lion, "So, I am giving you just one chance. Reveal your true strength now. Or, you’ll die today!"
Insolent! He was extremely insolent. It seemed as if he didn’t pay attention to a peerless expert like Qin Wang. He would make Qin Wang reveal the entire extent of his strength. And then, he would defeat him. This would prove his tyranny.
Behead a powerful enemy at his best, and prove one’s skill.
This was the common problem with nearly every powerhouse. They strongly believed that their own way would become even stronger and steadier after they had defeated the powerful enemies who followed a different path!
"You’ll regret this!" Qin Wang replied in a low and muffled voice. It seemed as if his voice was coming from a closed jar. But, his voice was ice-cold. Nobody knew his current mood; they didn’t know whether it was good or bad since his entire face was covered with a metal mask.
The horse he was seated on looked up to the sky, and neighed. The sound of its whining shook the surroundings. A terrifying force swept out, and opened a crack in the void. It was an exceptional and mythological beast in its own merit. It would’ve become extremely dreadful if it had reached maturity.
Qin Wang took out a scroll from his back. He threw it up in the sky. That very long scroll suddenly went upward, and unfolded. It then began to revolve around Qin Wang in a frantic manner; just like a giant dragon.
Suddenly, the sound of horse’s neigh sounded from inside the page of the scroll, and echoed everywhere. A group of cavalry riders appeared before everyone’s eyes. They had burst out of the scroll with long spears in their hands. They were clad in iron armors.
"These are… puppets!" Ye Xiwen opened his eyes wide. They looked like humans. However, Ye Xiwen couldn’t feel any trace of vitality from their bodies. In other words, these cavalry soldiers were devoid of life. However, they were different from the ghost soldiers that Ye Xiwen had seen in the past. And, they were unlike zombies. In fact, he wasn’t getting that kind of gloomy and cold vibes from them.
They were giving him an ice-cold feeling; just like the one an individual gets from a metal. He wasn’t mistaken. They genuinely were puppets.
"Aren’t these puppets?" many people asked in a doubtful manner.
"What is it about this that you don’t understand? These are Qin Wang’s mysterious guards. He had wiped out that small country with their help!" someone who knew about them explained, "You’re not wrong. These are puppets. However, they become a dreadful army in the hands of Qin Wang. Nobody can resist the might of these mysterious armored guards!"
"Each of these puppets possesses the strength of the late stage of the semi-sage realm. Each of them has condensed more than 800 dao principles. Each of them is extremely dreadful. Such force is sufficient to sweep away the invincible peers of the same generation!" Someone was shocked to find that each of these puppets had terrifying strength. Each of these puppets had condensed at least 800 dao principles. In fact, some had even condensed 990 dao principles.
This was a very frightening force. There had been a debate since ancient times – whether the power of one individual expert was more dreadful… or the power of an army? However, no final conclusions had been drawn regarding this debate. There had always been disputes between the arguments about quality and quantity.
There had been incidents where an individual had destroyed an entire army. And, there had also been incidents where an army had slaughter an incredible powerhouse. So, there was hardly any way to reconcile these two contradictions.
However, these mysterious guards possessed both strength and quantity as far as the present scenario was concerned. There were over a thousand mysterious guards. There were about 300 cavalry soldiers, 500 infantry soldiers, and 200 archers amongst them. This army was like a flock of sparrows. They were small in numbers. However, they were equipped with all sorts of troop divisions.
"This explains those widely spread rumors that he had wiped out an entire country once. However, it’s not easy to manufacture these sophisticated puppets. It needs excellent skills. Even a sage expert can’t handle the massive consumption of energy that’s requires in the process. And, how did he get so much financial resources?" someone asked.
These puppets were extremely powerful. Each of them was at the late stage of the semi-sage realm. Such puppets were spread throughout the True Martial World. However, they weren’t present in large numbers because they were considered physically weak. Everything depended on the materials that had been used to make them, and their cultivation level. They would break easily if their quality wasn’t good. However, a huge volume of resources would be required to manufacture super-quality puppets. An ordinary person… or even an ordinary force couldn’t afford to make such things.
Moreover, it would only be fruitful if these puppets were manufactured in large quantities. A single puppet wouldn’t give good result. The higher their numbers… the more dreadful they would be. However, the requirement of resources would also increase with the increase in quantity. Therefore, an ordinary person couldn’t even dare to think of making them. Only some big forces possessed such huge amount of resources.
"You may not know this, but Qin Wang is the prince of the Tang Empire. The Tang Empire is one of the biggest empires of the Southern Region. Moreover, he holds the top position in the empire. So, it’s not strange that he possesses these resources!" someone explained, "He got the title of a ‘Wang’ because of the authority he obtained when he went on expeditions to expand his empire’s territory!"
Just how much resources would be required to make so many mysterious guards of the late stage of the semi-sage realm? Ye Xiwen couldn’t help but hold his breath. Qin Wang had come from a wealthy background. He came from a powerful clan, and had the backing of a great force. Ye Xiwen realized that providing for a blood slave had been such a taxing job for him. So, what could one say about providing for a thousand puppets... One simply couldn’t afford it unless one had the backing of a huge force.
Ye Xiwen became somewhat envious in his heart. However, he was only envious of the guy; nothing more. After all, he preferred his free life over being part of some big force since there weren’t any kind of restrictions on him.
Qin Wang’s dreadful army of puppets was frightening enough to scare-off people since they had both quality and quantity. Even a notorious opponent like Ye Xiwen might die if he came across them.
This was going to be an amazing gang war!
It was hard to predict how Emperor Chen would react!
Ye Xiwen looked at Emperor Chen. The man wore a callous smile on his face. He looked at the thousand mysterious guards as they advanced towards him. But, he didn’t do anything to stop them.
"Is this all you’ve got? Then, the time of your death has arrived!" Emperor Chen loudly roared. The energy dissipated in all directions, and engulfed everything. The entire world trembled in the wake of his roar. Countless mountains broke down into pieces by the shock of his voice. It was an exceptionally terrifying spectacle.
Qin Wang remained calm and collected. However, those 200 archers in the crowd of his mysterious army guards prepared their bows. They effortlessly held the huge arrows in their hands. A person with good eyes could see that each of these arrows was a divine tool in a reality. A divine tool was said to be capable to breaking any principle.
What can be considered as ‘rich’? Well, this could be!
Who could dare to be extravagant-enough to use divine tools as arrows without the backing and resources of such a huge empire like the Tang Empire?
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
Two hundred long arrows cut through the sky. Each of these long arrows darted forward like a tornado. Those long arrows appeared like long dragons as they raided towards Emperor Chen.
"Bang!" Emperor Chen immediately brandished his long spear. It unleashed terrifying rays of light. It swept down, and broke dozens of arrows at once. Those divine tools appeared like a bunch of rolled paper sticks in front of Emperor Chen’s spear.
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
The rest of the long arrows struck Emperor Chen’s body, and produced sparks after they crashed into his fiery-red armor, and made ‘clang’ sounds.
Those long arrows severed the void around Emperor Chen. These voids had been opened rapidly, and were closing slowly. It was an unusually terrifying scene!
(To be continued)