Han Pu who was seated in the main seat had a calm expression when he saw the evidence that was sent over. Waving his hand, there was naturally someone who delivered it in front of the Minister of Penalty's desk for him to examine it. The Minister of Penalty glanced at it and found that the evidence was extremely detailed. It was just that many things only stopped at the surface, the content of real interest was not detailed in it. Clearly, the existence who investigated him had already grasped even more details, but he still left some leeway for him and did not want to truly expose his relationship with the foreign land cultivators. However, it was actually expressing a fact like this.
This was a threat that was also very ingenious.
The Minister of Penalty looked at the youth over there. He did not know who was behind him. But the current him just felt rather anguished.
The Minister of Penalty sat down dejectedly. His expression kept changing and in the end, he said weakly, "There's indeed such a thing."
Although his voice was not loud, it transmitted out.
The common populace in the courtyard immediately started scolding. They even temporarily put aside their fear of cultivators at this point. How could they care about such a Minister of Penalty?
He ate the Great Liang Dynasty's food but did these things. This would naturally infuriate them.
That so-called prestige was not something that they cared about at this moment.
Han Pu waved his hand, "Take the Lord Minister away and have Vice Minister Li come over."
Since no more news came out of the palace, Han Pu could understand the emperor's thoughts too.
The head of the Ministry of Penalty was the minister, but there were still two left and right vice ministers.
Soon, the skinny Vice Minister Li arrived here. He clasped his hands and bowed towards Han Pu, "This lowly official pays respect to Lord Han."
"Be seated. Since the Lord Minister can't try the case anymore, Vice Minister Li will take his place."
Han Pu glanced at the few cultivators by the side. Then, he turned his gaze to Chen Chao who was standing in the hall. He also did not know what other means this boy had. But no matter how it looked, his preparations were not limited to this.
After Chen Chao requested for the Minister of Penalty to leave, he did not speak anymore. This was naturally a situation that he had long envisioned. The moment he entered the Court of Judicial Review, he was hit by a scheme that did not look too serious. Although later, Han Pu resolved it for him in time, Chen Chao knew that there would naturally still be many eyes and ears of those foreign cultivators in the Court of Judicial Review.
Therefore, when Xie Nandu came to see him previously, although he had many things that he wanted to tell this Xie Family's talented daughter, Chen Chao still did not say it explicitly. In the end, the two people talked about the stove and talked about sweet potatoes. It was actually having talked about everything.
Since the Three Judicial Chief Ministries were trying him, how could Chen Chao not make preparations?
Investigating these Three Judicial Chief Ministries' officials was a must.
After Xie Nandu understood what Chen Chao meant, she returned and made the Xie Family investigate the Three Judicial Chief Ministries' officials. The Court of Judicial Review's Han Pu had always been a famously solitary minister in the Great Liang Dynasty. He did not have cliques normally, making it even more unlikely for him to have ties with foreign cultivators. The Court of Censors' minister had always been honest and upright. Regardless of whether was it with the officials in court or with foreign cultivators, he did not have many ties to them and kept his hands clean.
Only that Minister of Penalty had always had some unexplainable connections to the foreign cultivators.
Hence, Chen Chao knew right from the start that the Minister of Penalty would definitely be standing on the foreign cultivators' side.
There were two reasons for forcing this Minister of Penalty away. Firstly, it was to clip the wings of foreign cultivators in the Three Judicial Chief Ministries. The other was to invoke the empathy of these civilians who were watching.
That was something extremely important.
Things kept on brewing and information kept being transmitted out.
……
……
After changing people, the trial would naturally have to restart.
Han Pu waited for the venue to quieten down before opening his mouth to ask, "Since you admit that you killed those cultivators, what was your reason?"
Chen Chao said calmly, "I presume that the three lords have already seen the evidence that they provided. Indeed, it was me who killed those few qi refiners. But, that qi refiner, Guo Xi, planted a wicked spell on Magistrate Mi Ke for no reason after he stepped into Tianqing County, wanting to torture him to death. Later, I led them into the mines and they also wanted to kill me first. I was forced to retaliate and kill these people."
When Chen Chao began talking about the reason, the faces of the civilians present were full of anger, and they were very unhappy about this. They were already standing with Chen Chao at this moment. Hearing that Chen Chao was almost killed by those people for no reason, they were naturally extremely furious.
"Saying that it was for no reason, what a great excuse! Could it be that you can slander him without cause after he's dead?" A voice suddenly sounded out, questioning Chen Chao with tumultuous emotions.
The one who spoke at this moment was not the middle-aged daoist nun, nor was it Xu Yu, but Yu Ke who had never talked before.
He glanced at the Minister of Judicial Review and questioned, "Does the Great Liang Dynasty try cases like this? You can just rely on a mouth to say that there was no reason and confuse right and wrong?"
After finishing saying these, Yu Ke looked at Chen Chao and said with a cold smile, "Alright, since that's the case, let me ask you, you said that Guo Xi planted a wicked spell on Mi Ke, do you have proof?" "In other words, if we send someone to examine and he doesn't have such a thing in his body?"
Chen Chao said calmly, "Guo Xi is already dead, the mystic art has naturally dissipated. There's nothing to check."
"You're saying that again?" Yu Ke sneered coldly. "How is there proof for everything that you're saying? It's probably lies that you fabricated in order to escape punishment."
Hearing Yu Ke's words, the place became very quiet. That was because it was indeed the case. Even if Chen Chao said these things, he still did not take out evidence that could convince people in the end.
Han Pu was expressionless, while that newcomer Vice Minister Li was absorbed in thought, unknown what he was thinking. As for the Court of Censors' minister, he did not have any reaction, as if he had already fallen asleep right from the beginning. At this moment, he still did not wake up.
"I think we can close the case." Xu Yu stood up too and shook his head as he said, "What's the point of hearing him talk rubbish here?"
Yu Ke and him looked at Han Pu together, applying pressure on this Minister of Judicial Review.
The middle-aged daoist nun stood up too and looked at Chen Chao with detest as she said, "This kind of evildoer should have been trampled to death in the first place. Why is there a need for such trouble?"
If this daoist nun was number two on the list of people who wanted Chen Chao dead the most, then there would absolutely be no one who dared to say that they were number one.
Han Pu furrowed his brows and looked at Chen Chao and asked, "What do you want to say?"
He also knew that the young man in front of him likely had no more tricks to play. Even if he had, it might not be able to change the present situation too. At least, it was unable to resolve the problem at its root.
Killing four cultivators was an ironclad fact and could not be changed.
Chen Chao took a deep breath and suddenly began laughing, "Actually, they are too anxious."
Han Pu asked, "What too anxious?"
"Their juniors died at my hands, I can naturally understand their feelings. Grief and pain is also reasonable. It's just that they really deserved to die!"
"Impudent!"
"Such arrogance!"
"You're courting death!"
Hearing this, the three cultivators' reactions were different. That middle-aged daoist nun finally reached the limit of her patience. Lifting her hand, that whisk appeared in her hand and she shot toward Chen Chao. She was actually going to take action in the Ministry of Penalty's main hall.
Han Pu frowned and the bright red official robes on his body suddenly stirred. A boundless killing intent was released here and the entire hall seemed to have suddenly plunged into an endless hell. There were miserable screams and yelling everywhere. Those with weak minds immediately hugged their heads in pain and squatted down.
Xu Yu and Yu Ke two people's expressions were rather ugly too. But the two of them still spoke in unison, "Fellow Daoist Wang, calm down!"
If this was elsewhere and she killed Chen Chao, that would have been it. But where was this place? This was the Divine Capital. This boy in front of the was clearly already at the end of his ropes. There was no need to make a move at this moment at all. Rather, if they really killed him instead, then they definitely would not be able to walk out of the Divine Capital.
Before the case was finished being tried, that boy was not convicted. The Great Liang Dynasty could totally say that he was innocent. If the daoist nun killed Chen Chao, it would be without justification instead.
The whisk parted and the strands smacked over, akin to a raging tide slamming against the shore.
But, the current Han Pu was akin to a sea of blood. How could he be what the daoist nun, these two or three waves, could move?
The two people exchanged blows briefly and the daoist nun immediately fell into a disadvantage.
Soon, the middle-aged daoist nun was knocked back dozens of feet, while Han Pu remained unmoving from where he was.
"Immortal Master Wang, don't you understand where this place is? This is the Divine Capital. It's the Ministry of Penalty, not your Three Streams Manor. I'm afraid that you still have to show some restraint, right?"
Han Pu was expressionless. But in actuality, he was extremely furious too. Making a move right in front of him was actually no different from slapping him in the face.
The middle-aged daoist nun had fury written all over her face. But, she also understood that she was not Han Pu's match. At this moment, her anger dissipated a little. She also knew that if she really took action here, the severity of the consequences was not what she could bear.
Xu Yu took a deep breath and said softly, "Lord Han, please forgive her."
It was a very difficult thing to be able to make these foreign cultivators lower their heads in the first place.
But at this moment, he had no choice but to lower his head.
Han Pu said with a sneer, "If Immortal Master Wang behaves like this, this official feels that there's some secret instead. Otherwise, why would she be so impatient? If Warden Chen is really guilty, he'll naturally be punished by the Great Liang Dynasty's laws, why would you need to personally take action?"
"You..."
The middle-aged daoist nun snorted coldly, her expression ugly to the extreme. But, she did not say anymore. She just returned to her seat and said nothing.
Indeed, she should not be acting like this in the Divine Capital.
Xu Yu and Yu Ke sat back down too.
Han Pu glanced at Chen Chao. He could not help but admire this youth. With just a sentence, he made those three cultivators lose their minds. Just this cunningness alone made the youth in front of him worthy of admiration.
It was just that...
This time, without waiting for Han Pu to speak, Chen Chao said, "I said earlier that I killed them because they wanted to kill me, this wasn't my motive for killing them. I wanted to kill them because they really deserved to die. Even if I was made to choose a hundred times, I'd still kill them!"
He was very calm when he spoke. But, it was this calmness that made the expressions of those three cultivators became grim until it turned completely black.
Han Pu asked, "Why do you say that?"
Chen Chao took a deep breath and slowly said, "Putting aside that Guo Xi planted a wicked spell on County Chief Mi, let's also disregard that these people had the intention to kill me before we entered the mines, just based on their purpose of going to the mine, I'll definitely kill them."
Hearing this, Xu Yu frowned slightly, while Yu Ke had a livid expression. As for that middle-aged daoist nun, hatred welled up in her heart once again.
The scene became very quiet. No one spoke, everyone was waiting for the answer.
Han Pu narrowed his eyes and that Vice Minister Li looked at Chen Chao very seriously. The Minister of Censors also opened his eyes.
The civilians in the courtyard were very quiet.
Chen Chao said very seriously, "Those few people didn't go to the mines for the profound lineage, they went to steal our Great Liang Dynasty's dragon vein!"
The moment this sentence came out, the entire place became deathly silent.
