Chapter 253: River Deity’s Daoist Field
Editor: Translation Nation
River Deity Temple
This temple was built atop a ravine, near a dam. The water that flowed beneath went on for hundreds of kilometers ahead. It was a night in early spring and the rain had turned to a light drizzle. The wind which blew across the land was cold and caused some of them to shiver.
A single oxcart cruised down the streets in the middle of the night. The bell which used to hang from the neck of the ox had long been removed. Someone held onto a lantern, the light from it shined brightly.
In the depths of the night, everywhere was dark and gloomy.
The oxcart pulled to a halt of a sudden, where the sound of rushing water could be heard. A temple could be seen in the distance and a pair of lanterns hung from the main red gate of the temple.
When they reached the entrance, the female sect leader and Pei Zi Yun alighted before they walked into the temple.
This temple wasn’t considered rundown, but it also wasn’t very magnificent as well. There was a stone tablet which looked rather weathered and old. The words on the tablet had started to fade, but it read: River Deity’s Tablet.
When Pei Zi Yun looked up, he realized that he had walked into the main hall. There were several candles placed within the halls and the statue of the deity dressed in official robes sat in the middle. Its face was stern and intimidating.
Next to the main hall were the statues of a magistrate and another official. Likewise, the pair of statues looked fearsome and intimidating. When Pei Zi Yun looked up at these statues, he then understood the reason these statues looked so ferocious. Since the River Deity dwelt within the river, he was often exposed to the harsh elements and fearsome weather. Hence, having to deal with the violent currents meant that he should also be forceful and strong. That was the reason he was sculpted in such a manner.
Besides, the civilians in this era were often fearful and obedient when there was a strong and stern deity, rather than one who led with justice and righteousness.
In order to use this River Deity’s compound, as well as to use the presence of the River Deity to mediate between crimes, permission had to be asked sincerely and genuinely.
The female sect leader looked up at the River Deity and took out six sticks of incense. She then handed three of them to Pei Zi Yun, "Dao Master Pei, only with this special incense will you be able to communicate with the River Deity."
Hearing these words, Pei Zi Yun wasn’t surprised. Such incense was the method of the relevant sects.
Pei Zi Yun received the incense and allowed the Sect Leader to light them. Streams of green smoke wafted into the air as the both of them stepped forward and placed them within the incense burner.
They then retrieved an amulet and wrote down several words. The Sect Leader then used some Dao arts and allowed the amulets to burn.
Pei Zi Yun then bowed deeply, "Free Cloud Sect, Sect Leader Pei Zi Yun pays his respects to River Deity. We wish to borrow this sacred ground."
He then retrieved the Crown Prince’s Tile and pressed it once.
Spiritual Realm, River Deity’s Hall
Everything that the eye could take in was pitch black. A long river flowed in the middle, and the current was extremely violent. The currents could be heard as the water crashed against the rocks.
In the middle of the river was a hall, it was held up by numerous large crystals of water. The River Deity’s Hall was different from the other halls, for it had no roof over it. The windows were all open. From within the hall, all one had to do was to stretch his head out and he could see the river. Water surrounded the entire hall, and yet it didn’t get into the hall.
There were also many different species of aquatic animals within, including fish, prawns, and turtles.
Within the hall, there were three large words which read, "River Deity’s Hall" were in red. The hall was split into two rows. The first row included the magistrate as well as the spirit official. The next row was filled with crab and prawn soldiers.
The hall was gloomy and dark. All of a sudden, the sound of a dragon roaring could be heard. River Deity which sat on his throne as he awoke, "Is there a noble here in my hall?"
He stretched out his hands and a pair of Daoists which were illuminated like incense sticks appeared. In that second, the hall was lit up magnificently in bright white light. The River Deity inhaled deeply and sucked in the light from the incense.
All of a sudden, a letter descended from above, bearing with it faint white light as well. As soon as this luminescent letter came down, the spirit minister retrieved it and took a look as he trembled. He then passed the letter up, and whispered, "Master, there’s a letter here, it seems like they need your help."
Hearing the words of the spirit minister, the River Deity picked up the letter and read it, and seemed somewhat frustrated by it. He leaned against the seat, as he tapped the armrest and frowned.
The scent from the incense brought a certain atmosphere into the halls, which made the River Deity feel extremely comfortable. The smell from the incense didn’t dissipate for a long time. He then sighed, "This noble person brought me some special incense, which means he’s anything but an ordinary man. It’s just that his request is hard to agree to."
The River Deity pondered for some time, his eyes seemed to contain some ripples. At this point, the spirit official retrieved a notebook and bowed before waiting for his reply.
The smoke from the incense surrounded the area as Pei Zi Yun took several steps forward. He then looked at the Sect Leader and asked, "The River Deity hasn’t replied yet?"
The Sect Leader paused before she replied, "The River Deity is probably still considering."
The River Deity cast a glance at his own great hall and thought about how broken down and dilapidated it once was. Soon after, he cast his support for a scholar, who made it big and started spreading the word of the River Deity. That was how he had become prosperous.
At this point, he then mumbled to himself, "The affairs of this world should always be dealt with by moving forward and never looking back. Although there are disasters and calamities in the world, there are also good fortunes. Maybe I should support this noble person too."
Thinking this way, the River Deity had a plan. He looked at the spirit minister and instructed, "I shall grant their request since they have the Crown Prince’s Tile on them. I’m not overstepping and still operating within my domain. This also will help me with the Imperial Qi and might help me garner a better reputation. This is to my advantage, although it has arisen from a misfortune. Tell them this."
As the River Deity spoke, the spirit minister wrote everything that he said in preparation for a reply.
The River Deity then thought to himself before he said, "One more thing, I don’t allow executions to be carried out in my hall. I won’t allow anyone to die here. Using my sacred ground is one thing. But to carry out executions or to kill someone here would be extremely bad for me."
"Yes, master." The spirit minister finished writing and handed it over to him to check. When the River Deity saw it, he spoke, "Send it."
Great Hall
Pei Zi Yun and the Sect Leader stood before the statue as the incense wafted decadently. Smoke rose up to the ceiling. From time to time, the candles would sway under the wind, and looked rather mysterious.
The pair seemed to sense something happening as they looked up towards the statue of the deity. They could see tiny rays of light on the statue, and yet it looked rather awe-inspiring. Soon after, a red word formed over the incense burner which read: "Proceed"
Soon after, a message was sent in the form of wisps of energy. Pei Zi Yun closed his eyes and felt the message course through his mind, "The River Deity has permitted it, but we’re not to use any punishments or kill anyone within the temple. We can agree to these conditions."
"We can use this ground now."
When the female sect leader heard this, she nodded her head, "Alright, let’s set up the spell perimeter."
As he spoke, she then called for several of the Daoists to enter the hall and start their preparations. Before long, an earthen altar had been set up. There were many complex inscriptions within the altar and several drawings within. The drawings resembled that of the sun and moon along with the drawings of men.
Gradually, the earthen altar and the light from the deity’s statue started to fuse together.
After they were done with these preparations, they waited for some time before they heared some movement outside, where oxcarts had arrived. A group of people were dragged out of the oxcart. When Pei ZI Yun glanced at them, they saw that their captives were unconscious.
"Sect Leader, Dao Master Qi Ning, our mission was successful. We rushed to the magistrate’s office and noticed that some of the guards were suspicious. We thus used several enchantments which rendered us invisible to them."
"Once we entered, we didn’t go for the magistrate as instructed. Instead, we found several old servants and used the incense on them, which cause them to fall unconscious. We dragged them out before coming here. Nobody saw us."
"You’ve done well." Pei Zi Yun praised them as he turned to look at the Sect Leader. The Sect Leader then tapped the spell surrounding the earthen altar, and caused it to emit faint buzzing light and instructed them, "Bring them up here."
As she finished speaking, the Sect Leader took out three sticks of incense and placed them within the burner, "This is our secret incense, and is extremely effective."
As soon as the incense was lit, the entire hall seemed to glow in a strange way and caused Pei Zi Yun to feel dizzy, as though he was about to faint.
After sniffing at the incense, the Sect Leader then spoke, "Dao Master Pei, this incense only has strong effects on normal people. All you have to do is to circulate you Dao arts within your body, and you will be fine."
Pei Zi Yun nodded his head and even intentionally inhaled deeply to experience how these normal mortals would feel.
Free Cloud Sect’s expertise was in fighting and Dao arts. True Element Sect took a different approach and often used incense to induce sleepiness and unconsciousness. Just by sniffing this incense would cause someone to feel slightly inebriated.
It seemed like there were many different ingredients within this particular incense which would intentionally cause the subject to feel dizzy. Pei Zi Yun thus conjured his Dao arts around his body and felt the dizziness disappear. He realized that this could be very useful. As long as a person wasn’t careful, he might fall prey to this incense, which would make him easy to kill.
Just as he was deep in thought, several Daoists dragged the servants in and placed them within the spell perimeter, near the earthen altar. The female sect leader then instructed, "Let’s begin then!"
The incense started to waft towards the earthen altar as it congealed around it. Some of these servants now breathed in the incense. Their eyes rolled beneath their closed eyelids, as they continued to dream.
Some of these Daoists started to chant, as the light from the altar glowed before it fused with these servants.
The sky was dark at this point, and it had started to rain once again.
Pei Zi Yun looked up and paid attention to what was happening. When everything first started, he thought that this was a rather fresh experience. However, after being subjected to the teachings of the Plum Blossom, he realized that most of these methods had the same underlying intent but with different approaches.
After looking at the group of servants lying unconscious, he cast his glance outside and noticed that the rain still fell, and the sky were overcast with dark clouds. Raindrops poured into the ravine.
"Since the Daoist man had been struck by the lightning tribulation, all his memories regarding the Dragon Veins had disappeared."
"Unless I spend as much as time as him, painstakingly locating the Dragon Veins, the other alternative according to my memories would be to find the imperial tutor. That was because the Daoist handed the map to his tutor before he died."
"The imperial tutor was murdered by bandits. Hence, there are only two possible outcomes for the map. One is that the bandits took it, or that the last remaining offspring to the imperial tutor possesses it."
"It seems like the chances are higher that his son took it."
"Especially since the Daoist knew that he would come under the wrath of the heavens, thus would’ve left the maps at the refuge point."
"I don’t remember where the refuge point is, but am sure is somewhere in a village atop the Dragon Veins."
"Killing the latent dragon was a sin to the heavens, and thus all his offspring were subjected to the backlash. However, they weren’t in direct contact with the Daoists, thus the backlash was significantly reduced."
"Of course when it came to this Daoist or his imperial tutor, they wouldn’t have been able to escape from it. Even if they escaped to the refuge point, it wouldn’t have made any difference to their outcome. There was only impending doom as their destiny. However, the sins residing within their offspring wouldn’t be much now, the sin would probably vanish over time as long as they wouldn’t do anything to incur the wrath of the heavens once again."
"I need to find the maps of the Dragon Veins and thus be able to play a part in this." Pei Zi Yun thought to himself when someone interrupted him, "Dao Master Pei, have you experienced this before?"
Pei Zi Yun heard this and laughed before he asked, "Could there be more than meets the eye?"
"There are many ways which we can interfere with these dreams. This is one of the skills our sect is known for." The Sect Leader replied.
Pei Zi Yun then understood. This was one of the skills some of these Daoists possess, to discern the truth from dreams. The Sect Leader then whipped out a Dao infused mirror and laughed, "We’re starting to see a clearer picture now. We can see from this mirror how they’ve been treated?"
Within seconds, the mirror lit up as the Sect Leader imbued more energy within. Everyone’s eyes turned towards the mirror and looked in. It was dark at first, but light started to show up on the mirror, and some shadows began to emerge.
Chapter 254: Long Arms of Justice
Editor: Translation Nation
An old servant stood beneath a tree that was completely bare and yet he didn’t find anything strange about it. He ate some peanuts and drank wine. Apart from an entire bowl of peanuts on the table, there was a grilled chicken too, the smell was extremely decadent.
At this point, the sky was filled with dark clouds and the winds blew strongly against the windows, which caused the windows to smack loudly. The old servant picked up more peanuts and shoved them into his mouth before he took a huge sip of wine. He then stood up and walked towards the windows. It had just started to rain and he wanted to shut the windows. A flash of lightning streaked across the sky.
Just then, a pair of spirit constables appeared. They didn’t speak at all and moved towards the old servant with chains and locks. The old servant wanted to scream, but no sound would leave his lips. He only felt a floaty sensation in his body and was extremely confused. When he turned around to look, he saw that a shadow stood before the window.
The old servant was alarmed and wanted to struggle, but he couldn’t do so. He then stood up against his will and followed the pair of spirit constables out of the gate.
The old servant was startled as his body was drenched his sweat. When he looked up, the scene around him had changed. He was now stuck within a thick forest. There was a temple before him, where a pair of huge pillars held the temple together. The pillars were inscribed, "Loyalty" on the left side and "Virtues" on the right.
Just as he gazed right at the pillars, he saw table where an official sat at. The official was dressed in his formal robes and had more than ten spirit constables serving him. This old servant fell to his knees.
When the old servant looked up, he felt like this official was extremely familiar looking. He thus tried to recall where he had seen this official before, then he realized that the official was the River Deity!
Just as he finally managed to recall where he had seen this official from, a loud shout rang out. He could then smell a strange aroma of some fried oil. When he smelt this, he became afraid.
Some distance away, there were several prisoners who wore chains around their necks and limbs. Some of them had their heads chopped off, while others were missing arms. It was a terrifying scene. Some distance away, someone was frying some oil.
The River Deity who sat in his seat flipped several documents before announcing, "Bring me the convicted criminal Chen Gui."
The old servant was startled. He knew this Chen Gui, and the both of them could be considered friends. However, he had fallen sick several days back and died. When he saw Chen Gui being dragged up, the River Deity slapped a piece of wood on the table, "Chen Gui, your time had come. How do you plead? If you confess your sins, it might lessen your fruit!"
Chen Gui had an astonished look across his face as he hurriedly spoke out, "River Deity, I’m innocent, I’m innocent. I was very kind in my life and never did any evil acts. I’m an innocent man."
Chen Gui refused to say anything else.
The River Deity’s expression was cold as he flipped the book on the table and spoke out, "Chen Gui, a citizen of An Zhen Prefecture. Fifty-eight years of age, had multiple lovers, often sought compliments from others. You’ve amassed a total of 108 evil deeds. Earlier this year, you even killed a beggar while riding through him on a horse, and shortened his life prematurely. Today, you shall face judgement from the River Deity. Chen Gui, am I right?"
"Your Excellency, I have done good deeds as well. My neighbor was a widow and I’ve looked after her family and provided for her on occasions." Hearing this, Chen Gui shouted out in indignance.
The official then flipped the piece of paper over and shouted coldly, "Chen Gui, two years ago on the pretense of looking after someone you gave yourself a reason to be proud and boastful." "Your Excellency, I was wrong. I know now that I was wrong. I willingly submit to my crimes and beg for a lenient punishment." Chen Gui was clearly broken as he begged.
"You have committed many outrageous sins and you haven’t regretted your actions or shown remorse. You are hereby sentenced to the burning oil punishment. After which you shall be sent into the water prison for 100 years." River Deity judged h
"River Deity Your Excellency, have mercy!" Chen Gui begged for mercy.
Right at this point, one of the spirit constables shouted out. His voice was as loud as thunder, another constable stepped forward and dragged Chen Gui before the burning oil. This tank of burning oil was seven meters high and was surrounded by red hot charcoal.
Chen Gui was so terrified that he started to tremble and cried out, begging for mercy. However, he was completely powerless. The spirit constable used his left hand to grip onto Chen Gui’s head while his right hand held onto Chen Gui’s legs. With a single motion, he flipped Chen Gui into the tank of burning oil.
The sound of the boiling hot oil was extremely loud. Chen Gui rolled around in the hot oil in agony. His skin was burnt and peeled off, he was in intense pain. The old servant looked and saw that Chen Gui screamed out in pain as the hot oil gushed into his mouth. Even his intestines and stomach were burnt by the oil. Sometime later, the spirit constable then took a huge fork and stuck it into him and removed him from the tank of hot oil.
"Li Wu!" The River Deity then brought another person forward, who trembled in fear.
"Li Wu, you’ve been sent for judgement. You know of your own sins!" River Deity slammed the wooden tile on his desk.
Li Wu was startled and trembled in fear, "River Deity Your Excellency, once I picked up ten taels of silver on the ground, and didn’t return it."
"Apart from that, what other sins have you committed? Confess now." River Deity asked.
Hearing these words, Li Wu started to mumble under his breath as though deep in thought and yet he couldn’t speak. River Deity then replied to him coldly, "That’s a minor infraction. You shall be punished with 50 strokes of the wooden board. However, 15 years ago, you and your brothers stole a village old woman’s only pig. This drove the old lady to desperation and she ended her life by jumping into the river. This is a severe sin. You shall be punished by being stabbed.
"Your Excellency, Your Excellency, pardon me!" Li Wu shouted in fear. All of a sudden, the scene was transformed to a forest. The spirit constable grabbed hold of Li Wu before he tossed him up into the air. When Li Wu landed, knives pierced into his stomach as he shouted out in agony. Seeing such a scene unfold before him, the old servant was trembling in fear.
"Bring the next convict’s record!"
At that moment, another spirit constable stepped towards the old servant, as he fell to the ground and shook.
He then heard the wooden tile slam onto the tabletop, "Your time is up, would you like to admit to your crimes? Confess them and you might be spared from punishment!"
The old servant fell to the ground and started kowtowing, "I shall admit to my sins and speak truthfully."
The old servant raised his head to look at the River Deity, his vision was cast far into the distance. His heart was filled with fear and he was slightly confused. He struggled for a little bit before looking up once again at the River Deity, who was on the brink of rage. He then finally gave up and started to speak, "I intentionally increased the interest rate of those who owe my master money. When they couldn’t afford to pay, I went into their homes and took their belongings to sell them off. I even took his daughter and sold her into slavery."
"The last time we took their possessions, I was tasked to sell of all their belongings. We earned 3,700 taels of silver."
"My master even gave me 300 taels of silver for participating."
The old servant opened his mouth and told them all of the deeds which he had committed.
The entire hall was filled with incense smoke as several of the servants knelt on the ground. The strange thing was that their eyes were all closed shut, but from time to time, they would scream out in pain. They talked about everything that they had done wrong.
Some of them spoke of stealing land, while others spoke of beating other junior servants to death. Another said something about being greedy and stealing silver.
All these scenes played like a movie on the mirror which was held by the Sect Leader. Pei Zi Yun watched everything and thought to himself, "This is so similar to the movies that I used to watch in the previous life. Everyone reflected within the mirror was in some sort of a trance, and yet truly believed that what they experienced was real."
However, such methods worked extraordinarily when it came to the interrogation of normal people and finding out the truth from them. None of the servants here had any means of resistance. The Daoists all recorded all their statements as they confessed.
Seeing them give their confessions one by one, Pei Zi Yun frowned instead of looking happy. He then turned to the Sect Leader and said, "These confessions are of all small petty crimes. We cannot use these to overthrow the magistrate. All these people are the senior servants of the magistrate, how could they not know of what’s happening?"
"Could it be that this magistrate was truly behaving properly?"
In this world, in this era, knowing that the magistrate increased the interest rates of his debtors, sold off their items and beating servants to death were minor infractions. However, if these misdemeanors were being charged by someone of a higher authority than the magistrate, these crimes could be more severe and treated as such.
However, if such deeds were reported by someone of a lower status, or of the same status, the perpetrator would barely even be punished. Even if he was truly charged, he would probably be punished by drinking three cups of wine.
Hearing Pei Zi Yun’s words, the Sect Leader frowned as well. Right at this point in time, the mirror started shining brightly once more, as if something had just happened. When the Sect Leader looked in, her face turned to a look of elation, "We’ve caught ourselves a big fish!"
"What?" Pei Zi Yun looked into the mirror as well. He saw someone within the mirror, gritting his teeth, adamant on not confessing his crimes in the dream. A faint, yellow energy surrounded him.
"It’s the assistant butler, Bai Ceng!" A female Daoist looked in and exclaimed.
"No wonder it was so easy and successful with the previous few servants. That was because they were just lowly servants within the household, and had nothing much to give up. This person however, seems to know more about the magistrate. Hence, the aura of the magistrate was transferred to him, to protect him as well. This is such a mysterious aura in the way it’s able to protect him from harm." Pei Zi Yun frowned.
When the Sect Leader heard this, she cleared her throat, "Indeed the aura is very mysterious, for most of our sects haven’t researched much on it. Hm, this River Deity is rather crafty too. He knows that we’re after the magistrate, and had the choice to deny this aura under his temple, but chose to allow it to pass through and hinder our investigations."
Pei Zi Yun laughed after hearing this, "That’s quite understandable. All we offered was some incense. It’s quite normal that he wouldn’t be willing to help us in attacking the magistrate’s office."
"However, I have a plan." Pei Zi Yun replied as he retrieved the Crown Prince’s tile and pointed at assistant butler, "Outrageous, leave at once."
Right at this second, the mirror turned blurry before it focused once again.
At this point, the man’s yellow aura retreated away from him by several feet. It seemed like it wouldn’t leave him, and yet it wasn’t as close to him as before.
"Quick, burn more incense now!" The Sect Leader ordered, as more incense was burnt, it caused the unconscious servants around to inhale another thick waft of smoke. River Deity within the mirror shouted once again, "You still wouldn’t confess to your crimes?"
At this point a spirit constable stepped forward towards him. Since he had lost the yellow aura, which no longer protected him, Bai Cheng could see the face of the spirit constable. All of a sudden, his face contorted in fear as he took several steps back, "General You Ji, don’t come nearer, stay back. Don’t haunt me. No! It was my master who ordered for me to kill you, I didn’t do it of my own accord!"
His voice was filled with fear, as he shouted out hoarsely. As soon as these words were spoken, the yellow aura which had retreated collapsed entirely. Pei Zi Yun was overjoyed as he instructed the few female Daoists, "There’s no need to interrogate the rest of them. Spend your time focusing on this man and increase the intensity of the interrogation. We have to find out exactly what he’s hiding!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the mirror came into focus once again, and everyone else disappeared, which left Bai Ceng alone.
Spiritual Realm, River Deity’s Hall
At this point, five or six shadows could be seen within the hall. River Deity sat atop his throne and watched with several spirit constables around him. None of them stepped in to intervene with the illusions cast by the Daoists and watched everything unfold. At this point, the deity sighed, "This man is truly guilty of those crimes, and he’s going to find it hard to escape punishment."
The River Deity then pointed and said, "The magistrate’s aura is protecting him. Even though those were just mere illusions, it was still a creation of the Daoists, and thus the aura followed him."
"It’s just that this Daoists has the Crown Prince tile on him, and it was extremely powerful. All he had to do was to rebuke the aura and commanded it to leave, it had to listen. After all, the Crown Prince had power over the magistrate’s aura."
"Of course, if the aura had belonged to someone more powerful, for example the Governor, the Crown Prince tile might not have been as effective."
"Without the protection of the aura, along with the incense they are burning, his darkest and worst fears were manifested. The people he didn’t wish to see the most would all confront him in this illusion. Especially if he had killed someone before, he wouldn’t be able to prevent those hauntings from getting to him."
"As soon as these words were spoken about killing the General You Ji, the magistrate’s aura completely collapsed. It’s obvious that the magistrate wouldn’t be able to escape the long arms of justice at this point. I truly didn’t expect them to be guilty of such a crime."
"Looks like the Daoists have won this time." The River Deity sighed as he exhaled.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
0 Power
stone 
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