Once her problem was resolved, He Qing happily stepped back.
Meanwhile, Old Tian smirked on the inside, musing, ‘The curator’s obviously brushing you off. Only a naive girl like you will believe him.
‘You deserve to be deceived.’
Though he obviously wouldn’t say this out loud. The memory of his Rank 3 pet beast being frightened out cold by the curator was still fresh in his mind.
“Right, Curator. I got some of the medicinal ingredients you requested, but there are some I’ve never even heard before.” Suddenly remembering this important detail, He Qing quickly took out a wooden box.
It seemed to be filled to the brim.
Upon receiving it, Lin Jin found quite a few valuable herbs inside. If converted to money, these materials should be worth more than ten thousand taels.
The lass was truly generous.
For this reason, Lin Jin decided he would fulfill her wish. Even if Lin Jin wasn’t fond of her sister, he would make a trip to Jade Dragon City for He Qing.
Since He Qing initiated it, the others suppressed their requests for now and took out their collected items, revealing their treasures.
Jiang Ziqi’s set was most complete. One could tell how much effort he had put into this task but there were still a few valuable items missing.
Perhaps he couldn’t find them.
Black Crow brought quite a few as well they were mostly rare and priceless treasures.
For example, the ‘exotic fire crystal’.
Citizens of Maple City had never even heard of this item before. During pelletization, bits of it could be added to the process to greatly enhance the pill’s quality. To think Black Crow managed to obtain it.
“Not bad!” Lin Jin accepted it. Although Black Crow had been unruly at first, his attitude turned out to be much better after being enlightened.
Hence, if Black Crow had anything he needed help with, Lin Jin would do his best to provide assistance.
The quality of Madam Ghost Child’s loots was also surprisingly high. Among them included some very vital ingredients.
Of course, there were definitely overlaps in their collected materials but they also complemented each other for what was missing. With this, all that Lin Jin required was successfully gathered.
This delighted him.
It would have taken him several years to collect everything and he might not even have the full set by then. The financial and experience cost would also be enormous.
The benefit of having this Visitation Hall was incredibly clear by now.
Old Tian didn’t bring anything at all, but it was alright. Since he didn’t contribute, Lin Jin wouldn’t reward him either.
Ye Yuzhou had brought a wooden box but Lin Jin didn’t accept his offering. He didn’t even look at it either and returned it to Ye Yuzhou.
This struck the older man dumb.
He wasn’t aware that of Lin Jin’s second goal today. The first one had already been achieved, but this one was still in progress.
Apart from Old Ye, the curator accepted everyone’s offerings except his own without even checking it. As a man of experience, Ye Yuzhou knew immediately that something was wrong.
This flustered him.
This seemed awfully a lot like the times he was being offered tea by his disciples. When Ye Yuzhou wasn’t satisfied with a student, he would deliberately refrain from accepting his or her tea.
It was to display his discontentment.
Slightly smarter disciples would immediately notice that they had annoyed their teacher.
Subsequently, they would ask where their faults were in hopes of making it up to their mentor.
Those situations looked just like this one.
Ye Yuzhou clearly wouldn’t dare to keep up appearances before the curator. He knew he must have offended the curator somehow or the man wouldn’t be this prejudiced against him.
But what did he do wrong?
Ye Yuzhou didn’t understand.
The curator was currently answering Black Crow’s question.
Black Crow’s inquiries were also issues pertaining to evolving a pet beast from Rank 4 to 5, issues that Black Crow couldn’t possibly solve on his own.
However, the curator answered each one of his questions. Black Crow learned a lot and kept thanking him after that.
This made Ye Yuzhou envious.
He had too many questions he wanted to ask but now, he didn’t know how to voice them out.
As for requesting an evolution method for Yang Jie’s pet beast, Ye Yuzhou had completely forgotten about it. He couldn’t even ask his own questions so how could he even bother with Yang Jie’s pet beast?
Jiang Ziqi asked questions as well but they were about treatment methods for pet beasts. Similarly, the curator responded with profound answers.
During the entire process, Ye Yuzhou felt like a cat on a hot tin roof. It felt like torture and everyone else could tell.
The curator was clearly being prejudiced toward Ye Yuzhou.
However, no one dared to speak up for him. Even He Qing assumed that Ye Yuzhou might have done something to upset the curator.
Ye Yuzhou was now like a fish being tossed onto dry land.
Left there.
To bask under the hot sun.
Ye Yuzhou was at his limit. He took a step forward to say something.
He had to be the one to break this impasse.
And yet, before he could speak up, the curator abruptly said, “Old Ye, if there’s nothing else, you can leave first.”
Ye Yuzhou felt like he was struck by a thunderbolt.
This was just like the tone and method he used on his disciples when they made mistakes.
What was going on?
Ye Yuzhou’s mind was in chaos. With his current status, to be treated this way without being told a reason was obviously appalling for him. It even angered him.
He wanted to leave. The worst-case scenario was just never to return here again.
But frankly speaking, he didn’t have that kind of courage.
At his age, how many more opportunities to break through could he find? Especially when his pet beast’s level was much more important than his cultivation realm. A pet beast’s rank decided a country’s standard and just this one point proved how important ranking was.
His soaring cloud flood dragon had been stuck in Rank 4 for a while now. Had it not been for this chance encounter, meeting the curator, Ye Yuzhou was certain that his pet beast couldn’t ever evolve until death.
He had previously sought out renowned beast appraisers but none of them could help. Only the curator managed to give him an evolution method so the man’s capabilities were not to be doubted.
Hence, for his pet beast to evolve, Ye Yuzhou could only opt to rely on the curator. That was his only choice.
Although the curator already gave him an evolution method, evolving a Rank 4 pet beast to Rank 5 was too complex. If Ye Yuzhou were to figure it out on his own, it might take even three to five years.
Ye Yuzhou didn’t want to wait. Even if he could, he didn’t want to be on bad terms with the curator without knowing why.
It was unfair.
Even in court, offenders had the right to be told what they had done wrong before being penalized.
Mustering his courage, Ye Yuzhou stepped forward and saluted. “Old Ye is confused. May I know if I’ve offended the curator in any way? If it’s my fault, I’ll be sure to set things right.”
Beneath his mask, Lin Jin smiled, musing, ‘I certainly won’t tell you about how you’ve angered me in the Friar Association. If I did, wouldn’t I be exposed? So, sorry but I’m just going to annoy you today just for the hell of it.’
However, he couldn’t not answer. And so, Lin Jin scoffed. “Figure out how you’ve offended me on your own. When you’ve realized it, you can come here again.”
How blissful.
Lin Jin reprimanded Ye Yuzhou in a pompous manner, rebuking this number one mentor of the Friar Association as if he was the man’s senior.
Of course, once Lin Jin’s anger subsided, he would stop making things hard for Ye Yuzhou. But now, he definitely wouldn’t clarify the man’s concerns.
Also, Lin Jin noticed a feather in Ye Yuzhou’s hand.
A white feather.
He probably wanted to request an evaluation report and evolution method.
Ye Yuzhou was probably asking for Yang Jie, hence, shutting the man up now could save him the trouble of rejecting this request later.
As the disciple tournament would soon take place, how could Lin Jin possibly help Yang Jie’s pet beast evolve? That was just making things hard for himself.
This was the biggest reason for Lin Jin’s bias against Ye Yuzhou this time.
Otherwise, if Ye Yuzhou were to request Yang Jie’s pet beast’s evolution method, Lin Jin would be forced to make a decision.
Ye Yuzhou actually lowered his head to ponder, as if trying to figure out how he offended the curator.
Lin Jin ignored him.
He glanced at Madam Ghost Child and the latter stepped forward.
He didn’t say anything. As he gave Madam Ghost Child a treatment method last time, he only had to examine her pet beast now. The creature was in better condition but still required some patching up.
Using the coiled wire needle technique, Lin Jin helped Madam Ghost Child’s pet beast regulate its veins, dissolving the medicinal effects it had accumulated over time.
It was the group’s first time witnessing Lin Jin’s acupuncture technique. They were gaping, surprised that such a technique existed in this world.
A long while after, Lin Jin retrieved his needles.
“Alright, he should be fine now. You only have to follow the treatment regimen I gave you with diligence. In several months, he should make a full recovery but it will be difficult for him to return to his former glory.”
Lin Jin’s statement startled Madam Ghost Child. She could tell there was an underlying meaning in his words.
Lin Jin had researched Madam Ghost Child’s babyface spider in the museum. This creature used to be a powerful Rank 5 beast but its rank dropped due to fatal injuries.
In other words, whatever that harmed this babyface spider, it was undoubtedly a Rank 5 or higher.
Lin Jin didn’t clarify the last time but he had to this time.
After some thought, he asked, “Madam Ghost Child, your pet beast was originally a Rank 5 but was degraded when he suffered grave injuries. To keep him alive, you resorted to using symbiosis. What I’d like to know is how he got injured. Could you tell me about it?”
Not only was Lin Jin curious, but he also wanted to see if he could get a DNA sample of the being that harmed this babyface spider. Perhaps its fur or a blood sample. It might just be a Rank 6 beast.
Maybe it was a friar?
A great being like that didn’t exist in this timeline. No friar could rely on his own strength to injure a Rank 5 beast.
Madam Ghost Child said, “Curator, I will tell you about this in detail later. I have another request to make.”
As she spoke, she took out the bowl of rotten-smelling blood.
“This is the blood of an old friend of mine. Just like me, he’s currently using the symbiosis method and doesn’t have much time left. We’re hoping that the curator could help but he couldn’t come in here so I got you his blood sample.” What Madam Ghost Child presented was Coffin Man’s blood.
Lin Jin flicked out a needle, letting it take a sample of blood back to him.
The museum immediately gave a response.
“Rank 4 Zombie Cthulhu. Attributes: Wood, Earth!”
“Status: Heavily injured. Bound by symbiosis!”
What appeared before Lin Jin was an invertebrate that looked a lot like a jellyfish. It was like a head with ribbons growing out of it, or more precisely, tentacles. In short, it looked creepy. The creature could even survive on land.
It was also Lin Jin’s first time hearing the name ‘Zombie Cthulhu.