Indeed, Lin Jin had never read the Gushan Beast Appraising Mantra before. His vigor was limited after all. But with the Museum of Deadly Beasts in his arsenal, zero effort was required to appraise a beast through a piece of its scale.
Hence, Lin Jin didn’t speak up during the theory round. That wasn’t where he excelled at. But when it came to beast evaluations and writing reports, Lin Jin was second to none.
The museum had presented Lin Jin with the appraisal results.
Lin Jin was currently staring at a huge fish, feeling awestruck on the inside.
It was a carp.
Though, its size was slightly larger than your average carp.
The creature’s evaluation results were carved on the stone tablet. After reading it carefully, Lin Jin realized it was a ‘Yin River big carp’. Situated within the Northern Zhu Kingdom, the Yin River was said to be a huge, surging river. The Yin River big carp wasn’t considered a rare species and was hunted by the locals as a food source.
As a pet beast, Yin River big carps came with great limitations and it goes without saying that the main weakness is its need to remain in a body of water at all times. Just this point was a significant enough setback to make people change their minds about forming a blood pact with it.
However, as a food source, many folks of the northern countries loved them. While its scales were humongous, not all scales were equally resilient as this one.
Every Yin River big carp possessed one piece of scale as sturdy as this one, and it was called the ‘solid scale’. Some people collected solid scales to forge suits of armor and use them for personal protection.
What Ding Hong brought over was a ‘solid scale’.
All of these were recorded on the stone tablet as part of the contents.
Truthfully speaking, the Northern Zhu Kingdom was situated quite far away from the Jade Dragon Kingdom so the environment up there was obviously different. Had it not been for the stone tablet, Lin Jin wouldn’t have figured out that this scale came from a carp. To think that this species of fish was even a delicacy for the locals.
In terms of status, the Yin River big carp was merely a bigger than average species of fish, nothing more.
When Lin Jin was done reading, he took up a brush and began writing the results.
While the results were simple, the evaluation process had to be written in detail.
Lin Jin could relax on this one as the stone tablet provided him a comprehensive evaluation theory. Moreover, these theories were all susceptible to scrutiny. All Lin Jin had to do was understand the theories and copy them out.
As they watched Lin Jin beginning to pen down his verdict, everyone harbored different views.
The beast appraisers of Green River City thought nothing of him. They knew how biased and perplexing the Gushang Beast Appraising Mantra was. Only those who have studied the book before knew how profound its contents were.
It goes without saying how difficult it was to evaluate the creature just by its scale. Only by using the Gushan Beast Appraising Mantra could one get insight into the beast. Hence, none of them believed that Lin Jin could come up with a decent evaluation report.
Meanwhile, on Maple City’s side, Tan Lin was anxious. She was clinging to the hope that Lin Jin would create a miracle. Gao Jiang’s feelings were mixed. He wished for Lin Jin to do well in his evaluation, but at the same time, he wished for the opposite as well.
If their Maple City branch was humiliated, he would be equally shamed. But if they regained honor by relying on Lin Jin, Gao Jiang would feel upset.
Even the newcomers, Zhang Ze and Mo Huan were curious about the results after understanding what was going on.
Lin Jin was done writing. It was only a simple report of two pages. After all, a Yin River big carp wasn’t exactly a significant beast so writing its report was fairly easy.
When Ding Hong skimmed through the report, he abruptly burst into thunderous laughter.
“Appraiser Lin, you’re not kidding me, are you? I’ve never heard of any Yin River big carp and you’re even claiming that this is an edible fish instead of a beast. What nonsense.”
Ding Hong presumed that he finally found a breakthrough point.
Next, he would launch a tempestuous invasion, completely sweeping the floor with Maple City branch’s honor.
Lin Jin calmly asked in return. “Then what creature did you think this belonged to, Appraiser Ding?”
Wearing a proud expression, Ding Hong simply answered, “As per my evaluation, this scale belongs to a species of flood dragon. And it must be a rare beast being at least a Rank 3, otherwise, its scale wouldn’t be this resilient.”
A flood dragon!
That was an extremely powerful creature that was not only rare but also possessed great potential.
The crowd now understood.
Lin Jin’s evaluation was that this piece of scale came from a huge carp. And in his report, he mentioned that it was a commonly-found edible river fish.
Ding Hong, on the other hand, claimed that it came from a flood dragon.
No doubt, both results were worlds apart without any hints that might reconcile both findings. In other words, while neither of them might be a hundred percent accurate, one of them must be completely off the mark.
“Appraiser Lin, I’d like to see just how you came up with this evaluation report.” Ding Hong continued reading Lin Jin’s report. But when he got to the theory section, he was dumbstruck.
Written in detail were heavily grounded theories and most of them were classical practices. There were even parts of the content that Ding Hong didn’t recognize but based on these propositions, even he would agree that the scale came from a carp.
How was it possible?
Ding Hong refused to believe it.
However, Lin Jin’s theories were too well-founded. It was to the extent that he couldn’t pick out any flaws at the moment.
Seeing Ding Hong’s jaw drop without being able to fire a retort, everyone else got impatient.
Tan Lin couldn’t resist going over to take a look while Green River City’s Xu Anqiao too went over. They passed Lin Jin’s evaluation report around. Based on the theories penned down by Lin Jin, the scale was merely a fish scale that was larger in size.
The theories on inferences and investigation of the scale’s patterns, texture, and attributes were highly persuasive.
Upon laying eyes on this evaluation report, Xu Anqiao knew that the situation had gone south.
He was, after all, an expert in the field of appraisals.
He recognized standards when he saw one.
Without relevant skills, he wouldn’t have been able to secure his position as chief of Green River City’s Beast Appraisal Association anyway.
After examining this evaluation report, he knew that they had severely underestimated their enemy.
This Lin Jin was definitely a beast appraising expert.
It was also his first time seeing such a flawless evaluation report.
These theories were too well-grounded.
There was no room to refute his claims.
Could this truly be a scale from a huge carp?
Xu Anqiao’s expression darkened. In a moment of desperation, he came up with an idea.
He would deny it to the very end.
No matter how nicely written the report was, it was merely an assumption. After all, no one here had seen a Yin River big carp. If he insisted that it wasn’t true, Lin Jin would be the loser instead.
Of course, their goal wouldn’t be achieved, but this was the next best option they had right now.
At this, Xu Anqiao was about to stir things up.
However, all of a sudden, someone spoke up, “I heard that a restaurant in Maple City has recently imported fish from the Northern Zhu Kingdom. Some of the Zhu Kingdom’s merchants are also staying here. They must have heard of the Yin River big carp before. Why don’t we get them to take a look at the scale?”
‘That’s a great idea!’
Many eyes lit up in interest.
If someone from the Northern Zhu Kingdom had a look at it, the answer would surely become clear.
As Ding Hong refused to accept the thought of losing, he had someone invite the merchants over at once.
Xu Anqiao wanted to stop him, but under such circumstances, he wasn’t even allowed an opportunity to speak.
Soon, someone had brought the few Northern Zhu Kingdom’s merchants over. Tall and muscular with defined features, their appearances were fitting for Northern folk.
Once the situation was explained, one of the northern merchants chuckled loudly. “I see! Alright then. Lucky for you people, my house just so happens to be situated right next to the Yin River, and I’ve seen countless of these carps before. I’m not trying to brag, but I’m sure I can recognize its scale from half a mile away if I ever saw one!”
When Xu Anqiao heard it, his heart immediately thumped.
So a Yin River big carp actually existed!
