Museum of Deadly Beasts

“Appraiser Lin, this way!” Wang Xin still carried the same level of enthusiasm as before, It left Li Xinqi and her friend dumbfounded.

“Xinqi, who was that? A lecturer from our academy? Why haven’t I seen him before?” a tall female student asked out of curiosity.

“His name is Lin Jin, a hometown friend of Tan Lin’s. He’s here to take the Rank 4 assessment and…wait a second, h-he couldn’t possi-” Coming to an abrupt realization, Li Xinqi turned to look at Lin Jin’s sleeve.

At that exact moment…

Her breathing grew erratic.

Four beast pattern rings.

She rubbed her eyes to make sure they weren’t fooling her. Sure enough, there were four rings on his sleeve.

Immediately, Li Xinqi was dumbstruck and rooted to the spot.

This time, most of her peers had seen it as well.

“A Rank 4 beast appraiser? Oh my God! He looks to be my age and I’m only a Rank 1.”

“He says he’s here to teach and I don’t think he’s kidding. A Rank 4 appraiser is more than qualified to teach in our academy. Xinqi, you just got yourself a huge backer. Right, does he take private students? Xinqi, help me ask him! I’ve been in the academy for so long now but I haven’t gotten a private mentor yet.”

“It’s no wonder Lecturer Wang is being so attentive! Tsk tsk, so it’s because the man’s a Rank 4 appraiser. Xinqi, is this Appraiser Lin really Tan Lin’s hometown friend?”

Li Xinqi had not heard their questions. In fact, it took her quite some time to snap out of her reverie. Truth be told, when Appraiser Lin showed up yesterday, Li Xinqi never thought he’d pass the Rank 4 assessment.

She arrived at her conclusion because it was a Rank 4 appraiser assessment they were talking about. The bar was so high that the number of appraisers passing the assessment rarely went past one individual per year.

Many Rank 3 beast appraisers would try out for Rank 4 assessments each year but most of them failed, even if they were veterans at beast appraising.

Li Xinqi witnessed it herself. She had an acquaintance, a veteran beast appraiser who tried out for the Rank 4 assessment three consecutive times only to fail in each attempt.

That old appraiser possessed great skill and vast knowledge. Even so, he failed to become a Rank 4 appraiser. To think Appraiser Lin passed at the first attempt.

He was even allowed to teach here at Heavenly Spiral Academy.

Incredible.

Then, Li Xinqi was reminded of her good friend, Tan Lin’s evaluation of Appraiser Lin.

‘It’s no wonder Tan Lin admires this Appraiser Lin so much. Right, Appraiser Lin said he would be hosting a public lecture tomorrow. I have to attend it!’ Li Xinqi made an internal decision.

She wasn’t as talented as Tan Lin. Compared to her peers in the academy, Li Xinqi was only an average student.

It was next to impossible for someone like her to be accepted by a Rank 4 appraiser as an apprentice.

But now, she saw a ray of hope.

‘I must attend tomorrow’s public lecture,’ she repeated to herself in her mind.

Lin Jin was obviously unaware of Li Xinqi’s intentions. He was thrilled when he discovered the Beast Appraisal Pavilion yesterday, but he was also upset because he couldn’t enter the place. Now, he finally had the authority to enter its vicinity.

“Appraiser Lin, this is the Beast Appraisal Pavilion. Perhaps no other place in the whole of United Continent can compare to the scale of this tower. There are four floors in the pavilion with a total of seventy-two rooms. Ten of them contain phenomenal mysteries,” Wang Xin explained.

Lin Jin nodded to the explanation, but his eyes were darting around the place wildly.

He could smell the aura of various beasts.

“The Beast Appraisal Pavilion boasts a collection of tens of thousands of beast samples. We even have the full set of the ‘Full Beast Evaluation Report’, arranged and gathered by pavilion masters throughout the years. Every five years, new content would be added into the collection and incorrect information would be removed. It’s the most important treasure our Heavenly Spiral Academy could ever possess.”

Wang Xin spoke with great pride whenever he talked about the Beast Appraisal Pavilion.

Indeed, the Full Beast Evaluation Report consists of at least several hundred books. In these books, one would find appraisals and introductory notes for beasts from various regions. In other words, it was the encyclopedia of encyclopedias.

Lin Jin knew this. In fact, he thought that the Full Beast Evaluation Report was something like the Museum of Deadly Beasts.

However, the museum was much more mysterious, phenomenal, and comprehensive.

At the very least, the museum allowed him to appraise creatures no matter how rare or abnormal they were. It could give him clear and concise answers with all the details he needed.

Nothing else could compare to this.

“On average, only Mr. Zhong would be in the Beast Appraisal Pavilion to supplement the Full Beast Evaluation Report. Other appraisers would sometimes come by too.” Wang Xin pointed to the second floor. “But Mr. Zhong isn’t here right now. Looking at the time, he should be giving his direct disciples a lecture at the moment.”

Lin Jin nodded.

He mused, ‘This is a great opportunity.’

“Appraiser Wang, I’d like to look around the pavilion. Please go on ahead and don’t mind me,” Lin Jin said. Wang Xin didn’t think much of it either.

After all, Lin Jin wasn’t the first person here. All the new lecturers would come and check out the place too, due to its legendary status within the beast appraiser community.

“Alright then, Appraiser Lin. I’ll refrain from disturbing you anymore.” Having said that, Wang Xin saluted Lin Jin before departing.

Only Lin Jin was left inside this vast Beast Appraisal Pavilion.

Although he was alone, Lin Jin was sure that there must be a security system that guarded this place.

Lin Jin vaguely sensed a unique aura. Discreet as it may be, it definitely existed.

This aura felt similar to a monster’s energy.

But Lin Jin could ignore it since he wasn’t an outsider. He was an official lecturer of Heavenly Spiral Academy now so his presence here at the Beast Appraisal Pavilion was justified.

Unable to contain himself further, Lin Jin began collecting samples starting from the first floor.

The first floor had fifteen rooms which were filled with densely packed cabinets. They looked like the tiny drawers one would see in medicine halls but instead of herbs, the drawers contained beast samples.

Outside the cabinets were books that recorded whatever was inside the drawers. Of course, it was only a rough record that did not contain many details.

Lin Jin began taking them out one by one, touching them as he did so.

Some were tufts of fur, some were teeth or claws, there were even tails, and scale pieces. Lin Jin completely ignored the notes placed next to these samples. After touching them, Lin Jin simply returned them to their drawers.

After all, they would all be recorded into the Museum of Deadly Beasts upon making contact with Lin Jin.

“Sabertooth pig, Rank 3…”

“Mighty four-armed gibbon, Rank 4…”

“Earth cow, Rank 2…”

“…”

Lin Jin recorded them one by one. Although it was a time-consuming process, there was no doubt that it would raise the number of recorded beasts in the museum. Shortly after, Lin Jin had already added over a hundred new entries into the museum.

That was faster than collecting them outside, and many rare beasts were included in this mix.

“What a great place!” Lin Jin rubbed his hands together in glee.

To outsiders, Lin Jin was simply fooling around, rummaging through the inventory. After all, he merely opened the drawers, looked inside, touched the sample, and then put them back, rinse and repeat for the other items. Normal beast appraisers would never be so hasty when they were truly researching the samples.

Roughly an hour later, Lin Jin finished recording all samples in the first room. Without wasting any time, Lin Jin rushed into the second room.

As Lin Jin was recording beast samples to his heart’s content, someone inside one of the rooms on the fourth floor lost its focus on the book it was reading due to the commotion downstairs.

With a shift of its body, the entity appeared outside the door.