Now that the three great empires had only just been established, the Church's temples were fighting until their heads cracked to carve up their own spheres of influence. This was the best time for Lin Qi to skim off the profits. Lin Qi truly did not want anyone disturbing his peace and quiet, but an envoy from the Blood Qin Empire was someone he could not refuse to see.
With another heavy sigh, Lin Qi rose to his feet and walked into the tavern's rear courtyard.
After a while, Lin Qi, restored to his original appearance and dressed in a black cloak, strolled leisurely out through the tavern's back door. Two Tiger Guards followed behind him, while out of sight around him, more than a hundred Tiger Guards and even more deathsworn guards waited, ready to answer his summons at any moment.
Rain fell from the sky. Bilibili attentively held an umbrella over Lin Qi, while Elysian Heaven affectionately clung to his arm, stuck to him like taffy. The group left the narrow alley and followed secluded streets through the dock district until they reached a crude, inconspicuous pier tucked away in a corner of the docks.
They boarded a tiny cargo ship there, and before long, it sped upstream against the current along the Seine River.
In the southern outskirts of Berely, beside a secluded river bend, dozens of massive banyan trees completely concealed a stretch of tributary waterway feeding into the Seine River. Beneath their canopies, broad as carriage covers, several exquisite wooden buildings were embedded among the banyans' sprawling roots like works of art. Hidden beneath thick moss, branches, and leaves, no outsider could possibly know that a secret stronghold lay here.
Lin Qi stepped off the cargo ship and looked around. Clear, melodious birdsong drifted in