The Human Emperor Chapter 220
Chapter 219: King Sosurim
The a.s.sault that night had caused a
minimum of fifty deaths each for the four peaks of Kunwu Training Camp.
As for Shenwei and Longwei, their death tolls were similar. The
trainees’ deaths added up to a hulking sum of more than five hundred.
With so many recruits dying in the battle, the damage caused by the
a.s.sailants was tremendous!
Yet, the lord before him said that this number was within the acceptable range for the death quota!
In an instant, the young man felt a cold shiver run down his spine.
The
existence of the death quota was no secret at all, but he had always
thought it would just be a maximum of twenty or thirty. However, from
the looks of things now, he had severely underestimated it.
For
some reason, when the lord he respected from the bottom of his heart
spoke these words, he suddenly felt incomparably terrified.
“The will of the heavens was indeed scary!”
(The emperor is known as the Son of Heavens)
This was the only thought he had in his mind now.
“…
What the royal court needs are wolves; not sheep! In this, I share the
same thoughts as His Majesty. War isn’t a game. Our actions may seem
callous to you, but in both His Majesty and my eyes, this is already
utmost benevolence.”
That lord’s voice sounded from the darkness.
“A
hundred master archers, a few hundred Goguryeon warriors, and a handful
of Turk wolves… This is nothing compared to what awaits them on the
callous battlefield. If they cannot even survive this ordeal, then they
are even less likely to survive on future battlefields!”
“Dying
here is at least much better than dying on the battlefield. At the very
least, their corpses will be intact and they will be buried here!”
“The
faster they understand their situation, the faster they will learn.
This is the reason why His Majesty and I allowed the enemy to attack as
they please. Even though more than five hundred recruits died in the
Three Great Training Camps today, more of them will remember today and
survive future battlefields!”
“This is a lesson that His Majesty and I are conducting for them!”
The lord’s words were calm and confident.
“You know that Zhao Qianqiu requested some tigers from His Majesty to teach his students a precious lesson, right?”
“AH!”
The latter was astonished.
“These are the ‘tigers’ that we prepared for all of the recruits!”
That figure spoke with a deep tone, and the young man found himself unable to utter a single word in response.
“Report!”
As
the conversation lulled, a voice suddenly came from the surrounding
forest, breaking the silence. A heavily-armored Imperial Army commander
stepped forward from the lush woodland with widened strides. Strong
bloodthirst emanated from his body.
A gust of mountain wind blew
past. Even before he could reach them, the duo could already smell an
overwhelming stench of blood wafting from him.
“Reporting
to the two lords, all of the Goguryeons and Turks have been cleared.
Other than a single Goguryeon who managed to escape our encirclement,
not another one remains!”
The Imperial Army commander kneeled
forcefully to the ground; viscous blood dripped down from the gaps in
his armor, staining the gra.s.s crimson.
This battle had ended much
faster than anyone could have expected. Six Imperial Army regiments had
worked together, and under such might, no one could survive. The
Goguryeon and Turk master archers had barely begun to retaliate before
they were cleared out entirely.
“He could still escape!”
A deep sigh echoed from above. However, a moment later, that figure recovered and issued his instructions.
“Relay
my orders, clean up all traces of the battle. Make sure not to leave
behind any clues, including blood. No one must know that we made a
move!”
“Yes, lord!”
The Imperial Army commander replied and swiftly left.
“Li Tong, you should leave as well. Inform His Majesty that that person has escaped!”
Turning around, that figure looked back down at the young man kneeling below.
“But lord, isn’t it still unconfirmed?”
Li
Tong raised his head. He knew that on top of clearing away the Turks
and Goguryeons, the mission tonight also involved capturing an important
target.
“Hmph, an encirclement formed by six Imperial Army
regiments, yet a person still manages to escape. Do you think that this
is a feat ordinary martial artists are capable of? There’s no need to
check, our target must have surely escaped. That Goguryeon is cunning!”
Standing
atop the outcropping, the lord spoke. Then, with a slight sway, he
disappeared into the night. Behind him, the young Li Tong hesitated
briefly before departing as well.
A light breeze blew over the empty mountainside.
To
the members of the Three Great Training Camps, the operation tonight
would remain as a secret. The camp members and the outside world would
never learn that six Imperial Army regiments had been here.
More importantly, no one would know that these three men had appeared here.
…
Peng!
Frenzied
wind blew as the carca.s.s of a wolf was thrown down a menacing cliff. At
the foot of the mountain, the corpses and carca.s.ses had already piled
up to form a mountain of their own.
Azure Dragon, White Tiger,
Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise; the four peaks were covered with the
bodies of the dead. If they didn’t deal with it quickly, soon decay
would set-in, and in less than three days, the entire mountain would
wreak like a charnel house.
The
battle may have ended, but there was still plenty of cleaning and
rebuilding left to be done. Thus, everyone, including w.a.n.g Chong and Wei
Hao, was currently busy at work.
Even the ladies like Marchioness Yi were included in the operation.
“w.a.n.g Chong, don’t you think that those women are terrifying?”
Amidst the crowd, Wei Hao suddenly jabbed w.a.n.g Chong lightly with his elbow and whispered.
Following Wei Hao’s gaze, w.a.n.g Chong saw Marchioness Yi and the others.
“Are
you tired of living? If they were to hear your words, you will be in
for a round of suffering. Try recalling her spear, do you want to try
what it feels like to be impaled by it?”
w.a.n.g Chong chuckled.
Wei Hao’s face paled. Remembering how deadly Marchioness Yi’s spear was, his hair immediately stood on end.
“b.a.s.t.a.r.d! How dare you scare me!”
But he soon recovered and pushed against w.a.n.g Chong angrily.
“Hey, who asked you to be so spineless? How could you leave me behind during the day?”
w.a.n.g Chong protested.
“It’s not my fault! Isn’t it because I… I’m not a match for them either?”
Hearing his friend bringing up this matter, Wei Hao could only reply sheepishly.
w.a.n.g
Chong chose not to bicker with him over this. Instead, he lifted his
head and looked at Marchioness Yi with a contemplative expression.
Even
though Wei Hao considered Marchioness Yi and the members of Vermilion
Bird as female dinosaurs—violent, arrogant, and fearless—w.a.n.g Chong
didn’t share the same thoughts
Even though they were clearing the
bodies just like everyone else, judging from their expressions, they
were obviously discomforted. In fact, it felt as if they wanted to flee
as far from the corpses as possible. This formed a stark contrast with
the image of a war G.o.ddess that had been imprinted in their minds during
the prior battle.
“Hm?”
Just as w.a.n.g Chong was contemplating, he suddenly caught sight of something that made his heart skip a beat.
“Wei Hao, wait a moment. Put the corpse down.”
w.a.n.g Chong suddenly stopped Wei Hao.
“Why? You are interested in corpses now?”
Wei Hao teased.
Chi la!
However,
w.a.n.g Chong wasn’t in the mood to joke around any longer. Walking over,
he grabbed the black pants of the Goguryeon warrior Wei Hao was still
carrying and tore them apart. In the next instant, a bizarre tattoo on
the warrior’s right leg was revealed.
Spotting the tattoo, even
Wei Hao’s expression warped in shock. Reining in his joking nature, he
put down the body and examined the image closely.
It was in the
shape of a circle. In the tattoo, there was a snake and a three-legged
crow. The three-legged crow was above while the snake was below, and
their eyes stared at one another, creating a bizarre sight.
“This is… the symbol of a certain influence?”
Wei
Hao swiftly came to a realization. w.a.n.g Chong didn’t reply. He simply
stared fixedly at the tattoo as his heart thumped wildly.
He recognized this symbol!
w.a.n.g
Chong had thought this nighttime a.s.sault was just a normal alliance
between the Goguryeon and the Turks to test and disrupt the Three Great
Training Camps and dampen the Great Tang’s arrogance. Upon seeing this
symbol however, he realized that he’d made a mistake and considerably
underestimated the nature of the affair.
“King Sosurim!”
A name flashed across w.a.n.g Chong’s mind as he stared at the bizarre tattoo.
Even
though the Eastern and Western Turkic Khaganate and Ü-Tsang had
consumed all of Great Tang’s attention, the eastern Goguryeo Empire had
never slackened in its information gathering operations against Great
Tang.
And
this ‘King Sosurim’ was the top spy that Goguryeo had in Great Tang, a
sharp thorn that the Goguryeon emperor, Yeon Gaesomun, had planted in
the Central Plains.
Even though this top spy wasn’t born of
n.o.bility, rumor had it that the Goguryeon emperor had conferred him as a
member of the royal family. His t.i.tle of ‘King Sosurim’ was bestowed by
Yeon Gaesomun, and this reflected how highly he regarded the former.
And the three-legged crow and snake tattoo was the symbol of his subordinates.
Even
though his job scope mainly revolved around information gathering and
spying, the doings of King Sosurim in the capital far exceeded that.
Destruction,
a.s.sa.s.sination… Anything and everything that would be damaging to Great
Tang and beneficial to Goguryeo entered his purview. What brought him
the greatest notoriety was his successful a.s.sa.s.sinations of influential
officials of the Central Plains.
Every single official who
supported waging war against Goguryeo had suffered a.s.sa.s.sination, and
what makes things worse, was that this a.s.sa.s.sination wasn’t just limited
to the person in question. Even the maids, servants, ladies, and
children in the target’s residence wouldn’t be spared.
Censor Tang
Zhao was one of the victims. In the tragedy eight years ago, not a
single person in his residence was spared. The incident had taken Great
Tang by storm.
Even though the royal court flew into a rage and
captured innumerable Goguryeon spies and sentenced them to death, the
main culprit, King Sosurim, still remained at large. The reason was
simple. No one had ever seen him before and no one knew what he looked
like. Even his t.i.tle, King Sosurim, also only came from buying off the
officials of the Goguryeo Empire.
His appearance and characteristics were still a mystery.
But,
two things that they knew for certain were that he spoke fluently in
Chinese and knew Great Tang very well, be it the history or the culture.
To summarize, he was no different from a Han. Even if one were to meet
him face-to-face, it would be impossible to determine whether he was a
Han or a Goguryeon.
“To think that it would actually be him!”
w.a.n.g Chong thought. He didn’t expect the elusive King Sosurim to be behind this operation as well.