Chapter 539: Storage Room

After drinking several jars of wine with the excited Old Ding, who continued drinking in his room once he had had his fill, Lin Dong stood up and grinned at Yun Lan.
“Want to see why Senior Calculator stayed at the inn for three days?”
Yun Lan grew slightly excited. She knew the benefits of keeping Old Ding occupied for three days must be significant—otherwise, Lin Dong wouldn’t have done this.
“Come and take a look!”
Lin Dong activated the inn’s system, brought up the storage room, and set it up in an empty room. He checked the room’s attributes and hesitated for a moment before setting the daily consumption at one spirit stone.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Dong pushed open the door and took in the scene inside—his eyes were instantly stunned. Yun Lan also stood there, mouth slightly open, speechless.
The room, which was originally just over thirty square meters, seemed endless when viewed from inside. With their eyes, they couldn’t see the end in any direction—neither to the left, right, nor ahead.
“This… this…” Lin Dong was at a loss for words to describe his shock.
Was this really a storage room?
Calling it a magical world wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
“How is this possible? I can’t sense any spiritual energy—it doesn’t seem like a spiritual array. And since we’re outside, even if it were a spiritual array, it shouldn’t create such illusions outside the array.” Yun Lan was stunned.
Lin Dong swallowed hard and said, “It’s not a spiritual array. It’s something very strange… I can’t explain it clearly. Just think of it as a spiritual artifact! Let’s go see how big it is first.”
Yun Lan nodded slowly. Even though she had read all the ancient texts of the Tianjian Sect, she felt as if she had gained new insights. In her eyes, this magical spiritual artifact was ten, a hundred, even a thousand times more amazing than a teleportation gate, or even a small garden or pen that could accelerate the growth of spiritual beasts and materials.
Lin Dong channeled his spiritual energy and used his Instant Step technique, reaching dozens of miles in an instant. Yet, ahead, there was still nothing but endless space with no end in sight.
Gritting his teeth, Lin Dong rushed forward again. After over 300 miles, a wall that wasn’t made of metal or iron but was a bright white color finally appeared in sight.
Running further left and right, the total distance was about the same as the depth—also over 300 miles.
“It’s a shame the ground is made of the same material. Otherwise, this place would be a whole world,” Yun Lan couldn’t help but exclaim.

Lin Dong nodded emphatically. This was only one spirit stone per day—ten, a hundred, a thousand… The inn system could now support up to twenty-five thousand spirit stones per day. One spirit stone equaled one hundred thousand square li, so twenty-five thousand meant an unimaginable area. Lin Dong was so overwhelmed by the scale that he didn’t know how to calculate it. Moreover, as the inn system upgraded, the maximum capacity for spirit stones would double, meaning the total area could keep increasing indefinitely.

It was astonishing! Just as Yun Lan had said, if the ground were soil, it would be another world—one not small, but even larger than the outside world.

The question was, what was the use of this?

Lin Dong was stunned by a sudden thought. The storage room was indeed huge, but what good was such a huge space? A shelter? A military camp? Or perhaps a private space for him and Yun Lan in the future?

None of those seemed very useful!

Despite being amazing, surely this storage room wasn’t completely useless?

Lin Dong frowned slightly. A storage room… right!

Since it was a storage room, it was naturally meant for storing items.

Although Lin’s Inn didn’t have much to store, the goods brought by its guests could easily fill the front yard. But these guests weren’t major merchants. Usually, large merchants would rent an entire inn or several courtyards to store their goods. The reason was simple: their goods were too numerous. The front yard of Lin’s Inn could only hold the goods of one or two families at most; any more would have to be stored in the back yard. Yet the back yard was the most private part of the inn. Though spacious, it was frequently accessed by guards, and there were also vegetable gardens and livestock pens, making it inconvenient to come and go or even assign guards.

Additionally, before the Colorful Beds were upgraded to a point where they could be widely used, Lin’s Inn’s main source of income came from hosting banquets. After repeatedly refusing to rent out the entire inn, merchants who brought goods to distribute to several or even dozens of shops, requiring time to deliver them slowly, gradually stopped coming.

After the merchant association was established, the circulation of large quantities of goods became more frequent, and such merchants would increase as well. If the problem of limited space could be solved, it would undoubtedly attract many merchants traveling northward. After all, while Lin’s Inn’s food and drinks might only be top-notch in the capital, its accommodation conditions were unmatched by any other inn.

Major merchants were wealthy businessmen from various places, so they certainly didn’t lack money. This could not only boost the business of the lodging building but also attract more customers.

Lin Dong couldn’t help but snap his fingers. Just for this reason, the attributes of this storage room were no worse than any other, not to mention it had many other functions as well.
However…
When Lin Dong checked the attributes of the storage room, he was immediately relieved. He had originally been worried that the large size might arouse suspicion, but now there was no problem. The consumption of spirit stones wasn’t based on a fixed amount of spiritual energy—it could be increased or decreased infinitely.
They could build a large gate in the wall separating the front yard from the back yard, raise the back yard’s wall a bit, and create a space of twenty to thirty thousand square meters. As long as no one tried to climb over the wall to investigate, everyone would assume it was part of the back yard. They could also dig the area where the storage room was located deeper to make it appear like a basement.
After a quick calculation, Lin Dong immediately chose the latter option. This method not only had a high safety factor but also saved costs.
“Shall we go?” Having made up his mind, Lin Dong looked at Yun Lan.
Yun Lan nodded.
The two quickly flashed toward the door. After leaving the storage room, Lin Dong immediately checked the attributes again, calculated the ratio of spirit stone consumption to area, and adjusted it to twenty thousand square meters.
“Huh, why has it become smaller?” Yun Lan asked in surprise, looking inside the door. The distance to the end wasn’t far.
“It can also be made infinitely larger! Even bigger than the Great Han Kingdom,” Lin Dong said with a smile.
Yun Lan was speechless. She really couldn’t understand why, but the fact was right in front of her, leaving no room for doubt. If she hadn’t already seen many amazing things at the Lin’s Inn, she would have thought she was dreaming.
After chatting with Yun Lan for a while, Lin Dong headed straight to the front yard.
It was already dark, and the kitchen door was tightly closed. In the yard, the queen was chatting with Li Xun while enjoying the cool breeze. Of course, it was the queen who kept talking, with Li Xun merely listening, though his intense gaze on her showed that he was paying attention.
This expression made the queen talk more and more enthusiastically. This was already a huge improvement. At first, Li Xun’s eyes were vacant, and he never even looked at her properly. But as time passed and the queen kept trying, his soulless eyes gradually turned toward her and then became more expressive.
How could such progress not make the queen happy and motivated to work harder?

Lin Dong was pleased with this. It was good that Li Xun only listened to him, but after all, Li Xun was alone and also the one who brought him great benefits. Lin Dong would only be happy to see Li Xun gradually develop his own thoughts under the influence of maternal love. Only those with their own thoughts could be considered true people; otherwise, Li Xun would be too pitiable.

“Master!”

Sensing Lin Dong’s arrival, Li Xun suddenly stood up.

“Manager Lin!” The queen consort also quickly stood up. Though she was a queen consort and the foremost one in the Great Han Kingdom, she remained extremely polite, even respectful, in front of Lin Dong. Undoubtedly, this was because of Li Xun—whether it was because Lin Dong allowed her to fulfill her role as a mother, or because he had no intention of controlling Li Xun, or even because he had saved Li Xun—every time she saw Lin Dong, she felt overwhelmed by gratitude and unable to repay him.

“Queen Consort!” Lin Dong bowed slightly and turned his gaze to Li Xun, smiling. “Sit down! I’m here to see Ma Chun. You two continue your conversation.”

“Yes!”

Li Xun sat down again. The queen consort glanced at the sky and asked, “Manager Lin, why are you looking for Manager Ma so late? Is there something important?”

“I just had a sudden idea for improving the inn’s business, so I rushed over right away,” Lin Dong explained with a smile, knowing what she was thinking.

The queen consort nodded slightly in disappointment. She really hoped Lin Dong would ask her for help, but aside from sending someone to ask her to assist a county magistrate a few months ago, he hadn’t contacted her since.

After greeting the queen consort and Li Xun, Lin Dong went straight to Ma Chun’s door and knocked.

Ma Chun opened the door and, seeing it was Lin Dong, hurriedly invited him in.

Without wasting time, Lin Dong took Ma Chun to the back yard to check out the storage room. What was originally only about thirty square meters suddenly became over twenty thousand square meters—a sight that even Yun Lan was surprised by, let alone Ma Chun.

Fortunately, like Yun Lan, Ma Chun, the chief manager of Lin’s Inn, was used to all kinds of extraordinary things. After his initial shock, he quickly returned to normal.

Learning that the storage room could be moved anywhere, Lin Dong planned to use it to attract major merchants. After thinking for a moment, Ma Chun quickly agreed with Lin Dong’s idea.

“This method works. I’ll arrange for people to dig a pit in the front yard tomorrow. As for the inside… how about bringing in some iron plates to divide it into twenty or thirty small warehouses, and adding a few iron doors?”

“Good. You take care of it. Make sure the small warehouses aren’t too small. If there’s not enough space, we can expand them.”

Lin Dong hadn’t considered this aspect before and nodded upon hearing it. Turning them into separate warehouses would indeed increase costs significantly and take time to set up, but large merchants wouldn’t need to assign many people to guard them—just two people at the entrance would suffice. Moreover, the accommodation conditions at Lin Ji Inn could be further enhanced as a result.
“Owner, should we set up such warehouses in other branches? If so, Lin Ji Factory will need to produce more iron plates,” Ma Chun asked.
“Yes. Send someone to investigate how many large merchants pass through the county town, the prefecture town, and the city each year, and calculate how much space is needed. You can handle the iron plate issue as you see fit.”
Lin Dong nodded. A large volume of goods passing along the roads would also bring business to Lin Ji Inn.