MTLNOVEL Chapter 238: The Mandala Empire, Already Destroyed
Old Cat had originally wanted to cram another telegraph machine in there, but the current industrial capabilities were really lousy.
A whole bunch of them had elevated Sky City, yet they couldn't even manufacture a telegraph machine!
In the end, he surprisingly couldn't bear to part with it.
Sha Sanli knew the gift was valuable, and with a Worm King acting as a bodyguard—essentially a supervisor—he quickly took careful possession of the box.
"Lord Cat, rest assured, I can handle this little matter in no time. My distant relatives are major nobles of the Empire... Although our blood relation is very distant, having a chat is still a breeze," Sha Sanli added.
"Elder, do we really need to leverage connections? We must have confidence!" the accompanying soldier exclaimed loudly.
They were naturally just an escort and would return afterwards.
"Oh, right right right, confidence, confidence!" Sha Sanli quickly straightened up and puffed out his chest.
These guys acted as if they were on drugs every day, incredibly confident.
Lu Da nodded slightly at Old Cat, a bud of an opium poppy was pinned on him, which could be used for surveillance.
"Well then, let's set off," he announced.
They arranged themselves in a formation and mounted the back of an "Absorber" insect.
Carried by these insects, they headed in the direction of the Empire.
The Mandala Empire was vast, but what had been transported was just one capital, with probably a million inhabitants.
An eighty-kilometer journey actually took less than three hours.
The "Absorber," a large and fierce-looking insect, wasn't suited for entering the territory of others, so it left from a distance upon reaching the destination.
Nearly a thousand people, pushing small carts, arrived at the edge of the city walls.
It seemed as if the place had undergone a brutal riot, with broken walls and ruins of buildings everywhere, and numerous unburied skeletons discarded along the roadside.
Many fields had been abandoned as well.
Even the great Empire had descended into such chaos, Sha Sanli couldn't help but sigh inwardly, "Despite all this water, internal strife still occurs."
"Whether it thrives or perishes, the common folk suffer either way."
Before long, they encountered a patrolling army—such a large city arriving from afar was bound to elicit a reaction from the Empire.
The two groups met in a friendly manner and then chatted familiarly.
"Isn't that Commander Lu?"
"Isn't this... Old Sha? You guys made it to this world too?" A tall man in red battle armor, almost two meters tall with a face full of flabby muscles, approached them.
Seeing an old acquaintance was like bringing tears to their eyes.
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"You know each other?" Commander Lu asked, puzzled.
"Ha, bumped into an old buddy. We used to supervise labor together in the gold mines," Sha Sanli boasted. "We've carried guns together, been to brothels together... We go way back."
"Ahem, Commander Lu, why does the Imperial City look so desolate, not like its former prosperous self?"
"That's a long story..." the burly man lowered his head and mumbled something.
The gist of it was that a coup had occurred, and many people had died.
With such chaos, naturally, many ruffians emerged, committing all kinds of evil deeds.
"The new Emperor..."
And Sha Sanli was utterly dumbfounded as he listened.
What a messy circle.
Commander Lu was better, morally upright, and didn't even call himself an Emperor.
Not even the prettiest girl in the office dared to break the unspoken rules with him; she wasn't even pregnant yet.
The people in the village felt super secure, not worried about their wives being stolen!
...
...
"Achoo, achoo!" Lu Yuan was furiously repairing engravings, rubbed his nose—who was cursing me?
...
...
The glaring sun scorched the ground as a few birds chirped noisily in the trees.
A cloud drifted by, blocking the blinding sunlight.
"Who am I? Where am I? What happened?"
A young man with a scar on his forehead was lying under a tree, waking from unconsciousness, looking confusedly at the sky that was about to rain.
He couldn't remember his own name...
Large raindrops began to pour down from the sky.
The young man quickly took shelter under the tree.
He found a parcel beside him, took some dry food, and stuffed it into his mouth.
The remaining food would only last for three more days, giving him a sense of cluelessness about what lay ahead.
There was also a scroll of parchment in the parcel, and although he had lost his memory, he could still recognize the text on it.
"I must believe that the Mandala Empire has been destroyed."
"Who am I? Who knows who I am? All I know is that there are no living beings left in the Mandala Empire! The Empire has been destroyed by parasitic monsters."
"Everything you see now is fake."
"Run, the farther the better!"
"If you, the one reading this journal, don't believe it, try to dominate a 'living person'."
"Remember, you must dominate a single living person, and if you encounter a group, you must run! Do not talk to them! Do not talk to them! Dominate them first!"
"What is this nonsense?"
At first glance, the words seemed nonsensical, yet they triggered a deep sense of horror and confusion in him.
He remembered!
The young man remembered his ability: Domination!
This was the lower-tier version of the "Control" ability.
"Control" was a permanent ability.
Once successful, the subject would be permanently submissive, and the energy consumption was enormous, often requiring a massive amount of souls.
Domination, however, was temporary, a bit like bluffing, where the subject would soon become aware again.
But naturally, it also consumed less energy.
The young man looked at these lines of text, holding his breath almost. He tried hard to remember something, but it seemed like a fog obscured the truth.
Cold sweat the size of soybeans soaked his clothes.
Suddenly, more scrawled text appeared below: "I am a sinner! I killed my parents with my own hands! I killed my uncle! I killed my daughter!"
"I am a sinner!"
"I should go back, commit suicide in the ancestral hall, rather than fleeing here!"
"I should rush back! What am I thinking?!"
There were lots of scratches afterward, tearing through the parchment, making it impossible to see what had once been written.
"Who am I...?"
"They all must die! I must die too!"
The young man became increasingly terrified, looking at his muddy hands, wanting to know what exactly had happened to him.
"Young man, why are you alone? What are you doing here?"
Suddenly, a pleasant voice came from behind him.
Turning around, he saw a very beautiful woman, dressed in a thin robe, revealing her fair and smooth skin.
Her red lips were like fresh blood, with a hint of rose's allure.
"I... I am..." the young man's face suddenly changed.