Countless people voiced their opinions.
Some trembled all over with anger, some clenched their fists tightly, and others recalled the injustices they had suffered, their eyes reddening in spite of themselves.
As more scenes of wrongdoing appeared, public opinion across the Douluo Continent reached a boiling point!
Some people had initially doubted Zhong Tian's judgment, worried that the Underworld might seize the opportunity to slaughter innocents.
But now, as the crimes once concealed were laid before their eyes one by one, many finally realized just how much they had overlooked in the past.
Being a noble did not necessarily make someone a good person.
Nor did a Soul Master's strength mean they could do as they pleased.
If they could not tell even the most basic good from evil, what meaning did their so-called glory and status have?
At that moment, more and more people began to support Zhong Tian.
They were desperate to know what judgment the Underworld would pass in the face of these crimes, whose evidence was as solid as a mountain!
In the Divine Realm, the atmosphere was just as oppressive.
The gods sat upright in their respective temples, their eyes fixed on the sky as their customary composure vanished from their faces.
Zhong Tian's judgment of the nobles was enough in itself to shake the entire Douluo Continent.
But what truly unsettled them were the crimes that had been exposed.
They knew full well that the nobility and the Divine Realm had never been entirely unconnected.
For years, the Divine Realm had stood high above, looking down upon the Douluo Continent.
Whatever happened in the lower realm, many gods were accustomed to treating it as a quarrel between mortals.
As for the lives and deaths of ordinary people and what the nobles had done, those things were often entirely outside their concern.
But now, Zhong Tian had used the Good and Evil Reward and Punishment Token to lay it all before everyone.
That meant the Douluo Continent's old order, upheld jointly by nobles, sects, and powerful Soul Masters, was facing an unprecedented upheaval.
If the Underworld continued its trials, it was likely that more than the nobles' status would be shaken.
Even the Divine Realm's influence over the Douluo Continent could suffer as a result!
At that thought, many gods' expressions darkened.
They had realized they could no longer stand by with folded arms.
This was especially true inside the Asura God Temple.
The Shrek Seven Devils stood in the great hall, watching the images flash across the sky.
Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing both looked terribly grim.
Though they had long known that not all nobles on the Douluo Continent were innocent, they still found it hard to believe after seeing these shocking crimes with their own eyes.
In those scenes, some had driven ordinary people into desperate straits over a mere plot of land, some had relied on their status as Soul Masters to oppress merchants at will, and others had treated people's lives as things they could dispose of however they pleased.
These were no earthshaking conspiracies.
Quite the opposite.
They were petty acts of evil that happened to ordinary people, yet were enough to destroy a family.
That was precisely what made them all the more chilling.
"These nobles have gone too far!"
Ma Hongjun finally could not hold back.
Ma Hongjun, who had been grinning and joking earlier, now wore a thoroughly grim expression.
"They have a little status and a little strength, so they think everyone under heaven should do as they say?"
"People worked themselves to the bone to save up their property, and they just take it whenever they want; people are living their lives in peace, and they bully them whenever they please!"
"Who could put up with that?"
The more Ma Hongjun spoke, the angrier he grew, until he could not help giving a cold snort.
"As I see it, Zhong Tian did nothing wrong this time!"
"If those people dared to do it, they should dare to bear the consequences!"
Oscar, standing beside him, looked equally grave. He nodded upon hearing those words.
"Yes."
"In the past, those ordinary people had no power to fight back. They could only swallow their grievances."
"But now that the Underworld is willing to step forward and judge these crimes, the trials should be allowed to continue."
"Surely they can't escape punishment just because they're nobles?"
When the two finished speaking, a brief silence fell over the Asura God Temple.
Dai Mubai did not argue.
Neither did Zhu Zhuqing speak.
They were indeed worried that their families would be affected, but that did not mean they could deny the crimes shown in the sky.
After all, the images were far too clear.
The despair of every victim and the arrogance of every perpetrator made it impossible to dismiss them as false.
But while everyone was silent, Tang San suddenly clenched his fists.
His body trembled slightly, and his expression was grimmer than ever.
"Absurd!"
Tang San suddenly spoke, his voice filled with irrepressible anger.
"This is utterly absurd!"
His angry shout immediately drew everyone's attention.
Ma Hongjun frowned.
"Little San, what's wrong with you now?"
Tang San did not answer immediately. He simply stared hard at Zhong Tian in the sky.
Watching the Good and Evil Reward and Punishment Token reveal the nobles' crimes, he felt as though a fire was raging in his chest, one he could not extinguish.
Tang San had already considered Zhong Tian's trials dangerous enough.
But now, Zhong Tian was actually making the nobles' crimes public, letting the people of the entire Douluo Continent see exactly what they had done.
What did that mean?
It meant that the things once concealed by status and power could no longer be so easily hidden!
More than that, it meant the people of the Douluo Continent would gradually realize that the order they had once taken for granted was riddled with injustice!
Once that idea took root in people's hearts, the Underworld's prestige would rise with the tide.
By then, Chen Yuan and Zhong Tian would gain the support of more people.
And what of the Divine Realm?
What position would it find itself in?
The more Tang San thought about it, the worse it seemed.
It was not that he could not see how outrageous the nobles' conduct had been.
In fact, even he could not easily defend them against the crimes shown in the sky.
But the problem was that what the Underworld was doing now went beyond punishing a few evildoers.
It was plainly shaking the Douluo Continent's entire existing power structure!
The forces that had once depended on the nobles would panic as a result.
The people who had long suffered oppression, meanwhile, would place their hopes in the Underworld.
As one side waned and the other waxed, the Underworld's influence in the mortal world would only grow!
That was what Tang San truly could not accept.
"Damn it!"
Tang San gritted his teeth, his clenched fists creaking.
"These nobles are such a disappointment!"
He tried to express his anger with those words, only to find that he could not calm the emotions in his heart at all.
As he watched the crimes exposed in the sky, Tang San trembled all over.
How was this merely a trial of the nobles?
The Underworld was plainly using the trials to proclaim its authority to the entire Douluo Continent!
And how could he, Tang San, as a member of the Divine Realm, possibly have no reaction to it?
At that moment, Tang San was trembling all over with rage, scarcely able to get a complete sentence out.
The Shrek Seven Devils beside him wore a variety of expressions.
Some were silent, some were angry, and others found the crimes in the sky hard to accept.
Yet whatever each of them was thinking, none of it could change one fact.
The trials within the Good and Evil Reward and Punishment Token continued!
As Zhong Tian slowly raised his hand, the token's black-and-white divine light gathered once more.
Memories of one crime after another emerged, exposing the pasts of more nobles to every living being under heaven.
And Zhong Tian was finally ready to pronounce judgment.
The nobles' fate was about to be decided!