Daily life of a cultivation judge

Seeing the young lady get heated up, Yang Qing decided to interrupt her by asking about the rest of the images he had created.

"Are you sure you've never seen any of them? It doesn't have to be around the territory of the obsidian couple it could be anywhere else..."

The young lady paused her imaginary beating of the adler bear and looked up. Seeing the imploring look on Yang Qing's face prompted her to look at the remaining images again despite having claimed she had never seen any of them.

After giving them a once over she shook her head as she said,

"I really haven't seen any of them before. Who are they?"

"They are from the Deer Mountain Kingdom and have some relation with the princes who died in the fight and the perished royal guards.

It was the Deer Mountain Kingdom who first noticed the traces of these two deacons. I was hoping maybe your spores caught one of them in the course of their investigation.."

Yang Qing decided to avoid saying he suspected them of colluding with the two deacons. The young lady already had a sour impression of the Deer Mountain Kingdom, he didn't want to add to it further, especially after discovering her deep relationship with the fire adler bear.

If he revealed his suspicions she would more than likely reveal them to the bear when he came by and from the character description she gave and the close relationship it had with the daughter of the obsidian serpents, there was no doubt it would instantly attack them.

Still unwilling to give up, Yang Qing decided to probe further.

"You may have not seen any of them specifically but have you seen any humans that resemble these five walking about?" 

Yang Qing dispelled the other images only leaving the image of the five family heads.

"I have not seen anyone resembling him but the badger did say he once fought with someone that closely matches his description, though he seemed a bit older..." the young lady said as she pointed to the heroic-looking Zhang family head.

"Tha badger?" asked Yang Qing in befuddlement.

The more Yang Qing conversed with the young lady, the more Yang Qing felt that the compiled list given to him by Ye Xun about the 13 perilous zones seemed to be lacking.

The young lady had mentioned the old monsters being held back by the Lady Gild which Yang Qing assumed were some of the survivors from the tumultuous war back then. 

If some of the spirit beasts involved back then had survived to date, they should be in the palace realm at the very least, but the list he was given didn't seem to contain a lot of them, it only had six of them, seven if he counted the mild natured mountain jade serpent.

Yang Qing increasingly felt there were spirit beasts who escaped the survey net and considering the survey was done by domain experts, it meant that more than likely they were not around when the survey was being done, like the unfathomable Lady Gild that the young lady clearly idolized.

"uhm... he is what you humans would call a fellow disciple of Adler. The Badger likes combat, obsessively so, at that. He likes finding strong opponents to duel with and that eventually led him to Lady Glid.

Sometimes I'm left wondering what goes on in his mind, well Adler too, but mostly him.." she said as she shook her head in exasperation.

"He failed to defeat Adler but somehow in his mind, he thought he could beat Lady Gild. He got slapped for all his efforts and was unconscious for four months as a result.

When he came to, he pestered Lady Gild to accept him as a disciple. Lady Gild didn't want to at first considering he was just as much of a headache as Adler was but the Badger was relentless and had a thick skin and eventually, she relented.

The two disciples immediately became close over shared beatings.."

"The person he fought, did he say who it was?" Yang Qing curiously asked.

"No, he never mentioned the name, he only said that person was one of the few humans he could find himself respecting because of the breadth of their spirit and abilities. Which was something considering Badger doesn't like humans that much.

Of course, even though he praised that human he still cursed him to no end afterward as he licked his wounds from the defeat he suffered from their yearly bouts.

Come to think of it, this last defeat was the last time I saw him. He left soon after for parts unknown to train himself..."

"How long has it been since he left?" 

"Not long, about 70 years.." answered the young lady as a lonely look appeared on her face.

"I wonder if they will come back.." she said with a sigh.

A somber mood drowned the place without any of them speaking.

"I am sorry I didn't have much to share.." said the young lady as she tried to smile to wash away the loneliness.

"No, you've helped plenty enough.." answered Yang Qing with a polite smile.

The gaze of the young lady flickered as something seemed to come to her.

"I don't know if this will help but the Adler did mention there were a few areas he liked to go with the daughter of the obsidian serpents. 

I don't know if she kept going there, but we are creatures of habit so maybe she still kept going to those places even after Adler stopped taking her. 

Maybe you might find a few clues there.." said the young lady after some thought.

"That's great! Thank you.." said Yang Qing with a lit-up expression.

However, his excitement was cut short when something unexpected happened.

The young lady approached Yang Qing and started sniffing him.

"You!..you...what are you doing?" Yang Qing's voice stammered as he pushed the lady back.

"You smell nice.." said the young lady with shining eyes.

"When you came I sensed a deep ethereal drawing scent coming from you and now it's even more distinctive, it even seems to dull the essence of the green flame leaves. I wonder why that is? what's that smell? I have never felt anything like it..." she curiously asked as she looked Yang Qing up and down.

Yang Qing hurriedly composed himself as he nonchalantly answered,

"It's nothing, maybe it's just me.." 

"Don't try to sniff me again. It's not proper.." he hurriedly answered which drew a peal of laughter from the young lady.

"Fine.." she gently said.