Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1738 The Environment for Ascension

Exiling the celestial beings to the ends of the earth is tantamount to unleashing a weapon of mass destruction on a global scale. While they can be restrained within the Divine Land, if they are banished beyond it, they will become superhuman local tyrants wherever they land. If they are placed in a remote, impoverished area, these tyrants could reign for centuries without anyone noticing, leaving the locals utterly miserable.

This literally means eight lifetimes. It's likely that the imperial court won't discover this until eight lifetimes later.

While the imperial court may not claim to bear full responsibility for the world, it should at least refrain from littering.

Therefore, in such situations, the "lower realm" becomes a perfect place of exile.

The lower realm is not the divine land, so it is easy to strip away spiritual power. And shielding its self-awareness can also have a huge deterrent effect - because among flogging, caning, penal servitude, exile, and death, it is indeed only slightly lighter than a real death penalty, and it is not a one-off deal like the death penalty.

This actually aligns well with the imagination of the ancients.

When the ancients conceived of the celestial court, they regarded such punishment of being banished to the mortal realm as a severe retribution for violating celestial laws. Conversely, the idea of ​​imprisoning celestial beings in celestial prisons is rarely seen in stories.

The gods who were banished to the lower realms were either suppressed under a mountain or cast into the cycle of reincarnation.

The aforementioned practice of building a prison at the foot of the mountain for specific individuals was used to detain important figures.

For those that are less important, the latter approach can be adopted.

So, you're going to implement this exile punishment?

Shangluo nodded: "In our plan, there are two possible scenarios."

Since it's still unknown what will happen after ascension, Shangluo needs to prepare for the worst.

The ideal outcome is that when they ascend, the mountains, rivers, and vegetation will rise along with them. In this case, the power can be understood as "the difference between one's own energy and the environment." If the entire environment ascends together, then the celestial beings can maintain their original way of life.

But the bad outcome is just as Shangluo predicted—if humanity, as the pinnacle of all creation, gains a transcendent status and surpasses its surroundings, then the tools and implements available to humanity will suddenly become worthless. Steel will become indistinguishable from stone tools overnight.

Before the productivity of the people truly improves, the whole society will degenerate due to the decline in productivity, and then fall into chaos.

In the midst of chaos, order can only be maintained through violence, and violence itself also requires order—it needs to be hierarchical violence.

The Three Laws established by Liu Bang when he entered Guanzhong serve as an example of this: those who kill will be put to death, those who injure or steal will be punished. Here, a clear distinction is made.

In the three-point agreement, violence was hierarchical. Killing someone required paying with one's life. Liu Bang declared that he would maintain order, but would not kill everyone for every crime.

The Heavenly Court will be the same in the future. Before chaos descends and everything is restored, although killing a celestial being is a simpler and easier way to govern, the Heavenly Court cannot kill every criminal, as that would frighten everyone.

Therefore, this kind of hierarchical violence can serve to maintain order.

This is important because this hierarchy is sometimes not based on "mercy," but on practical necessity—because a person only has one life.

If a person commits a capital crime, they will die whether they commit the crime once or 20 times. If all crimes are punishable by death, it would embolden criminals to do nothing. Only tiered punishments, such as exile, can effectively deter criminals and potential offenders.

"It seems we need to start planning the timing for this punishment of falling from heaven," Shangluo pondered.

After all, time below is flowing at 365 times the normal speed—it's far too fast. And ultimately, it's an extremely terrifying punishment, second only to the death penalty, like exile in the past. Because at 365 times the normal speed, the accumulated lives of 10 or even 9 lifetimes will compress everything from the past into a very small proportion, which is essentially equivalent to social death.

Such a powerful deterrent seems unsuitable for use lightly.

Based on past examples, I think the same principle applies here to ordinary people who were subject to exile.

"For example, which ones?"

[According to the Ming Dynasty Code, ordinary people sentenced to exile were mainly those who committed serious violent crimes or were incorrigible. These individuals were considered a threat to society, and therefore needed to be removed from society. Also, according to the Ming Dynasty Code, exile also had distinctions in time and distance.]

In general, the principle for imposing exile is not primarily based on the harm caused, but rather on whether the offender has a serious tendency toward violence or other socially harmful tendencies.

"Yes," Shangluo nodded. "From our perspective, as mentioned before, many violent crimes can also be included in the category of exile."

These serious violent crimes were considered second only to the death penalty, even in Shangluo's view. As long as they complied with the laws of the Ming Dynasty, it was not unreasonable to impose exile on them.

In a society where humans and gods coexist, some form of violence, second only to the death penalty, is indeed necessary to maintain order.

[Actually, depending on the circumstances, it seems that all five punishments should be reinstated, right?]

In theory, this necessity certainly exists. The five punishments of flogging, caning, penal servitude, exile, and death were prepared for this situation—if long-term imprisonment was not practical, then beat him half to death and send him home to lie down, since he couldn't go anywhere anyway.

"We can discuss this later."

While the Five Punishments have their necessity, Shangluo still doesn't want to reinstate corporal punishment unless it's indispensable—he prefers to restrain a person's spiritual power rather than beating them with a cane.

This wasn't because he was merciful, but because the punishment of flogging was so unfair. The severity of the injury depended entirely on the enforcer's will and the individual's physical condition; the flogging could cause completely different injuries. For example, if someone was very fat, the flogging might only result in minor abrasions. But if someone was very thin, it could easily damage their bones and muscles.

In such situations, restricting spiritual power is the more appropriate approach.

"I think a more suitable secondary disciplinary measure would be to figure out how to put shackles that restrict spiritual power." For celestial beings, restricting spiritual power is basically equivalent to solitary confinement. It would cut them off from communication with the outside world.

“Let’s leave the specific details to the Six Ministries later,” Shang Luo said. “After all, I’m not a law or ethics expert; those are my senior brothers’ specialties. I just need to prepare the technical conditions for these.”

So, should I help you contact those snakes in the lower realm?

"Hmm. Contact them; after all, they are the guardians of that world. If they're willing, we can pay them some compensation for the exiles. Let them assess these Romans first, then give me a quote, and we'll discuss the payment. After all, jailers need to be paid."

(End of this chapter)