90: ledger

Faced with Su Li's undisguised killing intent, Chen Feng's expression remained completely calm.

He simply gave a slight wave of his hand to Reno, who was standing in front of him.

Reno hesitated for a moment, his hawk-like eyes fixed intently on Su Li. Ultimately, he obeyed the order and stepped aside, but his hand never left the grip of the pistol at his waist, his entire body tense and ready to strike at a moment's notice.

The atmosphere on the bridge was thick with tension, like drawn swords.

“It is not convenient to talk here,” Chen Feng said, rising from the captain's seat. “Please follow me, Miss Su Li.”

He had called her by her real name.

Su Li's body trembled imperceptibly, and her gaze beneath the hood grew even colder. This man knew her identity; this made her feel more endangered than any ability he had displayed earlier.

She did not refuse, nor did she speak; she simply followed Chen Feng. Reno and two other team members followed at the rear in a triangular formation, maintaining absolute vigilance.

After passing through several simple metal corridors, Chen Feng pushed open the door to a conference room.

The room was small, with a black conference table in the center. The surrounding walls were made of unadorned, lead-gray metal, fitting together so perfectly they created a physical sense of suffocation.

“This is the needlefish's 'Silent Room.' It is completely isolated from all signals physically; only we can hear what is said here,” Chen Feng explained calmly.

“Get to the point,” Su Li said, her patience clearly exhausted.

Chen Feng wasted no more words. He sat at the head of the conference table and lightly swiped his finger across the surface.

A soft beam of light rose from the center of the table, projecting data files into the air. They rotated and finally settled into the image of an electronic ledger with a dark red cover.

When Su Li saw the ancient 'Su' character written in a special script on the ledger's cover, her pupils instantly constricted to pinpricks!

That was the exclusive emblem for her family's highest-level internal ledger!

Chen Feng ignored her shock and swiped his fingertip again.

*Flip.*

The ledger was opened by an invisible hand, revealing page after page of details regarding the precision strikes on her family's logistics network, laid bare before her eyes.

“Fourth Era, Year 7381, March 12th. The 'Megrez Star' route encountered a precise pirate ambush. Three cargo ships were hijacked. Alliance insurance refused payment, citing 'Force Majeure'.”

“March 19th. 'Blue Hole Shipping' stocks held by the Su Clan were subjected to massive malicious short-selling. The stock price plummeted 78% within three hours.”

“April 2nd. The private ship carrying core family members Su Zhennan and his wife suffered an 'engine failure' at a jump point. The ship was destroyed, and all on board perished...”

Incident after incident, case after case—they were all the nightmares that gnawed at her heart day and night. However, the details recorded in the ledger were far more extensive than what she knew. The hidden flow of funds, the assassination orders disguised as accidents, the list of bribed family traitors... many inside stories she had fought with all her might but failed to uncover were now presented so clearly and cruelly before her.

It was like admiring a carefully dissected corpse.

She felt her blood turn cold inch by inch, only to reach a complete boil in an instant!

*Swish!*

A silver light flashed!

Su Li produced an energy dagger less than half a foot long from nowhere. With incredible speed, she closed the distance to Chen Feng, the sharp tip of the blade instantly pressing against his throat!

“Where did you get this?!” Her voice was hoarse with extreme rage, a frantic fire burning in her eyes. “Whose man are you?! Did the Omni-Dimensional Trade Alliance send you to silence me?!”

“Protect the boss!”

The roars of Reno and his team sounded simultaneously. Three dark muzzles were instantly aimed at Su Li's head. If she dared to move even slightly, her head would burst like a watermelon.

“No one move.”

Chen Feng's voice remained calm, as if the thing pressed against his throat were not a lethal weapon, but a harmless feather.

He signaled for Reno and the others to stay calm, then looked up, staring directly into Su Li's bloodshot eyes filled with hatred. He spoke clearly, word by word:

“I found this ledger among the estate of Bachm, the supervisor of Giant Star Mining's Mining Area No. 7.”

He paused, each word landing like a heavy bomb.

“And I am the one who buried Bachm and took over the entirety of Ashen Earth Star.”

The massive influx of information instantly overwhelmed Su Li's reason. For the first time, the hand holding the dagger trembled imperceptibly.

Giant Star Mining... Bachm... Ashen Earth Star... she knew these names, of course! Bachm was just a minor lackey for the Alliance in this chain of interests; he didn't even rank high enough to be a primary cause of her family's downfall. But this man had actually... buried him? And taken over an entire planet?

Chen Feng did not give her much time to think. He waved his hand again, and more holographic images appeared in the air.

It was the electronic business license for Hanhai Trade, and the founder's name was clearly written: Chen Feng.

There were detailed reports of the series of trade wars Hanhai Trade had launched against Giant Star Mining, as well as the summary of the results that had forced Xing Zhan's fleet to retreat.

There was even a partial record of a transaction for 'undead crystals' between him and a mysterious buyer codenamed Sequence Zero.

“My name is Chen Feng, the founder of Hanhai Trade.”

“My products are not ore or energy, but 'concepts'—things like the 'undead crystal' which you consider worthless.”

He stood up, walked around the conference table to Su Li's side, and looked at the data as if viewing a grand blueprint.

“The hegemony of the Omni-Dimensional Trade Alliance is built on their monopoly and pricing power over high-dimensional physical resources. They tell you that gold is money and energy is money, so they are always the rich, and you are always working for them.”

“But what I want to do is build a new empire. An empire that does not rely on physical resources, but subverts their economic hegemony by defining the value of 'concepts'.”

He turned his head to look at Su Li.

“The tragedy of your Su Family was not because you weren't hardworking or smart enough. It was simply because, within their rules, no matter how well you played, you were only ever canaries in a cage.”

“And what I am going to do is break that cage.”

The dagger slipped from Chen Feng's throat.

Su Li seemed to have all her strength drained from her. She stumbled back a step, leaning against the cold wall. She looked at the man before her, at the mad yet alluring picture he had painted, her mind a complete blank.

But her long-standing business training allowed her to instinctively grasp the most fatal flaw amidst her immense shock.

She looked up, her gaze regaining some of its coldness, as if looking at a madman, yet also as if looking at a genius.

“Your business model is as fragile as a bubble.”

She cut straight to the point.

“The Alliance wouldn't even need to use force. A small financial sniping attack could make you and your 'Concept Empire' vanish into thin air.”

“What makes you think you can win?”