Chapter 545: No More Compromises

Three days later, Liang Liren returned with a full load—methods for fusing spirit arrays and spirit artifacts at the fifth level and below, over a hundred thousand pill formulas, and two pairs of blue-green fruits. Accompanied by Lin Dong and Yun Lan, he left the capital city.

Lin Dong could foresee that once Qin Mengtai learned what had happened, he would be torn between his most beloved disciple, Feng Zhengyang, and the interests of the Tianjian Sect. In the end, he would surely choose the interests of the Tianjian Sect. Otherwise, Yun Cangqiong wouldn’t be so foolish, and if Qin Mengtai didn’t prioritize the sect’s interests, Lin Dong wouldn’t trust him with it.

After that, Lin Dong would simply take out one or two types of spirit materials to aid cultivation, gradually helping the disciples of the Tianjian Sect reach a level where the guards of Lin’s Inn could easily overwhelm them.

Over a month later, thanks to these cultivation aids, Lin Dong finally caught up with Yun Lan again, reaching the ninth stage of the Heart Reversal Phase. By then, Yun Lan was already in the middle to late stages of this phase. After refining the cultivation pills prepared for her by Lin Dong, it wouldn’t be difficult for her, given her talent, to break through to the peak of strength.

Lin Dong also had enough spirit materials to reach the late stages of the ninth stage of the Heart Reversal Phase, but he still lacked five or six ingredients for the Breakthrough Pill. His comprehension talent grew stronger by the day, now to an astonishing degree—even Yun Lan admitted she couldn’t compare. Yet his cultivation talent remained unbelievably low.

Without the Breakthrough Pill, without the help of Old Ding and Feng Yue, and without using Braised Wind Spirit Grass to treat internal injuries and boost the speed of spiritual energy circulation to force a breakthrough, Lin Dong’s cultivation talent would make it impossible for him to break through even in tens of millions of years.

On a day with howling cold winds and biting cold, Lin Dong left the inn early, following the promotional carriage. On some of the carriages, spirit stone heaters of various models sat quietly on flat surfaces. On others, there were huge wooden barrels, each with tied leather pipes on all four sides. Inside them was, of course, the fragrance of Wanli Flower, refined through small porcelain bottles.

Undoubtedly, this was another round of promotion by Lin’s Inn.

Unfortunately, the streets were almost empty. After the carriage stopped for over a minute, only a dozen or so onlookers gathered. This was because of the weather and the early hour—no one would go out under such conditions unless necessary. Having a dozen or so onlookers was already quite good.

Lin Dong had no complaints about this outcome. He had chosen the timing himself—in his view, the colder it was, the greater the effect, and it was almost time to launch the promotion. These past few days had been the turn of Autumn Mist Restaurant to conduct its promotion.

Autumn Mist Restaurant was the tenth top-tier restaurant to launch its promotion. Like the previous nine, it had its own unique features and exerted significant influence. The promotion involved gathering notable figures from several nearby counties for competitions in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.

Notable figures were already of high status—only ten were selected each year from a population of tens of millions in a single province. These individuals were eligible to become officials and each enjoyed privileges. Moreover, their skills in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting were the best in their provinces, and there had never been a clear winner among notable figures from different provinces. Thus, their competitions naturally attracted widespread attention.

During the days of the promotion, the enthusiasm remained high, just like with the previous nine top-tier restaurants, unaffected by the cold weather. In fact, the excitement grew even more as the competitions progressed.

To persuade so many notable figures to perform at one restaurant, the fifteen top-tier restaurants had to pay a significant price.

What Lin Dong wanted was for these top-tier restaurants to invest heavily. Now that his goal had been achieved, if he stepped back, Lin’s Inn’s business would decline significantly, not just a little, as it had in the previous two times. He certainly wouldn’t sit idly by.

Lin Dong planned to launch a formal counterattack against the combined efforts of these top-tier restaurants, aiming to make them suffer a heavy loss after experiencing success. Although those who had reaped great benefits would invest more, those who suffered heavy losses would also invest more in an attempt to recover quickly.

Lin Dong’s countermeasures were not complicated: spirit stone heaters and piped floral scents. Originally, if it came to a direct competition in promotion, Lin Dong was confident he was no worse than anyone else. By adding pearls and agates to the dishes, offering various spiritual materials with orders, and providing lottery tickets… coupled with Lin’s Inn’s strength and its ability to spread promotional materials everywhere, Lin Dong was confident he could overshadow the promotions of those top-tier restaurants.

He used spirit stone heaters and piped floral scents simply because he wanted the owners of those top-tier restaurants to think he could withstand their efforts only through sheer luck. This way, after suffering a heavy loss, they would be more likely to invest more money.

It could be said that Lin Dong had planned this promotion thoroughly. He had considered not only the timing but also the weather.

The somewhat sparse crowd of onlookers did not disappoint Lin Dong; on the contrary, it even excited him. The reason was that among these dozen or so people, some pushed carts, some carried shovels, and some held bamboo poles—clearly all of them had to leave early in the morning due to urgent matters. Putting aside the tasks they had to do in the cold wind early in the morning just to promote Lin Ji Inn, the promotion this time was no worse than previous ones. When early-morning vendors began to appear on the streets, Lin Ji Inn’s promotion officially started. Similar to previous promotions, carriages split into four groups, setting off from the north of the city, distributing flyers while allowing passersby to try the spirit stone heaters and the floral scents refined from Wanli flowers in small porcelain bottles. In Lin Ji Inn’s backyard, eagle beasts and birds took off, and once they soared into the air, sheets of paper drifted down like large snowflakes. Lin Dong followed one of the carriages, and as more people gathered, the atmosphere grew increasingly lively. Of the two promotional elements, the spirit stone heater was undoubtedly the most attractive. It required no charcoal, produced no smoke, was inexpensive, and easy to carry. With the common people in the capital lacking extra hands and arms, these four features of the spirit stone heater also amazed and excited the officials, nobles, merchants, and ordinary folks alike. After receiving the flyers and reading their contents, over 90% of people thought their first step should be to get one, if not several. In comparison, the appeal of the floral scents through pipes was slightly less, but this difference mainly affected ordinary people. In the eyes of officials, nobles, and wealthy merchants, its appeal was not much less than that of the spirit stone heater. After all, they had high-quality charcoal that was just as effective, and although its cost was higher, it wasn’t unbearable. They wanted spirit stone heaters mainly for use in carriages or for their families. As for the Wanli flower scents, if they truly had as many medicinal effects and benefits as advertised—useful in bedrooms, carriages, and even toilets—their advantages, though not as concentrated as those of the spirit stone heater, actually made them more appealing to the officials and nobles. As usual, after following the caravan for a day with no unexpected results or incidents, Lin Dong settled back in his room to practice cultivation. While Lin Dong was at ease, the owners of the fifteen major taverns, who had initially been calm, became uneasy.

The next day, brochures promoting the Lingshi Heaters and Pipeline Flower Fragrance arrived in their hands. That day, the excitement generated by Qiuwu Restaurant through the competition among renowned establishments was not affected in any way; instead, just like in the previous days, as the competition neared its end, the enthusiasm grew even more than the day before. The reason was simply that there were still five days left before the official launch of the Lingshi Heaters and Pipeline Flower Fragrance by Linji Inn, and what was happening now was just large-scale promotion.

More importantly, they could all see the value of these products and understood that despite the huge costs involved in the promotion efforts by the other five top restaurants, there was still a significant gap. Neither option—delaying the launch to avoid attention nor canceling it—was acceptable to anyone. Delaying meant admitting defeat to Linji Inn and acknowledging insufficient strength. If all the top restaurants retreated at Linji Inn’s appearance, it would lead to ridicule, and worse, they might be looked down upon by officials and nobles, affecting their business. Canceling it was even less desirable. Doing so would not only mean admitting defeat to Linji Inn but also waste all the money spent on promotion, achieving nothing in suppressing them.

“Linji Inn is just too lucky to have such great products,” said Zhang Qinglin, the owner of Qinghui Restaurant, slapping the armrest of his chair fiercely, his face filled with jealousy and frustration.

“Such luck is also a form of strength!” remarked Liu Ciyue, the owner of Haoye Restaurant, couldn’t help but sigh.

Hearing this, the others could only smile bitterly. They had no doubt that Lin Dong had deliberately delayed the launch of the Lingshi Heaters and Pipeline Flower Fragrance. After all, aside from Ling Weifeng from Fenglin Restaurant, no one could have predicted that the top restaurants would unite. Their previous successes were also due to Lin Dong’s deliberate stoking of the situation. They couldn’t imagine that Linji Inn would have the boldness to bring together fifteen top restaurants.

But as Liu Ciyue said, such luck could also be considered strength—indeed, an invincible kind of strength. If they could always have such luck, Linji Inn would be unbeatable. After all, while these restaurants spent enormous amounts of money crafting elaborate plans, Linji Inn, having no countermeasures at first, suddenly had a game-changing advantage that made even the most cunning plans useless. If heaven was on Linji Inn’s side, what else could it be but invincibility?

“He can’t keep having this luck forever, right?” Dong Weilang, the owner of Chenguang Restaurant, said resentfully.

“I agree with Boss Dong!” Ling Weifeng spoke up. “A spirit stone fan in summer, a spirit stone heater in winter—don’t you all think Lin’s Inn’s good fortune has run out? It’s impossible to expect something for spring or autumn to appear as well. Spring and autumn aren’t as extreme as summer and winter; I can’t think of anything particularly important.”
Everyone nodded in agreement—that made sense!