Bang!
A dull thud rang out. The halberd shaft bent slightly, numbing the guard's arms and forcing him half a step back.
At the same time, another guard's halberd thrust toward Chen Jin's back with a piercing whistle!
Chen Jin seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. He dropped low and slid aside, the halberd point grazing his back and slicing a long gash through his coarse-cloth shirt.
He followed through with a sweeping kick at the nearest guard's legs.
The guard nimbly hopped back to avoid it, shouting, "I speak for Great Qin's laws and pass judgment! Your resistance shall be punished with the Binding Feet!"
Chen Jin suddenly felt as if his legs were stuck in a swamp. His movements slowed by more than a beat. The halberd before him seized the opening and thrust straight at his chest!
Squish!
The halberd tip sank three inches into his flesh, but Chen Jin's powerful muscles and bones clamped down hard on the blade.
His expression remained blank. He even used the force of the impact to lunge forward again, letting the blade cut through his body. Blood sprayed from the wound, but the moment he pulled free of the halberd tip, it began healing at astonishing speed!
He closed in on the guard holding the halberd. One hand seized the shaft while the other formed a blade with two fingers and jabbed toward the man's throat like lightning!
The guard hurriedly let go and leaned back, barely avoiding the fatal blow. Cold sweat broke out all over him.
The fight spilled from the inn into the street.
The rain poured harder, washing the blood from the ground. Chen Jin fought as he retreated, using the narrow alleys and piles of discarded junk for cover.
He kept testing the limits of the rules and the rhythm of the guards' combined attacks. Wounds would appear on his body out of nowhere, or his movements would suddenly slow, but Flesh of Vision's terrifying regenerative power made him an unkillable monster. He endured the rules' punishments and the physical attacks, forcing the fight toward a secluded dead end crowded with buildings and low-hanging eaves.
Here, he could feel the gaze of the enormous "Law Eyes" in the sky much less strongly.
As soon as they entered this blind spot, the power that let the guards invoke the rules seemed to falter. It weakened noticeably, and their laws had far less force. They had to rely more on their own martial skills and coordinated halberd strikes.
"This is a Blind Spot of the Law Eye!" the Squad Leader said warily. "Spread out and search. Don't let him escape!"
The four guards split up at once.
"Heifu! Take the left! Ji! Circle around behind! Ju! Stand guard here!"
"Yes, sir!"
The guards dispersed, searching through the cluttered homes.
A guard named Heifu quietly fixed his gaze on another man searching carefully not far ahead.
That sturdy guard called Ji.
...He was alone.
...The Law Eyes couldn't see this place.
A vicious thought grew wildly in Heifu's mind.
That bastard had played Leaf Game before the mission and won all the Spirit Coins He'd scraped together—more than a dozen of them!
That was the money he'd been saving to have fun at the Red Silk Pavilion!
And then there was Ji's wife, who'd only recently joined his household. Heifu had seen her once by chance in the market. Her figure, her eyes...
Thinking of that woman alone at home, Heifu felt a surge of lust rush to his lower belly. He couldn't help swallowing, his Adam's apple bobbing violently.
Now the Law Eyes couldn't see them... and the power of the rules was weaker, too. If he struck Ji from behind, he could just say the criminal had ambushed him. Who would ever know?
Greed and lust instantly overpowered his sense of duty.
Once the killing intent took hold, it was impossible to suppress.
He softened his steps and crept toward Ji like a ghost. Ji had his back turned, focused entirely on investigating a ruined house ahead. Heifu slowly reached for the dagger at his waist, murder gleaming in his eyes.
Just as he raised the dagger and was about to drive it down—
The shadow behind him seemed to come alive!
Chen Jin seized his perfect chance! He moved like lightning, clamping one hand precisely around Heifu's dagger-wielding wrist and twisting it sharply the wrong way!
Crack!
The sharp snap of a broken wrist was drowned out by the pounding rain.
Heifu's ferocious grin froze on his face. He was about to scream when another cold hand clamped over his mouth and nose from behind, forcing every sound back down his throat!
Then a heavy hand strike, hard as an iron hammer, landed precisely on the vulnerable spot at the back of his neck.
Heifu's eyes bulged. Then his consciousness snapped like a severed cable.
His body went limp and collapsed to the ground like a sack of mud. The dagger he'd meant to use against his comrade clattered onto the wet stone.
Chen Jin stepped fully out of the shadows. He glanced coldly at the unconscious Heifu, then at Ji, still searching carefully nearby, completely unaware of what had happened.
He crouched and placed his palm over Heifu's face.
Metamorphosis—Flesh of Vision's power activated.
His body began to writhe and reshape like flowing clay. His bones crackled softly, his skin darkened, and his features grew rougher and more rugged... In the blink of an eye, he looked exactly like Heifu on the ground.
Then he raised his left hand and brought his right hand down like a blade!
His severed wrist fell to the ground without bleeding. Instead, it writhed violently as Chen Jin's original facial features surfaced across its skin.
It quickly crawled toward the unconscious Heifu and slapped tightly over his face. Fine flesh-buds, like living roots, burrowed frantically into his eyes, ears, and nostrils, penetrating his skull and destroying the neural structures in his brain.
Heifu's body convulsed violently a few times, then went completely limp. His gaze turned vacant and dull as drool mixed with rainwater ran from the corner of his mouth. He had become a witless wreck.
Meanwhile, a new left hand had already grown from Chen Jin's wrist.
Chen Jin swiftly traded clothes with Heifu, then hung Heifu's wooden Identity Tablet, engraved with his name, from his own waist.
He drew a deep breath, imitated Heifu's voice, and shouted toward the alley entrance with triumphant excitement:
"Help! Get over here! I caught him! He's unconscious!"
Footsteps hurried toward them. The other three guards rushed in and saw "Heifu," panting heavily and pointing at the "suspect" on the ground, unconscious in Chen Jin's torn clothes.
"You... took him down on your own?" The Squad Leader looked at "Heifu," suspicion flashing in his eyes.
"Got lucky! The bastard tried to ambush me, so I fought like hell and knocked him out!" "Heifu" spat, his face twisting into a complicated expression of pain and greed. "Damn, this one's dangerous... Give me a hand, guys. Let's carry him back!"
"Well done, Heifu. I'll make sure you get sole credit for this," the Squad Leader said flatly.
"How could I take all the credit? It was a team effort. Thanks to everyone wearing the bastard down together earlier. Otherwise, I never could've taken him down. He's frighteningly strong!"
The three guards were taken aback.
Since when had greedy Heifu changed his ways?
But when they saw the round, lustrous Southern Pearls scattered from the unconscious "suspect's" clothes, their doubts were washed away by the joy of a windfall.
"Good. You know what's what!" The Squad Leader grunted, his expression easing. "Come on, give us a hand. Let's carry him back and report in! Be careful. This criminal is a strange one!"
Two of them stepped forward and lifted the witless "suspect."
"Heifu"—now Chen Jin—carried the suspect's left leg at the rear.
He straightened the Identity Tablet at his waist, the token that proved who he was, and silently disappeared into Great Qin's leaden-gray curtain of rain.