Chapter 413: Curator Is Absent
Shang’er was experiencing torturous pain as the lightning surged into her body. The pain now was far worse from the pain she was already in prior to the lightning strike. What made it a living hell was how the pain seemed to be coming from inside out.
The little fox’s face grimaced in pain but she never uttered a single squeak in the process.
Divine lightning has been recognized by most as the strongest power of nature that no one could stand up against. However, it was usually the case that the stronger something was, the greater its weakness.
The divine lightning was no exception to this rule. For one, it lacked the power for a continued attack.
After a few strikes, it began to weaken and after two more strikes, its strength was already not worth mentioning.
The first few bolts had been thick as barrels. Subsequently, they reduced to the diameter of a human arm, and then to the thickness of fingers. It wasn’t long before the lightning posed no threat to their safety. Meanwhile, as if it were about to devour the sky, Goldy soared into the clouds and unleashed its flames of fury.
For a moment there, a fire burned above the dark clouds as if the sun had decided to rise earlier than usual. It was so bright that it was able to illuminate corners hundreds of miles away.
Goldy’s light even reached Reed City.
Many folks were awoken from their sleep and they all noticed the odd brightness behind the distant clouds. It was so phenomenal that some exclaimed that the clouds were being lit on fire. They weren’t too far off, as indeed, Goldy was burning away the thunderclouds.
At the Qiao Manor, Qiao Feigong threw a robe over his shoulders and emerged just in time to witness this scene. His expression was horrified, but something seemed to have popped into his mind moments later.
“Father, that looks like…”Qiao Xing’s voice almost cracked.
Mount Long Pass City!
Qiao Feigong nodded. The dreadful feeling of anxiety was felt by all members of his family.
Suddenly, there was a burst of light, and moments later, they heard the low rumble that clearly was a result of the explosion they had witnessed.
Given how much of a spectacle this was from so far away, one could imagine how impressive it was to witness the occurrence up close.
The folks of Reed City and the Qiao family may not know this, but Chen Ruyuan had a front-row seat to the show. Despite being one of the guardians of the Jade Dragon Kingdom, Chen Ruyuan was now cowering in fear under the dilapidated building.
Not only was he trembling, but even his golden bear had started to shiver.
Lin Jin let out a long sigh of relief.
The worst was over, but still, he could not move at the moment.
Although Lin Jin’s cultivation had improved and his physical body was stronger than the average man, he couldn’t compare to beasts like Xiao Huo and Goldy. Enduring the divine lightning while using a secret art to dissolve the energy for Shang’er had been a challenging ordeal. The pain Lin Jin had suffered this time around did not pale in comparison to what Shang’er felt. In fact, since he only had the body of a mortal human being, it could be said that he was relatively worse off.
Shang’er was lying unconscious on the ground, but Lin Jin knew he had done everything he had to do. Using a secret acupuncture technique, he managed to tuck the thunder energy inside of Shang’er’s organs. How she would utilize it or what improvements she would draw from it would depend on Shang’er after this.
Xiao Huo was also listless, but he was definitely in better shape than Lin Jin. After all, he had a Dharma body so the residual strength of the lightning strike did not faze him.
As for Goldy, looking up at the violent ball of flames in the night sky, Lin Jin knew the bird would be fine. The rooster was still high up in the sky at the moment because it was still trying to vent his frustrations upon receiving the painful strike.
Perhaps Goldy had assumed that those thunderclouds were the root of all his pain, so he kept on bashing them.
Lin Jin would leave him be.
Sitting down cross-legged, Lin Jin used his internal eye to examine his own body only to find himself in a terrible state. He had been a little too presumptuous this time. He worked under the assumption that he was strong enough to tank the hit from the divine lightning.
His calculations were a bit off, and his organs were now impaired. Some of his veins were damaged, and there were large holes burned into his robes. Underneath those holes were large patches of burns on his skin. In other words, Lin Jin was not in the healthiest state at the moment.
Retrieving a blood energy pill, Lin Jin consumed it and began nourishing his damaged veins.
Just then, he felt an energy surge behind him and the Visitation Hall’s door appeared out of thin air, standing silently before him.
Lin Jin was stunned.
Then, he came to a realization.
He had forgotten that today was the reopening of the Visitation Hall.
After a brief moment of contemplation, Lin Jin closed the door. He wasn’t suited to enter the Visitation Hall right now. His first priority was to administer treatment and dissolve what remained of the lightning in his body. He could enter the Visitation Hall the next time so there was no hurry.
As for the visitors, it was nice to let them communicate with each other too.
***
As usual, the atmosphere in the Visitation Hall was lively.
There were no newcomers this time. Following the arrival of Feng Ziqian and Zhao Jingyan the last time, there were a total of eight visitors now.
Today, Feng Ziqian had brought tons of rare beast DNA samples, and he planned to give them all to Curator when he arrived. He had also brought quite a few treasures with him. After all, it wasn’t difficult for the prince of a premium country like himself to obtain these items.
The other newcomer, Zhao Jingyan, also came fully prepared. In the days leading up to the reopening of the Visitation Hall, she had been waiting in agony. As the Great Commander of the Phoenix Palace, Zhao Jingyan had never desired to meet someone of the opposite gender this much.
Of course, it was mainly because of Curator’s phenomenal display of turning the ashes of her dead phoenix into an egg. This egg had become Zhao Jingyan’s final strand of hope. As for the term ‘Nirvana’, while she did manage to guess what it meant, she still had to seek Curator’s guidance for its true meaning.
Hence, when the Visitation Hall reopened, she was practically the first to rush in. Full of excitement and anticipation, she awaited Curator’s arrival.
As the other visitors entered the hall, everyone started chatting. It was here that He Qing told them about Curator’s disciple, Appraiser Lin, and his achievements. For instance, she talked about how he easily evolved five pet beasts during the Jade Dragon Festival and what happened during the dragon selection. Everyone enjoyed her story.
Still, they had something even greater to look forward to, and it was the Curator’s arrival.
Hence, after a long while without him showing up, the group started to get anxious.
He Qing was the first to speak up.
“Why isn’t Curator here yet?”
With her taking the lead, the others began questioning it too, but none of them seemed to have an answer for Curator’s absence.
“Perhaps he is being held back by something,” the level-headed Ye Yuzhou commented, even though he was just as curious.
Subsequently, the visitors continued chatting but this time, their topic revolved around the sort of incidents that could possibly hold Curator back.
With the combined knowledge of eight people from different parts of the world they were able to come up with a number of theories.
Of course, none of them were worried for Curator’s safety. If anything, they were just curious.
To them, nothing in this world could challenge ‘Curator’ so there was no need to worry about him. However, this, in turn, piqued their curiosity even more as to what could actually make Curator come late.
“Has anything special happened in your continents recently?” Ye Yuzhou asked. He mostly stayed at Maple City’s Friar Association to cultivate his powers so, while he may know a little of what happened in the Jade Dragon Kingdom, he was largely closed off from the world.