All five of them were descendants of Heavenly Spiral Kingdom’s dignitaries. The chubby appraiser with the extravagant clothing who just spoke to him was Li Yuanqing, the youngest son of the city lord of Heavenly Spiral City. Having been forced by his family to study beast appraising, he was currently a Rank 1 beast appraiser.
As a matter of fact, the other four students were also Rank 1 appraisers.
Each one of them had an excellent family background. Some were sons of government officials while others were daughters of wealthy tycoons. In any case, all of them were born with a golden spoon, something which common folk was incredibly envious of.
Despite that, none of them were appreciated in their families.
After all, be it government officials or rich tycoons, it was likely that they had more than one offspring. Their children were classed in many ways. For one, the child of one’s wife was much more precious than the child of a mere concubine. Similarly, an older child was more important than a younger one. Some were destined to never inherit the family’s government positions and wealth so they were sent here to study beast appraising. After all, no matter which part of the world you were in, an official beast appraiser was still a respected profession.
Besides Li Yuanqing, of the remaining four, there was Yue Yun who was the third son of Heavenly Spiral Kingdom’s general; Wang Pin, son of Sunflower City’s city lord; Shen Yuechi, eldest daughter of Heavenly Spiral Merchant Guild’s tycoon; and Yu Daiwei, youngest daughter of the Friar Association’s chief.
They were all considered descendants of Heavenly Spiral City’s most prominent aristocrats, and also the third prince, Feng Ziqian’s ‘best friends’.
Since Feng Ziqian had spoken, they had to come here to give their support.
“Lecturer Lin, we’ve discussed among ourselves and we hope that you’ll take us in as private students. We don’t expect an answer at the moment, but please consider our request.”
Being the oldest one in his clique, Li Yuanqing was their de facto leader, so he was also the one to make the sincere request.
Lecturers of the academy were allowed to take in private students and the number of disciples was up to the lecturer’s discretion. They could choose to take no one or take in as many as they could.
However, lecturers often picked their students; not everyone would be accepted as apprentices. In most cases, lecturers would pick only those with potential or those they found likable.
And right now, Lin Jin found Li Yuanqing and his peers to be quite pleasing.
As for talent and potential, Lin Jin didn’t really care for those.
He believed that there was no such thing as a dumb student. With proper education, even an earthworm had the chance of becoming a dragon one day.
“Have any of you taken up apprenticeships under other lecturers?” Lin Jin asked. If they were already private students of other teachers, Lin Jin surely couldn’t take them in. After all, the rules of the academy must be upheld.
This time, Yue Yun spoke up, “Lecturer Lin, no one wants any of us. Take me for example. After gaining a Rank 1 qualification several years ago, I’ve never had any improvements. I find it really hard to wrap my head around the theories espoused by beast appraisal books. In class, after raising a question, if I still appear clueless after receiving an answer, the teachers would often get fed up and refuse to elaborate further. They’d always call me a hopeless case. Ah! It’s just so infuriating!”
Yue Yun obviously had a straightforward personality. Most people considered him to be, for lack of a better word, simple-minded. Lin Jin studied him. Yue Yun had a strong physique – he had a large hip and waistline. He didn’t seem like the scheming type of person. Perhaps he was considered to be a dim student because due to his lackluster comprehension ability. It came as no surprise to Lin Jin that the other teachers refused to teach him.
However, Lin Jin was quite fond of the boy’s manner of speech and personality.
“If no one wants you, I want you. Since you’re willing to become my students, I won’t push any of you away. But there’s one thing I’d like to clarify,” Lin Jin paused for a moment.
“You kids only want to be my apprentice because Feng Ziqian egged you guys on, didn’t he?”
Li Yuanqing let out a hearty laugh. “As expected of Lecturer Lin! You’re a sharp man! That’s right, His Highness, the Third Prince, did mention such a thing, but allow me to be brutally honest and say that we thought nothing of it at first. We were just helping His Highness out. We thought nothing about gaining an apprenticeship since we’d never learn anything new, whoever our teacher was. Though, after attending your class, all five of us came to a consensus that you’re genuinely good at teaching. It’s no wonder why His Highness speaks so highly of you! Despite what I just said, we’re sincere about this apprenticeship.”
Li Yuangqing cut straight to the chase.
The others also nodded, agreeing with Li Yuanqin.
Since they were so easy-going, Lin Jin didn’t dawdle and simply accepted all five of them on the spot. Of course, they still had to follow the regulations of the academy, and Lin Jin had been blunt with them. He revealed to them that his tenure was only three months long so he could only promise to do his best during this period.
The five students had no issues with it so that settles everything.
And just as Lin Jin expected, both Tan Lin and Li Xinqi approached him.
“Lecturer Lin, Xinyi is interested in studying as an apprentice under you,” Tan Lin simply said. She was close to Lin Jin so she usually just dropped the bothersome formalities. Lin Jin nodded, and Li Xinqi quickly bowed at Lin Jin delightfully.
Li Yuanqing and his group didn’t linger around too long after that. They bid their new teacher farewell and left. After they were gone, Tan Lin pulled Lin Jin aside and whispered to him, “Appraiser Lin, those five are known to be the academy’s most difficult students. Even after studying in the academy for two or three years, none of them managed to advance to Rank 2. Basically, all lecturers have given up on them.”
Tan Lin was clearly worried for Lin Jin.
After all, to accept such notorious students on the first day of work here would surely prove itself to be a disaster in due time. Each month, the academy would host an assessment for lecturers, including the assistant lecturers. One of the criteria was the ability of the lecturer’s private students.
Where there were exams, there were rankings.
All lecturers treated this ranking system with great importance because appearing at the bottom of the hierarchy wasn’t something to be proud of.
Even after listening to Tan Lin’s words, Lin Jin wasn’t particularly fazed. He believed that so long as the students had the capacity to improve, he was confident that he could lead them towards excellence. In fact, he might even be able to help them achieve Rank 2 within the next three months.
Seeing how determined Lin Jin was, Tan Lin stopped trying to advise him.
“If I hadn’t taken up an apprenticeship under Mr. Zhong, I’d definitely have chosen to study under you but no-” Tan Lin suddenly said.
Lin Jin already anticipated her to say this, so he interjected, “I’ll only be here for three months and you still have much more time in the academy. You have to achieve Rank 3 before going home. Mr. Zhong is a distinguished lecturer so learning under him is no different than learning under me.”
Lin Jin was tooting his own horn again. Tan Lin deliberately rolled her eyes to express contempt for Lin Jin’s self-praise.
What surprised Lin Jin though was how the bookworm, Fan Yuan, didn’t seek him out for an apprenticeship.
However, it wasn’t like he could force Fan Yuan to do so since he most likely already had a lecturer whom he was learning under. Lin Jin’s current plan was to continue recording beast specimens at the Beast Appraisal Pavilion, and that was his number one priority.
Tan Lin just happened to be looking for Mr. Zhong too so the two set off together. They chatted along the journey, but most of their conversation consisted of Tan Lin seeking guidance from Lin Jin. She held in great esteem the knowledge Lin Jin had just shared in his lecture earlier. Although they had just started with the basics, Lin Jin had presented them with greater depth, and that only proved how his foundation was much stronger than hers.
The Beast Appraisal Pavilion had many visitors during the day, but fortunately, most of them were found exclusively on the first floor. Lin Jin dropped by to pay Mr. Zhong a visit before leaving his room to continue recording specimens on the second floor.
This time, he refrained from behaving as brazenly as he did last night, so he slowed down considerably so as to not stick out like a sore thumb.
Lin Jin even forsake his lunchtime because he figured that time was better spent on recording beasts. Alas, Lin Jin’s hard work was rewarded. Once he was done sweeping through half of the rooms on the second floor, the Museum of Deadly Beasts chimed once more.
“It’s here, it’s here!”
Lin Jin said excitedly with one large tooth in his hand.
The number of rare beasts recorded in the museum had now exceeded three thousand so his reward came in the form of the Beast Energy Formation, Part Five.
Although Lin Jin couldn’t cultivate it, he had researched the Beast Energy Formation before. This cultivation method only had five parts, so in other words, Lin Jin had just collected the full set.
With the Beast Energy Formation, Part Five, Shang’er and the others could continue their cultivation. In addition to this, complete cultivation of the Beast Energy Formation also guaranteed a class increase in strength and cultivation levels.
