Chapter 623: The Decisive Battle! The Terrifying Duan Gequan!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Xianyu Zhongtong’s brows rose as he suddenly ordered, “Someone, inform Young Master that he should be on guard at all times!”
“But…”
The messenger hesitated as he glanced up the mountain. Wang Chong’s attention was currently split, a massive burden placed upon him as he almost singlehandedly managed the battlefield.
One could easily the massive pressure placed on Wang Chong’s shoulders as he commanded sixty thousand soldiers against three hundred thousand.
Almost all his attention was on commanding. He had no mind for anything else.
At a time like this, no one wanted to trouble him with anything else.
“We can’t concern ourselves with something like that! If there’s a problem on the frontlines, we can make up for it, but if Duan Gequan strikes, the entire army will be wiped out. I have a feeling that Duan Gequan is about to act. This venomous snake of Erhai won’t be able to wait that long,” Xianyu Zhongtong said.
As his mortal enemy, Xianyu Zhongtong had a very strong intuition about Duan Gequan. When Duan Gequan was being patient, it didn’t mean that he was afraid. On the contrary, that was a sign that he was about to explode.
The messenger nodded and quickly left.
Xianyu Zhongtong’s surroundings once more fell silent, as if that fierce melee around him had no relation to him.
“Duan Gequan, Duan Gequan… no matter what you’re scheming, what you’re up to, I’ll always be watching you. I won’t give you even a sliver of a chance!”
A few thoughts flickered through Xianyu Zhongtong’s eyes as he quickly composed himself.
In this battle, Duan Gequan was foreordained to be his!
……
Time no longer had any meaning in this place. So intense was the battle that it was incapable of growing more intense. In every moment, a great number of Mengshe Zhao, Tibetan, and Great Tang soldiers were dying.
The corpses were piling up so high that some of them were even rolling down the mountain.
The brown flanks of the mountain had by now been dyed a grisly red, and the thick stench of blood filled the air.
“It’s about time!”
Far at the base of the mountain, a pair of unnoticed eyes blinked before swiftly vanishing.
……
The clashing of weapons could be heard all over the mountain.
In a place close to the summit, the black banner of the Annan Protectorate army flapped prominently in the air. Unlike other places on this mountain, the area under this banner had remained extremely quiet.
But in this silence, an unease and anxiety were seeping through the air.
“Why? What is Duan Gequan thinking? Does he really not plan to move?”
On the mountain, Xianyu Zhongtong and his surrounding generals were all staring at the chariot and Duan Gequan upon it. Both sides had suffered terrible casualties, but Duan Gequan still had no intentions of acting.
“Impossible! Are Geluofeng and Duan Gequan prepared to just let things end like this?”
Xianyu Zhongtong gritted his teeth.
He had spent more than seventy percent of this battle in a state of complete calm, but at this moment, Xianyu Zhongtong had to admit that his mood was growing imbalanced.
Duan Gequan was no incompetent and feeble coward. On the contrary, he was far more threatening than anyone else. In a battle like this, it was impossible for him to be helpless.
Xianyu Zhongtong knew that there was something he had missed.
He could see nothing, but the danger in the air was only getting worse.
This sort of ill foreboding almost made Xianyu Zhongtong go crazy!
“Impossible, impossible! …Duan Gequan, you definitely aren’t one to sit still!”
Xianyu Zhongtong clenched his fists, his eyes fixed on that distant figure, that figure hidden behind Geluofeng’s back.
Scenes from the battle of Erhai began to appear before his eyes, the blood and corpses of thousands as far as the eyes could see. The bodies of his soldiers carpeted the ground, and even the vast Erhai was dyed red.
Rather than say that he had lost in the battle of Erhai to Mengshe Zhao’s massive army, it was better to say that he had lost to that man always hidden in the shadows. That man had struck at the critical moment, piercing through the Tang lines in a single blow, ending the lives of one hundred thousand soldiers and leaving them to rot on the Erhai plains.
“No matter what, I won’t let you repeat that scene!”
Xianyu Zhongtong tightened his fists, his eyes dyed a bloody red.
“AH!”
Cries of alarm came from beside him. The Annan Protectorate army generals were all looking in panic at Xianyu Zhongtong.
“Milord, blood!”
Some wet thing dropped onto his hand. Xianyu Zhongtong felt his face and realized that his nose had begun to bleed.
Was I working my mind too much?
Xianyu Zhongtong looked at the blood on his hand with a little contempt for himself, a blurry reflection of his pale and grimacing face within. But as he was looking at his reflection, he noticed that something had flown over his head.
Xianyu Zhongtong stood in a daze for a moment, his mind completely blank. Although there was nothing before his eyes, Xianyu Zhongtong felt like his body was ice-cold.
“Not good!”
In mere moments, Xianyu Zhongtong suddenly shouted, his face twisted in extreme panic.
“Young Master, careful!”
Xianyu Zhongtong shouted at Wang Chong as he began to charge up the summit.
Xianyu Zhongtong’s reaction couldn’t be called slow. Alas, he was too late…
Boom!
There was a massive boom. On the summit, Wang Chong had just turned in surprise to Xianyu Zhongtong when what seemed like a massive bomb suddenly plummeted onto the mountain. Countless Annan Protectorate army soldiers screamed as they were flung outward and into the air by a terrifying energy.
Many of them were pulverized in midair, their limbs hurtling through the sky.
Roar!
With this heaven-shaking roar, a black demonic god, two-headed and four-armed, equipped with massive sabers, suddenly stood up from the ground at the edge of the Myriad Stars Formation. Boom! A single slash of a saber immediately caused the formation that Wang Chong had put so much effort into to crumble. Countless shield soldiers, axe soldiers, spear soldiers, and even ballistae in the rear were smashed to pieces by this strike.
The several-dozen-zhang-tall saber energy even split the earth, leaving behind a deep furrow. Black smoke rose from this furrow, giving off the stench of decay.
“Aaaaah!”
Screams filled the air, and time seemed to freeze for a moment.
“Duan Gequan!”
Turning to that massive gap in his formation, Wang Chong felt his heart stop, a look of despair emerging on his face.
“How could it be him?”
The battle between the Great Tang and the Mengshe–Ü-Tsang army had already reached a critical point. Wang Chong had never imagined that Duan Gequan would manage to strike at this time with so little warning.
And even more terrifying for Wang Chong was that Duan Gequan had selected the weakest point in the entire Myriad Stars Formation.
Boom!
The massive machine of the Myriad Stars Formation that had swallowed up so many Mengshe–Ü-Tsang soldiers came to a sudden stop, as if struck by a heavy blow.
Duan Gequan’s attack had been like a dagger thrust into the Annan Protectorate army’s heart. It had completely disrupted Wang Chong’s tempo and shattered the movements of the Myriad Stars Formation.
“Soldiers of Mengshe Zhao, follow me! Today will be the day that we bury the Annan Protectorate army!”
Duan Gequan’s voice came from that two-headed, four-armed demon god, echoing over the battlefield.
This was the first time he had spoken on the battlefield, but this single time altered the entire course of the battle and the southwestern war!
Roar!
“Follow Great General!”
“Charge to the summit; slaughter the Annan Protectorate army!”
“With the mighty Great General, our Mengshe Zhao will win!”
……
The depressed Mengshe Zhao soldiers instantly rallied when Duan Gequan appeared. The tens of thousands of soldiers roared as they followed behind Duan Gequan in a frenzied charge through the gap Duan Gequan had cleaved open.
“Kiiiill!”
Countless Tibetan soldiers followed close behind the Mengshe Zhao army, surging up to the summit.
Duan Gequan’s actions had had a destructive effect, causing a chain reaction that caused the Annan Protectorate army across the entire mountain to give way. It took mere moments for the gap opened up by Duan Gequan to rapidly widen.
“Kiiiill!”
Cries of battle filled the air like the raging of the sea. The countless soldiers of the Mengshe–Ü-Tsang army were pressing forward into that gap like endless waves.
“Hahaha, wonderful—Great General has succeeded!”
At the base of the mountain, Fengjiayi heartily laughed, his face red from excitement.
“Gequan, you truly haven’t disappointed Us!”
Geluofeng’s eyes were practically shining. Finally, Mengshe Zhao and Ü-Tsang were showing signs of winning this battle.
From Geluofeng’s perspective, the Annan Protectorate army on the mountain was already beginning to show signs of crumbling.
Whether it was the choice of time, place, or method, Duan Gequan was a supreme perfectionist.
This was a true one-hit kill!
“Xianyu Zhongtong, you’ve lost!”
Geluofeng turned to that black banner on the summit, unable to suppress his smile.
From start to finish, Xianyu Zhongtong and the generals around him had never moved, and how could Geluofeng and Duan Gequan not understand his intentions?
Alas, when the evil grew a foot higher, the righteous would grow a zhang. In the end, Xianyu Zhongtong had still lost to Duan Gequan.
……
“This is impossible!”
At this very moment, Xianyu Zhongtong’s eyes were wide in rage, earthquakes rumbling through his mind. Duan Gequan’s appearance had been like a dagger thrust into his bosom, drenching his body in blood.