Xiao Huo Leveled Up

Zhou Xiu risked everything.

He wasn't an idiot. If Lin Jin could tell, that meant he was the only person who could save his pet beast. Zhou Xiu had tried seeking help from Chief Wang Ji before, but even he wasn't able to tell anything from its condition.

It was clear that Lin Jin was more skilled in this aspect. Despite it being a head-scratcher on how Lin Jin diagnosed his pet beast's illness, now was not the time to ask. His main priority was finding a way to cure it.

Lin Jin knew, so he must have a way to cure it.

So Zhou Xiu had made up his mind, his motive was to get the treatment out of Lin Jin first.

Zhao Ying blushed in embarrassment as she angrily turned back and glared at Zhou Xiu sharply. Being called, 'Master' by someone of her own dad's age was unbelievably embarrassing.

Suddenly, Lin Jin stopped in his tracks and said while maintaining his gaze forward, "Green Dew Grass, Ground Root Leaves, five ounces of White Peony Flower, Deer Blood, ten ounces of Ginseng, mixed and boiled with three ounces of Nitrate Stone Powder and Beast Bones. The method used is based on the third book of Li's Pelletization in chapter six. Consume daily at midnight for three days. Don't take it after that. Take note of this. "

He took off without saying anything more.

Zhou Xiu was dazed for a few moments, then rushed to note it down later on. Obviously, what Lin Jin described was a pelletization method, one which he had never heard of.

He had his face stuck into every book in the association, especially throughout the past few months while desperately trying to find a cure for his pet beast's condition. He spent extra effort into reading classic pelletization medicine books and read up on more than a hundred pelletization methods, yet Lin Jin's method of pelletization was not included in any.

"Could it be that he found it in some books that I haven't come across?" Zhou Xiu thought. He had his doubts but ultimately decided that right or not, it was worth a try.

He pondered over Lin Jin's leaving figure, then went back to the office, ignoring the crowd's response towards him.

Instead of seeking the medicine's ingredients, the first thing he did after returning to the office was send his subordinates to Everlasting Town to verify the Beast Evaluation Records Lin Jin had submitted.

It had to be done.

In no time, the flying beast returned, proving that the records Lin Jin had submitted were in fact, real.

"Lin Jin... did he actually evaluate over hundreds of beasts in two hours?" Even after verifying that, he found it hard to believe. His confidant said to him, "The chief obviously wanted to give Lin Jin a hard time. If this was settled and we allowed him to pass this easily, we're gonna have a hard time explaining this to Chief. "

Zhou Xiu thought about it for a while and said, "Regarding this...I think it'd be better for us to report truthfully. As to how he'd done it is none of our concern, the fact is that we're unable to hold him captive on our side any longer. Still, he's got a long way to go from passing the chief's challenge."

After saying this, he mumbled to himself softly, "Lin Jin seemed like an entirely different person today... it felt like sorcery!"

*****

Sitting in his dim lounge, Lin Jin was bored out of his mind.

After returning from the office, Zhao Ying had to leave to attend to some other matters. Before leaving, she kept thanking him over and over again with admiration brimming in her eyes.

And honestly, Lin Jin was quite delighted by that.

In his eyes, Zhao Ying was as attractive as the movie stars from his world in terms of her appearance and her figure. Being admired by a stunningly gorgeous lady was always something to be happy about.

Outside of his lounge, everyone in the association was busy and rushing back and forth. New clients come to the association for beast appraisal and diagnosis every day, which meant business to them.

There were even some apprentice beast appraisers visiting frequently. Despite all these people hustling in and out every day, Lin Jin's lounge remained empty, not visited at all. Even with a title as an official beast appraiser in the association, it meant nothing to everyone outside.

A beast appraiser would normally stay in the association to diagnose beasts if no tasks were assigned to them. 

If someone were to come in and request services in beast appraisal, the ushers in the waiting lobby would allow them to select a beast appraiser. All beast appraisers in the association, including the Chief, official beast appraisers, and apprentice beast appraisers, would have their nameplate hung on a wall. A stack of number plates would be displayed under each nameplate, and the number displayed on the plate chosen indicates the order of clients. Yet, many people still had to queue as all the number plates of a few popular beast appraisers often run out fairly early in the day. Some people even make a living and earn a fortune by selling the number plates of popular beast appraisers at a high price.

Naturally, the chief's number plates were the hottest item among all, followed by the official beast appraiser, Gao Jiang. His number plates were scarce as well.

Even the top three apprentice beast appraisers had their sessions mobbed, then there's Lin Jin, whom no one wants a session with after he was being notified to be on a 'probation'.

Half of the time, the cold bench in the room was occupied with Lin Jin and Xiao Huo having a stare-off.

Lin Jin disapproved and said to himself that this has to stop, he was already being pressured by Chief Wang, meaning his salary for the month has already been deducted. If he still couldn't get a client, his salary for the next month would be the same as well

Without a salary, what could he eat? What could he drink?

"Oh Xiao Huo...If nobody still comes here for beast appraisal or beast diagnosis, we won't even be able to eat meat." Lin Jin mumbled as Xiao Huo who laid beside his feet rubbed up against him and yawned.

What a lazy fella. However, Lin Jin knew that it was still on the road to recovery. After consuming the pellets yesterday, its injuries should turn for the better and completely heal within a few days of rest.

This wasn't Lin Jin's own prediction, it was just what the Museum of Deadly Beasts stated. By now, Lin Jin completely trusted in the museum's information. When it came to pet beasts, the museum was all-knowing and incomparable to others.

Well it did include the method of using spiritual energy to stimulate and help Lin Jin level up Zhao Ying's pet beast, the pangolin.

As to why Xiao Huo was injured, Lin Jin had also searched in the museum for Xiao Huo's condition. It described that it was caused by the severe loss of spiritual energy. There weren't many conditions that would cause the loss of a pet beast's spiritual energy, except one however, was through transferring it to the master through blood contracts.

So Lin Jin started to think about whether he had contributed to Xiao Huo's severe injury or not.

The process between the death of his predecessor and his time travel might need some time. It could be that Xiao Huo has been using its own spiritual energy to maintain the process, and when it couldn't do so anymore, the act began to harm its body.

That was quite possible.

It was also because of this that Lin Jin changed his thoughts about Xiao Huo. Despite this pet beast being average in terms of bloodline or potential, as long as it was loyal, Lin Jin would not abandon it.

"Come here, let me stroke you!" Lin Jin stretched his arm out to caress it to kill time as he had nothing better to do.

"Uh huh, the injury isn't that serious anymore. Speaking about that, even that dwarf Zhou Xiu's pet beast was at level two, it's kinda embarrassing for an official beast appraiser like me to still have a level one pet beast." Lin Jin got up as he was reminded of this.

Because of the numerous mistakes his predecessor made in beast appraisal and diagnosis, he had lost most of his clients even until now, but it was also because his pet beast wasn't good enough to bring up his prestige.

It made sense that clients didn't choose him because he was a beast appraiser that could appraise and diagnose beasts, yet his own pet was still a level one beast.

So to flip this situation around, a seemingly reputable pet beast was required, and for that, his pet beast had to rank up.

As stated by the museum, Xiao Huo had average potential with a Flame Wolf Beast bloodline. Based on its potential, it would be excruciatingly hard to level up to level two. Under normal circumstances, it would take about ten years.

With the museum now, things were different.

The Museum of Deadly Beasts described more than ten ways for Xiao Huo to level up, each of them would be a shocking discovery to the world. After comparing and selecting, Lin Jin chose one of the many, but he needed some items to assist the process.

Spirit stones and level one beast energy pellets.

The association had both of those. According to his understanding of the association obtained from his memory, as an official beast appraiser, he had the right to claim a spirit stone every month. He wasn't allowed to claim level one beast energy pellets because they were rarer stones, but he could purchase them with a 20% discount.

This was one of the small privileges that came with being an official beast appraiser.

Lin Jin headed straight to the logistics department with Xiao Huo trotting along beside him.