"This, how is this possible?"
Brother Guo's eyes widened. At this moment, the wounds on his body seemed to no longer hurt.
So many shops were scared into closing their doors, and the "protection fees" they carefully sent out... were actually these?
Endless bewilderment surged into his heart. Brother Guo suddenly had a feeling of being played with. The other two Law Enforcers felt the same; they stood there like two air-dried sculptures.
"Zuo Tong, Guo Nan." Han Meng's icy gaze swept over the two. "This is what you meant by... wildly amassing wealth?"
"This... shouldn't be right??"
"Commander-in-Chief Han Meng, there must be a misunderstanding here..." Brother Guo gritted his teeth and forcefully squeezed out this sentence.
Brother Guo's thoughts had been completely turned to mush... He couldn't understand, the shops on that street making such a big fuss was just to give Chen Ling these things?
What kind of good person takes so many animal hearts as protection fees?
"But, he did strike to hurt someone first!" Brother Guo changed the subject, enduring the pain to speak again. "I didn't even say a full sentence to him, and he stabbed me with a knife... He's a madman!"
Han Meng turned to look at Chen Ling, "What about you, do you have anything to say?"
"He was bullying the residents in my jurisdiction. I was just enforcing the law impartially, it was 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 out earlier immediately spoke.
"I can testify too."
"I can also..."
More and more people testified for Chen Ling. Han Meng coldly glanced at Brother Guo. The latter was just about to argue something, but ultimately didn't speak... just glaring venomously at Chen Ling.
Chen Ling didn't care about Brother Guo's glare. To him, this was no different from a passing dung beetle glaring at him on the street.
Right at this moment, Han Meng took out a document from his coat and handed it to Chen Ling.
"What is this?" Chen Ling asked.
"Your appointment letter." Han Meng's voice rang out calmly. "Originally, I was planning to go directly to your place to give it to you... But hearing you were here, I dropped by on the way;
Aurora City has appointed you as a District Three Enforcer. From today onwards, you are directly under my command... At the same time, you have the authority to manage all District Three Law Enforcers."
Everyone was stunned.
The venom in Brother Guo's eyes first turned into astonishment, then into disbelief... When he saw Chen Ling expressionlessly accept that appointment letter, only dullness was left on his face.
In his mind, he instantly recalled the terrifying speed and power Chen Ling displayed when kicking him away earlier. His expression was incredibly ugly.
He had just finished offending Chen Ling, and the other party was Promoted to Enforcer??
Besides Han Meng, no one knew Chen Ling had already stepped onto the Way of the Soldier God. He himself had no intention of publicizing it either. If it were other Law Enforcers from previous batches who had stepped onto the Way of the Soldier God, they wouldn't have been able to resist widely publicizing it and recruiting partisans as soon as they returned.
Chen Ling glanced at the appointment letter, turned around and asked Han Meng, "Where's my uniform?"
"It's this kind of windbreaker on you... The Law Enforcer's uniform is too ugly."
"..." Han Meng gave him a weird look, turned, and walked out. "Follow me to get it."
As Chen Ling and Han Meng left side by side, the vegetable market fell into a dead silence again. Brother Guo stared blankly at Chen Ling's departing back, his heart sinking to the bottom of the valley...
...
"Cliché plot." Chen Ling sighed.
"What?"
"...Nothing, I was just saying it casually."
Chen Ling glanced at the Audience Expectation Value on the snow beside him. Since entering the vegetable market, it had only increased by 9% in total... Of which 7% was obtained the moment the bags were opened, and the remaining 2% was when the appointment letter was given later.
If Chen Ling had known about this interlude in advance, he was confident he could manipulate it to double the Audience Expectation Value again. Unfortunately, everything came too suddenly... However, walking on the main road and having expectation value deliver itself to the door like this was quite nice.
It would be great if a few more people like Guo Nan could come.
"You clearly know that there is a phenomenon of collecting protection fees among Law Enforcers, why don't you care?" Chen Ling asked the doubt that had been in his heart for a long time.
"Care? How to care?" Han Meng shook his head. "Back then, after I was Promoted to Enforcer, I also tried to solve this problem, but it was fundamentally unfeasible..."
"Even if the order clauses are fixed, it won't work?"
"You don't understand, the source of all this doesn't lie with the Law Enforcers, but with the residents themselves." Han Meng spoke slowly. "The people here have been enslaved for too long. For the past hundred years or so, they have relied on offering money to gain the protection of Law Enforcers and peacefully run their businesses... Their fathers and grandfathers all lived this way.
Even if you tell them from now on they don't need to make offerings anymore, they will instead feel uneasy in their hearts. Wanting to change the imprisoned thoughts of a generation and eradicate the weakness and inferiority in their hearts is not that easy..."
Chen Ling remained silent for a long time. Recalling the situation on the day he first became a Law Enforcer, he nodded slightly.
Chen Ling followed Han Meng to the Law Enforcer Headquarters of District Three. The latter took out a windbreaker with a silver Marking from the cabinet for him and placed it neatly on the table.
"This is yours."
Chen Ling draped the black windbreaker over his shoulders. The size fit well. He looked at himself in the mirror, his temperament becoming much steadier...
"The grading of Enforcers is based on the Markings on the hem of the windbreaker. Whatever Rank of strength you possess, that is the number of Markings you are as an Enforcer. Every time after an Advancement, it must be reported to Aurora City, and they will immediately send clothes with the corresponding Markings."
"Right now in the Aurora Domain, what is the highest number of Markings for an Enforcer?" Chen Ling asked.
"Eight Markings, and there are only two."
"So few?"
"Did you think Advancement to Eight Markings is very simple?" Han Meng glanced at him. "In the entire human world, there aren't many powerhouses with Eight Markings. Any single one of them could annihilate the entire District Three with a casual wave of their hand...
Those two Eight-Marking Enforcers are already centuries-old powerhouses of the Aurora Domain."
"In the Aurora Domain, is there not even a single Nine-Marking Enforcer?"
"There are no Nine-Marking Enforcers."
Han Meng paused for a moment, "However, there is a Rank 9..."
Chen Ling was stunned for a moment, then understood Han Meng's meaning... Aurora City had a Rank 9, but that person was not in the Enforcer system.
"He's not of the Way of the Soldier God?" Chen Ling asked probingly.
"No, that person doesn't belong to any Divine Path..."
"Doesn't belong to any Divine Path?" Chen Ling spoke in incomprehension. "Without a Divine Path, one can also advance to Rank 9? How did he do it?"
"That person's situation is extremely complex... You only need to know that he doesn't belong to any path, yet possesses incredibly powerful authority. Even the Aurora Domain we are in exists because of him."
Hearing the last sentence, shock surfaced in Chen Ling's eyes.
A Realm, exists because of a single person?
"Who is he?"
Han Meng paused for a moment and slowly spoke a name:
"Lord of the Aurora."