Chapter 35 Arriving in Luofu and already encountering... The affairs of the Shence Mansion are complex and multifaceted...

Following a group of travelers who needed to pass through an inspection to enter the Star Chariot Sea Central Hub, Shen Mi lined up and handed his pass to the Cloud Cavalry soldiers conducting the inspection.

The Yun cavalryman glanced down at her identification information, his gaze lingering on the jade tablet for a moment before he raised his hand to gesture for her: "Come with me."

Yunqijun's tone was not heavy, but it carried an unquestionable official air.

Was it him? The person Danheng arranged to meet her. Could there be something wrong with the jade tablet? Surely not, she just passed the first checkpoint smoothly.

Banishing her chaotic thoughts, Chen Mi quickly followed, walking through the main passageway and deviating from the usual passenger guidance route. The directional announcements playing on repeat in her ears gradually faded away, and the road beneath her feet became increasingly quiet and deserted.

There were no more foreign travelers around, only the footsteps of her and the Cloud Cavalryman echoing alternately in the bronze-colored, patterned corridor.

"We've arrived, please come in." The Yunqi soldier raised his hand to indicate that they had arrived, his tone still gentle.

Shen Mi smiled gratefully at the Yunqi Army, and pushed open the door without any precautions. Just as the door opened slightly, a powerful force suddenly struck her from behind, hitting her acupoint on the back of her neck with perfect accuracy.

Before she could even utter a sound, everything went black, and her consciousness vanished as if a switch had been flipped.

Before she completely lost consciousness, she seemed to hear someone order the Cloud Cavalryman: "Take him to the detention room first, and release him after the investigation is completed."

...

Consciousness slowly surged back like the tide.

When Chen Mi opened his eyes, a faint white light floated on the ceiling, and circles of cold white light spread across his field of vision, as if through a layer of fog.

It took her a few seconds to realize that she was lying on the ground, her hands empty, her windproof coat stripped off, surrounded by dark iron pillars on all sides, and a table in the distance. This was the whole room, a temporary detention cell for suspects.

Shen Mi sat up abruptly, but because the movement was too fast, his mind went blank for a while, and he had to lean against the wall to slowly adjust his breathing.

She was attacked. Memories pieced back together like fragments—

“…Detention cell?” she murmured the word, her voice hoarse and weak.

The next second, she instinctively reached for her waist, but there was nothing there—her phone, jade tablet, and all her personal belongings had been taken away.

Fortunately, she still had something that could never be taken away.

[System! System! Are you there?]

[Host, I...]

Before the system could finish speaking, Shen Mi's words came out like a barrage of bullets.

Why wasn't there a distress alert this time? Why wasn't there a distress alert this time? Why wasn't there a distress alert this time?

I'll say it three times because it's important.

The system covered its ears and waited quietly for Chen Mi to finish venting before speaking.

[It's not that I didn't want to remind you... I was in hibernation at the time.]

At this moment, the speechlessness on Shen Mi's face was more than a thousand words of silence.

So what do you suggest we do next?

The system shrunk a bit.

[I'm sorry, host, I can't help you at the moment. The only time I can offer assistance is when your life is directly threatened.]

Shen Mi remained silent for a moment.

The next second, she slowly stood up, brushed the dust off her pants, and said in an extremely calm tone:

Okay, then give me a specific standard.

The system hesitated: 【…Huh?】

[I was knocked unconscious, detained, and stripped of all my belongings. I'm now sitting in a cold, unfamiliar detention cell, with Yunqi soldiers probably lining up outside to accuse me of crimes. Doesn't this count as "my life being threatened"?]

The system whispered: "...In terms of the severity of the crisis, it hasn't reached the trigger line yet."

Shen Mi nodded, took a deep breath, and spoke in a voice that was both gentle and deadly:

Okay. Then tell me—if I rush up and bang my head against a wall right now, and get a concussion, will you then "provide help" to me?

The system was so startled that it cut off its signal for half a second before whispering a warning: "Host, please calm down! Be rational, don't joke around with yourself..."

Chen Mi looked up at the sky and sighed resignedly:

"Never mind, I was just venting."

It's not like we just found out this system is unreliable.

[If there's nothing else, host, I'll take a rest now.] After saying that, it quickly logged off and slipped away faster than anyone else, as if afraid that Chen Mi would call it back.

There's no other way; it's better to rely on yourself than on others.

She got up, walked to the door, grabbed the cold metal bars, and raised her voice to call out:

"Is anyone there?! Is anyone outside?!"

The sound echoed in the empty corridor, collided with the closed metal walls, and bounced back in circles, like a pebble falling into water, leaving no trace.

Unconvinced, she called out a few more times, "Is anyone there?"

Finally, someone came in.

It was the Yunqi Army soldier who brought her here.

"Hello, may I ask why you arrested me?" Shen Mi asked calmly as he leaned against the railing and watched the Yunqi soldiers enter.

The Yunqi soldier paused, clearly not expecting her to speak like that. He glanced at Shen Mi, his expression unchanged, only slightly furrowing his brow.

“We cannot determine who you are at this time,” he said calmly. “There are many doubts about your identity information, and you will be detained for a short period of time and further investigated as required by procedure.”

Shen Mi's heart skipped a beat.

She knew perfectly well where the problem lay—she had no legal status whatsoever, and the travel permit she possessed was obtained through special procedures arranged by Danheng. If the investigation were to delve deeper, it would reveal that she couldn't even be traced back to this person.

But she still had to keep a straight face.

“The jade tablet in my hand is the official clearance document, and you have verified it.” Shen Mi gripped the railing tightly, trying to appear reasonable and convincing. “Moreover, you knocked me unconscious and imprisoned me here without any evidence. Don’t you think your procedures are highly problematic?”

"I'm sorry, ma'am. Although your jade tablet passed the first check, your origin of the immortal ship is not recorded in the system. According to the immortal ship's internal regulations, this situation constitutes entry by an unidentified person of level one, and you must be temporarily quarantined."

Her heart sank.

I was hoping to get away with it, thinking that if I could get through the first hurdle, the rest wouldn't be a problem. I never expected to fail so quickly.

But that's not the key point. The key point is that she was knocked unconscious without any chance to explain herself.

"Are you using me as a spy?" Shen Mi complained.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, we haven’t made any judgment about you.” Yunqijun glanced at her wearily. “It’s just temporary control. Someone will come to verify your information; it won’t be long.”

Shen Mi looked at him helplessly: "Fine, then can you tell me when you can finish the verification?"

The Cloud Cavalry was silent for a moment, as if weighing their words, before finally whispering:

“Under normal circumstances, the review is completed within 24 hours. However, if it involves foreign customs clearance documents that are not registered in the system, it may be necessary to report it to a higher authority and wait for approval.”

Shen Mi frowned: "Higher authority? Who? The Earth Balance Division, or the Divine Strategy Bureau?"

“I’m sorry, ma’am… I’m not authorized to disclose that.” The Yunqi Army answered more cautiously, “We are only carrying out preliminary detention procedures.”

"In other words, you don't know how long I'll be detained." Shen Mi's voice was calm and unhurried as he countered, "What if the investigation is over and it proves I'm innocent?"

Faced with the questioning, Yun Qijun was momentarily speechless. His expression became unnatural, as if he also realized the loopholes in the argument, but he quickly regained his composure and said, "If you have any objections to the law enforcement process, you can submit an appeal after your release, and we will respond according to the procedures."

After saying that, he turned and left, not giving Chen Mi a chance to speak again.

The door slammed shut, and silence returned outside.

Not long after, footsteps could be heard again outside the door.

Shen Mi initially thought they were people coming to verify her identity, but she didn't expect it to be that Yunqi soldier again. This time, he didn't say much to her, but simply opened the door and let in three or four people.

As soon as they entered the room, their eyes were involuntarily drawn to Chen Mi behind the railing. Her unusual position sounded an alarm in their hearts.

After a brief silence, the group quickly exchanged glances, as if they had reached some kind of consensus, and unanimously chose to stand as far away from her as possible. Their expressions were complicated; some frowned, while others simply looked away, as if even glancing at her was a threat to them.

"Could she have done something really serious...?"

"Could it be a spy caught red-handed?"

Although the whispers were kept very low, they were clearly audible in the empty, narrow space.

Shen Mi's anger flared up instantly. Being scrutinized by a group of unwarranted gazes, she couldn't hold back any longer.

She leaned against the railing, looked up and glared coldly at them, her voice much sharper than their whispers: "Do I have the word 'criminal' written on my face?"

The men shuddered at her glare, and one of the young men quickly looked away, coughing awkwardly, "N-nothing..."

After the brief incident, Shen Mi overheard the three people starting to chat, sharing their experiences and why they had come here.

Shen Mi listened to the conversation and found that the situations were all pretty much the same, all trivial matters, and the charges against them did sound much "lighter" than hers.

The light from outside the window receded inch by inch. The light that slanted in through the high-hanging skylight turned from gold to gray, and finally sank into complete darkness. The whole room seemed to be sealed in an iron box, with only a few wall lamps emitting a cold white glow, which made Chen Mi's face look deathly pale.

Complaining is useless now. Who told her to be an unregistered resident? Danheng had already done more than enough to help her out of kindness. This kind of thing didn't happen because he didn't want it to happen. He could only blame the system.

Why is it that in novels, other people's systems can have whatever they want, and even conjure up items for their hosts to use...?

Hers... possesses attributes similar to Sleeping Beauty.

Just when Shen Mi thought that the night would pass in silence, a series of low footsteps suddenly came from outside.

The voice approached from afar, its rhythm steady and unhurried, unlike that of patrolling Cloud Cavalry or routine inspection personnel. Shen Mi subconsciously looked up at the door that remained tightly closed.

A moment later, the sensor on the door lit up slightly, then clicked open, and the heavy alloy door was pushed open from the outside. The main light inside the room also turned on, and a familiar figure stepped into the light.

The man was dressed in the uniform of a Cloud Cavalry general, the black and gold patterns on his robes gleaming coldly under the lamplight. His hair was tied high with a red ribbon, his eyebrows and features were exquisite, and the beauty mark at the corner of his eye hinted at a natural air of dashing charm, yet this was somewhat suppressed by his cold and solemn armor, making him appear both elegant and refined.

Shen Mi sat on the ground, somewhat dazed, and looked up at him blankly.

"Is this Shen Mi? I'm so sorry, the affairs of the Shence Prefecture are so complicated, I'm late."

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Author's Note: Jing Yuan is here!!! 145 more favorites needed before it goes to VIP! The road ahead is long, so I need to work even harder!!! Alright, a new chapter is about to begin. Hope you all enjoy reading! One of you guessed the plot correctly, and I was so scared I didn't dare reply to her. [Pigeon][Pigeon][Pigeon]