God Of Crafting

Chapter 144: Demon of the Casso Valley

"What the hell is the meaning of this?!"

Cassie stood with her head lowered and her hands cupped together behind her back, doing her very best to appear as small as she could in the perverse hope that somehow, SOMEHOW, the rage of the patriarch would just wash over her.

"We've invested so much into the interception, and you are telling me it all failed?!"

This wasn't the moment when the news of the string of failures reached the ears of those responsible for planning and then putting them into action. Instead, this was the moment when, right upon leaving his short seclusion, the patriarch of the family had to endure the constant face-slapping of seemingly endless failures.

Yet, for all of his rage, the old man's mood nigh instantly swung back to a perfect calm, showcasing the level of control he had over his own mental state.

A deed... or rather, an ability worthy the man hailed to be the strongest in the entire province!

"Let me first make sure that I've heard everything correctly," Adean, the family's patriarch, uttered in a cold, seemingly emotionless voice as he stared at the first in line of his heirs who followed the protocol and rushed to report as soon as the housekeeper AI detected the patriarch leaving his cultivation garden.

The man, a ninth-stage cultivator himself, shuddered under the weight of the glare, making it seem as if his body mass was silently evaporating into the air, making him appear smaller and smaller for every second that his father, and Cassie's grandfather, stared him down.

"The Juno company acquisition has failed. Chicla corporation won the bid."

Despite all the pressure, the man managed to keep a tiny portion of his calm, presenting his report in a steady and collected manner that greatly contrasted the unsettled look in his eyes.

Even though there was only one rank of difference in the cultivation between him and Cassie's grandparents... He managed to reach the ninth stage only recently, while his father has long since started to knock on the doors of true cultivation, only struggling to properly advance due to how much of his attention the clan required, stopping the old man from cultivating in the spiritual world in peace.

And now, the very acquisition that would finally solve most of the clan's issues... fell through.

Strangely enough, however, even though it was Adean's bitter rival throwing a wrench into his plans, the old man ended up... smiling?

It was but a gentle smile, if one could even call it a smile when it was no more but a twitch of the corner of his lips.

Still, it was infinitely better than his cold, judging, and silently furious glare.

When it came to Cassie, however, hardly anyone paid her any mind or attention, deeming her too unimportant to waste their time on her.

It was only when everyone in the room left, save for Adean, Garry, Cassie, and Adean's personal assistant, that the atmosphere took a sudden change as the patriarch casually sat down on one of the expensive chairs in the room before stretching his legs out and locking his eyes on the father-daughter pair.

"So?" Adean asked while leaning his head over his right shoulder, allowing his long, gray hair to fall down to one side of his head. "Now that we are done with the politics, how about you give your actual report?"

Garry sighed lightly, shedding the poker face he mustered up for the meeting and revealing the usual, strangely happy look.

"All five attempts failed, as designed," Garry reported right as Cassie brought her hands up to her face to massage it.

As the daughter of the Patriarch's favorite, she did enjoy the privilege of Adean's silent favor. Yet, while her acting ability was even better than that of her father... She still struggled to switch between the persona that she acted out during the meeting thus far and the calm, steady, and calculative girl she was in reality.

A switch she struggled so hard with, she actually had to massage her face to let her muscles return to their natural arrangement!

"The fifth attempt turned into a disaster, though, with those terrorist fuckers trying to get involved," she commented from behind her hard-working hands. "And while it's still only a guess, I believe I've found out why..." Cassie squinted her eyes, only to then drop her hands down and shake her head. "No. I believe I've found out who they were after.

And if I'm right, it wasn't Claire as we initially thought."

Adean squinted his eyes.

"How sure are you of this guess of yours?" the patriarch asked while resting his elbow on the hand's armrest and then using his fist as a support for his cheek.

"Solid, but not certain," Cassie reported in a calm voice, the one element of her core personality she actually struggled to preserve and thus paid great attention to practice whenever she had the time and opportunity to do so. "If I'm correct, then it's not Chihiro or Claire that we ought to worry about, but the stray they've picked up from somewhere."

"That guy we tried to kidnap?" Adean asked to ensure he had the facts straight.

"That's right," Cassie nodded her head before quickly fishing out her phone from her pocket, tapping away on it for a moment before passing the device over with a short cut of a video ready to play on it. "Please, do check out this recording and make your own judgment."

Intrigued, Adean brought his eyebrows together a little, only to accept the phone and look down at the screen as he played the short video. As he did, however, a frown first appeared on his face, only for his eyes to then open wide.

"That's..." the old man muttered, only for his face to relax as a satisfied smile appeared on his lips. "Great job, kids," he then praised the two as his smile continued to grow wider. "If this video is real, then we've just found out what that bastard was so desperate to hide from us!"