The Human Emperor

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

At the Center Gate, at the base of the high palace walls…

“Master archers, ready!”

“Fire!”

In the face of the rain of arrows from the wall, Chen Burang and his several dozen master archers loosed their arrows. A moment later, numerous arrows leaving faint trails in the air howled toward Huang Tianzhao’s men, but Huang Tianzhao merely chuckled.

Bang!

As everyone watched, the unbelievable transpired.

When the arrows were still several feet from the walls, space twisted, and then a barrier of faint purple manifested, completely covering the wall. The arrows struck this barrier and were all deflected.

Clack! The hundreds of arrows snapped in half in the air and then simply disappeared, not even leaving any arrow shafts.

It was like no arrows had been fired at all.

“This… how could this be?”

Even Chen Burang was struck dumb. He was born with extremely sharp eyes and ears. If he covered his eyes and only listened, he could accurately identify where his foe was hiding in a dense forest and then fire an arrow at them, but this time, none of his arrows had even reached Huang Tianzhao before vanishing.

Such a thing had never happened before.

Chen Burang was certain that Huang Tianzhao had not moved throughout this process or used any strength.

A formation!

Wang Chong’s heart sank at this sight, as he keenly understood what had taken place. Starting from here, everything in front of them was engulfed in the power of a massive formation. Just like with the Origin Immortal Formation in the northwest, the arrows fired by Chen Burang’s squad had been teleported and snapped by the formation’s power.

“Hahaha, King of Foreign Lands, don’t waste your effort. The Army-Shattering War God planned out everything. This Hundred Thousand God-Devil Execution Formation was set up here precisely to deal with you. If you’ve got the guts, come right on in!”

Huang Tianzhao brashly laughed from the wall, and then he waved his hand, withdrawing with the Golden Guards and master archers. In the blink of an eye, he vanished into the darkness.

Boom!

At the same time, the closed Center Gate suddenly rumbled open. Behind the gate, numerous Imperial Army soldiers had organized themselves into a bizarre formation, rapidly revolving as they charged at Wang Chong’s men.

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

Cries of battle shook the heavens, and soon, the two forces smashed together like great waves.

Clangclangclang! Weapons clashed and blood splattered, and it took only a few seconds for a large swath of men to fall over in pools of blood.

In the back, Wang Chong grimaced at this sight.

The Imperial Army soldiers charging out of the Center Gate were not numerous, only two-hundred-some in all, but these men had taken up a strange eight-sided formation, and in the cramped terrain in front of the Center Gate, they took up almost all available space.

Although Wang Chong currently had eight thousand men, only a few hundred could charge forward.

Not only that, all of those Imperial Army soldiers had a light purple halo under their feet which boosted the strength, speed, and dexterity of each soldier, making them far superior to the average Imperial Army soldier. And in battle, these people exerted their strength as one, making them seem like a solid steel plate.

In these circumstances, a mere two hundred Imperial Army soldiers were like a standing rock in the face of a great wave, fending off many times their number in front of the Center Gate.

The Hundred Thousand God-Devil Execution Formation!

As Wang Chong recalled Huang Tianzhao’s words, he realized something.

There were no God-Devils. Those hundred thousand God-Devils were really just the one hundred thousand soldiers of the Imperial Army. Hou Junji had used the Imperial Army to lay down a massive formation to keep him out.

As these thoughts ran through Wang Chong’s mind, he heard Cheng Sanyuan’s solemn voice at his ear.

“Your Highness, there’s something strange!

“Despite fighting for so long, we’ve suffered significant casualties while those two hundred men haven’t lost a single person!”

Wang Chong followed Cheng Sanyuan’s gaze and turned to the battlefield. Many bodies had fallen in front of the Center Gate, but the formation of two-hundred-some Imperial Army soldiers remained pristine, continuing to turn and grind. At a glance, it seemed like they truly had not suffered any losses.

Wang Chong’s eyes flashed as he sternly said, “That’s not it!

“It’s not that they’re not losing men! They just have a slow trickle of reinforcements coming from behind the Center Gate!”

As if in response to Wang Chong’s voice, a large number of soldiers suddenly charged out from behind the Center Gate and flowed into the formation, perfectly fusing their numbers into it while still maintaining the formation.

And through the open gate, Wang Chong could see countless soldiers still standing in neat formation.

Wang Chong’s heart dropped to rock bottom.

The Imperial Palace had one hundred thousand soldiers of the Imperial Army stationed within it, and if there were all divided into teams of two hundred in those eight-sided formations, there could be five hundred of these teams.

These teams could come one after another, exploiting the narrow confines of the checkpoint. And given the strength of the formation, Wang Chong’s hopes of reaching Taiji Palace were incredibly slim.

But Wang Chong quickly managed to get hold of himself. He would need to try to see just how formidable Hou Junji’s formation really was.

“Heavenly Edge Team, Arrow Formation! Get ready!”

Bang!

The earth rumbled in response to Wang Chong’s order, and a sharp energy soared to the heavens. A previously scattered group of soldiers quickly coalesced. Clang! Swords left their sheaths and were aimed to the sky, appearing like a sharp and dangerous forest. The cold flash of those blades made the entire world fall quiet.

“Wootz Steel! Those are Wootz Steel weapons!”

The Imperial Army soldiers who had stood like an impenetrable wall in front of the Center Gate suddenly grew uneasy. It was true that their two-hundred-man formations had succeeded in stopping Wang Chong from getting past the Center Gate. But up until now, Wang Chong had only sent the elites of the great clans and not his own men.

Everyone knew that the best of Wang Chong’s men, the ones who made all the foreign countries tremble in fear, were those soldiers equipped with Wootz Steel weapons and Meteoric Metal armor.

Bang!

After a brief moment of silence, the one thousand Wootz Steel sword cavalry took up the Arrow Formation and rumbled toward the Imperial Army soldiers.

Rumble!

A few seconds later, the two forces collided. It was simply impossible to describe this collision, and one could only say that the shockwave of energy made even the palace walls tremble. Neeeigh! Horses screamed as Wootz Steel swords swept through the air. In an explosion of blood, a head flew through the air. The thick armor worn by the Imperial Army might as well have been made of paper in front of this sword.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The Wootz Steel swords slashed across the avenue in front of the Center Gate like the scythe of the death god, and what seemed like an impregnable force of two hundred men was quickly cut down like so many weeds.

This force of one thousand was made up of top-class soldiers recruited by the great clans, and each one had received a considerable investment in time and money. In terms of pure strength, they were even stronger than Imperial Army soldiers, so the great clans only had three to five such soldiers each. Wang Chong had gathered these men, and given that they were also paired with the Wootz Steel swords from the war of the southwest, they represented an extremely powerful fighting force.

Bangbangbang!

As bodies dropped like falling pillars, the tight formation of two hundred men was scattered apart by the one thousand Wootz Steel cavalry, and in short order, the Center Gate was devoid of standing Imperial Army soldiers.

“Kill!”

“Rebels, all of you must be executed!”

After killing the two hundred rebellious Imperial Army soldiers, the Wootz Steel cavalry continued onward toward the open Center Gate. It was much more spacious past the Center Gate, and the light of the torches on the walls illuminated the countless Imperial Army soldiers standing in the gloom behind it.

Each of these soldiers had a light purple halo and was brimming with energy. At a glance, there seemed to be ten thousand of them. More importantly, these ten thousand soldiers were linked together into a complicated formation that was even tougher and more lethal than the one before.

Anyone who saw this formation would tremble in fear at the danger it exuded.

The two-hundred-man formation stationed in front of the Center Gate had merely been the appetizer. This was the true formation Hou Junji had left to stop Wang Chong.

“Kiiill!”

But these cavalry showed no fear or hesitation in the face of this vast formation of Imperial Army soldiers.

Swish! Wootz Steel swords swept through the air as the cavalry took up Arrow Formation and heedlessly charged forward.

At this moment, the ten-thousand-man formation began to turn like a gear and spin toward the Wootz Steel cavalry. This was a battle of edge against edge, neither side backing down.

This formation of ten thousand men was tough and powerful, but what they faced was one of the sharpest weapons in the world.

“Ah!”

Screams ripped through the night as the one thousand Wootz Steel cavalry savagely stabbed into the formation. Plush! Plush! The sharp blades sliced through armor like paper, drawing out torrents of blood. The sheer force of the charge alone was enough to send some Imperial Army soldiers flying through the air.

This force was like a tiger amongst a flock of sheep, and in a few short moments, more than one thousand Imperial Army soldiers had been slain. Even with the power of the formation, they were still unable to block the terrifying offensive might of Wootz Steel cavalry.

As the saying went, a powerful man could beat ten martial artists. When strength reached a certain level, it could ignore techniques and skills.