Daily life of a cultivation judge



Sect Master Zhao Ju seemed to have anticipated Yang Qing's attack as she immediately intercepted Yang Qing's white lightning-flamed bamboo that was swinging downwards toward Fu Ning, who seemed frozen from the sudden attack before she hurriedly stepped back a fair distance as she took out a white saber with a unique design that made it seem it was an arrow in saber form. It seemed to have been designed with the extreme purpose of enhancing its piercing abilities.

Sect Master Zhao Ju gritted her teeth in pain as she forcefully endured the extreme burning sensation that she got as soon as her blade made contact with Yang Qing's bamboo which was cladded with white lightning flames.

The moment she clashed with Yang Qing, those flames would instantly latch onto her blade and speedily crawl into her hands as if they had a life of their own. 

And it wasn't just the hands, any flames floating in the air from the clash would instantly home in on the body part closest to them, which was why her face ended up getting the same amount of burn marks the same as her hands.

The flames ate away at her body and qi immediately upon contact, and even seemed to be eating away at the qi and Dao in her attacks, which reduced the venom in her attacks by a couple of levels by the time it reached Yang Qing.

She found herself in doubt if Yang Qing was really a first-stage palace realm expert, and when her eyes wandered to the remaining members of the Order who seemed to be observing the Wisteria tree, she felt a wave of despair wash over her.

"You can't afford to be distracted here, now can you?"

Yang Qing's ominous voice sounded as he rapidly launched another attack when Zhao Ju was momentarily distracted.

Zhao Ju quickly reacted and hurriedly used her blade to deflect another swing of Yang Qing's bamboo-flamed attack, but in her haste her swing revealed a flaw which Yang Qing capitalized by nimbly twisting his wrist, evading her blade, launching the attack at her undefended left side torso.

Before the attack could connect, a crystal blue fan and two silver-white tusk-shaped daggers appeared in direct collision with Yang Qing's attack, intercepting it before it could strike sect master Zhao Ju.

Blazing white flames with crackling lightning and mist were produced when the three weapons collided. 

The white flames mushroomed with an overbearingness as it aimed to swallow the three weapons.

Boom!

An explosion sounded as three figures were immediately flung back.

"Thank you, Mei, Liqiu.." said Sect Master Zhao Ju as she addressed the two elders next to her who didn't seem to be in good shape after that clash.

Both of them looked to be in extreme pain as one of them let out a muffled scream as she tried to use her qi to heal her hands, but every time she did, it would be swallowed by the finger-size white flame that was eating away at her hand.

The blue fan in her other hand seemed to be charred halfway with flashes of lightning still passing through it.

As for the other elder, it was Guo Mei whose sleeves had been charred to her elbows with charred and blood-soaked hands.

She gritted her teeth in an effort to keep the pain at bay, but it didn't seem to work as the two tusk-shaped daggers in her hands could be seen shaking due to her trembling hands.

As for Sect Master Zhao Ju, though she managed to escape the brunt of Yang Qing's attack, thanks to the intervention of the two elders, she was still injured as the two elders couldn't deflect the attack completely. A bit of it managed to bypass them and burn the sect master at her side.

However they didn't have time to address their injuries, as they forcefully bore the pain and charged towards Yang Qing, who had taken their brief moment he had blasted them to charge at one of the elders, Qin Zhilan.

Elder Qin Zhilan wielded a golden whip with a black underside. It had hooked-like spikes in every segment that had purple and white mist coming out of it, and at the end of the whip was a sharp dagger that looked just a nick of it was enough to slice through a mountain.

The skill with which she operated the whip made it seem like it was an extension of her body or something she grew with from birth. The whip would sometimes be nimble and ripple with the fluidity like that of a tidal river flow, and at other times it would be rigid, like a piece of frozen ice, sometimes it would be fast, and other times it would be slow.

It was constantly changing, and the transition was seamless. 

Besides Sect Master Zhao Ju and Guo Mei, Qin Zhilan had one of the highest combat abilities among the elders, and given enough time she would even surpass Guo Mei because of her raw talent. She had managed to master weapon intent through the whip, with her mastery growing over the years, but despite that, against Yang Qing, she seemed like a complete novice.

None of her attacks landed as Yang Qing seemed like a formless body made of nothing but flames as her whips passed through him, and with every miss he drew ever so closer to her which in turn made her attacks erratic and panicked.

Her whole fight with Yang Qing had taken a few seconds which wasn't enough time for the elders next to her to render aid, especially with how erratic the attacks from Qin Zhilan got, they risked getting injured if they recklessly barged in, which left them at a predicament.

They either charge in and risk getting heavily injured by the whip made of monarch-grade materials and filled with poison that would put a first-stage palace realm expert down within thirty minutes if they were injured by it or wait for the opportune moment to step in, which meant leaving Qin Zhilan by herself, which was a massive risk in of itself as she would likely have been heavily injured by the time they step in.

They were also hesitant because of the incinerating power that lingered within those white flames. Qin Zhilan's golden whip was already showing signs of being melted apart within that brief exchange.

Luckily for them, they were spared the choice when they saw their sect master swiftly charging over. Following her lead, they made it just in time to save Qin Zhilan from being burned half way through, though the hand holding the whip had been dismembered and burned in the process.