Chapter 367 - Drawing Cards

Chapter 367: Chapter 337: Drawing CardsThe Judgment Chief pondered briefly before agreeing to Haye’s request for a temporary adjournment.

Two groups of people left their seats and exited the courtroom. Over at Miao Yin’s side, they hurriedly conversed in low voices with Arctic and the others, urgently discussing their strategy.

Li Cheng’s strategy of separate adjudication for the two crimes was a devastating blow. For Miao Yin, even if Xiao Shui were put in jail for three to ten years, it would be worthless if she couldn’t obtain any property. She must find another way.

"Disgusting, truly disgusting!"

In the defendant’s waiting room, Star Lord Xiao Shui paced back and forth, his tone filled with indignation as his teeth ground together in anger.

From the trial performance, it seemed he wasn’t wearing any cuckold’s hat, or maybe he never had one. But his "first encounter" with Miao Yin was likely premeditated.

Realizing that the only beautiful memory left in his mind was fabricated, and having slept with an old woman who lied about her age for years with an intention to entrap him,

Xiao Shui felt extremely uncomfortable, wishing he could draw his sword and slash something.

"If you’re in pain, you can cry it out,"

Li Cheng consoled him: "Or you can sit on the floor of a private shower, scrubbing your body with a towel diligently while crying to show your grief."

"? What a classic scene from old domestic TV dramas where the heroine is deceived of her money and affection."

Zhang Wei raised an eyebrow and rubbed his hands, saying to Star Lord Xiao Shui: "From the current standpoint, we have a significant advantage in property division. Brother Ant verified that Miao Yin lied about her age, making the marriage invalid.

According to the Immortal Court Civil Code, a cohabitating partner has no automatic inheritance rights and cannot define obligations, while their claims to rights are limited.

This means the other party cannot claim divorce damages based on marital faults like domestic violence or infidelity, or falsely allege illness to demand medical expenses from the other party."

Zhang Wei, once a mediocre lawyer at a certain law firm in the real world (and still is, though he doesn’t work often), had seen numerous bizarre divorce cases.

There were couples who, to avoid home purchase restrictions, pretended to divorce and one party refused to remarry, resulting in a loss of both people and money;

There were cases where court documents were forged, making a spouse believe they were divorced, thus rapidly transferring assets;

There were adulterers who, fearing the other party’s refusal to divorce, fed rat poison to their spouse for years, unsuccessfully trying to kill them;

And there were those deceived by online lovers who cleaned out family assets and pushed their spouse down the stairs to avoid blame.

Seeing so many cases of couples turning against each other, Zhang Wei had little faith in love. As a top-quality bachelor with assets worth millions (with game coins alone his assets totaled millions), he had yet to find a partner.

Though the ladies in the slum’s Evil Science Alliance bars were gorgeous, bewitching, sweet, and tender, Zhang Wei longed for a soul-to-soul connection.

"The only three points to worry about now are, first, whether the other side will use any means to forcibly resume the marriage relationship."

Yuan Zhixia said: "The Immortal Court Civil Code has been amended to no longer recognize de facto marriages after February 1, 3294. However, if a marriage registration was re-done, the validity of the marriage can be traced back to when the substantive requirements for marriage were met.

Are you sure you didn’t re-register the marriage?"

Star Lord Xiao Shui stopped pacing, his eyes filled with stardust as he instantly recalled his life over the past century, nodded emphatically, "I’m sure I didn’t re-register the marriage with that bitch. I’ve always had my cultivator identification on me, and she had no chance to steal it."

"That’s good."

Yuan Zhixia nodded, "The second point is, do you have children with her? A non-marital child in a cohabitation relationship has the same legal rights as a marital child and can claim child support."

"No,"

This time Star Lord Xiao Shui answered even quicker, perhaps fearing the "mortal" lawyers didn’t understand the cultivator world, he explained in detail: "Regardless of gender, the higher a cultivator’s cultivation, the harder it is to conceive a child.

During the embryo stage, parents must expend their own cultivation to nourish the divine soul and the flesh of the infant.

Thus, even a 190-200 year old Mahayana Realm cultivator might only have one or two offspring in their lifetime."

Li Cheng raised an eyebrow, well, that made sense. In nature, the more advanced the organism, the harder it is to reproduce.

The reasons include a complex physiological structure, energy and resource limitations, environmental adaptability and survival strategies.

In the Warhammer 40k universe, the Spirit Clan, due to their high degree of genetic evolution, require several months for each gene exchange to reproduce, needing genetic material from different individuals, making it quite unsuitable for children.

Ugh... speaking of which, like Musk and the founder of a certain domestic game company, having many children with different non-marital partners is a lottery strategy—the more children you have, the higher the chance of producing an SSR genius to inherit and expand the family business.

Yuan Zhixia asked, "Is there any chance she got pregnant secretly and astonishes everyone?"

"Impossible."

Star Lord Xiao Shui shook his head decisively, "We discussed long ago not to have children before I turned 160, always keeping track of the time.

Even in the worst-case scenario if she stole my essence while I was asleep, the whole gestation process would last three to four years, which couldn’t be hidden from me."

"That’s good."

Yuan Zhixia nodded, "The last concern is whether she has any evidence of your crimes."

"What?!" Star Lord Xiao Shui’s face changed slightly, accidentally smashing a corner of the wooden table.

"In just over a hundred years, you and Miao Yin brought the Xiao Shui Sect from a rundown state to the third highest in the human world. Did you use any illegal means during the process?"

Yuan Zhixia calmly asked: "For instance, after discovering a Spirit Stone vein, driving villagers away with man-made mudslides to destroy the village, or murdering and robbing, or wiping out entire families.

Also, I see from the data that Xiao Shui Sect owns dozens of businesses, including banks, shops, inns, pawnshops, auction houses, brothels, and flying boat fleets...

Are there any illegal business operations, insider trading, or financial crimes within these."

In the real world, aside from the relatively clean development of emerging internet companies, other traditional business models find it exceedingly difficult to start from scratch, grow and thrive without any stains.

They all have to navigate legal gray areas to some extent.

Yuan Zhixia said: "With two separate cases, if Miao Yin realizes she can’t gain most of the property through the divorce case, she might shift her focus and directly threaten to report your financial crimes, using the second case to pressure you into making concessions in the divorce case."

"Is she crazy? Xiao Shui Sect was built up by both of us. All the business operations, legal or illegal, were managed by both of us. Reporting me means she goes to jail too!"

"Winning alone is better than both losing, which is better than losing alone. Even if she threatens you with a self-destruction strategy, there isn’t much you can do to counter it—it’s unlikely she’ll really be imprisoned for life."

Yuan Zhixia took out pen and paper, calmly saying: "I suggest you recall all possible financial crimes, and we lawyers will figure out how to fix the loopholes."

After a long silence, Star Lord Xiao Shui slowly nodded. Finding it too troublesome to verbally detail everything, he directly used the Sleeve Universe Skill to summon paper and ink, carefully controlling the ink to splash on the scroll’s surface, instantly writing densely packed words.

Wow, it’s a compendium of crimes. Dude, did you graduate from Tilanqiao Prison?

Zhang Wei was shocked, watching as page after page was filled, with no sign of stopping even after half a minute.