The road went on up the hill and through a decorated gate with a large board with characters "Crow King’s Nest" carved into it.
When they got a bit closer to the gate Hong Ye noticed that Wu Long’s mood suddenly beca a bit more serious as he looked ahead.
"What’s wrong, Darling?"
"The Protective Formation they have is a bit botherso, I’d rather not go directly against it if possible"
"So powerful?", Hong Ye’s eyes slightly widened, and then a dangerous look appeared within them, "Does it an the owners here are that dangerous?"
"Not necessarily. In fact, now that I’ve seen everything in person, aside from the formation itself, I don’t expect them to be that troubleso to deal with at all", he shook his head, "There’s a reason a concept of ’hoground’ exists in battle, it was just relatively easy to ignore in our journey so far. The deeper we go into the cultivation world the more that will be a factor. This one just surprised since it’s a bit better than I expected encountering in this kind of place"
"Ah~ ok!", hearing his answer, Hong Ye imdiately relaxed, prompting a sowhat perplexed look from her twin.
But Hong Yue decided not to comnt on this easy-going attitude, instead focusing on sothing that bothered her about his answer, "Better than you expected? Didn’t this place belong to one of the giants of the entire Seven Boundless Worlds’ underworld you talked about before?"
"You an one of the Pavilions of the now-remaining ’one Palace, two Pavilions, and five Families’? I don’t think so", Wu Long replied, and seeing how this might be a bit too short of an answer, explained further, "It’s true that the ’Pavilions’ refers to organizations which deal with various aspects of illegal trade and comrce, but it’s not like every black market in the entire Seven Boundless Worlds is directly under them just like not every underworld information trader is under one of the Palaces - most are small locals"
Complex patterns flashed in his eyes as he studied the Protective Formation they were walking towards more closely, "The fact that such giants like Obsidian Moon Palace and Palace of Secrets both have branches in this kind of place might make it feel like their branches are not a big deal, but that’s not the case"
"You ntioned they might be associated... aning they might be part of their network but not directly under them?", Hong Yue asked, slightly confused.
"Yes. Not just them, but most big organizations, whether they live in the light of day or darkness of night, use a network of proxies. It might be a foreign idea for you since Bahshi Assassins are one of the exceptions who never had or used proxies. But if you rember, Yuhan’s Thousand Eyes Information Bureau used to be associated with the Palace of Secrets, it doesn’t an she was a mber", he nodded while finishing scanning the Formation with his eyes, "The cultivation world is just too vast to put a direct branch in every single small world and manage everything everywhere perfectly"
"I see", Hong Yue nodded, instantly seeing the logic in his statent, "Failure of managent at the low level could create vulnerabilities for the larger organization as a whole... it is fine if the failure happens in a related proxy, but not for a direct extension of the organization itself"
"Exactly"
"Thank you for answering all my questions", Hong Yue nodded, sinking into her thoughts.
"My pleasure", he chuckled in a low voice, almost as if speaking to himself.
---
Although it was called a black market, at a cursory look there didn’t seem anything out of the normal about the so-called Crow King’s Nest.
It was a rather lively marketplace sprinkled with occasional wine houses and eateries, and even a high-end wine tower standing tall to one side of the ridge.
The brothels and gambling dens looked rather restrained from the outside, and the fighting arena this place was partly famous for was hidden below the ground with multiple rather discreet entrances.
But a closer look at the goods being sold would tell another story.
They could be quite easily identified as a product of either theft or loot, or might be items that are normally restricted to sell by local or regional powers, the kind that would be rejected by most regular markets and auctions and could easily bring trouble to those who would try selling them in open flea markets.
Of course, to an experienced eye this place was even more obviously a shady one - all it took was one look at the people, one mont spent in the atmosphere of hidden danger that lingered here.
To an ordinary eye though, it was easy to miss.
Like for a certain young man entering the Crow King’s Nest and walking down the main street. The short bamboo hat on his head allowed the heavy rain to soak his coat which wasn’t enough to shield his clothes underneath, giving him an overall miserable, drenched appearance.
Still, even then in most places, especially in this kind of weather and how crowded it was, he might’ve had a chance of lting into the masses, but in here, he stood out like a firefly in the dark.
The occasional drop of blood that seeped into the puddles of rainwater under his feet when he walked, the barely noticeable limp, the anxiousness that soaked into his every move despite desperate attempts to look calm, and the nervousness in the eyes that moved around too fast to be mistaken for simple caution, the signs of physical and ntal exhaustion on his face that could be glimpsed from ti to ti when he raised his head a bit too high for the bamboo hat to cover it.
The people here were sensitive to these kinds of things.
At one glance, they recognized what he was - a wounded prey that foolishly wandered into a den full of predators thinking it could hide, ignorant of how obvious it was for everyone around, lulled by the false appearance of normalcy.
This was not a rare sight in these kinds of places. Just another lost soul, destined to be swallowed by the darkness that lingered here. There already were a few figures discreetly trailing behind him through the crowd.
All he had to do was take a wrong turn.
Yet, as if guided, he made the right choices by first following the main road until he arrived at a section of the Crow King’s Nest with roofs stretching in between the buildings - a covered market of sorts.
The roof in between the buildings on the sides was set over the second floor level, which was filled with balconies that mainly featured food stalls, small tea and wine houses and eateries while the first floor was full of bustling individual shops and stalls.
However, his good luck apparently ran out, as when he was making his way through this covered market, seemingly in search of so specific place, a voice called out from the second floor, "Changsun Yong! Just the man we were waiting for!"
This alerted the entire street that sothing was happening, raising caution. So when six people ca out from the shops on the street below and six more leapt down from the balconies above to surround the young man who froze for a mont, everyone in between them hurried to clear out the space to not accidentally get caught up in whatever this was.
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