"Now it's time to settle accounts with you three," Yang Qing said with a frosty expression. He had seen his fair share of arrogant defendants who were all too reckless with their words and actions. But this was the first time someone other than him was the target of those actions especially it being Chief Song Chuanli. Of the instructors he was close with, Chief Song was one of them, it was the reason Yang Qing called him despite his fiery personality. In his time at the institute, he had been guided by him and offered support that went even beyond the scope of what a normal instructor would give and he wasn't the only one Xia Boqin the superior core court judge who looked like a noble was one of the few people who were really close with Chief Song in fact he was more of a father to the latter. Hearing someone bad mouth him angered him more than if he was the target. It took a lot of self-restraint for him to not slap them to death right then and there.
"Had you decided to be patient, things may have ended differently for you. Yes, there is no doubt that you three are guilty of damaging owner Zhong Quan's property and you would have to pay the amount required either through labor or spirit stones. But just like I've told owner Zhong Quan the Order would have footed the bill and have you three brothers settle up the amount with us later.
We would have given you sufficient time to pay us the amount in installments with a 1% annual interest charge on the amount with the 1% being charged on the remaining balance each year. Unlike Zhong Quan, we don't have to worry about you three escaping since the Order can track you anywhere in the southern continent.
The other option would have been to have you do some jobs for us. Unlike other places, we don't pay a fixed rate based on your cultivation realm we pay according to the degree of difficulty of the job and the completion rate. So you may have taken a single job that costs 15,000 middle-grade stones and cleared your debt in one day if you completed it successfully which would have opened up an opportunity for you guys. We have a lot of contract work that we offer to rogue cultivators like yourself and the remuneration terms are excellent. We can pay in spirit stones, cultivation resources like herbs, weapons, and pills that are of an equivalent value to the spirit stones or you can choose to be guided on your cultivation arts by some of the instructors from the institute for a set period of time. These options are only afforded to rogue cultivators to ensure you can have a footing in this treacherous world.
Most rogue cultivators who have become renowned in the past a hundred years over half of them was because of the harvests they gained from doing contract work with us. Some were even so good that they were offered a permanent placement with us even though they are not products of the institute.
However, because of your earlier display of utter contempt and disregard for this court, your end will be much graver and harsher.
I Yang Qing judge of the superior core courtroom hereby declare Shen Shi, Shen Ding, and Shen Tian guilty of slander and show of contempt to the court and a member of the Order. You are also guilty of being in breach of article 24 of the court's code of conduct the obeisance and compliance of parties involved to the court ruling and its penalties. You submitted yourselves willingly and wholeheartedly to the court's ruling but acted contrary to your agreement putting you in breach of the article hence invoking its penalties.
Maligning a member of the Order with no grounds carries a sentence of 3 years of hard labor. The type of labor is left to the discretion of the judge in charge of the case however as needed the terms may be changed depending on the needs of the Order as at that time. The works may result in your peril and the Order has no obligation to save you should that scenario occur. Any injuries you get during the sentence will not be handled by the Order we will only cater for housing, meals, and provision of all pertinent information to ensure you complete your tasks well. Logistical support will also be provided but only on things concerning the work, combat gear isn't included in this. You will have to depend on yourselves on that end.
In addition, the penalties for breaching article 24 of the code of conduct in courts ruling carry a minimum sentence of 5 years of hard labor in addition to the guilty party paying what is owed in damages as a result of the verdict in their case. For your case, after you serve the 5 years you will still owe the Order 15,000 middle-grade spirit stones that you will have to pay back and the interest will still be charged as long as the debt is still active.
However, depending on the severity of the breach it is up to the discretion of the Judge to decide whether to add more years to the minimum 5-year sentence. I thus have decided to add 2 more years to it making it a 7-year sentence and adding the 3 years of showing contempt I hereby sentence you to 10 years of hard labor.
Shen Shi, Shen Ding, Shen Tian in the period of your sentence the works for your hard labor will be but not limited to:
· You will work as a spirit stone miner for 6 months. The Chief Secretary of mining will decide the mines that you will be sent to and the schedule.
· You will be attached to the alchemy division for 6 months and help them in any way they deem fit in help combating the miasma affecting one of the grounds housing our snow streak branch office found in Snow streak empire.
· For 15 months you will be attached to the rank 5 kingdom the Midnight flower kingdom. They were struck with a flood that damaged almost a third of the kingdom. You are to assist in their efforts to construct dams, retrofit their waterways and improve on other types of infrastructure around the kingdom. You will also assist in their land reclamation, rehabilitation, and restoration measures. A specialist in disaster management from the Order will be sent with you. They will supervise your work and give you guidelines on what and how to do it. With your core formation cultivation bases it shouldn't be too hard for you to complete it within 15 months. Failure to do so and six more months will be added to your sentence.
· The remainder of your sentence will be spent as a support staff to the core courts all around the Order here at the headquarters and the branches. Though based on your capabilities you will only be dispatched to the outer core court and the inner core court. You are to do all that is required of you and any disobedience will be considered another infraction and 3 more months will be tacked on to your sentence. Your schedule and detachment will be decided by the scheduler and shift supervisors of the lower core courts and the upper core courts. For the next seven years and seven months whatever they say goes.
A point of note during the conduct of all these duties you will be graded. You will be graded in terms of your quality of work and completion rate. If you get anything less than 7/10 in the evaluation six more months will be added to your sentence," Yang Qing finished as he removed his energy that had paralyzed the Shen brothers who were currently wide-eyed with their jaws wide open. They had wanted to yell but the feeling of being paralyzed just moments ago was firmly imprinted on them.
"Judge isn't this unfair just because we contradicted your decision," Shen Ding the crafty-looking brother in the yellow robes stiffly asked. His whole body was trembling and pale and he wasn't alone in this. Shen Tian was hit the hardest as his hands despite being deeply clenched till there were blood droplets forming, his shaky knees and hands could not be calmed despite how hard he tried. Everything within him was tingling in fear yelling for him to run and he didn't know why? He was the most intuitive of his 3 brothers and that was one of the reasons they have been able to survive this long. It was his timely warnings and reactions that saved them more than a couple of times from certain death. But it was now screaming at him telling him he was doomed. The earlier contempt and arrogance were gone from the three brothers.
"At the start of the case I did ask you if you were sure you wanted to surrender yourselves to the ruling of the court did I not? You all agreed. If you want I can even replay the photo stone recording of your agreement if you want. The problem I have isn't even with the disagreement but the manner in which you went about it.
Do you think you could hide your true thoughts from me? From the moment you stepped into this court you had utter disregard and contempt for it and the people in it. It's okay if you think it but you decided to push it further and act on it treating this place and the people in it as your backyard.
If you do something you must prepare yourselves for the consequences. You even had the gall to threaten to smear our reputation out there. Do you think the Order is fragile enough to be affected by the rumblings of core formation experts how laughable," Yang Qing coldly said.
"However since I'm feeling magnanimous I'll give you three a chance. You can use that strength you seem to be so proud of," Yang Qing said as a small innocent smile curled up. Zheng Hu on seeing this could only mourn for the three brothers. He knew that harmless-looking smile and what it entailed all too well.
