荔枝影院

Edited by: Michyrr

“Great Minister, for what reason have you come to visit so late at night?” Abu Muslim asked, creasing his brow almost imperceptibly.

Although he wasn’t exactly annoyed by Dalun Ruozan and the Tibetans, Arabs were Arabs while Tibetans were Tibetans. This was also one of the reasons he had never invited Dalun Ruozan to one of these conferences.

“Haha, since Lord Governor has asked, Dalun Ruozan will not stand on ceremony.”

Dalun Ruozan faintly smiled, a lackadaisical look on his face. By just sweeping his eyes over the people in the tent, he immediately knew what was going on.

“If Dalun Ruozan has guessed correctly, Lord Governor is planning to withdraw westward to Samarkand.”

The tent immediately became much quieter. To be exposed in front of outsiders was truly very uncomfortable.

“Correct! We had this plan in mind. This war is already over. Even if we remain, we are not guaranteed to defeat the Tang!”

Abu Muslim spoke bluntly. At this stage in the war, there was nothing to hide.

“Haha, is it because you don’t have enough soldiers?” Dalun Ruozan leisurely asked.

“Not entirely, though it is one of the reasons,” Abu Muslim calmly replied. “With the soldiers we have, we simply cannot break the enemy formation. All we will do by remaining is add to our losses!”

Frankly speaking, he was rather suspicious as to why Dalun Ruozan had suddenly come in the middle of the night to ask these questions. But he managed to restrain himself. He had some understanding of Dalun Ruozan and knew him to be a wise and farsighted minister of Ü-Tsang. He must have had his reasons for such questions.

But Abu Muslim had no idea what they were, and he was actually rather curious to know. Just what did this Great Minister of Ü-Tsang want at this stage of the war? Had the Tsenpo of Ü-Tsang finally decided on a full mobilization? But wasn’t Ü-Tsang currently experiencing a shortage of soldiers?

“If that is all, then Dalun Ruozan has a way to help Lord Governor break the formation! I believe that Lord Governor has no need to withdraw so hastily!”

Dalun Ruozan smiled.

Buzz!

The mood in the tent suddenly shifted as everyone trembled in shock. Aybak, Osman, Abu Muslim, Ziyad, and even the Governor of War appeared to be interested and turned to look at Dalun Ruozan.

None of them had ever paid much regard to the Tibetan leader, but they would have to rethink their view if he really had a way to deal with the formation.

“Heh!”

Dalun Ruozan grinned as if expecting this reaction from the Arab generals.

In the end, no one understood the Great Tang more than him.

“What method do you have?”

An aloof voice spoke. Qutaybah had now taken the role as the speaker for the Arabs.

“Lord Qutaybah, I know that your greatest concern at this time is the Great Tang’s black-robed elder. In truth, I have a way to help you deal with him, but I will require your assistance!” Dalun Ruozan said with a smile.

Bang!

Everyone reeled in shock at these words, with even Qutaybah raising a brow. Even someone as proud and conceited as Qutaybah had to admit that the black-robed elder possessed a strength like nothing he had seen before. For this Tibetan to say that he had a method to deal with this elder was simply impossible to believe.

“Dusong Mangpoje, bring that thing up.”

Taking in the reaction of the Arabs, Dalun Ruozan gestured to Dusong Mangpoje. A moment later, there was a cling

as Dusong Mangpoje strode forward and placed down a small fist-sized bell, covered with complicated and mysterious inscriptions, causing it to jingle melodiously.

The Arabs appeared doubtful as they looked at the bell.

“What is this?”

Unable to suppress his curiosity, Aybak was the first to break the silence.

“This is a ritual tool passed down through our Great Snow Mountain Holy Temple. It has a history of nearly one thousand years. It is able to imprison an opponent no matter how strong they are,” Dalun Ruozan explained. As he spoke, he gestured again to Dusong Mangpoje.

Bang!

The latter immediately understood and stepped forward while chanting a mantra. There was a large boom, and then the fist-sized golden bell flew more than ten feet into the air, erupting with tremendous energy that engulfed the entire tent.

Thumpthumpthump!

Everyone grimaced as their bodies exploded with energy to resist the golden bell’s dreadful power. But even the likes of Abu Muslim and Aybak were forced back several steps by this destructive energy. Not only that, as they were attempting to resist the golden bell’s power, all of them could hear the clattering of metal.

A second later, as everyone looked on in shock, the table of Deep Sea Xuan Metal that Aybak had slammed his palm on was slowly dragged into the air by some enormous power. It rapidly began to turn, and then in the blink of an eye, it had been crushed into a ball of scrap metal.

Immediately after, in a spray of fiery light, the table fell to the ground in a shower of metal pieces.

Whoosh! A moment later, a thick and vigorous palm reached out. The golden bell in the air seemed to lose all its power and dropped into Dusong Mangpoje’s palm.

“My apologies!”

After saying this, Dusong Mangpoje put away the bell and retreated behind Dalun Ruozan, caring little about whether he had been understood.

The storm had come quickly and left quickly. The golden bell’s strength had vanished and everything had calmed down, but it had left the tent battle-scarred and Aybak and the others rather bedraggled. At first, they had believed that Dalun Ruozan had been exaggerating his words, but they now began to take him more seriously.

“All of you have seen the power of this ritual tool, and this is only its first level of power. If its full power had been used, the place you are standing would probably be scorched earth. In addition, our strength alone is somewhat insufficient for using this ritual tool. Lord Qutaybah and that black-robed elder are simply too powerful. We have no opportunity to get close, so we naturally cannot use the ritual tool. Thus, in this aspect, I am afraid that we will require Lord Qutaybah to work with us to create an opportunity.”

Dalun Ruozan scanned the crowd as he seriously spoke.

Dalun Ruozan’s words caused everyone to fall silent. Anyone who had seen the battle between Qutaybah and the Demonic Emperor Old Man would never doubt his words. Those two were simply too powerful. The energy unleashed by the pair had created a sandstorm that had turned the area around them into a zone of destruction.

Even a Great General would think twice when confronting this kind of power. Even before they could get close, they would probably be severely wounded by the shockwaves.

“Very well!”

Qutaybah gave a rare expression of approval.

Dalun Ruozan smiled at these words.

“There is one more matter. Dalun Ruozan has another plan to turn our defeat into a victory! But I will need all of us to cooperate with each other. Only with everyone’s assistance can Dalun Ruozan be confident in bringing about the ultimate victory! And all the generals can return to Samarkand in victory, not defeat!”

Dalun Ruozan then explained his plan to the assembled generals. Though everyone originally had their misgivings about Dalun Ruozan’s words, after hearing the plan, even the heavily injured Osman, who wanted to retreat the most and whose army was in the worst state, couldn’t help but feel revitalized.

Osman clenched his fists and said, “Great Minister, can we trust in you? If it really is as you say and this plan really can succeed, then this battle will result in certain victory for us!”

Dalun Ruozan silently smiled.

Everyone else in the tent appeared relieved, all their worries swept away.

“Let us now discuss the specific tactics for this battle!”

Still smiling, Dalun Ruozan extracted the map of the continent from his sleeve and spread it out on a table.

Around him, Abu Muslim, Osman, Aybak, and even Qutaybah walked over and began to participate in the discussion.

Though there had been some distance between these three parties, their commanders were now gathered together in the spirit of true cooperation, and all the gaps between them instantly disappeared.

......

As Dalun Ruozan and the others were gathered together to discuss the tactics for the coming battle, back in the main reception hall of Talas, Wang Chong, Gao Xianzhi, Banahan, the Gangke King, and all the others were gathered together in a tense atmosphere.

In the brightly-lit hall, Xi Yuanqing slammed his palm against a table and solemnly said, “The eagle team has already sent word that the Arabs have still not retreated. They clearly haven’t given up on attacking. Once they’ve finished reconsolidating and steadied their steps, they will definitely come back!”

Everyone else in the room showed similarly anxious expressions.

“What are you afraid of? We’ve defeated them once, so we can defeat them again! I don’t believe we need to be afraid of them with the Nine Dragon Blood War Banner on our side!” Lou Shiyi angrily said, his face red.

“Shiyi, it’s not that simple. You heard what Lord Wang said. Venerable Senior Zhang is not in good condition, and his body cannot endure a protracted battle. We can only hope that Qutaybah hasn’t realized this. Moreover, we can’t be certain that the Arabs don’t have any reinforcements. Each day that Qutaybah remains alive is another day where we are in grave danger,” Cheng Qianli explained.