Chapter 3

This second lawsuit involves a husband and wife as the plaintiff and defendant.

"In heaven, we wish to be birds flying wing to wing. On earth, we wish to be branches intertwined." Xun Yi looked at the complaint and asked curiously, "What are you two up to? Are you seeking a divorce?"

The two single-eyed, single-winged birds spoke in unison:

"Yes!"

"No!"

The two birds looked at each other, transformed, and a handsome man and a beautiful woman bowed to Xun Yi. Xun Yi secretly admired the beauty of the phoenix lineage. "The mandarin ducks are indeed descendants of the phoenix and symbols of good fortune. If I could invite mandarin ducks to celebrate my wedding, what a grand scene it would be!"

While thinking, he listened to the complaint of the mandarin ducks. The husband said, "I am Qi Yu, and I only want to regain custody of my son from my wife."

"No way, I won't give him! If it comes to it, I'll ask the City God to grant us a divorce!" The wife was fierce and started cursing, "Why should I give you the son I carried for three years!" She glanced at Xun Yi, "What, is the City God finding someone else to handle cases again?"

"This is the young master of the Xun family," Bai Fu coughed lightly and introduced them.

"Xun family's young master?" Qi Yu's eyes lit up, "Are you the descendant of Xun Yuan? When Xun Yuan got married, I even went to congratulate him."

Xun Yuan was the name of Xun Yi's father.

Hearing that it was related to his deceased parents, Xun Yi felt a mix of emotions. He forced a smile, "Since you are an elder of Yi, may I ask why you and your wife are in dispute? If it's about custody, why not bring the child along? If you really want a divorce, the child's opinion is the most important."

The wife carefully took out a white jade-colored spirit egg from her bosom, with a red spiritual aura swirling around it, "If this little one could speak, we wouldn't be in dispute."

An egg?

Xun Yi's expression became strange. After seeing an old acquaintance, Qi Yu opened up and explained the situation, "Our mandarin duck tradition is that the female lays the egg, and the male hatches it. However, my wife refused to go out after laying the egg and guarded our son, not letting me touch him."

"Touch what!" The wife glared at him, "Times have changed, understand? In the past, our clan needed strong males to protect the young while the females went out to hunt. But now we live in Qinglong City, and we can order takeout from 'Food for All' every day, so there's no need to go out hunting. Why can't I take care of my son?"

"Food for All is a canteen established by a food deity in the city, providing food for various monsters and spirits, with a dedicated delivery service. So now, all the monsters living in the city don't need to go out hunting; they just need to pay for food to be delivered. If you pay more, someone will even serve you the meal."

Hearing Bai Fu's explanation, Xun Yi was speechless, "This is no different from the human world; the quality of life for monsters is really good." According to human stories, shouldn't monsters live in the mountains? How can their quality of life be better than ordinary people?

"Or what? Do you think monsters are just primitive and lack intelligence?" Wen Panguan joined in, whispering, "What do you think this case is about? In simple terms, they have nothing to do and are just bickering. So this female mandarin duck wants to hatch the egg herself. Young master, how will you rule?"

After thinking, Xun Yi decided, "Fights in bed, peace at the foot of the bed. What enmity can there be between a husband and wife? Why not observe for a few days and take turns caring for the child?"

Qi Yu wanted to say something but was rebuffed by Xun Yi, "Of course, you can't stay at home, it's too comfortable, which is why these problems arise. You should swap places with this little beast. You temporarily move to the west of the city, and let him stay at your place for two days."

Xun Yi placed a palm-sized canine rabbit on the desk and poked it with a brush, "Alright, stop pretending to be dead, get up. If you have no objections, this is the ruling." While the rabbit was still lying down, the brush kept smearing ink on its back to get back at it for the ink spill earlier.

The canine rabbit suddenly stood up, and Xun Yi repeated his ruling, "The mandarin ducks have a large territory, and you staying there for two days will help you avoid the snake demon's molting period. And your uncle and aunt living near the snake demon shouldn't be afraid of the snake's threat, right?"

Snakes eat bird eggs; with such a big enemy nearby, how could this couple still argue with each other?

In times of shared danger, they might even rekindle their affection!

Qi Yu thought it through and had no objections to Xun Yi's ruling. He was just curious about the white-furred canine rabbit, "This rabbit is only a second-stage spirit beast, timid by nature. Staying at our place for two days is fine, but the phoenix aura in our home, can he handle it?"

The canine rabbit, hearing this, said with a bitter face, "Young master, please find me another place to stay."

"Phoenixes rule the birds; why should a four-legged beast like you fear the phoenix aura? It's a good opportunity to build your courage. If you have free time, help them clean the house. It's settled!"

He wrote the result on the complaint and dismissed the two parties.

After the three left, Bai Fu hesitated and said, "Young master, sending the white-furred canine rabbit to the mandarin ducks' place, are you jealous because he spilled ink on you?"

"Nonsense!" Xun Yi immediately rebutted, "I'm helping him build his courage. He's a second-stage spirit beast, and the mandarin ducks are only fourth-stage. Besides, the couple won't be home. If he can't handle it, he might as well find a tree to bash his head against!"

"Definitely malicious revenge," the others thought, seeing Xun Yi's righteous demeanor.

"But the mandarin ducks are living near the snake demon. If something goes wrong, it won't be good," Wen Panguan reminded.

Xun Yi nodded, "So, please have the house guardian general send someone to watch over them and prevent any conflict between the snake demon and the mandarin ducks."

After a while, with no more complaints, the group cleared the documents on the table, and Wen Panguan sent them to the storage room.

Bai Fu ran back and forth, presenting Xun Yi with a bowl of soup, "This is the ginseng soup I ordered from Food for All."

Xun Yi was looking at the soul delivery records from last month, where the death toll in Qinglong City and its surroundings reached three hundred. He picked up the bowl and took a sip, immediately feeling a warm current flow through his body.

"Wow, this ginseng soup tastes great." Xun Yi, born into a wealthy family, had eaten all kinds of delicacies since childhood. Just one sip was enough to tell that it was different from the soups he usually had.

"Old mountain ginseng, and at least a hundred years old, right? And honey-cured ham, green mushrooms, and several herbs. No, no, it seems to have some seafood for flavor?"

"You're overthinking it," Bai Fu laughed, "Food for All is a joint canteen established by the food deities under the Kitchen God. The ingredients used are not from the human world but a special type of food for the deities." Bai Fu looked mysterious, and just as Xun Yi was about to ask, the third complaint arrived.

This third case had no defendant, only a deceased soul seeking his wife.

The deceased was named Zhang Jiang, who died a few days ago along with his wife. According to the rules of the underworld, the local City God would guide them, and on the first and fifteenth of each month, the ghost gate would open to send them to the underworld, reducing the workload of the impermanence messengers.

Zhang Jiang's soul smoothly entered the residence prepared by the City God, but his wife was nowhere to be found.

"Is this a case that can't be resolved immediately and needs to be handled later?" Xun Yi scanned the faces of the deities around him, who nodded, "That's right. In such cases, we just need to record the birth date, age, and name. Once found, they can be sent to the underworld to reunite."

Xun Yi dipped his brush in ink and asked for Zhang Jiang's wife's name and recorded it.

"Zhang Liu, originally named Liu Meixiang. Born on the 21st day of the 5th month of the Xin Wei year, at the 21st hour of the 21st day of the 5th month of the Xin Wei year." Xun Yi finished writing and suddenly paused, carefully examining the birth date, "All yin year, yin month, yin day, yin hour? That's quite a coincidence, just like my mother. And both in the Xin Wei year."

Muttering to himself, he didn't notice the odd expressions on the faces of the deities around him.

Bai Fu cautiously asked, "Young master, do you remember the birth date of the late Lady Xun?"

"Of course, as a son, how can I not know my parents' birthdays?" Xun Yi replied, "My mother was born on the 21st day of the 3rd month of the Xin Wei year, at the 21st hour of the 3rd day of the 3rd month of the Xin Wei year. She was a few months older than this Zhang Liu."

"Yes, a yin year, yin month, yin day, yin hour is indeed a rare coincidence. Don't you think such a date is rare?" Bai Fu wanted to say more but was silenced by Wen Panguan's glare, who whispered, "Don't be stupid! What good will it do to tell him about his mother? The Xun family deliberately asked the lord to keep it secret. If you reveal it and trigger his desire to save his mother, and something goes wrong, making the Xun family extinct, just wait to see how the lord will kill you."

"It's nothing," Xun Yi, unaware of the secret communication, replied to Bai Fu, "It's just a pure yin or pure yang birth date. There should be many people with such birth dates, right? For example, this year is the Ren Zi year, with six yang months, 180 days. Half of those are yang days, so there are at least 90 days of yang year, yang month, and yang day. It's quite common, and I've always thought pure yang birth dates are common. I am a pure yang birth date, after all."

"Speaking of which, I remember your birth date is the Bing Shen year, Geng Yin month, Jia Xu day?" Wen Panguan, fearing Xun Yi would think of his mother and reveal the secret, quickly changed the topic.

"Yes, the Bing Shen year, Geng Yin month, Jia Xu day, and Wu Chen hour, right around the Lantern Festival." Xun Yi seemed to be thinking of something, shaking his head to clear his mind.

"A good day, a pure yang day coinciding with the Lantern Festival, Jia Wood pure yang, deep blessings and good fortune," Wen Panguan praised, relieved to see Xun Yi finish recording Zhang Liu's disappearance.

"What's good about it? Because it's a yang year, yang month, yang day, and yang hour, my grandfather was afraid I would die young, so he named me Yi. Yi means change, connecting yin and yang, transforming life and death, hoping I could survive through this."

Xun Yi scratched his head, but there was also a theory that the name Yi was originally for his brother. Since his brother died young, the name was later given to him.

Adding the current date, Ren Zi year, May 15th, to the missing person notice.

"Finally, I managed to avoid reminding him of his mother's situation," Wu Panguan and others communicated, thinking that Zhang Liu's soul disappearance could easily remind them of the mysterious disappearance of Lady Xun's soul. Both cases involved a couple dying simultaneously, with the husband's soul entering the underworld while the wife's soul disappeared.

"A pure yin woman, could there be some evil cultivator using their souls to practice magic?" The generals thought of the unsolved case from the past, feeling uneasy.

After sending Zhang Jiang back to wait patiently, Xun Yi and the others continued their work. Xun Yi drank a bowl of ginseng tea, barely holding back sleep, rubbing his eyes and flipping through documents. Suddenly, a hand appeared before him.

A pale hand gripped his brush, and Xun Yi, not reacting, said, "Bai Fu, what's the matter—" Suddenly, he looked up and saw a man standing before his desk.

The man's neck was continuously bleeding, the bright red blood dripping onto Xun Yi's hand, staining his clothes.

But Xun Yi paid no attention; his eyes were fixed on the man's neck.

It wasn't that there was something on the neck, but rather that it lacked something that a normal person would have, which made Xun Yi freeze in shock.

On the neck of this man in armor, there was no head! It was a headless ghost!

"Ahh—There's a ghost!" At seventeen, Xun Yi didn't think twice, grabbing the brush next to Wen Panguan, "Yuluo Yaqian!"

The seventh move of the Maolin Sword Technique, as the brush moved, the City God's mark on his hand glowed, divine power attached to the brush, and the sword intent surged. A golden jujube tree appeared behind him.

Flowers and golden coins rained down, covering the entire hall.

Wen Panguan's divine artifact, combined with the divine power left by the City God to protect Xun Yi, and the ancestral sword technique of the Xun family, transformed this move into a divine technique. The golden jujube coins fell like a raging wave, scattering the neatly arranged documents.

The faces of Bai Fu and others changed, and they quickly cast spells to protect the documents, "Young master, don't act rashly, this headless ghost is here to file a complaint!"

But before they could calm Xun Yi down, he suddenly disappeared, leaving only a glowing brush on the divine seat. For mobile users, please visit http://m.piaotia.net

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