Chapter 355: A Difficult Choice

The developments exceeded Lin Dong’s expectations, but he was still satisfied with the outcome.
According to Lin Dong, the duel between Hua Wuyue and Liang Mushan should not have attracted much attention, yet it became a sensation throughout Lingnan City in just one day. Its impact far exceeded what Lin Dong had thought—limited at most to drawing the notice of various major families.
The reason was that, aside from the Liang family, no one knew that Liang Mushan had successfully become the second family member in over a decade to reach the Mind Spirit Stage before the age of 30, following Hua Wuyue.
With two outstanding representatives of the new generation from the major families in Lingnan City dueling, and Liang Mushan nearing his breakthrough—something that would normally take only about half a month through regular training—the Liang family naturally wouldn’t miss this opportunity. They used spiritual pills to help Liang Mushan advance to the fourth level of the Mind Spirit Stage ahead of time and provided him with spiritual weapons and pills from their family collection to boost his strength. Confident that they had over an 80% chance of winning, the Liang family began spreading the news widely, turning what was originally a youthful rivalry into a widely known contest about which family had the most outstanding heir.
The duel took place at the training ground in the southern part of the city. Despite the short notice, tens of thousands of spectators gathered, filling the training ground to capacity.
In the end, Hua Wuyue had a slight edge in strength. The Hua family, seeing that this duel involved their family’s reputation, did more than provide him with all the spiritual weapons he could use; more importantly, it was Lin Dong’s ninth-level spiritual technique that gave him an advantage.
Afterward, things didn’t end there. To put pressure on the Hua family, and with gambling den owners like Hong Wanfu using their connections to seek help from their families, the major families tacitly allowed their young disciples to get involved.
In response, the Hua family took a firm stance, and the conflict continued. Tensions rose, and it seemed the matter might draw in the family elders. The Hua family also threatened that if any major family dared to unite against them, they would destroy their own family’s spiritual weapons and techniques and fight to the death against one chosen family.
Seeing that the situation was getting out of control and offered no benefits, the major families had no choice but to lay down their arms and prioritize peace. The consequences of this duel led to the major families resuming their covert competition while maintaining surface-level harmony at the Ma family head’s 60th birthday celebration.

It could be said that, aside from the inevitable delay in promoting the sports stars and the gambling events and the resulting commotion, the outcome of the gambling affair was still within Lin Dong’s best expectations.

The evening before the promotional date for Lin Ji Gymnasium, a private room on the fourth floor of Lin Ji Inn welcomed three prominent figures from Lingnan City. The large round table in the room had twelve chairs: two at the far east and one at the west. At first glance, it was clear the three of them were divided into two factions.

Inside the room, there was an air of rivalry, though it didn’t escalate to physical confrontation—yet the words exchanged were sharp, and the atmosphere was extremely tense. Outside, Lin Dong sat leisurely, his mind focused on eavesdropping on the confrontational dialogue inside.

The three men were all highly influential: Yang Yankang, the governor; Chen Yantian, the owner of Tianlai Gambling House; and Hong Wanfu, the owner of Hongfu Gambling House. They had been sitting in the room for over an hour.

Lin Dong hadn’t entered not because he wanted to act like Chen Yantian, but because he was undecided. Since the Hua family was willing to go to war with every other clan for Lin Ji Gymnasium, none of the major gambling houses dared oppose them. Undoubtedly, the three of them had come to seek a settlement regarding the gambling events.

For Lin Dong, this was actually a great thing. By giving Hua Wuyue six Wanhong Fruits and a ninth-level sword technique, although he would have given these things to Hua Wuyue eventually even without the gambling affair, it allowed him to delay the delivery. Giving them in advance would be pointless if he couldn’t convince Hua Wuyue to join Lin Ji Inn.

Moreover, considering the time wasted on cultivation, having no threat from gambling events meant Lin Ji Gymnasium had recovered its investment. The compensation offered by the major gambling houses could be considered profit.

Over the past two days, most of the major gambling houses had arrived, offering amounts ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 silver taels. Lin Dong assigned Ma Chun to handle theirreception. He wasn’t short of silver, so he had Ma Chun deliver all the silver notes to the Hua family. Although the Hua family wasn’t short of money either, it still served as a form of compensation on the surface.

What Lin Dong truly valued were the settlement fees offered by the two major gambling giants, Hongfu Gambling House and Tianlai Gambling House. Among the chips they could offer, what Lin Dong wanted most was the right for Hong Wanfu to transfer the head chef and signature dishes to Lin Ji Inn first if Hongfu Gambling House struggled. That would greatly enhance Lin Ji Inn’s strength.

Of course, Lin Dong believed that even if Hong Wanfu were asked to transfer the head chefs and signature dishes of Hongfu Restaurant to Linji Inn right away, he would likely not refuse. But doing so would force Linji Inn to confront Fenglin Restaurant sooner than expected. Although Lin Dong was confident he could defeat Fenglin Restaurant, it would still be a somewhat unfair tactic. Becoming the sole giant in the restaurant industry of Lingnan City ahead of time did not mean he could immediately dominate half of the restaurant industry in all the counties of Lingnan Prefecture, nor did it mean he could train and test enough managers in advance. It offered no advantage in terms of timing for entering the capital city.

Moreover, it would hinder Linji Inn from accumulating enough competitive experience to face opponents on the level of Fenglin Restaurant’s headquarters. Currently, Fenglin Restaurant and Linji Inn were working together to take on Hongfu Restaurant, allowing Linji Inn to continuously explore ways to maximize its benefits. This would enable it to handle similar situations more smoothly in the future.

As for Tiandai Gambling House, what caught Lin Dong’s attention was undoubtedly the relationship between Chen Yantian and Prefect Yang Yankang. Since the relationship between Linji Inn and Fu Tongshan was revealed, Ma Chun took the opportunity to build a good relationship with Yang Yankang. At the very least, Yang Yankang was willing to write nine letters to the governors of the other nine prefectures except Qiu Feng Prefecture, with the content subtly urging these governors to turn a blind eye to the forces that controlled the city. For the counties under each prefecture, Linji Inn could use letters to pressure the county magistrates. Reaching this level was already remarkable, as many of the nine prefecture governors did not belong to Yang Yankang’s faction, including two princes sent down from higher ranks. Even if these letters couldn’t be used as evidence of Yang Yankang’s factionalism, they could still serve as a stain.

But Lin Dong felt it wasn’t enough. Some governors might not side with Yang Yankang—two or three out of ten was normal. If Yang Yankang could exert some deterrent pressure when they refused to cooperate and have his guards offer incentives, using both force and rewards, things would be much easier.

The benefits provided by Hongfu Gambling House could strengthen Linji Inn’s strength, while those from Tiandai Gambling House could facilitate the development of its guard force. No matter which side, Lin Dong valued them highly.

However, it’s hard to have both fish and bear paws. Lin Dong believed that the main reason Hong Wanfu and Chen Yantian came to Lin Ji Inn to seek reconciliation was to get the Hua family to spare their gambling houses, with another significant goal of having the Hua family pressure their opponents’ gambling houses and bring them down outright. Especially Hong Wanfu’s gambling house was already at a severe disadvantage under the pressure from Tian Lai Gambling House, and its situation wasn’t much better than that of Hong Fu Restaurant. If they could get the Hua family to spare Hong Wanfu’s gambling house and instead force them to collapse Tian Lai Gambling House, it would be like turning the tide and achieving victory from defeat. In essence, the Hua family was now the only hope for Hong Wanfu to avoid total ruin. Undoubtedly, Hong Wanfu would spare no cost or effort to seize this opportunity. This meant that neither side wanted the Hua family to spare the other as well—especially Hong Wanfu. Yet, Lin Dong didn’t want to refuse any offers from either Hong Fu Gambling House or Tian Lai Gambling House. Since he was in a dead end, Lin Dong simply decided to bring the two parties together and let them argue for a few hours before deciding when to intervene and what choices to make. Hearing their conversation, which seemed on the verge of escalating into a fight, Lin Dong stood up and entered. Inside the private room, all three were red-faced. The table was constantly filled with new spirit beasts and materials, emitting steam and a rich aroma that filled the room, yet no one had picked up their chopsticks. “Manager Lin!” Seeing that it wasn’t the waiter bringing new dishes but Lin Dong himself, including Yang Yankang, all stood up. At first, Yang Yankang was annoyed to learn that Lin Dong was away from Lin Ji Inn. It was already evening—who would go out? It was highly likely he was acting deliberately to show off. As a local official, Yang Yankang was a high-ranking official, and being treated like this by a businessman under his jurisdiction was enough to make him leave on the spot if not for the fact that he would immediately find an excuse to send officials to seal off Lin Ji Inn upon returning. But as time passed and he heard more of the arguments between Hong Wanfu and Chen Yantian, his anger gradually subsided. Especially after the last half hour, when he himself joined in mocking Hong Wanfu in response to his sarcasm, his dissatisfaction with Lin Dong vanished completely. By now, Yang Yankang had realized just how powerful the Hua family behind Lin Dong was and his own position relative to Tian Lai Gambling House and Hong Fu Gambling House. All he could think about now was ruining Hong Wanfu’s reputation and driving him into bankruptcy.

Hong Wanfu suffered a crushing defeat. On the surface, Chen Yantian reaped huge profits, but only a few people knew that Yang Yankang also benefited significantly. Since Yang Yankang was willing to go out of his way to greet them, Hong Wanfu and Chen Yantian—both of whom had already offended Lin Dong and whose gambling empires were now under Lin Dong’s control—naturally wouldn’t put on any airs either. Their smiles were as warm and bright as the summer sun. “Lord Magistrate, Boss Hong, Boss Chen, I’m sorry to have kept you waiting,” Lin Dong said repeatedly, bowing his head in apology. “Things came up suddenly; I just gave a quick instruction to my staff and left. If I had known you were coming, not even if the sky fell would I have left the inn.” “Oh, no!” The three of them had different expressions, all because of the order in which Lin Dong greeted them.