The eight-foot-wide bronze Grievance Drum hanging beneath the vermilion pavilion at the top of the Azure-Cloud Prefecture High Court’s thirty-six white marble steps had not been struck in twelve years.
According to the founding laws of the Great Qian Dynasty, any person who struck the Imperial Grievance Drum at dawn—regardless of birth, wealth, or status—was granted an immediate, open-air public hearing. The Prefecture Lord and the gathered citizenry, with the penalty for false accusation being a hundred strokes of the heavy iron rod.
BOOOOOOM! BOOOOOOM! BOOOOOOM!
As the heavy bronze drum-notes rolled across the morning avenues of Azure-Cloud Prefecture City, over thirty thousand citizens—farmers returning from the newly plowed western barley fields, merchants opening their storefronts, blacksmiths, schoolteachers. Mothers carrying breakfast baskets from the [Frost-Pine Loving-Heart Canteen]—streamed into the vast flagstone square in front of the High Court!
Within fifteen minutes, thirty thousand people stood shoulder-to-shoulder across the sun-drenched stone plaza, craning their necks toward the top of the thirty-six marble steps.
Standing beside the bronze drum with the wooden mallet shaking in his blood-stained hands was eighteen-year-old Lin Fan [Rank 1 Late, Luck Halo: 5%].
Even though he had dunked his head in a horse trough to rinse off the thirty-two pigeon droppings, his appearance was still a waking horror: his nose had been smashed flat. A crushed plum by the garden rake handle, a wide gap whistled. His upper front teeth used to be, eighty-six red canyon-mosquito welts covered his forehead, his right big toe was swollen to the size of a radish inside a torn sandal.
Over his sewer-stained vest hung a wrinkled white scholar’s robe he had stolen off a laundry line.
Yet as Lin Fan looked down at the thirty thousand citizens packing the High Court Plaza directly. Above the twelve [Thousand-Soul Blood-Sacrifice Array Stones] he had buried in the drainage pipes during the night. His single unswollen eye gleamed with maniacal, bloodthirsty triumph!
They came! Every last one of these thirty thousand mortal sheep walked straight onto my sacrificial altar! Lin Fan exulted inwardly, his fingernails digging into the hidden human-skin array scroll inside his left sleeve.
*All I need is ten minutes to stir up chaos, lure Gu Changsheng and his two little brats onto the center flagstones.
Let the morning sun reach thirty degrees—then one drop of my blood will ignite the twelve array stones and drain thirty thousand lives into my dantian!*
CREEEEEEAK—CLANG!
At that moment, the twenty-foot-high red-lacquered gates of the Azure-Cloud Prefecture High Court swung wide open!
Eighty armored Prefecture Court Bailiffs marched out in two solemn columns bearing black-iron halberds, followed by twelve blue-robed judicial scribes and fifty-two-year-old Prefecture Lord Qin Zheng. At Rank 3 Mid Martial Grandmaster, who stepped out onto the high marble terrace wearing his formal purple-and-gold judicial robe and official jade belt.
Looking down at the bruised, foul-smelling youth standing beside the trembling bronze drum, Prefecture Lord Qin Zheng frowned deeply, his Rank 3 Mid Grandmaster voice booming across the hushed square like rolling thunder:.
“Who strikes the Imperial Grievance Drum of Azure-Cloud Prefecture at dawn?! State your name, your household registration, and the grievance you bring before the High Court!”
Dropping the wooden drum mallet with a loud clatter. Eighteen-year-old Lin Fan threw himself face-first onto the white marble steps and banged his forehead three times against the stone until fresh blood trickled down his bruised nose!
“Justice, My Lord! A humble, persecuted scholar begs the Imperial High Court for justice!” Lin Fan wailed at the top of his lungs, putting every ounce of theatrical martyrdom he possessed into his whistling, toothless voice.
“If the High Court does not uphold the law today, all five million citizens of Azure-Cloud Prefecture will be swallowed by a demonic rebellion before the month is out!”
Across the vast stone plaza below, thirty thousand citizens blinked in astonishment as a loud murmur rippled through the crowd.
“State the name of the accused and present your evidence,” Prefecture Lord Qin Zheng commanded coldly, resting one hand on the carved mahogany rail of the judicial dais.
Pushing himself up onto his knees at the top of the marble steps. Lin Fan pulled a long white silk petition covered in forged red thumbprints and smeared chicken-blood from his sleeve and raised it high above his head:.
“I accuse Gu Changsheng of the Frost-Pine Town Gu Clan!” Lin Fan shrieked, pointing a trembling, scab-covered finger toward the southern avenue. “Fellow citizens of Azure-Cloud Prefecture!
Do not be fooled by Gu Changsheng’s five-copper mutton soup, his ten-copper herbal gummies, or his thirty pink-aproned stone monsters!
Every bit of it is a sinister plot of the Netherworld Devil Sect!”
Gasping dramatically for air, Lin Fan pounded his chest and shouted so loud the veins in his neck bulged:.
“Think about it, everyone! Six months ago in Frost-Pine Town, Gu Changsheng was a dying, crippled mortal widower coughing up blood on a cold brick bed! How could a crippled mortal suddenly defeat Martial Grandmasters, brew ten thousand miraculous pills out of wild weeds, and command thirty ancient Rank 2 Peak Lava-Rock War Golems?!”
Pointing his blood-stained silk scroll toward the crowd, Lin Fan howled his fabricated charges one by one:.
“First, Gu Changsheng practiced forbidden demonic blood-arts to steal the martial cultivation of his own clansmen and enslaved Second Elder Gu Ba as a mute farm-slave! Second, he used black witchcraft to intimidate my fellow disciple Physician Qin Wan’er and illegally bought a six-year-old poison-bodied orphan girl from the underground slave market to refine human-poison pills!
Third, he used demonic soul-shackles to kidnap the remnant soul of my revered teacher—Rank 6 Golden Core Pill Sovereign Master Yao Chen!—and locked his holy spirit inside a child’s stuffed green cloth turtle! And fourth, those thirty pink-aproned stone golems are an illegal rebel army he is raising to overthrow the Great Qian Dynasty!”
In the laws of the Great Qian Dynasty, any single one of those four charges—practicing demonic blood-arts, trafficking poison-slaves, enslaving a Pill Sovereign’s soul, or raising a rebel army—carried the penalty of immediate execution!
Hearing Lin Fan scream with blood dripping from his forehead and swear an oath. The Imperial Grievance Drum, a handful of visiting out-of-town caravan merchants at the edges of the square exchanged uncertain whispers:.
“Wait... could there really be a hidden story behind how those thirty ancient stone war-golems became farm tractors?”
“And what’s that about a Rank 6 Golden Core Pill Sovereign locked inside a stuffed cloth turtle?!”
Kneeling on the thirty-sixth marble step, Lin Fan hid a venomous. Gloating sneer behind his bloody sleeve as he felt the thirty thousand citizens press half a step closer to the center of the plaza to hear the trial.
Yes, press closer to the center flagstones, you gullible fools! Lin Fan cackled inside his mind. *And where is Gu Changsheng?!
Once he rushes here in a panic to defend himself—*
“If a single word of my blood-petition is false,” Lin Fan shouted aloud. Raising three fingers toward the cloudless morning sky, “may the Nine Heavens strike me down with clear-sky lightning right here on these court steps!”
“That is a very generous request, Young Master Lin,” a warm, unhurried, magnetic male voice drifted across the sunlit square. “And since the morning sky is so clear today, it would be rude of the heavens not to take notes.”
The voice wasn’t shouted, nor did it use aggressive sonic coercion.
Yet it carried effortlessly to the ears of all thirty thousand citizens like a warm spring breeze blowing over a quiet lake!
At the southern entrance of the High Court Plaza, the dense crowd of thirty thousand citizens parted with spontaneous. Smiling reverence—opening a twenty-foot-wide central lane down the white flagstones without a single bailiff needing to clear the way!
Strolling unhurriedly down the sunlit central avenue was twenty-nine-year-aged Gu Changsheng , at Rank 3 Early Martial Grandmaster.
He wasn’t wearing battle armor or carrying a war-blade. Dressed in a spotless dark-blue cotton robe with his [Rank 3 Nine-Flavor Earth-Fire Chef Wok] slung neatly across his back. Gu Changsheng held nine-year-old Gu Nian’s small hand in his right hand and seven-year-old Su Nuannuan’s small hand in his left!
Nine-year-old Gu Nian wore his clean blue scholar’s tunic and yellow bunny apron, cradling the chubby two-foot [Jade-Turtle Plush Doll] (wearing its miniature gold spectacles) in one arm. Seven-year-old Su Nuannuan wore her pink rabbit dress and yellow straw sun-hat, carrying her little pink watering can in one hand and a rolled-up sheet of colorful wax-crayon rice paper in the other.
Half a pace behind them walked twenty-four-year-aged Auntie Qin , at Rank 3 Early Martial Grandmaster, in her dignified emerald-trimmed alchemist robes and sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu , at Rank 2 Peak. Who was cheerfully polishing his black-iron abacus with a silk handkerchief—while around the outer perimeter of the square. The thirty twelve-foot Rank 2 Peak Lava-Rock Golems in their giant [I Love Chores] pink floral aprons quietly parked thirty steaming breakfast soup-carts!
Looking at the calm, handsome twenty-nine-year-old father holding his two rosy-cheeked, well-behaved children by the hand. Not a single person in the square saw a “Netherworld Devil Sect rebel leader”—they saw the most loving, upright model head-of-household in the entire prefecture!
Stopping calmly at the base of the thirty-six marble steps, Gu Changsheng cupped his hands politely toward Prefecture Lord Qin Zheng on the high dais:.
“Good morning, Lord Qin. Forgive our family for arriving five minutes after the drum—Nuannuan blew a soy-milk bubble onto her nose at breakfast, and we had to make sure both kids brushed their teeth before coming to court.”
Up on the high dais, Prefecture Lord Qin Zheng—whose own nephew’s meridian chill had been cured by Gu Changsheng and Auntie Qin. Who had personally awarded the Gu Clan two official honor plaques—couldn’t help letting out a respectful smile before speaking in his formal judicial voice:.
“Patriarch Gu, the plaintiff Lin Fan has struck the Imperial Grievance Drum and presented four capital charges against your household: enslaving and abusing Second Elder Gu Ba. Poisoning Physician Qin Wan’er and buying Su Nuannuan to refine poison pills, soul-binding Rank 6 Pill Sovereign Yao Chen inside a stuffed turtle doll, and raising thirty ancient golems for rebellion. How does the Gu Household respond?”
Glancing up at the manure-scented, toothless eighteen-year-old Lin Fan kneeling on the top marble step—whose left hand was secretly inching toward the human-skin blood-sacrifice scroll inside his torn cuff—twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng smiled mildly:.
“Lord Qin, since Young Master Lin went to so much trouble to list four separate charges—and even swore an oath asking the clear blue sky to strike. Him with lightning if he lied—it would be impolite if we didn’t answer all four charges with live witnesses right here in front of our thirty thousand neighbors.”
Turning slightly toward the side archway of the court plaza, Gu Changsheng raised two fingers and gave a clear whistle:.
“Second Uncle Gu Ba! Wipe the clean straw off your wooden clogs and bring Little Flower and your pig-farm ledger up to the witness stand—Young Master Lin just told the court that I’m starving and torturing you!”
Standing right beside Gu Changsheng at the foot of the white marble steps, nine-year-old Gu Nian , at Rank 2 Peak. Adjusted his yellow bunny apron and spoke in a clear, polite young voice that carried effortlessly across the front ten rows of citizens:.
“Lord Qin, when Second Uncle Gu Ba comes out, please let the twelve court scribes check his weight and his monthly bonus slips too! Five months ago when Lin Fan was secretly giving him bad advice in Frost-Pine Town. Second Uncle Gu Ba weighed only a hundred and twenty pounds and had four rotten teeth from eating stolen sugar-cakes.
Now that he manages our family’s geothermal pigsties and eats three bowls of Dad’s braised pork noodles every day, he weighs a hundred and forty-five pounds and hasn’t had a single toothache all spring!”
“And Little Flower the piggy has a red silk bow on her neck that Nuannuan tied for her this morning!” seven-year-old Su Nuannuan , at Rank 2 Peak, chimed in happily. Holding up her little pink watering can and smiling at the crowd.
“Little Flower is super clean and smells like sweet clover—way cleaner than that bad brother on the stairs!”
Across the front rows of the plaza, hundreds of townspeople and merchants chuckled warmly at the two rosy-cheeked children. Up on the thirty-sixth marble step, eighteen-year-old Lin Fan stared toward the side corridor of the High Court in utter confusion:.
*“Wait... why is Gu Changsheng calling Second Elder Gu Ba as a defense witness?! Didn’t Gu Changsheng whip out four of Gu Ba’s teeth and sentence him to shovel pig manure in Frost-Pine Town?!
Once Gu Ba takes the stand in front of the Prefecture Lord, won’t he weep and accuse Gu Changsheng of tyranny?!”*
[ DING! PUBLIC TRIAL AT THE PREFECTURE HIGH COURT BEGINS! ]
* Lin Fan’s Trap : Swears a lightning-oath on 4 fabricated capital.
charges while waiting to detonate his buried.
Blood-Sacrifice Array under 30,000 citizens!
* Dad’s Response : Arrives calmly with the kids & calls Reformed.
Second Elder Gu Ba as Defense Witness #1!
* Daily Income : +295,000 DP/day -> +310,000 DP/day!