Chapter 585: Night Attack on Lin’s Inn

“Make way! Make way!”
Ma Chun led the way, shouting continuously. His voice only accelerated the local officials’ rush toward Lin Dong.
By the time they reached the middle of the crowd, Lin Dong and Ma Chun found themselves surrounded by over twenty officials, who pressed forward one after another.
Seeing someone charging at him with chest puffed out and arms waving, Lin Dong neither dodged nor avoided, letting the official’s chest crash into his arm.
Suddenly swallowing the pill in his mouth, the energy barrier on his chest vanished. The official gritted his teeth and pushed forward.
With a muffled thud, the official’s eyes bulged, his pupils dilated, and his body collapsed weakly to the ground.
“Someone’s been knocked unconscious. Ma Chun, take them to the back yard,” Lin Dong called out loudly.
Ma Chun immediately turned, grabbed the dead official, and used his spiritual energy to rush them to the back yard.
The officials still pressing toward Lin Dong were overjoyed and stepped back. The task was complete; there was no need for them to risk their lives. Otherwise, too many deaths might arouse suspicion in Lin’s Inn and prompt them to take precautions.
Of course, they were merely spared death. Back home, they still faced certain doom. To prevent anyone from harboring hopes, Emperor Qianwei hadn’t deceived them—he had made it clear that all of them were doomed. But as long as they completed the task, their families would be spared, and the embezzled money they had stolen over the years wouldn’t be recovered. The one killed by Lin Dong’s attack might even receive a generous reward for his family.
Failure to complete the task meant execution for the entire family.
Lin Dong made his way to the scene. The officials had already completed their task and naturally wouldn’t resist. With his mediation, they quickly backed down and left Lin’s Inn.
The farce dissipated quickly. The first floor of Lin’s Inn’s main hall resumed its lively atmosphere of drinking and eating.
No one knew that a death had occurred during this farce. Moreover, it was part of a significant conspiracy. Unsurprisingly, this conspiracy was devised by Emperor Qianwei.
After resolving the farce, Lin Dong returned to the back yard.
In the yard, the dead official lay discarded on the ground by Ma Chun, who was sitting on a stone bench waiting for Lin Dong’s return.
“Owner, what should we do with this man?” Ma Chun quickly stood up when he saw Lin Dong return.
“Find a sack and throw him in a mass grave!” Lin Dong didn’t even glance at the official.

“Cheap trick—even on his death, he can still bring in some money for his family.” Ma Chun kicked the local official, nodded, and asked, “What about defense…?”
“Send orders for all guards who have reached the ninth level of Heart Reversal to gather at the Gorge Inn and be ready to provide support at any time,” Lin Dong replied without hesitation. “Also, send someone to the Gu Huan Sect to see if they can find Master Xiao, who takes Tian Hao on travels. If they can, have him bring Tian Hao back as soon as possible. Make sure to prepare some high-grade cultivation materials for the messenger to take; once Tian Hao is found, have him start using them immediately.”
“Boss, Tian Hao is still young. Why pull him into this?” Ma Chun asked in confusion. “Right now, we already have ten peak-level fighters in our inn. By the time Tian Wei Pavilion takes action, we should be able to use up all the Breakthrough Pills, meaning a total of twenty-eight peak-level fighters. There are even five or six hundred fighters at the ninth level of Heart Reversal—there’s no need to worry about not having enough strength to deal with Tian Wei Pavilion.”
Lin Dong shook his head smilingly. “One more fighter means one more layer of security. You weren’t here last time Tian Hao returned; his intensity was much greater than yours.”
“Alright, I’ll arrange it right away.” Ma Chun didn’t say anything more and headed straight to the delivery door in the storage room.
An invisible battle was unfolding.
While Lin Dong was following his plan, Emperor Qian Wei was also acting according to his own plan. As soon as the local officials left Lin’s Inn, someone went to the Military Testing Institute to file a complaint, accusing Lin Dong, the inn owner, of killing an official.
Normally, the Military Testing Institute wouldn’t take such cases directly; they would only get involved if the local officials discovered it was a martial artist’s doing. But this time was different—the complainant was Emperor Qian Wei’s chief eunuch, Yang Gonggong.
And Yang Gonggong represented Emperor Qian Wei himself.
Emperor Qian Wei held far more power than the local authorities; even Tian Wei Pavilion couldn’t ignore him, let alone the Military Testing Institute.
Immediately, the Military Testing Institute reported the matter to Tian Wei Pavilion. Tian Wei Pavilion then sent scouts to investigate right away. Naturally, they found nothing. The killed local official had already been thrown into a mass grave by Ma Chun.
Of course, although it seemed there was no clue, Tian Wei Pavilion still had ways to continue the investigation. First, they traced back the guests who were at Lin’s Inn that day, then tried to figure out what had happened.
After more than ten days, Tian Wei Pavilion had learned quite a bit about what had occurred, and their spies also found the local official’s body in the mass grave.

With Tianwei Pavilion’s capabilities, it was not difficult to investigate the cause of the local official’s death. Based on the circumstances at the time, it was quickly determined that the entire incident was a trap, orchestrated by Emperor Qianwei. According to Tianwei Pavilion’s rules, setting a trap to kill officials of rank seven or above meant the same as committing the crime oneself, even if one did not act directly. But since the mastermind was Emperor Qianwei, the situation was different. In any case, Tianwei Pavilion could not hold Emperor Qianwei accountable. In name, their top priority was to protect him and secretly eliminate threats for him. Just because the mastermind was not punished did not mean Lin Dong, who had taken direct action, could be spared. After learning from Emperor Qianwei that Lin Dong had a master who was a peak-level expert, Tianwei Pavilion sent scouts that very day to assess the strength of Lin’s Inn. As it turned out, there was not just one peak-level expert inside Lin’s Inn, but four. With four peak-level experts working together, even a slight mistake could lead to someone escaping, causing turmoil throughout the Great Han Nation. Naturally, Tianwei Pavilion would not act rashly; instead, they mobilized their forces, dispatching top experts from various places to the capital. By the time this happened, more than two months had passed. One early morning in March, after thorough preparations and ensuring everything was in order, Lin’s Inn faced its biggest invasion ever. Countless experts rushed in, and the alarm sounds rang nonstop in Lin Dong’s ears. In fact, there was no need for the inn’s alarm system—Tianwei Pavilion’s members had not hidden their presence and appeared right at Lin Dong’s door. With a creak, all four doors opened simultaneously. Lin Dong, Yun Lan, Old Ding, and Feng Yue stepped out slowly. Facing the enemies just twenty-odd meters ahead, and having been prepared for this, they remained calm despite being somewhat surprised that Tianwei Pavilion had sent so many peak-level experts at once. Then, the doors opened again, and Jiang Kui, Cheng Bao, Qiao Tianhao, and others stepped out as well. “Lin Dong, do you admit to recklessly killing a fifth-rank prefect?” The leader, dressed in black and masked, had empty, heartless eyes. Lin Dong nodded slowly. “Are you enemies or friends?” The pavilion master glanced at Yun Lan and the others. “Enemies!” Yun Lan replied in a low voice. The masked man said nothing more. With a wave of his right arm, he ordered coldly, “Kill them!” Behind him, a hundred members of Tianwei Pavilion leaped out at once. All of these members were the true strength of Tianwei Pavilion—ten of them were peak-level experts, while the rest were all at the fifth level of the Heart Reversal stage. “With just this few people, you still dare to cause trouble at my Lin’s Inn!”

Lin Dong sneered coldly as his spiritual energy surged forth, flowing rapidly through his meridians in the manner characteristic of the Yu Tian Realm. In an instant, the world suddenly brightened—vast and overwhelming spiritual energy, enough to astonish even the strongest warriors, rushed toward Lin Dong. In just a moment, over a hundred members of the Tian Wei Pavilion froze mid-motion; he had controlled them all with a single breath. Controlling ten peak-level warriors and nearly a hundred warriors at the fifth stage of Xin Ni phase with one move—such power was enough to shock anyone. Yet, the members of the Tian Wei Pavilion were not ordinary people. They had no emotions of their own, no thoughts of their own; they were merely tools. Tools, of course, wouldn’t care how strong their enemies were. The ten peak-level warriors and nearly a hundred warriors at the fifth stage of Xin Ni phase combined their efforts, unleashing massive waves of spiritual energy to resist Lin Dong’s control. Although Lin Dong could harness the energy of the world around him, his “container” was still a bit too small. In just a breath, the invisible pressure holding back the Tian Wei Pavilion members began to weaken. Among them, a few particularly powerful peak-level warriors had already broken free from the control of the Yu Tian Realm and rushed at Lin Dong. Old Ding moved silently. As soon as these people sped up, they suddenly stopped again—truly escaping the tiger’s den only to fall into the wolf’s lair. Feng Yue and Yun Lan also moved simultaneously, charging at the peak-level warriors temporarily under Old Ding’s control. Jiang Kui, Cheng Bao, Qiao Tianhao, and the others also rushed forward, but they headed straight for the other members of the Tian Wei Pavilion who were still clashing with Lin Dong. Thud! On the stairs of the dormitory building, Emperor Qian Wei lost his balance, stepped on empty air, and fell. Fortunately, he was already halfway down, with only five or six steps left. Though the fall caused him intense pain and made him cry out, it didn’t result in serious injury. “Your Majesty!” On the stairs, Yang Shun regained consciousness and quickly rushed down to help Emperor Qian Wei up. Glancing at Yang Shun coldly, Emperor Qian Wei endured the pain and continued toward the next stairway. Yang Shun didn’t dare to worry about the current situation at Lin’s Inn anymore. He focused his attention, caught up to Emperor Qian Wei, and helped him descend slowly. Emperor Qian Wei remained silent. Not only was Yang Shun distracted by worrying about the battle at Lin’s Inn, but he too was concerned—otherwise, he wouldn’t have lost his balance while going down the stairs. Of course, their concerns were different. Yang Shun was worried whether Lin’s Inn could withstand the attack from the Tian Wei Pavilion, while Emperor Qian Wei was concerned whether the Tian Wei Pavilion could wipe out Lin’s Inn completely.

If it can’t be caught all at once, not only will there be lingering problems, but it might also be a complete waste of effort, with the colorful bed being carried out of the encirclement.