If this energy were allowed to completely erupt, there would be no survivors.
“Careful!”
The region inside the black ring fell into chaos, everyone going pale as they unleashed their Stellar Energy to try and stop the energy, but in front of this violent force, their efforts were futile. At this moment…
“Khatabah, I’m afraid you won’t get your wish!” Wang Chong called out.
Hummm!!!
In Wang Chong’s hand, a small golden bell trembled, and then it rang out with a great boom that contradicted its size, spreading out like a crashing ocean wave.
Thwish!
A moment later, the sacred bell flew into the air, instantly expanding to several hundred times its original size. Wang Chong calmly pointed with his finger, upon which the massive bell slammed down, enclosing Khatabah and his terrifying black ball of energy before it could fully erupt.
“No!”
Beneath the sacred bell, Khatabah’s last snatches of consciousness gave out one last roar of anger and helplessness. He had never imagined that Wang Chong would have something like this.
Bang!
A few moments later, there was a terrifying explosion that blew the Veda Sacred Bell into countless shards.
But no matter how much Khatabah struggled, the moment Wang Chong used the Veda Sacred Bell, his defeat had been ensured.
With the aid of the Veda Sacred Bell, the group escaped from disaster.
“Success!”
Wang Chong descended from the sky in front of the shattered remains of the Veda Sacred Bell.
Dusong Mangpoje, the Eagle of the Plateau, had obtained this ritual tool from the Great Snow Mountain Holy Temple to use against Wang Chong’s master, the Demonic Emperor Old Man.
The sacred bell had been damaged at the Battle of Talas, but it still contained significant power. Wang Chong had decided to carry it with him, not expecting that it would save everyone’s lives.
“That was risky!”
There was a rush of air as King Song and the others gathered behind Wang Chong, looking fearfully at the damage wreaked by the explosion.
“This man was far too strong. Even after having his fusion undone by Wang Chong, he still had so much strength! Truly a frightening foe of the Great Tang! It’s a good thing Wang Chong killed him, or else he would have been a major threat for the Central Plains!” Zhangchou Jianqiong said, still fearful of Khatabah’s strength.
Khatabah had almost singlehandedly created the golden age of the Arabian Empire and had trained countless elite armies. Although he was not a god, in the Arabian Empire, he was the closest thing to one. The death of this man in battle was something truly worth celebrating for the Great Tang.
Chapter 1906 - Winding Up the Battle! Slaughter! (I)
Chapter 1906: Winding Up the Battle! Slaughter! (I)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Swoosh!
Wang Chong suddenly shook his palm, upon which a shattered glass ball and a severed arm flew through the air and into his hand, drawing everyone’s attention.
“It’s Khatabah’s arm!”
As everyone looked over, they immediately recognized what it was.
The severed arm in Wang Chong’s hand was smooth and slender, like it was made of refined jade. On the index finger was an imprint left by a ring. This was the hand of Khatabah, a legend of a generation who had died on this day.
“It was probably that Ifrit Core that protected this arm!”
Everyone glanced at the remnants of the glass ball and seemed to understand what had happened, but their attention was quickly drawn away by something else.
Right in front of everyone’s eyes, Khatabah’s smooth and healthy arm began to rapidly shrivel as if all its strength was being drained away, and countless black dots appeared across the surface. By the end, it had turned into a shriveled claw akin to a tree branch.
Wang Zhongsi walked over and examined the shriveled claw.
“No one is immortal. It seems that even though he lived for more than one hundred years, it came with a price. He wasn’t as strong as he appeared, and when you broke his fusion with the Ifrit, you injured his origin. If he had not self-detonated, he probably wouldn’t have lasted for very long anyway!”
“Mm.”
Wang Chong nodded. He agreed on one point with Wang Zhongsi, but there was another part that he disagreed on.
Is there really no one immortal in this world?
Wang Chong suddenly thought back to those mysterious men in black. He knew that these people had existed for an extremely long time, with the oldest of them probably exceeding one thousand years in lifespan. But the Crown Prince’s Junior Guardian knew nothing of these things.
Wang Chong quickly broke out of his stupor.
“Khatabah is dead. Our first priority now is to take care of the remaining Arab soldiers!”
Wang Chong tossed Khatabah’s arm to the ground and quickly turned his attention to the Arab cavalry within the sandstorm.
While the leader was dead, his minions remained. Everyone had worked together to kill Khatabah, but the more than one million Arab cavalry still presented a major threat to the Central Plains.
Upon hearing Wang Chong’s words, Wang Zhongsi, Zhangchou Jianqiong, An Sishun… all the Tang commanders, including the martial arts experts, turned to the north, which was still engulfed by the sandstorm.
The battle was still ongoing. Khatabah’s death had thrown the Arab cavalry into disorder, and Abu Muslim and Adnan had recognized that the situation was bad and fled north under the cover of the sandstorm. The current question facing the group was how to eliminate as many of the Arab soldiers as possible so as to prevent a war of annihilation from taking place in the future.
“Don’t worry. We still have a chance. I can use the sandstorm to hold them down for about another hour!”
Wang Chong’s first words immediately left everyone startled. Though they had their guesses, none of them had really imagined that this vast storm was really Wang Chong’s doing.
Meanwhile, Wang Chong continued to speak.
“Lord Junior Guardian, Zhangchou Jianqiong, Gao Xianzhi, An Sishun, take command of your troops and advance north from the southwest and southeast. Work with Bahram and the Aswaran Cataphracts of the Sassanid Dynasty to scatter the Arabs. Kill as many as you can and stop them from gathering together!
“Abusi, have your Tongluo Cavalry attack from the east. Work with the Wushang Cavalry to scatter them as much as you can. If you notice any large numbers of Arab cavalry gathering, charge in there and disperse them.”
Wang Chong issued a string of orders. Fifteen minutes had passed some time ago, and the Stone of Destiny’s ‘Power’ ability was extremely taxing on Destiny Energy. Wang Chong could no longer keep the Arabs for very long. Moreover, the sandstorm was weakening with every passing moment.
They didn’t have much time left.
“Yes!”
The other commanders quickly came to their senses and left with their orders, charging at the remaining one-million-some Arab cavalry from various directions.
Only now had they reached the most important phase of the battle.
This was a war between the Great Tang and Arabia with existence on the line. The Arabs had mobilized all their forces, an army of 2.6 million soldiers, and after two days of bitter fighting, they had lost more than one million soldiers. But still, the Arabian Empire had around 1.3 million soldiers on the battlefield.
As for the Great Tang side, it had come with six-hundred-thousand-some soldiers, and with Bahram’s army hidden in the Tibetan Plateau, they had around eight hundred thousand. Over the course of the battle, the Great Tang had lost two-hundred-thousand-some elites, and with the Sassanid reinforcements, they had around five hundred thousand soldiers, enough to fight a battle with Arabia.
In order to completely crush the Arabian Empire and ensure that it could no longer compete with the Great Tang and
cause any more trouble, Wang Chong would not permit that army of more than one million soldiers to return.
Buzz!
As Wang Chong sat atop the White-hoofed Shadow with the Crown of Confucius on his head, waves of Psychic Energy rolled off him, splitting into nearly one hundred streams of Psychic Energy that linked him together with the minds of Zhangchou Jianqiong, An Sishun, Gao Xianzhi, the various martial arts titans, and the other military officers.
Dividing one’s mind placed a very heavy burden on the soul. A normal martial artist would be considered superb if they could divide their Psychic Energy into five or six strands.
Those who could create more than ten were few and far between, and people like Wang Chong who could create nearly one hundred at the same time were simply unheard of. This was only possible because Wang Chong had absorbed the High Priest’s Psychic Energy and donned the Crown of Confucius.
There was probably no one except Wang Chong capable of this feat. Not only that, Wang Chong had been the one who had started this sandstorm in the first place, so with the Stone of Destiny, he could accurately see the movements of the Arab cavalry in the sandstorm.
“Kiiill!”
War cries could be heard through the blowing sands as all the Tang soldiers threw themselves into the battle.
This was a battle of extermination, solely for the purpose of killing any Arabs who could still fight.
Without Khatabah to oversee the battle and with the entry of the six Tang commanders, the Arabs verged on collapse. Thud! Thud! Thud! Countless Arabs dropped dead to the ground amidst the raging sandstorm and the flashing of cold steel.
With each passing moment, tens of thousands of Arab horsemen were dying.
One hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, two hundred and fifty thousand…
When the five-hundred-thousand-some soldiers of the Tang-Sassanid army took up the butcher’s knife, the Arab losses soared to their highest point. Morale was at its nadir and the army was lost and scattered… At this moment, the Arab horsemen were even worse than infantry.
The charge of the Tang soldiers had soon inflicted one million losses on the Arab army, and the number was continuing to climb.
“Ah!”
The screams of dying were constant, and those Arab horsemen still alive ran around in panic like headless flies, charging here and there. But no matter where they tried to break out, numerous Tang soldiers would be waiting for them.
The Arabs still had the advantage in numbers, outnumbering the Tang-Sassanid army by at least one hundred thousand soldiers. But in this sandstorm, they were incapable of making full use of this advantage.
The Arab horsemen felt as if the Arabs were the ones who were outnumbered.
Whenever they discovered another group of fellow soldiers, Tang soldiers would charge in before they could celebrate.
Each soldier felt as if they were facing several hundred, several thousand, or perhaps even the entire Tang army by themselves. It was a feeling of despair!
“Everyone, get together! Don’t get separated!
“The Tang don’t have as many as we do! We haven’t lost this battle yet!
“Try and join with the other soldiers! As long as we can combine all our strength, we can teach these infidels a sharp lesson!”
An isolated group of Arab soldiers had gathered, led by a sharp-eyed general who was bellowing orders.
This general seemed to be strong and extremely experienced. In the middle of this mayhem, he had still managed to gather scattered soldiers from different groups into a significant force.
But despite the generals’ attempts to soothe his soldiers, his men were still frantic and uneasy, the screams coming in from all sides setting their nerves on edge.
“The Hierophant is dead, the High Priest is dead, and the Behemoth Army is finished… The Arabian Empire is finished!”
An Arab horseman paled as he looked fearfully at the sandstorm around him, his morale at an all-time low.
“What did you say? Say it again! Who’s finished?”
The Arab general turned his cold eyes on that horseman. Whoosh! Before the Arab horseman could react, a whip covered in sharp barbs wrapped around the Arab horseman and held him up in the air.
“I-I didn’t say anything! Nothing!”
The Arab horseman floated in the air, struggling in panic.
Chapter 1907 - Winding Up the Battle! Slaughter! (II)
Chapter 1907: Winding Up the Battle! Slaughter! (II)
“Listen up! All of you, listen up! The Hierophant is not dead, and Arabia has not been defeated! Once we find the others, the army can withdraw from the sandstorm. When the time comes and we’ve recovered, we can still conquer the eastern world!
“We were born to be masters of the world! No infidel can defeat us, you hear me?”
The general raised his whip and snarled.
“Right, right, no one can defeat us!”
In front of this savage general, the Arab horseman was like a drowning man, constantly nodding in agreement. But a moment later, there was a whistle through the air, and then that Arab general holding the whip widened his eyes. A huge, bloody hole had appeared in his head, and the arrow that had done the deed had gone straight through and struck another distant Arab horseman.
The general’s body swayed, and then it dropped from the back of the horse.
“Enemy attack! It’s the Tang!”
“Everyone, run!”
Terror engulfed the ranks, the event that everyone feared having taken place. They all scattered to the winds, ending the hard-fought attempt to gather an army.
Gallop!
But before they could run very far, the rumbling of hooves came in hot pursuit, the sound traveling for several dozen li.
Bang!
A group of Tang cavalry charged out of the sandstorm, resolve in their eyes and no hesitation in their movements. It was like the sandstorm around them didn’t even exist.
Swish! In a cold flash of light, an Arab horseman was beheaded, and the thousands of Tang cavalry swept past his fallen body in pursuit of the remaining Arab cavalry.
On one side was the leaderless Arab army and on the other side was the well-trained Tang army acting under specific orders. The final result was obvious.
Men screamed and bodies fell, and it took only a few moments for the battle to end, leaving the ground strewn with hundreds of corpses.
The bloody mist that rose into the air was quickly scattered by the howling winds of the sandstorm.
Over an area covering several thousand li, similar scenes were taking place all across the battlefield.
The bellowing Tang soldiers could be found in almost every direction.
As the Arab army collapsed, to the northwest, an army of several hundred thousand soldiers had quietly gathered. After a long period of chaos, it had finally finished a basic reconsolidation.
“Finally done! With this army, we can at least fight back! Now, we need to gather even more soldiers!”
At the center of this army were two stalwart figures, none other than Abu Muslim and Adnan.
Adnan solemnly nodded. “Mm! At the very least, we’ve managed to establish a foothold. The Great Tang probably hasn’t noticed yet. As long as we’re prepared, we should be able to break out of the Tang encirclement!”
Arabia had already lost this battle. The two of them were keenly aware of this. In this battle, Arabia had lost its two spiritual leaders in the Hierophant and the High Priest, and more than half of the army had been killed. They understood that Arabia had lost the ability to contend with the Great Tang. Their most important task now was to return to Arabia with as much strength as they could.
They at least needed to preserve enough strength so that Arabia could protect itself from the Great Tang.
“Ah!”
The screams of the dying continued to come in from all sides. Adnan and Abu Muslim slightly frowned, but there was no pity or hesitation on their faces.
This wa
s cutting off the tail to save the life. In order to preserve the overall strength of the army, they needed to sacrifice some of it.
“Are they ready?”
Adnan gripped the Blade of Mukala and glanced at Abu Muslim.
“Mm, we’ve already baited Bahram’s army. It won’t be long before we can start our breakout to the northwest, cross the Cong Mountains, and return to Arabia. The majority of the Tang army is infantry, so they won’t be able to catch up to our warhorses!” Abu Muslim said, a bright and profound light in his eyes.
Arabia’s army was primarily cavalry, which were much faster than infantry. This would be the only chance afforded to Arabia in this battle.
“Abu Muslim, stop dreaming! None of you are going back to Arabia!” Suddenly, a cold and resounding voice broke through the sandstorm, ringing out above the Arab army. It was as if someone had been listening in on Abu Muslim and Adnan’s conversation the entire time.
Whoosh!
This familiar voice made Abu Muslim and Adnan shudder, and the two sat up straight, their faces tensing.
Wang Chong!
The supreme commander of the Great Tang and the terrifying expert who had beaten both the High Priest and the Hierophant!
The pair was far too familiar with this voice.
Wang Chong’s voice faded away, soon replaced by thundering hooves and the rumbling advance of infantry formations. It was obvious that numerous Tang soldiers were converging on this area.
These Tang soldiers had appeared without warning and were acting with great cohesion. In the blink of an eye, Abu Muslim and Adnan’s force of several hundred thousand soldiers was surrounded.
“A trap!”
The two of them instantly understood what was going on, their faces paling.
Ever since Khatabah’s death, the two of them had restrained their energy to avoid the senses of Wang Chong and the other Tang commanders. The two of them had believed their attempts successful and that they had succeeded in gathering enough troops to establish a foothold.
The Human Emperor c1-2382 Page 1158
