Emperor’s Domination

The tavern resembled an ostrich sprinting in the desert from a distance.

Li Qiye followed with the old servant, True Bear, and Li Zhitian right behind him. They ran for days and nights until they reached a place shrouded in fog.

It had a hypnotic property, capable of luring others to sleep and making them lose all sense of direction.

The trio immediately protected their mind and focused up, not wanting to be left behind.

Li Qiye moved left and right randomly. The others knew that they needed to follow his steps precisely.

They eventually reached a desert with bright stars above resembling spatial coordinates. As they looked up, they felt attached to a particular path - one that could lead them home.

In the dunes nearby, sands were blown away by strong gusts. This revealed white bones beneath - gigantic in size. One could imagine the enormity of the entire skeletons buried beneath.

“Over there!” Li Zhitian spotted the running tavern.

It was on top of a sand dune with the sign still swaying to the wind. There were no signs of human presence, only bones. Thus, the tavern being here painted a creepy picture instead of proving comfort.

Of course, the group was courageous enough to ignore this.

“Okay, let’s take a nap first.” Li Qiye looked around before sitting down and closing his eyes.

“A nap?” Li Zhitian didn’t understand. However, the other two sat down and closed their eyes.

This made him follow the trend as well. Once he woke up, he found himself to be in the middle of a city.

The others were already awake so he stood up as well.

“An interesting place.” Li Qiye smiled nonchalantly while observing the busy street.

“How strange.” On the contrary, the old servant was rather cautious.

“Where is this place?” Li Zhitian didn’t expect to be teleported here after the nap. Did someone move the group? No, they would have noticed and woken up in time.

“It popped up overnight.” He murmured - a desert during nighttime and a vibrant city during the day. This would be fine and all if there weren’t huge skeletons buried beneath the sands.

Li Qiye smiled and started walking. The city was packed with inhabitants and merchants - no different from one commonly seen in the mortal world.

Amusingly enough, Li Qiye took his time walking and appreciating the scenery as if it was the most beautiful sight.

“Tofu pudding here, tofu pudding…” A not-so-loud but powerful chant came from a hawker carrying a pole on his shoulders with two wooden barrels attached to the sides.

He had a square-shaped face covered in wrinkles, dressed in coarse clothes with towels on his shoulders to mitigate the pole’s weight. Despite carrying two barrels full of tofu, he still walked with remarkable agility - a sign of vitality and strength as if age had only made him stronger.

“Do you want some tofu pudding?” He stopped after noticing Li Qiye’s gaze.

Li Qiye only smiled in response while Li Zhitian said: “Give us one bowl each.”

“Just him is fine.” Li Qiye shook his head and glanced at Li Zhitian.

The latter was a bit confused but one bowl was placed in his hand already. He looked up and the old man was already walking away while chanting.

“I still haven’t paid!” He shouted but the old man disappeared into the crowd.

He figured that he might as well finish the bowl.

“Shit!” He yelled after having a taste and spat everything out. He looked at the ground and saw a pile of sand but when he looked at the bowl, it was still filled with tofu pudding.

He activated his heavenly gaze and saw the content shifting back and forth from sand to tofu. He then looked around and saw many illusions.

It seemed that the entire city was fake. However, the merchants and pedestrians were real, seemingly crafted by a mysterious power. This made it hard to discern reality from otherwise.

“What’s real and what’s fake here?” He murmured.

The old servant observed the scene carefully and had a hard time as well.

“When something false appears to be true, then the truth becomes false, and vice versa.” Li Qiye said with a faint smile.

“Rumble!” Suddenly, loud explosions came from a figure large enough to blot out the sky.

They looked up and saw a massive skeleton. Just one stomp could wipe out the entire city.

“?!” Li Zhitian and True Bear became alarmed.

However, the merchants and pedestrians didn’t seem to notice and continued as usual.

“All of you, kneel before my mighty self before I flatten your world!” The figure roared thunderously. His wrath could end with absolute destruction.

“Little goblin, stop causing trouble.” Someone in the crowd shouted.

“Bam!” A loud detonation occurred.

Li Zhitian and the others thought that an attack against the city was about to occur. However, the skeleton crumbled and disappeared from sight, revealing a young goblin of the earth affinity standing up.