Chapter 566: Obtaining the Withered Grass

“Get lost, get lost…”
Ma Chun was still in a drunken frenzy, kicking his legs as if trying to kick Liu Changman.
Liu Changman felt helpless; encountering someone who would act wildly when drunk, he had no choice. Picking up a stone, he turned to his family members.
“Has anyone of you seen this kind of stone before?”
The family members stepped forward, but none could identify it. To them, any stone picked up seemed identical.
“Could this stone be the one I brought last time?” Seeing no one respond, Liu Changman’s sixth son suddenly remembered something and muttered.
“Fengning, have you seen this stone?” Liu Changman was overjoyed.
“I’m not sure. It was over half a month ago. The academy organized weight-bearing exercises on the back mountain. Each of us was told to pick two bags of stones and tie them to our legs. I asked A Fu to secretly follow me, and when no one was around, I handed him the bags,” Fengning explained. “When we reached the top of the mountain and checked the weight of the bags, I gave them to A Fu. Later, when we returned home, I saw the bags in the carriage. A Fu thought they might still be useful, so he didn’t throw away the stones. I just threw the two bags into the yard. The size of these stones is similar to those I picked back then.”
“Where exactly on the back mountain of your academy did you pick them?” Liu Changman pressed further.
“A hundred meters up the mountain, in the bushes,” Fengning replied.
Ma Chun, still drunk, suddenly perked up, grabbed his fan, and started shouting.
“Drink, drink! I still want to drink…”
“Drink, drink! Someone, bring over some wine!” Liu Changman ordered his servants.
“Drink, drink!” Ma Chun tilted his head and fell asleep.
Liu Changman sighed in relief and shouted, “Take him to his room to rest!”
A few servants immediately stepped forward and carried Ma Chun to the guest room.
“The boss of Xingrong Restaurant having to serve a drunkard like this—if it weren’t for your abilities, I would have beaten you to death already,” Liu Changman spat in Ma Chun’s direction as he left. After pondering for a moment, he ordered, “Someone, go to the city gate overnight. Once the gates open, head straight to the back mountain of Taihua Academy to look for stones. Fengning, you lead the way.”
Fengning and the other servants were unhappy. Waiting all night for a manager was already tough enough, and now they had to go to the city gate right away.

“It’s done! There will be a generous reward!” Liu Changman added. Having already spent so much, including 30,000 taels of silver given to Ma Chun, they certainly could afford this extra amount. All he wanted now was to keep Ma Chun by his side and then slap Manager Lin hard in front of their allies to show off his power.

Hearing about the generous reward, Liu Fengning and the servants immediately became excited and rushed to the stables to prepare a carriage.

At Liu Changman’s command, the crowd quickly dispersed, and silence returned to the Liu household once more.

In the guest room, Ma Chun leaped up abruptly. Extending his mind, he detected two servants still guarding outside the door. After checking, he opened the window and vanished as a shadow.

Outside, the two servants fulfilled their duties loyally, waiting for Ma Chun to wake up so they could serve him, unaware that their “guest” had already left through the window.

Although Ma Chun practiced rarely and only sporadically used spiritual materials to aid his cultivation, he now possessed the strength of the second stage of the Heart Reversal Phase. The speed of someone at this stage was naturally fast—it took only about fifteen minutes to travel from the south to the north of the capital.

As soon as Ma Chun stepped into the courtyard, Lin Dong and Yun Lan, who had been waiting, immediately opened the door.

“Manager, Miss Yun, we have some clues. It’s near a bush behind Taihua Academy in the south of the city,” Ma Chun said with joy.

“Alright, go back first. If we find it, I’ll go to the Liu family to inform you,” Lin Dong instructed.

Ma Chun nodded firmly, turned around, and retraced his path back to the Liu family.

Lin Dong and Yun Lan exchanged a glance and soared into the air together, their speed dozens of times faster than Ma Chun’s.

They reached the south of the city in the blink of an eye. Naturally, Lin Dong and Yun Lan didn’t need to wait for the city gates to open like Liu Fengning and the others. Without any pause, they instantly flew over the dozen-zhang-high city gates and emerged outside the city.

Behind Taihua Academy, the two stopped. Yun Lan extended her mind and searched for a while before turning delighted.

“Withered Grass!” she exclaimed.

“There’s Withered Grass?” Lin Dong was overjoyed.

Yun Lan nodded firmly and vanished in a flash, appearing among a cluster of bushes.

Lin Dong followed closely and saw Yun Lan pushing aside several bushes. At the center was a plant with withered yellow leaves that resembled ordinary grass, but it had significantly more leaves—over twenty in total.

“Is this the Withered Grass?” Lin Dong asked.

Yun Lan nodded and pointed to some stones among the bushes, explaining, “Many of these stones are Pure Stones, and the Withered Grass grows by relying on the nutrients released by them.”
“Then… can we just pick the grass seeds directly?” Lin Dong, seeing many grass seeds, grew even more excited.
“First, collect all the nearby Pure Stones. Once the seeds of the Withered Grass are separated from their parent plant, there must be a large number of Pure Stones around them,” Yun Lan said.
“Okay!”
Lin Dong focused his mind and began checking the surrounding stones for Pure Stones. Half an hour later, there were no more Pure Stones within a hundred meters. In the bundle on the ground, there were over a hundred Pure Stones, including one as big as a football. Just this one stone’s worth of Pure Stones could be used to craft tens of thousands of sixth-tier spiritual artifacts.
“Done!” Yun Lan carefully picked the grass seeds and put them in the bundle, then pulled out the Withered Grass by its roots and stored it in her storage ring.
Lin Dong tied up the bundle, placed it on the mobile counter, and looked at Yun Lan. “Going back?”
“Not back. Are you planning to stay here to watch the sunrise?” Yun Lan laughed.
Lin Dong smiled faintly, turned into a shadow, and shot off. In an instant, the two arrived at the Liu family’s house. Yun Lan focused her mind to locate Ma Chun’s room, then a gentle breeze blew from her palm, causing the paper window to bulge.
A moment later, Ma Chun carefully opened the window and saw Lin Dong and Yun Lan a hundred meters away. He was overjoyed. He knew the Withered Grass had been found.
Leaping out of the window and using his spiritual energy, Ma Chun quickly flew to their side.
“Boss, have you found the Withered Grass?”
“Yes! And there are plenty of seeds too,” Lin Dong nodded.
“Then… shall we go back?” Ma Chun asked.
“The mission is complete, so we’ll go back. Otherwise, do you really want to stay at Xingrong Inn as an administrator?” Lin Dong laughed.
Ma Chun smiled awkwardly.
Lin Dong grabbed Ma Chun’s arm, nodded at Yun Lan, and the two shot off.
“I’m going to refine the Breakthrough Pill!” Back at the inn, Yun Lan called out before heading straight to the alchemy room.
Ma Chun turned to Lin Dong, “Congratulations, boss. You’ll soon become the fourth peak warrior at our inn.”
“Spend more time practicing when you have time. There are only a few materials for the Breakthrough Pill that can’t be grown or bred, but they’ll eventually be available. By then, you too can become a peak warrior,” Lin Dong said with a grin.

Ma Chun nodded eagerly but hesitantly said, “Boss, should we return the silver notes to Xinerong Restaurant?”
“Why return them to Xinerong Restaurant?” Lin Dong asked in confusion.
“We’ve lost both people and money. I’m afraid Liu Changman won’t be able to bear this shock and might resort to some underhanded tactics against the inn,” Ma Chun explained. “It seems a bit excessive for just 30,000 taels of silver.”
“Don’t worry. 30,000 taels of silver isn’t enough to drive Liu Changman that mad. Besides, the share distribution is imminent, so he won’t have theintent to come up with another plan to deal with Lin’s Inn,” Lin Dong said, shaking his head. “If he wants to poach my staff, he has to pay them some silver.”
“That makes sense!” Ma Chun couldn’t help but nod.
“Alright, go back and sleep! Let me know when Emperor Qianwei arrives tomorrow evening,” Lin Dong instructed.
Ma Chun turned and left, while Lin Dong went to the alchemy room to help Yun Lan prepare the Breakthrough Pill.
In the Liu family’s residence, Liu Changman got up early, hardly having time to wash up, and immediately went to the guest room to check if Ma Chun had sobered up.
After asking a few questions to the two servants with dark circles under their eyes and learning that Ma Chun hadn’t moved all night, Liu Changman gave an order before going back to wash up.
By the time he returned, the sky was already showing signs of dawn. Liu Changman waited at the door for a while, but Ma Chun didn’t appear. Instead, a maid came to inform him that breakfast was ready.
Liu Changman hesitated for a moment before pushing open the door.
On the delicate wooden bed, aside from the messy bedding, there was nothing else. Liu Changman was stunned.
“Where is he?”
“He hasn’t come out all night!”
The two servants peeked inside and were also shocked.
“What’s going on? What exactly happened?” Liu Changman roared. “If he hasn’t come out, how could he be missing?”
“Could it be…”
The two servants couldn’t speak. An explanation popped into their minds—someone must have left through the door in the middle of the night.
“Could it be that you slept in lazily and didn’t notice him leave?” Liu Changman demanded.
“Sir! We really didn’t sleep in, I swear!” the servants panicked.
Liu Changman waved his hand and stepped into the room quickly. The dark circles under their eyes were undeniable, and since he had repeatedly warned them the day before, the possibility of them sleeping in was low.
But what other possibility could there be?
After a moment, Liu Changman’s gaze fixed on the open window, his expression turning extremely grim.
Since Ma Chun wasn’t in the room, he wasn’t overly anxious. After all, there were too many reasons, and considering what had happened the previous day, the possibility of him leaving without saying goodbye was extremely low.

It’s different if one can leave by opening a window.
Why leave through a window?
The reasons are greatly reduced. The two most likely possibilities are either being kidnapped or leaving without saying goodbye.
Either way, these are exactly what Liu Changman is most worried about.
“Hurry, get a carriage and head to the north of the city!”
After a long while, Liu Changman started shouting. Thirty thousand taels of silver was just a minor pain for him; what really worried him was losing the horse manager, someone he had been planning to get after over three months.