Dire Reports

Fang An read over a report his servant handed to him slowly. His mood got lower the further into the paper he read.

Shipments back to his supporters in the Kingdom of Zhou were being intercepted, and it wasn't just one or two. More than half of the shipments of food had gone missing.

The few caravans that had survivors knew nothing about who it was that attacked them other than they were much stronger than any mercenary could be. Some of them reported the presence of Nascent Soul Realm cultivators.

Fang An didn't know what to think. It was obviously a power with deep foundations that was targeting him. The problem was he didn't know if it was someone from Zhou or someone from the neighboring countries. Both options seemed likely.

If they were from Zhou, then there were too many suspects for him to narrow it down quickly. Too many people would benefit from his loss.

He didn't believe it was the crown prince. Fang An was beneath his older brother's notice. It was doubtful that he would bother to move against him.

If it was someone from outside of Zhou, then the list of potential culprits was still too long for him to know. It could be anyone from the surrounding countries. The shipments of food from the shopping mall were too valuable. Plenty of people would be tempted if they could only track the caravan's locations.

If Fang An lost these shipments, they would gain immensely, and the Kingdom of Zhou would lose immensely. A steady supply of this unique food was quickly becoming a strategic asset to the countries surrounding the shopping mall. Only with this food could one ensure the rapid development of their forces and prevent themselves from falling behind their neighbors.

Any one of the people he saw daily at the shopping mall could be the culprit. It was no secret that he had bought large amounts of food there.

Fang An scowled at the complex problem in front of him. He could only swallow his anger and let people attack him until he knew more.

"Send a message back to the Kingdom of Zhou. Have as many Core Formation Masters sent over as we can spare." Fang An gritted his teeth angrily, "We need to foster more Nascent Soul Grandmasters if we want to have any chance of fighting back."

The people robbing his caravans were using Nascent Soul Realm cultivators. That meant he needed to do the same if he wanted to stop them.

The servant bowed and went to fulfill the prince's orders.

Fang An looked despondent as he thought of how many spirit crystals had already been lost to these thieves. He wouldn't let whoever was doing this off easily once he found them.

——

Lin Feng set a jar of Body Tempering Liquid down next to Mei as she cultivated. She had asked him to get her some more medicine earlier that day, and Lin Feng had no reason to refuse. It's not like it cost him anything.

He didn't know exactly why she wanted Body Tempering Liquid, but it didn't matter to him. His only concern was that it wouldn't work for her, and she would be disappointed.

Mei's body was already extremely powerful after he gave her the Blood Origin Pill. Strengthening her body any further would require extreme measures for there to be any chance of succeeding. Lin Feng doubted that something he grabbed off the pharmacy's shelves would have any effect.

Regardless, Lin Feng left the medicine next to her for her to discover once she finished cultivating. No matter how bratty she acted around him, Mei wasn't dumb. He trusted her not to fool around with medicine.

Lin Feng walked into the hallways and followed the same path he did yesterday. He had decided to eat at the Yang family's restaurant for lunch. After seeing it yesterday, Lin Feng was quite impressed. The live music had been especially tempting to him.

He still had the problem of there being little to do for entertainment around the shopping mall. While most of his customers seemed to cultivate in their free time, Lin Feng didn't know the first thing about how to cultivate.

After listening to Fang Qiyu playing the guqin a few days ago, he had wanted to listen to more music. It reminded him how much he was missing living in the middle of nowhere. The problem was that he didn't want to ask Fang Qiyu to play more for him. Fang An had already tried to pawn his sister off to him. He didn't want to encourage such thoughts any further.

Seeing the entertainment in the Yangs' restaurant had given him a way out of his conundrum.

As for payment, he was just going to pay with a spirit crystal. One spirit crystal wasn't worth much to him, so he didn't care much if he didn't get any change back.

Lin Feng wasn't sure if this made him wasteful or not, but he pushed such thoughts out of his mind.

Entering the restaurant, Lin Feng saw that it was pretty busy. There were only a few empty tables. Lin Feng wasn't sure if he was supposed to seat himself or wait for someone to show him the way.

As he looked around the room to see what other people were doing, he heard someone call out to him.

"Senior Lin!"

Lin Feng looked over and saw Yang Xinhe waving at him excitedly. Sitting next to him was, surprisingly, Zhang Fei.

"Have you come to eat lunch? Sit down! It's my treat." Yang Xinhe gestured toward an empty chair at their table.

Lin Feng had no reason to refuse, so he sat in the offered chair.

"What are you in the mood for, Senior Lin?" Yang Xinhe asked as he waved a waiter over. "The roast duck is quite good, and we just got some Qi Gathering Realm pork that isn't available to the public yet! I can have them cook some up for Senior Lin, though."

Lin Feng nodded.

"I'm sure whatever you suggest is fine."

Yang Xinhe seemed happy to hear Lin Feng trusted his recommendations and quickly gave the waiter an extremely long order. He was going to make sure Lin Feng could try anything and everything he wanted. Then, hopefully, he would like something and come here to eat more often.

"Senior Lin, we were just talking about some of the things going on in the imperial court. Does that interest you at all?" Zhang Fei asked respectfully from the side.

"Don't change on my account. Just pretend I'm not here," Lin Feng waved him off. "You don't need to be so formal all the time."

"Well, the Emperor has recently ordered the road to be extended from Yashan city to the capital." Zhang Fei explained.

"Yashan city is quickly becoming a hotspot for cultivators in Great Yan and the surrounding countries. It's developing quickly, and the Yan Dynasty is beginning to value it more and more." Yang Xinhe proudly spoke. "My father rarely has time to come to the shopping mall due to all the work he has to do as the city lord."

Zhang Fei nodded.

"Yashan city is shaping to be a major trading hub for Great Yan."

"All thanks to Senior Lin," Yang Xinhe poured a glass of wine for Lin Feng. "Yashan city's benefactor!"

Lin Feng laughed.

"I had no idea what Yashan city was when I made the shopping mall."

Zhang Fei looked interested when he heard this.

"Why did Senior Lin choose this location if it wasn't for the city nearby?"

Lin Feng grimaced and went quiet as he sipped the wine Yang Xinhe poured for him. It was good wine, but Lin Feng disliked the question. It touched on the things he didn't allow himself to speak about with his customers.

"…No reason."

Zhang Fei and Yang Xinhe wisely dropped the line of questioning. They had slowly lost much of the trepidation they had initially had when talking to Lin Feng, realizing that he wasn't as temperamental as they first thought, but that didn't mean they were comfortable prying into something that he didn't want to talk about.

"I heard that Senior Wang Mu has returned to the imperial capital. Is that true?" Yang Xinhe changed the subject.

Zhang Fei nodded.

"Now that he's in the Nascent Soul Realm, he can't spend all his time in the shopping mall. He needs more than just ample spiritual energy to progress further."

This topic interested Lin Feng. He had so little knowledge about cultivation that being able to learn these tidbits here and there was very valuable to him. But, unfortunately, he couldn't openly ask Zhang Fei to explain. His lack of knowledge would only confuse Zhang Fei and Yang Xinhe.

Before Lin Feng could think of a way to get more information from Zhang Fei, Fang An walked into the restaurant and interrupted the conversation.

"Fang An! Over here!" Yang Xinhe called out. "Come sit with us!"

Fang An distractedly looked over. He seemed to be in a bad mood.

Seeing Senior Lin, Fang An began to walk over, but he looked strangely reluctant as he looked at Zhang Fei and Yang Xinhe.