Chapter 96: Law Officer

"This, how is this possible?"

Brother Guo's eyes widened. At this moment, the wounds on his body didn't even seem to hurt anymore.

So many shops had been scared into closing, and the "protection money" they had carefully delivered... was this?

Endless confusion flooded his mind. Brother Guo suddenly felt like he had been played. The other two law enforcers felt the same; they stood there like two dried-up statues.

"Zuo Tong, Guo Nan." Han Meng's cold gaze swept over the two. "Is this what you called... extortion?"

"This... this shouldn't be??"

"Chief Han Meng, there must be a misunderstanding..." Brother Guo gritted his teeth and managed to squeeze out these words.

Brother Guo's thoughts were a complete mess... He couldn't understand why the shops on that street had made such a big fuss just to deliver these things to Chen Ling?

What kind of decent person takes animal hearts as protection money?

Doesn't it give you internal heat to eat so many?!

"But he did strike first and injure someone!" Brother Guo changed the subject, enduring the pain as he spoke again. "I hadn't even finished a sentence before he stabbed me with a knife... He's a madman!"

Han Meng turned to Chen Ling. "What about you? Do you have anything to say?"

"He bullied the residents in my jurisdiction. I was simply enforcing the law and acting in self-defense."

"You call this self-defense? I've already..."

"I can testify that Officer Chen Ling was indeed acting in self-defense," the old man who had stood up earlier said immediately.

"I can testify too."

"I can as well..."

More and more people testified for Chen Ling. Han Meng glanced coldly at Brother Guo, who was about to argue but ultimately said nothing... only glaring at Chen Ling with venom.

Chen Ling didn't care about Brother Guo's gaze; to him, it was no different from a dung beetle on the side of the road glaring at him.

Just then, Han Meng took a document from his coat and handed it to Chen Ling.

"What is this?" Chen Ling asked.

"Your appointment letter." Han Meng's voice sounded calm. "I was originally planning to go to your place to deliver it... but I heard you were here, so I stopped by on the way.

Aurora City has appointed you as a Law Officer of the Third District. From today on, you are directly under my command... and you have the authority to manage all law enforcers in the Third District."

Everyone was stunned.

The venom in Brother Guo's eyes turned to shock, then disbelief... when he saw Chen Ling expressionlessly accept the appointment letter, his face was left with nothing but a blank stare.

In his mind, he recalled the terrifying speed and power Chen Ling had used to kick him away, and his face turned incredibly ugly.

He had just offended Chen Ling, and the guy had been promoted to Law Officer??

Except for Han Meng, no one knew that Chen Ling had already stepped onto the Path of the Soldier God, and he had no intention of publicizing it. If it were any other law enforcer who had stepped onto the Path of the Soldier God, they would have been bragging and recruiting followers the moment they returned.

Chen Ling scanned the appointment letter and turned to ask Han Meng, "Where are my clothes?"

"Just like the trench coat you're wearing... the law enforcer uniforms are too ugly."

"..." Han Meng gave him a strange look and turned to walk away. "Follow me to get them."

As Chen Ling and Han Meng walked away side by side, the market fell into silence again. Brother Guo stared blankly at Chen Ling's retreating back, his heart sinking to the bottom...

……

"Cliché plot." Chen Ling sighed.

"What?"

"...Nothing, just talking to myself."

Chen Ling glanced at the audience expectation value on the snow. Since entering the market, it had only risen by 9%... 7% of which was gained the moment he opened the bag, and the remaining 2% was when the appointment letter was given.

If Chen Ling had known about this interlude in advance, he would have been confident in manipulating it to double the audience expectation. Unfortunately, everything happened too suddenly... but walking down the street and having expectation value delivered to his door was quite nice.

If only there were a few more people like Guo Nan.

"You know that law enforcers collect protection money, so why don't you stop it?" Chen Ling asked a question that had been on his mind for a long time.

"Stop it? How?" Han Meng shook his head. "When I was promoted to Law Officer, I tried to solve this problem, but it was simply not feasible..."

"Even if the terms and clauses were strictly set?"

"You don't understand. The root of all this doesn't lie with the law enforcers, but with the residents themselves." Han Meng said slowly. "The people here have been enslaved for too long. For the past hundred years, they have relied on paying tribute to gain the protection of law enforcers to conduct their business peacefully... Their parents and grandparents all lived this way.

Even if you tell them they don't have to pay tribute anymore, they will feel uneasy. Changing the imprisoned mindset of a generation and removing the weakness and inferiority in their hearts is not that easy..."

Chen Ling was silent for a long time, recalling the situation on the day he became a law enforcer, and nodded slightly.

Chen Ling followed Han Meng to the Third District Law Enforcer Headquarters. The latter took out a trench coat with a silver pattern from a cabinet and laid it neatly on the table.

"This is yours."

Chen Ling put on the black trench coat; it fit well. He looked at himself in the mirror, his temperament becoming much more composed...

"Law Officer rankings are determined by the patterns on the hem of the trench coat. Whatever level of strength you have, you are that level of Law Officer. After each promotion, you must report to Aurora City, and they will immediately send you the clothes with the corresponding pattern."

"What is the highest-ranking Law Officer in the Aurora Domain right now?" Chen Ling asked.

"Eight-stripe, and there are only two."

"So few?"

"Do you think it's simple to be promoted to eight-stripe?" Han Meng glanced at him. "In the entire human world, there aren't many eight-stripe powerhouses. Each one could wipe out the entire Third District with a wave of their hand...

Those two eight-stripe Law Officers have been powerhouses in the Aurora Domain for a hundred years."

"Is there not a single nine-stripe Law Officer in the Aurora Domain?"

"No nine-stripe Law Officers."

Han Meng paused for a moment. "However, there is a Ninth-Order..."

Chen Ling was startled, then understood what Han Meng meant... Aurora City had a Ninth-Order, but that person was not within the Law Officer system.

"Is he not of the Soldier God Path?" Chen Ling asked tentatively.

"No, that person doesn't belong to any Divine Path..."

"Doesn't belong to any Divine Path?" Chen Ling asked, puzzled. "Can you reach the Ninth Order without a Divine Path? How did he do it?"

"That person's situation is very complex... You only need to know that he doesn't belong to any path, yet he possesses extremely powerful authority. Even the Aurora Domain we are in exists because of him."

Hearing the last sentence, shock appeared in Chen Ling's eyes.

A domain exists because of one person?

"Who is he?"

Han Meng paused for a moment and slowly said a name:

"Lord Aurora."