Daily life of a cultivation judge

Yang Qing's gaze turned cloudy as he recalled hearing the news. It had been a little over three months ago and he came out of the tribulation mountain sauntering with swagger with excitement written all over his face. 

Things were about to turn better for him. His breakthrough gave him a newfound confidence especially when he felt the vastness of strength that came with being a palace realm cultivator. Then there was the promotion to the outer palace courts waiting for him. He had already grilled Dai Chen and Zhang Qingge on the number of cases, and they had verified his guess, that the cases were fewer than in the core formation courts. His goal of bringing soft life Yang Qing was nearly in sight, and as icing on the cake for an otherwise good and promising future, he had pulled one over Lei Weiyuan.

Things were looking good. However, the joy was immediately cut short when he 'coincidentally' met with Lei Weiyuan. Yang Qing at the time couldn't help himself. He wanted to break the news of his successfully breaking through to the palace realm to Lei Weiyuan while secretly snickering in his heart to Lei Weiyuan's face about how he was the victor this time, but things didn't go as planned. Lei Weiyuan instantly realized the little ruse of Yang Qing from the stability of his cultivation base and his promotion to the outer palace courts immediately got pushed back as he was forced to work those free months he gave himself along with paying a few fines and working with no pay.

Afterward, Lei Weiyuan broke the news of Lai Lei's injury to him which left Yang Qing stupefied at the time. He didn't even manage to hear anything else past Lai Lei had been injured badly and was at the Medical Valley. Yang Qing rushed all the way to where he was hospitalized and the scene shook him even further when he saw Lai Lei. He was in and out of consciousness at the time because of the severe injuries to his soul and the injuries to his dantian that left his qi chaotic.

When Yang Qing visited him, his missing limbs and any other external injuries had already been healed and all that was left was the extensive damage to his soul, meridians, and dantians.

During the first visit, in the midst of the shock of seeing Lai Lei in an unconscious state constantly being monitored by gold-grade physicians, Xia Boqin arrived during his daily visits. 

After Yang Qing acclimated slightly to the shock of Lai Lei's state, it was from Xia Boqin that he learned the exact details of what happened to Lai Lei including why he was in his current state. Turns out he had burned his kirin blood essence and the toll it took on him after was much more than he could bear and it was a miracle his body didn't implode after.

They hypothesized that the only reason he survived, was probably because of the essence of the congruent white lotus that was able to stave off the burden on his body long enough for him to receive aid.

Xia Boqin then went on to explain about Dai Chen and how they had to stop and constantly be around him since that time, though by the time Yang Qing came out of his seclusion, he was already calmer, especially when the medical experts of the Medical Valley told him about Lai Lei's improving state and their confidence of being able to fully restore him without leaving any latent injuries.

Yang Qing was absolutely mortified, especially when he thought those three months when all this was going on he had been casually eating food, and wine, laughing as he imagined Lei Weiyuan's unsuspecting look and tinkering around with some talismans.

After his visit and confirming Lai Lei's status he immediately made his way to Dai Chen's abode. Too guilty to say anything, they spent the time drinking his vermilion wine which became a tradition they maintained for the next two months until Dai Chen told Yang Qing he was okay and their sessions switched locations to the Thousands Flavors Restaurant.

However, no matter how much time passed, and even Lai Lei regaining consciousness and looking well enough to even attempt a breakthrough for the palace realm, those events were still fresh on their minds, whether it was the serene-looking Lai Lei, Dai Chen who finally regained his normal wine loving carefree demeanor, or them, they still remembered that day, and the vow they promised.

Two months ago; Kang Huilang, Xia Boqin, Zhang Qingge, Yu Huifang, Hu Jiaying, Yi Jie, and the two other surviving teammates of Lai Lei from the team he was in during the purple grade test, all made a vow to avenge Lai Lei, no matter the cost, even if it put them at odds with the Order, they would still follow through with it, but the prerequisite to that vow was reaching the palace realm.

Both Dai Chen and Lai Lei were unaware of that vow, but the duo on some level knew the group well enough to guess their thoughts, the same way Yang Qing and the rest knew despite Dai Chen looking normal, he would still make the same charge as he did months ago, should any news break out. 

Back then, they stopped him in part because it was too risky for Dai Chen, but the other was because they could not help in the vendetta in case anything happened. Other than Zhang Qingge and Hu Jiaying, the rest were all in the peak stage of the core formation realm, and whoever ambushed Lai Lei was capable enough to send 15 quasi-palace stage experts. Their strength was insufficient to help with anything, and Dai Chen going alone wasn't something they'd let him do, so the vow was created. Once they were all at the palace realm, they would all actively look into the matter as they prepared themselves for if or when the mastermind was found.

Yang Qing's eyes blazed with determination as he envisioned that day.

"By the way Lai Lei, the dagger you saw, did the special inquisitors ever find anything about it?" Yang Qing suddenly asked.

As the person involved in the whole saga, ever since Lai Lei regained full consciousness, he has been in close contact with those investigating his case, and therefore knew even more than they did, since the special inquisitors would likely share their findings with Lai Lei to try and dig up more clues.

"They haven't, not even a single thing, which is the weirdest part.."

"Weird why?"

"When I was escaping, I saw the manifestation of a twin-headed abyssal ice basilisk being sliced apart by the dagger and then afterward 12 mountains filled with black lightning appeared along with a pool of lava below and hammering sounds that seemed that they could mold someone's soul into a weapon.

At the time, I thought it was an ability of the dagger, but someone from the spirit council, a gold-grade blacksmith and artificer, said differently after asking for a detailed description of what I saw about the dagger and those manifestations.

What I thought was an ability of the dagger were vestiges of spirituality and had nothing to do with the dagger itself but its maker."

"Vestiges of spirituality?"

"Yes, one can think of it as like a fingerprint or a record left on a weapon by the creator when making the weapon. 

As you well know when it comes to blacksmiths and artificers, you only become a blue-grade blacksmith or artificer if the weapon or artifact you create is born with an activated spirit during its creation process, and the stronger the weapon's spirit, the higher your grade.

However, that is not all. When it comes to gold-grade and purple-grade blacksmiths and artificers, the weapons and artifacts they create have the vestige of spirituality, which is a record of their creation process forever branded to them.

That record can only be triggered when your level reaches a certain level and the threshold is usually someone who is at the top tier as a gold grade blacksmith or artificer. 

They are able to invoke the Origin Dao to bear witness to their creation, and that moment is forever branded to the weapon or artifact by the Origin Dao.

So what I saw, the mountain, the basilisk, was a record of what happened when the dagger was being created.

Not many blacksmiths or artificers are able to trigger the vestiges of spirituality, all who have, are known, even the hidden ones. 

But even with the Order's extensive resources, they were unable to gain any clue as to the creator of that dagger. There are no records at all, which is impossible considering the level of skill involved in creating the dagger.

The blacksmith even surmised that the dagger was very likely a saint-grade weapon considering it was able to trigger black lightning tribulation in its creation, and the basilisk, from the description I gave, they matched it with a mature basilisk that was already at the domain realm, however, that dagger sliced through it like it was nothing, from the moment it appeared.

How could there be no records of such a dagger or its creator on the continent? and the special inquisitors looked through records dating back as far as a million years ago.."

Yang Qing's brow deepened as he said,

"Then that can only mean the creator is not from the continent.."

"It looks that way.." said Lai Lei with a sigh.

"This complicates things.." said Yang Qing, however, his next words were cut short when he heard a bell suddenly ring.

His pupils constricted, and he wasn't the only one as Lai Lei who was the picture of unperturbed calmness instantly turned pale with a frigid expression when he heard the ring.

"The Celestial Bell has been rang!!!!"