Lu Chen, a low-ranking clerk in Heaven's Tribulation Inspection Office, was forced to sign off on the first tribulation at Five Elements Mountain. But he discovered that someone had swapped out the mountain-sealing talisman, and that three hundred mortals were about to be written off as necessary losses. He stamped the document in red before everyone: “Inspection failed. All merit from the first tribulation is frozen.” From then on, whenever Tang Sanzang and his disciples faced a tribulation, Lu Chen investigated who was responsible, preserved the evidence, and pursued compensation. Anyone who failed to account for even one life had to pay back the merit.
