“Curator, this will be difficult. My brothers are currently eyeing the throne fiercely so no one would possibly listen to me. Also, even if I talk to my father about this, he’d never approve of it, as opening the royal treasury is a grave matter,” Feng Ziqian explained.
Lin Jin merely continued to stare silently at Feng Ziqian. Being on the receiving end of this look, the prince knew that Curator was determined to see his request fulfilled, so he said, “Alright, alright, let me think. Maybe I can come up with a plan.”
Feng Ziqian began pacing back and forth in deep thought.
This evidently seemed like a tough request and Feng Ziqian was seriously considering a solution. Moments later, he looked up and tried, “Curator, the chances of me succeeding is incredibly low. If you have time, why don’t you drop by our Heavenly Spiral Kingdom and ask them personally?”
Everyone was dumbstruck.
They were surprised by how brazen Feng Ziqian was to actually try to use Curator as a part of his scheme. Everyone knew that he was contending for the throne, and to have Curator visit Heavenly Spiral Kingdom for his sake would increase the chances of him succeeding.
Feng Ziqian was no fool as he continued, “Curator, this request isn’t just made out of personal interest. I’ll admit, I do hope that Curator can help me out, but apart from that, even if Father agrees to let you read Daojun’s Hieroglyphic, removing the book from the treasury is out of the question. You’d still have to make a trip to Heavenly Spiral to read the book.”
That made sense.
Lin Jin pondered for a bit. Daojun’s Hieroglyphic was really important to him, and from the clues he had gathered thus far, he was sure that Daojun was probably a ‘transmigrator’ just like himself.
Although this all sounded absurd, it was probably true. After all, Lin Jin did actually transmigrate here, so there wasn’t any reason why there couldn’t have been someone else who had experienced the same thing.
However, this was only his personal speculation. To confirm it, he would need solid evidence, and Daojun’s Hieroglyphic was the simplest evidence there was. For this item, it was worth a trip to Heavenly Spiral.
However, Heavenly Spiral was extremely far away. It was then that Lin Jin remembered, in order to advance his rank any further, he would have to receive approval from the headquarters of a premium nation’s Beast Appraisal Association.
Jade Dragon Kingdom could only approve beast appraisers up to the third rank.
With this, Lin Jin found another reason to head to Heavenly Spiral Kingdom, but it was by no means his only reason. He was interested in seeing how highly ranked beast appraisers worked with his own eyes, and he would also help Tan Xun deliver special treats to Tan Lin.
Lin Jin made up his mind.
This trip to Heavenly Spiral Kingdom must be done!
Lin Jin would visit the Kingdom as himself, so as to not raise too much suspicion. After all, he had no idea how long the trip would take, and it could even last up to two months. He also had to make arrangements at Maple City and this was probably the end of his career as chief of the association.
Lin Jin had also promised the Emperor of Jade Dragon Kingdom, He Qian, that he would meet Curator in person, so that had to be done before he could set forth on the upcoming journey.
Now that he thought about it, there was so much to do.
After retreating from the Visitation Hall, Lin Jin started his preparations. Coincidentally, on the second day, Lin Jin received mail from Jade Dragon City’s Beast Appraisal Association Headquarters.
“It’s Appraiser Tan Xun!” Lin Jin opened the letter, surprised by how precise the timing was. Previously at the royal capital, Lin Jin’s demonstration of skill earned the respect of Tan Xun and Chu Chenghe. They even affirmed that Lin Jin’s capabilities were enough to make him a Rank 4 beast appraiser.
However, Jade Dragon Kingdom’s headquarters did not possess the authority to grant such a high title so they made the promise that they would report this to the headquarters of a premium country, to see if they could secure a recommendation for Lin Jin using their connections.
And it worked.
In his letter, Appraiser Tan Xun mentioned that Heavenly Spiral’s headquarters had agreed to conduct the examination but Lin Jin was required to travel to Heavenly Spiral City. As for the details of the examination, it would be decided upon Lin Jin’s arrival.
This coincided perfectly with Lin Jin’s plan.
Perhaps Tan Xun was worried that Lin Jin wouldn’t go so he tried his best to persuade the young man with his letter. He was also aware of Lin Jin’s current position, so he explained how obtaining the qualification of a Rank 4 beast appraiser was far better than being the chief of Maple City’s Beast Appraisal Association.
From his writing, Lin Jin could tell that Tan Xun was genuinely concerned for his future and that warmed Lin Jin’s heart.
Lin Jin wrote Tan Xun a reply letter saying he would take his advice and would prepare for his journey to Heavenly Spiral Kingdom. He also requested their headquarters to dispatch a successor to take over his position as chief of Maple City’s branch.
This process might take several days and for the time being, Lin Jin had to make arrangements for those at home too. As he would be gone for at least a month or two, he didn’t plan on taking anyone with him. He also had to take care of Zhao Ying, Lu Xiaoyun, and the rest so Lin Jin wrote down some study material so they could continue learning even without him.
Speaking of which, his apprentices were all highly skilled now. Be it Zhao Ying, Lu Xiaoyun, Han Dong, or Jia Qian, they all possessed the qualification of a Rank 1 beast appraiser. Lin Jin was confident that they could probably fare better than that. In other words, all four of them might just pass the next appraiser qualification exam.
And Lin Jin felt comforted by their growth.
Ye Yuzhou dropped by in the morning to deliver Daojun’s biography. Lin Jin thanked the old man and chatted with him briefly before the latter took his leave.
Later on, after arriving at the Beast Appraisal Association, Lin Jin began flipping through the biography, reading it earnestly.
This biography was clearly a compilation of various legends and although some of the stories were obviously false, Lin Jin now had a rough idea of what Daojun had done in the past.
The more he read, the more Lin Jin was sure that Daojun was just like him.
The man was also a transmigrator who most probably owned the Museum of Deadly Beasts.
Lin Jin’s speculation was not baseless. He recalled the Qiao family’s heirloom, the Visitation Hall’s token for visitor number three.
Since this item existed in the outside world, wasn’t it solid evidence that the Visitation Hall was already operating even before Lin Jin obtained the Museum of Deadly Beasts?
Otherwise, why would the visitor’s token be left outside?
There were also tons of questions that followed suit, for example, why was token number three left behind? Why were tokens number four, five, and six assigned to new owners?
Of course, these new owners were He Qing and co.
Also, just like number three, were tokens number one and two left outside as well?
If that were the case, where was token number one and two right now? Was it Daojun who had access to the Visitation Hall the last time?
All of this remained a mystery.
Right, there was also the Demonic Appraisal Association.
Considering how elaborate their plan was to rob the Qiao family of token number three, did they know of the secret behind the tokens? Now that they had taken the Qiao family’s token away, where was it now?
Before he knew it, Lin Jin’s thoughts had gone astray. Time flew by and at some point, Zhao Ying approached him and said meekly, “Master Lin, there’s a young lady named Zhao Jingyan waiting outside, and she claims to be a friend of yours!”
