Daily life of a cultivation judge

Yang Qing had been one of those who had chosen the mortal's path to transcendence. His reason for the choice was more out of affinity than anything else. Like most who chose the art, he did have a secret ambition of maybe grasping its mysteries and jumping to the soul formation realm in a single bound.

As someone who had grown up with his fair share of fears and paranoia, especially towards dangerous things with cultivators being at the top of that list, jumping straight to the soul formation realm from the qi refinement realm would solve a bulk of those problems.

Who in their right mind would try to attack a soul formation expert?

He thus hoped the mortal's path to transcendence would give him a shot at his ambitions of living a carefree life. However, the other reason he chose the art was he felt a sense of resonance with it because of his peerless jade physique that pursued harmonious balance which was the framework of the art itself which helped a cultivator improve their saber, sword, spear, fist, palm, and kicking skills with equal measure.

Of course, there were those who chose to specialize in a particular aspect of the art, but Yang Qing didn't choose to do so. Just like the creator, he pursued mastery of all six forms up until he broke through to the foundation establishment realm and then moved on to specialize with his present purple-grade art, and a few other gold and blue-grade arts in his arsenal.

Even though he didn't continue with the art, he still borrowed its philosophy and spirit in his pursuit of the dao. It has continued to influence him to date, and the blue-grade art he evolved, the Brilliant ray fist technique was heavily influenced by it. The art was a fist art, but within it were other arts that worked concurrently with the fist technique to complement and supplement it. Yang Qing had incorporated a movement art, a palm art, a finger art, a soul art, a body and qi refinement art, all working together to enhance the abilities of the fist technique.

He pursued evolution in harmony when he created that art, and all of that was because of the insights and experience he acquired from the mortal's path of transcendence.

"Have you cultivated it before?" asked Yang Qing.

"I did try to once, with my friends when we were just starting out, but I soon gave up when it couldn't immediately produce the results I so desperately needed.."

Ma Yuan couldn't help but let out a melancholic sigh when the images of his three childhood friends flashed in his mind. They were all orphans, the lowest of the rungs, desperately trying to etch out a living in an unkind world that always seemed to have an agenda against the weak.

Like most, they knew the only way to change their fates was through cultivation. Only through cultivation would they have the strength to be treated as humans. Eventually, through stealing and doing various jobs, they earned enough to buy a single copy of the mortal's path to transcendence. They were all excited when they bought it, but that excitement soon turned to fury when it didn't help them leap for the heavens, it didn't even help them jump off the ground.

Even after cultivating it for months without stop, they were still at the bottom of the barrel in the food chain. They were still treated as lowly worms and stomped on. Eventually, they abandoned the art and decided to risk it by exploring some ruins they stumbled onto when scavenging.

Three young orphans with nothing to their names but the tattered robes on their backs, investigating some ruins with no cultivation or anything related to it, the exploration went exactly as one would expect from such a lineup. Three died, leaving Ma Yuan as the only survivor, albeit barely and he only survived because his friends sacrificed their lives to give him the chance. If they couldn't make it, they hoped that at least one of them would get to live their dreams and soar in the skies.

"Brother Meng, Brother Luo, Brother Wei forgive this foolish little brother of yours for almost callously throwing away the life that you all gave yours to protect. I will try my best not to forget and do my best to live for all of you... for Fei'er, For Ling'er, and finally for myself too.." Ma Yuan thought as he looked up to the skies and saw the faces of those he had ever cared for but were now gone, look at him with smiles on their faces.

When Ma Yuan regained his senses he found Yang Qing staring at him wearing the same carefree smile, he always did.

"Seems like your mind went elsewhere?" lightly asked Yang Qing.

"Sorry for that.." Ma Yuan said with an awkward smile.

"It's okay. Now, to the matter at hand. Here.." Yang Qing said as he handed Ma Yuan a booklet that contained the mortal's path to transcendence.

"What am I to do with it?" Ma Yuan asked in confusion as he took the booklet, though deep down he felt he already knew the answer to that question.

"Familiarize yourself with it of course.." Yang Qing said with a matter-of-fact tone.

"You will need to continually familiarize yourself with the abilities of your body and there's no better technique for that than the mortal's path to transcendence.." he added.

"This?"

Even if he already expected it. Ma Yuan couldn't help but be confused by it.

As wonderous as the art was, it wasn't even graded like most cultivation arts. He may no longer be able to draw in spiritual qi which renders him incapable of using most techniques in his arsenal, but he felt with his foundation as a late-stage core formation expert, at the very least he could still use red-grade cultivation arts and not a beginner art like than the mortal's path of transcendence.

It wasn't like he was resetting or recultivating his foundations again. In terms of foundations, his shattered core and dantian aside, he still had the body of a core formation expert, that had been refined by the lightning tribulation and he also had his gold body from the body refinement realm to fall back on.

Personally, he felt there was little he stood to gain from cultivating that art. He only had a year, it was better to focus it on other things. However, he kept those doubts to himself. The transformative experience he had the past few weeks, opened his eyes to things that subverted his imagination. What he counted as common sense could no longer be relied on, so even with the doubts he had, he told himself, that maybe there was something to the art that his limited horizons kept him from seeing.

Yang Qing was a much more gifted cultivator than he was. He was just a crippled core formation expert, while Yang Qing was a palace realm expert, of course, the vision and insights of the latter vastly outshone his.

Yang Qing secretly nodded in appreciation as he observed Ma Yuan's demeanor.

"By the time the year is up, you will be delighted that you practiced the mortal's path to transcendence. It will open a whole new world for you, but then again, some things are better shown than told.

How about a little spar?" Yang Qing said with an ominous smile.