While Lin Jin was working on his five elemental fire pill, Ye Yuzhou summoned Yang Jie with a grave expression.
Since exiting the Visitation Hall, Ye Yuzhou had been contemplating how he could turn the situation around and get the curator to change his impression of Ye Yuzhou. Of course, it won’t be done too explicitly but he had to do something about it.
First, he would urge Yang Jie to stop provoking Lin Jin.
Yang Jie did not sleep a wink that night. He was excited because he knew Ye Yuzhou had gone to request an evolution method for his pet beast. When his teacher finally summoned him, Yang Jie hurried over immediately with his pet beast.
The moment he saw Ye Yuzhou’s face, however, Yang Jie could tell something was off.
As if his teacher had been dealt a heavy blow, the older man seemed exceptionally tired and disheveled.
Ye Yuzhou’s next statement baffled Yang Jie.
“Yang Jie, I’ve called you here to tell you something important. Henceforth, you are not to provoke Lin Jin. You cannot afford to.”
Ye Yuzhou wanted to add ‘Even I can’t afford to provoke him’, but he changed his mind at the last moment.
He could never say that so restricting Yang Jie was his only option now.
Given the current situation, Lin Jin was most probably the curator’s disciple. At first, Ye Yuzhou had been apprehensive about it but he soon realized something else.
There were always two sides to a situation, good and bad.
At times, a good thing might turn bad, while other times, a bad thing might turn out to be good.
Ye Yuzhou was at the top in many aspects, including his cultivation level, status, and prominence. Not to mention the fact that his pet beast was at Rank 4. No doubt, he was a highly-ranked individual in Maple City. Almost nothing could fluster him. Almost.
Except for the curator.
After his last trip to the Visitation Hall, the curator had explicitly declared his dissatisfaction for Ye Yuzhou, and Ye Yuzhou deduced the cause of this to be Lin Jin.
Since he now knew the truth, he needed to come up with a strategy. The curator was furious so not only did he refused to answer any of Ye Yuzhou’s questions, but he wouldn’t even take the medicinal ingredients Ye Yuzhou offered.
This was a serious matter.
Ye Yuzhou knew he needed to compensate to gain the curator’s forgiveness.
Hence, his first act of business was to warn Yang Jie against provoking Lin Jin.
Meanwhile, the positive side to this was discovering an opportunity to get closer acquainted with the curator. Just like how waterfront pavilions had the advantage of receiving the first rays of moonlight. He was in a favorable situation.
The curator’s disciple was in Maple City, right here in the Friar Association. Was there anything else better than this?
If he got on Lin Jin’s good side, that equated to getting on the curator’s good side. Ye Yuzhou would only keep this information to himself, of course.
Ye Yuzhou thought of another possibility. He might even be able to meet the curator outside the Visitation Hall.
After urging Yang Jie to do as ordered, Ye Yuzhou sent him away. He had to make a trip to the Spirit Library to get Lin Jin’s ‘outer imagery’ book archived into the library.
Ye Yuzhou was aware that the curator’s impression of him had a direct link to his pet beast’s evolution so he had to be extra diligent.
Yang Jie returned to his quarters, baffled.
“What is going on?” Yang Jie couldn’t understand it all.
Why did his teacher suddenly urge him not to provoke Lin Jin?
On what ground?
Yang Jie felt aggrieved.
His teacher had told him nothing else. Yang Jie knew his teacher well. Ye Yuzhou didn’t stay silent because he forgot but it was because he didn’t plan on telling Yang Jie about it at all.
Yang Jie was obviously frustrated.
He was ready to teach Lin Jin a grave lesson in the disciple’s tournament but his teacher ended up restricting him at this crucial moment. Anyone in his position would be just as peeved.
After a moment of anger, Yang Jie calmed down and began surmising the possible reasons.
His teacher wouldn’t have told him to stay away from Lin Jin for no reason. Something must have happened.
However, Yang Jie was completely in the dark.
“Could Lin Jin have a strong backer?” Yang Jie shot off a random guess.
This was highly possible.
But, so what?
Yang Jie naturally wouldn’t disobey Ye Yuzhou’s orders but the disciple’s tournament was an open competition. Nothing could be considered provocation there.
Yang Jie would still compete in the tournament and he now felt a stronger desire to embarrass Lin Jin there. Only with this could his resentment be eased.
However, he kept his teacher, Ye Yuzhou’s ‘warning’ in mind. At the very least, he now knew that Lin Jin did have some tricks up his sleeve.
Rumors began to spread about Lin Jin’s pet beast being at Rank 3.
Coupled with his blood contract level which was on the fourth realm, it was apparent that the man was a formidable opponent worthy of Yang Jie’s attention.
“Did you think I didn’t have a trump card as well?” Yang Jie smirked as he drew out something from his shirt pocket.
It was an exquisite little wooden box.
Sealing this antique-looking box was a disintegrating amulet.
Yang Jie gently lifted the seal and a strange fragrance wafted out.
It was the smell of medicine.
Yang Jie’s white peacock was instantly unnerved. The scent obviously had a strong influence on pet beasts.
Yang Jie opened the box to reveal a pill.
This was something Yang Jie coincidentally found hidden deep in a cave in some random valley as he was traveling.
Yang Jie never told anyone about his discovery, not even Ye Yuzhou.
After all, everyone had their own little secrets.
When he came across this cave, Yang Jie knew it was a ruin left by ancient immortals. It thrilled him.
However, it was just a simple tiny stone room without anything valuable.
Except for this pill.
This pill was found inside the wooden box. This wooden box’s material was a mystery to Yang Jie as it managed to stay intact after so long. The pill’s medicinal effects were also sealed by the amulet, thus allowing it to stay effective after thousands of years.
Yang Jie found many ancient writings carved inside the stone room’s walls back then. As he didn’t understand them, he secretly made a copy instead and had been researching them for several months now.
It was then that he realized the incredibility of this pill. It was an immortal’s pill used to greatly enhance one’s cultivation level and power.
It was not uncommon for modern people to stumble into immortal ruins, where they would find leftover pills from eons ago. However, they also learned that modern humans were unable to consume these pills, and those who did found them to be of little to no effect. That or the effects would be so overpowering that they would die from poisoning. Only a scarce few were able to keep their lives after taking such a risky endeavor.
Surprisingly, pet beasts were able to consume them without much issue. In most cases, the pet beast would grow significantly stronger after taking such pills.
Yang Jie kept this miraculous encounter a secret and neither had he spoken of the pill to anyone. He was saving it until he reached a bottleneck, for instance, until after he promotes his pet beast to Rank 4. Perhaps his pet beast could even evolve to Rank 5 after consuming it.
Of course, there might be other possibilities besides ranking up. Accidents might happen. After all, there was no saying what other effects came with the consumption of this ancient pill.
Yang Jie never gave it to his white peacock because he felt it wasn’t time yet and he wasn’t confident enough.
But now, he felt it was time to wager a bet.
Lin Jin was too much of a threat to him. The man’s reputation had been steadily rising and might have already surpassed him. Hell, even a single lecture by Lin Jin contained more insight than ten of Yang Jie’s lectures thus far. And with Lin Jin’s cultivation level and pet beast rank, it was only natural for Yang Jie to feel threatened.
Thus, he planned to let his pet beast consume the pill.
Yang Jie told the other disciples he would be going into seclusion and no one was to disturb him.
After entering the seclusion room, Yang Jie cast a spell to seal off the room before taking out the pill and feeding it to his white peacock.
“White Peacock, you’ve been with me for so long. Whether or not can you evolve will be up to you now so no matter what happens, you have to endure it.” Through their blood contract, Yang Jie blessed his pet beast with enhancement spells.
At first, the white peacock showed no reaction after taking the pill. But shortly after, it began shivering terribly and shrieked in pain.
The medicine had obviously begun to take effect.
Yang Jie could also sense some of his pet beast’s pain through their blood contract.
The shadow of doubt grew in his heart.
If the pill’s effects didn’t turn out to be what he expected, things could get messy.
However, there was no retrieving a fired arrow. His only option now was to continue down the dark path. Yang Jie tried his best to help his pet beast to endure the medicine’s powerful effects.
At the Friar Association, Chen Cheng’s subordinate returned with new updates.
“Senior Yang has gone into seclusion?” Chen Cheng was stunned.
But soon, he understood why. There were only a few days left until the disciple’s tournament so Senior Yang must have gone into seclusion to increase his cultivation level.
There had been many rumors flying about recently. The one that concerned Chen Cheng the most was Lin Jin’s pet beast.
Supposedly, Lin Jin’s pet beast had achieved Rank 3.
Upon hearing this news, Chen Cheng felt slightly unnerved. This proved that Lin Jin’s capabilities were almost on par with Yang Jie’s.
With this, Yang Jie’s chances of winning against Lin Jin in the tournament would be slimmer. He didn’t have an absolute advantage anymore.
It wasn’t hard to imagine Chen Cheng’s resentment when Lin Jin humiliated him by chasing him out of his lecture under the watchful eyes of the crowd. Chen Cheng had been holed up for the past few days, trying to think of ways to deal with Lin Jin.
Due to his past failure, he was also reprimanded by Chen Wenlin so Chen Cheng was in a foul mood right now.
Since Chen Wenlin partnered with Wu Chenwei to start their pill business, the former’s prestige has been on the rise. They even overtook the Shi family to become Maple City’s most influential family in the process. Chen Yuanyuan had been getting more pompous too and was beginning to look down on this cousin of hers. Whenever Chen Cheng requested to see her, she would make up an excuse to reject him.
“Great. Everyone’s looking down on me. One of these days I’ll have you all surrender to me,” Chen Cheng said through gritted teeth.
He too planned to go into seclusion.
He knew full well he couldn’t match up to strong contenders like Lin Jin and Yang Jie but he could at least hold his ground against other contestants.
For example, Lu Yunhe or Xue Bao’er.
Chen Cheng decided he would force his way into the top three no matter what by defeating either Lu Yunhe or Xue Bao’er.
After all, his strength was on par with Lu Yunhe. Both had third realm blood contracts and both their pet beasts were at Rank 2 so it was a fair competition. For the past year, he had put in a lot of effort, coupled with Ye Yuzhou’s guidance, he couldn’t possibly be weaker than Lu Yunhe now.
As for Xue Bao’er, Chen Cheng felt somewhat confident that he could beat her too. He had received quite a number of pills from Chen Wenlin recently for his and his pet beast’s consumption, resulting in a significant increase of both their strengths. He had also been diligently honing his spell-casting ability just so he could surprise his opponents during the tournament.
