Chapter 10: Upgrade Task

Early the next morning, while Lin Dong was still practicing, Bai Jingtai brought over spirit stones and silver. Although Bai Jingtai was not a warrior, he understood that spirit arrays capable of accelerating cultivation speed were extraordinary, and their setup definitely required no witnesses. After handing the spirit stones and silver to Lin Dong without saying a word, he left the courtyard with Bai Qi, who still had the five-clawed golden mark on her left cheek and a hostile expression when looking at Lin Dong.

Lin Dong symbolically walked around Bai Qi’s room before returning to the courtyard. He then went to the kitchen to eat something quickly before rushing back to his room. The spirit stones brought by Bai Jingtai were all standard in size, about five centimeters long and wide, milky white like milk, and smooth and warm to the touch. Leaving one behind, Lin Dong placed the remaining spirit stones and silver into the mobile counter. He then sat cross-legged, lifted the hem of his robe, and placed the spirit stones against his dantian. After that, he cleared his mind and controlled the spiritual energy within his dantian to flow into his meridians.

Immediately afterward, a warm current followed the spiritual energy from his lower abdomen dantian, slowly circulating through his meridians before returning to the dantian after a week. Lin Dong could clearly feel that the growth of his spiritual energy had doubled compared to when he didn’t place the spirit stones there. This meant that with the help of the spirit stones, his cultivation speed had doubled as well.

Suppressing his joy, Lin Dong used his mind to guide the spiritual energy back into his dantian. It took thirty-six cycles before he stopped. When he took out the spirit stones, they had shrunk slightly.

“Great stuff! But it costs a fortune!”
Lin Dong clicked his tongue. Though these were only first-tier spirit stones, and only a small portion was used in thirty-six cycles, once his strength improved to the later stage of the Lingdong period, one spirit stone would already be sufficient for thirty-six cycles. That meant at least two spirit stones per day, or two taels of silver. For the small Lin’s Inn, after deducting various expenses, its daily income was only around a hundred coins.

And this was just the consumption during the later stage of the Lingdong period. In the future, the sects controlling the sources of spirit stones would only allow their carefully trained disciples to use them as cultivation aids. In the secular world, having one seventh- or eighth-tier spirit stone per day was something only the heirs of major families could afford.

To enable a double cultivation bonus in a guest room, one spirit stone was needed per day. The Gu Huan Sect only accepted disciples for about forty days, so forty spirit stones would be enough. The extra sixty could sustain the inn until it reached level 2, ensuring steady income. Naturally, Lin Dong didn’t worry about running out of spirit stones for cultivation in the short term. After dinner, he went out for a walk before returning to his room to practice.

At noon the next day, Lin Dong finally heard good news—the Liu family hadn’t given in, and Bai Jingtai’s negotiations had completely failed. The only hope now lay in the spirit array. Bai Jingtai and his daughter stayed in the inn every day, and Lin Dong didn’t want to just go through the motions, so he simply practiced in Bai Qi’s room for several hours at a time. With a man occupying the room—and a man who was also a swindler—Bai Qi naturally didn’t show any kindness. Fortunately, having experienced a slap before, she dared not be rude anymore.

Ding: Congratulations! Your inn’s experience value has reached full capacity. You’ve obtained an upgrade task: “Recruit an elite employee.”

While practicing in Bai Qi’s room, a sudden system notification made Lin Dong quickly withdraw the spiritual energy from his meridians and jump up. Opening the inn system, he saw that his experience value had reached 100%. At the bottom of the page, a new upgrade task appeared:

Recruit an elite employee: Find someone with all attributes above 80 and invite them to join the inn.

“I’m finally going to level up to 2!”

Lin Dong let out a long sigh and swung his right fist several times to calm himself down. He then tapped his head. Recruiting someone with the qualifications of an elite employee wasn’t exactly difficult—after all, the recruitment notices had been up for a long time with no success—yet the reason was the salary. Two taels of silver was indeed twice as much as other small inns and restaurants, but it still wasn’t enough to attract people to work there. Raising the salary was undoubtedly the best way to recruit elite employees in the short term. Ten taels of silver should make applicants flock to apply. But… with more applicants, there would also need to be more people to screen them. Otherwise, if everyone could become an employee, no amount of silver would be enough to pay them.

The inn currently had only eight employees, including Wang Liuzhi. Even if they didn’t do much business, they were already struggling.

Never mind. In this world, leveling up is the most important thing!

Lin Dong opened the door and strode downstairs. At the bottom of the stairs, he came up with another idea: poaching employees!

There were hundreds of shops in Xilan City. Shop owners surely wouldn’t just pick the cheapest or simplest candidates when hiring employees. Maybe they could find one or two employees with all attributes above 80. Although this was somewhat unscrupulous, Lin Dong believed that paying a dozen or twenty taels of silver would make those shop owners happily hand over their employees.

By afternoon, it was well past lunchtime, and dinner was still a long way off. So, despite the advantage of the martial arts competition, there were only two tables of customers in the hall. The employees were idly swatting flies, which saved Lin Dong the time of having to look for people.

Wang Liuzhi was called over, and Lin Dong instructed, “Xiao Liu, the five of you split up and go around all the streets in Xilan City. Look for anyone with excellent communication skills and quick hands. If you find such people, write them down.”
“In that case, we won’t be able to return until tomorrow. There are only three workers in the inn…”
“It’s fine. I’ll help here. If it gets too busy, I’ll just earn less money,” Lin Dong said, shaking his head.
“Alright, I’m going now!” Wang Liuzhi didn’t ask further and immediately called Liu Hao and the others to leave.
Sitting at the counter, Lin Dong was thinking about whether, after upgrading the inn, he should buy the land of a few nearby shops to rebuild the inn or purchase the houses behind the courtyard, turn those houses into part of the courtyard, and then build another building there. At the door, a little girl in a floral dress rushed in.
Lin Dong took a closer look and stood up immediately—it was Lin Shuang.
“Huh… Dad, why have you changed workers again?”
“We haven’t changed them; we’ve just added a few,” Lin Dong replied with a smile.
“Oh!” Lin Shuang didn’t say much more and rushed into the back courtyard.
Lin Dong wondered what was wrong with the girl. Just as he wanted to follow her, three more people entered the door. The first two were clearly the woman in white and the man with the folding fan he had seen before, with the page boy following behind.
The woman in white was holding a silver-white rabbit. The rabbit was clearly injured, with a blood-stained white cloth tied around its abdomen.
Lin Dong was stunned for a moment. Seeing that the workers had already gone to greet them, he didn’t bother to think about why these people, who had only stopped by the inn last time, happened to pass by again. He strode to the back door and saw Lin Shuang running over with a bowl of water from afar.
“Girl, what are you busy with?” Lin Dong asked irritably.
“I’m bringing water for the little rabbit!” Lin Shuang replied, slightly out of breath. She made a face at Lin Dong with her rosy cheeks and went around him into the main hall.
A little rabbit?
Lin Dong was momentarily puzzled before realizing that the girl must have encountered the woman in white and the others on the road. Seeing the cute but injured silver rabbit, she volunteered to go back to the inn first to prepare water for it.
“Big sister, why isn’t the little rabbit drinking water?”
When Lin Dong entered the main hall, Lin Shuang was looking up at Yun Lan.
Yun Lan shook her head. “The silver rabbit is seriously injured. It might not want to drink water.”
“Then I’ll go call Wang Da from the east side of the street. He’s a vet.”
“What’s a vet good for? This is a spiritual beast!” Liu Shun, the page boy, spoke disdainfully. “Miss Yun Lan, don’t worry. My young master knows everything—he’ll definitely find a way to cure the silver rabbit.”

“The veterinarians are really useless!” Yun Lan shook her head gently, not treating Lin Shuang’s small size as an excuse to be perfunctory. “The Silver Rabbit’s spiritual pill is damaged, and only advanced alchemists can fix it. There might be one or two such alchemists in Qiufeng City, but none in Xilan City. The Silver Rabbit can’t wait that long.”
“What should we do then?” Lin Shuang scratched her head, scanning the surroundings anxiously. When she spotted Lin Dong, her face lit up, and her big, watery eyes blinked rapidly. “Dad, please save the little rabbit!”
Compared to her current father, her ex-husband was even more indulgent, almost always satisfying her requests. Although Lin Dong had no intention of spoiling Lin Shuang, he wouldn’t refuse helping such a small animal either. Nodding, he turned to Yun Lan and asked, “Can this Silver Rabbit hold out for two to three days…”
Before he could finish speaking, Fu Zizhou slowly said, “I once saw a prescription called Baiye Dan in the Wenshuo Pavilion in the palace. Its effect is exactly to repair damaged spiritual beasts’ pills. Maybe we can give it a try.”
Yun Lan glanced at Lin Dong, nodded slightly, then turned to Fu Zizhou. “What materials are needed?”
“I need to think…” Fu Zizhou smiled apologetically. “I only glanced at the books in the Wenshuo Pavilion back then, and the prescription was just a quick look. Plus, there are hundreds of kinds of spiritual leaves involved, and it was several years ago. I need some time to recall everything.”
Hundreds of kinds of spiritual leaves, just a quick glance years ago, and he can remember it with a little thought. Damn, this is like having a camera!
Lin Dong clicked his tongue. Compared to the book boy behind him, this guy was much more subtle when boasting.