Chapter 890: Killing relatives for justice
Chapter 890: Killing relatives for justice
A month later, the second emergency court meeting was held in Lingxiao Palace.
This court meeting still revolved around one theme - raising funds for the renovation and reconstruction of the Heavenly Protection Array.
The huge golden treasure chest was placed in the center of the hall again. Compared with the last time, it was obvious that the number of immortal officials who paid donations in the treasure chest had greatly increased.
The mountains of fairy jade have overflowed from the treasure chest, and many of them have fallen onto the white jade floor tiles of the Lingxiao Palace.
Although this treasure chest was rushed out by the Tiangongjian, it holds a secret. It has the space to store things like a cornucopia. It may seem that its capacity is not large, but it can actually hold an astonishing number of treasures.
The internal space of the treasure chest is almost full, which shows that although the Jade Emperor's method of killing a chicken to scare the monkeys last time was crude, the effect was not surprisingly quite good.
Taibai Jinxing once again acted as the Jade Emperor's mouthpiece. Holding a jade slip, he began to make a work report, reading out the progress of donations over the past month.
"...After a month of statistics, the total amount of donations has reached 1.367 billion fairy jades. The progress is certainly gratifying, and it fully demonstrates the loyalty of the fairy officials and their determination to protect the world..."
When the immortals heard what Taibai Jinxing said, a look of relaxation appeared on their faces, and the vague sense of oppression in the hall dissipated a little.
Ever since the twenty immortal officials were hanged on the beheading platform, the atmosphere in the entire heaven has become tense. It cannot be said that everyone is in danger. At least the immortals and scattered immortals without official positions not only do not have to worry about accidents, but are secretly gloating over other people's misfortunes.
The pressure that the immortals who are officials have to endure in this month is even greater than when they were about to face the thunder tribulation before ascending to heaven.
"1.3 billion immortal jades may seem like a lot, but the budget for the reconstruction of the Heavenly Protection Array proposed by the Creation Immortal Palace is 187 billion immortal jades. The immortal jades raised so far are far from enough, not even a fraction of that."
Before the immortals could relax for a few seconds, Taibai Jinxing's next announcement was like pouring a bucket of cold water over their heads.
"Master Duo? I didn't hear you wrong!"
"Are the runes for the formation made of gold, or are the bricks and tiles made of gold? No, I have only been an immortal for a short time and have not changed my habits. Gold is no different from dirt in the heavens... If these 100 billion immortal jades were piled up as bricks, they could build a fairy jade fortress. How could a protective formation cost so much!"
"I donated half of my fortune, thinking it would be enough to stave off disaster, but this is the result. I would not have donated if I had known..."
"More than 170 billion, how can we collect all of that? This will empty the pockets of all the gods!"
There was a whisper among the immortals.
According to the budget report, there is absolutely no problem with the figure of 170 billion. Every penny has been spent where necessary. It seems that without this money, the rebuilt Heaven-Protecting Array will have a loophole, and a thousand-mile dam will be breached by an ant hole. This loophole will definitely be exploited by Taoist Mosquito, and the entire array will completely lose its value.
Only when every penny is spent properly can the Heaven Protection Array be considered perfect. And only a perfect Heaven Protection Array can prevent even a mosquito from flying in.
If you don't spend money thoroughly, it's the same as not spending money at all. If you want to spend money, spend all the small change in the pockets of all the immortals, and get it done in one go. In the feasibility study report of the large array project, Wen Rui fully absorbed the project establishment experience of a certain world's third most mysterious country. He was so boastful that he strived to build more and more large arrays. It seemed that once the large array was built, the heaven and the three realms would be safe forever. Even if a saint went crazy and wanted to destroy the world one day, and Pangu was resurrected and wanted to chop another axe, they would have to sigh at the array.
The Tathagata Buddha who rules the West might hear locals say this kind of pie-in-the-sky rhetoric, but the Jade Emperor who has lived in the East for a long time has never experienced it. When he heard it, his blood boiled. He felt that if Wen Rui had been invited to ascend to heaven and be deified earlier to preside over the construction of the formation, all the money wasted over the years would not have been wasted.
More than 170 billion yuan in project funds may seem like a lot, but upon closer calculation, the original shoddy formation that could be easily broken had an annual maintenance cost of 300 to 200 million yuan. Over thousands of years, the amount has accumulated to far more than 170 billion yuan.
Hundreds of billions of dollars have been wasted, is this 170 billion still needed?
"quiet!"
Taibai Jinxing suppressed the discussion of the group of immortals with a loud voice, and then read out: "From the list of donations, except for the Tai Sui Department, the donors are all minor officials of the various Tianjian, Tiansi, and Tianyuan. In the other seven departments, from the main gods to the Tianjun and Xingjun, not a single high-ranking official with a high salary made a donation."
Except for Dou Mu Yuanjun who seemed to have heard nothing, the other six gods showed embarrassment on their faces, but it disappeared in an instant. Their eyes glanced at Wen Zhong and Wen Rui, father and son, and kept moving back and forth between the two of them.
Obviously, their party is still waiting and watching, trying to figure out the attitudes of the party leaders, the Wen father and son, before taking any action.
"Your Majesty's oral instruction: Last time, I only punished the various prison officials and did not investigate the eight immortal officials. I wanted to give them a chance to mend their ways, but my kindness was ignored. In this case, don't blame me for being merciless!"
In the last court meeting, Taibai Jinxing read out the list of penalties, and there was really no one from the Eight Departments of Immortal Officials. They were all minor officials from the Heavenly Observatory, Heavenly Officials, and Heavenly Gardens. Of course, there is the phenomenon of small officials being corrupt in the Heavenly Court, but in terms of opportunities for corruption, naturally the higher the position and the more powerful one is, the more opportunities there are.
The Eight Departments of Heaven are the highest authority organs. Even if the remaining petty officials have embezzled a lot of fairy jades, they can only drink the soup left by them.
As a result, a group of petty officials in the Heavenly Court were frightened. No matter how much they had been greedy, they gritted their teeth and spent their money to dig out the hidden stolen money and handed over part of it in order to get the stolen money back and save their lives.
Not all of the stolen goods were returned. After all, everyone has a sense of luck, and gods are no exception. Gods have an even greater sense of luck than mortals, otherwise they would not take such a big risk to survive a thunder catastrophe that could kill them at any time, and to fight for the treasures of heaven and earth.
Follow the will of heaven and you will be a human being; go against the will of heaven and you will be an immortal.
After a process of natural selection and survival of the fittest, those who are ranked among the immortals, even the lowest-ranking immortals, are all daring and adventurous opportunists compared to mortals. If they dare to defy the heavens, there is nothing they dare not bully.
They earned 10 million fairy jades and gave 2 million to the Jade Emperor, which was already enough to show their awe for the power of heaven and the laws of heaven.
All the immortals focused their attention on the Wen father and son, but the two generations of Heavenly Masters turned a deaf ear to them and continued to sit there in silence, not revealing even the slightest expression, which made the immortals even more confused.
In fact, over the past month, the entrance to Wen Rui's Creation Fairy Palace has been blocked by crowds of people, and many immortal officials who are related to Wen Rui have come to visit and ask for an audience.
Wen Rui knew very well what these beloved relatives and friends were planning. He was afraid that after they came to his house, they would take out bags full of fairy jade from their bosoms and directly present them to him as tribute to avoid the middlemen making a profit from the difference.
(End of this chapter)