499: Chapter 499 A burly man with unkempt feet? The goddess is enraged!

East Lincang Province, Lingbao Trading Firm Headquarters.

Above the sea of clouds, inside that outrageously luxurious secret chamber.

Xie Jinghong reclined on the chaise longue, boredly flipping through the financial reports sent from various branches.

Rows of numbers flashed before her eyes, so tedious that she couldn't even be bothered to open her mouth to yawn.

Just then—

An animal-hide booklet emerged from the Void Realm without warning, floating quietly three feet in front of her.

Xie Jinghong's fox-like eyes lit up with a "shua."

The lethargic laziness of someone about to fall asleep was swept away in an instant.

She tossed the reports aside and accurately pinched the booklet with two slender fingers, her eyes filled with an irrepressible sense of anticipation.

"Oh, it's here again?"

She crossed her legs, adjusted to the most comfortable position, and enthusiastically flipped to a new page.

"Let this Young Miss see what kind of antics my cheap fiancé has been up to today."

With a smile on her lips, her eyes scanned downward.

[I went to scout out the Lingbao Trading Firm today. That shopkeeper named Fatty Zhou is clearly an old fox who only cares about money; he's incredibly slippery.]

After reading, Xie Jinghong nodded in agreement.

"Hmm, good eye."

"That fat man Zhou Fu is indeed one of the more slippery shopkeepers under my command."

"Being able to see through his true colors at a glance shows that this Young Master Su has a decent head on his shoulders."

She wiggled her crossed toes and continued reading.

[The starting price for an immortal body marrow core is one million high-grade immortal stones, and the final auction price is even more ridiculous. Is this motherfucker selling Immortal Pills or selling lives?]

The corners of Xie Jinghong's mouth curled up into a smug arc.

"Pfft."

"One million high-grade immortal stones is considered expensive?"

She flicked the edge of the diary with her fingernail, her tone carrying a sense of superiority that said, "You simply don't understand the industry."

"This is a treasure that can forge an immortal body. If placed in a core city of the East Continent, people would be fighting to buy it even if the starting price were tripled."

"This price is already a conscientious one I gave, considering the lack of purchasing power in such a backwater area."

She snorted and flipped down.

[Eight of them would require at least sixteen million high-grade immortal stones...]

Her finger, which was flipping the page, stopped.

Xie Jinghong's eyelid twitched.

"Eight?"

Her mind raced.

"Aren't there only seven people around him? Including himself, that's exactly eight."

"This guy..."

She brought the diary closer and read the number again, confirming she hadn't misread it.

"He actually wants everyone around him to possess an immortal body?"

The secret chamber fell silent for a breath.

Xie Jinghong leaned back on the couch, her gaze falling on that line of handwriting, a subtle touch in her eyes that even she hadn't noticed.

In a place like the Immortal Realm where everyone looks out for themselves and the weak are prey to the strong, a leader willing to consider every single one of his subordinates—

Xie Jinghong had been in business for many years and had met countless people.

She had truly seen very few like this.

"He’s quite loyal and righteous."

She muttered softly.

Her voice was very low, as if she were afraid of being overheard.

The expression on her face softened unknowingly, and a rare layer of gentle light rose in those fox-like eyes that were usually so calculating.

Like the early spring sun shining through the clouds, warming a small patch of ice.

However—

Just before this layer of softness could melt away.

Her gaze scanned the last few lines of the diary.

[The boss behind this Lingbao Trading Firm is probably a black-hearted, ruthless, and insatiable money-grubbing brute!]

The softness that had just risen on Xie Jinghong's face was switched off with a "click."

The corner of her eye twitched.

Money-grubbing... brute?

She took a deep breath, telling herself not to get angry.

He just didn't know who the boss was.

Ignorance is not a crime.

Then, she saw the next line.

[No! 'Money-grubbing brute' isn't enough to describe his black heart!]

Xie Jinghong's breath hitched.

Her fingers began to exert force, and a slight crease was pinched into the corner of the animal-hide diary.

Further down.

The last line.

The characters were two sizes larger than the ones before, the brushwork so fierce it seemed ready to pierce the paper, every stroke exuding a sense of gnashing teeth and resentment—

[This is clearly a stingy, black-hearted, foot-picking brute!]

Stingy...

Foot-picking...

Brute???

Xie Jinghong's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpricks.

"Boom—!!"

A Killing Intent cold enough to freeze and crack a Divine Soul erupted without warning from her exquisite body!

The temperature in the entire secret chamber plummeted instantly!

The Immortal Qi in the air was agitated by this fury, violently vibrating and condensing into a thin layer of frost, spreading from the four corners of the chaise longue and rapidly covering the entire floor!

The string of Seven-Colored Immortal Gold Bells on her wrists and ankles rang frantically in the windless secret chamber—

"Ding-ding-dang-dang-dang-dang—!!"

The sound was sharp and piercing, no longer the pleasant tinkling of usual days.

It sounded exactly like a hundred broken pots being hammered at the same time!

"Crack—!"

The chaise longue beneath her, carved from Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Jade, couldn't withstand this terrifying pressure and let out a shrill cry of distress as a crack exploded across its surface from one end to the other!

Outside the door.

The maid Qingluan was carrying a pot of freshly brewed immortal tea, preparing to bring it in.

The next second, a chill capable of freezing a Heavenly Immortal into a popsicle came crashing through the door crack.

Qingluan shuddered, her footsteps "clunking" as she froze in place.

The teapot in her hand almost slipped.

It's over.

The Eldest Young Miss has exploded again.

The last time there was such a commotion, it was because an oblivious rival merchant guild owner tried to poach the Eldest Young Miss's people using underhanded methods.

The result?

That merchant guild completely disappeared from the map of East Lincang Province the next day.

The owner himself, along with his entire family of over three hundred, was personally refined by the Eldest Young Miss into the two stone lions at the entrance of the merchant guild.

They were still squatting there to this day, exposed to the sun and rain for passersby to see.

Who was the suicidal person who poked the hornet's nest this time?

Inside the secret chamber.

Xie Jinghong slowly, slowly closed that diary.

The movement was very light.

Her posture was very elegant.

As if she were merely a joyful noble lady who had just finished reading a delightful poem.

But on her peerlessly beautiful face, capable of toppling nations, there was now a grim frost three degrees colder than Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice.

Those fox-like eyes, usually clever and cunning, were narrowed into two dangerous slits.

Deep within them surged a pure, concentrated fury that was almost about to manifest.

"Good."

"Very good."

"Excellent."

The three phrases were squeezed out one by one from between her teeth.

With each word that landed, the frost in the secret chamber grew a layer thicker.

"Foot-picking brute."

She repeated those four words.

Her voice was very calm.

So calm it was like the dead silence of the final second before a storm.

"I, Xie Jinghong."

"Have stirred the winds and clouds of the Immortal Realm for so many years."

"I've been praised, I've been feared, and I've even been hated enough for people to sharpen their blades at night."

"But to be called—"

Her voice suddenly rose half a notch, the end of her sentence carrying a hint of gnashing teeth she hadn't even noticed.

"A foot-picking brute?!"

"And by my own cheap fiancé, writing insults in his diary?!"

She suddenly stood up.

The bells erupted with a "hualā."

The half-cracked chaise longue finally couldn't hold on any longer, and with a "kālā" sound, a section in the middle collapsed.

She was completely oblivious.

"Su Chen."

She uttered the name.

Every syllable was like carving characters into jade with a sharp blade.

"You—"

"Just you wait."