Chapter 332: Qilin

"Who ordered the lingzhi ginseng brown sugar with raw oysters tiger whip goji berry rice bowl?"

"I did."

Outside the gates of the Immortal Court, reporters from all sides waited for the hearing to resume while eating takeout and chatting.

The mortal realm's commerce was so developed that even spiritual roots could be bought, sold, leased, and even speculated on as futures.

The divorce case between Lord Xiao Shui and Miaoyin Ju Shi involved a vast amount of wealth, attracting countless eyes from the cultivation world and containing endless business opportunities.

"I used the Mysterious Insight Spiritual Appraisal Art to carefully analyze the micro-expressions on their faces when the couple left the court."

A square-faced reporter said seriously, "Star Lord Lord Xiao Shui's expression was slightly relaxed, clearly the first round of arguments favored him. Although Miaoyin Ju Shi's complexion didn't look good, it wasn't to the point of furious desperation.

The real-time odds for Star Lord Lord Xiao Shui losing the lawsuit, drawing, or winning may adjust from 【1.3, 2.5, 5.1】 to 【1.5, 3.4, 4.6】."

"I bet three hundred spirit stones — win and I get a Hehuan Sect young model, lose and I'm off to the Blood Sea to do hard labor."

"Only three hundred? I've already stolen my father's cave residence property deed and sold it, and mortgaged my own earth spiritual root, all betting that Miaoyin Ju Shi can take the controlling stake in Lord Xiao Shui Sect. I just want to see Star Lord Lord Xiao Shui explode right now."

"Holy crap, bro, you're ruthless — not leaving yourself any way out? I both bet on Star Lord Lord Xiao Shui winning and shorted Lord Xiao Shui Sect's stock to crash, as a hedge."

Most of those joining the discussion were young reporters in their fifties and sixties; some veteran reporters sat nearby, glanced at them, and continued calmly eating their takeout without joining in.

The young were still too young after all, thinking that with their reporter status, broad connections, and insider information, they could easily arbitrage in the financial markets,

not knowing the stock market was more treacherous and harder to predict than a three-thousand-year war between gods and demons.

The true stock market crocodiles and market makers were those old-established sects ranked outside the top ten, seemingly in decline.

Grand Supreme Elder Ba菲特 of the Grand Mystery Sect,

through the Heavenly Evolution Art, borrowed a Black Tortoise shell to divine future stock market trends, each hexagram costing fifty years of lifespan—drawn from the willing offerings of inner disciples.

The previous generation sect master Suo罗斯 of the Blood Sea Sect,

had cultivated the Formless Market-Manipulation Art, cutting off emotion and desire, transforming inner demon interference to his own use, maneuvering across the stock market, sniping various nations' currencies, stirring up financial storms, causing countless cultivators to jump off cliffs with their whole families.

There was also the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion, which played with technical analysis and market prediction; its disciples had all gouged out their own eyes, replacing their fleshly sight with the Market Eye that could glimpse the path of least resistance within the river of K-lines.

Monkey Fruit Mountain played quantitative trading, each monkey hair representing an algorithmic factor.

The Lament Ruins played with fortune fluctuation, refining a nation's economic fortune into a magic treasure to manipulate bull and bear markets, and when necessary could sacrifice ten Cave Void stage cultivators to forcibly lock the daily limit up for three days.

The Lord Xiao Shui Sect couple, though commercial geniuses with nimble business minds, rock-bottom limits, and a moral vacuum, still lacked a bit of foundation compared to these unassuming ancient sects.

"They're here, they're here! Star Lord Lord Xiao Shui and the others are here!"

The reporters tossed down their boxed meals and grabbed their magic treasures for a frenzy of photos.

Compared to the first time, Star Lord Lord Xiao Shui was in noticeably better spirits this round, and as he stepped onto the stairs he even had the leisure to nod politely at the reporters.

"Star Lord Lord Xiao Shui, there are reports that if Miaoyin Ju Shi wins the divorce case, you will lose controlling ownership of Lord Xiao Shui Sect — what's your comment on this?"

"I believe the Prison Law Heaven Palace will, in accordance with the law, return the truth to the outside world and fairness to the parties involved."

Having said this, Lord Xiao Shui, surrounded by his lawyers, walked through the gates of the Prison Law Heaven Palace.

Some sharp-eyed reporters noticed that this time, the lawyer named Master Pi Fu was missing from Lord Xiao Shui's side.

————

"Court is in session."

The wooden gavel fell, signaling the divorce case had reconvened.

The presiding judge glanced toward the plaintiff's bench and said indifferently, "Are the new pieces of evidence ready?"

"Ready."

Howard pulled a stack of papers from his bag and cast a provocative look at Yuan Zhixia on the defendant's bench.

The latter felt no ripples in his heart; during the few hours of recess, they had hurriedly had Star Lord Lord Xiao Shui mobilize every reliable asset at hand — sects, shops, banks — doing everything possible to destroy any potential criminal records.

Along the way, they locked down those insiders within the sect who might betray Star Lord Lord Xiao Shui and reveal criminal secrets, "protecting" them along with their families to prevent betrayal. These measures plugged at least eighty percent of the loopholes, making it very difficult for Miaoyin Ju Shi to produce solid, reliable criminal evidence to unilaterally threaten Lord Xiao Shui.

If she didn't want everyone going to prison together until they died, Miaoyin's side could only accept a forty-million spirit stone compensation payment, with no corporate share controlling rights.

Wait, something wasn't right.

Yuan Zhixia's eyelids twitched violently, his vision intensifying again, clearly seeing the text on the papers Howard had produced.

There was no argument on it about Miaoyin Ju Shi's true age, or marriage registration materials, nor any criminal evidence from Lord Xiao Shui Sect's pioneering development period.

The paper contained only one piece of information: Daowu Mountain, Accumulated Clouds Cave.

Howard grinned broadly and said loudly, "For this hearing, my client's request is that Star Lord Lord Xiao Shui fulfill his obligation to pay child support for the non-marital child the two of them conceived while in a cohabiting relationship."

Boom.

Zhang Wei shot to his feet instantly, his face full of shock and disbelief. "Wait, that can't be right — when did the two of them have a non-marital child?"

All living beings in this world were six-base lifeforms, inherently more complex than Earth life.

And the higher a cultivator's realm, the more transcendent their life essence, making reproduction increasingly difficult.

Star Lord Lord Xiao Shui and Miaoyin Ju Shi hadn't had children in their youth, in middle age they felt it would affect their careers and didn't have any, and once their cultivation realm rose, the difficulty of bearing children increased sharply, so it had been dragged out until now.

No errors in a single chapter, no typos in a single line, no missing content — read it all here!

Zhang Wei's eyes went wide. "A Cave Void stage cultivator's pregnancy lasts at least three years — when was this child born? How could a child possibly be born?"

"."

Star Lord Lord Xiao Shui himself was also staring wide-eyed, but his face looked stiff and numb, unable to utter a single word.

"I only said that the mother of that child is Miaoyin Ju Shi; I never said the child was personally birthed by Miaoyin Ju Shi."

Howard sneered, pulling several photographs from the materials and suspending them in the air for everyone to see.

The photographs showed that very cave dwelling — amid secluded mountains with elegant scenery sat an exquisite, luxurious palace resembling a dragon palace.

On the bluestone ground before the palace, a qilin-like strange beast over five meters tall lay quietly prostrate, with two wings on its back and golden scales covering its body.

The qilin lay lazily on the ground, its mane stirring without wind; the flowers and grass beside it, sensing the strange beast's noble aura, grew rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye, bursting into bloom.

"This is... a Xuan Lei Qilin." The presiding judge slightly furrowed his brow, recognizing the species of the strange beast.

"Exactly. In the year 3295 of the Buzhou Calendar, the fifty-eighth year after the two married. Star Lord Lord Xiao Shui, already a Combined Body stage cultivator, in order to expand the sect's business, visited an ancient secret realm and brought back a severely injured female Xuan Lei Qilin from it.

For the hundred years after that, he always kept the Qilin as his spirit pet, mount, and war beast, bringing it everywhere and doting on it immensely. Until fifteen years ago, the Qilin's old wounds flared up again, treatment proved fruitless, and it died of illness at the Lord Xiao Shui Sect.

The sect even spent a fortune, using Purple Gold Cold Iron to build a statue for it."

Howard said in a loud voice: "This is only public information. In fact, the Qilin didn't die at all—it was pregnant.

Star Lord Lord Xiao Shui secretly embezzled sect public funds to build a cave dwelling in the Accumulated Clouds Cave of Daowu Mountain, and hid the Qilin, along with the child it was carrying, into the cave dwelling without anyone the wiser."

"."

"."

In the closed court, everyone's gaze was fixed on the ashen-faced Star Lord Lord Xiao Shui. Even the gaggle of close friends behind Miaoyin Ju Shi, who were there to play the role of a cheering section, were so shocked that they gaped and forgot to speak.

A younger judge couldn't help muttering softly: "I remember the Xuanlei Qilin is an ancient auspicious beast—regardless of male or female, after taking human form they're all drop-dead gorgeous."

"Not quite."

Howard shook his head and grinned: "That Xuan Lei Qilin was less than two hundred years old when it was hidden away, which only counts as the youth period for its species—it hadn't learned to take human form yet."

"."

"."

The young judge looked at the golden Qilin in the photo—over five meters tall, several times bigger than an elephant, radiating both majestic dominance and sacred inviolability—then looked at Star Lord Lord Xiao Shui, looked at the Qilin, looked at Lord Xiao Shui, looked at the Qilin, looked at Lord Xiao Shui

and instantly felt his left brain attacking his right brain.

(End of Chapter)