Chapter 497: Confluence (2)
Twenty thousand miles east of Ziluo City, there is a small city called Tieshi.
This city is extremely poor. Apart from some cultivated farmland in the surrounding area, there is no other production. Therefore, no cultivator force is interested in it. There are only three or five independent cultivators in the Furnace Realm in Tieshi City, which has a population of nearly 100,000. They survive by extorting farmers in the surrounding area and collecting some rice rent.
In the northwest corner of Tieshi City, there is a grocery store that sells needles, thread, coarse cloth basins and the like, and also sells some grain and animal skins. Business is neither good nor bad, just enough to keep people from starving, but it is on the verge of bankruptcy all year round.
In broad daylight, inside a grocery store, there was an old man with a lame leg and a blind eye sitting blankly at the door, staring at a stray dog across the street with disgust.
Huang Yijiu, the owner of the grocery store, was currently squatting in a secret room three hundred feet underground in the backyard, looking at the small teleportation array in front of him with an expressionless face.
Huang Yijiu, or rather, the studio killer numbered 'Cangling Branch Building Pile Department Huang Zi No. 19', in the studio files, he was only at the middle stage of the Golden Lotus. In fact, his cultivation had already entered the Illuminating Void Realm twenty years ago.
Everyone has their own destiny. Huang Yijiu was one of those people who had the destiny and luck, so his cultivation base advanced by leaps and bounds. In just a hundred years, his cultivation base soared and advanced by leaps and bounds, from the Golden Lotus Cultivation Realm to the Golden Lotus Opening Realm and the Dao Fruit Condensation Realm, and he forcefully broke into the Illuminating Void Realm. In fact, in the past twenty years, he had already cultivated to the late Illuminating Void Realm.
However, he concealed his cultivation level and did not report it.
In the photo studio, such behavior is extremely dangerous. If discovered, he will definitely receive the most severe punishment, and may even be refined into a disposable "Dead Shadow" puppet.
But he did it anyway.
Life in Tieshi City is very leisurely.
As a secret agent casually dropped by the photo studio in Tieshi City, he did not even have daily assassination missions. He was only responsible for monitoring the movements around Tieshi City, especially paying attention to any movement of the Miro Sect not far from Tieshi City.
How could a disciple of the Miro Sect come to a remote place like Tieshi City?
So Huang Yijiu lived a leisurely and comfortable life. He lived a quiet life like a small worldly person. He even thought about whether he should go out and make a fortune, and then marry the pretty Tofu Sanniang on the street who always flirted with him?
With a light sigh, Huang Yijiu muttered in a low voice: "Unfortunately, I can't."
A single-line secret agent for a photo studio like him has no right to marry and have children... Only the leaders of large secret agent bases can reproduce and develop their families in order to hide their identities as secret agents.
If the studio finds out that the spy has the guts to marry and have kids at his workplace... the only outcome will be the extermination of the entire family.
"What a pity that the old building owner died... Why wasn't the one who died someone from the Cang Ling branch? If all the case files of the Cang Ling branch were also destroyed, I would..." Huang Yijiu muttered in a low voice, and then sighed again.
Even if the person in charge of the Cangling branch of the photo studio died and all the information about the killers in the Cangling branch was destroyed, he would not be able to leave the studio.
It was as if, once the agreed date and time came, he would have to wait obediently in this secret room... The photo studio had already taken control of everything about him, and unless he could be promoted to the Half-Step Heavenly Man Realm, he would never be able to escape the control of the photo studio.
A crisp cry was heard from the teleportation array, a ray of light flashed, and a jade bottle and a jade slip ejected from the teleportation array at the same time.
Without looking at the jade slip, Huang Yijiu quickly grabbed the jade bottle, uncorked it, took out a dark green pill that emitted a pungent smell, and stuffed it into his mouth as quickly as possible.
This is the antidote for the 'Red Heart Pill'.
'Red Heart Pill' is a poisonous drug used by the studio to control the countless assassins under its command and prevent them from defecting. Once taken, the antidote must be taken once a year, otherwise the Yin Fire will burst out from the heart and burn the person to death in a breath.
Unless one has cultivated to the half-step heavenly realm, there is no chance of escape.
"I can live one more year." Huang Yijiu sighed and lazily picked up the jade slip that came with the antidote for the Red Heart Pill. "How strange! I have been idle for many years as a secret agent. How come there is an order?"
As soon as his fingers touched the jade slip, Huang Yijiu made a seal in a very unfamiliar manner, briefly recalled the secret spell that he almost forgot, chanted a spell in a low voice, released the seal, and activated the jade slip.
A ray of light burst out from the jade slip and poured into Huang Yijiu's brow.
Huang Yijiu's expression suddenly became extremely ugly: "What a joke! Are you going to send out a secret agent like me who is only at the Golden Lotus level and has no operational experience? This is, this is..."
Huang Yijiu's face looked as if a mouthful of cow dung was forced into his mouth. It was extremely ugly.
Huang Yijiu gritted his teeth, stomped his feet hard, pointed at the ceiling of the secret room and whispered greetings to the new owner of the building, Hu Buwei, for his ancestors. Then, with a drooping face, he turned into a shadow and walked out of the secret room silently.
The instructions in the jade slip are very clear.
The order came directly from the top management of the photo studio, ordering Huang Yijiu to rush to the designated location at the specified time.
If there is any violation, the building regulations will be followed.
Huang Yijiu turned into a shadow, and with a light breeze, he rushed towards the place in the order. As he fled, he muttered in a low voice: "Building rules? I have forgotten how many building rules there are... Oh, is it that serious? Isn't it just that an old building owner died? Why make such a fuss? Why bother?"
"The old owner is dead, the new owner should be happy and excited. What a good thing! Why is there so much fighting and killing?"
One day later, outside Zi Luo City, Black Bull Mountain, Gadfly Valley.
There are weeds everywhere and countless mosquitoes.
Huang Yijiu had already arrived outside the Gadfly Valley six hours ago. According to the order he received, with his cultivation and realm, he should have arrived here to join the group in two days.
But Huang Yijiu's cultivation was much higher than the level of cultivation in the studio files. His speed of flight was so fast that he reached his destination in just a few hours. He was extremely cautious and careful, turning into a shadow and hiding outside the Gadfly Valley.
A fist-sized black gem was suspended above his head, emitting a strange aura that enveloped his entire body. Huang Yijiu merged completely with the surrounding environment without any leakage of his aura. He simply did not exist in this world. Even all traces related to him, all causes and effects, all the secrets of heaven, and other "external factors" that could be calculated and divined were completely annihilated by this gem.
At this moment, to everyone, Huang Yijiu was a non-existent "concept".
This orb was Huang Yijiu's chance. Who would have thought that such a treasure would be hidden in an unknown small ancient tomb under Tieshi City? Because of this orb, the ancient tomb existed peacefully for who knows how many years, and no one ever discovered any trace of its existence.
But after Huang Yijiu was sent to Tieshi City, he was timid and afraid of being surrounded in his own grocery store. He randomly dug a secret escape passage underground and inexplicably dug into an ancient tomb. Without any risk, he obtained the "Taichu Huntong Pearl".
This orb contains infinite mysteries, and Huang Yijiu's rapid progress in cultivation is only a tiny part of the infinite mysteries of the orb. However, Huang Yijiu's own qualifications are limited, his experience is shallow, and his methods are crude and meager, so the benefits he gets from this orb are just a tiny bit.
Time passes by little by little.
A cold wind whistled and a figure broke into the Gadfly Valley.
Dressed in black, with a black mask on, his figure is vague, with a dark wind lingering under his feet, ready to turn into a shadow and escape at any time... This is the common style of photo studio killers.
The man who owned the photo studio quickly circled the Gadfly Valley several times, searching every nook and cranny where people could hide. After finding no signs of an ambush, he whistled softly.
A gentle cold wind blew by, and more than a dozen dark shadows quietly emerged and quickly guarded the surroundings.
Huang Yijiu watched these 'colleagues' every move with great interest... They were so cautious and careful, and their searching and booth techniques were so sophisticated. These dozen black shadows should be the studio's front-line killers, the guys who really risked their lives for others, and they were not comparable to a 'peaceful life' undercover agent like him.
This is just the first wave.
Afterwards, basically every quarter of an hour, a wave of people from the photo studio would arrive quietly.
Various bird calls and insect chirping sounds continued to be heard. Waves of studio owners used special means to confirm their identities to each other, and then waited quietly in the Gadfly Valley.
As more and more studio killers gathered in the valley, especially after the arrival of a supreme killer in the Zhaoxu Realm and twelve gold medal killers in the Ningdao Fruit Realm, the atmosphere in the Gadfly Valley became much more relaxed.
Nearly 30,000 elite members of the photo studio have gathered here. Such strength is scary enough and there is no need to be cautious about anything.
Huang Yijiu secretly calculated the time and realized that it was almost time for him to reunite.
He carefully observed his surroundings, considering whether to run to the Gadfly Valley to meet up with his "colleagues"... But inexplicably, the Taichu Huntong Pearl shook slightly, and a very sharp sense of danger came over him.
Huang Yijiu tried his best to recall the studio's rules. He finally remembered that if someone didn't arrive at the meeting point on time for an emergency call like this... if there was a legitimate reason, he would be whipped 300 times with a poisonous dragon whip soaked in venom...
"I won't be beheaded... Then, let's wait a little longer." Huang Yijiu was determined to stay alive.
He began to think about the figure, face, and soft voice of Tofu Sanniang from Tieshi City... Well, since there is a sense of danger, he might as well stay hidden. He held his chin with one hand, pulled a dogtail grass and held it in his mouth, seriously considering the possibility that he would not marry Tofu Sanniang, but develop her into a secret lover .
"Toufu Sanniang's father... is a money-hungry man. So, if I could get a large sum of money..." Huang Yijiu began to think about where he could make a fortune. Perhaps, he could kill those young people in the Furnace Realm of Tieshi City?
Time passed little by little, and no more killers from the photo studio came.
In all directions, in the mountains and forests, countless red lanterns lit up at the same time, and an astonishing evil aura swept in all directions. In an instant, except for the supreme killer with the highest cultivation level of Zhaoxu Realm, all the other people belonging to the photo studio were frozen by a thick layer of ice.
