273: Chapter 273 Gaze

The night was as dark as ink, and the bustle of Tianyin City had long since fallen silent.

Just as Xu Chen stood on the terrace of the Hidden Dragon Courtyard looking up, within the most luxurious loft on the top floor of the Myriad Treasures Tower—designated as an absolute Forbidden Ground—subtle ripples of a Formation were circulating.

This loft was suspended at the highest point of the Myriad Treasures Tower's headquarters, surrounded by a great defensive Formation inscribed with enough power to withstand a full-strength strike from a Saint King. Ordinarily, even Unchanging Gold, the Young Lord of the Tianyin City branch, would not have the qualifications to set foot here.

At this moment, on a white tiger-skin soft couch in the center of the loft, a beautiful figure was lazily reclining, enough to make the blood of any man in the world surge.

She was a stunning woman exuding the charm of a mature elder sister.

She wore a black, slim-fitting dress with a high slit, made from rare Dark Night Celestial Silk that clung tightly to her skin, perfectly outlining her devilishly hot curves.

Her snowy-white, slender legs were partially visible through the slit in her skirt, adding a touch of fatal temptation.

Most striking of all, on her cold, elegant, and intellectual face sat a uniquely shaped Magical Artifact.

It was a treasure-appraising lens with a frame crafted from pure gold wire and set with two pieces of top-grade colorless transparent glaze.

In the cultivation world, this type of Magical Artifact, called the "Delusion-Breaking Mirror," was expensive to produce, and only the top treasure-appraising Grandmasters of the Central State would wear them to see through the disguises of Magic Treasures and the flow of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

Wearing this lens on the bridge of her nose didn't ruin her exquisite beauty; instead, it added a cold, calculating, intellectual charm to her already oppressive aura of a superior.

This person was none other than the inspector of the Central State's Myriad Treasures Tower Headquarters, one of its actual controllers, who possessed the Heaven-Reaching God of Wealth Physique—Shang Qingdai.

Shang Qingdai's slender fingers gently swirled a transparent crystal goblet, the crimson spiritual wine within emitting an intoxicating fragrance.

Through the gold-framed glass lens on her nose, her gaze fell upon a Formation light screen suspended in the air before her. The image displayed on the screen was the Hidden Dragon Courtyard located below.

"The upheaval in the Great Xia Dynasty has just settled. This Young Master of the Imperial Clan, who is famous across the Eastern Desolate, isn't in the capital holding the Empress tenderly, but has instead run to an elegant place like Tianyin City to listen to music."

Shang Qingdai's red lips parted slightly, her voice carrying a laziness and magnetism unique to mature women.

Her beautiful eyes, hidden behind the glass lens, stared intently at the slender figure in a moon-white robe on the screen, who was drinking alone from a wine cup, a strong light flickering in the depths of her eyes.

That wasn't the admiration of a woman looking at a man, but that of a pure merchant scrutinizing a priceless, rare treasure.

As an inspector of the Myriad Treasures Tower, her intelligence network spanned the world. She was well aware of the commotion Xu Chen had caused in the Eastern Desolate during this time.

Descended upon Great Xia, suppressing the imperial family, slaying a Saint, and even forcing back a million-strong army with a single blade of withered grass at the border; this Young Master Xu's strength was not only unfathomable, but the wealth and foundation behind him were also unimaginably vast.

"The Central State's Xu Family, an ancient imperial clan that has inherited legacies for countless eons. It's rumored that if you just sweep the floor of the Xu Family treasury, the scraps that fall out would be enough to buy half of the Eastern Desolate. Such immense wealth is usually harder to reach than ascending to the heavens."

Shang Qingdai drained the crimson spiritual wine in her glass, her narrow, beautiful eyes squinting slightly like a cunning fox that had spotted its prey.

"I thought being marginalized by the old fogies in the clan and sent to this rural Eastern Desolate for an inspection was a miserable task. I didn't expect that idiot Unchanging Gold, who only thinks with his lower half, would accidentally lure this living God of Wealth to the Myriad Treasures Tower's inn by trying to kidnap a blind girl."

Shang Qingdai's mood was Surprisingly good.

She gently removed the gold-framed glass lens from the bridge of her nose and took out a soft silk handkerchief to carefully wipe the lenses.

Possessing the Heaven-Reaching God of Wealth Physique, she had an instinctive perception of the wealth-qi in the world. The moment Xu Chen stepped into the Myriad Treasures Tower, the Origin of the divine physique within her body trembled violently like never before.

That feeling was like rain after a long drought, a craving to devour the massive Imperial Clan Luck and wealth on him.

The image on the light screen shifted slightly, freezing on the Imperial Clan token at Xu Chen's waist that occasionally flashed with purple-gold light.

"For a powerless, blind zither girl, he not only stepped forward to suppress the branch manager but even revealed the Purple Gold Token. It seems that although this Young Lord is decisive in killing, he is ultimately a romantic who can't pass the trial of a beauty."

Shang Qingdai put her lens back on, a cold, confident smile curling at the corners of her mouth.

After many years in the world of commerce, what she feared least were men with weaknesses and desires. As long as they wanted something, she would surely be able to grasp their weakness.

Tomorrow night's top-tier auction was precisely the hunting ground she had meticulously prepared.

She had already sent down orders to temporarily add several of the rarest youth-retaining treasures and soul-stabilizing divine medicines from the treasury, specifically for female cultivators, to the auction list.

She was certain that in order to please the charming Hehuan Sect Saintess by his side and that newly acquired blind soulmate, Xu Chen would surely spend lavishly at the auction.

"So what if he's an Young Master of the Imperial Clan? Once you've entered Shang Qingdai's plate, even if you are a Nine Heavens True Dragon, you'll still have to obediently shed a few layers of golden scales."

Shang Qingdai stood up and walked to the loft window. The night breeze blew her long, wavy black hair, and her perfect waist-to-hip ratio was fully revealed under the moonlight.

She looked down from her high vantage point at the Hidden Dragon Courtyard below, as if she could already see the scene of Xu Chen's fully loaded storage ring being emptied bit by bit by her tomorrow night.

However, this business empress, who had calculation etched into her very bones, did not notice.

Just as she was watching the Hidden Dragon Courtyard through the Formation.

Xu Chen, on the terrace below, seemed to sense something and raised his head. That deep, calm gaze seemed to pierce through layers of Void Realm and Formation barriers, accurately meeting her eyes.

This fleeting glance caused Shang Qingdai's heart to skip a beat without warning.

But she quickly regained her composure, dismissing it as the intuitive sense of a top-tier expert, and casually cut off the spying Formation light screen.

"Such a big fat sheep, it really makes one look forward to it."

Shang Qingdai withdrew the sharpness in her eyes and turned toward the carved bed in the inner chamber. She needed sufficient sleep to maintain her perfect state for tomorrow's auction.