At Xue Beng’s declaration, not only did the panic in the eyes of the officers disappear, even Grandmaster, Tang Hao and the others couldn’t resist showing excitement, Grandmaster explaiming:
“Little San is returning? Truly excellent.”
As for the military officers, they grinned even wider once they reacted. The power Tang San had shown on the battlefield had deeply shocked them, not only reversing the course of a battle single handedly, but even the Spirit Empire empress Bibi Dong had been wounded by his hand. It might be said that nobody could compare to Tang San’s prestige in the army. Xue Beng’s announcement had doubtless ignited their confidence.
Xue Beng smiled calmly:
“Generals, you might have noticed that my Teacher, king Lan Hao, hasn’t showed himself here in close to a month. You’ve definitely wondered why. Then fine, I’ll tell you now. The reason we temporarily retreated is because king Lan Hao isn’t in the camp, if we went to battle in this time, it would clearly be very difficult to win. For the sake of morale, I ordered this information sealed. Now seems to be the time to let you know, that our grand king Lan Hao, left camp in order to increase his strength one step further, to aid my Heaven Dou army in vanquishing the Spirit Empire. Therefore, he chose the road to becoming a god, to accept the inheritance of divinity. Teacher has now completed the last breakthrough, and is just on his way back. Tell me, for the last two days, can you persevere, can you hold out until our king Lan Hao returns, to level Jialing Pass?”
“We can——”
Marshal Ge Long was the first to stand, falling to his knees,
“Your Majesty, as long as one soldier remains, we will never retreat, we will definitely last until king Lan Hao returns. Death before retreat!”
“Death—— before—— retreat——!”
Everyone’s confidence was now mobilized. Thinking of Tang San’s power on the battlefield, they were filled with confidence, shouting together with marshal Ge Long, falling to their knees with a crash.
Xue Beng nodded with satisfaction:
“Marshal Ge Long, I will leave the arrangements for tomorrow’s battle to you. This battle of endurance, the Empire will win.”
Marshal Ge Long stood sharply, turning to the crowd, roaring:
“The Empire will win!”
Immediately, cries of certain victory resounded in the tent, the panic from Qian Renxue’s appearance completely obliterated. At Xue Beng’s gesture, marshal Ge Long personally led everyone from the tent, going to plan out the troop formation of tomorrow’s battle.
Once they had all left, Grandmaster asked excitedly:
“Your Majesty, when will little San return? How come he didn’t notify us?”
Xue Beng’s zealous expression now melted away like snow. Waving his hand, he sent away the servants and sighed, bitterly shaking his head:
“I don’t know.”
“What?”
Grandmaster was stunned, Tang Hao, Tang Xiao, Ning Fengzhi and the others all stood in shock.
Xue Beng waved his hand, gesturing at them to sit down,
“Imperial Tutor, seniors, you all saw the situation just now. If I didn’t give the troops some hope, I fear the army would disperse without a fight. I didn’t receive news from Teacher, and I’m even less sure he can arrive in time.”
Grandmaster’s expression immediately turned unsightly,
“However, Your Majesty, this is just quenching your thirst with poison. If little San can’t return in time, we basically don’t have the capital to withstand the Spirit Empire. We might not even last tomorrow’s battle!”
Ning Fengzhi said:
“Your Majesty, Grandmaster is right. We don’t know if king Lan Hao can return in time, and rather than face an enemy we can’t defeat, it would be better to temporarily escape. How about fighting again once king Lan Hao returns?”
Xue Beng shook his head, his gaze instantly turning resolute,
“We can’t retreat. Troops in defeat are like a landslide. If we withdraw, we might no longer stand a chance. Just in case I retreat tonight, and Teacher returns tomorrow, and we have to fight the enemy in the middle of retreat, wouldn’t that be even more hopeless? Even if Teacher successfully completes the inheritance, he’s also a god level power. With my army ruined in retreat, facing an enemy on the same level as him, it might be difficult to win. Taking a step back, meaning to disrespect, just in case Teacher doesn’t return, what would be the point of us retreating? Pursued by the Spirit Empire army led by that god, we might not last even days. It would be better to risk it all in one battle. For every day we endure, Teacher has one day to return. If we really can’t persevere, at least I’ll die on the battlefield. I can’t die in retreat. An emperor dead in battle rather than a fleeing coward.”
At Xue Beng’s words, everyone including Tang Hao only felt one thing, shock.
Without a doubt, Xue Beng’s strength was nothing more than an insect before them, and his position as Emperor could even be said to have fallen into his hands. As for him regarding Tang San as a Teacher, to Tang Hao it seemed that this was just him wanting to use Tang San’s strength. None of these powers really thought highly of him, they only showed him respect for his position.
But at this moment, everyone’s attitudes suddenly turned completely around. Facing such a crisis, facing an enemy with a god level power, Xue Beng as Emperor not only showed any timidity, but even had no plans to retreat. He would actually go all out against the Spirit Empire, meeting force with force. In fact, making such a choice with the immense contrast in strength between both sides, really was no different than suicide unless Tang San could return in time. To have such courage, even if it was on the reckless side of things, Xue Beng for the first time gained the respect of these powers.
“Fine——”
Tang Hao roared, making the tent ring, his potent aggressiveness rising spontaneously. Looking straight at Xue Beng, Tang Hao nodded,
“Worthy of my son’s disciple. That’s right, you’re correct, we can only fight to the death, no fleeing cowards. Then leave that god to me, even if I die I’ll give her something to remember. What is happy about living, what is bitter about dying? Living in this world when you can die grandly might not me lucky.”
Tang Xiao smiled,
“Second brother, did you forget about me? We brothers haven’t fought an enemy together in a long time. To stand against a god level power, even our grandfather never experienced it. We’re even luckier than the old man!”
Grandmaster laughed out loud,
“Even though we can’t drink in the army, Your Majesty, how about we make an exception today? I’m suddenly very thirsty.”
Xue Beng laughed too, suddenly standing, shouting,
“Servants, serve wine, let me and all the seniors get thoroughly drunk before the battle.”
An inner servant quickly ran out from the back, whispering somewhat awkwardly by Xue Beng’s ear. Xue Beng was stunned:
“Oh no. For the sake of impartial military discipline, we weren’t allowed to bring any wine. This……”
Tang Hao laughed:
“Oh granddisciple, if you can survive this crisis, I dare guarantee that you will be the wise ruler of a generation. Let’s have tea, it’s all the same.”
As emperor, if he was called granddisciple by anyone else, he really wouldn’t feel very happy. But Xue Beng now felt excited, he understood that these spirit master world powers had already truly acknowledged him.
“Fine, then tea instead of wine.”
At nightfall, whether in Jialing Pass or the Heaven Dou army, everyone were busy with hidden preparations. Somber intent quietly rippled across the plains between the armies. After a month of silence, the last battle was on the verge of happening due to the sudden arrival of the God of Angels.
An uneventful night, dawn broke.
Before the Spirit Empire army sortied, at the first glimmers of dawn, war drums already roared through the Heaven Dou army camp.
&n
bsp; Dong dong dong, dong dong dong, dong dong dong dong dong dong dong.
Cowhide war drums erupted with ear splitting booms in the hands of strong men, at least a thousand drums resounded in the million man army. All the camp gates opened wide, the army spilling out like a tidal wave.
The first to charge out of the camp were the light cavalry. The light cavalry was stationed on the wings of the army, and they now rushed out of the camp like two swiftly unfurling wings of the Heaven Dou army.
Immediately after came the central army infantry, light infantry in front, heavy infantry in the back, neatly marching into the battlefield with powerful strides.
On either side of the central army was the Tang Army as well as the Heaven Dou Empire spirit master legion led by the brothers Tang Xiao and Tang Hao. The reason for the switch was that a lot of the Tang Army elites came from the four single attribute clans. Their grievances with the Clear Sky School still existed, and in order not to influence the battle, the commanders were switched.
Behind the central army was the absolute main force of the Heaven Dou army, the heavy cavalry legions. In this battle, the Heaven Dou army had come out in force, more than ten armored cavalry legions guarded the last infantry to leave the camp as two wings. A million heroes spread their wings, majestically pressing in on Jialing Pass.
A million troops! In this moment, the intense pressure made the defenders in Jialing Pass feel choked. Facing such a vast force from the Heaven Dou Empire, even Qian Renxue couldn’t help frowning as she stood on the walls. Even though she had already advanced to become god, the force she radiated alone couldn’t contend with a million soldiers.
Right now Qian Renxue could feel herself wavering, had Tang San returned? If not, why would the Heaven Dou army come out in full force with this timing?
“Pass down my orders, open the city, sortie.”
Qian Renxue shouted.
“Yes.”
The six priests accepted the orders simultaneously. However, their orders were still a bit late. The defenders of Jialing Pass were already a scared by the Heaven Dou army, even the Spirit Hall spirit master legions were no exception. As they saw the Heaven Dou imperial army’s unprecedented pressure, how could they not feel their hearts tremble? However, under the pressure of the spirit master legions, with the urging of the six priests, the Spirit Empire troops still unwillingly assembled.
The gates of Jialing Pass swung open, an army of altogether a hundred thousand surged out.
A hundred thousand already sounded a lot, but facing a million troops, a lot of the Spirit Empire soldiers already felt their legs tremble before the battle had even begun. From their perspective, what was the difference with throwing away their lives?
Just as Qian Renxue prepared to lead the Spirit Empire powers onto the field and encourage their troops, suddenly, a long cry like a dragon’s cry or tiger’s roar whistled over like a giant wave surging at the skies.
“Where is Qian Renxue?”
Along with that cry, from the side of the Heaven Dou army, a ball of golden blue light instantly grew, in the blink of an eye already arriving above. Hidden by that golden blue light, seven silhouettes appeared in the sky.
The leader was entirely dressed in golden blue armor, eight dazzling wave and cloud patterned wings unfolded behind him, a three pronged Seagod helmet on his head, holding the Seagod Trident, the inheritor of the Seagod’s divinity, Tang San.
Tang San pointed the Seagod Trident straight at Jialing Pass, his tremendous divine sense targeting Qian Renxue in practically an instant.
“Seagod Tang San is present, where is Qian Renxue?”
Tang San issued a shout, his tremendous divine sense dropping from the sky like a wave. The Heaven Dou army only felt a graceful drizzle, their energy instantly rising to a peak. The originally already boundless imposing manner rose to an even higher peak as Tang San deliberately announced his status as Seagod.
Drawing on the condensed faith of a million heroes, Tang San’s imposing manner also climbed to the limit, a circle of golden blue light spreading out around him. Next to him, Dai Mubai, Xiao Wu and the others were escorted to the front of the army by the Seagod’s power. Each of them simultaneously released nine spirit rings, and especially the last hundred thousand year red spirit ring was so dazzling.
Credits
Translator: Blue Silver Translation
Epub: Estevam / dotNOVEL
Douluo Dalu - Volume 46 - Seagod Tang San Page 11