“No, I’ll never lose!”
An Lushan clenched his teeth, muttering to himself as he began to crawl forward.
Even though he was heavily injured, he still wanted to do all he could to gain even the smallest chance of survival.
Chapter 2253 - Zhang Shougui Executes An Lushan!
Chapter 2253: Zhang Shougui Executes An Lushan!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
An Lushan’s bones were shattered, but a powerful will in his body continued to sustain him.
Finally…
When An Lushan clambered up to an ice-covered hill, thump! He heard the sound of a foot thumping against the ground nearby.
An Lushan felt his heart seize up. Turning around, he saw that a sharp sword was pressing against his neck.
“It’s time to end it!”
Wang Chong looked at An Lushan, his eyes flashing.
Just when he was about to use the Xuanyuan Sword to deal the final blow and bring an end to it all, a cold and sinister voice came from behind him.
“Wait!”
Buzz!
An Lushan had his eyes closed as he waited for his death, but upon hearing this voice, he shivered, his eyes opening to reveal fear and panic.
Almost simultaneously, Wang Chong turned around and saw a stalwart figure descending out of the snowstorm, landing not far from Wang Chong and An Lushan.
Zhang Shougui!
Perhaps because he had been drawn over by the battle, Zhang Shougui had left the battlefield and come alone to find them.
“Wang Chong, I was the one who created this beast. He was only able to grow so powerful, even collude with foreign countries and betray the Central Plains, because I failed in my duty. I was the one who started it, so I will end it with my own hands!” Zhang Shougui sternly said as he swiftly approached, his eyes turning to the dying An Lushan.
“Beast, look and see who they are!”
Thud! Thud!
Zhang Shougui threw out a dark ‘ball’ from each hand, rolling them in front of An Lushan.
In this frozen climate, these two ‘balls’ had long ago been covered in a thick layer of ice, but An Lushan was still able to recognize them at a glance.
Zhao Kan!
Baizhen Tuoluo!
Zhang Shougui had managed to catch up to these two and cut off their heads.
Their faces were white, their eyes and mouths wide open. It was like they had been stricken with fear in the moment before their deaths.
“Ah!” An Lushan cried out in alarm at the sight of the heads, jumping backward and shifting his body in a subconscious attempt to escape.
“Beast, even you have a day like this!”
Zhang Shougui savagely glared at An Lushan. If looks could kill, An Lushan would have already died a million times.
“Foster Father, it’s not like that! I didn’t betray you! Don’t you remember? During the Youzhou war, I risked my life, leading the army to penetrate through the enemy ranks to rescue Foster Father.”
An Lushan panicked at the sight of the approaching Zhang Shougui. Like a mouse seeing a cat, he felt an instinctive fear that not even Wang Chong was able to stimulate.
“Even now, you still want to lie to me?” Zhang Shougui coldly said, completely unmoved.
Wang Chong stood between the two, and after a few moments of silence, he stepped back to the side.
Whence it began, whence it should end.
Zhang Shougui had brought up An Lushan, and in his last life, Zhang Shougui had been framed by An Lushan and had died unaware of the truth. Nothing could be better than for Zhang Shougui to personally execute An Lushan.
Clang!
Zhang Shougui pulled out his sword.
“Beast, today is the day of your death! I will correct the mistake that I made!”
“No! Foster Father! Spare me! Give me another chance…”
A deep fear emerged in An Lushan’s eyes.
Fwoosh!
Before An Lushan could react, Zhang Shougui thrust out his hand, his sword stabbing into An Lushan’s neck.
An Lushan felt as if the entire world was spinning around him.
Thump! When everything stopped, An Lushan saw the nearby Zhang Shougui in front of him, and also his prostrate and headless body.
So this is how it all ends…
An Lushan’s face was blank. At that moment, he finally understood. He was somewhat disappointed, somewhat at a loss, and for some reason, he felt like something was approaching his face.
And then everything went dark, and An Lushan knew nothing.
“It’s finally over! This old man has personally corrected his error!”
Zhang Shougui sheathed his bloodstained sword and looked toward the heavens, a desolate look on his face.
He had been conceited his whole life, always believing himself to be the Great Tang’s number one general, even superior to Wang Zhongsi. But he had been so lost in his arrogance that he had failed to realize that he had been raising a thankless wretch.
If this war had resulted in defeat, who would have been derided as the arch-sinner who had invited the wolf into the house, infamous for the rest of time. But in the end, he had personally executed the traitor and corrected the mistake.
Yet even so, what had already happened could not be corrected. This incident would remain the greatest stain on his career.
Wang Chong looked at Zhang Shougui with a complicated expression, and then he glanced at the fallen body of An Lushan and the head that looked helplessly at the heavens, mentally sighing.
After being reborn and enduring countless trials, he had finally reached this point, successfully defeating An Lushan and ending this foe from another life, in addition saving the Great Tang that he had destroyed and protecting this prosperous empire and its millions of subjects.
But perhaps because he had been looking forward to this moment for too long, when it finally happened, after a moment of joy, he felt empty.
For a moment, it felt like he had lost his sense of direction.
But Wang Chong quickly got ahold of himself. Though An Lushan was dead and the Great Tang had survived, the Great Ice Age was still leaving its mark on the country. Moreover, Li Heng had only recently ascended to the throne, and there were still many things he needed to take care of.
Suddenly, Wang Chong sensed something and trembled. “Careful!” With no time, he tensed his body, grabbed Zhang Shougui, and immediately lunged backward.
“Origin Immortal Art!
“Halo Barrier!
“Samsara Battle Armor!”
In just a few short moments, Wang Chong had created several layers of defense. In addition, he mustered all his energy and swung his sword at an empty point in space above the hill where An Lushan had died.
Boom!
The fabric of space trembled, and Zhang Shougui stared in shock as the sky darkened and a surge of destructive energy erupted from that point above the hill, instantly crossing space to slam into Wang Chong.
Crack!
The spacetime shields Wang Chong had created were instantly shattered, followed by the shield Wang Chong had created using Origin Immortal Stellar Energy.
Boom!
Wang Chong and Zhang Shougui were blasted several thousand feet away.
At that moment, Zhang Shougui felt like he was teetering on the brink of death.
That attack had been far too powerful, even exceeding Genesis Supreme in some ways. But Wang Chong’s Halo Barrier and Samsara Battle Armor had proved effective, saving them from any severe injuries despite the distance they were blasted.
However, the halo divine tool and the Samsara Battle Armor sustained enormous pressure that made them groan and vibrate.
“Who’s there?”
Zhang Shougui looked at the hill, his face scowling. He had seen Wang Chong fight, and even Genesis Supreme had died to this man. This was proof of just how strong he was.
But this opponent had been abl
e to burst through Wang Chong’s Stellar Energy and send them flying several thousand feet, even make the armor on his body groan and clang as if it was about to break from this pressure. These things were proof that this foe had to be unfathomably powerful.
With a grave expression, Wang Chong uttered a single word. “Heaven!”
Wang Chong had never met Heaven before and didn’t even know what Heaven was, but he recognized this energy.
In the Rebellion of the Three Princes, when True Lord Yellow Dragon was supporting the First Prince’s rebellion, that terrifying energy had appeared above the Imperial Palace. And during the incident that had led to the Sage Emperor’s death, that same energy had appeared for the briefest of moments, though Wang Chong had failed to recognize it at the time.
Wang Chong had never imagined that Heaven would appear at a time like this. If not for his immense Psychic Energy and his control over spacetime allowing him to notice the danger beforehand, he might have fallen prey to Heaven’s sneak attack.
There was no questioning Heaven’s power.
Genesis Supreme was merely an executor of his orders, and the Sage Emperor had always regarded him as his greatest enemy.
The reason the Sage Emperor had risked attempting the Divine Martial realm was to defeat him. Alas, he had ended up falling into Heaven’s trap.
Shadows shifted in the air as a majestic voice carrying an intense pressure emerged from the depths of the void. “Simply a few tiny ants, but We underestimated you. To think that you would ruin Genesis Supreme and An Lushan’s Purification operation, even taking Our Divine Crown of the Sun!”
This was Wang Chong’s first direct meeting with Heaven.
This was a powerful pressure and a fear that came from the depths of his soul. If someone of Wang Chong’s cultivation was in this state, it was easy to imagine what others were feeling.
Zhang Shougui’s face said it all.
“Since that is the case, We will personally kill you!”
As Heaven’s cold voice resounded, the sky darkened, and a familiar and concentrated killing intent once more appeared.
“Hmph, can you kill me?”
Surprisingly, Wang Chong lunged out from next to the nervous Zhang Shougui, his eyes flashing.
Clang!
His sword resounded as Wang Chong mustered all his power and unleashed a resplendent beam of Sword Qi.
The Art of God and Demon Obliteration!
A swift and fierce beam of Sword Qi tens of thousands of feet long shot toward ‘Heaven’.
Chapter 2254 - Heaven Reappears!
Chapter 2254: Heaven Reappears!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“No!”
Wang Chong did not aim his attack at Heaven, but the nearby head of An Lushan atop the hill.
“You dare?!”
Heaven’s enraged voice resounded through the world, and the heavens and earth shifted as an enormous energy erupted from the void and stopped Wang Chong.
At the same time, crack! Space fractured above the hill, a giant hand emerging from the fissure and grabbing An Lushan’s head.
This hand was so huge that it made the hill seem tiny and insignificant.
As Wang Chong and Zhang Shougui stared in shock, some hidden energy within An Lushan’s lifeless head seemed to be stimulated. With a soft hiss, the giant hand pulled out black wisps of energy from the head.
The black wisps of energy distorted in the air, forming into the twisted, savage, and pained face of a man that was identical to An Lushan.
“Impossible!”
Upon seeing An Lushan’s extracted soul, Zhang Shougui trembled in shock.
An Lushan had been beheaded, as dead as he could be. Zhang Shougui had never imagined that someone would be able to extract his soul from his corpse.
The soul was a forbidden zone for martial artists!
The power exhibited by this existence had already transcended the knowledge of human martial arts.
This was the domain of gods!
“Don’t even think about it! Put him down right now!”
The earth shuddered as Wang Chong used spacetime energy to instantly appear above that enormous hand and swing fiercely down with the Sword of God.
Bang!
There was a massive explosion as the Sword of God’s frightening power cut off one of the fingers of the hand. At the moment of impact, there was even a metallic clang.
But Wang Chong had been a step too slow. An Lushan’s head dropped to the ground, but his soul withdrew into the depths of spacetime along with the giant hand like a receding tide.
“Wang Chong, the Child of the World cannot die in your hands. I am taking his soul, and you two will meet again!” Heaven’s majestic voice drifted out from the depths of spacetime, and in the blink of an eye, his energy vanished along with An Lushan’s soul.
The world grew quiet, leaving only the sound of the howling wind.
Wang Chong stood atop the hill, his expression turning grim.
Behind him, Zhang Shougui also had a nasty scowl.
The two of them had never imagined this development, that the leader of the Celestial God Organization would appear, extract An Lushan’s soul, which should have already dispersed, and take it away.
“What do we do? If An Lushan can get a new body just like Genesis Supreme and come back, then all our effort has been in vain!” Zhang Shougui sternly said.
“It’s not that simple. An Lushan isn’t Genesis Supreme, and he doesn’t have that powerful of a soul. It isn’t that easy for Heaven to revive him. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to kill a single person in the Celestial God Organization!” Wang Chong said, maintaining an extremely calm demeanor.
He had killed numerous Immortals and Divine Lords of the Celestial God Organization, even two Supremes. If people were so easily revived, those people would have all been brought back.
The Celestial God Organization would have long ago seized control of the world and given him no chance.
Wang Chong acknowledged Heaven’s power, even that he was more powerful than the Sage Emperor, but he would not blindly believe him.
In Wang Chong’s mind, Heaven was still a human, not a god. Humans had their limits, and nothing could change that.
Wang Chong was certain that it would be a very long time until An Lushan reappeared.
It was just that Heaven’s sudden intervention left a great deal of bitterness.
Zhang Shougui fell silent. This argument made him somewhat more able to accept what had transpired.
An Lushan’s beheading had still left him greatly wounded, and he would not be able to so easily appear again. His and Wang Chong’s efforts had not been wasted.
“We’ll have to consider this matter seriously in the future. Heaven is too powerful, the Sage Emperor’s lifelong foe. Your actions just now were too risky. At this current stage, it’s not appropriate for us to directly contend against Heaven,” Zhang Shougui said as he thought back to the events just now.
As a veteran general of the empire, Zhang Shougui knew of what had happened in the Imperial City ten-some years ago when the Sage Emperor attempted to break into the Divine Martial realm. In truth, as one of the peak Great Generals of the empire, he had been called back to the capital to serve as a guard of the Imperial Palace.
But the mind of the sovereign was unfathomable, and outsiders would never be able to predict what the Sage Emperor was thinking.
Though Zhang Shougui had personally been through that event, the Sage Emperor had not told him everything, and he had needed to slowly understand the truth on his own.
Heaven was the supreme leader of the Celestial God Organization and possessed unfathomable strength. Even the Sage Emperor at his prime had feared him. For Wang Chong to attempt to seize An Lushan’s soul from his grip was far too dangerous.
Just the thought of it made him shiver in fear.
The matter of An Lushan was secondary. As a defeated ge
neral, even if he were revived, he would find it very hard to stir up too great of a storm. But Wang Chong, as the spiritual leader and supporting pillar of the empire, held a deep significance for the entire empire.
If something happened to Wang Chong, the people would be dealt a terrifying blow.
Moreover, the Celestial God Organization was immense. Even though Genesis Supreme had been killed, its foundation had yet to be shaken.
Each day this organization existed was another day the entire world remained under enormous threat.
Besides Wang Chong, there was no one else that could contend against the Celestial God Organization.
“Relax. I know what I’m doing.”
Wang Chong seemed to know what Zhang Shougui was worrying about, and calmly shook his head. While he appeared impulsive, that was far from the truth.
“Heaven might be powerful, but if my guess is correct, his strength is probably greatly restrained, and he shouldn’t be able to sustain a powerful attack like when he first appeared for very long. If he were really so omnipotent, we would have never been able to kill Genesis Supreme and An Lushan.”
Wang Chong’s voice was extremely calm.
The Sage Emperor, before his incident, had mentioned to him in the rear hall that Heaven had some enormous flaw. His actual body could not enter the Central Plains, which was why he required Genesis Supreme and the Celestial God Organization to do many things for him.
No one understood Heaven more than the Sage Emperor, and if this was the Sage Emperor’s conclusion, it could not be wrong.
From those words, Wang Chong had conjectured many things, even what Heaven’s absolute limit was.
Firstly, Wang Chong was sure that Heaven’s senses were very limited and not omnipotent, certainly not able to cover the entire continent. He had most likely left certain seals on key individuals like Genesis Supreme. If anything happened to them, Heaven could make a timely appearance.
This could also explain why Heaven had only appeared after he had killed Genesis Supreme and An Lushan.
Secondly, Heaven could walk the world using his avatars. This was how he had clashed with the Sage Emperor that time. He could also do as he had done just now, crossing through space to attack and meddle with mortal affairs. But this ability was very limited. Not even Heaven could attack without limit.
The Human Emperor c1-2382 Page 1354
