"I know." Herrscher of Knowledge nodded.
This was no secret, at least not to Herrscher of Knowledge.
The Puppet Mark had originally been something that directly transformed others into puppets. Since Chen Luo could make orange juice lie dormant inside the human body, he could naturally make it trigger Puppet Transformation instantly as well.
How could the Puppet Mark be such an inconvenient thing?
"If we really killed off a whole bunch of corrupt officials, the Empire's administration would definitely be paralyzed. The Empire might descend into chaos then. Training new administrative officials would also take time. There weren't many conscientious officials in the imperial capital to begin with, and making them clean up this mess would be too unfair to them."
Who said good people had to contribute more?
Or rather, why should good people have to give more?
"So?"
"If possible, directly replacing them with a batch of conscientious officials to take over from the corrupt ones would definitely be the optimal solution. But there aren't that many conscientious officials, so for now, we can only let some of those corrupt officials keep their positions."
"...But wouldn't that be letting those corrupt officials off too easily?"
"I may be fairly laid-back, but I'm not some saint. Besides, sinful souls are very useful to me." Chen Luo shook his head.
"The first batch of notoriously infamous corrupt officials will be publicly executed by a thousand cuts! Their souls will be copied three times and thrown into the Soul Lantern to extract soul fire."
"The remaining majority of corrupt officials will stay in their posts for now and deal with the Empire's current mess. They'll work twenty-two hours a day..."
"Wait, punishing corrupt officials does feel incredibly satisfying, but won't working twenty-two hours a day kill them from overwork?" Herrscher