Chapter 145: Dong He’s Disturbing Operation
Lin Jin obviously had no idea that Dong He and friends were observing him in the dark. He was too pre-occupied with recording beasts, thoroughly enjoying himself in the process. By now, the number of beasts recorded in the Museum of Deadly Beasts had exceeded eight hundred.
It didn’t take long before a chime rang inside the museum. Bright lights shone down and a flow of energy descended from above, encompa.s.sing Lin Jin’s mind as if he was being baptized by G.o.d himself. Then, an imprint flew into the museum, pouring into Lin Jin’s consciousness. A voice followed after.
“Over eight hundred beasts recorded. Intermediate Beast Deterrence ability has been rewarded.”
“Beast Deterrence: Able to tame and intimidate beasts up to Rank 4.”
The voice sounded clear and bright, carrying with it a sense of supreme authority.
‘It’s finally here!”
Lin Jin was exhilarated.
To him, the Beast Deterrence ability was just as practical as the Pulse-Seeking Technique. When faced with powerful creatures, this ability could save his life.
Previously, Lin Jin could only intimidate beasts up to Rank 3 and he considered it barely sufficient to keep himself safe. Now, he could deter beasts up to Rank 4; he could finally subdue stronger creatures from now on.
He s.h.i.+fted his gaze to the beasts from the Gra.s.sy Continent.
The creatures here were obviously superior to the local ones. However, as they were found exclusively on the Gra.s.sy Continent, many people had no knowledge of them so buyers could only make purchases based on their gut feeling. The more well-off folks hired beast appraisers to a.s.sist them in the decision-making process.
Lin Jin circled the entire area and exhausted great effort before managing to finish recording all beasts, leaving no one out.
“Brother Lin!”
Someone suddenly called from behind. Lin Jin turned around to see Zu Can.
It wasn’t just Zu Can, but Zu Tianhong was also here.
This was such a grand exhibition with exotic pet beasts on sale. As one of the three most prominent families of Maple City, how could the Zu family miss this out?
“Appraiser Lin!” Zu Tianhong came over and saluted him.
Lin Jin returned the gesture.
Then, he noticed a tall and muscular Gra.s.sy Continent native following behind Zu Tianhong. Zu Can told Lin Jin that the man was a beast appraiser from Gra.s.sy Continent hired by his family.
“Brother Lin, I wanted to request your service but my father said that beast appraisers from our continent aren’t familiar with the beasts from Gra.s.sy Continent, so we decided not to trouble you. But honestly speaking, I trust your judgment even more,” Zu Can whispered cheekily.
Lin Jin smiled in response.
Zu Tianhong’s consideration was appropriate. The beast appraisers here in United Continent were indeed unfamiliar with beasts from Gra.s.sy Continent, except himself.
As long as it existed in this world, there wasn’t a single beast the Museum of Deadly Beasts couldn’t appraise.
“Which one did you buy?” Lin Jin asked.
Zu Can quickly produced a book containing appraisals on several beasts.
It was obviously written by the native beast appraiser.
“Brother Lin, take a look!” Zu Can said.
Lin Jin skimmed it through and nodded.
The native beast appraiser’s judgment on the beasts was fairly accurate. Although there were occasional discrepancies, it wasn’t anything major.
Upon seeing Lin Jin nod his head, Zu Can breathed a sigh of relief.
“I heard that even the City Lord Manor has dispatched representatives over to purchase exotic beasts,” Zu Can said.
Lin Jin had heard about this as well.
Before he left the Beast Appraisal a.s.sociation, he seemed to have heard someone mention Tan Lin being invited over by the City Lord Manor. They were probably requesting her help to appraise beasts.
“Right, Brother Lin, my family plans to let my little brother form a blood pact with the two-headed snake we bought at the auction earlier on. We’ll be needing your a.s.sistance again when the time comes,” Zu Can said, to which Lin Jin nodded.
Lin Jin had to do it. After all, forming a blood contract with that two-headed snake was no easy task.
After some casual conversation, they finally started talking about the Friar a.s.sociation.
“I heard from my sister that you’ve entered the Friar a.s.sociation,” Zu Can asked with a smile.
Lin Jin nodded. It wasn’t a secret anyway.
However, Zu Can’s next statement made Lin Jin’s expression dark.
“My sister heard a rumor saying that you entered the Friar a.s.sociation for that Chen Yuanyuan girl, that you were doing it to get her back from Yang Jie.” Perhaps Zu Can noticed Lin Jin’s foul expression, he quickly added, “but I don’t believe in this rumor.”
Lin Jin felt anger rose in him. “You shouldn’t have mentioned that rumor.”
Lin Jin vehemently despised this rumor. He had no idea who started it, but if he did, Lin Jin would make that person’s life a living h.e.l.l.
Just then, they noticed a commotion up ahead.
Following right after were screams and exclamations.
“Oh no, run! One of the exotic beasts broke free from its cage and it’s escaping!” someone shouted before all h.e.l.l broke loose.
A deafening roar followed. It seemed like a beast was causing havoc.
The crowd panicked and began rus.h.i.+ng outside.
Everyone was terrified of accidents like this
When humans panicked, it was inevitable they would start running around like headless chickens. The moment they started pus.h.i.+ng and shoving was when accidents start to happen.
Somewhere close by, Dong He was pushed down by the crowd, falling heavily to the ground. His entourage quickly helped him up. He was about to lash out in anger when all of a sudden, someone accidentally knocked into a wooden platform that was held together by ropes and wooden posts. The ropes snapped and the wooden post came cras.h.i.+ng down.
“Run!” Dong He’s hair was standing on ends from fright. He rolled over at once, evading it in the nick of time. Otherwise, being smashed by that wooden post would have turned him into minced meat.
However, in a terrible coincidence, although the large wooden post didn’t fall on anyone, it crushed the sides of one of the nearby cages, leaving a huge opening. A metal bark scorpion inside this cage seized the opportunity to crawl out of that gap.
This metal bark scorpion had a terrifying appearance. It looked like a huge crocodile on land but with the tail of a scorpion. Its razor-sharp tail could easily pierce through the tough exterior of a pangolin, what more to say of soft human flesh?
Dong He and his group barely regained their senses when the metal bark scorpion appeared five feet away from them. From this distance, they were able to see clearly the beast’s sharp-edged teeth as well as its raised tail, ready to strike at any moment.
It was no exaggeration to say that if Dong He hadn’t gone to the loo a while ago, he would definitely have wet his pants right now.
Under the intimidation of this ma.s.sive metal bark scorpion, Dong He’s pet beast dared not make a peep. Instead, it curled up into a ball out of fear.
Dong He’s followers were also petrified, refusing to move in case they provoked the metal bark scorpion into attacking them.
Compared to them, Dong He had a little more experience in working under pressure. Although he was horror-struck, he suppressed the effects of his fear to think about countermeasures.
Should they run?
No way. If they moved, the creature might be provoked to attack them.
But they couldn’t just wait around for it to strike either.
As for resisting or fighting back, Dong He didn’t think they had a chance of winning.
At that moment, Dong He abruptly noticed a barrel of feces beside him.
If his a.s.sumptions were correct, these feces should have been freshly secreted by the tyrannosaurus beast nearby.
For some reason, Dong He’s mind began replaying the discussion they had earlier on the ‘dung theory’. Apparently, one could use the feces of a higher leveled beast to deter a lower leveled beast.
This theory could be found in books about beasts and beast-taming. It was also proven to be effective.
Influenced by the strong desire to survive, Dong He slowly reached a hand into the dung barrel without hesitation and dug up a big pile of feces before spreading it over his body.
His actions made everyone dumbfounded.
Dong He’s followers quickly realized what he was doing. Those nearby mimicked him and smothered feces onto their bodies. The unfortunate souls who didn’t have dung barrels around them could only stare enviously at Dong He.
Perhaps fearing that it wasn’t safe enough, after pondering slightly, Dong He scooped up another sloppy pile and covered his face with it.
The pungent smell of the feces alone was enough to make any beast reconsider making Dong He its next meal. It should be safe enough for them at this point.
This was supported by the fact that the metal bark scorpion was slowly backing away from Dong He.
This greatly encouraged Dong He.
‘Hah! It works!’