The Ruined House wasn't really a single house. It was the name of a place in Eternal Star City. It was in the second district of the lower city, right next to the well - known Black Street. The whole area was about the size of a street.

  Thales heard from the old - timers in the Brotherhood that the Ruined House was said to be funded by the royal court of the Star Kingdom over a hundred years ago. It used to have a nice name (but no one remembers it now, probably only the city hall has the records). Back then, it was full of ordinary but bustling citizens of the kingdom's capital.

  At some point, the Ruined House became a place where gangs would meet, negotiate, and sometimes fight.

  So, those lively neighborhood houses, along with blood, swords, and axes, became empty, leaving only stone walls and brick tiles.

  It's said that it was once used as a dumping ground for corpses. So much so that even now, children growing up happily in the sunshine of the capital city are told, “If you don't behave, I'll send you to the Ruined House.” The reputation of the Ruined House is only second to the dreaded Black Street.

  When the Black Street Brotherhood rose up and took control of the underground world in the lower city, the Ruined House was used as the base camp for the Brotherhood's beggar business in the city.

  To make management easier and prevent the beggars from escaping at night, besides having thugs watch each house, the Brotherhood dug a trench around the Ruined House that was ten feet wide and fifteen feet deep. It was filled with sharpened stakes and rusty nails, and there was only a stone door in the front of the Ruined House that could be locked with a big lock.

  Rumor has it that after countless corpses and attempts, someone finally dug a secret passage in the deep trench and escaped. But at least in the four years that Thales has been in the Ruined House, no beggar has been able to find that legendary secret passage. Instead, as the Brotherhood's business expanded, the number of corpses in the deep trench increased every year.

  It's said that every year some ungrateful kids would try to escape across the deep ditch, so the Brotherhood also has to clear the ditch of corpses once a year.

  As the name implies, the Ruined House is a collection of long - abandoned stone houses, twenty - three in total (there were more before. Some collapsed in the gang wars years ago, and some were demolished by the Brotherhood to dig the trench). They are irregularly located behind a large stone gate, some are far apart, and some are close together.

  Lucky beggars were assigned to ruined houses with wells. Unlucky ones, like Thales' House Six, had to fetch water from other houses to fill their water tanks - and this usually wasn't for free.

  The source of water and food also often caused fights among the beggars. Take the water tank in House Six, for example. Thales got it in the second year after he arrived at the Ruined House. He made a deal with House Seventeen next door to fetch water for them once a week.

  Before that, they - Ned and Kolya weren't here then. It was just Cinty, Ryan, Kellett, and two other beggars who are no longer alive - had problems even getting drinking water.

  And now Thales and the others heard the screams from their “leader,” Diego, in the next - door House Seventeen. Thales remembered smashing a rock over Diego's head when they were fighting for water. His screams were much the same then as they are now.

  “Kara! Someone come! We didn't! Not us!”

  Diego's screams seemed miserable and panicked.

  So much so that the beggars in House Six, including Thales, didn't react for a moment.

  But Thales, after all, had the memories of his past life. His first instinct was to shoo everyone in the yard back into the ragged hole in the house - a decision Thales regretted for a long time afterward.

  Thales himself glanced at the nondescript slab in the corner of the house and hid under the wall opposite House Seventeen, staring dead in the face at a dog - hole connecting House Seventeen to House Six. Back in the day, it was a symbol of the alliance between the children of the two houses.

  “What happened to Diego and the others? A fight?” Ned asked curiously as he ducked away.

  Beggars weren't all friendly with each other. A house as harmonious as House Six was not the majority in the Ruined House.

  Many of the injuries and even deaths of the beggars, except for those caused by Quaid, were actually caused by the beggars themselves. Children under the age of ten didn't know how to control their strength. Like two of Thales' previous roommates who passed away before Ned and Kolya arrived.

  But House Seventeen was kind of a special case in the Ruined House. Diego was a brown - skinned, small - eyed, yellow - haired kid with a big, stubborn grin. At nine and a half years old, he seemed more like a leader than either Sinti or Thales. At least the beggars in House Seventeen listened to him, which made the water - fighting between House Six and House Seventeen that year keep flaring up.

  “It doesn't look like a fight. Is another house bullying Diego and the others? It must be Karak from House Ten! He loves to bully the others!” Kellett said sharply as if she had figured something out.

  “Then we need to hurry up and go help! We did agree with them to help each other!”

  Crippled Ryan sniffed and was about to run out of the ragged hole and head for the dog - hole, but before the moonlight hit him halfway, Ryan was hauled back by a handful of Thales.

  “Don't be in a hurry, it's not Karak! It's something else!” Thales' face was stony as he listened to the screams next door.

  “No, Diego!”

  With a dull thud, like some sandbag being thrown against the wall, but this time it came from another child, Ensola, crying.

  Thales remembered the eight - year - old from back in the day when the fight for the water was going on. Ensola had stood by Diego's side with his lips pursed tightly.

  When the two sides started to fight, it was also his dead - hold on Sinti's thigh, not letting him get close to the struggle between Diego and Thales. If not for Thales attacking Diego's knee joints violently and picking up a stone with a quick eye, whether House Six would have a fixed source of water to drink today is still unknown.

  “Something's wrong!”

  Being the biggest child in the house, the doubt on Sinti's face gradually turned into gravity. In House Six, Sinti was the clever child who worked most happily and tacitly with Thales. He spent most of his time in silence, but whenever he opened his mouth to speak, it was either something important or a crucial word.

  Soon the puzzlement and stony faces of the children all turned to horror.

  “Beg for mercy! You beg for mercy! Go on ah! I love to hear you people beg for mercy!”

  A muffled but frantic voice came from next door.

  Every beggar in the abandoned house would never forget this voice. It was worse than the devil in hell for them - at least the devil wouldn't break the beggar's bones inch by inch, or slice open his face, or dip him head - first in a tank of water and call it “quenching your thirst” (the devil really wouldn't do that. At least the beggar doesn't know).

  It's Quaid.

  Quaid Rhoda, the Beggar Leader of the Black Street Brotherhood and the Beggar's nightmare and scourge.

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  “NO! Boss Quaid! We were wrong! We - ahhhh -”

  “Let's see if you guys still dare to talk nonsense! Dare to call me names behind my back! Dammit! The red - haired woman! Dammit! Bald head! Goddamn it! Yara Sariton! Damn you all!”

  As Quaid cursed, already somewhat deliriously, there was a flurry of blows from next door, sometimes fists, sometimes rocks, sometimes the sound of a human body colliding with a wall.

  “Help! Help! Diego! Kara! Marita! You guys get up! Help me!”

  “Run! Run towards-- uh--”

  “Jesus! Where are the guards! Where's Mr. Rick! Jesus! He's going to kill us, he's going to kill us all -”

  “No! No!”

  Heartbreaking cries, too, came from more than one person's mouth, and the ruined house in the moonlight actually looked alarming to Thales' eyes at the moment!

  It took Thales three seconds to react to what, exactly, Quaid was doing.

  He jerked his head around and looked at everyone in House Six. Ned and Kolya were shivering in the hole in the wall, and Ryan, who had just had to rush out to help, was stunned.

  Kellett and Sinti weren't much better. The former's eager, fearful gaze went back and forth between the few, trying to speak but unable to, while the latter was pale and staring at Thales dead in the face.

  “Bang! Bang! Bang! Khala!”

  “You damned scum! Even you dare to mock me! Mocking 'Bloodaxe' Quaid Rhoda! Even you all dare to -”

  “Haha, you guys scream! Why don't you scream? Scream for me!”

  The frantic roaring and howls of agony paralleled in his ears, accompanied by a shattering sound that everyone didn't want to think about deeply.

  Thales knew panic was spreading like crazy in the sixth house right now. He was really racking his brain, trying to figure out what the situation was all about.

  Quaid was really beating the beggars in the seventeenth house hard. No, looking at Quaid and how often and how hard he was punching, this wasn't just about him getting rid of his anger tonight!

  And even though Quaid was a real jerk, he wouldn't usually go after an entire house of beggars all at once. But where the heck was Rick? And where were the guards and those patrolling thugs in the ruined house? The houses were separated by stone walls, so they might not hear each other, but those thugs walking around outside should definitely be able to hear all this noise!

  Thales, of course, didn't know that the number of guards at the ruined house had been cut down to just two guys tonight, and what's more, those two thugs hadn't come back at all.

  “Thales, what... what are we gonna do?” Sinti asked, his voice a bit shaky. Listening to the horror next door, he just knew something was really wrong. His pale face was covered in a thin layer of sweat, and he just had to ask Thales for an answer.

  “Everyone, keep quiet! Not a sound! We...” Thales frowned, trying hard to come up with a plan. But before he could finish, he saw a figure squeezing out of the dog - hole between the sixth and seventeenth houses.

  Coria let out a little scream of fear.

  Thales had sharp eyes. He could tell right away that it was Ensola who had crawled out from the seventeenth house, and his head was covered in blood.

  Ensola seemed like he was on the verge of losing his mind. Before Thales could even help him up, Ensola gasped and just dropped to the ground, not caring at all about the blood all over his head.

  “Run! Let's get out of here! Hurry up...”

  Thales and Sinti quickly moved to help him up, but the howls and yells from next door were still going on. Ensola seemed out of it. No matter how much they asked, he just kept muttering “Run!” with a really scared look on his face.

  It wasn't until Thales slapped him that he seemed to come to his senses.

  “What on earth happened? Did Quaid come to take his anger out?”

  Ensola's eyes filled with tears.

  “Qui... Quaid, he's gone nuts! He's... we're not the only ones. He's going to go after every house, one by one. He...”

  Ensola was babbling, but the beggars in the sixth house got the picture. Their six little faces turned as white as sheets, and even Thales felt a shiver of fear go down his spine.

  “He was beating people as soon as he saw them, beating them until they were broken. I heard a scream and went out to peek. I saw Quaid dragging Larry from the third house out. There was blood everywhere... Then he saw me...”

  “He grabbed Kara, threw her to the ground. Diego tried to stop him, and... and then he just kept punching. Diego didn't move. And Marita, Quaid was pushing her towards the fire... that bonfire...”

  Thales felt his scalp tingle.

  It wasn't that he hadn't seen Quaid beat people before, but usually, someone would stop him before he killed someone. And as for whether those kids who got beaten were left disabled, no one in the Brotherhood really cared.

  “The third house is done for. Now it's our turn. He was just beating up Midland. I don't know how many more houses he's going to hit...”

  Just as Ensola, who was crying and talking at the same time, was about to finish, Thales quickly covered his mouth.、

  That's when everyone realized that the cries and yells from next door had stopped. The seventeenth house was dead quiet, like all the kids in there had fallen into a deep sleep.

  Only a faint, ragged breath could be heard, still coming out slowly.

  No one needed to be told what that meant.

  In the sixth house, almost all the kids started shaking.

  Just then, Thales quickly turned his head and whispered, “Listen, we're almost...”

  “Bang!”

  There was a loud crash as the door to the sixth house was kicked open.

  In the doorway, Quaid's wobbly figure slowly walked in. His fierce, sneering face was looking straight at the seven shivering kids.

  “Run? Where you gonna run? Huh, you... you look kind of familiar...”

  Everyone in the sixth house was stunned, and Thales was no exception.

  Quaid rubbed his nose. Thales could see that his face was bright red, like he was really drunk.

  And his hands were dark red.

  That was the color of blood.

  Quaid stared at Thales, who was still covering Ensola's mouth, for a moment.

  “I... I remember you!”

  The look on his face kept changing. It slowly turned from a sneer to pure hatred.

  “You're the one, that little brat who got caught by that bald guy...”

  “It was you! You must be the one who laughed at me behind my back and talked trash about me! Right?”

  “It must be you...”

  “It must be you!”

  Thales' heart sank.

  ---------- --------

  Rick was trying his best to stay calm as he carefully drove the wagon. He reached back and touched the back of his neck.

  Thank goodness, everything seemed normal.

  That “ghost” hadn't showed up.

  Probably too busy dealing with Quaid's mess.

  Up ahead, the big house of the Black Street Brotherhood's headquarters was getting closer.

  Rick let out a soft sigh of relief.

  “Accountant!”

  Layoc's voice came from over there. He was the Brotherhood's assassin, calling out to Rick from about twenty feet away.

  Layoc's face showed up in the distance, kind of in the light of a torch. He sounded annoyed as he asked, “What are you doing here at this time? This is a dangerous business! You think you can just jump in with your number - crunching hands?”

  Rick was a bit shocked. As the wagon moved forward, he saw that the small square in front of the big house was filled with torches, their shadows dancing.

  There were people standing there quietly, and every single one of them had a piece of black cloth tied on them.

  That black cloth was the Brotherhood's sign.

  There were at least a few hundred of them.

  Rick suddenly realized that almost all the people from the Black Street headquarters were here.

  Rick quickly leaned over and got out of the wagon, took a few quick steps, and by the light of the moon, saw that his boss, the fat Maurice, who was also the big shot in the human - trafficking business in Winged Star City, was talking about something with a few other people with different shapes - a two - meter - tall yellow - haired giant, a mysterious guy in dark red robes, and a big, fat, simple - looking guy. They were having a discussion.

  Rick was really surprised.

  He recognized that they were some other big shots from the guild.

  There were even a couple of bigwigs who usually didn't live in Wingstar City.

  Walking through a line of black - cloth - wearing thugs who were all heavily armed, getting their gear ready from axes, short swords, daggers, to nail - covered clubs, Riker walked right up to Layyork.

  “Layoc, nice to see you - forget it, I won't beat around the bush - what's going on tonight?”

  Riker didn't like Layoc, and Layoc didn't like Riker either. They just kept running into each other because of their jobs, and there was an unspoken understanding between them about that.

  But here, the person who knew the most about what was going on inside and who could answer quickly was Leyork.

  “Didn't the boss tell you?”

  Leyork sneered and looked at him.

  “The old rule is that when we're up against the Blood Bottle Gang, we can use any weapon except magic energy guns and infantry strong crossbows...”

  The assassin, who was known for being efficient and ruthless, held up the scimitar that was hanging on the back of his waist, as if checking how sharp the sheath was.

  Rick's heart jumped: dealing with the Blood Bottle Gang...

  The assassin took a deep breath and then playfully licked his lips.

  “Tonight, we're taking Red Square Street!”

  ---------- ---------

  “Still no word from Yoder? What about the Sunset Temple side?”

  The middle - aged nobleman with gray hair asked in front of the fireplace, facing a fancy chair, with a serious look on his face.

  “Be patient, my friend. We've waited for twelve years. A little longer won't hurt.”

  The big, strong - looking guy got up from the chair and picked up a scepter covered with bright blue crystals. If you looked closely, you could see that the crystals were actually flickering slowly but regularly, with little star - like flashes.

  “Our wild guessing here is just doubting Yoder's abilities. Besides, he has the sub - flame of that lamp, right? I think he's close to his target and just making the final check.” The big guy said slowly.

  The middle - aged nobleman bowed deeply.

  “It's not that I doubt Yoder's ability, and I've never thought he was disloyal. It's just that...” he paused and sighed, “...Yoder is too calm, too cold. Compared to his absolute loyalty, he doesn't care about anything else, just like he was twelve years ago. And I'm worried that he...”

  The middle - aged nobleman didn't finish, and the big guy didn't answer right away.

  The big guy carried his scepter and walked to the floor - to - ceiling window, looking out at the distance, at the big shrine that was all lit up and looking really magnificent.

  Not even the moonlight could compare to that brightness.

  “Then go and get ready. Go to the temple secretly right away. Leave as soon as you get news, don't wait for Yoder's signal.”