At this point, the skies were filled with dark clouds and the winds were blowing strongly against the windows, causing the windows to slap, and loud sounds could be heard. He old servant picked up more peanuts and shoved them into his mouth before taking a huge sip of wine. He then stood up and walked towards the windows. It had just started raining, and he wanted to shut the windows. A flash of lightning streaked within the skies.
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 a shadow standing 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 had the words written "Loyalty" on the left side and "Virtues" on the right.
Just as he was gazing 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 around before, when he realized that the official was the driver 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 smell of some fried oil. When he smelt this smell, 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 sar 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 an 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 seeked out 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 neighbour 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 out 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.
"Your sins are plenty and outrageous, and you haven’t regretted your actions or shown remorse. You are hereby sentenced to burning oil punishment. After which you shall be sent into the water prison for 100 years." River Deity judged h
"River Deity your excellency, mercy!" Chem Gui begged for mercy.
Right at this point, one of the spirit constables shouted out. His voice was as loud as thunder, and 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 charcoals.
Chen Gui was so terrified that he started trembling and was crying 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 his legs. With a single motion, he flipped Chen Gui into the tank of burning oil.
The sounds of bubbling from the hot oil was extremely loud at this point. Chen Gui was rolling around in the hot oil in agony. His skin was burnt and peeling off, and he was in intense pain. The old servant looked across and saw that Chen Gui was screaming out in pain as the hot oil gushed into his mouth. Even his intestines and stomach were burnt by the oil. Some time 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 was trembling 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 startled trembling 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 mumbling under his breath as though deep in thought, and yet he couldn’t speak. River Deity then replied 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 the 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 out in fear. All of a sudden, the scene was transformed to a forest. The spirit constable grabbed hold of Li Wu before tossing him up into the air. When he landed, knives pierced into his bell 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, shaking.
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 the River Deity, his vision was cast far into the distance. His heart was filled with fear and was slightly confused. He struggled for a little bit before looking up once again at the River Deity, who was on the brink of raging out. He then finally gave up and started speaking, "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 off. I even took his daughter to sell 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 the deeds which he had committed.
The entire hall was filled with incense smoke as several of the servants were 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, and start talking about everything that they had done wrong.
Some of them spoke of stealing lands, while others spoke of beating other junior servants to death. Another said something about being greedy and stealing silver.
All these 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 interrogating normal people and finding out truths from them. None of the servants here had any means of resistance. The Daoists around were recording all their statements as they confessed.
Seeing them give up 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 misdemeanor was 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 was surrounding him.
"It’s the assist 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 its 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 sect’s 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 out 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 another incense now!" The Sect Leader ordered, as more incense was burnt, causing the unconscious servants around to inhale another thick waft of smoke. River Deity within the mirror shouted out 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 around, "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 commanded, the mirror came into focus once again, and everyone else disappeared, leaving 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 watching down 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 out 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 was extremely powerful. All he had to do was to rebuke the aura, and commanded it to leave, and 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 being 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.