Chapter 1858 - Nine Dragon Blood War Banner, Mobilize!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Buzz!
General Li, covered all over in black armor, took a step forward. The earth trembled and time seemed to freeze.
“All soldiers, assemble!
“Generals, the rest is up to you!” General Li solemnly declared.
Upon hearing General Li’s voice, Wang Chong exchanged glances with the other Great Generals. A moment later, the Divine Martial Army, Dragon Stallion Army, Divine Prison Army, Azure Martial Army… all of them gathered around General Li. Even Abusi sent several thousand of his men to assemble under the Nine Dragon Blood War Banner.
Rumble! The banner stirred in the wind, and then there was a great metal clattering as blazing lights, each possessing a different nature, rapidly spread out from the Nine Dragon Blood War Banner to the various armies.
An immense energy soared into the air, making the entire battlefield tremble. This energy faintly resonated against the power of the God’s Ordained Cavalry, vying with it for supremacy.
Atop the giant elephant Behemoth, Lucis bowed as he commented, “Milord, the Great Tang really did use that war banner.”
Abu Muslim had emphasized before this battle that the Great Tang possessed an extremely powerful war banner that could boost the strength of its armies. This banner had been the primary reason for Arabia’s defeat at the Battle of Talas.
“Go!”
Khatabah didn’t say much, simply waving his hand. Lucis understood and quickly jumped down from the giant elephant.
In the distance, there was an earthshaking roar. Saleh’s God’s Ordained Cavalry had reached the front line. Boom! As this army charged over, the first row of steel walls shuddered.
Horses neighed, weapons clashed, and metal clattered, mixing in with war cries and screams. But after only a few moments of turmoil, boom! The stalemate was shattered.
A terrible scream rang out through the air. A Tang shield soldier was struck by the forelegs of a horse belonging to one of the God’s Ordained riders. This shield soldier had already stood fast against hundreds of attacks, but with this one strike, his face went pale, and he was sent flying back like a ragdoll.
Not only that, in another direction, five God’s Ordained Cavalry unleashed their halos at the same time, charging together like they were one as they struck a heavy steel wall.
Boom! In a great clang, this heavy steel wall that had once been a chasm of despair, serving as a barrier against all Arab attacks and rendering their vast army useless, suddenly broke free of its foundations and flew into the air.
Boom! Crash! The steel wall flew into the Tang soldiers behind it and even knocked down another steel wall.
An Sishun, King Song, and the other Tang commanders grimaced at this sight.
“How could this be?” King Song called out in alarm. Although he wasn’t a commander in this battle, he had still inspected the defense line before the battle. All of these steel walls weighed more than ten thousand jin, and Wang Chong had also added further supports to strengthen them. In normal circumstances, only beings on the level of the Behemoths could knock them aside.
“These God’s Ordained Cavalry are stronger than we thought!”
As this thought flashed through his mind, King Song turned grim.
Meanwhile, a heaven-shaking shift was taking place on the battlefield.
Saleh’s army was simply unstoppable, knocking aside the steel walls in their way and brute-forcing a path through Wang Chong’s defenses.
“Lord Zhangchou, I leave that Saleh to you,” Wang Chong suddenly said. The Arabs had used their trump card. The ordinary soldiers on the front line were incapable of stopping them.
“Okay!”
Zhangchou Jianqiong immediately waved his hand, leading Xianyu Zhongtong and his other subordinates toward Saleh’s God’s Ordained Cavalry.
Behind them were the Divine Martial Army, Divine Prison Army, Azure Martial Army… An army of more than ten thousand soldiers was marching toward the front line.
During the Battle of Talas, each Protector-General had their own area that they needed to defend, so they had only been able to send a small number of elites to join Wang Chong. But this was a war that would decide the fate of the country, so the protectorates had sent all their forces. Wang Chong had a far greater number of elite soldiers under his command this time.
Clangclangclang! The halos clattered as the nine finest armies of the Great Tang gathered under the Nine Dragon Blood War Banner and surged forward like a storm.
Wang Chong’s hair was blown about in the wind as he ordered, “Lone Silence Ancestor, Alliance Lord Song, Zhao Fengchen, take care of those Arab Governors and Deputy Governors!”
Behind him, the Lone Silence Ancestor and Song Yuanyi gave a slight nod and then immediately left with their top-class martial artists.
The martial arts world had always been separate from the world of the court, and in normal circumstances, the martial arts world would not have agreed to involve itself in a war between dynasties.
But this time was different. The war between the Great Tang and Arabia was not one about power, but about the fortune of the Central Plains and the lives of its millions of inhabitants. Not even the people of the martial arts world would be able to escape in the end.
Through his relationship with the Lone Silence Ancestor and the help of Song Youran, Wang Chong had managed to convince Song Yuanyi’s group to come and help.
“Wang Chong, I will take the men of my Righteous Alliance and do our utmost for this battle. I hope that you will not disappoint us!”
A powerful stream of Psychic Energy entered Wang Chong’s mind, carrying Song Yuanyi’s voice, and then vanished.
Wang Chong said no more, placing his focus on the front line.
He understood what Song Yuanyi meant. The Great Tang could not afford to lose this battle!
Rumble!
Amidst rumbling hooves, the twenty thousand God’s Ordained Cavalry displayed their peerless might. Wang Chong’s steel defense line was battered aside through sheer strength, the steel walls falling like a dam in the midst of collapsing.
Ever since he had developed this tactic of using the steel walls, it had almost never failed him. This was the first time he had encountered an army so terrifying that it could just knock them aside.
“Kill!”
Battle cries shook the heavens as the Tang soldiers crumbled in the face of this onslaught. If this continued, the loss of the defense line was inevitable. But at this moment, a rumbling came from the distance.
Sweeping over was a formidable and boundless energy!
Buzz!
Saleh suddenly raised his head and instantly noticed the Nine Dragon Blood War Banner and the nine different kinds of energies gathered around it. This was an army that was clearly heads and shoulders above the rest of the Tang army.
“The Nine Dragon Blood War Banner? Finally here?”
Saleh’s eyes blazed with a desire to fight.
This was the eastern army that had defeated Qutaybah at the Battle of Talas! The Blood Lion of Arabia had little desire for political authority. All he cared about were extremely powerful foes. Only when he utterly crushed them could he feel supreme ecstasy.
This sort of joy and sense of accomplishment surpassed anything that political power could give him, or even war.
“Let me pulverize you!”
A savage and murderous intent flitted through his eyes.
Clang! Raising his scimitar, Saleh had all the God’s Ordained Cavalry focus on him, and then he charged through the defense line, ignoring the other Tang soldiers and heading straight for the Nine Dragon Blood War Banner. In front of the banner was Zhangchou Jianqiong, and behind were the nine elite armies of the east.
Rumble!
The two armies rapidly closed the distance, and their imminent clash drew the attention of countless people on the battlefield. Even the giant bird army above and the Behemoth Slayers on the Great Tang side turned to look.
A distance of several thousand feet went by in the blink of an eye!
“Kill!”
Zhangchou Jianqiong was still mounted on his glossy-maned black steed for this battle. His eyes suddenly blazed with light, his sword flew out of its sheath, and then horse and rider became like a thunderstorm, wrapped in destructive energy. The horse made a flying leap, and in mid-air, the Tiger of the Empire furiously slashed at the Blood Lion of Arabia.
At this moment, the prodigious amounts of Stellar Energy around Zhangchou Jianqiong caused the surrounding space to deform, turning everything blurry and unreal.
“Hmph!”
Saleh gave a cold snort. A split-second later, he and his horse turned into a flash of light, rising into the air as his own destructive storm to attack Zhangchou Jianqiong.
Krakoom! As Saleh’s scimitar swept through the air, it tore a fissure in space, leaving a long black scar.
Behind Saleh, a demon god bellowed, its blurry and savage figure taking form. A mysterious crimson pillar also appeared behind Saleh, together with the six-armed demon god. This demon god was far larger and more powerful than the demon god the deceased Apolis had manifested.
