Chapter 590: Super Ninth-Grade Spiritual Birds

Fifty meters, forty meters, thirty meters…
Less than ten meters away, above thousands of spiritual birds, suddenly over twenty thousand figures leaped down. These figures moved as fast as lightning, like sharp arrows, shooting swiftly toward Lin Dong and the others.
“Kill!”
Lin Dong roared loudly. In the secret room, Wang Liuzhi waved his arm, and the guards of Lin’s Inn rushed upward together, toppling the stone blocks over a meter thick and charging out to fight.
Twenty thousand against eight thousand—when the two sides finally clashed, it wasn’t the larger group that had the advantage. On the contrary, the guards of Lin’s Inn fought like wolves and tigers. Though the members of Tianwei Pavilion were fearless, their superior strength and spiritual weapons made them almost invincible.
In an instant, the backyard and skies of Lin’s Inn were filled with fierce battles. The crowd was so dense that no one could fully use their weapons, nor could anyone unleash their spiritual energy to its limit.
At this moment, an energy shield was the most crucial—only it was not constrained by space, allowing one to give their all.
No one could guarantee they wouldn’t be attacked in such a crowded area, not even the strongest peak warriors. Even the weakest among them were at least at the fifth level of Xin Ni stage, while the guards of Lin’s Inn had all reached the ninth level.
An energy shield at the ninth level of Xin Ni stage could withstand attacks from those at the fifth level for a while. Although Lin’s Inn had slightly more than one-third of the members of Tianwei Pavilion, the outcome clearly favored Lin’s Inn.
At the center of the crowd, Lin Dong and Yun Lan stood back to back, their energy shields intertwining to form an even stronger shield.
With the continuous use of the Sky Control Technique, many enemies and even allies around Lin Dong were trapped. Meanwhile, Yun Lan’s Green Rainbow Sword whistled sharply, targeting the throats of the members of Tianwei Pavilion.
The two complemented each other. Though not the strongest peak warriors, as long as they didn’t encounter extremely powerful ones, they were safe. Even if they did, Lin Dong had enough time to use the inn’s system to kick the opponent out.
It could be said that among all those in Lin’s Inn, Lin Dong and Yun Lan were the safest pair.
Next were Jiang Kui and the other six top chefs of Lin’s Inn. Their coordination was flawless, and they complemented each other even better than Lin Dong and Yun Lan. While others struggled to move freely, they could move unhindered.

Jiang Kui opened the battle with his masterful Lion Roar, stunning a group of enemies with just one roar. Li Xun followed up with a series of sharp needles; no matter the opponent’s strength, one or more members of Tianwei Pavilion would surely fall. Cheng Bao’s Golden Knife and Immortal Art dominated defense, leaving no one able to challenge their might. The three from Yulongling provided support from the sides, ensuring that no enemy could approach within four or five meters of their team.

In a corner of the backyard, Yang Shun crouched on the ground, head in hands, quietly waiting for the battle to decide its outcome. Nearby, Emperor Qianwei paled as he realized just how deep and ruthless Linji Inn’s strength truly was, given the sudden appearance of so many skilled fighters there. Two guards stood silently by the emperor’s side. Clearly, both sides were aware of his identity, yet the fierce battlefield did not reach this area.

Outside Linji Inn, residents fled in panic. The swarm of spirit birds and the loud noises coming from the inn made them feel as if they were in the end of the world. Apart from fleeing aimlessly, they had no other thoughts.

In terms of strength, although Linji Inn had the advantage, it would be extremely difficult to determine a winner in such a short time. This was a highly bizarre battle—each participant, even the weakest, could be deadly outside, but here they were mere pawns who could be killed with a single strike. Yet, there were nearly 30,000 people of such strength here. Just a group of them could sweep through all the sects in the Great Han Kingdom, whether it was Linji Inn or Tianwei Pavilion.

If such strength became known, it would surely cause a massive upheaval. What was even more bizarre was that all this terrifying strength was concentrated within Linji Inn, engaged in a crude battle using spirit techniques, and moreover, the entire battle was confined within Linji Inn’s boundaries.

The battle remained stale, with Tianwei Pavilion seemingly running out of resources, as no reinforcements appeared. After a long period of deadlock, with many casualties among Linji Inn’s guards, Lin Dong suddenly shouted, “Tianpeng Bird!”

In the secret room, one of the remaining guards instantly traveled through a teleportation gate to Linji Inn in the valley.

“Captain, the owner wants you to go over.”

Holding his head high, the guard shouted up at the top of the Tianpeng Bird, which resembled a mountain.

“Let’s go! It’s our turn to fight!”

The thin man stepped on a mechanism beneath his feet, causing the Tianpeng Bird to spread its wings. Like a golden mountain, it suddenly flapped its wings toward the capital city. Whoosh…

With a flap of its wings, the Tianpeng Bird resembled a moving mountain of gold or a flame cutting through the sky, traveling thousands of miles in an instant. After several such flaps, it had already reached above the Lin’s Inn.

Glowing with golden light, the Tianpeng Bird hovering above the inn shone as brightly as the sun. The movement above instantly eased the intensity of the battle, and everyone’s expressions varied.

“Watch carefully! Kill those in black! No one else may be hurt!”

From the pavilion, Thin Bamboo Rod shouted loudly.

Whoosh!

The Tianpeng Bird let out a loud cry that traveled hundreds of miles, shaking the entire capital.

“This… this is…”

Emperor Qianwei stared at the Tianpeng Bird in disbelief. He couldn’t believe such a massive spiritual bird existed in the world. Over 300 meters in size—what an awe-inspiring and domineering sight.

The next moment, the Tianpeng Bird dived downward, flapping its wings fiercely. A golden feather was shot out silently, so fast that no one could track its trajectory. The next second, it pierced the ground in the backyard of the inn.

Upon closer inspection, the feather had penetrated the ground by no less than a hundred meters. Further study would reveal traces of blood near the deep hole formed by the feather—about five meters long and one meter wide. This blood belonged to a human. And that human had already been reduced to flesh pulp a hundred meters underground, at the base of the feather.

That flesh pulp belonged to a powerful warrior at the ninth stage of Heart Reversal.

“Kill!” Thin Bamboo Rod roared again.

The Tianpeng Bird flapped its wings even more vigorously, sending out even more feathers at high speed. Each one penetrated the ground—by several meters, dozens of meters, or even hundreds of meters. Deep within, there must be a member of the Tianwei Pavilion.

No one could withstand the attack of these feathers. Not even the strongest warriors at the ninth stage of Heart Reversal, nor the peak warriors. Even those top-tier peak warriors could only weaken the feathers’ power slightly when they tried to use their bodies to be pulled underground.

Given the overwhelming scale, Lin Dong finally resorted to Lin’s Inn’s last trump card. And this last trump card—the Tianpeng Bird, equipped with the Golden Jade Abacus and having risen from a ninth-tier spiritual bird to a super-ninth-tier one—did not disappoint Lin Dong’s expectations as its ultimate asset.

Once unleashed, the Tianpeng Bird was invincible. Its power and immense presence once again stirred the hearts of the heartless members of the Tianwei Pavilion. Many of them showed unusual expressions, though fleeting, enough to prove the shock the Tianpeng Bird, with its wings spanning over 300 meters, had caused in their hearts.

Each feather could take away a member of the Tianwei Pavilion. With the addition of the feathers-covered Tianpeng Bird, the stalemate of the battle was quickly changed. The situation was no longer in favor of the Linji Inn—it was now in their absolute control. Although it was just two extra words, the situation changed drastically. The chaotic battle, caused by the large number of fighters, saw the Linji Inn’s members gradually gathering together. From groups of three or five, they became groups of thirty-five or fifty-one, and then even larger groups of three to five hundred. The larger the groups, the more organized their attacks and defenses became, and a sweeping momentum gradually took shape.

In a corner of the backyard, Yang Shun beamed with joy. Emperor Qianwei, on the other hand, kept his eyes closed, silently praying for a miracle.

“Stop!” Suddenly, a thunderous shout rang out among the crowd. A man in black leaped into the air, using his spiritual energy and the impact of the ground to stay suspended.

Lin Dong was momentarily stunned, but soon understood the meaning of that shout.

“Everyone, retreat!” Soon, Lin Dong also shouted.

The guards of the Linji Inn, who were having fun fighting, reluctantly stopped and retreated together.

Soon, a standoff formed in the backyard between the two sides. However, compared to before when the entire backyard was crowded and many people didn’t even have a place to stand, having to hover by stepping on others’ heads, things had changed significantly. Both sides now had a place to stand in the backyard, and there was even a gap of over ten meters between them.

Dead bodies lay scattered everywhere—some belonging to the Linji Inn’s guards, but mostly to the men in black.

The man in black who had shouted turned his gaze toward Lin Dong, gathered his spiritual energy in his throat, and declared, “If we reconcile, the Tianwei Pavilion will not offend you for a hundred years. If we fight again, the Tianwei Pavilion will unite its forces and fight to the death.”

“Reconcile!” Lin Dong’s reply was decisive. The Tianwei Pavilion had rules regarding reconciliation, which was the best outcome he expected. Otherwise, not only would the guards suffer more losses, but if Emperor Qianwei refused to compromise, the inn’s business would also be disrupted for a long time.

As for whether the man in black was using a delaying tactic, Lin Dong didn’t care at all. The longer it took, the stronger the Linji Inn would become. In a few years, once the inn’s small garden gathered all the materials needed for breakthrough pills, it would have a number of peak warriors several times greater than the total number of peak warriors in the entire history of the Great Han Nation. With such strength, destroying the entire continent wouldn’t be difficult.

“Retreat!” The man in black was equally decisive. With a wave of his hand, over ten thousand members of Tianwei Pavilion turned into shadows and vanished instantly into the vast darkness. If not for the piles of corpses, it would seem as though nothing had happened at all.
“We’ve lost… Tianwei Pavilion has been defeated…” Old Ding murmured to himself. After a moment, he suddenly turned to Lin Dong and said, “Why not destroy Tianwei Pavilion? If we do, Lin’s Inn will become the new ruler, and all rules will be set by Lin’s Inn.”
“Killing a thousand enemies costs us eight hundred. There’s no need to risk everything. In a few years, once we have enough strength, we can strike at Tianwei Pavilion’s stronghold and bring all the spiritual beasts and materials to Lin’s Inn.”
Lin Dong slowly shook his head, his gaze passing over countless heads to fall on Emperor Qianwei, who was trembling slightly in the corner.