"Since the Great Beast God is suffering on behalf of all souls, then the evil of this world shall be pruned away by me, blade by blade. Even if I am but a rat who crawled back from hell."
Zhizhi gazed at the dissolving moonlight outside the window, his voice low yet carrying a decisive finality. Hearing this, a flash of approval flickered in the eyes of the circling Golden Loong, and It flew a lap around Zhizhi in high spirits.
The moment the Golden Loong passed by, every hair on Zhizhi's body stood on end, and cold sweat instantly drenched his back. It was the primal instinct of a rat encountering its natural predator; his bones felt like they had turned to jelly, and he couldn't stop shaking.
"Lord... Lord Golden Loong, may we... have a word?" Zhizhi's vocal cords were tight as he fought to suppress his terror, yet the end of his sentence still trembled uncontrollably.
The Golden Loong, having already seen through his little thoughts, rolled Its massive eyes. "Hmph, an ungrateful rodent." Despite Its verbal displeasure, It consciously flew a bit further away.
However, unable to let it go, It suddenly snapped Its head back, bringing Its snout almost flush with Zhizhi's face, and let out a low growl: "I'm a Golden Loong! A Loong! Not some slippery snake!!"
Tian Shuangxin had already headed back; the experts said Zhizhi needed to remain under observation for one more day. Thus, in this ward—aside from the comatose Mother Tian—only the pet expert standing at attention, Guardian No. 612, witnessed this brief "farce".
Zhizhi steadied his nerves, pushed down his lingering fear, and looked toward the GoldenLoong with a tone of entreaty and a faint, hidden hope: "Regarding Grandma's coma... does your Lordship have a way?"
The Golden Loong seemed to still be brooding over the "snake" misunderstanding. It turned Its head away, refusing to look at him, but Its voice drifted over with Its habitual arrogance: "Naturally, there is a way. My Loong Saliva can cure any ailment. However..."
It drawled intentionally, waiting until It felt Zhizhi's gaze become urgently earnest before slowly spitting out the second half: "My Loong Saliva is a divine treasure of heaven and earth. The spiritual energy within it—even a ten-thousandth of it—would be enough to cause your mortal Grandma to... explode on the spot."
The word "explode" went off like a thunderclap. Zhizhi's face changed instantly; he nearly leaped off the bed in shock, crying out in protest: "That won't work!! That's not saving her, that's killing her!"
The Golden Loong finally deigned to give him a side-glance, Its tone carrying a hint of impatience and guidance: "What is the rush? That is a 'weight' a mortal frame cannot carry. Your Grandma's withered body is like a weathered old bottle; if you forcibly pour in my Loong Saliva, there is only one outcome: it shatters instantly into a mist of blood. I've no desire to clean up your mess, nor do I wish to pick up the pieces of shattered karma. Go, let those mortals skilled in 'dilution' find a way. Even a billionth of a dose is enough to keep her alive."
It paused, Its tone shifting as Its gaze grew sharp: "But I also know that in the world of mortals, there is no such thing as a free lunch. I give you the Loong Saliva; this is a trade. What do you plan to use to satisfy the appetites of those experts?"
Before Its voice faded, the killing intent in Its vertical pupils surged, and Loong Might filled the room, pressing down on Zhizhi until he could barely breathe: "If you dare use TheGreat One's secrets as a bargaining chip, I'll be the first to crush your bones!" Its claws clenched powerfully in mid-air, creating a sharp whistle.
—Hmph, if he dares agree to any condition detrimental to The Great One, I'll scatter his soul first! the Golden Loong thought ferociously.
On the other side, Zhizhi clearly hadn't followed the loong's convoluted train of thought. He scratched his head in bewilderment. "Would they? I feel like... they don't seem like the type to make unreasonable demands?"
Golden Loong: "..."
All my painstaking warnings wasted on this fool!
The tips of Its whiskers twitched with golden sparks of thunderous fire from pure frustration, scorching the air with a crackling sound. With a resentful flick of Its tail that brought a gust of invisible wind, Its figure blurred and vanished, leaving the room in silence.
Zhizhi stared at the spot where the GoldenLoong had disappeared, even more confused. He muttered to himself with a hint of grievance: "What... what did I do to upset it again?"
The ink-like night quietly receded as dawn broke. A new day arrived as scheduled, met by the expectant or vacant gazes of countless people.
However, this dawn was unusual. It was not due to the magnificence of the sunrise or the splendor of the morning clouds. The morning light brought no warmth; instead, it made the massive, silent screen in the sky appear even more abrupt. On this day, the rhythm of civilization was once again forcibly rewritten.
Upon that boundless horizon, the sky-screen—which should have been dead and silent—was now occupied by a gargantuan letter "D" radiating a cold, metallic luster. It hovered over the cities as if it had existed since ancient times, silently looking down upon the ant-like masses below.
The shadow it cast covered nearly half of the urban areas, bringing an indescribable sense of oppression.
This "D" was no simple character. Its edges were razor-sharp, its lines fluid, shimmering with an unnatural, matte hue that seemed to swallow light. Countless people rubbed their bleary eyes, startled awake.
Crack!
A soft sound, echoing directly in the depths of their souls, caused screens to jump directly in front of everyone. The centerline of the "D" split open. There was no light, only absolute negative pressure. The sound of mechanical gears grinding and misaligning filled the air, like the sky itself was being forcibly torn into a silent wound.
The entire process carried a cold, solemn sense of ritual, like a massive gate to an unknown world slowly creaking open. The scale of this "opening gate" effect was breathtaking, causing everyone on the ground to hold their breath as their hearts hammered against their ribs.
The door was open.
Peering through that massive "doorframe", the sight that met the people's eyes was worlds apart from the warm, iridescent, fairy-tale atmosphere of Qinghong's livestream. Here, there was only endless desolation. A deathly silent, ashen wasteland.
The sky was leaden, the earth cracked. Aside from a few solitary, massive stone pillars that had stood for untold ages—ancient in shape and covered in blurred carvings like ruins of a lost civilization piercing the horizon—there was nothing else.
No color, no vitality. Only a prehistoric desolation and loneliness pressed heavily upon everyone's hearts through their screens.
At the very center of this wasteland stood a solitary, massive high platform carved from a single piece of grey rock. It was flat and wide, standing out starkly against the dead background. As the invisible "camera" slowly zoomed in, the scene atop the platform became clear.
Some sharp-eyed viewers stared at the arrangement on the platform. After a brief stun, their brows furrowed as a sense of inexplicable familiarity surged within them. That solemn layout... The specific positioning of the furniture...
Someone instinctively rubbed their eyes to "savor" the detail. One second, two seconds, three seconds... Finally, like an electric current piercing the brain, a thought struck everyone, making them shudder as the bullet chat instantly exploded:
—[Wait! This—this layout... isn't this a Courtroom?!]
—[My god! It really is! That high platform is the judge's bench, right? And the clerk's seat!]
—[The prosecution and defense stands... heavens, it's identical! What is happening?!]
—[In a wasteland like this, they set up a court? Is this a new doomsday-judgment type of livestream?]
—[No, that's not right... this atmosphere is even more oppressive than doomsday... Qinghong's side gives out benefits, so is this side... Judgment? Judging who?!]
The massive "D" gate stood wide open. Behind the door lay a desolate, silent, extradimensional space, and at its heart sat a courtroom platform symbolizing adjudication and justice.
The intense contrast and unknown purpose filled everyone watching with suspicion, trepidation, and an indefinable tension.
At the center of the desolate plain, a muffled, thunderous bang erupted from the judge's bench. The void behind the bench tore open without warning, and a beam of pallid light pierced the gloom.
At this moment, the audience discovered that the real-world sounds around them had completely vanished.
In a silence so profound that even the wind seemed to stop, a series of sharp, rhythmic "tap-tap" sounds echoed from the distance—the cold, hard resonance of claws striking rock.
Suddenly, a circular pillar of light shot into the heavens, and the back of a gargantuan bench, as massive as a mountain range, rose slowly into view. Billions of viewers across the Blue Planet instinctively held their breath.
Seated upon that towering throne, which symbolized absolute adjudication, was not a holy, golden deity. Instead, it was an old yellow dog, its fur faded to a dull grey and its entire being exuding a heavy air of twilight.
This... is the Judge?
It did not grip a gavel like a human, yet a pitch-black legal hammer hovered in mid-air, rising and falling in sync with the movement of its paws.
Bang!
The bullet chat across the globe froze for a microsecond before erupting:
—[Are they insane? An old yellow dog as the Judge? Isn't this a bit of a joke?]
—[Shut up! Have you forgotten the fate of those who spoke recklessly here? This place doesn't care about human feelings—it only cares about Rules!]
The comments vanished almost as quickly as they appeared. After the previous tragedies, no matter how cynical people felt, they didn't dare let their fingers linger on the keyboard. Everyone stared at the screen, paralyzed.
Next, the doors to the Prosecution Stand swung open. What emerged were not lawyers, but a multitude of animals: cats, dogs, rabbits, and even sparrows with broken legs. They marched in a perfectly ordered queue, so numerous they were impossible to count.
Many viewers watched until their heads spun, until a mathematics student posted a line in bold red:
—[Don't bother counting. There are exactly 1,104 of them.]
That number hit like a bomb, making scalps tingle across the world. 1,104—the exact number of animals tortured to death by ZhuYulu. These souls were here to collect a debt.
Simultaneously, a grey totem appeared above the Defense Stand, rotating slowly and emitting a dull glow. Viewers turned into digital detectives, scouring records for its origin.
As quickly, someone pulled up a screenshot from the previous broadcast and discovered with horror: this totem was an exact match for the brand on Mrs. Zhu's (Wen Xuehua's) forehead.
The one to be judged was Wen Xuehua.
The Old Yellow Dog on the Judge's bench moved. It did not speak in a human tongue, but let out a few low, muffled barks. Yet, under the translation of the Divine Rules, the sounds reached everyone's ears as cold, intelligible human speech:
"Silence for all spirits!"
"Today, this court sits to judge the human—Wen Xuehua. Her crimes do not concern human law, but the violation of the fundamental principles of life."
The Old Yellow Dog's gaze pierced the Defense Stand like an ice pick:
"She indulged evil and ignored the wails of the suffering. As a mother, she abandoned the reverence for life and the virtue of guiding her child."
"Charge: The Degenerate—The Mother of Abandonment!"
"I decree—Defendant Wen Xuehua, enter the court for trial!"
As the words fell alongside the crash of the gavel, viewers felt as if a heavy hammer had struck their own hearts.
The space around the Defense Stand began to warp violently.
The world was reeling. The natural order had been completely inverted: Animals sat on the Judge's bench; a Human knelt at the Defendant's stand.