Chapter 156: Arson
Lin Jin was currently teaching the fox cubs and the great white ape cultivation skills.
Although he couldn’t learn Demonic Transformation himself, with the near-perfect set of information provided by the Museum of Deadly Beasts, Lin Jin was able to give them lectures despite having no cultivation skills himself.
The fox cubs have shown signs of improvement, and that included Little Nine who had previously been seriously wounded. They had familiarized themselves with Beast Energy Formation Part One and could cultivate it on their own.
Lin Jin was rather surprised by the great white ape’s progress.
Compared to the foxes, this white ape was faster in picking up new theories. In just two days, it managed to finish cultivating part one of Beast Energy Formation.
This great white ape was no longer a beast but a monster.
A Rank 3 monster.
Lin Jin stopped teaching it Beast Energy Formation. Instead, together with the fox cubs, Lin Jin taught them human words, etiquette, and morality.
This was an important subject in Lin Jin’s ‘enlightenment’ classes.
If they only learned cultivation, beasts would remain beasts and monsters still monsters.
Hence, Lin Jin had been bringing books unrelated to cultivation lately to teach the monsters how to read. Being the brightest among them, Shang’er had no problem mastering human words. When she wasn’t cultivating, she would bury her nose in the mythical novels Lin Jin brought over and get overly-engrossed in reading.
With Shang’er setting the bar, the fox cubs and the white ape learned from her. Since they couldn’t read as much as Shang’er, they sometimes pestered her to read to them.
Before Lin Jin left, he penned down the ‘transformation’ skill into a booklet and passed it to Shang’er so she could read its contents to the white ape.
For the great ape, learning transformation was the first priority. If it could master this skill, it could alter its physical size at will, which would help it stand out less.
The transformation skill wasn’t limited only to size changes. The user could also change its appearance.
During the initial stage, the user could change its size and parts of its appearance. If they continued cultivating, proceeding into the ‘transfiguration’ phase, they could change their forms completely just like Shang’er and gain their human form.
However, this couldn’t be done immediately.
Even Little Five was still at the initial stage after learning transformation for a few days now. She was still far from transfiguring.
Transformation could be learned after cultivating part one of Beast Energy Formation. During his journey, Lin Jin wondered if perhaps Xiao Huo could learn it too.
However, Lin Jin knew it was impossible.
Monsters could cultivate what beasts can, but beasts can’t learn what monsters can.
Just like how enhancement spells could be used on beasts through their blood pact, Lin Jin couldn’t cast them on monsters.
Both species were completely different from each other.
It was three in the morning by the time Lin Jin returned to Maple City. He was surprised to find a crowd standing outside his house. Upon taking a closer look, he recognized the Zu family’s second elder, Zu Xuande.
Being an elderly man and having waited outside in the chilly night for so long, Zu Xuande was now ghastly pale and his movements were shaky.
This old man was extremely stubborn. Despite the advice he got from those around him, he stood still, adamant about waiting for Lin Jin’s return.
At the sight of Zu Xuande, Lin Jin knew what they were here for immediately.
They were here for two things. First was the family’s Third Elder being unable to speak. The second was forming a blood contract with the two-headed snake.
Indeed, Lin Jin was partly responsible for causing both issues.
As the third elder had been disrespectful, Lin Jin used his coiled wire needle to discreetly seal off an acupoint in the man’s throat. With this, he became mute. Also, it was no illness. An ordinary person couldn’t possibly understand the complexity of the coiled wire needle so it wasn’t likely that someone could have figured out what had happened in the first place.
If he were to make a bold declaration, unless another person who knew the pulse-seeking technique appeared, Lin Jin was the only one who could solve this issue for him.
The same goes for the two-headed snake. Lin Jin used acupuncture to stimulate a certain acupoint in the two-headed snake’s body so that no one could successfully form a blood pact with it.
As he had expected, the Zu family would eventually come and beg him for help.
Though, he hadn’t expected them to show up so quickly. He assumed they might be able to hold out for a few more days.
Upon seeing Lin Jin return, Zu Xuande hurried over in excitement, but his legs were numb so he staggered while walking.
“Appraiser Lin, we’ve been wrong. Please forgive us!” Zu Xuande exclaimed while holding his hands up in salutation.
One of the Zu family members added, “Our second elder has been here waiting since evening.”
Zu Xuande shot that person an angry glare and the latter kept quiet.
Then, Zu Xuande said, “Appraiser Lin, I was foolish and muddled. Please have mercy and don’t take to heart what an old man like me has said.”
Lin Jin smiled, musing, ‘If I didn’t have any tricks up my sleeve, would you guys be apologizing? You would have gone on your merry way.’
“Mr. Zu, it’s very cold outside. You should hurry back and rest,” Lin Jin replied and was about to enter his yard.
Zu Xuande quickly added, “Appraiser Lin, I…”
Lin Jin waved without looking back. “I’m tired. Let’s talk in the morning.”
Then, he entered his yard, ignoring Zu Xuande and his group.
The youngsters of the Zu family, being at a sensitive age, flared up in anger. Zu Xuande was an elderly man, their senior. He was already at the man’s door, acknowledging his faults but Lin Jin showed no consideration at all.
They were about to lash out in anger.
However, Zu Xuande stopped them.
“Haven’t our family suffered enough?”
The youngsters immediately kept quiet and said no more.
“We were the ones initially at fault. Let’s go. We’ll come back in the morning.”
Having said that, he left without getting angry.
Lin Jin who was still in the yard found it surprising that Zu Xuande was such a subtle man. Though, he didn’t care if Zu Xuande was being sincere or not. If they thought that one apology could prompt him to forgive them and help them out, they could dream on.
Lin Jin had his limits too.
Come to think of it, although he could leave the third elder as is, Lin Jin still had to help Zu Can’s younger brother form the blood pact.
After all, Zu Can was his friend.
Goldy leaped off the wall and crowed at Lin Jin, probably asking for credit since he protected the house from the potential intruders earlier.
Inside the beast pen, the shadow wolf had made a full recovery and began displaying signs of evolution. In addition, it was much stronger after cultivating the Beast Energy Formation so even in its current Rank 1 stage, it could probably match up to a Rank 2 beast.
The deer’s condition had stabilized but it still needed some time to achieve full recovery.
Lin Jin could now affirm that Wu Chenwei was the deer’s former owner. That man was also responsible for causing its injuries to this extent.
“What kind of grudge does he have?”Lin Jin murmured to himself.
Lin Jin went inside his house to sleep. Yet, just moments after he laid down, Xiao Huo started growling in the yard. Lin Jin immediately sobered up from his groggy state.
When he saw fire surging outside his house, Lin Jin jolted up and rushed outside.
In his yard, on his rooftop, and the beast pen, he found more than a dozen torches scattered everywhere. Despite reacting fast enough, Lin Jin’s roof and the beast pen were already on fire.
The flames grew stronger.
How could Lin Jin let that happen?
He worked to extinguish it at once. Fortunately, the fire hadn’t gotten too strong yet so several pails of water were enough to put it out.
“This is arson!”
Lin Jin looked menacing. Xiao Huo remained by his side, guarding him, but Goldy and the shadow wolf were gone.
Then, he heard a commotion outside. Lin Jin opened the door to see the shadow wolf steadily carrying a person back in its mouth. He also heard tragic cries from a little distance away.
Lin Jin head to the nearby alley to see three people lying on the ground with their legs and arms bleeding. Goldy stood beside them, glaring intimidatingly.
No doubt, these were the arsonists. The shadow wolf and Goldy had managed to catch four of them.
On Goldy’s side, these three people, in particular, were heavily injured. The bloody holes across their body were obviously a result of Goldy’s merciless pecking.
After splashing cold water on them, and after a round of interrogation, Lin Jin learned that they were notorious ruffians in the city. Without waiting for Lin Jin to drill them, the frightened men came clean almost immediately.
These men were hired to perform arson and they were good at it. After lighting the torches with kerosene, they only had to toss them in from the outside when their target least expected it. Once the deed was done, they would escape. Under normal circumstances, it was impossible to get caught but these ruffians didn’t know that Lin Jin kept many beasts in his yard. Shortly after they started making their escape, the shadow wolf and Goldy came to tear them up.
“Who hired you?” Lin Jin interrogated darkly.
None of the ruffians were dauntless so they yielded at once.
“Wu Chenwei, that scoundrel!” Lin Jin flared up in anger after finding out the truth. How dare that b*stard do something so dirty? No doubt, this must be from that incident two days ago.
But the problem was, it was Lu Xiaoyun who gripped his wrist and Jia Qian who reprimanded him. So why did that b*stard try to burn Lin Jin’s house instead?
Lin Jin had a feeling things weren’t that simple.
To put it in a bad way, this was an attempted murder. He was fortunate enough to have been able to evade it in time but what if it had been someone else? If the other target was asleep, they might have burned to death, or get suffocated from the fumes.
Did he have to go this far?
Lin Jin pressed the ruffians again but the latter knew nothing else. Suddenly, one of them recalled something and said, “Sir, we were wrong. I remember that Wu guy requesting that we had to burn the beast pen.”
Burn the beast pen?
Crackle! As if a lightning bolt had come striking down.
Lin Jin understood immediately.
Wu Chenwei’s target wasn’t him but the deer.
Why did the kept man insist on killing the deer?
This incident today could be reported to the authorities as arson was no petty crime. It was enough to give these ruffians some time behind bars. And whether or not they could penalize the mastermind behind this incident, it would be entirely up to the government’s integrity.
Lin Jin called the authorities and handed the ruffians over.
Meanwhile, the authorities were shocked to see the ruffians in such a terrible shape. To put it bluntly, if either of them were unlucky, they might not live long enough to see daylight.
However, as the authorities knew that Lin Jin was a beast appraiser with quite significant a status, they dared not give him trouble. After clarifying the situation, they took the convicts and rushed them to the medical hall. Any further delay and the ruffians might just drop dead.
Lin Jin obviously wouldn’t wait for the government to ‘uphold justice’ for him. He would still take action whenever required.
It was gradually getting bright outside so sleeping wasn’t an option anymore. Lin Jin simply brought the deer to the Shi Manor.
Since Wu Chenwei was a live-in son-in-law, he could surely be found here.
Wasn’t he trying to kill the deer?
Well then, Lin Jin would just bring the deer to him and give him a surprise.