Boom!
As Song Jiaren grasped the dagger, a mountain of pressure crashed down from above.
The peddler's legs buckled. An invisible force slammed him to the ground, and no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't even raise his head.
Song Jiaren's expression remained calm as she tossed the dagger, its edge rolled dull, onto the ground.
Steward Wu strode forward, his face dark. He waved a hand, and two figures suddenly leaped out of the crowd, pinning the peddler firmly to the ground.
Having been attacked in broad daylight, Li Nuo not only wasn't angry—he even felt like laughing.
After hoping and hoping, at last another assassin had come his way.
Under the Great Xia Codex, assassination—especially an attack in the middle of a teeming street—had an extremely harmful impact on society. It was a far graver crime than ordinary assault.
Even if he hadn't suffered so much as a scratch, the assassin could still be sentenced to Three Years of Imprisonment and Exile for Three Thousand Li.
If Li Nuo had so much as broken the skin and drawn blood, the assassin would have been hanged.
Article 258 of the Great Xia Codex: "Those who plot to murder another shall be sentenced to three years' imprisonment. If the victim is injured, they shall be hanged; if the victim is killed, they shall be beheaded."
By this statute, the female assassin from before should have been sentenced to hanging, even if she hadn't been a servant of the Li Family.
Back then, Li Nuo hadn't understood the Great Xia laws. With Pei Zhe deliberately leading him astray, he'd charged her with assault instead of attempted murder. Of course, he couldn't have sentenced her to more than two years. But he wasn't the clueless newcomer he'd been then, and he