The Human Emperor c1-2382
Page 1084
Even those stone bricks reinforced by countless inscriptions and formations cracked all over.
“Kill!”
After knocking down Duan Zhuyan, Li Siye exploded forward.
Clangclangclang! Behind him, golden halos began to appear under the Mo Saber Unit soldiers as the Origin Immortal Formation boosted their strength. His men rallied, shouting as they raised their Mo Sabers high into the air and began to advance like a moving wall.
Boomboomboom!
This time, the Mo Saber Unit had the clear advantage, leaving chaos and mayhem in its wake. The Imperial Army soldiers were stricken with fear, either retreating or being cut down.
Just a few moments later, the Mo Saber Unit had pushed through the gate.
……
At the same time, at the Qian Gate…
The constant attacks and disruption of the Hundred Thousand God-Devil Execution Formation, paired with the attacks from Lu Qiongji’s Imperial Army, had forced Guo Ziyi’s Wushang Cavalry some two hundred feet back from the gate.
But at this moment, the earth trembled, and a vast torrent of energy arrived, transforming into golden halos that circled around the feet of his men.
These golden halos rapidly restored and boosted their Stellar Energies, and they even managed to completely push out the power of the Hundred Thousand God-Devil Execution Formation.
“It’s the Origin Immortal Formation!”
“Our formation has finally recovered!”
Sensing the energy in their bodies, the Wushang Cavalry rallied. They knew without thinking that this was the work of their liege!
“Everyone, Cutting Formation! Kill!”
No one was more elated than Guo Ziyi. While he was strong, he was still lacking compared to a veteran general like Li Siye and could not hold out against the foe in an extremely disadvantageous situation.
But now that the formation was back, everything was different.
In the blink of an eye, Guo Ziyi was leading the several thousand Wushang Cavalry in a charge.
“Retreat! Hurry and retreat!”
The Imperial Army soldiers felt their pupils constrict in fear. No one had expected that just when they were about to overcome and rout their enemy, the situation would undergo a complete reversal.
“Damn! All of you, get in there!”
Lu Qiongji was infuriated. With a sweep of his spear, he cut down several of his panicked soldiers and led the men around him in a charge.
Boom!
The two armies clashed in the darkness.
There was a great clanging of weapons intersecting, but the Imperial Army soldiers were hard-pressed to resist the charge of the Wushang Cavalry. A single use of the Cutting Formation instantly scattered several hundred Imperial Army soldiers. Meanwhile, a similar scene was taking place at the Center Gate.
While the Center Gate didn’t have elites like the Wushang Cavalry or Mo Saber Unit, it had more soldiers, and they were all experts of the great clans, aided by one thousand cavalry with Wootz Steel swords. With the added boost of the three halos, this force packed a powerful punch.
“What’s going on? One hundred thousand can’t stop a mere few thousand?”
Huang Tianzhao’s heart was burning with rage. From the moment he had joined the First Prince, there was no going back for him. If the First Prince succeeded, he would be a Minister of the Dragon and be just like Wang Jiuling of the Wang Clan.
When the new emperor took the throne, all those who followed him would be made high nobles and ministers, enjoying limitless glory and fortune. But failure meant dying without a grave and one’s entire clan being exterminated!
Chapter 1768 - The Lone Silence Ancestor Battles Huang Tianzhao!
Chapter 1768: The Lone Silence Ancestor Battles Huang Tianzhao!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Follow me!”
Huang Tianzhao waved his hand, and before the others could gather around him, he shot off like a lightning bolt into the Origin Immortal Formation.
Boom!
There was a thunderous boom as the churning Stellar Energy around Huang Tianzhao transformed into a massive brown beast. Fearsomely roaring, the beast slammed into Wang Chong’s soldiers, sending several dozen Wootz Steel cavalry flying through the air.
In front of Huang Tianzhao’s overwhelming strength, ordinary soldiers were nothing more than ants. Even though they had been strengthened and had the formation to scatter and distribute the power of the attack, they still could not hold out against Huang Tianzhao’s terrifying attack.
“Sandstorm Heaven!”
Huang Tianzhao’s body suddenly swayed, and at that moment, the massive brown beast transformed into a vast cloud of howling sand.
Boomboomboom!
One explosion rang out after another, and the eight thousand soldiers were immediately pushed to the brink.
Without Wang Chong present and the Lone Silence Ancestor needing to preside over the information, no one at the Center Gate could hold back Huang Tianzhao.
“Bastard! This audacious junior!”
The Lone Silence Ancestor’s eyes turned red at this sight.
When the mountain had no tiger, the monkey would claim to be king. He wanted to enter the battle, but the Energy Condensation Pearl was too important to put aside.
“Senior, the Energy Condensation Pearl has already finished integrating itself, so Senior no longer needs to pour in Stellar Energy. Go and stop Huang Tianzhao, and leave the pearl to me!” A crisp and melodious voice came from behind him.
The Lone Silence Ancestor turned around in shock and saw seven or eight powerful middle-aged experts escorting a tender-skinned and delicate young woman toward him.
“This is…?”
The Lone Silence Ancestor was flabbergasted.
The battlefield was a man’s place, and tonight in particular was a most gruesome one. He had never expected to see such a young woman suddenly appear here. More importantly, the Lone Silence Ancestor had no impression of this young woman riding toward him on her white horse.
“Lady Xu!!”
“Why are you here?”
Cries of alarm came from his side. Cheng Sanyuan stared in consternation at Xu Qiqin. Casting aside the battle, he immediately rushed over. Everyone in the residence knew of Wang Chong’s relationship with Xu Qiqin. If something happened to her, Cheng Sanyuan had no idea how he would explain himself.
“Senior, this is the lady of the Xu Clan, Xu Qiqin. She is on good terms with His Highness,” Xu Keyi explained to the Lone Silence Ancestor.
The Lone Silence Ancestor immediately understood.
“There’s no time. Leave Huang Tianzhao to me while you protect this Lady Xu!” the Lone Silence Ancestor sternly said.
Huang Tianzhao was one of the three Grand Marshals of the Imperial Army, and his strength was unrivaled. Not a single person on the battlefield could take a blow from him, and the forces at the Center Gate were on the verge of collapsing. Moreover, the girl was right in that the Energy Condensation Pearl had taken in enough energy and no longer needed his personal direction.
“Junior, this old man will spar with you!!”
With an explosive bellow, the Lone Silence Ancestor lunged forward, leaving behind a series of blurs in the night as he rushed at Huang Tianzhao.
As he lunged forward, mist began to seethe out of the darkness, and water began to slosh and gush out from between the stone slabs. Under the Lone Silence Ancestor’s control, this water joined him in attacking Huang Tianzhao.
While the Lone Silence Ancestor was operating the formation, he had at some point drawn over the water from the moat to beneath his feet, ready at any time to be used.
Boom!
There was a tremendous explosion like the one made when the universe was first created. The water had transformed into various kinds of weapons, joined together with the Lone Silence Ancestor’s terrifying Stellar Energy, and slammed into Huang Tianzhao’s s
andstorm of Stellar Energy.
Kaboom! With a single strike, that vast sandstorm collapsed, and behind the sand, Grand Marshal Huang Tianzhao and several dozen Imperial Army soldiers howled as they were thrown back.
“Old man, just who are you? You dare to oppose the First Prince and the Imperial Court?”
A pale-faced Huang Tianzhao held his chest as he coldly stared at the Lone Silence Ancestor. He had seen Kim U-Seok’s reports, but this old man had not appeared in any of them.
“Heh, what Imperial Court? Nothing but a bunch of traitors overcome by greed. Although this old man doesn’t belong to the Imperial Court, he cannot permit you to carry out this crime and cast the entire empire and all its people into calamity!”
The Lone Silence Ancestor sneered at Huang Tianzhao’s challenge.
“Junior, let me send you on your way!”
Before Huang Tianzhao could react, the Lone Silence Ancestor vanished, and then he reappeared right in front of Huang Tianzhao and blasted him back with a single palm.
“Cheng Sanyuan, I know what you want to say, but now is not the time for talk. If we don’t stop the First Prince tonight, His Highness and the entire Wang Clan will be facing disaster, as will my Xu Clan. No one in the capital can even think about escaping. I have the Origin Immortal Formation diagram here. You might as well hurry and help me so that His Highness can win! …Don’t forget that I’m not just good at logistics. When it comes to the art of war, I’m only second to His Highness!”
Xu Qiqin preempted the anxious Cheng Sanyuan, dismounting and thrusting out a delicate hand as she solemnly spoke.
Cheng Sanyuan’s jaw dropped. He had a million words to persuade Xu Qiqin otherwise, but he couldn’t manage to say a single one. Xu Qiqin was right. Tonight was truly a night in which victors were crowned as kings while losers were made to be bandits. Defeat could not be permitted, as defeat meant death.
“What are you standing around for? Why aren’t you coming?”
Xu Qiqin didn’t even stop, brushing past Cheng Sanyuan and walking to the formation core.
“Yes!”
Cheng Sanyuan shook himself back to his senses and quickly joined the Xu Clan experts sent to guard Xu Qiqin.
“Everyone, hear my order! Call back five hundred men each from the Stop Gate and View Gate!
“Add two hundred men each to the Life Gate and Pain Gate!
“Everyone, wait for my orders!”
The moment Xu Qiqin reached the Energy Condensation Pearl, she began to issue a string of orders. Once these commands were carried out, the Origin Immortal Formation suddenly increased in power.
The earth trembled as the formation turned, a grandiose energy soaring to the heavens.
“Managed to make it!”
Far out in the outskirts of the capital, the Formation Elder stood atop a lush mountain. Next to him was a large banner more than ten feet tall, its pole made from metal. As he looked into the distance, he faintly smiled.
The Formation Elder had always been passionate about his field of study, and after obtaining the Formation Divine Treatise, he immediately began to cultivate the formations within, at the same time crafting the materials and banners needed for these formations. In the Formation Divine Treatise, the Nine Heavens Mountain River Formation was one of the less difficult formations, so it had naturally been one of the first ones he had learned.
“There’s too little time, so this is all I can do for you. Kid, you’ll have to do the rest yourself!”
Around him, the winds howled as the energy of the mountains and rivers converged on the capital, the fog growing thicker and thicker. And when the Origin Immortal Formation was reformed and began to operate differently, even Wang Chong and Hou Junji could sense the increase in power.
It seems that she also came over.
Wang Chong’s lips curled into a smile, a surge of warmth running through his heart.
He had not wanted Xu Qiqin to come to this battle originally, but Xu Qiqin had persuaded him by noting that he needed someone who could understand and operate the Origin Immortal Formation, and there was no one else besides her.
While Xu Qiqin’s martial arts were of little use in Wang Chong’s camp, her intelligence and wisdom ranked at the very top.
“Not bad! Very impressive!”
Hou Junji suddenly broke the silence.
“I thought that by luring you here, I would deprive your soldiers of at least half their strength, leaving them like dragons without a leader, but it seems like you’ve already planned everything out. You prepared more for this battle than I expected.”
“Heh, in terms of reputation, Senior is known as the Army-Shattering War God, and you rank above this junior in both fame and status. In this exchange, this junior is not losing out!”
Wang Chong took a sip of his tea and smiled.
“Heh, I truly can’t hide it from you,” Hou Junji nonchalantly said.
“However, even if you’ve borrowed the power of the mountains and rivers, how long can you last? The Three Emperors Formation under the Great Tang Imperial Palace has been accumulating energy for ages. Although it was already damaged during the Western Han, it was repaired during the Great Sui and Great Tang several times. It was only after absorbing years upon years of energy that it was finally full and began to send excess energy to Kunwu, Longwei, Shenwei, and the surrounding mountains.
“The energy of the mountains and rivers your formation can extract is limited and is far smaller than what the Three Emperors Formation can provide. While you can hold for now, just how long is it, really?
“And don’t forget that you’re the one who needs to break my formation and not vice versa. King of Foreign Lands, you don’t have much time.”
Hou Junji profoundly glanced at Wang Chong.
“Heheh, if that’s the case, then I’m the one that needs to worry, so why does Senior care?” Wang Chong indifferently said.
“Moreover, since Senior already has victory in hand, why are you so uneasy and concerned about me?”
Wang Chong’s words immediately plunged the vicinity into silence, and the two stared at each other, electricity crackling between them.
Chapter 1769 - The Tongluo Mobilize!
Chapter 1769: The Tongluo Mobilize!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Both Wang Chong and Hou Junji had second meanings in their words, needles hidden within pillows. In their remarks, they had been subtly making blows at each other.
“The formation isn’t bad, but alas, the larger the formation, the more men and resources that are required. You have far from enough men, so in the end, you’re still rather hard-pressed. This old man spent several decades planning for this operation. Do you really think that this is all this old man has?”
As Hou Junji spoke, he smiled and removed a third piece from the jar at his side.
Li Heng, Miyasame Ayaka, Li Jingzhong, and the soldiers of Jinyang Palace felt their hearts sink. Wang Chong had just barely managed to stabilize the situation by borrowing the power of mountains and rivers, but in the end, Hou Junji still had another move.
Even though Hou Junji simply needed to defend the gates, it was apparent that the Army-Shattering War God of Taizong’s era was not one to just sit on his hands and defend.
“All of your soldiers are focused on assaulting the three gates, but what would happen if another force of soldiers attacked from the rear? And what if these soldiers were the renowned Tongluo Cavalry?”
Hou Junji smiled, but there was a dangerous gleam in his eyes.
Clap!
Hou Junji pressed the third piece on the board, right behind one of Wang Chong’s white pieces. The black pieces in that area had originally been split into two groups, but this black piece connected them, turning them into a massive dragon that hemmed in Wang Chong’s pieces from both the front and the back.
And as that black piece landed, the hand that Hou Junji had kept behind his back made
a gesture.
Creee!
The sharp cry of a gyrfalcon came from the distance, and the bird soon swooped through the night sky and vanished.
The cry traveled over a long distance, and Wang Chong couldn’t help but turn grim upon hearing it.
At the same time, in the northwest region of the Imperial City, countless stalwart cavalry stood in orderly ranks.
These soldiers all had bright eyes and somber auras. One could tell at a glance that these were all veteran cavalry.
Moreover, unlike other cavalry, the armor worn by them and their horses was made entirely of bronze, and this armor was covered in countless patterns, the mark of numerous inscriptions and formations.
The Tongluo Cavalry!
Across the world, this was the only cavalry force to use this kind of bronze armor. Even without Wootz Steel weapons, the Tongluo Cavalry was still an elite fighting force famed throughout the world for its strength, and it was entirely on par with Wang Chong’s Wushang Cavalry.
A Tongluo expert received a descending gyrfalcon and then rode toward the front of the army, where the imposing Tongluo Great General, Abusi, waited.
“Patriarch, Hou Junji has sent word. He wants us to deploy our soldiers as we planned.”
Abusi sat upon his Tongluo stallion, his bulky figure making him seem like a mountain. But unlike in the past, when Abusi looked at the fires rising from the depths of the Imperial Palace or listened to the roars of fighting, he appeared absentminded.
No one could tell what he was thinking at this time.
Another Tongluo general rode up from the rear, a worried look on his face. “General, are we really doing this? The moment we attack the King of Foreign Lands, there’s really no going back for us. If things go bad, our Tongluo people will truly die without a grave.
“And the King of Foreign Lands was once our ally. We fought alongside him at Talas, and many of the brothers in the tribe know him. His Divine Majesty has also treated us well. Is this really worth it?”
The area fell silent. This man had clearly voiced the opinions of many others, and countless people turned to see how the Tongluo Great General would answer.