Blue Sword

So everyone started to act separately. Ask took the subway and came to the northern city of Constantinople, at the foot of the Fifth Mountain, at the door of a half-submerged house called Aspar (Cistern_of_Aspar).

He knocked on the door.

"Under the Wings of the Eagle," the person behind the door said in a low voice.

"There must be a shadow," Asker replied.

The door opened, and a bald man in tight-fitting leather armor poked his head out. Wearing a unilateral eyepatch, the other intact eye looked at Asik and said warily:

"I don't know you, kid."

"But I know you, Mastro." Asker smiled nonchalantly, "I heard that Constantinople is the queen of cities, the commercial intersection between the East and the West, and half of the goods in the world can be purchased in Constantinople. You can buy it in Constantinople. The other half of the contraband that cannot be bought on the market can be obtained from the black market of the Thieves Guild in Constantinople."

"How did you find this place?" Mastro didn't pay attention to his compliment and just asked.

"Introduced by an acquaintance," Ask said.

"Oh, are you going to make up a name that I've never heard of before, and then swear that he and so-and-so from our guild are life-and-death friends?" Mastro's eyes rolled over him, and his gaze fell. On the silver pistol on his waist, "Imperial Eagle... Anyone who can use this 'hand cannon' is either an idiot or a master."

"Then what kind of person do you think I am?" Ask asked.

"If you were an idiot, you wouldn't have found this place." Mastro spat roughly on the ground, "But I probably believe that you are not a spy of the church or a spy of the royal family... at least they won't be stupid enough to bring one The imperial eagle comes out and swaggers around."

"Yes, I also know that your Thieves Guild uses the 'Sunken Palace' in Constantinople as its base." Asik said unceremoniously, "If I were from the church or the royal family, you would have been taken away long ago. Lost."

"Come in." Mastro stepped out of the way and seemed to have relaxed his vigilance. "Don't blame me if you get killed."

"I believe my ability is enough to protect myself." Asik smiled nonchalantly.

The thieves guild in each city is located in places that ordinary people can't imagine. In Constantinople, for example, the local thieves' guild was housed in the "Sunken Palace," which was actually a cluster of cisterns in Solomon's city.

In modern siege warfare, the city wall is far from being the last line of defense for the defenders. The modern urban environment with high-rise buildings and subway networks can cause street fighting conflicts that can become a nightmare for any siege team. Therefore, the siege team often uses some means to weaken the morale of the defenders, such as cutting off power, water and food supplies.

As far as water supply was concerned, Constantinople's approach was the same as that of the ancient Solomons. That is to dig a large number of reservoirs and at the same time divert water from the depths of the Black Sea as a supply. These cisterns were built by the Eastern Solomons in the style of ancient Solomon's culverts, with towering Corinthian and Doric-style columns, cloisters with beautiful curved domes, and all the decorations that a normal ancient Solomon palace should have.

The only thing that differs from normal palaces is that one-third of the height of these underground palaces is submerged in water, and they are connected to each other by more than 20 kilometers of aqueducts. Of course, the waterfront channel has also been built into a 9-meter-high corridor, so anyone can easily pass it by boat.

The Thieves' Guild of Constantinople was established deep in these "Sunken Palaces". Mastro personally punted the boat at the bow, while Aske sat cross-legged at the stern, staring at the distant stone pillars and the dark water. There were lights in some places, but more places were shrouded in airtight darkness. Mastro placed a high-power searchlight with a battery on the bow of the ship to illuminate the direction of the ship ahead.

Asike lowered his head and could clearly see a school of fish swimming in the water beside the boat. Apparently the Thieves Guild put a lot of fish fry in the reservoir, so that even if they didn't leave the "Sunken Palace", they could at least be self-sufficient in terms of food. This makes...Asker definitely doesn't believe it if there is no PY transaction between the Thieves Guild and the Constantinople Water Company.

About half an hour later, the ship gradually sailed towards a larger dark palace. Here, the Thieves Guild imitated the design of Venice, driving wooden piles deep into the water, and then covering them with stone slabs coated with anti-cement slurry, thereby building a miniature city out of thin air on the water - here, They even have their own blacksmith shop, vegetable market, clinic and police station. All buildings are bathed in the light of colored lights of various colors (using the Thieves Guild's own oil-burning generator), matching the sparkling water in the distance. The ripples of light give everything a grotesque, dreamlike and false feel.

"There's a new guy!" Mastro anchored the boat to the simple pier, then jumped on the stone slab, "Old Thoreau! Give him a pass badge!"

A stooped old man ran over, fawningly took out a mouse-shaped badge, pinned it on the collar of Asker's cotton armor, and reached out to wipe the greasy surface.

"How about it!" Mastro waved his arms, with an inexplicable proud tone, "This is the 'Sunken Palace' of our Thieves Guild! It is comparable to the eighth wonder of the world! You are one of the few lucky enough to see it alive. Its people.”

"It's shocking," Aske said, "especially when you see you raising fish here."

"Hahaha." Mastro laughed loudly, "Not only do we raise fish, we also established a 'excrement purification circulation system' here, otherwise all the princes and nobles in Constantinople will drink our urine!"

The so-called "excrement purification circulation system" is actually a compost pile... There is a patio in the center of the underground palace, with light from outside shining down from above. According to Mastro, this patio leads up to the Second Hill of Constantinople, providing ventilation and light for the entire underground palace. The Thieves Guild piled soil where the light could reach, and next to it was the compost pile of excrement, which was fermented and made into fertilizer. At the same time, hops were planted on the soil. So I could barely support myself with alcohol.

I'm really impressed by you game planners... Asik thought expressionlessly. Over there, Mastro wanted to lead him to visit more places with great interest, and Aske quickly expressed his intention:

"I'm here to buy something."

"Oh, then you've found the right place, kid." Mastro bared his big yellow teeth and said with a smile, "We have all kinds of contraband here, as long as you can afford the price."

Asker whipped out a piece of paper with the products to be purchased already written on it. Mastro took it and read:

"The river water from the West Frank Gal Gorge...the fruit of Eden of Cyrus...should be fine. We have channels from the west. A spoonful of Corfu olive oil? We sell it by the barrel. Count one spoonful and give it to you." Huh... geoducks in Basniya Bay? Hey, you kid has something to hide."

"No." Asik shook his head and said, "These are spiritual materials."

"Of course I know these are spiritual materials." Mastro said disdainfully, "If they are not spiritual materials, who would even clearly indicate the place of origin? But these materials are not in the same potion formula. In fact, the only thing you want to buy is like It's a clam, right? Mixing it with other materials in an attempt to hide it, Master Achilles, this is not a sign of trust in us."

"You know me?" Ask asked strangely.

"We know all the nobles in the city." Mastro said, adding at the end, "Especially the rich nobles. In fact, we took note of you on the day you sold the two shops to the church. I originally planned to visit the more than one thousand pounds of cash in your pocket..."

"Shouldn't I send them over in advance?" Ask made a joke.

"Yes, yes." Mastro also muttered, "It's better to make money by selling you contraband than taking money out of your pocket and being beaten to death. We don't want to repeat the fate of that vampire .”

"So you can all provide the spiritual materials on this paper, right?" Ask confirmed.

"Two of them are bad," Mastro said sternly, "Golden Striped Leech, Vera's Eagle, we don't have any clues about this either."

"I have a clue." Ask said, "The eagles of Valar like to build their nests in high places. As far as I know, they are on the top of the Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople and the top of the Golden Palace. The nest. The Vera's eagle likes to add its own feathers to the nesting materials, so that the young birds can become familiar with the scent of their parents as soon as they hatch out of their shells."

"Hagia Sophia and the Golden Palace are not easy places to reach." Mastro smiled.

"Yes, Saint Sophia Cathedral is on top of the Orthodox Church. I believe you don't dare to go. But there is no problem with the Golden Consul Palace." Ask said, "Your thieves guild should have talents in the shadow sequence. I heard about this Transcendents of the Sequence especially like to climb high places to see the scenery, and then take a leap of faith?"

"You can occasionally climb to a high place to enjoy the scenery, but you should never dare to take a leap of faith." A voice behind him said, "If you fail to escape into the shadows, wouldn't it mean that you will break your head and split your brain on the spot?"

Ask turned his head and saw a girl standing behind him, leaning leisurely against the wall of the house, playing with a dagger in her hand.

"This is..." Asik looked at Mastro.

"Mia Sinquemani," Mastro introduced, "Our new thief is also a superpower of Shadow I."

"Can you climb to the top of the Golden Palace and get the feathers of the Valar's Eagle?" Ask asked the girl, "100 pounds."

"No problem." The girl said.

This guy's voice is a bit familiar...Asker thought for a moment and then asked tentatively: "Justice X?"

"Is it you?" The girl also reacted, and then chuckled, "It turns out that you bought my formula this afternoon. No wonder, in fact, I should have thought of it when I heard Vera's Eagle. Sequence of Justice, haha... It’s not that this potion is really incompatible with my profession, I originally wanted to keep it for myself.”

"Don't the Shadow Sequence and the Justice Sequence conflict?" Ask asked in surprise, "There is no bloodline that contains these two sequences?"

"Conflict? Bloodline?" The girl frowned, obviously having never heard of these two words.

"Conflict refers to the conflict between taking a new sequence of potions and the original sequence in the body. Bloodline refers to the fusion of potions of different sequences." Mastro said seriously, "Mia, why don't I know the justice sequence formula? Something about?"

"Ahem, I got it from the palace last week..." Mia stuck out her tongue.

"All extraordinary items must be reported to me before being used. Didn't I emphasize it to you?" Mastro suddenly became angry, "If nothing else, just rely on your little extraordinary knowledge, if it is true I secretly made and consumed the potion of justice, and the mutation has already gone out of control!"

"I know, I know." Mia knew that she was wronged, but she still said perfunctorily, a little unconvinced.

"At her age, her character is like this." Asik said with an experienced attitude, "She will do whatever you don't let her do. She is just like a stubborn donkey, refusing to lead and pushing back. You assign her a difficult task, and she will immediately forget about it."

"Hey! Who are you calling a stubborn donkey?" Mia was furious.