45: Chapter 45 Twenty-Minute Statement

2:15 PM on the day of the hearing.

Lin Yuan stood under the eaves outside the side door of the Divine Realm Financial Regulatory Commission building.

This was an old building constructed in the first year of the Spiritual Qi Revival, with gray terrazzo exterior walls and narrow, deep windows that looked like a row of eyes that didn't open easily. There was no signage at the door, no security turnstiles, only a polished copper plaque engraved with a single line of small text:

"Faith is responsibility."

Lin Yuan looked at the words for three seconds and pushed the door open.

The corridor was narrower than he imagined, with dark wainscoting embedded on both walls and a tungsten wall lamp every five meters, casting dim, yellowish light. There was no one to guide him. Following the diagram attached to the notification letter he received two days ago, he passed through two fire doors and found conference room "0307" in the deepest part of the third floor.

A young man in a gray uniform stood at the door with an "Affairs" badge pinned to his chest. He verified Lin Yuan's spiritual energy signature and pulled open half the door with an expressionless face.

"Twenty minutes. The timer starts when you sit down. There will be a reminder bell in the last minute of the countdown. Once the bell rings, you must stop, regardless of whether your statement is finished."

Lin Yuan nodded.

The conference room was smaller than he imagined.

A dark long table, seven high-backed chairs, the tops of the chair backs embedded with emblems of different divine powers—Wenchang, Guan Sheng, Mazu, Baosheng Dadi... and three other emblems Lin Yuan didn't recognize; those were cognitive blind spots not yet covered by his divine position rating.

The seven commissioners had not yet taken their seats. Only the clerk was sitting at the data entry terminal in the corner, head not even lifted.

Lin Yuan took his seat at the presentation table.

A copper bell was embedded in the table. The wall directly in front of him was a whole piece of dark glass, non-reflective, impossible to tell if it was a mirror or a screen.

2:29 PM.

The door was pushed open from the outside.

The seven commissioners entered one by one. No pleasantries, no introductions; they took their seats and opened the files in front of them. Lin Yuan saw his thirty-one-page short-selling report, now bound into seven blue-covered volumes, spread out at the seven pairs of hands.

The chair back of the commissioner in the center was embedded with the emblem of Emperor Wenchang. She was about sixty, with neat silver hair and rimless glasses, reading the report extremely fast, turning a page every five seconds.

She did not look at Lin Yuan.

2:30 PM.

"Begin," Commissioner Wenchang said.

Lin Yuan pressed the copper bell.

The timer started.

He spoke, his voice steadier than he expected.

"Commissioners, I am Lin Yuan, registered divine name 'God of Ruins.' The chain of evidence I am submitting today is intended to prove: Mo Feigong, registered name in the Divine Realm financial regulatory chain Mo Feigong, has for the past twenty-one years systematically utilized the shells of compliant financial tools such as Earth-Vein restoration, green bonds, and divine asset securitization to engage in illegal faith asset misappropriation and the refining of evil artifacts."

He pressed the projection control key on the desktop.

The first chart appeared on the screen behind the commissioners.

《Topology of Energy Flow: Summer Palace vein-locking nail - ten thousand infant banner》

"This is the core evidence. Twenty-one years ago, in the name of 'Earth-Vein restoration experiments,' Mo Feigong obtained long-term lease rights to the Earth-Vein nodes behind the Summer Palace through a nominee company and installed seven vein-locking nails. Each vein-locking nail is designed with an energy extraction efficiency of 0.7 standard faith units per day, for a total daily extraction of 4.9 units from the seven nails. Operating for twenty-one years, it has cumulatively extracted approximately 37,000 standard faith units."

Commissioner Wenchang's gaze moved from the report to the topology chart.

"The destination of this energy," Lin Yuan switched charts, "is entirely injected into an illegal evil artifact named 'ten thousand infant banner' by Mo Feigong. The ten thousand infant banner itself has no compliant registration records, no faith asset coding, and no tax records. It is a pure 'black box asset' drifting outside the Divine Realm financial regulatory system."

The second chart.

《Energy Capacity Efficiency and Backlash Rate Fluctuation Curve of the ten thousand infant banner (Recent Three Years)》

"This is data I observed and recorded on the spot when I infiltrated the core refining location at the Summer Palace in the early hours of August 17th this year. There was a technician on-site whom Mo Feigong called 'Doctor,' and his monitoring terminal showed—the current imbalance rate between the energy capacity efficiency of the ten thousand infant banner and the input efficiency of the vein-locking nail is 17.3%, and it is showing a continuous expansion trend."

"What does a 17.3% imbalance rate mean?" Lin Yuan's speaking speed was steady. "It means Mo Feigong cannot control the evil artifact he refined with his own hands. It means that the vitality of the 37,000 standard faith units of Earth-Vein is becoming a spiritual energy bomb in his hands that could detonate at any time."

The third chart.

《Linkage Map of Illegal Assets Associated with Mo Feigong

Lin Yuan started from the vein-locking nail and drew the first line: Nominee company → three-layer equity penetration → Mo Feigong's personal control account.

The second line: Overseas shell company from twenty years ago → Mo Feigong holds 31% → that batch of defaulted faith expected return certificates → 870,000 investor losses.

The third line: Earth-Vein Maintenance Foundation from fifteen years ago → Mo Feigong actual control → 2.3 million in green bonds → second stage refining of the ten thousand infant banner.

Three lines, converging on the same chart. The destination is the same name.

The conference room was silent. Only the cooling fan of the projector hummed.

Lin Yuan didn't look at the commissioners' expressions. He stared at the asset linkage map he had spent three days and nights drawing, like staring at a complex mechanical device he had finally dismantled down to its core components.

"Commissioners," he said, "I am not here to accuse Mo Feigong of refining evil artifacts to harm people. Accusation is the duty of the criminal investigation department."

He paused.

"What I am here to prove is: all traceable illegal assets under Mo Feigong's name are parasitic in the blind spots of the Divine Realm financial regulatory system through these three links. The Earth-Vein leasing for the vein-locking nails used legal lease contract templates. That batch of defaulted certificates was packaged as standard divine asset securitization products. The green bonds were issued through a foundation, and rating agencies even gave them AA-."

"He used our rules to hide his evidence of crime."

The light of the projector hit the side of his face.

"This is why, for the past twenty-one years, no mandatory freeze order could ever land on his account. Every time regulation initiated an investigation, it would be forced to terminate at some layer of equity nomineeship, some canceled legal entity, or some 'broken chain of evidence'."

"It's not that it couldn't be investigated."

"It's that every piece of evidence found was one step short of being actionable."

Lin Yuan pressed to the next chart.

"So, in Chapter 31 and Chapter 8 of this report, what I submitted is not a 'proof of guilt'."

He pressed.

Only one line of text remained on the screen.

《Emergency Motion to Immediately Freeze All Associated Accounts of Mo Feigong and Initiate Mandatory Liquidation Procedures》

"This is an operational instruction."

"The 17.3% energy imbalance rate of the vein-locking nail - ten thousand infant banner is Mo Feigong's liquidity crisis. He is in urgent need of extracting energy from the ten thousand infant banner, but he dares not touch the alarm threshold of the regulatory chain. He is in urgent need of an alternative container, but he cannot find enough soul-soothing spiritual objects. He is in urgent need of time, but he has no time left."

"Freezing his accounts now is not punishment."

"It is loss mitigation."

Lin Yuan looked at the seven commissioners.

Commissioner Wenchang's gaze moved from the screen to his face.

"Mitigating whose interests?" she asked.

"Mitigating the final right of recourse for those 37,000 standard faith units," Lin Yuan said. "The Earth-Vein vitality extracted by the vein-locking nails is essentially urban public spiritual energy reserves. Over twenty-one years, the interest on this illegally occupied reserve has already exceeded the principal."

"After freezing the accounts, this energy is still in the ten thousand infant banner. After mandatory liquidation, this energy can be legally auctioned, legally cashed out, and legally returned to the special Earth-Vein Maintenance Foundation."

"If we don't freeze it—"

He paused for a moment.

"The 17.3% backlash rate is not growing linearly. Once it reaches the 25% critical value, the ten thousand infant banner will actively tear open the energy valve of the vein-locking nails and drain the last vitality of the Luoxia Mountain Earth-Vein in one go to suppress its own collapse."

"At that time, those 37,000 units of energy will still be there."

"But the Earth-Vein will be dead."

The conference room was quiet for five seconds.

The commissioner sitting next to the Baosheng Dadi emblem, who had been lowering his eyes, lifted his head for the first time.

"How do you prove the 25% critical value?" he asked. His voice was low, as if coming from a deep well.

Lin Yuan was prepared. He brought up the fourth chart.

《Research Review on Critical Values of Backlash for Similar Evil Artifacts (Excerpt)》

"This is public academic literature. Since the Spiritual Qi Revival, forty-seven evil artifacts of the same type related to vengeful spirits that have been seized and sent for inspection have had backlash control critical values distributed in the 22% to 28% range, with a median of 25.7%. The refining process of the ten thousand infant banner is more primitive, and the container is more unstable, so its critical value will only be lower, not higher."

He did not say that Dr. Li had dug this out of the clinic's database overnight three days ago.

The commissioner did not ask again.

Commissioner Wenchang looked down at the timer. Four minutes left.

Lin Yuan pressed the last chart.

《Deduction of Asset Disposal Path After Execution of Temporary Freeze Order》

"This is my disposal suggestion for the illegally occupied Earth-Vein vitality after the execution of the freeze order. The seven vein-locking nails still have energy extraction functions, but the efficiency has decayed to 47% of the design value. If the 'vein-locking nail reverse displacement technique' is completed within six months after the freeze order takes effect, it is estimated that about 18,000 units of residual vitality can be recovered."

"As for the technical plan and the lead surgeon required for the displacement technique," he paused, "there is already a candidate."

He did not say Dr. Li's name. But he knew that in this conference room, someone knew who he was talking about.

Commissioner Wenchang looked at the disposal deduction chart for a long time. Then she closed the blue-covered report in front of her.

"Statement time is up."

The bell did not ring. She had terminated the timer early.

Lin Yuan did not move.

Commissioner Wenchang took off her glasses and slowly wiped the lenses with a velvet cloth.

"The chain of evidence you submitted," she said, "is missing the last link."

Lin Yuan's heartbeat stopped for an instant.

"The installation agreement for the vein-locking nails, the list of directors for the overseas shell companies, the signatures of the technical consultants for the green bonds—these are all indirect evidence. They prove that Mo Feigong is associated with illegal assets, but there is not a single piece of direct proof that: Mo Feigong himself personally issued the instructions to 'install vein-locking nails,' 'issue defaulted bonds,' and 'refine the ten thousand infant banner.'"

She put on her glasses.

"Indirect chains of evidence can apply for 'asset preservation freezing,' but cannot initiate 'mandatory liquidation.'"

"You only have forty-eight hours."

"Within forty-eight hours, if you can fill in the 'direct instruction' link, the freeze order will be upgraded to a liquidation order. If you cannot, the asset preservation order will automatically expire, and all accounts under Mo Feigong's name will be unfrozen."

She looked at Lin Yuan.

"At that time, the first thing he will do is initiate a countersuit against you."

Lin Yuan did not speak.

Forty-eight hours.

He needed a piece of evidence—evidence that could prove Mo Feigong himself "issued illegal instructions."

He remembered the words Mr. Mo said in person at the entrance of the cave in the Summer Palace: "Find out who it is! I want to extract his soul, refine his soul, and fill him into this ten thousand infant banner."

That was an instruction. But it was an oral instruction, one that could not be recorded, and one that could not be submitted for regulatory chain certification.

He needed a witness. A witness who could testify in court and point out that Mo Feigong personally issued illegal instructions.

The conference room lights came on.

The seven commissioners stood up one by one and left. No one looked at Lin Yuan again, no one said "wait for notification."

This was the style of the Divine Realm Financial Regulatory Commission. You make a statement, they listen. Then you leave, and wait for an email.

The email will not contain "approved" or "rejected." It will only contain an encrypted PDF: 《Decision on Initiating Asset Preservation Freezing on Account Holder Mo Feigong. Or nothing.

When Lin Yuan walked out of conference room 0307, the corridor was already empty. The tungsten wall lamps cast his shadow very long.

He walked down the stairs, passed through the fire door, passed the copper plaque—"Faith is responsibility"—and pushed open the side door, walking into the sunlight of 4:30 PM.

His phone vibrated. A spiritual message from Boss Qian:

"There is movement at the Summer Palace. The Doctor did not appear at the regular monitoring point this morning, and the spiritual energy signal from his office has been offline for four hours."

"Mo Feigong is transferring core personnel."

Lin Yuan stood on the steps and dimmed his phone screen.

Forty-eight hours. He had to find a missing technician. He also had to find direct instruction evidence that could upgrade the freeze order to a liquidation order.

He looked up. The off-white building stood silently behind him, its windows narrow and deep, like a row of eyes that had just closed.

The phone vibrated again. This time it was not Boss Qian.

Sender: Dr. Li.

The content was only one line:

"The Doctor's real name is Zhou Jishen, thirty-four years old, majoring in spiritual energy engineering, and he interned at my clinic for three months twenty-one years ago."

"He sends me a greeting text every Mid-Autumn Festival."

"He hasn't sent one this year."

Lin Yuan stared at the words. Three seconds later, he dialed that number.

"You know where he might be."

The other side was silent for two seconds.

"His mother still lives in the old place." Dr. Li's voice was very soft. "She hasn't moved in twenty-one years."