So everyone started to move separately. Asker 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 eagles." 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 eyes 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 someone with you.
The imperial eagle came out and swaggered 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 that I am capable enough to protect myself." Ask smiled nonchalantly.
The thieves' guild in each city is located in places that ordinary people can't imagine. For example, in Constantinople, the local thieves' guild is located in the "Sunken Palace", which is 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 party. Therefore, the siege party must
Some methods are often used to weaken the morale of the defenders, such as cutting off power, water and food supplies.
In terms of water supply alone, Constantinople's approach was the same as that of the ancient Solomons. That is, they dug a large number of reservoirs and diverted water from the depths of the Black Sea for supply. These reservoirs were built by the Eastern Solomons into ancient
It has the style of Solomon's Underpass, with towering Corinthian and Doric style columns, beautiful curved domed cloisters, and all the decorations that a normal ancient Solomon's palace should have.
The only thing that is different from normal palaces is that one-third of the height of these underground palaces is submerged in water, and there are more than 20 kilometers of waterways connecting each other. Of course, the waterways are also built into 9-meter-high corridors.
Anyone can easily pass by boat.
The Thieves Guild of Constantinople was established deep in these "Sunken Palaces". Mastro personally punted the boat at the bow, while Asker sat cross-legged at the stern, staring at the stone pillars and the dark sky in the distance.
There were lights in some places on the water, but most 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.
Asker lowered his head and could clearly see a school of fish swimming in the water beside the boat. Apparently, the Thieves Guild had put a large number of fish fry into the reservoir, so that even if they did not leave the "Sunken Palace", they could at least be self-sufficient in terms of food.
This makes... If there is no PY transaction between the Thieves Guild and the Constantinople Water Company, Asker will definitely not believe it.
About half an hour later, the ship gradually sailed into 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 anti-cement slurry.
Using stone slabs, they built 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 lights of various colors (
It uses the Thieves Guild's own oil-burning generator), combined with the sparkling waves on the water in the distance, giving everything a bizarre, dreamy 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," Asker 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... 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 upward to Constantine.
The second hill of the castle provides ventilation and light for the entire underground palace. The thieves' guild piled soil where the light can shine, and next to it is the compost piled with excrement. After fermentation, it is made into fertilizer. At the same time, hops are planted on the soil.
.As a result, we could barely provide ourselves with alcohol.
I'm really impressed by you game planners...Asker thought expressionlessly. Over there, Mastro was going to lead him to visit more places with great interest, and Asker 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 pulled out a piece of paper with the goods to be purchased already written on it. Mastro took it and read:
"The river water in 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."
Hmm... geoducks in Basniya Bay? Hehe, you have something to hide."
"No." Asik shook his head and said, "These are all 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 ones you want to buy are like
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 asked for your name. 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 is better to make money by selling you contraband than to take money from your pocket and then be 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." Asik said, "The eagles of Vera like to build their nests in high places. As far as I know, they are on the top of the Hagia Sophia 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 immediately after they hatch out of their shells."
"Hagia Sophia and the Golden Palace are not easy places to reach." Mastro said with a smile.
"Yes, Saint Sophia Cathedral is on top of the Orthodox Church. I believe you don't dare to go there. 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
Extraordinary people of the sequence especially like to climb to high places to see the scenery, and then take a leap of faith?"
"You can occasionally climb to high places 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..." Ask looked at Mastro.
"Mia Sinquemani." Mastro introduced, "Our new thief is also a shadow I superpower."
"Can you climb to the top of the Golden Palace and grab 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, then tentatively asked: "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. Justice Sequence, 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?" Asker said 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?"
"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 with some dissatisfaction.
"At her age, her character is like this." Ask 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.