The Human Emperor c1-2382
Page 1164
“Yes, Milord!” Zhang Que immediately replied.
“Lord Junior Guardian, you’re the closest to His Majesty. Have the treasury sealed and then take a record of all the treasures here. Once all the other Protector-Generals have had a chance to review, we can send everything to the capital!” Wang Chong said.
After a few moments of hesitation, Wang Zhongsi finally nodded. “Mm.”
A fortune of nearly two trillion taels of gold had to be handled cautiously. A long night would lead to many dreams, so it was best to get the treasures on the road to the capital as quickly as possible. With this fortune, the prosperity of the Central Plains was guaranteed for the next few centuries!
The group quickly began to set about their tasks.
As they were leaving, no one noticed a dark cloud of worry pass across Wang Chong’s brow.
An Yaluoshan?
The future master of the Central Plains?
Just how far had he developed? Were his wings now strong enough that Zhang Shougui could no longer suppress him?
Regardless, this was not a good development.
An Yaluoshan, we’ll meet again eventually. As long as I’m here, you’ll never get that sort of chance!
Wang Chong’s eyes narrowed, glinting with killing intent.
A moment later, all of his emotions disappeared.
He could handle An Yaluoshan once he returned. He still had two other matters here to take care of.
……
Several days later, after the affairs in Baghdad had been settled, Wang Chong, Wang Zhongsi, and the other Great Generals appeared at the holy city of Hamuhad, led by an Arab noble toward that large well that concealed a lost civilization.
“Could it be that this is where Khatabah discovered and subdued that Ifrit?”
Gao Xianzhi frowned as he stared pensively at the well with its diameter of twenty-some meters, its rim covered in sealing inscriptions.
The Ifrit had left a deep impression on all of them. If Wang Chong had not found a way to deal with it, the consequences would have been unthinkable.
Wang Chong’s first order upon arriving at Baghdad had been to seal Hamuhad and find the origin of the Ifrit.
But Gao Xianzhi had not expected the clues to point to this well.
It wasn’t the first time Gao Xianzhi had encountered a deep pit like this. After the Battle of Talas, he and Wang Chong had found the ruins of the Elam Dynasty beneath Khorasan. There, they had found the Book of Paimon and information on the Seventy-Two Demon God Pillars.
But he had not expected that the Arabian holy city of Hamuhad would also be hiding something similar beneath its surface.
A lost civilization and a World-Destroying Ifrit had been found here.
Chapter 1917 - The Voice in the Dried-Up Well!
Chapter 1917: The Voice in the Dried-Up Well!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The Arab noble lowered his head and respectfully said, “It really did come from here. On that day, we accompanied His Majesty here and saw it with our own eyes.”
Buzz!
The noble had barely spoken when Wang Chong sent a burst of Psychic Energy into the well.
The discovery of the ruins in the Sassanid had triggered a side mission from the Stone of Destiny, the ‘Riddle of Destiny’, but there had been no further progress on it.
Wang Chong sensed that he might find something this time.
But a few moments later, Wang Chong frowned.
“How is it so deep?”
After absorbing the High Priest’s Psychic Energy, he had reached a truly terrifying level of Psychic Energy, almost at the peak of the entire world. Yet even after sending his Psychic Energy down five thousand meters, he hadn’t reached the end.
In addition, the deeper he went, the greater the resistance he encountered, and the slower he could advance.
“What a powerful Psychic Seal!”
Wang Chong’s brows creased.
The mental domain was much more developed in the west than the east. At the very least, a civilization of Psychic Energy practitioners had flourished here once. Much of the knowledge on the mental domain Wang Chong had obtained from the High Priest had come from this civilization.
It was not surprising that this well’s bottom had such a powerful Psychic Seal, but if this was the case, Wang Chong could not find out what was within.
“Nightmare Beast, have you noticed anything?”
Wang Chong communicated with the Nightmare Beast’s core.
After a few moments of silence, the Nightmare Beast replied, “The distance is too great, so I can’t make out anything in detail. But I can sense that there really is something down there.”
After absorbing the Psychic Energy of hundreds of thousands of people in the war, the Nightmare Beast had become extremely powerful, but not even it could ignore the effects of that Psychic Seal.
“I’ll go down and take a look!”
His brows locked together, Wang Chong considered his options and quickly decided to go down.
“Wait!”
At this moment, Zhangchou Jianqiong called out and reached out to stop Wang Chong.
“We have no idea what the situation is down there, so don’t rush to go in! We need to at least investigate a little. You, find a few people to go down and take a look.”
Zhangchou Jianqiong turned to the Arab noble who had led them here.
Everyone immediately understood.
They were in a foreign land, and it was impossible to say what sort of schemes the Arabs might be plotting. Were they really showing them the way or just leading them into a trap?
Moreover, even if this really was the place, it was also a place that had contained the terrifying Ifrit. It was probably no heavenly paradise down there. There could be other dangers hidden within, so it was best to send a few people ahead of them.
The Arab noble did not have the right to refuse.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
A few moments later, two Arab generals dragging long ropes jumped into the well and began to descend.
The ropes were extended longer and longer. Everyone carefully listened, but the well remained quiet.
“It seems that there’s no problem!”
Zhangchou Jianqiong turned and glanced at the others.
As Wang Chong had ordered, both ropes had already gone past five thousand meters. The Psychic Seal had only been able to block out mental probing, and it had no effect on those two generals.
Given how long the pair had been down there, it was clear that it was safe inside.
“Ah!”
But Zhangchou Jianqiong had barely spoken when a miserable scream came from the well.
In the blink of an eye, the two ropes went slack, and the sounds from the well vanished.
The air almost froze, and everyone’s face turned grim.
The two generals had both been at the Imperial Martial realm, but they had been killed without the slightest chance to resist. The well was clearly more dangerous than they had imagined.
“I’m going down!”
Wang Chong’s eyes flashed as he prepared to go in.
“Wang Chong!”
“It’s fine! In this day and age, there are few traps that can hold me down! Even if there’s danger, I can react to the situation and promptly pull out!” Wang Chong indifferently said.
His casual words were tinged with a despotic aura. Wang Chong was at the Subtle realm, far above the Great Generals present. He had even killed the World-Destroying Ifrit.
There were truly few things in the world that could threaten him.
After a few moments of silence, Zhangchou Jianqiong gave up on his efforts to stop him.
Swoosh!
Wang Chong jumped into the well.
It was so dark in the well that if one stretched out their hand, they would lose sight of their fingers. And it was still unknown just how deep the well was.
Wang Chong spread o
ut his Psychic Energy and then began to jump between the walls of the well as he swiftly made his way down.
Five hundred meters! Eight hundred meters! One thousand meters!
Wang Chong descended very quickly, and he had soon reached a depth of more than two thousand meters, where light could no longer reach.
After some thought, Wang Chong took out a luminescent pearl, holding it in his palm as he descended.
Three thousand meters.
“So hot!”
Wang Chong turned serious. He could feel an intense wave of heat coming from deep underground.
Four thousand meters!
Five thousand meters!
Wang Chong finally reached the ends of the ropes. The temperature of the air had increased by forty-some degrees. This was where the two Arab generals had disappeared.
Wang Chong could clearly sense the Psychic Seal disrupting his mental senses.
The power of a formation!
Wang Chong slightly frowned.
This was the most troublesome of situations. Undoing the Psychic Seal would require destroying this entire underground region, which meant that Wang Chong could not continue downward.
Wang Chong used the Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art to attach himself to the wall. While attached to the wall, he warily watched his surroundings while focusing his Psychic Energy on the ends of the two ropes.
With the light of the luminescent pearl, Wang Chong could still see within the darkness.
The knotted fibers of the ropes had completely come apart at the end.
It was like a sword had neatly cut right through the ends of the ropes.
Buzz!
Wang Chong’s pupils constricted, an intense danger welling up in his mind. Even if there were another Ifrit in this well, Wang Chong would not have found it strange.
But it was clearly a weapon that had sliced the ropes.
Creee!
A piercing and deafening shriek suddenly came from the depths of the well, the source beginning to rapidly approach Wang Chong.
“Master, be careful!” the Nightmare Beast nervously cried out in his mind.
Swish!
A moment later.
The shriek still sounded far away, but only two to three feet away from Wang Chong, there was a cold flash of light hat silently slashed at Wang Chong like a lightning bolt.
The power of this strike was so great that even Wang Chong felt danger. It was far above that of a Great General.
Wang Chong could sense that this was because some special method had been used to focus all of this heaven-rending energy onto the edge of this weapon.
Not even Wang Chong and all his Stellar Energy could block it. Being struck would result in the instant separation of his head from his body.
“Greater Void Step!”
Without the slightest hesitation, Wang Chong used this movement technique to disappear.
At the same time, Wang Chong turned his palm and unleashed a wave of Stellar Energy at the weapon.
Bang!
But despite the close distance and Wang Chong’s cultivation, the attack missed. The energy slammed into the wall of the well and caused countless bits of stone to fall down from above.
“So fast!”
Wang Chong’s eyes widened, his gaze turning grim.
At Wang Chong’s level of cultivation, he had an exquisite control over every strand of his energy. For his foe to dodge Wang Chong’s counterattack at such a close distance meant that his opponent was even faster than him.
It had been a long time since Wang Chong had faced such a frightening foe.
Buzz!
On the surface, Zhangchou Jianqiong and the others were all startled by the massive shock.
“What intense vibrations!”
“Wang Chong’s encountered a strong foe!”
“Let’s go down and help him!”
Everyone became nervous.
“Hold on!”
A firm and steady voice stopped them.
“These are just vibrations. If he needed help, the King of Foreign Lands would send a signal. Moreover, the King of Foreign Lands is the strongest of us. I am confident he has the strength to deal with the situation below.
“If we carelessly descend, we might hold him back instead of help him,” Wang Zhongsi sternly said.
Everyone fell silent.
It was true. They did not know the situation, and in the narrow confines of the well, trying to help Wang Chong might only add to the chaos.
……
At this time, the air was also tense within the well.
There was a shower of sparks as that sharp blade slashed against the wall, clashing with the formation energy in the well and leaving behind a long scar.
Roooar!
There was a roar, and then a flash. That energy rapidly vanished from Wang Chong’s senses, moving with incredible speeds.
“Mark! …Bring it…”
Wang Chong heard a hoarse voice coming from underground, as if it had not spoken in some time, and then it faded away.
Chapter 1918 - Guardian of a Lost Civilization!
Chapter 1918: Guardian of a Lost Civilization!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Upon hearing the voice, Wang Chong came to a sudden stop, his mind shivering.
“A human?”
Wang Chong had had many ideas about what he would encounter in the well, including various kinds of monsters. But he had not imagined that the guardian of this place would be a human, or at least a creature that could speak a human tongue.
From the difficulty with which it had spoken the words, it was clear that it had been sealed in here for a very long time.
‘Mark’… What is it talking about?
Wang Chong pensively frowned. Although it had been rather sudden, Wang Chong quickly understood what was going on.
This ancient ruin probably has some identification that allows one to enter. Khatabah probably had this identification, allowing him to enter without coming under these attacks.
But Wang Chong was incapable of presenting this identification.
Let alone the fact that Wang Chong didn’t even know what it looked like, Khatabah had blown himself to pieces. Even if that identification had existed before, it didn’t exist now.
But Wang Chong didn’t spend too much time thinking. Even without the identification, he still needed to explore these ruins.
A moment later, Wang Chong raised his wariness, readying his Stellar Energy so that he could respond at any time, and began to head down.
The deeper he went, the hotter it became.
“Human, leave!” After some time, that warning voice spoke again, but Wang Chong did not notice that creature’s figure below.
“Am I almost at the end?”
Wang Chong quickly understood.
A dangerous energy filled the air, and the danger was increasing with every passing moment. But Wang Chong continued to descend the wall of the well.
A few moments later, the well began to slowly transform, the pillar-like space slowly expanding outward into a pyramidal shape.
Buzz!
As Wang Chong carefully examined his surroundings, he sensed a faint vibration in the air. At this moment, a sharp blade began to slice toward him at astonishing speed.
Boom!
Wang Chong immediately raised the golden Xuanyuan Sword, barely blocking the strike.
But before Wang Chong could counterattack, his opponent was gone.
Swish!
With no time for rest, that blade returned, but this time, it came from above and behind Wang Chong, slicing straight at his neck.
Bang!
A golden beam of Sword Qi flashed through the air as Wang Chong used the Xuanyuan Sword to strike that blade and repulse it.
A cry of alarm could be heard, but once more, before Wang Chong could counter, the opponent vanished.
“So fast!”
Wang Cho
ng’s heart sank. He was doing his utmost to keep track of his foe, but this monster was so uncatchable that it seemed like it didn’t have a physical body.
That movement technique is at least twice as fast as my Greater Void Step! Wang Chong quietly said to himself.
The Greater Void Step was an art that Wang Chong had learned from the men in black and was the fastest movement technique he knew. When used to its maximum, it was impossible to see the user with the naked eye.
But his opponent was moving even faster than the Greater Void Step. He had never encountered this kind of situation before.
This alone allowed his foe to pose an enormous threat.
But even so, Wang Chong did not give up. He continued to descend while baiting the attacks of this unknown creature.
Hiss!
As expected, his enemy was apparently enraged by Wang Chong’s continued descent. Hissing bizarrely, it intensified its attacks against Wang Chong.
The air shrieked as that thin blade sliced through the air and unleashed a barrage of blows against Wang Chong.
Bang!
Front, back, left, right, up, down—its position was constantly shifting, each time attacking from a completely unexpected angle that had no relation to the previous one.
The attacks were fast, vicious, and accurate. They were all aimed at Wang Chong’s vital points, and when they sliced toward him, they seemed ordinary and unremarkable. It was only when they were about to impact that they erupted with horrifying strength that shook the very fabric of space.
In the face of these bizarre attacks, Wang Chong was forced completely on the defensive.
“Found it!”
After some time, Wang Chong’s eyes flashed. Through the ‘True World’, he had finally found his opponent.
Bang!
Gripping the Xuanyuan Sword, Wang Chong used the Greater Void Step to fiercely slash at his opponent just when his foe was slicing at his neck.
Rumble!
There was a thunderous boom as Wang Chong’s immense attack succeeded in forcing his foe out into the open.
It was a humanoid creature with pale skin and empty eye sockets. It wore a tattered black robe, and in its hand was a massive scythe that was nearly two meters long.