Chapter 239: Rising Prices for Spiritual Beasts and Materials

According to Lin Dong’s original plan, the Spiritual Stone Fan should have been used as a powerful tool to attract customers to Lin’s Inn as summer approached. But now, circumstances had changed—there was still no progress on the matters related to the merchant guild. Although the number of guests at the inn had increased, the greater the increase, the greater the losses.
If the Spiritual Stone Fan were introduced at this time, Lin Dong believed the number of tables on the second floor, currently around 150 per day, would surge to nearly 300 in a short time, with each table’s spending also rising sharply. At 150 tables, the loss would already be over 500 taels of silver per day. If it rose to 300 tables, and the wealthy clients spent more to obtain the fan, the daily loss could exceed 2,000 taels, amounting to 60,000 to 70,000 taels per month.
With Lin’s Inn’s financial resources, it might be able to cover such losses for a few months, but after that, they would be forced to beg for survival.
There was no choice. Despite his hatred for Maple Forest Restaurant, Lin Dong had to temporarily give up this rare opportunity to increase customer numbers. Fortunately, it was fine to wait until next summer to introduce the Spiritual Stone Fan. Missing out a year would only mean blaming himself for not being able to deal with Maple Forest Restaurant.
With the Spiritual Stone Fan sorted out, Lin Dong’s next plan was the Spiritual Stone Heater.
In the Great Han Kingdom, whether it was nobles or commoners, there were only two ways to keep warm: heated beds or brazier pits. The difference lay in the fact that ordinary households would dig a large pit under their beds and burn charcoal, while the simplest brazier involved using an iron pot filled with charcoal. Wealthy families used more complex setups with higher-quality charcoal, which provided greater heat, longer-lasting warmth, and reduced unpleasant odors and smoke in the room.
Nobles had even better options—they used charcoal whose volume was equivalent to that of silver. This kind of charcoal was smokeless, odorless, and had sustained heat. For a room of 180 square meters, spending 180 taels of silver per day would keep it warm like spring all day long.
If the Spiritual Stone Heater could be developed successfully, Lin Dong believed that with the spiritual energy contained in one Spiritual Stone, it would be sufficient to keep a 180-square-meter room warm throughout the winter. In other words, it would achieve the same effect with less than one ten-thousandth of the cost used by nobles.
This cost was extremely low even for wealthy families, and even ordinary people could afford to use it for a few hours a day. If the cost of the Spiritual Stone Heater was low enough, it could even be promoted throughout the Great Han Kingdom.

Of course, if it relied solely on blacksmiths for production, the cost could never be reduced. As Lin Dong knew, the cost of a Spirit Stone Fan was extremely high—even just to keep the inn’s blacksmiths satisfied, he offered a monthly wage of a hundred taels of silver. Even for ordinary blacksmiths, the cost was as high as twenty taels of silver, and it would take a dozen or so people over a dozen days to jointly craft one.

To significantly reduce costs, the only solution was to create molds and produce in bulk.

If molds could be made, it would only require pouring molten iron and then assembling it. The only problem was the lack of sufficiently loyal blacksmiths.

The mechanism that extracts the spiritual energy from Spirit Stones and converts it into power could only be crafted by loyal blacksmiths; otherwise, it could easily be replicated by other engineers.

Fortunately, with the dozen or so blacksmiths in the inn, they could still meet the demand for Spirit Stone Fans at Lin’s Inn. As the inn expanded with more branches, among the thugs fully loyal to the inn, aside from selecting managers and guards, there should be enough willing blacksmiths to support Lin’s Inn without issue.

As for whether it could be widely promoted, to protect their own interests, they could only put aside the idea of benefiting the common people for now.

After thinking for a moment in his room, Lin Dong went outside, deciding to talk to Ma Chun.

Anyway, even if it was only implemented within the inn, the cost of Spirit Stone Fans had to be reduced, and creating molds was essential. Since these molds didn’t need to be kept secret and wouldn’t be easily replicated, and given the large demand from the inn alone, it was also necessary to set up a secondary factory elsewhere.

Before reaching the lobby, Ma Chun rushed up to him, looking extremely anxious.

Lin Dong smiled bitterly. Just by seeing his expression, he knew nothing good was coming.

“Boss, something serious has happened,” Ma Chun said eagerly as soon as he saw Lin Dong. “The prices of spiritual beasts and materials have skyrocketed.”

“Why?” Lin Dong asked, frowning.

“Fenglin Restaurant started announcing this early this morning—they’ll buy all available spiritual beasts and materials at double the price in three days,” Ma Chun said through gritted teeth. “Damn it, Fenglin Restaurant is crazy.”

Lin Dong was shocked but then smiled bitterly. Fenglin Restaurant wasn’t crazy—it was dragging other restaurants into disaster.

A plate of Stage One Scaled Strange Beast, even without considering labor costs, ingredients, and wood, cost three hundred wen per plate. Originally, most restaurants priced them at one tael of silver per plate, but now, at half that price, it was only one hundred wen per plate.

The same applied to other spiritual beasts and materials.

In other words, two taels of silver per table of dishes and drinks—even if they’re made from highly profitable rare beasts or other spiritual materials—means that each restaurant loses four taels of silver per table. If the cost of those rare beasts doubles, each dish would result in a loss of 500 wen, meaning a loss of five taels of silver for two taels worth of dishes and drinks. That’s a 1.5 times greater loss compared to before. With Lin Ji Inn currently losing five hundred taels of silver per day, this figure suddenly rises to twelve or thirteen hundred taels. Not long ago, they thought they couldn’t introduce the Spiritual Stone Fan, as more customers would only lead to greater losses. Now, with Fenglin Restaurant doing this, customer numbers haven’t increased, yet losses have doubled. “Owner, what should we do?” Ma Chun asked. Lin Dong hesitated for a moment before asking back, “What do you think we should do?” Ma Chun was stunned, thought carefully, and then said through gritted teeth, “Of course, we should raise the price we pay for spiritual materials and beasts. Without them, we won’t be able to keep operating the second floor of our inn. Fortunately, the guild only needs to finalize the candidate for the head of the Supervision Council, and it’s been over half a month—there aren’t many days left. If we buy spiritual materials and beasts slowly, we won’t lose too much.” Lin Dong remained silent. This was probably the most logical approach for all large restaurants and the only way to keep operating. After considering it for a while, under Ma Chun’s anxious gaze, Lin Dong resolutely said, “Go to Ke Lai Restaurant and tell Boss Wang not to raise the purchase price of spiritual beasts and materials. We’ll still supply them at the original price.” Ma Chun asked in confusion, “Most of Gu Huan Clan’s plantations and farms have only seedlings and young animals. Where will we get spiritual materials and beasts to supply Ke Lai Restaurant?” “Don’t forget our relationship with the Gu Huan Clan,” Lin Dong explained. “Talk to Master Xiao later and ask him to write a letter. You can then rush to Gu Huan Clan through the Transportation Gate and ask the Gu Huan Clan disciples staying in Gu Huan Mountain to help gather spiritual materials and beasts.” Ma Chun slapped his thigh in excitement and said, “That’s right! How could I forget that? The Gu Huan Clan’s disciples aren’t ordinary hunters; they’re strong and can capture spiritual beasts and gather materials faster. In fact, we can even make a big profit from this price increase.” “Don’t think about making a big profit,” Lin Dong waved his hand. “Tell Boss Wang to raise the prices of his dishes and drinks by another 10%, and we’ll do the same.” “Raise prices?” Ma Chun was astonished. “If we do that, our business profits will drop significantly.”

“Keep it at around eighty tables! The prices of spiritual beasts and materials keep rising sharply, and more hunters will head to the mountains. There aren’t many disciples left to guard Gu Huanzong’s place, so this is about the only level of consumption they can sustain.”
Seeing Ma Chun hesitating, Lin Dong said with a wry smile, “Do you really think we’ll get an answer from the merchant guild in just over ten days?”
“Is it more than ten days?” Ma Chun asked, confused.
“Just wait and see! Three to five months would already be fast.” Lin Dong replied nonchalantly.
“Three to five months?” Ma Chun exclaimed. “Does the owner think Fenglin Restaurant is deliberately stalling us, forcing us to keep struggling day by day? But… no matter how wealthy Fenglin Restaurant is, it shouldn’t be able to affect the imperial court, right? After all, this merchant guild also involves other industries, and wealthy merchants from all fields would surely want it to operate as soon as possible.”
“Who knows about those nonsense matters in the court? It might even be related to the struggle for the throne. Anyway, it won’t be resolved in three to five months.” Lin Dong said helplessly.
Ma Chun’s eyes widened in shock. He swallowed hard and said tremblingly, “If it really drags on for three to five months, the prices of spiritual beasts and materials will likely keep rising. By then, it’s possible that each family could lose tens of thousands of silver taels per day!”
Lin Dong nodded slowly.
Ma Chun couldn’t help swallowing again, looking regretful. “If only we had started building our plantations and farms on Gu Huan Mountain a few years earlier. With this opportunity, instead of opening an inn, we could have become wealthy tycoons in Lingnan Commandery in no time.”
Lin Dong was speechless. He was actually glad that Lin’s Inn only had two branches. If he had enough loyal subordinates to open a hundred or eighty branches at once, they would all have gone bankrupt by now. But with more inns, there would also be more small gardens. Conversely, a spirit stone could double the growth time, allowing spiritual materials of level six and above to be produced without loss. If large quantities of high-level spiritual materials were grown, even though places like Qiufeng City couldn’t afford them, transporting them to the capital during the price surge could generate huge profits.
“Owner, if it lasts for three to five months…” Ma Chun said cautiously, “Even if the cost of our spiritual beasts and materials remains unchanged, the daily losses aren’t trivial. Should we not switch the second-floor offerings to ordinary dishes? We can change back once the storm passes?”
Lin Dong shook his head. That way, there would be enough customers to support level six dishes, but once Lin’s Inn faded from the attention of the wealthy patrons, it would take time and cost more effort to bring them back, affecting the inn’s future expansion.

Ma Chun sighed and cursed, “This damned Maple Forest Restaurant—how could they come up with such a thing? Just a piece of information from some worthless guild meeting, and it’s forced us into this situation.”
Lin Dong felt inexplicably irritable and discouraged. He simply couldn’t understand how Emperor Qianwei could allow the guilds to develop into such a state. If Fu Chunjian was right, Emperor Qianwei now had complete control over the court and the country, and he should be focused on being a wise ruler.
If that were the case, the guilds would have been rejected by him from the start, and Lin’s Inn wouldn’t be at the mercy of others. With VIP cards, Vital Beef Balls, Vital Balls, and the Spirit Stone Fan, without the need for guilds, Lin’s Inn could at least be on par with Maple Forest Restaurant right now.