Astral Ascendant: My Goldfinger's Forte is Deception

Mysterious Background

Zhao Fao hung up the call immediately with a dark face.

What a joke!

He didn't have a father....

The scam caller could find another person to fool.

But the phone started buzzing again less than three seconds after he ended the call.

Irritated, Zhao Fao directly disconnected the phone from its stand.

On the other end of the line, the handsome, middle-aged man looked at the phone in his hand which was beeping a dial error sound.

In front of him, there were several pictures scattered on the desk.

They were snapshots of a baby with bright eyes and long, wavy hair.

It had been many years since the child was missing.

His child.

It was a coincidence that a video was sent to him this afternoon. It was a live recording of a young master teaching a rude manager a lesson.

Ordinarily, the video would have never caught Jiang Peng's attention, but it was his close friend, Han Fei, who forwarded it to him and congratulated him on finally finding his long lost son.

Jiang Peng had been confused.

His son was still missing.

It was after some background context was added that he understood.

Han Fei was the major stock holder in the hotel chain as mentioned in the video. Although the hotel owner paid hackers to delete a recently uploaded video of the event secretly recorded by a spectator and uploaded on the Internet, it was still noticed by concerned parties of interest, especially Han Fei.

However, Han Fei only had one friend, Jiang Peng.

When he realized the young man in the video looked exactly like his friend....

He instantly guessed that the teenager was his friend's long lost son.

Jiang Peng ended up calling the hotel straightaway and putting a call through to the young man's room. But from the look of things, it seemed this tactic wasn't going to work.

He would have to go there in person!

Jiang Peng stood up and removed his fancy black suit.

Just then, a secretrary walked into the office and saw him moving near the window. An ominous thoughts popped up in her mind.

"Boss, spare the window–"

Crack!

Before she finished her words, Jiang Peng had already smashed the glass panel into smithereens with his body and flown away at supersonic speed.

He looked really dashing and all...

But the secretary only felt a headache. She would have to call the construction company again.

It was the thirteenth time this week!

The boss was a very handsome man but he was too fond of smashing things.

Sigh.

Meanwhile, Zhao Fao finished sorting out his inventory. He was pretty satisfied with the haul by the end of it.

Just then, he received a message from his private number.

It was Auntie Wang.

"Someone made a call to the front desk asking for your room number not long!"

Zhao Fao's heart skipped a beat.

His first thought was that his cover had been blown.

His next thought was that he had to get away quickly from the hotel.

"It seems the system reward of the Burst Escape Talismans will be put to use sooner than later."

Zhao Fao had a calm look on his face as his gaze wandered around the room. He was looking for hidden cameras.

If possible, he didn't want the scene of him vanishing from using the talisman to be captured and leave a trace.

"There's no camera in plain view but I can't tell if there are any hidden from sight."

Although Zhao Fao was being a bit paranoid, he had good reason to be. In his past life, there had been an executive who went viral after a video of him in an hotel room got leaked.

Zhao Fao ultimately stood up and entered the walk-in closet. As soon as his figure was hidden in the folds of clothes, he issued a command to the system in his heart.

A golden talisman suddenly appeared in front of him and enveloped his body.

In a flash, he vanished from the room.

Apart from a faint stench in the toilet, it was almost as though he was never there.

*******

Reception area of the hotel.

The newly-promoted receptionist was clearing her desk as she prepared to move to her new post.

She almost could not believe it.

In a single afternoon, she was promoted from her role as a receptionist to a Deputy Manager!

And it was all thanks to that handsome young man from earlier.

She was full of gratitude. It was a pity that she only had sons and no daughter!

And she was too old for him too....

Technically, she probably fell within his father's age range.

"This should be the place."

The receptionist looked up at the sound of the voice and was stumped.

This....

Wasn't this the young man from earlier, but older?

So, the father of the teenager she was just thinking of betrothing herself to in gratitude?

She had only been musing this as a point earlier, but seeing as he was so handsome.....she wouldn't mind if she had to.

Jiang Peng ignored the receptionist who was in a dubious daze.

He suddenly unleashed his aura and allowed it to sweep across the hotel unobstructed.

Although using spiritual sense in mortal territory was against the laws of the area, he didn't care right now.

Meanwhile, the receptionist snapped out of her daze and a terrified expression appeared on her face.

The handsome gentleman was a cultivator!

And he wasn't a low-level one like the security guards and goons hired by the hotel.

At such close proximity, his aura was suffocating and caused a metallic taste to rise in her mouth.

According to rumours, such auras were from cultivators who had killed a lot of people.

"He's not in here!" Jiang Peng frowned.

His spiritual sense had already scanned the entire building and found no traces of the young man suspected to be his son.

"Give me the security footage to the rooms!"

The receptionist jerked back to full attention and instinctively shook her head.

Her face paled as a sharp aura sudden pressed down on her.

******

Several metres away, Zhao Fao randomly appeared in an empty alley.

After looking around and confirming there was no one around, he gritted his teeth and activated his second Burst Escape Talisman.

It was better to be safe and overly cautious than not....

Conveniently, the final place Zhao Fao landed was just a stone throw from the same train that brought him here. Once again, he was teleported to an isolated area.

"System, is it a default setting for Burst Escape Talismans to find an isolated place as the landing spot?"

[The purpose of Burst Escape Talismans is to transport the user

away from pursuit or confrontation. As such, the landing area of the user is always sure to have no one around.]

"Good!" Zhao Fao nodded and thought for a minute.

Apart from Auntie Wang, no one else knew he was the rich kid from earlier and he intended to keep it that way. Although a small crowd had been present at the scene, he wasn't worried about being recognized by any of them in the future.

In this world, it wasn't unusual for unrelated people to look alike for no reason...

Also, once he fully entered the world of cultivation, his interaction with the mortal district would reduce drastically anyways.

Zhao Fao was unbothered as he boarded the train to his city.