Daily life of a cultivation judge

The Divine Armament Sect's name was just as spread as the Saint Herb Garden even though the latter was a rank one sect and the former was a rank two sect, the level of renown between the two sects was the same, and in terms of foundation and history, the Divine Armament Sect didn't lose out either.

The sect was just as old as any of the rank-one organizations and at some point in their history, they had soul formation experts, with three of them having reached the realm of purple-grade refiners. It was unknown how they lost those experts but their works remained. Who knew how many saint-grade artifacts lay within the main grounds of the sect?

Even without a soul formation expert, the Divine Armament Sect could still defend itself against a power with a soul formation expert using their foundations. History was proof of it. After the loss of their soul formation experts, the sect had been besieged by rank one sects, with a single soul formation expert being dispatched from each sect.

Countless organizations had been drooling over the Divine Armament Sect's artifacts and legacies. They just never revealed that greed openly, but with the loss of their soul formation experts, the sect was ripe for harvesting. It was the way of the world. Any organization that successfully managed to rise, was at the bones of another.

Even the Order was not any different to the notion. When they were starting up, facing tonnes of enmity and backlash from the continent, they retaliated in fierce momentum in part to establish their name and a means of deterrent, but another reason was to speed up its growth and independence. The organizations they destroyed, they plundered mercilessly. It was how they rapidly amassed the resources they needed to develop rapidly, and it was a practice they still continued to date.

After the destruction of the Ice Emerald Sect, there were administrators from the Order sent to clear anything of value from the sect and should another organization happen to suffer the same fate as the Ice Emerald Sect at the Order's hands, the same exact thing would happen to them.

An organization's destruction didn't just mean the elimination of its members, but of everything that formed its skeleton and this was a trait shared by all. Vultures that would pick a corpse clean and that was what the four rank one organizations looked to do with the Divine Armament Sect, except what they assumed was a weakened horse tied to a cart filled with countless treasures ripe for the taking turned out to be a lean camel with a lot of bite and strength in it.

It is unknown how, but the four soul formation masters along with those who had besieged the sect, were all slaughtered to the last person. Not a single person survived to tell the tale, but the general consensus was it had to have been linked to some artifact they had stored away in their sect which had no problem slaughtering four soul formation experts and close to fifty domain experts, and over a thousand palace realm experts to the last person, in a single moment and with no survivor.

Since then, the Divine Armament Sect has never been attacked again. Even without that artifact, Yang Qing had doubts about whether the sect would be at risk in case of another attack. The Order firmly suspects that they already have a soul formation expert, and more than likely not just one. It would be bizarre for a sect as prosperous as the Divine Armament Sect to not have one appear in the past 80,000 years. No matter how difficult reaching the Soul Formation realm is, for a sect that had a foundation and history stretching back 500,000 years, they would not struggle to reproduce another soul formation expert in 80,000 years.

The journey to Thousandforge City took almost two days. The distance between Moonpine Kingdom and the city was almost triple the distance between Sunbirch Kingdom and Moonpine Kingdom.

The journey over had been uneventful. Over half the passengers had been dropped off before they completed the trip with more being picked up on the way whose destination happened to be Thousandforge City.

Entry into the city was much smoother than their prior experience in Moonpine Kingdom. When they reached the city, there was no need for verification or for one of the staff members to go meet with one of the leading officials of the city. With extreme familiarity, Bai Chen led the ferry to a certain section of the city that seemed to have been the designated spot for transport ferries.

Thousandforge City was one of the countless cities within the territory of the Divine Armament Sect whose territory matched that of any rank one empire. Most sects with a territory of its size would opt to have factions such as kingdoms or other sects to manage such a territory on their behalf while they concentrated on the affairs within the sect itself which was why most rank one and rank two sects, within their territory one would find long-established kingdoms and other sects like what happened with the territory of the Spiritual Temperance Sect which housed the Summerfield Kingdom and countless other organizations.

However, when it came to the territory of the Divine Armament Sect things were different. Their territory was divided into cities which were governed by the members of the sect. The reason for doing so was to prevent oppression that would in turn bring out stagnation. The sect was highly obsessed with all manner of artifact refinement and they would do anything to promote its progress. Its cities served as hubs that welcomed all who wished to ply their craft within their territory.

If they had a kingdom within their territory, that freedom of admission would be affected, as those kingdoms would only act in accordance with their interests of growing their powers which may not necessarily align with what the sect wanted. The sect hoped its territory would be the birthless of countless ideas and legacies of artifact refinement which was why it created countless cities just like the Thousandforge City throughout their territory, where the only requirement of admission needed was your passion as a forger.

The cities were fitted with arrays, filled with all sorts of treasures, with the ground filled with countless earth fire veins and other resources, all to provide an optimum environment for refinement.

They too used the ranking system the Order used to tier their cities, which was also a reflection of the scale of the environment they provided. Their cities went from Tier 4 which was the lowest to Tier 1 which was the highest. The Tiers were classified in accordance with the level of skill and product produced. Tier 4 cities produced earth rank artifacts, Tier 3 produced sky grade, Tier 2 produced monarch grade artifacts, and lastly Tier 1 City produced ascendant grade artifacts. Thousandforge City was a Tier 3 City.

For those looking to lay their roots in those cities by admission, they needed to show they had standout abilities in producing the graded artifacts within the Tier they were seeking admission for. Getting approved for settlement was considered a high honor both within the territory of the sect but also outside as it also meant that one was a standout amongst their peers.

Once the ferry settled in, almost all the passengers alighted even though for some that wasn't their stop. The allure of a city of the Divine Armament Sect wasn't something anyone could resist. The cities were lined with countless artifacts that were countless whose qualities were the highest one could ever come across, and when it came to variety, it surpassed one's imagination. As long as you could think it, you could be sure that one of the cities of the Divine Armament Sect was sure to have it. It was why countless cultivators swarmed those cities. The cost was a bit more steep than in most places, but the quality and finding something that suited you was guaranteed.

Yang Qing soaked in the vibrancy of Thousandforge City as he made his way to one of its shops, the Ember Lightning Flame Salamander Pavilion. The owner was one of the members of his network.

His deciphered history showed he belonged to a lineage of blacksmiths that had the bloodline of an ember lightning flame salamander. The bloodline gave them natural control of the lightning and flame element and sturdy physiques.

Those advantages led them to forging and through concerted efforts from generation to generation, similar to what the Yang family had done with body refinement, they created a defined process into their forging art that borrowed the advantages of their bloodline. The forging art was a blue grade that they named the Hundred Revolutions Ember Lightning Flame refinement art which they continually improved and used to grow their abilities.

They managed to produce several blue-grade artificers spread out through the generations, however, they fell into decline at some point at the hands of a poor successor, and eventually through a series of circumstances that family was shattered, and their legacy disappeared along with it.

The owner of the Ember Lightning Flame Salamander, named Zhang Tao, had no idea of his ancestry and only came to know of it through the Order. Zhang Tao was given the blue-grade art, along with being given foundational training on artifact refinement.

After he was done, he had the choice to form a clan following his ancestor's route but decided to start a pavilion instead. The Order did all they could, making sure he had the sturdiest foundation. Though he didn't have a standout talent for it, he had the tenacity for it, and it eventually showed through when he managed to gain entry into one of the cities of the Divine Armament Sect. He started in the lowest tier, Tier Four, and finally made his way to Tier Three, where he has been for the past 158 years as a top-tier orange-grade refiner.

Among those in his network, there was no one better placed to provide him with information than Zhang Tao. As a refiner admitted into one of the cities of the Divine Armament Sect, he interacted with thousands upon thousands of cultivators looking to buy his wares, spread through all walks of life. His network could run off of Zhang Tao alone.

Yang Qing soon found his shop, a two-storey red brick pavilion with signage of an almost lifelike salamander spewing ember flames coated with lightning from its mouth.

Yang Qing was not surprised to find a long line of cultivators, some coming in, and others going out, and others waiting, all wearing the same look on their faces, a look of excitement. One of the staff members noticed Yang Qing and quickly came to attend to him, especially when said staff member realized he couldn't see through Yang Qing's cultivation base. It was for this reason that when Yang Qing asked to see Zhang Tao, on a normal day, the staff member would have offered a polite rejection, but the mysteriousness surrounding Yang Qing prompted him to act prudently, especially when Yang Qing told him to tell Zhang Tao that it was an old friend from Green Jade Pavilion.

It wasn't long after that Zhang Tao made an appearance. He looked nothing like a weapon refiner. His body was scrawny, his skin was lustrous and smooth which could be seen from his hair too, which was a mix of red and gold.

"No wonder there are so many female cultivators.." thought Yang Qing when he saw the undisguised looks of infatuation from the customers when Zhang Tao made an appearance with some even making open confessions drawing an embarrassed smile from Zhang Tao as he politely rejected them.

When he reached Yang Qing, they greeted each other with extreme familiarity like they were old friends before leaving toward the back area of the pavilion where there was a quaint courtyard.

Seeing the growing line of customers, Yang Qing didn't keep Zhang Tao for long, keeping the conversation brief and casual which mostly centered on Yang Qing familiarizing himself withZhang Tao whom he found to be a pretty thorough individual. Zhang Tao recorded every piece of information that came through his doors whether it was important or not and the recordings were placed into the handle of his refining harmer.

The information was a lot to go through in one sitting, so Yang Qing decided to take it with him and go through it once he was done with all his visits. As for Zhang Tao, his request was for the Order to find him another person who shared his bloodline so he could have him succeed him. If the Order couldn't find one, he would be forced to look for a dao companion in the hopes that maybe the children he had with her would end up with a higher concentrated bloodline of the ember lightning flame salamander than his.

Seeing the amount of 'suitors' he had, he could see why Zhang Tao was distressed about finding a successor through that route.

"Tsk, the struggles of the beautiful.." he thought enviously as he looked at the reflection of the simplistic and ordinary face he had decided to use.

Unwilling to remain a second longer, Yang Qing left the shop and it wasn't long before they departed for his last visit which was with the sect master of the Spring Rain Sword Sect in Snow Dawn Province of the Great Chen Empire, which just like the Divine Armament Sect was a rank two Empire.

The journey took a day and the visit was shorter as Snow Dawn Province was a pretty secluded region within the Great Chen Empire. In terms of information, there wasn't much to get from the sect master of the Spring Rain Sword Sect.

The sect master of the Spring Rain Sword Sect was an outlier when compared to the rest within the network. His name was Mu Gen and when he joined the Order, he had the talent to be accepted as one of its members, however, he chose to go to the Spring Rain Sword Sect which had been founded by his great-grandmother, who had been born with the silver peony sword heart physique making her quite the talent in sword cultivation.

Her name was Mu Wen and she had reached the domain realm because of her talents and was respected by the powerful factions and figures of the Great Chen Empire, and rumor had it that even one of the royal members loved her.

The Spring Rain Sword Sect was founded by her at the peak of her power, however, before it had enough time to grow, she died in the Green Fog Region, leaving the sect, as a tender shoot, with the person with the highest cultivation base, her disciple, who was at the core formation realm, and the sect only had about sixty members at the time.

Keeping the sect afloat was a struggle with just fifty members and the environment where the sect was situated while it was rich in spiritual qi and resources, during certain periods of the year it was assaulted with cold frigid qi that could freeze a cultivator's soul. Those who could endure and survive the frigid qi would have their souls strengthened in the process and the qi also contained pure spiritual qi that contained traces of the dao. This was why Mu Wen founded the sect there. However, despite its advantages, not many could survive that frigid qi and other than the effects it created, it brought other dangerous things too, like spirit beasts that had long learned to thrive in it and used it as a cover to sometimes attack the human cultivators that inhabited the Snow Dawn Province and the Spring Rain Sword Sect was located in the outer fringes of the province where the frigid qi would be densest and attacks were the harshest too.

With her demise, the sect managed to hang on thanks to the arrays and artifacts that guarded the sect, along with some support from the Great Chen Empire. However, because of the conditions of that place and the death of the founder, a lot left the sect with few remaining, and over the years because of the harsh conditions of the area, to date, the number of disciples the sect has doesn't number more than 100.

Despite the harsh conditions, Mu Gen opted to join the sect instead of the Order when given the choice, so he could protect his great-grandmother's legacy which was heavily influenced by how close he had been with his mother, her grandaughter, when she was alive. Going to the sect was his way of honoring them both.

With his talent and the Order's support, Mu Gen reached the palace realm and eventually became the sect master. Yang Qing wasn't surprised to find that the sect practiced winter's embrace meditation art of the frozen serenity scripture which was tailored perfectly for the environment around the sect. The art aimed to create a sanctuary for the mind and soul within a desolate state, and the location of the sect, was as desolate as one could get.

After familiarizing himself with Mu Gen, Yang Qing could finally call a close to his visits. Though he still had eight more contacts from his network list, he had three years to establish contact with them, which was more than enough time to do it. He was in no urgency to blow his vacation days doing it.