Chapter 6: Luoyang Ghost Market, Traces of Traitors
Ten days later, Luoyang.
Luoyang, the ancient capital of 13 dynasties, is a bustling city during the day, bustling with activity and overflowing with beautiful displays. However, as night falls and the golden sun sets in the west, a different face of this magnificent ancient city quietly awakens from the shadows.
In the west of the city, in a lawless area, there is a place called "Ghost Market", which is the core of this face.
This place has no name and no official map mark, but it is a hotbed for all kinds of people to trade secrets and commit crimes.
Su Qinghan changed into a sharp, black, martial arts-inspired outfit. Her long hair was tied up high, and she wrapped it with a simple, dark blue cloth, covering half her face, revealing only a pair of eyes colder than the night. She moved through the mingling crowd, her figure like a drop of ink, blending into the thick darkness.
The air of the ghost market was a tangled mess of strange smells. There was the fishy odor of damp earth, the sweet, cloying scent of cheap incense, the lingering blood of weapons, and the fermenting decay of human desire. There were no bright lights along the street, only the pale green or dim yellow lanterns hanging in front of the stalls. Their flickering light cast a ghostly shadow on every face.
The stalls offered a wide variety of items. There were antiques from past dynasties of unknown provenance, strange weapons imbued with deadly poisons, secret elixirs said to have emanated from the Imperial Palace, and even bones and organs beyond description. But the most valuable commodity here was always the intangible—intelligence.
Su Qinghan’s goal is to find a source of “intelligence”.
A traitor who claims to have mastered the secrets of "Tianji Pavilion".
She learned this news through internal channels within the "Youquan" organization. A lowly organization like "Youquan" naturally harbored curiosity and covetousness towards the "Tianji Pavilion," a leader in the industry. They viewed this traitor as a valuable asset and dispatched her, "Feiyue," to Luoyang to contact him, hoping to pry the traitor's secrets about the Tianji Pavilion's organizational structure, locations, and even its martial arts manuals.
For "Youquan", this is an opportunity to strengthen itself.
But for Su Qinghan, this was the first opportunity she had taken the initiative to approach the "Tianji Pavilion" after years of searching.
Ever since the battle at the Yangzhou Governor's Mansion, the words "Tianji Pavilion" had been like a poisonous sting, piercing her heart. The mysterious assassin's elusive movements, his ghostly, fleeting movements, kept her awake at night. She had a strong premonition that the man was involved in her father's death.
She must catch this traitor. At any cost.
The ghost market has its own rules. Here, no one asks your name, and no one cares about your background. You simply need to demonstrate enough "value" to exchange for everything you desire.
Su Qinghan didn't run around like a headless fly. She walked straight to the depths of the ghost market, to a small teahouse with a lantern with the word "Forget Worry" hanging on it.
The teahouse's facade was small, and the interior was even darker. There were only a few tables, occupied by a few indistinct patrons, all sipping tea with their heads bowed, none talking to one another. An elderly woman, her face wrinkled and her body hunched, was slowly and methodically wiping the tea utensils.
She is the owner of this teahouse, known as "Meng Po." No one knows her real name, but they know that there are no secrets in the Luoyang Ghost Market that she doesn't know. Of course, buying secrets from her is extremely expensive.
Su Qinghan walked to the counter and tapped the tabletop lightly with his fingers. Two long taps and three short taps. This was the code agreed upon by Youquan and Mengpo, signifying a "big deal."
"Meng Po" raised her cloudy eyelids, glanced at her, and said in a hoarse voice like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing against each other: "Tea or wine?"
"A cup of 'Heartbreak'." Su Qinghan said the code word.
"Heartbreak" is the strongest kind of liquor here and also the most expensive kind of information.
"Meng Po" grinned, revealing a row of yellow teeth, and smiled: "Little girl, you are quite arrogant. 'Broken Heart' is not something that everyone can afford."
Su Qinghan didn't waste any time. She pulled a small brocade pouch from her sleeve and placed it on the counter. Inside was a map of a secret "Youquan" stronghold in the northwest. This was the "deposit" she had requested from Youquan in exchange for intelligence. For Youquan, sacrificing an insignificant stronghold in exchange for the secrets of Tianji Pavilion was a sure win.
"Meng Po" picked up the brocade sachet, brought it to her nose and sniffed it, a glint of light flashing in her dim eyes. "Hmm... Interesting. Tell me, whose intestines do you want to rupture?"
"A traitor." Su Qinghan lowered his voice, "Falling from the sky."
"Heaven" is a slang term, referring to "Tianji Pavilion".
Meng Po paused for a moment, then looked up at Su Qinghan again. "A traitor from the Tianji Pavilion? Haha, this is a hot potato. In my entire life, this is the first time I've heard of anyone daring enough to escape from there. You Youquan people are becoming more and more daring."
"It's just a business deal." Su Qinghan's tone was still cold. "Where is he now?"
Meng Po chuckled, put away the brocade bag, turned around, and fished out a black ceramic bowl from under the cabinet. She poured half a bowl of turbid liquid and pushed it in front of Su Qinghan. "Drink it, and what you want to know is at the bottom of the bowl."
Su Qinghan looked at the strange-smelling wine in the bowl and picked it up without hesitation, drinking it all in one gulp. The pungent wine burned like a line of fire from her throat to her stomach, but her eyes didn't change at all.
She put the bowl down, only to see a line of faintly visible small words written on the bottom of the bowl with a special potion:
"The mouse that has seen the sky has hidden itself in a place that God does not want, waiting for the spring to quench its thirst."
The writing appears when it comes in contact with wine and disappears when the wine dries up.
Su Qinghan's pupils shrank slightly.
She understood.
The phrase "the rat that has seen the sky" naturally refers to the traitor who has seen the "secrets of heaven." "A place the gods don't want"—nowhere in Luoyang is more fitting than the abandoned Dragon King Temple on the outskirts of the city due to a flood. "Waiting for the spring to quench his thirst" directly indicates that the traitor is waiting there for someone from "Youquan" to arrive.
Meng Po's information completely matched the information she got from the Youquan Organization.
This money is worth spending.
"Thank you." Su Qinghan threw down two words, turned around and left.
"Little girl," the unhurried voice of "Meng Po" came from behind, "Let me warn you. Anything that falls from the sky is not ordinary. Don't let it burn your hands."
Su Qinghan did not stop, and his figure quickly disappeared into the darkness at the entrance of the teahouse.
After leaving the ghost market, the chill in the night wind dispelled the suffocating turbid air and calmed her burning thoughts.
Dragon King Temple.
She knew the place. It was located ten miles south of Luoyang City, with Mang Mountain at its back and Luo River in front.
The temple was once a bustling place of worship, but three years ago a fire killed the abbot and a dozen monks. Since then, it has been considered an ominous place and completely abandoned. It is indeed an ideal place for hiding and secret meetings.
Su Qinghan did not go there immediately.
She first circled Luoyang City a few times to make sure there was no one following her, then she found a secluded corner, changed out of her martial arts outfit, put on her iconic "Fei Yue" outfit, and covered her face with a veil.
From now on, she was no longer Su Qinghan, the master detective of the Six Gates, nor was she a quack seeking intelligence in the Ghost Market. Instead, she was Feiyue, the top assassin of the "Youquan" sect. Each identity was a mask, and she had become accustomed to switching between them effortlessly. Only sometimes, in the dead of night, she would lose track of which one was her true self.
She pressed the soft sword "Hanjiangxue" at her waist. The sword was icy cold, just like her state of mind.
Tianji Pavilion...
Could the mysterious man who single-handedly disrupted the overall situation in Yangzhou City and played her in the palm of his hand be a member of the Tianji Pavilion?
The man who made her taste frustration and humiliation for the first time.
Su Qinghan's breathing quickened at the thought of him. It wasn't fear, but a mixture of anger, unwillingness, and... a hint of curiosity that she herself was unwilling to admit.
She desperately wanted to know what exactly the Tianji Pavilion was like. How did they train such a terrifying assassin? What was their code of conduct?
The most important thing is, why did they kill their father back then!
All the answers may be hidden in the traitor you are about to meet.
She took a deep breath, suppressed all the surging emotions, and her eyes became sharp and firm again.
According to intel, the traitor will meet with the "Youquan" group in a dilapidated temple on the outskirts of the city. She pressed the soft sword at her waist, her eyes sharp. The name Tianji Pavilion might hold the answers she'd been searching for for years.
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