Chapter 242: Loyalty at 90%

Liu Bai Jing Tai stayed at the inn for four or five days before Lin Dong’s life gradually returned to normal.
After nearly a month since Xu Chunfen and her daughter had taken a break, Lin Dong finally arrived with the already drawn designs for a spirit stone heater.
A spirit stone fan converts the spiritual energy in spirit stones into kinetic energy—a feat Peng Qiao had already achieved. Thus, researching the spirit stone fan merely involved figuring out how to apply that kinetic energy in various ways.
A spirit stone heater, however, was different. To develop one, the first step was to figure out how to convert the spiritual energy in spirit stones into heat energy, which was an extremely complex task.
Initially, Lin Dong didn’t know how to explain this to Peng Qiao. Fortunately, Peng Qiao had an innate sensitivity to such things. Although the example he gave was a spiritual technique where warriors used spiritual power to generate heat, which was fundamentally different from converting spiritual energy into heat, Peng Qiao understood his meaning and even inferred that spiritual energy could be used to produce cold air.
This idea went beyond Lin Dong’s knowledge, but it was worth trying. With heating and cooling, it might even lead to the invention of an air conditioner. If the cooling effect was strong enough, it could even function as a refrigerator.
Of course, an air conditioner and a spirit stone fan were somewhat overlapping, so they could be put on hold for now. It was sufficient to develop the spirit stone heater first. Once the spirit stone fan and heater became popular, the spirit stone air conditioner could be introduced, causing another wave of excitement.
When asked about the timeline, Xu Chunfen’s estimate left Lin Dong speechless—two years, just for the spirit stone heater. For the air conditioner, she estimated only half a year, assuming the heater was already developed.
Given Xu Chunfen’s habit of exaggerating timelines by half, it would likely take a year to develop the heater, assuming Peng Qiao could indeed convert spiritual energy into heat energy.
There was nothing to do. Lin Dong had countless things to research, but rushing things wouldn’t help. If Xu Chunfen and Peng Qiao became anxious, it would only add to their stress.
There was no choice but to wait patiently.
Outside the room, in the courtyard, Yun Lan was playing with a silver rabbit by the stone table. Sensing Lin Dong’s arrival, she didn’t look up but quietly placed her blue sword on the table.
Lin Dong grinned, took a bench from the mobile cabinet, and placed it across his chest.
Suddenly, the blue sword drew swiftly from its sheath, trailing a long blue light as it shot toward Lin Dong’s throat. Its speed, though slightly slower than Yun Lan’s true strength, was still comparable to an arrow fired from a crossbow.

Without hesitation, Lin Dong suddenly raised the bench in his hand and swung it at Blue Sword.
Thwack!
Blue Sword struck the bench with force comparable to that of a crossbow arrow, leaving a long slit in it before being swiftly withdrawn and spinning toward Lin Dong’s back.
Lin Dong’s mind went blank as his focus scattered. Just as Blue Sword sliced toward the back of his neck, he suddenly crouched and slammed the bench upward.
Bang!
Like a heavy hammer, the top of the bench hit the blade of Blue Sword, producing a muffled sound upon contact.
Blue Sword retreated slightly, then spun gracefully and swept at Lin Dong’s legs.
With a twist of his legs, Lin Dong shot upward like a cannonball.
Seeing Blue Sword spin again with its tip pointing skyward, Lin Dong gritted his teeth, threw the bench, and then used his right hand to guide it toward Blue Sword.
Like a serpent, Blue Sword swiveled its tip just as the two objects were about to collide again, sliding past the bench silently.
Stunned, Lin Dong used his right hand to steer the bench back in pursuit, while another bench appeared in his left hand, which he threw as well.
Under the dual assault of the benches, Blue Sword, with no way to avoid them, spun and flew to the right.
“Thinking of running? That’s not so easy.”
Lin Dong snarled. Twisting his waist, he landed steadily and channeled more spiritual energy into his arms. The two benches, attacking from both sides, moved forward together at a speed even greater than Blue Sword’s.
As Blue Sword’s tip rose, Lin Dong felt relieved. He knew Yun Lan’s Sky Sword Technique—its speed was superior to that of the Air Control realm, but controlling the spiritual sword wasn’t as free as flying in the Air Control realm; it could only move in the direction the tip pointed.
Without hesitation, Lin Dong moved his palms slightly, causing the two benches to rise quickly and squeeze toward the center.
Yun Lan smiled leisurely, but her rapidly rising sword tip suddenly dropped.
Lin Dong was shocked. His palms instinctively dropped slightly as well, causing the two benches to move downward instead.
Less than a meter from the benches on either side, the sword tip stopped descending and rose upward. With one movement affecting the whole, the two benches rose as well.
Descend, rise, descend, rise, descend, rise…

In the blink of an eye, the tip of the sword changed rapidly, forcing the two benches to move as well. As the distance between them shrank to just over ten centimeters, Lin Dong, who had been gritting his teeth and concentrating hard to control the benches to block the sword, finally couldn’t hold back—his hands trembled slightly, causing the benches to shift a bit, and the sword tip quickly slipped through the gap.

“Less than fifteen minutes, and already unable to control the benches? It seems a bit worse than yesterday…” Yun Lan said casually.

Lin Dong wished he could smash the two benches to pieces with a slap. Helplessly, he had to control them again to block the blue sword.

“Yesterday, I didn’t get you this close. The distance was too small; a moment of carelessness led to a mistake.”

“By your standards, is that considered progress?” Yun Lan asked with a smile.

Lin Dong grinned. Of course. Just as he was about to reply, the blue sword shot toward his throat. He abandoned the bench controlled by his right hand, used the other to chase after it, and pulled out a new bench to block it.

Thud!

The blue sword pierced the bench and flew back quickly.

Lin Dong narrowed his eyes, focusing on the tip of the sword, ready to intercept its path with a bench. Suddenly, a crisp sound rang in his ears.

Ding: Congratulations! Your experience points in the Inn System have reached full capacity. You’ve received an upgrade task: “Loyalty at 90%.”

Lin Dong froze. An upgrade task? Just as he planned to check the Inn System for the task, a cool sensation spread across his neck.

Looking down, he was speechless—the blue sword hovered less than three centimeters from his throat. A careless bump, given the sword’s sharpness, would surely sever his head from his body.

“Um…” Lin Dong warned softly, “Don’t get too close. If I lose control accidentally, wouldn’t that be a pointless death?”

The blue sword turned into a streak of blue light and returned to its sheath. Yun Lan said calmly, “No matter what suddenly crossed your mind or what earth-shattering news you heard, you must not get distracted when fighting an enemy. Otherwise, you would have been killed already.”

Lin Dong smiled bitterly. “That’s easy to say. In real situations, it’s not that simple to just ignore things.”

“Practice more, and you can do it,” Yun Lan said slowly. “With enough composure, even the biggest challenges can be handled calmly. In fact, your composure is already quite good; what’s lacking is practice.”

“Can this kind of thing be trained?” Lin Dong asked in surprise.

Yun Lan nodded. “There are many methods. Smaller sects usually have their disciples engage in fights that create loud noises, affecting their mental clarity. Normally, they are made to train in difficult conditions, so over time, they won’t panic when faced with challenges. Larger sects, if they have the means, can have their disciples practice techniques and cultivate within spiritual arrays; under various illusions, their mental strength can also be enhanced.”

Lin Dong was stunned. He glanced at Yun Lan cautiously, unsure whether to speak.

“Go handle it if there’s anything to do!” Yun Lan said lightly. “I’ve asked Ma Chun to help gather the materials for the spiritual array. You don’t need to worry for now.”

Lin Dong was speechless. No wonder Xiao Tianchi had come up with so many tricks when Tianhao first joined the sect—it was because he was learning from the methods used by larger sects to train their disciples.

Hard work in cultivation was necessary, but abusing oneself went too far. Lin Dong turned and headed to the front courtyard, conflicted about whether he was going against Yun Lan’s good intentions by delaying Ma Chun’s task of gathering the materials for the spiritual array for ten or eight years.

When he arrived at the front courtyard, still undecided, he looked around blankly before remembering why he had come.

A loyalty level of 90 undoubtedly meant making the inn staff and chefs’ loyalty reach 90 or above. For this task, Lin Dong could only sigh.

His plan to complete one task in half a year was basically ruined. A few days ago, Lin Dong had checked the attributes of the staff and chefs at Lin Ji Inn in Xilan City and Qiufeng City. Aside from Qiao Tianhao, whose loyalty was just 80, everyone else had a loyalty level above 90.

Opening the inn system, Lin Dong checked the staff and chefs again. Even the lowest loyalty level was 95.

Looking at the branch stores, compared to Lin Ji Inn in Xilan City, Lin Ji Inn in Qiufeng City had started recruiting staff about a year later, but…

Lin Dong was stunned. Aside from Qiao Tianhao at 83, there was also a staff member named Liu Hua with only 87.

Just a few days ago, his loyalty level had dropped by more than three points?

Lin Dong frowned slightly and checked the attributes of the other staff and chefs more carefully. The lowest was 91, with little change from a few days ago.

Tapping his head, Lin Dong relaxed. Since there was no significant change among the staff and chefs, it was undoubtedly not related to the inn but rather to this staff member named Liu Hua. Perhaps Liu Hua had done something wrong and been scolded by Ma Chun, feeling resentful, which caused his loyalty level to drop slightly.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t drop by more than three points in just a few days. Similarly, if there were ulterior motives toward the inn, it wouldn’t drop by three or four points but rather by over ten at once. Even if someone were bribed to do something harmful to the inn, even if they hesitated and hadn’t made up their mind yet, their loyalty should still drop significantly.
Although he preferred the difficulty of the upgrade tasks to be higher, since he had already set out, there was no reason to delay.
In less than two months, Qiao Tianhao’s loyalty increased from in the thirties to eighty-three. With another Blue Fruit and a beating, reaching ninety wouldn’t be difficult.
Liu Hua was just a worker, and no matter what caused his loyalty to drop, it should be easier for him to increase it compared to Qiao Tianhao.
Lin Dong helplessly realized that three days were enough.