“Xiao Huo!” Lin Jin called out.
Covered in flames, a fire wolf the size of Lin Jin’s palm leaped out from his arm. The flames on Xiao Huo’s body were translucent like a glazed fire crystal, emitting blazing light that illuminated the entire den.
Many jade dragons that had been hiding in the dark were surprised by the light. Some were dazed while others scampered away to take refuge in nearby tunnels. It was pure chaos down here.
The den was now as bright as day, so it no longer seemed as scary as it was before.
Upon closer observation, one would realize that the den wasn’t actually very deep, just about two hundred feet more and they would reach the bottom of it. Leading He Yu along, Lin Jin continued his descent.
Xiao Huo’s light illuminated every single corner of the chasm.
One could say that the Jade Dragon Cave had never been this bright since it first came to be.
Senior Mo’s jaw dropped. In fact, when Lin Jin summoned a cloud earlier, Senior Mo was already dumbstruck.
“Walking on clouds is a skill that belongs to an immortal. Could he be…” Senior Mo’s claws that it had kept hidden behind its back began to tremble uncontrollably.
The dragon went silent instantly.
At the bottom of the cave, He Yu glanced around curiously. Although she was supposed to pick out a pet beast, it was actually Lin Jin’s responsibility to decide on which one she would pick.
With all the tunnels extending deep into the lair’s walls, the place shared structural similarities to a beehive. Now that most of the jade dragons were hidden away, picking out a suitable dragon was impossible.
Lin Jin took a deep breath and unleashed his deterrence ability, saying, “Jade dragons, please come out. I vow to bestow upon whoever is chosen a new body and I shall assist you in seeking the authentic path to a dragon’s Godhood. Think wisely. This will be your only chance.”
Then, Lin Jin waited.
Jade dragons were born into Rank 3, but creatures of the same rank did vary in essence. Some Rank 3s were inferior, flawed even, just like the ones who were summoned up earlier. It wasn’t forbidden to pick them, but should one of them be chosen, the path ahead would be filled with obstacles. Even at his level, Lin Jin considered it to be a difficult task, so what more to say of a regular beast appraiser?
The ‘path to a dragon’s godhood’ that Lin Jin mentioned was not the same flawed path which the jade dragon deity used to simply declare itself as a sacred being. Now, they just had to wait and see if a jade dragon with potential would know what’s best for them.
After a while, jade dragons began to poke their heads out of the numerous tunnels on the walls.
Rank 3 jade dragons had enough intelligence that gave them the ability to think. With the Beast Deterrence as the stick and the path of godhood as a carrot, it was only a matter of time before the right jade dragon approached them.
Sure enough, more jade dragons began to appear. They either flew or crawled out of their tunnels. The number of dragons that revealed themselves was in the hundreds.
There were too many jade dragons that He Yu started feeling a little dizzy. Lin Jin swept them all a glance before choosing a jade dragon that seemed to be covered in white jade. He extended a hand and made a grabbing gesture.
“Come here!”
Influenced by the Beast Deterrence, that white jade dragon was completely powerless. Incapable of resisting Lin Jin’s will, it allowed itself to get sucked over by an invisible force. Senior Mo broke into laughter at this.
“Hah, that’s the best you can do? After picking left and right, you chose the worst out of the lot!? This one’s worst than the ones I’ve gathered earlier,” Senior Mo ridiculed with a smirk.
The white jade dragon had now come forth and it was so frightened that it was trembling in fear. Upon careful observation, while this creature may be a rare white jade dragon, there were too many impurities in its body and the jade bloodline wasn’t pure enough. What’s more, one of its horns was broken so it looked like a flawed beast.
No matter from which angle they looked at it, this white jade dragon was far inferior compared to the ones that went up the altar earlier.
And yet, a glint flashed in Lin Jin’s eyes as he looked at this cowardly, inferior, and outwardly disabled jade dragon like it was a priceless treasure.
He went over and touched the white jade dragon’s head, repeating, “Good, good, wonderful!”
Then, he turned to He Yu and said, “This is the one!”
He Yu was stunned. She was surprised by Lin Jin’s decision since the white jade dragon genuinely didn’t seem like much. Though, since he had made his choice, she would stand by it no matter what.
“Alright!” He Yu nodded.
Lin Jin was satisfied. He Yu wasn’t the pompous type who would cast doubt at his choice at times like these so that was good.
With a wave of his hand, Lin Jin summoned a cloud to bring him, He Yu, and the little white jade dragon back to the dragon selection altar. He didn’t put Xiao Huo away. With the little guy there, the place was much brighter and comforting.
At the altar, He Qian and the others gathered around. They were equally stunned when they saw the dragon Lin Jin had chosen.
He Qian mused, ‘What’s going on? After choosing left and right, this one is worse than the jade dragons from before.’
However, He Qian was shrewd enough to not voice out his doubts at such a moment. Still, he couldn’t hide the curious look on his face.
With He Qian being so, the two princes were even more baffled. They seemed hesitant to speak. They too probably shared the opinion that the chosen jade dragon was too mediocre.
Perhaps it was even worse than mediocre. Any jade dragon from the batch they had been allowed to choose from just now was miles ahead of this one.
Still, no matter how confused and skeptical they were, they remained silent.
They were able to exercise self-restraint, but not Senior Mo.
“Hahaha, and here I thought this human would be amazing. To think you chose the worst jade dragon of our cave. Hilarious! This is just hilarious! He Qian, if you’d said you wanted this one, I would have given it to you right away. Forget one, I can even give you a few more.”
Mockery and ridicule were evident in the old dragon’s tone.
He Qian remained silent.
He didn’t know what to say. That little white jade dragon hung its head. Perhaps it was aware of its own shortcomings, it remained silent too. However, Lin Jin stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Senior Mo.
“I beg to differ. The jade dragon I’ve chosen possesses the quality of a true dragon. It wouldn’t even be an exaggeration to say this dragon has the best essence in this entire cave,” Lin Jin remarked.
“Bah! Utter nonsense! Do you know what the actual quality of a true dragon is?” Senior Mo was aware of how formidable Lin Jin was, and it was evidenced by his ability to walk on clouds.
However, the dragon refused to back down, especially after assuming that his knowledge of the truth was genuine. The dragon felt the desire to prove its point now even if it knew that Lin Jin wasn’t an average human.
Faced with Senior Mo’s challenge, Lin Jin paused to think before answering, “The true quality of a dragon is a form of assessment. There are hundreds of dragon species in this world so they are naturally divided into true and false. Dragons can achieve a true dragon status, but not all dragons have this opportunity. There can be thousands of carps in the river, but only one can pass the dragon gate. In other words, out of thousands of false dragons, there can only be one true dragon. And today, the dragon I have chosen is the only true dragon here.”
This was a blatant slap in the face, akin to pointing directly at Senior Mo and calling him one of the false dragons.
How could he ever endure this?
Consumed by fury, Senior Mo barked, “Preposterous! If you can prove that this trash possesses true dragon quality, I shall be your servant for the rest of eternity.”
