494: Chapter 494: How many immortal stones can feelings be exchanged for?

After hearing the Young Miss's command, Qingluan felt her Divine Soul go slightly numb.

In her memory, a monitoring command of this level had only been used twice.

The last time was for a Treasure Immortal Thief who had infiltrated the vault and stolen three of its treasures.

That time, the Young Miss had mobilized all the Lingbao Trading Firm's sleepers across the entire East Lincang Province, creating an inescapable net that eventually cornered the thief on a barren mountain, where he returned the treasures on his knees.

Now.

The same treatment was actually being used on a Lower Realm ascender whose cultivation was only at the Great Saint Realm.

Most importantly...

This kid was still the Young Miss's fiancé in name!

The corner of Qingluan's mouth twitched uncontrollably.

She hesitated for a breath before finally gathering her courage to speak in a low voice.

"Young Miss..."

"After all, this person is your... fiancé."

She chose her words with great care, trying to make them sound like they weren't questioning her.

"Is it... somewhat inappropriate for us to do this?"

"If he finds out in the future, he might harbor a grudge, and your relationship..."

"Feelings?"

Xie Jinghong stopped in her tracks.

She slowly turned around and looked at her confidante of several hundred years with the gaze one might use on a three-year-old child.

"Qingluan."

Her voice was calm, yet the temperature in the secret room seemed to drop by several degrees.

"You've followed me for so many years."

"How can you still be so naive?"

She walked up to Qingluan step by step and tilted her head, her fox-like eyes curving into two crescent moons.

She was beaming with smiles.

But this smile made Qingluan's legs go weak.

"Feelings,"

Xie Jinghong asked.

"Can they put food on the table?"

She asked again.

"Can they be exchanged for Immortal Stones?"

The two light-as-air sentences were heavier than ten thousand catties.

Qingluan opened her mouth but couldn't say a single word.

She found herself speechless.

Xie Jinghong's smile vanished.

She raised her chin, her beautiful eyes surging with a light Qingluan was all too familiar with—the killing intent of business instinct burning when scenting top-tier prey.

"Precisely because he is my fiancé, we must keep a closer eye on him."

"What do you call this?"

She extended a fair finger and wagged it gently in front of Qingluan.

"This is called investment."

"If you don't even do due diligence before investing, that's not called investing."

"That's called—"

"Gambling."

Her tone suddenly became sharp.

"In my, Xie Jinghong's, business dealings, from the very first transaction until now, I have calculated every single one before placing my bet."

"I never gamble."

"Not even once."

"Go."

She tilted her chin toward the door, her tone brook no argument.

"Do it immediately."

"If you don't do it well—"

Her smile reappeared, as sweet as poisoned sugar.

"You can go mine in West Qingyou Continent yourself."

"I hear the mines there are very deep."

"The scenery is quite nice, too."

Qingluan shuddered.

She didn't dare anymore.

She didn't dare say another word.

"Yes! This servant obeys your command!"

She practically fled the secret room, nearly tripping over herself as she closed the door.

The door shut.

Qingluan leaned against the cold wall and finally took a deep breath, the trembling deep in her Divine Soul still not subsided.

Only one thought spun wildly in her mind.

[Young Miss...]

[You talk about investment, but that look in your eyes just now, how is it any different from those young girls in the guild who have just had their first taste of love?]

[Except they're infatuated with looks.]

[And you're infatuated with money!]

[...Forget it, I won't think about it. My life is more important.]

She straightened her clothes and quickly disappeared at the end of the corridor.

...

Silence returned to the secret room.

Xie Jinghong stood in place, motionless.

It wasn't until Qingluan's footsteps had completely faded away that the decisive, empress-like expression on her face began to soften, bit by bit, like melting snow.

She walked back to the Imperial Consort's couch and sat down.

Then, she picked up that diary once again.

This time she didn't laugh, nor did she roll her eyes.

She read very slowly, word by word, as if savoring a private letter sent to the wrong place.

Her gaze finally fixed on that line of text.

"Behind me, a whole family of hungry mouths is waiting for me to feed them!"

Xie Jinghong stared at this sentence for a long, long time.

The corner of her mouth unconsciously curled into a very shallow arc.

Her finger rubbed back and forth on that line of handwriting twice.

The texture of the beast hide was coarse, but within the strokes of the handwriting, there was something hidden... something she had never seen before.

It wasn't heroic spirit, nor was it imperial overbearingness.

It was more like a Mortal who carried immense trouble, grumbling and cursing, yet had never retreated a single step.

"Writing a diary to make money..."

Xie Jinghong murmured softly.

She murmured it again.

"What a load of nonsense."

She shook her head with a smile, but there wasn't the slightest hint of mockery in her voice.

"Absurd."

"Just as absurd as the man himself."

She closed the diary and fell silent for a moment.

Then, she did something that would have made the entire upper management of the Lingbao Trading Firm drop their jaws.

From her most private Storage Magical Artifact, she took out a Jade Casket.

The Jade Casket was pure white, carved from million-year-old Spirit-Sealing Immortal Jade, capable of blocking all forms of detection.

In the Lingbao Trading Firm, such Jade Caskets were only used to store the highest-level commercial secrets.

And now.

Xie Jinghong held the beast-hide diary copy, which was filled with complaints and ramblings, and gently placed it into the Jade Casket.

Her movements didn't look like she was storing intelligence, but more like she was placing a fragile glass treasure.

"Click."

The Jade Casket closed, and the Spirit-Sealing Formation flashed with light.

Xie Jinghong tucked the Jade Casket back into the deepest part of her Storage Ring.

Having finished all this, she finally relaxed completely, leaned back on the Imperial Consort's couch, and crossed her legs again.

Her fox-like eyes were half-closed as she looked up at the vast Immortal Domain Star Map on the ceiling of the secret room.

West Qingyou Continent was in the most remote corner, as tiny as a speck of dust.

"Su Chen."

She spoke the name in a lazy tone, like a cat napping in the afternoon sun.

"A direct lineage descendant of the Nine Heavens Immortal Court."

"Penniless, destitute, and even bringing along a group of hungry followers."

"Yet he just happened to land right in my Lingbao Trading Firm's territory."

The corner of her mouth bit by bit curled into a cunning and charming arc.

Deep in those eyes, besides a hunter's greed for profit.

There was also a thick sense of interest and expectation that even she hadn't noticed.

"This Young Miss would like to see."

"Just what kind of surprise you, a True Dragon fallen into a mud pit,"

"Can actually turn out for me."

She reached out, picked up a glowing Immortal Fruit from the fruit plate, and took a gentle bite.

Sweet juice exploded between her teeth.

She narrowed her eyes and smiled.

This man named Su Chen would surely be the most interesting investment with the highest rate of return she had ever made in her life.