Chapter 466: House Slave

Since it wasn’t a chef from Green Pine Villa, asking Zhang Wanfu would only be a waste of time. Lin Dong patiently ate and chatted with Yang Laiting. Before long, another large porcelain plate was brought over.
On the plate was another whole roasted spirit beast. The difference was that this spirit beast was a second-tier Fire Beast, slightly larger than the Yu Jin Beast. Its flesh had been cut into thin slices, attached only to its skeleton. Although the cutting skill was far inferior to Qiao Tianhao’s, the slices were evenly sized and as thin as cicada wings—truly impressive.
Upon tasting it, Lin Dong couldn’t help but nod in approval. It was tender, delicious, and chewy without being hard to chew, with just the right cooking level. If not for its medicinal properties, it could rival the Vitality Beef Balls from Lin’s Inn.
“Boss Li, try this dish. I guarantee my house slave’s skills are no less than those of any top chef in a grand restaurant.” Seeing how long Lin Dong savored each piece of meat, Zhang Wanfu sneered, pointing at the porcelain plate with his chopsticks and smiling meaningfully, “It’s a shame it’s given away for free to some people.”
“Master Zhang is absolutely right. It’s a pity that some people lack shame,” Li Chongshang said with a laugh, reaching for his chopsticks.
Lin Dong and Yun Lan didn’t seem bothered, but Yang Laiting was almost furious. This spirit beast meat belonged to Green Pine Villa, and anything from Green Pine Villa was essentially his own. To think that eating his own food would make him appear shameless!
Moreover, those words seemed aimed at Manager Lin.
Without Manager Lin, the head of the martial arts testing institute could never have achieved what others couldn’t in years—rising from a county-level head to one of the four managers of the Spirit Materials Building. Manager Lin had played a crucial role in that.
Under normal circumstances, Yang Laiting would have exploded in anger and overturned the table. But now, he simply didn’t have the energy.
“Manager Lin, I’m truly sorry,” Yang Laiting said weakly with a bitter smile. The amount of bitterness he had shown that afternoon was enough to equal several years of suffering before.
“Uncle Yang, there’s no need to be so polite. You know well what kind of person I am,” Lin Dong said with a smile, waving his hand dismissively. Unaffected by the scornful looks from Li Huai, Zhang Wanfu, and Li Chongshang, he reached for more food from the porcelain plate.
To argue with two people who were far inferior to him in status, power, and everything else? Honestly, Lin Dong didn’t have the energy for it. Crushing them with a single finger was overkill. Revealing one’s own strength in such a way was hardly honorable.

As for verbal battles, winning is still losing. As long as it’s not too extreme, just ignore it! Anyway, once Ren Qingsong returns, these two will surely suffer. More importantly, Lin Dong’s interest in Zhang Wanfu’s household slave was growing by the day. Soon, the third, fourth, fifth… one dish after another was brought to the table by the maids. At a glance, they were all on large porcelain plates, filled entirely with roasted meat. Each had its own unique flavor, and Lin Dong’s evaluation was similar to Zhang Wanfu’s. The skill level was indeed on par with that of any top chef in a prestigious restaurant. The difference was that Lin Dong believed Zhang Wanfu was probably best at roasted meat—otherwise, there wouldn’t be only roasted meat. Moreover, if other dishes were also this good, even Jiang Yi from Fenglin Restaurant would have to bow in admiration. At Linji Inn, Jiang Kui excelled in home-style dishes, Cheng Bao in spicy dishes, Qiao Tianhao in banquets, Yu Linglong in pastries, and Hua Wuyue in appearance. All of them were top chefs whose skills exceeded 90 in every category. To be proficient in everything would be truly extraordinary. It took over half an hour for all the dishes to be served. There were thirteen dishes in total, all on large porcelain plates with roasted meat. The large round table was completely covered by these plates. Lin Dong roughly estimated that, even if all the ingredients were low-grade spiritual materials, given the quantity and skill level, it would cost at least a thousand taels of silver at Linji Inn. Zhang Wanfu and Li Chong exchanged polite gestures. As the three of Lin Dong savored the food and the two sides were in a rare state of peace, a thin, ragged-clad young man walked in. He appeared to be around 26 or 27 years old, with dark skin. His tattered clothes and emaciated frame made it easy to mistake him for a beggar at first glance. “Kid, my household slave has arrived!” Zhang Wanfu immediately grew proud, glancing coldly at Lin Dong with an air of arrogance. Lin Dong carefully examined the young man. His empty eyes showed no emotion, and his hands hanging between his legs trembled slightly. His steps seemed purposeful, as if he were fulfilling some task, without any sign of enthusiasm or vitality. In the major prefectures and cities, all beggars were gathered together. Lin Dong believed it wouldn’t be hard to find a few like this young man. “Look at his hands!” Yun Lan suddenly whispered. Lin Dong’s gaze shifted back to the young man’s hands. After studying them closely, he was shocked.

He didn’t realize until he saw it—it was shocking. Lin Dong then noticed that the frequency of the young man’s finger tremors was so fast that he couldn’t distinguish it without using his spiritual power. At such a high rate, it couldn’t possibly be caused by any illness. Otherwise, the young man’s hands would have already been damaged. Undoubtedly, this was done on purpose. Lin Dong doubted he could achieve such a high frequency of finger tremors. Even Qiao Tianhao, whose speed was unmatched, couldn’t reach such a level.

“Eighth level of the Mental Focus Phase… Could it be for practicing hidden weapons?” Yun Lan’s expression grew solemn. In the Great Han Nation, experts in hidden weapons weren’t very popular. Firstly, there were few advanced spiritual techniques related to hidden weapons. Secondly, since hidden weapons were too small to have spiritual arrays inscribed on them, it was impossible to create advanced ones. Without advanced hidden weapons, no matter how unpredictable they might be, they couldn’t break through an opponent’s spiritual barrier if the opponent’s strength wasn’t at least three to four levels lower.

Thus, there weren’t many warriors in the Great Han Nation who specialized in hidden weapons. But as the saying goes, every forest has its unique creatures. Throughout the history of the Great Han Nation, there had been powerful experts in hidden weapons. These experts were all extraordinary geniuses with astonishing talents. The spiritual techniques they created could even break through spiritual barriers three to four levels higher than their own. This meant they could easily kill opponents three to four levels stronger than them. Even if only two or three such experts emerged every few decades—thanks to the extraordinary insight and innate talent required for their techniques—this was enough to sustain a thriving field of hidden weapons mastery.

Although Lin Dong possessed the strength of the Sixth Level of the Mental Reverse Phase, it was the first time Yun Lan had seen an expert in hidden weapons, so she had to be cautious and remind Lin Dong to be careful. Hearing this, Lin Dong extended his mental senses to investigate the young man’s meridians and frowned. Judging from the strength of his meridians, he indeed had the power of the Eighth Level of the Mental Focus Phase. But the man was just a household slave.

In the Great Han Nation, household slaves were the least privileged beings. Their status was only slightly better than that of slaves, who had been abolished before the nation’s founding. This slight improvement meant that after signing a contract of servitude for thirty years, household slaves could regain their freedom, hire someone to redeem them, marry and have children, with their spouses and children not being considered property of their masters.

With his strength at the eighth level of the Mental State Phase in his youth, coupled with his age, he could already ignore any constraints other than killing officials and slaughtering cities. Even if he wanted to live a normal life, he could easily spare some time to save a few people and then have them go to the yamen to free themselves from slavery. Once freed from slavery, according to the laws governing household slaves, their masters could not refuse to ransom them, and even for a newly signed contract, no matter what the price specified, the ransom could not exceed 10,000 taels of silver. The longer one had been a slave, the lower the upper limit.

It was hard to say that Zhang Wanfu favored the young man and that the young man didn’t want to leave. Look at his eyes, his clothes, his physique… Plus, Zhang Wanfu kept mentioning household slaves, making it impossible for him to stay willingly.

Unless the young man had been sold into slavery since childhood and had little contact with others, so no one had ever told him about how household slaves could regain their freedom.

An almost imperceptible smile flashed in Lin Dong’s eyes. If that were indeed the case, today’s gains would be substantial.

Just the fact that this young man, despite being a household slave, had managed to reach the eighth level of the Mental State Phase before the age of thirty was enough reason for Lin Dong to take him. Moreover, the young man seemed to be a genius with hidden weapons. If he joined Lin’s Inn, Jiang Kui could stun all enemies with his Roar of the Lion, Cheng Bao could use his Invulnerable Swordsmanship for defense, Qiao Tianhao could rely on his lightning-fast sword techniques for offense, Yu Linglong could handle reconnaissance with her unmatched lightness skills, Hua Wuyue could use her invisible swordsmanship to lure enemies, and the genius with hidden weapons could target the enemy leaders… With such a team, even at their current strength, they could be invincible among countless troops. If they all reached the third or fourth level of the Mental Rebellion Phase and became proficient in their skills, as long as they didn’t encounter peak-level experts or advanced spiritual arrays, they could probably move freely even in large sects with people at the eighth or ninth level of that phase.

On top of that, the young man also possessed the cooking skills that Lin Dong valued the most. With his addition, Lin’s Inn would be greatly strengthened.

Unperturbed by Lin Dong and Yun Lan’s observations, the young man remained unchanged, his empty eyes unchanged, his steps still slow, but without any hint of leisurely wandering.

When the young man approached the round table, Zhang Wanfu snorted and stretched out his arm, pointing at Lin Dong.

“Break one of his arms!”

As soon as the words were spoken, the young man suddenly turned his head. His empty eyes remained the same, but a crisp sound that lasted for over ten seconds suddenly rang out.

Lin Dong and Yun Lan both stood up. Neither of them could see the young man lift his arm or swing a punch.

Looking down at their feet, there was a pile of tiny sewing needles. At a glance, there were definitely over a hundred of them.
In just over ten seconds, hundreds of sewing needles were fired at the same spot. Most of the time, since the target remained the same, they had to wait for the previous needle to be knocked aside before firing the next one.
Such precision and speed filled Lin Dong and Yun Lan with dread.