The Human Emperor
chapter-542

Translated by: Hypersheep325

“The Martial General Halo, as seen from its name, is targeted against elite experts at the General level. It can be overlapped with the Bane of the Battlefield Halo.”

The Stone of Destiny’s voice resounded in his mind.

Wang Chong frowned and asked, “Does the Martial General Halo have any other halo effects besides the Bane of Generals? Or is the Martial General Halo only the Bane of Generals Halo?”

“The Martial General Halo is not limited to the Bane of Generals Halo. It can also target other categories, such as the Arabian Halo and the Charax Spasinu Halo, but user must first obtain these!” the voice once more replied.

“The Arabian Halo…”

Wang Chong’s heart pounded at the mention of this name, and thousands of thoughts ran through his mind for a second. Wang Chong had vaguely grasped something, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt like he had grasped nothing at all.

“How do I officially activate the Bane of Generals Halo?” Wang Chong sternly asked.

The Bane of the Battlefield Halo was extremely powerful, its existence on the battlefield almost heaven-defying. But this halo’s flaw was also very obvious: it had absolutely no effect on general-class individuals. Thus, whether it was Bachicheng, Batunlu, or Fengjiayi and the other elite experts, Wang Chong’s halo was completely useless against them.

But if he had the Bane of Generals Halo, everything would be different.

Although the ‘Trial of Destiny’ had temporarily stopped Wang Chong from gaining any Destiny Energy and thus any avenues of gaining strength through the use of Destiny Energy, the other avenues remained unaffected. If he could activate the Martial General Halo, it would be a great boon to him on the battlefield.

“The Bane of Generals Halo requires: 1. Killing ten foreign commanders; 2: Killing one Profound Martial realm expert on the battlefield; 3: Reaching level three in the Bane of the Battlefield Halo! Only once all three conditions are fulfilled can user officially activate the Bane of Generals Halo!”

Buzz!

Wang Chong’s heart immediately sank. The first condition was bearable, but the other two conditions were very difficult. The requirements to improve the Bane of the Battlefield rose exponentially with each level. In the last battle, Wang Chong had led the Annan Protectorate army in killing more than fifty thousand of Fengjiayi and Jiaosiluo’s soldiers.

But Wang Chong’s Bane of the Battlefield Halo still had not reached level three.

Wang Chong could only feel that he wasn’t far off from reaching level three, but as for exactly how far? Wang Chong had no idea.

And even so, he still needed to defeat a Profound Martial realm expert, and the Stone of Destiny had also specified that it had to be on the battlefield. In other words, this condition required Wang Chong to rely on his own strength to defeat a Profound Martial realm expert. It wasn’t like Wang Chong hadn’t killed such experts before, but he had killed the majority of them when they couldn’t resist, stabbing them with the Little Yinyang Sword to absorb the last bit of Stellar Energy in their bodies.

This was clearly different from the condition that the Stone of Destiny had specified.

There’s plenty of time. As long as this war goes well, I can definitely fulfill the conditions to activate the Bane of Generals Halo!

With this thought, Wang Chong calmed down.

In normal circumstances, the Stone of Destiny’s conditions would have been impossible to fulfill, but in this large-scale war involving three countries, everything was possible. And if he could succeed, the Bane of Generals could play a pivotal role in altering the course of this war.

Wang Chong returned to his senses and ordered with a wave of his hand, “Get ready and prepare to depart! The Tibetans could realize at any moment that something has gone wrong. We have to start the next phase as quickly as possible!”

Around him, the battle in the rain was already dying down. For this ambush, Wang Chong had prepared twenty thousand soldiers. Twenty thousand elites of the Annan Protectorate army and four to five thousand cavalry was a force completely capable of dealing with six or seven thousand Tibetan cavalry. It had been far too easy.

The battle concluded much faster than he had imagined.

Under Wang Chong’s command, the warriors of the Annan Protectorate army stripped the deceased Tibetan cavalrymen of their armor. The highland steeds were excellent mounts, and the surviving horses were given to the infantry to ride. With these Tibetan suits of armor and highland steeds, Wang Chong’s four thousand ‘Tibetan cavalry’ swelled to eight thousand.

“That’s enough!”

Wang Chong gazed at these energetic ‘Tibetans’ who clearly did not have faces belonging to the people of the plateau, and nodded his head. The art of war emphasized the need for the proper time, geography, and the unity of the people. In normal circumstances, Wang Chong’s tactic would have been very difficult to utilize, but this downpour had allowed for the possibility of success.

As long as his soldiers kept their bodies pressed to their horses, they could achieve the ‘perfect disguise’.

The greatest flaw was the language. The inability to speak Tibetan would easily expose the scheme, but Wang Chong himself could resolve this problem.

It was impossible to proficiently learn Tibetan in a short time, but it was a simple matter to pick out a few of the more intelligent soldiers and teach them a few simple phrases to reply with when being questioned.

“Time is short. Let’s go!”

After picking out a few leaders and splitting the army in two, Wang Chong quickly led the army forward once more.

Rumble! The Annan Protectorate army split into two, one group of cavalry riding south and the other riding north. In a few short moments, they had vanished into the rain. The entire process was as smooth as flowing water, and it felt like they had never appeared.

……

Gallop!

Warhorses could be heard in the distance as black silhouettes approached through the rain.

“Who goes there?”

At the base of a mountain, a five-man Tibetan commander emerged from the army and led his horse out to meet this approaching group, his voice harsh.

“It’s us! We didn’t manage to catch those Tang. They were too fast, damn it!” the leader of the ‘Tibetans’ yelled back, his fist clenched in the air, a look of rage and helplessness on his face.

“They escaped?”

The five-man commander frowned, apparently a little unwilling to accept the result.

“But wasn’t your position over there? Why did you come over to our side?”

“Eh! The wrong place?”

The Tibetan commander seemed shocked, only now realizing that he had gotten ‘lost’. He lowered his head and began to mutter to himself.

“What did you say?” the five-man commander asked, approaching closer.

“I said ‘gula’…”

The Tibetan commander’s voice was a little garbled.

“What did you say?”

“I said that we…”

The storm was truly too loud, and that Tibetan commander’s voice became harder and harder to catch. The five-man commander’s brow furrowed, so he stopped asking and rode his horse forward.

“Hmph!”

At this moment, no one noticed a scornful look flash through the Tibetan commander’s eyes as he inwardly sneered.

His Tibetan had its limits, as he only knew what Wang Chong had taught him. The rest had been random muttering. However, this distance was enough.

“Brothers, charge!”

With a shout, the Tibetan commander shed his disguise, his right hand suddenly raised over his head as he gave the order to attack. Rumble! As if receiving a great shock, the dejected ‘Tibetan cavalry’ suddenly raised their heads and began to explode with an astonishing aura.

“Kiiiill!”

The horse flew forward, sending rain splashing everywhere. The several thousand Annan Protectorate soldiers instantly smashed into the unprepared Tibetan army.

……

At the same time, in another place…

“Who?”

“On the Great General’s orders, we have come to reinforce the northwest!”

Under the thunder clouds, a Tibetan rode his stalwart horse forward, a banner held high as he led thousands of cavalry through the rain.

Boom!

And then, under countless stupefied gazes, those thousands of soldiers charged into the army…

To the southeast, southwest, northeast… several places were suddenly attacked by their ‘own side’.

These people were as unpredictable as ghosts, all of them dressed in Tibetan armor, making it impossible to distinguish between Tang and Tibetan. Moreover, they appeared with all kinds of reasons, leading the Tibetans to be completely defenseless. Their way of fighting was also fast and decisive.

Before soldiers could arrive from elsewhere, they had already retreated.

In this chaos, there were even cases where actual Tibetans attacked actual Tibetans. This continuous turmoil caused the soldiers to panic like easily startled birds. The chain of command began to fall apart, as nobody knew if the ones giving the orders were their officers or the Tang officers.

“Damn it! Just how many Tang are there?”

“How can we defend against it? They’re even wearing our armor!”

“It’s impossible to see anything clearly in this rain! And it’s getting darker and darker, making the task even more difficult!”

……

The Tibetan commanders clenched their fists in irritation.

At any other time, this tactic would be suicidal. But right now, the army was attempting to exterminate Xianyu Zhongtong’s army on the summit. There were no troops available to hunt down the enemy at their rear. Moreover, there was also an inescapable and objective fact: although the army had set out at dawn, with all the chasing, fighting, and getting lost, it was now approaching dusk. Even if the thunder clouds dispersed, it was no longer the right period to do any searching.

More importantly, despite all the times the Tang army had attacked, the Tibetans still didn’t know how many soldiers they had.

At the start, the Tibetans had believed that there was only one group. Even though multiples place were being attacked, their opponents were just using the rain to deceive the Tibetans. But this wasn’t the case later on, because there were times when three places were under simultaneous and large-scale assaults.

Coupled with the fact that these people left as quickly as they came, not even the valorous generals of the Ngari Royal Lineage could determine how many people were hidden in this dark night, much less the ordinary soldier.

……

“What are these Tibetans doing?”

At the same time, on the peak of a high mountain, a fully-armored general of the Annan Protectorate looked down the mountain, his brows furrowed in thought. He had a scar on his left brow and gave off an aura as thick and heavy as a mountain.

“Or are they playing a ruse so as to bait us out?” proposed another general, tall and thin. His armor was spattered with blood and covered in scars left behind by scimitars. It was obvious that he had experienced many fierce battles. In the southwest, veterans like these were fierce and courageous generals.

“They’re not!”

The general with the scar on his left brow shook his head and said profoundly, “Although I also thought that the Tibetans were trying to bait us out or make us put down our guard, it’s clearly not the case! Huoshu Huicang has a very high opinion of himself, and given his personality, he would never lower himself to use such tactics while he holds the upper hand. It would be like drawing legs on a snake. And besides… this certainly doesn’t look like any play!”