Museum of Deadly Beasts

“Uh, uhm…” No matter how shameless Chen Cheng was, he couldn’t possibly lie through his teeth. Lin Jin had turned out to be the real deal and if he were to dismiss the fact as nonsense, he’d run the risk of angering the crowd.

Then, Lin Jin said, “That formula I mentioned earlier was the ‘outer imagery’ component of the visualization technique. There are a total of fifty-six sentences and I will be explaining them in detail, one by one. But before that…”

Pausing here, Lin Jin suddenly pointed to Chen Cheng and the few disciples who mocked him at the beginning of his lecture and said, “You guys have been causing trouble from the very start, trying to pick a fight with me. Since you don’t enjoy listening to me, you don’t have to. Leave the hall now and stop disturbing the others.”

He was actually trying to boot them out.

Chen Cheng and his crew were dumbstruck. They had been the rowdiest earlier, brazen because they assumed Lin Jin wouldn’t be able to teach them anything.

They intended to use that opportunity to humiliate Lin Jin and embarrass him in public but not only did the latter give a proper lecture, the material discussed was of great significance. Even Ye Yuzhou might not know the full formula to this visualization technique. After Chen Cheng had heard how useful the fifty-six sentences were, he wouldn’t dream of leaving at all.

If he did, wouldn’t he be losing out?

Chen Cheng decided halfway through the lecture that he wouldn’t leave this place no matter what.

Not daring to respond, he stayed quiet, shamelessly trying to feign innocence.

The other disciples who had been creating commotion earlier did the same too.

Lin Jin smirked. He simply added, “If you guys won’t leave, I won’t continue the lecture. Since everyone here has already heard the formula, you can go back and decipher them on your own.”

Lin Jin planned to wash his hands of the matter.

This ultimatum of his immediately riled up the rest of the audience.

“Senior Lin, you can’t do that!”

“That formula sounds difficult so you have to explain them! I’m begging you, Senior Lin, please don’t leave!”

Some of the disciples had already grown suspicious when they saw how Chen Cheng kept disturbing Lin Jin’s lecture. After all, he was being really impolite. Although it was a talk given by a fellow disciple, a basic level of respect was still required.

Previously, when Yang Jie was the speaker, Chen Cheng had never probed him in such a way.

Even idiots could tell that Chen Cheng and the others were doing this on purpose.

If Lin Jin hadn’t given a meaningful lecture, no one would have tried to reclaim justice for him. But things were different now. Only a handful of the audience could truly comprehend what those fifty-six sentences meant. A great deal of them only knew the gist of it and was looking forward to learning more about the topic. If Lin Jin were to stop his lecture at this point, it would feel like scratching an itch over a shirt. It would be painfully unbearable.

No one dared to disrespect Lin Jin anymore. Even the assistant lecturers present dared not offend him, much less the other disciples, as they wanted to listen to the ‘outer imagery’s explanation.

Hence, just like the other disciples, they turned to Chen Cheng and his crew.

What did it mean to have eyes burning a hole into one’s body? What did sitting on a cushion of nails feel like? Chen Cheng and his crew finally got a first-hand experience.

They felt uncomfortable all over with so many pairs of eyes staring at them.

Chen Cheng clenched his fists tight as he cursed Lin Jin inwardly. Another thought popped into his mind, that Lin Jin couldn’t do anything to him even if he insisted on staying.

While Chen Cheng could hold it out, his crew couldn’t. After all, they were being surrounded by disciples whose cultivation level exceeded theirs. With everyone glaring daggers at them, how could they stay still?

These guys now felt like they were sitting on top of a fire pit. They turned to look at Chen Cheng.

Seeing Chen Cheng remain ‘shameless’, someone spoke up. “Senior Chen, why don’t you save us the trouble?”

This disciple was being polite. Some with volatile tempers who had been annoyed with Chen Cheng’s actions thus far simply roared, “Get out now! You’ve been annoying since the beginning. No matter who’s speaking today, they’re just here to share their experiences in their cultivation, but you, Chen Cheng, have been trying to pick a bone with Senior Lin before he even gave his talk. If you don’t want to listen, hurry up and leave. Stop wasting everyone’s time.”

“Yeah, get out!”

“Leave!”

“Get out!”

With someone to start, the others began chiming in.

No matter how shameless Chen Cheng was, even he couldn’t stand this anymore. With his face flushed, he got up and left.

Seeing this, the others quickly mimicked him and fled amidst sounds of laughter.

Outside the door, Chen Cheng almost cried tears of anger. To think he, Chen Cheng, was being chased out by a crowd. He had never suffered such grievance and humiliation before.

“Lin Jin, I, Chen Cheng, will never forgive you!” he scolded. But soon, that scowl turned into a smirk. ‘Lin Jin, you’ve had to sacrifice a lot by exposing your secret cultivation technique but you’re still blissfully unaware that you’ve offended Yang Jie by doing this. Unless you abstain from taking part in the disciple tournament, Yang Jie would never let you off the hook that easily.”

Inside the lecture hall, Yang Jie wore a solemn expression.

‘This Lin Jin actually taught everyone a valuable method. Isn’t he just trying to make things hard for me?’

Yang Jie couldn’t be blamed for having such thoughts as his past lectures had never been about cultivation methods. Instead, they were mostly about spell explanations and sharing his cultivation experience.

What Lin Jin talked about today was at least ten more times useful than what Yang Jie delivered.

To a person like Yang Jie who valued dignity a lot, this felt like a blatant slap in the face for him.

He couldn’t bear to listen on anymore.

Yang Jie got up and left.

What infuriated him even more was how no one noticed it when he left. Every disciple in the hall had their attentions focused on Lin Jin.

Yang Jie increased his pace, hurrying outside.

Lin Jin’s explanations were meant to supplement the formula he had given them sentence by sentence. For some sentences, ten different people might produce ten different interpretations. Some were inaccurate, some were on point, and it was meant to be that way. Some sentences contained more than one correct interpretation.

Just like paths up a mountain. Some were crooked and hard to climb while some were easy to walk on.

A good explanation could assist in improving cultivation effectively. For some whose comprehension skills were below average, they would much prefer ready answers.

Meanwhile, some who had already understood the formula were willing to listen as well to compare for discrepancies between theirs and Lin Jin’s version. Among the audience included assistant lecturers whose blood contracts were on the fifth realm, who possessed experience and capabilities far exceeding the disciples. They already understood all fifty-six sentences of Lin Jin’s visualization formula and found answers of their own so they weren’t especially thrilled by Lin Jin’s explanation segment.

‘This Lin Jin must have had a miraculous encounter or learned this fifty-six sentence formula from a great cultivator. If he’ll be explaining it based on his understanding, it may not be superior to ours. When that happens, we can give him some guidance as to repay his kindness for sharing this with us,’ one of the assistant lecturers mused.

Many others thought the same.

There were also people who speculated that Lin Jin’s explanation might have been given by an expert cultivator too.

Everyone stayed silent, allowing Lin Jin’s voice to permeate through the hall.

Every word and sentence was explained comprehensively. As they listened, the crowd was shocked and simultaneously, one of their suspicions was confirmed.

Lin Jin’s formula and explanation must have been given to him by an expert cultivator. After all, a disciple couldn’t possibly have achieved this level of understanding.

It was too detailed.

The elaborations were also profound and listening to Lin Jin was like listening to an experienced cultivator giving a lecture.

Once this segment was over, that pretty much concluded Lin Jin’s lecture. As he still had time, Lin Jin didn’t descend the stage but asked, “If there’s anything you didn’t understand, feel free to raise questions.”

What grand-sounding sentiments.

The assistant lecturers present were dumbstruck.

It wouldn’t be difficult to just recite what he knew, however, answering questions would prove to be a challenge. Without a certain amount of knowledge, Lin Jin would definitely be exposed if he couldn’t answer properly.

Hence, this offer of his baffled the assistant lecturers. Lin Jin could have recited the formula and explanation from memory, but this theory was debunked the moment he made the offer to answer their questions.

This could only happen if he had a deep level of understanding of the topic and possessed profound knowledge.

Right after Lin Jin said that many hands were raised.

Among them, Xue Bao’er’s hand was held up the highest. She was so close to standing up as she waved her arm, hoping for Lin Jin to notice her.

She was being way too obvious.

It was difficult to ignore her and she made Lin Jin smile. “Go on, Xue Bao’er.”

Xue Bao’er smiled from ear-to-ear when she heard Lin Jin mention her name. She immediately stood up and inquired, “Brother Lin, Brother Lin, you mentioned that we can visualize the sun, moon, and stars. We can also visualize flora and fauna, but is there any difference between the two? Would visualizing the planets be better than visualizing creatures? If so, why should we visualize them at all?”

Xue Bao’er’s train of thought was admittedly different from regular folk. What she cared about was clearly different from the rest too.

However, Lin Jin was still able to answer her question.

The Museum of Deadly Beasts provided him with comprehensive explanations. Although it couldn’t answer specific questions, Lin Jin could learn by analogy so answering Xue Bao’er’s question wasn’t all that difficult.

“Xue Bao’er, you mustn’t limit yourself to what the formula states. Everything in this world can be visualized and they aren’t exactly in a fixed hierarchy. You just have to find one that suits you best. I’d like to add on that in ‘outer imagery’, you only have to choose one to visualize as I believe everyone will agree on this, greed does not necessarily guarantee results,” Lin Jin answered.

Xue Bao’er raised her hand again.

“Then Brother Lin, how can we tell if something suits us? For example, me. If I want to perform visualization, what should I choose?”

Lin Jin smiled.

While he couldn’t say the same for others, Lin Jin had already deduced Xue Bao’er’s suitability.

“Visualizing something beyond oneself can compensate for what’s lacking in the mind, and these attributes have to complement each other. You have a bubbly personality so if you adopt visualization, you have to maintain peace of mind and since your attribute is fire, visualizing incense or flora would be suitable for you.”

Upon hearing Lin Jin’s answer, Xue Bao’er came to this realization and stopped asking anymore questions. She sat back down and began visualizing with her eyes closed.

Next, another disciple raised his hand. Lin Jin nodded at him and this disciple stood up. “Brother Lin, I’ve researched this visualization method before and assumed that I was quite knowledgeable in it. But after listening to your lecture, I realize I’m still far from fully grasping it. However, I’ve already visualized something and it’s difficult for me to switch it out at this stage. May I seek your advice, Brother Lin?”

This question was fairly tricky.

Many people turned to Lin Jin, anticipating his answer. Even the assistant lecturers did the same as they didn’t know how to answer this question themselves.

Just like someone who had traveled on the wrong path wanting to start anew. This was much more difficult than a newbie starting from scratch. No matter how good a painter was, he too would choose to paint on a new canvas rather than fix a failed piece.

They all thought more or less the same thing.

Lin Jin pondered the question for a moment before asking, “What have you visualized?”

“The image of the Taoist God, Xuanwu!”

Xuanwu was one of the ancient deities. His existence had been recorded in ancient books and painters through time have produced drawings of this deity based on the descriptions found in such books.