54 Si Ming: The Defied Judge of Life (2)

Words were back to words.

Si Ming had to write scroll after scroll of petitions to the Heavenly Court. Truth to be told, the Celestial Emperor wasn't particularly concerned that the crown prince had been sent to reincarnate along with other sinners of Ninth Heaven. No real reason to be. No memories of his past, the crown prince couldn't do anything to stop the Sky Realm. The Emperor wanted nothing but to cut off any strings attached between the star-crossed lovers.

As for a part, Si Ming needed to find other things to delude the Celestial Emperor from looking at the name list of those reincarnated in that year. Only to find the Goddess of Forgetfulness and asked for her cooperation. Almost everyone in the Three Realms knew the goddess loved to experiment. He had his ways to bribe her—the serpent's tribe gallbladder.

"It's rare to see you presenting me such a valuable gift, Star Deity Si Ming," she said in a hard voice, sniffing at the gallbladder, examining whether he had given her fake goods. "Cut it short, what is it that you want?"

Not surprising, the goddess's wit was as sharp as the knives. Si Ming let out an awkward laugh, "It's about the names of those who reincarnate this year…"

The goddess suddenly glared at Si Ming. "If by names, you mean to stretch the regulations, then my answer is no. I'm not even the one who's in charge, it's the Rebirth King. That's beyond my authority."

Si Ming let out a huff of air. Of course, he knew it was the Rebirth's King responsibility. The entire Three Worlds knew that the king was the most righteous from all Ten Rulers of Hell, very different to that Goddess of Souls who had cursed him on having two souls in one body. To seek the king's assistance would have the same conclusion as digging his own grave. He was once again reminded of how little his title as a god, not a match for those bigger scale deities.

Even if the Goddess of Forgetfulness wasn't the person in charge, every soul must come for her flavored tea before passing the Bridge of Naihe and reincarnate. Simply put, the goddess was the best option he had ever had.

"Then, I see we're not acquainted with the matter," Si Ming snapped, his fingers reached for gallbladder just to have the goddess swallowing her pride.

Her gaze lingered on the serpent's gallbladder a moment before she sighed. "Fine. Just one name, and that's it."

He did it? Si Ming almost couldn't believe himself when he managed to persuade the most gutty goddess he had ever met. He had learned from writing about the human's fate that women always love expensive gifts. It was ridiculously easy.

She waved her hand in the air and a pile of thick papers appeared on her delicate hands. "Name."

Si Ming swiveled his head around, keeping his eyes and ears open for any sign of anyone suspicious lurking. He whispered, "Jie Moshu."

"Jie—" The goddess skimmed through the list when suddenly her brow drew together in surprise. "You've got to be kidding me!"

Si Ming put a finger on his lips, signaling the goddess to keep her voice down. They said even walls have ears. This was the matter of having their heads off for treachery to the Heavenly Kingdom. It was something that had to be done discreetly, very careful at all costs.

"Just this once, Meng Po. For old times' sake." His eyes pointed at the gallbladder, slightly wiggling his brows.

The goddess sighed before pursuing her lips. The look she got when she was thinking things through. This was a good thing because, nine out of ten, people working on Underworld were never stopped to consider. The same thing applied to grim reapers; once they were given a task, they would dog their pursuit of it. Such cases were the reason he bribed the goddess with rare materials. Underworld was the place of supernatural bureaucrats.

She reluctantly agreed to not give Jie Moshu any tea. Well, the goddess did a little nagging to him. It hurt his ears but still tolerable.

He thought that the weight of his words to the crown prince would end until sending him off on his journey. But it didn't look like that was the case—at least not anymore.

A few days of Ninth Heaven passed, it was the same as decades in the Human World. Si Ming was enjoying his moments full of inspiration, writing with his brush when suddenly someone stormed into his tranquil Hall of Northern Sphere.

Startled by the suddenness of that intrusion, he dropped his brush, letting ink smeared on his scroll. He muttered the word 'Heavenly Father' like a curse. Half of him wanted to cry, another half wanted to break into a hysterical shout. He had spent two days writing, and now all ruined because of—

Eh? The crown prince?

"Your Highness?" Instead of glaring, Si Ming turned at him in astonishment.

"You have to help me," Jie Moshu said, then pulled Si Ming into another side of the room.

He drew back and looked at him. "What? What is it? How come you're alone? Where's your wife?"

"I need to use your laws of destiny."

He had agreed to help only within the boundaries of the Human World. As the Defied Judge of Life, he was responsible for setting mortals' strings of fate, writing how their life would be one of the cases. But laws of destiny were something else entirely, something far more serious—the very core of why the Hall of Northern Sphere existed. Still, he kept his features calm and acted as if he had known nothing about it.

"Laws of destiny?" He said in an incredulous voice, swallowing hard. "That law only shields gods from interfering human's life—"

Jie Moshu cut him off, his voice almost sounded broken like shattered glass. "She's gone, Si Ming."

Gone? As in dead on her way to the Netherlands?

Si Ming tugged the neck of his robe, feeling claustrophobic. Gods' souls were different from humans'; as mortals, humans could have a chance to reincarnate, make remedies to their sin. But not for gods who have immortal entities. The life for gods after death was nonexistence.

Unless… He was mentioning to use the laws of destiny to stop the death itself from happening.

If the Celestial Emperor, no, if anyone else knew about this, not only the Sky Realm, the whole Three Worlds would be shattered into dust.

By means, if the true power of the laws was widely known, not only it could prevent death but also ruling all realms. Dissipation of the law could cause endless misery, all living creatures screaming for the mercy of death. The balance between life and death would be ruined.

His stomach twisted in horror. This was something beyond common knowledge, even not the Celestial Emperor understood the real purpose laws of destiny. It was the Heavenly Father himself that descended the secrets behind the holder of the Wheel of Fate and Destiny. On behalf of the Hall of Northern Sphere, he was granted to use the laws for protecting mortals' fate intervened by ill-fated gods. If it wasn't for curiosity and years of studying the wheel, he wouldn't have known that much. But the crown prince knew about it.

Regardless, it was absurd.

Jie Moshu was absurd!

"There's no way the law of destiny can help in reviving your wife—" Si Ming bit off his words when he spotted something almost glowed in a faint violet light on Jie Moshu's left palm. "Shard of souls?"

His breath caught in his throat, trying to comprehend the madness happening, as he continued. "You've used your cultivation and immortality to protect her soul from dispersing?"

"I can't let her go," Jie Moshu said in a low voice. The obvious strain in his eyes and face and clenched fists as though he could stop his trembling by sheer force of will. "Her death isn't something that she deserves."

Normally, he wouldn't have taken out the Wheel of Fate and Destiny. But this was different. At that moment, Si Ming couldn't decide if the crown prince was crazy—or if maybe, it was himself. Spending much time with the crown prince had skewed his perspective. He couldn't afford to think like him. His love wasn't something evil, it should be fine.

For the sake of his object of observation, he convinced himself.

"Fine. But let me warn you, Your Highness, the outcome won't be pretty. The law of destiny doesn't show mercy. It can merge those shards of souls, but she'll lose all her six senses. Other than consuming your cultivation to your core, it'll be hard for you to use your powers again. Worst predicament, you'll suffer nothingness along with her soul."

Si Ming hadn't mentioned about the manual of actuating the wheel, much less explained on the way putting one's power for the laws to work.

But it was already too late—Jie Moshu's eyes began to glow and he knew the prince was reaching for his magic and started to spin the wheel.

Being acquainted with the crown prince was Si Ming's worst nightmare. At the thought, he was shocked in silence. How could he even dare to think of the crown prince like that? After all the errands he had done for Jie Moshu...

Seconds later to his realization, the air around him rippled with flickers of azure. He felt invisible waves of power pressing against him, causing the images to be pushed away and he was popped out from his own memories.

Then he realized this was a charm spell. Replaying one's darkest nightmare into a loophole and making one couldn't get out of it.

But a blue flame? That didn't look like the crown prince's. His mind latched on the familiar aura. "Little Celestial Grandson?"

"I can only help to cast away your hallucinations," Axiang's voice echoed in a serious tone, almost like an adult talking. "As for your way out, I believe Star Deity Si Ming can do it on your own."

Si Ming swallowed hard. Axiang must have regained his consciousness. He may have looked like a child in front of Jie Moshu, but he was never a simple fairy boy.

Well, as a five-hundred-year-old child god, Axiang wouldn't have any darkest desire or nightmare to be influenced by a fox fairy's spell. And the most, he wasn't as little as his size may be, his power was far greater than Si Ming to have reached the stage of a deity at an early age.

The thing that concerned him was the possibility of that little celestial grandson seeing his memories, or reading his thoughts. He closed his eyes. It was over for him. If a word of the crown prince's sacrifice reached the female human, he was as good as dead.

Simply hoping that Axiang was telling no one about his true emotion. He forced the disturbing thought from his mind. About his fate on Jie Moshu's hand, he could dwell on it later. For now, he had his job to do. Finding his way out from this charm spell loophole.