Daily life of a cultivation judge

Lei Weiyuan saw the puzzled look Yang Qing had on still trying to guess Deng Chao's place in the Crystal palm jade sect.

"I'm sorry fellow daoist I may have to indulge my junior here about your background since he is still the one in charge of this case and as such he will need as much information as possible. I'm only here in a supportive capacity.

All judgments later will be made according to his will. Though he may not look like much, especially with his lackluster and lazy look he has a good head on his shoulder and excellent judgment," Lei Weiyuan said as he cupped his fist at Deng Chao.

Yang Qing had mixed feelings at the moment. On one hand, he was surprised at Lei Weiyuan's compliment and on the other, he felt aggrieved for being bad-mouthed in front of company.

"Can't old geezer Lei throw a complete compliment? What's the use of preparing a pleasant-smelling dish and then adding bitter poison to it? Stingy geezer," Yang Qing silently thought.

"It's okay I don't mind. I'm in someone else's house and as such should abide by their rules besides if it will help little Zhao here I'm okay with it," Deng Chao said as he gently smiled at Zhao Qi who was still sniffling and red-eyed at the side.

Lei Weiyuan cupped his fists once again in thanks with Yang Qing also giving the same daoist salute.

"There's a reason you haven't heard of him and even if you tried to guess you would still fall short because he is not one of the eight domain experts recorded by the Crystal palm jade sect or known by the world for that matter. And if it wasn't for that incident 400 years ago we would have never known either," Lei Weiyuan said as he sighed.

He was using his domain to communicate with Yang Qing as he felt it would be crass of him to outwardly speak of Deng Chao's matter for him to hear when the story didn't have a particularly good ending.

For all intense and purposes, Lei Weiyuan was even surprised that Deng Chao had managed to survive that onslaught. Many had thought him dead though from his current state it could be seen he wasn't far away from it.

Lei Weiyuan's statement created more questions than answers as Yang Qing threw another glance at Deng Chao.

"Then who is he?" Yang Qing asked following the same direction as Lei Weiyuan he too used his monarch sense to send his thoughts.

"It's not that hard to guess if you really think about it. It's just that the Crystal palm jade sect grew so fast creating so much fanfare in its trail of glory with the three leaders' names and their sect's crystal palm technique being the prime highlights. Everything else seemed to pale at their brilliance.

The Crystal palm jade sect has always had four leaders from the very beginning and in those 3,000 years that has never changed despite more domain experts being added to the mix.

The three leaders took the continent by storm but little is known about the fourth one. The outside world wrote him off as someone riding the coattails of his brother which made them overlook something the same way you may have overlooked it."

Lei Weiyuan paused as he waited for Yang Qing to ruminate and digest his words. To him and the rest of the higher-ups they knew Yang Qing was cunning, liked to do as little as possible, exploitative, especially in finding loopholes, and a little too greedy but through his antics, they also discovered he was an ironical creature.

He was extremely lazy when it came to work but he was also extremely devoted to the things he loved or interested him whether it was researching lost cultivation arts and restoring them, the thorough vigilance he put to his cases to ensure he doesn't end up redoing them or the lengths he goes to try and score free things from the Order while doing as little as possible. It was one of the scant admirable qualities he had.

It was also thanks to his greedy exploits that the Order has been improving its operational guidelines and bylaws further smoothening its organizational structure from the weaknesses Yang Qing tried to take advantage of.

There was even a committee formed to review those structures and figure out if there were more areas Yang Qing would exploit and plug them before he took a large chunk of bite from it with the Order footing the bill.

The greatest exploiter was also the largest contributor to the operational improvements within the Order. Though if Yang Qing ever discovered that who knows what he might do…

His open mind was what Lei Weiyuan admired about him most in fact it was probably the only thing considering his lifelong misdeeds.

That was why he would use every opportunity to help him cultivate it more and more.

Lei Weiyuan's words flashed like an electric current in his mind that seemed to be drawing things together. It was the key he had been missing.

"The crystal palm jade sect, the crystal palm jade sect, the crystal palm jade art..it's that," Yang Qing said as his eyes shone with enlightenment.

"One of the brothers was gifted in sword cultivation, the other in formation arrays, and the other one in medicine and alchemy however what the sect was known for was the crystal palm jade art.

The art based on my initial estimates was at the very least an upper rank blue-grade art though if I'm being perfectly honest it seems more likely to be a gold-grade art.

When an art reaches the blue grade and above it's hard to buy them just with spirit stones and from what I could tell the sect has always been known as the Crystal palm jade sect from the very start but none of the three brothers used that technique as their primary fighting style though I did read the brother skilled in medicine and alchemy did use it in harvesting and preparing ingredients but that's about it.

Then it's highly possible that the fourth brother was the one who used this technique but then why?"

"If the fourth brother was the one skilled in the crystal jade technique how come he was unheard of despite possessing such a terrifying art? Well at times the simplest answer is usually the right answer.

It's because all who ever fought him died on the spot so there was no one to tell the tale," Lei Weiyuan calmly said as Yang Qing's pupil froze as he eyed Deng Chao solemnly.

"Then that means…"

"Yes, in the 3,000 years not a single person who fought him ever survived. There's a reason I said most people overlooked something, yes your guess about the name of the sect was right but there was also another thing.

Let's say you are starting a sect Yang Qing, other than your lives what should be the most important thing?" Lei Weiyuan patiently asked.

"Sect grounds," Yang Qing said without a second thought.

"Yes, the sect grounds are the root and the foundation within which a sect grows from including the people in it.

Then given how important those grounds are, do you think one would leave their weakest member to man it while the strongest members were out, especially in the budding stages? Given at that time you probably don't have any high-grade treasures to power a formation array whose grade you probably can't buy or create yet since it's the early stages of your sect starting up and you're all weak. So the best defense to ensure your grounds stay standing is to leave your strongest member behind guarding it while the rest search for resources.

The stronger the person guarding it is, the freer the rest searching for resources will be. From the stories about the sect, you can tell how rampant the three brothers were in their actions. It's because they had confidence in who they had left to guard their home that they could act freely without a care in the world. In my opinion, the biggest reason the Crystal palm jade sect grew into what it became is because of him," Lei Weiyuan said as he gazed at Deng Chao with a look of respect. He embodied what the Order has been trying to do and that is providing a safe nest for the young to grow to their fullest potential.

"I'm sorry Supervisor Lei Weiyuan it seems I still have a long way to go in my discernment," Yang Qing solemnly said with embarrassment as he remembered just a few hours ago he was guiding Mao Yunru in keeping an open mind and even bragged how he was the world's canvas. His face couldn't help but turn a shade redder at the thought.

"Don't be too hard on yourself. The only reason I could figure this out was that I had an ending to extrapolate from. The ending that wasn't written in the books.

A senior from the Order was there when the fight was at its highest and stayed almost to the very end. It was from what he saw that we were able to finally know about the true hidden trump card of the crystal palm jade sect, the true leader of the sect, and the creator of the crystal jade palm art, Deng Chao. The calm unassuming wind that turned into a massive derecho that no one saw coming," Lei Weiyuan solemnly said.