Chapter 386: The Strange Vase

In the front yard, sitting on a stone bench that was clearly much newer than the other three, Wang Zaixing was filled with emotions, while the two guards behind him also softened their sharp gazes.
Unlike the overcast weather during his last visit to Lin’s Inn, the weather this time was undoubtedly good. The sun high in the sky brought a warm feeling.
Finally, Lin Dong stepped out from the back door.
“Owner Lin! It’s been days—your vibrant energy is truly enviable.” Wang Zaixing quickly stood up, wearing a smile, and even Ma Chun, who had been overlooked last time and was behind Lin Dong, hurriedly bowed, saying, “Manager Ma, thank you for your efforts.”
“President Wang, please sit!” Lin Dong was polite, not treating Wang Zaixing as a swindler at all.
After eight days, President Wang had come to deliver compensation. The precious treasures worth 300,000 taels were not the main thing; in Lin Dong’s eyes, the decoration plans for each branch were worth a fortune.
“Owner Lin, please sit, please sit…” Wang Zaixing kept being polite until Lin Dong sat down across from him, only then did he sit down himself, barely touching the stone bench with his buttocks.
“President Wang, the decoration plans I asked for…” Lin Dong looked at Wang Zaixing with a smile.
“They’re ready. They’re already done. Please take a look, Owner Lin.” Wang Zaixing quickly took out a stack of rice paper from his clothes and handed it over, then watched Lin Dong nervously, fearing he might not be satisfied.
He had spent almost seven to eight hours every day for eight days painstakingly designing these decoration plans, all to avoid Lin Dong’s disapproval.
To be honest, he was actually afraid of Huā Wú Yuè’s disapproval.
After returning, Wang Zaixing had carefully asked the guards. That kind of spiritual skill that could control others’ bodies was at least at the eighth level. The master of such a skill, Huā Wú Yuè’s teacher, must be a powerful figure. If things escalated and Huā Wú Yuè’s teacher got involved, even his own sect would face consequences.
Therefore, spending some money to avoid trouble was, for Wang Zaixing, the best outcome—even though it was the time when he needed money the most.
Lin Dong took the rice paper from Wang Zaixing. Though his face remained expressionless, excitement welled up inside him. He glanced at the first sheet—it was the decoration plan he had given to Wang Zaixing and Yang Shun last time.
“Owner Lin, your decoration plan is the epitome of art. I’m also an expert in decoration, but in front of this plan, I’m utterly outmatched. So…” Wang Zaixing hesitated, but it was obvious what he meant next: if the subsequent plans weren’t good, he hoped for forgiveness.

Lin Dong knew that Wang Zaixing was telling the truth. Compared to Yang Shun, Wang Zaixing’s skills in decoration were still inferior; otherwise, he wouldn’t have chosen Wang Zaixing’s design for the Lingnan County branch. Of course, though he understood this, Lin Dong merely snorted coldly and said nothing more, leaving Wang Zaixing to guess anxiously across from him.

Putting aside the first few sheets, what came into view was a rectangular space with dimensions marked outside, and inside, various furniture were drawn—desks, wooden chairs, plant stands… Next to each piece of furniture, not only were their dimensions indicated, but the materials were also explained in detail. At first glance, Lin Dong could tell that this was a floor plan for the Type-B guest room.

After examining it more closely, Lin Dong nodded inwardly. Who hadn’t seen it with their own eyes? The layout was excellent, and the cost of the furniture wasn’t too high—truly tailored for the Type-B guest room. Just from this sheet, Lin Dong could be sure Wang Zaixing had put in a lot of effort.

Taking out the next sheet, Lin Dong glanced at it—it was a decoration plan for the northeast sides of the Type-B guest room, including paintings, hanging lamps, wooden frames… It was hard to tell what the effect would be just from the drawing, but Lin Dong was confident it would be much more beautiful and comfortable than the current Type-B guest rooms at Lin’s Inn.

The third sheet was a decoration plan for the west wall and roof, and the next one was for the Type-A guest room. Lin Dong slowly went through them one by one, his face expressionless.

Across from him, Wang Zaixing was terrified. He had once been utterly confident in his own decoration skills, but after seeing the plans Lin Dong had given him, that confidence wavered. On top of that, Lin Dong had asked for 200,000 taels of silver—a price that could hire tens of thousands of carpenters to work for a month. At such an exorbitant cost, he believed he wasn’t worth it.

Finally, Lin Dong put down the last sheet and looked up at Wang Zaixing. Amidst Wang’s panicked expression, he said calmly, “Not bad…”

“Shopkeeper Lin… With such excellence right before me, I, Wang…” Wang Zaixing’s face darkened, turning ashen.

Lin Dong waved his hand to stop Wang Zaixing from explaining further and said slowly, “Another 300,000 taels of silver.”

Wang Zaixing hesitated for a moment, gritted his teeth, and after taking out a stack of rice paper, pulled out a small black-and-white vase about 20 centimeters tall from his still-puffed-out sleeves.

Carefully placing the unremarkable vase on the table, Wang Zaixing licked his lips and explained, “Boss Lin, I acquired this vase two years ago for a staggering price of 200,000 taels of silver from a down-and-out nobleman. In my opinion, its value is over 600,000 taels.”
“A vase worth 600,000 taels of silver? It seems I’d even have to pay Wang President 300,000 taels more?” Lin Dong said with a smile.
“No, no!” Wang Zaixing quickly waved his hands and said, “Although Wang’s Pawnshop is short of cash, we still have many rare treasures. This one is considered the finest among them. If Boss Lin is willing to overlook our past differences, 300,000 taels should be sufficient.”
“But I’ve never heard of a vase that can sell for 600,000 taels of silver,” Lin Dong said leisurely. “Even a vase worth 300,000 taels would be extremely rare. Good luck to President Wang.”
“Not at all…” Wang Zaixing hurriedly explained, “This vase may look ordinary on the outside, and its craftsmanship isn’t particularly exquisite. But Boss Lin, you don’t know—this vase has a peculiar function.”
“A peculiar function?” Lin Dong was taken aback before gesturing for him to continue.
Wang Zaixing immediately took out a small wooden box about the size of a fist. There was a circular hole on top, roughly the same size as the vase’s mouth.
Picking up the vase, Wang Zaixing handed it to Lin Dong and said, “Boss Lin, take a look. There’s nothing inside, and it doesn’t emit any smell either.”
Lin Dong took the vase. It felt cool to the touch and was slightly heavier than porcelain, likely made of some unknown material.
He focused his spiritual energy on the vase and scanned inside. As Wang Zaixing had said, it was completely empty. However, upon closer inspection, Lin Dong noticed strange patterns on the inner walls of the vase.
A spiritual array?
A strange idea flashed through Lin Dong’s mind.
It was almost impossible to set up a spiritual array in such a confined space, but Lin Dong had seen many arrays arranged by Yun Lan—interwoven patterns forming a unique design was a common feature of all such arrays.
The patterns inside this vase were exactly like that.
Suppressing his curiosity, Lin Dong put down the vase, looked up at Wang Zaixing, and nodded. “Indeed, there’s nothing inside, and no smell either.”

“Master Lin has such sharp eyes! Such sharp eyes!” After flattering Wang Zaixing a few times, he took out a wild chrysanthemum and handed it along with the small wooden box to Lin Dong. “Master Lin, take a look and see if there’s anything different about this chrysanthemum compared to ordinary ones. Is there anything stuck inside this small wooden box, or any strange smell?”

Performing magic?

Lin Dong didn’t quite understand Wang Zaixing’s intention but didn’t ask further. He glanced at the wild chrysanthemum—it seemed ordinary; it was autumn, and such wild chrysanthemums could be seen everywhere outside the city.

He examined the small wooden box further. Besides a circular hole on top, there was also a small mechanism at the bottom. This mechanism also consisted of a circular hole, but the difference was that it was covered by a thin wooden plate. Pushing the mechanism would cause the plate to move slowly, revealing the hole.

Apart from that, nothing was stuck to the inner walls, nor was there any strange smell.

“Nothing!” Lin Dong pushed the wild chrysanthemum and the wooden box back to Wang Zaixing.

Wang Zaixing placed the wild chrysanthemum in a vase, then turned the wooden box around and aligned the circular hole with the vase.

“That’s it!”

Wang Zaixing turned to look at a guard on his left. The guard stepped forward, grabbed the vase, and focused his gaze. Lin Dong could sense through his mental perception that the spiritual energy in the guard’s dantian was surging wildly and flowing into the vase through his palms.

Inside the vase, the patterns formed by the intertwined lines continuously absorbed the guard’s spiritual energy, causing the dense patterns to emit a faint glow.

The glow enveloped the wild chrysanthemum in the center, causing it to shrink rapidly. Soon, it became wilted, losing its former luster and vibrancy.

Huh…

The guard let out a sigh, released his grip, and stepped back. The spiritual energy in his dantian had been completely exhausted in such a short time.

Another guard stepped forward, grabbed the vase, and his dantian released another surge of spiritual energy. The dimmed patterns once again emitted a faint glow.

The already shriveled wild chrysanthemum shrank further. Lin Dong’s heart began to beat faster. What he observed through his mental perception was that the chrysanthemum kept getting smaller as it shrank.

By the time the guard, sweating profusely, released his grip on the vase, the wild chrysanthemum inside had disappeared. In its place was a faint mist lingering around the vase.

“That’s done!”

Wang Zaixing licked his dry lips and stood up.

Lin Dong looked up at Wang Zaixing’s gaze, growing increasingly anxious. He was almost certain that the vase indeed contained a spiritual array, and this array had a special function—once activated by the infusion of spiritual energy, it could completely digest a wild chrysanthemum. Lin Dong believed Wang Zaixing’s intentions went far beyond simply transforming the wild chrysanthemum. But even if it were just about transforming the flower, the vase was still of infinite value to him, for it could be considered a spiritual artifact equipped with a spiritual array. The chief elders of the Tianjian Sect came to Lin’s Inn precisely for the purpose of integrating the spiritual array perfectly into the spiritual artifact. The simplest way to determine whether the array was fully integrated was to see if spiritual energy could activate the array through the artifact, and also to see if the array could exert its full power. Most high-tier spiritual artifacts nowadays were equipped with spiritual arrays, but these arrays couldn’t be activated by spiritual energy; instead, they relied on absorbing a small amount of external spiritual energy to function. The power of such arrays depended on whether the artifact’s material could absorb external spiritual energy—usually, only about 10% of their potential power could be utilized, and if the material couldn’t easily gather external energy, the array’s power might drop to just 1%. If the array could be activated by the weapon owner’s spiritual energy, its power would increase dramatically. At the Heart Reversal stage, even a ninth-tier array that consumed a great deal of spiritual energy could achieve 100% of its potential power. As for perfectly integrating a spiritual array into a spiritual artifact, Yun Lan had only progressed halfway, barely managing to integrate low-tier arrays with low-tier artifacts. Integrating high-tier arrays with high-tier artifacts posed numerous challenges, such as material limitations and the large space required by high-tier arrays, issues that couldn’t be resolved in just a few months. If this vase were given to Yun Lan, it would greatly shorten her research time on how to reduce the space-demanding high-tier arrays to a size suitable for placement on artifacts. Moreover, the vase’s material itself could also be used in conjunction with the array during processing. Just for this reason, Lin Dong was willing to offer all the cash on hand at Lin’s Inn as payment to Wang Zaixing. Of course, Wang Zaixing’s integrity wasn’t yet such that Lin Dong would feel the need to increase the offer. Across from him, Wang Zaixing took a deep breath, gently grasped one end of the small wooden board, and slowly pushed it aside, creating a slight gap in the circular hole above. A strong aroma of chrysanthemums slowly spread, prompting Lin Dong to take a breath. Soon, Ma Chun behind him also took a deep breath.

“Shopkeeper Lin, you must be familiar with this fragrance, right?” Wang Zaixing asked with a forced smile.
“It should be the scent of chrysanthemums, coming from inside the vase. There should only be one chrysanthemum in there—its fragrance shouldn’t be able to reach me this far,” Lin Dong nodded as if pretending not to know, already realizing that the spiritual array inside the vase must be able to extract all the fragrance from the chrysanthemum.
“Yes! How can it spread this far? Even I can smell it,” Ma Chun nodded eagerly.
“That’s precisely the wonder of this vase!” Wang Zaixing explained. “No matter what plant is put in—flowers, grass, trees… as long as it can be refined using spiritual energy, its scent can be extracted, and moreover, amplified dozens of times. What does that mean? I doubt I need to explain it to Shopkeeper Lin.”
Lin Dong frowned slightly. This President Wang really never changed—he had started cheating again.
An amplification of dozens of times was absolutely impossible. After all, there were only so many chrysanthemums, and no matter how miraculous the spiritual array in the vase was, it surely couldn’t create more chrysanthemums.
For such a tiny gap to allow the fragrance to spread such a distance meant the spiritual array had completely extracted the chrysanthemum’s scent. If the chrysanthemum hadn’t withered, its scent could have lasted for days or even months. Even if only a tiny amount remained, it would likely be the scent emitted by the chrysanthemum over a few days—enough to spread such a distance.
The true wonder of this spiritual array lay in its ability to completely extract a plant’s scent.
Lin Dong believed Wang Zaixing must also know this. Claiming an amplification of dozens of times was undoubtedly meant to exaggerate the vase’s value.
If there really was such an amplification, not to mention 300,000 taels of silver, even 3 billion taels would surely find buyers—of course, only Emperor Qianwei in the imperial palace could afford such a sum. Undoubtedly, all the major sects would be willing to pay whatever price it took to obtain this vase.
Not to mention, if a pill used for cultivation were placed inside and could indeed be amplified dozens of times, it would be equivalent to having dozens more pills—its value was self-evident.
Although Wang Zaixing wasn’t a warrior, he had a sect backing him. Such a treasure would surely be inspected by the sect first. In fact, it was likely that the sect had given this vase to Wang Zaixing.

It can only completely extract the essence from plants, similar to the ingredients used in medicinal pills. Once placed inside, the medicinal effects remain unchanged. For a sect or martial artist, its value is at most that of a rare trinket—it’s not very useful, and using it for entertainment still wastes a great deal of spiritual energy.

A faint smile appeared on Lin Dong’s face. Wang Zaixing was simply trying to deceive him by pretending he was an outsider. Even if he encountered someone like Hua Wuyue who knew a bit about this, Wang could probably explain himself as an outsider, and that explanation would barely hold water. After all, who knew what kind of relationship Wang Zaixing had with the sect behind him? Calling it a precious treasure while hiding it from the sect made sense.

However, the spiritual array inside this vase held little value for sects or martial artists. But for Lin Dong, even without the experiment of perfectly integrating the array into a spiritual artifact, it was still invaluable.

In Lin Dong’s eyes, this vase had two extraordinary functions.

Seeing Lin Dong’s rare smile, Wang Zaixing was overjoyed and quickly seized the opportunity: “Shopkeeper Lin, just think—what if there were a thousand-year ginseng or a ten-thousand-year ganoderma, some kind of treasure that could prolong life? If we put it in this vase and then ask a few martial artists to help refine it, the value of this vase…”

“The problem is, where would I get a thousand-year ginseng or a ten-thousand-year ganoderma? This vase is nice, but it feels a bit like empty promises,” Lin Dong said hesitantly.

“Shopkeeper Lin, even without a thousand-year ginseng or a ten-thousand-year ganoderma, spiritual materials that can prolong life are infinitely valuable!” Wang Zaixing hurriedly replied. “You run an inn, and Lin’s Inn has quite a few spiritual beast materials. You must be well aware of their prices. Given the effects of this vase, the cost is just hiring a few martial artists to help. As long as it’s a spiritual material of second rank or above that’s known to be beneficial to the body, it’s enough to recoup the cost. At third rank, it’s a sure profit. You’re still young and in good health, but you’ll eventually grow old. If you use this vase regularly, living to 100 or 180 years old will be a breeze.”

“That’s true. If I calculate it, making money is for enjoyment—the longer one lives, the longer one can enjoy life. Three hundred thousand taels of silver…”

Lin Dong pondered for a moment with a conflicted expression before saying, “Alright, I’ll take your three hundred thousand taels of silver. Your design plan is approved too. From now on, we’re even!”