Chapter 412: Business Plummets Rapidly

Outside, the cold wind howled, making the paper windows rattle. Inside, it was quiet and peaceful, with Lin Dong sitting in lotus position as if in meditation—a scene of complete detachment from the world.
Beside him, there were no longer the branches of the Lingyun Tree that he had used for most of the past half year. The reason was simple: the medicinal effects of those branches were no longer of much use to Lin Dong.
Inside his dantian, spiritual energy circulated continuously through his meridians. If the path taken by this energy could be given a tangible color, it would resemble a perfectly drawn circle rather than a tiny dot moving in circles.
Each time the energy returned to the dantian, its volume increased slightly. At first, the change might not be noticeable, but over time, a distinct difference could be felt. Eventually, the energy filled every corner of the dantian.
A faint smile appeared on Lin Dong’s face. Yet the energy within his dantian did not stop moving; it continued to flow swiftly through the meridians at an imperceptible speed.
With each return to the dantian, its swollen volume increased slightly—once, twice, three times… Gradually, it grew larger as time passed. In just a few days, its astonishing size made it seem likely it could burst at any moment.
However, things were not that simple. Lin Dong endured patiently, gritting his teeth and suppressing the roaring hunger in his stomach, as he controlled the energy to strike the dantian again and again after repeated failures.
Bang!
Suddenly, Lin Dong’s body trembled, and his eyes snapped open. His dark pupils shone with a brilliant light. At that moment, his entire aura underwent a dramatic transformation—like a thousand-year-old sword drawn from its sheath, profound and domineering!
He had broken through!
To the second stage of the Heart Reversal Phase!
Lin Dong could sense that the purity of the spiritual energy within his dantian, once in a state of chaos, had improved, and its capacity had greatly increased. An indescribable strength surged through his body, giving him the urge to roar.
“I’ve broken through!”
Lin Dong took a deep breath and looked at Yun Lan, who had been guarding him for five or six days. The joy in his eyes made Yun Lan smile involuntarily—a smile that could enchant countless people.
With the help of the inn’s cultivation benefits and the medicinal effects of the Lingyun Tree branches, after more than half a year, Lin Dong officially left the lowest level of the ninth stage of the Heart Reversal Phase.

“After cultivating the dantian, start taking Wenle Dan,” Yun Lan said. “By then, I’ll prepare a few supplementary pills for you.”
Lin Dong nodded and stood up. His stomach let out a loud growling.
“Eat here or outside?” In Yun Lan’s palm appeared a tray with three dishes, a soup, and a bowl of steaming rice.
“Let’s eat here!”
Too lazy to walk further, Lin Dong took the tray, placed it on the table, grabbed his chopsticks, took a deep breath, and began eating voraciously. It was as if locusts had swept through—utterly terrifying. Yun Lan, sitting across from him, couldn’t help but laugh, though she also felt a bit sorry for him.
Midway through eating, Lin Dong’s gaze suddenly shifted toward the door.
“It’s Ma Chun. He seems quite anxious,” Yun Lan said slowly. Clearly, she had noticed Ma Chun earlier than Lin Dong and had already sensed his presence.
Lin Dong hesitated for a moment before continuing to eat. Meanwhile, the wooden bolt on the door was quietly removed, and a cold breeze slipped in.
“Boss!” Ma Chun peeked in from outside. Seeing Lin Dong eating frantically, he wasn’t sure whether to enter.
“Come in! What’s wrong?” Lin Dong called out hesitantly, forcing the food down quickly.
“Boss, our plan to launch the perfume seems to need to be postponed,” Ma Chun said with a sad face. “Business at the inn has dropped sharply these days. I wanted to discuss it with you, but you were in seclusion.”
“Business has dropped?” Lin Dong frowned. “Is there something going on at Fenglin Restaurant?”
“It’s not just Fenglin Restaurant; all the restaurants are the same. Actually…” Ma Chun said helplessly, “Business at our lodging building has surged dramatically. In my opinion, within two or three days, we’ll see full occupancy for the first time.”
“How is that possible?” Lin Dong was confused. Business in the main hall had plummeted, while the lodging building was approaching record-breaking occupancy. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out why this was happening.
“Wet worm disease!” Ma Chun said weakly.

“Wet Worm Disease? What’s going on?” Lin Dong was surprised. Wet Worm Disease was a distinctive illness in the western part of Lingnan City. It was highly contagious; when it first appeared hundreds of years ago, it even caused panic throughout the Great Han Kingdom. Fortunately, Black Fiery Grass, which could cure this disease, was later discovered. Although it erupted once a year and sometimes on a larger scale every twenty or thirty years, pharmacies in the three western prefectures and their subordinate counties always had ample stock of it, as it sold well every year. It became a steady source of income for most pharmacies, with most of them keeping significant reserves.

Thus, even in the event of a large-scale outbreak of Wet Worm Disease, as long as it was properly managed by containing the outbreak area and urging people to stay indoors, families infected could sell a few plants of Black Fiery Grass, while those nearby who were infected would go to the county town to buy more. The outbreak could be brought under control within a month.

Over the years, the people in the three western prefectures of Lingnan City had almost gotten used to Wet Worm Disease. It only caused mild symptoms for a while, and treatment cost anywhere from a few hundred coins to one or two taels of silver. If it weren’t for the fact that Black Fiery Grass wasn’t suitable for ordinary households to store long-term, most families would have kept some on hand.

Lin Dong couldn’t understand how a lack of business in the main hall was related to Wet Worm Disease.

“It’s a long story. This year’s large-scale outbreak of Wet Worm Disease wasn’t that serious at first. Families in the affected areas bought half a plant each, and it was quickly brought under control,” Ma Chun said helplessly. “But unfortunately, the county magistrate of Kongwen County, under the jurisdiction of Xianan Prefecture, was greedy beyond measure and set his sights on Black Fiery Grass. After consulting with the pharmacies in Kongwen County, those shop owners, driven by greed, colluded to inflate the cost by hiding the true price from the merchant guild, raising the price of a plant from three taels of silver to thirty taels. As a result, they miscalculated the scale of this year’s outbreak, causing it to get out of control across the entire county. Even if all the Black Fiery Grass in the city were used, it wouldn’t be enough to control the outbreak.”

Taking a breath, Ma Chun continued, “There isn’t enough Black Fiery Grass in Kongwen County. The locals are forced to rush to neighboring counties to buy it, which has led to the continuous spread of the Wet Worm Disease. The neighboring counties have never encountered such a situation before and are too overwhelmed to implement effective controls, resulting in a shortage of Black Fiery Grass there as well. Then… it spread to other counties. Now, there’s not enough Black Fiery Grass in all three prefectures. If it weren’t for the drier climate in those prefectures, which makes it harder for the disease to spread, and since everyone knows that the pharmacies in those prefectures don’t have much Black Fiery Grass in stock, going there would be tantamount to seeking death. It could even spread throughout the entire Lingnan Commandery.”

Lin Dong frowned and asked, “So, everyone is flocking to Lingnan City?”

“Mm!” Ma Chun nodded, smiling bitterly. “In previous years, the major pharmacies in Lingnan City had plenty of Black Fiery Grass at this time. With proper distribution, they could at least contain the Wet Worm Disease, if not eradicate it completely. By the time Tianfeng Commandery received word and sent large quantities of it, the problem would be solved. But this year… Boss Jiang failed to deliver the first batch of 200,000 plants as agreed in the contract. They were supposed to arrive last month, but they still haven’t reached Lingnan City.”

Lin Dong was speechless. Jiang Jianxing! It turned out he was also deeply involved in this.

This batch of Black Fiery Grass, worth 500,000 taels of silver and totaling 200,000 plants, was part of Lin’s Inn’s upgrade task. To save money, Jiang Jianxing hired only a few guards and dared to take a shortcut through Guanyou Mountain, only to be intercepted by bandits.

Three months ago, Lin Dong approached the prefectural governor and, using his connections, convinced him to send troops to suppress the bandits. He also used a few cultivation-enhancing pills to get the head of the Military Assessment Institute to agree to send people to help. On top of that, Lin Dong himself sent Yu Mudan along with a few guards to assist secretly. With such strength, it wouldn’t be a problem to wipe out all the bandits in Guanyou Mountain, not to mention just a small stronghold.

According to Lin Dong’s estimate, the upgrade task could be completed in at most a month. But due to some unknown issue, it took two months before the system notified that the task was complete. This is why the launch of Lin’s Inn’s three key strategies had to be scheduled so urgently.

Unexpectedly, even after the task was completed, the batch of Black Fiery Grass still hadn’t been delivered to Lingnan City.

“To this day, inside and outside Lingnan City, there are people fleeing from the three provinces everywhere. Many of them are infected with the wet worm disease. Although it’s under control, more and more people keep fleeing. With such a mixed crowd, it’s impossible to tell if any bandits have mixed in. Besides, wet worm disease has never appeared in Lingnan City before.” Ma Chun said with a bitter smile, “That’s why fewer and fewer people dare to go outside these days. Nowadays, in all industries in Lingnan City, except for pharmacies, inns, and rice shops whose business has increased instead of declined, the business of other shops has dropped sharply.”

Lin Dong remained silent. According to the plan, he could withdraw from the Perfume Addition project in a few days. But with such issues arising, not to mention Perfume Addition, even if he launched the Spirit Stone Heater, it might not have much effect.

Plans can’t keep up with changes. Not only will the timing for introducing the other two key strategies have to change, but perhaps even their order will need to be adjusted.

After pondering for a moment, Lin Dong resolutely said, “Talk to Hua Wu Yue. Have him bring some storage spirit rings and, in the name of the Hua family, send a Hua family member riding an eagle beast or bird to investigate where Jiang Jianxing’s batch of Black Fiery Grass has gone. Once found, have the accompanying Hua family member use the storage spirit rings to send the Black Fiery Grass over. He himself should ride an eagle beast or bird to Tianfeng Commandery to purchase as much as possible.”

“What about the Perfume Addition project?” Ma Chun asked hesitantly. “Even if they ride an eagle beast or bird, they’ll need a lot of time to rest along the way, and with such a large quantity to purchase, it’s likely they won’t be able to return in less than a month.”

“What else can we do? Of course, delay it,” Lin Dong replied without hesitation.

“I’ll go find Hua Wu Yue right away!”

Ma Chun nodded helplessly, turned, and left the room. Before he could move quickly, Liu An rushed over, sweating profusely.