荔枝影院

Edited by: Michyrr

Swooshswooshswoosh! The two swords shot out like lightning bolts, instantly piercing through two black-clothed men, and then three, four, ten, twenty... Wang Chong entering the battle was like a tiger set amongst a herd of sheep. Everywhere he went, black assassins fell.

Less than an hour later, more than one hundred black-clothed men had been killed by Wang Chong.

Two hours later, the battle was completely over. The Hyderabad Mountains were strewn with the bodies of black-clothed men, but the ones who had suffered the greatest losses were the massacred miners.

“Lord Marquis, how should we deal with these people?”

At the base of the mountain, Li Siye stomped his right foot down on the back of a black-clothed man, his expression wrathful. The ambush had been too abrupt, and these men in black practiced a martial art completely different from soldiers, vicious and ruthless. Caught completely off guard, many men had been wounded or killed.

But the black-clothed men had also paid a price. Not only had many of them been killed, but Li Siye had even captured some of them.

“Lord Marquis, let me have my people rouse and interrogate them to see where these people came from!” Xue Qianjun angrily said.

“Wait!”

Wang Chong extended a palm and hurriedly stopped Xue Qianjun.

Li Siye’s men had only coincidentally managed to knock these men unconscious. Once they were awakened, they would immediately commit suicide.

“Leave this matter to me!”

Wang Chong immediately sent out a wave of Psychic Energy into the mind of a black-clothed man. Just as he expected, Wang Chong quickly encountered a seal in the man’s mind.

Just as expected!

Wang Chong mentally nodded. These black-clothed men were strictly controlled and would probably not leave any flaw to be exploited, as he had seen just now.

Although he had encountered an obstacle, it was not a very strong one. A few moments later, Wang Chong had broken the seal.

The Gangke King stepped forward and whispered, “Lord Marquis, how is it? Have you figured out the origin of these people?”

Wang Chong shook his head and shot a glance at the unconscious assassins laid out neatly on the ground.

“Take off their masks!”

His men were surprised by these words, confused as to what Wang Chong wanted with this order. However, Xue Qianjun quickly bent down and took off one of the masks.

“This is... a Khorasani!”

As they stared at the curly hair, hawkish eyes, and high nose, they exchanged glances of shock.

They proceeded to remove more masks and realized that these black-clothed men were a motley crew. They saw Khorasani faces, Tibetan faces, Turkic faces, Jushi Kingdom faces, and even Sindhi. All of them were left stunned by the sight of these different faces.

“These people are all the lowest level of assassins. They won’t know many secrets,” Wang Chong indifferently said.

The clues he had obtained from Psychic Energy had been extremely limited, and from what he had learned, these assassins basically knew nothing. The men Li Siye and the Gangke King had captured would not be very useful.

“Li Siye, bring them with us.”

After saying this, Wang Chong swiftly set off in another direction.

In the center of the Hyderabad Mountains, within a collapsed and exposed mine, Wang Chong met Ablonodan and Arloja in the crude metal temple, as well as the substitute High Priest behind them. His aura was somewhat ragged, as if he had been through some major battle.

“Venerable Sir, how are you?” Wang Chong anxiously asked.

“I’m doing okay. We managed to force them back, but I suffered some light injures. But... what a pity!”

The substitute High Priest turned his head to the pile of corpses and the bloody mist hanging in the air, and sighed.

Wang Chong fell silent. There was nothing that could be done about this. The miners of the Hyderabad Mountains were almost all ordinary people, all of them with weak constitutions, and there were few experts in their ranks. Although Wang Chong had done his utmost, he was not able to do anything about this.

“By the way, is the High Priest okay?!” Wang Chong asked. The quaking from deep underground had deeply unsettled him.

“The High Priest is fine. He had already predicted that Lord Marquis would ask this question, so he had us wait here for you,” the substitute High Priest said as he bowed to Wang Chong.

“In addition, the High Priest has asked me to pass on a message to you. Fates rise and fall, gather and disperse. Everything has its destiny. What should have been said to you has been said, and our benefactor should no longer cling so stubbornly to this matter.”

The substitute High Priest had stymied Wang Chong’s questions before he could ask them.

“Lord Marquis, when the High Priest has made his decision, no one can change his mind. If he says that he will not see you, he will never see you. There is nothing we can do about this,” Arloja and Ablonodan said.

Wang Chong stood in a speechless daze for some time. Although he was very reluctant, he was compelled to give up.

“Understood. My deepest gratitude!”

After saying this, Wang Chong profoundly glanced at his surroundings. He knew that the High Priest had heard his words.

Whoosh! Wang Chong vanished in a flash of light as he took his leave.

......

The night raid had been quickly brought to an end, but no one knew where these black-clothed assassins had come from or why they had attacked. It was all a complete blank.

Several days later, after saying farewell to the substitute High Priest and leaving behind half of the Wushang Cavalry to guard the mines, Wang Chong headed back to Khorasan.

Seven or eight days later, Wang Chong arrived back at Khorasan.

“How was it? Have they all been taken care of?”

“Lord Marquis, following your instructions, we eliminated all the black-clothed men hiding in ambush. Alas, none of them revealed any useful information,” Li Siye reported, bowing.

On the journey back from the Hyderabad Mountains, Wang Chong had noticed many people following him in the shadows. They had taken on a variety of disguises as they stalked Wang Chong, not realizing that none of their disguises could fool Wang Chong’s eyes.

Wang Chong had gradually come to understand on this journey that the unremarkable metal box the High Priest had given him could accurately sense the energies of these men in black. No matter who they were or what sort of disguise they put on, Wang Chong would notice them the moment they approached.

The closer they were and the stronger they were, the more frequently and intensely the crystal on the top of the box would flash.

Using this together with the Stone of Destiny’s ability to reveal the surrounding terrain to him, Wang Chong could even see where these black-clothed men were hiding.

“Mm!”

Wang Chong nodded. Although he didn’t know where the High Priest had gotten something like this, there was no doubt that he could now prepare himself against the black-clothed men with this box.

Putting the matter of the black-clothed men aside, Wang Chong led his men toward the governor’s mansion. A little more than half a month had passed, but Khorasan had already undergone a major transformation. Wang Chong could see that the warlike mood had been swept away, and the entire city was thriving.

The faces of all the people he passed by were brimming with happiness.

The greatest change was in the crowds on the streets. Many Tang of the Central Plains had begun to appear in this foreign city, their clothes embroidered with the marks of their respective clans. The markets of the city had also begun to sell silk, tea leaves, porcelain, and the other handmade crafts of the Central Plains.

“Lord Marquis, Lord Feng is truly formidable. Those Khorasani are courteous when dealing with the Tang, and their faces are all smiles. It seems like the Khorasani have already completely accepted us.” Xue Qianjun rode up from the rear, excitement on his face.

Khorasan was a foreign land that none of them had ever interacted with before. For Feng Changqing to have brought relations to this level in such a short amount of time was truly incredible.

Wang Chong gave a slight nod, but he was more concerned about other things.

Mounted on the White-hoofed Shadow, Wang Chong turned toward a school built in the Tang style. The sounds of recitation could be heard inside, but in the language of the Great Tang rather than the Khorasani language that people here were most familiar with.

These voices were extremely awkward, but they were burning with passion.

The seed had been planted and had already begun to bud and spread out its roots. In the future, this seed and many others like it would spread throughout Khorasan, completely altering the destiny of both this place and the Central Plains.

Boom!

The earth suddenly began to rumble as horses began to approach Wang Chong. Wang Chong raised his head and saw that Gao Xianzhi, Feng Changqing, and Banahan were riding muscular horses to welcome him.

“Haha, Wang Chong, how was it? Did your journey to Sindhu go smoothly?”

Gao Xianzhi was the first to reach Wang Chong. He had a relaxed and refreshed air about him, and appeared to be in an exceptionally good mood.

“Lord Protector-General!”

Wang Chong faintly smiled as he trotted his horse up to meet him.

“Wang Chong, your plan was as effective as expected. Everything in Khorasan is on the right track. In addition, the first batch of soldiers from the Imperial Court has already arrived at Khorasan, and the group behind it has already reached Samarkand. I am confident that they will arrive soon.”

Gao Xianzhi stroked his beard and smiled. The more he learned about Wang Chong, the more he liked him. This was a rare talent, skilled in politics, military affairs, logistics, administration, communication, and many other fields. If he had not seen it for himself, he would have found it very hard to believe that a seventeen-year-old youth could be so talented. Wang Chong had not only saved his life, but the life of the entire Anxi Protectorate army.

Wang Chong was someone that he was willing to die for, a most important friend. If anyone dared to attack Wang Chong, Gao Xianzhi would be the first to step forward.

“I’ve already written a memorial listing all your achievements and submitted it to the Imperial Court. I am confident that the Imperial Court will soon publicly announce how you will be rewarded. Without you, we would have never been able to reach Khorasan. I am confident that the Imperial Court will richly reward you... Moreover, I’ve heard that the Bureau of Military Personnel and Bureau of Personnel have even discussed granting you a title as a reward,” Gao Xianzhi said, his face beaming. There was no trace of envy, only sincere happiness for Wang Chong.