Chapter 245: The Defeat of Xiang Clan
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh
A dark cloud slowly descended from the sky. On it stood Ying Zheng, with dark fog rocking violently behind his back. In that cloud, one could vaguely see the shadows of eight flood dragons and one serpent, twisting and roaring. Li Si, Xu Fu, Guigu'zi, and all the other civilian officials were standing on the cloud as well, looking down at Huang Xie from above. Ying Zheng had a complacent smile on his face, as he rested his eyes on Huang Xie like a hungry wolf who had just seen a little sheep, anxious to devour him into his stomach.
If Ying Zheng could make Huang Xie surrender, a huge portion of Great Chu's power would fall into his hand. For Ying Zheng, Huang Xie was not an enemy, but a glittering gold mountain. However, if he failed in making Huang Xie surrender, then he would kidnap him straightaway. At any rate, Huang Xie was a very important person for the Great Chu. Since Ying Zheng had bumped into him, there was absolutely no way he could let this man run away easily. A dark fog was rising up above Ying Zheng, while the Cauldron of Yu was seen rolling out from the dark fog together with waves of water. Inside the cauldron, a massive amount of fresh blood and energies had been accumulated. The various images of monsters on the surface of the cauldron were moving slowly, as if they were real living things.
A tremendous pressure was being emanated, pressing tightly down onto Huang Xie and all the people around him.
Ying Zheng had exercised all his cultivation base to restrict Huang Xie. In the meanwhile, he said while being enshrouded in the majestic air of an Emperor, "If Duke of Chun Shen is willing to surrender to me, I will honor you with the title of a Prince, and I will treat you like my teacher."
After a moment of thought, Huang Xie raised his head up and looked at Ying Zheng, smiled and said, "Treat me like your teacher? That's not what I want. If you want me to surrender to Great Qin, there's another way... hmm… If you can change the way you address me, like something nicer, I'll immediately deploy my army, and surround and annihilate the mighty soldiers of Xiang Clan. Then, I can also send out all the army from the Chun Shen Kingdom and join the army of Great Qin in conquering Great Chu's territory."
Ying Zheng's expression flickered, then he immediately cried out, "Tell me then, Duke of Chun Shen, what do you like me to address you? I'll do as you wish!"
Li Si and Xu Fu's expression flickered as well, and while they were about to dissuade Ying Zheng, Huang Xie had already laughed out in a strange voice, "Tsk, well then, Ying Zheng… Actually, since two thousand years ago, I've long wished to tell you this, but it is too bad that I didn’t have the chance to do it! Tsk... tsk... now, call me 'father', drop to your knees before me, and give me a few kowtows! With that, Chun Shen Kingdom will be yours! Hahaha, my dear boy, come, call me 'father'!"
Ying Zheng's face turned pale green with rage immediately. "Huang Xie! In any way, you're also a hero of the generation. But you... you're not fit to even be a rascal!" Ying Zheng roared furiously. He casually waved his hand, and from the vast black fog behind him, several hundred black thunderbolts, each the size of a water bucket, emerged, and were thrust out together with loud and jarring roars.
Laughing wildly, Huang Xie placed his arm around Yue Tan's waist, suddenly turning into a gust of strong wind and vanished without a trace. Even with Guigu'zi's extraordinary cultivation base, he could not tell what kind of an escape art Huang Xie used to make the escape. Guigu'zi could only feel a slight stir from the surrounding natural energies, and a mild ripple from aura of several tens of thousands of living beings in the surrounding mountain ridges. Just with that, Huang Xie had vanished into thin air, together with Yue Tan and the group of several hundred armored soldiers behind him.
Chi Bin and Lu Mei, two extraordinarily beautiful ladies, exchanged a glance, then raised their hands and clapped lightly at the same time.
With their claps, a heavy rain suddenly poured down from the sky, with tiny snowflakes mixed in the raindrops. In just a blink of an eye, the cold temperature had turned the several hundred miles of flatland into a world of ice and snow. After that, both ladies sighed, together with the group of several dozens serving ladies around them their bodies swayed a little bit, and just like that, they blended themselves into the heavy rains and snow, disappeared without leaving behind any traces.
Guigu'zi cried out abruptly, "This is not an escape art of cultivators, but instead, the barbarian's magic of Ghosts, Deities, and all living things. Compared to the Dharmic Dao techniques used by us, the way they use the natural energies is more direct, more bizarre and unpredictable. These two ladies are two barbarian ladies, not someone who come from the same place as us."
In the meanwhile, Yuji sighed, then raised both arms up in the air. Vaguely, many tiny bright lights were shimmering on her arms. In the next moment, several hundred huge thunder balls fell and landed in her palms, and with a gentle rub of both palms, they turned into nothingness. With that being done, she leaped and landed on a cloud, then slowly flew her way up into the sky towards a far direction.
From behind Xu Fu, a practitioner with mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivation base stepped forward and cried out, "Little woman, do you think you can leave just like that?"
Then, the practitioner leaped out and stretched his hand out, as a black talisman surrounded in flashing electric arcs appeared in his grip. He pointed at Yuji with his finger and roared, "Stay back here! His Majesty lacks someone with extraordinary beauty such as you to fill his palace!"
Yuji laughed coldly, then she disappeared. In the next moment, her splendid stature reappeared behind the back of the practitioner. She thrust her palm out casually, as the little palm of her cut into the body of the practitioner soundlessly, like a hot knife cutting through butter. It went into his dantian and came out from his lower abdomen. Between her slender and delicate fingers was a tiny Nascent Soul, struggling and roaring crazily. Yuji giggled, then exerted her strength and clenched her palm. In an instant, the practitioner's Nascent Soul turned into countless tiny specks and dissipated into thin air.
After that, her body flickered again, and before the raging Xu Fu could strike and intercept her, she had disappeared and reappeared on a mountain peak, one hundred miles away. From afar, she turned to look back, and said with a gentle voice, "The First Emperor of Great Qin, His Majesty Ying Zheng… If Your Majesty wishes to have me as your concubine, Your Majesty just have to defeat my lord, Xiang Yu, as Yuji belongs to my lord. So, unless Your Majesty defeats him, Yuji cannot follow Your Majesty."
After she was done saying that, a faint light flashed from her body, then she vanished without a trace.
Yuyao walked out from Ying Zheng's chariot, looked into the direction where Yuji disappeared, and said coolly, "Over the past two thousand years, Yuyao had been staying together with Yuji and Li Yueyan. Yuji is cultivating with the Celestial Technique of Goddess Xuan that passes down from the ancient time, and she has attained 70% mastery of it. It makes her unable to be drenched by water and burned by fire. No weapons made from metals can hurt her, and no Dharmic Dao spells of five elements can wound her. It is a very magical technique. With just a thought, she can transport herself to a distance of ten thousand miles, and even Nascent Divinity cultivators cannot catch up with her speed by exercising the divine ability of teleportation."
She smiled coolly, and continued in a deep voice, "With her help, Xiang Yu will become a fierce tiger with a pair of wings. Your Majesty, you have to be extra cautious."
"How about that Li Yueyan? What cultivation technique is she practicing?" asked Ying Zheng.
"Over the last two thousand years, Li Yueyan is cultivating with the Heaven Breeding Script of Goddess Su." said Yuyao coolly, "Just as its name implies, this technique allows her to form a pure Yin body of Goddess Su, and the ability to breed the energy of Heavenly Dao. If an ordinary man obtains her body, he will be able to form his Gold Core out of thin air. If an expert such as Huang Xie obtains her body, with the help of that energy of Heavenly Dao, he will most probably break through the realm of Heaven Immortal very quickly. On top of that, that energy will also remold his fleshly body and compact his Nascent Divinity, while his speed of cultivation in the future will also be increased a lot."
Ying Zheng's body turned stiff, looking at Yuyao as she said in a cold voice, "Find a way to capture Li Yueyan alive. I want this energy of Heavenly Dao."
Yuyao nodded lightly and said, "I will find a way. Before Li Yueyan gains control to a certain percentage of power in the Chung Shen Kingdom, she will not let Huang Xie touch her. We still have a chance." A gentle smile emerged on her face as she softly tidied up Ying Zheng's collars and said, "Alright, stop acting like in the past, always wanting to seize any good thing when you see one. Let's settle the business first. Without Xiang Yu here, the combative strength of these mighty soldiers of Xiang Clan has dropped to less than half. We need to take this opportunity to wipe them out."
From inside the Cauldron of Yu came the gurgling noises of water, as it was now fully filled with fresh blood. Countless shadows of aquatic demons and devils the size of sesame seed was seen twisting and struggling on this ocean of blood, letting out faint but audible, long cries.
After leading the mighty army of Xiang Clan in a round of charging and slaughtering, countless condemned prisoners of Great Qin were killed by Xiang Zhuang and his soldiers. Even the group of several dozen condemned prisoners with the cultivation base of Nascent Soul realm were killed by Xiang Zhuang and Xiang Ta. When this mighty army of Xiang Clan lined up in a battle formation, mounted on their single-horned rhinos, though they did not bring together their chariots, the combative strength brought out by them was enough to strike a great fright in their opponent's mind.
It was especially true when Xiang Ta pulled out a long black banner, using it to summon several tens of thousands of undead warriors from the clay city, joining them in slaughtering the enemies. It made the condemned prisoners of Great Qin find it even harder to resist their attacks. Wherever the mighty army of Xiang Clan went, dead bodies would fill the land, while blood spilled and splashed in all directions.
However, all the blood essence of the dead prisoners was gone from their bodies, sucked into the cauldron by Xu Fu and many others using a mystic technique.
More and more prisoners kept running and plunging down from the mountain ridges, pushing and flooding the flatland, charging wildly towards the mighty army of the Xiang Clan.
While coldly watching how those prisoners put out a desperate battle, Ying Zheng suddenly said in an emotionless voice, "That's good enough, Xu Fu, let's do it now. Before these condemned prisoners die, they can provide some contribution to Great Qin. Their visit to this world can be considered to have not been wasted. After they die, absolve the responsibility for their offense."
Xu Fu cupped his fist and answered. After that, a bright gleam shone from his Dharma Eyes of Yin and Yang, while a black rune, flashing with immense evil aura, slowly taken shape between his brows.
Immediately, all the condemned prisoners of Great Qin halted on the spot, even though they were charging at top speed a moment ago. The rune between their brows lit up and blinked, and in the next moment, and their heads exploded at the same time.
Countless flowers of blood bloomed, while the blood essence of these dead prisoners was gone from their bodies and reappeared within the Cauldron of Yu. Their body fluid, their bones, and flesh, were all turned into dark poisonous liquid and shot into the sky, turning into a dark river emitting a pungent smell of herbs, and thrusting toward Xiang Zhuang and the soldiers of Xiang Clan. Xiang Zhuang gave a loud cry immediately, and very quickly, a massive amount of blood-red light burst out from all the mighty soldiers, forming into a layer of blood-red barrier and protecting them within.
The river of dark poisonous liquid smashed onto the blood-red barrier and began corroding it quickly, while depleting the fiend energies in the bodies of Xiang Clan's soldiers at an incredible speed. Amidst the hissing noises, the blood-red barrier became thinner and thinner, and soon, it looked as thin as a sheet of paper. It was about to be broken through by the poisonous liquid that kept pushing and corroding it.
Suddenly a loud clanging noise rang out, as the enormous blood essence accumulated in the Cauldron of Yu transformed abruptly into a stream of massive energy, and was absorbed by all the ferocious and vicious aquatic demons trapped within the cauldron. These aquatic demons had been trapped in the cauldron for unknown ages, and now, each of them raised their heads up and gave out furious cries into the sky. After they absorbed and digested the energies transformed from the blood essences, they opened their mouths and sprayed out a stream of prime demon energy.
The pitch-dark and glossy demon energies towered into the sky, channeled into the bodies of eight flood dragons and one serpent who kept wheeling and slithering behind Ying Zheng's back.
In an instant, the bodies of eight flood dragons and one serpent, which were about one thousand feet long originally, expanded and stretched to three thousand feet long. No matter it was the size of their bodies or their aggressive aura, both had taken a huge leap. In the meanwhile, the energy ripples emanating from Ying Zheng's body became like the billowing waves of a stormy ocean. The vast and endless energy ripples transformed into dark mists that one could see with naked eyes, rolling and rocking out from Ying Zheng's body.
Using the blood essence from several millions of condemned prisoners as the sacrificial offering, and with the help of the mighty power from the Cauldron of Yu, Ying Zheng had forcibly increased his cultivation base to a stage very close to the Heaven Immortal Realm.
Ying Zheng threw his head back and laughed aloud, then casually threw the Sword of Qin Emperor out into the air. Immediately, the glittering sword transformed into a flood dragon that stretched one thousand feet long, then abruptly dispersed and turned into countless golden sword beams, piercing through the air and thrusting towards the mighty army of Xiang Clan on the ground. "Nine Dragons Cauldron Grand Magic, Six-Directions Sword Strikes!" Ying Zheng cried loudly and sternly.
Countless golden sword beams blanketed the land one thousand miles in circumference. The wind and clouds changed their colors, as the surrounding natural energies were completely absorbed by these sword energies. Between the Heaven and Earth, there was no other aura that one could sense, and no other light that one could see. In the eyes of all people in the area, only Ying Zheng's energy of the black dragon, and the golden sword beams that blotted the sky were visible.
The army of undead warriors were smashed and ripped into pieces by the sword beams, as the mighty soldier of Xiang Clan had their bodies sliced and hacked into shreds amidst the golden tidal waves one after another. Packs after packs of single-horned rhinos raised their head and let out miserable howls into the sky, trying their best to charge out from the area covered by the deadly sword beams. Yet, it seemed to them that the sword beams were everywhere and covered everything. Eventually, all single-horned rhinos were thrown to the ground while coughing blood, and very soon, their bones, flesh, and souls were all shattered by the formidable sword beams.
Xiang Zhuang, Xiang Ta, and many captains of Xiang Clan roared and sprung up into the sky, kindled their fiend energy pearls, trying to defend against these sword beams that seemed to cover a boundless area.
But, when the sword beams flashed by, Xiang Zhuang, Xiang Ta, and their comrades were immediately covered in blood and fell to the ground. Xiang Ta roared furiously. Without hesitation, he threw out a dozen talismans made using bamboo plates, transforming them into a large sheet of green light that enveloped all the loyal captains and private guards of Xiang Clan, and immediately vanished into thin air.
Less than three thousand captains and soldiers of Xiang Clan managed to escape, while all the remaining soldiers of Xiang Clan were killed by a single sword strike from Ying Zheng.