The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  After what seemed like a second and like countless years…

  “Found it!”

  Wang Chong’s eyes flashed. Amidst the tens of thousands of flying blades, he had found a special one. This blade was two thousand meters away from Wang Chong, but based on its trajectory, it would be passing by Wang Chong’s group while flying a complicated path.

  This metal blade moved extremely quickly, but Wang Chong was already able to predict its movements.

  In Wang Chong’s eyes, this metal blade was the most special of them all.

  Buzz!

  Without any warning, Wang Chong thrust a hand out of his sleeve, reaching straight upward as his fingers opened. The pull he exerted was not too intense, but it was entirely focused on the metal blade.

  Ding! With a crisp clang, that metal blade that should have been passing by ten feet above Wang Chong suddenly changed course and swept toward Wang Chong’s group. Clang! This alteration caused the metal blade to crash into another metal blade.

  Time seemed to stop.

  The single collision seemed to have a chain effect, causing the inconceivable. Those metal blades that had collided bounced away from each other and crashed into two other blades, causing four blades in all to be affected.

  And this scene repeated itself again, each blade bouncing away to collide with another, altering their trajectories and expanding the scope of the disturbance. Eight blades, sixteen blades, thirty-two blades, sixty-four blades, one hundred and twenty-eight blades…

  By changing the course of a single blade, Wang Chong had managed to affect thousands of them.

  Boomboomboom!

  Dust exploded as those many blades suddenly changed course and thudded into the walls.

  The expressions on the faces of the Demonic Emperor Old Man and the Wushang Village Chief froze.

  The abilities Wang Chong had displayed truly left them sighing in wonder. In truth, if all they needed to do was repulse all those metal blades to achieve this result, the two of them were entirely capable of doing so. But this would consume so much Stellar Energy that it would be extremely unwise to do so in this situation where they hadn’t even found the bottom of the pit.

  But Wang Chong had only taken control of one metal blade, using a tiny amount of Stellar Energy, yet affecting a vast number of blades. Even the Demonic Emperor Old Man and Wushang Village Chief were stunned by this feat.

  This had nothing to do with power or cultivation. Wang Chong’s ability to calculate had simply reached an astounding level.

  Boomboomboom!

  The explosions continued as the metal blades continued to pincushion the cave walls, devastating the wall for a length of several thousand meters.

  However, the region in which Wang Chong’s group resided was completely unharmed.

  Buzz!

  Wang Chong’s right hand was extended, his fingers open, and he was constantly taking control of the metal blades, causing similar situations to occur. None of the blades were able to get within one hundred feet of Wang Chong’s group, and Wang Chong was consuming a rather minor amount of Stellar Energy.

  “Master, Village Chief, let’s continue advancing! There won’t be just one wave from this metal storm. If we stay in this region, the attacks will keep on coming!” Wang Chong sternly said.

  Although they seemed safe and weren’t using much Stellar Energy, Wang Chong’s Psychic Energy was being rapidly exhausted. Such enormous calculations placed an enormous burden on the mind.

  Not only that, Wang Chong’s Psychic Energy observations told him that some invisible power was taking back control of those metal blades that had thrust into the wall, bringing them back into the skies.

  Wang Chong could sense that the initial wave of metal blades had turned back around and were flying around once more. If they didn’t find a way to leave, these endless attacks would wear them down until they died.

  Bang!

  A moment later, the Demonic Emperor Old Man shook his robe, and he shattered the cave wall and flew downward with astonishing speed. Through Wang Chong’s constant calculations, the three were able to travel without suffering any sort of attack.

  Fifty meters, one hundred meters, two hundred meters… Wang Chong’s group was constantly advancing, and when they got three hundred meters deep, there was a piercing whistle behind them as the thousands of swords that had shot at them in the first wave returned to launch another explosive assault.

  Screams resounded from around them. Those martial artists who had managed to last through the first wave were instantly caught off guard by this attack that now came from the opposite direction. Their bodies were sliced and diced into countless bloody chunks that rained down from the walls.

  The stench of death permeated the pit together with a thick bloody mist, and screams bounced ceaselessly off the walls. This pit was no different from the underworld.

  Chapter 1443 - Offering a Helping Hand!

  Chapter 1443: Offering a Helping Hand!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  “Save me! Save me! I don’t want to die here…” A soft cry for help came from nearby.

  Wang Chong was still controlling the blades in the air when he heard this plea for help and turned his head.

  Not far away, a hole had been cut out of the wall by countless metal blades. It was littered with mangled bodies, and in the center of these bodies kneeled a beautiful female martial artist, her hair in disarray and her face panicked.

  Her body was trembling fiercely as if she was immersed in a most terrifying nightmare.

  Any martial artist who could reach this depth was no weakling, and that beautiful female martial artist was clearly a person with profound cultivation. Alas, in the face of the endless attacks from the metal storm, even the greatest cultivation level and the largest reserves of energy would be consumed.

  Swishswishswish! Piercing whistles came from above as numerous blades once more shot down, and their attack range included that female martial artist who was trembling all over in fear, unaware of what was going on around her.

  If no one intervened, she was doomed.

  But a moment later, Wang Chong opened his hand, and those blades that were about to hurtle toward the woman immediately began to collide with each other. An invisible barrier seemed to form around the woman, making it so that those blades would fly past her and strike the wall ten-some meters away.

  With a thunderous explosion, the walls for ten-some meters around the woman were pulverized, sending gravel and rocks tumbling into the depths and shaking the surrounding walls.

  These fierce explosions finally shook the female martial artist out of her terror. She raised her head and saw Wang Chong’s group above her.

  “Save me!”

  The woman’s eyes erupted with an intense desire to live.

  Without another word, Wang Chong borrowed power from the Energy Condensation Pearl to unleash a massive pull that brought the woman to his side.

  “If you don’t want to die, swallow this pill and recover as quickly as possible. I can only help you for a moment. You will have to rely on yourself for the rest.”

  Wang Chong’s voice resounded in her ear as he offered her a pill.

  “Th-thank you…”

  Having just recovered from her shock, the woman could hardly speak. She was still shaking as she took the pill and managed to get it into her mouth. She swiftly began to adjust her breathing, and a few moments later, a ruddy color had returned to her face.

  Wang Chong simply grabbed her and rushed off in pursuit of his master.

  These waves of metallic assaults inflicted damage that none of them could have ever imagined. As Wang Chong’s group of three advanced, the smooth walls had been turned into an uneven and devastated mess decorated with human guts and limbs.

  A rough estimate placed the number of people killed by the first wave in the thousands.

  At this moment, many people understood what the stele
meant by ‘no gate to fortune or disaster’.

  “Ah! My leg!”

  “How could this be? I don’t want to die here!”

  “Save me! Hurry and save me!”

  As Wang Chong pressed forward, he saw many bereft martial artists around him. These people had managed to survive the first wave purely through luck, but the shadow of death doggedly pursued them and they might die at any moment.

  As long as Wang Chong saw one, he would do his best to save them and bring them to his side.

  Wang Chong’s group had started off with just three people, but after advancing several hundred meters, they had added forty to fifty unaffiliated martial artists to their number.

  Four hundred meters, five hundred meters, eight hundred meters, one thousand meters… at this point, they were now eight to nine thousand meters from the surface. The air at this depth was extremely thin and there was no light to speak of. Eyes were useless here, and one could only rely on one’s senses and Psychic Energy to advance.

  Even so, those metal blades continued to howl overhead like sharks looking for prey, and they showed no signs of stopping.

  The voice of the Wushang Village Chief suddenly came out of the darkness. “What a pity. If only Brother Zhou were here. With his experience, he would definitely know where the switch for these metal blades was.”

  The current situation was as precarious as a pile of eggs. No one knew just much area this metallic storm covered and how long they needed to go until they could escape.

  “If my guess is right, there should be some large-scale ancient formation at the bottom of the pit and deeply embedded into the sides of the pit. All the mechanisms and switches for these metal blades should be under the control of this formation.

  “Senior Zhou also said that this place is a Universe Diagram, and the energy accumulated by that diagram over the centuries has all been taken by the Origin Immortal Lord to be used for his formations. All that energy is probably all accumulated in this formation. And this one is ten times, or even a hundred times, stronger than the Origin Immortal Formation. We simply don’t have the strength to cut off the energy source!” Wang Chong sternly said. He was the member of the group with probably the greatest understanding of formations.

  “Can we not break through the walls and dig through the earth to destroy the formation inside?” a martial artist behind Wang Chong suddenly said.

  “That’s useless. If you’ve been through the Origin Immortal Formation, you should know that the Origin Immortal Lord wouldn’t leave behind such a weakness. Trying to dig through and break the formation with sheer force will not only fail but also make the metal storm even stronger!” Wang Chong solemnly said.

  The martial artists behind him instantly paled. Many of them had been through the terror of the Origin Immortal Formation. It had been like a gigantic meat grinder, pulling everyone to the center of the formation where they could be pulverized.

  If that formation embedded into the walls of the pit was the same, their actions would probably achieve the opposite of their intended result.

  “Destroying the formation is impossible!” Wang Chong sternly said. “All we can do is advance so that we can get through the area covered by the metal storm. I’m confident that no matter how big this region is, it must have an end. Otherwise, we’ll have to wait until the storm passes, with luck determining who survives.

  “Even the strongest attack has its rules and weaknesses. Although this metal storm is extremely powerful, I don’t believe that this attack can continue forever. There must be a point where it will start to weaken so it can complete an offensive cycle.”

  Although he knew nothing about those tens of thousands of metal blades, he did know about formations. As long as these metal blades were being driven by a formation, they could not escape the rules of formations.

  “Is there really nothing that can be done?”

  A martial artist who Wang Chong had saved looked at the metal blades in despair. The sensation of death continued to cling to him like a shadow, slowly choking him of breath. Wang Chong’s strength had truly won their admiration, and the strength displayed by that group of three was truly formidable.

  But no one knew how long this sort of stability would continue.

  The slightest error would cause thousands of sharp blades to howl down and butcher all of them.

  In the face of this immense metal storm, these martial artists were nothing more than ants and simply too weak.

  “Let me think.”

  Wang Chong fell silent and looked pensively at the metal blades dancing overhead.

  ……

  At the same time, Wang Chong’s group was far from the only one under attack.

  “Damn it! Which bastard triggered the trap?!”

  Deeper down in the pit, the Black Yin Ancestor was crouched with his subordinates in a depression, his teeth clenched in rage. He had long ago noticed those metal blades floating in the pit, and he didn’t even need to think to know that these were some terrifying trap.

  He had originally planned to pass through this area before having someone trigger the trap to deal with the martial artists behind him. Alas, some idiot triggered the trap before he could give the order, leading to this dreadful assault.

  In a flash, the Five Ancestor Alliance had lost many experts. If he had not reacted promptly, half of his men would have died.

  “Ancestor, is there no way to disarm the trap?” a Five Ancestor Alliance expert asked as he stared fearfully at the blades flying overhead.

  “Impossible! You think that this ancestor doesn’t want to get rid of this metal storm as well? This isn’t something that humans can do! That old bastard the Origin Immortal Lord is using the spiritual energy for several thousand li around us, energy that has been accumulating for one thousand years! This isn’t something a martial artist can resist.”

  The Black Yin Ancestor clenched his teeth and hatefully spat, “There’s nothing to be done. The strength of men is no match against the strength of nature! I’ll just have to push through!”

  The moment he finished speaking, the Black Yin Ancestor widened his Stellar Energy barrier to its maximum extent, doing his best to cover the Five Ancestor Alliance experts around him. Although they had come under an unimaginable assault, the Five Ancestor Alliance had still fared rather well. As they had entered the pit beforehand, they were bound to suffer fewer attacks than those who came after.

  Clangclangclang!

  The metal blades poured down, and in the face of this downpour, each person employed a method similar to the Black Yin Ancestor’s. To break this metal storm was just as impossible for them as it was for the Black Yin Ancestor.

  Chapter 1444 - Origin Immortal Formation, Stellar Energy Version!

  Chapter 1444: Origin Immortal Formation, Stellar Energy Version!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  Buzz!

  As various martial artists advanced deeper into the pit under heavy pressure, Wang Chong suddenly opened his eyes.

  “I can only see if it’s useful once I try it out!”

  A moment later, the fingers of Wang Chong’s left hand, which had always been placed behind his back, suddenly opened. Five pearls of extremely concentrated Stellar Energy erupted from his fingertips. When these pearls first emerged, their insides seemed extremely unstable, but it took only a few moments for them to solidify.

  It was obvious that these pearls of condensed energy had been an idea that Wang Chong had thought up at the spur of the moment.

  These pearls were getting stronger as they absorbed Wang Chong’s energy, and they were constantly becoming more compressed and refined. Soon, the pearls were the size of fists and exuding dim glows. They began to circle in the air, vaguely resonating with each other.

  Only a formation can resist a formation. Let’s see if this works, Wang Chong quietly said to himself.

  In a flash of light, three more pearls of energy shot o
ut of Wang Chong’s palm, joining the other five pearls in slowly orbiting around Wang Chong, forming a small and simple formation.

  The eight pearls corresponded to the eight gates of Life, Pain, Rest, Stop, View, Death, Alarm, and Open.

  “This is…”

  The Demonic Emperor Old Man and the Wushang Village Chief were dealing with the attacks overhead and holding up the Stellar Energy barrier so that the group could advance when they suddenly sensed the energy behind them and turned in alarm. Their cultivation levels allowed them to see far more than others.

  In a flash, they realized something, but this idea was so astonishing that not even the two of them dared to be too sure.

  The idea was just too inconceivable.

  How is this possible?

  At that moment, the two shared the same thought.

  Wang Chong’s actions swiftly confirmed their speculations. Bzzzz! The images of the sun and moon suddenly manifested, and the Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art’s energy quickly emerged. Wang Chong poured its energy into the core of his simple formation, creating a Yin and Yang.

  Pouring in the energy of Yin and Yang was like adding the eyes to a painting of a dragon, the final touch in a masterpiece. The simple formation began to turn, the Nine Palaces beginning to shift on their own, and the formation began to absorb the spiritual energy in its surroundings as it evolved toward a higher level.

  “This is… the Origin Immortal Formation!”

  “How could this be?!”

  All the surrounding martial artists cried out in shock as they instantly recognized the basis of this small formation.

  The energy exuded by the formation Wang Chong had created was exactly the same as the Origin Immortal Formation that had killed so many martial artists, though the latter was far more immense and complicated.

  In a flash of inspiration, Wang Chong had compressed this ancient formation and made it mobile. This was something that no one could have imagined possible.

  To many people, it was a miracle.

  For a moment, all was still. Everyone looked toward Wang Chong with eyes brimming with respect, regarding him like a celestial.