Just as Xiong Wanjin forced a bitter smile, the Xiong Family's gates suddenly swung open. An old man emerged at a leisurely pace, his body so gaunt and shriveled that he was no different from a reed stalk, so light-looking that a gust of wind seemed enough to blow him away. Yet he strutted out with his nose in the air.
The old man gave off an air of sharpness, meanness, stinginess, and miserly pettiness, yet he insisted on putting on the bearing and manners of a grand aristocrat from a prestigious household. Unfortunately, he had tried to paint a tiger and ended up looking like a dog. The more he postured, the more clearly everyone could see his lack of confidence and the emptiness beneath it. Three words seemed branded all over his body, three words glittering with golden light—nouveau riche!
He truly was extravagantly ostentatious. This shriveled old man stood barely six feet tall, yet wore a two-foot-four-inch-tall black jade crown set with twelve thumb-sized blood coral beads. These beads were clearly rare treasures. Amid the misty autumn rain, they emitted a faint red glow, wrapping warmth around his body and preventing even a single drop of rain from coming near him.
He wore a blood-red long robe. Though crimson in color, it shimmered with a seven-colored halo. Lin Qi recognized the rare material: satin woven from the silk of Bloodflame Spiders, Magic Beasts that lived in volcanic magma in the depths of the sea. Such an effect could only be achieved after magical enhancement. Leaving aside the difficulty of capturing Bloodflame Spiders, the satin woven from their silk possessed defensive power nearly equal to a mid-grade holy artifact. That alone showed just how valuable this robe was!
The old man's belt was a blood-red jade sash, twelve