The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  Almost no one could stop the onslaught of Li Siye’s giant figure. His emblematic sword easily cut through the Celestial Wolf Cavalry, even slicing some of them in two. Not even the Celestial Wolf armor could stop a full-strength blow from Li Siye.

  When Wang Chong had forged this sword for Li Siye, he had used many jun of Hyderabad ore and placed all his attention upon it. In terms of both weight and sharpness, it far exceeded any other Wootz Steel sword. However, it was only someone of Li Siye’s immense strength that could use it to cut a Celestial Wolf cavalryman in two with a single slash.

  As for the Celestial Wolf Illusory Formation, Li Siye dealt with it using the most primitive of methods.

  Roooar!

  As Li Siye bellowed, his entire body exploded with Stellar Energy that swept through the battlefield, jolting and scattering all the illusions, leaving behind only the real Celestial Wolf Cavalry. With this simple tactic, Li Siye was able to inflict grievous casualties on the Celestial Wolf Cavalry!

  Even the veteran Celestial Wolf Cavalry couldn’t help but feel dread at Li Siye’s fierce fighting style.

  “Kill him!” the Celestial Wolf Cavalry shouted as hundreds of them converged on Li Siye. No matter how dauntless Li Siye was, the Celestial Wolf Cavalry still had the advantage of numbers.

  “Just what I wanted!”

  Li Siye had a contemptful gaze, his body exuding a domineering aura as he urged his Ferghana steed to charge forward and meet the Celestial Wolf Cavalry. Boom! Li Siye swept his sword toward them with the weight of a mountain behind it.

  These Celestial Wolf Cavalry were simply no match for the Imperial Martial Li Siye, no matter how many of them charged at him.

  Buzz!

  Just when Li Siye was about to cut through five or six Celestial Wolf Cavalry, he suddenly trembled, an ill foreboding gripping his heart. Almost at the same time, a soft and chilly voice, like the buzzing of a mosquito, murmured in his ear.

  “Heheh, let me borrow your head!”

  Although it was a soft voice, it was exceptionally clear and suffused with the smug tone of someone whose plan had succeeded. Boom! A gale exploded onto the scene as a storm of destructive energy that had lain in waiting for so long suddenly appeared in Li Siye’s perception and approached him with a thunderous momentum.

  Li Siye couldn’t see it, but he could hear the vibration of metal as the edge of a sword swept through the air, a sound that made Li Siye tremble in fear.

  “Shit! It’s an ambush!”

  Li Siye paled. He had not even noticed this enemy’s presence just moments ago, so it was obvious that they had been hiding their energy for this moment. Most frighteningly, this person’s cultivation level was far above the Imperial Martial realm.

  This was a Saint Martial expert, one at the Brigadier General level!

  In a flash, Li Siye immediately thought of the Celestial Wolf Cavalry commander. But it was clear that he did not have time to respond. To kill him, this opponent had pretended to be an ordinary Celestial Wolf cavalryman, waiting for the right moment to abruptly attack so that Li Siye would not have a chance to counter.

  “Huang Botian!

  “Kong Zi-an!

  “Hong Youqi!”

  Li Siye suddenly shouted, at the same releasing all the Stellar Energy in his body. At this moment, he had time for only one thing:

  “Skanda’s Strength1!!!”

  Li Siye opened his arms, his entire body seeming to swell. Under the guidance of some invisible energy, all the strength of the Wushang Cavalry in a fifty-zhang radius began to gather in Li Siye. As the Celestial Wolf Cavalry looked on in shock, the light condensed behind Li Siye, transforming into a swarthy god, enormous and savage, that then fused with Li Siye.

  Bang!

  Behind Li Siye, Shamask gathered up all his strength, his black halo vibrating, and gave Li Siye’s back a savage slash. Booom!Li Siye was sent flying along with his horse, his mouth already vomiting blood as he flew through the air.

  Bang! Li Siye landed in a cloud of dust. Even though Shamask had attacked with almost all his strength, Li Siye was still alive.

  “How could this sort of thing happen!”

  Shamask’s eyes narrowed and his face paled. At his cultivation level, dealing with a peak Imperial Martial warrior should have been as easy as flipping over his palm, but to Shamask’s surprise, the commander of the Wushang Cavalry had suddenly begun to swell in strength, ascending from the Imperial Martial realm to the Saint Martial realm.

  Not only that, though Shamask’s sword could usually cleave through steel, Li Siye was wearing some sort of mysterious armor that his slash had not been able to leave a single mark on. Even someone of Shamask’s temperament couldn’t help but be stupefied at this sight.

  “Cutting Formation!”

  On the other side, Li Siye did not tarry. Shamask’s ambush had given him a severe wound. If this armor given to him by Wang Chong had not been made of pure Meteoric Metal and further strengthened with many toughening inscriptions, and if he hadn’t also been bolstered by the Halo of Dusk Stallion, Li Siye would already be dead.

  Bang!

  The moment Li Siye gave the order, the five thousand Wushang Cavalry immediately split up into fifty hundred-man groups that scattered across the battlefield.

  “Where are you going?”

  Shamask grimaced and urged his horse to pursue.

  “All soldiers, stop them!”

  Although he didn’t know what the Wushang Cavalry were up to or why they had suddenly scattered, his battle-hardened intuition told him that something was wrong. While leaving the Wushang Cavalry to his men, he continued his dogged pursuit of Li Siye.

  But the Li Siye now was completely different.

  Bang!

  With a sweep of his enormous Wootz Steel sword, Li Siye sent three Celestial Wolf Cavalry, horses and all, flying away like ragdolls. Before they had even landed, a tyrannical Stellar Energy had already rampaged through their bodies, rendering their insides into mush.

  The Skanda Halo!

  Li Siye had finally used the supreme technique Wang Chong had taught him. In the era of the calamity, War Saint Wang Chong had led ten Great Generals in battle, and the Skanda Halo was the unique technique used by the number one Great General.

  The Skanda Halo was similar to Death’s Scythe, the joint attack formation Wang Chong had employed in the southwest, but it was much stronger. Only one who learned the Skanda Halo and had Skanda’s Strength could execute the Skanda Formation, which allowed one to borrow the strength of others to bolster their own.

  This was somewhat similar to the Mighty Miracle God Formation used by Wang Yan, though not as powerful.

  While Wang Chong had spent the last two months after the onset of the Battle of Talas in Wushang’s City of Steel preparing for war, Li Siye had spent them cultivating the Skanda Halo.

  Li Siye’s level of strength had been his constant handicap and weakness, so, with the Battle of Talas in mind, Wang Chong had taught him the Skanda Halo. But even though the Skanda Halo could allow one to borrow the strength of others, it had a terrible weakness: it could only be maintained for an hour. Furthermore, the user would suffer a severe backlash afterward. Thus, the Skanda Formation could only be used at the most critical junctures of battle.

  ______________1. ‘Skanda’ can be a reference to two things. It can refer to the Bodhisattva Wei Tuo, who is the guardian of Buddhist monasteries. Skanda is also another name for the Hindu God of war, Kartikeya.↩

  Chapter 915 - The Skanda Halo!

  Chapter 915: The Skanda Halo!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  “Lord Protector-General, do you require my assistance?”

  As the Wushang Cavalry and the Celestial Wolf Cavalry battled, a dignified voice rang out in Wang Chong’s ears. The Vice Protector-General of the Anxi Protectorate army, Cheng Qianli, rode over to stand next to Wang Chong and look toward that distant battle.

&nbs
p; This clash of elite cavalry had garnered the attention of many people, including the soldiers of the Anxi Protectorate army.

  “The general that Duwu Sili has commanding this force of cavalry should be someone called Shamask. I have a little understanding of him. This person has the cultivation level of a Brigadier General, and your general alone might not have the strength to defeat him. If it is required, I can go and help your Wushang Cavalry.”

  “General Cheng, my thanks.”

  Wang Chong finally turned his head, a smile on his lips, but the refusal in his eyes was loud and clear.

  “But that will not be necessary. The battle has already begun, and even if you were to set off now, you would still arrive too late. Besides, I believe in Li Siye’s strength. No one on the battlefield can kill him.”

  Fights between experts were decided in seconds. Cheng Qianli had no understanding of the Wushang Cavalry or how they fought, but Wang Chong could clearly see that this battle was on the verge of being decided. Moreover, the Arab attacks on the first defense line were intensifying, and Wang Chong needed a Brigadier General like Cheng Qianli to go to its aid at any moment.

  As for Li Siye…

  Wang Chong had unwavering confidence in this future Invincible Great General. As a future elite Great General of the Great Tang, Li Siye could not possibly die in this level of battle!

  “Xue Qianjun, go and get ready.”

  Wang Chong quickly turned his eyes back to the battle.

  “Yes, Lord Marquis!”

  Xue Qianjun swiftly withdrew.

  In the distance, the battle between Li Siye and Shamask had reached a critical juncture.

  Rumble! The thundering hooves stirred up great clouds of dust as Shamask’s order took effect, the thousands of Celestial Wolf Cavalry rushing in from all sides, pushing the Wushang Cavalry out of the area and obstructing their charges. But Shamask had underestimated the power of the Wushang Cavalry.

  The Ten Charges Ten Victories Formation was the work of countless people, the crystallization of their efforts and intelligence, and it was hailed as one of the ten strongest formations. This was a supreme cavalry charge formation, and it considered not only the en masse charge of an army, but also local battles and fights between generals.

  All circumstances were taken into account, and no matter what plan the opponent executed, the formation would have a corresponding variation.

  Shamask doggedly pursued Li Siye, keeping close to him in the hopes that this would allow him to avoid any hidden dangers. But such a method was completely useless against the Cutting Formation. Meanwhile, the Wushang Cavalry did not charge off as far as they normally did with this tactic. After getting around fifty zhang away, they immediately began to charge back at full speed, rapidly closing like a metal claw around Shamask.

  At this time, the energies of Li Siye, Huang Botian, Kong Zi-an, Hong Youqi, and one hundred other people fused together into an enormous black-skinned Skanda which immediately launched a furious assault at Shamask.

  “Kill!”

  Li Siye furiously roared, the heavens seeming to explode. In a manner that defied common sense and the principle of inertia, Li Siye suddenly turned around to face Shamask while maintaining the same speed.

  “Mountain River Cyclic Slash!”

  He grasped his sword with both hands, fused together with his horse, and leaped into the air, where they spun in a circle before slashing down at Shamask. Boom! A black storm ravaged the area, and in the middle of this storm, a majestic ray of Sword Qi more than seventy zhang tall slashed down.

  The Skanda Halo allowed Li Siye to gather the strength of many people, and the supreme Mountain River Cyclic Slash displayed a completely different level of power.

  “Stone General Battles the Heavens!”

  Almost simultaneously, to Li Siye’s right, Huang Botian used the Stone General’s most powerful move. The earth split open and countless massive rocks flew out, gathering around Huang Botian into a massive stone arm thirty-some zhang long that immediately punched at Shamask with a thunderous momentum.

  “Quaking Earth Dragon!”

  “Devil-Weeping Cloud Waves!”

  Kong Zi-an and Hong Youqi also used their strongest techniques, charging toward Shamask as their horses fiercely neighed.

  “Bastard!”

  Shamask’s pupils constricted, and his entire body exploded with rage. He had never imagined that Li Siye would be so bold. He clearly understood that Shamask was a Brigadier General and far stronger than him, and he was clearly injured, yet he dared to turn around and attack Shamask!

  “You’re seeking your own death—Celestial Wolf Ghost Dragon Art!”

  Shamask immediately used his own strongest technique. Bzzz!The earth rumbled as a black energy surged out of Shamask’s body, and with a shrill howl, this black energy transformed into a devilish black wolf head with teeth bared. Boom! The wolf head burst open, revealing an even larger dragon made of roiling black smoke that surged forth to meet the attacks of Li Siye, Huang Botian, Kong Zi-an, and Hong Youqi.

  The Celestial Wolf Ghost Dragon Art!

  Only the chief and deputy commanders of the Celestial Wolf Cavalry could learn this technique, one developed through centuries of effort by the mysterious shamans of the Western Turkic Khaganate. Once he had obtained this technique, Shamask had strenuously cultivated it, reaching the superior level where the ghost dragon would burst out of the wolf head. At this stage, the technique would be bolstered by the energies of the heavens and the earth.

  Shamask had relied on this technique to kill numerous formidable opponents. Li Siye was only a peak Imperial Martial expert, and even though the Skanda Halo had pushed him into around Tier 5 of the Saint Martial realm, he was still far too weak.

  But just when Shamask had placed all his focus on killing Li Siye, Huang Botian, Kong Zi-an, and Hong Youqi, he heard the thundering of hooves at his ear, as if tens of thousands of people were charging at him. His heart thumped, and he immediately took stock of his surroundings, whereupon he was greeted by a sight that caused him to pale in shock.

  “This is impossible!!”

  Shamask had believed that his order had succeeded in obstructing the tactics of the Wushang Cavalry, but he now realized that he was wrong. The Wushang Cavalry had been utterly unaffected by this attempted interception, and the five thousand Wushang Cavalry were now fifty chains shooting toward him.

  And he was at the very center of their assault!

  Shamask wanted to dodge, but it was already too late. Li Siye and the others had turned around and attacked him precisely so they could draw his attention, and the Celestial Wolf Ghost Dragon Art was not a technique that could be called back once manifested.

  “Kiiill!”

  Shouts resonated through the air as, under countless stunned gazes, the five thousand Wushang Cavalry acted like a river in reverse, charging at a single person. Battlefields were a place where forces clashed against other forces. Never had a military force been used to kill just a single person.

  This was theoretically possible, but in reality, the feat was so difficult to pull off that it was essentially impossible.

  And this was the first time any of them were seeing cavalry pull off this impossible feat.

  Bang!

  There was a flash of light as the first wave of several hundred Wushang Cavalry gave a thunderous blow to the enormous ghost dragon. Time seemed to freeze for a moment, and as the several hundred Wushang Cavalry charged through, the terrifying ghost dragon seemed to lose a great deal of its luster.

  This was only the beginning, as the first wave was soon followed by a second, a third, a fourth… The endless charges and fierce collisions came fast and thick, heard across the battlefield. And during this process, the strongest attacks of Li Siye and his subordinates also arrived.

  No one could clearly make out what was actually happening, as the churning sands stirred by the charge of five thousand warhorses converging on a single point had complete
ly obscured the scene. But everyone could hear that heaven-shaking boom and that miserable scream.

  “General!!”

  “Milord!”

  Behind the second defense line, on the distant hills to the east, on the walls of Talas, and in places even further away, everyone was paying attention to this clash, waiting with bated breath. Duwu Sili, Dalun Ruozan, Dusong Mangpoje, Huoshu Huicang, and Cheng Qianli were all watching this scene. Even Wang Chong’s veneer of apathy finally showed the smallest crack, his straight brows imperceptibly rising.

  Although Wang Chong had maintained his composure this entire time, sincerely believing that Li Siye could not possibly die here, how could he possibly remain unmoved when the true moment of life or death arrived?

  Bang!

  The sand and dust still hung over the battlefield, so no one knew the outcome of this clash. However, all of them could see that the invisible strength that had covered the eight thousand Celestial Wolf Cavalry had completely scattered. The illusions that had packed the field suddenly vanished, and with the disappearance of those nearly eight thousand illusions, all the scattered Celestial Wolf Cavalry were exposed.

  “Kill! Don’t let him run!”

  “Over there!”

  Shouts in the Tang language came from the cloud of dust, along with the thundering of horses in rapid pursuit. A burst of cheers immediately rose from the Tang camp. Even though the dust prevented a clear view of the situation, the dispersal of the Celestial Wolf Illusory Formation meant that this was a victory for the Great Tang.

  Moreover, the Celestial Wolf Cavalry commander must have been heavily injured, as the formation would not have been broken otherwise.

  Chapter 916 - Move Out, Mutri Great Cavalry!

  Chapter 916: Move Out, Mutri Great Cavalry!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  “Congratulations to user! 30 points of Destiny Energy have been rewarded!”

  “Congratulations to user! 30 points of Destiny Energy have been rewarded!”