Chapter 52: 妖魔执法者？

At this moment, inside a shop on Frost Street.

Dozens of bosses huddled together, their brows furrowed, as if the world was about to end.

"He... really said he wanted an identical 'peach'?" one boss tentatively asked.

"That's right."

"He told me too."

"When he handed me that heart, it was still dripping blood... I nearly fainted, do you know that??"

"But... but where are we supposed to get human hearts for him?!"

"He can't possibly want us to perform live sacrifices, can he?"

"...This is really strange. The last enforcer, though overbearing and tyrannical, at least could be appeased with money. But this Chen Ling... why does he want human hearts?"

"Today, my neighbor told me they saw Chen Ling walking down the street, devouring a heart in just a few bites..."

Hearing this, everyone's eyes widened, and a mental image of Chen Ling grinning ferociously while tearing at a heart appeared in their minds... The room's temperature abruptly dropped.

Someone swallowed hard. The more timid bosses began to tremble all over.

"He... likes to eat human hearts? Isn't that something only demons from stories do??"

"If he doesn't like to eat them, why would he carry a whole bag of human hearts on the street?"

"So... where did he get all those human hearts?"

"...Wait a minute, you're making it sound stranger and stranger." Uncle Zhao, who had been sitting quietly in the corner, couldn't help but speak. "I know Ah Ling well. I watched him grow up; he's a good kid... How could he be as sinister as you're describing? Are you sure you didn't see wrong?"

"Impossible, so many of us saw it!"

"What do you say... should we report him to the enforcers?"

"Are you crazy? Report him to the enforcers? Chen Ling *is* an enforcer himself! Do you want him to dig out your heart and eat it in the street too?" The boss who made the suggestion shivered and immediately fell silent.

"So what do we do now... We can't really get him human hearts, can we?" Everyone spoke over each other, and the atmosphere of panic and confusion grew thicker. Eventually, no one dared to speak, and they all lowered their heads in silence, seemingly considering whether to move away... But even if they moved, where would they go? Could they afford houses on other streets?

"How about this?" The oldest boss slowly spoke. "Giving him human hearts is definitely out of the question... Boss Xiao, aren't you a butcher? First, get him a few pig hearts and chicken hearts and send them over to see his reaction..."

"Pig hearts and chicken hearts, will that work?"

"If not, what else can we do? We can't get the kind of 'peach' he wants..."

"Let's see how it goes first. In any case, everyone, whatever you do, don't provoke him. I have a feeling he's more brutal than any enforcer we've ever encountered before..."

"Understood."

Chen Ling waited until dark, but the peaches never arrived. "What went wrong... Does it really take this long to buy a few peaches?" Chen Ling was baffled.

Just as he was about to get up, close the door, and go back to rest, a figure appeared at his doorstep. Seeing the person's appearance, Chen Ling's eyes narrowed slightly...

"Officer Han Meng? You're here again?"

Today, Han Meng wasn't wearing his black trench coat with the four insignia, but casual clothes. Perhaps because of this, Chen Ling didn't feel the usual pressure from him; it was as if an ordinary young man stood before him.

"I came to bring you some documents... Your spot for the Ancient Battlefield of Arms has been approved," Han Meng said calmly, a paper between his fingers. "What? Aren't you going to invite me in?"

Chen Ling hesitated for a moment, then stood up and moved aside. Previously, Chen Ling wouldn't have let Han Meng into his house, but after hearing things at headquarters today, his impression of Han Meng had changed.

Han Meng naturally sat down at the table, glanced at the neatly folded enforcer uniform nearby, and casually asked: "How does it feel to be an enforcer on your first day?"

"The authority of an enforcer is even greater than I imagined," Chen Ling said blandly. "I'm not used to it."

"That's normal. Many people, after becoming enforcers, are swept away by sudden power and profit, and they fall into depravity... But you haven't, and I wasn't mistaken about that."

"How do you know I haven't?"

Han Meng glanced at the house, which was still drafty everywhere, and said nothing.

"Of course, being too lenient isn't good either; it will make people think you're easy to bully. You must establish appropriate authority..."

Halfway through Han Meng's sentence, a figure on a bicycle passed by Chen Ling's doorstep. Perhaps because the ground was too slippery, he fell with a thud. He cursed, and was about to get back on his bike and leave, but upon seeing the house and Chen Ling inside, his expression instantly changed!

"I'm sorry! Officer Chen Ling!! I apologize for disturbing your rest... I'm truly sorry!!" Without another word, he knelt down and vigorously knocked his head three times. Then he scrambled to his feet from the snow, and fled the alley as if his life depended on it, without a backward glance, leaving his bicycle spinning idly by Chen Ling's doorstep...

Han Meng: ...?

"..." Han Meng was silent for a long time. "Your authority... you've established it quite well."

Chen Ling recognized the man who had fled in a panic. It was the shop owner he'd met that afternoon, the one he'd even given a peach to... But he couldn't understand why the man reacted as if he'd seen a ghost.

"Let's get back to business." Han Meng handed the documents to Chen Ling. "Tomorrow at noon, gather with the other enforcers at the Sector Three headquarters to prepare for your journey to the Ancient Battlefield of Arms."

"That fast?" Only two or three days had passed since the martial trials ended; he had just put on his enforcer uniform, and arrangements were already made for him to go to the Ancient Battlefield of Arms?

"Normally, the Ancient Battlefield of Arms opens three months from now, but this year is an exception." Han Meng paused for a moment. "Yesterday, Sectors Five and Six experienced a large-scale Gray Realm Convergence, from which a fifth-tier calamity emerged. Almost all the enforcers in those two sectors perished..."

"Another Gray Realm Convergence?" Chen Ling asked, surprised. "Didn't they say Gray Realm Convergences are rare within human territories?"

"They used to be, but recently... the Aurora Realm has been abnormal."

Chen Ling remembered Chu Muyun saying something similar before. The rare torrential rain a few days ago had caused a Gray Realm Convergence at the mass grave, and now the continuous heavy snow had triggered a large-scale convergence in Sectors Five and Six... It seemed every chaotic weather phenomenon led to a convergence.

"Is it related to celestial phenomena?" Chen Ling probed.

"Perhaps." Han Meng's eyes narrowed slightly, as if recalling something. "And... the Twilight Society has also appeared."

Hearing the words "Twilight Society," Chen Ling's heart stirred, and he asked, feigning casualness: "Twilight Society? What's that?"