Sky Curtain: Random stalls with rhinoceros horns, shaking the entire dynasty.

Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty.

The atmosphere inside the Taiji Palace had become extremely oppressive.

Li Shimin's eyes were bloodshot, and he held a gleaming imperial sword in his hand, ready to behead the commander of the imperial guards responsible for guarding the imperial garden.

Empress Zhangsun sat on the phoenix chair to the side, having already fainted from crying once. She was being revived by several imperial physicians with acupuncture, her face ashen.

"Search! Keep searching! If the prince isn't found today, you will all be executed!!!"

Li Shimin let out a desperate roar, like a wild beast on the verge of death.

At this critical moment.

"Boom—!"

A deafening rumble of thunder suddenly echoed across the once cloudless sky, as if the sky were about to split open.

All the imperial guards, eunuchs, and palace maids were so frightened by this sudden divine might that their legs went weak and they all knelt down on the ground.

Li Shimin suddenly raised his head, grabbed his sword, and rushed out of the palace.

Above Chang'an City, in the highest heavens, a colossal scroll radiating a dazzling yet gentle golden light slowly unfurled in a way that defied all logic, blotting out the sky and the sun.

Not just the Tang Dynasty.

At the same instant.

During the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty.

The Forbidden City in Nanjing.

Having just finished a day of government affairs, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty was sitting at a simple wooden table, preparing to have dinner with Empress Ma, when he suddenly noticed the strange change in the sky outside the window.

Old Zhu held a bowl of brown rice, with a piece of boiled tofu on his chopsticks, staring blankly at the sky.

The Qin Dynasty, Xianyang Palace.

Having just conquered the six kingdoms and ascended the throne, Qin Shi Huang, Ying Zheng, was in high spirits discussing with his prime minister Li Si how to seek immortality and obtain the elixir of life.

Hearing of the chaos outside the palace, Ying Zheng strode out of the hall with majestic steps, looked up, and instantly saw the huge curtain of light stretching across the sky reflected in his deep eyes.

The Three Kingdoms period, the twelfth year of Jian'an.

Cao Cao, who was leading his army to conquer the Wuhuan in the north, was suffering from a splitting headache. He lay in his military tent groaning in pain, and the army doctor beside him was helpless.

Suddenly, the soldiers outside the tent cried out in alarm. Cao Cao, enduring the excruciating pain, stepped out of the tent with Xu Chu's help and stared intently at the sky.

Throughout history, countless emperors, generals, and commoners from parallel universes were forced to stop what they were doing and look up at the sky at this moment.

As the golden light gradually receded, the scene on the enormous scroll began to become clearly visible.

There were no immortals riding the clouds or any celestial palaces in the scene.

That was... a street that shimmered with strange, multicolored lights in the darkness.

The streets were bustling with people, and the ground was so flat that there wasn't a single bluestone brick; it was all just dark, flat ground.

The image focuses on a young man with short hair dressed in strange white clothes at the very center.

And... in front of him was a huge iron pot bubbling with golden hot oil.

"Bang!"

Inside the Taiji Palace of the Tang Dynasty.

The Emperor's Sword in Li Shimin's hand slammed heavily onto the blue bricks, making a crisp sound.

This emperor, who had conquered the world on horseback, was now trembling uncontrollably.

His eyes were fixed on the tiny, all-too-familiar figure beneath the cart in the celestial display.

Empress Zhangsun stumbled out of the palace, helped out by palace maids. She looked up for only one moment before bursting into a heart-wrenching cry.

"That's my ox! That's my ox!!!"

Li Shimin rushed forward and supported the swaying Empress Zhangsun. His eyes instantly filled with tears, his heart filled with a mixture of ecstasy and extreme fear.

The good news is that his beloved daughter is still alive.

What's terrifying is, what kind of demon realm is that? That short-haired strange man is boiling a pot of oil.

What if the rhinoceros is splashed with oil while it's so close, or what if that strange man tries to harm it?!

"Guards! Summon Yuan Tiangang! Summon Li Chunfeng! What kind of place is that? Investigate it for me! Break through the void and bring the princess back!"

Li Shimin roared to the sky, his eyes wide with fury.

Meanwhile, in the Ming Dynasty era on the other side...

Zhu Yuanzhang's attention, however, was not on the little girl under the cart.

His gaze was fixed on the large stainless steel pot in front of Jiang Feng, which was bubbling with two whole barrels of premium cooking oil.

Old Zhu's weathered face twitched violently.

"Snapped!"

Zhu Yuanzhang slammed his fist on the table, causing the watery soup on it to spill out. He pointed at the sky and cursed loudly with great anguish.

"What a spendthrift! Where did this jinx of a spendthrift come from?!"

"Damn it! This pot is huge, and it's full of the finest cooking oil!"

"How many kilograms of soybeans must it take to extract such clear, high-quality oil? This is the kind of precious oil that ordinary people save up for half a year and wouldn't even dare to eat!"

"He actually... he actually just dumped it all into the pot just to fry those few strips of meat? What a waste! We're furious!"

Old Zhu came from a poor family and had worked as a beggar and a cowherd, so he knew the hardships of ordinary people best.

He usually considered even eating roast goose a luxury, but now, seeing Jiang Feng's almost "plundering" method of deep-frying meat, his heart ached as if it were bleeding.

Empress Ma, sitting opposite him, glared at Zhu Yuanzhang with annoyance, then quickly stepped forward, patted his back, and softly comforted him:

"Chongba, calm down. Look at the scroll in the sky; it's clearly not about our Great Ming Dynasty. What's the use of getting so worked up?"

As Empress Ma spoke, her gaze involuntarily fell on the crispy fried pork belly on the sky, and then she looked down at the little girl below who was swallowing her saliva.

"But speaking of which... Chongba, look at those strips of meat sizzling in the oil, fried until golden brown."

"Even though it's through the sky, why do I feel like I can smell that smoky, meaty aroma mixed with Sichuan peppercorns?"

Empress Ma couldn't help but swallow, then looked down at the boiled tofu on her table and suddenly found it hard to swallow.

The Qin Dynasty

Ying Zheng, dressed in a black dragon robe, stood with his hands behind his back on the high steps of Xianyang Palace.

"A fairyland...this must be a fairyland!"

A fanatical light gleamed in Ying Zheng's eyes.

"Look, the place where the immortal resides is as bright as day at night; those multicolored lights must be the result of immortal magic!"

"And there's that white-robed, short-haired immortal. Golden spiritual liquid churns in the cauldron before him; he's surely refining a miraculous elixir that can grant immortality!"

Li Si bowed and echoed from the side.

"Your Majesty is absolutely right. Such extraordinary phenomena must be a divine favor bestowed by Heaven in recognition of Your Majesty's achievement in unifying the six kingdoms!"

The Three Kingdoms Era.

Cao Cao clutched his head, and his pained expression softened slightly as he looked up at the sky.

"What is this?"

Cao Cao narrowed his eyes, which held the air of a ruthless hero, and stared intently at the strips of meat in the sky that Jiang Feng was scooping up with a strainer. The meat strips had a golden-brown crust and were sizzling with oil.

Even the King of Wei, who was used to delicacies, couldn't help but let out a loud "rumble" from his stomach.

"That golden, crispy stuff, with the oil sizzling... I feel like just looking at it has lessened my headaches by a third?"

Cao Cao muttered to himself.