336: Chapter 335 The Strongest Kidnapping Case in History

He looked down from above at the five old men who were vomiting blood and supporting each other, and said indifferently:

"Is this all there is to the so-called foundation of the Heavenly Court?"

"Who else?! I ask you, who else?!"

"Since you've come, don't think about leaving easily. We need to properly calculate today's appearance fees, lost work wages, and emotional distress compensation."

Lin Feng turned his head abruptly, his gaze like lightning, crossing layers of clouds, seemingly piercing directly through the Thirty-Three Heavens to stare straight at the person sitting on the dragon throne in Lingxiao Palace.

His voice rolled like heavenly thunder, resounding throughout the Three Realms:

"Old man Jade Emperor, I've finished beating both the young and the old."

"Next, isn't it your turn?"

...

The smoke cleared, and the world regained a brief moment of clarity.

Above the City of Sin, the clouds that had appeared charred from the bombardment of divine thunder had long since dissipated, replaced by a deathly silence. Only the occasional streak of light across the sky served as proof that a world-shaking battle had just taken place here.

Those million heavenly soldiers and generals were now like a flock of sheep that had lost their shepherd, huddled on the clouds and shivering. Retreat? Without the Jade Emperor's decree, that would be desertion, and they would be sent to the Execution Platform. Advance? Are you kidding? Even The Five Elders of the Five Directions were taken out in one move; were they going to go up there and throw their lives away?

On the ground, huge craters emitted wisps of blue smoke.

Lin Feng clapped his hands and walked around the nine "rice dumplings" as if admiring works of art.

The robes of the Four Great Celestial Masters were already tattered, and the long beard Zhang Daoling was so proud of was half-burnt, emitting a charred smell. The Five Elders of the Five Directions were even worse off, each bruised and swollen, looking like they had just crawled out of a coal pile; there was no trace left of their immortal, eternal appearance.

"Let me go! A gentleman may be killed, but not humiliated!"

Even though Celestial Master Zhang Daoling was tied up like a hairy crab, he still struggled to hold his head high, trying to kill Lin Feng with his eyes full of righteousness. "You Devil Head! Humiliating us today has disrupted the natural order; you will surely suffer divine retribution one day! The Heavenly Dao will not let you off!"

"Divine retribution?"

Lin Feng laughed, as if he had heard a joke. He squatted down, pulled a folding fan from his storage ring, snapped it open with a "whoosh," and gently tapped Celestial Master Zhang's old face, which was covered in soot.

"Old Zhang, you've lived for so long, haven't you figured out the situation yet? Right now, in my territory, I am the heavens. As for the Heavenly Dao? When it struck me earlier, I didn't see it do anything to me."

"Also, don't talk to me about 'a gentleman may be killed, but not humiliated.' Here, there is nothing that cannot be negotiated. As long as the money is right, even the posture can be negotiated. Of course, I'm talking about the ransom."

After speaking, Lin Feng stood up, straightened his collar that wasn't even messy, and turned to face the Void Realm. He aimed at the million heavenly soldiers in the sky, as well as the countless eyes spying from deep within the Void Realm, and cleared his throat.

"System, activate full-band broadcast. This time I'm going to do some live streaming... oh no, I am going to conduct a serious business negotiation."

[Ding! The live broadcast for the entire Three Realms has been activated. Current online viewers: 30 billion+ (even including ghosts from the Underworld and the shrimp soldiers and crab generals of the East Sea).]

[System prompt: To enhance the live broadcast effect, beauty filters and BGM "Light of the Righteous Path" have been automatically activated for you.]

Lin Feng adjusted his hairstyle towards the Void Realm and revealed a brilliant, standard smile showing eight teeth:

"Hey, hey, hey, old man Jade Emperor, are you still lurking? Don't hide, I know you're watching. The reflection from your haotian mirror is shining right into my eyes."

Inside Lingxiao Palace.

The Jade Emperor was sitting upright on the dragon throne, staring fixedly at that arrogant and domineering face in the haotian mirror, trembling with rage. His fingernails dug deep into the armrests made of ten-thousand-year-old agarwood, even making a "crack, crack" sound of breaking.

"Too much! This is simply too much! This is slapping my face! This is slapping the face of the Heavenly Court!"

The surrounding immortal officials all kept their heads down, not daring to breathe loudly, for fear of triggering his bad temper.

In the image, Lin Feng had one foot placed extremely casually on the back of the central Yellow Horned Immortal of The Five Elders of the Five Directions (although he wasn't applying force, the insulting nature was off the charts), and in his hand, he somehow had a long list that was fluttering in the wind.

"Let's keep this short. I don't like wasting time; after all, I have millions at stake every minute."

Lin Feng's voice was lazy, yet it clearly spread throughout the Three Realms:

"These nine old men you sent have poor professional skills, so I took them down. Originally, I wanted to just kill them; after all, keeping them fed is a hassle. But I am a kind-hearted person, so I decided to give you a chance to redeem them. Now, let's talk about the ransom."

"Lin Feng! How dare you!"

The Jade Emperor's voice, amplified by the Formation, crossed countless spaces to reach the sky above the City of Sin, carrying the endless might of thunder, shaking the earth itself. "If you dare to harm them in the slightest, I will exhaust the full power of the Heavenly Court, lead the army in person, and flatten your City of Sin! I will make your Divine Soul dissipate, never to be reincarnated!"

"Tch, who are you trying to scare?"

Lin Feng actually picked his ear in public, then flicked his fingernail at the sky with a look of disdain. "You just exhausted your full power, and what was the result? Didn't you just send me nine gift packages? Now that you're a commander without an army, what are you going to flatten it with?"

"Listen up, my patience is limited. Don't play games with me; start bidding now. If you are one minute late, I will chop off a finger and send it back to you as a specimen."

Lin Feng unfolded the list, cleared his throat, and read it out like someone reciting menu items at a wet market:

"First, the Four Great Celestial Masters. These four are the face and technical backbone of Taoism. The ransom for each is 100 million Supreme-grade Immortal Crystals, plus ten baskets of 9,000-year Flat Peaches. Not a single cent less."

"Then, The Five Elders of the Five Directions. Oh my, these are heavyweights, living fossils! The ransom for each is 200 million Supreme-grade Immortal Crystals, plus 100 gourds of the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord's 'Nine-Turn Soul Returning Pills.' After all, elderly people have poor health and need supplements."

"Also, the million heavenly soldiers just now trampled my lawn, the divine thunder scared my cat (Fugui: ?), Nezha's appearance fee, Princess Yao Ji's lost work wages, the wear and tear on my city walls... all in all, I can't be bothered to calculate the details."

"Let's round it up: a total of 1 billion Supreme-grade Immortal Crystals, plus one ton each of the top ten ranked Artifact Refining Materials in the Heavenly Court's treasury. If you are short by even one tael, I will kill them!"

Once these words were spoken, the Three Realms were in an uproar.

"He's crazy! This Lin Feng is absolutely crazy! He's treating the Heavenly Court like a fat sheep for slaughter!"

"1 billion Supreme-grade Immortal Crystals? Even if you sold the Heavenly Court, you couldn't scrape together that much liquid capital! This is going to empty out the Heavenly Court's savings of tens of thousands of years!"

"This is naked extortion! This is the greatest kidnapping case in history! Unprecedented and unrepeatable!"

Inside Lingxiao Palace, the immortal officials also gasped, feeling as if their hearts were about to stop. Venus dropped the whisk in his hand out of sheer fright, and the God of Wealth, Zhao Gongming, went black in the eyes and almost fainted, only recovering after pinching his philtrum.

"Your Majesty... this... this is impossible to pay!" Zhao Gongming said with a mournful face, collapsing onto the ground. "The current liquid Immortal Crystals in the national treasury are less than 300 million. In the last few years, the expansion of the South Heaven Gate and distributing benefits to the immortals have been too expensive... If we pay this, our Heavenly Court will go bankrupt, and we won't even be able to pay salaries next month!"

"Lin Feng!" The Jade Emperor gritted his teeth, his eyes bloodshot. "You are asking for the moon! I will never agree! This is not just a matter of money; this is the dignity of the Heavenly Court!"