The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  The current circumstances proved to be a much greater challenge as the nine tigers could switch targets whenever they pleased, thus increasing the effectiveness of the test.

  “Now, let’s see which of them is able to ward off more damage.”

  Zhao Qianqiu pricked his ears up to listen closely, and he noticed that the sounds within Wang Chong and Su Hanshan’s room was slowly getting sparser. It seemed like fight was reaching its conclusion already.

  “That should be about it!”

  Thinking so, Zhao Qianqiu began walking over to Wang Chong and Su Hanshan’s room. Roar! A ferocious roar of a tiger suddenly echoed, causing the air to tremor. The room shook for an instant before everything calmed down.

  Amidst the darkness, a dim light suddenly appeared, tracing the outlines of the window and the young silhouettes within.

  Zhao Qianqiu hastened his footsteps and hurried over.

  By the time Zhao Qianqiu walked in, the battle inside had already ended. The wretched state of the room was particularly striking. Tables, chairs, beds, blinds, door; nothing was intact. Even the walls and floors were pocked with holes all over. The various marks from swords and the tiger claws filled the area, presenting a terrifying sight.

  Blood was splattered throughout, and the ground was dyed red. More than ten massive tigers, each reminiscent of a small hill, were piled up within the room. Every single one of these tigers had the size equivalent to around four grown men so the sight of it was particularly stunning.

  The three armored tigers that Zhao Qianqiu specially prepared for Wang Chong lay amidst the pile. The armor and body of those tigers had been sliced in two. Taking a closer look at where the metal was divided, it was as smooth as a mirror, indicating that it was all done in a single cut.

  “Sharp!”

  Zhao Qianqiu blinked in shock. He realized that he had underestimated the weapon in Wang Chong’s hands. The Wootz steel sword seemed to be much sharper than he had expected.

  The armor he had prepared for these tigers were crafted of Xuan metal, which was known for its sturdiness. On the battlefield, only the most elite of troops were equipped with it. Yet, it was still unable to withstand the weapon in Wang Chong’s hand.

  Scanning the room, Zhao Qianqiu soon realized that even though he had ‘specially taken care’ of Wang Chong and Su Hanshan, the two of them were still the least injured of the group.

  Or to be more exact, other than their pale faces and significant depletion of their Origin Energy, they weren’t injured at all.

  This wasn’t what Zhao Qianqiu expected to see.

  “Ten ferocious tigers in such a confined space… and yet, they aren’t injured at all!”

  His eyebrows shot up in surprise.

  Wang Chong and Su Hanshan fared way better than his estimates. It seemed like brute strength and mere quantity didn’t have a decisive effect on them.

  “Instructor Zhao!”

  Just as Zhao Qianqiu was scanning the room, a voice broke the silence. The recuperating Wang Chong was the first to notice Zhao Qianqiu standing by the door, and soon, everyone turned to look at the latter with malicious intent in their gazes.

  The air in the room seemed to have suddenly frozen.

  Even Su Hanshan lifted his head to look at Zhao Qianqiu. His face was still impassive, but it could be seen that he wasn’t in a good mood.

  To send tigers over in the middle of the night was going way beyond the boundary of a mere test. Just the death of Zhao Jingdian’s roommate reflected much about tonight’s matter.

  The death quota that Zhao Qianqiu mentioned previously didn’t seem like a joke. If they failed to survive this ordeal, they would have truly died for nothing.

  Wang Chong, Su Hanshan, Zhuang Zhengping, Chi Weisi, and Zhao Jingdian glared at Zhao Qianqiu furiously but no one said a single word.

  The entire room was bizarrely silent for a moment. Pressure gathered in the air.

  “Why? Do you all intend to rebel?”

  Zhao Qianqiu could see the rage seething in the eyes of the crowd, but he was indifferent to it.

  “If you find this intolerable, it’s not too late to quit now!”

  Wang Chong wiped his sword silently, not saying a word.

  Of the group, Wang Chong could be considered to be the one who knew the most about Zhao Qianqiu’s background. He knew that the other party was imparting the ‘Art of Commanding’ and thus, was very different from other instructors.

  Even so, Wang Chong didn’t expect Zhao Qianqiu’s teaching style to be like that.

  Throwing more than a dozen ferocious tigers into their room in the middle of a night, if not for Wang Chong’s fast reaction and his Wootz steel sword, it was uncertain whether he could have survived the encounter.

  The resilience, strength, endurance, and burst power of those massive tigers were above his own. There were many times that Wang Chong barely escaped with his life.

  If he had failed to dodge for even a single time, it would have been the end.

  On top of that, Zhao Qianqiu chose to release them at night. A martial artist’s vision would be impaired under such circumstances whereas the tigers, as crepuscular creatures, weren’t affected at all. As if that wasn’t enough, three armored tigers were even specially prepared for one Wang Chong.

  This was far beyond the limits of a test. This could almost be considered as murder!

  He could really die from such a teaching method!

  “Hehe, do you all feel that I’ve gone overboard?”

  Zhao Qianqiu sneered coldly as his complexion darkened.

  “Let me tell you all, I’m already treating you kindly! If I were to go by my original intentions, not even three of you would be standing before me now!”

  “What do you all take Kunwu Training Camp for? Do you think that it’s a place for you all to frolick around? Do you think it’s where you cultivate friendship and make buddies? Or do you think it’s a charity organization where you can pick and study all the high-tier martial arts you desire?”

  “Hmph, let me tell you all. If these are the thoughts you have, you better leave right now. This is a military barrack, a battlefield. This is where the empire trains its strongest warriors.”

  “On the battlefield, do you think that I’ll be the only one sneaking into your barracks in the middle of the night? Do you think that the ones barging in would just be a few tigers who only knew how to charge on their instincts?”

  “On the battlefield, you won’t be given a choice at all. Your enemies will not be just a handful of tigers, and their strength will not necessarily be at the same level as you either. When True Martial realm, Profound Martial realm, or even Emperor Martial realm warriors appear before you to strike you down, do you think there’ll be an instructor standing before you that you can berate?”

  Zhao Qianqiu uttered coldly as his gaze slowly fell on each and everyone in the room.

  The sudden assault from the tigers wasn’t done on a whim or out of boredom, and neither was it to toy with the lives of these students. Rather, he was trying to teach them how to preserve their lives in future battlefields.

  “The battlefield isn’t a game. In a battlefield, anyone could die at any moment—and that includes me as well. If you don’t have such a realization, you’ll never be able to survive there!”

  The room fell silent.

  The group was initially infuriated by Zhao Qianqiu’s doing, but after hearing the latter’s words, they found themselves at a loss. Their rage flowed out as though a leaking tap and vanished altogether.

  Zhao Qianqiu was right!

  What they would face on the battlefield would be more than just a handful of tigers, and it would not always be at a level they withstand. Compared to the coming battlefields they would be treading on, Zhao Qianqiu’s trial was indeed nothing at all.

  “Instructor Zhao! …”

  Wang Chong had just barely started speaking when an abrupt change occurred.

  Xiu!

 
A sharp sound tore through the night sky. It seemed to be at a long distance away, but in the next instant, everyone realized that they were gravely mistaken.

  “AH!”

  A cry of agony sounded as a cruel-looking arrow pierced through Chi Weisi’s shoulder. The immense force of the arrow sent him flying backward, pinning him on the opposite wall seven to eight zhang away.

  (~27m)

  Blood trickled down his shoulder, and Chi Weisi’s face turned ghastly pale. His hands slumped to his sides, and in an instant, he lost all fighting will.

  Xiu!

  Almost instantaneously, another sharp arrow flew into the room. This time, it wasn’t aimed at Chi Weisi’s shoulder—it was aimed at his heart.

  Everyone’s face immediately turned pale.

  Boom!

  A steel fist abruptly shot out as swift as a bolt of lightning, knocking this deadly arrow away.

  “Get down!”

  Zhao Qianqiu bellowed loudly. After knocking away the second arrow, he immediately dashed toward Chi Weisi who was still pinned to the wall.

  “Enemy attack! ——”

  At the instant when Zhao Qianqiu leaped out, a loud cry echoed across the night. It came from the Imperial Army guards at the sentry post. However, the warning terminated abruptly halfway through, as though someone had crushed the throat of the one yelling.

  Vaguely, one could hear the sound of bodies tumbling down the mountain.

  In an instant, everyone’s face distorted in astonishment.

  A fearful threat suddenly loomed across the entire mountain peak, leaving those in the area with a suffocating sensation.

  Alright I see many people disagreeing with Zhao Qianqiu’s doing so let me say a word or two in his defense.

  His students will be lieutenants as soon as they graduate, so I think it is only right for his training to be even more difficult. At the very least, other soldiers would have braved through several wars before being promoted but his students will go out with nearly no true battlefield experience. Besides, if they, as lieutenants, die on the field easily, their soldiers would fall into panic. All in all, while it’s cruel, I feel that one effective leader is better than ten average leaders. If a lieutenant doesn’t possess the qualities to survive on a battlefield, it might be better to sieve him out as soon as possible. And that is the purpose of Kunwu Training Camp anyway, not to mention, Zhao Qianqiu is aiming to cultivate a new generation of marshals.

  Besides, he did moderate the test so as to put it at a level that was ‘immensely difficult but possible to survive’, so while his doing is extreme, it is still within acceptable limits.

  Well I don’t want to be put in that position still.

  Chapter 206: The Turk Master Archers!

  No one knew what was happening. This was the Kunwu Training Camp; it was just a short distance away from Great Tang’s capital, Chang’an. Not to mention, it had Imperial Army members from the royal court standing guard here.

  But Zhao Qianqiu’s response was no lie. The arrow that struck Chi Weisi was no lie. And the cries of agony from the Imperial Army guards tumbling down the mountain was no lie either.

  Without a doubt, this wasn’t a test that Zhao Qianqiu had prepared for them. This was a real enemy attack!

  “Careful! Stay away from the windows!”

  Without much time to think, Wang Chong bellowed loudly. He swung his sword at the oil lamp, and pu, the wick was cut, and the entire room plunged into darkness.

  Xiu xiu xiu!

  At the same moment, the terrifying sound of something sharp tearing through space sounded. But this time, it wasn’t just a single one—more than a dozen arrows whizzed through the windows.

  Xiu! One of them brushed by Wang Chong’s head. The powerful wind pressure from the arrow left his hair standing on end. It felt as though he had just had a close brush with the God of Death.

  Boom boom boom!

  At the same time, a deafening rumble sounded behind Wang Chong. Ten arrows struck the area where Chi Weisi was pinned to originally, and accompanied by loud rumbling and a huge cloud of dust, the entire wall collapsed.

  Even Su Hanshan’s face warped in shock upon realizing the fearsome strength behind those arrows.

  “Everyone, get down! Now!”

  Zhao Qianqiu had barely managed to save Chi Weisi by an inch. Crawling on the floor, he bellowed in a panic. He knew that this wasn’t a rehearsal; he didn’t plan for these arrows.

  At the very least, he would never go to the extent of killing the guards of Kunwu Training Camp to test his students.

  “Follow me, and don’t make a sound!”

  Zhao Qianqiu’s voice sounded in everyone’s ears. His tone was suppressed, and there was a hoarse and anxious edge to it.

  But just then, someone interjected.

  “Don’t move abruptly! It might not necessarily be safer outside. The assailants are Turk master archers!”

  The one who spoke was Wang Chong. His voice sounded vastly different from before.

  When those sharp arrows flew by at close quarters, Wang Chong clearly saw their appearance—they were wolf fang arrows.

  These savage-looking arrows had serrated arrowheads, similar to that of a wolf’s fang. Were it to sink into one’s flesh, its hook would prevent one from extracting the arrow easily.

  And if one were to attempt to do it forcefully, it could result in irreversible damage.

  This kind of arrow could only be found in the Eastern and Western Turkic Khaganate.

  “… Master archers possess extraordinary eyesight. Given how there’s no cover outside, leaving this room might put us in greater danger instead. Since there are tiger corpses on the floor, let’s pile them up in front of the window to use as cover against the arrows instead!”

  In the darkness, Wang Chong’s voice was steady and calm. Instead of a teenage child, he seemed like a veteran general who had gone through innumerable bloody battlefields.

  This kind of calm steadiness induced rationality and bred trust from others.

  “How could I have forgotten about that! If we were to use the tiger corpses as cover against those sharp arrows, this place could serve as a fortress instead!”

  Wang Chong’s reminder had jolted Zhao Qianqiu awake. Even though Wang Chong and Su Hanshan had managed to slay them with relative ease, the tigers’ massive physiques and resilient bones still made them an excellent cover against the enemies’ barrage.

  On top of that, three of them were even dressed in sturdy Xuan metal armor. With such defense, they need not worry too much about the master archers.

  Zhao Qianqiu had panicked out of concern for his students’ safety. In the heat of the moment, all he could think of was how he could bring his students to safety. However, he failed to consider the possibility that they might already be in the safest place.

  “Listen to Wang Chong. Pile the tiger carcasses in our most vulnerable areas.”

  Zhao Qianqiu instructed.

  Peng!

  A eight hundred jin tiger was placed vertically against the direction where the arrows were coming from. Surprisingly, Su Hanshan was the first to make a move.

  He was significantly stronger than Wang Chong and those heavy tiger carcasses seemed to weigh nothing in his hands.

  Peng peng peng. Following Su Hanshan’s lead, Zhuang Zhengping, Zhao Jingdian, and the others got into action as well. The tigers were around 2.45m tall each, and so, a couple of them was more than sufficient to block cover one side of the wall.

  Not only so, they even managed to stack an additional layer behind it.

  Pu pu pu! After the crowd was done, another rain of arrows showered down.

  Wang Chong’s action of extinguishing the lights had played a crucial role. Unable to see the situation in the room, those Turk master archers could only shoot blindly. Innumerable wolf fang arrows pierced through the wall, only to be blocked by the tiger carcasses.

  “Careful, those Turk master archers is also capable of high t
rajectory shots! Hide below the tiger carcasses.”

  Wang Chong didn’t dare to get careless at all. He pulled an armored tiger over and hid beneath it. The massive physique of the tigers proved to be a valuable asset at this moment, allowing him to hide his entire body beneath it with ease.

  Zhao Dingdian, Zhuang Weisi, and the others also immediately followed suit.

  This assault was different from that of the tigers released by Zhao Qianqiu. These were all real experts, and everyone could feel the threat of death looming right above them.

  Xiu xiu xiu!

  The terrifying sound of sharp arrows whizzing through thin air sounded. As though responding to Wang Chong’s warning, more than fifty sharp arrows rained down from above.

  Those arrows were shot into the heavens before slowly curving down with increasing speed. With immense might, they pierced through the ceiling and fell onto the ground.

  The sight of the arrow shafts vibrating as they struck the ground due by their immense force left everyone with goosebumps. If not for Wang Chong’s reminder, they would have surely be pierced by those arrows.

  However, with their current cover, no matter how dense the rain of arrows was, the group had nothing to fear.

  ——The tigers that Zhao Qianqiu used to attack them previously had now become their protective amulet instead. This was something that no one could have anticipated.

  Xiu xiu xiu!

  Another barrage of arrows even larger than the previous one came crashing down. At least sixty sharp arrows burrowed in through the roof, covering the entire room and beyond.

  Listening to the relentless sound of falling arrows, the crowd couldn’t help but feel extremely relieved. If not for Wang Chong’s advice, they would all have been turned into porcupines by now!

  After several more volleys, the master archers, feeling certain that it was impossible for there to be any survivors remaining in the room, moved on to other targets.

  But the complexion of the group in the room remained awful.

  “Turk master archers… Why are there Turk master archers here?”

  Beneath the armored tiger carcass, Wang Chong’s mind was in turmoil. He never expected for a night assault to occur on the very first day of Kunwu Training Camp’s establishment.