Museum of Deadly Beasts

Even if he was watching this scene through the cloud spiritual eye, it was as gory as seeing it with one’s own eyes. Lin Jin could even see clearly that after devouring the dragon, the ‘Giant Catfish’ actually turned its two rows of eyes, all of varying sizes, at him.

No, it was looking at the bird Lin Jin created.

The size of this bird in comparison to the giant catfish was like a single krill against a prehistoric great whale.

Perhaps it thought that a bird this tiny wouldn’t even be enough to plug the space between its teeth. Thus, after a glance, it simply moved its huge body and swan away, diving into the first layer of clouds.

That glance alone frightened Lin Jin into sweating bullets.

All of a sudden, Lin Jin noticed a drop of blood on the cloud bird he made. It came from the four-legged dragon that got eaten up earlier.

It must have somehow splattered onto the bird just now.

Lin Jin immediately controlled his psyche to invoke a spell, using Carrier Cloud to contain this drop of blood before letting the bird continue pursuing that stray Golden Crow feather.

Fortunately, hard work always pays off. Controlling the bird, Lin Jin had it fly speedily, and finally, it caught the Golden Crow’s feather in its beak.

The cloud bird constructed from his magic, so Lin Jin could feel the heat emanating from the Golden Crow’s feather.

That spirit energy of extreme Yang was definitely something the normal world didn’t possess. Feeling delighted, Lin Jin wanted to call the bird back. But it was at this moment that he realized that something was off.

He learned that the cloud bird couldn’t come down.

Below the first layer of clouds, there seemed to be an invisible barrier blocking its path. No matter how the bird tried, it was stopped by that invisible energy, preventing it from continuing forward.

It felt as if wherever Lin Jin was and the nine-heavens above were two separate worlds.

He could only look into it, but not touch it.

No, that wasn’t right.

If he couldn’t touch it, how did his spell manage to reach over to form the bird?

Lin Jin steadied his mind. After all, if he became distracted, the cloud bird would fall apart. Both the four-legged dragon’s blood and the Golden Crow’s feather would be lost.

Lin Jin began to think.

The Nine-Heaven Realm was definitely a different world, a much mightier one. It was completely different from the one Lin Jin came from.

He could only see this because he borrowed Xiao Huo’s Dharma body to use the Divine Mountain Amulet, which in turn triggered the attention of the Nine-Heaven Realm.

In terms of essence, both of them might be millions or billions of miles apart.

This deduction gave birth to a sense of helplessness inside Lin Jin. If that was the case, how could the bird he created bring back the blood sample and the feather?

It was impossible.

Should he give up?

But Lin Jin was reluctant to. He only managed to sneak into the Nine-Heaven Realm this time and there was no guarantee that he could do it again. Chances of miraculous encounters reduce with the frequency of use.

Lin Jin set his mind to come up with countermeasures.

Forcing his way through definitely didn’t work. His current situation was like watching the moon in the water. While it seemed like the moon and stars were in the water, hoping to scoop them out of the water was impossible.

That was unless he could form a bridge. Maybe then, the bird could fly back to him.

But problem was, how would he build this bridge?

This was all too mysterious, a mystery among mysteries. No matter how Lin Jin racked his brain, he couldn’t figure out a solution. Meanwhile, maintaining the cloud bird continued sapping away his spirit energy.

Even with the help of Xiao Huo’s Dharma body, if he couldn’t get the bird to fly down from the nine heavens, that would be a waste of his spirit energy. By then, all would be lost with nothing left to gain.

Even with Lin Jin’s current level-headed tendency, he was growing increasingly anxious.

The four-legged dragon’s blood aside, that Golden Crow’s feather was definitely a miraculous find. No sane person would just give up at such a moment.

Lin Jin tried his best to steady his mind. In this moment of desperation, he actually came up with something.

A rather risky idea.

He couldn’t break the barrier but someone else could. For example, that scary roaring beast from before. Back then, its aura could be felt in this world so there must be a way through the barrier.

This was definitely worth a try.

Lin Jin took a deep breath as he began his suicidal journey. He would keep to his escape plan, that if he couldn’t hold out anymore, he would borrow the museum’s powers and run.

At times like this, dignity wasn’t worth anything.

Moreover, no one here knew who he was, right?

At this, Lin Jin decided not to hide anymore. He got up and roared at the nine-heavens.

It wasn’t a plain roar. His cry contained a Sword Intent that he learned from the Divine Blade Scroll. Lin Jin didn’t know if it would work, but that was the mightiest skill he could perform so far.

As the Sword Intent shot up, it certainly startled the nine skies above.

The initially calm skies suddenly turned ominous as a familiar overwhelming pressure hammered down, almost smashing Lin Jin to the ground.

“Got it!”

Gritting his teeth, Lin Jin endured as his psyche continued maintaining the cloud bird, having it hide in a corner, ready to latch onto any opportunity that presented itself.

There was a sound of something ripping.

Lin Jin’s clothes tore under the huge pressure.

Simultaneously, on a tiny path not far from where Lin Jin was, a carriage and a group of men were continuing their journey in the dark. At a closer look, there was a ‘security’ word on the carriage.

It was a security service delivering goods.

Security services mostly delivered goods during the day and rarely operated at night. But there were also exceptions. For example, if the client’s required deadline was extremely tight, the armed escorts would continue their journey into the night to make it on time.

The other reason would be the goods’ value.

This armed escort group was hurrying for both reasons. Their deadline was tight and the goods they were transporting were too valuable.

What they were transporting was a birthday gift from Reed City’s wealthiest man to an imperial officer in the royal capital. Reed City was located near the borders of Jade Dragon Kingdom. It was four cities away from the imperial city. Even if the group traveled day and night, it would take five days for them to get there.

Fortunately, the escorts had carriages so they could take shifts to rest. Otherwise, even if the beasts in charge of pulling the goods could last, the humans couldn’t.

“My good men, we’ve reached the borders of Maple City. We should arrive at the royal capital in two days. Our client has paid us handsomely for this job. Once we’re done, we can rest easy for a very long time,” the leader of the escort team drummed up the morale of the group.

These bodyguards were providing hard labor.

After all, they had to travel from south to north, camping out and sharing meals in the wilderness. Not everyone could endure such hardship. Moreover, some of them didn’t have pet beasts. For those who did, their pet beasts weren’t exactly powerful either.

In fact, among the group of escorts, not everyone could fight. Their strength was divided in between. Some were laborers who focused on the heavy-lifting; others, the bodyguards, took care of safety, engaging enemies and fending off robbers and bandits.

Most of the people in this group were laborers with only five bodyguards. The guards’ pet beasts were obviously vicious beasts like jackals, wolves, and tigers who were adept at combat.

“Escort Zhang, what are we delivering this time that requires us to even travel at night? Let’s take some breaks in between. The past few days have been terribly exhausting after all,” one of the laborers complained.

Their leader smiled. “It’s a rule that escorts do not inquire about the wares being transported. To be honest, I’m not sure either. But I heard they’re premium medicinal ingredients. Though, I have no idea about the specifics.”

Medicinal ingredients.

What kind of medicinal ingredients would be worth an escort fee of five hundred silvers?

A few laborers wondered. However, they didn’t actually care what goods they were transporting as long as they get paid in the end.

Still, this request was exhausting.

Especially the hurrying part. Relying purely on the beasts to pull their carriages wasn’t enough. Sometimes they had to get down to push the cart as well. The mountain roads were difficult to cross and they had to press forwards despite the ever-changing weather. The heat meant that they would sometimes be drenched in sweat, and cold winds would at times make them shudder.

Perhaps he noticed how a few aged laborers were really tired, their leader pondered before saying, “We’ve been traveling non-stop for the past two days and nights without delays so taking a break doesn’t sound like an issue. Let’s rest for a bit.”

Everyone was delighted and they immediately rested at the fork road ahead.

After sitting down, some drank water while others ate to recover their energy. Some even used this precious time to take a nap. After all, every moment counted.

Some of them chatted.

“Escort Zheng, do you travel this path frequently? The scenery is beautiful,” one of the younger escorts asked.

Young people were full of vigor so they easily recover with just a little rest. Hence, the young man tried satiating his curiosity.

“It’s not only Escort Zhang. Most of us travel this road too. You’re still new to the trade so everything is a fresh experience for you. The more you travel, the less interested you’ll be in the scenery,” one of the older escorts answered before taking a sip of water and wiping the sweat on his forehead.

“Haha, that’s not exactly true. This place is pretty beautiful, isn’t it? Up ahead, there’s the Three Mile Hill, and further ahead, you can even see a… Huh? Uh… When was there a mountain here?” Escort Zhang frowned as he stared ahead.