Chapter 495: Discovery! A Thousand-Man Enemy Army!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Warhorses rumbled as a halo resonated under Wang Chong's feet. Under the ringing of metal, a pitch-black halo, as sharp as a blade, expanded from Wang Chong's feet to cover his entire army.
This initial-level Halo of Dusk Stallion increased the speed, strength, and dexterity of his entire army.
"Kill!"
A shout of slaughter and ruthlessness resounded through the skies. Bang! Wang Chong jumped off the White-hoofed Shadow like a lightning bolt.
"Single Character Consecutive Slash!"
A fierce light flowed across the sky, madly hacking. Thumpthumpthump! Figure after figure fell to the ground.
The technique was still that technique, and the person was still that person, but the power displayed was on a completely different level.
'Single Character Consecutive Slash' had always been that supreme technique of the gods of death, meant for hacking, slashing, and harvesting human lives.
Buzz!
In the glistening sunlight, Wang Chong's right foot stepped forward, his body leaning with it, his inky hair floating behind. When he next appeared, he was already several dozen zhang away.
Behind were the neighing warhorses and the fallen bodies of Tibetan warriors scattered over the earth like fallen wooden pillars.
Their bodies had been cleaved apart, or their heads had been sent flying. There was often only a thin line of blood on their bodies, but this thin trace had extinguished their lives.
"Flee!"
"Run!"
"We're no match for them!"
"Where did they come from? How could there be such formidable warriors?"
"Quickly inform the Great General!"
……
Shouts in Tibetan filled the sky, the Ü-Tsang soldiers both disorderly and in despair. Some of them tried to escape, but their efforts were futile.
The battle did not stop because Wang Chong stopped. The black tide of the army continued to sweep over the earth, leaving fallen Tibetan horsemen in its wake.
Some of the Tibetans crazily yelled in an attempt to get their comrades to stop and put up some resistance, but all that awaited them were the Wootz Steel swords, like the scythes of the god of death.
The Tibetans had always been proud of their thick armor, but it was like paper before these astonishingly sharp weapons.
The Tibetans were no cowards, and certainly weren't afraid of facing a powerful foe. If their opponents' weapons had just been inconceivably sharp, the Tibetans would still have put up a fight.
But if one's weapons couldn't even make a dent in one's opponent's armor, the only option left was to flee.
But even if they wanted to flee, it was already too late!
The heavy armor of Ü-Tsang now became a fatal flaw, and Wang Chong's army was also being buffed by the Halo of Dusk Stallion.
Their fates were set, and Wang Chong did not follow his army in pursuit of the remaining Tibetans.
Swish!
Pulling his sword out of the last Tibetan he had killed, Wang Chong closed his eyes, allowing the streams of energy to flow out of the dark-red sword. Like pounding waves, this energy surged into Wang Chong's body.
Wang Chong had originally been at Tier 4 of the True Martial realm, and the energy from these ten-some people he had killed now brought him to the peak of Tier 4.
The progress he had made in this brief period had already surpassed the bitter training of the last four to five months. Not even the pills from Six-Fingered Zhang had as formidable of an effect.
This sort of absurd progress was unique to the Little Yinyang Art and could be found nowhere else. If not for this power, the Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art would not have entered the ranks of the ten supreme techniques.
And this supreme art wouldn't have become known as the evilest of all the evil techniques!
Still lacking a little, Wang Chong said to himself as he slowly drew back his sword. Suddenly, he heard an almost inaudible groan.
Schlock! Without turning his head, Wang Chong stabbed his sword into a pile of corpses, piercing through a dying Tibetan soldier who was being crushed by the corpse of a horse.
The sword stabbed straight through his heart, causing the soldier to die without a single noise. Another majestic wave of energy flowed into Wang Chong's body.
Rumble! With this last wave of energy, Wang Chong's strength finally broke through the bottleneck and reached True Martial realm Tier 5.
"Wonderful!"
Wang Chong's strength was greatly boosted upon reaching Tier 5 of the True Martial realm. The mysterious laws of the world began to improve the density of his bones and the toughness of his flesh and skin, while also increasing his ability to hold more energy.
And a part of the Stellar Energy in Wang Chong's body also began to shift to Tier 5.
But Wang Chong did not let this evolution continue. By reaching True Martial realm Tier 5, Wang Chong could proceed with the next phase of his plan.
Boom!
Wang Chong put his palms together, and a earth-splitting roar exploded from his body, accompanied by the shrill neigh of a horse.
With Wang Chong as the center, the air began to explode. This sudden activity alarmed the people nearby, and the clan experts began to stop their horses and turn to see what was going on.
They saw Wang Chong's body in a storm of Stellar Energy, and a black horse taller than a man leaping out of this Stellar Energy. Its hooves raised, it struck a majestic and awe-inspiring posture.
It had eyes as bright as stars, blinding even from a distance.
"Young Master…"
Those with the closest relationship with Wang Chong—Li Siye, Zhao Jingdian, and Old Eagle—immediately turned their heads to look with concern at Wang Chong. Li Siye had a wide array of experiences, but even he didn't quite understand what the black divine steed that had manifested outside Wang Chong's body was.
"Don't worry; it looks to me that he's trying to break through a bottleneck," Li Siye said soothingly, wanting to stop Zhao Jingdian from rushing over. Although he did not understand what sort of techniques Wang Chong practiced, there was no doubt that the phenomena around Wang Chong were signs of a breakthrough.
Boom!
In a flash, before Li Siye, Zhao Jingdian, or Old Eagle could come over, a boom came from within Wang Chong's body. A black vortex appeared in his dantian and began to suck in everything like a bottomless black hole.
That black stallion suddenly neighed and began to retract into Wang Chong's body, along with that storm of Stellar Energy. In the blink of an eye, the energy exuded by Wang Chong's body dropped from Tier 5 of the True Martial realm to Tier 4, and then Tier 3, Tier 2, and finally, Tier 1.
"Eh?" Li Siye exclaimed in surprise, looking in shock at Wang Chong. "What's going on here?"
He had been cultivating martial arts for many years, but this was his first time seeing something so strange. It was his first time seeing someone have their cultivation drop upon getting stronger. He couldn't even be sure right now if Wang Chong had gotten stronger or weaker.
This is far too strange!
Li Siye's eyebrows rose, as he felt even more that Wang Chong was a man of many secrets. He had been at Wang Chong's side all this time, but he still felt like there were many things that he didn't know about him.
Whoosh!
Wang Chong didn't have the energy to think about such things. He had improved the Halo of Dusk Stallion to the second layer, and his entire body was now covered in sweat, his face much paler.
He needed to reach True Martial realm Tier 5 in order to upgrade the Halo of Dusk Stallion to the second layer, but upgrading would severely tax his mental and physical energy. As a result, Wang Chong felt completely exhausted, his entire body limp.
"Young Master, are you okay?"
Zhao Jingdian was the first to arrive.
"I'm fine!"
Wang Chong shook his head and opened up the pouch on his belt. Taking out a thumb-sized, round, white pill, he swallowed it down.
A hot energy quickly began to spread through his body, and Wang Chong's condition immediately improved.
The Physical Strength Pill was another type of pill refined by a few of the formidable alchemists of the palace. It required many of the precious resources in the palace and could greatly boost one's physical strength.
After experiencing that first bout of weakness, Wang Chong had specifically bought one of these pills from Six-Fingered Zhang so as to alleviate the weakness that was bound to come from upgrading the Halo of Dusk Stallion.
"What sort of technique is that?" Li Siye asked in his vigorous voice as he rode by on his massive steed.
Compared to other people, Li Siye's giant figure exerted a much greater pressure.
"Reporting!"
A loud and urgent voice grabbed everyone's attention.
A scout riding a mottled horse of black and white was charging over from the distance.
Once the scout got close, he dismounted and kneeled.
"Milord, the tracks of a large number of Tibetan cavalry have been spotted up ahead. Their numbers exceed one thousand!"
Buzz!
These words immediately caused a change in the atmosphere. Even Li Siye was no longer in the mood to question Wang Chong on the origin and strangeness of the technique he cultivated.
"How could this be? Where did all these enemy soldiers come from?" Li Siye questioned.
The soldiers that the Tibetans had tasked with chasing down the Great Tang soldiers had been very scattered. There had been groups of ten, twenty, forty or fifty, even several hundred… but the most they had encountered was three to four hundred, and these had been scattered across a region.
It was not normal to see more than a thousand gathered together.
Once the Tibetans exceeded one thousand in number, they could form a middle-level Halo of Fortress, massively increasing their defense. Even ballistae would stop being very useful.
In order to deal with this many Tibetans, the Great Tang would often need an army of six or seven thousand, and they had to be led by a high-level general with a high-level war halo. Only these things could deal with a middle-level Halo of Fortress!
In all of the Great Tang, the only troops that could easily deal with this level of Halo of Fortress were those of Great General Geshu Han's Big Dipper Army!
To others, it was a bone that one could break their teeth on!