Chen Jin's eye twitched, and a pang of heartache struck him—twenty Spirit Coins! That beast had just roared away a huge chunk of his money!
At the very moment his mind wavered from the loss, the Shark Person suddenly summoned its last reserves of strength and struggled desperately!
Chen Jin's grip loosened slightly. Like a slippery eel, it wriggled free, spun around, and bolted for the courtyard gate!
"Trying to run?"
Chen Jin's anger flared. He charged through the gate in an instant, stepping out into the cold night rain.
But the moment both his feet crossed the threshold and he set foot in the street—
"Crack! Crack! Crack!"
The heavy, savage lash of an invisible whip struck again!
Even more fiercely than before! A burst of agony erupted, as if it would shatter his spine!
Curfew!
Chen Jin grunted and abruptly stopped. He stared in disbelief at the empty street, then at the Identity Tablet at his waist, the one belonging to "Guard Heifu."
Why? I had an identity now. I was a guard. Why was I still subject to curfew?!
The Shark Person was on the street too. Why wasn't it being punished?!
Could it be... because I was "off duty" today, I'd temporarily lost my status as an enforcer and been treated as a "commoner" again?
His thoughts raced. In a flash, Chen Jin looked up at the Shark Person's silhouette, about to vanish into the depths of the rain.
He raised the slightly heated Identity Tablet in his hand and shouted at the "Law Eye" gazing down indifferently from the sky:
"I want to report a crime! Someone has deliberately hurt another person! Guard 'Fu' requests authorization to arrest the offender!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, the Identity Tablet suddenly grew scorching hot. Light raced across its blue-black surface, and two ancient, sharply etched Qin Seal Script characters appeared in the blank space—
[Enforcement]!
The moment Chen Jin's eyes fell on the words [Enforcement] on the Identity Tablet, a sudden change occurred—
The air around him seemed to freeze. A faint, dark glow welled up from the void, quickly coiling around and enveloping his body like a living thing!
A set of cold, heavy black armor appeared on him from nowhere. Its plates clinked together with a metallic clang.
His hand grew heavy at the same time. A long halberd, radiating a bone-deep chill, was now in his grasp. Its blade gleamed sharply, and its standard-issue design was identical to the equipment worn by the Great Qin guards who had stormed the inn that day!
At the same time, his field of vision abruptly shifted, drawing him into a strange and indescribable state.
Countless tiny Qin Seal Script characters, shimmering with a bronze sheen, surfaced from the void like a startled school of fish. They drifted and swirled around him.
Together, they formed a dense web of laws and regulations, arranged into distinct categories:
Field Law: "In the second month of spring, no one may cut timber in the hills and forests or obstruct dikes and waterways..."
Stable and Garden Law: "In the fourth, seventh, tenth, and first months, inspect the fields and cattle..."
Granary Law: "When grain is stored in a granary, for every ten thousand shi, make one pile and compare it with the household register..."
Gold and Cloth Law: "When government offices receive money, one basket shall hold a thousand coins..."
Corvee Law: "When the central government issues a levy, anyone who fails to report for service shall be fined two suits of armor..."
Garrison Law: "Those assigned to guard a city or repair its walls shall be ordered to carry out the work for one year..."
Forced Labor Law: "Anyone who independently establishes an unusual shrine shall be fined two suits of armor..."
Ren Tu's prompt sounded in his ear:
"You have unlocked a special Yanfu Event: Qin Law Hook-Deep!"
"Qin has unified All Under Heaven, using law as its teaching and officials as its teachers. Its statutes are intricate and dense, with punishments hidden in even the smallest details. In this realm, anyone who does not understand the law is like a blind person walking at night, where every step may bring death. Exposure or even death and the destruction of one's soul can often result from a moment's inadvertent mistake."
"Event requirements: Record! Record and understand as many of this Fruit's Qin laws as possible. Your final reward will depend on the number and significance of the laws you record and successfully verify."
Chen Jin's heart tightened. He didn't dare slack off.
Relying on his formidable physique, he pressed on through the increasingly heavy rain, tracking the Shark Person by its faint, elusive fishy scent, while rapidly memorizing and trying to understand the laws that swirled before his eyes.
He pursued it to the mouth of a narrow alley, where he saw its silhouette gather again in the rain. It was trying to pounce toward the window of a nearby home.
Chen Jin halted his halberd and instinctively called upon one of the laws appearing before him, attempting to punish it with the power of the "Law Eye." "Under the Theft Law, entering a private residence at night—"
But the law's power did not descend as he'd expected.
The Shark Person's movements weren't impeded at all.
Instead, a few cold Qin Seal Script characters flashed before his eyes: [Law activation failed: target not applicable].
Chen Jin froze for a moment but kept running, then tried again with a low shout: "Garrison Law! Anyone who defies a conscription order—"
[Target not applicable].
"Theft Law! Murder—"
[Target not applicable].
He tried four or five laws that might have applied, but not one worked!
Chen Jin nearly roared in frustration: What made this thing "not applicable"?!
Was it because the Shark Person was undocumented? But the laws had applied to me when I first arrived! There had to be some explanation, right?
Could it have something to do with its sex?
Probably not, right?
That would make this version way too progressive!
As if answering his inner complaint, the countless Qin Seal Script characters swirling before him abruptly stopped, then surged and rearranged themselves like a tsunami!
A flood of even tinier explanatory notes appeared, packed tightly together. Their heading was unmistakable: [Judicial Interpretation].
Chen Jin's gaze seemed drawn to them as he rapidly scanned the vast sea of explanations.
Thanks to his expertise in "ancient script," he instantly caught the key information and understood—
It turned out that under the vast and stringent framework of Qin law, Shark People like this were not classified as "people" at all. They were considered even lower than "servants and concubines" (male and female slaves) and "bondservants" (state slaves), and were instead grouped among "wild beasts" or "monsters."
Since they were neither "commoners" nor "slaves," most laws targeting "people" naturally had no effect on them!
Since most Qin laws didn't apply to the Shark Person, Chen Jin couldn't be bothered to keep trying them.
External aids could never be fully relied upon, and rules had their limits—in the end, people could only depend on themselves!
The Shark Person clearly knew its way around the city. After twisting through the streets and alleys, it raced toward a channel branching off from Wind River.
If it made it into the rushing river, it would be like a fish returning to the sea, impossible to find again.
Chen Jin still had plenty of questions that needed answers. There was no way he'd let her escape.
In a patch of woodland near the riverbank, the rain had turned the soil into a muddy mess.
Chen Jin surged forward, finally closing the last bit of distance.
With a sudden swing of his arm, he hurled the long halberd in his hand like a black bolt of lightning. It struck the mud with a thud, just inches in front of the Shark Person. The shaft trembled violently, blocking its path.
Startled, the Shark Person let out a sharp shriek and spun around, trying to charge into the dense trees at its flank.
Here, the branches crisscrossed overhead, and the thick canopy happened to block the cold, indifferent "Law Eyes" in the sky, casting broad swaths of shadow.
At that instant, Chen Jin reached out with his right hand and pulled from his Personal Mark an object utterly out of place in this world!
A handgun with hard lines and an industrial metallic sheen appeared in his grasp!