Chapter 1020 - Well-Mapped Strategy!

Duwu Sili quickly cast Dalun Ruozan to the back of his mind.

“How are Shamask and Chekun Benba doing? Have all the soldiers been inspected? Has anything strange been noticed? I need to know every detail. The slightest discomfort must be reported to me at once.”

He stared at the captain of his guards, his eyes grim and cautious.

“Great General, we carefully inspected each soldier six times. Everyone is normal, including Generals Shamask and Chekun Benba. The formation phenomena have boosted everyone’s strength, solidifying and focusing their cultivation without any side effects,” the guard captain next to Duwu Sili deferentially said.

The Western Turkic camp appeared a hive of activity, but everyone was actually extremely cautious. All the elite experts and the shamans accompanying the army, even Duwu Sili himself, were constantly observing the army’s condition. The slightest sign of activity would be reported back to Duwu Sili.

But it was increasingly evident that they had been too cautious. There was simply no problem with those three papers regarding the formation phenomena.

“Very good!”

Duwu Sili gave a long sigh of relief, a gratified smile appearing on his lips.

He had finally received a return on his investment. At this moment, he had obtained the solution to the formation phenomena that he had been seeking for more than half his life. Starting from now, the entire Celestial Wolf Cavalry, and even the Western Turkic Khaganate, would take a completely different form.

“Now, it’s time for me to begin cultivating.”

With a faint smile, Duwu Sili turned around and headed back into his tent.

……

Gallop!

As Duwu Sili was returning to his tent, no one noticed that in the complete opposite direction from Dalun Ruozan, a fully-armored Tang horseman riding a Turkic steed was also keeping watch on the Turkic camp. After giving one last glance at the Turkic army and the roiling clouds overhead, he turned around and galloped off.

“I must report this to Lord Marquis as quickly as possible!”

In the blink of an eye, the horseman had vanished without a trace.

……

Now that Zhang Shouzhi and his nearly eight thousand craftsmen had finished their repair and reinforcing work, the lofty and imposing Talas was now free of the scars of battle. The city walls and the Myriad Rakshasa Earthen Stronghold Formation underground had fused together, making it even more bold, grandiose, and invincible.

In this field, Huang Botian and the Earth element warriors from Wushang Village had played an important role. They had used their Earth element abilities to guide the surrounding Origin Energy of the world into the formation, refilling its energy reserves and making it even hardier.

Outside Talas, after several days of nonstop work, the two steel defense lines had also been renewed. In addition, taking in the lessons of the first battle, Zhang Shouzhi had added many sharp spikes outside the walls to make them even more difficult to attack.

In addition, Zhang Shouzhi had assembled a team of craftsmen to pour large amounts of molten iron onto the bases of the walls. Once the iron cooled, the steel walls became even more sturdy and unshakable. Meanwhile, the Tang army continued to drill and practice within the two steel defense lines, prepared for an imminent battle.

But at this moment, Wang Chong was not within the steel walls.

In a distance place, Wang Chong was seated alone on a large boulder.

Wang Chong looked ahead and muttered to himself, “It seems like this is the end!”

Whoosh!

The plains were quiet, with the only sound being a loud and ragged panting. Across from Wang Chong, an enormous being was splayed out on the ground. If one were not there to see it with their own eyes, they would find it very difficult to believe that this was the fierce, despotic, and invincible giant ape.

The giant ape’s eyelids were drooping, and the cruelty and brutality in its scarlet eyes had been replaced with listlessness. Its huge body seemed to have been drained of strength, and it exuded an air of fatigue as it lay on the ground.

More importantly, the giant ape’s once-boundless vitality had greatly dimmed. It was like a candle flickering in the wind, to be extinguished at any moment.

Around five days had passed since the end of the battle. The giant ape had lived much longer than Wang Chong had expected. It was a powerful intimidating force. Every day the giant ape survived was another day the Tang could use to prepare for battle, another day that the Tibetans, Western Turks, and Arabs would have to tread lightly.

Wang Chong had used every method at his disposal to extend the giant ape’s life. He had placed the giant ape in this plain far away from Talas and withdrawn his Psychic Energy, returning control to the giant ape. In this way, the giant ape would not continue to suffer damage from Psychic Energy and also would not harm the Tang army in Talas by acting on its nature.

But even so, the withering and decay of the giant ape’s brain could not be stopped.

At the start, when the giant ape had regained its consciousness, it had pounded its chest and roared into the heavens, but now, even when not under the control of Wang Chong’s Psychic Energy, the giant ape just quietly lay on the ground. It had lost all of its vim and vigor.

Wang Chong knew that the giant ape was about to die.

Whoosh!

The giant ape gasped, and as its scarlet eyes fell upon Wang Chong, they seemed to contain a hint of emotion. Wang Chong could not help but feel a ripple of emotion himself. Even though the giant ape was just a beast and did not have the intelligence of a human, after he had fought alongside this giant ape for so long, it was impossible for Wang Chong to not feel some affection for it.

Time slowly passed, and after some time, the unmoving giant ape looked at Wang Chong and gave one last growl before falling eternally silent. Wang Chong sighed and walked forward, his right hand reaching out to close the Behemoth’s eyes.

“Goodbye.”

A hint of gloom flitted through his eyes. The giant ape was truly dead.

The plains were silent, and nothing could be seen other than a rock eagle spiraling in the air, vigilantly watching his surroundings. But Wang Chong didn’t need to turn his head to know that several thousand zhang away, several pairs of eyes were silently watching this place. Those were the Arab, Tibetan, and Turkic scouts.

Ever since the end of the battle, the three sides had been constantly dispatching scouts to watch the giant ape and await its death.

Wang Chong knew that as long as the giant ape maintained this unmoving posture, the three sides would need some time to realize what had happened, time that the Great Tang could use.

Gallop!

As he was thinking, the rock eagle in the sky suddenly called out. The three scouts in three different directions suddenly turned around without warning, galloping back the way they had come.

“Mm?”

Wang Chong immediately sensed something and soon turned his head in the direction of Talas. A cloud of dust was approaching from that direction, the cavalry of the Qixi Protectorate army. As they galloped forward, they divided into four groups. Three of these groups went after the Turkic, Tibetan, and Arab scouts, while the remaining group galloped toward him.

“General Cheng, what’s wrong? Has something happened with the Western Turks?”

Wang Chong faintly smiled as he spotted the figures of Cheng Qianli and Xi Yuanqing riding with the soldiers of the Qixi Protectorate army.

“How did you know?”

Cheng Qianli was stunned, not having expected Wang Chong to guess at the reason for his visit before he had even said anything.

“Haha, it’s not hard to guess. Abu Muslim is fresh from defeat, and he certainly hasn’t given up and is mobilizing soldiers from the rear. But he suffered such large losses that even Arabia in all its power will not be able to do much in just four or five days. As for Dalun Ruozan… he even dragged out the guards of the royal capital, the Mutri Great Cavalry. The Ü-Tsang Empire doesn’t have any more soldiers to spare. The only one left is the Western Turks. Milord, speak. What has happened with Duwu Sili?”

Wang Chong faintly smiled.

In his mouth, the complicated sounded exceedingly simple.

After a few moments of silence, Cheng Qianli quickly explained his reason for coming. “The scouts have reported that after Duwu Sili obtained the formation phenomena, the Turks began to practice it night and day. Crucially, following the method described on those papers, they really did succeed in cultivating formation phenomena, and all of the soldiers have received significant boosts in strength.”

The deal with Duwu Sili had been decided entirely by Wang Chong. Neither Cheng Qianli nor Gao Xianzhi knew the details. Cheng Qianli did not doubt Wang Chong’s abilities, but the scouts’ reports over the last few days had made him rather uneasy.

“Wang Chong, you are sure that the contents of the letter were false?”

In the end, Cheng Qianli could not suppress this question.

The Great Tang and the Western Turks were in the middle of a war. Duwu Sili and Dalun Ruozan might have retreated, but this was not a true retreat, and they were even barricading the roads to the east. Their intentions were plain and obvious. For the Western Turks to have gotten stronger from cultivating Wang Chong’s ‘fake’ formation phenomena was definitely not a good sign.

“Is that so? The Western Turks have already started to get stronger?”

To Cheng Qianli’s surprise, Wang Chong’s eyes brightened in delight at these words, as if he had just heard some good news.

“This…”

Cheng Qianli had wanted to ask a few more questions, but Wang Chong’s reaction had left him speechless.

“Haha, Lord Cheng, be at ease. It’s not as easy as Duwu Sili thinks to cultivate true formation phenomena. In truth, he won’t even be able to extract a few secrets of formation phenomena from cultivating that method. That road is simply not the road leading to the true formation phenomena,” Wang Chong softly said, his expression confident and assured. This attitude of everything being planned out far ahead of time carried a convincing and persuasive power.

Cheng Qianli was dumbstruck. He had only come over in such a rush because he believed that there had been a major flaw in the plan. Cheng Qianli was also an extremely experienced general. Moreover, he was also a somewhat outstanding strategist, not simply a pure fighting general. But in front of Wang Chong, Cheng Qianli was forced to admit that his own schemes were completely inferior.

He could not predict even a tiny facet of Wang Chong’s schemes and methods.