Hooked (Please Recommend and Bookmark)

Hooked (Please Recommend and Bookmark)

More people came on the second day, arriving in droves.

The Commandery Chief's office was no longer suitable for receiving guests. Lin Wen arranged them at the hotel, announcing that business talks would be held that evening and the bidding would take place the following night.

They called it business talks, but it was really just a dinner party.

By evening, more than 120 people had arrived, packing the hotel lobby to the brim.

Lin Wen carefully put on his gleaming three-piece set and spent 10% of his Primordial Spirit on [Immortal's Guide] to confirm the plan.

Then he took Fang Weiwei and rode in the official car to the hotel.

When he and Fang Weiwei entered the lobby one after the other, the entire hall instantly fell silent; a needle dropping could have been heard.

Under the specially prepared golden lamps, Lin Wen shone all over as though he were a crude tycoon who had dug up an entire mountain of gold.

Behind him, his coldly beautiful and noble female secretary perfectly suppressed that nouveau riche gaudiness. She was like a proud swan, like a dazzling peacock, like a frigid king cobra, like a noble phoenix. The instant she entered, her queenly aura seized everyone's attention. With every step of her exquisite figure, her high heels seemed to tread upon their hearts. Quite a few lecherous middle-aged and elderly men suddenly longed to lie beneath her feet and be stepped on.

Then, with the Seven Apertures Exquisite Heart running at full capacity, Lin Wen took the stage to deliver a speech. Its main point was that he held great authority, major projects were underway, and he wanted to find the perfect partner to lay the groundwork for Long Mountain Commandery's future large-scale development.

Fang Weiwei was responsible for looking down upon the masses from the side, suppressing any doubts that might arise, and displaying the Authority Delegation Writ and the Empire's Mainline Plan—Lin Wen's revised version—at the final moment.

The speech was an unprecedented success. One only had to hear the constant gasps, cheers, and applause throughout the hall to know it.

In the end, more than half decided to stay and take part in the next day's bidding.

The half who left merely knew they lacked the strength to compete with certain major bosses for the bid and chose to withdraw. They would also spread word of everything they had seen and heard in Long Mountain Commandery.

Finally, as the crowd was leaving, there was a small incident. A huge fat man with a face full of flesh and a gold chain deliberately tripped at the entrance and happened to fall right in front of Fang Weiwei.

Lin Wen's spirits jolted, and he immediately whispered, "Step on him."

Fang Weiwei hesitated for only an instant. Then her high heel landed directly on the fat man's chest. Her gaze did not drift in the slightest, her every movement brimming with arrogance, nobility, and icy beauty.

At the instant she stepped forward, Lin Wen deliberately lagged half a step behind and secretly steadied Fang Weiwei's body, ensuring that her proud stride did not deform in the slightest.

After they got into the official car and left, a large group of lecherous men crowded around him, feigning concern. "Oh, Old Zhang, what happened to you?"

"Are you all right?"

"Does it hurt? Let me rub it for you."

Old Zhang looked as though he had gone stupid, his eyes unfocused.

"Hey, Old Zhang, your nose is bleeding!"

"Your heart rate is 200!"

"Your blood pressure is 300!"

Old Zhang heard none of it. He only muttered, "Worth it... worth it... white... worth it."

On the third day, fewer people came. The peak had passed, but there were still around thirty.

Lin Wen knew the fat sheep had already been penned. Whether everything succeeded or failed would be decided tonight.

His Primordial Spirit had recovered to 52%. For the past two days, it had recovered beyond the usual amount—11% each day.

He inspected his spells once more, his eyes settling on one in particular.

[Aura Reading]

A color between white and light gray. A Core Formation Stage spell that consumed 25% of the Primordial Spirit, granting the effect of Aura Reading. By the reckoning of this world's time, it lasted four hours and could be interrupted and preserved.

Lin Wen had studied this spell for many days. He knew it could distinguish truth from falsehood, good from bad. If a person's aura was pure black, they had already become rotten to the core, beyond all hope. Killing such a person would not produce Evil Karma, only Good Karma.

If it was half-black, then that person was a villain in the usual sense. Perhaps there was still room for them to turn over a new leaf, but it would be difficult.

Doing evil to such people likewise would not produce Evil Karma, but they could not simply be cut down with one stroke, because there was still room for redemption.

These related memories were complicated and fragmented, making it difficult to find any clear direction. Lin Wen had truly had to exert tremendous effort and charge forward fiercely to obtain them.

Today, he would use [Aura Reading] to confirm the final target.

That target had to possess at least one-quarter black aura. Otherwise, it would be judged as wrongdoing and generate Evil Karma.

This was absolutely unacceptable to Lin Wen. Even if he had to abandon the plan, he could not allow himself to be tainted by even the slightest trace of Evil Karma.

The bidding was set for seven in the evening. That was unconventional, but nothing about this matter followed convention anyway.

For the entire day, Lin Wen and Fang Weiwei remained in the Commandery Chief's office.

Both were fully prepared, sleeping with their weapons at their pillows, but while Lin Wen sat steady as Mount Tai with a computer in his arms, Fang Weiwei was too restless to sit or stand comfortably.

Two days ago, Fang Weiwei would have begged for such an opportunity. But now she was especially afraid that the Commandery Chief harbored improper intentions. She pulled her skirt down as far as possible and raised her collar, terrified that exposing even a sliver of skin would provoke the Commandery Chief's beastly conduct.

Guests continued to arrive throughout the morning, but there was hardly anyone in the afternoon. The quiet office atmosphere was especially prone to stirring wild thoughts. Fang Weiwei went to the restroom ten times within an hour, then the Commandery Chief sternly ordered her to sit still.

Another hour passed. After taking a phone call, Lin Wen smiled. "They're here!"

He handed the Authority Delegation Writ to Fang Weiwei and said with a smile, "Let's go, Your Majesty."

The moment Fang Weiwei accepted the writ, it was as though some switch had been flipped. Her entire person changed.

She no longer trembled, feared, or hesitated. She no longer shrank back or lacked confidence. She straightened her slightly disheveled clothing and rose to her feet.

Her waist and back were straight, her figure slender. Her profile was proudly cold as frost, her posture tall and shapely. In the instant she rose, she seemed like an ice-and-snow fairy descending into the mortal world.

Her expression was calm, her demeanor indifferent, as though she had returned from a throne and was about to face the subjects beneath her skirt.

A strange allure emanated from her. Augmented by her aura, it swept through the entire office like a gale.

Unfortunately, there was not a single audience member present. Lin Wen did not count. To make his heart stir, at the very least, the daughter of an Immortal King or Divine Emperor would have to marry beneath her station.

And even then, he might not want her.

Otherwise, a fine endeavor of slaughtering gods and exterminating ancestors might turn into murdering his father-in-law.

How vexing. It would cut the heroic spirit short by quite a bit.

The two boarded the official car and headed straight for the hotel, where they met today's main characters in a private room on the third floor.

There were seven of them, already waiting inside. The instant Lin Wen entered, he activated the spell.

[Aura Reading]

The next instant, a wisp of aura floated above each person's head, chaotic and unstable, drifting and changing.

According to the spell's description, this form indicated that they were emotionally stirred and in high spirits.

But in color, all seven were almost entirely black, with only occasional murky yellow and deathly gray mixed in.

This showed that their humanity had nearly vanished. The deathly gray would soon be replaced by black, leaving only perverse human desires. Once they fell even further, those too would turn black.

As expected, developers with hearts blackened through and through.

Lin Wen sneered inwardly. Then extorting you will weigh on me not at all.

Yet his expression remained unchanged. The two sides exchanged enthusiastic greetings and took their seats as host and guests.

With the Seven Apertures Exquisite Heart fully activated, the conversation between both sides grew heated. Lin Wen kept his attention on the battlefield throughout, occasionally entering the fray to pull the topic back from empty mutual flattery, adding some concrete substance and thereby achieving the effect of pouring oil on the flames and adding coal to the furnace.

Fang Weiwei sat primly at Lin Wen's side without saying a word throughout, but her exquisite beauty acted as a catalyst. At such times, men's desire to show off was greatly intensified.

The lavish dishes on the table were completely ignored. Only the alcohol played any role.

As the host, Lin Wen drank a round with everyone, then shut off the Seven Apertures Exquisite Heart and went straight to the point.

"Thank you all for your favor. May I ask why you invited me here?"

The seven exchanged glances. A large fat man stood, toasted Lin Wen, and said with a smile, "Commandery Chief Lin, we deeply admire the bearing of a hero of the Empire. That day atop the great dam, winds and clouds shifted..."

Without the Seven Apertures Exquisite Heart active, Lin Wen loathed this kind of life-wasting exchange. He cut him off. "If that's all, then I'll be leaving. I have another meeting."

Though the fat man was puzzled that his tried-and-true opening had suddenly failed, he had spent too long in the world and had long become as shrewd as an old fox. He immediately changed tack. "My apologies, my apologies. My old habit acted up. I'll punish myself with a drink."

He tipped his head back and drained the glass before smiling again. "To be frank with you, your project this time is extremely attractive, and we are the best partners for it."

Lin Wen said blandly, "What makes you say that?"

The fat man clapped his hands. A heavily made-up, scantily dressed woman entered from outside. The two people beside her pushed away the dishes and placed a black suitcase on the dining table directly across from Lin Wen.

The woman smiled at Lin Wen, bent down, clasped the suitcase with both hands, and opened its lid.