Chapter 1039: Move Out, Supreme Army! (1/2)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Rumble! Vast amounts of Stellar Energy surged within Zhao Fengchen's body, moving faster and faster, and Zhao Fengchen's aura continued to swell.
When his Stellar Energy circulation reached its maximum speed, there was an enormous boom. In that moment, a vast blue energy exploded out from Zhao Fengchen's head and into the sky.
From a distance, it was possible to see that this blue beam of energy had pierced through the roof of the hall and straight into the heavens. It seemed as sturdy and as heavy as steel, causing the ground in this northwest corner of the Imperial Palace to tremble.
After some time, that enormous pillar of energy slowly faded and everything returned to serenity. At this moment, Zhao Fengchen finally opened his eyes.
”Alas, just a little bit short…”
A bright light flashed through Zhao Fengchen's eyes as he slowly retracted his energy and dropped down from the air.
Clang! Zhao Fengchen reached out his hand, and the Wootz Steel saber behind him immediately buzzed and flew into it as if it had a life of its own. The weight of that saber and that feeling like it was an extension of his body made Zhao Fengchen smile with pride.
Earth's Scar!
This was the name of the Wootz Steel saber Wang Chong had forged for him.
An ancient and powerful technique had been passed on through the generations of the Zhao Clan that only the people of Zhao Clan could cultivate. But even so, cultivating this technique was still extremely difficult. Only those of the Zhao Clan with a special bloodline trait had the ability to cultivate this technique.
Zhao Fengchen was the only member of his clan in the last one hundred years with this trait. But this ancient technique was so overbearing that Zhao Fengchen had been unable to find any saber or sword in the capital that could suit it. The precious swords and sabers of the great clans would explode into pieces from the tyrannical Stellar Energy of the technique before Zhao Fengchen had even finished cultivating half of the technique.
There had been cases where the swords and sabers of the capital had broken, but none had exploded into pieces in any other circumstance. From this, one could easily imagine just how overbearing and tyrannical Zhao Fengchen's technique was.
This was the reason Zhao Fengchen bought so many swords and sabers in the capital. All of them had let him down, until he met Wang Chong and Earth's Scar.
This saber had finally allowed Zhao Fengchen to break through the bottleneck and display his powerful talent in martial arts. In this short year, his strength had risen by leaps and bounds to its current astonishing level, and he had even attained the rank of Marshal within the Imperial Army. Zhao Fengchen was bursting with gratitude toward Wang Chong!
It seems like I will need a very long time to finally break into the Great General level! Zhao Fengchen said to himself.
He had reached the Brigadier General level long ago, after which he had put all his strength into breaking into the Great General level. Alas, he had failed time and time again. The gap between Great General and Brigadier General didn't seem very big, but Zhao Fengchen was well aware that it was not something as simple as distance. It was not something that could be overcome through enough effort or Stellar Energy.
Flapflap! His silent stupor was suddenly broken by the flapping of wings. With merely a thought from Zhao Fengchen, the door to the hall opened with a thump, upon which a black eagle flew in.
”It's a letter from the Grand Marshal!”
Just a glance at the eagle was enough for Zhao Fengchen to come to this realization, and he swiftly opened the letter tied to its leg. He was at first dazed by the contents of this letter, but then he gave a knowing smile.
”Wang Chong, it seems like I'm going to meet you very soon.”
With this smile on his face, Zhao Fengchen quickly left the hall.
”Pass on my order! All members of the Xuanwu Army, prepare to move out!”
A few moments later, the most unique unit in the one hundred thousand soldiers of the Imperial Army began to move.
Rumble!
A few hours later, the western gates of the Imperial Palace, which had never been opened before, suddenly flew apart. The earth began to shake as if invisible giants were slamming their hands against the ground. In the blink of an eye, a massive black flood had poured out of the gates, thousands of black-armored imperial soldiers howling forth.
Unlike the other imperial soldiers, their armor gave off a mighty and serene aura, as well as a sensation of incredible weight. Each suit of armor seemed to be at least twice the weight of the armor that normal imperial soldiers wore. Just wearing this armor would probably consume a great deal of strength, much less fighting in it.
But these black-armored imperial soldiers appeared to feel nothing at all.
As dust churned and the earth rumbled, the eight thousand soldiers sallied forth from the gate. At that moment, the rest of the world was silent, bereft of birds and beasts. Even the insects down below seemed to have burrowed away out of fear.
”This… Why have I never seen this unit of the Imperial Army before?”
”What an impressive aura! These fellows are quite strong!”
”Shhh! Be quiet! Don't you see the look in their eyes?”
The peddlers and civilians on the road backed up in fear at the approach of these soldiers. Those who had lived long in the capital knew the Imperial Army like the back of their hand, but they had never seen or heard of this unit of soldiers.
But despite the ruckus of the crowd, these eight thousand imperial soldiers retained an absolute calm. In their advance, the only sound was that of the warhorses.