Chapter 11: A Growing Business

The next few days were different.

Wandering Cloud Tavern was still surrounded by the same empty wasteland.

The old trade road was still quiet for long stretches.

But the stretches between customers were becoming shorter.

On the first day, five travelers stopped for lunch.

Two had heard about the tavern in Green River City. The other three simply saw people resting in the courtyard and decided to stop as well.

The next morning, a small merchant group arrived from the west.

They ate breakfast, refilled their water containers, rested their Ironhoof Beasts, and continued east.

That evening, four cultivators rented two rooms.

By the third day, Su Mei had stopped looking toward the road every time an hour passed without customers.

She had learned something.

They would come eventually.

Lin Yuan stood in the kitchen cutting meat.

Outside, voices came from the courtyard.

Su Mei was dealing with them.

"Ordinary water is over there."

A traveler asked something Lin Yuan couldn’t hear.

"The Spirit-Touched water costs one low-grade spirit stone per large jug."

Another question followed.

"No, your Ironhoof Beast doesn’t need Spirit-Touched water."

Lin Yuan smiled slightly.

She was learning quickly.

The tavern had developed a routine.

When customers arrived, Su Mei handled the front while Lin Yuan worked in the kitchen.

When the tavern was empty, they prepared ingredients, cleaned the rooms, and dealt with whatever else needed doing.

More importantly, Lin Yuan had regained time for cultivation.

He cultivated every morning before opening and again after the tavern closed.

His eighth-layer cultivation had completely stabilized.

There was still a considerable distance between him and the ninth layer, but his Qi was steadily improving.

The Minor Qi Gathering effect wasn’t particularly strong.

For a traveler spending a single night inside the tavern, the difference was modest.

Lin Yuan lived here.

Days became weeks.

Small advantages accumulated.

He finished cutting the meat and placed it aside.

The Territory Core could give him a better place to cultivate.

The rest was still his responsibility.

Near noon, another caravan appeared.

Only two wagons this time.

Six cultivators traveled with them, accompanied by four Ironhoof Beasts.

A week ago, a caravan arriving would have been an event.

Now Lin Yuan’s first thought was that lunch was about to become busy.

Su Mei entered the kitchen.

"Six people."

"I can count."

"Then why are you still standing there?"

Lin Yuan looked at the stove.

"You’re becoming demanding."

"They’re becoming hungry."

That was difficult to argue with.

Lin Yuan activated the stove.

The clean flame rose.

Soon, the smell of roasting meat filled the kitchen.

The six travelers remained for more than two hours.

They ate, rested, refilled their supplies, and bought a jug of Spirit-Touched water before leaving.

Nothing unusual happened.

They were simply customers, and Lin Yuan was beginning to realize that ordinary customers were exactly what Wandering Cloud Tavern needed.

A business couldn’t depend on something interesting happening every day.

It needed people willing to spend money.

After the caravan departed, Lin Yuan summoned the Territory Core.

Territory Core

Owner: Lin Yuan

Territory: Blackstone Wasteland

Core State: Awakened

Core Level: 1

Spiritual Environment: Barren

Territory Revenue: 58 / 100 Low-Grade Spirit Stones

Fifty-eight.

Lin Yuan studied the number.

Only a few days ago, it had been thirty-five.

Before his trip to Green River City, nineteen.

The tavern was no longer waiting days for a single customer.

Some travelers came because they’d heard about it.

Others stopped because they saw wagons, spirit beasts, or cultivators already resting in the courtyard.

Wandering Cloud Tavern was slowly becoming part of the road.

Lin Yuan dismissed the interface.

More than halfway.

One hundred no longer seemed far away.

That afternoon, an unhappy cry came from the courtyard.

Lin Yuan stepped outside.

A newly arrived merchant was struggling with one of his Ironhoof Beasts.

The animal was exhausted. Dust covered its thick legs, and its breathing was heavier than the others.

The merchant tried leading it toward the shade beside the courtyard wall.

The beast stubbornly refused to move.

Lin Yuan’s gaze shifted toward the rear of the courtyard.

An old stable stood there.

Calling it a stable was becoming generous.

Part of the roof sagged.

Several wooden posts had rotted near the bottom.

One section of the feeding trough was broken.

The structure had probably served the old roadside inn long before Lin Yuan inherited the land.

Until now, travelers had simply tied their beasts in the courtyard.

The merchant noticed where Lin Yuan was looking.

"You don’t have a usable stable?"

"Not yet."

"Shame."

Eventually, he managed to lead the exhausted beast beneath the crooked tree near the well.

The travelers could manage, but Lin Yuan’s attention remained on the old stable.

More caravans were using the road now, and caravans didn’t travel alone.

Their spirit beasts needed somewhere to rest too.

Lin Yuan walked toward the ruined structure.

Su Mei found him there later that afternoon.

She stopped at the entrance and looked at the sagging roof.

Then she looked at Lin Yuan.

"Are you planning to stand here until it repairs itself?"

"I was hoping."

"It doesn’t seem to be working."

Lin Yuan sighed.

He placed a hand against one of the wooden posts.

A familiar interface appeared.

Old Roadside Stable

Condition: Poor

Quality: Ordinary

Enhancement: Unavailable

Reason: Structure damaged

As expected.

The Territory Core wouldn’t enhance a structure that was already falling apart.

Lin Yuan inspected the stable.

The foundation could still be used, but several posts needed replacing and the roof required serious repairs.

It would take more work than the courtyard wall.

But it could be saved.

He already had tools and some binding materials left from Green River City.

Stone wasn’t a problem.

Blackstone Wasteland had enough of that to last several lifetimes.

Timber was another matter.

Su Mei stepped carefully around a broken board.

"Can you repair it?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to?"

Lin Yuan looked outside.

Several Ironhoof Beasts were tied around the courtyard while their owners ate inside the tavern.

"Yes."

That evening, another merchant group arrived from Green River City.

Lin Yuan waited until they’d eaten before approaching their leader.

"Are you returning this way?"

"In about five or six days."

Lin Yuan handed him a short list.

The merchant read it.

"Timber? Roofing materials?"

Lin Yuan pointed toward the old stable.

The merchant followed his gaze.

"You’re repairing that?"

"Trying to."

The man considered the list.

"We can bring it."

They quickly agreed on a price.

Lin Yuan paid part in advance, with the remainder due when the materials arrived.

That solved the biggest problem.

He didn’t need to close Wandering Cloud Tavern and spend days traveling to Green River City every time he needed supplies.

The road could bring supplies to him.

After the merchant group settled upstairs for the night, Su Mei found Lin Yuan outside beside the stable.

"Now what?"

Lin Yuan picked up a tool.

"Now I repair what doesn’t require new timber."

She stared at him.

"It’s dark."

"That’s why cultivators have good eyesight."

Su Mei went back inside.

Lin Yuan suspected she was beginning to regret accepting the job.

Over the following days, Lin Yuan worked whenever the tavern was quiet.

He cleared away rotten wood, pulled down the collapsed section, and repaired what he could with the materials already available.

Cultivation made the work easier.

It didn’t make him a carpenter.

More than once, something had to be taken apart and done again.

Still, the stable slowly changed.

By the fifth day, the worst of the damage was gone.

All he needed now was the timber.

That night, Lin Yuan sat cross-legged in his room.

Spiritual Qi slowly gathered around him.

He circulated the cultivation technique inherited from his parents.

The technique was simple, stable, and reliable.

It was also limited.

Its contents ended at the ninth layer of Qi Refining.

Until recently, that hadn’t mattered.

Now Lin Yuan had reached the eighth layer.

For the first time, the limit no longer seemed distant.

Sooner or later, he would need a better cultivation technique.

The Territory Core could improve his land and give him a better environment to cultivate in.

But it had never given him cultivation methods.

That part of his path still belonged to him.

Lin Yuan continued circulating his Qi.

Better techniques cost spirit stones.

Cultivation resources cost spirit stones.

Buildings cost spirit stones.

Everything seemed to cost spirit stones.

Fortunately, he finally had a business capable of earning them.

The merchant returned on the sixth afternoon.

Lin Yuan was carrying a bowl of noodles toward a table when Su Mei called from outside.

"Lin Yuan."

"What?"

"Your wood is here."

He immediately handed her the bowl.

"Table three."

Then he went outside.

A wagon stood in the courtyard.

Bundles of timber were secured along one side, together with roofing materials and the rest of his order.

Lin Yuan checked everything before paying the remaining amount.

The merchant looked toward the half-repaired stable.

"You actually started."

"I said I was repairing it."

"I thought you meant eventually."

Lin Yuan looked at the wagon.

"You’re six days late."

"I’m exactly on time."

"Then I’m six days impatient."

The merchant laughed and returned to his companions.

Lin Yuan began unloading the materials.

Su Mei came outside after finishing with the customers.

She looked at the timber.

Then at the stable.

"You’re going to start immediately, aren’t you?"

Lin Yuan picked up the first wooden post.

"Obviously."

By sunset, the first new support post stood where the rotten one had been.

Lin Yuan stepped back and checked it.

Straight enough.

Probably.

Su Mei stood beside him.

"Is it supposed to lean?"

Lin Yuan stared at the post.

It leaned.

Barely.

He pulled it back out.

Su Mei returned to the tavern without saying anything.

Lin Yuan could hear her laughing before she reached the door.

He looked at the wooden post in his hands.

Cultivating was easier.

Still, when he looked at the repaired foundation, the stacked timber, and the old stable slowly returning to life, he felt satisfied.

A few weeks ago, there had been almost nothing here.

Now travelers were arriving regularly.

The rooms were being used.

Territory Revenue had passed the halfway point.

And another part of the abandoned roadside inn was coming back to life.

Lin Yuan placed the wooden post back into position.

This time, he checked whether it was straight before securing it.

Tomorrow, the real rebuilding would begin.