The law enforcement in Ercas Mir was divided to two branches.
Local branches of law enforcement were the police force in cities and disciplinary bureau in clans. Both were composed by indigenous. The local branches were under the supervision of the governing groups of their cities and clans, and the one of the five powers that in sovereignty on the area.
General branches of law enforcement were forces of the five powers, stationed alongside the local branches of cities and clans, who dealt with all things foreign, such as foreigner’s registration and crime. Prime examples are the checkpoints before entry to cities and clans.
…
Zax strode imperiously into the five stories police station. His killing intent was suppressed, for now, but any officer he pa.s.sed or approached him felt a sense of urgency far above what their pay grade was worth.
It should be mentioned that be it local branches or general branches, nearly all of their officers were first realm cultivators between the Core Breaker and the Mist Lord levels.
Although in comparison to New Earth, Ercas Mir was at the forefront of the Martial path; its ruling powers were still in short quant.i.ty of second realm experts to make them the standard of law enforcement.
With that in mind, it should be understood why the moment Zax stepped inside the ground floor of the station building, silence filled the room.
The air he exuded was an intentional sign of his strong soul and overall cultivation. Conversely, his weird white coat attire, in addition to being barefooted, caused the onlookers suspect the stability of his mind state.
Ignoring the complicated gazes he received from men and women in Blessed Army and Monivore city law enforcement uniforms, his vision locked on a close by female cadet who stood motionlessly, hoping for a senior to come and help her break the imposing eye contact with this eccentric expert.
“Take me to the Martial Mortal in charge here”. His voice was steady, not loud not quiet, with a hint of something irrefutable.
This was the manner that separate realms, meaning only cultivators of the same caliber could hold an even conversation.
“Martial Mortal…” The female cadet was stumped, the concept of her being familiar with any Martial Mortal the being qualified to attend his or her guests, was nothing short than ludicrous.
Hearing him from the side, a graying, shoulder length haired female officer, cautiously and politely stepped in to interrupt.
“Excuse me, sir, my name is Belli Ar, I am one of the sergeants over watching this s.h.i.+ft.  Monivore’s law enforcement is managed by Commissioner Du Jev”.
Despite the backing the police station had and its ent.i.tlement to moderate behavior even from Peak Core Masters, when an expert walked in and conducted himself haughtily, all first realm officers were instructed not to affront him in any way, in order to avoid an incident.
Belli Ar continued. “He currently out of office. Is there maybe something that I can do for you?”
Zax averted his gaze to Belli Ar, “Gadik Dewgong, where can I find him?” He asked, restraining the infuriated coldness from emanating.
Belli Ar was momentarily stunned, yet regained her composure quickly. “Sir, this is Monivore city’s police station. Yes, we have information on every resident of the city, but when the person in question is of the Dewgong family, then apologizes, our hands are tied in both means and authority to do anything. I can only refer you to the mayor’s office building”.
“Hands are tied?” Zax was not entertained by the irony or convinced by Belli Ar’s sincerity.
“Yes-”
BOOM!
Zax stomped, causing the entire five stories building to shake.
Glowing, green pictograms appeared inside and outside the building, its protective formation.
“When this city’s police reported the finding of a washed expert’s body and brought him over to the morgue adjacent to this station, someone, an officer, and I don’t care in what department, let Gadik Dewgong know about the matter”. As Zax spoke the dark attribute worldly energy in the air resonated with his soul, extending a minor pulse that jolted the sea of consciousness of the officers in the entire floor.
Not just officers were affected. People who were also in the station, for whatever reason, suffered the same consequences.
Fortunately, Zax did not aim to kill anyone, yet. He made sure to lower the frequency of the pulse so at most those below the Mist Master level would only lose consciousness.
Belli Ar complexion was terrible. She certainly was aware of the washed expert report from couple of weeks ago. Such cases were uncommon and always were connected to cultivators only the Commissioner had jurisdiction to deal with.
As for Zax’s claim relating to Gadik Dewgong, she was not oblivious to these detestable activities, either. Gadik had a number of indigenous officers in his pocket and to prevent them from doing his bidding was akin to a death sentence for any local officer.
“Having nothing to say?” Zax was not a fool, guessing that Belli Ar had the same difficulties to answer him as the old doctor. Moreover, unlike in the morgue, here were many prying ears and eyes, which made it harder on Belli Ar to cooperate.
“Fine then”. Zax sneered, willing to be reasonable. “This was my first stop, anyway”. That is, reasonable only toward those he deem innocent.
BOOM!
CRACK!
CRACK!
CRACK!
Stomping again, he utilized dark attribute energy to precisely strike the protective formation of the police station.
A Martial Mortal might have been the one who erected the formation, but his intentions were only to at most obstruct the probing and a.s.saults of second level Core Masters.
BANG!
The formation shattered in a clear, breaking gla.s.s like sound.
‘Not here’. Zax gnashed his teeth. He did not believe that Gadik kept his spatial rings in the main police station or any other station, but since the place was close and he already came here…
BOOM!
He stomped again, to vent his anger, and without the protective formation, fissure started to form on the walls and ceiling, as well as a loud alarm to evacuate the building sounded.
The apartment building was four blocks away and the second closer structure with protective formation.
Zax headed there like a wild wind. Where he crossed in his flight, people on the ground had to grab hold of something to not be yanked off by the wind.
Regarding the main police station… he could not identify Gadik’s people without wasting time, so he left there knowing and not caring that some of the officers sent calls for reinforcement from the Blessed Army.
BOOM!
All it took was one punch to bring down the apartment building’s protective formation.
“Holy c.r.a.p!”
“Someone broke the Dim Lam building’s protective formation!”
“Move, move! An expert is going on a rampage in the city!”
Bystanders who noticed what is happening only after the protective formation collapsed, began to shout and scream in astonishment.
The Dim Lam building’s occupants were the sons and daughters of high cla.s.s personal. Although many people pa.s.sed it every day, only selected few of the middle cla.s.s could enter its lobby, and that also required certain circ.u.mstances.
To see someone attacking it, many were excited, finding joy in the misfortune of the presumptuous scions.
Naturally, there were those who saw it differently. Speculating that someone who is crazy enough to pick a fight with the families behind the Dim Lam building’s occupants; will surely not care about the rest of them common people.
‘Hm? Not there either’. Zax did not find the spatial rings.
‘There is another place’. As he proceeded to the third destination, the warehouse, his Soul Sense detected an underground dwelling, roughly eight meters beneath the surface. It was located in what he presumed to be a sketchy part of the city, as there were less charming building over there and the streets were far worse than Glorious Ground’s Penerwoodrem St.
“Hey, you, stop!” Upon arriving to the warehouse, Zax discovered that it actually had an Advanced third level Core Master guarding it, a short, red haired thirty looking man.
The guard saw Zax appear out of air past the property line, which meant that his cultivation was not high enough to keep up with the intruder, and he knew it. Yet, he still roared at Zax to halt as if he did not care if he was even a Martial Mortal.
Zax turned a deaf ear to the guard. Clenching five fingers to a fist he threw a straight punch.
BANG!
The warehouse’s formation lit up, seeming superior to that of the apartment building and police station.
The red haired guard stared in disbelief. He heard from his employer what it took to erect the protective formation around the warehouse and who its owner was. According to his employer, first level and even weak second level Martial Mortals would have to attack four to five times before stimulating the formation to the same degree as the white coated stranger’s single strike did.
“STOP! STOP! Do you have any idea who owns this place?! That’s Dewgong family’s property!”
BANG!
Zax struck again.
CRACK!
CRACK!
The formation was a blow away from collapsing.
The red haired guard was anxious. The intruder was unfazed by the mentioning of the Dewgong family’s name, and if he could not use it to intimidate him, while using force was also out of the question, then he really was helpless.
‘Immediately send back up to the Dewgong warehouse! A Martial Mortal is about to break in!’ He transmitted via his communicator, whilst wondering if anyone beside the mayor and police Commissioner can block this white devil.
Of course he did not count the experts from the Blessed Army, those in the Mercenary a.s.sociation’s branch and other organizations that had a post in the city. The warehouse was a private property of the Dewgong family, why should others concern themselves with it?
BOOM!
The warehouse’s formation crumbled into sandy sparks of orange light.
“Belong to the Dewgong family…” Zax said to himself and released his Soul Sense.
…
Meanwhile, in the Dewgong family’s estate.
“This is impossible! Where is the person in charge of the city’s morgue? Send immediate word find him and for all first to third generations to convene in the second floor’s Conference Room!” A plumped, yellow skinned woman, wearing a wide robe that looked like a collection of creamy robs, instructed the young attended on the other side of her desk.
“Yes, ma’am”. The twenty something fellow, in striped suit, nodded repeatedly. He pressed a few times at his ear plugged communicator before repeating the plumped woman’s words and leaving the room.
‘You heard? Great! Return home now. Your uncle is also on his way. Yes, I know. There is no need to worry. The safety deposit box in the warehouse holds less than half the Splinters. The rest keep essentials far greater than money and so were emptied in just in case. More important are the other things… don’t forget to bring them. Your uncle couldn’t risk carry them on his person while meeting his contacts- don’t argue with me! I was informed that he is going around, destroying all structures with protective formations. Who knows if he already located your hideout and simply delaying? Anyway, come home!‘
Veins bulged on the plumped woman face. She disconnected the conversation in her communicator and gracefully got up from her upholstered chair, heading to the room’s door and then the staircase in the middle of the floor, straight to the second floor’s Conference Room.
…
The warehouse had eight storage units. In each was one safety deposit box resting on a metallic table, surrounded by four to five formations.
“Come back!” Zax roared at the retreating guard.
“P-please, I wasn’t r-running”. Sensing the wave of killing intent from Zax, the red haired guard froze in place, regretting not leaving sooner, when this crazy white coated was preoccupied with breaking the formation.
“Which deposit boxes were opened in the last two and a half weeks?!” Zax extended his arm and pulled, utilizing his dark domain to drag the guard to him.
The guard did not dare to resist and after a breath of time the gap between him closed as the latter’s hand gripped the collar of his s.h.i.+rt.
“Exalted sir, my job is only to keep away trespa.s.sers. When someone from the Dewgong family arrives I never follow them in”.
“Tsk!” Zax clicked his tongue and dropped the guard.
Taking a step, he launched inside the warehouse.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
…
It took him nearly ten blows to break the formations on the first safety deposit box and open it.
‘A spatial ring!’ Zax’s eyes shone, but soon he discovered that it was not one of his two spatial rings. Removing the soul seal on the ring he still examined it.
“Nothing!” His blood boiled from anger.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
…
One safety deposit box after the other had its protective formation ruined and ripped open.
In the fifth deposit box Zax finally found a spatial ring that was not empty. It was packed with around two and a quarter million Splinters, but it still was not either of his spatial rings.
“Whoever you are, this is my Dewgong family’s property. Leave it at once!”
As Zax got to the seventh deposit box he heard a voice and immense aura being directed at him from couple of hundred meters above the warehouse.
BANG!
Zax burst through the warehouse’s ceiling. “Your Dewgong family will soon be erased if my belonging won’t be returned to me!” He shouted back while flying to meet the figure waiting for him.
It was a long bearded old man, wearing a blue robe with gold fish patterns and golden sandals. The fluctuations of his black aura indicated that it was mixed with dark attribute.
“Threatening my family…” The old man face turned grim. He could not sense Zax’s mist cultivation, but he himself was an Intermediate second level Martial Mortal. By Zax’s odd attire he did not believe that he was a member of the five powers and among independent experts, the old man met very few with the skill to shake his resolve. “I’m Dewgong Deg, patriarch of the Dewgong family and mayor of Monivore city”.
“Dewgong’s head and mayor…” Zax creased his brows. “Gadik, bring me to him and you may salvage the fate of your family”.
“Uncouth villain, you intrude upon the law enforcement inst.i.tute of my city, causing uproars around the city, destroying protective formations worth fortune and not shying from even targeting my Dewgong Deg’s property!” Mayor Deg said glowering. He was not oblivious to the issue between his second nephew and the young expert in front of him and was even aware of their fully story, but he was not a righteous man either, which is why, among other reasons, he has not given Zax a response to his demand. “Depart from Monivore city and I can forget your insolence. The Blessed Army also doesn’t have to get involved”.
“Old man”, Zax fully unleashed his killing intent and dark domain. “The Blessed Army has no experts with the ability to beat me in this city. As for you, one last time, bring me to Gadik, or I don’t mind reviving old habits…”