I became Superman

Chapter 216 The Wronged Soul Appeals to the Underworld

Zhang Da's face immediately fell.

He was truly destined for a life of hardship, having to serve at the City God Temple at night and prepare for exams and make a living during the day.

Now things are much better; besides making a living during the day, he also has to write storybooks for the City God.

When will he finally pass the imperial examination and get a title? He should resign from this wretched underworld post as soon as possible.

Seeing his expression, Zhou Ming knew what was on his mind and said with a smile, "I won't let you work for nothing. This gold is for your writing fee, so you won't be left without a livelihood."

Zhang Da's eyes widened as he saw the large piece of gold, the size of a dog's head, handed over by the City God.

Other people's gold nuggets are just small lumps the size of a finger, but this one is really the size of a "dog's head".

Zhang Da shuddered and hurriedly moved closer to Zhou Ming, saying, "You mustn't! My lord, if underworld officials use divine authority for personal gain, they'll be struck by lightning!"

Zhou Ming tossed the gold in his hand and laughed, "Don't worry, all this gold belongs to me. No one will hold you accountable."

Zhang Da was relieved.

Anyway, that's what the City God said. As for whether it's true or not, he doesn't care. Even if the God of Surveillance investigates, he's just been deceived, and the fault doesn't lie with him.

Let's get our hands on the gold first.

Zhang Da, overjoyed, accepted the gold, cast an invisibility spell, and hurried home before sunrise.

Back home, Zhang Da dug a deep pit and buried the gold in his yard, cutting off only a piece for decoration.

Now that he had money, Zhang Da no longer ran a business selling words. Instead, he devoted his days to crafting stories and then had them performed by storytellers in restaurants and teahouses.

Based on these stories, some people mustered up their courage and went to Dongshan to see for themselves. They found that the back mountain was as clean as if it had been washed away by a flood, and there were no traces of demons in Jinguang Temple.

As a result, people began to believe this story to be true.

In just a few days, the City God Temple did indeed see an increase in incense offerings.

Zhou Ming fiddled with the golden seal every day, observing with great interest how much divine power it contained was increasing, even more so than he cared about his own strength.

His own strength was growing every day, even though he hadn't been sunbathing in the strict sense for a long time.

The suns of these small worlds are not stars in the grand scheme of the universe.

However, his power doesn't seem to be affected much; since leaving the supermassive black hole formed from the star sector, his power has increased.

It has never stopped.

He couldn't figure out how much his strength was increasing each day, and it felt like a meaningless thing.

If you really had to put it into words, the power he gained with each breath was probably enough to burst this world apart.

This level of power growth is merely an abstract number.

The increase in divine power within the golden seal, however, brought him some amusement.

It's a bit like the world's richest man playing games. Even though his daily income is enough to buy the game company, the numerical growth in the game still keeps him interested.

As his divine power increased, Zhou Ming also observed it.

He discovered that so-called divine power was less a force and more a condensation of the laws governing this world.

The City God's Golden Seal grants access to the Heavenly Dao system, while the incense offerings determine the scope of that access.

That evening, Zhang Da came to report for duty again.

Zhou Ming glanced at the few remaining spirits in the temple and wondered if he could add a few more as the temple's incense offerings had been growing recently.

The underworld officials exercise their powers by drawing strength from the overall incense offerings of the City God Temple.

The incense offerings are not plentiful, and they can't even afford to invite the underworld officials.

Just as Zhou Ming was about to propose his idea and have the underworld officials consider selecting some virtuous people from the county to serve as underworld officials, he suddenly saw a ghost float into the hall.

This was a man around forty years old, not very tall but with a strong build. Blood was flowing from his seven orifices, and his face was ashen; he was a typical vengeful ghost in legends.

But now he looked fearful, trembling and not daring to speak in the hall.

Seeing that business was in the works, Zhou Ming temporarily put aside his previous thoughts and asked with a smile, "Who is this person downstairs?"

The man knelt down with a thud, kowtowed several times, and said, "I am Wu Zhi, a carpenter from the west of this county. I was murdered by an adulterous couple, and I have come to appeal to the City God!"

The armed helicopter was murdered by adulterers—that sounds familiar.

Zhou Ming said, "Tell me your grievances."

Wu Zhidao said, "Half a year ago, the famous wealthy man in this county, Master Jiang, died of illness. His son, Jiang Qing, came to my shop to prepare a coffin for his father. I knew that he was a wealthy man with great wealth, so I flattered him and selected the best wood. I did everything myself."

"Jiang Qing often went to Xiao Ren's shop to check on the progress. Somehow, he got involved with Xiao Ren's wife. The two of them would seduce each other while Xiao Ren was working. Later, Xiao Ren caught them in the act."

"I'm afraid of the Jiang family's power, so I don't dare to do anything to them. I just think that even if I'm unlucky, I'll just keep an eye on my wife from now on."

that is--"

At this point, a laugh came from someone in the hall.

Wu the carpenter stole glances at the faces of the underworld officials and saw that they all had a hint of a smile on their faces. He said with embarrassment, "I know that you gentlemen look down on cowards like me, but I have no choice. How can we, such insignificant people, reason with the Jiang family? They are powerful and influential, and they have connections with all the important people in the county. We can't afford to offend them, so we can only hide."

"As for my wife, alas, she is truly stunningly beautiful. When she married me, people said it was a waste of her talent. How could she not feel resentful? So, when this happened, I don't want to blame her too much—"

"Pfft!"

Another laugh.

Wu Zhi hesitated, too embarrassed to say anything more.

Zhou Ming shook his head and said, "Silence, Wu Zhi, you continue."

Wu Zhi then said, "I originally wanted to let this matter rest, but I didn't expect that Jiang Qing and that harlot to be so lewd. They actually saw me as an obstacle. Jiang Qing instigated that harlot to pretend to apologize to me, but in reality, she added the deadly poison arsenic to my wine and made me drink it. Poor me, I died just like that."

"After the villain died, he was filled with resentment and wandered around the house all day long. He watched the adulterous couple entwined in love, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he became, but he was helpless."

"I recently heard that the City God has opened his office to handle affairs, so I have come to plead my case and beg the City God to redress my grievances."

After listening to Wu Zhi's explanation, Zhou Ming looked at Zhang Da and asked, "How is this kind of thing usually handled?"

Zhang Da said, "I have also heard about this matter. Adulterers murdering their husbands is a heinous crime, and the people of the city are all extremely indignant. Your Excellency can send Ox-Head and Horse-Face to summon the souls of the adulterers and bring them to the City God Temple for trial. The crimes will then be determined and dealt with."

Zhou Ming said, "Since there's a precedent, let's do it the way it always has."

With that, he produced a soul-summoning warrant, stamped it with a golden seal, and handed it to Xie Bi'an to retrieve the soul.

Xie Bi'an accepted the document with a bitter expression, gave Zhang Da a reproachful look, and then left helplessly.

Zhou Ming waited in the hall for less than a quarter of an hour before Xie Bi'an returned, but no living soul followed him.

Zhou Ming asked, "You didn't find the person in question?"

Xie Bi'an said, "The person in question is right here in the mansion, but I have no right to take him away."

Zhou Ming said, "Since I issued you a document, how can I not have the right to extort it?"

Xie Bi'an said, "The Jiang family has been a Buddhist family for generations. They have a Buddha statue brought back from Fahua Temple and it is enshrined in the Buddha hall. Jiang Qingsheng's soul is protected by the Buddha's light, and I cannot seduce it."

"Such a thing is true."

Zhou Ming said, "Let's go take a look together."

With that, he rose from his seat, and together with several underworld officials and the wronged spirits, left the City God Temple and headed to the Jiang Mansion in the east of the city.

In the blink of an eye, the spirits of the underworld arrived above the Jiang residence. Zhou Ming looked down and saw that the Jiang residence was shrouded in a soft Buddhist light. Ordinary ghosts and demons would avoid it from afar, and even the underworld officials could not take people here without authorization.

Zhou Ming glanced at Zhang Da and Lu Sheng and said, "You two already knew about the situation here, but you didn't tell me. Did you want to see me make a fool of myself?"

Zhang Da hurriedly said, "It's not that I want to see you make a fool of yourself, but what others say is never as real as what you experience yourself."

"When you first took office, you asked why the City God Temple was so deserted, and this is the reason."

"People believe in ghosts and gods simply because they hope that these ghosts and gods will bring retribution in the afterlife."

"But in this world, the wealthy and powerful live extravagantly and act tyrannically without suffering any retribution, while the poor and humble do good deeds without receiving any blessings."

Even if they commit evil deeds, wealthy families will only make some donations at temples, ask Taoist priests and monks to chant some scriptures, and at most build a temple. The accumulated merit is enough to offset their sins.

"Gold, silver, and power can be traded for divine authority. If that's the case, why don't people just worship gold, silver, and power directly instead of worshipping gods?"

"Therefore, the incense offerings at the City God Temple gradually declined. The less the incense offerings, the more useless the City God became, leading to the current situation."

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Zhou Ming sized him up for a few moments and smiled, "Scholar, there seems to be some indignation in your words?"

Zhang Da was stunned for a moment, then said awkwardly, "You jest, sir."

Zhou Ming said, "Isn't this a dead end?"

"The Jiang family is protected by Buddha's light, so the underworld cannot question them. Since they cannot be questioned, they cannot be judged, let alone convicted. Would the Heavenly Court leave such a blatant loophole?"

Zhang Da said, "There is a proper procedure for handling this kind of matter. The magistrate issues a document to the Lord of Mount Tai, who then hands it over to Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, asking Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva to temporarily block the Buddha's light here so that it will be convenient for the underworld to arrest and question people."

"The process is very complicated and slow. By the time it's finished, Jiang Qing will probably be old and dead."

After saying that, he stared at Zhou Ming, wanting to see how his newly appointed master would react to the matter.

The helicopter also stared at Zhou Ming in despair.

He had heard what Zhang Da said, and the message it conveyed filled him with despair.

It turns out that the corruption in the underworld is no less than that in the mortal world.

If this City God cannot make a decision for him, he has no hope left.

Zhou Ming shook his head with amusement and said, "It seems being a god isn't easy."

As he spoke, he flicked a handful of firewood and threw it toward the Buddhist hall of the Jiang residence.

The underworld officials were all startled and cried out, "My lord, you mustn't!"

But the fire had already landed on the Buddhist hall.

The raging fire instantly engulfed the Buddhist hall, and the clay and wooden Buddha statues creaked and burned, turning into ashes in the blink of an eye.

When the Jiang family noticed the fire in the Buddhist hall, they immediately became noisy, banging gongs and drums and calling for family members to come and put out the fire. In no time, the entire Jiang family was alarmed.

Seeing the raging fire in the Buddhist hall, the underworld officials were stunned. After a long while, they finally said, "My lord, you've caused a terrible disaster!"

Zhang Da panicked and ran around frantically, saying, "Destroying a Buddha statue is tantamount to drawing blood from the Buddha's body, a heinous crime punishable by the Five Heinous Offenses and Ten Evils!"

He originally just wanted to test Zhou Ming's reaction, to see if this newcomer still had the heart of a god.

If he still has the heart of a god, I will do my best to assist him. Even if I cannot completely turn the situation around, I will at least do some good things that benefit the world and people's hearts.

Unexpectedly, this new official was far more extreme than he had imagined; he directly burned down the Buddhist hall and destroyed the Buddha statues.

This is a terrible disaster.

Zhang Da felt a chill run through his body, and the other underworld officials also trembled.

Zhou Ming said, "What's the big deal? If it's burned, it's burned. Now there are no Buddhist halls or statues in the mansion. Xie Bi'an, go and bring those two people to me."

Xie Bi'an replied, "Yes, sir!"

Having said that, he slammed his fist down toward the Jiang residence.

After Wu Zhi died, Wu Niangzi stayed at home for a few days. She always felt a chill in the house, so Jiang Qing took the opportunity to bring her into the Jiang family and be close to her every day.

That night, the two were making love in the room when they suddenly heard gongs and drums beating outside, and everyone shouting that there was a fire.

The two hurriedly got dressed and went outside to check the situation.

As soon as they opened the door, the two felt a bone-chilling cold rush towards them. When they looked up, they were almost scared out of their wits.

A malevolent spirit, over ten feet tall and with a rugged horse's head, walked towards them, holding an iron chain in his hand. With a flick of his wrist, he pulled their souls out and headed towards the City God Temple.

Zhou Ming had already returned to the City God Temple.

A moment later, Xie Bi'an returned with Jiang Qing and Wu Niangzi.

Upon seeing the towering golden statue of the City God, the two unconsciously knelt down.

Zhou Ming slammed his gavel and said, "Today, a wronged citizen named Wu Zhi has accused you two of adultery and murdering your husband. You must confess the truth."

The two souls were jolted by the sound of the gavel and felt dizzy. They confessed to their actions without reservation, and their confessions were exactly the same as Wu Zhi's.

Judge Zhang Da took a written record of the two men's statements.

Zhou Ming asked, "Since the charges are true, how should these two be dealt with?"

Zhang Da flipped through the documents and said, "We are the underworld, and the underworld cannot enforce the law on behalf of the living. We can only record their crimes and send them to the Taishan Prefecture for judgment after they die."

Zhou Mingdao asked, "If we deal with him after his death, how many years do he have left to live?"

Without waiting for further information, Zhang Da said, "Jiang Qingyang is seventy-nine years old. He is thirty-five this year, so he has forty-four years left."

"Madam Wu's lifespan is fifty-three years. She is twenty-eight years old this year, and has twenty-five years left."

Zhou Ming chuckled, "So you mean we have to wait decades for them, and by then we'll only be able to send them to the underworld for disposal?"

Jiang Qing, having regained his senses, heard their words and, emboldened, said, "Don't think I don't know what you're up to."

According to custom, my home is protected by Buddha's light, so you wouldn't normally be allowed to enter.

"My house suddenly caught fire today, burning down the Buddhist shrine. I'm afraid it's related to you all. You yourselves are about to face disaster, yet you have the audacity to threaten to punish me!"

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