Daily life of a cultivation judge

Yang Qing walked around for about two hours around the branch to try and clear his head along with trying to do some introspection.

Even though he felt he wasn't completely over the incident at the Ice Emerald Sect, the introspection helped him realize he had improved and had been walking forward. He was no longer terrified of facing the memories, the results, and the implications as he did before and after passing the sentence.

He could now visualize it with some form of ease and even have the guts to entertain some questions that were in his heart without feeling a deep sense of dread accompanying it.

The experience had been harrowing, but his heart and mentality had been slowly transforming since, without him realizing it.

Yang Qing had a slightly surprised look on his face as he felt some changes within his palace realm. The ocean had a slight ebbing in response to the moon that hung above.

The moon was still the same size as it was and positioned in the same place as it was. It only had one distinctive difference from before which was a presence. 

A look at the resplendent glow being released by it and one could detect a presence about it. One could feel certain qualities from it. Before its presence was static, but now, one could feel a sense of silence, peace, and lightness to it which seemed to mirror Yang Qing's present state.

The change seemed to have also influenced his soul which seemed purer somewhat though the effect was negligible as his Yin Yang jade bones passively strengthened his body and soul. However, the soul's improvement did have a significant effect on his mental sea of consciousness which in turn affected his spiritual sense.

His spiritual sense covered a maximum range of 10km around him but after the improvement to his mental sea of consciousness, the range increased by 2km to reach 12km. 

The 2km increase might not mean much since there were attacks that could cover that range faster than it took someone to blink, but the true advantages would be seen when one condensed the range of the spiritual sense.

The closer the range was to the cultivator's body, the more powerful the spiritual sense became.

Condensing the spiritual sense and shrinking its radius so that it's close to the cultivator's body improved the variety and level of detail one could discover via their spiritual sense from hidden formation arrays; to obscured treasures and artifacts; to spirit mines hidden beneath an obscuring magnetic field; to brewing potions and pills; to healing; down to even reacting to surprise attacks.

Countless aspects would see a drastic improvement when a cultivator condensed their spiritual sense, and usually the longer their maximum range, the more powerful it would be when they condensed it.

Yang Qing hurriedly condensed his spiritual sense to within 1km of his body and the results were better than he expected. In its condensed form he could sense different elemental energies that were spread about within the region, more specifically ones he had deep affinity with.

They usually exhibited themselves as a colored floating smoke but now the smoke seemed to be thinning out and in its place were colored wavy strands that carried an ethereal air about them and some of those strands didn't match the color of the smokey cloud they were associated with. 

For example in one of the green clouds, the majority of the wavy strands that had formed were green in color, however there were now a few yellow strands and light blue ones.

That wasn't the only change to them. When Yang Qing focused on a single strand he sensed a vast power that was as grand as the universe contained within them and within that power he could sense there was something in there that he was familiar with yet unfamiliar with. He felt like he was trying to catch a whisper during heavy rain.

Just as Yang Qing was about to further shrink his spiritual sense radius, he felt Mo Guang's presence which prompted him to halt his experiment.

"Looks like I have interrupted your training Branch Chief, I am truly sorry for that, had I known.." Mo Guang said as he felt some sort of rhythmic fluctuation coming from Yang Qing's body and something he couldn't quite explain coming from him.

While he wasn't sure what was happening, he had enough experience to infer that something may have been happening with Yang Qing, and he had inadvertently interrupted him.

"No, it's okay. I was just walking around to clear my head.." Yang Qing said with a smile when he saw Mo Guang's guilt-ridden look.

"Nonetheless, I would like to offer an apology.." Mo Guang firmly said as he formed a daoist salute.

Yang Qing could only wryly smile when he saw it seemed administrator Mo Guang didn't believe him and must have thought he had said those words to comfort him.

Choosing to just go along with Mo Guang's thoughts, Yang Qing,

"What brings you here? Have Luo Meili and Su Jinjing arrived?"

"No, though they did say they are about to complete what it is they were investigating and should be back tomorrow or the next day after that.." said Mo Guang as he raised his head from his apologetic bow.

Without waiting for Yang Qing to ask, he said,

"The third prince and his sister are outside the branch waiting to pay a courtesy visit.."

"This too is part of the duties of being a branch chief, I take it.." said Yang Qing seeing where Mo Guang was going with this.

"It is. Other than maintaining relations, it's a way for the branch chief to get a sense of their neighbors.." said Mo Guang with an apologetic smile when he saw Yang Qing's concealed reluctance and tired sigh.

The administrator could understand Yang Qing's thoughts since he would only be here for a month before he resumed his original posting as a judge of the headquarters.

Maintaining relations with people that he may probably not see after the month is up would probably seem silly but it still had to be done. 

The Deer Mountain Kingdom had agreed to let the Order build a branch within their territory, the least the Order could do was maintain friendly contact with them and it wasn't only with them as Yang Qing would come to find out, but with other powers within the Deer Mountain Range. 

The branch chief would occasionally meet with the leaders of the various organizations as a way of letting them know the Order's doors are open to all. It was a great way to build the Order's prestige and also establish channels of information.

Yang Qing didn't need the administrator Mo Guang to hard sell him on it as he could more or less understand it. Thus albeit reluctantly, he met with the third prince and his sister.

The third prince despite having more of a physical with the Zhang family from his mother's side, lacked their presence, like the one the Zhang family had, that of valor and unbending will. Even his mother seemed to have that quality within her. 

The third prince on the other hand was more like his father, the king. He was shrewd and seemed like someone who was malleable and adapted to circumstances.

His sister on the other hand lacked the gravitas of her brother, her father, or her mother, and didn't seem to have the bearing of a valiant warrior common in the Zhang family.

If she walked on the streets, one would not believe she was a princess as she lacked the air or presence of one. She had a more simplistic natural air to her that was common with mundane people who were not bugged down with a lot of complexities. For her, the third prince was her brother and not someone seen as one of the favored to inherit the kingdom one day.

Yang Qing welcomed the sibling duo and played the part of a dutiful host as he welcomed them to a place that would feel comfortable which to him was none other than the kitchen. The duo was a little taken aback as they were used to being hosted at one of the gazebos around the peak whenever they came by. The kitchen was a first for them.

They expertly hid their thoughts as Yang Qing enthusiastically gave them a short recount of the accomplishments of the chef about to serve them much to the chef's delight who made his dishes with a lot more gusto.