Chapter 5: Ideological Shock, Animated Screen Play Delivers a Dimensional Reduction Strike

The little girl's cry was sharp and piercing, with extreme penetrating power.

Lin Xuan rubbed his sore temples.

The child had just had her fever break, and her vocal cords were still in a state of congestion.

If she continued to wail like this, tearing her heart out, it would easily cause laryngeal edema, leading to mechanical asphyxiation.

Her attention must be diverted.

Lin Xuan turned, knelt on one leg on the bed edge, reached out, and pulled open the second drawer of the bedside table.

He took out an iPad with a shockproof protective case.

After Face ID unlocked it, the screen lit up; the cold white backlight illuminated Lin Xuan's face and also cast light onto the little girl's tear-streaked cheeks.

Lin Xuan tapped the video software on the desktop and pulled up a 3D animated movie with extremely high picture quality.

"Zootopia."

Full screen, click play.

He swiped up on the right side of the screen to adjust the volume to a moderate level.

He propped the iPad upright on the quilt and pushed it a little closer to the little girl.

"Look at this."

Cheerful symphonic music came from the stereo speakers.

On the high-definition Retina screen, a rabbit police officer with fur rendered in every single strand leaped into the frame.

The streets were packed with all kinds of upright-walking animals wearing clothes.

The little girl's crying stopped abruptly.

She let out a sobbing hiccup, her mouth slightly open, forgetting even to wipe the tear drops from her eyelashes.

Her eyes stared straight at that glowing Glazed Ware plate.

Above the Sky Screen, images were nested within images.

The entire ancient world had just experienced a brutal visual dimensional reduction strike.

Great Han, Weiyang Palace.

"Inside that flat box... are living creatures?" Liu Che's voice trembled as he pointed at the firmament. "A demon beast! That long-eared monster is actually wearing human clothes and speaking human speech!"

The hundred officials knelt prostrate on the ground, none daring to raise their heads.

They believed the man in the Sky Screen had released an ancient great demon sealed within a Magic Artifact.

Great Tang, Taiji Palace.

Li Shimin stepped back one pace.

Zhangsun Huanghou tightly gripped a maid's arm, her fingernails piercing through the maid's sleeve.

They saw that inside that flat plate, there were not only living creatures, but also crystal towers piercing the clouds, and steel carriages that could run by themselves without horses pulling them.

Light and shadow flowed, colors so brilliant they exceeded the most extreme imagination of Great Tang craftsmen.

"A mustard seed containing Mount Sumeru..." the Director of the Imperial Academy murmured to himself, "In this man's hand, he holds a thousand great worlds!"

In the master bedroom.

The little girl shrank her shoulders back. "What is this thing?"

"Is a spirit sealed inside the box?"

Lin Xuan smiled.

He picked up the iPad and grabbed one of the little girl's hands.

The little girl instinctively tried to pull back.

Lin Xuan held her wrist and guided her index finger to gently press against the screen.

The moment her fingertip touched the Glass, it was cool and smooth.

Lin Xuan moved her finger, swiping left across the screen.

The image instantly switched, exiting full screen and returning to the application's main interface.

Rows of colorful icons were neatly arranged.

"It is not sealing a spirit; this is called a Tablet Computer."

"What is inside are animated cartoons, fake, drawn."

"Just like your Great Tang's shadow puppetry, understand? We just draw it more realistically."

The little girl stared at her own finger, then looked at the screen again.

Gathering her courage, she extended her own finger and poked the screen once.

An icon enlarged, and the software opened.

"Shadow puppetry?" The little girl raised her head and looked around the room.

Fireless lamps bright as daylight, a Hair Dryer that could shake its head automatically, crystal-clear bottles, and this Glazed Ware plate in her hand that could change into ten thousand images.

"You... you must be an immortal."

"Is this place the Heavenly Palace above Jiutian?"

Lin Xuan took the iPad back.

"This is the twenty-first century, a modern society."

"My name is Lin Xuan, I am an emergency department doctor, not a god."

The little girl's eyes remained confused: "What is 'modern'? Where is Great Tang? Which true dragon emperor is the current ruler?"

Lin Xuan sighed and organized his wording.

"There is no Great Tang anymore; over thirteen hundred years have passed since the Zhenguan era where you lived." "As for the emperor, we have no emperor here."

The little girl froze: "A nation cannot survive a single day without a ruler."

"Without a ruler, would the world not descend into great chaos?"

"No chaos. It is very good."

"We do not need anyone to be our master; everyone is equal."

"Everyone earns a living through their own strength, and almost all can eat their fill. Even in the dead of winter, there is heating and thick down jackets; no one freezes to death."

"When sick, there are hospitals, and there are antipyretics like the one I just fed you."

He paused, then added: "The lives of common people are ten thousand times better than those of the nobles in your Tang Dynasty's royal palace."

Outside the Sky Screen.

"Absurd! High treason!"

In the Tang court, the Director of the Imperial Academy suddenly jumped up, pointing at the Sky Screen and cursing loudly.

"No ruler, no father! This is the realm of beasts! How dare you claim it is ten thousand times better than the Tang!"

The ministers erupted into an uproar.

Panic spread among the civil official faction like a plague.

"Your Majesty!" Several censors stepped forward in unison and knelt on the ground. "This person spreads demonic words to confuse the masses, intending to shake the foundation of the Tang Dynasty!"

"If the people believe this heresy that 'one can be warm and fed without a ruler,' countless Chen Shengs and Wu Guangs will arise in this world!"

Li Shimin ignored the civil officials kneeling all over the floor.

"Eat their fill... wear warm clothes..." He chewed over Lin Xuan's words repeatedly, his eyes flickering between light and shadow.

"What is there to panic about?"

Li Shimin walked to the Director of the Imperial Academy, looking down at him.

"I ask you: Can the Tang Dynasty produce the objects in that man's house?"

The Director trembled all over, sweat pouring down like rain, and prostrated himself, too afraid to answer.

Li Shimin took two more steps, stopping before the censors: "That divine medicine which instantly reduces fever—can the Imperial Physicians prepare it?"

The censors pressed their foreheads to the ground, silent as winter cicadas.

"Cannot produce it, cannot prepare it." Li Shimin sneered, shaking off his bright yellow sleeves. "In his world, the artifacts are crafted with heavenly skill, and the medical arts are divine."

"This proves that the 'era without a ruler' he speaks of is real."

The ministers were startled with dread.

"Your Majesty, speak with caution!" Wei Zheng shouted.

Li Shimin spun around abruptly, pointing directly at Wei Zheng: "I am not criticizing the ancestral laws! I am examining the results of the future!"

He strode back to the Dragon Throne and stood firm, turning to face them.

A pressure that made the hundred officials tremble burst forth suddenly.

"Water can carry the boat, but it can also capsize it. I say this phrase every day, and you recite it every day."

"Why do the people of the future in the Sky Screen not need an emperor? Because they can make themselves eat their fill and wear warm clothes!"

"If the people of the Tang go hungry and wear rags, this 'abolition of the imperial system' will be a death warrant hanging over my Li family's heads!"

"But if I can make the subjects of the Tang leave their doors unlocked at night, leave lost items on the road unclaimed, and ensure granaries are full so that propriety and righteousness flourish, why would they ever rebel against me?"

"Put away your panic! Open your eyes wide and watch the Sky Screen!"

"Learn his medical arts! Learn his craftsmanship and artifacts!"

"If anyone again uses ritual and law as an excuse to obstruct the hundred artisans from studying the knowledge of the Sky Screen, I will execute their three clans!"

Under the iron fist of a generation's great hero, the crisis instantly transformed into a violent force driving the empire forward.

Li Shimin sat back down on the Dragon Throne, his eyes becoming deep and dark.

He glanced at the heavy night outside the hall.

Zhangsun Wuji had already been in the rear palace for some time.

Massacre is, after all, a crude method.

Since the future can be changed, keeping the woman of the Wu family might not be a bad move as a pawn to probe the way forward.

Li Shimin raised his right hand and made a subtle gesture in mid-air.

From the shadows in the corner of the hall, a man cloaked in black with an iron mask covering his face slipped out silently and knelt on one knee.

Yuan Tiangang, commander of the Tang Dynasty's Buliangren.

"Go to Yeting and stop Fuji."

"Not a single woman surnamed Wu is to be killed."

"Arrest them all and imprison them separately in the Neiting Zhaoyu; investigate them secretly."

"I obey your decree." A hoarse male voice came from behind the mask.

"And one more thing." A flicker of pain passed through Li Shimin's eyes, but was instantly covered by cold imperial will. "Seal off the Eastern Palace and the Wei Prince Mansion."

"Convey my oral edict: Crown Prince Chengqian and Prince of Wei Tai are to be confined to their residences."

"Without my imperial order, not a single scrap of paper may leave their mansions."

"Anyone who violates this order will be tried for treason."

Yuan Tiangang accepted the order, rose, and merged into the darkness as if he had never appeared.

The rear palace, Yeting.

Torches illuminated the dark and damp courtyard.

Zhangsun Wuji stood in the center of the courtyard, his face as still as water.

Soldiers of the Right Wu Guard raised their gleaming horizontal blades, pressing them against the necks of a dozen palace maids.

"State your name." Zhangsun Wuji's voice carried not a shred of emotion.

In a corner, a girl in coarse clothes was pinned face-down in the mud and water.

Mud dirtied her fair face, the edge of a horizontal blade pressing against the back of her neck.

"This servant... is Wu Meiniang of the Wu clan." The girl gritted her teeth, striving to keep her voice from trembling.

Zhangsun Wuji's eyes sharpened, and he raised his right hand.

In the instant his palm was about to strike down.

A black shadow flipped down from the courtyard wall.

Clang!

A long Zhendao blocked the horizontal blade swinging toward Wu Meiniang, sending sparks flying.

Yuan Tiangang, wearing an iron mask, stood before Zhangsun Wuji, raising a tally carved with a golden dragon.

"By the Sage's imperial decree, spare the person beneath the blade."

Zhangsun Wuji's expression shifted several times.

Finally, he fixed a deadly glare on Wu Meiniang on the ground, then angrily flicked his sleeve and sheathed his blade.

Wu Meiniang lay prone in the mud and water, gasping for breath in great heaves.

A narrow escape from death.

She slowly raised her head, looking up at the massive luminous screen in the night sky.

Within the Sky Screen, the man named Lin Xuan was still flipping through the strange Glazed Ware tablet in his hand.

"All people are equal... there is no Emperor..."

Wu Meiniang pressed her face into the mud and water, her eyes blazing with the light of the Sky Screen.

It was a desire surpassing the longing for survival, an extreme greed for an unknown power structure.

Great Qin, Xianyang Palace.

Ying Zheng stood at the edge of the high platform, the night wind stirring his crown.

"No Emperor, and the common people provide for themselves." Ying Zheng frowned, his mind frantically simulating the possibilities of such a system.

Unifying the six states, standardizing the axle widths, unifying the script.

He had concentrated all power in the world into one person's hands, believing it to be an eternal law unmatched by any before.

But the future on the Sky Screen tore open a crack in another path.

"If all people under heaven could be as well-fed as there, without creating rebellious masses, would centralization... no longer be the only right path?" Ying Zheng murmured softly.

He suddenly turned his head, looking at Li Si behind him.

"Record it! Every word he spoke, carve it onto bamboo slips for me!"

"I must see what rules truly govern a world without a ruler!"