The Human Emperor

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Li Linfu was famously known as a wise minister, with some of the common folk even comparing him to Duke Jiu and Minister Yao. But Li Linfu was only capable of fooling people. From start to finish, Wang Chong had always known that this wily fox was not as kind as he appeared, and he had never once been deceived.

As for Li Heng, the man hated Li Linfu down to his bones.

The previous Emperor and his son had both treated Li Linfu rather well. The Sage Emperor had brought him up to his peak, making him Prime Minister of the Great Tang, and had deeply trusted him. And while Li Heng had been suspicious of him, in the end, he had allowed him to remain as Prime Minister.

As for Wang Chong, if Li Linfu hadn’t started spreading rumors about him, he would have let him go.

In the end, Li Linfu’s own restlessness had led him to seek death.

The imperial prison revolt had been extremely dangerous, and if he had not been fortunate enough to activate the Miniature Nine Provinces Domain at the very last moment, Li Heng would have died to Genesis Supreme and Li Linfu would have obtained what he desired.

Li Heng had long ago ordered Wang Chong to send Li Linfu over to the palace as soon as he was captured so that he could personally question him.

“Yes!”

The Golden Guard bowed and quickly took his leave.

Not long after the Golden Guard left, as Wang Chong was reading through more reports, he suddenly called out, Come in!”

“Milord, a letter from Great General Bahram!”

At this moment, Xu Keyi, who had been absent for some time, entered the hall.

“Oh?”

Wang Chong’s eyes froze for a moment, but he quickly replied.

“Speak.”

Xu Keyi bowed and reported, “Great General Bahram has sent word that, following Your Highness’s orders, they’ve altered their route to sweep the northern region of nomadic tribes, together with those rebel Arab soldiers and the factions associated with them. He is confident that all the latent threats in that area have been handled for now.”

Wang Chong’s original plan had Bahram and his men heading straight for the interior, but after the events at the teleportation gate on the shores of the Caspian Sea and his realization of what the men in black were up to, Wang Chong had ordered Bahram and his Aswaran Cataphracts to change plans and sweep aside all the restless factions on the border.

Wang Chong had left the coordination of this matter entirely to Xu Keyi.

Although tens of thousands of nomadic warriors had died in the explosion on the shores of the Caspian Sea, this did not mean that there were no more tribal warriors in the north, nor did it mean that the men in black would not come back.

Gao Xianzhi and An Sishun’s soldiers were there to hold down the entirety of the western world, and Wang Chong could not allow anything to happen to Baghdad.

Xu Keyi paused before adding, “In addition, Great General Gao Xianzhi has sent word from Baghdad that a new faction has recently appeared in the northwest of the Arabian Empire. It seems that it is called ‘Fulin’.”

“What?”

Wang Chong’s brow rose, his face visibly shocked.

Fulin, a strange name!

In the Central Plains, few people knew of its existence, but Wang Chong knew that in another timeline, it possessed a name with a thunderous reputation: Rome!

(TN: ‘Fulin’ was what the Chinese called the Roman Empire in the period of the Great Tang. During the Han Dynasty, the Chinese knew of Rome as ‘Daqin’.)

But in the end, this world was very different from Wang Chong’s memories.

This ‘Fulin’ was nothing like as powerful. In this dimension, it was a small kingdom that was far inferior to Arabia, let alone the Great Tang.

But while Fulin was small, it was a formidable country when it came to battle.

On Qutaybah’s conquests, he had encountered this Fulin in the northwest.

Although Qutaybah’s army had the upper hand overall, in small-scale battles, it was Fulin that had the advantage, gaining victory after victory. From this, one could see the quality and power of Fulin’s cavalry.

Are the men in black also colluding with them? Wang Chong said to himself.

Wang Chong had some understanding of Arabia’s situation. Arabia had clashed with Fulin several times and basically had an iron grip on it. After many defeats, Fulin slowly began to withdraw and keep its distance from Arabia. Slowly, even the Arabs began to forget them.

Their sudden return was very abnormal.

Now that he thought about it, fifty thousand nomadic warriors from the north taking the Arab capital of Baghdad from the Tang garrison was far too unrealistic. The men in black had to have other plans, and after some thought, he realized that it was probably this Fulin.

“Your Highness, should I tell Great General Bahram to remain in Arabia to reinforce Great General Gao Xianzhi?” Xu Keyi asked.

After some thought, Wang Chong shook his head. “There’s no need.

“Tell Bahram to follow the original plan and get to the capital as quickly as possible.”

Compared to Baghdad, the Great Tang had far greater need for Bahram’s heavy cavalry. As for Arabia, Wang Chong was confident that Gao Xianzhi and An Sishun were more than capable enough to defend, even if they couldn’t go on the offensive.

After all, the Great Tang specialized in positional warfare, defensive warfare, infantry warfare, and urban warfare. In these aspects, no other faction could compare.

“Yes!”

Xu Keyi quickly lowered his head and said no more. He had never doubted Wang Chong’s judgments.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a flapping of wings resounded through the hall. Wang Chong and Xu Keyi both turned to the source of the noise in surprise.

All of Wang Chong’s subordinates were smoothly carrying out their plans, and each report had a specific person tasked with delivering it. Rarely would a bird fly into the hall to deliver a message directly.

Whoosh! In a rush of air, a bird with a golden thread tied around its neck and a copper hoop on its claw flew inside.

“It’s Xue Qianjun!”

Xu Keyi grimaced upon spotting the identifiers on the bird.

Each of Wang Chong’s subordinates had a different method of sending reports. This messenger bird was only used by Xue Qianjun, the deputy of the north.

However, Xu Keyi’s shock was not because Xue Qianjun had sent a report, but because neither the golden thread nor the copper hoop was frequently used.

For both to be used at once meant only one thing:

Extreme emergency!

Not since the war of the northwest had this level of report appeared!

Whoosh!

Wang Chong’s heart sank, and he grimly stood up and extended his hand. The messenger bird seemed to be pulled by an invisible thread and shot into his hand in a white streak.

The hall was utterly still, Xu Keyi holding his breath as he stared at Wang Chong.

Wang Chong removed the letter from the bird, but upon glancing at it, he trembled in shock.

Xue Qianjun’s letter contained only a few words, but each one had been written with all the strength he could muster, and it had been written so hastily that one could sense the panic within it.

‘Extreme emergency! Cold wave moving south!’

Bang!

Almost the moment Wang Chong read those words, a sound like a bell boomed in his mind, and the Stone of Destiny began to speak.

“Special Event! The ‘Great Ice Age Era’ begins!”

As this voice boomed, countless images appeared before Wang Chong. With a groaning rumble, a wall of ice suddenly poured down.

At the same time, the continent visibly shrank as the white wave turned into a thick layer of ice that crawled across the continent with a life of its own. The winds howled, hailstones rained down, and all living creatures howled as they were frozen to death.

In just a few moments, a snowstorm had engulfed the world, and Wang Chong’s Central Plains swiftly turned into a silent world, sealed in ice!

“To be born, grow old, get ill, and die is the fate of all living creatures, all beings thriving and then declining. With every several thousand years comes a new cycle. When this cold wave sweeps down from the north, all creatures in the world will go extinct. No civilization or dynasty will survive. This is the prelude to the apocalypse.

“User has fifteen days to prepare, after which the entire world will enter an ice-sealed era. If user finds the reason for the cold wave, user can obtain 10,000,000 points of Destiny Energy as a reward. Otherwise, all things in the world will meet their end, the world will die, and user’s mission will fail!

“This mission does not have its own time limit, nor will user have a punishment for failure!

“In the Prelude of the Apocalypse, failure means death!”

The cold voice of warning slowly faded away, all falling silent.

Wang Chong stood in a daze, his heart in turmoil.

All this time, he had ordered Xue Qianjun and his garrison to remain in the north and watch for any signs of activity.

Based on the previous speed of the great cold wave, he should have had a long time until the Great Ice Age. This was far too soon!

The Stone of Destiny said that the mission didn’t have a time limit or punishment for failure, but for Wang Chong, this was the worst punishment of all.

Only fifteen days… Is that the final deadline? Wang Chong inwardly muttered to himself.

The ‘Little Ice Age’ from before had only been a blizzard, but this had been enough to kill nearly one million elite cavalry of the Arabian Empire. The damage that would be done by this ‘Great Ice Age’ would be simply unimaginable.

More importantly, Wang Chong also knew that this cold wave would thoroughly damage the foundation of this world.

The massive shifts wrought by this weather phenomenon would rapidly shrink the food production of the world. Many livestock would freeze to death, with some herds nurtured by the nomadic tribes being completely wiped out.

This world would face an unprecedented crisis, both for the nomadic tribes and sedentary societies.

This great cold wave had played a major role in the ultimate defeat of Wang Chong’s campaign in his last life.

Before the power of nature, all empires and civilizations were insignificant.

Once the great cold wave unleashed all of its power, countless people would die.

The population of the world would rapidly dwindle.

And there was no retreat for Wang Chong!