Chapter 348: Handling the Allocation

With these two secret weapons in hand, Lin Dong’s worries about possible disruptions over the next few days vanished. He sat down on the stone bench, pondered for a while, and after sorting out his thoughts, he spoke up, “How are things going between Tianlai Gambling House and Hongfu Gambling House?”
“It’s even more intense than the restaurant business. I heard Hong Wanfu even brought in bandits. Of course, there’s no evidence—maybe it’s just nonsense,” Ma Chun explained. “Actually, Tianlai Gambling House seems to be in the lead. I’m not too familiar with the details, but compared to Hongfu Gambling House, although Tianlai has far fewer gambling experts, it has the support of the county official. Most other gambling houses side with Tianlai, so in terms of gambling experts, the gap isn’t significant. With that official’s backing, they can send people disguised as officials, and their skilled gamblers are far superior to those at Hongfu Gambling House. Unless Hong Wanfu can find a powerful ally, the outcome is obvious.”
Lin Dong nodded. Unless Hong Wanfu had an extremely close relationship with some family, he was basically out of options. Sending in skilled gamblers to make money, with experts accompanying them when leaving—just that alone meant Hong Wanfu either had to close down or watch helplessly as Tianlai Gambling House took all the money.
“How’s Lin’s Gymnasium coming along?” Lin Dong asked.
“Liu An talked about it last night. The promotion and preparation for the sports-star gambling events are ready. All that’s left is to select the stars for the events and sign contracts with them,” Ma Chun replied. “It should be ready in another three to five days.”
That was about half a month, not much different from Lin Dong’s expectations.
After thinking for a while, Lin Dong suddenly smiled and said, “With Tianlai Gambling House involved in the gambling events at Lin’s Gymnasium, business must be good, right?”
Ma Chun sneered. “Indeed. Otherwise, other gambling houses wouldn’t rush to launch their own events. The day before yesterday, Chen Yantian sent someone to ask the manager to go to his residence, saying he had matters to discuss. I sent someone to tell Chen Yantian to come here himself.”
“Has the relationship between Lin’s Inn and Fu Tongshan been exposed?” Lin Dong asked.
Ma Chun nodded. “Otherwise, why would Chen Yantian send someone to find the manager? But after he came in person, there was no further news.”
Lin Dong smiled without saying anything. Truly fitting for a gambling house owner—this Mr. Chen already knew about the relationship between Lin’s Inn and Fu Tongshan and still had the audacity to summon him.

“Boss, Lin Ji Gymnasium is about to start its promotion, and our betting service will be launched soon too. Since Chen Yantian knows about our relationship with Fu Tongshan, he still dares to act arrogantly. The county magistrate is part of the Celebrities Party, and Chen Yantian is confident he has a group of thugs at his disposal. As legitimate businessmen, we don’t dare offend him…” Ma Chun looked at Lin Dong with a questioning gaze. “If we don’t resolve this quickly, we’ll have to delay the promotion.”
“Any news about Hua Wuyue?” Lin Dong replied indifferently.
“Hua Wuyue?” Ma Chun was stunned. After pondering for a moment, he hesitantly said, “I haven’t paid much attention. I seem to recall hearing customers chatting that Hua Wuyue has been cooking frequently lately because she obtained a Spirit Stone Fan that makes her immune to grease.”
“Send someone to find out and let me know when she’s cooking,” Lin Dong said without hesitation.
“You mean to use the Hua family to take on Tianlai Gambling House and other gambling houses?” Ma Chun was surprised.
“Yes!” Lin Dong nodded. It would also be a chance to see if he could recruit Hua Wuyue to Lin Ji Inn.
“Okay, I’ll send someone to keep an eye on it right away,” Ma Chun replied promptly.
After Ma Chun left, Lin Dong returned to his room to practice. The greatest gains from his trip to Wen Yanshan were undoubtedly the three types of spiritual herbs that aided in cultivation, followed by the Perfume-Adding Technique, and then various spiritual artifacts and techniques.
Regarding the Perfume-Adding Technique, since he was still in the cooperation phase with Fenglin Restaurant, it had to be kept hidden for now as a trump card for later use.
As for spiritual artifacts and techniques, Lin Dong wasn’t particularly interested, but some defensive artifacts were not entirely useless.
The greatest benefit for Lin Dong was the three types of spiritual herbs. With his current strength at the middle stage of the ninth level of the Mental State phase, consuming two of them might waste their effects, but the Lingyun Tree was an exception.
After sorting through everything, Lin Dong first identified the spiritual herbs that he, Yun Lan, Tian Hao, and Lin Shuang could use or might need in the future. Then he sorted through the spiritual artifacts and techniques. After finishing the sorting and confirming nothing was missing, he took out the remaining piece of the Lingyun Tree branch.
He had obtained two pieces of the Lingyun Tree branch in the Wuyou Cave. One piece had already been planted in the small garden, while the other was in Lin Dong’s hands.
With the green Lingyun Tree branch, about a meter long and as thick as an arm, placed beside him, Lin Dong sat cross-legged. His spiritual energy flowed from his dantian and began to circulate through his meridians.

Just two full cycles later, the branches of the Lingyun Tree beside him seemed to be pulled by some force, trembling slightly. A faint blue mist slowly seeped into Lin Dong’s body. The impurities trapped in his meridians should have slowed down the flow of spiritual energy when it passed through. But under the influence of the blue mist, it was as if those impurities didn’t exist at all, allowing the spiritual energy to flow smoothly and rapidly through the meridians.

After one full cycle, the increase in spiritual energy was no different from when there was no Lingyun Tree branch present. Yet the time required for one full cycle was reduced to about one-third of the original amount.

With Lin Dong’s current strength, plus the seven-fold cultivation boost from the inn system, it would take him about five to six months to reach the level of a powerful warrior in the Heart Reversal stage, according to his estimates. With the speed increased by about three times, it meant that a breakthrough could be achieved in just two months.

The faster cultivation pace and the growing sense of pleasure from the increasing spiritual energy were undoubtedly more intense. Moreover, since Yun Lan was not around and it wasn’t Lin Shuang’s day off, Lin Dong, who didn’t need to waste time cooking, focused wholeheartedly on his cultivation. It wasn’t until the sun set and the moon was about to rise that a knock interrupted his practice.

“Boss!”

Wang Liuzhi’s voice came from outside, sounding somewhat urgent.

Lin Dong stood up and waved his right hand. The wooden bolt behind the door slowly pulled back, as if controlled by an invisible hand.

Entering the room and seeing Lin Dong sitting at his desk, Wang Liuzhi approached with an awkward smile.

Seeing Wang Liuzhi’s expression, Lin Dong couldn’t help but laugh. “Where have you been wandering off to?”

Wang Liuzhi smiled sheepishly. “I didn’t know the boss would be back today, that’s why I only found out you were looking for me just now.”

“Don’t waste too much time on cultivation. Don’t forget—you’re the captain of the guard team,” Lin Dong reminded him. “Although there are good resources, you’re still essential. But it’s possible there are team members with far greater talent than you. In three to five years, if you’re even weaker than your team members, don’t blame me if I make you hand over the captain’s position.”

“Don’t worry, boss. Such an embarrassing situation will definitely not happen,” Wang Liuzhi assured him, patting his chest.

“It’s good that it won’t happen.” Lin Dong didn’t want to force Wang Liuzhi to cultivate all day long. As long as he remained the strongest in the guard team, that would be enough. With the spiritual materials and elixirs he had, at most he might encounter a few exceptionally talented team members who surpassed him—there was no way he’d be overtaken by a whole group of them.

Therefore, Lin Dong didn’t say much more. He shifted his gaze to the spiritual artifacts and materials piled on the table, picked up the booklet registered during their time in Wuyou Cave, handed it to Wang Liuzhi, and said, “This contains everything I gained from my trip to Wuyou Cave. I’ve kept what I wanted, and you should take all the rest back to tally them up and come up with a distribution plan.”

Wang Liuzhi nodded, took the booklet, and flipped through it. On the very first page, he was stunned.

“Boss, why are all of these spiritual artifacts at the eighth or ninth level?”

“Besides spiritual artifacts, there are also spiritual pills and skills—all of high level. Oh, and there are twelve treasure maps…” Lin Dong hesitated for a moment before adding, “When the inn reaches the locations marked on the treasure maps, take some time to send some guards to search. For now, there’s no need to bring them out.”

“How about the rest?” Wang Liuzhi quickly flipped through the booklet, feeling overwhelmed. His experience was limited to distributing the spiritual materials provided to the guards each month. With so many valuable items, distributing them fairly was a hundred or even a thousand times harder than distributing some Wanhong Fruits or Qinglan Fruits.

“Decide for yourself.” Lin Dong initially wanted to leave it alone but decided to give some advice: “First, sort out and store those that aren’t needed. As for the extra Wenle Pills and Lingyun Tree branches for cultivation, you and the other three—Shouzhugan and the rest—can have as much as you want. The Lingyun Trees can be planted; distribute as many as possible. Keep the extra Wenle Pills for now; they can be used as rewards for those who complete their tasks or progress quickly in cultivation. As for spiritual skills, trying to learn too many at once is inefficient. You can make copies for the guards to choose from. They can only pick one at first, and if they learn quickly, they can ask you for more. As for spiritual artifacts and some spiritual pills with special effects, the inn doesn’t have many uses for them right now, so they can also be given as rewards. The most important thing is that no matter who gets the spiritual artifacts, pills, or learns a spiritual skill, they must not show off recklessly.”

Wang Liuzhi breathed a sigh of relief. With such detailed instructions, he felt confident. The rest was just a matter of distributing everything carefully, which wasn’t too complicated.

After Wang Liuzhi happily stored all the treasures on the table in his storage ring, Lin Dong asked, “How’s the cultivation progress at Tiandi Cave?”

Without hesitation, Wang Liuzhi replied, “Apart from the branch manager and me, along with Wang Hao and the other three, everyone else has gone to Wuyou Cave to monitor progress. In another three to five months, it shouldn’t be a problem for each person to advance two or three levels.”

“Another three to five months…” Lin Dong mused, “With the relationship with the prefect, it should be time to start bringing under control the troublemakers from other counties and setting up branches. With just the five of you, it seems a bit few.”
“Then bring everyone back?” Wang Liuzhi asked.
Lin Dong shook his head. It was too early to start training and testing those troublemakers; bringing them back now would be a waste of time.
After some thought, Lin Dong made up his mind: “Have Old Master Zhang take charge of setting up the branches. For bringing the troublemakers under control, pick some leaders from those in each county and have them handle it. The five of you can focus on dealing with the more difficult cases. Once all the troublemakers in the counties are brought under control, it should be time for the guard team to come out of Tiandi Cave as well.”
Wang Liuzhi nodded eagerly.