Chapter 207: Disciple Tournament 3
Bai Zhenkong hadn’t been eating or sleeping well recently and the reason was simple. It was all Snake Country’s fault. A threat of war was no joke and if it did happen, his position as city lord would be threatened.
Since it involved his fate, Bai Zhenkong was obviously concerned.
He had reported this to Jade Dragon City at once and was currently waiting for a response. However, he heard that Ye Yuzhou too had written a letter to the imperial palace but he didn’t know what the contents were about.
Bai Zhenkong didn’t plan to come today, but after hearing from Zuo Wentang that the royally consecrated Lu Bin would be attending the event, he too was forced to come out of respect.
Of course, he knew who Lu Bin was. The latter had both power and status in the Jade Dragon Kingdom. Once, he was a general who made significant contributions to the empire. But even before all that, the Lu household was already a fairly prestigious family so being on good terms with Lu Bin brought certain advantages.
Bai Zhenkong went over to Lu Bin at once with Zuo Wentang following beside him.
“General Lu, why didn’t you tell us that you’ve come to Maple City? If Zuo Wentang hadn’t told me about it, as the city’s lord, I wouldn’t have known either.” Bai Zhenkong didn’t put on any airs. He didn’t have any to put on before Lu Bin anyway.
“City Lord Bai, I’m here purely for private business so I decided not to cause any unnecessary disturbances,” Lu Bin responded courteously.
Just then, Zuo Wentang noticed Xiao Huo who was snoozing on the floor. Stunned, he took a closer look before he froze up out of shock.
Several days ago at Mount Zoroku, he noticed that the fire wolf controlled by the mysterious man felt oddly familiar but he couldn’t quite put a finger to it.
Now that he was looking at Lin Jin’s pet beast, he recognized it immediately.
He was able to do so primarily because Xiao Huo’s fur was rather unique compared to other fire wolves. After going through a perfect evolution, Xiao Huo’s coat of fur had become one of a kind where each strand of fur looked like compacted licks of flame so that made him quite distinguishable.
Zuo Wentang wasted no time in telling Bai Zhengkong about this discovery.
The latter had been in a terrible state because of this issue so when he heard Zuo Wentang’s discovery, his brows furrowed and he glared at the fire wolf.
“Whose pet beast is this?” Bai Zhenkong asked.
When he heard the question and more specifically, his tone, Ye Yuzhou knew that this was bad.
Although he had written a letter to Jade Dragon Kingdom’s defense department about this incident and vouched that he would take full responsibility so as to buy the Curator some time, now that Zuo Wentang had recognized the fire wolf, Bai Zhenkong might just lash out at Lin Jin on the spot.
More importantly, Ye Yuzhou feared that the Curator might be present as well. If Bai Zhenkong offended his disciple and provoked the Curator, things might get messy.
However, Bai Zhenkong had already found out who the fire wolf’s owner was so he glared darkly at Lin Jin.
Ye Yuzhou quickly stepped forward.
Bai Zhenkong’s opinion of Ye Yuzhou couldn’t have been any worse so he spoke in a hostile manner, “Mr. Ye, you’ve been disrupting us time and again. Because of your actions, the murderer who’s sheltering monsters still roams freely out there, unpunished! Now that we’ve found a clue, I can’t afford to let you mess with our plans again! Otherwise, I’m afraid I’ll have to report you to the defense department.”
In spite of this warning, Ye Yuzhou stood his ground. “If that’s your wish, City Lord Bai, then so be it. I will take full responsibility for all consequences.”
The man was surprisingly firm.
Bai Zhenkong flared up in anger.
Lu Bin noticed a conflict brewing and it seemed like Bai Zhenkong wanted to do something to Lin Jin. Hence, he spoke up. “Appraiser Lin will soon be a guest at the imperial city. City Lord Bai, what do you plan to do to our royal guest?”
Bai Zhenkong was instantly shocked to hear Lu Bin say this.
His ears weren’t deceiving him. Lu Bin did say ‘royal guest’.
Zuo Wentang was just as shocked. He glanced at Ye Yuzhou and Lin Jin, then at Lu Bin before taking a step back quietly.
This was no longer a situation in which a person of his position had a say. He had only noticed the fire wolf and reported it to the city lord, as his duty dictated. If he had known things would turn out this way, Zuo Wentang would have pretended not to notice at all.
He was also slightly frightened. Just who was Lin Jin? The man was clearly tied to the incident but he actually had Ye Yuzhou and Lu Bin shielding him.
Ye Yuzhou was still okay but even City Lord Bai wouldn’t dare to offend Lu Bin.
Sure enough, Bai Zhenkong’s expression changed several times before he finally suppressed his anger and said, “General Lu, you might not know about this so please allow me to explain the situation. You can be the judge.”
Bai Zhenkong began telling him about what happened and when he was done, Lu Bin’s expression changed as well. Stealing a glance at Lin Jin, he was mildly shocked.
Monster?
The son of the Snake Country’s state preceptor died a tragic death.
War?
None of these were trivial matters.
However, this was only Bai Zhenkong’s side of the story. Lu Bin wouldn’t change his mind that easily because of this.
“City Lord Bai, Brother Ye, let’s talk about this in detail afterward,” Lu Bin decided. He had to at least get the specifics down.
If the truth was as Bai Zhenkong had said and a war between Snake Country and Jade Dragon Kingdom was imminent, this would mean grave trouble.
Ye Yuzhou sighed and said to the other mentors who had hurried over, “The disciple tournament continues.”
Having said that, when he passed Lin Jin’s seat, Ye Yuzhou whispered quietly, “I’ll persuade them. Please tell the Curator he can relax.”
Lin Jin nodded silently.
Bai Zhenkong walked away with an ominous expression. Lu Bin said nothing as he planned to hear Ye Yuzhou’s side of the story.
The way he saw it, Ye Yuzhou looked like he knew a greater part of the truth.
Only those near to them noticed this tiny incident. Because none of them could hear the conversation, most were confused. But the important thing was, Ye Yuzhou, Lu Bin, and even Bai Zhenkong were talking about Lin Jin.
This turned Yang Jie’s expression as dark as a void. His fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles popped.
He didn’t want to wait for even one moment.
This disciple tournament would be the place where he and Lin Jin settled the score.
The disciple tournament commenced.
As one of the mentors announced the rules, the disciples were instantly riled up.
The first battle started almost immediately.
According to the rules, this disciple tournament allowed only challenges against candidates ten places above the participant. In other words, those ranked eleven and above could only challenge disciples ranked one to ten. If they won, they could replace that candidate’s rank, and if they lost, they remained where they had been.
It was simple and straightforward.
The first battle was disciple number twenty-one challenging the participant in tenth place.
The two disciples brought their pet beasts into the ring and began fighting.
However, to Lin Jin, such a battle wasn’t worth watching. One was a Rank 1 beast while the other was Rank 2 so there wasn’t much of a competition.
Sure enough, the guy in tenth place defeated his opponent in a brief moment, successfully defending his ranking.
The next few battles were equally uninspiring except when disciple number seventeen defeated disciple number nine, successfully turning the tables while none of the other challengers succeeded.
After all, the mentor’s ranking was very objective. Assuming that none of them concealed their strength, this ranking basically represented the disciples’ current places.
Next up, someone challenged number four’s Lu Yunhe.
The challenger was rank number five so that disciple was obviously strong as well. Lu Yunhe rubbed his hands together and led Lu Ba into the ring. He was probably just as excited to show everyone the prowess of his evolved pet beast.
Lin Jin had been utilizing the coiled wire needle in secret, pricking every pet beast that entered the ring. But since his mastery of the skill had increased yet again, his targets merely felt tiny stings so that didn’t raise any suspicion of foul play.
After checking the museum’s description, Lin Jin knew that Lu Yunhe’s challenger would be going down.
That disciple’s pet beast was only Rank 2 and a mediocre one at that.
Sure enough, moments after the round started, Lu Ba defeated the other disciple’s pet beast in one go.
Just like how Xiao Huo defeated Lu Ba back then.
“A Rank 3 pet beast!”
Many people were shocked. After all, everyone assumed that Lu Yunhe’s pet beast was the same old Rank 2 so they were surprised to find out that it had evolved.