Chapter 238: Successful Research on Spirit Stone Fans

Whether the guesses were right or wrong, there was nothing but to wait and see. Glancing at the bustling lobby, Lin Dong signaled Ma Chun to follow him to the front yard.
“Have we missed any Qinglan Fruits these past few days?”
“Don’t worry, boss. They were all picked on time,” Ma Chun replied quickly. “The picked Qinglan Fruits have already been delivered to Master Xiao.”
Lin Dong nodded. “How much business does the inn have every day now?”
Ma Chun said excitedly, “Although the guild has reached a conclusion, the candidate for the head of the Supervision Council hasn’t been chosen yet. Moreover, the head holds great influence, so the attention of the wealthy families has shifted back there. Fortunately, Maple Forest Restaurant raised its prices again, and business on our second floor has increased instead of declined—now we have no less than 130 tables per day. If Maple Forest Restaurant raises prices further, I think 150 tables isn’t a problem. Once the head of the Supervision Council is appointed, it won’t be hard to exceed our previous record of 180 tables per day.”
“130 tables—how much silver does that cost us per day?” Lin Dong asked calmly.
Ma Chun replied helplessly, “We know the prices of food and drinks result in losses, but those wealthy families still order as much as they can. Thankfully, most of them order a few plates of Vital Beef Balls and Turtle Stewed with Maple Tree Leaves, which helps offset some of the losses. Roughly speaking, our inn loses about 400 taels of silver per day.”
400 taels per day—probably similar to other large restaurants.
400 taels per day equals 12,000 taels per month, which isn’t an unmanageable loss.
Lin Dong stroked his chin and said slowly, “Go back to work! Remember to pick the Qinglan Fruits on time every day.”
After Ma Chun left, Lin Dong immediately went to see Xiao Tianchi and Youyin Xiang, telling them about his trip to Qingmei Mountain. Then he asked Xiao Tianchi to send someone to Qingmei Mountain to keep an eye on the movements of the Ningji Sect and Xingli Sect.
All that was left was to wait for those two sects to fight each other to the death, then take them all down at once.
Of course, this was also an opportunity to strengthen the Guhuan Sect’s strength.
To rapidly boost the Guhuan Sect’s strength, Qinglan Fruits were undoubtedly the best choice. Just one fruit could lift a cultivator below the fourth level of the Mind Phase by one level. For those above the fourth level of the Mind Phase—rare among the Guhuan Sect—since there were few of them, one fruit might not be enough, but two would definitely work.
Now, Lin Dong had stopped exchanging with the Wan Family. Both inns, aside from necessary expenses, were focusing all their efforts on growing Qinglan Trees. Combined, they could grow them more than 3,000 times faster per day. On average, they could harvest one Qinglan Fruit per day. This meant that almost every day, a disciple of the Guhuan Sect could advance to a higher realm.

The gains were substantial, so was the cost—thirty times faster growth meant 3,000 spirit stones per day. At market price, that was 3,000 taels of silver, over a hundred thousand taels per month, almost equal to half of the losses incurred by all the major restaurants in Autumn Wind City. Moreover, there weren’t enough spirit stones in the market to replenish this consumption.

Fortunately, Gu Huanzong covered the costs in silver, and he still had plenty in stock. By selling everything they had and exchanging it with other sects, they could sustain this situation for a month or two without issue.

In a month or two, Bai Jingtai would likely bring along another 100,000 taels worth of spirit stones.

Back in his room, Lin Dong dismissed distractions and entered a meditative state. Soon, spiritual energy flowed into his meridians…

As days passed, Ningjizong and Xinglizong fought fiercely as Xiao Tianchi had predicted. News came in almost daily—either an elder from Ningjizong died or one from Xinglizong was killed, with over thirty disciples dying each day.

However, the situation with the merchant guild didn’t progress as Ma Chun had expected, with candidates for the heads of the oversight councils not being finalized within half a month. Though Ma Chun and the owners of the major restaurants remained optimistic, Lin Dong was convinced that things were heading in the direction he least wanted to see—a hidden force was manipulating the selection of oversight council heads, aiming to drag things out.

The “advertising” through battles had to continue. Lin Dong’s only hope now was that the upgrade tasks would become increasingly difficult. Like the fourth-level upgrade tasks, it would be best if they took two or three months to complete; if they could be delayed to four or five months, that would be even better.

After all, the harder the sixth-level upgrade task, the easier the subsequent ones would be. And if a task took four or five months to complete, the total time spent would be over half a year.

Over half a year, no matter how chaotic things got in the merchant guild, some results would surely emerge. By then, most of the major restaurants would have closed down.

During this half year, with the help of Yunlan and five Blue-Green Fruits, Lin Dong’s strength finally reached the third level of the Mind Spirit Phase. At this level, he was already among the best among the younger generation in Autumn Wind Mansion and all the sects.

Taking some time, Lin Dong visited the Xilan City Martial Assessment Institute, still headed by Ren Qingsong. This wasn’t because there were no retired directors for the mansion-level martial assessment institutes in the Great Han Nation, but because Ren Qingsong was waiting for vacancies to arise in the several mansion-level martial assessment institutes near Autumn Wind Mansion.

The reason, of course, was Lin Dong’s strength.

In the blink of an eye, his mental cultivation had reached the third level. For a martial artist with insufficient talent to enter a sect, it might take thirty years to achieve this, yet Lin Dong did it in just two months. In Ren Qingsong’s eyes, the current Lin Dong was like a guiding light for his own promotion.

Knock, knock, knock!

There was a knocking at the door, and Xu Chunfen’s voice came from outside: “Shopkeeper Lin, are you there?”

Lin Dong’s first reaction was that the Spirit Stone Fan had already been completed according to his instructions—temporarily abandoning functions like ascending/descending, moving left/right, and adjusting speed levels.

Judging by the time, it must be around this moment.

Opening the door, Lin Dong looked up and saw, outside, not only Xu Chunfen but also a burly man with a dark complexion. The burly man was holding a red-painted Spirit Stone Fan about 1.45 meters tall.

From memory, Lin Dong recalled that this burly man was the blacksmith hired by the inn. Now that the inn’s blacksmiths had all been bribed generously, there was no need to worry about them leaking information. So Lin Dong said without hesitation, “Madam Peng, has the Spirit Stone Fan been made?”

Xu Chunfen nodded smilingly.

Lin Dong quickly stepped aside. “Come in and talk.”

Xu Chunfen entered first, then asked the burly man to bring the Spirit Stone Fan inside.

After sending the burly man away, Xu Chunfen said cheerfully, “Shopkeeper Lin, as promised, the Spirit Stone Fan has been crafted. Would you like to take a look?”

Lin Dong nodded eagerly.

Xu Chunfen crouched down slightly and pressed the first switch on the row of switches on the fan’s wide base.

Huh…

“The first one is to activate the Spirit Stone Fan.”

The fan blades inside slowly began to spin, then faster and faster. In the blink of an eye, it became impossible to track the movement of the three blades; only white afterimages could be seen.

“The second one is the second speed level.”

Xu Chunfen slowly pressed the second switch.

Buzz…

Suddenly, the already indistinguishable blades spun even faster. A strong wind blew, making Lin Dong’s clothes flutter and his hair fly.

“It already has speed levels?” Lin Dong was pleasantly surprised. He had originally planned to temporarily ignore the speed levels.

“There are three total speed levels,” Xu Chunfen said, looking up at Lin Dong.

“It’s fine, I can handle it,” Lin Dong said, waving his hands repeatedly.

Xu Chunfen nodded and pressed the third switch. A hurricane suddenly formed, forcing Lin Dong to stagger backward.

Spirit energy flowed into his right foot, causing him to stop abruptly, barely managing to halt his movement.

Watching the sawtooth-like rotating spirit stone fan, hearing the creaking sound of the wooden bed behind him, and feeling the blade-like hurricane brushing against his face, Lin Dong was both amused and exasperated—this level of sophistication was indeed excessive. With such wind strength, it could probably be felt even dozens of meters away. “Shopkeeper Lin, do you think the wind is a bit too strong?” Xu Chunfen asked apologetically. “There’s too much spiritual energy in the spirit stone. To divide it into such fine segments, it likely would take at least half a year just to figure that out.” “It’s okay, it’s fine if it’s strong!” Lin Dong shook his head. For him, having first and second levels was already a surprise; third level… just cancel it. Moving slightly away from the hurricane, he noticed several more switches on the platform and wondered, “Madam Peng, what are those other switches?” “The fourth and fifth are for ascending and descending,” she replied. Xu Chunfen pressed one of them lightly, and a creaking sound came from the slender iron tube. The spirit stone fan began to rise until it stopped at two meters. Pressing the fifth switch made the fourth one rise, while the fan slowly descended until it stopped at about one meter. Lin Dong tilted his head—so they had also developed mechanisms for up and down movement? Did the last three switches control left and right? Before he could ask, Xu Chunfen answered, “The sixth and seventh are for left and right movement and turning off, respectively. The eighth turns off the spirit stone fan altogether.” With that, she pressed the sixth switch, and with a pop, the seventh switch rose. The fan moved to the left, accompanied by a strong hurricane. Once it couldn’t move any further, it swayed slightly before slowly moving to the right. After one round, the room was in disarray from the hurricane. Feeling the demonstration was complete, Xu Chunfen quickly pressed the last switch. Looking up, she was surprised by Lin Dong’s peculiar expression. “Shopkeeper Lin, is there anything else you’re not satisfied with?” Lin Dong shook his head and said with a wry smile, “Apart from changing the third level, this spirit stone fan meets all my expectations. But… Madam Peng, it’s been less than three months, right? According to your estimate, it should have taken five or six months.” Xu Chunfen explained, “Whether it’s dividing into levels or the mechanisms for moving up, down, left, and right, I estimated at least a month for each. I didn’t expect that all three together only took a month, saving over a month in other aspects as well.”

With the experience from the VIP card, Lin Dong figured out that Mrs. Peng liked to double her research time. Anyway, the Spirit Stone Fan was developed half as quickly as expected. There was no need to dwell too much on Xu Chunfen’s bad habit; at worst, he could cut her estimated time in half later. After handing over 10,000 taels of silver to Xu Chunfen, Lin Dong politely saw her out of the room and also picked up some sugar-coated haws to reward Peng Qiao.