Daily life of a cultivation judge



Yang Qing's eyes lit up like a baby's when he heard that. He looked like he could have blinded the whole room, if tears didn't well up in his eyes, to dim the light up.

"Good, good.." he muttered over and over, with a growing smile that was filled with relief.

"I'm on the right track," he thought as he clenched his fists with renewed motivation.

"How many cases do you usually handle per year?" he asked.

"Well it's never the same, but when you start at the outer domain courts, the cases are usually about 15 or less, and that number shrinks the further up one moves. In my current post, for those who make it here, the case is usually one or two at most a year, and certain years may pass by without one..."

Yang Qing's smile grew wider and his eyes turned crescent-shaped, with little tear drops falling out.

"So you're free for the year?" he eagerly asked.

"Well, yes in one aspect one can say that,  though because of how few cases reach here, we do conduct other duties.."

Yang Qing's eyes instantly bulged open, seemingly saying which other duties?

Meng Chao simply shook his head with a light laugh as he continued with his explanation.

"The Order is still severely undermanned, so we take up some of that load, though it's purely by choice, and not a mandate of our duties as judges.

For example, you can choose to assist the shadow hawks, who you have all heard of by now.."

The trio nodded.

"Well, we help them in gathering information about different parts of the continents, specifically information relating to power distribution and structure of the organizations around.

The rewards for evaluations become less enticing to higher-ranked organizations when compared to the lower ones, so they don't bother doing it.

We have countless rank 3 organizations and within that lot, there is a sufficient number that already have the qualifications to be promoted to rank 2 but very few choose to do so and instead hide their status, as a bid to hide themselves from us or from their competitors.

While they are within their rights to do so since the evaluations are entirely voluntary, for our own sakes we need to have a clear grasp of the distribution of power. 

So shameful as it is for me to admit, we sneak around different organizations every year to help fill in the gaps.."

Yang Qing looked at Meng Chao suspiciously. Even though he said it was shameful to admit, Yang Qing felt Meng Chao seemed pleased by it opposite of his words.

"Other than that, we can partner with special inquisitors when they are handling certain cases, and at other times, we help the logistics hall with various matters, specifically one tied to various treasure grounds the Order has, also in refilling its coffers with treasures from all over the continent.

Basically, we scour forbidden grounds for treasures and cultivation materials at the behest of the Order..."

"You said all these are voluntary, right? The Order doesn't fine someone or use sneaky means to make someone do them?" Yang Qing fearfully asked.

He was now seriously rethinking his career choice; the Medicine Valley was looking to be a viable option now.

The thing he had strived to avoid turns out he had been barrelling straight towards it, thinking he was avoiding it.

He had no adventurous bone in him, not unless the adventure was within the grounds of the Order, or if he was armed to the teeth with saint-grade treasures like he was in his promotion ceremony, and had 100 means of surviving worst-case scenarios like reforming his body from a single drop of blood, saliva, blade of grass, whatever form it took he hoped he had a fail-safe measure of recreating his body instantaneously in case it was destroyed.

If he was armed from head to toe with powerful saint-grade treasures like a universal robe, veiled destiny, and the green cocoon, and a surefire way of recreating his body, then he could single-handedly charge into the Holy Lands, scour the continent for the grounds of infamous organizations like the Scarlet blood ghost hands syndicate and rob them of their treasures and food, and even leave a note smugly saying he was the one who did it, and they can find him in the deepest parts of the Millionsfold treasure ocean if they wanted revenge.

He wasn't a modest person in the least, but his lacking cultivation base and high sense of self-preservation made him one, but left to his own devices, Yang Qing would create world-shaking mischief given a chance.

But until he felt strong enough to gallivant around, he had no intentions of leaving the protection of the Order, especially, if he had a choice on the matter. If it was part of his mandated duty, sure, but if not, he would sleep cozily in his nest, sponging off the Order whilst secretly complaining about them.

"Yes, it's purely voluntary. Other than the cases, whatever you spend your free time doing, it's up to you but the Order generously rewards you for your efforts. Plus, if one wants to get into the Spirit Council, one needs such merits as one of the qualifications to gain consideration for entry"

"Many thanks for the reminder senior Meng Chao but I am but a simple person with simple pleasures. The scales of the Spirit Council are too high for the likes of me." Yang Qing humbly said.

"Well for you, you could help the Medicine Valley, I'm sure you could get many merit points through that, and you have a knack for modifying cultivation arts like Zhu Lao, that could be another.."  said Meng Chao, clearly aware of Yang Qing's cowardly nature.

It was a well-known open secret around the Order, much as the person himself may be unaware, it was well known, same as his secret battle with the Order desperately trying to one-up them.

"Then I, Yang Qing, should the time come, will devote my all with my meager efforts to further the growth of the Order, to pay back even a tiny little bit of all they have given me.." he piously said with a righteous air about him.

Meng Chao, Dai Chen, and Zhang Qingge could only ruefully smile at Yang Qing's words. They knew well enough that the person in question wasn't that selfless.

After the brief interlude, they left. 

Meng Chao sighed slightly after they left. He had left out something in his explanation.

"They don't need to know that, though I think on some level they can guess. As cheeky as he might be, he is intuitive. It must have crossed his mind for him to ask it.." Meng Chao said as he leaned back on the backrest of his seat.

The cases in the domain courts were few because of the various factors he had mentioned, but there was one other factor he had avoided mentioning because of what they had just encountered.

...

Outside the court building.

"The cases that reach here huh...Senior Meng Chao is kind, the same as the others..." Yang Qing smiled bitterly as he muttered this before his smile turned to one of gratification.

"I'm glad I chose to come here.."

Both Dai Chen and Zhang Qingge nodded, echoing his sentiments.