Inside the top-floor executive conference room of Taichu headquarters, a very anxious visitor sat clutching a porcelain teacup with shaking hands.
It was President Gu of the Hidden Spirit-Clearing Bank, the primary financial lending clearinghouse for the thirty-six Cave-Heavens.
President Gu was an eighty-year-old financial cultivator, usually known for his impeccable silk suits and calm, aristocratic demeanor.
Today, President Gu’s silk tie was undone, his collar was soaked with nervous sweat, and three thick binders of delinquent loan notices lay open before him.
“Chairman Lin, Director Su, Director Shen,” President Gu stammered, wiping his damp forehead with a silk handkerchief. “The situation is an absolute catastrophe. It is a systemic liquidity contagion across the entire immortal realm.”
Su Wan sat opposite him, her crystal tablet reflecting crisp, clean lines of financial data.
“Let us review the numbers, President Gu,” Su Wan said in her calm, measured corporate voice. “Fifty years ago, the Hidden Spirit-Clearing Bank underwrote thirty-six massive mortgage bond tranches. The borrowers were eighteen ancient sects, led by Mount Kunlun and Mount Qingcheng.”
President Gu nodded miserably, his hands trembling. “That is correct. They pledged their core ancestral spirit veins as primary collateral. The total principal borrowed was eighty billion spirit stones.”
