As the crowd speculated and mused, the noise outside drew closer.
“They’re here!”
In most cases, if it wasn’t an especially auspicious year, the Emperor, his royal family, and palace officials celebrated the event in the palace, away from the commoners.
The Emperor would take part in the festivity alongside his people only on rare occasions.
By no means was this such a year, but His Majesty had decided to celebrate together with the common folk. At that moment, His Majesty and the palace officials were waiting atop the Jade Dragon Platform in the temple’s plaza. This platform was in the shape of a circle and connecting it to the ground were three separate stairs, each with the same twelve steps. Surrounding the Jade Dragon Platform were imperial guards, so forget getting onto the platform, commoners couldn’t even get close to it. They could only gaze upon His Majesty’s through the gap between the imperial guards.
The Jade Dragon Festival celebration proceeded according to the schedule without major hiccups.
As the host of the event, Lin Jin had to ascend the Jade Dragon Platform.
Dressed in his ceremonial robes, Lin Jin approached the platform whilst maintaining a composed appearance. At that moment, the officials gasped at how young Appraiser Lin was.
However, what baffled them even more was how the pet beasts of the imperial guards as well as the officials all bowed down before him as Lin Jin ascended the platform.
They had never seen anything like this before.
In fact, some had already noticed this strange occurrence since earlier.
People often brought their pet beasts along with them to view the procession, hence why the streets would often be filled with the howls and cries of beasts. However, this year, other than the sound of instruments, there were no other noises. Every pet beast remained eerily silent as if they all were suddenly taught to behave.
Some people attributed this occurrence to the spiritual presence of the jade dragon deity’s spirit, while others came up with different explanations. However, those who were slightly knowledgeable figured out that it must have something to do with Lin Jin.
Immediately, the royal officials’ impression of Lin Jin was shrouded with a layer of mystique.
However, He Qing wasn’t surprised at all.
This was a supernatural ability unique to ‘Curator’, so as his disciple, it was only natural for Appraiser Lin to have it too. For some reason, He Qing felt proud about it too.
Meanwhile, He Yu watched Lin Jin in silence, and it was obvious she was thinking about something.
It was time for Lin Jin to recite some hymns and blessings prepared for him in advance. On the whole, the symbolic meaning of the event was greater than the actual meaning behind it.
Lin Jin was just powering through anyway because his waist was sore, his legs were hurting, and his throat was dry. It was a pity he couldn’t drink water right now, or rather, he hadn’t had a drop of water to drink since this morning. In the past, he was able to hold out without drinking water for several days, but now, he was surprisingly near to giving up.
‘Let’s hurry and get this over with.’
Lin Jin forgot how many times this thought had surfaced in his mind.
On one side below the stage were the beast appraisers from headquarters. Yu Mantang was upset by the sight of Lin Jin on the stage. He felt nothing but envy at that moment.
He had been a Rank 3 beast appraiser for one year now but had yet to be given an opportunity to put his name out there.
‘I refuse to believe you’re an exceptional prodigy. Let’s just see how you handle the lot drawing segment later,’ Yu Mantang thought.
Despite knowing that his thoughts were inappropriate, Yu Mantang still prayed for Lin Jin’s failure.
In fact, many shared the same thought. After all, there were many veteran appraisers who, like Yu Mantang, had yet to get their chance to shine, so they would be lying to say they weren’t jealous of Lin Jin.
This applied especially for those appraisers who were still stuck at Rank 2 after decades of failed attempts at breaking through to Rank 3. To their dismay, a young brat like Lin Jin had actually risen above them. Even after that incident involving Yang Qingshi, they still weren’t convinced.
Hence, many people were praying that when Lin Jin would be assigned a Rank 3 or at least a Rank 2 beast so he could humiliate himself onstage later on.
The chances of him drawing a Rank 3 beast was relatively low since there weren’t that many Rank 3s around, but a Rank 2 was still highly possible.
Finally, the cumbersome and dull ritual had come to an end. Lin Jin heaved a sigh of relief too. At that moment, he swore to himself that he would never attend a ceremony like this ever again.
“Next, I will be drawing lots to see who will be receiving my blessing today.”
Lin Jin had rehearsed this before. In this segment, a highly respected individual would draw one lot from the pot three times and a position would be selected based on the lots drawn. The tiles in the Jade Dragon Temple were hexagonal in shape, and not without reason. There were eighty-one lots in this pot and after picking three, a tile’s position would be confirmed, and the person standing on that tile would earn an evolution opportunity for his or her pet beast.
This was where the host would reveal his skill by evolving the pet beast up one rank.
This segment was also a favorite among most folks. It was like a huge lucky draw where the selected winner would get a huge prize that could very well change their destiny.
After all, wasn’t a pet beast’s evolution akin to changing one’s destiny?
Under normal circumstances, as host of the event, either Lin Jin or the temple’s attendant would be the one drawing lots. However, if His Majesty was present, such honor would obviously be reserved for the Emperor.
Tan Xun and the others had informed Lin Jin of this rule beforehand so Lin Jin invited His Majesty over to pick the lots. Even for an Emperor He Qian was exceptionally well-dressed for the occasion. He slowly made his way over in a majestic display and saluted the heavens and the jade dragon deity, as their customs dictated. Then, he gave a superficial speech that Lin Jin remembered nothing of. It was probably something along the lines of the heavens blessing the jade dragon, and the jade dragon blessing the country, which would guarantee the continued success and safety of its people.
After a long-winded speech, He Qian finally picked up the pot and shook it.
Clack!
The first bamboo lot fell out. Someone quickly picked it up and presented it to He Qian respectfully. He Qian glanced at it and chuckled. “Primary Earth, not bad.”
Indeed, that wasn’t bad.
The temple attendant held the lot up, revealing it to the public.
Next, He Qian shook the pot for another lot. This lot read ‘Bright’. Although rare, this lot had once appeared in the past. However, for ‘Bright’ and ‘Primary Earth’ to appear after each other was indeed a rare occurrence.
With two lots drawn, the rough position of today’s winner could be calculated. When the temple attendant revealed the second lot, over a hundred people in the southeast corner got excited.
After all, these two lots represented the area in which they were standing No matter what the third lot was, it had to be somewhere within their area.
Those in other areas were visibly disappointed.
However, everyone knew that only one person would be picked in the end.
However, that might not necessarily be the case. Among the many tiles they were standing on, there was a very unique one.
That was Jade Dragon Temple’s ‘Sleeping Dragon Stone’.
There were many legends behind this tile but what set it apart from the rest of the tiles was the fact that it was the largest tile. In most cases, there would be more people standing on it. The tile could fit at least five to six people along with their pet beasts.
However, out of the entire Jade Dragon Temple, there was only one Sleeping Dragon Stone, so the probability of drawing this tile was one in ten thousand. This was why virtually no one was that unlucky to draw said tile in the past couple of decades.
Although the Sleeping Dragon Stone was located in the particular area which the lots pointed towards, there was only a one in a hundred chance of drawing said tile.
