WBICDPH Chapter 41 Part 2

But…

Lin Jin sighed, remembering the disappointment in the little old man’s eyes.

There was nothing to be done. Do what he could, and leave the rest to fate. Take it one step at a time.

If Lin Jin truly wanted to do something well, he would never give up lightly.

From that day on, aside from tending vegetables in his own courtyard, he ran to the back mountains of Nanqian to try interacting with demonic beasts. But this wasn’t something effort or perseverance could brute-force. No matter how many times he went, the beasts that feared him still feared him, and those that bared their teeth still did so. None were willing to get close.

No matter how much he racked his brain, Lin Jin couldn’t figure out the reason. After frightening the Cotton Beasts unconscious for the umpteenth time, he left the pen in frustration and found a quiet spot in the back mountains to reflect.

During this time, he had tried every method he could think of—changing clothes, changing hairstyles, switching fragrances. He even spent a fortune at the market buying pills from an alchemist to “improve temperament.” Those pills were meant for female cultivators; when he said he wanted them, he was nearly mistaken for a pervert.

Now he had his answer.

Completely useless.

It seemed he really wasn’t cut out for beast-taming.

Lost in thought, Lin Jin absentmindedly plucked nearly all the grass around him bare. In the end, he finally accepted the fact that he couldn’t be a beast tamer.

But if he couldn’t be one, what right did he have to stay in Nanqian Sect, or under Moyuzi’s tutelage?

Even if Moyuzi spared him out of kindness and refused to drive him away, Lin Jin wouldn’t have the face to remain.

After making his decision, Lin Jin got up from the ground, planning to return to his courtyard, cook a lavish farewell meal for his master, then pack his bag and leave Nanqian Sect.

But once he left Nanqian Sect… where could he go?

Lin Jin didn’t know. One step at a time, then.

In low spirits, Lin Jin returned to the territory of the beast-taming path. Before he could enter, he ran into Hua Nanzhi, who was rushing out.

The little girl looked disheveled—her hair was a mess, and she was covered in mud and grass.

Lin Jin raised an eyebrow and looked her up and down.

“What happened to you?”

Hua Nanzhi hadn’t expected to run into him either. Her expression was complicated.

“I… first of all, I need to apologize to you.”

“?” A bad feeling rose in Lin Jin’s chest. “Why?”

Hua Nanzhi pursed her lips, looking more and more aggrieved as she spoke.

“I went to your courtyard looking for you, but I ran into Elder Yu. Elder Yu had to attend a meeting with the other elders and couldn’t find you, so he asked me to feed his Red-Silk Mountain Chickens. But how would I know how to feed chickens? Those stupid mountain chickens weren’t obedient like they are with him—they gave me a hard time! I finally managed to calm them down, but when I counted them, the number was off.”

She put her hands on her hips and raised one finger.

“One’s missing! A little one’s gone—I’m looking for it right now.”

“The Red-Silk Mountain Chicken ran off because you fed it?!” Lin Jin was shocked.

It seemed Hua Nanzhi’s reverse affinity was even stronger than his. Strangely, that made him feel a little better.

“Do you know which way it ran?”

“I don’t know… I think it went…” She racked her brain for a moment, then pointed in a direction—whether she truly remembered or was guessing was unclear. “That way! It went that way!”

“Alright. Let’s split up and search in that direction. Whoever finds it first sends a sound-transmission talisman. No problem?”

Rolling up his sleeves, Lin Jin confirmed the direction with Hua Nanzhi and stepped into the small rainforest behind Nanqian Sect.

The Red-Silk Mountain Chicken wasn’t particularly valuable. Moyuzi usually raised them just to roast and eat. But since Lin Jin was already planning to leave, losing one of his master’s chickens right before departure felt inappropriate.

Besides, a domesticated mountain chicken wouldn’t survive in Yanyu Mountain. If it accidentally caused trouble, the blame would fall entirely on Moyuzi, needlessly creating problems for his master.

“Cluck—cluck cluck—”

Lin Jin cupped his hands around his mouth and called out, searching the rainforest for his delicious, juicy little mountain chicken.

Although he had stayed on Yanyu Mountain for a long time, he wasn’t very active and had never come to this rainforest before. He was completely unfamiliar with the terrain.

The rainforest was filled with strange plants he had never seen—crooked trees, grass with enormous leaves, and mushrooms as tall as parasols.

Following the principle of “if I don’t recognize it, I don’t touch it,” Lin Jin carefully moved through the forest. Still, he saw no sign of the Red-Silk Mountain Chicken. Just as he was thinking of getting out of the forest to search elsewhere, a black butterfly suddenly appeared from nowhere and circled around him several times.

It was the first moving little creature he had seen since entering the rainforest. Watching it flutter around him, Lin Jin suddenly felt inspired.

“Are you trying to get me to follow you?”

The butterfly seemed to understand him. It stopped circling and slowly led Lin Jin toward a certain direction.

But the farther he walked, the more wrong it felt.

He wasn’t heading out—he was going deeper into the rainforest.

Was this little black butterfly even reliable???

Even though it felt a bit foolish, Lin Jin started chatting with it anyway.

“Mr. or Ms. Butterfly, brother or sister, are we—”

Before he could finish his question, something in the grass tripped him. His body lurched forward uncontrollably.

He stumbled through the plants blocking his view and was horrified to discover a cliff ahead—one his momentum was carrying him straight toward, in a heroic plunge to his death.

As the intense sensation of weightlessness hit him, Lin Jin stared at the little black butterfly flapping its wings at the cliff’s edge and, in utter despair, pointed at it and screamed:

“You filthy liar—!!!”