The sudden appearance of an angry mob at the gates of the Beast Appraisal Association obviously scared everyone else away. Those who were brave enough stood far away, pointing at the mob as they whispered among themselves.
“My good men, let’s go. Do not frighten our citizens.” Zup Wentang extended an arm to lead the way.
Since he had put it that way, the others had no choice but to give him.
Being stubborn wouldn’t change anything.
Outnumbered twenty to a hundred, only idiots would charge the enemy head-on.
The opposing faction’s leader looked grim before finally saying through gritted teeth, “Steward Zuo, I hope you’ve thought it through. Our city lord won’t just let things end this way.”
“This way please.” Zuo Wentang didn’t seem bothered by his words.
Knowing that their mission was a failure, the opposition leader could only scoff before retreating with his men. Zuo Wentang escorted them the entire way to make sure that they weren’t going to come back for more trouble.
In any case, he wouldn’t let them do as they pleased today.
When they reached a secluded area in the city, and after seeing there was no one around, the opposition leader said, “Steward Zuo, I will report what happened today back to City Lord Fan without missing a single detail. I hope you won’t regret your actions when the time comes.”
As if Zuo Wentang would be flustered by such a threat. He responded with a chuckle. “Whatever you tell City Lord Fan is your business, but I was being honest when I said I’ve rescued you all today. Make of that what you will, but you’ll thank me eventually.”
“Hmph! Let’s go.” That person clearly didn’t heed Zuo Wentang’s advice.
Zuo Wentang was, of course, nonchalant about it.
“Guards, keep our valuable guests from Fan City company and see them to the gates,” Zuo Wentang instructed. Being attentive in his work was how Zuo Wentang earned Bai Zhenkong’s regard in the first place.
On today’s matter, he fully supported Bai Zhenkong’s decision.
That was to provoke City Lord Fan instead of Lin Jin.
As for Lin Jin, Zuo Wentang actually had his own opinion on the man because there were some things perhaps even Bai Zhenkong didn’t know about. For instance, he knew that something had possibly happened in the royal capital that Zuo Wentang had yet to verify.
After intense contemplation, he decided not to tell Bai Zhenkong about it, since it was no more than mere speculation. If he did, he’d risk inviting trouble to himself.
However, Zuo Wentang couldn’t well treat it as if it didn’t exist.
A good friend of his in the royal capital had told him about witnessing a white ape fighting a jade dragon.
There were many crucial details in this piece of information alone.
A jade dragon was definitely a rare beast among rare beasts, a symbol of uniqueness in the Jade Dragon Kingdom. There were only a handful of people who owned jade dragons in this nation.
A white ape fighting a jade dragon. Could that white ape possibly belong to Lin Jin?
It must be.
And where did that jade dragon come from?
This hadn’t been verified yet so Zuo Wentang could only throw out wild guesses. During that time, it just so happened that an imperial official, second to only the emperor, Minister Yu, fell ill.
With this, a plausible explanation arose.
Did this jade dragon belong to Minister Yu?
Minister Yu might not even have died from an illness.
The more he thought about it, the more probable it sounded. Many officials had arrived at the same conclusion as well. After all, no matter how much the palace tried to conceal their power struggles, bits of information would still leak out.
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The officials in the royal capital must know a thing or two, just that no one dared to speak of it. The officials of other regions could only guess the truth but they could see that Minister Yu’s influence had gradually begun to diminish in the imperial court and elsewhere. Diehards were simply purged for committing trivial faults and stripped of their titles.
And who would benefit most from Minister Yu’s fall?
Zuo Wentang knew full well that it was the emperor.
Then, could there be another possibility? That His Majesty borrowed Lin Jin’s power to get rid of Minister Yu.
It was an outrageous assumption but probable nonetheless.
Even if that wasn’t the case, Lin Jin was definitely involved in this incident one way or another. Hence, if something ever happened, their City Lord Manor, including Zuo Wentang himself, had to stay on Lin Jin’s side.
That went without saying.
Of course, they definitely shouldn’t stay quiet about helping Lin Jin out today. They had to tell Lin Jin what he needed to know, not to receive credit, but to remind the younger man that Fan City’s lord wasn’t going to give up that easily.
With this in mind, Zuo Wentang had his men retreat while he headed back for the Beast Appraisal Association.
As for what happened at the association’s gates earlier, someone had already reported it to Lin Jin.
After Lin Jin, who was in the midst of working, heard the news, he simply reassured his colleagues, urging them to just focus on their respective tasks.
Lin Jin wasn’t sure as to what happened, but with Zuo Wentang present, there should be no major hiccups.
No longer who he was before, Lin Jin’s state of mind had been honed to the point that a landslide happening right before his eyes wouldn’t faze him. What mattered to him right now was to attend to the hundred over consultation tokens issued.
That was his only priority.
Since this morning, Lin Jin had already attended to over a hundred pet beasts. Still, there was no reward from the museum. Of course, to obtain the Beast Energy Formation Part Four, he had to appraise more rare beasts and so far, he had only encountered about eight of them. That was too little.
“Master Lin, you’ve consecutively appraised more than a hundred beasts. Would you like to take a rest and have something to eat?” Zhao Ying came over and asked discreetly.
Lin Jin had already noticed Zuo Wentang standing outside, waiting for him. The man only showed up probably because he had something to say, so Lin Jin nodded.
“Sounds good!”
After he finished writing the final letter, Lin Jin got up to loosen his muscles.
In fact, Lin Jin wasn’t tired at all. Having cultivated the Beastmaster Fourth Scroll, allowing him to merge with his pet beast, his physical constitution was much stronger now so forget a few hours, even ten plus hours of non-stop appraisals wouldn’t tire him.
After doing a couple of simple stretches, Lin Jin signalled for Zhao Ying to let Zuo Wentang in.
“Steward Zuo, I saw you arrive earlier. Why didn’t you come in?” Lin Jin asked cheerily as he went over.
Zuo Wentang saluted and replied, “Chief Lin, I noticed that you were in the middle of work so I didn’t want to disturb you.”
“You’re too courteous, Steward Zuo. I’m on break right now, so let’s talk inside.” Lin Jin returned a salute and welcomed him. Then, he instructed his apprentices to prepare some tea for the esteemed guest.
Surprisingly, Jia Qian had already made tea.
Being the sensible one, when she saw Lin Jin receiving Zuo Wentang, she had gone ahead to prepare it.
This was a habit Lu Xiaoyun and the rest couldn’t get used to.
Once they were seated inside the hall, Lin Jin stared at Zuo Wentang, thinking that he might be here because of what happened outside the association earlier.
Sure enough, instead of beating around the bus, Zuo Wentang went ahead and told him about the incident.
“City Lord Bai has instructed that we keep things under control for Chief Lin no matter what,” Zuo Wentang announced righteously with a serious expression.
Lin Jin saluted in return and thanked him.
They did give him a hand after all. Even if Lin Jin wasn’t afraid of the people from Fan City, letting them wreak havoc in the association would certainly be a pain in the butt.