Museum of Deadly Beasts

Lin Jin smiled and lifted his arm to make a sweeping gesture. Lights flickered and flames began to stream from Lin Jin’s arm to gather into the shape of Xiao Huo on the ground.

The Beastmaster Fourth Scroll allowed both the blood contract owner and his pet beast to merge and share their abilities. It could also separate the pet beast and human as they wished.

At the sight of this, Shang’er’s eyes lit up.

“Is this the Beastmaster Scroll?”

Being knowledgeable enough, Shang’er knew about this technique.

“That’s right.” Lin Jin nodded.

Xiao Huo was still the size of a kitten. After separating from Lin Jin, he began to jump around to play. Shang’er noticed the change in his size, but while she knew about the Beastmaster Scroll, she had no idea what a Dharma body was.

Meanwhile, Lin Jin could tell that Shang’er had achieved a breakthrough in her Demonic Transformation cultivation. Now that he was back, he could provide her further guidance on this. However, based on the speed of Shang’er’s cultivation, it seemed like the first three parts of Beast Energy Formation wouldn’t be enough for her anymore.

For her to break through to further heights and improve, she would need to cultivate the Beast Energy Formation Part Four.

Lin Jin had thought about obtaining this cultivation method, but due to his previously busy schedule, he hadn’t had time to increase the number of pet beasts recorded. Next, it was time to give this some thought.

Coincidentally, Lin Jin would be taking over as chief of Maple City’s Beast Appraisal Association tomorrow. It was just an acting position as he needed to wait for a formal appointment from headquarters.

However, no one might try to stop this from happening anyway.

Even if there was, the emperor, His Majesty would think of ways to make it happen so it was nothing Lin Jin had to worry about.

“Next, let’s see how I can increase the number of beasts recorded in the museum,” Lin Jin muttered to himself.

The next day, Lin Jin woke up earlier to see Tan Lin off at the city gates. After all, she would be traveling to Heavenly Spiral Kingdom. From Jade Dragon Kingdom, even if she took a transportation eagle, it would take her seven or eight days to get there.

If she traveled on foot, it would take at least several months to cross mountains and conquer rivers so god knows when they would meet again after parting here.

As a friend, Lin Jin had to see her off personally.

Tan Lin left without a care in the world. She had handed over the association affairs and instructions on some important matters. As for the menial tasks, Tan Lin said Lin Jin could do as he saw fit.

Before it got bright outside, Tan Lin got onto her horse and turned to look at Lin Jin. “Appraiser Lin, when we meet again, I, Tan Lin, will be able to match up to you in beast appraising.”

Lin Jin held his hands together in salutation. “Until we meet again.”

“Until we meet again!”

Having said that, Tan Lin urged her horse on and they were soon out of the city and out of sight.

Lin Jin didn’t dwell on it either. All banquets would eventually end in this world and only by separation would there be reunions.

Back at the association, Lin Jin now had a bigger consultation hall. He simply arranged to have his tokens displayed and instructed that he would personally attend to appraisals today. There would be no limitation to the number of clients and he would attend to as many as he could.

Thus, the queue for Lin Jin’s consultation naturally increased. By now, Lin Jin’s reputation was considerably marvelous in Maple City. If news of his promotion to Rank 3 had only been known throughout the association yesterday, almost the entire city should know about it by today.

Having a Rank 3 beast appraiser evaluate and treat their pet beasts wasn’t an opportunity they had every day. Hence, many people queued up for Lin Jin’s services.

With this, the other appraisers and apprentices saw a decline in their customer numbers.

But no one dared to complain.

In certain places, it was a common practice where a chief who had just taken office would offer unlimited services. But this had never happened in Maple City’s history as it required absolute competence.

If the appraiser wasn’t skilled enough, things would end badly. They would then turn into a huge laughing stock, embarrassing themselves.

Even Tan Lin didn’t do such a thing when she first took over.

“Well, this new chief is quite confident,” In the City Lord Manner, Bai Zhenkong commented as Zuo Wentang reported the latest updates.

Bai Zhenkong now had his eyes on Lin Jin. He was also trying everything he could to gather information on what happened in the royal capital that rendered the emperor to treat Lin Jin so specially.

“Still no news from the imperial city?” Bai Zhenkong asked. He was in the midst of breakfast. As a city lord, his lifestyle was rather lavish that even breakfast couldn’t be a casual event. There were about seven to eight dishes on the table, ranging from heated dishes, vegan dishes, to dessert, and fruits. It was a full menu.

Zuo Wentang shook his head. “We’ve asked all of our connections in the royal capital but no one knows the specifics. But just a while ago, something huge did happen in the city, though I think it should have nothing to do with Lin Jin.”

“Oh? What huge incident was that?” Bai Zhenkong took a fried dough stick, tore it in half, and put it in his congee. He added some side dishes and took a bite, savoring the divine taste.

“The imperial city banned talk of this but we managed to hear something. They say that villainous experts have appeared in the city a while back, which led to a lockdown of the city, restricting anyone from entering and leaving as guards patrolled everywhere. Also, Minister Yu’s faction was overturned in one night. Although the public announcement was that Minister Yu had died from illness, that might not be true. After all, Minister Yu is one of the nation’s guardians and a warrior who owned a Rank 4 jade dragon pet beast. For him to die of an illness is just unbelievable.”

After hearing Zuo Wentang’s explanation, Bai Zhenkong nodded. “I know about this as well. The power struggles within the imperial city had never once ceased. Though our Maple City isn’t huge, we’re fortunate to be a distance away from the royal capital. Moreover, we’ve never had any connections with Minister Yu’s faction so no matter if he died or was eliminated, that has nothing to do with us.”

Following a pause, Bai Zhenkong added, “Indeed, this doesn’t seem like it would have anything to do with Lin Jin. No matter how skilled he is, he’s not part of the inner circle.”

“My thoughts are the same.” Zuo Wentang then added, “There’s one more thing. I heard that Jade Dragon City’s Jade Dragon Temple had once been sealed off with several halls collapsing but we couldn’t get the specifics of what happened. Even some of the highly ranked officers in the palace don’t know about it, or perhaps they were too afraid to speak of it.”

“Jade Dragon Temple?” Bai Zhenkong contemplated. As a city lord, he knew how important Jade Dragon Temple was but he clearly didn’t know about the old dragon’s existence. Hence, he wasn’t able to link the incident of the temple with Lin Jin.

“Also, His Majesty’s sixth princess had been severely ill a while back but has now made a full recovery. His Majesty was so pleased that he granted a general amnesty,” Zuo Wentang supplemented.

Bai Zhenkong nodded.

He knew about this too. Speaking of which, the possibility of Lin Jin being involved in this matter was much higher. To him, both of them were probably connected to each other in some way.

Only, Bai Zhenkong hadn’t found the root of it all. Even if it was Lin Jin who cured the sixth princess’s disease, that shouldn’t be enough to earn this much of His Majesty’s regard.