Chapter 596: A Land of Dreams

Chapter 596: A Land of Dreams"I'm the king of the galaxy, the head of the world federation! You'll all be kneeling at my feet!" Amurong's eyes were glazed over. He was shaking his head as his limbs flailed. He twisted his hips from time to time, and he had taken off the clothes on the upper half of his body.

He danced from the teleportation array all the way to the door of the Zenith Dojo. As representatives from all sorts of races watched on, he yelled out, "I'm the king of the galaxy—"

Hong Tianqi was dumbstruck by vicarious shame. Was this really the opponent he had been feuding with for so long? He... was actually very gratified to see his opponent make such a public fool of himself.

He sidled up to Zhang Lie, who was recording the scene in a memory crystal. "What's going on?"

"It's exactly as you can see," Zhang Lie murmured.

Hong Tianqi folded his arms. "I can't tell what he's doing!"

Who would believe that the previous presiding authority of the world federation would be humiliating himself outside the Zenith Dojo?

Hong Xiao sidled over and whispered to Hong Tianqi, "The moment this man saw my master, he roared out, tried to attack him, and then was frozen stiff. Shortly after that, he went mad!"

Hong Tianqi frowned. "Do you think I'd believe you?

Amurong's a fourth-realm hunter. How can Zhang Lie beat a hunter like him in terms of strength?

You—"

Zhang Lie smiled. "Martial Sage, it's true that I can't beat Amurong in terms of genetic energy and brute strength, but I do think I'm superior in terms of mental techniques."

Hong Tianqi's frown deepened. "Amurong's a member of the ghost dragons, don't you know? His body's half-spiritual, and he's innately gifted with mental techniques! How could you—"

"I obtained a peak-grade soulbeast soulshard in the second realm, then a very interesting disaster-grade mindmeld clam soulshard. With the additional boost from my limit-breaking potions..." Zhang Lie trailed off, but what he revealed was sufficient to shock Hong Tianqi.

"No, that can't be—he's almost the equivalent of a peak-grade lifeform! How could you have dealt with him so easily?"

"It wasn't as hard as you think. He looked me in the eye, and I gave him a wonderful dream, easy as that."

Hong Tianqi clutched his face. "And what do you think he'll do once he wakes up? If you push a man like that to the brink, who knows what he'll do!"

"No, Martial Sage. He thinks he's in the real world, after all. Unless he's willing to become a servant of my Zhang household, he'll never be able to wake up."

Hong Tianqi blinked a few times, then abruptly nodded. "I'll assume that you know what you're doing—I've never gone wrong believing you just yet."

The representatives of the races who had come to pay Zhang Lie a visit were staring at Amurong and pointing fingers at him.

"Isn't that Amurong, the previous presiding authority of the world federation?"

"Indeed. What's going on here?"

"Perhaps he's gone crazy because he can't take the stress anymore..."

Zhang Lie was getting tired of watching Amurong's antics, and he patted the martial sage on the shoulder. "Can I hand him to you, Martial Sage?"

Hong Tianqi nodded, then motioned for his men to restrain Amurong.

Amurong continued to dance madly, even after Hong Tianqi pummel him in the face. Hong Tianqi gave him two more punches, until Amurong's face was swollen and his eyes were blackening, but he continued to dance. Hong Tianqi was disgusted by the sight of his erstwhile rival.

A rainbow gleam flashed in Zhang Lie's eyes. Amurong suddenly shivered; as if the illusion had changed, he turned left and right before focusing on Hong Tianqi.

"Ah, Hong Tianqi, what are you doing here? Haven't you been begging in the streets lately? Why are you dressed so neatly today? Well, it's good to see you making a man of yourself. I can even consider making you one of the guards in my estate."

Amurong glanced at the nearby onlookers, the many representatives who were gathered outside the Zenith Dojo. When he saw them pointing at him, he shouted irritably, "What are all of you doing? How dare you not kneel upon seeing the monarch of the galaxy!"

Hong Tianqi frowned and turned to Zhang Lie. "Zhang Lie, why don't you dispel the illusion? It'll be too shameful to see him going outside like this."

Zhang Lie shrugged. ?"I can't cancel the illusion now. Unless he sees through it himself, you'll have to break it by force."

Hong Tianqi was taken aback. "By force? If that's the case, surely he'd become a fool!"

Zhang Lie nodded.

Even Hong Tianqi seemed shocked by the versatility of Zhang Lie's technique. If the illusion were broken by force, Amurong would become a fool. Otherwise, even if Amurong were to see through the illusion, he would have to swear to be Zhang Lie's loyal servant before he could escape from it.

Amurong began to shout, "Why isn't anyone kneeling down? I'm the monarch of the galaxy! If you remain so disrespectful..."

Hong Tianqi asked, "What do we do about him now?"

Zhang Lie shrugged again. "Send him to an old folks' home, perhaps? And maybe one day he'll finally realize what happened to him."

Amurong glanced all around him. "Where am I? Am I in a dream?

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Unfortunately for Amurong, he received no response but another punch from Hong Tianqi.

Amurong reeled back and cried out in shock, "Hong Tianqi, you maniac! How dare you hit me—guards, capture this man and send him to a mental hospital!Ah, wait— where have my troops gone?"

Hong Tianqi clutched his face. "He's done for."

Amurong suddenly noticed Zhang Lie. "Zhang Lie! Shouldn't you be dead?"

Zhang Lie sighed. "I know you won't believe me, but here's the truth. You never became the monarch of the galaxy, and you never had troops of your own. You've been living a dream, an illusion! After leaving the teleportation array, you never stepped out of the Zenith Dojo."

Amurong seemed to recall something. His eyes became vacant, and he shook his head vigorously all of a sudden. "No, no! That's impossible—it happened five decades ago!"

"You were trapped in a mental world of your own making. Fifty years might have passed in it, but it's only been five minutes here. I don't know just what happened in your dream, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that this is the real world."

Zhang Lie retrieved his memory crystal and played back the recording, showing Amurong how he was making a fool of himself.

Amurong shook his head. "No, no, that's impossible, this is all fake! I'm the monarch of the galaxy!"

Zhang Lie sighed. "Your subconscious mind knows that you're in an illusion, that you couldn't have had so much success without any setbacks. You just don't want to admit it."

Amurong stilled, but he regained his verve just moments later. "I know I'm dreaming, because all of you are fake, you're all just figments of my imagination..."

Zhang Lie and Hong Tianqi both sighed. Reality or dream, Amurong was done for.

Hong Tianqi formally began, "Amurong, for trespassing in Chinese territory and attempting to assault the Zenith Dojo dojo leader Zhang Lie, you have violated Chinese law. As a defender of China, I formally arrest you."

Amurong roared, "No, no! I'm the monarch of the galaxy! Everyone in the Milky Way must bow to me!"

Hong Tianqi snorted. "No matter who you are, under Chinese law, you'll receive the same punishment. If you've committed an offense, you'll pay for it!"

Amurong began screaming. "I know what you're doing—this is a plot against me, you've kidnapped me! Then, you've used cloning technology to come up with a fake Zhang Lie to make me believe that this is the true reality! Hong Tianqi, I've really underestimated you. So you've actually been pretending to be crazy all this time—for three whole decades!"

The combination of the disaster-grade mistmeld clam soulshard and Zhang Lie's frightening mental strength led to an attack of immense potency.

Amurong had spent what seemed to be five whole decades in a dream, and he refused to believe that it had only been five minutes in reality.

He continued screaming, "Don't think that you'll get away with this! My disappearance will shake the entire galaxy, and my forces will hunt you down! When they do, you'll die!"

Hong Tianqi shook his head, exasperated by Amurong. "Take him away—I don't want to hear his rambling for even a moment longer!"

His subordinates dragged the screaming Amurong away. Despite his protests, Amurong never tried to resist capture with genetic energy, only his body.

For a dream to be reality, and for reality to be a dream— at least subconsciously, Amurong was afraid of this technique and of Zhang Lie. Zhang Lie had experienced these illusions for himself, and he knew how realistic they could be.

Hong Tianqi, on the other hand, despite being a martial sage, had little experience with such illusions. Based on what had happened with Amurong, he harbored a healthy dose of respect and fear against Zhang Lie, who possessed a technique against which he couldn't defend or even comprehend.

Fortunately, they were on friendly terms.

Zhang Lie actually possessed far more frightening variants of mind control: he was even able to create multiple personalities within one's mind, then erode the original personality by the passage of time, a flawless brainwashing technique...