Chapter 257 The Paradox of the Mirror of Retribution
Zhao Feng's fingers stopped tapping. He stood up, his dark imperial robes, adorned with the black bird motif, drawing a heavy arc in the somber hall. He strode down from the throne and coldly commanded:
"Bring the soul and the demon recorded in the Book of Life and Death to the Mirror of Karma. I will personally interrogate them and see how the rules of the old era will unfold in the face of the karma of the new world."
"Yes, sir!" Judge Wen immediately brandished his judge's pen.
A moment later, in the huge square outside the Yama's Palace.
A towering, ancient bronze mirror, tens of feet high and weathered by time, stood amidst the gray mist. This was the Mirror of Karma, the most authoritative judicial instrument of the underworld. It could reflect all the good and evil deeds of the deceased in their lifetime and automatically settle accounts according to the laws of the underworld.
Two ghostly soldiers escorted the soul of the scout from the Jianghuai defense line and the soul of the massive armored wolf to the ancient bronze mirror.
The human and the demon were still under the suppression of the laws of the underworld, their eyes vacant, like two soulless puppets, standing quietly in place.
"Interrogate the person first," Zhao Feng said in a deep voice, standing with his hands behind his back.
The ghostly soldiers pushed the scout's soul directly in front of the Mirror of Retribution.
hum! ! !
The ancient bronze mirror emitted a deep, resonant hum, its surface rippling like water. Then, images of the scout's life flashed rapidly across the mirror: him pulling the trigger in the muddy trenches, him slicing open the throat of a monster with a vibrating blade, him gulping down the foul-smelling monster's blood, him even refusing to heal his critically wounded comrade in his quest for a single, life-saving demon core...
Normally, the Mirror of Retribution would deliver its verdict in an instant. But this time, it fell into an extremely strange state of stagnation.
Zizizi!
The edge of the Mirror of Retribution first flashed with an extremely dazzling blood-red light of sin! Killing, stealing elixir, and soaring malevolence—these are the evil deeds that would condemn one to the eighteenth level of hell for torture.
However, just as the red light of sin was about to freeze, a dazzling golden light suddenly shone from the depths of the mirror! That was the merit of the Heavenly Dao that this mortal hunter had gained for fighting to the death on the defensive line, building a defensive line with his own flesh and blood, and objectively protecting the human civilization behind him!
Two diametrically opposed forces of cause and effect, one red and one gold, intertwined and repelled each other wildly within the ancient bronze mirror. The mirror emitted an extremely heavy "humming" sound, like a giant gear that was operating under overload, struggling to move forward.
It took a full incense stick's time for the breathtaking deduction to slowly come to an end.
The verdict that appeared on the mirror made Judge Wen gasp in shock.
"This... what kind of absurd judgment is this?" Judge Wen stared at the blurred handwriting, his voice trembling. "The Mirror of Retribution has decreed that this person should be cast into the Avici Hell for a thousand years of punishment, but given his great merit in protecting his clan, he should immediately ascend to the Heavenly Realm to enjoy heavenly blessings..."
Zhao Feng's face was ashen. His worst fears had come true.
The Mirror of Retribution wasn't broken, but its simple "good and evil binary" algorithm, built on the foundation of peacetime, was simply incapable of reaching an accurate conclusion. A soul possessing both extreme evil and immense merit simultaneously plunged this law-enforcing machine into a logical paradox from which it could not close.
"Take him away. Interrogate him." Zhao Feng didn't say much, just pointed to the demon wolf.
The ghostly soldiers dragged the demon wolf's soul to the front of the stage.
The ancient bronze mirror began to operate with difficulty once again. In the scene, the demon wolf devoured its own kind in the deep mountains, forcibly fused with human metal armor in the crater, and finally charged onto the battlefield, biting off the scout's neck and devouring the human's flesh and blood.
"Murder and devouring the corpse is an heinous crime." Judge Wen stared intently at the mirror.
But it was another extremely long wait, like the burning of an incense stick.
In the end, only a faint gray light appeared on the Mirror of Retribution, and the verdict remained ambiguous: the uncivilized beast hunted according to its instincts and was untouched by karma; however, by devouring fragments of human souls, it became tainted with heavy karmic burdens. It lay between innocence and extreme evil, unable to be definitively categorized.
"Because it simply doesn't have the underlying concept of 'subjective evil'."
Zhao Feng stepped forward, extending his hand clad in dark gold armor, and gently stroked the cold edge of the Mirror of Retribution, a chilling glint in his eyes.
"Wolves eating sheep is a natural law. Now, humans are no different from sheep on their diet. They kill to survive in the wasteland, conforming to 'survival of the species.' When we use the moral laws that humans have developed over thousands of years to judge a predator that only follows the law of the jungle, the result is naturally an extremely inaccurate piece of paper."
Zhao Feng's voice echoed across the empty square.
"Judging a single soul takes the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, and the results are all self-contradictory paradoxes. King Yama... if this continues, the entire underworld's interrogation system will be completely paralyzed!"
"With those millions of souls queuing outside, as long as they're stuck in front of the Mirror of Retribution, the Road to the Underworld will never be cleared!"
This is the most fatal predicament Zhao Feng is facing.
The laws of Heaven are advancing rapidly in the mortal realm, but the laws and regulations of the Netherworld are lagging far behind. A set of laws that cannot handle the vast karma of the wasteland has completely blocked the exit of the entire cycle of reincarnation.
"King Yama! Something's happened on the road to the underworld!"
A high-ranking ghost general in charge of lookout appeared out of thin air, knelt on one knee, and looked extremely horrified.
Zhao Feng's eyes sharpened, and he instantly released his divine sense, covering the entire Yellow Springs Road.
That wasn't the kind of hand-to-hand combat riots you see in the mortal world. It was an extremely terrifying, conceptual "causal resonance."
Because of the extremely slow trial process, millions of human hunters' souls and demon souls were squeezed into the same space in an extremely dense manner. Over time, the immense will to survive and the extreme malevolent energy etched deep in their souls, which were irreconcilable in the mortal world, began to resonate spontaneously.
The dark red aura of demons and the murderous intent of humans formed a massive energy vortex above the Road to the Underworld. This vortex was savagely eroding the "Law of Chaos" used by the Netherworld to suppress the minds of the dead.
At the very edge, a human hunter's ghost, whose gaze had been vacant, suddenly had a layer of bloody light emanate from its grayish-white soul. He turned his head and looked at a second-tier armored boar ghost standing right next to him.
"You killed me..." The hunter's ghost managed to squeeze out a roar filled with endless resentment.
"Roar!" The demonic boar spirit also let out a furious low growl.
"presumptuous!"
Zhao Feng snorted coldly.
boom!
A powerful pressure belonging to the Ten Kings of Hell, like a tangible black tsunami, instantly spread from the Hall of Kings of Hell, suppressing the entire Road to the Underworld without any blind spots.
The causal storm that had just begun to ripple was instantly flattened by this absolute power representing the highest authority of the underworld. The few souls that were about to tear each other apart didn't even have time to scream before they were pressed firmly to the ground by this divine might, unable to move.
Zhao Feng easily suppressed the chaos that had just begun.
But as he looked at the paradoxical words still slowly flickering on the Mirror of Retribution, his expression turned extremely grim.
Forceful suppression is only a temporary solution. Without addressing this outdated legal system at its core, the millions, and potentially hundreds of millions, of redundant souls will eventually overwhelm the entire Netherworld's legal space.
Zhao Feng withdrew his oppressive aura and looked up at the empty, gray-white dome above. He knew that this was no longer a decision he could make. He had to consult the will of that being.
"This matter can be discussed later; I must go see the Lord of Kunlun!"