Daily life of a cultivation judge

"Mao Mao, what time is it?" Yang Qing asked as he put away the jade talisman after he had finished reading the last case report.

"Almost 4 p.m.," Mao Yunru begrudgingly answered still sour over Yang Qing's claims.

"WHAAT!! I missed lunch?" Yang Qing rose from his desk in fright with eyes wide open spittle flying everywhere.

"Didn't you just have lunch before the end of the first case?"

"Mao Mao there's still a lot to teach you. Didn't those information brokers sell you any info on the 3 lunches one should have in a day? The breakfast lunch, the lunch lunch, and the evening lunch. I haven't had my lunch lunch of the day and it's the most important one. Now I'll have to combine the evening lunch and the lunch lunch which will ruin the whole eating dynamic.

This blackhearted organization. I can't sleep in peace now I can't even have my lunches in peace," Yang Qing sat back as he grumbled while pouting. He would have left already if this wasn't the last case and he didn't fear the exorbitant fine he would get for leaving during work hours.

Mao Yunru was seething at the side from Yang Qing's callous remark about her extracurricular.

"Will he keep bringing it up every day now every chance he gets? Luckily there are only a few days left before he leaves," she thought as she wished the days could fly by fast.

The doors of the courtroom opened as the two were lost in their thoughts. In the lead was Yi Jie and behind was a middle-aged man with broad shoulders and a medium-toned build and almost 3 meters tall. He wore a black robe and coat and the emblem of the yellow lotus embedded on his coat. He had a stern look with a narrow long flowing smooth black beard that reached his chest and hair that was tied in a topknot.

From the Yellow lotus emblem, Yang Qing could infer that this was Han Qingling the sect master of the Yellow lotus sect. From the faint fluctuations he was releasing though he tried well to conceal them Yang Qing could tell he was a quasi-palace stage expert but it didn't seem like he broke through that long ago.

"Mmmh I heard he was one of the disciples of one of the dead palace stage experts of the sect. His talent was touted as one of the best 100 years ago and it even eclipsed all his peers at the sect. He was expected to have the highest chance of breaking through to the palace stage.

But with the death of the other palace stage experts and him being hoisted to the seat of the sect master his pace slowed down," Yang Qing couldn't help but pity the sect master before him.

"The Order really has a deep information network. They even have information on the grade of his core. I wonder if I'll get my own information team when I get to the palace courts. I could have them comprise a list of the best foods and restaurants per province no , no per district no more restaurants will get lost. I should make the area as small as possible. Maybe per city or town would do.." Yang Qing got embroiled in his own epicurism fantasy as the rest of the parties made their way in.

Behind Han Qingling the sect master of the Yellow lotus sect was a young man. He had a dark grey robe with the yellow lotus emblem on it just like Han Qingling. He was of average height and build with short black curly hair. His looks were average further adding to his average guy persona. He would be easily overlooked in a crowd just like a person's shadow.

He walked with his head facing downward as pain and disappointment showed on his face. Yang Qing woke up from his food dream in time to notice the complex emotions running through the young man.

"That must be Zhao Qi the core disciple of the yellow lotus sect," Yang Qing thought as he sighed. The bureaucracy of sects and how cutthroat it was, were among the reasons he never dared join a sect.

Yes, the Order worked him to the bone but it was much freer and more transparent especially when it came to accessing cultivation resources. Few talents are ever buried in the Order unlike in sects or clans where they can be suppressed if they don't have a backing.

"He really is just at the first stage of the foundation realm but his qi seems much more refined than even someone at the 5th stage. Wait, was that an attribute I detected in his qi?" Yang Qing frowned as he detected something different in Zhao Qi's qi but it disappeared in an instant. He scanned him again with his divine sense but the results came normal.

"Could I have been mistaken?" Yang Qing couldn't help but wonder.

Sometimes cultivators would have elemental attributes in their qi. It was usually as a result of the cultivation art they are cultivating sometimes in which blue grade and above were the only arts capable of effecting such a change or the qi was influenced by the cultivator's physique. For example Haishi the mirage dragon fly had the water attribute in her qi, Tan Delun the son of the owner of the falling meteor blacksmith shop had a special physique that made his qi seem like it was boiling magma.

Those born with special physiques don't need to train in the body refining stage as those physiques afford them the same advantage as what training their body would give, up to a point. Few physiques could match the physique of someone who trained to the flawless jade or the diamond body in the body refining stage. Mao Yunru was one of the few who had a natural borne physique that matched a flawless jade body and these kinds of physiques were far and few in between. Some could be passed down from descendant to descendant but others, the rare ones were usually a stroke of fortune tied to one's luck. Background, resources had nothing to do with it. Normal non-cultivating parents could give birth to a child who had a rare physique that matched a diamond or flawless jade body.

Yang Qing's gaze lingered on Zhao Qi a little bit longer before he moved his gaze to the person behind him.

Behind Zhao Qi was a thin tall man in a dark deep blue robe with a few rings on his hand. His hair was neatly straightened and flowing back smoothly with a well-groomed whisker-like moustache.

From the robe that looked to be made of high-quality material that cost a few thousand middle-grade spirit stones, it took no effort to know that he was from the Mountain spring pavilion.

"So he is Liu Yun, one of the three heads of the Mountain springs pavilion and the most active of the three with the other two being recluses who only show themselves for the most important of deals.

Peak of the core formation realm? And a stable foundation at that too. I can see why even as an upstart the Mountain springs pavilion has been experiencing tremendous growth. Though they fall a little short of the yellow lotus sect not unless one or both of the remaining heads are at the quasi-palace stage too," Yang Qing thought as he compared Han Qinling the sect master of the Yellow lotus sect, and the merchant leader Liu Yun. Both had a bearing of leaders who have weathered a few storms and come out on top.

The last of the group who was closing the courtroom doors was a slender young lady who had a half-blue half red robe and coat that were both short-sleeved. In one of her hands, she held a short pitch black spear that looked simple with even the edges looking blunt. She had an ordinary look with black short crinkly hair. However, her eyes stood out as they were round big, and deep almost like an unfathomable deep ocean drawing everything in the more you stared.

After she closed the door, she turned holding the spear with both hands like she was swaddling a baby.

"You be good while I work okay? I'll tell you good stories later," She said giving the spear a tender smile.

Yang Qing smiled bitterly when he saw this as Mao Yunru threw him a smug you see look.

The young lady was Su Jinjing the inquisitor of the case and the last inquisitor in Yang Qing's team. She also went by another moniker like Yang Qing's the lazy glutton which he has been desperately trying to find the originator of it. She was known as the spirit smotherer.