Chapter 41: Substituting With A Fake

He Qing’s initially excited expression froze up. She dashed hastily for the next palace where the sixth princess of Jade Dragon City, He Yu, resided in.

In Jade Dragon Country, the sixth princess He Yu was a jinx. Everyone in the imperial palace was aware of the sixth princess’s unique identity. As she had to shoulder the royal family’s curse since a young age, no one was willing to stay too close to her.

The only exception was the seventh princess He Qing, who had been closest to her sixth sister all her life. By the time she rushed over, she managed to catch a glimpse of the captain of the guards leaving in a hurry.

“Uncle Lu, how is my sister?” He Qing asked, looking anxious.

Uncle Lu shook his head and said, “Sixth Princess’s condition isn’t looking too good. She’s currently unconscious but the palace physician has taken a look at her. Please don’t worry too much, Seventh Princess.”

He Qing nodded before getting herself ready to enter the room. Suddenly, she recalled something and asked, “Uncle Lu, where are you going?”

Uncle Lu answered, “I have to make a trip to Maple City at once. Perhaps there is someone there who could save the sixth princess.”

***

At Maple City’s Beast Appraisal Association.

Wang Ji arrived earlier than usual because, in a bit, Steward Zuo of the City Lord Manor would be here to retrieve the eleven mutant eggs and their respective evaluation reports. As the association’s chief, he was to personally hand these items over.

In regards to this assignment given by the City Lord Manor, Wang Ji was quite displeased. To have him appraise eleven mutant eggs in such a short amount of time was nothing but a joke!

Despite all the complaints, the work still had to be done. Thankfully he and Gao Jiang managed to appraise two yesterday so there was at least something to hand in.

Of course, this assignment was destined to be a failure so someone had to take the fall for it. Wang Ji had decided to make Lin Jin the scapegoat. If things went well, Lin Jin’s certification as an official beast appraiser would be revoked and in a few days at most.

You can never go wrong by avoiding everything that might tarnish your reputation.

As he stepped into the appraisal hall, Wang Ji’s expression immediately turned sour when he didn’t see Lin Jin. “Where is Lin Jin?”

One of the apprentices hurried over without an inkling of where Lin Jin was either.

Wang Ji flared up in anger. “To educate a worthless inept is a futile attempt. Make a remark of this. How dare he!”

Having said that, Wang Ji went over to check on the eggs, and to his surprise, there was an evaluation report beside every egg. Picking it up and flipping it open, he could recognize that the seal and signature belonging to Lin Jin.

Wang Ji got even more annoyed. “What nonsense! As a beast appraiser, to randomly come up with half-assed evaluations is most preposterous. He even had the nerve to write this down without academic support, he must really want to lose his job.”

However, when Wang Ji took a closer look at what Lin Jin had written, he was dumbstruck.

Although he was a mean character, as the chief of Maple City’s Beast Appraisal Association, Wang Ji was pretty competent at his job. At the very least, his abilities matched up to his title.

Mutant eggs were tough to evaluate because of the disturbances caused by their unique spiritual energy. Hence, it was impossible to tell them apart using regular appraisal methods. Even as a Rank 2 Beast Appraiser, Wang Ji had no option but to rely on his rich experience to make his deduction. His evaluation report consisted mostly of assumptions.

However, in Lin Jin’s report, there wasn’t a hint of speculation. Upon closer examination, it contained only firm conclusions.

This sounded suspicious, didn’t it?

But it was quite the opposite.

At a closer look, one would realize that the conclusions were reasonable. Many technical methods found only in professional books were used, including judgments based on the egg shell’s pattern, the level of opaqueness, and even some methods that were new to Wang Ji. However, he only had to ponder a little deeper before realizing what was going on.

Wang Ji was able to understand them all. He could even recall where he had read some of the evaluation methods from, but only forgotten them during his practice. With this, he gained a feeling of enlightenment, and all of a sudden, his perception was crystal-clear.

Wang Ji continued reading as the astonishment in his heart grew. Apart from shock, there was also a sense of delight.

This was because he was able to learn quite a few novel methods from these evaluation reports. Although there were some that remained a mystery to him, being able to understand about thirty percent of the content was more than enough to greatly enhance his knowledge.

When he was done reading, Wang Ji’s expression was completely different from before. His fingers were even trembling slightly.

From a professional viewpoint, these evaluation reports were flawless, going far above his standard. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that if they were passed to the association, these reports could serve as educational, discussion, and research material.

Even he himself managed to learn quite a few evaluation methods and theories from them.

Had this been written by a Rank 3 Beast Appraiser, Wang Ji would have believed it. But these came from Lin Jin! Wang Ji couldn’t help but feel skeptical about it and he found the entire experience to be extremely surreal.

He remained confused even after ruminating over it. How did Lin Jin come up with all this? Did someone else take over his work?

That was impossible. Lin Jin couldn’t possibly have found a Rank 3 Beast Appraiser to write it for him. Moreover, Wang Ji had verified with the apprentice who stood guard outside the entire night that no one else entered the premises apart from permitted personnel.

That was to say, these evaluation reports most probably came from Lin Jin’s hands.

Despite his reluctance to admit it, Wang Ji knew that the standard of these reports was far beyond his.

A hint of inner-conflict and suspicion flashed across Wang Ji’s eyes that was soon replaced by resolution.

It didn’t matter if Lin Jin was truly capable, or if it was just a stroke of genius. The important thing at this point was to prevent Lin Jin from redeeming himself.

In the comments Wang Ji reported to headquarters, his evaluation of Lin Jin had been utterly dismissive. If Lin Jin suddenly excelled and emerged as a rising prodigy, what sort of position would that place him, an association chief, in?

Hence, Wang Ji was more willing to believe that Lin Jin merely had a stroke of luck. All in all, he couldn’t possibly allow Lin Jin to redeem himself. This wasn’t only for the sake of promoting Jia Qian in the future, but he also had to do it for his own sake. Otherwise, headquarters would hold him responsible as chief of the association.

At the thought of this, Wang Ji took a deep breath. He made everyone leave the room and stand guard outside, barring anyone else from entering. Then, with a lit ember, he burned all of Lin Jin’s evaluation reports.

Wang Ji remembered all the contents of these reports. He planned to pen it down in his own way and redo them.

“Someone, stand guard outside and take the gifts with you. If Steward Zuo of the City Lord Manor arrives, take care of him and tell him that I’m still in the middle of writing up an evaluation. Have him wait for a moment,” Wang Ji swiftly made his arrangements. With this, his plan of substituting the reports with his fake ones would be a success.

Rolling up his sleeves, with the contents of the previous evaluations as a reference, Wang Ji began penning down the evaluation report in his own words.

This case was settled and Wang Ji no longer needed to fear Lin Jin causing a fuss. First of all, the man would never know what happened. Secondly, even if he did, did he have proof? Wang Ji had burnt it all. Wang Ji only had to briefly instruct the apprentice on last night’s shift and no one would know that Lin Jin had been here to evaluate the mutant eggs.

After he was done writing, Wang Ji was exhausted beyond words as he had to finish it quickly. But he was thrilled.

Having appraised mutant eggs would surely add a splendid page to his resume. Not only could he send it to headquarters for a round of assessment and receive glory, but he would also certainly receive great rewards from the City Lord Manor.

After briefly exercising his arm which had fone numb from all the writing, Wang Ji regained his stern expression before striding out of the room.

The evaluation hall returned to silence.

Half an hour later, in a secluded corner, Lin Jin appeared out of thin air.

“F*ck, it’s like the concept of time doesn’t exist in the museum. I’ve merely researched a few of those rare beasts and the curator’s authorities, but who knew that so much time had passed.”

Lin Jin had just returned from the Museum of Deadly Beasts.

There were quite a few authorities the curator had over at the visitation hall. Lin Jin had to try them out slowly. For example, he could opt to let his visitors see the descriptions of the beasts in the museum, including the specimens. Or, he could opt to show an avatar of himself to the visitors.

That was the most interesting option.

It was also the reason why Lin Jin spent so much time in there. That feeling was like the process of building a character and designing its face before transmigration.

As the saying goes, ‘playing the game takes a minute, designing the character takes three hours’. At last, Lin Jin managed to finalize the appearance of a ‘curator’. And because he was too engrossed in the process, he hadn’t realized how much time had passed.