Chapter 341: Misjudgment

After arranging for the guard team to train, Lin Dong inquired about today’s news at the inn and learned that Hongfu Restaurant, along with a dozen other major restaurants, had changed their strategy. Instead of confronting Fenglin Restaurant and Linji Inn head-on, they decided to target the signature dishes or specialties of their rival restaurants one by one. Lin Dong simply smiled at this.
Let Liang Gufeng worry about such matters. As long as it wasn’t aimed at suppressing Linji Inn, the inn only needed to join in the chaos. If Hong Wanfu was foolish enough to use Linji Inn as a starting point, it would still be time for Linji Inn to take action.
After all, Linji Inn was now like a subordinate; the outcome of battles had little impact on them. As long as they weren’t directly attacked, they could just follow Fenglin Restaurant, their “elder brother,” waving knives and shouting to boost morale. The complicated decisions could be left to Liang Gufeng.
Back in the backyard, not long after starting his training in his room, Ma Chun arrived with a team of carriages, coming in and out through the side door. By early morning the next day, when Lin Dong went outside again, the entire backyard was filled with over a thousand large iron boxes.
Each of these iron boxes was slightly over a meter in length, width, and height, designed precisely to fit the size of Linji Inn’s cellar. The six sides of the boxes were made of extremely thin iron plates, with gaps sealed tightly with molten iron, ensuring excellent airtightness. They were the perfect choice for storing perfume.
Lin Dong had waited four days just for these iron boxes.
After storing all the boxes in the mobile counter and having breakfast, Lin Dong and Yun Lan separated to go look for Yulongling and Old Ding. Old Ding could carry at most two people, but Yulongling knew the location of Wuyoudong, and Yun Lan was better at breaking spiritual arrays than Old Ding—so both of them had to go. Lin Dong also had his own reason to go… Although his strength was slightly inferior to Yun Lan’s and he had Old Ding accompanying him, he still wasn’t at ease, fearing that Yun Lan might encounter some danger in Wuyoudong that even Old Ding couldn’t resolve in time.
To save time, Lin Dong decided to let Yulongling go alone. He and Yun Lan would have Old Ding use his speed to reach Wenyan Mountain as quickly as possible, spending two or three days collecting materials for perfume. Once Yulongling arrived, they would all head to Wuyoudong together.

After Yu Linglong left the backyard first, as soon as the words “set off” left his mouth, Lin Dong felt a tightness on his shoulders. Immediately afterward, the scenery before his eyes began to change rapidly. A fierce wind like a sharp blade blew towards him, and things only improved once a protective shield was activated.

Under Old Ding’s control, what would take four days by fast horse could be accomplished in one and a half hours. When the rapidly changing scenery suddenly came to a halt, Lin Dong looked up and saw the endless Wenyan Mountains stretching as far as the eye could see.

After asking a hunter to confirm their location and the location of Xuelan Peak, the three of them found a deserted place. Old Ding vanished in a flash, taking Lin Dong and the other with him as they sped forward once again.

In less than half an hour, Old Ding stopped again. What appeared before Lin Dong was no longer the lush, endless mountains, but instead a vast expanse of white snow. As his gaze rose higher, reaching the summit, within this world of white snow formed by clouds and snow, a blue spire appeared.

Undoubtedly, this spire was ice formed from the condensed fragrance.

Lin Dong crouched down and grabbed a handful of snow; the coldness spread through his palm.

Bringing his palm to his mouth, he tasted it—it was plain, with nothing unusual about it.

“Elder, can you sense if there are anyone around or at the spire?” Lin Dong turned to look at Old Ding.

Old Ding nodded, his gaze sharpening for a moment before relaxing again.

“There are only five martial artists at the third or fourth stage of the Mind Realm on the back side of the spire, across the entire summit.”

“You can detect that?” Lin Dong was amazed. He couldn’t help but look up at the spire, which was about ten to twenty kilometers away. He had assumed that Old Ding’s mental perception could cover that distance, even the back side. To his surprise, from such a distance, Old Ding could still use his mental power to assess the strength of those people.

The strength of these peak-level warriors far exceeded Lin Dong’s expectations.

“Bring me my wine,” Old Ding replied evasively.

Lin Dong took out the last half of the five top-quality wines obtained from the cellar control panel and handed it to Old Ding.

Old Ding lifted the mud seal, took a careful sip, then set down the jar. He raised his right hand again, took a cautious sip, set it down, and then took another small sip. He repeated this several times before finally returning the jar to Lin Dong.

Lin Dong was both amused and puzzled. For a peak-level warrior, playing around with those five bottles of fine wine as a subtle warning to remember a promise seemed somewhat out of place for his status.

Elder Ding glanced at Lin Dong, confirming that he had understood his meaning, before asking, “What should we do next?”
Putting the wine jar back on the mobile counter, Lin Dong replied without hesitation, “Go to the peak and avoid those five people.”
Elder Ding grabbed his hand and soared upward with Lin Dong, leaving no trace on the snow-covered ground.
In the blink of an eye, the distance of over ten kilometers came into view. The coldness in the icy areas was a hundred or even a thousand times worse than that in the snow-covered zones. The piercing cold made Lin Dong shiver despite his energy shield, which he had activated to resist the wind pressure.
Shaking, Lin Dong glanced at the calm clouds and turned to Elder Ding, asking, “Even my strength at the ninth level of the Mental State phase is struggling to cope. How can those five people, with only the third or fourth level of that phase, resist it?”
“They must have taken some cold-resistant elixirs. Without an energy shield at the level of the Mental Reversal phase, no one can withstand this cold here,” said Elder Ding. Before he could finish speaking, Yun Lan already took out a small porcelain bottle, poured out a fire-red pill, and handed it to the trembling Lin Dong, forcing it into his mouth.
A wave of warmth flowed down his throat.
In an instant, Lin Dong’s shaking body stabilized, filled with an indescribable warmth.
“The effect of the medicine lasts about a day,” Yun Lan said, handing the small porcelain bottle back to Lin Dong with an apologetic tone. “I forgot to give it to you when we came.”
“It’s okay!”
Lin Dong shook his head smilingly, placed the small porcelain bottle on the mobile counter, and then took out a large iron box, setting it on a flat piece of ice.
Next, he drew out the Golden Leaf Sword, infused it with spiritual energy, took a deep breath, and swiftly swung at a large ice spike above.
Whoosh…
The sword tip pierced into the ice and kept advancing inward. After just over twenty centimeters, its speed slowed down, and it became difficult to move forward even after reaching less than eighty centimeters.
“This ice is so hard!”
Lin Dong was astonished. Even though he hadn’t used his full strength, an eighth-tier spiritual sword wielded by someone at the ninth level of the Mental State phase couldn’t easily pierce this ice. The hardness of this ice was likely even greater than that of refined iron.
“It’s indeed quite hard! Plus, the unique property of the added fragrance,” Yun Lan said, scanning the azure ice surface and couldn’t help but praise, “The top of Snow Blue Peak is truly one of the wonders of the Great Han Kingdom. I wonder who came up with the idea of using such effort to harden the ice for cooking.”

“I guess some sect nearby ran out of water, so they used snow as a substitute. Out of curiosity, I also grabbed a piece of ice!” Lin Dong said with a smile.
“That’s likely,” Yun Lan nodded; it was the most probable explanation.
Lin Dong smiled. Spiritual energy surged from his dantian and flowed toward the sword. With a push, the Golden Leaf Sword advanced further, stopping only after reaching a little over two meters.
Without any buildup of force, relying solely on spiritual energy, he managed to push the Golden Leaf Sword more than a meter into the ice—this was truly Lin Dong’s true strength.
The ice spike was about five meters long, with a diameter of just over four meters at the base. A strike from each direction caused the spike to lose its support and fall downward.
With a thud, it rolled a few times on the ice before stopping.
Lin Dong immediately began slashing with his sword. In less than fifteen minutes, the entire ice spike was cut into thousands of pieces.
Spiritual energy flowed into his meridians, causing all the ice pieces to fly upward and fill the iron box quickly. It took four boxes before all the ice was packed away.
After placing the four large boxes back on the mobile counter, Lin Dong smiled at Yun Lan and Old Ding, asking, “How about I divide the tasks?”
Yun Lan nodded, while Old Ding casually waved his hand, saying, “Bring over a jar of wine first.”
Lin Dong took out a jar of three-year-old thyme wine and threw it toward Old Ding.
Crack, crack—the jar made harsh noises as it flew. Lin Dong was momentarily puzzled before realizing that the low temperature was causing the thyme inside to freeze rapidly.
Once Old Ding caught the jar, Lin Dong thought for a moment before saying, “The old man is the strongest. He’ll cut and crush the ice pieces. He should also keep an eye on those five people in the north of the mountain to ensure they don’t notice anything. Yun Lan, you’ll take care of leveling out the areas damaged by the old man and try to restore them so it seems untouched. As for me, I’ll clean up the broken ice and pack it into boxes.”
Both nodded.
Lin Dong immediately handed the Golden Leaf Sword to Old Ding.
“I don’t need it!”
Old Ding shook his head, lifted the mud seal, and wrapped the jar in spiritual energy, melting the frozen thyme instantly. After taking a big gulp, he suddenly turned into a blur and soared into the air.
In midair, he swung his right hand like a blade and slashed downward.
Whoosh!
An invisible blade instantly pierced through a large ice block weighing hundreds of cubic meters.
A huge blue shadow plummeted toward the ice surface.

With a loud crash, as the ice block hit the ice surface, Old Ding instantly appeared above it. Raising his right foot, he casually stamped on the ice block beneath him. With another crash, the entire large ice block trembled violently before gradually calming down. Starting from Old Ding’s right foot, a crack spread rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, cracking sounds filled the air. In moments, the entire ice block shattered into dozens of pieces of varying sizes. Old Ding’s figure moved swiftly above the ice blocks, stamping on each one before reappearing above another protruding piece of ice. He leisurely took a sip of thyme before delivering another slash with his palm. Lin Dong was astonished—just in this short time, hundreds of cubic meters of ice had been dealt with. Even including shaping the ice surface and cleaning, it likely would take only about an hour to finish. The estimated two or three days was clearly an underestimate of Old Ding’s efficiency.