“Now for the real trap—the twelve depleted Eastern and Southern Planetary Spirit-Vein Core Nodes, bundled at one hundred twenty million Immortal Jade!”
Minister Qian Wansan wiped a smear of sticky red blood from his lower lip with an embroidered silk handkerchief.
His hand shook with lingering fury as he leaned heavily against the mahogany sill of private Box #9. Losing four point five million Jade on his own cursed crown had burned a deep hole straight through his stomach.
Yet as Minister Qian stared down at the twelve massive stone pedestals rising from the central stage, a vicious, predatory smirk returned to his oily face.
“Let him laugh about the chamber pot,” Minister Qian whispered hoarsely to his remaining clerk. “The crown was only a light appetizer. These twelve provincial leylines are the true financial abyss! For two hundred years, the court has poured hundreds of millions into dredging those leylines. Yet they produce nothing but toxic mud and frozen grit.”
Minister Qian chuckled, coughing up another speck of blood. “The legal owner must pay annual dredging taxes. They must repair thousands of miles of broken conduits. They must answer to millions of rioting peasants who demand water and heat. If Lin Mo buys them, his entire treasury will be sucked dry within three months.”
