Chapter 880 Being an official in heaven, corruption is a benefit

There is something wrong with the heavenly protective formation, just like the emperor's new clothes, it is a fact known to all the immortals, but no one dares to point it out in public.

In theory, the Heaven Protection Formation is used to guard the gateway to the Heavenly Palace. Once the formation is activated, not even a mosquito can pass through, and no matter how powerful the enemy attacks, it can withstand a very long time.

But the truth is, as long as the little gods and fairies in heaven want to go down to the mortal world, they can dig a hole in any corner and crawl out.

If the outside world wants to break in, they don't need to use much effort. When Yang Jian broke into the Heavenly Palace, he just stabbed it two or three times with a sharp knife and broke in. He then staggered in while leading his dog.

This situation has always existed and has never been resolved. Later, after the monkey made trouble in the Heavenly Palace, the Heavenly Protection Array could have been activated to catch the turtle in the jar, but the monkey smashed the gate with two sticks and fled away.

The magic formation protecting the cave of the demon king in the lower world is more solid than the formation guarding the Heavenly Gate.

The Heavenly Palace has no shortage of fairy jade and top-level formation materials. Not to mention the sky-high cost of building the formation back then, even the cost of maintaining and repairing the formation every year over the past tens of thousands of years is an astronomical figure.

The high-ranking immortal officials knew the inside story, but since it involved their own interests, they would certainly not expose it since they had gotten the benefit.

Even if the low-ranking immortal officials and immortal servants wanted to report it, they had no channels to pass the memorials to the emperor.

What's more, they can also benefit in disguise. Who doesn't have the desire to return to the mortal world sometimes? If the Heaven Protection Array is built as truly as the Heaven's Net, it will cut off the ways for all the fairies to sneak into the mortal world.

Over the years, there have been a few immortals who were upright, selfless and honest, and wanted to put an end to this unhealthy trend and refused to be associated with their colleagues. However, after they submitted their memorials, they were soon banished because they accidentally broke the Jade Emperor's favorite imperial artifacts, such as night pearls, glass cups, crystal basins, white jade toilets and golden shoulder poles, while on duty.

Their end is always to be hung on the Immortal Killing Platform, with flying swords stabbing their ribs every day, and then be cast down to the mortal world and thrown into some stinky ditch as a demon, with no chance of returning to heaven in this life.

As to whether the memorials they submitted were actually delivered to the Jade Emperor and reviewed by him, that will be an eternal mystery.

The only people who could expose the shoddy construction problems of the Heavenly Protection Array in public and not be afraid of getting into trouble themselves are the Three Pure Ones, the Four Imperial Gods, and several great celestial masters. Even some of the eight chief gods would have to be cautious.

For example, Zhao Gongming, the God of Finance, is reluctant to speak out. He can guarantee his own integrity, but he cannot guarantee whether the immortal officials and clerks under the Ministry of Finance will be involved. In any case, he also has to bear leadership responsibility.

Luo Xuan and Yu De, the two gods of the Fire Department and the Water Department, are also deeply involved in the Heavenly Protection Array project, which involves the array diagrams for defending against attacks from both water and fire. These two departments are fully responsible for everything from material procurement to array construction.

The Plague Department and the Smallpox Department are also responsible for the epidemic prevention and quarantine functional module of the large formation, while the Thunder Department and the Fighting Department are responsible for the functional module of the large formation resisting the invasion of thunder magic and evil spirits from the stars.

If you calculate it this way, it has long been a common practice for officials to take some benefits from the annual maintenance fees of the formation, and no one is clean.

Of course, Wen Rui, who had torn off his fig leaf in public, must have had tainted his bottom. After he was deified and ascended to heaven, he first served as the director of Tianjianying. According to the rules, he directly took 10% of the maintenance fee and pocketed it, and millions of fairy jades were put into his private treasury every year.

But this did not stop Wen Rui from calling for a strict investigation. With his current strength and status, even if he was blatantly corrupt, who would dare to investigate him?
Even if a fool really found out about Wen Rui, he still had a set of account books for repairing the Nuwa Palace for Nuwa, so he could just use them to settle the accounts. Isn't it important to maintain the relationship between the Heavenly Court and the Saints?
If the human race is extinct in the demonic calamity, and the Heavenly Court wants to survive, wouldn’t it have to ask Nuwa to create another human race?

Isn’t this more valuable than strengthening the Heaven-Protecting Array? This is truly spending money wisely.

If we must dig deeper, then whoever brought it up will be responsible for asking Nuwa for the project payment. It would be strange if Nuwa doesn't expel that person and turn him into an indescribable thing.

Wen Rui was so greedy that he felt justified, but other high-ranking officials and gods felt guilty. Although they were panicked and angry when their underwear was stripped in public, they did not dare to do anything to Wen Rui.

He didn't even dare to make a sound, for fear that Wen Rui would target him and try to find a breakthrough in the corruption case of the Hutian Array.

"I also think that the Great Heaven Protection Formation was easily broken. There must be something fishy going on. We must investigate..."

The Jade Emperor's tone was a little less firm. Having been a god king for so many years, he knew the character of the immortal officials under his command.

If we were to say who should bear the greatest leadership responsibility, he, the Immortal Emperor, would be the first to bear the brunt. Over the years, the Heavenly Court has punished and demoted so many immortal officials. Was there any one who was investigated and punished for corruption?

Breaking a glass cup or causing one inch of rain to fall was punishable by death, but no immortal has ever been punished for embezzling public funds or abusing power for personal gain.

The reason for this is that before the catastrophe occurred, Heaven was so prosperous that the thirty-three heavens had an unlimited supply of resources. Thanks to this blessing, collecting resources was as easy as picking up money.

As for financial expenditure, the Heavenly Court is not responsible for famine and disasters in the mortal world. When the Heavenly Court is in a good mood, it will bestow blessings and send some rain to the lower world. When the Heavenly Court is in a bad mood, it will ignore it and the mortal dynasty will be blamed. At worst, the dynasty will be replaced.

The vast majority of Heaven's financial expenditure is used to support redundant immortals. The immortal jades that the immortals covet are also considered the benefits of their hard work in cultivating to become immortals. They maintain the majesty and dignity of Heaven, and make the mortals in the lower world admire and revere them, which is conducive to contributing more incense and vows.

It is more important than anything else for everyone to live a good life. After thousands of years of practice to become an immortal and finally making it in the heavenly system, what's wrong with enjoying a little?
The Jade Emperor's legitimacy does not come from the common people in the lower world. The loyalty and obedience of the immortal officials are the most important guarantee for the long-term stability of the Heavenly Palace. The real task is how to appease and gather the hearts of the immortals and prevent a few more crazy immortals from causing trouble in the Heavenly Palace.

Therefore, the Jade Emperor has always turned a blind eye to corruption. Instead, he severely punishes anyone who dares to offend his majesty and show the slightest disrespect for him, as a warning to others.

But now the situation is urgent and the real threat from Taoist Mosquito is before them. It is not a good idea for the Jade Emperor to try to smooth things over.

Considering the Jade Emperor's personal safety, the paper-made sky-protecting formation obviously cannot guarantee his safety. In such a huge heaven, isn't he himself the most valuable blood-sucking target?
What if that Taoist Mosquito really did as Wen Rui said, sneaked into the Lingxiao Palace secretly, and stabbed the Jade Emperor when he was not prepared? All the Taoist skills he had accumulated would be given to the Taoist Mosquito for his own enjoyment.

Raising a peerless demon is secondary. After surviving for so many years, going through so many disasters, and accumulating so much merit to gain the position of the supreme god king, it will all be in vain.

(End of this chapter)

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