togophonebook Chapter 18 Eye of the Storm
Chapter 18 Eye of the Storm
In the prime location of Beijing's East Third Ring Road, where every inch of land is incredibly valuable, lies a notorious but rarely visited haven—the "Heaven on Earth" private club.
This is not a place for ordinary wealthy and powerful people to seek pleasure. There is no deafening, decadent music, no seductive hostesses. Those who can step into this place are all top-tier nobles with assets of over 10 billion and real power. A proof of assets for entry is enough to shut out 99% of people. As for the VIP rooms on the top floor, even the scions of the top aristocratic families need to make reservations three days in advance.
At this moment, the aroma of tea wafts through the VIP private room.
A woman in a bright red cheongsam sat at a rosewood tea table, slowly brewing tea. The cheongsam was impeccably tailored, tightly outlining her exquisite curves. The neckline plunged to her collarbone, revealing her slender, fair neck, and the glimpses of her snow-white skin at the slit exuded a deadly allure. She looked no more than twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, her features almost bewitchingly beautiful, especially her almond-shaped eyes, which were slightly upturned at the corners, full of seductive charm that seemed capable of stealing one's soul. Yet, deep within her eyes, a barely perceptible coldness and calculation lurked.
Leafy red fish.
A key figure in the Ye family, the most powerful clan in the capital, she wields half of the family's real power and is also the most mysterious intelligence broker in the underworld. No one in either the legitimate or criminal world dares to offend her easily. The information she possesses can elevate a family to unprecedented heights, or bring down a century-old clan in an instant.
"Bang--!"
With a dull thud, the heavy solid wood door of the private room was violently kicked open from the outside. The door slammed heavily against the wall, producing a deafening echo that shattered the tranquility inside.
A figure in a green robe walked in slowly, his clothes fluttering lightly, a faint chill emanating from him. His footsteps trod on fine bloodstains, each step feeling like a blow to the heart. In the corridor outside the private room, more than a dozen bodyguards in black lay scattered about, each a master of peak internal energy, their eyes wide open, their breaths extinguished. They had all been killed with a single blow, without even a flick of their finger, let alone the chance to sound an alarm—Lu Yuan had moved without a single superfluous movement, effortlessly crushing all the defenses set up by the Ye family with a mere wave of his hand.
Lu Yuan entered the private room, his gaze sweeping indifferently over the surroundings without lingering. He casually found a leather sofa and sat down, his posture languid, yet exuding an aura of dominance that made the air in the entire room seem to freeze.
Ye Hongyu's hand, which was brewing tea, paused only slightly, and a drop of water gently fell from her fingertips onto the coffee table, splashing up tiny droplets. She looked up at Lu Yuan, her red lips curving into a charming smile, her voice soft and sweet, yet carrying a hint of composure in control: "Mr. Lu, it's faster than I expected."
She picked up the teapot and slowly pushed a cup of fragrant Da Hong Pao tea to the opposite side of the tea table. The tea was clear and the aroma was mellow. "Those good-for-nothings from the Zhao family couldn't even delay you for half an hour. They're utterly hopeless. It seems it's time for a major overhaul of our Ye family's intelligence department."
Lu Yuan's gaze fell on Ye Hongyu's alluring face, ignoring the carefully brewed Da Hong Pao tea. His tone was icy and flat, directly exposing her scheme: "You deliberately left Zhao Tiangang for me to kill, just to wait for me here?"
As early as when he was searching Zhao Wuji's soul, he had noticed something amiss—people from the Ye family were secretly monitoring the area around the Zhao family manor, yet they remained inactive, neither helping nor interfering. Clearly, they were sitting on the sidelines watching the two tigers fight, using him to eliminate the unruly Zhao family. This woman was meticulous and calculating.
Ye Hongyu chuckled softly, her clear laughter causing her full breasts to tremble slightly, displaying her alluring charm, yet it did nothing to sway Lu Yuan's mind: "Mr. Lu, you truly have discerning eyes; nothing can be hidden from you."
She stood up and gracefully walked to the sofa opposite Lu Yuan, sitting down with her long, slender legs crossed. The snow-white skin revealed by the slit in her cheongsam was even more dazzling. She leaned forward slightly, closing the distance between them, and said with a hint of languid complaint, "These past few years, the Zhao family has become increasingly arrogant, relying on their Divine Realm ancestor. They've been going against the Ye family at every turn. I was just worried about finding an excuse to teach them a lesson, but I didn't expect Mr. Lu to solve this big problem for me."
"Mr. Lu, you've removed a major threat to my life, so of course I must thank you properly." Ye Hongyu said, taking out an exquisite sandalwood box from her Hermes handbag. The box was carved with intricate patterns and emitted a faint woody fragrance. She gently pushed the box in front of Lu Yuan, her eyes sincere. "This is the Spirit Gathering Jade that your mother lost years ago. I went through tremendous trouble to retrieve it from the Zhao family, and now it's returned to its rightful owner."
She had calculated everything perfectly. Lu Yuan's trip to the capital was primarily for revenge, to clear her mother's name. This Spirit Gathering Jade was her mother's keepsake and her most powerful bargaining chip. Knowing she couldn't defeat Lu Yuan, she simply lowered her stance, proactively offering her bargaining chip in an attempt to quell his anger and even win him over.
But she miscalculated one thing—Lu Yuan's anger could never be quelled by a jade pendant.
Lu Yuan still didn't touch the sandalwood box. He leaned back on the sofa, crossed his arms, and looked at Ye Hongyu with indifferent eyes, as if watching a clumsy performance. The coldness in his tone was enough to freeze everything: "You think a broken stone can buy the lives of the entire Ye family?"
Ye Hongyu's smile froze for a moment, a flicker of panic crossing her eyes, but it was only for a fleeting instant before she quickly regained her composed and alluring demeanor. She took a deep breath, leaned forward again, and lowered her voice, carrying a mysterious allure: "Mr. Lu, I know you are very strong. Even a Divine Realm expert is no match for you. The Ye family truly cannot stop you."
"But you should know that this world isn't as simple as it seems on the surface." She stared intently into Lu Yuan's eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of emotion in his expression. "At your level, you should have heard of the 'Kunlun Secret Realm,' right?"
The Kunlun Secret Realm—this was her trump card, her leverage over Lu Yuan. She was certain that Lu Yuan was the heir of a reclusive immortal cultivation sect, and his emergence from seclusion was undoubtedly to vie for the resources of the soon-to-open Kunlun Secret Realm. And the Ye family, coincidentally, held the key to opening the secret realm.
"The Kunlun Secret Realm is one of the last places on Earth where ancient spiritual energy still remains, and it is also the only passage to the true world of cultivation." Ye Hongyu dropped a bombshell, her tone tinged with pride. "Our Ye family holds the key to opening the secret realm. In the entire China, only our Ye family possesses this key."
"If Mr. Lu is willing to show mercy and spare the Ye family, the Ye family is willing to share this key with you, and even..." Her voice became softer and sweeter, with undisguised seduction, and the allure in her eyes was almost overflowing, "I can represent the Ye family and serve you as our master. From now on, the entire Ye family will obey your orders, and I will... be at your disposal."
She had absolute confidence in her looks and her methods. She didn't believe any man could resist a woman who wielded immense power and wealth and possessed unparalleled beauty throwing herself into his arms.
Lu Yuan finally made a move.
He slowly reached out and picked up the sandalwood box. The moment his fingertips touched the box, Ye Hongyu's eyes lit up, and a barely perceptible smile appeared on her lips—she thought that Lu Yuan had finally been tempted, and she had won this game.
But the next second, a crisp cracking sound shattered her illusion.
"Snap—!"
With a casual squeeze, Lu Yuan shattered the exquisite sandalwood box into pieces, sending wood chips flying everywhere. Inside the box, there was no spirit-gathering jade at all, only a piece of pitch-black bone that emitted a pungent, nauseating stench.
The surface of the black bone was covered with dense, eerie runes, which swirled with a sinister black light. Wisps of black mist slowly seeped out of the bone, landing on the coffee table and instantly corroding tiny black holes. Even the surrounding air was corroded, making a "sizzling" sound, exuding a sinister and chilling aura.
Ye Hongyu's face changed drastically in an instant. Her charming smile vanished without a trace, replaced by disbelief and terror. She jumped to her feet, the chair scraping against the floor with a grating sound, her voice trembling: "How could this be?! Where's my jade pendant?! Where did it go?!"
She panicked completely, her words tumbling out incoherently. She had personally taken this box from the Ye family's treasury and locked it herself; she had no idea it had been switched! The Spirit Gathering Jade was her last bargaining chip, and now that chip had become this strange black bone. All her calculations, all her confidence, collapsed completely in this moment.
Lu Yuan looked down at the black bone in his hand, and a ripple finally appeared in his eternally cold eyes.
It wasn't because of surprise, nor because of anger, but because of familiarity—he was all too familiar with this sinister and violent aura.
This is the purest and most sinister demonic aura in the cultivation world! It is the evil aura that he hunted down for three hundred years in the cultivation world!
"interesting."
A cold, playful smile curved Lu Yuan's lips. With a slight exertion of his fingers, the strange black bone instantly turned into a pool of pitch-black liquid, dripping onto the ground and corroding a small black hole before quickly seeping into the ground and disappearing.
He raised his head, his gaze sharp as a knife, staring intently at Ye Hongyu, whose face was pale and who was trembling all over. His tone carried a hint of mockery and a chilling coldness: "It seems that your Ye family is not only a bunch of sycophantic fools, but also a bunch of fools who are being used as pawns."
He originally thought that the Ye family was just an ordinary secular clan that disregarded human life for profit. However, he never expected that things were far more complicated than he imagined—there was actually a real demonic cultivator hiding on Earth. Moreover, judging from the situation, this demonic cultivator had already extended his reach into the core of power among the nobles in the capital. The Ye family was just a pawn in his hands.
Lu Yuan slowly stood up, his aura exploding once more, even more terrifying than before. The tea table in the private room shattered instantly, spilling tea everywhere. Since demonic cultivators were involved, this game couldn't be resolved simply by killing them all.
He needed to follow the clues to find the demonic cultivator hiding in the gutter, uproot him completely, and eradicate this hidden danger; otherwise, the consequences would be dire.
"lead the way."
Lu Yuan's voice was cold and resolute, leaving no room for negotiation. His gaze was fixed on Ye Hongyu. "Go to your Ye family."
Ye Hongyu froze, looking at the murderous intent and determination in Lu Yuan's eyes. She knew she had no choice but to suppress her fear and nod, her face pale. She knew that the calamity of the Ye family had finally come, and that it was all beyond her control.