Emperor’s Domination

The group arrived at a hill after crossing millions of miles of varying landscapes. From afar, they saw a canyon seemingly made from a gigantic tree with rotted roots, resulting in a clear path in the middle.

There was a flurry of bustling activities in the canyon - a march of hybrids made from several creatures.

They had large ant legs while the body was about the size of a baby. They stood upright with a small crocodile tail trailing in the back.

Their head was rather strange - somewhat resembling goats with beards hanging down the chin.

Their behavior and movements resembled colony-dwelling ants but seemed far more intelligent, evidenced by their use of tools.

These monster ants had obtained an enormous beast from somewhere. They dismembered it and used tools woven from tree branches to carry flesh chunks back to their nest.

This nest was situated inside one of the holes of the decayed tree.

“How about these things?” Zhitian observed the ants’ teamwork and became curious.

“Relatively intelligent, akin to the start of a civilization of intelligent beings.” Li Qiye smiled.

“So many species in one. Is this considered a new race?” The old servant asked.

“No, because they were fused into this state. Extinction is inevitable.” Li Qiye sighed and said: “Nonetheless, it is a successful case since they are smart and somehow make it this long.”

“So the first state was fusing many different entities together, that didn’t work. Next required derivation via copulation.” Zhitian speculated Evil Reborn’s creation process.

“Pretty much.” Li Qiye replied.

“This is a perversion, creating nothing but suffering.” Zhitian had no respect for the attempter.

“Some consider themselves to be brilliant, aspiring to surpass the heavens.” Li Qiye said indifferently.

“Nothing good came out of this brilliance then.” Zhitian smiled wryly. As a highly-praised genius, he thought that pride and arrogance in one’s innate gifts could result in disasters and suffering.

He didn’t know the stories behind Evil Reborn in the past. Now, he found that abusing one’s gift and power was utterly unacceptable.

“Brilliance isn’t the problem here, it’s having too much ambition and not enough dao heart. They believe that they are above morality and their actions are always justified.” Li Qiye said.

Li Zhitian sighed and kept this comment in mind.

“Raa!” Suddenly, a creature resembling a massive alligator came out of nowhere and started eating the ants.

The latter resisted by lighting torches and throwing them. Through their combined effort, they finally pushed the larger creature back.

However, they didn’t dare to linger outside any longer after losing thousands of members. Hiding in their nest was the better choice.

“It’s right here.” Li Qiye said while the group stopped in front of the rotten tree.

This thing was massive; each branch could be considered a mountain branch. The ants lived inside after building numerous maze-like pathways.

As the group delved deeper underground, they saw tiny caves with eggs made from transparent silks.

They saw tiny fetuses inside but unfortunately, most were dead before they could break out of the eggs. They were cursed and weakened from inception; some were missing important body parts…

“Failed artificially modified products.” Li Qiye said: “They are born with innate defects. Despite their impressive reproductive capability, only a few may hatch successfully, let alone survive. Thus, extinction is only a matter of time.”

“Damn this creator.” Li Zhitian stared at the corpses and cursed.

Eventually, they came to the center of the nest and saw a queen ant. This one looked dreadful due to its long fangs and was surrounded by dead ants.

It seemed that whenever it laid eggs, the eggs would be taken away right away by other ants. They moved with precision and speed.

“It’s a cannibal, right?” Li Zhitian assessed the situation.

“That’s how it can continue to produce eggs.” Li Qiye smiled and formed a barrier since the queen ant noticed them and tried to attack.

They moved forward and eventually reached a dark place containing a statue. This finally attracted Li Qiye’s attention.

It depicted a beautiful woman but her face was concealed by a veil. It was livid to the point where Li Zhitian couldn’t avert his gaze.

He felt that she was standing before him, alive. Her smile and frown could seduce any man. Just her statue had this special ability, let alone the actual person.

Li Qiye, on the other hand, appreciated the unique craftsmanship and innate power.

“Who left this statue here?” Zhitian regained his wits, thinking that he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from being enchanted by the real person.

“Potentially Heaven’s Allure from the legends.” The old servant’s eyes gleamed brightly.

“Heaven’s Allure? Really?” Zhitian took a deep breath.

“I believe so because no one else but her can have this much charm and grace. I’ve been to Celestial Court but didn’t see her.” The old servant said.