First execute and then report, draw the fire from under the cauldron!

Although he was very angry at Li Mubai’s actions, in the courtroom, before the Jinyang Prefect, the various Venerables of the Buddhist Sect dared not act rashly. In the end, it was up to Huide, the Fourth-Grade Arhat, to speak up and resolve the situation: "Then let’s settle it this way."

"Hmm!"

The Jinyang Prefect also had no objections upon hearing this. With a thud of the gavel, he concluded the session: "Court dismissed!"

"Mighty~Powerful!"

Confused at his arrival, confused at his departure, Zhu Xiaolian had not yet reacted when he saw the figure of the Jinyang Prefect disappear in an instant. The Divine Beings also rose and left one by one, quickly leaving the once resplendent courtroom silent and deserted.

"Oh, oh, oh!"

Zhu Xiaolian wanted to speak, but then heard a cock crowing beside his ear, and everything before his eyes vanished like smoke.

"Hmm!?"

Like a dream, like an illusion, as the smoke cleared and the clouds dispersed, Zhu Xiaolian awakened to find himself slumped over the desk in his room, with a pool of water visible on the desktop. Outside the window, dawn was breaking, and the cock was crowing loudly.

...

Meanwhile, in the Yin Department, within the Prefecture Government Office.

In the study, Lu Ji frowned deeply, silent and brooding.

Zhou Bo paced back and forth before him, equally troubled.

"Is Song Xiang truly so formidable, having just reached the Sixth Grade and already slaying the Red Lotus?"

"Now that even the Buddhist Sect can do nothing against him, what should we do next?"

Zhou Bo spoke continuously, his eyes filled with regret.

Today’s events made him the main culprit.

If not for his sudden whim of promoting Shen Hex from the Little Yellow Mountain God to Magistrate of the Punishment Department, such turmoil would not have occurred.

What was thought to be a clever ploy to draw the fire from under the cauldron now seemed like lifting a stone only to drop it on one’s own foot.

Zhou Bo regretted it deeply but was helpless, so he looked to Lu Ji: "Well, aren’t you going to say something?"

"What else can be done?"

Lu Ji looked up, unexpectedly composed: "What’s done is done. Tackle the issues as they come; adapt to the situation as it unfolds, and take it one step at a time."

With that said, he lowered his gaze and spoke no more.

"You...!"

Zhou Bo left in frustration, his face filled with helplessness, as he swept away in anger.

"Lord of the Mansion..."

Leaving Lu Ji sitting alone in the room, his gaze distant, muttering words to himself.

...

And so, several days later.

In front of the Red Lotus Temple, fireworks crackled, and gongs and drums resounded.

Eight strongmen, their heads wrapped in yellow turbans and their torsos bare, carried a statue steadily into the temple.

The original mountain gate and plaque of the Red Lotus Temple had been entirely removed, replaced with the new plaque "Divine Judgment Temple."

The statue was of a middle-aged official, wearing a dark gauze-winged hat, dressed in a bright red official robe, holding a pen and book, with a knife and sword strapped to his back. His face was rugged, his beard vigorous, and he was awe-inspiring and radiating fierce Evil Qi.

The eight strongmen carried the statue into the temple with steady steps until they reached the Grand Enlightened Hero Hall.

In the Grand Enlightened Hero Hall, the main hall of the temple, worshipped are the past, present, and future Buddhas and Venerables. Even Red Lotus, the founding ancestor of this temple, can only occupy a corner spot here. To sit at the main center position, one must enter the Ancestral Hall at the back.

But now, Li Mubai was unceremonious and directly transformed this Grand Enlightened Hero Hall into the Judge’s Divine Hall, clearing out the Golden Buddha Statues within it.

Now the hall was very empty until the eight strongmen walked in with heavy steps, placing the Judge God’s statue on the altar, filling some of the void.

But even so, it was not enough. The strongmen turned outside once more, bringing in other statues, all former affiliates of Little Yellow Mountain, along with various Spirit Lord plaques.

The last statue was of a middle-aged martial man, with a red face and whiskers, wearing gold armor over a red robe, holding a gold seal in the left hand and lifting a gold whip in the right. Upon closer inspection, his features bore some resemblance to Song Wu.

This statue was not placed within the hall but was set in the White Jade Plaza before the hall, replacing the original Manjushri Copper Statue, standing imposingly toward the Mountain Gate.

"The Divine Monarch enters the temple!"

Outside the temple gate, the crowd thronged, with Li Mubai dressed in regular clothing standing at the front, holding three sticks of incense in his hands, leading the people in a bow.

Although the crowd thronged, the majority were members of the Song Clan from Qinghe and various families. Few local people from around the Red Lotus Temple came, just some of Li Mubai’s Li Clan and a few relatives of those victimized by the Red Lotus Hell Map.

There was no help; the Red Lotus Temple had stood for a thousand years, with faith deeply rooted.

And Shen Hex had also made an agreement with the Buddhist Sect not to intervene too much with worldly affairs, using the Dream-Entering technique to transmit the courtroom scenes to the world, with Li Mubai enacting it, declaring the case in the name of the Government Office.

But this could not shake the foundation built by the Buddhist Sect’s dissemination of Dharma for a thousand years. Not to mention that the vast majority of Buddhist believers did not believe this; even those who did thought it insignificant, considering a few hundred lives of women as nothing compared to the temple’s millennia of meritorious deeds?

Moreover, the Buddhist Sect had already acted, branding Venerable Red Lotus as an Evil Demon and False Buddha, severing ties rapidly and establishing another temple elsewhere, discarding the Red Lotus’s name, using only the Buddhist Sect’s title to compete with this altered Divine Judgment Temple for worship.

As a result, the faith of hundreds of thousands of people in the ten or more counties surrounding the Red Lotus Temple naturally still leaned towards the Buddhist Sect.

Not to mention the unrelated populace, even the Li Clan to which Li Mubai belonged, and the families of the hundreds of Flower-Scattering Celestial Maidens from the Red Lotus Hell Map were unwilling to abandon their faith in the Buddhist Sect for this reason. Only by Li Mubai pulling them strongly, he managed to gather some Li Clan members and a partial group of victim families.

This showed the deep roots of the Red Lotus and the firm belief in the Buddhist Sect.

If it weren’t for the Song Clan and individuals from various families rushing from Qinghe to support, today’s temple opening ceremony of the Divine Judgment Temple would have been exceedingly bleak and awkward.