Chapter 1141 - Striking Back in Desperate Straits!
Chapter 1141: Striking Back in Desperate Straits!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Qutaybah and four other Great Generals had unleashed their most powerful attacks. Not even the Demonic Emperor Old Man before he had been trapped by Dusong Mangpoje would have been able to take on all these attacks.
“Wang Chong!”
Gao Xianzhi’s lips trembled as he looked toward the explosion. For a moment his mind was blank, overcome by an indescribable sorrow.
“Lord Marquis!”
Nearby, Li Siye, Xue Qianjun, Kong Zi-an, Su Hanshan, and all of Wang Chong’s other subordinates turned deathly pale. A furious windstorm was rising from the point of the explosion while the ground in the area was collapsing. The destructive energy of the five attacks was still far from scattering, continuing to pulverize the surroundings and sunder the earth.
But before they could be grief-stricken for too long, a golden figure exploded out of the storm and dust. It soared into the air like a hawk, and then flipped around in the air before beginning to rapidly rush toward the first defense line.
“Everyone, go!”
Wang Chong’s roar resounded like thunder over the battlefield.
“Milord!”
“Lord Marquis!”
The depressed and silent Tang army instantly exploded with cheers.
“Wonderful!”
Everyone was excited and elated, and even the Demonic Emperor Old Man, Wushang Village Chief, and Gao Xianzhi broke into smiles after shaking off their initial shock.
“Ballista army, retreat first!
“Zhang Shouzhi, take command of the beehives! Use them to push back the enemy!
“All cavalry, get on your warhorses and prepare to withdraw!”
Gao Xianzhi began to issue a string of orders.
A good kid! I knew that you wouldn’t die so easily!
The clouds of worry on Gao Xianzhi’s brow were swept away. Wang Chong’s aura was ragged and disordered, a part of his clothes had been blasted off, while his arms, shoulders, face, and neck all showed scorch marks from the explosion. But it was far more important that Wang Chong had been able to survive. Gao Xianzhi couldn’t imagine surviving such an explosion himself, not even at his prime.
Rumble! Following Wang Chong’s and Gao Xianzhi’s orders, the entire Tang army, including Wang Chong, began to draw back.
“Damn it! Can you really escape!”
Qutaybah’s eyes blazed with fury as he saw this sight. This was not the first time Wang Chong had blocked his attack, and it seemed like no matter how much strength he used, Wang Chong would never die.
What had been complete disregard became light disregard, and then a serious attitude, and finally, Qutaybah had made Wang Chong one of his top priorities. His attack had consumed a vast amount of energy, but in the end, Wang Chong had still managed to escape with his army. This battle had been both a victory and defeat.
At least to the proud Qutaybah, it was a complete humiliation.
Bang!
The air boomed as a massive golden wave erupted from under Qutaybah’s feet. In the blink of an eye, he was gone, leaving a long white trail in his wake as he shot toward Wang Chong and the first defense line.
No matter how this battle turned out, Wang Chong had to die.
“After them!”
At almost the same time, Abu Muslim swung his hand down and began to follow Qutaybah. Behind him, Huoshu Huicang, Ziyad, and Aybak followed, their eyes vicious.
“This bastard! Even that didn’t kill him! What a tenacious soul! But I’d like to see how much longer you can last!” Aybak harshly cried out.
This battle was settled. After all the painstaking effort, Arabia had finally carried the day. The Arabs had never spared any of their enemies, and they were in no habit of letting their foes run off.
“All soldiers, hear my order! Pursue with full speed!”
“Enforcers, go! Execute all those who retreat!”
Abu Muslim’s cold and stern voice resounded over the army. Gao Xianzhi had led an army of thirty thousand in stymying him at Talas for two months, and now, these remaining Tang soldiers were even stronger than the Anxi Protectorate army from back then. If they were allowed to retreat back to the Western Regions, they would continue to be an endless source of trouble.
Rumble!
Explosions rang out through the air.
Qutaybah, Abu Muslim, Huoshu Huicang, Aybak, and Ziyad pursued Wang Chong with all their power, leaving white trails more than one hundred feet long behind them.
“Retreat! Hurry and retreat!”
Panicked voices could be heard in the distance.
These five could see that the Tang craftsmen had already mounted warhorses and begun to flee. Within Talas, the shepherds that had followed the army had begun to abandon their herds and wagons, fleeing in a panic on their own warhorses. If this continued, it would soon be the turn of the actual Tang soldiers, ill news for the Arabs and Tibetans.
“Kill them!”
With no time to think, Abu Muslim attacked, sending out a churning ball of black energy thundering toward the first defense line.
The earth continued to groan as more powerful bolts of energy followed, Aybak, Huoshu Huicang, and Ziyad also beginning their attacks.
But the true threat was always the Arab War God, Qutaybah.
Kacrack! The entire world seemed to tear apart, and then a golden beam of Sword Qi, tens of thousands of feet long, slashed down with world-cleaving might, surmounting the steel defense line and thundering toward Wang Chong and the fleeing Tang army.
Rumble!
At this moment, a hint of panic appeared on Wang Chong’s face. He suddenly turned and unleashed a howling beam of Sword Qi to block Qutaybah’s descending strike. At almost the same time, the Demonic Emperor Old Man, Gao Xianzhi, and the black-armored guard roared as they used their own attacks.
“You can run no longer!”
Before the attacks could land, they exploded in midair, but to Qutaybah, this was enough. The goal of that attack had never been to kill Wang Chong, but to keep him here and cut off any hopes he had of escaping. More importantly, because Wang Chong had turned around to block the attack, Qutaybah had succeeded in getting to six or seven paces from him.
He was closely followed by Abu Muslim, Aybak, Huoshu Huicang, and Ziyad.
They were much slower than Qutaybah, but they were only sixty to seventy feet away. The four of them fanned out so that they could surround Wang Chong, the Demonic Emperor Old Man, the black-armored guard, the Wushang Village Chief, and Gao Xianzhi. The four of them together with Qutaybah could undoubtedly unleash a heaven-shaking assault.
Wang Chong might be lucky enough to survive this wave of attacks as he had the previous one, but the same could not be said for the others. Whether it was the Demonic Emperor Old Man, the Wushang Village Chief, or the black-armored guard, they were all heavily injured and exhausted. They would not be as lucky as Wang Chong.
Qutaybah, Abu Muslim, Aybak, and the others were so ardent in their pursuit and desire to kill Wang Chong and the Tang army that they had failed to notice that the Demonic Emperor Old Man, Wushang Village Chief, Gao Xianzhi, and the black-armored guard had all stopped running. Not only that, they had also begun to work with Wang Chong and step forward to confront Qutaybah and the others.
If one looked carefully, one would discover that the five of them had intentionally picked their positions, following some sort of rule or method. This was causing their Stellar Energies to resonate with each other.
Boom!
In a golden explosion of light, Qutaybah grasped his sword and unleashed a celestial pillar of Sword Qi, once more assailing Wang Chong’s group. This attack was on a completely different level from the previous ones, far surpassing them in strength, momentum, and heat. Even more terrifying was the destructive energy that Qutaybah had infused into the attack. It far surpassed the energy of a Great General, a pure energy that could burn everything in the world into nothingness.
The energy of the Subtle realm!
Wang Chong grimaced as the thought occurred to him. He was no stranger to this level of energy. When his master had brought him into the world of energy, he had raised his head and seen that energy from a higher level of spacetime. Qutaybah’s previous attacks had not contained this kind of energy, but to Wang Chong’s surprise, Qutaybah had apparently obtained some sort of breakthrough through this battle and reached an even higher level.
Although this attack was not infused with very much of this higher-level energy, and Qutaybah was still some distance from reaching the Subtle realm, this display left Wang Chong and the others stunned.
“General Li!” Wang Chong bellowed, his voice fraught with panic. Survival or death, victory or defeat—all of it depended on this final battle.
Boom!
Time seemed to slow down to a crawl. With a massive boom, a vigorous armor-covered hand clenched a massive war banner and thrust it into the ground behind the first defense line.
The power of the impact was so great that the entire battlefield groaned, the ground rippling like it was water. At the same moment, an invisible energy spread out with unimaginable speed, immediately covering a range of several thousand feet. Wang Chong, the Demonic Emperor Old Man, the Wushang Village Chief, Gao Xianzhi, the black-armored guard, and the Nine Dragon Blood War Banner were fused into one.