Directly Pointing to the True Heart

After arranging Shen Zhui in a courtyard behind the City God Temple, Wang Long left.

"Borrowing the power of deities, one can slay Xiantian Martial Artists, destroy Ancestral Halls, and true Yin God forms, abandon sects and temples… This small Heyuan County truly holds many secrets."

Shen Zhui shook his head, putting the thought aside.

As the saying goes, accept what comes your way.

If his strength wasn't enough, thinking too much was useless. If he had sufficient strength, he wouldn't need to worry about these things at all.

"First, let's see what's so magical about this booklet. If I can successfully borrow the temple's power, I'll be able to slay Xiantian Martial Artists with my blade and have some means of self-preservation."

He propped open the window to let the sunlight in, lit an incense stick, washed his hands, and placed the booklet on the table.

It was strange. This booklet, which Shen Zhui found difficult to handle, caused no tremor when placed on the old table.

If Shen Zhui's estimated force was anything to go by, the table should have collapsed long ago.

Taking a breath, Shen Zhui opened the first page.

What greeted his eyes was a portrait of a person. This person was burly, holding a fan in one hand and a Buddhist staff in the other, with octopus-like tentacles for eyes.

At first glance, a fierce and chilling aura washed over him. Meeting those eyes felt like having all his secrets laid bare.

General Gan Gong!

Shen Zhui quickly shifted his gaze down, seeing the small text introducing the figure.

General Gan Gong, whose name was Gan Pengfei, was in charge of punishments. During his life, he was a personal guard of the Earl of Heyuan and commanded the enforcement team in the army.

He was responsible for overseeing and punishing soldiers who violated military discipline, and for executing deserters on the battlefield.

Shen Zhui continued reading, finding a story specifically describing General Gan Gong's impartiality:

It was said that before General Gan Gong joined the Earl of Heyuan, he served in another army with his wife's brother. At that time, Gan Pengfei was already the commander of the guards.

Once, his wife's brother was caught drinking in the army and, according to the law, was to receive forty lashes.

When the report reached the commander-in-chief, he, considering the wife's brother's bravery in battle and his relationship with Gan Pengfei, feared that he wouldn't withstand forty lashes. He secretly instructed the soldiers carrying out the punishment to go easy and assigned a soldier weaker than Gan Pengfei's wife's brother to administer the punishment.

However, when Gan Pengfei found out, he disregarded his wife's pleas and personally carried out the forty lashes on his wife's brother, beating him to death. Then, he went to the commander-in-chief's tent and questioned, "If the law is not enforced impartially, how can virtue be practiced?"

Meaning, if military justice isn't fair, how can benevolent governance be achieved?

Afterward, Gan Pengfei resigned from his position as commander of the guards and pledged allegiance to the Earl of Heyuan.

Shen Zhui pondered for a moment before turning to another page.

At the end of this page was a story about General Gan Gong after he had been conferred the title of Yin God:

Once, a farmer rescued an injured fox in the wilderness, brought it home, nursed it back to health, and kept it.

One day, the farmer, who wasn't a good swimmer, fell into a pond but survived unharmed. It turned out the fox was a spirit that had achieved cultivation, and it repaid the farmer's kindness by saving him.

After the fox spirit's deeds became known, it helped many farmers in the surrounding area.

Suddenly, one day, the fox fainted. The farmer, along with his neighbors, went into the city to seek medical help.

General Gan Gong, possessing a person, struck the fox spirit to death with a single blow.

The farmer was confused. He recounted the fox's good deeds and questioned the reason for its death.

General Gan Gong said, "Good deeds cannot cancel out evil. The fox fed on human blood to achieve its spiritual form; its evil deeds are numerous, and its crime deserves death."

Flipping to the fourth page, Shen Zhui felt mentally exhausted and unable to continue. He closed the booklet and concentrated in thought.

After reading four pages, all of them, without exception, described General Gan Gong, Gan Pengfei, carrying out punishments.

These stories included tales of killing relatives for righteousness, executing spirits that were half good and half evil, and beheading powerful nobles of high status.

From these stories, Shen Zhui understood General Gan Gong's principle of conduct.

As long as one's evil deeds reached the threshold for death, he would show no mercy.

He would not consider kinship, status, or even the good deeds done by the fox demon to compensate.

As an enforcer of the law, General Gan Gong undoubtedly achieved absolute fairness.

"But if my adoptive father made a mistake, could I bring myself to do it?" Shen Zhui asked himself.

He put himself in Gan Pengfei's shoes and thought about each story.

He shook his head.

Some things he agreed with, others he didn't.

In his opinion, the story about the flogging had an element of overcorrection.

He was not a god, but a human. Humans have emotions and compassion.

Clearly, the forty lashes could have been administered by someone of equal strength, which would not have violated the law, and his wife's brother might not have died.

This approach was somewhat extreme.

Moreover, the laws in this world differed in some aspects from Shen Zhui's beliefs.

For example, Yang Wu's nephew, who also committed murder, was only sentenced to one year because the deceased was a slave.

If the victim was a registered citizen, the punishment could be death. How could Shen Zhui agree with such a sentence?

"I became a constable to protect the people I care about, not for some grand ideal or the so-called laws of this world. I have my own scales to weigh good and evil. To achieve absolute justice, even to the point of killing one's own kin… that's not my true intention, and I cannot do it."

Buzz~ The booklet on the table trembled slightly.

Shen Zhui found it strange. After the tremor subsided, he tried to open the book again, but the first four pages seemed stuck together, impossible to separate. He was taken directly to the content on the fifth page.

Shen Zhui felt a dawning realization.

"It seems I won't be able to borrow the divine power of General Gan Gong."

The deity's requirement was likely absolute, unwavering fairness. Therefore, if Shen Zhui didn't fully agree with these deeds, he wouldn't meet the criteria.

However, he wasn't discouraged. Instead, his resolve strengthened, his thoughts becoming clearer, subtly approaching the state of mind achieved during Enlightenment Time.

Though he had lost the opportunity to borrow one of the divine powers, this booklet had helped him clarify his true intentions and understand what he truly wished to protect. In a way, it was a good thing.

Absolute fairness, an impartial enforcer, abandoning all emotions like a deity… Such divine power might be achievable by others who fully embraced the laws of this world, but it had no connection to him, Shen Zhui!

"No wonder they say to use divine power, one must have faith in the deity, be devout, and achieve clarity of thought."

"If one inherently rejects the deity's methods, then using their power will inevitably lead to all sorts of resistance."

Thinking this, Shen Zhui frowned again.

"If faith in a deity is required to use divine power, then are the Yin Gods that countless wicked and unforgivable clan disciples believe in actually demons?"

After resting for a while and feeling his spirit slightly recovered, Shen Zhui, carrying this question, turned to the fifth page of the booklet.

What greeted his eyes was a portrait of a slender figure, with a face painted in black and red, yin and yang eyes, holding shackles and door bars, and a square tablet in his left hand inscribed with "Good and Evil Receive Their Due."

This was another deity, General Liu Gong, Liu Yu.

Please recommend and collect!