques, gifted to him by the imperial household.

  Soon after, the Origin Energy in the sky began to pulse, and an invisible strength amidst the blizzard began to collect and condense this Origin Energy into massive fists of ice which punched at the other Arab governors. The Demonic Emperor Old Man and the Wushang Village Chief descended from the sky and began to attack the Arab governors.

  “Raaaaa!” Cheng Qianli, Wang Yan, Banahan, the Gangke King, and the rebel leaders all emerged to converge on Fadi’s group.

  This fierce rain of attacks left all the Arab governors and generals dumbstruck, all of their complexions ashen. There was no question that this was a trap, a trap specifically meant for them.

  “Fight to the death!”

  “Don’t fall back!”

  “Careful!”

  With no time to think, these panicking Arab commanders used their own powerful techniques to battle with Wang Chong, the Demonic Emperor Old Man, the Wushang Village Chief, and the others.

  Boomboomboom! The battlefield was engulfed with icy winds and fierce waves of energy, and the air resounded with explosions. But even though the Three Titans of Black Radiance, Hular, and the other Arab governors were all doing their best, they had been caught completely by surprise by the assault and were simply no match.

  Squelch! The Demonic Emperor Old Man suddenly jabbed out with a finger, condensing thousands of bolts of energy into a single dazzling beam of Sword Qi that pierced right through an Arab governor. This Arab governor had been wearing a thick and gleaming suit of armor, which one could tell at a glance was no ordinary suit of armor. Yet it barely seemed to exist in front of the Demonic Emperor Old Man, and his attack was immediately able to strike the governor’s vitals.

  “Truly… truly I can’t even dare to believe that I would die at the hands of these infidels. Just who are these people?”

  The Arab governor’s eyes went round, and his face was filled with unwillingness, but a moment later, he dropped to the ground.

  The Myriad Spirit Sea Art could seek out the weak points of an opponent’s body. The Demonic Emperor Old Man’s Sword Qi had not just struck his vitals, but also had ended his life.

  With the death of this Arab governor, the balance of this battle was broken.

  The Wushang Village Chief thrust out with his white cane, which immediately shattered the barrier of Stellar Energy around the Arab governor in front of him and stabbed through his armor and straight into his heart. Both the Wushang Village Chief and the Demonic Emperor Old Man were supreme masters. Ordinary Arab governors were simply no match for them.

  Thumpthumpthump! More and more people began to fall, and this was far from the extent of the Arabs’ predicament. At the same time, cries of battle and the gleam of swords and sabers broke through the blizzard.

  While the Great Generals were fiercely battling, the soldiers that the Three Titans of Black Radiance had brought were also facing an unimaginable storm of attacks.

  The Aswaran Cataphracts and Wushang Cavalry working together had completely scattered them in the first charge, killing countless Arab horsemen.

  “Kill them! Team seven, attack the left flank! Team eight, punch through the right! We can’t let them reassemble!”

  Su Hanshan, riding on a black horse, gave commands from the rear, his expression composed, his eyes bright, and his every movement exuding an intimidating aura. While Wang Chong was busy fighting, he had passed the authority to command entirely to Su Hanshan.

  Only through honing could one sharpen a precious sword, and only through the bitter winter could peach blossoms be so fragrant. After being tempered through battle after battle, Su Hanshan was once more displaying his potential to be a Great General.

  From Talas to Khorasan, there had been numerous battles of all sizes. Su Hanshan had displayed his formidable ability to learn, and Wang Chong could now rest easy in giving him command over many battles. And in this aspect, Su Hanshan had never let him down.

  Bangbangbang! Surrounded by the Tang, Khorasani, and rebel soldiers, the Arabs swiftly crumbled, and their losses climbed at an astonishing speed. Seven thousand, nine thousand, thirteen thousand, sixteen thousand… in just a few seconds, the Three Titans of Black Radiance had lost more than twenty thousand soldiers, and they were continuing to lose more. The entire battlefield was covered in Arab corpses.

  The fierce winds quickly spread the stench of blood, which was only continuing to thicken. Fadi and the others felt their hearts dripping blood as they saw their men be
ing cut down like weeds. The Tang’s organizational and offensive abilities were far above the tired, exhausted, alarmed, and panicked Arabs.

  While Fadi and his men had been trudging through the snow, these Tang had traversed it like a fish in water. Not only was the fierce blizzard and extreme cold no impediment to them, but was also of great assistance in their assault.

  “Retreat! Retreat!”

  The sight of the corpses piling up on the ground filled Fadi’s eyes with rage, reluctance, and despair.

  The army was sustaining losses far faster than he had imagined. If he did not retreat now, all his soldiers would end up being wiped out.

  Bang! Fadi was the first to turn his horse around and charge off into the distance. Seeing their own commander run, all the other Arab cavalry began to follow.

  At this moment, the Arabs finally relinquished any thought of defeating the Great Tang in the middle of this blizzard, and they scattered like frightened birds.

  “After them!”

  Wang Chong immediately thrust his sword forward, leading his men in pursuing Fadi. In terms of both energy and willpower, the Arabs had been utterly vanquished, and even Fadi and the rest of the Three Titans had given up on resistance. Now was the perfect time to pursue and increase the harvest.

  Chapter 1187 - The Riddle of Destiny!

  Chapter 1187: The Riddle of Destiny!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  Rumble! The army swept forward in pursuit of Fadi. There was no one left to stop the Tang now, and in this pursuit, countless more Arabs were felled.

  After just an hour of pursuit, Wang Chong’s twenty thousand men had slain another eighty to ninety thousand Arabs, leaving a trail of corpses in their wake.

  Bang! As the army was in the middle of the pursuit, the sound of a heavy object dropping to the ground came from the rear of the army. In the middle of the blizzard, it was nigh inaudible, but to a Great General like Wang Chong, it was a peal of thunder.

  “Stop!”

  Wang Chong suddenly raised his arm and ordered the entire army to halt. In a flash, Wang Chong turned his horse around and rode to the rear.

  “Wang Chong, what’s wrong?”

  By the time Wang Chong had stopped at the end of the army, Gao Xianzhi, Bahram, and the others had caught up to him.

  “How is it?”

  Wang Chong did not reply, only looked at the Tang horseman who had fallen from the back of his horse.

  “Mi-Milord, I’m fine. I can still fight.”

  The Tang soldier was covered in wounds, and he needed the help of several other soldiers to stand up from the ground.

  In this pursuit through the snow, the coalition army had killed an uncountable number of Arabs, but the Arabs were not ordinary opponents. Even though they had been greatly weakened by the extreme cold, their tenacity and ferocity had bored into their bones. The Tang had emerged victorious, but they had paid no small price. Many of their soldiers had been wounded in the pursuit.

  Wang Chong gazed at the soldier’s frozen wounds, and then glanced up to the blizzard, which was even colder and more ferocious than it had been before. He then glanced at the dim lights hanging from the sides of the horses around him, the metal lanterns on the verge of being extinguished, and his eyes flashed.

  “Pass on my order! Prepare to withdraw! Everyone must immediately return to Khorasan!” Wang Chong suddenly ordered, his words leaving everyone dumbfounded.

  “But, Wang Chong, we have the upper hand. Are we just giving up?” Gao Xianzhi said.

  The army of six to seven hundred thousand Arab soldiers had been vanquished by this abrupt and historic blizzard, and together with this pursuit, the Arabs had suffered a blow like never before. As a commander, he found it rather regretful to have to relinquish such an excellent opportunity.

  “We’ve reached our limit.”

  Wang Chong shook his head.

  “This extreme cold affects both sides equally. The Arabs have been weakened, but our soldiers have also suffered greatly. If this continues, we might never be able to return to Khorasan. And the Arabs have a new garrison stationed in Shandar. If we continue to pursue, we might not actually have much of an advantage!”

  “But, Milord, to let go of such an opportunity is truly a great pity. Next year, they will come back with another large army to restart the war,” Bahram protested.

  The Sassanids ardently desired a victory, and such an unprecedented victory was exactly what the Sassanids needed the most.

  “Hah, who says that they can organize another army next year and come back?”

  Wang Chong grinned, his expression proud and confident. Although he had ordered the army to retreat, that did not mean he had forgotten about the Arabs.

  “Over the course of this battle, we’ve killed two hundred and fifty to sixty thousand soldiers. Although we’re not continuing the pursuit, the main force of the Arab army has been broken. At least two hundred thousand soldiers are lost in the blizzard, and in this world of ice and snow, it’s impossible for them to find any shelter. If the Three Titans of Black Radiance can return with two hundred thousand soldiers this time, then that would be quite impressive.”

  Gao Xianzhi, Bahram, Cheng Qianli, Xi Yuanqing, and the many rebel leaders were all left dazed by Wang Chong’s words. The Arabs had brought more than seven hundred thousand soldiers with them on this campaign. Had this blizzard and their pursuit been enough to eliminate five hundred thousand of these soldiers?

  This number was truly unthinkable.

  No one knew how Wang Chong had arrived at this number or why he was so certain, but no one had ever questioned his judgment. He had proved himself on countless battlefields, and even in the middle of this blizzard, everything had gone as he predicted.

  “This…” Bahram hesitated for a few moments before finally replying. “If this is the case, then Bahram has no objection!”

  To be able to kill five hundred thousand Arab soldiers in this battle was far better than Bahram’s most optimistic projections.

  Rumble!

  After one last glance in the direction of Shandar, Wang Chong and the others quickly reached an agreement, and the twenty thousand men rode back to Khorasan.

  Rumble!

  After several hours, Wang Chong led his men into Khorasan. Behind him, the gates of Khorasan closed with a boom, finally bringing an end to this battle!

  At almost the same moment, the gates of Shandar flew open. Several mighty Arab governors stood at the gates, their expressions dour as they welcomed the staggering army led by the Three Titans of Black Radiance…

  ……

  “Congratulations to user for completing the mission ‘Arabia’s Counterattack’. For defeating eight hundred thousand Arab soldiers and winning the Battle of Khorasan, user has been rewarded with 40000 points of Destiny Energy!

  “Congratulations to user! The Battle of Talas has been completed! Calculating mission rewards…

  “Congratulations to user for obtaining victory in the ‘Clash of Destiny’, for a total of 4000 points of Destiny Energy.

  “Congratulations to user for completing the second phase of the Battle of Talas. You have been rewarded with 20000 points of Destiny Energy.

  “Congratulations to user for killing 360000 Arab soldiers in the second phase of the Battle of Talas for a total of 70000 points of Destiny Energy.

  “Congratulations to user for obtaining the ultimate trust of the Khorasani! User has been rewarded with 2000 points of Destiny Energy.”

  Once Wang Chong led his army through the city gates and returned to his own residence, he seemed to open up some invisible sluice gate. A moment later, a deluge of messages from the Stone of Destiny rushed through his mind. Since the start of the Battle of Talas, crisis after crisis had been constantly hanging over Wang Chong’s head, causing many missions to remain uncompleted.

  At this moment, with the withdrawal of the Three Titans of Black Radiance, the Arabs had los
t the ability to attack the Great Tang and Khorasan for a very long period of time. The Stone of Destiny had finally begun to calculate the rewards for this phase.

  “This…”

  Wang Chong’s steps paused on the threshold in surprise at all this. This could be said to be the longest time the Stone of Destiny had taken to calculate his rewards since his reincarnation. Countless messages swept past as the Stone of Destiny apparently busied itself with calculating his rewards.

  Finally, Wang Chong heard the Stone of Destiny give the final summary.

  “Congratulations to user! After deducting various mission penalties and expenses, user has obtained a total of 122110 points of Destiny Energy, for a grand total of 131450 points of Destiny Energy!”

  Six golden numbers emerged in front of Wang Chong’s eyes, instantly striking him dumb. This mission had lasted an extremely long time, and the Stone of Destiny had always been liberal in its rewards, but Wang Chong had never expected the final reward to be this large.

  But just when Wang Chong believed that everything was finished, the Stone of Destiny spoke once more.

  “Congratulations to user for completing ‘The Trial of Destiny’ early. User’s ‘Controller of Destiny’ title has been upgraded to ‘Ruler of Destiny’!”

  Ruler of Destiny?

  This title left Wang Chong’s face covered in shock and surprise. He hadn’t expected this war to result in his title being upgraded as well.

  ‘Ruler of Destiny’? Just what is this? What is the meaning behind these ‘Destiny’ titles?

  Wang Chong stood at the door to his room, his mind abuzz. A moment later, Wang Chong heard another voice.

  “Congratulations to user for obtaining the title ‘Ruler of Destiny’. An additional 10000 points of Destiny Energy has been rewarded and the hidden feature ‘Riddle of Destiny’ has been unlocked. The Riddle of Destiny is the source of all. User can expend a large amount of Destiny Energy to obtain information.

  “Notice: conditions must be met to use this feature!”