Museum of Deadly Beasts

1

No one felt sorry for the fainted Wang Ji. After all, it seemed like Wang Ji abusing his authority to oppress a rising star was a legitimate issue.

Everyone knew how badly Wang Ji treated Lin Jin recently. His consultation hall was shut down without notice and he was sent off to work at the emergency hall. To add insult to injury, his qualification as a beast appraiser was revoked and Lin Jin was chased out of the association like a pariah.

While they hadn’t realized it before, now that Lin Jin had displayed his prowess, those with barely working senses of judgment could easily arrive at the conclusion that Wang Ji only did what he did out of envy for Lin Jin’s skills.

Everyone was delighted by Tan Lin’s decision.

Wang Ji was carried away.

“The truth has now been revealed. Appraiser Lin, it was because of my oversight that I ended up misunderstanding you. I will inform headquarters at once to officially reinstate your qualifications as Rank 1 beast appraiser,” said Tan Lin as she approached Lin Jin with her head lowered.

She felt really bad and only hoped to compensate Lin Jin as much as she could.

Lin Jin smiled. “There’s no need for that.”

Tan Lin got anxious. Thinking Lin Jin was still mad at her, she quickly raised her head to explain, “Lin Jin, I misunderstood your intentions that night. I was wrong so I have to fix what I can. Your qualification has been revoked and even if you take the exam one more time, you might not be able to pass.”

“There’s really no need for that.” Lin Jin waved.

Panicking, Tan Lin pressed on, “Even if you refuse to forgive me, you have to think about yourself. Reinstating your qualification as a Rank 1 beast appraiser is what I should do and what you deserve.”

Lin Jin felt helpless as he mused, ‘Why is this girl so weird? Haven’t she heard what I said?’

After giving it some thought, Lin Jin decided to break the truth to her. “Appraiser Tan, you’re mistaken. I’m not holding a grudge about what happened that night. As for my qualification as a Rank 1 beast appraiser, I’ve passed the exam so there’s no need to reinstate it.”

“You passed?” Tan Lin was astonished.

“That’s impossible. A Rank 1 beast appraiser’s certification exam requires judgment from the local association’s managing elder. No matter how fast they assess, the results can’t possibly be released on the day of the examination itself.” Tan Lin was fully aware of how a Beast Appraisal Association worked.

Suddenly, a voice interjected, “Unless the managing elder passes the candidate on the spot.”

Turning towards the source of the voice, Maple City Beast Appraisal Association’s Elder Du, who was in charge of management, could be seen strolling over. Following behind him was his pet beast, the intelligent monkey. That monkey was currently carrying a wooden tray piled with exam answer sheets.

“Elder Du!”

“Brother Du!”

The group immediately greeted the elderly man. Even Elder Mo and Tan Xun acted very courteously toward Elder Du.

“Brother Tan, you look like you’re doing well.” Elder Du chuckled.

Among the three elders, Nan Gongxian was the least experienced and compared to him, Elder Mo and Elder Du were veterans. Elder Du, in particular, served as a lecturer at headquarters during his younger days and was a well-respected individual. Although he remained a Rank 2 beast appraiser, his abilities were in fact on par with any Rank 3 appraiser.

Elder Du much preferred to keep a low-profile as he operated the management office. The exams and candidates each year were his responsibility, so whether or not they passed was up to his decision.

“Brother Du, about Appraiser Lin…” Despite already knowing the situation, Tan Xun couldn’t resist asking.

Elder Du nodded. “I’ve assessed Lin Jin’s exam papers on the spot. Since he got a perfect score, I let him pass. Appraiser Tan Lin, I’m not breaking any rules by doing this, am I?”

Stunned, Tan Lin quickly shook her head. “Elder Du is in charge of management and the certification of Rank 1 appraisers are within your jurisdiction. Since you’ve assessed the scores personally, it’s not against the rules… Wait, did you mention a perfect score?”

When the information sank in, Tan Lin widened her eyes in disbelief.

Elder Du nodded and echoed, “Aye, a perfect score!”

Elder Du had heard about Lin Jin being forced to retake the exams. As he ‘saw Lin Jin in a new light’ previously, Elder Du decided to show up today just to look at Lin Jin’s answer sheets.

Needless to say, he was surprised by the outcome. With less than half of the time left, Lin Jin completed the evaluation for ten pet beasts perfectly. The evaluation reports he produced were model work from which not a single fault could be picked.

Overall, the reports were as good as they got.

Hence, Elder Du assessed the papers on the spot and gave Lin Jin a perfect score, allowing him to pass the exam.

Lin Jin being able to pass the Rank 1 beast appraiser’s certification exam didn’t come as too much of a shock for the crowd. The man was capable after all.

However, to pass with a perfect score was too much.

At that moment, everyone was awestruck.

Getting full marks was a rare occurrence in beast appraiser exams as it was impossible to be completely sure in every evaluation. Moreover, there was a need to grasp the target’s attribute and bloodline, so it was challenging to be precise.

If the evaluation report contained words like ‘perhaps’, ‘possibly’, or ‘assumption’, it was impossible to get full marks.

Those were the rules.

A perfect score could only happen when the evaluation report was written with full confidence in one’s assertions. In other words, the findings had to be exactly the same as actual facts.

Getting full marks on one evaluation report was easy, but to get a perfect score on all ten evaluation reports was simply outrageous.

At least, the crowd thought it was preposterous.

Tan Xun was evidently shocked. Glancing at Elder Du, Tan Xun wondered silently, ‘Is Lin Jin perhaps connected to Elder Du in some way? Is he a relative? Otherwise, why would Elder Du give so much attention to him in particular?’

Upon seeing the crowd’s reaction, Elder Du knew they weren’t convinced so he said, “I knew none of you would believe me. You might even be thinking if Lin Jin had bribed me or perhaps he was a distant relative and I’m just looking after him. Forget it. I’ve brought out his exam papers. For those of you who are skeptical, you should be able to formulate your opinions once you read them.”

Having said that, he turned to his pet beast and the little monkey walked over to the stone table at once, placing the wooden tray onto it.

Tan Xun and Tan Lin were the first to approach to check the exam papers. The others too stepped forward, including Nan Gongxian and Gao Jiang.

Wang Ji had fallen. Nan Gongxian couldn’t save him, nor did he wish to do so. As for himself, since he didn’t oppress Lin Jin as blatantly as Wang Ji, he wasn’t afraid of any consequences.

Gao Jiang had been acting with caution and subtlety as well.

However, both of them didn’t believe that Lin Jin could finish evaluating ten beasts with less than half the time left and even produce ten masterpieces to attain a full score. Even if they were to take the exams themselves with sufficient time, there was still a high chance of flunking the exam.

Hence, they hovered around with the intention of picking out ‘flaws’ that would in turn prove how Lin Jin wasn’t that insanely capable.

There were ten evaluation reports, each person held one.

Once they started reading, no one made a sound.

Everyone was so entranced by the reports’ contents that they couldn’t pull away.

Even Tan Xun was nodding in approval as he subconsciously finished reading the entire answer sheet.

“The theory is well-founded and the analysis is comprehensive. None of the details have been left out so I can’t find a flaw. I really can’t even after trying to.”

After that, he took another answer sheet.

Clearly, despite his positive impression of Lin Jin, Tan Xun didn’t believe Lin Jin could get a perfect score too.

Even in his exam back in the day, Tan Xun still had a couple of hiccups, which was why he couldn’t attain full marks.

But when he was done reading the second report, Tan Xun also praised it to be immaculate. There wasn’t a single detail he didn’t agree with, and if he were to write an evaluation report for the same beast, it would be on par with the one Lin Jin had produced.

By now, Tan Xun was startled. Refusing to believe that it was true, he picked up the third one.

Tan Lin merely read one and stopped there.

She knew that she couldn’t possibly come up with an evaluation report as thorough as this. Just like the saying went ‘the falling of one leaf heralds the coming of autumn’, Tan Lin was now convinced of Lin Jin’s competence as a beast appraiser.