Chapter 990

In the small hall of the church, the four great litigation masters of Zhigu were each seated.

Liu Liu Daoyuan was dressed in a small green shirt and wore a black-brimmed hat with a small brush inserted into it—this is the origin of the name 'litigation master' (lit. 'ear-brush'). Fang Fang Tangjing wore a long gown and held a folding fan in his right hand; he opened it casually, and on it was written "A page full of absurdities."

Cao Cao Zhitian was a half-Chinese, half-Western old man with parted hair that was shiny and bright, smiling as he said something to Drummond.

Drummond was dressed in the traditional attire of a Camelot gentleman, wearing a silver wig with a small braid hanging down his back.

Fang Fang Tangjing was the first to laugh: "This younger brother is only good at courtroom debate; as for the work of the brush, I am slightly inferior to you all. This time, I will only use my mouth and not my hands!"

He turned to look at Liu Liu Daoyuan, holding his folding fan and cupping his hands: "As for the ability to write petitions, in all of Zhigu—no, in all of the North—no one surpasses Brother Liu. When the Zhigu Prefect examines a case, he often only needs to lift half the petition, see that it is a case handled by Brother Liu, and he immediately passes judgment. This time, the four great masters of Zhigu are joining forces, so the petition should naturally be written by Brother Liu!"

Cao Cao Zhitian also laughed and said: "I don't know what kind of fortune that Li Er has, to be served by the four of us together."

Drummond stood up and said solemnly: "He is the All Xuanzhen Sect Leader, a figure who has received the 'Secret Scripture of the Seven Chapters of the Profound Lord'. In our words, he is the 'Chosen One'; in your words, he is a god descended to the mortal world."

"You are all geniuses at litigation, but the lawsuit we are going to fight this time is under the nine ghost gods, accusing a god who has descended to the mortal world, to nail him to the judgment seat."

"Therefore, the core charge of this lawsuit will be issued by me!"

Drummond said with a kind of sacred solemnity: "According to the sublime law of the omnipotent spirit of the Yu Sansheng of Creation that created the entire world, I will declare his crimes with the law of the Spirit Realm!"

Once these words were spoken, the other three litigation masters were all speechless.

After a long while, Liu Liu Daoyuan rolled up his sleeves and said plainly: "The rule of the litigation trade is that once a petition is accepted, there is no regret. Since you have all decided on this business, we have only one goal, and that is—to win!"

He twisted the ink in his hand and said to the Qingpi beside him: "Change the ink!"

The Qingpi was stunned upon hearing this: "This ink won't do?"

"The ink won't do!" Liu Liu Daoyuan said calmly: "You should have heard some rumors, knowing that this Spirit Fox Blood Ink is most favored by ghosts and gods. But this first petition accuses the Yin body of the Heavenly Tianhou Niangniang, the Heavenly Ghost Mother! She loves umbilical cord blood. Take the umbilical cord blood of a girl born in the Yin hour, Yin month, and Yin day to make the ink. The ink must be made from the roots of an old plum tree burned into charcoal, combined with seven pure incenses and forged a thousand times!"

"The Heavenly Ghost Mother is the mother of all ghosts. From birth to death, humans are like being reborn once in the womb of the Heavenly Ghost Mother. Therefore, her laws invert life and death and greatly violate common sense."

"I need to use reverse writing to write this petition, simply because we stand tall between heaven and earth, but everything in the netherworld where the Heavenly Ghost Mother resides is inverted compared to the world of the living..."

"The Bone Tower needs human blood combined with ink. The ink should use high-quality old pine trees from Mount Huang, preferably combined with the blood of seven grievances—so-called grievance against heaven, grievance against earth, grievance against father, grievance against mother... The petition for the Bone Tianhou Niangniang must be written on bone, which is the writing on tortoise shells and animal bones from the ancient era. Find the shell of a thousand-year-old spirit tortoise, and I will personally burn the patterns and carve the talismans, then fill them with blood ink."

"You know all this, old man?"

The Qingpi holding the inkstone beside him was considered cultured in the Qingpi trade, but hearing Liu Liu Daoyuan speak so slowly and methodically, he couldn't help but admire him to the point of prostration.

Liu Liu Daoyuan ordered in an orderly manner: "For a petition, the first requirement is that the handwriting is neat and easy to recognize; the second is that the logic is clear and the facts are clear. The most taboo thing is to distort the facts wildly or even directly deceive and lie. Ghosts and gods observe clearly; once they know there is a lie in the petition, the entire petition is ruined. Even a muddled official in the human world, when passing a muddled judgment, hopes to see a clear petition. This is called being muddled in the eyes but clear in the heart."

"Therefore, to write a petition, first, the facts must be clear; second, there must be a bias."

"This bias also has its points. First, evidence bias: take the testimony and evidence favorable to us. Second, narrative bias: facts favorable to us must be explained clearly and emphasized. Third, reasoning bias: whoever you are accusing, you must interpret the evidence according to their logic. Therefore, the Sage wrote the Spring and Autumn Annals, and the great righteousness lies within it."

"Confucius is the grandmaster of our litigation masters, and the Spring and Autumn Annals is the best petition!"

"The Black Sky Moth Mother needs to use insect writing, with the Ghost-Faced Moth ground into ink..."

"The petition for the Lord of the Taiyin Mirror needs to use reverse mirror writing, with pine ink from Mount Tai..."

Liu Liu Daoyuan wrote furiously, clarifying the opening pleasantries and the background of the accusation, then looked up at Drummond: "You enter the law with the Spirit Realm and are well-versed in the laws of the Yu Sansheng. Then you tell me, what is the first crime of this All Xuanzhen Sect Leader?"

The four litigation masters had a hierarchy, but everyone knew that the main litigation master this time was this foreign devil, Drummond.

For all litigation masters, how to frame charges and how to clear or wash away crimes—this skill of defining crimes is the most important.

Human laws are in black and white, and there is still room for them to fool people; the laws of ghosts and gods are unclear, and the skill required is even more profound.

Accusing ghosts and gods is extremely dangerous, simply because the laws of ghosts and gods are vastly different from those of the human world, testing the true ability of the litigation masters even more deeply. Liu Liu Daoyuan's question was both a request for information and a test.

A test to see if Drummond had real skills.

"The first crime is that he is a man!"

Fang Fang Tangjing heard this, slapped his palm with his folding fan, and sneered: "Absurd!"

Liu Liu Daoyuan also frowned deeply.

This charge was truly absurd...

Only if Brother Qian Chen were here would he surely be shocked and secretly keep silent: "You really understand the version!"

"Even if she is ninety-nine percent wrong, do you not have even one percent of the fault?"

"I took it, it doesn't mean I agreed."

"I agreed for this second, it doesn't mean I agree for the next second!"

At this moment, Drummond stood before the petition sent to the Heavenly Tianhou Niangniang Palace, as if standing at the peak of the T0 version pyramid.

Fang Fang Tangjing laughed in anger and pointed at Drummond's nose: "My nickname is 'Absurd Mirror', but I didn't expect someone to fight a lawsuit more absurdly than me. Reason tells me your judgment is very ridiculous, but experience tells me that the more absurd the reason, the more likely it is to hit a judgment that even the law cannot clarify, giving us room to overturn the rivers and seas!"

"So, on what basis?"

Fang Fang Tangjing asked: "On what basis is he guilty for being a man?"

"Men are superior and women are inferior, men are Yang and women are Yin, men extend and women bend. You and I are both lawyers, and I also want to ask, why is it that in the Great Brother Qian, in Camelot, in Gaul, women are born guilty?" Drummond countered: "Why do our laws, without exception, stipulate the maintenance of male power?"

"Because we want to maintain the family."

Fang Fang Tangjing said calmly: "In the smallest social structure and unit like the family, we must create a natural, self-evident power system that conforms to the laws of heaven. Now all social order is built upon the family, so if we cannot determine the natural leader in the family, then chaos will erupt from the bottom up."

"That is patriarchy!"

"In order to maintain the family, in a dynamic balance, the power of one side must inevitably overflow, while the other side is invaded. This is Yin and Yang! Only in this way can the things we want to maintain exist stably."

"So unless the basic order we maintain reaches the individual, we must extend the power of one side!"

Drummond praised: "Sir, your traditional philosophy gives your perspective on things a natural height. Believe me, most lawyers do not know what they are maintaining!"

"So, let us look at the Yu Sansheng of the Spirit Realm with this. Summoning the Three Venerables, among the Twelve Twelve Shichen, they are natural leaders. In a power system like that of the gods, they reside at the top."

"Then, in the combination of those three, what kind of natural power system will be formed?"

At this moment, everyone suddenly realized!

"Family!"

Drummond drew a sacred triangle on his forehead, left shoulder, and right shoulder: "Therefore, we nominally worship the Holy Father, the Holy Mother, and the Mirror Lord, but in the Western Continent, the patriarchy of the Holy Father has already been extended, the Holy Mother is relegated to a passive, overflowing status, and the Mirror Lord is even replaced by the power of the Holy Son of the Savior."

"Why don't you have this situation in your Eastern Continent?"

Liu Liu Daoyuan frowned deeply: "Because... the Three Venerables of Creation did not emphasize their gender. No, even so..."

"The Heavenly Tianhou Niangniang is the emphasis on the gender of the Cup Mother. She is the Tianhou Niangniang, so who is the Monarch?"

Drummond waved his arms: "In the law of the Spirit Realm, there is undoubtedly such a clause. The Cup Mother is the natural spouse god! If the Three Venerables have genders, then the sacred triangle must have only one venerated at the apex!"

"And in the manifestation of the Spirit Realm, both the Mirror Lord and the Cup Mother are Yin, which means the existence of the Three Venerables of the Spirit Realm is naturally unbalanced."

"Because the Heavenly Father can possess power over both the Mirror Lord and the Cup Mother simultaneously!"

"Therefore, the manifestation of the Heavenly Father's Yang incarnation is naturally a sin for the Cup Mother and the Mirror Lord!"

"This is not about likes or dislikes, but power!"

Liu Liu Daoyuan could no longer hide his disgust upon hearing this. Hidden in Drummond's narrative was the element that, as a basic 'family' unit, the Three Venerables were also inappropriate.

In a stable family, the other member besides the parents should most appropriately be the son, not the daughter.

Because the mother has the defense of patriarchy, while the daughter is powerless to seek help from the mother.

The logic in this made people from the Eastern Continent physically disgusted...

"So this natural conflict makes the Cup Mother long to gestate the Lamp Father again. This is the source of the Cup Mother naturally inducing people to fall into depravity in the theology of the Holy Church. The Mirror Lord induces the Lamp Father; she is pure and does not know it, while the Lamp Father is majestic and great. But the temptation, depravity, and sin within it are borne by the Cup Mother. Therefore, the Original Sin sect that worships the Cup Mother has a very famous painting: the Cup Mother wields a knife to cut off the Lamp Father's male organ, symbolizing the return of the Yu Sansheng to pure rationality and nobility."

"Original Sin, this is Original Sin!"

At this moment, the three great litigation masters could not help but ponder deeply; they had to admit they were convinced.

"The Bright Venerable has changed positions and Yin and Yang are out of balance; this is indeed a great crime!"

Cao Cao Zhitian nodded subconsciously.

Only when the two points are at the lowest position does the triangle become the most stable.

Therefore, the Holy Church in the Western Continent is almost the church of the Lamp Father alone, while the Three Venerables of Creation in the Eastern Continent appear almost as non-personal gods of the Heavenly Dao.

But once they have incarnations of personality and gender, they will naturally conflict.

The Heavenly Tianhou Niangniang is the personified incarnation of the Tripod Mother.

So when the personality incarnation of the Bright Venerable appears, their conflict is natural.

Unless the incarnation of the Bright Venerable ascends to the throne as the Heavenly Emperor, but for some reason, the manifestation of the Bright Venerable did not have the authority to suppress the Tripod Mother and the Mirror Lord.

Therefore, this petition to the Heavenly Ghost Mother has only one crime—rebellious son!

The Yin incarnation of the Heavenly Tianhou Niangniang is the Heavenly Ghost Mother, the mother of all ghosts.

And the All Xuanzhen Sect Leader, as the descent of the Lamp Father's spirituality, the natural Holy Son, his being alive is the greatest sin. Because he is still alive, he is worthy of being the spouse incarnation of the Heavenly Ghost Mother, but his status is that of a Holy Son, which is contrary to human ethics!

Only death, only death, letting him become a ghost and becoming a ghost son of the Heavenly Ghost Mother again, can comply with the laws of heaven...

Once this petition is presented, the All Xuanzhen Sect Leader—will surely die!

Liu Liu Daoyuan wrote furiously, feeling only admiration for Drummond...

"This is just the simplest one!" Drummond's expression was heavy: "The Yu Sansheng of Creation do not hide their essence at all; they are the most bright and great existences. The Lotus and the Tree are also very simple: creating karma in the afterlife and sinking into the sea of suffering. In their view, the Lamp Father descending the Holy Son was originally to suffer."

"The Yin-Yang Great Dao Lord does not hide his hostility toward the Lamp Father at all; violating Yin and Yang and departing from the cycle is enough for him!"

Drummond sighed in his heart: "Understanding the essence of the six great existences of the Spirit Realm is simple; the six great existences of the True Realm are all hidden in secrecy."

"The petitions for them are the most difficult!"

"With Brother Liu writing the petitions and Brother De defining the crimes and ethics, it is naturally extremely appropriate. As for how to send these petitions to the ghosts and gods..." Cao Cao Zhitian smiled: "That is my skill, Cao Cao Zhitian!"

Cao Cao Zhitian, who inverts black and white, is a native of Jiangzhe and is well-versed in Yin laws. He knows many secrets of the more than twenty ghosts and gods in Dagukou who can handle lawsuits, and even knows the true bodies and true names of some ghosts and gods, and can even suppress ghosts and gods to invert black and white and pass judgment.

"The road to the Dragon Abyss where the Heavenly Ghost Mother resides is extremely dangerous, but I, Cao, know the secrets of all the ghosts and gods in the Zhigu territory. Existences that are extremely dangerous to you are, conversely, a help to me. In the past, the Yin-Yang Great Dao Lord saw that 'there are a thousand ghosts flying by day, which cannot be forbidden' and 'only let them kill the people in the middle, with a thousand billion dead.' He then passed down the 'Nüqing Ghost Law' which records the secrets of ghosts and gods. Since then, many ghost laws such as Yin Mountain, Beimang, and Gui Xu have been born."

"Ghost laws are law books that record the secrets, true names, sacrificial rituals, communication methods, and even the killing patterns of ghosts and gods!"

"I, Cao, have no other wish in this life than to write a 'Jiuhe Yin Law' that records the patterns of most ghosts and gods in Zhigu and even Hebei. This is my lifelong wish."

Cao Cao Zhitian opened the loose-leaf book in his hand, flipped past the South Canal, the North Canal, and the Hai River, and only stopped when he reached the section on the Sanchahe estuary.

Fang Fang Tangjing leaned over to take a look and saw densely packed names of hundreds of ghosts: there were 76 water ghosts, all of whom were great ghosts of over a hundred years; there were also 23 evil ghosts, 19 dragon kings, 8 divine generals, 7 immortal maidens, and 128 small ghosts, all listed like this...

Section on the Chaoguan Floating Bridge:

Bridge Liang Zhu Gods under the floating bridge: There are 18 Sea-Suppressing Bridge Liang Zhu Gods under the floating bridge, 9 men and 9 women, all of whom are living piles invited by the Cao Gang, as small ghosts. One of them is named Tang Dewang, male, 7 years old, father Tang xx... Method of driving small ghosts, method of inviting bridge pillar gods...

Four Iron Ship Dragon Kings: A large python that swallowed coal essence in the Xishan coal mine and became a climate, was sealed as a Dragon King after death... Method of arranging dragon-suppressing piles, method of hanging a dragon-slaying sword under the bridge to drive the dragon...

17 water ghosts under the bridge: Surname Wei, name Shen, title Fen Shui Hou; surname Wang, name Chen, title Shui Hu Hou...

Fang Fang Tangjing saw Cao Cao Zhitian vigilantly close the "Jiuhe Yin Law" and couldn't help but admire him from the bottom of his heart: "Brother Cao Zhitian, just based on this booklet of yours, it is worth a hundred 'Protector Official Talismans' of the Shaoxing secretaries! If one could get even one percent of it, one could walk sideways in Zhigu City! Admirable, this younger brother admires you!"

Cao Cao Zhitian laughed: "With this 'Jiuhe Yin Law', walking the underworld to deal with all ghosts and gods in Zhigu is without taboos!"

"It's just that there is one thing: my 'Jiuhe Yin Law' was explored by me asking those dead ghosts and climbing friendships and dealing with them after they died in Zhigu City for so many years."

"But there are no deaths in some places, so the taboos there may not be recorded. The Sanchahe estuary has the water corpse-salvaging team and the great river-sinking competition of that year, so there are one or two records, but if you go deeper, you can only be cautious."

"If something pops up that isn't in the ghost law, hehe... then you can only pray for your own blessings!"