Zhang San, please behave yourself!
Chapter 429 - 404: You are the Saint Heir of the Heavenly Punishment Sect!

Chapter 429: Chapter 404: You are the Saint Heir of the Heavenly Punishment Sect!

Someone brought over the results of the corpse examination from the Town Martial Office, which Shen Wei immediately reviewed.

At first, Shen Wei was somewhat shocked, but as he kept reading, a smile spread across his face, and finally, he looked at Zhang San with a face full of pride.

"Zhang San, the results of the examination are right here on this document! What do you have to say now!?"

At this moment, if it were anyone else, they would have been frightened into kneeling on the ground with a thud by Shen Wei’s words.

However, Zhang San was calm and simply looked at Shen Wei, asking leisurely, "What does it say that you want me to comment on? Why don’t you first tell me what it says?"

Shen Wei, whose face had been full of smiles, stopped laughing completely after hearing Zhang San’s composed words.

"Ahem... It says here that Zheng Fang’s body changed from an old man to a middle-aged person. But there are no wounds on the body."

Zhang San smiled and shrugged, his lips curling as he said, "The testimony of people is insufficient, and there’s no physical evidence. Minister Shen, if there’s nothing else, I’ll be going back. I ate too much this morning, and I’m planning to go back and take a nap."

Immediately, Shen Wei took a file from under the desk and said, "But now there are people from the Heavenly Punishment Sect, including Ximen Chuixu and several other Demon Cult Followers captured by the Town Martial Office, accusing you of being the Saint Heir of the Heavenly Punishment Sect. These are testimonies from witnesses, would you like to take a look?"

Zhang San smiled and shook his head, "No need. They can say whatever they want on this. If I really were someone from the Heavenly Punishment Sect and even the Saint Heir, why would I come to the Town Martial Office to be the Military Chief?"

"Moreover, I am the first Military Chief of the Town Martial Office who is not of the Spiritual Platform Realm. With such talent, it’s normal for the Heavenly Punishment Sect to be jealous and hate me, so they slander and frame me, right?"

"It’s been said that you obtained information related to Shen Wen, and afterwards, everything Shen Wen had done was discovered and led to his household being raided! Although many did not speak of it, they all knew it was your doing."

Zhang San continued to smile and said, "Minister Shen, evidence, that’s what matters. What you mentioned are testimonies from the Demon Cult Followers. You may believe their testimonies; I can’t help that. But if there’s nothing but testimonies and no other evidence, then... it’s hard to prove the truth of their words."

In this moment, Shen Wei felt that despite all his preparation, he seemed unable to take down Zhang San.

Is this kid really that difficult to deal with?

Then, Yang Hongming stood up and saluted Shen Wei, saying, "Minister Shen, last night, many people in the capital heard a voice whispering in their dreams, claiming that Zhang San is the Saint Heir of the Heavenly Punishment Sect and that he has betrayed his trust! This matter has spread throughout the entire capital today. It can also serve as evidence."

Zhang San sneered, "Minister Yang, have you gone mad? Since when can something dreamt about be considered evidence?"

This time, Yang Hongming smartly ignored Zhang San and instead turned his head to glance at Shen Erxian, asking, "In the past, the Magistrate of the Metropolitan prefecture was able to vindicate ghosts, surely dreams shared by the entire city’s population cannot be simply dismissed as mere visions of the night, right?"

Shen Erxian looked at Yang Hongming and couldn’t help feeling a bit embarrassed for a moment.

But then, Shen Erxian noticed that there seemed to be a rather large piece of earwax in Yang Hongming’s ear.

The earwax looked somewhat like a soybean.

No, it seemed to be exactly a soybean, although it appeared to be only half of one.

Shen Erxian immediately realized that someone must be using some Technique to instruct Yang Hongming from behind the scenes.

The reason Yang Hongming could be the Vice Minister of Punishment was because Legalism had to keep some people in the Ministry of Punishment who were not part of Legalism, to make the Emperor of Kaihuang feel at ease.

That was why Shen Wei initially took in Yang Hongming, a man without learning or skill, as a disciple and even promoted him to the position of Vice Minister of Punishment.

And this Yang Hongming was an Imperial Relative, so his relationship with the Crown Prince could be good.

At this thought, Shen Erxian instantly understood what was going on.

On the surface, it seemed like Yang Hongming was making things difficult for Zhang San, but in truth, it was likely another one of the Crown Prince’s machinations.

Only this time, the Crown Prince had truly learned to be shrewd.

Shen Erxian did not say anything and was instead looking at Zhang San, wanting to know how Zhang San would break the situation.

Zhang San asked with a laugh, "So, Minister Shen intends to solve the case with a dream?"

"Of course, this official wouldn’t be so arbitrary. Although the citizens of the entire Capital now believe Zhang San is a Saint Heir of the Heavenly Punishment Sect, they think you are problematic. These testimonies can prove you are suspicious, but they can’t convict you of any crime. But what if we add this?"

Shen Wei said, taking out a bag from under the desk, opening it, and several tokens fell out.

"These were found when the Town Martial Office deciphered your Gluttonous Bag before; to avoid alerting you, we put a few fake tokens inside later on. You didn’t notice, did you?"

Zhang San asked curiously, "What kind of tokens?"

"Naturally, they’re the tokens of your Heavenly Punishment Sect! As the Military Chief of the Town Martial Office, and you carry tokens of the Heavenly Punishment Sect on your person, what excuse could you possibly have?"

Zhang San said softly, "Oh," then countered, "Isn’t that normal?"

Zhang San said this and glanced at the Vermilion Bird Principal Officer who had taken a seat at his side.

The Vermilion Bird Principal Officer was also baffled and asked in return, "You are a man of my Town Martial Office, why would you carry the tokens of the Heavenly Punishment Sect?"

Zhang San countered, "By killing members of the Demon Sect, wouldn’t you end up with their tokens? So, isn’t it quite normal that I have a few on me?"

"Didn’t you know to turn them in?"

"I just haven’t had the chance to turn them in yet."

Throughout this exchange, Shen Wei could hardly resist smashing the table!

If it weren’t for the known animosity between the Vermilion Bird Principal Officer and Zhang San, Shen Wei might have suspected that Vermilion Bird was there to help Zhang San!

What was supposed to be conclusive evidence was, with the help of Vermilion Bird, turned into an act of merit!

"But this item, you surely can’t make excuses for it, right? Zhang San!"

Shen Wei said, taking out an abacus and placing it on the desk.

Zhang San feigned curiosity, "Is doing calculations also a crime?"

"This is no ordinary abacus. This is a Woodcraft Making that only the Heavenly Punishment Sect can produce; on the surface, it looks like an abacus, but in reality, it can be used to communicate with some core members of the Heavenly Punishment Sect. It’s said that only the Ghostly Calculator Cui Jiu of the Heavenly Punishment Sect can make such a device. How did you acquire it? This Ghostly Calculator Cui Jiu is not even dead yet, Zhang San, you can’t say it’s another spoils from killing a Demon Sect member. Among the Heavenly Punishment Sect Demon Cult Followers you’ve killed, none are worthy of using such an item."

"Humph! In fact, you orchestrated the Floating Corpse Case behind the scenes! So last night, when the Formation around Daxing City was activated, it caused immeasurable damage to the Great Sui! Then after the Formation was activated, you deliberately pretended to sabotage it in front of the Vermilion Bird Principal Officer!"

"In doing so, you could achieve your unspeakable goals and at the same time gain trust from the Great Sui! It’s killing two birds with one stone!"

"Too bad, too bad! Zhang San, you have calculated everything, but you didn’t take into account this official’s ’Legalist eyes’!"

"Whether it’s these people’s testimonies or these pieces of physical evidence, they can all prove you are a man of the Heavenly Punishment Sect!"

"Zhang San, admit it! You are the Saint Heir of the Heavenly Punishment Sect!"