The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  Wang Chong jeered at the figure, but despite his flippancy, his heart was cold.

  Strong!

  Extremely strong!

  The moment this man appeared, Wang Chong felt an immense threat. This man was doing his all to restrain his power, but the remaining power was still enough to make Wang Chong feel like he had a dagger at his back.

  “Impudence! You dare to speak with such rashness before the High God!?” rebuked the black-robed monk, coldly staring at Wang Chong.

  The other men in black also angrily stared at Wang Chong, but they dared not speak out of turn when that man was present.

  “The High God?”

  Wang Chong’s brow creased, but he quickly remembered something and sneered.

  “Ah, so you’re that High God who had that message delivered to me in Zhangchou Jianqiong’s estate! What? Still not ready to give up on the Commander Tally?”

  Wang Chong was now the Minister of War, so he had taken Zhangchou Jianqiong’s half of the Commander Tally. The Commander Tally was clearly safer at his side than with Zhangchou Jianqiong, and given the extent of the men in black’s intelligence network, they had probably figured out where it was.

  “Heh, the Commander Tally is something we will take, but so is your head. More importantly, we’re not the only ones who want you dead!”

  The eerie voice was like the call of an owl. The first half was said from the distant wall, but for the second half, the tall figure had appeared like a ghost to the left and front of Wang Chong.

  Wang Chong’s heart fiercely thumped. Even with his abilities, he had not been able to see how the High God had appeared in front of him. It seemed like he had never moved, like he had always been standing there.

  But what Wang Chong was more concerned about was the implication in the High God’s words.

  “So, the First Prince sent you?”

  Wang Chong’s pupils constricted.

  The First Prince’s collusion with the men in black had originally been a great secret, but ever since the attempted assassination of Zhangchou Jianqiong, everything was out in the open.

  “Heh, you’ve done too much recently, and that Highness is extremely displeased. Although this god doesn’t like these secular Princes, if they ask me to kill a Child of Destruction, this god won’t be stingy.”

  The High God smiled.

  Wang Chong inspected the leader of the men in black. This ‘High God’ appeared extremely young. Despite his prodigious strength, his skin was fair and tender, and his appearance was that of a thirty-some-year-old scholar. Anyone who didn’t know the truth would find it very hard to imagine that this middle-aged scholar was a lofty High God of the Celestial God Organization.

  But Wang Chong was more concerned about the faint mark on his forehead, that of six small stars.

  Wang Chong didn’t know what it was at first, but then he had a flash of insight. Wang Chong had examined star charts before, so he recognized that the six stars on the forehead of the High God were the six stars of the Southern Dipper.

  (TN: In Chinese astronomy, the Northern Dipper is the ‘Big Dipper’ of western astronomy while the Southern Dipper is part of the Sagittarius constellation.)

  Chapter 1689 - Gandhagaja Crosses the Heavens!

  Chapter 1689: Gandhagaja Crosses the Heavens!

  Countless thoughts ran through Wang Chong’s mind. He vaguely grasped at insights, but of what, he wasn’t exactly sure at the moment.

  Blinking, Wang Chong regained his composure and coldly said to the High God, “It seems like it will be difficult for you to get your wish. Whether you’re a god or a Buddha, it doesn’t matter. I’ve killed more than one god, so I won’t mind killing another one.”

  As he spoke, his fingers closed around the Origin Immortal Sword. This subtle action immediately drew the attention of the High God, who smirked as he glanced at the weapon.

  “This must be the sword the Origin Immortal Lord took away! As expected, its power is immense! To think that someone who could use it would appear once more after one thousand years!”

  The High God’s robe rustled as he took two steps forward, his eyes fixed on the Origin Immortal Sword.

  “Alas, this sword doesn’t belong to you, nor does it belong to the mortal world. Whatever. Once I’m done with you, I’ll bring it back with me.”

  “Is that so?”

  Wang Chong’s face grimaced, his hand tightening its grip on the sword as his eyes erupted with killing intent.

  “I worry that you don’t have this ability!”

  Vast energy surged out of his body and locked onto the High God.

  Those of a different path had no need to conspire with each other. Wang Chong didn’t know what level of strength this High God had reached, but Wang Chong did not fear him, and for these men of the Celestial God Organization, the only thought on his mind was ‘kill’.

  “Heh, I know that you killed the Goat, Deer, and Tiger Immortals, and that you used the Origin Immortal Sword to do it. But not everything is repeatable. This Immortal Sword originally belonged to us, so using it against us is truly most foolish.”

  The man seemed entirely unconcerned, and as he spoke, he flicked a finger. A moment later, light and shadow began to shift between the fingers of his right hand, coalescing into a black talisman about seven inches long, so thin that it was translucent.

  Wang Chong had never before seen a talisman like this. At first glance the surface was a churning pitch black, but upon closer inspection, it was full of countless starry points of light. Moreover, these stars were constantly moving, organizing themselves into a vast and complex formation.

  Wang Chong had learned from the Formation Elder and had read the Formation Divine Treatise, so he had an extremely advanced understanding of formations. But he had never seen such a complicated and ancient formation before.

  Wang Chong’s heart trembled in ill foreboding.

  Though he did not know the origin of this talisman or what it could do, there was no question that it was this High God’s trump card against him.

  He who strikes first is the strongest. I’ll kill him first and find out what that is later!

  With this thought, Wang Chong exploded forward.

  Bang!

  There was a crack of thunder as Wang Chong raised the Origin Immortal Sword, and Wang Chong slashed with unimaginable speed at the High God.

  Wang Chong did not dare to underestimate this leader of the men in black. Even if he ended up using the strength of a lion to catch a rabbit, Wang Chong had no desire for any mishaps.

  But just when Wang Chong began to raise the Origin Immortal Sword…

  The Origin Immortal Sword which Wang Chong had used many times, which had always been as light as a feather and as fast as lightning, became sluggish, as heavy as a mountain.

  Bang!

  Wang Chong’s sword unleashed a destructive energy, instantly creating a vast pit ten-some meters in diameter within the King of Foreign Lands Residence. But the attack had missed.

  “What’s going on?!”

  Wang Chong’s heart grew heavy and his face paled. Such a thing had never happened before.

  “Heh, didn’t I already tell you? You cannot use our Immortal Sword against us!”

  Several dozen feet away, the High God gripped his black talisman and sneered derisively at Wang Chong.

  Bang!

  With a shift of his fingers, the talisman began to burn. The thousands of stars on its surface suddenly erupted with light that vanished into the void.

  Before Wang Chong could understand what this bizarre scene portended, clang! The Origin Immortal Sword suddenly sank down.

  Wang Chong could sense that the sword that had once felt like an extension of his body had multiplied in weight. Not only that, countless points of light like those on the black talisman appeared on the edge of the sword and began to creep along the rest of the sword.

  A power that Wang Chong had never sensed before had appeared inside the Ori
gin Immortal Sword. This was an ancient and abstruse power, imbued with the vast majesty of the world. Even more alarming for Wang Chong was that this alien energy was beginning to seal the power of the Origin Immortal Sword.

  As this energy devoured more and more, Wang Chong felt the sword get heavier and heavier.

  Crackcrick! A frightening sound entered Wang Chong’s ears. He looked down and saw the smooth and shining surface of the Origin Immortal Sword begin to rust.

  “What did you do?!”

  Wang Chong icily stared at the High God. What he was seeing was beyond his imagination and could not be explained within the bounds of common sense.

  The Origin Immortal Lord had left behind this sword for him, and from the moment he had obtained it, he had been able to use it as an extension of his own body. But the man in black before him had simply burned a talisman to produce this incomprehensible change within the sword.

  “Heh, the Origin Immortal Lord didn’t tell you that this Immortal Sword was already in a sealed state?”

  The High God scoffed, and his words made Wang Chong’s heart turn grim. Wang Chong’s most frightening weapon was this Origin Immortal Sword. Without the sword, Wang Chong probably would not have managed to kill the three Immortals.

  After restraining Wang Chong’s Origin Immortal Sword, the High God seemed to be in no rush.

  “As it was originally sealed, it naturally has its reasons to not reveal itself to the world. All I did was summon the strength that was originally sealed. It is not yours, and it will never be yours. We temporarily loaned you the strength in the Immortal Sword, but now the time has come. It’s time for us to take it back under our protection!

  “Might of the Heavens and Earth, Seal the Devils and Shake the Hells!”

  The High God’s eyes chilled as he began to form gestures with his hand and chant a spell. The index and middle fingers of his right hand suddenly trembled, and then the countless points of light that had previously vanished into the void reemerged, scattered around Wang Chong like a sea of stars. They constricted, all of them surging into the Origin Immortal Sword.

  Crackcrack! A sound like water freezing resounded through the air as the rust on the sword advanced at one hundred times its original speed. A moment later, the entire sword had been engulfed.

  Boom! Wang Chong’s connection with the Origin Immortal Sword was snapped by that prodigious energy. Without this connection, the sword became as heavy as a mountain.

  The sword broke free of Wang Chong’s grip and plunged into the ground.

  Even the men in black were stunned by this scene, but the High God’s face was calm and assured.

  “Move!”

  Giving no time for Wang Chong to think, the moment the sword was sealed, the High God ordered his men to attack.

  Boomboomboom!

  Although they still didn’t understand what was happening, there was no question that Wang Chong’s sword was sealed, and their side now had an enormous advantage. A moment later, the men in black rushed forward to fiercely attack.

  “Gandhagaja Crosses the Heavens!”

  Calling out in an icy voice, the black-robed monk at the High God’s side lunged forward. With a resounding blare, space began to twist above the monk’s head, and a massive black Gandhagaja elephant manifested.

  (TN: Gandhagaja is a category of elephants so named for their immense strength and ferocity. Extremely difficult to control, they had the strength of ten ordinary elephants.)

  The Gandhagaja was incredibly violent and immediately began to charge. After taking just a few steps, it morphed into a steely fist that rushed unstoppably forward, joining the attacks of the other men in black.

  Gandhagaja was a legendary divine elephant of the Celestial Realm, famed for its strength. Gandhagaja Crosses the Heavens was an incredibly tough and fierce technique. When the monk used it, the heaven-sundering might on display was at the half-step Subtle realm.

  “Hmph, fireflies trying to vie with the moon!”

  Even though he was caught off guard by the sudden loss of the Origin Immortal Sword, Wang Chong still had his own strength, which was still quite enough to deal with these men in black.

  Bang!

  In the blink of an eye, Wang Chong vanished.

  Greater Void Step!

  Wang Chong used this movement technique, and what followed was a series of screams and explosions of Stellar Energy. The men in black had barely moved a few dozen feet when they were all knocked away as if they had run into an invisible barrier.

  Sssst! A bolt of Sword Qi shot forward, tearing through the air. A man in black trembled as this dazzling bolt bored a hole straight through his forehead, and then proceeded onward to a second, a third, a fourth… Each man in black that it struck instantly fell dead to the ground.

  Art of God and Demon Obliteration!

  Even without the Origin Immortal Sword, Wang Chong could still use this supreme sword art. Wang Chong showed no mercy, applying his overwhelming power to slaughter his way through the men in black as if they were made of paper.

  Chapter 1690 - The Star Awl of the Southern Dipper!

  Chapter 1690: The Star Awl of the Southern Dipper!

  Bang!

  Fist and sword clashed. The black-robed monk had come with a furious momentum, but upon first contact with Wang Chong, he turned ghastly pale and flipped backward in the air, barely managing to dodge Wang Chong’s vicious Sword Qi. But even so, as the bolt of Sword Qi shot past, it still left a shallow cut across the monk’s bald head.

  The monk grimaced. In the organization, he was an extremely powerful expert, but in front of Wang Chong, he couldn’t even take a single blow. If he hadn’t reacted swiftly just now and chosen to dodge, his head would have been separated from his body.

  “Daring to show off a low-tier art in front of me!” Wang Chong coldly snorted, and the monk’s ears went red in shame.

  Wang Chong proceeded to ignore the monk, and used the Greater Void Step to lunge at the leader, the so-called High God.

  To shoot the man, shoot his horse, and to capture the underlings, capture the king. Only by first killing the High God could he resolve this battle.

  “Life Execution!”

  Without the slightest hesitation, Wang Chong brought the index and middle fingers of his right hand together and fired off a bolt of Sword Qi with enough force to penetrate steel.

  Ever since Su Zhengchen had given him that night of instruction in the Su Residence, Wang Chong had ascended by leaps and bounds in his understanding of the sword. This Life Execution was not as vast and grandiose as before, in fact appearing simple and plain. But this only reflected that it had been washed of all impurities and been returned to its original nature.

  Despite its power being condensed, it was much faster and more powerful. This was why Wang Chong was still confident despite losing the Origin Immortal Sword. His Subtle realm cultivation and his understanding of the sword made it so that while he didn’t dare to say that he could take on anyone, he was confident enough to say that the number of people who could contend against him was very small.

  But suddenly—

  Boom!

  As the bolt of Sword Qi flew forward, it cut through space like it was cutting through a tree, the upper and lower halves seeming to be displaced, a reflection of its incredible speed. But Wang Chong’s determined strike had missed. Through some unfathomable method, the High God had vanished.

  “Heh, not bad! You’ve even learned the Greater Void Step, and to such a proficient level! Even some Immortal Envoys wouldn’t be able to beat you.”

  The High God’s voice was drifting here and there, coming from every direction. When the voice stopped speaking, the High God appeared in a flash of light on a tree branch several dozen meters away from Wang Chong.

  “So fast!”

  Wang Chong’s pupils constricted, and he couldn’t help but grimace.

  Greater Void Step was the fastest movement technique he knew, and when pushed to
the limit, it made one impossible to track using the naked eye. Wang Chong was only able to keep track of his foe’s movements when they used this technique through the world of energy.

  This sort of technique was one in ten million in this world, but to Wang Chong’s consternation, the man in black before him had used a technique that was even faster. And this movement technique truly left behind no trace. Wang Chong had already made many attempts to pin down his true location, but he still couldn’t tell just how he had managed to move.

  “Heh, put those delusions out of your mind. You’re no match for me. The Greater Void Step was simply a technique we granted to those Immortal Envoys. This god is the Tianfu Divine Lord of the Six Stars of the Southern Dipper. Your Greater Void Step isn’t even on the same level as my Starlight Step.”

  (TN: Of the Six Stars of the Southern Dipper, the Tianfu Star is the First Star. In western astronomy, it is the star Phi Sagittarius.)

  The black-robed High God—or perhaps one could call him the Tianfu Divine Lord—had a domineering gaze that seemed to look right through Wang Chong.

  Wang Chong said nothing, but his expression grew increasingly solemn. The situation was already extremely grim for him. The Origin Immortal Sword was sealed, and his foe had a much faster movement technique. Without these two advantages, Wang Chong was in an extremely passive position.

  Starlight Step! What technique is this? Just how many arts do these men in black have? It’s like they have an endless supply of top-class techniques!

  Wang Chong’s body tensed as he warily eyed his foe.

  Wang Chong had been fighting against these men in black for a very long time and thought he had a deep understanding of them. But after the framing of Zhang Qiantuo in the war of the southwest, there had been the Goat, Deer, and Tiger Immortals, and now there was this Tianfu Divine Lord. With each encounter, Wang Chong found these men in black more and more mysterious.

  Their resources were simply bottomless, and it was impossible to fathom just how massive their faction truly was.

  But now was not the time for deep contemplation. Wang Chong’s hair stood on end as a vicious energy bursting with destructive power locked onto him. At the same time, he heard the Tianfu Divine Lord’s sinister voice.