Chapter 296: Fake Treasure

“Remember, introduce it alongside the red wine at that time.”
Seeing Ma Chun still dazed, Lin Dong couldn’t help but remind him.
“Don’t worry, boss. I can’t think of any better plan,” Ma Chun said with a smile. “I know exactly how to arrange everything. I guarantee it will not only crush Fenglin Restaurant but also boost business for the inn.”
Lin Dong nodded. He was well aware of Ma Chun’s abilities. When it came to coming up with ideas and handling emergencies, Ma Chun’s talent was inferior to that of Liu An, who was still undeveloped. But when it came to organizing various tasks and building relationships, with Ma Chun’s current skills, it would be extremely difficult to find anyone better in Qiufeng City.
“Let’s test Liu An’s loyalty sometime when we have time,” Lin Dong said. “He’s only been at the inn for a short while, so there’s no need to rush. But we can gauge his character first.”
Ma Chun nodded.
“If nothing else, let’s head to Jiaoyi City first,” Lin Dong stood up. “If anything unexpected happens, the journey from Jiaoyi City to Shanye City takes about ten days. If it’s urgent, you figure it out on your own. For matters like this, it’s better to wait until I return if it can be postponed.”
“Okay, boss, Miss Yun, take care!” Ma Chun said with a bright smile, jokingly, “Later, I’ll try sending someone to infiltrate Fenglin Restaurant. By the time you return from Shanye City, I guarantee you’ll hear the good news of Ling Zhengyang spitting blood.”
“Ling Zhengyang is already at his limit. If he suffers another blow this time…” Lin Dong said calmly, “It’s time to introduce the Spirit Stone Fan to knock him out completely!”
Ma Chun clenched his fists. Ten days—almost enough to reach the end of summer! Once the Spirit Stone Fan was introduced, it would surely dominate Qiufeng City.
“Go get to work! If you want to take a long break, be careful not to make any mistakes.”
After giving those instructions, Lin Dong and Yun Lan walked side by side, entering Lin’s Inn in Jiaoyi City through the stone chamber beneath the storage room. Only when opening the storage room did Lin Dong realize that with all the chaos caused by Ma Chun, he had forgotten the worldly treasures inside the mobile counter.
There was no choice. Fortunately, the inn wasn’t short of silver right now. Lin Dong didn’t want to make another trip, so he decided to wait until they reached Shanye City.
They found Liu Hua and Wu Guang busy serving guests in the lobby. The carriage left the backyard, ignoring the darkening sky with hints of thunderstorms, and headed straight for the city gates.
They left the city just before the gates closed. Once on the main road, unimpeded, they rushed forward nonstop…
For four or five days straight, the carriage traveled through wind and rain, while the group traveled day and night to reach Shanye City.

Halfway there, Lin Dong was cultivating inside the carriage. With a soft neigh, the carriage came to a slow stop.
“Boss, it’s blocked ahead.”
Wu Guang’s voice came from outside, causing Yun Lan to slowly open her eyes, which had been closed. With a wave of her right hand, the Four Illusion Arrays were deactivated. All the noise and loud noises disappeared, and the spiritual energy in Lin Dong’s meridians also returned to his dantian.
“What’s wrong?” Lin Dong asked aloud. Aside from three meals a day, even when the horses rested, Yun Lan would never interrupt him.
“Wu Guang says it’s blocked outside,” Yun Lan said softly.
“Bandits?”
Lin Dong instinctively remembered being blocked by a group of bandits on his first trip to Qiufeng City. But then he thought it didn’t make sense—if it were really bandits, Wu Guang wouldn’t be so calm as to say the road was blocked.
Lifting the carriage curtain, Lin Dong finally understood what was happening. On what should have been an unobstructed road, within about a hundred meters, there were at least a hundred or two hundred carriages and horses parked haphazardly. Coupled with thousands of people, the entire road was completely blocked. On either side of the road, there was a sizable slope on the left and fields on the right—there was no way to detour. Seeing people coming and going on the slope, Lin Dong gestured, “Go find out what’s going on.”
Liu Hua quickly jumped out of the carriage and ran over. Before long, he returned, his face flushed with excitement, along with a few beads of sweat.
“Boss, there’s a treasure!”
“A treasure?” Lin Dong was stunned.
“Yes, they didn’t tell us at first,” Liu Hua said with a grin. “I had to give them a silver ingot to get the info.”
“Get to the point!” Lin Dong snapped.
Liu Hua nodded eagerly and pointed upward toward the slope. “They said there’s a cold pond in that valley. It often glows with golden light. This has been going on for over half a year, and lately it’s glowing longer and more frequently. Everyone suspects there might be gold and silver treasures hidden there, so they’ve all come to try and get them.”
Lin Dong frowned slightly and glanced at Yun Lan.
“There must be spiritual beasts,” Yun Lan said slowly.
“Isn’t that seeking death?” Lin Dong exclaimed.
Yun Lan turned to Liu Hua and asked, “Is that cold pond extremely icy? Can only warriors go down?”

“Right, right!” Liu Hua nodded quickly. “Everyone only fishes from above; few go down, and those who do find no treasures, coming back empty-handed each time. But looking at these people who go down—each one is extremely strong—and they go back down not long after returning, everyone believes there really are treasures, they just haven’t been found yet. Everyone is ready with their fishing baskets, waiting to catch a string of pearls or gold ingots.”
“It’s getting more frequent…” Yun Lan frowned. “It must be that this spiritual beast has made a breakthrough and is advancing. How long has this phenomenon been going on? To what extent?”
Liu Hua shook his head. “Those who were asked couldn’t say for sure, only that it’s been a little over half a year. The frequency has reached returning every half an hour for fifteen to twenty minutes at a time.”
Yun Lan nodded slowly. “It must be a spiritual beast advancing from the fifth to the sixth rank, or from the sixth to the seventh rank.”
“A high-ranking spiritual beast?” Lin Dong became excited. If this beast had unique medicinal properties, capturing it would add the first batch of high-ranking spiritual beasts to their breeding pen.
Yun Lan nodded, clearly understanding Lin Dong’s meaning, and smiled. “With my strength, it shouldn’t be difficult to deal with a beast that has just reached the seventh rank.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Lin Dong jumped down from the carriage and waved. “Liu Hua, Wu Guang, you two stay here and guard the carriage. We’ll go take a look.”
“Boss…” The two hesitated.
“Do you really think there are treasures?” Lin Dong said impatiently. “If you want to see the spiritual beast, we’ll catch it later and let you have your fill. Going there now to join the crowd is dangerous.”
Liu Hua and Wu Guang nodded quickly.
Once Yun Lan got off the carriage, the two had taken only a few steps when suddenly chaos arose above the slope.
It was like a wave slowly surging downward from the top of the slope.
“Bad news—probably the spiritual beast has emerged.”
Yun Lan was shocked. She grabbed Lin Dong’s shoulder and flew upward toward the slope.
“Bad news! The Cold Pond has burst!”
“Run quickly…”
Panicked crowds kept rushing downward. Yun Lan held Lin Dong and flew rapidly above the crowd, then found a gap to land in, reaching the top of the slope in the blink of an eye.
Looking down, the crowd became even more chaotic. In the distance, there was a mountain peak about a kilometer high.
“Let’s go!”
Yun Lan took a deep breath and, along with Lin Dong, flew away again.
Below the mountain peak, a valley entrance came into view. By the time the two approached, many fewer people were flowing out.
Entering the valley and moving forward, after a short while, a huge pond, sixty to seventy meters long and wide, came into sight.

Waves surged in the pond, and around it, nearly a thousand men and women armed with swords watched the churning waves nervously. It was clear they were all disciples and warriors from nearby sects. Though wary of Lin Dong and his companion’s arrival, they didn’t devote much effort to guarding against them. As soon as they got within ten meters of the pond, the icy mist hit them like a blast. “What should we do?” Lin Dong turned to Yun Lan. “Wait a bit longer and see how things develop,” Yun Lan replied calmly. “I’m not entirely sure.” Lin Dong nodded. With so many people, including sect disciples, and given Yun Lan’s formidable strength, it was unlikely she could both fend off their attacks and subdue the spiritual beast at the same time. They found a relatively less crowded spot and waited. The waves grew more intense, and a faint bloody tint along with a fishy smell began to appear on the green water surface. Just as the waves seemed about to reach their peak, as if the entire pond might be overturned like a giant pot, a strange, piercing scream suddenly rang out. From the churning water, a golden snake head the size of a table surface emerged rapidly, with a protrusion on top resembling a chicken comb. The only difference was that the comb was surrounded by large golden scales. Then, the golden snake head kept rising, as if trying to swallow the sun in the sky. Its body, covered in golden scales, swiftly rose out of the water—five meters, ten meters, fifteen meters… When the raised snake tail emerged from the water, Lin Dong let out a deep sigh, his face filled with frustration. At least thirty meters! There was no way they could bring this thing back to Lin’s Inn alive, let alone keep it in a breeding pen. “It must be a sixth-tier Golden Armored Snake that consumed some spiritual material and mutated into this spiritual beast,” Yun Lan said slowly. “Whatever it turned into, it can’t be kept in an inn, and even bringing it to the Gu Huan Sect probably wouldn’t work,” Lin Dong said helplessly. Yun Lan smiled. “Although we can’t keep it, the Golden Armored Snake is full of treasures. Its scales can be used as the main material for high-tier spiritual weapons. The skin around its seven-inch-long section can be used to create highly effective high-tier spiritual armor, and its meat is also top-quality material for spiritual pills. Most importantly… its inner core, though not suitable for medicine, can boost strength if consumed raw.” “That amazing?” Lin Dong’s eyes widened slightly.

Yun Lan nodded. “Golden Armored Snakes are difficult to tame and take a very long time to grow, which makes them extremely rare. If they knew the spiritual beast here was a Golden Armored Snake, moreover one mutated to the seventh rank, I’m afraid many major sects would send numerous elders over. Some sects that lack cultivation aid pills might even send everyone they have.”
Lin Dong licked his lips. What a great beast! It’s just untrainable. But with such a large size, its inner core must be quite big.
As the rank of the Golden Armored Snake increased, the tense and vigilant warriors clearly hadn’t expected the spiritual beast beneath the cold pond to be so large, and they all stepped back.
In the gradually calming pond, figures suddenly leaped up. One of them made Lin Dong’s eyes almost pop out.
He was burly, with a bare upper body whose muscles seemed to contain immense strength. His hands gripped a huge golden sword, exuding a fierce aura and domineering presence akin to that of a battle god soaked in blood, giving people a sense of being able to overlook the world. Not only Lin Dong but even the others had to turn their attention to this man.