Lin Jin was just trying his luck by posing the question. After all, he knew how unlikely it was going to be for anyone to provide him with reliable clues.
Yet, to his surprise, he did obtain reliable information in return.
One of the villainous experts came up and bowed at him.
“Curator, several days ago when I was rushing over, I came across something like this.” This villainous expert was dressed in odd clothing and grew out his mustache. There were black and blue circles around his eyes and Lin Jin wondered if he was punched or born with such an appearance. His pet beast was an equally devastated-looking vulture. The creature was huge but dispirited. Most of its feathers had fallen off and it looked upset no matter how one saw it.
Subsequently, the man began to speak of his encounter.
He had heard of Curator’s name before so when Evil Scholar issued a summon for all villainous experts, he had rushed over from the neighboring South Continent only to encounter something strange during his journey.
“Curator, since ancient times, Taoists and Buddhists do not share paths. But that day, I saw a rather handsome monk following behind a Taoist. This was very odd because that Taoist was old and ugly but was traveling with a handsome monk. I’m not being discriminant but it’s just too strange. Right, that Taoist had held onto a rope, leashed around a white ape…”
Lin Jin’s brow immediately furrowed at this.
The rectors of Daluo Temple had yet to leave as well so they were shocked when they heard the elaboration.
“Our junior disciple, Zhi Yin does indeed have an exceptional appearance. Could it actually be Zhi Yin who was following behind that old Taoist?” the rector of Prajna Hall spoke up.
However, that villainous expert refused to show Daluo Temple’s monks any respect so he ignored the Prajna Hall’s rector’s question.
Evil Scholar stepped forward instead and saluted. “Venerable One, this friend of mine is Wang Tuzi and he has an odd temper. Please don’t feel offended by him. As for whether the handsome monk he mentioned was Daluo Temple’s Master Zhi Yin, he wouldn’t know either because he hasn’t met him before.”
Evil Scholar was being reasonable so the Prajna Hall’s rector nodded and thanked him before saying to Lin Jin, “According to this good man, there’s a huge possibility that the monk in question is Zhi Yin since there is a white ape too. There can’t be so many coincidences in the world.”
Lin Jin nodded in agreement.
He thought so too. Even if it was a misunderstanding, this was worth verifying.
Thus, he asked Wang Tuzi where he saw the old Taoist and Wang Tuzi just happened to remember the place well.
“At the border between Grassy Continent and South Continent, in Qi Long Town. I only swept a glance at them during the time without paying much attention so I don’t know where they went after that. However, Qi Long Town is connected to United Continent, Grassy Continent, and South Continent. If they were coming from United Continent’s Jade Dragon Kingdom, they were probably heading to South Continent since if they were to go to Grassy Continent, they would have gone in the same direction as me.”
Despite his shoddy appearance, Wang Tuzi was quite smart.
Subsequently, he relied on his memory to briefly describe the monk and white ape’s characteristics. The handsome monk aside, at least from Wang Tuzi’s description, Lin Jin was seventy percent sure that the little white ape being stringed along by that old Taoist was White Ape.
After cross-checking with the monks of Daluo Temple, they too were mostly sure that the handsome monk Wang Tuzi met was Zhi Yin.
The possibility had now shot up as Lin Jin had studied probability in school after all.
According to Wang Tuzi, he met them two days ago, and if the group had been traveling on foot, they couldn’t cover a distance of over a thousand miles in two days. Although the chances of meeting them may not be high if he pursued them now, it was still better than wasting time here.
Due to urgency, Lin Jin planned to leave at once. The fox in his arms, Shang’er sensed something and with a wag of her tails, Lin Jin was levitated into the air with Goldy.
This was Object Manipulation performed by the now Rank 5 monster, Shang’er.
“Shang’er, wait a moment!”
Lin Jin caressed the little fox’s head before turning to the crowd. He invoked a spell and the water reservoir scale in his possession sent out a wave of aura.
They could see mist fogging up from the ground.
“Cloud, condense!”
Lin Jin grasped a fist with one hand and the crowd felt humid air continuously seeping out from the ground below their feet, rising up above. They looked up to see a piece of clear cloud forming thousands of feet above them.
The clear cloud was rolling like a satin ribbon.
A vague breeze swept over as rain seemed ready to fall.
Lin Jin was now levitating tens of feet in the air, saluting the monks and experts who came to his aid.
“Everyone, I will be heading out for an investigation. I am truly thankful to all of you for coming all this way, so allow me to thank you with this spirit energy rain.” Having said that, he was ready to fly away.
Chen Ruyuan suddenly spoke up, “I wonder if Curator can tell me how Appraiser Lin is doing?”
Lin Jin looked down to see it was Chen Ruyuan asking the question. The man knew that it was Lin Jin who faced the divine lightning that day, so if Curator was here at Daluo Temple, how was Lin Jin?
Not only Chen Ruyuan, but Ye Yuzhou and the others also wanted to know. In fact, the most curious person would be Jade Dragon’s emperor, He Qian.
Floating in the air, Lin Jin smiled faintly and answered, “That disciple of mine was slightly injured after enduring that divine lightning but he is fine.”
Having said that, he abruptly sped up and flew at a speed swifter than birds by several folds, disappearing before their eyes in a flash.
“Amazing!”
The monks of Daluo Temple felt their hearts race at this sight. Not only them, but the many villainous experts and highly capable monsters present also knew that flying was the toughest skill to learn.
Birds could soar in the sky because they had wings. Experts had to be supported by mana to fly. Either by the usage of artifacts, clouds, or even other means, it was practically the same difficulty.
To fly plainly by oneself worked too. It was simple and direct, but achieving speed would be difficult.
Be it the height, speed, or distance, it seemed like Curator planned on flying directly to South Continent and that was too much. At least no villainous expert or cultivated monster present was able to achieve that.
In actual fact, they didn’t know the truth and Lin Jin was surprised too. He wasn’t using Carrier Cloud but instead, this was Shang’er using Object Manipulation to help them fly. Shang’er was controlling his and Goldy’s body.
This speed was at least two to three times quicker than riding an eagle. It didn’t take long for them to fly out of one of Daluo Temple’s neighboring cities, arriving at a vast mountain.
They were probably hundreds of miles away now.
“Shang’er, that’s enough. It exhausts too much of your mana to make me fly.” Lin Jin patted her on the head. “Also, your injuries have healed now so you should be able to take on a human form again.”
The little fox kept quiet while Lin Jin’s speed maintained. Following behind them was an eagle beast who was almost out of sight. However, that wasn’t too big a problem. So long as Lin Jin had the unique whistle, he could find the eagle even if they were several hundred miles away. Even if the distance kept increasing, the eagle was still following behind them.
It wasn’t until they reached Grassy Continent’s borders, about five hundred miles away from Daluo Temple, that Lin Jin’s speed decreased.
Shang’er was visibly exhausted. After landing Lin Jin down at a safe spot, she curled up into a ball and fell asleep.
Lin Jin knew she had exhausted too much mana. Fearing that her previous injures have yet to fully heal, he didn’t disturb her and continued carrying her in his arms instead.
Goldy had been dragged on for the flight so the journey made him dizzy. He was thoroughly dissatisfied upon landing and was now flapping his wings making weird noises.
Lin Jin figured it was best to maintain Curator’s identity for the job.
At this thought, he kept his appearance and summoned a cloud to carry him ahead to ‘Qi Long Town’.
This new speed surely couldn’t compare to Shang’er’s Object Manipulation but it was quick enough.
In just five minutes, Lin Jin arrived at Qi Long Town. From the moment Wang Tuzi told them the clue until Lin Jin’s arrival, only ten minutes had passed.
That was fast enough.
Right after Lin Jin had left, rain started pouring at Daluo Temple.
Spirit energy rain.
Formed by condensing the spirit energy in the environment using Lin Jin’s water reservoir scale. This was also one of the scale’s phenomenal functions. Lin Jin had performed this spell to help the crowd improve their pet beasts’ strengths. If any pet beast was suffering from stubborn illness, it would gradually recover as well. The spirit energy rain didn’t fall only at the foot of the mountain but nourished even Daluo Peak.
Both the monks of Daluo Temple and the villainous experts and monsters below were stunned by this rain.
“Curator is amazing after all!” one of the monsters couldn’t help exclaiming as he enjoyed the rain on his body.
