荔枝影院

Edited by: Michyrr

The tension in Khorasan was increasing by the day. All of Arabia watched that infamous governor, and their gazes slowly gathered around this city.

Ten days later!

The final flood of steel, one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers burning with the flames of war, appeared at Khorasan.

Buzz!

As that golden and dazzling figure riding upon a white horse appeared, a god viewing the world with disdain, even Aybak and Osman felt somewhat stifled and fearful.

“Let’s go!”

A cold voice came from behind that mask the golden-armored man wore. He turned his horse, and without even a moment of delay, he had passed through Khorasan and set off for the Black Forest, onward to Talas.

A mighty torrent of cavalry followed him like most obedient slaves, not daring to fall behind!

......

As the Arab army finally departed Khorasan for the front lines, countless eagles and messenger birds scattered in all directions. Within the Arabian Empire, countless nobles, governors, generals, and even the Caliph in Baghdad were paying attention to this unprecedented mobilization eastward.

Flap flap! An Arabian hunting falcon descended into the Tibetan camp like a bolt of lightning and landed on Dalun Ruozan’s outstretched arm.

“Haha, so quickly! They’ve finally begun to move.”

Dalun Ruozan faintly smiled at the letter in his hand.

The letter had been sent from the Black Forest by Abu Muslim. An army of more than three hundred thousand Arab reinforcements, two governors, and the tens of thousands of militia they had recruited along the way were proceeding toward the Black Forest, an army of unprecedented size in Arabian history. The strength of this army was not only enough to influence this Battle of Talas, but the entire east as well, including the Great Tang.

“Perhaps I should adjust my goal. We might be able to finish it all in a single breath and conquer the entire Central Plains.”

A bright light flashed through Dalun Ruozan’s eyes as his fingers came together and pulverized Abu Muslim’s letter.

Four hundred thousand Arab cavalry together with the reinforcements from Ü-Tsang meant that their alliance now had more than five hundred thousand soldiers and seven experts of the Great General level. This power far surpassed that of the Mengshe–Ü-Tsang army that had gathered by the Erhai. Never in Dalun Ruozan’s life had he assembled such a powerful army before.

“Inform Duwu Sili to gather the army and prepare for battle!”

Dalun Ruozan turned his head and waved to a nearby messenger.

“Yes!”

The messenger immediately left. After watching him leave, Dalun Ruozan slowly turned to the two Great Generals next to him.

“Have you prepared yourselves for the final battle?”

Huoshu Huicang and Dusong Mangpoje said nothing, only heavily nodded their heads, their eyes shining with resolve.

The two both understand what Dalun Ruozan meant. This was the final battle, their last chance to alter the balance of power between the Great Tang and Ü-Tsang. They would either emerge victorious or die trying!

“Assemble the army!”

As Dalun Ruozan issued this order, a mighty storm erupted from the Tibetan camp, set to sweep over the entire world. This was foreordained to be a war that would shake the foundations of the entire eastern world.

Kacrack!

As the Tibetan army began to move, a thick lightning bolt flashed across the skies. A few moments later, dark clouds had gathered and the air over Talas began to grow tense.

......

Flap flap! It was only a few moments later that a hunting falcon delivered to Wang Chong the news from Khorasan.

It was the Arabs!

Wang Chong felt his heart sink as he read through the letter.

The day had finally come!

Governor Qutaybah of Tarsus, Governor Osman of Cairo, the elite Mamelukes of the Arabian Empire, and an army of three to four hundred thousand were making their way to Talas. This destined war was finally going to begin.

“Take this letter to Protector-General Gao Xianzhi. Pass on my order for the soldiers to be ready for battle at any time!”

After saying these words, Wang Chong left his room and headed for Talas’s western training ground.

Boom!

The air roared and boomed as fierce streams of air raged above this training ground. In the middle of this enormous aura, one could clearly see ten thousand dazzling saber slashes.

After one month, the Mo Saber Unit had finally taken shape!

......

Tension began to saturate the air of Talas, but Talas was far from the only place affected by this coming war.

In the Great Tang’s southeast was a land of lush and ancient forests that grew along an undulating landscape. Here was an enormous mountain range that spanned a hundred and sixty or so kilometers. The beasts were especially wild in this extremely remote region, and people did not come here under normal circumstances. But to a certain group of people, this long mountain range was a holy land.

“Grandpa, have you found the dragon’s head and the dragon’s lair yet?”

A crisp and young voice sounded through this lush forest. In the middle of these green shrubs, one could see a child of seven or eight riding on a black ox. The black ox had a glossy coat, and Stellar Energy was circulating through its body, indicating that it was clearly abnormal.

“Haha, soon, soon.”

A blue-clothed elder with a beard parted three ways was walking in front of the ox. One hand held a bronze compass while the other hand stroked his beard. His eyes were constantly inspecting his surroundings as if this world was his to command.

This was a practitioner of Fengshui and geomancy, a plain-clothed fortune teller!

In the Great Tang, there was a group skilled in geomancy, who observed the topography of the land and followed the direction of the earth’s Dragon Qi. They were also known as mystics.

They were reclusive people who would only emerge into the world at special times. They spent the rest of their time observing the environment and the Dragon Qi of the Central Plains.

A few moments later, the pointer on the bronze compass suddenly shifted to a certain direction. At almost the same time, this mystical elder chuckled and pointed a finger at a cliff in the distance, surrounded by clouds.

“Haha, found it!”

From this distance, the cliff appeared to be just like a dragon turning its head as it coiled on the earth in slumber.

“Grandpa, did you really find it? Are we going to set up a Daoist temple here?” the child asked.

“Hahaha, Little Yun, that’s right. Once your grandpa finds the dragon’s den, we’ll set up a wooden hut here and stand guard over the entire dragon vein. What do you think about that?”

(TN: In Chinese geomancy, dragon veins are mountain ranges which represent the flow of energy through the earth. The place where this energy gathers is called the dragon’s den.)

The elder turned around and pinched the child’s cheeks affectionately.

Buzz!

Just as this grandfather was talking to his grandson, the enormous cliff that was the dragon’s head suddenly began to tremble, rocks rolling from its side. The white clouds that had gathered around the mountain were seemingly pushed away and began to disperse.

“This... What’s going on here?”

The elder turned his head in shock and astonishment.

The dragon’s head was where a dragon vein’s spiritual energy was located. These dragon veins would rarely move for centuries, even over a thousand years, much less experience such intense changes like this.

“Grandpa!”

The child on the ox noticed something else and pointed at the bronze compass, his eyes wide open. The elder turned in astonishment to his compass and realized that it had begun to rapidly spin.

Boom!

There was another heaven-shaking boom as the cliff where the dragon’s head was located collapsed before the pair, dissolving into a mass of gravel.

“The dragon vein suddenly moved! What... what’s going on!”

The blue-clothed elder felt like he had been struck by lightning.

The land of the Nine Provinces was home to many ancient mountain ranges, with an extremely small number of them having come to be known as ‘dragon veins’. The dragon veins would remain unchanged for centuries, and such cases like this where the dragon returned to heaven were extremely rare. Each time, they indicated that the Central Plains was about to experience a massive transformation.

Roooar!

As the elder’s mind whirred, a thunderous dragon roar resounded through the sky. The gravel where the dragon head had collapsed had not continued to drop to the ground. Instead, some invisible energy caused it to seethe and soar into the air.

An even more astonishing transformation ensued. As the elder and child watched, a massive dragon extended out of the mountain, raising its head as it rose into the sky.

This dragon was formed from dust, gravel, and the world’s Origin Energy. It had horns, eyes, scales, a tail... All of it was there in breathtaking detail.

Before this enormous dragon, the elder and child were tiny ants. The winds howled as a storm seemed to descend. All the trees and rocks trembled and shuddered in fear of this berserk energy while the birds took flight. Many earthbound beasts also took fright and began to charge out of the forests.

At this moment, the entire world quivered before the majestic pressure of this dragon.

But the child sitting on the ox had forgotten his fear. He looked up together with the elder, almost forgetting to breathe.

In the air, that enormous dragon formed from Dragon Qi raised its head up to the air as it struggled and howled. It appeared to be in terrible pain.

“Grandpa, why is the dragon in pain?”

He looked up to the sky in a daze. This child had been taught a great deal about geomancy and had read many books on dragon veins, but nothing he had read or heard from his grandfather had described anything like this.

But the blue-clothed elder was so agitated that he couldn’t even hear what the child was saying. There was only one thought left in his mind.

A dragon turns its head every hundred years; the Divine Land1 experiences a shift every thousand years!

As the elder looked up at the sky, a deep fear appeared in his eyes.

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1. The Divine Land and the Nine Provinces are both names for China/Central Plains.↩