荔枝影院

Edited by: Michyrr

Rumble! Vast amounts of Stellar Energy surged within Zhao Fengchen’s body, moving faster and faster, and Zhao Fengchen’s aura continued to swell.

When his Stellar Energy circulation reached its maximum speed, there was an enormous boom. In that moment, a vast blue energy exploded out from Zhao Fengchen’s head and into the sky.

From a distance, it was possible to see that this blue beam of energy had pierced through the roof of the hall and straight into the heavens. It seemed as sturdy and as heavy as steel, causing the ground in this northwest corner of the Imperial Palace to tremble.

After some time, that enormous pillar of energy slowly faded and everything returned to serenity. At this moment, Zhao Fengchen finally opened his eyes.

“Alas, just a little bit short...”

A bright light flashed through Zhao Fengchen’s eyes as he slowly retracted his energy and dropped down from the air.

Clang! Zhao Fengchen reached out his hand, and the Wootz Steel saber behind him immediately buzzed and flew into it as if it had a life of its own. The weight of that saber and that feeling like it was an extension of his body made Zhao Fengchen smile with pride.

Earth’s Scar!

This was the name of the Wootz Steel saber Wang Chong had forged for him.

An ancient and powerful technique had been passed on through the generations of the Zhao Clan that only the people of Zhao Clan could cultivate. But even so, cultivating this technique was still extremely difficult. Only those of the Zhao Clan with a special bloodline trait had the ability to cultivate this technique.

Zhao Fengchen was the only member of his clan in the last one hundred years with this trait. But this ancient technique was so overbearing that Zhao Fengchen had been unable to find any saber or sword in the capital that could suit it. The precious swords and sabers of the great clans would explode into pieces from the tyrannical Stellar Energy of the technique before Zhao Fengchen had even finished cultivating half of the technique.

There had been cases where the swords and sabers of the capital had broken, but none had exploded into pieces in any other circumstance. From this, one could easily imagine just how overbearing and tyrannical Zhao Fengchen’s technique was.

This was the reason Zhao Fengchen bought so many swords and sabers in the capital. All of them had let him down, until he met Wang Chong and Earth’s Scar.

This saber had finally allowed Zhao Fengchen to break through the bottleneck and display his powerful talent in martial arts. In this short year, his strength had risen by leaps and bounds to its current astonishing level, and he had even attained the rank of Marshal within the Imperial Army. Zhao Fengchen was bursting with gratitude toward Wang Chong!

It seems like I will need a very long time to finally break into the Great General level! Zhao Fengchen said to himself.

He had reached the Brigadier General level long ago, after which he had put all his strength into breaking into the Great General level. Alas, he had failed time and time again. The gap between Great General and Brigadier General didn’t seem very big, but Zhao Fengchen was well aware that it was not something as simple as distance. It was not something that could be overcome through enough effort or Stellar Energy.

Flapflap! His silent stupor was suddenly broken by the flapping of wings. With merely a thought from Zhao Fengchen, the door to the hall opened with a thump, upon which a black eagle flew in.

“It’s a letter from the Grand Marshal!”

Just a glance at the eagle was enough for Zhao Fengchen to come to this realization, and he swiftly opened the letter tied to its leg. He was at first dazed by the contents of this letter, but then he gave a knowing smile.

“Wang Chong, it seems like I’m going to meet you very soon.”

With this smile on his face, Zhao Fengchen quickly left the hall.

“Pass on my order! All members of the Xuanwu Army, prepare to move out!”

A few moments later, the most unique unit in the one hundred thousand soldiers of the Imperial Army began to move.

Rumble!

A few hours later, the western gates of the Imperial Palace, which had never been opened before, suddenly flew apart. The earth began to shake as if invisible giants were slamming their hands against the ground. In the blink of an eye, a massive black flood had poured out of the gates, thousands of black-armored imperial soldiers howling forth.

Unlike the other imperial soldiers, their armor gave off a mighty and serene aura, as well as a sensation of incredible weight. Each suit of armor seemed to be at least twice the weight of the armor that normal imperial soldiers wore. Just wearing this armor would probably consume a great deal of strength, much less fighting in it.

But these black-armored imperial soldiers appeared to feel nothing at all.

As dust churned and the earth rumbled, the eight thousand soldiers sallied forth from the gate. At that moment, the rest of the world was silent, bereft of birds and beasts. Even the insects down below seemed to have burrowed away out of fear.

“This... Why have I never seen this unit of the Imperial Army before?”

“What an impressive aura! These fellows are quite strong!”

“Shhh! Be quiet! Don’t you see the look in their eyes?”

The peddlers and civilians on the road backed up in fear at the approach of these soldiers. Those who had lived long in the capital knew the Imperial Army like the back of their hand, but they had never seen or heard of this unit of soldiers.

But despite the ruckus of the crowd, these eight thousand imperial soldiers retained an absolute calm. In their advance, the only sound was that of the warhorses.

In just a few moments, the eight thousand soldiers had vanished into the city like ghosts.

......

Meanwhile, at Imperial Heaven Pillar Mountain one hundred li from the capital, a secret stone gate at the back of the mountain opened. A few moments later, around four thousand soldiers marched out of the mountainside. These four thousand soldiers had pale complexions, and their bodies exploded with a sharp and fierce energy, like swords unsheathed.

If one looked carefully, one would realize that every step these people took left deep sword slashes on the ground. Moreover, the auras exuded by these four thousand soldiers were exactly alike. They had clearly undergone the same training and cultivated the same technique.

As these people walked, the expressions on their faces were identical. One had the intimidating sensation that all of them were a part of a single person.

It didn’t take long for the four thousand men to completely emerge and stand motionless in front of the mountain.

“Soldiers are trained for a thousand days to be used in a single moment. I presume that you all understand what today means.”

Wang Chong’s little uncle Wang Mi, dressed in full armor, stood in front of the stone gate, his eyes slowly surveying the soldiers.

“Eight months is already up. Now is the time for all of you to leave the mountain and test your skills, to let the world and our enemies experience your capabilities! Do you understand?”

His stentorian voice resounded over the mountain.

“Yes!!”

The four thousand soldiers all got down on one knee and lowered their heads. The air buzzed as they roared as one, four thousand men condensed into a single whole. Energy gathered above these soldiers, forming into an enormous saber ten-some zhang tall.

This saber was broad and enormous, and so sharp and fierce that it seemed capable of cleaving open the heavens.

Wang Mi gave a satisfied nod. Suddenly, he began to think back to Wang Chong’s words when he first began to train this group of soldiers.

‘Little Uncle, this unit of soldiers is extremely important to me! This scroll is the technique they should cultivate. Have them cultivate it day and night, and don’t have them train in anything else. I hope that an entirely new force of soldiers can be trained, and in the future, I will need them for an extremely important occasion. Little Uncle, I entrust this to you!’

At that time, Wang Chong had been standing in front of a bamboo forest with an extremely solemn expression on his face.

At that time, Wang Mi had seemed to be infected by this solemnity and had nodded his head. Wang Mi hadn’t understood what Wang Chong was talking about back then, but when he had trained the soldiers up to a certain level and had begun to train with them, he had finally understood.

Wang Chong had entrusted him with an exceptionally powerful unit of soldiers to be trained at Imperial Heaven Pillar Mountain. And now was the time to reap the harvest.

Hiss!

Wang Mi took in a deep breath as he came to his senses.

“Prepare armor for them. They need to be ready to move out in three days!” Wang Mi said without turning his head.

“As you command, Milord!” an instructor of Imperial Heaven Pillar Mountain replied.

Several hours later, all four thousand men were equipped, and set off like a storm sweeping out from Imperial Heaven Pillar Mountain.

“Chong-er, this is all your little uncle can help you with. I’ve helped you train this Divine Prison Army. Take it as a gift from your uncle. The rest is up to you!”

Wang Mi watched from midway up the mountain as the army marched away.

......

As the eight thousand soldiers of the Xuanwu Army trained by Zhao Fengchen and Li Lin as well as the four thousand soldiers of the Divine Prison Army departed from the capital toward the Western Regions, night fell. The entire capital was quiet, everyone sound asleep. Very few people knew that outside that most admired and most unique place in the capital, the Su Residence, around four thousand people dressed in simple clothes were silently waiting for orders, their heads lowered to the ground.

This estate was more than one hundred years old, and many areas were already showing signs of decay. But to the military and all soldiers, this place was a true holy land.

Because this place was home to the legendary War God, Su Zhengchen.

As the night deepened, a chill began to set in.

The four thousand people were dressed in thin clothes, but they remained motionless out of fear of disturbing the person within the residence. They even sought to suppress their breathing so that there was no sound except that of the cold wind.

After they had stood outside for some time, finally...

“Come in!”

An elderly voice came from within, flat and dry, like the voice of an ordinary old man on the street. Creeeak! As the old man spoke, the side gate of the Su Residence opened. Several figures amongst the four thousand could no longer hold themselves back and raised their reddened faces in excitement.