Justice

The old woman finally broke down.

That night, she slowly rose to her feet, having come to one realization.

If Mengshan did not die, she would.

If she wanted Mengshan dead, she had to strike first.

Looking at Mengshan sleeping nearby, she quietly drew the sharp scissors from beneath her pillow.

Trembling, she approached his bed. The tenderness with which she had looked at him as a child was gone from her eyes. All that remained was the savage resolve to kill an evil ghost.

Today, I'll kill you, you beast. Even if Lady Houtu condemns me to hell, I won't regret it, the old woman silently told herself.

She reached out, about to pierce Mengshan's throat, when his eyes suddenly snapped open.

"Well, well, you old hag!"

Mengshan roared and kicked her away. Years of malnutrition had left her with no strength to resist him. He viciously kicked her several more times as she lay on the floor.

"I was waiting to see whether you'd eventually starve to death eating grass all day, and you decided to kill me first?" With a vicious look, Mengshan grabbed her by the hair, ready to smash her head against the floor. "I'm in a good mood today. Suddenly felt like seeing what color brains are. Go on, show me how your head blossoms!"

At that instant between life and death, the wooden door suddenly burst open. A fierce tiger stood outside, its emerald eyes glaring savagely at Mengshan, its face filled with indescribable fury.

"Oh? Isn't this Sihuang? Want to see what color brains are too?" Mengshan said. "Don't worry. I'll let you eat this old hag's meat afterward."

"ROAR!!!"

The enormous roar was deafening. Sihuang lunged at Mengshan so fast that the eye could not follow.

Sihuang could not remember what happened that night. By the time he came to his senses, all that remained of Mengshan's body was half a skull.

Beneath the bleak moonlight, the old woman clung to Sihuang and sobbed as though her heart were being torn apart.

Du Yu silently listened to the old woman finish her long story, his fists clenched.

"Sir, you must already know what happened after that." There were no tears left in her eyes, as though this ordeal had brought her no sorrow, only pain.

Far away at the Legend Management Bureau, Xiao Qi listened to the story, a silent sadness settling over her face.

So for some people, even being alive was like hell?

"Du Yu, this poor woman has suffered so much..." Xiao Qi said softly.

"Ma'am, I need to see your wounds," Du Yu said.

Without any hesitation, the old woman removed her clothes, revealing the horrifying injuries covering her body.

Cuts, bruises, and burns covered her from head to toe. Prolonged malnutrition had left her belly deeply sunken, every rib clearly visible on either side.

"Xiao Qi," Du Yu called again.

"I'm here!"

"How likely is Sihuang to be lying?"

"Sihuang, lying...?" Xiao Qi paused, then understood what Du Yu meant. "In theory, a spirit monster that has only just gained sentience would have difficulty understanding the very concept of lying."

"I have no more questions." Du Yu turned to the old woman and Sihuang. "Ma'am, Sihuang, come with me."

"Sir... what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to get justice for you today!" Du Yu shoved the door open, his eyes burning with anger.

The old woman tottered after him, asking anxiously, "Justice...? What are you saying, sir...? I wanted to kill Mengshan, and Sihuang ate him. For the two of us, not being punished is all the justice we could ask for..."

"Bullshit!" Du Yu shouted. "Are you going to carry this guilt for the rest of your lives?! I'm going to demand an explanation from Cui Jue right now. You don't need to worry about anything. Just follow me!"

The old woman and Sihuang exchanged looks. This official usually wore such a playful smile. Why did he suddenly seem like a completely different person...?

Du Yu led the old woman and Sihuang straight toward Qi County. Sihuang frightened plenty of people along the way, but Du Yu paid them no attention, quickening his steps toward the county office.

"Huh? Yuan Xiangqin?" Li Neng, standing outside the office, suddenly spotted Du Yu. "You brought the tiger down from the mountain? I just asked Lord Cui Jue about this. His view is that a tiger is still a tiger, so bringing one into the courtroom would be..."

"Get lost." Du Yu gave Li Neng an icy look.

"Huh?" Li Neng flinched. Du Yu's presence was completely different from before.

Du Yu shoved Li Neng aside and strode straight into the main hall.

"Cui Jue! Get out here!" Du Yu shouted in the hall, but no one answered.

"S-sir..." The old woman sounded frightened. "Perhaps we should just let it go..."

Beside her, Sihuang nodded repeatedly.

"Let it go?" Du Yu gritted his teeth. "I'm so angry I could die. There's no way I'm letting this go! Follow me!"

Du Yu led the woman and tiger straight into the rear residence, where Cui Jue and his family lived.

"Cui Jue, get out here!" Du Yu shouted.

Watching the screen, Xiao Qi was terribly anxious.

"Du Yu, what are you doing?! Don't forget who you are, or why you came into this legend..."

"Xiao Qi, I'm going to make Cui Jue a true judge!"

Li Neng followed them inside with two Misfits behind him. "Yuan Xiangqin, aren't you taking this a little too far?"

"Anyone who interferes today dies." Du Yu's gaze turned cold, and a terrifying murderous aura erupted from him. It intimidated Li Neng and the other two so thoroughly that none dared take another step. Even Xiao Qi fell completely silent.

Du Yu pricked up his ears and heard what sounded like movement in one of the rooms. Thanks to the keen hearing and sharp eyesight of Zhong Wuyan's cultivation physique, he quickly located Cui Jue.

Bam! Du Yu kicked the door open. Sure enough, Cui Jue was inside, with an old woman in sumptuous clothing beside him.

"Jue, who is this?" the old woman asked.

"Yuan Xiangqin? What are you doing here?"

Without a word, Du Yu strode forward and delivered a hard, resounding slap to Cui Jue's face.

Smack!

No one had ever struck Cui Jue so hard before. He stared blankly at Du Yu. "What are you doing?! Have you gone mad?!"

"Cui Jue, to think I admired you so much! I thought you were a good official who knew right from wrong and good from evil. Precisely because I owe you a debt, I have all the more reason to slap some sense into you today!" Du Yu said savagely, then immediately slapped him again, knocking him to the floor.

"You're going too far, Yuan!" Seeing things turn ugly, Li Neng immediately charged forward with his saber and slashed at Du Yu's face. Du Yu did not even dodge. He reached out with two fingers and caught the blade firmly between them.

With only the blade pinched between Du Yu's fingers, Li Neng could no longer pull his saber free.

"Li Neng, I'll say this one more time. This is between Cui Jue and me. Anyone who interferes dies." After those icy words, Du Yu kicked Li Neng in the lower abdomen, sending him flying into the wall behind him.

Du Yu had kicked him once before, but that kick could not remotely compare to this one. He felt his internal organs churn, as though they had nearly been shattered.

The richly dressed old woman went pale with fright at the sight and dropped to her knees. "Ah! Noble warrior! I don't know what my son has done wrong, but please, be magnanimous and spare his life!"

"Mother! Get up! You mustn't kneel!" Cui Jue shouted.

"Mother?" Du Yu's expression shifted. He went over and helped Cui Jue's mother to her feet. "Ma'am, you don't need to worry. I came today to teach your son what right and wrong, good and evil truly mean, not to take his life!"

"To teach me... what right and wrong, good and evil mean?" Cui Jue slowly stood. "Ridiculous! I've been an official for over ten years and have never judged a single case wrongly. What gives you the right to teach me how to distinguish right from wrong and good from evil?"

"Never judged a case wrongly?!" The anger that had only just subsided flared up in Du Yu again. "Cui Jue, how do you have the gall to say that? Today, you and I are going to retry a case. Do you dare?"

"Retry a case?!" Cui Jue grew angry as well. "Every case I've ever judged remains vivid in my mind. I remember every single one, and none was wrongly decided!"

"Fine. You won't shed a tear until you see the coffin, will you?" Du Yu stepped aside, revealing the woman and tiger behind him. "Do you still remember these two?"

Cui Jue looked at the fierce tiger before him and flinched, but forced himself to remain calm as he nodded. "I remember. A madwoman took a man-eating tiger as her son, then brought her own son before the court as a beast. Now she has indeed caused her biological son's death. Tigers are bloodthirsty by nature. What point is there in retrying a case like this?"

Seeing Cui Jue behave this way chilled the old woman's and Sihuang's hearts even further.

Du Yu gave a cold laugh. "It seems I still came too late. If I'd been in that courtroom back then, I would never have let you bully a helpless old woman like this."

"What exactly do you mean?"

Du Yu said nothing more. He walked straight up to Sihuang and rolled up his sleeve, exposing his arm.

"Sihuang, do you want to eat me?" Du Yu asked.

Sihuang was taken aback by this too, then silently shook his head. Why would he want to eat Du Yu?

"Since everyone says you're bloodthirsty..." Du Yu drew the saber at his waist and cut a gash into his arm. Blood immediately flowed out. He held his arm before Sihuang again. "What about now? Do you want to eat me?"

At the sight of that alarming wound, Sihuang's face instantly filled with worry. He wanted to say something, but remembered Du Yu's earlier instructions. All he could do was shake his head desperately, hoping Du Yu would stop hurting himself.

Cui Jue froze at the sight. This tiger understood human feelings?

Du Yu snorted, put away his saber, and turned back to Cui Jue. "You never even met the most important figure in this case, yet you decided he was a man-eating tiger. If people called you a corrupt dog of an official, wouldn't you deserve the name?!"

Though the scene before him had startled Cui Jue, he quickly recovered and said, "That only proves he's a tiger that understands human feelings. It doesn't prove Mengshan wanted to kill this old woman back then!"

"And what about afterward? After hearing her testimony, did you examine her old wounds?" Du Yu demanded angrily. "And Mengshan, a man over forty who spent his days wandering the streets without accomplishing a thing-how could he support his elderly mother? Without her son supporting her, where did her food come from? Did you send anyone to find out what sort of person Mengshan really was? If he was as good as he claimed, why didn't he take his mother to have her injuries treated immediately, instead of making her drag her injured body all the way to the county office, half a day's journey away?! If this old woman truly was senile and mad, why would she disregard her own safety and strike the Grievance Drum with her forehead?!"

"Well..." Cui Jue faltered. He had indeed never paid attention to those questions.

"Jue..." Cui Jue's mother stood beside them, looking at the old woman with concern. "Didn't you promise me... that you would strive to be a good official who understood reason...? How could you...?"

"Mother... I..." Cui Jue was at a loss. Had he really judged the case wrongly?