It took an eternity for Chen Yuanyuan to come back to her senses.
“Lin Jin, how dare you treat me this way!” she exclaimed through gritted teeth.
An average person would undoubtedly start self-reflecting after something like this. However, there would always be that one person who refuses to do so. To them, the world revolved only around them and it was always someone else’s fault, never theirs.
Someone who was once unconditionally obedient to and admired her was suddenly ignoring her. The fact that he retaliated made Chen Yuanyuan’s head spin in anger.
“Young Miss, General Might has fainted!”
As the Chen family’s servants examined the pet beast, they could only see the maned jackal’s eyes rolled back and it was foaming at the mouth. His limbs would twitch from time to time and there was no response even when they patted him. He was completely out cold.
“I’m not blind!” Chen Yuanyuan named her pet beast ‘General Might’ because of how mighty he appeared. But who knew that it would faint so easily? Chen Yuanyuan had no idea what just happened.
“Lin Jin, how dare you ignore me today? You’ve even embarrassed me! Just you wait, this isn’t over.” Out of fury, Chen Yuanyuan went over and kicked General Might. Despite being knocked out cold, poor General Might still had to take a beating from his mistress.
***
Coming out from another medicine hall, Lin Jin now had the ingredients needed to create the ‘energy-gathering pill’.
Speaking of the energy-gathering pill, there was no mention of it in any book before. Its prescription had long been lost, but Lin Jin was able to obtain the prescription, along with the refining method from one of the many ways to strengthen a pet beast’s physique recorded in the Museum of Deadly Beasts.
By now, Lin Jin had learned how to gain knowledge from the museum. For instance, the previously refined ‘six sun beast soul pill’ never actually existed in this world. But since it was needed for Xiao Huo’s perfect evolution, there was corresponding and detailed information in the museum.
In other words, through this method, the perks Lin Jin could gain were definitely more than just the Beast Deterrence skill and the Beast Energy Formation. There were tons of pill and elixir prescriptions just waiting to be discovered.
With the ingredients ready, he needed a pellet furnace. Lin Jin couldn’t be bothered to purchase one. So, as usual, he would borrow Lu Yunhe’s.
Once he got home, the construction workers could be seen working in full swing. A new frame had been built in the place of his burnt house, and in about a few days, the construction work would be finished.
His new house had to be bigger and its materials better. When the foreman saw Lin Jin, he immediately came over and greeted, “Appraiser Lin, you’re here!”
The foreman was a local citizen and was an honest man.
Some of the worker’s pet beasts were carrying wooden planks and the likes. There were mules and horses. These pet beasts were quite practical. Meanwhile, the foreman’s pet beast was a large monkey. It could climb everywhere to install tenons at high places, clearly far more efficient than your average human worker.
Lin Jin had a brief look at the work they had done today. Feeling pleased, he paid them the money for today’s work without making a fuss.
At that moment, an old bull that had been moving the stone materials suddenly collapsed onto the ground, unable to get up. Several concerned workers hurried over to take a look. No matter how they urged, the old bull wouldn’t get up. Its eyes were wide open as it breathed loudly.
“Liu Laosan, what’s wrong with your pet beast? We have to get the stones out of the way. It’s blocking up the path,” the foreman urged anxiously.
The old bull just happened to be lying down in the middle of the road. With it blocking the way, the horse carriages wouldn’t be able to pass and it was a major pain in the butt.
The worker named Liu Laosan was flustered as well. “I have no idea what’s going on. Something like this has never happened. He’s not getting up no matter how I try to coax him.”
“Is he sick?”
“Maybe. What do we do now? There are so many rocks, we can’t possibly move them in time.”
By now, a horse carriage was being held up. Tons of nosy onlookers had even gathered around the scene.
Lin Jin approached them.
Since he was here, he might as well take a look. After all, if it concerned a pet beast, Lin Jin had absolute confidence that he could solve the problem.
“Let me take a look,” Lin Jin said as he pushed through the crowd to get to the scene.
Most of the people around recognized Lin Jin. They knew he was a beast appraiser. But due to Lin Jin’s bad reputation, even his neighbors wouldn’t request his appraisal services as they had no faith in him.
It was the same for the construction workers. They clearly had no confidence in Lin Jin. It was clear how much damage a mere rumor can inflict. Average folks in particular are easily convinced by baseless rumors. Since the appraisal accident, their impression of Lin Jin was that he was a downright incompetent appraiser.
“Why don’t we get a vet to take a look at him instead?”
At this, Lin Jin smiled bitterly.
However, he paid no mind to everyone else’s scrutiny and lack of confidence in him. He studied the old bull. This bull was massive in size and it was covered in very thick skin. It was obviously suffering from long-term fatigue as its skin was covered with deep cracks.
A quick look at the rest of its body revealed that its horns were cracked, just like its hooves. There was also blood in its eyes. At that instant, the bull was looking up with its beady eyes, only exhaling without being able to inhale. It must be a medical emergency. But Lin Jin found it a little embarrassing because with his own capabilities, without relying on the Museum of Deadly Beasts, he couldn’t tell exactly what the bull was suffering from, nor could he come up with a solution.
In reality, Lin Jin was just overthinking things. Wang Ji would be momentarily thrown off balance as well if he was here, dealing with the bull which collapsed so abruptly, never mind him.
The situation was urgent and it seemed like the old bull wasn’t going to hold out any longer. Wasting no time, Lin Jin extended his arm to touch the bull’s head.
Immediately, a specimen of the old bull and its description tablet appeared in the Museum of Deadly Beasts.
“Rank 1 beast. Land bull. Earth attribute. Potential rate: 1.”
“Current status: Medical emergency. Brain nerves damaged and dying. The treatment procedures are…”
Similar to what Lin Jin had deduced earlier, the old bull was suffering from a medical emergency and a potentially fatal one at that. It was in no way an exaggeration to say that even a Rank 3 could do nothing to help the poor beast, let alone Wang Ji.
But even in such a critical situation, the museum was able to provide a treatment method.
Lin Jin quickly skimmed through it. Following the detailed procedures of the treatment method shown in the museum, he gathered his spiritual energy into his finger before swiftly jabbing it at the ‘spirit pass point’ on the old bull’s head.
The ‘spirit energy finger’ was a simple technique. As an official beast appraiser, his predecessor hadn’t been so hopeless as to not know such a basic skill. Hence, after inheriting this memory, Lin Jin could easily perform it.
With his spiritual energy to support and the borrowed fire spirit from his pet beast, the jab was sharp as a scalpel. A tiny hole opened up in the old bull’s head and in an instant, blood sprayed out.
Everyone around jolted out of shock.
“Appraiser Lin, what are you doing?”
The old bull’s owner was panicking. With bloodshot eyes, he wanted to go over and demand an explanation. Fortunately, someone held him back at the last moment.
Lin Jin had no time for anyone else. The old bull was in critical condition and he couldn’t afford to delay his actions. The upcoming procedures required focus so it was imperative that Lin Jin’s mind was crystal clear. Xiao Huo stood guard beside him, preventing those who didn’t understand the procedure from disturbing his owner.
As blood sprayed from the old bull, Lin Jin didn’t avoid it. Some of the blood splattered on his clothes but Lin Jin didn’t mind it.
That jab earlier just happened to be in the right spot. It had been precisely accurate because, on the specimen formed in the museum, the specific acupoint was shown to Lin Jin.
This was like showing him a comparison of the real thing. It would be a real oddity if Lin Jin still got it wrong at this point.
After that, Lin Jin jabbed a few other acupoints around the bull’s body.
It was rather strange. With just a few simple techniques, the old bull’s breathing calmed down. The situation no longer seemed that urgent and the bull even began to wiggle its tail. Still, it was unable to get back on its feet.
“Done!”
Lin Jin flung away the blood on his hand. He got up to pluck a leaf from a nearby tree, then had someone bring him some peat. Taking out a leafy herb he had just purchased from the medicine hall, Lin Jin chewed it to mush before smothering it over the old bull’s wound. He covered the peat over it before placing the leaf on top, and with that, he was done.
“Don’t let him work anymore today. Let him rest for two days and he should be fine,” Lin Jin turned to say before patting the bull on its head.
Then, something stunning happened
The old bull moo-ed. Swinging its tail and shaking its head, it got up and went over to its owner.
It was a miracle!
Everyone had clearly seen how the old bull was struggling to even breathe. It was already on the verge of death but how on earth was it able to walk around now?
Although the crowd wasn’t knowledgeable in treating pet beasts, they weren’t blind, nor dumb. How could they not tell that it was Lin Jin who saved the old bull from a medical emergency?
The most excited person was the bull’s owner. He was just a regular worker and his bull was his most important asset. At work, he relied heavily on his bull to carry materials. More importantly, the bull had been with him for more than ten years and he had a deep sense of affection for it. The bull was his family.
Earlier, he sought to demand an explanation from Lin Jin. But now that he thought about it, he was thankful that someone held him back or he might have ended up disturbing Appraiser Lin. He looked at Appraiser Lin. For the sake of rescuing his bull, even when facing admonition, Appraiser Lin ignored them to carry on with his work, staining his clothes and body with blood in the process. His generosity and character were nothing short of impressive.
“Appraiser Lin, I, I…” Feeling embarrassed and guilty, the worker immediately knelt down.
Lin Jin helped him up with a smile and said, “I specialize in beast evaluation and veterinary matters. How could I just let the situation be now that I’ve come across it?”
“Well said!” The foreman was the first to applaud Lin Jin. He had seen today’s incident with his own eyes. Everything about Lin Jin being incompetent and relying on luck to pass his appraiser certification, even about the appraisal accident were just rumors they have heard. Everyone was relaying erroneous messages. But after today, those rumors were nothing but bullcrap.
To have witnessed his benevolence, his generosity, and skills, if anyone continued to believe in the stupid rumor, they must have a screw loose in their heads.
In the face of facts, rumors will inevitably be scotched.
