Chapter 212: True Martial Realm Halo!
Klang!
The ringing cry of a sword sounded. Beneath the massive white tiger statue at the peak of the mountain, Wang Chong drew his sword and executed his Single Character Consecutive Slash.
Shua! Slashing about rapidly, Wang Chong’s two arms turned into four, and eventually into six.
Aooooo!
A desolate howl of agony sounded, and the six Turk wolves surrounding Wang Chong previously immediately fell to the ground.
Shua shua shua!
Driving the potential of his Single Character Consecutive Slash to the maximum, Wang Chong danced amongst the wolf packs, leaving carcasses in his wake. Every single time his Wootz steel sword was raised, six wolves would fall.
In a short moment, a river of blood formed in Wang Chong’s surroundings. The bodies of giant wolves filled the surroundings, and the crowded mountain peak suddenly cleared up.
In terms of efficiency in slaying these wolf packs, Wang Chong was even more formidable than Zhao Jingdian, Zhuang Zhengping, and the others combined.
This was the might displayed when the Hexad Arms Technique and Single Character Consecutive Slash were used together.
Xiu!
As Wang Chong was in the midst of his slaughter, a piercing sound suddenly streaked across the sky. In the depths of the darkness, a furiously rotating thick wolf fang arrow tore through the aether, headed toward Wang Chong.
“Be careful!”
An anxious voice sounded. It was Chen Burang.
In that blink of an eye, Wang Chong turned his head around, only to see Chen Burang’s head appearing from the tattered room.
And at the same time, as swift as a bolt of lightning, a wolf fang arrow fell from the sky.
Klang klang klang!
There wasn’t any time to think then. Wang Chong’s Wootz steel sword immediately divided into six, repeatedly striking the wolf fang arrow that plunged toward him.
Hong!
Back in the room, Wang Chong was unable to get a clear gauge. However, now clashing with the arrow directly, he finally understood how powerful these master archers were.
When the Wootz steel sword struck the wolf fang arrow, Wang Chong felt as though he was striking a steel mountain. His hands went numb and a sweet taste regurgitated in his throat. Not only did the Wootz steel sword fail to split the wolf fang arrow, the immense force of the latter even blasted him out.
Hong, Wang Chong skidded more than ten zhang away. He tumbled and rolled all the way to the bottom of a zhang deep depression, barely escaping with his life from this crisis.
(~3m)
“That was a close shot!”
Wang Chong’s heart was pounding frantically as he slid into the depression. This was his first direct clash with master archers in this life, and he could tell that the reason why he couldn’t break that arrow wasn’t due to the resilience of the arrow but that the Origin Energy imbued inside it was far greater than his.
Archers would infuse their Origin Energy into the arrows they shot, making it impossible for an ordinary man to cut their arrow apart.
Xiu!
At the moment when Wang Chong slid into the depression, in the distance, from Chen Burang’s room, a torrent of arrows shot out, headed toward the direction where that arrow from before came from.
At this crucial moment, Zhou Huang made a move.
In an instant, the surroundings fell silent. There was nothing to back up his conjecture, but Wang Chong instinctively sensed that the opposing master archers had lost one more of their comrade.
Xiu xiu xiu!
However, not too long after Zhou Huang made a move, innumerable arrows whizzed through the sky, covering the area where Chen Burang and Zhou Huang were stationed.
“This is a good chance!”
Making use of the opportunity where the attention of the master archers were focused on Zhou Huang and Chen Burang, Wang Chong leaped out from the depression.
As soon as he got out, he flicked a few wooden panels up with his sword.
Peng!
At the same moment, an arrow whizzed through the air, crushing the wooden panels Wang Chong flicked up just a moment ago into dust. On the other hand, making use of the momentum from this strike, Wang Chong rolled into the depths of one of the buildings.
Wolf carcasses were stacked up high in this building.
“Safe!”
Kneeling on the floor, Wang Chong glanced outside and heaved a long sigh of relief. Even though he had made many preparations and countermeasures, White Tiger Peak was still filled with danger.
“I can only hope that Zhao Qianqiu and Zhou Huang can work together to free us of the threat from the hostile master archers.”
Glancing outside the door, Wang Chong thought.
At this moment, Zhao Qianqiu’s greatest advantage lay in the fact that no one had noticed him yet. As long as he worked exactly as Wang Chong said and hid below the belly of the horse, he would be able to cover countless li in an instant, thus swiftly reaching the master archers.
And getting into proximity, he would be able to clear the master archers one by one.
Zhao Qianqiu was the instructor in charge of imparting ‘Art of Commanding’. Even though he had been hiding his true strength, Wang Chong knew that as long as the latter was given a chance, he would be more than capable of breaking them out of this crisis.
The loud ruckus outside formed a stark contrast against the silence within the hall.
Just as Wang Chong was contemplating over the current circumstance, a bizarre feeling suddenly crept into his heart. Somehow, the surroundings suddenly felt even more hushed than before.
For an instant, Wang Chong even felt that the sounds of fighting, screams of agony, and cracklings of flame had vanished. Time seemed to have come to a halt at this moment, bringing complete silence to the world.
“This is?”
Taken aback, a frown appeared on Wang Chong’s forehead. Instinctively, he felt that there was something wrong. However, the true eeriness had yet to come.
The hall should have been completely dark, but instead, a faint ghostly green light had suddenly come into appearance.
Light of this hue shouldn’t appear here. There was the silver gleam from the clash of swords, crimson glow from the blood of the wolves, and orange incandescence from the flames in the forest. However, there should be nothing here that would produce a green light.
As that light flashed across his eyes, Wang Chong instinctively lowered his head. He had finally identified the origin of the green light.
The light appeared from one end of the hall and, after passing by Wang Chong, disappeared at the other end. Taking a closer look, Wang Chong could see the shadows of countless interweaving thorns within the light.
A profusion of sabers and swords were evenly interspersed amongst the thorns.
“Halo of Thorns!”
Wang Chong suddenly realized what the green light was.
This was the halo of a True Martial realm cultivator!
To his left, beyond the wall, a True Martial realm cultivator was currently walking toward him. The two of them were only separated by a single wall.
Wang Chong immediately sensed grave danger, and his hair stood on end from the dense aura of death lingering in the air,
Peng!
He immediately pushed his left palm against the floor and charged in the direction opposite of the Halo of Thorns.
Words couldn’t begin to describe how swiftly everything occurred. Just as Wang Chong leaped away, boom! The wall on the left suddenly burst apart, and the Halo of Thorns seemed to turn tangible all of a sudden. It blew through the separating space and pierced past where Wang Chong was standing a moment before.
Chi! The air was ripped apart as though thousands of blades were slashing through it. The immense burst of force passed by Wang Chong’s feet by a close shave.
If his reaction was slower by even a millisecond, he would definitely have been torn apart by that fierce sharp halo.
“Lad, your reflexes are not bad!”
A deep and wild voice echoed from beyond the hall. This wasn’t in the language of the Central Plains that Wang Chong was used to but in the tongue of the Goguryeons.
Boom!
Three long sabers stabbed out from beyond the wall as though treacherous serpents. With might threatening to tear even the skies apart, they charged furiously at Wang Chong.
Left with minimal time to react, Wang Chong only managed to tilt his Wootz steel sword to face the three sabers of the Goguryeon.
“Strong!”
A mist of blood burst from Wang Chong’s arm. The strength exerted by the Goguryeon was reminiscent of powerful primal beasts, causing the capillaries on his arm to rupture.
Hong long! Wang Chong, along with his sword, was sent flying backward. He crashed through the wall and landed heavily on the ground in the alley behind the building.
“Gongzi!”
An anxious voice sounded. Behind the fallen wall, Zhao Jingdian’s silhouette appeared. Beside him were more than a dozen Imperial Army guards and instructors.
——This happened to be the second fortress that Wang Chong decided upon.
Right as Wang Chong was sent flying, the Goguryeon expert also appeared in the hall. He had a toned body and unkempt hair. The three weapons he grasped in his hands bore testimony to his identity as a Goguryeon.
However, the trait about him that left the deepest impression was his deep and savage eyes. They were reminiscent of a wolf, filled with stark ambitions and fighting will.
“What is that weapon? To think that it would be so formidable!”
The Goguryeon expert didn’t rush into battle. Both his hands were wielding a saber each, and the third one was clamped beneath his right armpit.
There weren’t many who fought in such a manner in the Central Plains.
However, at the current moment, the tip of his three weapons had fragmented. They were sliced off by Wang Chong’s Wootz steel sword in the previous face off.
“Hmph!”
The Goguryeon expert threw the three weapons to the side and drew another three weapons from the sheaths hanging by his waist.
For a person to actually bring six sabers to a fight, only the Goguryeons would go to such an extent.
Often, this trait of theirs caught the experts of the Central Plains off guard.
“Ignore that lad for now. Break the walls in the region, slaughter the Great Tang Imperial Army guards, and eradicate that master archer! Clear away all of the barriers standing in our path, and more importantly, make sure not to leave a single breathing recruit behind!”
That Goguryeon expert ordered.
Hong long!
That green Halo of Thorns shone once more, and the air within dozens of zhang of the Goguryeon expert suddenly whistled sharply. At the same time, he lifted his three sabers and created a huge storm of deadly sword qi, aimed straight at the crowd beyond the wall.
Behind him, more than a dozen Goguryeon warriors charged forward. They shared the same look of ambition and savagery as their leader, and they were wielding two to three swords or sabers as well.
“Kill them!”
A loud bellow sounded, tremoring the heavens. The dozen or so Goguryeon warriors advanced behind the Goguryeon expert as they headed for the crowd beyond the wall.
At the same time, the faces of the Imperial Army guards and instructors went cold as they readied their weapons, preparing themselves for a brutal battle.
The tense atmosphere at the second fortress suddenly reached its peak!