Chapter 881: Spending Money to Buy Peace

"Investigate, investigate thoroughly!"

After much thought, the Jade Emperor finally made up his mind. He gritted his teeth and said sternly, "The Heaven Protection Array is the foundation of the Heavenly Court. In the past, the world was peaceful and the demon kings on earth were not powerful. The maintenance of the array was extremely perfunctory. Now the threat is imminent. What will happen if we don't investigate it?"

The gods accompanying the Jade Emperor looked extremely unhappy, but they could do nothing but secretly exchange glances with each other.

"Zhao Gongming, the God of Finance, listen to my order. You are to immediately organize the spiritual officials of the Ministry of Finance to form special envoys to lead the heavenly soldiers to cooperate and thoroughly investigate the files of the construction, the accounts of materials, and the records of construction."

"The Water Virtue Star Lord and the Fire Virtue Star Lord each sent their capable subordinates to test the spiritual power fluctuations and structural stability of the magic array."

"The Tai Sui of the year, the Sun Gongcao, is secretly investigating the shortage of materials and the flow of fairy jade in the heaven, the human world, and the earth!"

“If anyone is found to have wasted immortal materials or passed inferior materials off as good ones, regardless of their immortal rank, they will be stripped of their divine position and thrown into the Heavenly Prison. The embezzled materials will be converted into merit points and punished by being sent to the Heavenly Army to fight against the demon mosquitoes and serve as the vanguard of death!”

……

The Jade Emperor is afraid of taking everything seriously. He is usually confused about small matters and seems to be mediocre and inactive, but once he cheers up, he is also vigorous and decisive.

However, Wen Rui was laughing secretly on the side. The Jade Emperor's decree seemed to be watertight, but in fact it was full of loopholes. The culprits who embezzled the Heavenly Protection Array were probably the gods appointed by him.

The Ministry of Finance created false accounts, the Ministry of Water and the Ministry of Fire purchased materials, and the Ministry of Tai Sui was responsible for selling the stolen goods. The division of labor was clear, and a chain of interests had been formed early on. It was a widespread corruption.

If we let them investigate themselves, what results can they get? It will only take a few hundred years, and finally they will throw out a few temporary immortal officials to take the blame, and then those immortal officials will commit suicide out of fear of punishment, leaving no evidence.

As for recovering the stolen money, don't even think about it.

Wen Rui is not some humble official. His ultimate goal in exposing the shady dealings and fighting corruption is to make money. He cannot let these guys just pretend to investigate and get away with it.

"Your Majesty, it's too late to check."

Wen Rui quickly interjected, "It has been more than ten thousand years since the Heavenly Protection Array was built. Even if we were to review the old accounts, it would take a long time. I have also served as the chief construction officer, and I have a deep understanding of the tricks in the Heavenly Palace project. Even Daozu Hongjun cannot expect to investigate the case and recover the stolen money in a short period of time."

"Heaven's Gate is wide open here, and the accounts are being slowly checked over there. Taoist Mosquito will not wait for your accounts to be checked before sneaking in to suck the blood of the immortals, right?"

The Jade Emperor's expression froze. The practical problems raised by Wen Rui were indeed thorny. He also knew the temperament of his immortal officials. Normally, the administration of Heaven was quite procrastinating. It was normal for a trivial matter to be delayed for a hundred or eighty years.

To strictly investigate such a major matter as the Great Heavenly Protection Array, and to ask each department to investigate itself, it may take at least 1,800 years before all the old accounts are settled.

The determination to conduct a thorough investigation is due to concerns about one's own safety. If a thorough investigation cannot solve the problem of Taoist Mosquito's infiltration and assassination, then what is the point of conducting a thorough investigation?
"Please give me your advice, my dear minister. How can we resolve this dilemma?"

Wen Rui stroked the three strands of long beard on his chin and thought, "Of course we have to investigate, but we can't delay in raising funds to rebuild the Heavenly Protection Array. Let's do it simultaneously. Set up a donation box outside the Lingxiao Palace. All departments and immortal officials at all levels will voluntarily pay donations. When the donation reaches a certain amount, they will be exempted from the review."

At this point, Wen Rui raised his eyebrows, his eyes swept across the faces of the eight gods behind the Jade Emperor one by one, and said with a sinister smile: "If he doesn't give a single penny, then he is a truly honest official and can definitely withstand investigation. Let's start with him first, in case there are not enough clues and we don't know where to start. This can save a lot of investigation time."

“Hey…” “Ah, this…”

"That's not right. If the donations are much more than the salary, doesn't that prove that there is corruption?"

"I am an incorruptible official. My immortal palace has no extra money. If I cannot make a donation, will I be held accountable?"

"The immortal jades I have accumulated are all legally obtained. I used my free time to go to the heavens and collected them with great effort. If I don't pay the donation, will I be framed?"

……

Wen Rui's idea obviously did not go well with the immortals, and a group of immortal officials boldly started arguing with him.

"Humph, it's already this time, and you're still willing to sacrifice your life over your wealth?"

Wen Rui's face darkened. "It's your business whether to donate or not. If you think you are innocent, then don't donate. The Supervisory Envoy will never wrongly accuse a good person, nor will he let a bad person go. I can swear to the Heavenly Dao that I will never wrongly accuse a good immortal just to collect immortal materials."

After hearing Rui's oath, the immortal officials looked much more relaxed. With his words, most of them secretly decided not to pay the money to buy the exemption.

On the one hand, a very small number of immortal officials are indeed clean. On the other hand, even immortals are not immune to the mentality of taking chances. Many immortal officials in the Ministry of Finance think that their level of accounting is absolutely good enough. No one knows better than them how difficult it is to check that thousand-year-old rotten stick.

"From your expressions, I know that even if the donation box is placed in the High Heaven Palace for a hundred years, it probably won't receive much fairy jade and fairy materials."

Wen Rui had an expression that said, "I've seen through you all," and sneered, "Anyway, that Taoist Mosquito doesn't dare to mess with me, so I'm absolutely safe. If she really sneaks in, don't cry out if you get stabbed, just wish yourself the best. I don't have the time to be a firefighter and rescue people everywhere. All the huge amounts of immortal jade and immortal materials you've saved will be used to help the enemy, and they won't survive in your next reincarnation."

"For those loyal and righteous ministers who have great righteousness in their hearts and are willing to spend a large sum of money in the donation box to repair the Heavenly Protection Array, I will be reluctant to help them and show my great mercy. I will also be worthy of the kindness of God."

After saying this, Wen Rui turned away, leaving the Jade Emperor and a group of immortal officials staring at each other in amazement, and walked away.

"The four great marshals of Lingxiao Palace listen to your orders!"

The Jade Emperor frowned and said in a cold voice, "Just do as God of Creation said. Set up a donation box outside the High Heaven Palace immediately, carefully record every donation, and submit the list to God of Creation's Palace every day. Also, concentrate all resources, at all costs, even if it means using my inner treasury, you must strengthen the defense of the High Heaven Palace for me. If you dare to let a mosquito fly in, you will be beheaded!"

After saying that, he turned away, and gave a cold look to the immortal officials before leaving.

This is exactly the case where a journey of a thousand miles reveals a person's true character. Over time, one can tell who is loyal and who is treacherous. The donation list is like a magic mirror.

At such a critical moment, the Jade Emperor might even lose his own life, yet he was reluctant to hand over the immortal jades he had embezzled and accumulated over the years to make the sky-protecting formation stronger. It was only right that such an immortal should die.

The Jade Emperor himself planned to study the donation list carefully every day to see who was so concerned about the safety of the King of Gods that he only cared about those few material things.

After taking a few steps, the Jade Emperor suddenly thought of something, and hurriedly summoned Taibai Jinxing to his side. He whispered in his ear in an encrypted voice: "Go quietly to the Palace of the God of Creation and find out how much benefit I promised Wen Rui. Can he come to protect me in time when I am attacked? I can't sleep or eat well if I only rely on these useless people around me who can't be stopped by Yang Jian and dogs!"

(End of this chapter)

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