Chapter 2248: The Struggle of a Desperate Beast!

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

Even though Wang Chong was determined to get rid of An Lushan, this source of calamity, even he was shocked by what he was hearing.

An Lushan had admired the Great Tang!

An Lushan had loved the Great Tang and had wanted to become a Tang?!

How could that be?!!

This man who had wanted to destroy the Central Plains and topple the Great Tang, who had brought the otherworldly invaders to this world, bringing countless people to calamity and causing rivers of blood to flow, had loved the Great Tang and wanted to become a Tang.

If everything he said was true, then destiny had truly been playing a massive joke.

As he stared at the red-eyed An Lushan who appeared like a furious beast, Wang Chong found himself unable to speak.

A man at his deathbed would speak sincerely. An Lushan knew that he was dead, so he had no need to conceal this matter.

Wang Chong felt that everything An Lushan was saying was true.

The plain of ice was quiet, the only sound the wailing of the wind.

“Hahaha…”

An Lushan let out a sorrowful and indignant laugh that traveled far into the distance.

“Zhang Shougui said that I betrayed him, but I was the one that was really betrayed. I had heard that he was the Protector-General of Andong, a great hero of the Great Tang. I left Mount Yaluo to find him, hoping to mimic Qili Hebi and serve Zhang Shougui in achieving great things for the Great Tang.

“But when I arrived at Youzhou, what was waiting for me? Torture and humiliation! I regarded Zhang Shougui as a hero, but he treated me as a beast, granting me the title of ‘slave general’ to humiliate me and jeering, torturing, and mocking me every day.

“But even then, I still held onto a sliver of hope. I captured my own people in the naive belief that I could prove to Zhang Shougui that I was sincerely loyal to the Great Tang and that everyone would accept me. But… what did I get?”

An Lushan crazily laughed.

“Zhang Shougui treated me as an ant, an insignificant being. You were born to a clan of ministers and generals, had never met me before and held no grudge, but just because I was a Hu, you charged into a restaurant and tried to kill me. Again and again, you targeted me.

“Zhang Shougui was like that, you were like that, and even that one you call the eternal sovereign, the Sage Emperor, was like that. The Great Tang was said to be a place where Hu and Han coexisted, but how many Hu Great Generals were there in the Imperial Court? How many Hu Prime Ministers?

“The Great Tang that I had admired as a child, that Great Tang that accepted all people, was all a lie. It never existed.

“Since I couldn’t get the Great Tang I wanted, I would destroy it and set up a new Great Tang that was truly tolerant.”

An Lushan laughed like a madman.

As Wang Chong looked at An Lushan, his eyes slowly turned to pity.

This monologue from An Lushan’s heart truly did surprise him, but if he were allowed to succeed, countless people would die. For that ‘Great Tang’ he desired, he was even willing to draw over the otherworldly invaders. The consequences for allowing him to realize his ideals were unthinkable.

A general’s success was established on ten thousand bleached bones, but An Lushan had already surpassed a general in terms of death toll. Not even a sea of corpses would be enough to describe the chaos he was about to bring on the world.

‘After me, the flood.’ This sort of saying described exactly someone like An Lushan!

“An Lushan…” Wang Chong began, his expression indifferent and his voice emotionless.

“You say that you wanted to establish a new ‘Great Tang’, a truly tolerant ‘Great Tang’, and I admit that what you say is true. But what is the reason you believe you can do something like this?”

“The reason?”

An Lushan was taken aback at first, but he proceeded to laugh.

“Hahaha, because I’m better! I’m a Turk, but in my Youzhou army, Cui Qianyou is a Han, Tian Qianzhen is a Han, Tian Chengsi is a Han, Gao Shang is a Han, and Zhao Kan is a Han… The number of Han generals I have is greater than all of the Hu generals in the Great Tang added together. I even have many Han soldiers under my command. I treat them all as my own. Can any of you compare to me?

“You? Or that Sage Emperor, that eternal sovereign that all of you praise?”

An Lushan looked at Wang Chong and coldly sneered.

Even if he had to lose, he would lose more gloriously than anyone else.

Was there anyone since ancient times that could coexist between Hu and Han as well as him?

Wang Chong, the so-called King of Foreign Lands, was still a narrow-minded person. If he were allowed to establish his ideal empire, would the King of Foreign Lands be anything to talk about?

When it came to an open mind, was there anyone in the world that could compare to him?

Wang Chong shook his head. He had only a single question in reply to An Lushan’s impassioned appearance.

“Then… Cui Qianyou, Tian Chengsi, Tian Qianzhen, and Gao Shang—where are they now?”

Bzzz!

As if he had been struck by lightning, An Lushan’s smug and elated expression froze, his body went stiff, and his throat swallowed, but he couldn’t manage a word.

“Those trusted subordinates of yours that assisted you all this time were abandoned by you at the final moment. You didn’t bring a single one with you, even though with your ability, bringing one or two people shouldn’t have been a problem, right?”

Wang Chong coldly laughed. Even the most impassioned argument was pale and weak before cold reality.

“How can a man who would abandon everyone and flee for his own life be trusted to do anything he claims? You wish to establish your ideal Great Tang that is tolerant and treats Hu and Han the same, but this is just an excuse to satisfy your personal desires.”

“Bastard!”

As if his secret had been exposed, An Lushan went ghastly pale, and he furiously roared.

A moment later, An Lushan swung his sword at Wang Chong.

“You’re speaking nonsense! That’s not true!”

“Rivers and mountains are easier to change than the natures of men. You can deceive others, but can you deceive yourself? An Lushan, at this point, anything you say is meaningless. Hand over your life!”

Wang Chong swayed, easily dodging An Lushan’s attack. At the same time, he reached out with his hand, upon which the Xuanyuan Sword flew through the air and took aim at An Lushan.

An Lushan gnashed his teeth and roared, “No! I am the Child of the World, the future master of the Central Plains! I cannot die here! Wang Chong, our battle will not end here!”

Bang!

Black energy erupted from his body, transforming into a black dragon that charged at Wang Chong. Meanwhile, An Lushan soared into the sky and fled toward the northwest.

“Fool!” A bone-chilling voice penetrated through the wind.

Boom! A resplendent beam of Sword Qi slashed down in front of An Lushan, and the howling snowstorm and the fabric of space were both sliced open by this enormous sword.

Standing at the source of this Sword Qi was Wang Chong, floating in the air like a ghost as if he had been standing there this whole time.

An Lushan wanted to escape in front of him? A complete fantasy.

Bang!

An Lushan stared at Wang Chong and shivered in shock, fear in his eyes. With no time to think, he turned around and began to flee in another direction.

“Go back!”

Wang Chong’s cold voice once more exploded through the air, and a ball of energy punched out from the direction in which An Lushan had just chosen to flee.

“Ah!” An Lushan called out in alarm as he turned around and tried to flee in another direction.

But no matter where An Lushan ran, Wang Chong would always be waiting for him.

This area had become a prison cell, a cell made for An Lushan alone.

An Lushan couldn’t help but feel a sliver of despair.

Bang!

Finally, with a thunderous boom, Wang Chong’s Sword Qi appeared like a dazzling river of stars as it slammed An Lushan out of the air.

Boom! An Lushan’s body created a large crater in the ground, causing snow and ice to fly into the air and the earth to shudder.

“Ah!”

An Lushan’s helmet fell to the side as he got to his feet. With his hair loose and disheveled, he appeared like a wailing ghost.

“I won’t accept this! I, An Lushan, am the Child of the World! Why am I losing to an ordinary person?!

“I went through such great effort to build up all this. For it all to be destroyed so quickly? I won’t accept it!”

An Lushan stood in the snow and roared at the heavens.

Rumble!

As if in response to An Lushan’s voice, the winds howled and lightning flashed. Above An Lushan, dark clouds gathered, tens of thousands of silver snakes crackling down and seeming to tear apart the sky.

High in the sky, a giant vortex of thunderclouds formed, and the World Consciousness descended once more.

But this time, seemingly because An Lushan was about to die, the World Consciousness that had congregated in the thunderclouds was greater and more terrifying than ever before.

An Lushan could sense that immensely destructive energy in the clouds, and his eyes flew open in delight.

“Hahaha, Wang Chong, do you see it? This world is not willing to let me die!”

An Lushan loudly laughed, and as his eyes passed over Wang Chong, he sent Psychic Energy to the World Consciousness in the clouds.

“Save me! Hurry and take me from this place! Execute him!”

An Lushan could tell that the World Consciousness this time was extremely powerful, enough to present an enormous threat to any Grotto Heaven realm expert.