Chapter 2232: The Great Tang Defeated!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Things were just beginning.
Thudthudthud!
The Formation Elder was standing on a metal platform in the rear. This area was heavily defended and was basically unaffected by the battle on the front line. It was one of the safest areas and also the core of the formation.
Standing here, the Formation Elder could control the energy flow of the formation. The platform also overlooked the entire fortress, allowing the Formation Elder to see any shifts.
Kerosene burned in the darkness, illuminating the fortress. In places the fire did not illuminate, bursts of light and explosions would occasionally erupt.
Each explosion indicated that a small formation that was a part of the large formation was shattering.
The first large formation had shattered, and the chain reaction was still not over.
The Formation Elder could sense that the second underground formation was in the middle of collapsing.
This fortress was completely exposed.
As the cold winds rushed in, the Formation Elder could see the frost rapidly forming on his beard and robes. And the Formation Elder could see that the kerosene fires were also sputtering in the face of the winds.
Even the ‘inextinguishable fires’ made from Arabian Kerosene were tested in this kind of weather.
Atop the metal platform, the Formation Elder chanted several spells as he attempted to push the formation and reverse this trend.
But a few moments later, the Formation Elder suddenly sighed and closed his eyes in despair.
“It’s over! Completely over!”
The Formation Elder slowly raised his head, his heart bleeding.
If this were a small mishap, he could still try his best, but he could tell that the Origin Energy that the formation had been drawing from beneath the earth was beginning to disperse.
The dispersion of energy was like removing charcoal from the furnace. Even if one had an igniter, it would be pointless. It would be impossible to reach the same scale again.
The fortress had three large formations. In a situation that he had never predicted, they had been shattered.
“Wang Chong, I’m sorry.”
The Formation Elder’s heart was stricken with pain and remorse.
This was not the only development within the fortress. During the construction of the fortress, in order to strengthen the defense against the alliance attacks, the Formation Elder had melded the three underground formations with the surrounding steel walls.
The three formations had long ago fused together with the toughening inscriptions and defensive formations of the fortress. Now that the three formations had shattered, so had many of the inscriptions and formations in the steel walls.
This meant that the steel walls had grown much weaker.
Boom!
Without the slightest warning, affected by the collapse of the large formations, a section of the walls in the northeast suddenly collapsed. The Tang soldiers atop it cried out in alarm as they crashed down together with it.
The same happened to a section of the walls in the northwest.
In the blink of an eye, two large gaps had appeared in the perimeter wall.
“The walls have fallen!”
The eyes of tens of thousands of alliance soldiers brightened as they exploded with cheers.
The army’s morale rose. These tall and thick walls the Great Tang had erected in the south were enough to make anyone despair. In the first battle, the alliance had suffered grievous losses because of these walls. Even now, when they had the assistance of the snowstorm, they had still suffered heavy losses. Now that they had two large gaps, the alliance cavalry could simply ride around the walls and charge straight into the steel fortress.
“Kill!”
With furious roars, the alliance army that had been charging at the walls split apart, avoiding the direct confrontation and surging toward the gaps in the walls.
Upon seeing this, Wang Zhongsi and the others paled.
If the formations had been destroyed but they still had the walls, the Tang would still have some way to recover, but now that the walls had fallen, the weak interior of the fortress was completely exposed.
More importantly, in this war, the majority of their soldiers had been stationed on the walls. All of their plans had been established around this point. The sudden collapse in two sections of the wall had completely upset their arrangements.
“Pass on my order! Immediately muster soldiers at the two gaps!
“Brother Zhangchou, Brother Zhang, Great General Abusi, it’s our turn now. No matter what, we must block those two gaps!” Wang Zhongsi solemnly said to those around him.
He keenly understood that the alliance would focus all the pressure on those two gaps. Without a Great General overseeing it, a force that had been mustered impromptu would never be able to withstand the alliance’s frenzied assault.
“Understood!”
The situation was dire and the tower was on the verge of collapse. Everyone in the fortress was in danger, and at this stage, they had to step forward.
No matter what they did, they could not prevent the formations from collapsing, and there was no more denying the fact that the fortress was bereft of defense!
In a flash of light, they vanished from the walls.
Meanwhile, high in the clouds, within the raging cold wave, Wang Chong and Genesis Supreme were in a stand-off.
This was the final and most critical moment, and even though he was more than seventy thousand feet in the air, Wang Chong could hear the sounds of fighting on the ground and the explosions within the fortress. These sounds erupted in his ears, each one slamming against Wang Chong’s heart.
There were some things that Wang Chong could understand without any need for Genesis Supreme to speak.
Three thousand, six hundred formations was such an enormous number that they should have been impossible to hide. Thus, the direct attack and Genesis Supreme appearing to start their battle in the air early had all been a trap that concealed their true machinations in the darkness.
This was even the reason An Lushan had chosen to attack at night, the cover of darkness allowing his men to get close and lay down the formations.
Wang Chong even speculated that many men in black had been involved. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to lay down so many formations in such a short time.
Wang Chong stared at Genesis Supreme and suddenly declared, “Genesis Supreme, you won’t succeed! No matter what, things will never go as you wish!”
“Hmph, still so stubborn! You’ll soon see what the outcome of this battle will be.”
Genesis Supreme sneered, a powerful mental wave traveling down to the alliance army on the ground.
“An Lushan, the time has come. This god has taken care of the Great Tang’s walls for you, so it’s your turn now!”
As Genesis Supreme spoke, he turned his eyes on Wang Chong, his intentions clear.
Wang Chong said nothing, glancing at Genesis Supreme before disappearing into the snowstorm and heading back to the steel fortress.
He could tell that the situation on the ground was extremely dangerous.
“You can’t run!”
Genesis Supreme didn’t try to stop Wang Chong from leaving. The tower was falling, and no matter what Wang Chong did, he could not alter the outcome of this battle.
The more one struggled, the deeper one’s eventual despair would be.
Bang!
Genesis Supreme’s body trembled, and he disappeared as if he was a ghost.
At the same time, in the middle of his army, An Lushan heard Genesis Supreme’s voice and smiled.
“The moment has finally come!”
At that moment, An Lushan’s face was smug beyond belief.
Only the heavens knew just how long he had waited for this moment.
All of his efforts had finally paid off. The defense line of more than seven hundred thousand soldiers had completely crumbled, and the gate to victory was wide open.
“Pass on my order! All soldiers, move out! In this battle, I don’t want even one shred of the Tang army to remain!” An Lushan immediately ordered.
His lips curved into an extremely callous smile.
“Yes!” A voice quickly came from behind him.
Horns blared across the battlefield, signalling a general assault.
While the alliance army had seemed to be unstoppably surging forward earlier, in reality, it had used not even half of its soldiers. The other half had remained in reserve.
But it was now time for all of its soldiers to enter the fray.
“Kill!”
Frenzied war cries rang out, even louder than before.
Countless warhorses thundered forward, entering a battlefield that was finally appropriate for them. Without the hindrance of the walls, the cavalry could exhibit their full might.
The faces of the alliance commanders flushed red with excitement. Everyone knew that they had truly won.
An officer stepped forward and whispered to An Lushan, “Milord, the Tang in the fortress have already retreated. There’s a possibility that they might all escape!”
“Escape? Can they?”
An Lushan heartily laughed, a jeering look in his eyes.
“The entire world is frozen over. I’d like to see it! Where are they running, and how far can they run?
“I heard that in the Battle of Khorasan, Wang Chong pursued the Arabs a long distance, and hundreds of thousands froze to death in the blizzard. This was the basis behind his title of War Saint, so it seems like there will be another War Saint christened today!”
The lands to the south of the steel fortress had already become a barren no-man’s land.
All of the common folk had been moved to the interior long ago. Without the formation to keep out the cold, the several hundred thousand Tang soldiers in the fortress had nowhere to run. Even if they did nothing and let them withdraw, in the end, all of them would freeze to death in the snow.
Wang Chong had already lost. The Great Tang had already lost.
The moment the formation shattered, their fates were sealed.