Ji Lixin really did have something exceptional about him to accomplish this. The stack of case files piled on Liu Rong's desk before hadn't been for nothing. This kid definitely counted as a model among the young princes. It was just that, through a twist of fate, he had fallen into my hands—and behind me stood the Divine Firmament Prefecture and the Hall of Rectified Words, pushing things along. So if he didn't make the sacrifice, who would fill the hole this had smashed open?
With the witnesses and physical evidence conclusive, the court session soon ended. The final case files were delivered to the Divine Emperor the next day, leaving him to make the final judgment.
The resolution came down quickly. With the Court Deliberation Office and the Six Ministries jointly presiding over the trial, and with the case being crystal clear, the Divine Emperor's decision was issued in short order. That afternoon, we received the official announcement at the Court Deliberation Office.
I was guilty of breaking into the central section of the Artifact Office, attacking a High God, and killing a High God. Even with extenuating circumstances, I couldn't escape punishment. However, with Liu Rong and the Divine Firmament Prefecture vouching for me, and because I had done meritorious service by exposing this major case of forming cliques for personal gain, my merits and faults temporarily canceled each other out. I was released without charge, with no criminal mark left on me.
As for the second-rank officials Qian Chenzhen and Fang Anruo, because of this major case, they had already been demoted several ranks. One was sent to a lower-grade region on the outskirts to serve as a seventh-rank director of the Artifact Office, while the other was sent to tend the frontier pastures.
The third-rank officials