Chapter 83: You Are Already a Mature Fish

Lin Jing naturally couldn't mess around with Gao Sheng; he still had to make money!

Although he also had the heart to exterminate demons and wanted to uproot the Yinshi Sect, the demonic sect that trafficked people, it wasn't the time yet!

He felt that if he teamed up with Gao Sheng to exterminate demons, the most likely outcome would be that the two of them would be captured by the Demonic Sect, the Demonic Sect would send Gao Sheng back safely, and then keep him detained.

Because the first Mechanical Bamboo Gun had a great response—although the final transaction price had factors of a rich second-generation throwing money around—it had already made Lin Jing decide to sell them all by auction... and wait until the auction price couldn't go any higher before putting them into the market on a large scale and disposing of them at a low price.

After Lin Jing left the auction house, Gao Sheng was still following him. The two stopped in a deserted corner.

"Brother Gao wants to participate in the Academy assessment four months from now?" Lin Jing asked.

"Yes." Gao Sheng said: "Forced by the family. Actually, I don't want to come."

"I estimate I'll at most cultivate some Hidden Dragon Secret Technique; attending classes is impossible. I heard that one lecture at the Academy lasts ten days or half a month—so boring. I still prefer to go around solving cases. I feel I have talent in this area."

"In our place, everyone my age has innate spirit bodies or innate special constitutions; I'm the only one with a mortal body. So when I was young, I lost interest in cultivation. But when I grew up, I realized that if an Immortal closes a door for someone, they will open a window for them. My talent might be here." He pointed to his head.

"I will be serving as an examiner for one of the assessment segments at that time, and I have to go into seclusion for hard cultivation during this period, so I cannot explore cases with Brother Gao." Lin Jing said with regret and heartache.

"This!" Gao Sheng looked regretful and said: "The 'unsolved cases' I secretly unsealed are really special!"

"One of them is related to the Gushen Sect!"

"There's even one related to the Heavenly Demon Sect, the former number one Demonic Sect of the Cultivation World that has been completely wiped out!"

"But since you don't have time, then let's wait a few more months. We'll team up to go after that."

"..." Lin Jing.

"Brother Gao, you should also prepare for the Academy assessment. If you get eliminated during the assessment... with the Academy teachers watching, I won't be able to go easy on you."

"Fair enough."

Gao Sheng nodded: "It's a deal. Once I learn the Hidden Dragon Secret Technique, I'll invite you to explore cases and exterminate demons together. If we can solve these unsolved cases, the names of us brothers will surely become famous throughout the Ancient Kingdom. You could say we'll kill two birds with one stone."

"By the way, do you know who else is serving as an examiner with you?"

"Just you alone, or are there many Academy students?"

"It seems there are many." Lin Jing said: "According to what I've learned, candidates might need to choose one of them to challenge to demonstrate their strength."

Gao Sheng looked at Lin Jing and said: "If I didn't know you, I would definitely choose you."

"After all, the personal strength of Beast-Taming Sect cultivators is basically very weak. Even if I haven't cultivated much in the past few years, I think I can defeat a Beast-Taming cultivator."

"But you... forget it. After all, you're raising that thing inside you."

Lin Jing rolled his eyes and said: "How could I use that thing in the assessment?"

The Ice Soul Gu was incredibly powerful. With it, Lin Jing had the confidence to challenge the Peerless Ranking right now.

"That's true. After all, the candidates don't have any grudges against you, haha!" Gao Sheng laughed loudly.

"By the way, Brother Lin, help me out. Help me inquire which examiner is the weakest, and tell me when the time comes!"

"I cannot help you cheat; I am a person of integrity. Let us talk again after the assessment, once we have become classmates. You should do your best, Brother Gao." Lin Jing cupped his hands.

"I was just testing your character. I really didn't misjudge you; you're someone worth teaming up with!" Gao Sheng cupped his hands.

"Speaking of which, where is your horse, Brother Gao?"

"Are you still thinking about my horse?" Gao Sheng was alert.

Lin Jing curled his lips: "No, I was just asking casually."

Now that he had the Long Li with Qilin bloodline, how could he still be thinking about that Dragon-Horned White Horse.

Waiting for the Long Li to turn into a dragon would be much better.

He was just lacking some rare beast blood for refining Beast Blood Pills.

"Let's leave it at that for today. I'll go buy a fish tank for my pet beast first. I recently subdued another Carp Spirit!" Lin Jing began to bid farewell to Gao Sheng.

Thanks to Brother Gao's good fortune, he made a big profit today, and with the Pine-Leaf Rat having learned a superior spatial technique, Lin Jing felt he should spend some money to celebrate.

Thinking that the Long Li still couldn't enter the Beast-Taming spatial magic treasure and could only stay outside all day, he couldn't help but want to prepare a fireproof, spacious fish tank for it.

Not long after, in the back mountain of the Academy, Lin Jing's Cave Dwelling.

Lin Jing arrived outside the Cave Dwelling and saw the Long Li basking in the sun, looking at the sky.

Seeing the Long Li, Lin Jing smiled and said: "Look what gift I brought you?!"

"A fish tank! Fireproof!"

Lin Jing had returned, and the Long Li was very happy. Hearing that Lin Jing had brought a gift, it was even more pleasantly surprised.

Although the Long Li didn't remember things before, after its bloodline awakened, its childhood memories slowly came back.

As a fire carp that was squeezed out of its group due to mutation, it was truly a great stroke of luck to meet a good Beast Tamer like Lin Jing.

Until...

The Long Li stared blankly at the pill furnace Lin Jing took out, furious. Who calls this thing a fish tank?!

Isn't this something used for burning fire and refining pills?!

Bullying it for having little knowledge!

This is no better than being stuck on a monk's staff!

At least there were hot springs to soak in within the Beast-Taming Sect. After leaving the sect, life was getting worse by the day.

However, it was indeed fireproof.

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"This is the Hundred-Beast Cauldron, refined from the companion ores of various demon beasts. It has multiple auxiliary pill-refining array patterns carved inside, and it has a huge strengthening effect on pills that use demon beast materials." Lin Jing said with heartache: "It cost me nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine spirit stones."

This was the furnace cauldron he found on the Lotus Pavilion commercial street that was most suitable for his subsequent use.

After all, the materials for Beast Blood Pills were almost all from demon beasts.

Even for ordinary Foundation Establishment Pills, there were several demon beast materials among them.

This cauldron had a great restraining effect on demon beast materials. Lin Jing felt it could also be used to refine the fish's body.

After all, a certain monkey seemed to have had its supernatural powers refined out of a pill furnace.

"Bloop..." The Long Li looked at Lin Jing's gaze, extremely sharp.

It felt that this cauldron wasn't for refining pills, but for refining it—a very accurate guess.

"The reason I bought this fireproof cauldron is also for your own good."

"Fire being too strong isn't a good thing." Lin Jing shook his head and said: "Before, I only cared about helping you stimulate your potential, but I neglected whether you had the ability to control this stimulated potential."

"For the next period of time, you will live in the cauldron! I will teach you how to refine pills. By learning to refine pills, you will improve your fire control. Strive to refine pills yourself without me controlling the fire in the end!"

You are already a mature fire carp; you should learn to control the fire and refine pills yourself.

"You remember how I refined Spirit-Replenishing Pills before, right? I'll have the Pine-Leaf Rat prepare one thousand sets of materials for you. You refine one thousand Spirit-Replenishing Pills for me first."

"Bloop..." The Long Li was stunned. Shen Song only knew how to make it control the fire well by beating it. Lin Jing letting it learn to control the fire by refining pills was certainly more humane, but it always felt something was not quite right.

"Bloop bloop!!" It asked, if it uses the pill cauldron, then what about Lin Jing? Having studied pill books for so many days, is he not refining pills?

"The situation has changed. I might not have time to study pill-refining techniques in the next few months. We'll talk after the Academy assessment. I'll study mechanical arts first." Lin Jing took out two items.

One was a palm-sized Mechanical Bamboo Turtle.

The other was the core of a mechanical beast—the Mechanical Soul Core he obtained from Elder Yu during the sect's Ascension Festival.

He intended to use the next period of time to upgrade and strengthen this simple mechanical turtle.

In combat, he certainly couldn't use the Long Li. The Long Li and he hadn't performed a blood contract yet, so they were still "two separate individuals."

If he sent the Long Li to fight, it would count as "two against one." This was fine when hunting demon beasts in the Great Desolate, but in formal combat, if not specifically stated, it was against the rules.

The Pine-Leaf Rat was fine because it had already signed a blood contract with Lin Jing. The Beast-Taming technique of the Immortal Palace was incredibly special. Any pet beast that signed a contract with a cultivator could almost be recognized by any environment as "a single individual."

Even in some "Inheritance Secret Realms" set up by Void Profound great experts that only allowed one person to enter, Beast Tamers had successfully entered with multiple pet beasts. Over time, due to the special nature of the Beast-Taming Sect's techniques, Beast-Taming Sect cultivators and their contracted pet beasts were reasonably recognized as one individual.

Although the Long Li couldn't be used, mechanical beasts were different. Mechanical beasts were regarded as the same as magic treasure equipment; they had no life, so naturally, there were no usage restrictions. As long as the cultivator could drive and control them, they belonged to the cultivator's own power.

Therefore, for the sake of being more secure, Lin Jing still had to strengthen the mechanical turtle to avoid flipping over when serving as an examiner.

After the mechanical turtle fused with the Mechanical Soul Core, it had one advantage: it could be directly controlled by the mechanical master's mind. The stronger the mechanical master's soul power, the fiercer and more flexible the mechanical beast. Although Lin Jing's cultivation was low, his soul strength was not low!

Having lived two lives and been personally strengthened and developed by the Buddhist cultivators of the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, his soul strength had long since far exceeded that of ordinary Qi Refining cultivators!

After using the Hidden Dragon Secret Technique to deeply study better mechanical books in the Academy, even if he didn't send the Pine-Leaf Rat and only used the mechanical turtle, he should be able to burst out with Foundation Establishment combat power! ===== CHAPTER 84 =====