Chapter 588: The Spiritual Array Net

Excluding Lin’s Inn, the sky above was deep and silent. Inside Lin’s Inn, however, the sky was filled with swirling clouds and sudden thunderstorms. The atmosphere was heavy and oppressive, and even Emperor Qianwei and Yang Shun, who couldn’t sense any abnormalities in the sky, could tell this was an extremely unusual situation.
The small black dot grew larger and larger until even Emperor Qianwei and Yang Shun could see it clearly. Then, a shimmering net was silently cast down. Its momentum seemed calm and untroubled, yet its speed was lightning-fast, descending thousands of meters in an instant.
“Bad! It’s a spiritual array!” Yun Lan suddenly exclaimed. The place glowing like stars was made up of spiritual stones. The light emitted by the entire net came from countless threads woven from powdered spiritual stones.
Elder Ding and Feng Yue grew even more solemn. The net covered the entire Lin’s Inn at an astonishing speed, clearly with someone using spiritual energy to accelerate its descent. With their strength, escaping the net’s coverage wasn’t difficult. But the real challenge was that they couldn’t bring the inn’s staff and guests out.
Tianwei Pavilion was betting on whether they would ignore the inn’s staff and guests. If they won, Lin’s Inn would be trapped by this descending spiritual array, allowing them to achieve twice the result with half the effort. If they lost, they wouldn’t suffer any losses.
“Amazing! Truly worthy of Tianwei Pavilion!” Qiao Tianhao exclaimed, clapping his mouth. His expression, however, wasn’t as solemn as Elder Ding and Feng Yue’s—it was filled with excitement.
Looking at the others, their expressions were just as excited as Qiao Tianhao’s. They weren’t like Elder Ding and Feng Yue, who had risen to the ranks of top warriors in just a few years and didn’t harbor deep-seated fear of Tianwei Pavilion.
Using a large net to drop a high-level spiritual array in an instant—such boldness and astonishing tactics only fueled their fighting spirit.
“Kill the person at the array’s core!” When the net was less than a hundred meters away, Lin Dong suddenly roared.
Elder Ding moved instantly, unleashing a surge of spiritual energy. The members of Tianwei Pavilion standing at the core position, descending with the net, were instantly trapped.
The next second, Qinghong Sword in Yun Lan’s hand flew out, aiming straight for their throats.
At the core, the members of Tianwei Pavilion remained calm. With a surge of spiritual energy, their bodies trembled suddenly, and they spat out a mouthful of blood.
Elder Ding stopped abruptly and retreated several steps before stopping.
Cough!

A member of Tianwei Pavilion waved his hand casually, and the Green Rainbow Sword was flung out.
Lin Dong was stunned. Although it seemed that Old Ding had the upper hand, the ability to break free from his restraint in an instant and effortlessly counter Yun Lan’s Sky Sword Technique meant his strength was, even if not as great as Old Ding’s, still far from inferior.
No additional guards were sent to protect the area—only one person was stationed at the center of the formation.
Old Ding and Yun Lan returned empty-handed, and with no obstacles left, the massive net suddenly descended to cover Lin’s Inn, emitting a dull humming sound.
Lin Dong didn’t hesitate. As the spiritual array on the net was about to activate, he immediately activated Lin’s Inn’s full defensive measures.
In the next moment, with a bang, the net bounced back up. It hovered about a meter above Lin’s Inn, forming an inverted iron pot that enclosed the inn in midair.
In the sky, the descending black dots suddenly stopped before accelerating again. They came to a halt only after about a hundred meters. Even Emperor Qianwei and Yang Shun could now see what those black dots were—spiritual birds with wings that could span over ten meters. Thousands of such birds spreading their wings created a canopy high in the sky, blocking out the sun.
Shock filled Emperor Qianwei and Yang Shun’s hearts as they stared in awe, unable to believe what they saw. Especially Emperor Qianwei, who even felt an inexplicable sense of fear toward Tianwei Pavilion.
With such power, they could sweep across the entire Great Han Kingdom. If there were any issues with Tianwei Pavilion’s legacy and its leader resorted to rebellion, overthrowing the Great Han Kingdom would be almost inevitable. Emperor Qianwei had led a life of great influence; a single word of his could shake the world and alter the fortunes of countless families in the Great Han Kingdom. Throughout his life, nothing had ever eluded his control, and his goal had always been to eliminate anything he couldn’t control.
But today, both Lin’s Inn and Tianwei Pavilion made him feel incredibly insignificant.
“Li Xun, you can roast those big birds tonight!” Qiao Tianhao waved his black iron kitchen knife at the birds soaring in the sky, as if trying to skin and strip them all. His passion had been fully ignited.
“Mm!” Li Xun’s gaze shifted toward the front yard. His temperament had improved greatly. Though he still remained reserved and indifferent to most people, he now knew how to respond to his colleagues in the kitchen.

“Don’t worry. Tianwei Pavilion’s target is us. With such a big show, Ma Chun should also give up hiding and try to evacuate the princess and the guests of the inn,” Lin Dong said calmly.
Li Xun nodded slowly, his gaze once again fixed on the sky.
“Judging from the complex layout of the spirit arrays, they must be ninth-level spirit arrays. Once these arrays are fully formed, we’ll surely be at a disadvantage,” Yun Lan suddenly said. “The top priority is either to retreat to Wang Liuzhi or have Wang Liuzhi join us. Otherwise, not only will we face the disadvantages posed by the spirit arrays, but they’ll also cut off our connections on both sides.”
“Wait a bit more!” Lin Dong shook his head. Since things had already escalated, it needed to be resolved once and for all. If they went to join Wang Liuzhi or had him bring people out, once Tianwei Pavilion discovered the true strength of Lin’s Inn, they would likely back down and retreat for now.
Although the first batch of Tianwei Pavilion’s members fought to the death, such losses were not enough to bring them disaster. Lin Dong believed that Tianwei Pavilion had survived for thousands of years, and its members, being devoid of independent thoughts and personalities, must have extremely detailed rules.
In cases like encountering an equally strong enemy, those rules surely had provisions for it. Lin Dong believed these rules would likely call for Tianwei Pavilion to retreat temporarily and gather all available forces before launching a siege.
If that were the case, not only would the difficulty increase, but Lin’s Inn’s business would also have to be suspended for a while. After all, Tianwei Pavilion still had the power of the imperial court at its disposal. Once the situation became public, the common people would undoubtedly not risk opposing the court just for some good food and drink.
Even if Lin’s Inn fought its way into the palace and destroyed the court, it would still be impossible to change the situation in the short term.
They had to defeat Tianwei Pavilion in one go. If Tianwei Pavilion’s rules included provisions for compromising in the face of an invincible force, they could reconcile with them. If not, they would simply destroy Tianwei Pavilion and then reconcile with Emperor Qianwei to settle the current situation at Lin’s Inn.
Only in this way could the business losses at Lin’s Inn be minimized.
That was why Lin Dong didn’t want Tianwei Pavilion to see the true strength of Lin’s Inn in mid-air. As for what Yun Lan was worried about, he wasn’t concerned.
This was Lin’s Inn. Here, even if it were just him, Lin Dong, with his peak strength as a powerful warrior, would be enough to ensure his invincibility.

The defensive capabilities of Lin Ji Inn are no joke. Even if Tianwei Pavilion mobilized all its forces to attack, it would be impossible to deplete its defense value in just a breath. As long as Lin Dong had enough spirit stones, he could ensure that no one could get even half a step inside Lin Ji Inn.

Even if Lin Ji Inn were covered by a ninth-level spirit array, such an array couldn’t stop Lin Dong from using the inn’s system. Whether it was to attack or defend, it could fully guarantee the safety of everyone in Lin Ji Inn. Moreover, even if they faced the disadvantages brought by the ninth-level spirit array, with Yun Lan’s abilities and Lin Dong’s ability to examine the inn’s map to locate their position, they could significantly reduce the time needed to break through the array.

Yun Lan nodded. Lin Dong sounded so confident; she believed he must have some basis for his certainty.

Suddenly, the sky became turbulent again. Thousands of seventh-level spirit birds spread their wings and circled rapidly, forming a hollow cylinder above Lin Ji Inn in an instant.

“What does this mean?”

The diameter of the cylinder was huge, over thirty meters. Qiao Tianhao tilted his head curiously and looked up at the hollow space above. At the very top, there was nothing but emptiness.

“Probably some kind of deadly move!” Old Ding and Feng Yue licked their lips to hide their nervousness.

“In my opinion, Tianwei Pavilion saw me down there and got scared. They deliberately set up this formation to play a game with us, hiding their true intentions behind it.”

Qiao Tianhao kept shaking his head. He picked up a stone from the ground and swung it forcefully.

Whoosh…

The stone flew through the air with a whooshing sound. Without any interference, it rushed forward a thousand meters in an instant, passing through the hollow cylinder formed by the thousands of spirit birds.

“Hit!” Qiao Tianhao raised his eyebrows triumphantly.

Everyone was speechless. At a time like this, it was amazing that Qiao Tianhao still had such a mood. To be honest, even Lin Dong, who controlled the inn’s system, was somewhat nervous. After all, Tianwei Pavilion’s strength had been built up over thousands of years.

Setting up a spirit array using a giant net sounded simple, but it was actually extremely difficult. First, it was necessary to ensure that the lines formed by spirit stone powder wouldn’t be disrupted, preventing the array from failing to activate. Otherwise, destroying just one line would be enough to render the array useless. There were also issues like ensuring that the spirit stone powder adhering to the net wouldn’t get scattered during rapid descent. Without massive financial and material resources, it would be impossible to develop such a system.

The moment thousands of magical birds appeared, Lin Dong realized he had underestimated the depth of Tianwei Pavilion’s strength. Coupled with this giant net, although he remained confident in defeating Tianwei Pavilion, he couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous.
If Lin Dong was like this, then what about the others? To be honest, among everyone present, aside from Qiao Tianhao, who became arrogant after winning once and stopped taking Tianwei Pavilion seriously, only Li Xun, whose emotions were a trillion times weaker than ordinary people’s, was not nervous.