The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  But though Abu Muslim had issued his order very quickly, it had still been too slow.

  “Kill!”

  In a howling gale, Wang Chong and the Demonic Emperor Old Man attacked Qutaybah from the left and right.

  “Great Destruction Art!”

  “Myriad Energies Become One!”

  Two streams of energy streaked like comets toward Qutaybah.

  Boom!

  In the face of these attacks, Qutaybah’s face twisted. He still showed no signs of trying to dodge, and in a flash, a golden beam of Sword Qi slashed down to meet the pair.

  “Li Siye, now is the time!” Wang Chong suddenly called out!

  Gallop! Several thousand Wushang Cavalry, halos shining beneath them, began to charge in from another direction. At this point, everyone finally realized that once the battle between Wang Chong and Qutaybah had concluded, Li Siye and Cui Piaoqi had led out the Wushang Cavalry from the first defense line before anyone else. By now, they were already very close to Qutaybah.

  “Not good!”

  Dalun Ruozan immediately grimaced at this sight, but no matter what he thought, it was all too late.

  Neeeigh! With a sharp cry, the thousands of Wushang Cavalry transformed into a flood of steel. Boom! They swiftly assumed the Cutting Formation, their warhorses shooting forward like cannonballs at Qutaybah.

  Boomboomboom!

  There was a heaven-shaking explosion as the warhorses collided against him like so many raindrops. Clang! The first to strike was Li Siye, his giant sword viciously slashing at Qutaybah’s back. At almost the same time, Cui Piaoqi slashed out with his own sword.

  Qutaybah instantly grimaced. In the past, these ant-like existences would have been no threat to him, but he was now greatly weakened. It already took all his strength to deal with Wang Chong and the Demonic Emperor Old Man. He simply didn’t have the ability to deal with the Wushang Cavalry behind him.

  Chapter 1151 - The Death of Huoshu Huicang!

  Chapter 1151: The Death of Huoshu Huicang!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  Thudthudthud!

  Attacks battered against Qutaybah’s body like raindrops. Enough ants could gnaw an elephant to death, and not even someone like Qutaybah could endure so many attacks at once. His vigorous aura plunged and rapidly weakened.

  “Get out of my way!”

  With a harsh cry, Qutaybah exploded with intense golden light, blowing away Li Siye, Cui Piaoqi, and all the other Wushang Cavalry. A lion could not endure the jeering of sheep and a dragon would be enraged by the disdain of shrimp. No matter the time or place, Qutaybah would never be able to endure affront from such weaklings.

  But just when Qutaybah had sent Li Siye and the others flying, a mountainous figure instantly appeared in front of him. Before Qutaybah could react, a heavy and simple sword slashed down with tremendous strength. The black-armored guard had chosen this moment to strike.

  In the previous battle, the black-armored guard had endured the majority of Qutaybah’s attacks. If not for him, the defense line would have collapsed long ago. But the black-armored guard had paid a price for this, consuming an enormous quantity of energy. It was for this reason that Wang Chong had not asked him to participate in the previous battle.

  But that was then and this was now. Qutaybah was far from as fierce and unstoppable as he was before.

  Plush!

  Qutaybah shuddered at this strike, ejecting a mouthful of blood from his mouth. He was already riddled with wounds, and this heavy strike from the black-armored guard instantly worsened his condition.

  “Bastard! All of you will pay a price…”

  Qutaybah’s furious roar resounded through the heavens, but he was suddenly interrupted.

  “Die!”

  A sharp Wootz Steel sword cut through the air, slashing at Qutaybah with incredible speed. Qutaybah grimaced and immediately exploded with golden light to stop Wang Chong. But a moment later, enormous quantities of Psychic Energy suddenly plunged into his mind.

  This assault was so sudden that Qutaybah slowed down for a moment, a flaw appearing in his barrier of golden light.

  Psychic Pierce!

  Stellar Energy Piercer!

  Wang Chong used two attacks in the same moment. The first was to slow down Qutaybah’s own attack and create a weakness while the second was to pierce through Qutaybah’s Stellar Energy. Swish! In a cold flash of light, Qutaybah’s head was sent flying from his shoulders.

  “No!”

  “Milord!”

  “Qutaybah!”

  ……

  Time seemed to stop. Abu Muslim, Ziyad, Dalun Ruozan, and the countless Arab cavalry who were charging forward became deathly pale. They came to a halt, and a chill ran through their bodies.

  The War god of Arabia, the undefeated Qutaybah who had campaigned across the world, had actually been defeated. In this first war to conquer the east, he had fallen. This was nothing but a hellish nightmare to all Arabs.

  “Impossible! How could this be!”

  Dalun Ruozan’s hair was in disarray, his heart in panic. With the fall of Qutaybah, Dalun Ruozan’s dreams were shattered.

  Ever since the war of the southwest, Ü-Tsang had been on a steady decline. Dalun Ruozan had long ago placed all his hopes on this Battle of Talas, but now, everything was settled. Not even Dalun Ruozan could do anything to salvage the situation.

  The Arabs and Tibetans were eerily quiet, but the Tang, after a momentary silence, exploded with heaven-shaking cheers.

  “Wang Chong!”

  “Wang Chong!”

  “Wang Chong!”

  The cheers shook the world, all the Tang acting as if they had gone insane. No one had expected that this battle would turn out like this. Wang Chong had successfully led them in turning the tables, not only defeating the Arabs and Tibetans, but also killing Qutaybah, the greatest threat to the Great Tang.

  “Kill!”

  With this single order, the entire army charged forward.

  The Great Tang had won. After several months of fierce fighting, the Great Tang had finally emerged as the victor of this gruesome war, had been the one to have the last laugh.

  Now was the time to reap the fruit of victory!

  “Kill!”

  The first to react were the remaining several thousand Wushang Cavalry. Amidst thundering hooves, they plunged like a sharp sword into the enemy army. “Aaaah!” Screams resounded in the chaos as countless Arabs and Tibetans were cut down.

  Bang!

  At almost the same moment, a massive pole forged from Deep Sea Xuan Metal and some other unknown metal stabbed into the earth, the black and red banner upon it flapping in the wind. Clangclangclang! Streams of energy once more began to spread outward, strengthening the Divine Martial Army, Divine Prison Army, Dragon Stallion Army, and other Tang elite armies, the dazzling halos once more emerging. The large losses meant that they were far less dazzling, but they were still just as sharp.

  Without the slightest hesitation, the entire army advanced at full speed into the Arab and Tibetan cavalry. In a flash, the armies clashed, and Arabs and Tibetans were cut down from their horses, their blood forming pools.

  “Retreat! Hurry and retreat!”

  Panicked shouts rang out over the battlefield.

  Their rout was as swift as a landslide!

  Neither the Arabs nor the Tibetans were in any mood for battle, and they were now being pushed back again and again. No blow could have been more destructive than the death of Qutaybah, and the army’s morale had been utterly shattered. All of them just wanted to get as far away from the nightmarish Talas as soon as possible, even ignoring any sort of formation or rank as they ran up against each other in their haste to flee. The entire battlefield was in complete mayhem.

  “Ah!”

  Screams tore through the air as the Arabs and Tibetans, impeded by the soldiers in front of them, found it hard to run and were soon run down by the elite T
ang soldiers coming up behind them. Five thousand, six thousand, seven thousand… In this wholesale retreat and the chaos it created, the losses suffered by the Arabs and Tiebtans quickly began to pile up, and the ground was instantly strewn with corpses.

  When one side’s army completely lost the will to fight, a battle could no longer be considered a battle. Rather, it would become a one-sided massacre. And when a person was filled with panic and no longer had a fearless will, they wouldn’t even be able to use fifty percent of their actual strength.

  This was a land of despair and lamentation!

  Thousands of Tibetans and Arabs were falling, and amidst this slaughter, this was the thought that emerged in their minds.

  “Fire!”

  In the rear of the army, Su Hanshan waved his hand and gave the order, and a volley of ballista bolts instantly flew through the air to plunge into the panicked Arabs and Tibetans. Plushplushplush! Two Tibetans and one Arab were shot through by a single ballista bolt and immediately dropped dead to the ground.

  This occurrence repeated itself across the battlefield.

  During the battle, Zhang Shouzhi and the craftsmen had finally managed to produce a batch of ballista bolts. Su Hanshan was even more straightforward, and gathered ballista bolts from the battlefield. As long as they were not so deformed that they could no longer even be loaded onto the ballistae, he would use them.

  With the Arabs and Tibetans having completely lost the will to fight, now was the perfect time to increase the enemy losses. Increasing the number of enemy dead was far more important than conserving the ballista bolts.

  “Pass on my order! All the Mamelukes must head to the front line to stop them! Without anyone to cover the retreat, none of us will be able to get back alive!”

  Abu Muslim was also in a panic. In these current circumstances, even his orders were finding it very difficult to restrain the army. Qutaybah’s death had simply had too great an impact on all the soldiers. He could only place his hopes on the veteran and disciplined Mamelukes. But mere moments after Abu Muslim had issued his order, he heard a scream ringing in his ears.

  “Ah!”

  Abu Muslim turned with a jolt and saw a sight that made his body turn ice-cold.

  In the midst of the chaotic army, the Tibetan Great General Huoshu Huicang had suddenly been stabbed through his chest by a sword and held up high in the air so that his blood could drip to the ground. And the wielder of that sword, Abu Muslim could tell, was that young and ever-so-familiar figure.

  “Huoshu Huicang, you brought this on yourself!”

  Wang Chong stared at Huoshu Huicang, his eyes brimming with killing intent. Huoshu Huicang and Dalun Ruozan, this general and minister pair, had nearly succeeded in forcing Wang Chong to watch his own father Wang Yan die in battle. If he hadn’t reacted quickly enough, he would probably have ended up cursing himself for the rest of his life.

  For this reason, even though he could permit anyone else to leave, Huoshu Huicang had to die.

  Clap!

  A bloodstained arm suddenly seized Wang Chong’s arm. Huoshu Huicang’s muscular body was held aloft by Wang Chong’s sword, his face was pale, and his aura was flickering like a candle in the wind, about to be extinguished at any moment. And yet there was a sliver of a smile on his face, as if he no longer cared about whether he lived or died.

  “The victor is king while the loser is a villain, that’s all it is. I have nothing to say about that. Wang Chong, you truly are Ü-Tsang’s greatest foe, but as a general, to die at your hands on this battlefield is an appropriate end. As a general, I hope that you can agree to a request of mine. Great Minister is just a civil official. Without my assistance, he will find it very difficult to threaten you in the future. You have won this battle, so I ask that you spare Great Minister’s life!”

  Blood flowed down Huoshu Huicang’s arm and through every chink of his armor, but the smile on his face seemed to only get wider. His eyes were calm as if he had long ago prepared himself for the end. But one of his arms was clenched around Wang Chong’s sword and there was a hint of pleading in his eyes.

  Wang Chong was stunned. He had never imagined that this was what Huoshu Huicang would be thinking in the final moments of his life.

  Chapter 1152 - General and Minister!

  Chapter 1152: General and Minister!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  “Huoshu!”

  A heart-wrenching cry came from the distance. When Dalun Ruozan saw that Wang Chong had run Huoshu Huicang through with his sword and was holding him aloft in the air, he felt like his own heart had been pierced through by ten thousand arrows.

  At that moment, his mind was completely blank and his soul seemed to have been snatched away. His eyes lost all their light.

  In the war of the southwest, the cavalry of the Ngari Royal Lineage which they had needed decades to accumulate had been almost completely wiped out on the shores of the Erhai, and the region of the plateau occupied by the Ngari Royal Lineage itself had been rendered a complete no-man’s land, and yet the light in Dalun Ruozan’s eyes had never gone out. When he had been imprisoned in the Tsenpo’s prison to live a dark and sunless life, the light in his eyes had never gone out. Even after they had experienced setback after setback in Talas, the light in Dalun Ruozan’s eyes had never dimmed. Not even the death of Dusong Mangpoje, the Eagle of the Plateau, could cause Dalun Ruozan’s eyes to darken.

  But when Wang Chong ran Huoshu Huicang through with his sword and held him high in the air, the light in Dalun Ruozan’s eyes was snuffed out, and they became utterly devoid of life.

  “Great Minister, go!” an urgent voice bellowed out from the roaring wind. Huoba Sangye, leading the remnants of the Mutri Great Cavalry, anxiously stared at Dalun Ruozan’s back.

  The Arabs had already lost and Qutaybah had been killed. The Tibetans had no more reason to stay in this place. The Tang could charge over at any time, so the urgent task at hand was to preserve what manpower they had left, escape Talas, and return to Ü-Tsang.

  But at this moment, Dalun Ruozan was in a completely downcast state, staring in Huoshu Huicang’s direction while completely unaware of the rest of the world.

  Huoba Sangye’s mind was aflame with concern, and he immediately shouted orders at two of his Mutri Great Cavalry. “Get over there and help Great Minister onto his warhorse, and then immediately withdraw!”

  “Yes!”

  The two Mutri Great Cavalry swiftly dismounted, frantically grabbed Dalun Ruozan, and placed him on a horse.

  “Run!”

  A moment later, Huoba Sangye took Dalun Ruozan, the remaining Mutri Great Cavalry, and the remaining Tibetan soldiers fleeing in a churning cloud of dust, not even paying a glance toward the Arabs behind them. In the face of a calamity, everyone had to fend for themselves. The soldiers of the Great Tang would catch up soon, so everyone could only take their lives into their own hands.

  Huoba Sangye’s force moved very quickly, traveling tens of thousands of feet in just a few short moments. And when he heard the ruckus behind him and saw the Tibetans fleeing in a trail of dust, Abu Muslim could only sigh, a complicated look on his face. He knew that the battle was over.

  “Pass on my order! There’s no need to try and stop them! All soldiers, withdraw at full speed!”

  By working with the Tibetans, the Arabs might have been able to hold back the Tang for a while to preserve as much manpower as possible when they returned to Samarkand, but the Western Turks had already fled, and now the Tibetans were fleeing as well. The Arabs were left alone on the battlefield, and a single block of wood could not hold up a crumbling gate. The only choice here was to run.

  Gallop!

  The tens of thousands of Arabs cast off their armor and screamed as they began to madly flee westward. Unlike the previous few times, there was no resistance, nor was this any sort of strategic retreat. There wasn’t even any need to sound a retreat signal. Everyone fled in a ma
d rush to protect their own lives.

  “Kill!”

  A shout resounded over the sky and war drums thundered. Gao Xianzhi, Cheng Qianli, Xi Yuanqing, Wang Yan, Cui Piaoqi, and Li Siye all charged forward. At the same time, the Divine Martial Army, Divine Prison Army, Dragon Stallion Army, Roaring Tiger Army, the other elite armies, and even Su Hanshan’s ballista soldiers swept past the steel defense line in pursuit of the defeated Arab army.

  On the battlefield, Wang Chong slowly withdrew his sword, gently placing Huoshu Huicang’s corpse onto the ground.

  “Someone! Take care of Huoshu Huicang’s body! Give him an individual burial,” Wang Chong said from atop his horse.

  In the end, Huoshu Huicang had not been able to wait until Wang Chong gave him an answer, but when he saw Huoba Sangye grab Dalun Ruozan and flee the battlefield, this renowned general of Ü-Tsang, a Great General of Ü-Tsang who had once contended against Zhangchou Jianqiong, finally closed his eyes.

  As his enemy, Wang Chong had originally been brimming with killing intent, but once Huoshu Huicang finally died, his killing intent receded, leaving behind pure respect for a true Great General.

  Though they were mortal foes, Huoshu Huicang could be considered a true soldier. Even in his final moments, he was not thinking of himself, but of the fleeing Dalun Ruozan.

  That smile had left an extremely deep impression on Wang Chong.

  Perhaps this is the best ending for you.

  With this thought, Wang Chong quickly regained his composure and looked into the distance. As he stared at the Arabs and Tibetans retreating in a great cloud of dust, his eyes turned harsh and sharp.

  Even if Abu Muslim fled to the ends of the earth, Wang Chong would hunt him down. He would not give him a chance to catch his breath, much less come back again.

  “Hyah!”

  The White-hoofed Shadow neighed and immediately brought Wang Chong into a flying leap, covering more than a hundred feet in a single bound as it went off in pursuit.