Daily life of a cultivation judge

The death duel challenge also known as the treasure tribunal challenge was an officiated battle between two factions who had a dispute over something and could not come to some sort of agreement, and the level of their dispute was high enough to the point they would come to death blows at any minute.

In such an event, they could fight it out amongst themselves without oversight or they could choose to involve the Order in the affair.

Fights between factions weren't illegal, and neither were fights over treasures. It only became illegal when innocents were dragged into the chaos of the battle between those factions, but as long as no innocents were affected, and the casualties were only from those factions, then the Order would not intervene. They upheld the unmentioned rules of the cultivation world.

However, despite being bystanders in such situations, to help reduce the cycle of hatred and grudges or be forced to step in when innocents have already become victims, the Order formulated something called a death duel.

During a death duel, the Order would provide a neutral ground where there were no people around, it was basically a wasteland, where the different factions could fight it out without repercussions. The fight could be an all-out brawl that involves every member of their respective factions or a fight selection, where each faction chooses their top combatants to fight in a one-on-one duel or battle royale. The victor would be the side with the last surviving member.

The Order would uphold the results of the fight as per the agreed-upon terms among the different factions. The terms had to be clear and distinct for the Order to be able to enforce it. One of those terms was the duration of the effect of the agreement. The Order would not protect the terms of the agreement indefinitely and was usually for a set period of time. There were attached costs to the enforcement timeline, with it increasing the longer the time of enforcement was. 

Since the Order wanted more organizations to choose this option, and reduce the chaos that they would cause if they fought on their own terms, unmonitored, the costs were usually tailored in accordance with the fiscal capabilities of the factions in question.

Within that duration, it would not matter if the losing faction had a stronger ally or relative, the Order would uphold the terms agreed upon to the last day. Most factions that didn't have a web connection preferred to have this form of duel, and for the Order to be involved, the claims for the dispute had to be legitimate. 

For example in the case that Lai Lei was working on, if his investigations showed that the artifact had never been a part of the clan claiming that it was their heirloom, then the Order would not be involved in the dispute in any form whatsoever, but if the claim was proved to be true, then they would act as officiators and upholders of the terms and conditions of the fight, including providing a territory for the fight.

Even though these officiated duels reduced the amount of chaos caused to the continent, it was still a gory sight to behold especially to the judge who would be serving as witness to it. It was not a pretty sight, especially if it was an all-out fight, where both sides agreed that they would fight to the last person from the leaders all the way down to the negligible servants, they would all be involved in the fight.

Dai Chen had already officiated one, and he wasn't that enthusiastic about officiating another.

"Oh yeah, can you give this to Yang Qing when he comes out? Tell him it's my gift for his successful breakthrough.." Lai Lei said as he tossed over a white jade talisman.

"What's in here?" asked Dai Chen as he stored the talisman away.

"He and Feng Xin made a list of tasty ingredients, I found a lake containing one of them, the emberwhisker catfish. The area is pretty secluded and uninhabited by humans. The coordinates are recorded in there.." Lai Lei said as he turned to leave.

"Take care, Lei. You still have the talismans?"

"I do, I barely have a situation to use them. They've just been collecting dust.."

"I sometimes forget what a battlefiend you are sometimes.." said Dai Chen with a laugh when he noticed the regrettable expression Lai Lei had on his face for not getting an opportunity to use the talismans he had made.

Lai Lei didn't say anything and just smiled and left.

...

Tribulation mountain, silent willow cave

"The tribulation wasn't that bad. So this is the palace realm? This sense of invincibility. I could defeat ten of me in the core formation realm with just a wave of my palm. I can't believe how dangerous it was for me every time I left the headquarters for those pesky evaluations.

I always knew the Order was up to no good, sending me out there with my paltry strength, but now, no, no, Yang Qing, don't let yourself get swallowed up by your sudden leap in strength.

Remember your weakness, if I feel this much power, what about a domain expert? How much stronger are they than me? They could probably sneeze on me and pulverize my body and soul.

Nope, I am never leaving the headquarters not unless they give me a saint-grade treasure, but would one be enough?" 

Yang Qing scratched his chin with his soot-covered body releasing black flakes with every scratch.

"No I need to get two but would the stingy Order give me some, knowing them, they would not, and if they did, they would likely harvest everything they could from me to pay back the worth of those two treasures and with interest too. No, no, it is too risky.

The only other option is to either redeem them with merit points but even then I would have to slave I don't know for how long until I earned enough to redeem one, the other.." Yang Qing's grin turned smug as his eyes let out a radiant glow. He looked like a black cat with golden eyes.

"I am already a palace realm cultivator, and in terms of cases, I have already met the needed number for me to be immediately promoted to the outer palace court after this. The ceremony, the ceremony is my only hope of getting a saint-grade treasure, too bad the holy lands never come to these things, otherwise my odds of getting high would be high.

Outer palace court judge, hehehehe, days of slaving for days with no sleep because of endless core court cases are now over. 

Soft life Yang Qing the Order almost killed you, but you now have a chance at life," Yang Qing choked up as tears started trickling down his face.

"It was long but we are here, now what to do? I already told Old Fiend Lei I would take eight months to a year to break through and stabilize myself but it only took three months.

I will spend the next two months stabilizing my realm as for the next three or so months after that, hehehe, I will take my well-deserved rest..." 

His stomach immediately grumbled after that which prompted him to dig out a storage ring that had been deeply embedded into a crevice by the wall of the cave about five hundred meters away from where he was.

"The palace realm sure is something.." Yang Qing muttered in amazement as he covered the distance in a single breath to pick up the ring and flashed back to where he had just been.

"A roast chicken and vermilion wine ought to be the perfect celebratory meal...hehehe enjoying a good meal and the joyous thought of pulling one over Old man Lei is satisfying. Life is starting to look good.." joyously muttered Yang Qing as he poured his qi into the ring and a golden crisp chicken and wine gourd flashed out of it along with a white goose cushion.