Being an emperor is not something he can do, so he can only rely on his connections.

The solemn atmosphere in the government hall had not yet dissipated when another trial was taking place in the open space outside Gaoyang Tower in the west of the city.

Yuan Liang was tied up with rough hemp rope like a fat lamb waiting to be slaughtered. The rag gagged in his mouth had barely been ripped out when he was forcibly dragged along by two burly yamen runners through the cool morning streets, drawing countless looks of astonishment, curiosity, and even a touch of gloating. His blue shirt was wrinkled and dusty, and his face, still red and swollen from Hu Zi's slap the previous day, had turned a dark purple from the struggle and humiliation.

As soon as he was dragged to the edge of the open cave, a nauseating stench of decay mixed with the strange smell of medicinal stones and stones assaulted him. Yuan Liang took one look at the deep, dark entrance, resembling the throat of a giant beast, and listened to the inhuman, deep roars and the eerie sound of nails scraping against the stone walls below. He instantly lost his soul!

"Zhang Jingwei! Lord Zhang!" Yuan Liang's voice was shrill and distorted with extreme fear. He twisted his body desperately, trying to break free from the guards' iron grip. "You... you have no right to do this to me! I must sue you! I will sue you to the Censorate! I will sue you to the Ministry of Justice! I will sue you before the Emperor! I will bring disgrace upon you and send you to prison!"

Zhang Jingwei stood a few steps away with his arms folded, his expression expressionless, only hinting at impatience. "Tsk. It's so early in the morning, and I haven't even said a word, and you're already reporting me to the Censorate? Yuan Tangjing, are you sick?"

"You have no right to imprison scholars! You tortured them into confessing! You have no respect for the law! Your crimes are heinous!" Yuan Liang frantically listed the charges, as if grasping at a lifeline. "Yesterday in court..."

"Did I hit you?" Zhang Jingwei interrupted coldly.

"I got beaten! Yesterday you..." Yuan Liang subconsciously pointed to his swollen cheek.

"Bullshit!" Zhang Jingwei sneered, his eyes filled with undisguised contempt. "The one who hit you was the Bei Hou's personal guard! If you have the guts, go and sue him! See if he'll even look you in the eye?"

Yuan Liang was choking so hard that he could barely breathe. His face turned from red to white, and then from white to blue. He knew that suing Huangfu Changshui was a pipe dream, so he could only roar in a timid voice: "You...you...none of you can escape! You are in cahoots with each other! You are in cahoots with each other!"

"That's enough," Zhang Jingwei said, completely losing his patience. He waved his hand as if to shoo away an annoying fly. "I don't want to waste any more words with people like you." He ordered the yamen runners holding Yuan Liang, "Take him away!"

"Take him away?!" Yuan Liang looked in horror at the bottomless cave entrance, emitting waves of terrifying noises. His body began to tremble. "Where...where do you want to take me?! Zhang Jingwei! How dare you! There are so many people watching outside! In broad daylight! In the open!"

The yamen runners ignored his shouting and deftly tied a thick rope around Yuan Liang's waist. The other end of the rope was looped around a sturdy wooden pulley set up at the entrance to the cave.

"I'll take you to see them!" Zhang Jingwei's voice was not loud, but it had a cold and unquestionable penetrating power, which clearly reached the ears of Yuan Liang and all the onlookers.

"Look at them?!" Yuan Liang instantly understood Zhang Jingwei's intentions, and a huge fear gripped his heart! He struggled desperately, kicking his feet wildly, trying to grab anything on the ground for leverage. "Wait! No! Master Zhang! Master Zhang, spare me! We can talk it over! How much money do you want?! I'll give it all! I'll give you all my wealth! Let me go! Please let me go!"

However, his plea fell on deaf ears. With a cold gesture from Zhang Jingwei, the yamen runner suddenly let go! The pulley started to turn!

“Ah——!!!” Yuan Liang let out a howl so shrill that it didn’t sound like a human voice. His body instantly lost weight, like a heavy stone, hanging by a rope, falling straight into the dark, smelly abyss filled with inhuman roars!

"Zhang Qi! Zhang Jingwei! There are so many people watching outside! If I die here! You will be doomed! The court will not let you go! Help! Help! Someone save me! I will give him all my wealth! All to him!" Yuan Liang's voice echoed wildly in the narrow space of the cave, full of desperate cries.

The rope slowly descended, his body sinking into darkness bit by bit. The light from the cave entrance faded further and further away, leaving only a pale circle of light overhead. And below, those eerie roars suddenly became clear and frantic! Countless pairs of eyes, gleaming with cloudy light in the darkness, stared at the "food" that fell from the sky like hungry wolves!

Yuan Liang's position has dropped to a level that is within the reach of those "living dead"!

A vague, beast-like growl echoed from below. Several withered arms, their nails peeling, their skin a strange blue-gray hue, trembling and extremely slowly clawing upwards, suffused with a sickening mucus and a stench of decay. They seemed extremely weak, their movements slow, but their instinct for flesh and blood drove them forward, like claws reaching out from hell!

"Mercy! My Lord, please spare me!" Yuan Liang's mental defenses completely collapsed! He felt a damp heat in his crotch—he had lost control of his bladder from fear! Urine dripped down his trouser legs into the darkness below, further stimulating the agitation of the living dead. A pale, swollen face with sunken eye sockets and drooling mouth suddenly approached his dangling ankle! The empty, greedy eyes were almost right next to him!

"Ah! Get out! Get out!" Yuan Liang kicked his legs frantically, screaming hysterically. Tears and snot covered his face. Where was the calm and calculating demeanor of a "famous lawyer"? Only the most primitive and instinctive fear remained!

"Now," Zhang Jingwei's icy voice boomed from above the cave entrance, like a divine judgment, clearly piercing Yuan Liang's screams of fear. "Do you still want to defend Shi Chongshan and Shen Kaiyang? Do you still want to use your eloquent tongue to exonerate them?"

"I won't argue anymore! I won't argue anymore!" Yuan Liang cried, his voice hoarse and distorted, full of complete surrender, "I'll come up! I'll come up and write the complaint! I'll write that their crimes are heinous! I'll write that their crimes are beyond description! I'll write that they deserve to be cut into pieces! My lord! Please! Uh... let me go up! I'll agree to anything you say!" The lifeless face of the living dead that came close to him almost made his heart stop!

"A petition?" Zhang Jingwei's voice was filled with fatigue and even deeper sorrow. "You don't need to write! I want you to take a good look at them!" His voice suddenly rose, carrying with it an uncontrollable indignation. "Look at these people below! Once upon a time, they were just like you and me! Living people! With parents, wives, and children! With joys, sorrows, anger, and happiness! It was the Shi family's greed! It was Shen Kaiyang's sorcery! It was the poison of the Five Stones Powder! They were transformed into this half-human, half-ghost appearance!"

Yuan Liang, overcome with fear, was forced to look downward. In the dim light, he saw more: ragged, emaciated figures wriggling in the darkness, their eyes hollow and pained. Scattered on the ground lay several exhausted, motionless bodies, evidently long dead. The overpowering stench of decay was emanating from them. Those still alive merely clawed in vain, uttering meaningless roars, like the walking dead trapped in an abyss by invisible chains.

"These past two days... I've come to see them when I'm free..." Zhang Jingwei's voice faded, carrying a deep sense of powerlessness and self-blame, which came through clearly, striking the hearts of Yuan Liang and every onlooker. "Look at those lying on the ground... They've died of exhaustion, which is a kind of liberation... The others... will suffer the same fate... I hate it! I hate myself! Why! Why can't I save them! Why can't I just watch them rot here! Waiting to die!"

This heartfelt cry of pain instantly quieted the previously noisy crowd. Many people's faces showed expressions of pity and compassion. Even the two yamen runners controlling the ropes paused.

Yuan Liang hung in mid-air, listening to Zhang Jingwei's heart-wrenching self-recrimination and gazing at the hellish scene below, his spirit was shaken as never before. His eloquent defenses, his calculated attempts to curry favor with the law, paled in the face of such stark human tragedy.

"Sir! Sir!" Yuan Liang's voice was filled with tears. The fear from before was no longer there, but with a complicated, almost collapsed remorse. "I know I was wrong! I really know I was wrong! I accept the punishment! I plead guilty! Pull me up! I admit everything!"

"Not enough!" Zhang Jingwei's voice was firm. "You haven't seen enough! You haven't felt enough! You haven't truly understood how ridiculous your 'skills' are in the face of true suffering!"

"I've seen enough! My lord! I've really seen enough!" Yuan Liang pleaded in a hoarse voice, tears streaming down his face, "I... I swear! When I go back, I will write down all the unjust, false and wrong cases that I have committed in Jinzhou over the years, where I have distorted right and wrong, framed the innocent, and protected the powerful... one by one! One by one! Write them all down! All the ill-gotten gains I have received... commissions! Bribes! I will not keep a single cent! I will hand them all over to the government truthfully! I only ask my lord... give me a chance to atone for my sins! Please!" He almost roared out this promise, with a complete confession in desperation.

A brief silence fell above the cave, echoing only from the muffled roars of the living dead and Yuan Liang's suppressed sobs.

Zhang Jingwei silently watched Yuan Liang, who was dangling on the edge of the abyss, tears streaming down his face, completely broken. After a few breaths, he finally slowly raised his hand, his voice carrying a subtle hint of fatigue and relief:

"Pull him up."