I became Superman

Chapter 220 What a ridiculous heavenly law, it needs to be changed.

The underworld officials at the City God Temple felt that they had become accustomed to their City God's various astonishing behaviors, and believed that no matter how bizarre the City God's behavior became, they could take it in stride.

But when they saw the City God sitting calmly in the hall, watching the ghost soldiers being brought in one by one, he immediately made a judgment after the soldiers announced their names and hometowns, without any delay or consultation with the Book of Life and Death.

Later, the City God still felt it was too slow, so he simply moved the trial hall into the prison. Ten thousand ghost soldiers called out names one by one, and the verdict was issued to whoever was called.

Zhang Da estimated that even working day and night, it would take several years or even more than a decade to deal with the 100,000 ghost soldiers. However, thanks to the City God's efficient judgment, they were all dealt with in just two days.

The underworld officials of the City God Temple, who prided themselves on being knowledgeable and experienced, finally couldn't hold back any longer.

Could it be that the City God is having an affair?

Zhang Da and Lu Sheng, along with other underworld officials, were curious, so they randomly selected a few from the already judged underworld soldiers, consulted the Book of Life and Death, and tried to make their own judgments.

They racked their brains, taking into account all the words and deeds of the other party throughout their life, and tried their best to make a fair judgment. It took them a whole day to judge two or three ghost soldiers.

They compared the verdict with the one given by the City God and found that the general direction was the same, only the City God's verdict was more reasonable and detailed.

Only then did they believe that the City God wasn't just making things up; he truly could judge everyone's fate across three lifetimes in an instant.

Incredible.

After delivering the verdict, Zhou Ming signed the receipt and ordered Horse-Face to escort the 100,000 Yin soldiers to the Netherworld.

Horse-faced immediately broke out in a sweat.

Let him escort 100,000 ghost soldiers?

He needs to have that ability too.

Zhou Ming laughed and said, "What are you afraid of? They can't escape."

Only then did Horse-Face reluctantly set off.

He was alone, with a horse-faced demon behind him, followed by a vast army of 100,000 Yin soldiers, their malevolent aura reaching the sky. As they left the City God Temple and entered the realm between Yin and Yang, they saw two divine beings waiting in front of them. Upon closer inspection, they realized that they were the Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak and the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha.

Horse-face was overjoyed, thinking to himself, "The City God is truly a prophet; he already knew these two great gods were here."

He immediately stepped forward and bowed to the two great gods.

The Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak laughed and said, "Your master's actions are truly unpredictable; he has adjudicated the case of 100,000 Yin soldiers in just two days."

"Now that everything has been settled, can the Book of Life and Death be returned?"

Even though it's just a copy, and the original is left in the underworld, it's still not good for the copy to be left out in the open.

This is a permissions issue.

The authority that originally belonged to Taishan Prefecture has been delegated. What's going on here?

Even if you are a highly respected deity, you can't bully people like this.

If you're so capable, then reveal your identity and openly propose to the Jade Emperor to redistribute authority and claim a share of the divine power of Mount Tai.

Anyway, it's not like this hasn't happened before.

The divine authority system of Heaven is now in such a chaotic state that it's impossible to describe.

Even though matters of life, death, fortune, and misfortune in the human world are, in principle, under the jurisdiction of Mount Tai, the Five Dipper Star Lords, who are under the command of the Great Emperor of the North Pole of Ziwei, also have this authority. As the saying goes, the Southern Dipper governs life, and the Northern Dipper governs death.

Moreover, not only the Purple Star North Pole Emperor, but also the South Pole Longevity Emperor, are in charge of the lifespan of living beings.

Many experts have gotten involved in the same matter, resulting in a chaotic situation regarding authority and responsibility. This is all a result of past struggles among these experts.

According to the Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak, the intention of this person from Shangning County is probably the same: to further divide the authority of the Netherworld.

It's really frustrating to think about.

Although they are both called Great Emperors, the Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak is clearly no match for the Great Emperors of the Four Emperors.

As for Doumu Yuanjun, who is slightly above the Four Emperors, the Jade Emperor, who is one level higher, and even the Three Pure Ones, who are two levels higher, needless to say.

Horse-faced, unaware of the power struggles among the deities, scratched his mane and said, "The City God hasn't mentioned returning the Book of Life and Death to me. Why doesn't Your Majesty ask the City God for it yourself?"

It's completely upside down!

The Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak had a gloomy face, finding it difficult to make a decision.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva winked at him, seemingly advising him to be patient for the time being.

The Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak suspected that he had another explanation, so he waved his hand and let Horse-Face go back, while he personally escorted 100,000 souls back to Mount Tai.

"Master, you just gave me a meaningful look. Did you perhaps have something to teach me?"

"The Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak said."

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva laughed and said, "This is a matter for several great emperors and deities to divide divine power. Why should you meddle? Other deities will naturally intervene. Don't act like a petty person."

The Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak shook his head helplessly and said, "You're just being indifferent. If this matter involved your Buddhist sect, let's see if you could still be so detached."

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva laughed and said, "Our Buddhist sect does not meddle in divine power; what do their struggles have to do with us?"

The Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak saw that he was secretly pleased with himself and knew that he was watching the show as an onlooker. He was secretly annoyed and thought to himself, "You are gloating here. If this happened to your Buddhist sect, I hope you would be in a lot of trouble too."

Although he thought this way, he also understood that compared to the Heavenly Court, the Buddhist sect was outside the secular world and did not concern themselves with divine authority. The struggles of the great gods should not affect them.

After the horse-faced demon returned, the City God Temple was unusually quiet.

Zhou Ming found himself in a somewhat bored state again.

However, to everyone's delight, the incense at the City God Temple is gradually becoming more abundant.

The previous incident involving 100,000 ghost soldiers greatly affected the people of Shangning County, who once again remembered the City God, the god of the underworld. People flocked to the City God Temple to offer incense every day.

With the incense burning brightly, the supernatural powers of the underworld officials naturally increase as well.

Although all the underworld messengers understood that this was meaningless.

After all, the City God Temple nowadays relies entirely on the City God himself to operate.

This small amount of incense offering is utterly meaningless to the City God, a revered deity who, though living in seclusion, is known by everyone to have an extremely powerful background.

However, the underworld messengers were clearly mistaken.

Zhou Ming was quite pleased with the thriving incense offerings at the City God Temple.

He ordered Zhang Da and others to select intelligent and upright people from within the county to fill positions at the City God Temple.

The manpower at the City God Temple was quickly mobilized.

Below the City God are the civil and military judges, followed by Ox-Head and Horse-Face, Black and White Impermanence, the Shackled General, and the Day and Night Wandering Gods.

In addition, there are departments responsible for various specific functions, the most important of which is the Yin-Yang Division, which can be considered the secretariat of the City God.

Next are the local earth gods.

All of these combined constitute the complete system of the City God's divine authority within a county.

With this, the Shangning County City God Temple finally resumed normal operations. Most matters no longer required Zhou Ming's personal attention; the Yin-Yang Division...

You and Zhang Da can handle things well.

With nothing else to do, Zhou Ming spent some time each day monitoring the data flow in the Book of Life and Death, tracking the life and death of certain people.

After tracking for a while, Zhou Ming suddenly discovered some strange phenomena.

So he called Zhang Da to his side, pointed out a record in the Book of Life and Death to him, and said, "There is a man here who was a powerful figure in Jinling Prefecture. In his lifetime, his land stretched across the prefecture and county, yet he was still not satisfied. He did many things by trickery and force, seizing other people's land and driving them to their deaths."

"Judging from his merits and demerits throughout his life, he should be sent to hell to be punished. However, when I checked the records in the Book of Life and Death, I found that he had already been allowed to be reincarnated, and the family he was born into was quite extraordinary. This is truly puzzling."

"There are many such examples in the Book of Life and Death. Could it be that the underworld has made a misjudgment? This misjudgment rate is rather exaggerated. You should go to Mount Tai immediately and ask them what happened."

Here it comes, here it comes again!

For some reason, Zhang Da suddenly had a feeling that he had known it would happen.

It has always been the Taishan Prefecture that assesses the City God; there has never been a case where the City God assesses the Taishan Prefecture's judgments.

But when the words came from his own mouth, the City God, Zhang Da felt they were perfectly natural.

This old man seems to have a damn right to meddle in other people's business.

Zhang Da immediately took Zhou Ming's official document and headed to Taishan Prefecture.

Half a day later, Zhang Da returned from Taishan Prefecture.

"Have you found out?"

Zhou Ming asked.

Zhang Da said, "I have found out that I came from Shangning County, and the Ten Kings of Hell personally received me."

At this point, Zhang Da couldn't help but look smug and said, "King Yama treats me as an honored guest, drinking tea with me, while the judges of the underworld verify the situation of the person you mentioned."

"It turns out that although that person had done many harmful things in his life, he liked to offer alms to monks and respect the Tao, and thus he had accumulated merit, which offset his sins and allowed him to be reincarnated."

Zhou Mingdao said, "Because he offered alms to monks and respected Taoism, his sins of harming people were offset?"

"What kind of outrageous rule is this?"

Zhang Da said, "To be precise, it wasn't offset, but rather transferred."

"Anyone in this world who offers alms to monks, respects the Dao, or recites scriptures and gives alms has a karmic connection with the Buddhas. The amount of their merit indicates the depth of their karmic connection with the Buddhas."

"After they die, their sins will be transferred to the Buddhas, who will bear their sins on their behalf. The sins do not disappear; they are simply transferred to the Buddhas."

Zhou Ming found this strange and laughed, "The wicked are not punished, but instead, because they have a karmic connection with the Buddhas, they are reborn into a good family in the next life. What kind of absurd thing is this? And where do the Buddhas get the power to bear such enormous sins?"

Zhang Da said, "Naturally, it is the offerings of incense to all living beings."

"The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas receive daily offerings from sentient beings, accumulating a vast amount of incense and vow power, which is enough for them to bear the sins of those who do evil."

Zhou Ming chuckled to himself.

This sounds like an insurance sales pitch.

By making a promise to all believers in the world and receiving offerings from them, the accumulated power of incense and vows can offset the sins of evildoers, leaving a surplus. This surplus is then used to forge the golden bodies of all Buddhas.

To be honest, this is equivalent to making all believers in the Buddhas share the sins of those who do evil, while the Buddhas are just middlemen and intercept most of the incense offerings and vows.

This is a business that makes huge profits with no investment.

They're really shrewd, much shrewder than the gods of Heaven and the Underworld.

The gods have to work hard, while the Buddhas can simply sit back and receive offerings from sentient beings.

Zhou Ming thought for a moment and said, "Zhang Da, go to Mount Tai again and meet with the Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak. Tell him that I want to change the rules for incense offerings."

Simply put, the good deeds did not outweigh the bad ones.

"Merit is merit, and fault is fault. Merit should be rewarded, and fault should be punished. The two cannot be canceled out."

"In the past, the distinction between merit and demerit was often chaotic and disordered. If a person did something evil and should have been punished in hell, but did something good elsewhere, the sin was offset and he was spared punishment. This kind of rule is very unfair."

"For example, if a villain kills an innocent person and should be sentenced to death, but then saves someone elsewhere, the death sentence is overturned, is that fair to the person he harmed?"

"Therefore, it is better to let good deeds outweigh bad ones. Good deeds should naturally be rewarded, but one should fully bear the consequences of evil deeds before anything else is discussed."

"The same applies to all Buddhas. If they want to take on the sins of sentient beings, they should do so honestly, instead of transferring the sins of sinners onto good people and acting as a middleman to receive a huge amount of incense offerings."

"I do not discriminate against the Buddhas. I do not care if people believe in them or make offerings to them. I will keep all the incense offerings they receive. However, the sins they have committed cannot be offset by incense offerings. They must honestly bear them."

Zhang Da was already drenched in sweat after hearing this.

The City God's actions this time are different from before; this is an act that will shake the entire order of the Three Realms.

The rules for offering incense cannot be changed at will.

That is the result of countless eons of struggle by numerous great gods. This rule is blessed by the divine power of many great gods. Behind it are the Three Pure Ones, the Jade Emperor, the Four Emperors, the stars of the heavens, and the Buddhas of Mount Ling. How could any single deity easily touch it?

Seeing Zhang Da standing still, Zhou Ming said, "Why aren't you moving?"

Zhang Da wiped the sweat from his brow and said, "Sir, would you like to reconsider?"

Zhou Ming said, "What's there to think about? Such a ridiculous rule, are we just going to keep it around?"

Zhang Da felt somewhat helpless. Although the Heavenly Laws were indeed quite outrageous, well—what was he getting involved in? Was this something he should concern himself with?

In theory, someone as insignificant as him wouldn't even have the right to hear about such a significant matter as pricing; yet, he not only heard about it but also acted as a messenger in it.

Even if I end up in hell because of this, it'll be fucking worth it!

Zhang Da immediately accepted the order and left the City God Temple, heading towards the underworld.

The Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak was continuing his unfinished game of chess with Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva when he received a report that the City God of Shangning County had sent someone to greet him.

The Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak felt a sudden tightness in his chest.

Why did our ancestor send someone again? What's the matter this time?

He was extremely annoyed; things had been happening more frequently lately than in the past few centuries.

For masters of their caliber, it would be commonplace to encounter something that would trouble them for hundreds of years, and playing a single game of chess for decades would be nothing out of the ordinary.

As a result, it has been interrupted one after another.

He exchanged a glance with Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and saw that familiar gloating look in Ksitigarbha's eyes again. He then realized that the old monk was going to watch the show again.

The Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak sighed inwardly and said, "Let him in."

Before long, Zhang Da was led to the government office. He first bowed respectfully to the Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak, and then looked at the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha next to him with a strange expression.

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