Chapter 28: The Wine King’s Formula

After the news of Master Fu Zizhou and his servant walking naked through the streets caused a stir for three or four days, things gradually settled down. The people of Xilan City shifted their topics of conversation to other matters during meals.

As the wealthy families of Xilan City began to frequent the inn, the five tables that charged one tael of silver per hour for seating saw an increasing number of regular customers. The food was ordinary, but once served, it felt quite satisfying.

One tael of silver wasn’t a small amount—it was enough to order a large meal at Fulai Restaurant or try some low-tier spiritual beasts. Fortunately, there were quite a few wealthy families in Xilan City. With more regular customers, each table could now earn experience points four times a day. Although this was still less than the average of six to seven times per day for the other ten tables, the income still reached over twenty taels of silver per day—equivalent to the profits of those ten tables and twenty guest rooms in two months.

With a monthly income of no less than six hundred taels of silver, it was likely the only inn in all of Xilan City that could match this figure—Lin’s Inn. Yet as the owner, Lin Dong hadn’t set foot in the lobby for six or seven days. In fact, aside from eating three meals a day, he hadn’t even left his room.

Inside his room, Lin Dong sat in lotus position, his face filled with a faint sense of joy. Spiritual energy flowed rapidly through his meridians, circling back to his dantian and instantly filling it completely, which had previously been empty.

All martial artists understood that a full dantian of spiritual energy meant an imminent breakthrough.

Two weeks, three weeks, four weeks… Lin Dong tirelessly controlled the flow of spiritual energy through his meridians. With each return to the dantian, the total amount of spiritual energy increased slightly. After more than twenty weeks, the dantian finally swelled.

Lin Dong’s joy grew even stronger, and his focus sharpened. Like a heavy balloon, the dantian expanded slowly—thirty weeks, forty weeks, fifty weeks… A tiny crack appeared on the surface of the dantian, gradually spreading as more spiritual energy flowed in.

Suddenly, the cracked dantian burst open, leaving only a faint glow surrounding the spiritual energy.

Lin Dong’s body trembled as he abruptly opened his eyes, his face filled with ecstasy.

Second stage of the Spirit Mobility Phase!

“I’ve finally broken through.”

Lin Dong exhaled deeply, stretched, and moved around the room for a while. Once his emotions settled, he sat back in lotus position.

With a thought, the spiritual energy reentered the meridians. As if losing its support, the glow shrank rapidly to one-tenth of its original size. A week later, when the spiritual energy returned to the glow, it did not expand; instead, the spiritual energy continued to compress until it was completely contained within the glow, which had shrunk by more than ten times.

Next was the time to nurture it slowly, waiting for the glow to solidify and expand on its own to form a new dantian.

Lin Dong focused his mind and had just managed to control the compressed spiritual energy to circulate for six rounds when a crisp sound came from beside him: “Congratulations on completing the hidden task ‘Seventh Level of the Lingdong Phase.’ You have received the Reward: Wine King Formula.”

Hidden task ‘Seventh Level of the Lingdong Phase’? Lin Dong was momentarily stunned, but then he understood. Although it was much earlier than expected, it seemed Bai Qi had met the standards for becoming a disciple of the Ancient Huan Sect.

With his eyes slightly closed, Lin Dong silently thought, “Claim the reward.”

Ding: Congratulations on successfully claiming the reward.

As the system prompt sounded, a thin piece of paper appeared in Lin Dong’s palm. On it were countless strange characters written in an elegant script. At first glance, if the paper were replaced with yellow paper, it would resemble talismans drawn by Taoists.

“The Wine King Formula… it must be related to wine, right?”

With another thought, the attributes of the Wine King Formula appeared.

Wine King Formula: Once activated, it doubles the color, aroma, and taste of wine. It consumes 0.1 unit of spiritual energy per 100 jin of wine.

Lin Dong was overjoyed. Not long after breaking through to the second level of the Lingdong Phase, another great fortune had come his way.

With this Wine King Formula, Lin Dong believed the inn’s fifteen dining tables could be fully occupied every day.

Without hesitation, Lin Dong silently summoned his equipment.

Ding: Please select the target for equipping.

After a brief thought, Lin Dong said, “Inn System!”

Ding: Congratulations on successfully equipping.

A clear system prompt sounded. Looking at the system menu, an additional equipment attribute had appeared, and the Wine King Formula was listed under it.

The better the wine, the greater the effect of the Wine King Formula. Although the inn also had wine, it wasn’t the best thyme from Xilan City. After thinking for a moment, Lin Dong decided it was time to go out, as he had been staying indoors for over ten days just to break through to the second level of the Lingdong Phase.

He opened the door, and as soon as he stepped outside with his right foot, Bai Jingtai rushed up to him.

“Brother Lin, you’ve broken through! You’ve really broken through…”

By the time Bai Jingtai reached Lin Dong, he was out of breath and unable to speak properly. Sweat poured from his forehead, and his plump body trembled with each heavy breath. Despite the exertion, his face was filled with a bright smile.

Although Lin Dong knew Bai Jingtai was here to share the good news, he pretended to be confused and asked, “What breakthrough?”

“Bai Qi has reached the seventh level of the Lingdong Phase,” Bai Jingtai said cheerfully.
“Congratulations! I never expected her to meet the standards for becoming a disciple even half a month before Emperor Gu Huan starts recruiting students.” Lin Dong quickly offered his congratulations.
“That’s all thanks to your Lingsu Formation,” Bai Jingtai said excitedly, grabbing Lin Dong’s shoulder. “Brother Lin, it’s almost certain that Bai Qi will join the Gu Huan Sect. This is great news for Brother Bai. Let’s drink together—you must honor me with a drink today.”
“Sure, I’ll bring some good wine to you tonight,” Lin Dong agreed right away.
Bai Jingtai nodded repeatedly, then looked embarrassed for a moment. “I originally wanted to bring Bai Qi here to thank you, but no matter how much I persuaded her, she refused to come…”
“It’s okay,” Lin Dong said, shaking his head.
“Brother Lin truly has a generous heart!” Bai Jingtai praised, though somewhat guiltily. In the past, he would have said such things confidently, but after witnessing Lin Dong casually knock Liu Shun out with a bench when the authorities came to the inn to arrest bandits, he no longer felt so sure of himself.
It had been a year since they last met, and Manager Lin had changed drastically.
After chatting idly with Bai Jingtai for a while, Lin Dong entered the main hall. It was lunchtime. In the hall, Slim Bamboo was in charge of managing things instead of Wang Liuzhi, who had gone to Autumn Wind City to sell spirit rings and hadn’t returned yet. The staff were busy beyond measure. When they saw Lin Dong, they simply called out “Manager” and continued working.
After leaving the inn, Lin Dong turned left and walked for about half an hour until he reached Shili Street in the west of the city. People were coming and going on the street. Scanning the surroundings, Lin Dong’s gaze quickly settled on a white banner fluttering in the wind.
Lou’s Wine Shop!
When it came to good wine, within Xilan City, there was undoubtedly Bai Lixiang. This Bai Lixiang was fragrant and rich in flavor, with an excellent taste, ranking among the top three even in the entire Autumn Wind Prefecture.
Bai Lixiang came from Lou’s Winery, and this Lou’s Wine Shop was the branch of the winery in Xilan City.
Even before entering, the aroma of wine filled the air. Lin Dong stepped inside. The shop was huge, covering over 200 square meters, with rows of wine jars neatly stacked. At the counter on the left, a young man in his early twenties was engrossed in reading a book.
A little further away, six staff members were sitting around a wooden table having lunch.
Since no one greeted him, Lin Dong had no choice but to walk over to the counter.