Chapter 558: Group Visit

Seeing Lin Dong appear out of thin air, Ma Chun was stunned for a moment before quickly rushing forward.
“Boss!”
“What’s the matter?” Lin Dong asked.
“The owners of fifteen top-tier restaurants have all come, saying they want to discuss business with you,” Ma Chun said.
“Discuss business?” Lin Dong was puzzled. Lin’s Inn was currently at odds with those top restaurants—what business could there be?
“They say they want to help Lin’s Inn out; otherwise, it will surely close within a year or two,” Ma Chun said with a smile. “They were quite arrogant!”
“It seems they’ve come up with some plan again,” Lin Dong couldn’t help but laugh too.
Ma Chun nodded and mused, “From what I guess, this plan must be significant. The top restaurants haven’t reached an agreement yet because the cost to them is too high, so they decided to try to make Lin’s Inn surrender without a fight first.”
“It’s probably similar to what you thought,” Lin Dong said calmly. “Any news from Maple Forest Restaurant?”
“No!” Ma Chun explained. “It’s likely they discussed it today and came right over.”
“Where are they now?” Lin Dong asked.
“I’ve taken them to Room 2,” Ma Chun replied.
“Okay, go and greet them first. I’ll join them later,” Lin Dong decided.
Ma Chun hesitated for a moment before turning and leaving.
Lin Dong immediately rushed to Yun Lan’s room and knocked a few times.
The door creaked open, and Yun Lan appeared.
“How about going out for a trip?” Lin Dong said with a smile.
Yun Lan nodded without asking further questions.
“Outside the north city!” Lin Dong called before shooting off at high speed.
Yun Lan didn’t understand Lin Dong’s intention but didn’t overthink it and quickly chased after him.
In the blink of an eye, the two left the city. Lin Dong stopped on an endless grassland.
When Yun Lan caught up, Lin Dong didn’t speak right away. Instead, he focused his mind and scanned the grassland quickly.
Yun Lan realized Lin Dong must have something important to say, so she also focused her mind. Her range was even wider than Lin Dong’s.
“Unless it’s someone like the old man, there shouldn’t be anyone within ten miles,” Yun Lan said after a while.
Lin Dong nodded and eagerly took out the gold-jade abacus from the mobile cabinet, waving it in front of Yun Lan with a smile. “Guess what this is?”
Yun Lan laughed awkwardly. “An abacus!”
Lin Dong was silent. He silently thought of an item, targeting Yun Lan.
The next second, Yun Lan stopped smiling. Her gaze sharpened, and her Green Rainbow Sword appeared in her hand.
“What’s wrong?” Lin Dong asked, feigning ignorance.

“My strength has inexplicably risen to the second level of the Heart Riding Phase,” Yun Lan replied cautiously. “At my rate of cultivation, even if I practiced in an inn, it would take about a year to reach the second level of the Heart Riding Phase. Anything unusual must have a reason.”

Lin Dong smiled and shook the gold and jade abacus in his hand again; the beads clacked together, producing a tapping sound.

Yun Lan was astonished. “Is it this abacus causing it?”

Lin Dong nodded and said nonchalantly, “This abacus is called the Gold and Jade Abacus. I just got it. Its effect… is to help one rise to a higher realm.”

“Rise to a higher realm?” Yun Lan was stunned. “Is there really such a miraculous spiritual artifact in the world?”

“It should be called a divine artifact!” Lin Dong knew Yun Lan hadn’t considered breaking through to the highest realm of peak warriors. He slowly explained, “If I use this Gold and Jade Abacus, I can leap from the ninth level of the Heart Reversal Phase straight to the first level of the Heart Riding Phase, entering the ranks of peak warriors.”

“I never thought the Gold and Jade Abacus could vary depending on the person…” Yun Lan’s eyes widened slightly as she exclaimed, “If that’s the case, wouldn’t a peak warrior at the ninth level of the Heart Riding Phase, using this abacus, be able to become someone beyond peak warriors?”

Lin Dong gave Yun Lan a thumbs up.

“That’s right! If a peak warrior at the ninth level of the Heart Riding Phase uses the Gold and Jade Abacus, they can become someone beyond peak warriors.”

“How… how is that possible?” Yun Lan was confused. No matter how knowledgeable she was or how many amazing things she had seen at Lin’s Inn, it was hard for her to accept this.

Becoming a peak warrior was the greatest dream of every martial artist throughout their lives. And becoming someone beyond peak warriors was the dream of every peak warrior.

Every few decades, a few martial artists managed to reach the rank of peak warriors. For the vast Han Nation with its billion population, this might be even rarer than finding a needle in a haystack, but it was still possible for some.

As for peak warriors ascending to the level of those beyond peak warriors, not a single person had ever succeeded in the thousands of years of Han Nation’s history. Nor had any recorded figure in the previous dynasties achieved this.

Throughout history, although not many people had reached the ninth level of the Heart Riding Phase, it wasn’t unheard of. Yet, ascending from that level to an entirely new realm was incredibly difficult—perhaps even harder than it was for ordinary people to become peak warriors.

With a billion people, only a few peak warriors emerged every few decades. And among those billion peak warriors, it might not even be possible to produce a few who could surpass them.

For thousands of years, the number of peak experts was not even ten thousand, let alone ten billion. Suddenly, an existence appeared that could elevate a peak expert at the ninth level of the Heart Riding stage to a being beyond that peak level. Yun Lan was not Lin Dong; she lacked his ability to accept such mysteries that defied her imagination. After all, Lin Dong had even experienced time travel and had the Inn System, allowing him to accept even the strangest and most mysterious things after initial shock. Even if told about a weapon that could instantly kill millions of people, he would believe it because he already knew such a weapon existed.

“Are you sure this Golden Jade Abacus can truly help a peak expert at the ninth level of the Heart Riding stage become someone beyond that peak level?” After a long while, Yun Lan still looked at Lin Dong with disbelief.

“I haven’t tried it, so I can’t be 100% sure, but 80-90% chance, I think, is no problem!” Lin Dong said with a smile.

Yun Lan let out a long sigh. Looking at the Golden Jade Abacus in Lin Dong’s hands, she felt indescribable emotions. She suddenly had the chance to explore realms that countless peak experts had never been able to reach. This sense of creating history was even more overwhelming than becoming the youngest peak expert.

Lin Dong handed the Golden Jade Abacus to Yun Lan and said, “Take it and play with it for a few days. In a few days, I need to put it on Ma Chun. Besides enhancing strength, this abacus should also help Ma Chun’s eloquence and wit.”

“Put it on Ma Chun?” Yun Lan took the abacus, hesitating.

“You don’t have to give it to Ma Chun. Keeping it with me might be safer. You can cancel it anytime if you want,” Lin Dong explained.

Yun Lan realized this and nodded slowly. She knew the storage spirit ring in Lin Dong’s hand was fake; everything was stored in a special space.

“Let’s go! Ma Chun was looking for me just now. The owners of the top restaurants have all arrived, and I need to go meet them,” Lin Dong said.

Yun Lan nodded. After thinking for a moment, she handed the Golden Jade Abacus back to Lin Dong. “This Golden Jade Abacus is too important. I’m worried something might go wrong if it’s stored in the storage spirit ring.”

Lin Dong shook his head. “Problems might arise over time, but a few days shouldn’t be an issue.”

Yun Lan hesitated for a moment before nodding and placing the Golden Jade Abacus into her storage spirit ring. She wasn’t Lin Dong; she indeed had great curiosity about such a miraculous object. Moreover, as a ninth-tier spirit array master, she wanted to see if the abacus’s effects came from some kind of spirit array. Perhaps she could discover some unexpected benefits. After all, there was only one Golden Jade Abacus, and there were two of them—her and Lin Dong. A hundred years from now, neither of them wanted to be the sole one to reach the status of a peak-surpassing powerhouse.

Seeing Yun Lan put away the abacus, Lin Dong immediately sped up. He didn’t think as far ahead as Yun Lan did, and even if he knew her thoughts, he wouldn’t care too much. If one day they both reached the ninth level of the Heart Riding Phase, he would naturally let Yun Lan break through first to become a peak-surpassing powerhouse. With her talent, she would surely gain some insights—just as his sudden rise to the first level of the Heart Riding Phase had given him deeper understanding of that realm, which would help him break through from the ninth level of the Reverse Heart Phase to the first level of the Heart Riding Phase. If Yun Lan grasped the concept of being a peak-surpassing powerhouse, it would also greatly assist her in her own breakthrough.

Even if this help wasn’t enough for her to reach that status on her own, with her skills as a ninth-tier alchemist, advancing to the next tier might allow her to create even more miraculous pills than the Boundary-Piercing Pills. In that case, it might even enable more people to become peak-surpassing powerhouses.

If nothing else worked, he could use the Golden Jade Abacus to reach that status first and then force Yun Lan to break through as well. With the Braised Wind Spirit Grass, there was no need to worry about going mad. Coupled with Yun Lan’s talent, she too had a good chance of making a breakthrough.

Besides, the Lin’s Inn had already become so miraculous in just a few years, and Lin Dong believed it would become even more so in the future. Within a hundred years, there would surely be many hidden tasks, and the inn’s rank would keep rising, so there would be no shortage of gifts better than the Golden Jade Abacus.

In short, Yun Lan’s concerns were largely unnecessary.

The two quickly returned to the inn. Yun Lan went to her room, set up a high-level illusion array first, then began studying the Golden Jade Abacus. She did this for the same reason Lin Dong had called her out and shown her the abacus—to guard against Old Ding and Feng Yue.

It wasn’t that they didn’t trust Old Ding and Feng Yue, but the Golden Jade Abacus was simply too crucial.

Meanwhile, Lin Dong hurried to the main hall, climbed the wooden stairs, and went straight to the private room on the fifth floor. Then he went to the second room on the left and knocked gently a few times.

After a moment, the door creaked open, and Ma Chun stood inside.

Lin Dong glanced around the room. The owners of the top restaurants were sitting around a large round table, chatting and laughing as if they hadn’t paid any attention to who was knocking or who might be coming in.