“Mystic water turtle, a Rank 6 immortal beast, water attribute.”
“Status: Dead.”
***
Lin Jin slowly recovered from his shock as he continued reading the description provided.
This large turtle must have been a staggering existence back when it was alive. Given its impressive rank, it could be safely classified as an immortal beast.
However, no matter how amazing the creature, there would always come a time when it becomes an empty remnant of its past glory. This Rank 6 immortal turtle was the perfect example of that. After passing on one thousand years ago, its shell actually became a branch location for the Demonic Appraisal Association, a place where they built houses and practiced sorcery.
Now that the turtle’s shell had been split in half by White Ape, its spirit energy had begun to dissipate so it slowly started to capsize. At least it could finally rest now.
Just then, Lin Jin sensed something. He darted into a distance about several hundreds of feet away to stare into the shell’s crack with an amazed expression.
“Why do I still detect spirit energy coming from below?” Lin Jin muttered to himself. Forming a cloud below his feet, Lin Jin jumped into the crevice.
There was a hole inside the turtle shell. The shell wasn’t in perfect condition anyway so it came as no surprise that there was such crevices. If White Ape hadn’t landed that punch, perhaps no one would have found this place.
It was here that Lin Jin found something glowing.
As he got closer, he noticed it was a hexagonal scale piece.
There were countless tiny scale pieces inside the turtle’s shell, and they were all dark and unexceptional. This was the only piece that contained powerful spirit energy that Lin Jin had never sensed before.
It was good stuff.
It was definitely good stuff.
Even without appraising it, Lin Jin was sure of that. Still, an appraisal was required so he reached over to touch it. Sure enough, he was immediately thrilled by the result.
Just as he deduced, the scale piece was a treasure.
“Water reservoir scale, accumulates water spirit energy and essence of immortal beasts!”
Based on what he got from the museum, there was nothing more valuable compared to this item. Lin Jin immediately retrieved the scale piece.
Holding the scale in his hand, Lin Jin felt a peculiar sensation. He could actually sense the humidity around with great clarity and also the water energy of the lake.
Lin Jin even felt an impulse, that if he just imbued some of his mana in the item, he could manipulate the water at will.
Of course, Lin Jin didn’t do that. Now wasn’t the time to be experimenting with newfound powers, and his assumption of being able to control water was just a misperception. After all, certain spells had to be cultivated before he could use them effectively.
However, he had no doubts that he could use this scale piece to manipulate water.
After scanning the place to confirm there were no treasures left, Lin Jin exited with his Carrier Cloud. By then, the two pieces of turtle shell were almost underneath the surface of the lake. Many of the demonic appraisers and pet beasts’ corpses were now submerged in water.
Lin Jin turned to look at Elder Song whose body was now partially underwater and mumbled to himself, “How ironic. You’ve constantly been on the prowl for treasures, but you were completely ignorant to the fact that the world’s most precious treasure had always been under your feet.”
Such was the absurdity of life.
Lin Jin knew that he had been incredibly lucky this time. If he hadn’t come to Reed City, he wouldn’t have met the demonic appraisers. If he hadn’t traced the problem to its roots and located this place, he wouldn’t have found Turtle Island. And if White Ape hadn’t dealt that astonishing punch, splitting the island in half, Lin Jin wouldn’t have found the water reservoir scale hidden inside the turtle’s shell.
If even one of the steps had gone wrong here, the outcome today would have been drastically different.
“It’s also fortunate that you’re all dead. Otherwise, you would have died from anger realizing that you’ve just missed out on such a valuable treasure.” Having said that, Lin Jin stepped on a cloud piece as Turtle Island gradually disappeared beneath the water.
By now, the fog around had practically cleared up. Lin Jin had a hunch that it was this piece of scale that was the reason why Turtle Island was shrouded behind a near-impenetrable layer of fog.
Now that the turtle shell was destroyed and the scale piece fell into foreign hands, it was only natural that the fog disappeared.
“Let’s go.” Lin Jin made a sweeping gesture and a piece of cloud lifted White Ape up, dropping them at a nearby shore.
Lin Jin made another discovery. After the water reservoir scale came under his possession, he found it easier to perform Carrier Cloud. As the spell was a form of water manipulation, the water reservoir scale was able to enhance spells of similar attributes.
The scale surely had even more benefits but further research would have to take place in the future.
At Reed City, the Qiao family had now cleaned up their yard. Escort Zhang became a valuable guest of the family. As for the authorities, although they kept pressing for questions, due to the Qiao family’s prominent background, they weren’t able to gather much information so they left without anything meaningful.
Inside the guest hall, Escort Zhang had told the family all that he knew.
Qiao Feigong said, “And we don’t even know if Appraiser Lin will return. He had left in such a hurry too after helping us out so much. If he doesn’t come back, we’ll just have to travel to Maple City to thank him. Right, when that happens, we might even need Escort Zhang to come with us as well.”
Upon hearing this, Escort Zhang smiled. “As I should, as I should.”
Just then, a servant came to inform them that Appraiser Lin has returned.
“What?” Qiao Feigong rose from his seat excitedly. He quickly ran outside. Fearful that his father might trip and fall, Qiao Xing hurried after him. To his surprise, this young man almost couldn’t catch up to Qiao Feigong.
It was plain to see how excited Qiao Feigong was.
Lin Jin had returned.
At first, he hadn’t planned on doing that, but after reading Elder Song’s letters, he changed his mind.
The Demonic Appraisal Association didn’t target the Qiao family for their wealth but instead, for a treasure they had been keeping.
However, Elder Song’s letter didn’t specify what this ancestral treasure was and Lin Jin didn’t come back for said treasure either. He just wanted to warn them about it.
Although he had eliminated this Demonic Appraisal Association branch, there were seven other branches, and of course, their headquarter, which was even more powerful.
If they couldn’t find Lin Jin, their path to vengeance might just lead them to the Qiao family instead.
After all, it wouldn’t take much to figure out that the branch was annihilated because they tried to make a move on the Qiao family.
Hence, a warning was appropriate.
As for that ancestral treasure, he would mention it briefly. If they were willing to tell him about it, then great. If not, Lin Jin wouldn’t force them to spill the beans either.
Just then, Qiao Feigong appeared.
“Appraiser Lin!”
Qiao Feigong was slightly out of breath from jogging over.
Lin Jin knew why the Qiao family was so excited. Speaking of which, he was quite fond of them as well so Lin Jin felt morally obliged to warn them about the potential threat.
After Lin Jin was invited in, the Qiao family was delighted. Escort Zhang came out to receive him as well. The city lord’s arrival might not even warrant this much attention.
Now, only the core members of the Qiao family were allowed to remain in the guest hall. Escort Zhang was permitted to stay because he was the de-facto mediator between them and Appraiser Lin. Thus, the man was treated as a valuable guest.
Without wasting time, Lin Jin simply told the Qiao family who their enemy was.
