‘Who cares if you’re the number one disciple? Take your high and mighty act somewhere else. Do seriously you really think you’re all that?’
Clearly, no one had ever dared to speak to Yang Jie that way in the Friar Association. Whenever someone ran into him, they would obey him obediently and respectfully. Hence, this retort thew Yang Jie off balance for a moment.
When he regained his senses, Yang Jie’s expression darkened and he lifted his hand, performing a sweeping motion.
A gust of wind swept towards Lin Jin.
It was an attempt to push Lin Jin aside.
Lin Jin felt the pressure. He was evidently no match for Yang Jie when it came to spell-casting. After all, one was a professional beast appraiser while the other was the number one disciple of the Friar Association.
And so, Lin Jin could only forcibly resist the wind.
Although the wind pressure was strong, Lin Jin managed to stand his ground until it finally passed.
Upon seeing this, Yang Jie stepped forward, holding up a finger. Unable to dodge him, Lin Jin invoked a spirit energy finger as well.
This was one of the few offensive spells Lin Jin had managed to learn so far.
As both fingers collided, their spirit energies clashed.
Just as overbearing as Yang Jie himself, his actual strength exceeded Lin Jin’s and the power of this one finger was enough to hurt Lin Jin.
In fact, the clash ended up injuring Lin Jin.
After all, the man was number one among the Friar Association’s disciples and his placing was solid. If it was a duel between pet beasts, Lin Jin wouldn’t fear him. But this was a fight between men, and he was far inferior when compared to Yang Jie.
If Lin Jin hadn’t activated his coiled wire needle, forcing Yang Jie back off the moment he got hurt, Lin Jin would have been on the losing end.
Falling into a similar predicament, while Yang Jie was indeed amazing, he was no match against Lin Jin’s coiled wire needle that was an offensive skill under the pulse-seeking technique. When the needle pierced into his acupoint, half of his arm went numb almost instantly.
This frightened Yang Jie on the inside.
He was used to having his way in the Friar Association with no one daring to defy him. Whenever he ran into other disciples, it always ended up with the other party bending over backward for him, and this further fuelled his arrogant and domineering personality.
However, today was unlike any other day. Today, he had come across Lin Jin, who possessed a temper just as fiery as his. They exchanged blows as soon as there was a minor dispute, both getting hurt in the process.
Enduring the numbness in his arm and his boiling blood, Lin Jin continued forward.
‘Men should be tough when the situation calls for it.
‘I’m dead set on going against you today so if you’re not going to back down, let’s go at it again.’
Yang Jie was gritting his teeth with the same intention of holding his ground. While it didn’t seem like it, he was actually panicking on the inside because, for some reason, he couldn’t feel half of his arm. But this issue concerned his dignity so Yang Jie couldn’t possibly back down.
Both men moved forward and were about to knock into each other.
However, just as they were about to collide, they so very ‘tacitly’ turned to their sides, and with their torsos touching, they passed each other.
It was obvious how both of them were ‘forcibly holding out’. Neither of them wanted to fight again so in other words, as macho as they looked on the outside, they were so spooked that they made way for each other.
Neither looked back as Lin Jin went upstairs while Yang Jie went down.
When Yang Jie reached the second floor, he staggered and his legs almost gave way. He realized that not only did his arm lose all senses, but his right leg had also gone numb as well.
What in the world was that attack?
It goes without saying how shocked he was. Then, he felt a stinging pain in his armpit as if he had been pierced by something.
Reaching his other hand to feel around it, there wasn’t anything there.
Yang Jie naturally had no idea that Lin Jin had pierced and retrieved his needle immediately after the initial insertion. His coiled wire needle could be cast as he pleased and more importantly, it was eerily discreet.
By the time he forced himself out of the Levitation Stone Tower, Yang Jie’s forehead was covered in a glistening layer of cold sweat. He stood up straight and summoned his spirit energy to regulate his veins.
The disciples passing by were frightened to see Yang Jie and made their way around him after giving salutations, not daring to disturb him.
After a full thirty minutes, Yang Jie finally took his leave. However, he was now extremely apprehensive of that man he had met earlier. His plan was that once he got back, he would investigate at what point in time such a powerful figure emerged within the association.
On the third floor, Lin Jin was suffering just as much as Yang Jie did. The latter’s spirit energy finger’s level was far beyond his. Prior to this, Lin Jin only ever used the spirit energy finger for treating beasts so he didn’t have any battle experience with it.
After today, Lin Jin fully understood the meaning of ‘if you lose, you will have to suffer a beating’. And if he planned to secure first place in the tournament, he would have to overcome this huge mountain that was Yang Jie.
As he consumed an energy-gathering pill and treated his injury with acupuncture, a plan surfaced in Lin Jin’s mind.
All this while he had only used the coiled wire needle on appraising beasts. This was the first time he had used it in an actual battle and sure enough, the skill was discreet enough to not be detected by the enemy. Yang Jie didn’t even realize what technique Lin Jin used against him.
On the day of the tournament, Lin Jin would have to rely on this coiled wire needle to increase his chances of winning.
As for whether this would be deemed as using hidden weapons, Lin Jin couldn’t care less.
In a cultivator’s arsenal, the usage of hidden weapons and secret spells were included and most importantly, permitted so even if someone noticed what he was doing, Lin Jin had nothing to fear.
After a brief moment of recuperation, Lin Jin was well again.
His confrontation with Yang Jie today was unexpected which led to accidental enmity.
But so be it. Lin Jin never planned on becoming friends with him anyway. Moreover, the disciples’ tournament would take place two weeks later so they were destined to be opponents. And no matter how Lin Jin saw it, Yang Jie would be his greatest competitor during the tournament.
Once he recovered, Lin Jin continued assessing his spirit energy level.
Every assessment room on the third floor had three sets of spirit levitation stones, amounting to a total of thirty-six stones. Lin Jin went inside, cast the stone levitation spell and soon, twenty-nine stones floated in the air.
This was Lin Jin’s current limit.
Lin Jin tried to lift one more but was forced to give up in the end. He couldn’t do it.
A spirit strength of twenty-nine stones was frightening enough. Lin Jin was quite satisfied with this result as it was a full five stones more than Lu Yunhe.
Also, there was quite some time until the disciples’ tournament so Lin Jin could still improve himself.
Taking a look at the time, Lin Jin decided to return to the Beast Appraisal Association and tend to the thirty-five consultations he was allowed to do in a day. Based on his current speed, if he put his mind to it, settling thirty-five customers in half a day was no problem for him.
Back at the consultation hall, Lin Jin found a new plaque waiting for him so he asked what was going on.
Zhao Ying answered, “Someone had it delivered this morning. It came with a letter.”
Lin Jin took the letter and immediately understood.
It was from Chen Wenlin.
As expected, the older man wasn’t planning on giving up that easily. But wasn’t it too late for regrets?
Lin Jin decided not to bother himself with this. Since the plaque was already here, he would keep it. But if Chen Wenlin intended to change Lin Jin’s impression of the Chen family with this, the man could forget it.
He began appraising and treating pet beasts the normal way.
Once the consultation tokens were hung up for grabs, customers kept pouring into his consultation hall.
Now, in the Beast Appraisal Association, Lin Jin’s token was undoubtedly most highly sought after. Many people had come early in the morning just for the sake of securing Lin Jin’s consultation token.
Lin Jin had stopped relying fully on the Museum of Deadly Beasts to appraise and treat pet beasts. There were too many useful techniques shown in the museum that Lin Jin wanted to practice them in real life.
After all, the Museum of Deadly Beasts had appeared out of nowhere. Who knows if it might disappear just as mysteriously someday?
Lin Jin understood the need to be prepared for the worst. Hence, even if he lost the Museum of Deadly Beast one day, he could still rely on his own skills to appraise and treat pet beasts.
However, he would still record every pet beast that came his way.
Whenever he started appraising creatures, Lin Jin would be so engrossed in his work that he lost track of time. And today, there were quite a number of rare beasts among his customers.
Right after Lin Jin was done appraising a rare beast and recorded it into the museum, a loud and crisp chime resounded in the museum, alerting his mind.
Lin Jin was stunned. Then, he realized that the number of rare beasts recorded in the museum had surprisingly reached a total number of fifty.
With this, another martial arts technique was bestowed upon him.
After carefully reading through it, he realized that it was the Beast Energy Formation, Part Two.
