Chapter 2153 - Starting Today, I Am An Lushan! (1/2)
The world fell silent as An Yaluoshan looked to the south.
For some reason, after receiving the baptism of the black dragon and fusing his destiny with its, he had not only gotten stronger. His perception of the world and his control over its power had also gotten stronger. At certain points, fragmentary images would flit by his eyes.
Some of these fragments were so fast that it was impossible to make out any detail within them, and some of them gave An Yaluoshan a sense of déjà vu.
It’s about time, An Yaluoshan quietly remarked.
A cold gust of wind blew past, instantly ruffling his hair. An Yaluoshan felt as if he had reached the most important point of his life. It wasn’t merely because of the alliance, but because of something else.
It was like even though a river changed course time and time again, in the end, it had to flow through a single pass.
Clang!
A sharp clang resounded through the world. In a cold flash of light, An Yaluoshan unsheathed his sword and pointed it to the heavens.
Bang!
As the sword left its sheath, thunder exploded in the sky.
Where An Yaluoshan pointed his sword, dark clouds roiled and lightning crackled. A massive vortex quickly took form, and beneath this vortex, An Yaluoshan appeared like a god, his eyes shining brightly.
Bolts of lightning slashed down, but none of them left the area around An Yaluoshan. Yeon Gaesomun, Ozmish Khagan, the Khitan King, and the Xi Queen were all left speechless by this sight.
There had been rumors circulating in the countries of the northeast for some time that An Yaluoshan was a hidden dragon of the Central Plains, the future master of the Divine Land, the next True Dragon, Son of Heaven, who would end the Great Tang.
But Yeon Gaesomun and Ozmish Khagan had never taken this rumor to heart, believing that it would be far too foolish to take these rumors at face value.
In any dynasty, anyone who wanted to rebel would never blow their own trumpet and give themselves some pleasant name or take on some dangerous identity.
This was the same in the Great Tang and in the surrounding countries.
Everyone had believed that this was also true for An Yaluoshan, but it now seemed that things weren’t so simple.
The four sovereigns looked at An Yaluoshan’s back and wondered, Was that rumor true?
The Great Tang was a dragon while the other countries were serpents.
But even serpents had weak Dragon Qi.
From their perspective, a massive phantom that ordinary people couldn’t see had begun to take form behind An Yaluoshan, none other than a massive black dragon that connected the heavens and earth, several thousand feet long.
But there was no time to ponder such things. Soon, they heard An Yaluoshan’s deep voice, brimming with resolve and ambition.
“It is time for things to end!
“Starting from now, my relationship with the Great Tang is over. I, An Yaluoshan, desire a fortune as vast as the seas, a life as long-lived as the mountains!
“Starting from now, no one can order me around.
“In the future, there will be no An Yaluoshan. Starting today, I am An Lushan!”
Crack!
When An Yaluoshan declared himself as ‘An Lushan’, a massive boom came from overhead. A giant bolt of lightning several hundred times brighter than the sun exploded out from Youzhou, flew over An Yaluoshan’s head, and cleaved at Wang Chong’s steel fortress in the south like a giant axe.
The dazzling lightning bolt lit up the dark world as brightly as day.
Rumble!
Six-hundred-some li away, at the steel fortress, as An Yaluoshan spoke, Wang Chong’s Divine Embryo 3 trembled and opened its eyes.
At this moment, a sense of destiny welled up in his heart.
Though he couldn’t see anything, he felt as if some extremely important event that was linked to him had taken place.
“This is…!?”
A moment later, Wang Chong sensed something and instantly disappeared from the main hall.
Rumble!
A second later, just as Wang Chong appeared on the northern wall of the steel fortress, a blazing lightning bolt came out of the dark clouds covering the lands of the north. With a great rumble, a gale swept out and the sky turned a fiery red.
And in those fiery clouds, Wang Chong saw a familiar figure.
“I, An Yaluoshan, desire a fortune as vast as the seas, a life as long-lived as the mountains!
“…Starting today, I am An Lushan!”
(TN: The word ‘Lushan’ incorporates the Chinese words for ‘fortune’ and ‘mountain’, Lu and Shan.)
A faint and familiar voice that was brimming with ambition resounded in Wang Chong’s ears.
That voice seemed to penetrate through spacetime and transcend this world. It was a special existence that seemed to be linked to countless parallel dimensions, resonating and echoing off them.
Whoosh!
Wang Chong’s eyes widened, his face paling.