Lin Jin had stumbled across this scene unintentionally. He only peered in the man’s direction due to the powerful bestial aura he detected from him. This person’s Beastmaster Scroll cultivation must be quite profound.
Lin Jin also noticed the three rings on the man’s sleeve.
Is she cheating?
That was Lin Jin’s first reaction. Upon careful observation, he confirmed it was so.
A Rank 3 beast appraiser’s knowledge couldn’t be compared to a Rank 2 beast appraiser’s. Since he was passing information to Jiang Fengfeng in code, it couldn’t have been more obvious that he was helping her cheat.
He was using his fingers, palms, wrist, and even elbows to convey different messages. If the recipient was trained to communicate in code, both sides could easily converse like normal people without uttering a single word.
That was how Jiang Fengfeng was trying to cheat.
Now that she had collected enough information, Jiang Fengfeng revealed a cheeky expression and cast a glimpse at Tan Lin who seemed to be racking her brains on the other side of the hall. With a confident smirk, Jiang Fengfeng continued writing.
Seeing this, Lin Jin shook his head.
If this was the case, Tan Lin couldn’t possibly win.
No matter how capable she was, she couldn’t compete against two people who were working together. This was supposed to be a beast appraising competition so it was utterly deplorable for her rival to resort to such despicable means.
Because Tan Lin was so focused on solving the mystery, she didn’t realize what was happening at all.
After a thought, Lin Jin decided to help her out. Although Lin Jin couldn’t touch that feather dangling in the air as well, based on his current appraisal skills, he was able to tell a lot just by looking at it.
He was at least better than that Rank 3 beast appraiser who was helping Jiang Fengfeng cheat.
After all, Lin Jin had the support of the Museum of Deadly Beasts. Months of practice had helped Lin Jin raise the standard of his beast appraisal skills. Just now, Lin Jin had roughly deduced the feather’s origins. The average person would assume that feathers only came from birds, but that wasn’t necessarily true. It all depended on the feather’s characteristics.
This feather, for instance, had a thick and sturdy calamus. Although its vane was colorful, the order of the colors was pretty interesting. After all, there was always a reason behind why a creature was a certain color.
The feather was hollow, and it somewhat resembled a sturdy but flexible bone, which set it apart from the feather of an average bird. Although Lin Jin had no idea how much it weighed exactly, he was certain that it was heavier than it looked.
With this, it was highly possible the feather didn’t come from a bird.
In his museum, Lin Jin just happened to have the record of a beast that grew similar feathers. After doing a brief comparison, Lin Jin came to a conclusion.
Although this conclusion may not be completely accurate, it should be close enough. At the very least, he was confident that his answer was more accurate than that Rank 3 beast appraiser.
Next was how he should convey this message to Tan Lin.
Since the other girl was cheating, Tan Lin should do it too.
Lin Jin recalled a spell called ‘Secret Transmission’ by humans of the past. It was a spell Lin Jin had heard about from Daluo Temple’s abbot in the three days he had spent staying with them. As Daluo Temple had over a millennium’s worth of history, many cultivation methods, martial arts, spells, and other supernatural skills have been passed down, including Secret Transmission.
What the abbot told him was merely the theory behind the spell. Lin Jin did most of the work researching it himself. Simply put, it was a spell variant that didn’t require extreme training to master. With enough mana, anyone could do it.
Coincidentally, Lin Jin had sufficient mana to pull off the trick.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Jin focused on Tan Lin and murmured. Even Li Xinqi who was standing closest to him couldn’t hear what he was saying.
But things were different on Tan Lin’s end.
She was almost done with her paper and was ready to hand it in when all of a sudden, a voice spoke up beside her ear.
“Tan Lin, listen to me and don’t move. I’m Lin Jin.”
Tan Lin was shocked, but since she was normally able to keep her cool, she was able to suppress herself from making any sounds or unnecessary actions despite being frightened.
She looked up and noticed Lin Jin standing among the crowd outside.
Tan Lin seemed thrilled and also incredulous. Of course, she did not expect to see him here at all.
Lin Jin gave her a nod before sending her another message. This time, he explained to Tan Lin what was happening at the moment.
Upon hearing that Jiang Fengfeng was cheating, Tan Lin flared up in anger.
‘How dare she do something like this just for the sake of victory?’ Tan Lin’s first idea was to report her actions but before she could do that, she received yet another message from Lin Jin.
‘Don’t think about reporting her. They’re using code so you won’t have evidence to back up the allegation. You might even face backlash from them because of it.’ Lin Jin’s words helped Tan Lin calm down.
He was right.
Since Jiang Fengfeng had the audacity to cheat here, she must have countermeasures prepared. In the first place, it was difficult to catch them communicating in code, not to mention the fact that Jiang Fengfeng wasn’t common folk. She was a local of Heavenly Spiral Kingdom and she had an influential family here in Heavenly Spiral City.
A sizeable portion of the large crowd of spectators were most probably Jiang Fengfeng’s supporters. It was highly probable that Tan Lin would be shot down the moment she started accusing her rival of cheating.
Tan Lin grew immediately dispirited. She was confident that she would gain the upper hand against Jiang Fengfeng in this competition but the odds were clearly stacked against her given how the latter was cheating.
It was then that Lin Jin’s voice made her heart jolt.
‘Since she’s cheating, you can too.’
‘You’re right!’ Tan Lin thought. This competition was already rigged anyway, so there was no need to uphold the rules anymore. Like Lin Jin said, since Jiang Fengfeng could cheat, why couldn’t she?
But here comes another problem. She hadn’t made any preparations so how could she possibly cheat?
‘For this five-colored feather, observe the calamus and notice how hollow and sturdy it is, like a bone. The rachis is as long as a chopstick and the vane is heavy. In other words, it does not belong to a bird. The order of the five colors is red, yellow, blue, white, and black. In the Encyclopedia of Beasts, the velociraptor of the wood attribute from the South Continent has five-colored feathers on its head. The order of the colors changes as the creature ages. According to this order, this feather should have come from a South Continent velociraptor of the wood attribute, and it’s probably over seventy years old. Oh, and before I forget, this is a male velociraptor. The females are bald and don’t have any feathers!’
Once Lin Jin finished talking, Tan Lin was first dumbstruck before she realized what was happening.
Lin Jin was helping her.
He was helping her cheat.
Although Tan Lin wasn’t fond of dishonesty, this was the only way forward.
Lin Jin’s appraisal result was completely different from hers.
In her finished manuscript, she concluded that this feather was from a unique bird. A large aberrant bird that lived in United Continent. After all, it was extremely difficult to deduce a creature’s origins based on just one feather because there were too many creatures in this world with feathers. This was also the conclusion she came up with after careful deliberation.
But now, she chose to believe Lin Jin without an ounce of hesitation.
It was because she knew full well how superior Lin Jin was compared to her when it came to beast appraising.
Tan Lin immediately, albeit frantically revised her evaluation report, rewriting it from scratch. It was her first time cheating so Tan Lin was nervous. Even when one considered their cheating methods, Lin Jin’s was way too stealthy.
Right, how did Lin Jin’s voice travel to her?
Why couldn’t anyone else hear it?
