Dawn was just breaking, and the Imperial Capital was still shrouded in a thin layer of mist and silence. The biting chill of late autumn seeped down to the bone, making even the imposing stone lions outside the grand mansions on both sides of Zhuque Avenue look as though they were coated in a layer of frost.
In the quiet courtyard in the back alley of the Zhenbei Estate, the storage room doors remained tightly shut. The lamp that had burned all night leaked a dim, flickering glow through the cracks of the window paper, casting light upon the upright and vigilant figure of Lin Feng, the night watchman, standing before the door. Inside the storage room, the air still carried a pungent, heavy medicinal odor, mixed with the faint, miscellaneous Yuan Qi fluctuations unique to Origin Stones.
Qin Lie sat cross-legged on the cold bluestone floor, surrounded by a dozen dim, cracked shards of low-grade Origin Stones.
Chapter 73