Chapter 26: Business Beyond the Tavern

Three days after the Clear River Sect disciples left, Lin Yuan checked the Territory Core during a quiet moment after breakfast.

The familiar panel appeared before him.

Territory Core

Owner: Lin Yuan

Territory: Blackstone Wasteland

Core Level: 2

Spiritual Environment: Faint

Territory Revenue: 221 / 500 Low-Grade Spirit Stones

Lin Yuan’s attention remained on the last line.

The last time he checked, Territory Revenue had been at 173.

The increase itself wasn’t strange.

Wandering Cloud Tavern had been busy since the expansion. Eight guest rooms gave travelers more reason to stay, the larger dining hall handled more customers, and the second stove kept the kitchen from slowing whenever several tables ordered at once.

Still, forty-eight spirit stones was more growth than he’d expected.

"Owner Lin."

Lin Yuan dismissed the panel.

Su Mei stood near the kitchen entrance.

"Two more for breakfast."

"Coming."

He returned to work.

There was no point staring at numbers while customers were waiting.

The morning grew busier.

A caravan of five cultivators stopped shortly before noon.

Four entered Wandering Cloud Tavern while their leader looked across the road and headed toward Qiao’s General Goods.

Lin Yuan noticed only because he happened to be carrying an empty pot back toward the kitchen.

Through the window, he saw Qiao Ren take several bottles from a shelf. The caravan leader inspected them, added a bundle of talismans, then paid.

A few minutes later, he joined his companions inside the tavern and ordered lunch.

He wasn’t Qiao Ren’s only customer.

Two cultivators staying upstairs visited the shop after eating. A merchant purchased beast feed before returning to his wagon. Later, a lone traveler stopped at the shop without entering the tavern at all.

Qiao Ren spent more time behind his counter than sitting.

By afternoon, Lin Yuan realized he had underestimated how much business the small shop was doing.

During a quiet period, he crossed the road.

A customer was leaving as Lin Yuan entered.

Qiao Ren put several spirit stones away before looking up.

"Need something?"

"No."

Qiao Ren waited.

Lin Yuan glanced around the shop. Several spaces on the shelves that had been full when Qiao Ren first opened were noticeably thinner now.

"Business going well?"

Qiao Ren looked toward the departing customer.

"Better than the stall in Green River City."

"Already?"

"Not more customers."

Qiao Ren gestured around the shop.

"Less competition."

That made sense.

In Green River City, Qiao Ren had been one seller among many. Here, a traveler looking for a basic pill, talisman, medicine, or supplies for a spirit beast had only one shop to choose from.

Qiao Ren leaned against the counter.

"Why the sudden interest?"

"Curious."

"You planning to raise my rent?"

"No."

"Good."

Lin Yuan turned toward the door.

Behind him, Qiao Ren spoke again.

"If you do, at least wait until I earn back what I spent building this place."

Lin Yuan glanced over his shoulder.

"I’ll remember that."

Qiao Ren narrowed his eyes.

"That wasn’t permission."

Lin Yuan left before the conversation became longer.

The tavern remained busy through dinner.

By the time the last group finished eating, darkness had settled over Blackstone.

Lin Yuan helped close the kitchen before going upstairs.

Instead of cultivating immediately, he sat near the window.

Across the road, Qiao’s shop was still open.

A cultivator stood near the counter while Qiao Ren showed him several small bottles.

The man chose one and paid.

A short while later, he crossed the road and entered Wandering Cloud Tavern.

Lin Yuan focused on the Territory Core.

The panel appeared.

His gaze settled on Territory Revenue.

It had increased again.

Lin Yuan remained still.

He thought back over the day.

The tavern had done good business.

So had Qiao Ren.

More importantly, the Core had never called it Tavern Revenue.

It had always been Territory Revenue.

Lin Yuan looked across the road.

The answer was obvious now.

Territory Revenue didn’t belong to Wandering Cloud Tavern.

It belonged to Blackstone.

Business conducted within his territory counted even when the business wasn’t his.

Until now, Wandering Cloud Tavern had carried almost all of Blackstone’s business.

It no longer had to.

Lin Yuan dismissed the panel.

For a while, he continued sitting beside the window.

The discovery was useful, but there was nothing he needed to do about it tonight.

Qiao Ren already had his shop.

Travelers were already buying from him.

Blackstone would continue growing whether Lin Yuan watched every transaction or not.

He moved away from the window and sat cross-legged on the bed.

There was something else he had been neglecting since the expansion became busy.

His own cultivation.

Lin Yuan closed his eyes.

The inherited cultivation technique began circulating.

Spiritual Qi entered his body.

Months ago, cultivating in Blackstone had been an exercise in patience. The surrounding Qi had been so thin that gathering enough of it took time even before he could begin refining it.

That had changed.

The territory’s spiritual environment was now Faint, and inside Wandering Cloud Tavern, Minor Qi Gathering concentrated the surrounding Qi further.

Neither effect was extraordinary.

Compared to a proper cultivation ground belonging to a sect or powerful clan, this place was probably still unimpressive.

For Lin Yuan, however, the difference was clear.

Qi gathered around him steadily.

He guided it through the familiar circulation path, refined it, then drew it into his dantian.

One cycle ended.

He began another.

His breakthrough into Qi Refining Nine had already stabilized. The restless feeling that followed the breakthrough was gone, and the Qi inside his body responded smoothly.

But stabilization wasn’t the same as reaching the peak.

There was still room to grow.

A great deal of it.

Lin Yuan continued cultivating.

The technique he inherited from his parents had accompanied him through every layer of Qi Refining. It wasn’t powerful or rare, but its circulation was stable, and he knew every part of it.

Now he had reached the final layer it could support.

Once he reached the peak of Qi Refining Nine, there would be nowhere else to go with it.

Chen Wei’s words came back to him.

Thousand Treasures Pavilion.

Foundation Establishment techniques could be bought in Green River City, at least the common ones.

Then there was Lu Feng’s warning.

Compare prices before buying.

Lin Yuan almost smiled.

He had no intention of walking into the first shop he saw and throwing spirit stones onto the counter.

There was no hurry anyway.

His current cultivation still had a long way to go.

Another cycle completed.

Lin Yuan kept cultivating.

By the time he opened his eyes, the tavern had gone quiet.

The moon was already high.

He stood and stretched.

His cultivation hadn’t suddenly changed.

There was no breakthrough waiting for him.

But the Qi in his dantian was a little fuller than it had been before he sat down.

For tonight, that was enough.

Two days later, Lin Yuan was replacing a damaged section of the wooden road sign when Qiao Ren approached.

"Someone asked me about you."

Lin Yuan kept working.

"Who?"

"A cultivator who came through yesterday."

"What did he want?"

"Land."

Lin Yuan stopped.

He looked at Qiao Ren.

"What kind of land?"

"The same kind I’m standing on."

Lin Yuan lowered the tool in his hand.

Qiao Ren pointed toward an empty stretch farther along the road.

"He wanted to know who owns the land around here."

"What does he do?"

"Trades beast materials."

Qiao Ren thought for a moment.

"Mostly buys from hunting groups. Hides, bones, claws, medicinal parts. Beast cores when someone has one worth selling."

"And he wants a shop?"

"He didn’t say."

Qiao Ren leaned against one of the signposts.

"Could be a shop. Could be somewhere to collect goods before transporting them to Green River City."

Lin Yuan looked toward the empty stretch beside the road.

A beast-material business would be different from Qiao’s General Goods.

Travelers wouldn’t be its only customers. Hunting groups carrying useful beast parts would have a reason to stop as well.

"What did you tell him?"

"That the land belongs to you."

"And?"

"He asked what you charge."

"What did you tell him?"

"To ask you."

"Good."

Qiao Ren nodded.

"He’s already gone."

"Did he say he’ll return?"

"Probably next month. He travels this route."

Lin Yuan put the tool away.

If the cultivator returned, they could discuss it then.

If he didn’t, nothing had been lost.

Qiao Ren started back toward his shop.

Lin Yuan watched him cross the road.

When Qiao Ren had first asked to rent a plot, it had been unexpected.

Now someone else had asked how to do the same.

Lin Yuan returned to the road sign and finished the repair.

That evening, Wandering Cloud Tavern filled earlier than usual.

A caravan took three rooms.

Two independent cultivators rented another two.

The dining hall remained busy until well after sunset.

Across the road, Qiao Ren kept his shop open as long as travelers continued entering.

Lin Yuan moved between the kitchen and dining hall until the final orders slowed.

By the time he stepped outside, the road had gone quiet.

The lamps inside Wandering Cloud Tavern cast light across the courtyard.

Qiao’s General Goods stood nearby, its shutters finally closed.

Beyond the two buildings stretched empty land.

A few months ago, there had been nothing here but an old tavern beside a quiet road.

Now there were two businesses.

And earlier that day, someone had asked about land for a third.