Lin Jin wandered over to the pond of his backyard. Smaller than the lake in the academy, this pond was by no means big. The pond water was light green and it appeared slightly muddled.
“No fish?”
Lin Jin stared at the still water surface, visibly confused.
After giving it some thought, he remembered Wang Xin mentioning how this Peach Blossom House hadn’t been assigned to anyone for quite a while despite it being such a lovely place. With no one to care for the fish, it made sense that they had died off a long time ago.
However, the pond was peculiar because it didn’t appear like a pool of stagnant water. Not only did it not smell bad, but it was quite clean.
“Let’s repopulate it with some fish some other day,” Lin Jin mumbled to himself. As he got ready to leave, ripples suddenly appeared on the surface of the pond.
Lin Jin noticed the occurrence from the corner of his eyes so he stopped immediately and turned back.
There was nothing there.
But his eyes weren’t fooling him. There really were ripples, as if someone had tossed a pebble into the pond.
Lin Jin’s senses were sharper than your average beast appraiser. A few seconds ago, he clearly picked up weak energy emanating from the water.
A monster’s aura.
Had Lin Jin no absolute confidence in his nose, he might have assumed it was just his senses messing with him.
But clearly, that wasn’t the case.
He may make mistakes in other areas, but when it came to monster energy, Lin Jin would never get it wrong. Among the cultivation methods he practiced, the inhale-exhale method smoothened his pulmonary ventilation process. With his senses operating at full capacity, no scent could escape his nose, especially the aura of a monster.
“A monster on campus? The audacity!” Lin Jin mumbled to himself.
It was natural that he grew curious about the entity. After all, this was Heavenly Spiral Academy, where at least twenty Rank 4 beast appraisers worked as lecturers. Rank 3 beast appraisers numbered in the hundreds.
They were all experts who mostly owned Rank 3 pet beasts. Rank 4 pet beasts weren’t scarce either. For a monster to be able to conceal its aura in such a dangerous place, Lin Jin couldn’t help but tip his hat at its bravery.
Lin Jin pretended to leave the courtyard. Once outside, he quickly cast Camouflage over himself and returned to observe the pond from a nearby position.
Sure enough, it wasn’t long before Lin Jin saw a fish’s silhouette slowly emerge from the depths of the pond. Then, a large fish with green scales poked its head out of the water. It was a carp, but it was by far the largest Lin Jin had ever come across. The creature was at least five feet long so logically speaking, a pond so tiny couldn’t possibly house a creature this big.
Moreover, this carp already had the aura of a monster.
“What does it plan to do?” Lin Jin’s interest was piqued. He had so many questions, the biggest one being how the carp managed to survive here in Heavenly Spiral Academy.
This place was packed to the brim with elites. It was plausible for it to stay hidden for one or two days, but for it to remain undiscovered forever was out of the question. After all, the Rank 4 beast appraisers here weren’t messing around.
His doubts had no answers for now but Lin Jin was in no hurry. Like a child who had discovered a new toy, he watched intently as the truth unfolded before his eyes.
After all, the carp didn’t seem all too powerful to Lin Jin. It was probably just a Rank 3, and Lin Jin wanted to, he could subdue the fish anytime. In fact, he could probably kill it with relative ease.
After a while, Lin Jin noticed a snake slithering this way from afar.
Covered in white scales, the snake was seven feet long and moved at a considerable speed. Judging from its bulky body, Lin Jin figured that it must be hiding something inside.
The white snake slithered up to the pond. Seeing this, the carp wagged its tail in excitement, splashing water everywhere.
The carp seemed to have been looking forward to the snake’s arrival.
Soon, Lin Jin understood why.
The white snake opened up its mouth and coughed up a few rats. These rodents must have just been swallowed not too long ago because although dead, putrefaction had yet to set in. The carp opened its mouth and gulped its meal down.
It was waiting to be fed.
What made it all the more interesting was how the feeder was a snake. The white snake clearly had some intelligence or it wouldn’t have come over to feed the carp. However, it wasn’t a monster. Judging solely on cultivation level, the carp reigned superior.
After having enough to eat, the carp circled around the pond, shaking its round body as it did so. Then, it spoke.
Lin Jin wasn’t surprised.
A Rank 3 carp monster was considered to have profound enough cultivation. Similar to Senior Mo, it already refined its hyoid bone but had yet to learn Transfiguration.
Under normal circumstances, wild beasts would never have been able to achieve this level of self-awareness. In other words, this carp had a ‘master’. Of course, that person could have been a formerly affiliated teacher or a random stranger who provided it guidance on a casual basis. In any case, an expert must’ve been behind this strange phenomenon.
Coincidentally, this academy had no shortage of elites.
In contrast, the white snake may have some intelligence but it had no cultivation experience nor was its hyoid bone refined. It was worse off than the carp.
The carp spoke, albeit sounding muffled due to the water in its mouth.
“Bai Lin[1], since you always bring me good food, I’ll teach you some formulas. Listen well. I can’t guarantee if you’ll gain cultivation experience from this because that will depend on you.” Putting on the air of a veteran, the carp actually began teaching a lecture on a cultivation method.
It was probably the most basic version of Beast Energy Formation. Compared to Lin Jin’s full set of Beast Energy Formation, the carp’s version was too crude to even be comparable. Despite this, the white snake seemed bewitched by the lecture. It evidently possessed enough intelligence to understand human language.
The huge carp rambled on for the longest time before saying, “That will be all for now. If you’d like to hear more in the future, get me more food. Teacher forbids me from eating the fish in the lake and those tiny prawns aren’t enough to satiate me. Only from you can I get a satisfying meal.”
It was clearly ranting. From the carp’s manner of speech, it and the white snake seemed to be on good terms with each other. Of course, there were mutual benefits in this relationship. The carp required more food to fill itself up while the white snake wanted to embark on a cultivation journey.
Other than that, Lin Jin caught a keyword in the carp’s speech.
The carp mentioned the word ‘teacher’. Just as Lin Jin suspected, the fish had a mentor. This pond must be linked to the campus lake and Lin Jin found it shocking. Of course, it wouldn’t take much to verify this suspicion since he could just go underwater to find out the truth. Thanks to the water reservoir scale, he could effortlessly manipulate the water around him so he could explore the pond without much difficulty.
Lin Jin refrained from interrupting their interaction.
Strictly speaking, this pond was the big carp’s home and the white snake was only here for cultivation lessons. They hadn’t done anything wrong so there was no reason for Lin Jin to disturb them.
Just then, the carp added, “Bai Lin, go on home. A young teacher has just moved into Peach Blossom House today. I peeked on him just now. Be more cautious when you come here the next time. I won’t be able to save you if he decides to kill you.”
The carp was actually advising the snake to be cautious.
Able to understand the carp’s warning, the snake nodded before slithering away. The big carp made a gurgling noise before diving underwater, disappearing without a trace.
Lin Jin undid his Camouflage, still curious and interested.
He definitely had to check out the pond now to see if it really was connected to the campus lake. Now was not the time to do that though.
With his sharp hearing, Lin Jin heard the sound of footsteps outside Peach Blossom House. It was probably Li Xinqi and his other students.
One rule here at the academy dictated private disciples to tidy up their teacher’s quarters. Also, they were responsible for their teacher’s daily meals and needs. In fact, it was common for students to stay over at their teacher’s mansion because of this.
[1] Bai Lin literally means ‘White Scale’ in Mandarin
