A well-respected establishment like Heavenly Spiral Academy obviously had its own rules, and one of them was to not leave campus grounds without permission.
That night, the moment it got dark outside, Yang Ming departed from the academy without informing others about it, nor did he tell anyone about his destination.
“Appraiser Yang may be proud as a peacock but he usually complies with our rules and regulations. This is too unusual,” one of the lecturers close with Yang Ming spoke up.
Truth be told, they couldn’t imagine a person with Yang Ming’s character doing something so absurd.
Although they could not conclude who it was that attacked Lin Jin, Yang Ming’s abrupt disappearance remained a solid fact.
Yang Ming’s quarters were searched but no irregularities were found.
“Send someone to investigate the incident. There has to be some clues left.” Zhong Zifeng’s eyelid was twitching as he had a bad feeling. Nothing of this sort had ever happened in the academy before.
To think someone had the audacity to attack his colleague within the campus ground. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he now had a lecturer who had gone AWOL. What worried him most was the fact that these two were currently in a silent conflict.
It was inevitable that their minds would start thinking about the worst-case scenario.
That it was Appraiser Yang who schemed against Appraiser Lin. Then, due to Senior Shu’s foiling his assassination attempt, Appraiser Yang chose to escape under the cover of night.
Zhong Zifeng was sure that although no one said it out loud, probably everyone had arrived at the same explanation.
As the man in charge of Heavenly Spiral Academy, Zhong Zifeng clearly didn’t hope to see the lecturers getting into verbal fights, or worse, going at each other’s necks.
That would greatly hurt the academy’s reputation.
However, if such a thing did actually happen, Zhong Zifeng could not afford to ignore it.
Even if Senior Shu didn’t ask earlier, Zhong Zifeng wouldn’t allow this to happen. But before that, they still had to find Yang Ming.
Tonight, the academy was destined to know no sleep.
Meanwhile, Lin Jin had finally finished contracting his second beast.
The process had been much smoother than he anticipated. The second pet beast contract method awarded by the museum was a perfect version after all. No flaws or shortcomings were found after the process.
Simply put, this blood contract method was to ‘divide’ the second potential pet beast between the contract owner and his first pet beast. While it sounded simple, the execution was impossible without a supporting cultivation method.
Hence, while Shu Xiaolou had learned the theory through observation, she still couldn’t perform the trick on her own.
Upon opening his eyes, Lin Jin was greeted by Shu Xiaolou’s eyes staring into his soul, their faces barely an inch apart.
Lin Jin was shocked.
Anyone would be. Without waiting for his embarrassment to sink in, Shu Xiaolou started rambling on madly, asking him about this second contract cultivation method.
Lin Jin couldn’t withstand her pestering any longer so he agreed to share the information with her on the condition that she come up with an offer, just like how they did it with the pulse-seeking technique.
In other words, she had to give him something.
“I-I’ll give…” Shu Xiaolou started considering. She certainly knew the value of this second contract method, and what’s more, she realized how little risk was involved in the process, and how stable the blood pact connection was after successful completion.
This implied heavily that Lin Jin’s blood contract method was much more complete than the version she researched.
As a painting spirit, Shu Xiaolou had been researching a blood contract method unique to herself. After all, it didn’t make sense for a beast appraiser to not have a pet beast of their own.
However, spirits and fairies did not fall under the classes of human, beast, or monster. No matter how well-informed or how profound her appraisal skills were, she couldn’t come up with a blood contract method for herself.
She wanted to use Lin Jin’s second contract method as a guide for her to come up with a method for her own use.
This was pretty important to her.
Hence, after much consideration, Shu Xiaolou decided. “I’ll give you a paint puppet in exchange.”
Having said that, Shu Xiaolou performed a stunt and pulled out a painting for Lin Jin.
Soon, Lin Jin came to know what a paint puppet was.
The painting was unrolled to reveal a strange-looking muscle man. Tall and sturdy with defined muscles, he wore a bear’s head and steel armor around his waist. His upper body was bare, and he sported steel sabatons that guarded his feet. On the painting was a single word.
Hercules.
Simple and straightforward.
“Since I’m a painting spirit, I am able to summon paint puppets. Hercules has been with me for quite a while now so he already has a spirit of his own. I’ll teach you how to summon him, so should you need any help with hard labor from now on, he’ll come in handy.”
Shu Xiaolou looked at him expectantly, and Lin Jin was indeed tempted to accept her offer when he noticed traces of spiritual energy lingering on the painting. If this painting was as Shu Xiaolou claimed, it would be quite a rare item.
“Demonstrate how you use it to me. I’ll make a decision after seeing it in action.” Lin Jin was being cautious. Shu Xiaolou quickly invoked a spell and called softly, “Hercules, show yourself.”
The next instant, a myriad of colors enveloped Hercules in the painting. Then, a golden ray of light was projected from the canvas before a strikingly tall and buffed man appeared before their eyes. As they expected, he looked just like the man in the painting.
In the original painting, Hercules’ image was gone.
He had clearly emerged from the painting.
“It’s real after all,” Lin Jin exclaimed in disbelief. He had never seen anything like this before. Then, Shu Xiaolou instructed Hercules to uproot a huge tree that had a circumference of at least 3 meters. He could even split large rocks in half. Shu Xiaolou was not joking around when she said he was strong. With just one punch, he was able to split the earth, demonstrating the brute strength that he possessed.
An average Rank 3 beast probably couldn’t take even one punch from him.
Lin Jin was rather satisfied.
“You got yourself a deal!”
He thought it was an advantageous trade since Hercules would prove useful in times of need. However, the problem remained that Hercules was merely a puppet. He didn’t seem like a very bright fellow. Rather, he appeared to be more of a man-servant.
Still, given his strength, Lin Jin really shouldn’t ask for more.
Moreover, Shu Xiaolou had come to his rescue without hesitation when he was abducted by his enemies. This alone, was enough to convince Lin Jin to accept her offer, even if it was less profitable.
Subsequently, Lin Jin taught her the second contract cultivation method while Shu Xiaolou taught him the formula to control Hercules. Lin Jin gave it a try, and sure enough, he confirmed that Hercules would be very useful for him. Since Hercules was a puppet, not a pet beast, he couldn’t die or get injured. Lin Jin could rest easier since Hercules could be deployed to deal with risky situations.
To his surprise, he wasn’t as ‘brainless’ and Lin Jin initially made him out to be.
Hercules was more like a ‘robot’ who would complete an order issued to him no matter what. For example, if Lin Jin commanded him to capture someone, Hercules would surely complete his mission unless he was destroyed.
