Chapter 362 - 361: Restoring the Scene
If not for Du Ping’s questionable reputation, the Justice Supreme Minister would even wish to invite him to write a textbook on law.
The Lord of Anyang City felt helpless. Since Du Ping denied the charges, his only option was to contact the court and ask His Majesty to send someone from the royal family for time regression.
Calculating the time, they should be arriving soon.
“Du Ping, what happened this time?” Jiang Li descended.
“Greetings to the Human Emperor.” The officials all bowed when they saw Jiang Li.
“Please defend me! Ever since you proposed the condition for me to join the Human Emperor’s court, I’ve made up my mind to become the leader of the Imperial Palace. I’ve even reduced the frequency of my drinking.” Du Ping cried injustice.
The Lord of Anyang City said: “I can confirm that, previously Du Ping had been drinking four times every three days, each time, he would consume an entire jug. Now, he only drinks once every three days.”
Jiang Li was curious: “How much does he drink each time?”
“Four jugs.”
Jiang Li felt like Du Ping was bound to break the law sooner or later: “Come on, tell me what happened today.”
The Lord of Anyang City began to explain: “This is what happened. Late last night, we received a report stating that Du Ping stumbled out of the tavern after drinking, encountered a lady in white on the roadside, and lunged at her. The lady in white let out a sharp shriek, and hastily fled while Du Ping intended to pursue her. However, he fell asleep due to the effects of the alcohol.”
“These people, the tavern owner, the drinkers, the neighbors, all can confirm the events.”
These people were very excited to see Jiang Li.
“What I said is true, Du Ping really lunged at the lady in white.”
“I heard the woman’s shriek, it was quite horrifying.”
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the lady in white, otherwise we could definitely prove Du Ping’s actions!”
Jiang Li didn’t want to play detective, it was too brain-consuming: “Leave this matter to the professionals to judge.”
“Your Honor, the Nineteenth Princess has arrived.”
The Lord of Anyang City hurried out to greet her: “Nineteenth Princess.”
The Nineteenth Princess, with a smile on her lips, nodded gracefully. Suddenly, she saw Jiang Li out of the corner of her eye and was overjoyed.
Princess Ji Kongkong, the Nineteenth Princess, had grown into a beautiful and confident young woman after a few years. The only thing was that her chest was marginally smaller than her peers of the same age.
Many young men were attracted by Ji Kongkong’s beauty and intelligence and hoped that Ji Zhi would marry her off to them.
Ji Zhi didn’t give them the time of day.
Ji Kongkong was highly talented in cultivation, now she had even reached the Nascent Soul Stage, which was much faster than Qin Luan.
“Uncle Jiang?” Princess Ji Kongkong ran up to Jiang Li as soon as she saw him.
Now that Ji Kongkong had grown up, she was too shy to throw herself into Jiang Li’s arms like before.
“Oh, it’s Kongkong. It’s been a long time. You’ve become quite a mature young lady.” Jiang Li smiled proudly. The fact that Ji Zhi had sent Ji Kongkong here alone without any other royal family members accompanying her meant that her journey through time no longer required guidance from others.
“Uncle Jiang, why are you here?” Ji Kongkong was surprised to see Jiang Li here.
“I heard there’s a ghost here and came to see the excitement.”
“Uncle Jiang, you’re always joking.”
Ji Kongkong thought Jiang Li was joking and didn’t take it seriously.
The Lord of Anyang City repeated the case once again, and Ji Kongkong felt there was something fishy about this incident.
As time came to a standstill, Ji Kongkong stepped into the river of time, then returned to the State of Jiuzhou. The entire process didn’t even take an instant.
“How was it?” Du Ping was hoping that Ji Kongkong would justify him.
Ji Kongkong’s brows were furrowed as she remained silent. She projected the scenes that she had witnessed in the river of time into the air using her Divine Sense.
At midnight, outside a small tavern.
Du Ping passed by the small tavern, couldn’t resist the aroma of the liquor and was invited by the patrons: “Du Ping, come drink with us.”
“No, no, I’m quitting. Today is the third day since I decided to give up drinking.”
The patrons were relentless: “Ah, you’ve already abstained for three days, you should reward yourself.”
“Alright.” Du Ping was persuaded by the drinkers.
After downing four jugs of wine, Du Ping let out a belch: “This is the last time, I’ll quit drinking from tomorrow.”
The patrons and the tavern owner just shook their heads laughing heartily. Every time, Du Ping would say the same, but he never managed to make it past the fourth day.
“Are you alright? Can you make it home?” The regulars remembered that Du Ping had a tendency to fall asleep on the road after drinking.
“No problem, I didn’t drink much.” Du Ping waved his hands, indicating that he was fine.
“Then why are you talking to the pillar?”
Du Ping didn’t say anything else, he just wobbled forward.
Out of nowhere, a white silhouette appeared in the distance, seeming to materialize out of thin air.
The white silhouette seemed hazy, like a wisp of smoke, extremely unstable.
Du Ping’s eyes shifted as if he saw something odd, and he lunged at the white silhouette.
The white silhouette, upon seeing Du Ping’s aggressive advance, let out a sharp scream, a horrifying sound, and then disappeared, leaving Du Ping to lunge into the air.
Du Ping tripped and promptly fell to the ground, snoring loudly.
People living on the second floor saw the scene and reported Du Ping for public harassment of a woman.
“What is that thing?” The witnesses didn’t understand what the white silhouette was.
Ji Kongkong blushed: “This is what I saw. Even with my keen sight, I couldn’t tell how the white silhouette appeared and disappeared. This is the scenario I saw in the river of time. If Uncle Jiang could also go to the river of time, he might see more.”
“I suspect it’s a ghost.” The Lord of Anyang City looked grave. He had received several reports of citizens claiming to have seen ghosts, and their descriptions were eerily similar.
He had also encountered similar situations himself and it scared him out of his wits.
He was a God-transforming stage cultivator, and the fact that the other party could appear and vanish without his notice left him with some lingering fear.
He could see it clearly with his eyes, but when he opened his Divine Sense, it showed that there was nothing there!
The City Lord of Anyang felt that there was something uncanny about this and felt a chill run down his spine, and hence reported it up the chain of command.
The court, having received similar reports from all over the kingdom but unable to decide what to do, contacted the Human Emperor Palace Guard.
The Guards reported it to the Human Emperor’s Palace.
“It could be a ghost.” Jiang Li also believed that the white silhouette was a ghost. The way the white silhouette appeared and vanished was against natural law, and it didn’t look like a result of a Cultivation Technique.
But how could ghosts appear in Jiuzhou? Aren’t all the ghosts in the Underworld?
Ji Kongkong, looking scared as the two talked seriously, quietly moved closer to Jiang Li to feel more secure. She always liked listening to stories from Jiang Li and her greatest fear was ghost stories.
“So, Du Ping is accused of harassing a female ghost?” The City Lord of Anyang hasn’t forgotten why he asked Ji Kongkong to come here.
The City Lord of Anyang was a bit confused. The law of Zhou Dynasty clearly states that “harassment of women” includes female human beings and female demons, but it seems that ghosts were not listed as protected entities.
Should they interpret it more broadly and extend the concept of “women” to include ghosts?
Du Ping glared at the City Lord of Anyang. Clearly, he was determined to stick Du Ping with a crime today.