550: Chapter 550 Su Chen's Reflections After Tea!

Box Number One.

The clamor of the auction outside seemed to be completely cut off by an invisible wall.

The warmth remained, but the atmosphere inside the private room had fallen into an eerie silence.

Su Chen shrank further back into the depths of the priceless Ten-Thousand-Year Warm Jade lounge chair.

The smooth touch of the jade seeped through his clothes, soothing every inch of his skin.

At his side was a cup of fine Immortal Ganoderma Tea.

The rising curls of steam carried a refreshing medicinal fragrance.

He was so comfortable he almost entered a state of meditation on the spot.

Su Chen half-squinted his eyes, lazily scanning the "assets" inside the room.

Qian Duoduo was slumped like a puddle, practically "liquefied" in the corner.

On his plump face, his expression flickered wildly between the ecstasy of "surviving a disaster" and the lingering fear of a "heart attack"; the spectacle was no less intense than the auction outside.

His lips muttered unconsciously, as if he were counting money or perhaps reciting the Rebirth Mantra.

Su Chen pricked up his ears and listened with great interest.

"Twenty-nine million... no, thirty million... thirty million minus what the Boss shouted... not a single cent spent... then who exactly paid that thirty million... my brain isn't enough for this..."

Well, he was calculating a messy account that he probably wouldn't understand for the rest of his life.

Good, a stable performance. Truly worthy of being my exclusive accountant.

On the other side, Jian Buping stood as straight as a spear by the door, his right hand always resting on his sword hilt, facing the corridor.

His ears twitched ever so slightly; he was clearly monitoring any movement from the outside at all times.

Professional.

Aside from his road rage, this man was good in every way—very cost-effective.

In the corner, Wang Baobao held the low-grade immortal stone she had gnawed down to the size of a walnut, her small body curled into a ball.

She was buried in her task, gnawing with such focus that the "crunch, crunch" sounds were exceptionally clear in the overly quiet room.

Su Chen stared at her for two seconds.

His Divine Thought swept over the golden immortal artifact hilt in his Storage Ring, which had a corner bitten off.

His temple throbbed uncontrollably once again.

But in the end, he didn't lose his temper.

Forget it. I'm in a good mood now; I won't hold it against a child.

Su Chen picked up his teacup, took a light sip, and quickly reviewed the entire auction in his mind.

The result was ten times better than his best-case scenario.

His original plan was just to feign being a "sucker who ascended from the Lower Realm, had seen nothing of the world, and was easily provoked" to muddy the waters.

Then he would make a stylish exit, letting the Lingbao Trading Firm's shills and the mysterious enemy in Private Room Number Seven drive up the prices against each other while he watched the tigers fight from the sidelines.

The best outcome would have been for the two groups to tear into each other, with one side eventually buying it at a high price.

Regardless of who bought it, it had nothing to do with him; his only goal was to make the enemy bleed.

But the reality was that he, the "Director-in-Chief," only provided the opening, and the two "lead actors" went crazy adding their own scenes.

The Lingbao Trading Firm's shill raised it to twenty-eight million.

The people in Private Room Number Seven were even more ruthless, directly chasing it to thirty million to secure it.

Thirty million.

A Rank One Immortal Body Marrow Core with a market price of three million at most had been forcibly hyped up to a ten-fold premium.

Su Chen's internal monologue rolled slowly, filled with the pleasure of having appreciated a brilliant drama.

[Tsk, this is the power of information asymmetry.]

[Both groups treated me as their only opponent, while simultaneously assuming the other party was my man.]

[The Lingbao Trading Firm's shill thought Private Room Number Seven was helping me raise the price, so they had to cooperate with the suppression, pushing the price up to force me to bleed.]

[Private Room Number Seven thought the Lingbao Trading Firm's shill was a plant I arranged, trying to take it at a low price by passing it from the left hand to the right, so they had to snatch it away at any cost to intercept it.]

[As a result, two groups of top-tier suckers fought to the death for an imaginary common enemy.]

[And I, throughout the whole process, only made two serious bids, didn't spend a single cent in the end, and watched the whole show with total composure.]

[What do you call this? This is called getting an epic exhibition match worth thirty million for free.]

[At this moment, the people in Private Room Number Seven are probably feeling smug about their 'successful interception'!]

[The funniest thing is—]

He paused, and the lazy smile on his lips turned into a trace of a wicked curve.

[The funniest thing is, I never intended to buy the immortal body marrow core at this auction in the first place.]

This was the truth.

With a starting price of five million and obvious shills disrupting the game, the final transaction price was bound to be ridiculous.

He had worked hard for so many days to finally save up thirty million in "startup capital" through his diary; every cent had to be spent where it mattered most.

Spending nearly ten million, or even more, to buy the lowest-grade immortal body marrow core?

It wasn't worth it.

His teammates would have plenty of opportunities to get immortal bodies later, but his "ammunition depot" could not be empty.

So, from the very beginning, he didn't want to buy it.

Bidding was only to stir up trouble.

Only when the water is muddied can one fish in troubled waters and see clearly how many factions in Peng City are targeting him.

Su Chen put down his teacup and stretched comfortably.

"Whew..."

The puddle of "butter" on the floor finally wriggled and climbed up from the corner.

The golden light of "$" signs lit up again in Qian Duoduo's small eyes, but this golden light was trembling wildly as if it had been electrocuted.

"Bo... Boss."

"Yes."

"You... you just now... did that on purpose, didn't you?" His voice trembled, carrying a tone of seeking confirmation that almost sounded like he was about to cry.

Su Chen glanced at him, neither admitting nor denying it.

"What was on purpose?"

"Like... when you slapped the windowsill and shouted ten million... you actually had no intention of buying it at all, right?"

Su Chen didn't answer.

He just slowly picked up his teacup and gently blew on the few scraps of Immortal Ganoderma floating on the surface.

The movement was as elegant as a mortal scholar savoring autumn chrysanthemum wine.

Qian Duoduo stared intently at this movement.

Suddenly, a chill rushed from his tailbone straight to the crown of his head!

Dense goosebumps instantly broke out all over his body!

A detail he had overlooked but was incredibly terrifying exploded in his mind like a thunderclap!

He remembered!

When Su Chen slapped the windowsill and roared "ten million," how furious his expression was, and how out of control his voice sounded!

The aura the man radiated was that of a madman pushed into a corner, gambling everything!

But his hand!

The hand he slapped onto the Ten-Thousand-Year Warm Jade windowsill!

The force was just enough to make the hard windowsill emit a dull "thud" that shocked the room!

He hadn't been furious at all.

That voice, that expression, that movement, and even that aura of being "provoked"—it was all perfectly... acted out under calculations precise to the extreme!

Qian Duoduo got even more goosebumps; he felt as if his plump frame had shrunk a size under this chill.

He looked in horror at Su Chen's profile as he blew on his tea.

A lazy, untainted profile with a faint smile at the corner of the mouth.

Compared to that red-eyed, vein-popping, overbearing "profligate young master" from ten minutes ago, they were simply creatures from two different dimensions.

"Bo... Boss," Qian Duoduo's voice was dry and raspy, "What... what exactly did you do before?"

Hearing this, Su Chen finally looked up and gave him a faint glance.

"Wrote a diary."

Qian Duoduo didn't ask any more questions.

He was now absolutely certain of one thing.

Following this boss indeed offered the chance to make a fortune, but it also meant the possibility of entering the grave early because his heart couldn't take the stimulation.

Because when this boss acted, he had no moral bottom line or psychological burden; even his own people were almost tricked into ascending on the spot by him.

What was even scarier was that after acting out a shocking drama, he could still drink tea with such a clear conscience.

His hand was very steady.

Qian Duoduo swallowed hard and silently added another three-inch layer of golden silk cedar to his own coffin lid in his heart.

Su Chen put down his teacup.

Then, under the gaze of Qian Duoduo's suddenly constricted pupils, he slowly pulled out that familiar diary from his Storage Ring.