Chapter 319: Observing Flowers and Birds

Having experienced the energy required to stay awake on a midnight mission once before, Lin Dong was much calmer this time. He quickly adjusted his mindset, dismissed distracting thoughts, and entered a state of meditation.

Unlike the previous midnight wait for an upgrade task, when the last guest of the day arrived, this time it was the first guest of the following day. There was no need to keep track of time—once midnight passed, the first person to enter would be the target.

Ten days, twenty days, thirty days… As time passed, Lin Dong was deeply immersed in his cultivation. Just as he was completely absorbed, knocking sounds finally came from the door.

Opening his eyes and looking up through the paper window, he saw a pale light. The brightness in the hall was already overpowering that of the oil lamps, indicating it was early morning, not far from the inn opening.

Lin Dong got up, tidied his somewhat disheveled robe, and went to the door. He removed a panel to open it.

Outside stood a young man dressed as a servant, carrying a bundle. After glancing at Lin Dong’s attire, the young man asked in confusion, “Is this an inn?”

“Yes, it is!” Knowing the young man was puzzled by his clothes, which didn’t resemble those of a staff member, Lin Dong smiled and said, “I’m the owner of this inn. Please come in, sir. Are you here to stay or eat?”

The young man realized what he needed and explained he wanted to stay. Instead of entering, he called out behind him, “Sir, the door is open now.”

Lin Dong removed another panel and then noticed a carriage parked outside.

On the carriage was an elderly man in his fifties, with white hair and beard, wearing a blue silk robe. With the young man’s help, he stepped down from the carriage.

Lin Dong quickly stepped aside with a smile, keeping his eyes fixed on the threshold.

“Owner Lin, could you ask a staff member to help secure the carriage and prepare some fodder?” the young man said.

“The inn isn’t open yet. Please come in first. Tie the carriage outside for now; a staff member will be here soon,” Lin Dong apologized. “I apologize for any inconvenience.”

The old man nodded, and the young man, without saying much more, helped the old man slowly walk to the door.

“Sir, be careful!”

At the threshold, reminded by the young man, the old man lifted his right foot and stepped into the inn under Lin Dong’s intense gaze.

The mission target had appeared.

Seeing that everything was handled by the young man, Lin Dong turned to him and asked, “What are your names?”

“Just call me Zhang Shun, Owner Lin. This is my master, whose surname is Liu,” the young man explained.

“Lord Liu, Brother Zhang, it’s getting late. Should we have breakfast first before arranging accommodation?” Lin Dong asked.
Zhang Shun glanced at Lord Liu.
Lord Liu hesitated for a moment before shaking his head.
“Let’s arrange the lodging first! My master has been working all night to guard the Qingmeng Flower. He can eat after he wakes up.” Zhang Shun took out a silver ingot worth one tael from his money bag and handed it to Lin Dong. “One room upstairs and one downstairs—probably just for today.”
“Alright, please wait a moment.”
Since they would only be staying for a day, it was necessary to get the task done as quickly as possible. Fortunately, the master and servant didn’t seem difficult to talk to. If it wasn’t some confidential matter, it shouldn’t be too hard.
Lin Dong went to the counter, took out pen, ink, and account books, and after calculating for a while, took the opportunity to ask casually as if chatting: “Brother Zhang just said Lord Liu guarded the Qingmeng Flower all night. Did you enter the city in the middle of the night? The city gates must have been closed by then.”
“We indeed entered the city in the middle of the night. My master can’t stand the cold, so we had to find shelter inside the city,” Zhang Shun explained casually. “Closing the city gates isn’t a big deal. Two taels of silver is enough to get them opened.”
“You can pay the guards to open the gates secretly?” Lin Dong was stunned.
“Yeah! Manager Lin must rarely leave the courtyard, right?” Zhang Shun, who seemed quite talkative, smiled and said, “My master and I often travel between various prefectural and county towns. Entering the city at night is common. At first, we didn’t know we could use silver to get the guards to open the gates secretly. It was only after trying it once that we found out it worked. Nine times out of ten, it succeeds, though the amount of silver varies. Manager Lin surely can’t guess that the most expensive places aren’t the prefectural towns but the county towns. In prefectural towns, one tael is enough, and two taels are sufficient in county towns, but five taels are required in county towns.”
“Maybe it’s because few high-ranking officials from other places visit county towns. Plus, with the mountains separating them from the capital, the officials there are bolder than those in prefectural towns, so they dare to ask for a high price,” Lin Dong said with a smile.
“Hey, how did I not think of that?” Zhang Shun slapped his head and couldn’t help praising, “Manager Lin is really smart. He figured it out at once.”
Lord Liu also nodded slowly, clearly agreeing with Lin Dong’s judgment.

A good start is half the battle. Seeing that the two had no wariness toward him, Lin Dong stopped wasting time with registration. After closing the already registered ledger, he said, “Gentlemen, wait a moment. I’ll go tie up the carriage first and then take you upstairs.”
The master and his servant were not only easy to talk to but also very graceful. Seeing that Lin Dong was alone, it might cause misunderstandings, so they immediately followed him to the door, trying to stay within his line of sight.
Although Lin Dong wasn’t concerned about them trying anything under the counter, this gesture still made him feel goodwill toward them.
As he tied the reins firmly to the pillar in front of the door, Lin Dong casually looked up at them and asked, “Is Lord Liu coming to Qiufeng City for business or to visit friends?”
“To see flowers!” Lord Liu replied with a smile.
“See flowers?” Lin Dong was taken aback, hesitated for a moment, but chose to remain silent.
“Manager Lin must think my lord is deliberately being evasive, right?” Zhang Shun said with a laugh. “Indeed, my lord is here in Qiufeng City to see flowers.”
“Could it be the Qingmeng flower?” Lin Dong asked in surprise.
Lord Liu nodded gently.
Zhang Shun explained for him, “My lord has always loved plants, flowers, and animals. In the past, he was busy with business, but in recent years due to health issues, he has handed over the business to his eldest son. It’s difficult to raise plants, flowers, birds, and animals at home due to climate and soil conditions, so my lord suddenly decided to travel around the Great Han Kingdom to see rare flowers, plants, and various birds and animals. It’s been several years now.”
“Lord Liu is really enthusiastic!” Lin Dong couldn’t help but give Lord Liu a thumbs up. That’s what it means to enjoy life—traveling, seeing flowers and birds—what a pleasant life.
“I’m getting old; I don’t know how many more years I have left,” Lord Liu said with a wry smile, shaking his head slightly. “So far, I’ve only visited a dozen or so counties. I’ve only covered about 10% of the journey at most. I don’t know how many more places I’ll be able to visit in this life. If I had known the Great Han Kingdom was so vast, with rare flowers, plants, birds, and animals everywhere, I should have set out twenty years ago.”
“That’s not what you should say, sir,” Zhang Shun said, shaking his head repeatedly. “You’ll live a long life. It’s just a bit of asthma. Who knows? Maybe one day you’ll meet a great doctor who cures it, and you’ll be able to live another thirty or fifty years. By then, will you still worry about not seeing enough of the Great Han Kingdom?”
“If I really could live that long, then it would be your turn to worry,” Lord Liu laughed. “You’d have to accompany this old man around the Great Han Kingdom for decades, while the young men your age would already be raising grandchildren.”

Zhang Shun smiled awkwardly.
Over by the side, Lin Dong was forcing a smile. He understood now—the trouble of Lord Liu was that he feared he wouldn’t be able to see all the strange flowers, plants, birds, and beasts in his lifetime. How could this task be completed? Take the old man to visit every corner of the Great Han Kingdom? Forget it—decades wouldn’t be enough. Or perhaps cure his asthma? But was it that simple? In the eyes of ordinary people, even a pharmacist could be considered a miracle doctor. Asthma wasn’t a serious illness in their view; although it couldn’t be completely cured, it could be controlled with pills for a hundred or eighty years with ease.
If it were really that simple, he could just ask Yun Lan to prepare some asthma pills later. The materials needed for such a minor illness were undoubtedly low-grade spiritual materials, and it could be done in a day or two.
The problem was that the last upgrade task had been completed in just a few days. From what Lin Dong knew about the head of the inn system, this upgrade task couldn’t be done in even a month.
But if it wasn’t that simple, then it would be the previous task—visiting all the strange flowers, plants, birds, and beasts in the Great Han Kingdom, which would take decades to complete… far beyond what was possible.
Helpless and unable to figure it out, with the reins tightly tied, even if they encountered thieves, they wouldn’t be able to free themselves in half a minute. Lin Dong straightened up and walked over to the two of them, asking, “Does Lord Liu suffer from asthma?”
“Yes! My lord has had this condition for a long time,” Zhang Shun nodded. “It’s getting worse now; he even has to speak carefully.”
“There’s a miracle doctor staying at our inn. How about… I ask him for you?” Lin Dong suggested.
“A miracle doctor?”
Both of them’s eyes lit up. Zhang Shun quickly asked, “Manager Lin, is there really a miracle doctor staying at your inn?”
Lin Dong nodded firmly. “He’s an elder from a pharmaceutical sect in our Qiufeng Mansion. He usually comes here in person to purchase spiritual materials and always stays at our inn.”
“That’s great!” Zhang Shun pressed on, “Manager Lin, can you take us to see this miracle doctor right now?”
Lord Liu nodded eagerly.
Lin Dong looked troubled. “It’s still early, and the miracle doctor prefers peace. He says he needs to cultivate in silence without disturbance. I’m afraid I’ll have to go and ask first.”
The master and servant ignored him. Just as Lord Liu was about to refuse, Zhang Shun, hoping for a chance, took out a silver ingot worth five taels from his bag on his own, rushed to Lin Dong, shoved it into his hand, and said, “Then please do it, Manager Lin. If you can truly cure my lord’s asthma, he will surely reward you generously.”

Lin Dong smiled as he pushed the silver back into Zhang Shun’s hands, shaking his head. “It’s just a small effort. The divine doctor simply dislikes being disturbed. Once he agrees to treat someone, he doesn’t charge fees, not even for the medicinal materials. If I were to take your silver even for such a minor task, it wouldn’t be right.”
“That’s wonderful!” Zhang Shun was overjoyed, pushing more silver toward Lin Dong.
Lord Liu also looked pleased. With decades of experience in business, he had initially suspected Lin Dong of trying to swindle him, but his behavior, though still leaving room for doubt, now seemed quite credible—about seventy to eighty percent so.
After forcing the silver back, Lin Dong showed slight displeasure. “If Brother Zhang really wants to give a reward, it would damage the reputation of our Lin’s Inn. If that’s your intention, you might as well go check out our inn’s reputation first before making a decision.”
“Hmm…”
Lin Dong’s words completely dispelled the doubts of Zhang Shun and his master. They were overjoyed and now wished they could give Lin Dong banknotes to ensure he would persuade the divine doctor wholeheartedly.
“Let’s go! I’ll take you to the guest rooms first,” Lin Dong said with a smile as he entered the lobby.
The two gave it a brief glance before Zhang Shun quickly helped Lord Liu follow.
After leading them to the lodging building and arranging their rooms, Lin Dong went to the kitchen to fetch two pots of boiling water. By the time he returned to the lobby after bringing the carriage from outside the inn to the stable in the front yard, all the staff had gathered there, with Ma Chun arranging things for opening for business.
After taking care of Lord Liu and his servant, Lin Dong returned to the back yard to continue his cultivation.
In just over a hundred cycles, he finished his cultivation, went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast, and when he came back, Yun Lan was slowly sitting down on a stone bench.
After explaining Lord Liu’s situation to Yun Lan, not long after breakfast, Lin Dong had in his hands a list of more than a dozen low-tier spiritual materials.
At noon, Zhang Shun asked the staff, and Lin Dong told them to send him away, claiming the divine doctor had agreed to prepare the medicine.
It took about half an hour for Zhang Shun to go upstairs, and the materials were already gathered. In just half an hour, more than 230 Qingxiao Pills were successfully produced in two batches.
Packing them in a bundle along with over a dozen porcelain bottles, Lin Dong headed straight for the lodging building.
As soon as he reached the third-floor stairs, he saw Zhang Shun standing outside Lord Liu’s room, waiting.

“Master Lin?” Seeing the porcelain bottles visible in Lin Dong’s bundle, Zhang Shun was overjoyed, but he dared not ask rashly, fearing that a wrong guess might cause embarrassment or upset Lin Dong out of haste. Lin Dong waved the bundle in Zhang Shun’s direction and said with a smile, “The divine doctor has finished refining it.” “Really?” Zhang Shun’s face lit up immediately, and he couldn’t help but pound on the door. “Who is it?” came a muffled voice from inside. “It’s me, sir,” Zhang Shun replied quickly. “The divine doctor agreed to help refine the pills, and now they’re ready. Master Lin has brought them.” “Please wait a moment, Master Lin. I’m coming right away.” There was some rustling inside, and after a while, the door creaked open. Lord Liu, in disheveled clothes, eagerly welcomed Lin Dong into the room. Lin Dong opened the bundle and took out small porcelain bottles one by one. With the last bottle, he removed the stopper and handed it to Lord Liu, saying, “Lord Liu, try one. This pill is called Qingxiao Dan. There are 235 of them in total. The divine doctor said he had enough materials, so he decided to make an extra batch on a whim. One pill will keep you free from asthma symptoms for a month. As long as it’s stored in a cool place, it will ensure Lord Liu doesn’t have to worry about asthma for twenty years.” “Ah!” Lord Liu nodded repeatedly, his hands trembling with excitement as he took the small porcelain bottle. After a long while, he poured out a dark red pill, raised it, and swallowed it whole. Zhang Shun quickly brought tea and water. In just a moment, Lord Liu’s tense expression relaxed, replaced by indescribable joy. “It works! It really works! I can feel it. I can even run around now. It really works…” The master and servant thanked him repeatedly, planning to go thank the divine doctor and offer Lin Dong silver coins, but Lin Dong refused each time with a gentle smile, though inwardly he sighed. The system prompt hadn’t sounded! This undoubtedly meant that, as expected, curing Lord Liu’s asthma alone was a bit too simple. The upgrade task would take two to three months to complete, something Lin Dong had anticipated. But he couldn’t figure out how to complete this task. Surely he didn’t have to take Lord Liu around the entire Great Han Kingdom? There were no large zoos or botanical gardens in this world. No matter what, the system couldn’t create an upgrade task that would take decades to complete.

Lin Dong’s mind stirred. A zoo, a botanical garden? Or maybe an amusement park? Even a combination of all three? With careful planning, aside from the gymnasium, there were still aspects related to soft power that could be strengthened to attract visitors.

“Great! Now that my asthma is cured, I can live another five or six years. It should be no problem for me to visit every corner of the Great Han Kingdom, let alone another twenty or thirty counties.”

As Lin Dong was thinking about ways to attract visitors, Old Lord Liu’s excited muttering caught his attention, clearing up his doubts and making him almost slap himself in the face.

Indeed, the condition for completing this task was to ensure Old Lord Liu had enough lifespan to fulfill his wishes. But just curing his asthma wasn’t enough. In this world, ordinary people could celebrate their birthdays at fifty, and sixty was already considered a long life. Even if Old Lord Liu took good care of himself, he would likely only live to around seventy.

A lifespan of just over a decade wasn’t enough to travel throughout the entire Great Han Kingdom. He needed to extend his life.

There were many methods to extend life in this world, with cultivation being the most effective. Once one could break through to the Lingdong stage, extending their life by a dozen years wasn’t difficult. Another option was using spiritual pills to nourish the body. Yun Lan probably knew many methods of crafting them, so it should be possible to gather some materials for low-tier pills within two or three months.

Together with the signature dish of turtle stewed with maple leaves, which could strengthen the body, reaching over a hundred years old shouldn’t be a problem—ninety should be easy as well.

Immediately, Lin Dong put aside the matter of attracting visitors for now and shared his thoughts. Of course, he still used the so-called divine doctor as a cover.

This time, Lin Dong didn’t hide the so-called divine doctor but instead brought out an elder from the Gu Huan Sect who was staying at the inn.

The result of their meeting was undoubtedly that the divine doctor and Old Lord Liu got along very well and became close friends. The divine doctor agreed to prepare pills for Old Lord Liu and teach him cultivation without charging a penny.

With the help of the Gu Huan Sect elder—not to mention compensating him for wasting two months of his time—to help Old Lord Liu break through to the first level of the Xinshen stage, given his talent and age, Qinglan fruits, Wanhong fruits, and Jijia Snake inner pills would definitely be necessary. Add in pills for nourishing the body and ingredients like turtle stewed with maple leaves… Lin Dong roughly calculated that the cost alone would be no less than 30,000 taels of silver.

Fortunately, since completing the upgrade task was the goal, Lin Dong felt it was worth spending tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Everything that needed to be done had been done. Now, all Lin Dong had to do was wait patiently for the system notification after the upgrade task was completed.