“Heavily injured, near death, but can still be rescued!”
This was the museum’s diagnosis.
With a solemn expression, Lin Jin immediately carried Little Five in his arms and began treating her on the spot.
First, he used the pulse-seeking technique to stanch the bleeding. Then, he fed her a pill to help with her condition. Lin Jin carried quite a few of these around with him just in case situations like this one happened.
Still, Little Five’s injuries were horrible. Even Lin Jin dared not make any guarantees as her organs were also damaged as well, and she was still unconscious.
Shang’er chewed her lip nervously. Her hands and body were covered in blood but Lin Jin could tell it wasn’t only Little Five’s blood. No way a mere fox can bleed that much.
This blood belonged to someone else.
“Master Lin, you have to save Little Five!” Shang’er blurted out, unable to hold herself back. Lin Jin nodded without stopping his hands. Fortunately, his mastery of the pulse-seeking technique had reached an exceptional level. He could even use it in the place of some other tools to stitch up the wounds.
Then, Lin Jin took out some of the herbs he had brought with him. With no time to process them, he simply chewed on them and smeared the paste over Little Five’s wound.
It was an emergency.
Lin Jin was fully focused the entire time. Thankfully, everything went well.
“Little Five needs rest. I’ll pelletize some specialized medicine for her later but her life is no longer in danger now.” Right after Lin Jin said this, Shang’er wailed out loud.
She had been holding back this entire time.
Little Five was her biological sister who went through thick and thin with her all these years, looking after the other fox cubs with her. It was already remarkable enough for her to be able to hold out for so long.
Lin Jin turned to the pitiful Shang’er. He waited until she was done crying before he asked, “What happened?”
Shang’er immediately fell to her knees. “Master Lin, Shang’er killed someone.”
After listening to Shang’er’s story, Lin Jin finally learned what had happened.
After descending the mountain, Shang’er immediately went to the scholar’s village in search of Little Five, a place she discovered after tailing Little Five last time.
But she noticed something wrong upon arrival.
There were a lot of Grassy Continent natives there.
Shang’er knew something was going on but she didn’t bother to find out. She snuck into the scholar’s yard discreetly and what she saw triggered her urge to kill.
“I saw Little Five being chained up and covered in wounds. That scholar she loved was just standing there.” Shang’er gritted her teeth.
Lin Jin didn’t interrupt her. Things shouldn’t be this simple as a mere scholar couldn’t possibly be strong enough to hold Little Five down.
Confirming his suspicion, Shang’er said, “There were many Grassy Continent natives in the yard. I even recognize one of them. It’s the one that came to Mount Zoroku back then, the person named Ruba.”
Lin Jin recalled meeting such a person.
“Little Five was caught by these native and was horrendously tortured. I was so furious that I rushed right in to save Little Five,” Shang’er confessed in a small voice.
Lin Jin didn’t blame her.
Given those circumstances, it wasn’t odd for her to feel an urge to kill. Even Lin Jin might not be able to suppress himself if something like that happened to him.
Enraged, Shang’er obviously didn’t hold back. According to her, she killed multiple natives in that yard including said their pet beasts. The blood on her body belonged to these natives.
That Ruba also died in her hands.
Lin Jin nodded.
This was natural. Shang’er was a Rank 4 monster who learned Demonic Transformation from Lin Jin. Those natives’ pet beasts were only Rank 2 or 3 at most, so it didn’t matter how many beasts they had with them.
But the problem was, how did they capture Little Five?
Lin Jin found out immediately after.
That scholar whom Little Five had been infatuated with seemed to be working with the Grassy Continent natives.
If he was the one who schemed against her, Little Five couldn’t possibly have seen it coming.
Lin Jin didn’t care about any of this. He was thinking about what would come. Little Five was exposed as a monster and Shang’er killed to save her sister. The Grassy Continent natives wouldn’t just let this go and the authorities would definitely take action. It wouldn’t be surprising if this incident was to stir up a huge commotion.
A storm was brewing.
If this had nothing to do with him, Lin Jin would never try to get involved. But now, he couldn’t possibly leave Shang’er and Little Five be, so no matter what happened, Lin Jin would have to defend them.
Also, the Grassy Continent natives might just be on their way here right now.
Lin Jin would never underestimate anyone, especially his enemies.
Glancing at the unconscious Little Five and then at the cave, Lin Jin shook his head.
They couldn’t relocate right now. Little Five needed to rest while Xiao Huo was still evolving in there. If his evolution process was disturbed, that might spell trouble.
It was a desperate situation but Lin Jin had to calm down and come up with countermeasures.
First, if the natives showed up, a huge battle was inevitable. Hence, Lin Jin’s first order of business was to think about what he would do if a fight broke out.
The combat ability on his side.
Lin Jin glanced around. Shang’er was invincible on her own but Lin Jin didn’t want her to attack if he could help it. She was a monster and drawing more attention wasn’t a good thing.
He wasn’t trying to be a worrywart, but if they weren’t careful enough and provoked the scarce few experts in the Jade Dragon Kingdom who had Rank 4 pet beasts, things might just get worse.
Other than Shang’er, Lin Jin still had the shadow wolf and Goldy. He could handle them on his own. The great white ape couldn’t expose itself either as it was precisely what the natives were looking for. If they did find the creature, it would be harder for Lin Jin to explain things.
At this, Lin Jin made a decision.
“Shang’er, take Little Five and the others into the cave. Remember, don’t come out until I give the orders,” Lin Jin instructed sternly.
Shang’er intended to say something but when Lin Jin glared at her, she kept quiet and bowed at him. Then, with Little Five in her arms, she led the fox cubs back inside the cave to hide.
“Goldy, get your *ss back here!” Lin Jin yelled at the top of his lungs.
In such situations, Goldy was an indispensable combat force. Although he had a tendency to roam freely around and Lin Jin would never restrict him, during crucial moments, he would still listen to Lin Jin’s commands.
Shortly after calling out, Goldy could be seen flapping his wings as he hurried back. Hanging from his beak was a fat worm so he must have been out searching for food.
With Goldy around, Lin Jin was much more at ease.
Come to think of it, among the pet beasts that followed Lin Jin around, including Xiao Huo, Goldy had the strongest bloodline and the most potential. Even the shadow wolf’s ‘specter’ bloodline couldn’t compete with Goldy’s ‘Golden Crow’ bloodline.
Xiao Huo who didn’t have any hidden bloodline at all couldn’t even compete.
In terms of growth, Goldy’s potential was limitless. Even if a similar ranked creature were to battle him, Goldy would still come out on top. Lin Jin was sure of it.
When combating strong opponents, Goldy was most reliable.
This was all Lin Jin could do now.
But wait.
Lin Jin realized he overlooked something. And that was himself.
Exposing his identity would just attract trouble later on. If things didn’t go well, wouldn’t he have to offer his life in exchange?
Hence, his identity mustn’t be exposed.
At that moment, Lin Jin could hear the cries of an eagle.
Their pursuers were here.
In a moment of desperation, Lin Jin tore a piece of bark from a nearby tree, gouged two holes, and then tore a piece of cloth from his robes to make a simple mask.
This was the best he could do for now.
The large eagle seemed to have noticed something around here so it began circling in the sky. In addition, howls of wolves could be heard from a distance.
Shortly after, more than ten enormous great plains wolves appeared.
They belonged to a large breed of wolves from the Grassy Continent and were renowned for their extremely ferocious nature as well as their keen sense of smell. They could track a target from hundreds of miles away just by a whiff of their scent.
Even if they managed to hide from the eagle beasts, they couldn’t evade the great plains wolves.
Lin Jin wore his robes backward and coupled with his tree-bark mask, no one should be able to recognize him, for now.
He issued orders to both Goldy and the shadow wolf. Despite not being bound by a blood pact, both beasts remained loyal to Lin Jin’s instructions.
The specialty of a Rank 3 beast was gaining an ability to change size at will.
Both Goldy and the shadow wolf grew to their maximum size.
Lin Jin wanted to drag this on for as long as he could. Though, considering that Shang’er had killed a few of the natives, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that the other party wouldn’t let this go easily.
Sure enough, the great plains wolves went for an attack immediately.
These great plains wolves were about the size of bulls with sturdy physiques and sharp claws and teeth. It was an intimidating sight, how they simultaneously charged at Lin Jin with their teeth bared.
Lin Jin sighed. He took a step forward and reached out a palm, activating his intermediate deterrence ability.
This reward from the Museum of Deadly Beast was one of the skills Lin Jin could actually use in a battle.
In an instant, as if they were being suppressed by an invisible force, all the great plains wolves slowed down while some simply stopped in their tracks. However, due to distance, the potential of Lin Jin’s ability wasn’t maximized.
It seemed like this deterrence ability also had a shortcoming. It was limited by distance.
Still, this was shocking enough. The natives who had been hiding nearby, controlling their pet beasts were currently forcing their partners to advance through their blood contract connection. However, what they could usually do was suddenly not working today.
This painted a very odd scene. On top of the hill was one man with two large beasts. As vulnerable as he seemed, their wolves were refusing to advance further.
It was just strange.
There were obviously more natives to come. Soon, the ground began to shake as several large Grassy Continent beasts knocked away the trees, storming over in an aggressive manner. Many natives were riding on these creatures and a rough estimate told Lin Jin there were at least a hundred people.
Under the tree-mask, Lin Jin’s eye twitched.
‘Did they need this big an army?’
He initially assumed only dozens of people would pursue them, but who knew so many experts would appear out of nowhere. From this, he figured that Shang’er must have killed quite a few prominent figures on their side. Otherwise, they wouldn’t possibly have mobilized so many people.
However, no matter how huge the trouble, as their teacher, Lin Jin had to see it through.
