Chapter 229: The Mighty Army of Xiang Yu
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh
"Aww! Awwooo! Awwoooooo!"
Amidst the raging flame that blotted out the sky and covered up the earth, the divine undead army, which now was left with slightly over twenty thousand of them after being slaughtered by the steel demon figurines, kept yelling and roaring excitedly. Their bodies that were greatly weakened by the white light from the bolts of Qin soldiers began to recover quickly, as they kept absorbing the intense heat and some kind of magical power contained in the blazing flames. Gradually, their bodies started emitting a glow that could only be found in steel. No matter it was the toughness of their bodies or their strength, both had been raised abruptly to a brand new level.
Loud rings of metal clashing kept echoing out, as the divine undead army had regained their strength and kept punching their fists crazily at the steel demon figurines in front of them. The loud noises swept through the land and several hundred miles away. Even Wu Qi and all the people around him could hear it clearly.
Light fist marks began to take shape on the solid bodies of steel demon figurines one after another, while they were pushed back by the divine undead army who suddenly exploded with incredible strength. At the same time, runes on their bodies were exploding as the result of being burned by the red flame one after another, causing their defensive strength to reduce significantly. In just a blink of an eye, they were left with the defensive strength of the steel body alone. The blazing flame came pouring down like a great tidal wave, violently burning the bodies of these steel demon figurines and turned them red-hot. Some demon figurines which were crafted with materials that came with flaws began to melt into molten steel, just like the surrounding ground.
The demon figurines which had their bodies turned red-hot and softened by the flame, no matter it was the speed of their movement, their defensive or offensive strength, all had been greatly reduced. The fists of the undead army kept impacting heavily onto their bodies, creating deep dents one after another. Very soon, some demon figurines had their vital parts wounded by the fists of the divine undead army, and slowly lost their mobility.
Meanwhile, the eighteen giant undead warriors continued spraying out raging flames, while they began moving their steps and forming a seemingly simple yet very profound formation that vaguely controlled the flowing of the surrounding natural energies. The deadly flame kept leaping and darting out from their mouths, burning off everything inside the city, while the bones and ashes of the several tens of thousands of Qin soldiers had already sunk into the lava flowing slowly on the ground, vanishing without any traces.
"The Qin army must have obtained the reinforcement from their homeland." said Wu Qi with a deep, long sigh, "Previously, when we forced them away, they only had an army of tens of thousands of soldiers. But today, just the army that trapped Imperial Advisor He alone had amounted to over two hundred thousand soldiers... Although, all of them were devoured by Spirit Tapeworm King's children."
Spirit Tapeworm King, who had his long and thin body coiling a few hundred rounds on the mountain peak they were currently standing on, nodded his head, expressing that his children had a very satisfying feast just now.
Wu Qi nodded and continued, "After that, there were over three hundred thousand Qin soldiers who rushed out from this city alone, and were burned off completely by these few big guys. In total, Qin army had suffered a casualty of over five hundred thousand soldiers, and each of them was an elite soldier similar to Blood Swallow Army and Black Swallow Army. This is the evidence that Great Qin must have obtained a reinforcement from their homeland. Or else, how could they have so many soldiers?"
As the battle did not really relate to him, Wanying Dragon King stuck out his chest and said indifferently, "Despite how great the reinforcement he has, I'll have no fear at him. Hmm, at the worst, I'll just shut the main gate of Dragon King Mansion, and they can keep jumping up and down on the bank of the river." He smiled complacently, then continued with a strange voice, "In the ancient times, the clan of Dragon King Mansion in Longyuan River had produced two divine dragons. The defensive mechanisms left behind by them could only be broken by existences above Heaven Immortal realm. So, with the gate shut, no foul winds or rains of blood could bother me at all!"
Then, he patted on Wu Qi's shoulder forcefully, and said out of kindness, "Young lad, if Great Yan can no longer hold back the enemy and is about to be wiped out, you can always come to me for a refuge. Hmm, let's make this clear in advance, you can bring some of your friends together, but not too many of them. My Dragon King Mansion only has limited space, and at most can host eight hundred to one thousand people."
Wu Qi rolled his eyes and thanked Wanying Dragon King. Although this old dragon was cunning and treacherous, but to be honest, he had a pretty good character. With the promise given by him, in the future, even if all of Wu Qi's secret caves were destroyed by the enemies, he would still have one last retreating path.
While they were chatting, a few bright lights were seen flying very close to the ground along the mountains and approaching them from behind. Without attracting the attention from anyone, they landed right next to Wu Qi and the company. The bright light then faded away, revealing Yan Dan and his company. None of the newcomers said anything when they arrived, but were just frowning and looking at the battle that happened in the Great Dream Marsh. It was especially true for Su Qin, who wore a straight face as if everyone owed him a debt of a few millions of gold coins.
After a long while, Su Qin finally broke the silence, "Who is that naked child?" He scolded while gnashing his teeth, "It took me great pains to come out with the strategy, just so I can compete with Zhang Yi and decide who is better! But at the end, all my planning is disturbed by him! Damn it, damn it! If not because he is currently fighting with Ying Zheng, I'll definitely kill him with the divine ability of starlight!"
Ugh?! Wu Qi gave Su Qin a look, then carefully said, "This man proclaimed himself the Hegemon-King of Western Chu, Xiang Yu, but I have no idea about his background or origin. However, he has a cultivation base that allows him to fight head-to-head with Ying Zheng, while he had defeated all the generals and minister of Great Qin with one single palm strike. On top of that, the city built by Qin army was captured by his divine undead army. There, those gigantic monsters who stood ten thousand feet tall, they are brought here by him as well."
Yan Dan, Su Qin, and all the people who came together with them gave a shocked cry, "Xiang Yu? Interesting!"
Wu Qi lowered his head and said nothing more. Apparently, these people already knew Xiang Yu's existence. With a complicated expression, Su Qin nodded and said, "Xiang Yu, the Hegemon-King of Western Chu... Good, good... Among all the heroes and mighty talents under the heaven, Su Qin will definitely meet each and every single one of you, to compete with you and see who is better! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
After a few loud and long laughs, a touch of red suddenly suffused Su Qin's old face. It made him look full of vigor and vitality, as if he had suddenly turned younger by several dozens of years.
On the other side, Yan Dan, Jing Ke, and many of their friends simply stuck out their chests, their bodies emanating with an unspeakable and unfathomable aura, surging forward like a torrential tide and causing Wu Qi's blood to rock violently. It was as if he too had a militant pride stacking up in his chest, which was urging him to let out a loud cry that could shake the sky. Wu Qi was startled by what happened to him, and quickly exercised the seven holy deities and devils to forcibly suppress the feeling of militant pride. Then, he told himself inwardly that no matter what heroes or mighty talents were there under the heaven, their fights and battles would have nothing to do with him. Currently, Wu Qi did not possess the sufficient overall strength to get involved in their conflicts, and he had to make the wise decision to be a bystander.
Huo Wuyu had come here together with Yan Dan as well. However, he did not pay any attention to Yan Dan, Su Qin, and many other men, and how they were suddenly beaming with a vigorous militant pride. Instead, the old demon king just kept sizing up Lord Xiansheng curiously, feeling baffled as for how he managed to have his eye back.
Noticing Huo Wuyu's baffled glances, both Lord Xiansheng and Wanying Dragon King turned their heads and gave him a fierce gaze at the same time. If not fearing that they might disturb the battle between Xiang Yu and Ying Zheng, while Yan Dan and his friends were standing right next to them as well, perhaps this pair of father and son would have long let out words of provocation, challenging Huo Wuyu for a death match at a quiet place with nobody around. Nevertheless, though they did not give out their challenge, both father and son still kept looking on the vital parts on Huo Wuyu's body with aggressive vision, and their expressions made clear to everyone the evil intentions harboring in their minds.
Huo Wuyu gave them a hideous grin, ignored them, and turned his head to the direction of Great Dream Marsh.
At that place, another climax of the battle had erupted.
The blood energy behind Xiang Yu's back spread out gradually, and the blood red war banner had also expanded to the size of about one hundred miles, hovering loftily right behind his back while it kept extracting the surrounding natural energies, then turning them into a large sheet of blinding blood-red light that lingered in the air without a fixed shape. Threatening killing intent kept floating out from the war banner, while deafening battle cries shook the surrounding air. Tens of thousands of tiny blood vessels stretched out from the war banner and injected into Xiang Yu's body, making the energy rippling inside his body to become stronger and stronger. Eventually, it reached a state that even Wu Qi, though standing several hundred miles away, felt a tremendous pressure on his chest and nearly suffocated.
Then, a troop of several tens of thousands of warriors, their skin having a pale golden hue, came rushing from a far distance and gathered behind Xiang Yu's back. They were clad in a bronze-colored heavy armor, riding on bronze chariots with a very ancient design. There were a total of twenty thousand bronze chariots, each of them pulled by four single-horned rhinos clad in black armors, and rode by four fully armored warriors: one controlling the chariot, one holding a blade, one holding a spear, and the last one holding a bow. Razor-sharp blades and pointy gears were mounted on the wheels of the chariot, as wisps of clouds shrouded the wheels and allowed the heavy chariots to fly in the sky.
Wu Qi carefully turned his divine will into a very fine tread, stretching it into the distance of several hundred miles away, and gave those warriors a brief scan. He discovered that they were cultivating with a very strange technique, which was very different than the techniques used by orthodox cultivators. There were huge amount of energies flowing inside their bodies, but they had not formed any Gold Core, as all the energies were evenly spread throughout their bodies, which gave them an extremely strong and tough corporeal body.
According to the difference in their overall strength, there were powerful vortexes of energies that kept spinning rapidly in the different number of acupoints of their bodies, from 12, 24, 36, 48, to the maximum of 360 acupoints. Wu Qi saw about several dozens of warriors who had formed energy vortexes in 360 acupoints of their bodies, and judging from the aura emanating from them, they were no weaker than Li Si and those cultivators of peak-stage Nascent Soul realm.
Among them, there were a few generals who had two unique blood-red cow horns mounted on their helmets, which gave them a slightly different look than the rest of the warriors. In these few generals, some tiny energy crystals that felt like Gold Core had already taken their shape inside the energy vortexes that were spinning rapidly in all 360 acupoints. A very powerful and enormous energy was rushing through their body, and they gave Wu Qi a feeling similar to the one he felt when facing Huo Wuyu, Xiong Wanling, and those demon kings in Nascent Divinity realm.
Of course, these generals were not as powerful as Xiong Wanling and the rest of the demon kings. However, the level of their energy was definitely at the level of Nascent Divinity realm.
As for those singled-horn rhinos, each of them had already formed their Demon Cores, and were all Demon Immortals. Wu Qi felt his heart racing and pounding very fast, as he was looking at an army of eighty thousand single-horned rhinos! Eighty thousand rhinos who had formed their Demon Cores!
With his lips twitching uncontrollably, he turned looking at Yan Dan and asked, "Does Great Yan Dynasty have eighty thousand Human Immortals of Gold Core realm?"
Slowly, Yan Dan's mouth opened wider and wider, as he murmured under his breath, "Maybe… If we could use the hidden forces in all the vassal kingdoms?"
Xiong Wanling and the other few demon kings also had very unsightly expressions. Looking at the army of eighty thousand single-horned rhinos, each at the realm of Demon Immortal, though they were shocked, but at the same time, there was a gleam of greed flickering in their eyes. All these eighty thousand single-horned rhinos were demon beasts, and if they could subdue them and make them their subordinates, their prowess would definitely skyrocket!
Inside the city built by Qin army. As the eighteen gigantic undead warriors unleashed their might by throwing out raging flames, the Qin army's steel demon figurines were utterly routed. Out of one hundred and fifty thousand steel demon figurines, over twenty thousand of them were melted down into molten steel, while over forty thousand were smashed into mere scrap metals by the divine undead army. Then, the remaining eighty thousand demon figurines suddenly sprung and leaped into the sky, fleeing in a flurry out from the regions that were enveloped by the deadly flame, behind Ying Zheng and his subordinates.
Xiang Yu threw his head back and let out loud laughs into the sky wildly. He pointed his finger at Ying Zheng and roared out, "Ying Zheng, so this is the strength of Great Qin army? Your army? They are worthless! In front of my boys, who can rule the world, look down at every single man, and be invincible?"
Altogether, the eighty thousand warriors behind Xiang Yu raised their weapons high up in the air while they gave a loud roar, "There is no one under the heaven to equal him, our greatest lord of Great Chu! There is no one under the heaven to equal him, our greatest lord of Great Chu!"
The fully naked Xiang Yu called the dark horse to his side, then sprung and mounted himself on its back, swung the coiling-dragon spear and pointed at Ying Zheng, "My boys! Follow me as I bring you to kill these people!"
The clatter of hooves rang out like the roaring of thunders. Under the blood-red war banner, the mighty army of Great Chu began charging towards Ying Zheng while emanating a murderous aura that seemed capable of destroying anything.
Looking at the incoming mighty army of Great Chu, Ying Zheng waved his hand casually, controlled his chariot and began retreating. With one chasing after another, very soon, the two armies had flown several thousand miles away.