Blackstone City There is no night.
Especially Champion Marquis Estate, which directly occupies the center of the entire Blackstone City, covering an area of more than two hundred acres.
It can be said that the entire Blackstone City is built around Champion Marquis Estate.
Here, Marquis Residence is Blackstone City's heaven.
As long as the lights of Marquis Residence are still on, the street shops and vendors can go to the streets normally.
There is an alley in the west of the city called Living Person Alley.
The shops on both sides of the alley sell shady things.
Pills of unknown origin, weapons stained with blood, and armor ripped off from the battlefield.
The government can't control this, nor does it want to.
This is the dark side of Blackstone City, where rats and cockroaches crawl.
There is a teahouse deep in the alley. The front is so narrow that only one person can pass through, but the inside is very spacious.
There were several Eight Immortals tables, a dozen stools, and a dim yellow oil lamp hung on the wall. The wick crackled and cast a swaying shadow on the wall.
There is still no curfew tonight, but it is too late after all.
There were not many people in the teahouse.
Sitting in the corner against the wall was a middle-aged businessman-looking man, wearing a dusty cotton robe, with a pot of tea in front of him.
He is waiting for someone.
The door curtain opened, and a thin figure flashed in.
The man was wrapped in a shabby coat with no visible color, and his face was covered with half a piece of black cloth, leaving only a pair of rolling eyes.
He scanned around to make sure there was nothing unusual, then walked to the corner and sat down opposite the businessman.
"Where are the things?" the businessman asked, his voice as low as a mosquito's hum.
The thin man took out an oil paper bag from his arms, which was about the size of a palm and bulging.
He put the oil paper bag on the table and pressed it with his fingers without letting go.
"Is the news accurate?" The businessman looked at the oil paper bag.
The thin man stared into the businessman's eyes. "I'm sure."
The businessman nodded, took out a spiritual stone from his sleeve, and placed it on the table.
The thin man's eyes lit up, he let go, put the spirit stone in his arms, turned around and left, disappearing at the door in the blink of an eye.
The businessman was in no hurry to open the oil paper package.
He picked up the tea on the table, took a sip slowly, and then slowly tore open the oil paper.
Inside is a letter.
The letter was very short, only a few lines.
The businessman had no expression on his face after reading it.
He put the letter paper against the oil lamp, and the flames licked the edge of the paper. The paper curled, yellowed, and turned black, and finally turned into a handful of ashes and fell on the table.
The businessman stood up, put the tea money on the table, opened the curtain and walked out.
He passed through Living Person Alley, turned into a narrower alley, walked for about a cup of tea, and stopped in front of an inconspicuous wooden door.
He knocked on the door three times, paused, and knocked twice more.
The door opened a crack, revealing an expressionless face.
"Who are you looking for?"
"A person who can convey a message."
The crack in the door was a little wider, so the businessman squeezed in sideways.
Half an hour later, in the largest underground Black Market, Blackstone City, a message began to seep out like water.
"Yang Family The person who killed Marquis Residence butler Jinshi in Lin'an City has been found. In Yongjing, his surname is Zhou Mingqi. He is now Yao Family's guest. It is said that he has broken through Foundation Establishment, Seventh Layer."
News spread quickly.
Black Market has Black Market's rules. News is money. The sooner you know it, the sooner you can plan.
Some people exchanged this news for a spiritual stone, some people used it to avoid a bad debt, and some people used it as a letter of nomination and handed it to the person who should deliver it.
In less than three days, everyone who needs to know will know.
When Jin Tie learned the news, he was counting weapons in the warehouse in Marquis Residence's backyard.
He is Marquis Residence's second steward, in charge of the Marquis's private treasury.
This job is not conspicuous, but it is rich in money and money. More importantly, it can find out the Marquis's family background.
Therefore, only those who are deeply trusted by the Marquis can achieve this level.
He has sat in this position for twelve years and clearly remembers every weapon, every spiritual stone, and every spirit medicine that has been put into storage.
The person who conveyed the news was a distant nephew of his who was working as a breadwinner in Black Market, named Jin Qi.
Jin Qi stood at the door of the warehouse, shrinking his neck and not daring to go inside.
He knew the rules of his second uncle: the warehouse was a very important place and no idlers were allowed to enter.
But he also knew how much money this news was worth, so he came anyway.
"Second uncle," Jin Qi's voice was very low, "Lin'an City, I believe it."
Jin Tie The abacus beads in his hand stopped.
He didn't look back, but paused in his hand movements, and then continued to fiddle with the abacus, making the sound louder than before.
"Say."
Jin Qi told everything he heard at Black Market.
When he said that, Jin Tie never looked back.
The beads on the abacus were crackling, as if they were counting something, but also as if they were not counting anything.
After Jin Qi finished speaking, he waited for a while, but when he didn't get a response, he shrank his neck and withdrew wisely.
The warehouse became quiet.
Jin Tie put down his abacus and turned around.
He is fifty-seven this year, but he looks to be in his early forties.
Foundation Establishment, Sixth Layer's cultivation is not top-notch among Blackstone City, but it is enough to make most people dare not look at him.
His face is very thin, his cheekbones are very high, his eyes are sunk in the eye sockets, and they look like two knives when he looks at people.
At this moment, the two knives were staring at a jade pendant hanging on the wall.
The jade pendant was broken into half, finely inlayed with gold wire, and hung on the innermost wall of the warehouse. It was incompatible with the weapons and spiritual stones he had counted. It was a relic of Jinshi.
When his brother died, this broken jade pendant was all he had left.
Jin Tie walked to the wall, reached out and touched the jade pendant.
The moment his fingertips touched the jade surface, his hands were shaking.
Not afraid.
It's anger.
"Yongjing...Yao Family...Foundation Establishment, Seventh Layer..."
He chewed these words in his mouth over and over again, as if tasting the taste.
Then he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, the knives in his eyes were put away.
Foundation Establishment, Seventh Layer.
That kid is progressing too fast.
Jin Tie stood in the warehouse for a long time.
He kept thinking and calculating.
He is not afraid of death.
From the day he followed Champion Marquis, he has never been afraid of death.
But he can't die meaninglessly.
His current strength is no longer the match of that little brat back then.
He has to live to take revenge.
Find someone to help.
In the entire Blackstone City, there is only one person who can help him.
Champion Marquis Estate has big rules.
Those below the first housekeeper have to walk with their heads down after entering the second door. They are not allowed to look around, they are not allowed to whisper to each other, and they even have to suppress their breathing.
Jin Tie has been working as a clerk at Marquis Residence for twenty years, climbing from guard guard to second housekeeper. He knows these rules better than anyone else.
But today, he broke the rules.
He knelt in front of the Marquis Residence gate.
It's not the second gate, not the ceremonial gate, it's the main gate.
The main door would only be opened when the Marquis went out.
He did not wear the brocade robe that symbolized the status of the second steward, but changed into coarse cloth clothes. There was not even a cushion under his knees, and he knelt directly on the bluestone.
The stone slabs in early winter were as cold as ice, and the cold air climbed up his knees, but he did not move.
The guards at the door looked at each other, wondering which song the second steward was singing.
Someone tried to step forward to help him, but he glared back.
"Leave me alone," he said.
Then he just knelt down.