Chapter 1067: Above the Peak of Saint Martial! (2/2)
Ziyad subconsciously swallowed. As one of the finest Arab generals, Ziyad had faced many dangers, but Qutaybah represented a completely different kind. From a certain perspective, he had ascended to a higher level. Even if all of them worked together, Ziyad was not certain that they could truly deal with Qutaybah.
Abu Muslim still remained the calmest and most relaxed, though his eyes were slightly narrowed. His resolve was like a stone standing tall in the middle of a pounding river.
”Fine!”
After a long while, Qutaybah relaxed the grip on his sword. Abu Muslim's argument had been persuasive, the will of the Caliph emerging victorious over Qutaybah's lust for battle.
”I leave this place to you. I will wait for your final decision!”
With these words, Qutaybah swept past the three other Arab commanders and rode into the rear.
Whoosh!
Ziyad, Aybak, and Osman all breathed sighs of relief. Only after Qutaybah had left did the three realize that their palms were caked in cold sweat.
Now that there were no outsiders, Osman walked up to his old friend.
”Abu Muslim, you were far too rash,” he reproached. ”It's not like you don't know about Qutaybah's personality. If you really managed to provoke him, it would have gone badly for all of us!
”I was really worried for you back there.”
”Relax. Qutaybah isn't as impulsive as all of you imagine. Don't forget, he's still a governor, not some ordinary general!” Abu Muslim nonchalantly said.
Others might regard Qutaybah as a pure battle maniac, but Abu Muslim knew that no pure battle maniac could have become the Governor of War.
”Let's go. I've already received a message from the Tibetans and Western Turks. They will arrive soon.”
As Abu Muslim spoke, he turned his horse around and quickly vanished from beneath the four black war banners.
……
With both armies giving the signal for retreat, both the Tang and Arabs had elected to enter a stalemate. The Tang did not leave their defenses to attack, and the Arabs did not have the courage to circle around the defense lines and continue the assault.
After the battle was over and the field cleaned up, everyone gathered in the reception hall of the Lord of Talas, where a grim and solemn atmosphere hung in the air.
”Have you counted the losses yet? How many men did we lose in this battle?”
Gao Xianzhi rested his hands against the table as he turned to a nearby deputy.
”Our casualties were not small, around ten thousand. But the Arabs lost even more, nearly eighty thousand, and all of them were elites!” the deputy sternly replied.
The deputy's words caused the mood in the hall to depress. It appeared as if the Arabs had lost far more in this battle than the Tang, but ten thousand soldiers was no small number to the Tang forces.
More importantly, in this short clash, the Tang had sent the Wushang Cavalry, the Iron Wall Army, and the Mo Saber Unit, and even the reinforcements had entered the battle. But on the Arab side, the Mamelukes and other important elite armies had yet to enter the field.
This fact made the eighty thousand losses appear rather small.
An extremely gloomy mood reigned in the hall as everyone lowered their heads and silently began to think.
Cheng Qianli broke the silence. ”This isn't what I'm worried about the most. That golden-armored Arab governor is probably the person that Khorasani called the Governor of War, Qutaybah. This person is far too powerful. He was able to singlehandedly block all four of us and still held the advantage. If we don't think of a way to deal with him, we'll find it very difficult to win this war.”
The four of them understood more than anyone else that the tens of thousands of Tang soldiers, the many steel walls, and four Great Generals had all failed to block one man and his sword.
Cheng Qianli had never imagined before this that such a strong martial artist could exist in this world. That unstoppable aura had left an indelible mark in Cheng Qianli's memory.
”Leave that Arab to me,” the Demonic Emperor Old Man suddenly said. ”If it's as I suspect, this person has already broken past the peak of the Saint Martial realm and reached the Subtle realm. This strength isn't something you can handle.”
”'Subtle'?”
This word made everyone, including Wang Chong, turn to the Demonic Emperor Old Man.
Wang Chong had reached a very high level of cultivation in his last life, no less than someone of Abu Muslim's level, but not even Wang Chong had ever heard about the Subtle realm. The only thing he knew about the realm above the Saint Martial realm was the Divine Martial realm.
But Wang Chong did not doubt his master's words. Even in the apocalyptic era, the Demonic Emperor Old Man was a legendary existence. His cultivation level had far exceeded what many martial artists could imagine.
”Master, do you mean that this Qutaybah has reached a level of cultivation where his senses are so subtle and profound that he can see the essence of Stellar Energy and observe many things that normally can't be observed?” Wang Chong suddenly said.
The Demonic Emperor Old Man gave a shocked glance at Wang Chong and then nodded.
”Correct. A normal martial artist only knows about Stellar Energy, but has no idea that there are tens of thousands of different kinds of energy that can be ranked from high to low. These particles of energy are something that ordinary martial artists, even Great Generals, cannot observe. But at the Subtle realm, everything is different. The Subtle realm experts have a control over energy that ordinary martial artists can't even begin to imagine. Moreover, at the Subtle realm, one can absorb a powerful energy from the world that ordinary martial artists, Great Generals included, might never interact with for their entire lives…”