Chapter 201 : Chapter 201
Chapter 201: “Trial”
After leaving the ruins, Li Mu sent a message to Ironhand City’s ground command center.
He asked them to contact Song Chuhe at Tiger Roar Camp on his behalf.
Song Chuhe was a man who truly got things done.
With a single order from Li Mu, Song Chuhe planted himself in Tiger Roar Camp like a nail and handled every matter, great and small, involving Tiger Roar Sixth Camp.
Up to now, not a single problem had reached Li Mu’s ears.
More than an hour later, Ma Jun and the two brothers, Xing Yang and Xing Guang, arrived in Linyuan City with a thousand Tiger Roar Army soldiers.
Once the Tiger Roar Army reached Linyuan City, they did not care about any Tom, Dick, or Harry from the Law Enforcement Bureau.
Wherever they were pointed, they struck.
Without the slightest hesitation.
One slow-witted branch director had turned off his phone and was busy enjoying himself with his mistress.
He did not even know that the Law Enforcement Bureau Headquarters had been bombed.
The Tiger Roar Army smashed through the window and barged in. He did not even have time to put on his pants.
They covered his head and dragged him straight to a secret location for a harsh interrogation.
The branch director was so terrified that urine streamed out of him. He thought he had fallen into the hands of the Swordbearers Hall, and he even confessed to stealing the neighbor lady’s underwear as a parachute when he was a child.
The Law Enforcement Bureau was only one part of the judicial system.
Aside from it, there were also the Procuratorate Bureau, the Adjudication Bureau, and the Administrative Bureau.
Li Mu had killed the head of the Law Enforcement Bureau outright.
Before the Northern Frontier General Judicial Department issued its documents, it could be said that complete chaos had descended.
According to normal procedure, even if Zong Hongsheng had truly committed a crime, the matter still had to be reported to the Judicial Department.
They would send someone down to investigate the case specifically while taking temporary charge of the Law Enforcement Bureau’s operations.
Now, the Law Enforcement Bureau’s work could be described as half-paralyzed.
The one ordered to take charge in this crisis was the Deputy Commissioner of the Law Enforcement Bureau, Jin Keming.
Yet, precisely during this chaotic stage, Li Mu was still frantically collecting evidence of Zong Hongsheng’s crimes.
Following the trail, he firmly seized evidence against a large batch of people.
In particular, even Jin Keming had been investigated once by Li Mu.
Jin Keming was so frightened that he nearly wet himself.
He considered himself fairly just.
But who in this world was one hundred percent clean?
How could anyone possibly avoid touching even the slightest hint of anything unsavory?
Some necessary banquets and social exchanges came with the position. No one could completely avoid such customs.
Some of them were even genuinely for the sake of carrying out work more smoothly.
Although they were not serious issues, if someone insisted on pursuing them, it would still be enough to make him suffer.
Fortunately, Li Mu had not gone mad to that extent.
He understood how to seize the major issues while letting the minor ones go.
Jin Keming truly did not have any matters that violated his principles.
So Li Mu ignored him.
At the first opportunity, Li Mu gripped all the evidence related to Zong Hongsheng firmly in his hands.
This was the reasonable proof he would use to deal with the Judicial Department’s coming questions.
He had already thought it through very clearly.
If the Judicial Department intended to reason with him, then Li Mu would reason with them.
If they did not intend to be reasonable, then Li Mu had no need to be reasonable either.
At the same time, he sent Wang Yinhuan back to Ironhand City to stay with his mother.
Li Mu moved quickly.
Bloodpool City’s side was not slow either.
Li Mu had originally planned to find a place to rest for a while and sort two sets of the cultivation arts in his mind into paper format.
He had not expected that around three o’clock in the afternoon, the people from Bloodpool City had already arrived.
Moreover, those who came were no ordinary people.
A Deputy Director of the Judicial Department.
And a Commissioner from the Military Cultivation Art Research Bureau of Shenqi Military District.
He held the military rank of Junior Dragon General.
He directly issued a trial notice to Wanren Military District.
The case of Li Mu killing Zong Hongsheng would be heard at Linyuan City’s Supreme Adjudication Bureau.
It was An Xing who informed Li Mu of this.
After replying that he had received the notice, Li Mu quickly headed for the courtroom.
At 3:40 p.m., inside the courtroom of Linyuan City’s Supreme Adjudication Bureau, the media, public intellectuals, and family factions had filled a large number of seats.
There were more than a hundred people in total.
The media were allowed to record, but they were not allowed to livestream.
In a trial court of this level, whether the footage would be permitted to air in the end was usually a question in itself.
These people had come merely to serve as witnesses and recorders.
On the judges’ bench, the Deputy Director of the Judicial Department sat high in his seat, his expression as dark as water.
Putting aside the relationship between Zong Hongyuan and Zong Hongsheng, Li Mu’s actions were in themselves a provocation toward the Northern Frontier Judicial Department.
Because no matter how one looked at it, Li Mu had killed someone.
And it had not been an ordinary person.
Even if there was evidence, the Judicial Department far away in Bloodpool City had not known about it.
Even when beating a dog, one still had to consider its master.
Even if Li Mu had evidence, he should at least have informed the Judicial Department first.
Now, the Judicial Department had been thrown into an extremely passive position.
At this point, it was not excessive at all for the Judicial Department to question the case as an intentional homicide.
If Li Mu had justice on his side, he could simply bring out the evidence in court to prove it.
That said, the Deputy Director himself did not actually have the authority to try Li Mu.
Li Mu was a Tiger Marquis.
As a local institution, the Judicial Department could not summon Li Mu for trial, let alone a Deputy Director. Even if the Director himself had come, he still would not have that authority.
That was why the Junior Dragon General from Shenqi Military District’s Military Cultivation Art Research Bureau had come along.
Today, this counted as a joint enforcement action between a military tribunal and a local court.
The Junior Dragon General sat to one side of the judges’ bench with his arms crossed, resting with his eyes closed.
Zong Hongyuan’s “military-related incident” had been false, but the fact that Li Mu had clearly violated regulations by killing someone was real.
The Judicial Department could reasonably make trouble for him.
The Junior Dragon General had come today to pressure Li Mu and allow the Judicial Department to proceed through proper procedures.
It was also because this procedure existed that Li Mu gave the Judicial Department this bit of face and pushed open the doors to enter the courtroom.
The moment Li Mu pushed open the doors, everyone looked toward him.
For a time, all kinds of gazes fell on him. Some were shocked, some puzzled, some approving, and some hostile.
It had to be said that many family factions had come today precisely to watch Li Mu be put on trial.
After all, as soon as Li Mu arrived, he had brought down the Lu Family and gained a firm foothold in Wanren Military District, causing Wanren Military District to grow increasingly unyielding.
Now, many unscrupulous families no longer dared to casually manipulate Wanren Military District.
Li Mu strode into the center of the courtroom.
He looked at the Deputy Director on the judges’ bench.
Then he looked at the silent Junior Dragon General beside him, whose eyes remained closed.
He had already sensed the Deputy Director’s cultivation level. Profound Rank Seventh Grade.
The Junior Dragon General was Profound Rank Ninth Grade.
Seeing their gloomy expressions, Li Mu felt that today probably would not be very pleasant.
“May I ask where I should sit?”
Li Mu asked the Deputy Director on the judges’ bench calmly.
The Deputy Director gritted his teeth.
What was there to fear? A Junior Dragon General was sitting right beside him. Today was a military tribunal.
The one truly trying Li Mu was the Junior Dragon General, not him.
“Sit in the suspect’s seat!”
He said coldly.
“Very well.”
Li Mu smiled, walked over to the suspect’s seat, and sat down directly.
At the same time, two experts at around the Profound Rank Fifth or Sixth Grade approached him and faintly boxed Li Mu in between them.
The Deputy Director said, “Li Mu! I am Zhou Min’an, Deputy Director of the Judicial Department. Today, we will hear the case of your killing of Zong Hongsheng, Commissioner of the Linyuan City Law Enforcement Bureau. The court is now in session!”
Li Mu did not feel any sense of oppression.
On the contrary, he found it quite novel.
He had never gone to court in his previous life. He had not expected that in this life, he would even get to experience the feeling of being judged.
“Ask away.”
Li Mu leaned back and said it with complete ease.
It infuriated Zhou Min’an.
Some of the nearby family members could not help whispering among themselves.
“So that is the Tiger Marquis Li with all those glorious military achievements?”
“Hmph. He thinks he can do whatever he wants just because his military rank is high.”
“No matter how high it is, he still isn’t above a Dragon General. It seems he is going to fall today.”
Zhou Min’an asked Li Mu directly, “Li Mu, why did you murder Zong Hongsheng?”
When many members of the media heard this, their eyes twitched.
Those who were able to come today were all influential media figures.
The name Zong Hongsheng had appeared far too often in case-solving reports.
But this was the first time he had appeared as a victim.
And Li Mu’s answer made everyone’s scalp go numb.
There were only five blunt words.
“Because he deserved to die.”