Daily life of a cultivation judge

Yang Qing detected a shift in mood in all four cultivators. They all had the same emotion boiling within them the moment Xin Zephyr uttered the name Long Zemin, and it was anger.

Yang Qing didn't find the reaction surprising as the moment he saw them, he could detect what had happened to their bodies.

It was the reason why before the start of the case he had asked Luo Meili if it was a malpractice case.

Xin Zephyr took a deep breath to try and calm herself.

"Long Zemin touted himself as a wandering alchemist. At the time because of our worsening conditions, we were all housed on the sect grounds of the Moon Essence Cauldron Sect. 

Even though they couldn't remove the poison of the tricolored white-eyed tortoise, they were better suited than my clan, the Hua Clan, or the Flowing Fist Sect, in containing or slowing down the venom's spread within our bodies.

It was there that Long Zemin found us. He presented himself as an alchemist touring the Deer Mountain Range in search of certain herbs.

During that search, he decided to pass by the doors of the Moon Essence Cauldron Sect since it was well known for its alchemy practices within the alchemy circle of the Deer Mountain Range.

Long Zemin came to the sect to seek guidance in the areas he should avoid and which areas might have what he was looking for.

Ideally, considering the state of circumstances we are in, Long Zemin wouldn't have been given the time of day, however, as one of the elders was sending him off, he let it slip about our condition when he was explaining why they could not help him at the moment.

Long Zemin's cultivation was at the peak of the core formation realm. Even if the sect couldn't help him, they could not afford for it to look like they were dismissing him in any way, so the elder told him a bit of the reason why the sect couldn't help.

Long Zemin out of a sense of 'concern' inquired further about our condition.." Xin Zephyr said with her tone rife with mockery and sarcasm.

Wu Shen of the Flowing Fist Sect had a complicated mix of emotions in his eyes.

"The elder was hesitant at first, but Long Zemin managed to convince him to spill it out by mentioning he was a top-tier orange-grade herbologist and alchemist with some skills in poison detoxification, especially with yin-related ones.

The elder was still slightly hesitant at the time. Our states weren't improving and we had run out of ideas. Our skills were incapable of handling the toxin, our connections didn't prove to be much help as there was no one outside of our circle who knew anyone capable of handling the venom.

We had to be careful whom we approached lest we invite disaster because of our situation and with the resources we had on hand, we couldn't afford to get the services of a blue grade alchemist.

Long Zemin's appearance made the elder hesitant, wondering if maybe he could help with our predicament, but what pushed him over the edge was an identifying plaque he produced which showed he was a disciple of Shi Huan from the Ocean Refining Crucible Pavilion.

The elder may have not known who Shi Huan was but coming from an alchemical sect, he did know the Ocean Refining Crucible Pavilion.

Seeing the plaque, he hurriedly invited the vice sect master over to see if he could validate the veracity of said plaque..."

During the pause, Xin Zephyr showed an apologetic smile toward Ling Qi, who showed a defeated smile of his own that seemed to say, it's okay, you can say it.

A forlorn look appeared on Xin Zephyr's face as she said,

"Most of those who come to the Deer Mountain Range are usually running from something, or those with nowhere else to go to but here.

We lack the will, strength, connections, or foundations to survive outside of this place. Ironically, a place filled with terrifying powerful spirit beasts that would easily tear us to shreds is the place we feel most safe and comfortable.

At least with them, we know where we stand and their methods are direct, but out there, it's something different.

Sorry, I was rumbling.." Xin Zephyr said with an apologetic smile.

"It's okay.." Yang Qing softly said with a gentle smile.

Xin Zephyr nodded in gratitude as she said,

"We all know the Ocean Refining Crucible Pavilion, but .....we don't really KNOW them..Our levels are too far apart for that both in status and distance.

As skilled as the Moon Essence Cauldron Sect is in alchemy, it's still not to the level that they'd be personally acquainted with someone from the Ocean Refining Crucible Pavilion.

No one in the sect, including the sect master could possibly verify the plaque did indeed belong to someone from the pavilion or who Shi Huan even was.

So the check was all but useless. All the vice sect master could glean from the plaque was it was made from azure serenity glow elder wood.

The quality of that material and our desperate situation worked together and made the vice sect master think that maybe Long Zemin might be from the pavilion and if he was, then he may very well be in a position to help us of our predicament.."

Xin Zephyr took a brief pause before she continued.

"Long Zemin offered to help in exchange for a few spiritual herbs here and there that were unique to the Deer Mountain Range.

Even though the spiritual herbs were precious, his request wasn't excessive, so all four organizations gave him about 48 spiritual plants that were at the grade of middle tier to the top tier of the sky rank.

Daoist Ling Qi may have the exact figure. 

At the time we thought we had hit an enormous bargain because he was able to heal us all in just three weeks. 

Our states improved drastically in those three weeks and though our bodies were not completely restored from the damage we suffered from the poisoning, the poison was no longer ravaging our insides down to our very soul.

Our organizations were ecstatic and even added some more herbs and even offered to guide him around the range, despite the risks involved.

I could remember how filled with gratitude I was for being delivered from the torment I had endured for a month.

Long Zemin would have told me he wanted to have a guide into the lair of a palace realm spirit beast and I wouldn't have batted an eye. That's how grateful I was.

I've lived 400 years in vain.." Xin Zephyr said as she shook her head.

"We thought he had cured us.. he may very well have, but he did something to our bodies, and we only realized it a month after he had left when our bodies were completely healed up.

The problem started when I started circulating my clan's cultivation art. Usually, it would leave me feeling refreshed and cleansed, and my body lighter and my perception slightly higher.

However, this time, it was barely even a minute in, the circulation left me panting, and light-headed and my body felt like a thousand fire ants were crawling around every qi channel and meridian. 

I even vomited blood, when I tried to complete a circulation forcefully.

At the time, I thought maybe it was the remnant effects of being poisoned. So I took a break and decided to recuperate my body with meditation. Even meditation was affected as it left me dizzy and with a slight chill in my bones, which got extreme to the point that I felt that a slight breeze could shatter them within my muscles.

I couldn't cultivate or meditate and it's been three months now, and I still can't do either. 

I had thought I was the only one, but I soon found out that Daoist Ling Qi, Daoist Wu Shen, and Daoist Hua Ying had experienced similar setbacks whenever they tried to cultivate, though the symptoms were different, they still experienced the same struggles.."

The other three nodded in support of Xin Zephyr's statement.

"With all of us having similar troubles and the only thing connecting us being the poison from the tricolored white-eyed tortoise, we assumed our troubles had something to do with its poison.

Even though we were rid of its poisons, its fangs were still in us somehow. 

I had resigned myself at the time, as I thought to myself other than not being able to cultivate or meditate, I wasn't affected much anywhere, and my body wasn't in the same pain as I was when we got hit with the poison.

I could live without meditating or cultivating. It's not like I held great aspirations of reaching the palace realm anytime soon.

But.." 

Xin Zephyr paused as she gnashed her teeth in anger.

"As we were looking into if there was any way to cure the symptoms we were having, one of the elders of the Hua Clan paid a visit to the Red Lilly Sect. 

The sect is known for having gems and other minerals that help with meditation and cleansing the body. It doesn't have much effect when dealing with toxins, but when it comes to dealing with maladies of the mind, the Red Lilly Sect is one of the best.

It was when the elder went to consult them that he found out that one of the high elders of the Red Lilly Sect had gotten injured by a ghost blade mantis and got healed by someone called Long Zemin, a few months prior, and wouldn't you know, he experienced the same symptoms as us, and even with the Red Lilly Sect's measures they had been unable to solve it.

Said elder left with a few leading figures of the sect to try and find a solution outside the range.

When the Hua clan elder brought back the information, it brought doubts on whether our current predicament may have not been because of the tricolored white tortoise's poison.

I didn't want it to be true, but it was. We investigated the organizations around the range to try and see if there were cases similar to ours and the High Elder of the Red Lilly Sect, and there were.

We found records of cultivators here and there from the organizations around the Range with symptoms matching ours.

They had severe injuries and then a wandering cultivator healed them but they couldn't meditate or cultivate at all.

At that point, we knew it! Long Zemin did something to us under the guise of healing us. 

We looked for him all over but couldn't find him anywhere within the Range, and as for confirming if he was someone from the Ocean Refining Crucible Pavilion..."

Xin Zephyr paused with a smile of embarrassment coloring her face.

"We couldn't very well go to their doors and ask if they had a member by the name of Long Zemin.... Even if let's say we were gutsy and reckless enough to do it.. if we found out he was a member, we wouldn't be able to confront him on it.

Even when we were searching for him within the Range, we were all hesitant. If we found him, then what?

If he denied it or refused to offer recompense for what he had done to us, how would we even deal with him? His peak core formation stage cultivation base aside, at the back of our minds, we kept asking ourselves if he really was a member of the Ocean Refining Crucible Sect, then we would have no option but to swallow it and let it go and we would have had it not been suggested we try and seek help from the Order..."

Xin Zephyr clasped her hands together as she slightly bowed her head with a beseeching gaze as she said,

"We are not asking for much. It doesn't matter to me whether Long Zemin is a member of the Ocean Refining Cauldron Pavilion or not. My only request is for the Order to help us find Long Zemin and let him reverse what he has done to us nothing else.

I may have surrendered myself to the thought that I may never reach the palace realm and the core formation realm is as far as it gets, but my not reaching that level needs to be my choice, and Long Zemin has robbed me of that. I hope that the Order can give me that, no matter how silly it sounds. Please help us.."