The abbot was an intelligent man, or he wouldn’t have attained his position in the first place. He raised his hand, signaling for the crowned eagle guardian to take several steps back. With fear in his voice, he said, “Curator, please stay calm. Let us talk nicely instead of resorting to violence.”
Lin Jin scoffed on the inside.
‘If I hadn’t shown this Vulcan Edict, you lot would’ve killed me right now.
‘Talk nicely?
‘Bah!’
Even so, Lin Jin was no fool. It was impossible for him to take them on all at once, so he cackled coldly.
“Master Abbot, what other advice do you have for me?”
“No, no, please don’t regard it as my advice. Curator is a formidable expert and this edict was truly spectacular. This humbled one has been convinced by your impressive show of force,” the abbot said.
He even changed the way he addressed himself. By saying ‘this humbled one’, it was clear that he was backing down.
“This humbled one has only limited knowledge of the incident Curator mentioned earlier. Could you please wait for a moment while I send someone to fetch the rector of the Exorcist Hall? We’ll allow him to clarify the matter.”
‘You should’ve just done that from the start,’ Lin Jin grumbled on the inside.
“I’ll be troubling you then, Master Abbot.”
That’s right, Lin Jin would force Daluo Temple into a negotiation to release White Ape and to issue an apology. That was his goal.
The power of initiation was now in Lin Jin’s hands. So long as Daluo Temple feared getting into a life and death struggle, so long as they cared about their thousand-year-old establishment, they would never choose to fight Lin Jin.
If they couldn’t fight, they could only surrender. Of course, Lin Jin shouldn’t push them too hard, or he might have to leave empty-handed.
Soon, the Exorcist Hall’s rector, Jue Zhen, arrived. His face was still pale as a sheet thanks to the slash wound he had received two days ago.
Following the rector outside was a smiling middle-aged monk with an unusual temperament. Most of the monks were sweating bullets, seeing how there was a huge ball of fire hanging above their heads. The scorching heat was so unbearable that some of the dried grass within the temple began to smoke. If the flames continued, a fire might just break out so the monks were scampering around with buckets of water.
Once the rector arrived and saw the little fox in Lin Jin’s arms, his pupils dilated and his face was filled with disbelief.
He clearly recognized the creature.
“Jue Zhen, this man here is Curator. He… He’s here at Daluo Temple because…” The abbot briefly explained the situation before he asked, “Jue Zhen, you have to tell us honestly what happened.”
Jue Zhen seemed reluctant to speak but that burning sun above their heads allowed no room for nonsense so he suppressed his anger and started speaking, “That day, together with my two disciples Zhi Nian and Zhi Yin, we passed through Mount Long Pass when a few people stopped us. They told us that a monster was wreaking havoc in the nearby Reed City. They begged us to go and slay that monster, so I assigned the task to my disciple, Zhi Yin. As I waited for his return, I sensed dense monster energy within the city and as soon as I came out, I met the sight of the fox attacking humans. As a follower of Daluo Temple, it is obvious that I had to take her down. From the beginning till now, my conscience remains clear.”
Upon hearing Jue Zhen’s account, Lin Jin more or less figured what happened.
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“Master Jue Zhen, have you ever considered the possibility of a thief crying thief? That they were just using you?” Lin Jin asked before he explained what happened to the Qiao family.
“Those thieves are scums of the Demonic Appraisal Association and they’ve been lurking around Reed City, with the plan to rob the Qiao family of their heirloom. You just happened to pass by and what you did was lend those demonic appraiser scums a hand.” Lin Jin finally understood the situation.
He was previously furious because he suspected Daluo Temple of colluding with the Demonic Appraisal Association. However, it now seemed like that wasn’t the case. Still, for Jue Zhen to indiscriminately label every monster he meets to be evil, he was also partly at fault here.
Upon hearing his explanation, the monks’ expressions varied though most of them seemed enlightened.
“Heh, so it seems that it was just a misunderstanding. Our Daluo Temple is infamous for slaying monsters and demons, and those thieves of the Demonic Appraisal Association must have been aware of this. It must have been part of their plan to borrow our hand in doing their evil deeds.” Brilliant as he was, the abbot saw a way for them to wipe their hands clean of the incident so he instantly took it without hesitation.
Although it was rather shameful, he had no choice. He couldn’t actually fight Curator now, could he?
More importantly, Curator was too accomplished. If Daluo Temple insisted on fighting him, both sides would suffer irreparable damage. Leaving the consequences aside, their thousand-year-old temple would surely perish alongside many of its halls.
Their opponent was a scorching sun coming down from above and it would have been a futile battle.
They might not even be able to parry it with Achala’s Golden Peak, and they wouldn’t have enough time to cast it either.
With his keen observation, Lin Jin could tell that the rector was badly injured as well. If he guessed it right, Shang’er must have snuck an attack on him with Object Manipulation. This monk had yet to achieve a bullet-proof physique so after this injury, even if he recovers, his lifespan would be shortened, and improving his cultivation would be invariably more difficult.
In comparison, Shang’er may have suffered worse injuries but she had Lin Jin to heal her. She would surely attain metamorphosis in the future and raise her strength so that somewhat balanced things out. Lin Jin had initially planned to disable the old monk, but now it seems he was no different from a cripple.
At this thought, Lin Jin responded politely, “You’re right, Master Abbot. Ridding the cruel to protect the people isn’t wrong. However, know that not all monsters in this world are evil. I hope that the masters of Daluo Temple can probe the monsters you encounter from now on. If you do meet good-natured monsters who are focused on cultivation, I hope you will show them mercy. Please don’t insist on slaughtering them for the sake of maintaining your reputation.”
This was considered a ‘lecture’ for the Daluo Temple monks. Under average circumstances, these monks were usually the ones standing on the moral and intellectual high ground. They were the ones who did the lecturing and enlightening. For the roles to suddenly be reversed, it came as no surprise that some of them felt aggrieved from it.
Even then, they had no other choice but to heed Lin Jin’s advice.
As the atmosphere had calmed down, to strike up conflict again was unwise. Moreover, even if they wanted to, the abbot would never allow them to do such a thing.
Fine. They would listen quietly.
“Master Jue Zhen, since this was just a misunderstanding, I won’t pursue the matter any further. Release my grand-disciple, the white ape and I will undo the edict and leave this mountain immediately,” Lin Jin said.
To his dismay, Jue Zhen’s brows furrowed and he shook his head. “That disciple of mine, Zhi Yin… Ever since we parted ways at Mount Long Pass, he has yet to return. The white ape that you speak of isn’t in Daluo Temple.”
“What?” Lin Jin was shocked.
His first response was to doubt the other’s claims. Lin Jin raised his aura. There was the lingering suspicion that they had already killed White Ape and this was merely a convenient answer that they made up.
In an instant, the atmosphere became tense again.
“According to the Qiao family, a monk from Daluo Temple went to challenge White Ape, and fearing that innocent people would be harmed, he left the city for the fight. We only found traces of destruction in some secluded area outside the city, and even now, White Ape has yet to return. He’s still in your temple, is he not? Either that or you have already killed him?”
Lin Jin’s tone was ice-cold. If these monks had indeed killed White Ape, Lin Jin would guarantee Daluo Temple’s destruction today.