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Chapter 36: There's No City Here At All

San Shier waved his hands emphatically. "How would I dare to mess with a general? There's truly no city here."

Cheng Xu bristled with fury, pointing ahead and shouting, "Such a massive city! Look closely, a huge city right there! If you spout one more word of damned nonsense, I'll chop you down with my saber!"

A pang of fear shot through San Shier. The man before him was a military official, a crude ruffian; if he threatened to chop someone, he genuinely meant it. San Shier feared a sudden attack.

Yet, every word he spoke now was at the Heavenly Lord's behest, and he dared not defy the Heavenly Lord's command.

"The Heavenly Lord is watching from above anyway," he thought, "He won't let him actually chop me." Gritting his teeth, he continued to act. "General Cheng, did you oversleep and wake up too suddenly? There really isn't a city here."

"Damn it!" Cheng Xu's saber flashed from its sheath.

Li Daoxuan saw this and knew it was time for him to make his move.

He placed his phone into the diorama box. Then, in mid-air behind the troops, he activated a pre-recorded horror movie soundtrack, letting it play...

"Wah... hahahahaha... woo... oh hehehe..."

The sound was deafening! Absolutely overwhelming!

A horror movie ghost's cackle was chilling enough, but once the volume was amplified, the dreadful, unearthly laughter permeated the entire world.

Cheng Xu had just drawn his saber when he heard the enormous, eerie woman's laugh behind him. Utterly terrified, the steel saber in his hand clanged to the ground as he spun around to look.

All his men executed an "about-face" with him.

Li Daoxuan swiftly pulled out his hand and retrieved his phone.

As the soldiers spun around, they saw only endless yellow sands behind them, dust swirling, and a gusty, sandy wind. Nothing else.

"What happened just now?"

"What's going on?"

"Who was laughing?"

"Oh, Mother of Heaven, that sound just now... it wasn't a ghost, was it?"

The soldiers erupted in a flurry of whispers, their eyes wide with fear as they frantically searched.

Li Daoxuan chuckled inwardly. While their attention was focused in the opposite direction, he reached in and took the Lego bricks that formed the city wall out of the box, placing them outside the diorama box. Then he reached back in and took out the Tupperware-style container filled with water. Oh, and a half-flattened Pepsi can, he grabbed all of it.

Over a hundred villagers were now present in Gao Family Village. All they witnessed were objects from their village lifting one by one, vanishing into the clouds. The sight was...

...utterly breathtaking.

With the items retrieved, Li Daoxuan dusted the sand from his hands and settled back to enjoy the spectacle.

A long while passed as the group of soldiers stared into the emptiness behind them, seeing nothing. Unable to pinpoint the source of the dreadful woman's laugh, they reluctantly gave up, their hearts thudding with unease as they turned back to face San Shier.

The moment they faced him, every man froze solid, as if caught in a paralysis spell.

Ten seconds stretched out before Cheng Xu finally managed to stammer, "The wall? Where's the wall? A massive wall like that, it was right here!"

San Shier finally grasped the Heavenly Lord's intricate design, and with it, a surge of confidence swept over him. Truly, trusting the Heavenly Lord was always the right path. So *this* was the trick – making him feign ignorance of the city wall! Hahahaha, now it was his turn to shine.

His mind roared with silent laughter, yet his face remained perfectly blank. "General Cheng," he asked, feigning confusion, "what on earth are you talking about? There's no city wall here. Never has been, in fact. It is called... `As It Always Was`."

Cheng Xu tore into a furious roar. "Goddammit, I swear! There was a wall here just now! A massive wall, two *zhang* tall! A full two *zhang*! Didn't you all see it? A huge wall... the wall... it vanished after that eerie woman's laugh!"

His words tumbled out, utterly incoherent.

San Shier shook his head, letting out a heavy sigh. "General, I heard no eerie woman's laugh, and there is certainly no city wall here..."

Cheng Xu whirled to glare at his men, bellowing at them while wildly gesturing forward. "You all heard it, didn't you? You all saw it, right? A colossal wall like that, it was here only moments ago!"

His men were drenched in a cold sweat. They had undeniably seen the city wall moments before, yet now it was truly gone. Which self should they trust? The one who had seen, or the one who now saw nothing?

Utter bewilderment!

Lost in utter confusion!

San Shier's lips stretched into a sinister grin, a chilling expression that resembled an ancient mountain spirit greeting its unsuspecting prey. "The general must be overly stressed from chasing Wang Er," he drawled. "Why not come into the village, rest a night... and tomorrow, with spirits restored, continue your hunt for Wang Er's lot? Hehehe... hehehe... *hiss*..."

He ended by slowly licking his lips, as if savoring the thought of a delectable treat.

Cheng Xu's eyes darted from San Shier's unsettling expression to a sidelong glance at the village itself. Gao Family Village was a swirling haze of dust, its inhabitants kneeling in fervent clusters, their eyes wide with devotion, seemingly worshipping some unholy entity.

His mind flashed back to the dreadful woman's laugh he had just heard.

A shiver ran down Cheng Xu's spine. "What kind of demonic village is this?" he thought. "I almost saw my great-grandmother waving at me from inside... I'm not going in, I'll die before I go in! Quick, let's go find Wang Er, I need to find Wang Er now... I have to get far, far away from here... I came for Wang Er, yes, that's right, let's find Wang Er... Great-grandmother, I really must go. I'm still young; I can't visit you in the village just yet..."

He spun and fled, but after a few frantic steps, he rushed back, snatched up the dropped saber, sheathed it, and then bolted away once more.

A few more steps, and he was back, leaping onto his warhorse, turning its head, and galloping off again.

He repeated this frantic back-and-forth three times.

The Deputy Patrol Inspector, the Archer Squad Leader, and the rest watched, utterly dumbfounded.

After several stunned seconds, San Shier's grin widened, and he spoke with a sinister air: "General Cheng has fled. Aren't you going to follow him? Ah, well, that's fine too. Perhaps you'd all care to stay as guests in Gao Family Village? Hehe... *hiss*... `Quite Delicious`."

The Deputy Patrol Inspector shrieked, then sprinted after Cheng Xu, a hundred-plus soldiers scrambling clumsily and dust-covered in his wake.

In a flash, the entire contingent vanished without a trace.

Once they were well out of sight, San Shier planted his hands on his hips and erupted into boisterous laughter. "Amusing, utterly amusing!" he cackled. "Hahahaha! You, General Cheng, used to scorn me, but now you know the formidable capabilities of this strategist, don't you? Hahahaha! Hahahaha! That ought to scare the living daylights out of a fool like you!"

Li Daoxuan transmitted: "The soldiers are gone, Yiye. Have everyone move away from where the city wall was. I'm putting it back now."

Gao Yiye swiftly relayed the divine command.

The villagers, a mix of reverence, awe, and sheer terror, especially the new arrivals, were utterly speechless, having witnessed Dao Xuan Tian Zun's divine power for the first time. They scrambled away from the wall's former location, crawling if necessary, desperate not to hinder the Heavenly Lord's wondrous acts.

Moments later, they watched as the city wall once more descended slowly from the heavens, settling back into its former place. The sight of that colossal structure gently lowering from the sky was breathtaking. Next, Blacksmith Gao Yiyi's cylindrical house also glided down, returning to its original foundation, and the massive pond likewise drifted from above, settling back into its designated basin...